I’m wedding-ed out. After 7 weddings in 15 months, I am #done for the year. Why does this matter to you? I won’t miss another weekly best bets column like I did last week for a (you guessed it) wedding. I will be better, and after a 3-1 Week 8, I’m on the right track. Here’s to a winning Week 10.
I am going back to the well until further notice. The Eagles are 7-1 ATS in the 1st half. They average a league-best 20 points per game in the first half. Do you know who ranks 31st in 1st half scoring? The Washington Commanders with a measly average of 6.0 points. The Eagles have a problem with taking their foot off the gas in the second half, but that doesn’t matter for this bet. Expect a few Jalen Hurts TDs in the first half for the cover.
Raiders -4.5 vs. Colts
17+ point blown leads by Raiders in franchise history
All of the signs say to bet on the Raiders. Jeff Saturday has never coached a game at the NFL or collegiate level. No one on that staff has ever called offensive plays. The Colts are starting a rookie QB. Once again, this should be easy money. But, the Raiders love to lose. Three blown leads of 17 points this season is no Bueno. I have no evidence to support this theory, but my guess is the entire NFL coaching community wants the Raiders to blow out the Colts because of the Saturday decision.
NFL Week 10 Underdog of the Week
Packers +3.5 vs. Cowboys
Full disclosure, I wrote a paragraph on why the Steelers should be the underdog of the week at +1.5 at home against the Saints. This was yesterday (Nov. 12). I woke up this morning and the line was -1 Steelers. Classic! So I’m calling an audible and trusting a team that should not be trusted, the Green Bay Packers. This is a kitchen sink game for the Packers. If you think they have a shot at the playoffs, they need to play well today. The Packers surprisingly allow the second-least amount of passing yards per game. In that same category, Dallas surrenders the fourth least. Expect a lot of runs and if Zeke Elliot can’t go, I’ll take the tandem of Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon over a lone Tony Pollard. This game should be close so I’m siding with Rodgers (for one final time) to cover.
NFL Week 10 Teaser of the Week
7 points: Chiefs -9.5 > -2.5, 49ers -7.5 > -.5
The Chiefs should be able to take care of the Jaguars at home. I would consider taking the 9.5 points because the Jaguars are 1-7 ATS in their last 8 road games. In the Bay area, the 49ers is my Super Bowl representative out of the NFC. After the CMC trade, I feel even more confident that they can win the NFC. Plus, they’re getting healthy again. Deebo Samuel, Kyle Juszczyk, and Elijah Mitchell should all be making their returns. For the Chargers, Keenan Allen and Mike Williams will both be out. I expect a close game, but all the 49ers have to do is win. I’ll take my chances.
On this week’s Episode of the Pac-12 Apostles, George Wrighster and Ralph Amsden talk about Oregon’s chances to run the table and represent the Pac-12 in the College Football Playoff as the first ever member of the conference to go undefeated in league play. The guys also talk about whether Bo Nix will get invited to the Heisman Trophy presentation, and debate which player is more important to USC- Caleb Williams or Tuli Tuipolotu. After recapping all of last week’s games, George and Ralph preview the week ahead and discuss whether or not there will be any upsets.
The Pac-12 Apostles is a podcast for fans who love the Pac-12 conference. George Wrighster and Ralph Amsden are committed to the honest and fair conversation about the conference. Join us by becoming a Pac-12 Apostle. Subscribe and share the podcast.
Please leave a rating and review of our podcast on iTunes! We record a podcast once a week with emergency episodes when necessary. Our podcasts are always heavy on Pac-12 football. But we make it a point to also try and cover the other notable Men’s and Women’s Pac-12 sports. We cover recruiting and any other major storyline in the Pac-12 universe.
George Wrighster is a former Pac-12 and long-time NFL tight end. As a television/radio host, opinionist, and analyst, who is UNAFRAID to speak the truth. Contrary to industry norms he uses, facts, stats, and common sense to win an argument. He has covered college football, basketball, NFL, NBA, MLB since 2014. Through years of playing college football, covering bowl games, coaching changes, and scandals, he has a great pulse for the conference and national perspective.
