The DB had heard that G ALI MARPET, the Buccaneers player rep, is cautious about the threat of Wuhan Covid-19.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

As the NFL and NFL Players Association try to hammer out a deal that would finalize coronavirus protocols for training camp, recent comments from Buccaneers tackle Ali Marpet illustrate the challenge the NFLPA faces in protecting players.

Marpet, who serves as the team’s NFLPA representative, spoke to JoeBucsFan.com regarding various issues relating to practicing and playing in a pandemic. As to the ultimate collection of rules and regulations proposed to the union by the league, Marpet provided this ominous observation: “For any reason, if [NFLPA leadership] felt we have taken undue risk, I don’t think the NFLPA would recommend coming back.”

Uh-oh. That would be a major problem if the NFLPA won’t recommend the players coming back. Because we know that players always follow the recommendations of the NFLPA. Except when they don’t.

In the very same set of remarks, Marpet proved that point by defending his teammates’ defiance of the NFLPA’s recommendation regarding offseason workouts under the leadership of quarterback Tom Brady.

“It’s not enforcement, just advisory,” Marpet said regarding the NFLPA’s recommendation that players should not work out in groups until training camp, adding that each player must decide whether to participate but that all should understand the risks.

Yes, each player must decide whether to participate but that all should understand the risks. So what happens if the NFL and NFLPA ultimately reach impasse as to the various steps to be taken in 2020 (e.g., the NFL says there will be two preseason games, there will be mandatory hotel stays during camp, there will be 11-on-11 activities in practice, there will be more than 20 players in the facility for the first three weeks of camp, there will be full face shields, etc.)? If the NFLPA recommends that the players don’t show up for training camp and the regular season, how many of them actually will stay away?

Will Tom Brady stay away? Will any player who is actively ignoring the NFLPA’s recommendation on group workouts prior to training camp stay away?

Sure, some players would opt to stage a wildcat strike. But those players would be quickly replaced by other players, given that the supply of willing and able football players continues to dramatically outweigh the demand.

Thus, while the NFL is trying to work with the union on this, the overwhelming weight of the leverage rests with the league. The challenge, however, becomes getting all players to buy in to the 2020 protocols willingly and voluntarily, in order to ensure not only that they’ll follow the rules while at the facility but that they’ll conduct their personal lives in a way that minimizes the chances of the kind of outbreak that would cause the entire system to collapse.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Erik Edholm of YahooSports.com on what the new contract for QB PATRICK MAHOMES means for the DAK PRESCOTT negotiations:

There has been a pattern in recent years in the NFL where the next big quarterback deal tends to be a tad more money than the last one.

It’s fair to say that trend just hit a bump in the road following Patrick Mahomes’ mind-bending 10-year, $450 million contract extension through the 2031 season.

All respect to the Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott or the Houston Texans’ Deshaun Watson, but no quarterback anytime soon is likely to receive anything as extravagant or with quite the scope as the Chiefs’ deal with Mahomes just did.

This one is likely to bust the charts for a while. That doesn’t mean it likely won’t have an effect on what Prescott will eventually make.

His status is more urgent than that of Watson, who is scheduled for free agency after this season. Prescott has been levied with the franchise tag, and he and the team must work something out before July 15 before their window closes for this year.

Prescott’s agent, Todd France, almost assuredly knows his client isn’t getting Mahomes money. That doesn’t mean France can’t use that deal as leverage for a contract for Prescott.

Length matters …

Ten-year contracts used to be a thing of the past. Drew Bledsoe, Daunte Culpepper and Michael Vick once signed deals that length, but that was a generation ago.

The assumption from the player/agent perspective is that the longer the deal, the more likely it is to end up being a bargain — leaving money on the table — the longer the contract goes on.

With the Mahomes contract, this isn’t likely to end up as some feel-good, hometown discount. And as it relates to Prescott, he and France sought a shorter deal similar to recent QB extensions. Carson Wentz ($128 million extension, $107.97 million guaranteed), Jared Goff ($134 million extension, $110 million guaranteed) and Russell Wilson ($140 million extension, $107 million guaranteed) all recently signed four-year add-ons.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson, France previously turned down a five-year offer from the Cowboys that was “fundamentally better” than Goff’s deal.

That leverage was tied to the idea that the Cowboys once caved to Ezekiel Elliott’s demands, so they of course needed to do the same for their quarterback. Now, France and Prescott have more leverage in Mahomes’ deal, not to mention the window soon to close.

