The Rundown: Weekend Preview Edition

The NFL Combine is on the brain this weekend. Who will be the next Brett Farve and who will run as slow as Tom Brady? Take the Combine IQ test to see if you’re smarter than an athlete. We’ll share our scores on our Twitter page. Let us know how you do at @lastnights_game.

It’s going down for real,

The Last Night’s Game Team


MLB (Major League Baseball)

  • Come fly with me. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has a history of showing up late to team events. Always a solution provider, Puig is in the process of purchasing a helicopter to take to the stadium. Take that L.A. traffic.  

NBA (National Basketball Association)

  • What a good sport. Golden State Warriors' guard Stephen Curry (reigning NBA MVP) set the record for consecutive games where he sank a three-point shot at 128 games. Curry then gave his record breaking shoes to a young fan for their birthday after the game. That’s class.

NFL (National Football League)

  • Brain vs brawn. Since the 70s the NFL has instituted the Wonderlic Test, an IQ test designed to test cognitive ability, at the NFL Combine. In its history the test results don’t directly correlate to an athlete’s athletic ability or NFL career. The average score of a quarterback is 24 and there has only been one perfect score of 50. Take a sample test here. (The athletes take the 12 minute, 50 question version of the test).

Soccer

  • Vote. Today’s the day where they announce the new FIFA President. The four candidates campaigning to lead the international governing authority of soccer are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Gianni Infantino and Jerome Champagne. Tokyo Sexwale (yes his real name, seriously) removed his name from the ballot a few minutes ago stating “it’s your problem now.” Results are expected this morning. 

Surfing

  • Surf’s up. While most of the country is still in the dead of winter, down in Hawaii the waves were big enough to hold the Eddie Aikau big-wave surfing invitational. The waves have to be large enough for the competition to take place. This has only happened nine times in the past 31 years. This year the waves were as big as 60 feet. 

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)

  • Bring it on. Arguably best fighter of all-time, Anderson Silva, takes on Englishman Michael Bisping live from London on Saturday at 4 pm (EST) on UFC FIGHT PASS

Overtime

  • What will 15 years as an elite NFL defender get you? See this picture of former New York Giants defensive end and current co-star of LIVE with Kelly and Michael, Michael Strahan’s fingers. Bey would not put a ring on that.

Sideline Stat

  • You might see Tom Brady for the super star that he is now, but coming out of University of Michigan he was not highly sought after and was drafted 199 overall (the lower the draft number the better). Why you ask? Brady ran the slowest 40-yard dash for a quarterback in history (5.28 seconds). Break out your sundial and watch this.

Coaches’ Corner

  • Former University of Arkansas quarterback, Brandon Allen, employed a masseuse in preparation for the NFL Combine. Not for his back as you might think but to massage his hands to help them grow. A 9 1/8 inch hand is considered the smallest hand size for an NFL quarterback (base of hand to the tip of the middle finger). Allen’s hands were 8 1/2 inches in January and have stretched 3/8 inches since then because of massages.

It’s obvious that size matters. Why? Smaller hands worry teams about their quarterback’s ability to hang onto the ball during inclement weather.

The Rundown: Five Hilarious Reasons To Miss a Game

Bed bugs are in the news which leads us to the five most hilarious, ridiculous and mostly painful reasons that caused an athlete to miss a game.

We’re like a circus monkey; always entertaining and sometimes cute.  

This sh*t is bananas,

The Last Night’s Game Team


Five most ridiculous reasons athletes have missed games

  1. Next time call Papa John’s. Detroit Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson broke his arm in a car crash where he was trying to prevent pizza from sliding off the front seat.
  2. Burnt to a crisp. Baltimore Orioles outfielder Marty Cordova missed a game due to severe burns he suffered from tanning bed exposure.
  3. Giddy up. New York Yankees great Wade Boggs strained his back while putting on cowboy boots which caused him to miss games.
  4. Some serious rift. Detroit Tiger relief pitcher, Joel Zumaya injured wrist/forearm playing Guitar Hero, missing three playoff games.
  5. Arachnophobia. Baseball player Glenallen Hill had a serious fear of spiders. He woke up in panic after having a dream about spiders and fell through a glass table next to his bed.

We can’t make this stuff up.