Ralph Amsden is a sportswriter and podcaster. He is the publisher of Rivals’ ArizonaVarsity.com, Content Director for UnafraidShow.com, and was previously the managing editor of the Arizona State University Rivals affiliate, DevilsDigest.com. Wyoming born, Arizona raised, and now based in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and four kids, Amsden made his mark in Arizona sports media through investigative reporting, and being one of the first people to leverage social media and the podcast medium to grow his platform. . Ralph might be sub-.500 in spousal disputes and schoolyard fights, but whether the topic is food, movies, music, parenting, politics, sports, television, religion, or zoological factoids, he’s always UNAFRAID to square up.
We need to talk about Jeff Saturday being pulled off the street to finish the 2022 season as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Look, I like Jeff Saturday. I have nothing against him as a person. I played against him, he always seemed like a great leader, and all of my old teammates that know him have nothing but good things to say about the man. This take isn’t really about Jeff Saturday.
That being said, it’s absolutely outrageous that they hired this man to finish out the season as the Colts head coach.
I see people talking about “Jeff Saturday is a Colts legend.”
Well if Colts fans want him to stay a legend, maybe there should be a better plan than handing the controls of a crashing plane over to someone without flight experience.
And speaking of Colts legends, doesn’t Indianapolis already have Reggie Wayne as a first year receiver’s coach, and Cato June in his seventh year of coaching college football or above?
It would be one thing if Jim Irsay was installing Jeff Saturday as an admission that this season is lost, the direction of the team needs re-thought, and the search for a replacement was going to start immediately.
But that’s not what this is.
Jim Irsay dared reporters to bet against Jeff Saturday as Colts head coach, and alluded to the possibility of making the playoffs THIS SEASON.
I’ll take your bet, and your money Jim.
But I at least want to thank Jim Irsay for perfectly illustrating the frustration with the ineffectiveness of the Rooney Rule when put up against a rich old white man’s “gut instinct.”
While Irsay said that the Colts have every plan to honor the Rooney Rule and go through a legitimate interview process after the season to gauge the vision of multiple candidates, including minority candidates, he also said this about Jeff Saturday:
“He’s the best man for the job, and there’s no question about it in my mind. I’ve been around it a long time. He’s extremely tough and he’s a leader. You have to be a great thinker, work with people, be open-minded, create a culture where people trust you. You have to have experience, draw on experience in your life. You know it when you see it.“
Jim Irsay has a good feeling in his tummy about a white player that was a solid leader in his playing days, and believes that despite no track record whatsoever of producing any kind of results that would prove those feelings to be rooted in reality, that Jeff Saturday is the right man to make the Indianapolis Colts a playoff team in 2022.
Since Jim Irsay is taking bets, how much do we want to bet that Jim Irsay is more invested in his gut being proven right so he can keep Jeff Saturday on as head coach, rather than earnestly following the NFL rules that were designed to keep the exact situation of a rich man’s nostalgia from costing overqualified minority candidates an opportunity?
We spent years and years hearing that “if only black coaches had more experience as a coordinator,” or “if only more black players got into coaching on the offensive side of the ball,” then the layers of prejudice that kept them from the penultimate opportunities of the profession would erode away.
That was bullshit.
Oh, and congratulations to the Houston Texans now having grounds to dump Lovie Smith for Josh McCown. The absurdity of the situation was the only thing keeping the Texans from making this happen last year, but now they won’t even be the first team in their own division to do it.
Put your listening ears on and open up that third eye because we need to talk about Kyrie Irving.
If you’ve been living under a rock, then you may or may not be surprised to find out that Kyrie Irving is sitting out right now, again, without being paid, for reasons completely unrelated to basketball.
Life’s three guarantees: death, taxes, and Kyrie Irving being so gifted at basketball that he gets bored and engages in things that keep him from being able to use his gift.
But I think we’re all being a little hard on Kyrie, don’t you? And if you don’t, still stick with me, and see if you can’t put yourself in Kyrie’s shoes for a moment.
Which… technically, you can’t do anymore, because Nike is ending their relationship with him.
But I digress.
I don’t want to relitigate Kyrie Irving’s past comments about the earth being flat, or that employer-mandated vaccination was the world’s greatest oppression. But I do have to mention those things if for no other reason to establish two things-
1) None of the strange stuff Kyrie Irving has ever made news for saying were his own original ideas. They all came from somewhere other than inside his own head.
And 2) You don’t accidentally stumble into endorsing alternative ideas. You have to be actively searching for them.
Kyrie Irving is a searcher. And this time, the thing he found has people accusing him of being anti-Semitic.