They might not be thinking along the same lines as Mahomes on length. If the standoff proves anything, it’s that the tension is higher between Prescott and Dallas than it is with Mahomes and the Chiefs. And Prescott has wanted the shorter deal because that means it’s another year closer to hitting free agency again.

… but so does the money

Assuming France and Prescott do not pivot off of their shorter-deal strategy, any extension with Dallas almost certainly will have to be structured around average salary per year and guarantees.

Starting with the former element, Prescott’s franchise tender would guarantee him a one-year salary worth $31.4 million for 2020, assuming a new contract before July 15 supersedes that. Assume that’s the floor for a per-year average.

The deals for Wentz ($32 million per year), Goff ($33.5 million per year) and Wilson ($35 million per year) create a middle range for a per-year average.

It’s safe to say that Prescott and France can’t ask for Mahomes’ per season salary without Jerry Jones hanging up on them. But a deal somewhere north of what Wilson received per year, plus a little bump following the Mahomes news, is a reasonable ask for the agent.

As for the guaranteed part, the two sides are still more likely to end up closer to the Wentz-Goff-Wilson models than whatever Mahomes will be guaranteed as part of his deal worth a reported $450 million total. Still, the percentage of guaranteed money — plus any clever structuring — could affect the Prescott negotiations.

We’re entering uncharted waters here with the possibility of a shortened (or canceled) 2020 NFL season, and even if they play, there’s certain to be a league-wide revenue hit.

Hence, the salary cap — which has been going up around $10 million per team per year in the past several years — could go down next year or for multiple years, if the league spreads out the financial hit over a longer period.

Bottom line for Dak, Cowboys

The Mahomes deal dropping when it did likely hurt the Cowboys and helped Prescott.

Even if Prescott ends up not getting close to what Mahomes will, it certainly changed the financial parameters at the league’s most significant position.

That’s leverage for Prescott, even if the two contracts end up looking fundamentally different. It’s doubtful that the Cowboys can convince Prescott to add a year onto his deal with the logic of, well, hey, it’s still half as long as Mahomes’ contract! France likely can hold Jones’ feet to the fire on that one, even if it costs him a few bucks in the interim.

The Cowboys and Prescott have been close a few times in their negotiations leading up to now. And you have to wonder whether Dallas doesn’t regret not coming up a wee bit on its offer to Prescott last September, the point at which they previously appeared to be closest to a deal.

The price appears to have gone up since then, and the clock seems to be ticking a bit faster now.

WASHINGTON

QB DWAYNE HASKINS casts his vote for Red Tails – the name that would salute the Tuskegee Airmen.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

The franchise quarterback has weighed in on what Washington’s new team name should be.

Dwayne Haskins wrote on Twitter that his vote would be for Red Tails, which has often been discussed as a potential new team name.

“I like the redtails,” Haskins wrote.

After hearing plenty of feedback about that, Haskins added a follow up noting that the decision to move on from the franchise’s long-term name is above his pay grade.

“That’s if we have to change the name. Now out my mentions,” Haskins wrote, clearly wanting to avoid stirring up too much trouble on Twitter.

Red Tails has support for a few reasons. The Tuskegee Airmen, African-American pilots who fought in World War II, referred to themselves as the Red Tails, and the team has indicated it would like to honor the military with its next name. The red-tailed hawk, a bird sometimes seen in Washington, D.C., could serve as the team’s mascot. The name would also allow the team to keep and only slightly alter its fight song, with fans singing “Hail to the Red Tails.”

Dan Snyder has all but confirmed that his team is going to change its name, so the only question is what the team’s next name will be. Red Tails seems like a popular choice.

Not sure why the talk of Red Tails made the DB wonder about the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, but it did.  Here is what the team says:

With help from the NHL, the Columbus franchise narrowed the 14,000 entries down to 10 names. Then with the information received from Mr. McConnell, the League and the franchise narrowed the list of potential names down to two – Blue Jackets and Justice.

The franchise explored all of the options of the two names, but it was the Blue Jackets name that intrigued the NHL and the Columbus franchise the most.

It was first thought that the Blue Jackets were named after the Indian chief, Blue Jacket, from Xenia, Ohio, but that was not the case.

The Blue Jackets name was selected because the name pays homage to Ohio’s contributions to American history and the great pride and patriotism exhibited by its citizens, especially during the Civil War as both the state of Ohio and the city of Columbus were significantly influential on the Union Army. Ohio contributed more of its population to the Union Army than any other state, while many of the Blue Coats worn by the Union soldiers were manufactured in Columbus.

Union uniforms were manufactured in Columbus.  Will the city’s name survive?

