Paul Pierce Rick James
The Cheat SheetBy David Lauterbach on

The week started off with a busy Monday Halloween: LeBron James celebrated Halloween while throwing shade, the Patriots made a surprise “blockbuster” trade, ESPN went crazy for Halloween, and an NFL legend retired.

LeBron James doesn’t want anyone to forget the 2016 NBA Finals

LeBron James Cavs ring

During the 2016 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors led the Cleveland Cavaliers 3-1 after four games. LeBron James wants to make sure nobody forgets that and took the opportunity to remind people if they did during Halloween.

That’s a savage move, but also a great one.

The Patriots traded Jamie Collins to the Browns. Do NFL ‘blockbuster’ trades still exist?

Jamie Collins
FOXBORO, MA – AUGUST 18: Jamie Collins #91 of the New England Patriots walks onto the field before a preseason game with the Chicago Bears in the first quarter at Gillette Stadium on August 18, 2016 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

There probably aren’t many things worse a New England Patriots player can here other than “We’ve traded you to the Cleveland Browns”. Sadly for linebacker Jamie Collins, those are the exact words he heard on Monday.

Our own Sam Blazer wrote a great piece about the trade and asked the question, “Is the blockbuster trade dead in the NFL?”. While ESPN’s Adam Schefter did call it a blockbuster, a third-round pick for a struggling linebacker isn’t exactly a blockbuster when you compare it to other sports.

In baseball, a blockbuster deal would be the December 2015 trade involving 2015 first overall pick Dansby Swanson and at the time potential ace Shelby Miller. Or in August of 2014 when the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Those are blockbuster trades.

ESPN Broadcasters celebrated Halloween in style

hqhalloween

Halloween is the one day every year when people can dress up in crazy costumes and not be judged too much for it. On top of that, it’s a great way for TV networks to get viewers to tune in all day to see various TV personalities dressed up in crazy costumes.

That’s exactly what happened on Monday at ESPN.

Take Highly Questionable for example. They went to a galaxy far far away…

Then there was the odd assortment of costumes on SportsNation.

One costume repeated appeared on Around the Horn.

The Around the Horn guests did the best of all the ESPN shows in my opinion as some of them even switched costumes during the show! The one who did it the best was none other than the terrific Sarah Spain. Her costumes were all over the map.

Andre Johnson has decided to hang them up

andre-Johnson21

A spectacular 14-year NFL career has finally come to an end for Andre Johnson. A week after former Houston Texans star running back Arian Foster hung them up, former Texans star wide receiver Andre Johnson did the same.

While most Texans spoke highly of their former teammate, one former Texan decided to joke about the wideout retiring.

Johnson’s long 14-year career was full of incredible plays and crazy touchdowns. The 35-year-old was named to seven Pro Bowls and finishes his career ranked ninth in all-time receptions with 1,062 and 10th all-time with 14,185 receiving yards.

To celebrate the end of his career, here are some of Johnson’s best and worst moments.

Quick Hits

Los Angeles Clippers v Golden State Warriors

– Kevin Durant once again proved how social media is the best and worst thing in the world with one simple tweet.

Despite the fact that Durant actually just tweeted a simple emoji, people on Twitter went bonkers.

Then again, the Thunder did sign a couple players to massive deals. So maybe that had something to do with it?

– Paul Pierce dressed as Rick James!

– Hunter Pence is on his game even during the offseason. The veteran outfielder is known for odd things he does during the season. Even though the San Francisco Giants’ season has been  over for a couple weeks, Pence is still in tip top shape for Halloween.

https://twitter.com/hunterpence/status/793304767929864192

– One dad was the best dad in the world on Halloween.

“My 3-year-old daughter, Molly, was bummed that she wouldn’t be able to go trick-or-treating this year due to this flight… so I decided to bring trick-or-treating to her. If you are willing, when my little donut comes down the aisle, please drop this in her basket. You’ll be making her Halloween! If you’re unwilling, no worries, just pass the treat back to me. Thanks so much!”