Kyrie Irving posted a link to the film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America,” a movie that Ronald Dalton Jr. fashioned after his own book by the same name. The movie was on Amazon, and Irving didn’t provide any commentary about how he felt about the film.
The main idea presented in the film, which includes and easily verifiably false quote from none other than Adolf Hitler, and the batshit crazy claim that the Holocaust was exaggerated 20 times over, is that black people in America have been lied to about their lineage as African slaves, and are in fact, kidnapped Hebrews.
I started watching the movie Kyrie tweeted out to prepare for today's episode of @debatable. And if you were wondering exactly how insanely anti-Semitic it is, just know that they show this quote from "Adolph Hitler," as such: pic.twitter.com/1Z8bzKzFen
The idea that dark skinned people in America can be traced back to “lost” Hebrew lineage is not a new idea. There are families six or seven generations deep in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. Shit, it’s not even a “black idea.” Next time you’re hanging out with a Latter Day Saint friend, ask them what a Lamanite is. You’ll find out that nearly 2% of the entire population of the United States believes that Native Americans are also Hebrews.
And Kyrie is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, so chances are there are a lot more white people that believe Irving is a Jew than there are black people.
But back to my point- every black family in America has at least one member of the family, or at least a family friend, that might not call themselves a Black Hebrew Israelite, but they certainly have what I’m going to call “Hotep theology.”
If you’re a white person watching this, let me make this relatable. You know that uncle you have that resembles the Randy Quaid character in Independence Day? Well, we have our own version of that same uncle.
And Hotep theology, while it can be harmful, usually comes from well-meaning people that just want to participate in a pride-filled heritage and have a connection to where they come from.
They’re searchers, or at least they were, before they became militantly attached to their ideals.
And that brings me back to Kyrie Irving. The searcher. Born in Australia. His mother, who was mixed race, passed away when he was four. He was raised going to Catholic School, in a family of world class athletes, of which he ended up being the best. His stepmother is a strong black executive business woman in a world with far too few of those, and despite her not being married to his father anymore, he still made her his agent.
Kyrie Irving was brought up in such unusual circumstances that he was never going to be what anyone would consider normal. And not only was he cut off from his mother, tragically, he is also a black man in America.
Talk to a white person about where they come from. And I’m not talking about the ones that are super into genealogy and can name every ancestor going back 15 generations. Just think of a friend, call them up, and ask if they know anything about their heritage.
They’ll probably say something like “My dad’s Irish Catholic, my mom’s family goes back to Sicily, which sounds Italian but it isn’t.”
Imagine knowing where you come from, much less how you got here, and that history includes free people, perhaps oppressed, but likely free, making the decision to come here.
Maybe you take that simple knowledge of being able to trace a thread backwards for granted. The truth is, and I’m not saying this to make anyone feel guilty, but a lot of black people in America can’t even trace their family histories back to a forced arrival, because for generations and generations, black offspring were passed around by their owners like Pnini Select trading cards. Sure, there are some property records out there, but it’s not like there was a Slavery Carfax.
The truth is, America created people like Kyrie a long time ago, when it cut an entire people group off from its history for the sake of capital gains. Some of the things Kyrie is searching for can’t be found, so when someone comes along to tell him and people like him that they’re more than just the product of the American South’s need for cheap labor, that they’re not only special, but chosen, and connected to a greater story-
is Kyrie Irving really the monster we’ve made him out to be for wanting to believe it?
Should he have shared it without context? No.
Should someone in Kyrie Irving’s life be working with him diligently on media literacy? Absolutely.
But is Kyrie Irving, one of the most charitable athletes in the world, who has donated more to progressive causes than most liberal people will make in three lifetimes, an anti-Semite because he thinks he’s got Hebrew heritage?
No, and if you’ve put yourself in his shoes, you know that he’s hearing the question “are you an anti-Semite” as “Do you hate yourself?”
And if we know one thing about Kyrie Irving, it’s that he likes Kyrie Irving, at least enough to always be thinking about the question “who the hell is Kyrie Irving?“
Look, maybe you disagree with the take that we’re being too harsh on Kyrie. And I get the dangers of the ideas Kyrie is endorsing by sharing this film without context. History has taught us to stand on guard for language that delegitimizes or villainizes the Jews, because when we haven’t, the results have been one of our history’s greatest stains.
But hopefully you can digest the idea that Kyrie means well, and is simply on a quest to piece together his place on an earth that he recently realized was round.