From CNN:

The city of Columbus, Ohio, has already vowed to bring down its statue of Christopher Columbus. But thousands are hoping to erase the city’s connection to Columbus’ legacy even further by renaming it Flavortown in honor of Columbus native Guy Fieri.

As the widespread conversation around police brutality and racial inequality continues into another week, statues of Columbus are being brought down across the nation to bring awareness to the cruelty he brought upon Indigenous people.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced earlier this week that the statue outside City Hall would be removed and placed in storage.

“For many people in our community, the statue represents patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness. That does not represent our great city, and we will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past,” Ginther said in a statement, according to CNN affiliate WTTE.

But for Tyler Woodbridge, who spent over seven years of his life in Columbus, the statue’s removal wasn’t enough.

“Even though it’s my favorite city, I was always a bit ashamed of the name,” Woodbridge told CNN.

So the 32-year-old started a petition to rename the city to Flavortown in honor of Fieri, the celebrity restaurateur who was born in Columbus. Fieri’s use of the expression on his various shows on The Food Network has become his signature catchphrase.

Woodbridge described Fieri as a very “charitable man,” pointing to the fact that the famous restaurateur has helped raise more than $20 million for restaurant workers during the pandemic and that he’s officiated more than 100 LGBTQ weddings.

“That kind of optimism and charitable work embodies more of what Columbus, Ohio, is about rather than the tarnished legacy of Christopher Columbus,” Woodbridge said.

But the fact that Flavortown came from Fieri is a bonus and not the main reason why he’s pushing for the name, Woodbridge said. Describing the city as a “melting pot” of different cultures and nationalities, Woodbridge said the name would honor the city’s “proud heritage as a culinary crossroads and one of the nation’s largest test markets for the food industry,” according to the petition.

So they could have been the Flavortown Justice.

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

QB PATRICK MAHOMES gets a massive deal, the richest in sports history, during a pandemic and at a time of social unrest.  It is a 10-year extension, putting him under contract with the Chiefs for 12 more seasons through 2031.

It’s the biggest deal in sports history and he is guaranteed $140 million in a sport whose foundation could be rocked by health concerns in the next decade.  Adam Schefter with details.

@AdamSchefter

Compensation update: Patrick Mahomes’ 10-year extension is worth $450 million, sources tell ESPN.

The injury guarantee is $140 million, per source.

The contract does not contain language that ties its value to a percentage of the salary cap.

Richest deal in sports’ history.

Still, there are those who think he undersold himself.

@AndrewBrandt

Without a Cap adjustment, the market will pass him by several times.  And without full guarantees, a series of future team options. The Chiefs paid a big sum but avoided anything groundbreaking and control his rights for an NFL lifetime.

And here is Mike Florio with the contract details:

The numbers on any given contract don’t become official under the actual contract can be inspected and analyzed. For now, here’s the breakdown of the Patrick Mahomes contract that is making the rounds.

It’s a twelve-year deal with a base value of $477.631 million. It averages, at signing, $39.8 million per year.

The deal includes a fairly paltry, given the supposed magnitude of the deal, signing bonus of $10 million. The cash breakdown, regardless of guarantees or “guarantee mechanisms” (whatever those are), is as follows:

1. In 2020: $10.825 million.

2. In 2021: $22.8 million (base salary of $990,000, roster bonus of $21.7 million, and workout bonus of $100,000 in 2021).

3. In 2022: $29.45 million (base salary of $1.5 million, roster bonus of $27.4 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2022).

4. In 2023: $40.45 million (base salary of $5.5 million, roster bonus of $34.4 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2023).

5. In 2024: $37.95 million (base salary of $2.5 million, roster bonus of $34.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2024).

6. In 2025: $41.95 million (base salary of $2.5 million, roster bonus of $38.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2025).

7. In 2026: $41.95 million (base salary of $2.5 million, roster bonus of $38.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2026).

8. In 2027: $59.95 million (base salary of $10 million, roster bonus of $49.4 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2027).

9. In 2028: $44.45 million (base salary of $13 million, roster bonus of $30.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2028).

9. In 2029: $44.95 million (base salary of $20.5 million, roster bonus of $23.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2029).

10. In 2030: $50.45 million (base salary of $27 million, roster bonus of $22.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2030).

11. In 2031: $52.45 million (base salary of $38 million, roster bonus of $13.9 million, and workout bonus of $550,000 in 2028).

The deal also includes up to $2.5 million in unspecified incentives per year from 2022 through 2031, resulting in another $25 million that can be earned, pushing the maximum possible value of the twelve-year deal to $502.631 million.