– Continuing on with Halloween, Michele Beadle isn’t a play-by-play broadcaster, but did a play-by-play of her first Halloween in a new neighborhood.

– This upcoming Saturday November 4th, the Texas Longhorns will visit the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 12:30 pm ET. With days to go until the big game, Longhorns’ defensive end Breckyn Hager is trying to pump his team up, but he might have done it in the wrong way.

“I say injure that quarterback,” Hager said. “That’s the mentality right now. We’ve got to take him out. We know he’s banged up and we’ve just got to get after him.”

Naturally, people went crazy and criticized Hager for his comments, causing him to quickly apologize.

“I want to apologize for what I said earlier today at our press conference,” Hager said. “I play hard and it’s our team’s goal to get pressure on the quarterback, hit him and disrupt the offense. When I go out there I want to play my most aggressive game, but I’m not trying to do anything to physically injure someone. I have too much respect for Patrick Mahomes and every quarterback I play against to ever do that. That’s not what I’m about, not the way I was raised and not the way we play football at Texas.

– There was no way Jim Harbaugh wasn’t going to bring a glove to Wrigley Field for game five of the NLCS. Just ask him!

“Just have to,” – Harbaugh said. 

Short and sweet, Harbaugh got right to the point. Sadly for him, a lot of people made fun of him for it.

– Bud Light has decided to end its advertising campaign with Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer.

Rogen and Schumer are both hilarious comedians, but that doesn’t mean an advertising campaign involving the two will translate to higher sales. Sadly for Bud Light, it didn’t.

“We recently wrapped the Bud Light Party campaign, [which was always intended to end in the fall], to transition to Bud Light’s NFL programming, supported by strong creative execution and significantly increased coverage of our team cans across the U.S..” 

“Despite continued positive signs in brand health evolution, driven by millennials and Hispanics, 3Q was the softest performance of Bud Light for the year from a volume and share perspective. The Bud Light Party campaign helped us improve these brand attributes, but it did not translate to improved volume and share performance. While we are clearly not satisfied with Bud Light’s performance, we are already leveraging what we’ve learned to develop and execute new work.”

The too long didn’t read version: the feedback we got showed us it wasn’t the best advertising campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBGU_VTHEJA

– University of Tennessee running back Jalen Hurd announced Monday not only was he going to be changing positions, but he would also be changing schools.

The Volunteers started 5-0, but have lost three straight to Texas A&M, Alabama, and South Carolina. As a result, a lot of people are now doubting Head Coach Butch Jones and are curious how much longer he’ll be there.

Losing three straight bad, but losing three straight and then having your star running back announce he’s transferring is even worse. Hurd only has three touchdowns and 451 yards on 122 attempts this year, but he is a solid running back.

The junior is coming off an incredible sophomore campaign during which he rushed for 12 touchdowns and 1,288 yards on 277 carries. Hurd hasn’t announced where he will transfer as of yet.

– Josh Norman isn’t afraid to challenge the NFL. After the Washington Redskins tied the Cincinnati Bengals 27-27, Norman blasted field judge Brad Freeman.

“Who’s No. 88? He sucked. I’ll be honest with you, he was terrible,” Norman said, referring to Freeman’s number. “I feel some of the plays going on out there, I mean it was terrible.

“It’s just how I’m feeling and how the team feels right now. It needs to be watched and reprimanded. They reprimand us, so what’s the reprimand for them?”

Those are some harsh words for an official that’ll likely end in a fine for Norman.

A random ‘The Office’ related video:

Special shout out to Matt Clapp for reminding me how this is one of the most underrated and best cold opens in the history of “The Office.”

Speaking of which…

One last glorious moment of procrastination

I procrastinated and watched this the other day, so now you can too!

 

About David Lauterbach

David is a writer for The Comeback. He enjoyed two Men's Basketball Final Four trips for Syracuse before graduating in 2016. If The Office or Game of Thrones is on TV, David will be watching.

View all posts by David Lauterbach