Maybe what I said here today helped reshape your view of Kyrie Irving, and if that’s the case, you have more in common with Kyrie than you thought.
You can both be influenced by videos on the internet.
On this week’s episode of the Pac-12 Apostles, George Wrighster and Ralph Amsden discuss what the Big 12 TV Media Deal means for the Pac-12, and whether adding Gonzaga is something the Pac-12 should consider.
The guys recap last week’s games, discuss who’s at fault in the FS1 vs Utah debate over Cam Rising’s injury status, and talk about the emergence of some new Pac-12 talent in ASU QB Trenton Bourguet and Colorado WR Jordyn Tyson. Finally, a preview of this week’s games, including Utah hosting Arizona in Salt Lake.
The Pac-12 Apostles is a podcast for fans who love the Pac-12 conference. George Wrighster and Ralph Amsden are committed to the honest and fair conversation about the conference. Join us by becoming a Pac-12 Apostle. Subscribe and share the podcast.
Please leave a rating and review of our podcast on iTunes! We record a podcast once a week with emergency episodes when necessary. Our podcasts are always heavy on Pac-12 football. But we make it a point to also try and cover the other notable Men’s and Women’s Pac-12 sports. We cover recruiting and any other major storyline in the Pac-12 universe.
George Wrighster is a former Pac-12 and long-time NFL tight end. As a television/radio host, opinionist, and analyst, who is UNAFRAID to speak the truth. Contrary to industry norms he uses, facts, stats, and common sense to win an argument. He has covered college football, basketball, NFL, NBA, MLB since 2014. Through years of playing college football, covering bowl games, coaching changes, and scandals, he has a great pulse for the conference and national perspective.
Ralph Amsden is a sportswriter and podcaster. He is the publisher of Rivals’ ArizonaVarsity.com, Content Director for UnafraidShow.com, and was previously the managing editor of the Arizona State University Rivals affiliate, DevilsDigest.com. Wyoming born, Arizona raised, and now based in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and four kids, Amsden made his mark in Arizona sports media through investigative reporting, and being one of the first people to leverage social media and the podcast medium to grow his platform. . Ralph might be sub-.500 in spousal disputes and schoolyard fights, but whether the topic is food, movies, music, parenting, politics, sports, television, religion, or zoological factoids, he’s always UNAFRAID to square up.
We need to talk about Bryce Harper and the opportunity he has before him.
The Philadelphia Phillies are two wins away from their first world series since 2008, the year that a 15-year old Bryce Harper and his family began getting advice from Scott Boras on how to quicken his path to the major leagues.
In 2009, the Phillies were in the middle of attempting to defend their title when Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci dropped an article called “Baseball’s LeBron,” detailing the life and times of a baseball prodigy in a sport that usually takes much of a prospect’s 20’s to prepare even the best players for a life of consistency in the majors.
Within two years, Bryce Harper would be the Nationals #1 overall pick, and found himself hitting his first major league home run before the age of 20.
Baseball fans love young stars. It’s a game that the most gifted players can play at a high level for almost two decades, and numbers-obsessed fans love the idea of a player having a chance to take a crack at some of baseball’s most exclusive clubs. People my age had the privilege of aging up with guys like Andruw and Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr and Vlad Guerrero. All of those guys are beloved beyond their own primary fan bases.
But Bryce Harper was different. Not only has Bryce Harper spent most of his career hated by opposing teams and their fans, he hasn’t been the most likeable guy in his own clubhouses. Matt Williams once benched him. Jonathan Papelbon once physically choked him.
Bryce Harper’s time with the Phillies has been fruitful, winning his second MVP award last season, and lifting Philadelphia to the World Series this year with his stellar play. He still has the same punchable face he’s always had, but he seems to be more mature.
Maybe it’s turning 30. Maybe it was watching the Nationals win a World Series without him, and having Juan Soto erase every franchise record that Bryce Harper previously had as the youngest to achieve different statistical benchmarks.
One way we saw Harper’s personal growth was earlier this year, when he was beaned on the thumb by his childhood friend Blake Snell, costing him 53 games in the middle of the season. Bryce Harper reacted to his injury in his usual over-the-top emotional manner, but he acknowledged in the moment walking off the field that Snell didn’t mean to do it.