In the first two years, Mahomes will earn $33.361 million. Through the first three years, Mahomes will earn $63.08 million. Through the first four years, Mahomes will earn $103.53 million. By way of comparison, Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill will earn $118 million over the next four years — and he won’t be tied to his team for another eight seasons.

Given that Mahomes already was due to earn $27.63 million over the next two years, it’s a 10-year, $450 million extension. That’s $45 million per year in new money. While that pushes the market up by $10 million per year, it ties Mahomes to the Chiefs for the next 12 years, and during that time the market likely will catch and surpass the Mahomes numbers. Although it’s easy to say “the Chiefs will take care of him,” they’re not required to do anything than what the current contract requires them to do for the next 12 years.

With, per multiple reports, only $63 million fully guaranteed at signing, it’s a pay-as-you-go deal for the Chiefs, who surely will want to keep Mahomes for the next 12 years, especially as the market and salary cap grow and the deal looks more and more like a steal for the Chiefs, if Mahomes keeps playing like he has for his first two years as a starter.

It’s a no-lose proposition for the Chiefs, tying Mahomes to the team for a dozen seasons but giving the team flexibility to move on, if for whatever reason Mahomes at some point isn’t the guy he currently is.

Bottom line? In his agents’ apparent zeal to claim that they negotiated the first half-billion-dollar deal in league history, plenty of meat was left on the bone. Mahomes didn’t need to commit for a dozen years, and he could have pushed hard for greater protection against inflation of the salary cap and the quarterback market — like a set percentage of the salary cap.

If they didn’t want to give him a percentage of the cap, he could have played it out; Mahomes has enough endorsement money and (as the 10th pick in the 2017 draft) will have enough football money to get by, if for some reason he loses his fastball in the next couple of years. Instead, he swapped $27.63 million over the next two years plus the chance to play the year-to-year franchise-tag game for $63 million fully guaranteed at signing, and a one-year-at-a-time arrangement, with the team (not Mahomes) making the one-year-at-a-time decision.

As one league source observed, “It’s like he had no leverage.”

Again, the deal definitely sets the bar to a level higher than it’s ever been. But the truth is that, if Mahomes keeps playing like he has so far, he’ll be underpaid sooner than later. And if for some reason he slips over the next few years, he’ll be out on his ear without nearly the kind of protection that he should have gotten in returning for committing to the team for a dozen years.

A funny story on how the deal broke.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

When it came to the news of the new Patrick Mahomes deal, the news came not from the usual five-minutes-before-it’s-announced-anyway suspects. Instead, the first word came from a liquor store employee who caught wind of a significant purchase the Chiefs were looking to make.

Katie Camlin learned when she arrived at work on Monday that a group of Chiefs employees had arrived at the store earlier in the day searching for six bottles of Dom Perignon champagne. (They also could have bought a whole bunch of Mumms.)

She put two and two together, and got ahead of the news that the Mahomes contract was coming.

“Off the cuff, I tweeted it because I’m a Chiefs fan and I was beyond excited,” Camlin told USA Today on Monday night. “It’s kind of fun to have a scoop.”

Camlin got nervous and deleted the tweet; she was concerned she’d get in trouble or alienate the Chiefs as potential employees of the store.

The best line in the USA Today article is this one, however: “A Chiefs spokesperson declined to confirm a local champagne search to USA Today Sports.”

Regardless, the champagne search allowed the cat to get out of the bag — and Camlin to beat to the punch those who otherwise would beat the formal announcement of the deal to the punch by five minutes.

LAS VEGAS

The Raiders are in the hunt for EDGE JADEVEON CLOWNEY as Jon Gruden, once again, has never known a veteran he wouldn’t want to sign.  This tweet from Denver radio man Cecil Lammey rings true:

Team sources tell me #Raiders have extended an offer to Jadeveon Clowney. 2 or 3 other teams have better offers. Jon Gruden REALLY wants him but Davis/Mayock are standing pat (for now) Gruden would like to up the offer. Interesting for #Broncos if JC winds up in AFCW

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

QB LAMAR JACKSON is being fearless – but it is not for a practice session with his teammates.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com is predictably aghast:

Pandemic be damned, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson intends to proceed with his third annual “Funday with LJ” event in his hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida.

Jackson has posted an advertisement for the event on Instagram. On Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12, Jackson will host local children and family members at McNair Park for six hours on each day.

“Come have some fun in the sun,” the ad says, explaining that there will be go-karts, a rock climbing wall, a 7-on-7 flag football game, two water slides, an obstacle course, a game truck, and a food truck.

