The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: This Week in Sports

With the 2018 Winter Olympics officially kicking off last Friday night, the NBA trade deadline this past Thursday, and the college basketball conference season winding down, it has been a wild ride in the sports world. Let’s take a look at some of the stories that broke across this country this week.

The Good

• Jimmy G(ets paid) - Looking at his new five-year, $137.5 million contract, you would have no clue that he had just wrapped up only his seventh career start. Garoppolo burst onto the scene in 2016 with Tom Brady sidelined due to his “Deflategate” suspension. He started the first two games of the season, and he led the Patriots to a victory against the Arizona Cardinals in Week One and was on his way to closing out his second career win before being injured in the second quarter.

Garoppolo was traded to the San Fransisco 49ers on Oct. 30, 2017. As the starter in San Fran, he led the team to a 5-0 record from Week 13 on out. The organization rewarded the Illinois native and EIU grad with one of the largest contracts in NFL history.

• Jones Shooting Jumpers Again - After almost a month of what he described as exhaustion, Andrew Jones, a sophomore for the Texas Longhorns Men’s Basketball team, was diagnosed with leukemia. Jones was pretty quiet on social media following the diagnosis, but Wednesday he posted this video to his Twitter page:

The outpour of support for the Texas guard has been overwhelming. Opposing teams have donned warm-ups showing their support of Jones, and almost $170,000 has been raised to help the family with medical expenses so far.

• #ColtonCourage - This is something that our team here at TCR has been covering quite in depth lately (and will continue). Our editor Stephen Cohn posted an article about Colton Rahn’s story that you can read here, and our assistant editor Elias Schuster posted this video to his Twitter page yesterday:

The Bad

• Team LeBron Curse - All-Star selections beware, there is now officially a curse put on Team LeBron members. After Kristaps Porzingis tore his ACL on Tuesday night, he is the second Team LeBron selection to suffer a season-ending injury and fourth to be hurt. First, DeMarcus Cousins went out with a torn Achilles towards the end of January. Just a few days later, Kevin Love injured his hand, causing him to miss 6-8 weeks. Then, the following day, John Wall had surgery on his left knee, also forcing him to miss 6-8 weeks. Russ, Kyrie and Durant should tread carefully or they could very well be next.
• Draymond Green’s Grill - Not only did Green get popped in the mouth on Tuesday night, but he also received a $50,000 fine to go with it. Green deemed it “one expensive tooth.” The NBA said the fine stemmed from an incident in the second quarter regarding Green’s first technical though. The Warriors lead the NBA in player ejections and player technical fouls.

The Ugly

• Colts’ Head Coach Carousel - Being an Indy fan, this one hurts just a little extra. Back on Tuesday, multiple sources reported that New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator, Josh McDaniels, was to be the next head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. McDaniels reportedly changed his mind just a few hours later and left the football world wondering “what just happened?” This morning it was announced that Frank Reich, former Philadelphia Eagles Offensive Coordinator, would be the next head coach of the Colts. Their Twitter page even made sure it was official, posting a picture of him signing the contract.
• Tic-Tac-Uh Oh - Probably the most laughable moment in the sports world this week was a game of Tic-Tac-Toe gone horribly wrong during a media timeout at a Portland Trail Blazers game. It was the same concept of the classic game with just a simple wrinkle, you had to make a lay-up before you made each move. Sounds pretty easy, right? Wrong. These two ladies will have you facepalming.