Scary sight in San Diego. Bryce Harper had to leave the game after taking a pitch off his hand. pic.twitter.com/uDeTOiOqjT
It was that same San Diego Padres team that Harper was injured against that he found himself facing last week in the NLCS, and his 8th inning 2-run shot ultimately sent the Phillies to the World Series.
And now the moment is before him, to redeem himself from every complaint that any casual-to-serious baseball fan outside of the NL East has ever had about him.
I mean, I’m not stupid enough to think that Braves and Nationals fans are ever gonna love the guy.
But if there’s one thing that unites 98% percent of baseball fans, it’s a burning hate for the Houston Astros.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and Bryce Harper has the opportunity to make a whole lot of new friends.
It worked for LeBron in Cleveland against a 73-win Golden State Warriors team. Maybe it will work for “baseball’s LeBron” against the Houston Astros.
On Halloween, Auburn gave Bryan Harsin a trick and the War Eagle fan base a treat by firing their embattled head coach after a 3-5 start to the season.
Auburn has fired HC Bryan Harsin, who went 9-12 over the past two years.
The university owes him $15 million in buyout money — half of which is due in 30 days. pic.twitter.com/JZJU5WqCpq
Now, two things can be true. You can have toxic working conditions, and a bad head coach. Some people might try to make it seem like Bryan Harsin was doomed from the start because he was brought in to a school that is notorious for dictating to its coaches which assistants to surround themselves with, but at the end of the day, for the school to be at blame, you still would have needed to see maximum effort from the coach in order for him to remain blameless.
Now, I don’t think Bryan Harsin is worried about blame. He’s got another $15 million coming his way on top of about $8 million dollars worth of checks cashed for less than two years’ work. Nobody’s crying for Harsin, much less anybody with the last name Harsin.
But let’s get into what exactly made Bryan Harsin such a bad coach.
First, you can’t come into the SEC without a plan to recruit. Boise State spent over a decade as the Alabama of Group of 5, and if a west coast three-star recruit wasn’t getting offers from USC, UCLA, Oregon or Washington, they had as good of a chance at ending up at Boise State as anywhere else. Auburn doesn’t recruit itself, and even if it did, it’s not a task you can pawn off on assistants… and even if you can, you have to be surrounded by assistants that you trust and treat with dignity.
Bryan Harsin kicked offensive coordinator Mike Bobo out the door after one year, only to replace him with a 32-year-old Austin Davis, who resigned after six weeks. Defensive Coordinator Derek Mason took a $400,000 paycut just to not have to see Bryan Harsin’s face around the office anymore when he bounced to Oklahoma State.
But at least the players had Harsin’s back right?
Well, sort of. Every player is built differently, and you saw a pretty clear split between the Auburn players that wanted someone that was invested in who they were on and off the field, and the players that didn’t need anything but a coach to push them on the gridiron.
Of all the players that left Auburn, one of the most common criticisms was that Bryan Harsin had no interest in who they are or where they came from. Smoke Monday, now with the Saints, said Harsin had no curiosity or interest in him as a person.
Maybe the best evidence that Harsin was an uncaring football robot came in his refusal to discuss the issue of vaccination publicly in fall 2021, when the state of Alabama was being ravaged by Covid deaths and hospitalizations.
Harsin’s interpersonal issues, along with the program’s worst record in a decade and massive roster exodus, led to one of the uglier attempted booster coups in college football history, with rumors of an affair with a staffer dominating the headlines. Once that happened, it was only a matter of time before the situation became untenable. Not only are the Tigers 3-5 at the end of October, their 22 total touchdowns this year is nine less than their former QB Bo Nix has produced in the last seven games alone.
Bo Nix looks like a much better Qb in Oregon than he ever did at Auburn
So now Auburn is back in the situation of needing a new coach while two dozen influential boosters likely make some more of the “too many cooks in the kitchen” mistakes they made the last time around. Auburn is a circus, and a circus needs a clown.
As for Bryan Harsin, he’ll be fine. His track record and reputation out west will get him in the door for every interview that comes open, and it’s not crazy to consider him as a clubhouse leader for University of Colorado, or any Mountain West job that opens this offseason.
The marriage between Auburn and Harsin severely exposed the flaws of everyone involved.
If Auburn’s boosters can’t back off and let their next coach build his own program, and if Bryan Harsin can’t find a way to relate on a human level to everyone around him, the next chapter for both parties involved in this debacle is going to have the exact same ending.