“Don’t miss out,” the ad declares, with three caveats: (1) adults must wear masks; (2) Lamar won’t be signing autographs “as his main focus will be to have an awesome time with the children”; and (3) a waiver must be signed for children to participate in any event.

Lamar is the reigning league MVP. A franchise quarterback with an unlimited ceiling. And, in any year other than 2020, this is a great gesture. But it’s questionable, to say the least, for any NFL player to proceed with something like this during a pandemic. Especially in Florida.

The mere fact that Jackson will require a waiver to be signed for any children who participate in the event underscores that the event carries a very real risk. The best way to manage that risk would be to postpone the event to 2021.

Here’s hoping that someone with the Ravens will try to get Lamar to think twice about creating an irresistible temptation for what could become a mini-superspreader event in Pompano Beach. It’s an unnecessary and avoidable risk for everyone associated with it, and a less-than-ideal example for others to potentially emulate, at a time when it’s increasingly critical for everyone to take the virus far more seriously than they have.

Moreover, this kind of behavior from star athletes and role models sends an unmistakable message that the situation isn’t a very big deal, which has contributed to it becoming a much bigger deal than it ever had to be.

CINCINNATI

CB TRAE WAYNES isn’t officially a Bengal as of yet.

Cornerback Trae Waynes agreed to a three-year, $42 million contract with the Bengals early in the free agency period, but that agreement hasn’t been followed by an official contract at this point.

The Bengals are waiting to formalize things until Waynes can take a physical with the team’s doctors and that wait continues even though Waynes has moved to Cincinnati ahead of his first season with the team. Waynes’ agent said recently that the cornerback has been advised not to do any football drills or otherwise risky workouts because of that decision.

During a recent appearance on the Behind the Mask podcast, Waynes shared his frustration with the process.

“That sh–‘s terrible. It’s still going on for me,” Waynes said, via SI.com. “I signed here, but I ain’t really sign here. It was cool at first and I’m thinking it’ll be done and over with. Ninety percent of the league, it’s done for them. I know Cincy and a couple of other teams, they still ain’t pay nobody or let them take their physicals, so it’s technically still going on. . . . How am I supposed to make myself better, without being able to push myself the way I want to push myself to have success? For me, the free agent thing, it was cool, I was excited for it, but it’s been a f–king headache since it really started.”

Training camp is set to start on July 28 and it’s unclear if Waynes will be able to get the physical taken care of before that point.

AFC EAST

NEW YORK JETS

It turns out Coach Adam Gase did want a safety to be sent packing, but it wasn’t/isn’t ill-content JAMAL ADAMS according to Manish Mehta’s anonymous source in this report on S MARCUS MAYE:

2019 Season in Review: Maye had a solid bounce-back season after an injury-plagued 2018 that held him to six games before he landed on Injured Reserve. The ball-hawking safety played deep centerfield in Gregg Williams’ scheme.

Maye finished with 65 combined tackles and a career-high seven passes defensed. The former second-round pick had a pair of late-game pass break-ups against the Cowboys and Steelers to help secure wins.

He allowed a reception once every 71.6 snaps in coverage, according to jetsxfactor.com. Only five of 67 qualifying safeties had a stingier rate.

2020 Outlook: Gang Green’s decision to use a third-round pick on Cal safety Ashytn Davis prompted questions about Maye’s long-term future with the club. The Daily News reported in May that the Jets had engaged in trade discussions involving Maye for the better part of a year, including in the run-up to the draft.

General manager Joe Douglas fielded inquiries and engaged in talks, but chose to keep Maye. (Gase wanted to trade Maye after he was hired last year before being convinced to keep the player, according to sources).

Davis’ arrival will likely signal the end of Maye’s tenure with the Jets. Whether Maye is dealt at the trade deadline or walks in free agency is TBD, but it’s hard to imagine the safety sticking around beyond 2020 unless he signs a team-friendly extension.

Douglas has made it clear that he wants to give All-Pro Jamal Adams an extension. Whether Adams gets a new deal this offseason or next, it wouldn’t make much sense to dole out big-money deals to two safeties. The Jets insist publicly and privately that they won’t trade Adams. (Trading Adams could impact Maye’s future).

So, if Adams stays, Maye likely goes unless he’s willing to take 50 cents on the dollar in a new contract.

[More Jets] Jets Top 20 Countdown: Brian Poole brings nasty edge to defense »

Would it make more sense for Douglas to trade Maye at the deadline if the Jets were out of playoff contention to get 2021 draft-pick compensation? Would a team even be willing to dole out draft capital knowing that Maye is an unrestricted free agent after the season? How is Davis transitioning to the next level?