NFL (National Football League)

  • Look under the mattress. An arbitrator's ruling revealed that the NFL made a 'small' accounting mistake, not accounting for $120 million in ticket revenue over the past three years. This will increase the salary cap for each team by $1.5 million, bringing the salary cap to an estimated $155 million this upcoming season.

NBA (National Basketball Association)

  • Midnight snack. Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving played only nine minutes against Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday before exiting the game with flu-like symptoms. Turns out Irving didn’t have the flu but had an encounter with bed bugs the night before at the team hotel. The team stayed at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City (mind you the hotel is also rumored to be haunted). Irving said "I got three hours [of sleep]. Just imagine how freaked out you'd be if you saw friggin' five, big-ass bed bugs just sitting on your pillow.” Amen Kyrie, amen.

For the record, after getting a good night’s sleep. Irving played on Monday and scored 30 points.

UFC (Ultimate fighting championship)

  • Fight night. Injury has forced lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos to drop out of his scheduled fight vs Connor McGregor on March 5th. McGregor is the UFC’s biggest draw and will still fight, taking on fan favorite Nate Diaz.  

Soccer

  • Goooooal! FIFA, the international governing authority of soccer, is set to elect a new president on Friday at 2 am (EST). Previous president Sepp Blatter was forced to resign amidst a global bribery scandal.

Overtime

  • It’s safe to say that New York Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis may not understand Twitter. Coach came under fire recently when he ‘liked’ a pornographic image from his Twitter account. Knicks have stated his account was hacked and are working with Twitter to determine who hacked the account. That’s the story and we're sticking to it. 

Sideline Stat

  • LSU freshman phenom and projected #1 pick in NBA draft, Ben Simmons, did not start Saturday vs Tennessee due to academic issues. Simmons sat out a whole four and a half minutes to learn his lesson. (A game is 40 minutes long).

Coaches’ Corner

  • What’s the salary cap? A salary cap is a wage cap, a limit on how much a team can spend on athletes’ salaries. Teams are penalized if they spend above the determined amount. The cap was established to help even out the talent on teams so that teams with a lot of money wouldn’t have a competitive advantage and win everything.  

The Rundown: Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend tight end Rob Gronkowski showed us just that on a party cruise and the Daytona 500 was one for the record books.  

Something for everyone,

The Last Night’s Game Team  


NASCAR

  • Too close for comfort. Denny Hamlin won the 58th Daytona 500 by the closest margin in the race history (.01 seconds). Hamlin showed them who’s the boss with an impressive maneuver to overtake Martin Truex, Jr. on the last lap to bring home the checkered flag. 

Notable finishes include:

  • Pole-sitter, 20-year-old Chase Elliott, crashed in the 20th lap and did not finish.
  • Dale Earnhardt, Jr. crashed in 169th lap and finished 36th place. (There are 200 laps in the race). 
  • Danica Patrick finished in 35th place.

MLB (Major League Baseball)

  • Reporting for duty. All MLB players will report to their respective team’s spring training facilities today. Spring training allows teams to evaluate young prospects and give veterans a chance to get ready for the start of the season which begins in April. 
  • Sunshine here we come. Team's spring training facilities are located in two states, with teams either report to Florida (Grapefruit League) or to Arizona (Cactus League). 
  • Swinging for the fences. Texas Rangers fan Byron Anderson hit a home run and won his family free season tickets (value estimated at $8,500). The ”Swing for Your Seats” promotion gave fans three chances to hit a home run to win season tickets.

NFL (National Football League) 

  • Looking for the next big thing. The NFL Scouting Combine starts tomorrow. If you recall, the NFL Combine is a platform for prospective NFL prospects to participate in various drills and interviews with NFL scouts to improve their visibility and draftability. Prospects can only participate if they’re invited.  The NFL Network will be covering the combine workouts live February 26-29th.   

Overtime

  • New England Patriots’ tight end, Rob Gronkowski, hosted a three-day “Gronkowski Party Cruise" through the Caribbean this weekend. Fans bought tickets to join the zany and unpredictable "Gronk" to sail the seas and party on what some are describing as an NC-17 weekend. On board entertainment included Flo Rida and Rob Gronkowski, who channeled his inner Magic Mike. Oh dear. 

Sideline Stat

  • Sunday’s Daytona 500 win was team owner Joe Gibbs’ first win at Daytona since 1993. Gibbs is a former coach of the Washington Redskins (NFL) and owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, which owns four different NASCAR cars including winner Hamlin.

Coaches’ Corner