Weekend Hot Clicks: Another Five-Star QB Enters the Transfer Portal
The Last Dance
Originally scheduled for June, ABC and ESPN moved up the debut of The Last Dance, the Michael Jordan documentary, to Sunday, April 19, just days after director Jason Hehir and his team finished the 10-part series. Here’s the full TV schedule.
"[1997–98] was a trying year," Jordan said. "We all were trying to enjoy that year, knowing that it was coming to an end. ...At the beginning of the season, it basically started when [Bulls general manager] Jerry Krause told Phil [Jackson] that he could go 82–0 and he would never get the chance to come back. Knowing that, I married myself to [Jackson], obviously, and if he wasn't going to be the coach, then I obviously wasn't going to play."
You can watch the trailer and first five minutes of the documentary.
5-Star QBs
Nineteen quarterbacks earned a five-star rating in the 247Sports Composite from 2010–18. After USC’s J.T. Daniels entered the transfer portal on Thursday, 12 of those 19 former five-star quarterbacks have transferred or explored transfer options, including Justin Fields, Hunter Johnson and Jacob Eason.
And it could’ve been 13 if Nick Saban didn’t bench Jalen Hurts in the 2017 national championship, as told by Tua Tagovailoa:
"I called my dad and asked him if my offer to the University of Southern California was still available. I wanted to leave. I told my dad I wanted to go to a school where I thought it'd be easier for me and wouldn't challenge me so much.
"Even throughout my football season, I wasn't the starter. I wanted to leave the school. So I told myself if I didn't play in the last game, which was the national championship game, I would transfer out. If I gave in, I don't think I would have seen the end blessing of where I am now."
Brutal Trivia Question
More than 300 American cities are home to at least one Division I school. There are small cities with populations barely over 2,000 like Itta Bena, Miss., home to Mississippi Valley State, and large cities with seven-figure populations like Chicago, home to four schools, including DePaul and Loyola Chicago. But what are the largest cities without a Division I school?
Podcasts
Three podcasting notes this weekend: On the SI Media Podcast, Jimmy Traina spoke with Bob Ley … On The Record, Jon Wertheim, Jack McCallum and Jessica Smetana talked Jordan’s 1993 retirement … On the High Motor podcast, I spoke with Brett McMurphy and Sam Schwartzstein (XFL Director of Football Ops) last week and will have an NFL Draft episode dropping on Sunday.
Odds & Ends
Several FCS teams have more all-time first-round picks than Power 5 teams … David Beaty went from Big 12 head coach to Uber driver … Inside the upside-down world of college football recruiting during a pandemic … Adam Silver’s tone tells us all we need to know … Mekhi Becton is among several players flagged for a drug test at the NFL Combine … Can’t win a virtual dart competition with bad WiFi … Billy McFarland of Fyre Festival fame is seeking an early prison release … Babe Ruth didn’t break baseball’s color barrier … Two birds with one crossover.
Tatum v. Beal
Samantha Hoopes
‘Capone’ Trailer
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