THIS AND THAT

COPING WITH CORONA

Sad news for fans of spectators in sports.

There are 1.5 million people in Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus) and neighboring (to the north) Delaware Couny.  The Muirfield Village Golf sits along the border, and next week a limited number of spectators were going to be allowed, with social distance spacing, for The Memorial Golf Tournament.

In the nearly four months of the Wuhan Covid-19 pandemic, there have been only about 12,000 reported cases in those two counties.

In Franklin County, which is over 80% of that population, there have been about 1,000 Covid hospitalization.  There have been 447 deaths, of which only 126 were to individuals not confined to long-term care facilities.

New cases are under 200 per day in the two-county area at the moment.  Franklin County has reported no Covid deaths in the last several days.

Yet, we are told there is an outbreak of Covid-19 throughout the country and so the PGA TOUR has changed its plans.  In this report for the GolfChannel by Will Gray, Commissioner Jay Monahan defers to the “broader challenges” of Covid and its “rapidly changing dynamics”, and not any specific increased threat in Columbus, to his change of plans.

There won’t be fans at the Memorial Tournament after all.

The PGA Tour announced Monday that it has changed plans and will no longer allow spectators at next week’s event, a decision officials attributed to “the rapidly changing dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Memorial was expected to be the first Tour event with limited fans in attendance, as tournament officials worked with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to devise a plan that would call for up to 8,000 spectators per day at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Those numbers would have been approximately 20 percent of the tournament’s normal capacity, with all fans expected to wear face masks and large alleys between holes marked as one-way only. In lieu of grandstands, fans were expected to watch from hillside areas around greens and tees which would be closely monitored for capacity and social distancing.

Instead, the tournament will be the sixth Tour event in a row without spectators in attendance. This week’s Workday Charity Open, also played at Muirfield Village, was already expected to be played without fans present.

“Given the broader challenges communities are facing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we need to stay focused on the No. 1 priority for our Return to Golf – the health and safety of all involved,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in a release. “While this was a difficult decision, it was one made collectively, and we are appreciative of the process undertaken to this point that will allow us to welcome on-site fans when the time is right.”

The 3M Open and PGA Championship have already announced plans to conduct their upcoming events without fans present. That means that the soonest spectators could return would be the week of July 30-Aug. 2, when the Tour conducts the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis and the Barracuda Championship in Reno.

Sad.

KAEP

As an added bonus to Colin Kaepernick’s documentary deal with Disney (ESPN), Jemele Hill will return to the worldwide leader as producer.

It was one of several recent announcements that reveal ESPN returning to wokeness.

Here is some radio news from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post:

As ESPN Radio closes in on its reinvented national lineup, basketball analyst Jay Williams and SportsCenter host Zubin Mehenti are the leading candidates to join Keyshawn Johnson on the network’s new morning show, while Max Kellerman could land in the afternoons, The Post has learned.

ESPN is replacing “Golic & Wingo” in the mornings with a program likely centered around Johnson and Williams with Mehenti the point guard, according to sources. ESPN is currently negotiating to make it happen.

ESPN already announced that Johnson is joining its daily NFL Live program, meaning he is moving east from Los Angeles, where he currently is on local ESPN Radio.

Meanwhile, the network is zeroing it on the rest of its lineup. “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” is a program that ESPN executives have discussed taking off of radio, but now will likely survive — though it could lose an hour.

Le Batard currently runs from 10-1 nationally, but Mike Greenberg is expected to have a show from either 12-2 p.m. or 1-3 p.m. Greenberg will continue to host his morning TV show, “Get Up.”

Sources said if it is 12-2 p.m for Greenberg, then Kellerman would likely stake claim to a 2-4 p.m. show. Kellerman would continue his morning TV show, “First Take,” in which he partners with Stephen A. Smith.

On radio, Kellerman would be followed by Mike Golic Jr. and basketball analyst Chiney Ogwumike from 4-7 p.m. Golic Jr. is currently part of ESPN Radio’s morning show with his father, Mike Golic Sr. and Trey Wingo.

It is unclear what role Golic Sr. and Wingo will have at ESPN moving forward. Both have contracts that run through the end of the year, but Wingo’s only assignment, besides radio, is the NFL draft.

Golic Sr. has had a very strong run on mornings, including teaming with Greenberg in what was a very successful tandem for nearly two decades.

Mehenti has emerged as the third man on the new morning show. He currently hosts “SportsCenter,” but does not have a high profile.

Jason Fitz is under contract and currently leads the 1-3 p.m. program, “First Take, Your Take.” Fitz could be headed to the evenings.

Hanging over the whole situation is ESPN’s unsteadiness as the country deals with the ongoing pandemic. While major sports could come back in full force, that is still in question as COVID-19 cases continue to spike. ESPN is hopeful of broadcasting NBA and MLB games to go along with the MLS’s restart this week. More of the major sports returning, including hockey, could breathe more energy into its radio lineup.

Bobby Burack filed these thoughts at rival Outkick.com:

ESPN inked a production deal with Colin Kaepernick for a documentary on his life; Jemele Hill is producing the doc.

This move says all you need to know about the decision making at ESPN right now.

It doesn’t care what its fans want.

It certainly doesn’t care what the data says (despite claiming to).

Its statements mean nothing, and it just told at least half the country to turn the channel. Yes, at least half disagree with Kaepernick, who just said the Fourth of July is a “celebration of white supremacy.”

ESPN has fully embraced becoming a left-wing cable news channel over the past few months: MSESPN, as Clay Travis calls it. What makes this decision even more ridiculous is that ESPN already made that pivot and has since spent the last three years trying to fix its ratings-tanking mistake.

In 2016, still under John Skipper, ESPN took the term “woke” to a new level. The channel’s personalities were Kaepernick’s most vigorous supporters. Simultaneously, ESPN started a battle with the country’s most popular sport, the NFL. Its hosts spent more time bashing it, propagating that it was “declining,” and going to be surpassed by the NBA, than they did actually talking about the games.

This lasted for several years.

You can hardly blame the hosts; they were just trying to get promotions and extensions. ESPN management was rewarding it.

ESPN promoted the Right Time with Bomani Jones to afternoon national drive on ESPN Radio. A sports radio show that went heavy into social issues and NFL bashing. The show didn’t last long. Reports say it lost over 90 affiliates and had the worst ratings in ESPN Radio history.

Will Cain replaced Jones. Cain did a show for sports fans, football fans, fans looking for an escape from online drama and social issues. The Will Cain Show experienced unprecedented success in the time slot, picked up affiliates including major markets, like Los Angeles. Cain’s success was primarily responsible for ESPN’s press releases on the increased radio ratings this past fall.

Cain left the network, leaving a void, a different voice, that the network isn’t in position to replace.

SportsCenter wasn’t woke enough. Read that again. It focused too much on sports, ESPN thought.

So, ESPN completely changed the 6 p.m. SportsCenter in February 2017. Outwent the highlights, in-came SC6 with Jemele Hill and Michael Smith. The show was such a mess, both Hill and Smith are gone from the network now. The format didn’t last even a year.

Once ESPN went back to a traditional format, with Sage Steele and Kevin Negandhi, the ratings went up instantly.

But that move didn’t convince ESPN that sports fans wanted actual sports talk. A few years later, ESPN replaced the noon SportsCenter with High Noon. This lasted a few months before tanking so badly it had to be replaced by, wait for it, a traditional SportsCenter, which worked upon returning. ESPN gave High Noon another try at 4 p.m. With the same topics and hysteria, it failed there too. ESPN canceled High Noon earlier this year. ESPN has re-signed both Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre to contract extensions.

The most high-profile ignore-the-sports-fan decision came with the morning show, Get Up. Michelle Beadle was given one of the hosting roles. Beadle didn’t even try to hide her disconnect with the sports fans. She admitted, on-air, in one of the most baffling segments in the network’s history, she doesn’t even watch football.

The show struggled to garner even 300,000 viewers at first. Since then, ESPN pivoted to a format with Mike Greenberg, which focuses on the top sports stories of the day. The results aren’t hard to guess: viewership is up, and the show is now one of ESPN’s most acclaimed around the industry. (Get Up could be the lone ESPN show that doesn’t resemble MSNBC in the coming weeks.)

ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro, who replaced Skipper, saw the mess that had been created under the old regime. Thus, he fixed most of the problems. And publicly stated the data concludes the viewers do not want the network to cover political topics (I was in the media room when he said this):

Pitaro’s was right, the data did say it. And it still does.

In addition to the moves ESPN had to make to fix the fires ignited in the daily lineup (listed above), it reverted back to focusing on just sports. Hence the ratings spike for several key shows. Instead of headlines from comments on race, Donald Trump, Kaepernick, and kneeling, ESPN produced buzz discussing the NFL and NBA. These came from its top stars: Stephen A. Smith, Scott Van Pelt, Mike Greenberg, Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, Max Kellerman. As well as new stars created discussing, you know, sports: Marcus Spears, Dan Orlovsky, Will Cain, Maria Taylor, Emmanuel Acho.

It was all going so well.

The first glimpse that ESPN wasn’t so serious about enforcing its strict political policy and leaving the past behind came last summer. Dan Le Batard went on his radio show to criticize Trump, and, get this, his own company:

“We here at ESPN haven’t had the stomach for that fight, because Jemele [Hill] did some things on Twitter and you saw what happened after that, and then here all of a sudden nobody talks politics on anything unless we can use one of these sports figures as a meat-shield in the most cowardly possible way to discuss these subjects.”

“No politics!” Expect for Le Batard, maybe?

But it didn’t get real bad at ESPN until recently. It’s 2016-17 on steroids. Both in content and in the results.

ESPN, for the most part, provides the same left-leaning, what works on Twitter perspective all-day. This includes Drew Brees bashing and shaming, irresponsible takes on the Bubba Wallace story, and some PR for Kaepernick. The ratings couldn’t be worse. One day, during non-stop social topics, ESPN recorded a 41-year low.

It put on a social justice-focused ESPYs. That, too, tanked at an unheard-of degree. Only 482,000 viewers tuned in. That is the smallest ever and down substantially from the previous low of 1.98 million in 2011. That’s down 81% from 2014, which was the last time it aired on ESPN, not ABC.

Two weeks ago, ESPN aired a special for The Undefeated in primetime. 100,000 viewers watched it. How does that stack up? Well, it was 25-year low for ESPN in primetime.

To follow all of this up, to deter all of the positive momentum it had over the past two years, ESPN is working with Kaepernick. A personality who is now disproportionately known for politics, not sports.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, who pushes back at all of the narratives ESPN pushes, now has the highest-rated cable news show ever. Carlson is also drawing more viewers in the younger demographic than ESPN’s shows do, during the football season, in total viewership.

Yes, this is very bad for ESPN.

SOCIAL JUSTICE STATEMENTS

The uber-woke NBA took the time to provide some approved social justice slogans for players to wear on their jersey.  It is not going well.  Liz Roscher of YahooSports.com:

The NBA is reportedly allowing players to choose a social justice message to display on the backs of their jerseys for the upcoming NBA restart, but at least two players aren’t thrilled with their choices, which must come from an approved list.

Philadelphia 76ers forward Mike Scott spoke to the media on Monday and voiced his displeasure with the list, which was reportedly approved by the NBA and NBPA on Friday. Scott didn’t sugarcoat his comments.

@rich_hofmann

Mike Scott: “I don’t know, they gave us some names and phrases to put on the back of jerseys. That was terrible. It was a bad list, bad choice, they didn’t give players a chance to voice their opinion. They just gave us a list to pick from. So that was bad, that’s terrible.”

Mike Scott: “I don’t know, they gave us some names and phrases to put on the back of jerseys. That was terrible. It was a bad list, bad choice, they didn’t give players a chance to voice their opinion. They just gave us a list to pick from. So that was bad, that’s terrible.”

When it comes to choosing a social justice phrase to put on the back of his jersey — something that could be very personal and meaningful — Scott doesn’t want to choose from a list that he and many NBA players had no input in putting together.

According to Marc J. Spears of ESPN, the list includes the following phrases:

Black Lives Matter; Say Their Names; Vote; I Can’t Breathe; Justice; Peace; Equality; Freedom; Enough; Power to the People; Justice Now; Say Her Name; Sí Se Puede (Yes We Can); Liberation; See Us; Hear Us; Respect Us; Love Us; Listen; Listen to Us; Stand Up; Ally; Anti-Racist; I Am A Man; Speak Up; How Many More; Group Economics; Education Reform; and Mentor.

Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics also isn’t a fan of the NBA’s list of possible jersey phrases, and spoke about it on Monday as well.

@Tom_NBA

Jaylen Brown agrees with Mike Scott: He would like more options for players to wear on the backs of their jerseys. He says he would like to see some additions.

“I’m very disappointed in the list.”

@JaredWeissNBA

Jaylen Brown on jersey messages: “I would like to see more options available to put on the back of our jersey…For issues and causes such as now, I think that list is an example of a form of limitations…I was very disappointed in the list.”

It’s possible that Scott and Brown aren’t the only ones who feel limited by the NBA’s “disappointing” list of social justice phrases. However, without a concerted, public effort from multiple players, it’s unlikely the NBA will change its mind and allow players to choose their own messages.

The list presumes that all players only wish to make a statement about one subject.  No “Cancer Kills” on the list.