The Cheat SheetBy David Lauterbach on

Thursday was a busy day in the world of sports and in pop culture: Twitter killed Vine (RIP), the NBA may be returning to Seattle sooner rather than later, Roger Goodell pulled a Roger Goodell, and ESPN broadcasted an incredible High School football game.

On Thursday we began to say goodbye to Vine

Vine

In news that came out of left field, Twitter announced the death of Vine on Thursday. Well I guess it was actually Vine who announced the news, but still the point remains the same: RIP Vine (2013-2016).

Vine isn’t dead yet officially, but will be within a couple months. While the incredibly hilarious six-second videos are still on the world wide web, let’s laugh at them together.

https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/791681875324600320

https://twitter.com/WorldofIsaac/status/791676723691528192

https://twitter.com/xmasape/status/791680736738750465

RIP Vine, we’ll miss you and your six seconds of glory on our Twitter feeds.

Could the NBA be returning to Seattle?

Seattle Arena

Ever since the Seattle SuperSonics left Seattle to become the Oklahoma City Thunder, basketball fans in the pacific northwest have been praying for a new NBA team. It’s been a roller coaster ride for those fans, but it looks like the station (and a new team) could finally be on the horizon.

Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen has proposed to the city of Seattle a new arena that would be 100% privately financed, compared to past arenas that were partially financed by the taxpayers.

“In the five years since we began working with the City and the County on the Arena funding package the economic landscape has changed,” the group wrote in a letter to the Seattle mayor’s office.

“The recession is behind us and we are deep into this new economic cycle. Interest rates have declined and the NBA has completed its new national television contract, creating more financial certainty in the industry.”

If the NBA does in fact return to Seattle, it’ll be interesting to see if a team is relocated or if the league decides to expand. Regardless of how the team returns, fans in Seattle are excited at the prospect at a SuperSonic return.

https://twitter.com/ian_stone17/status/791475572094345216

Roger Goodell is bad.

Roger Goodell
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 05: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a press conference prior to Super Bowl 50 at the Moscone Center West on February 5, 2016 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

Roger Goodell is a bad commissioner simply because he doesn’t enforce his own rules. He’s not necessarily a bad person (as far as we know), it’s just that he’s really a bad commissioner. It’s that plain and simple.

Earlier this week, Commissioner Goodell tried to save face and say the NFL handled the Josh Brown situation well. You know the kicker for the Giants who was arrested for assault back in May, but was only given a one-game suspension despite Goodell and the league’s rule that even an arrest meant a six-game suspension? Yeah that situation!

“What you see here is a policy that’s evolved,” Goodell, said to Daily News’ Gary Myers during WFAN Radio’s “Chalk Talk” show. “We’ve learned a lot, but these are complex matters. When you talk to the domestic violence experts, these are difficult matters to deal with. You have rights, you have families that you have to be concerned with, privacy issues. Yes, you want to make sure you’re doing everything possible to address these (alleged incidents) when they happen, but you also want to deal with them to prevent them from happening… I think we’ve made tremendous progress. Can we make more and will we make more? Of course.”

By saying the policy has evolved, does that mean the policy has evolved to the point that it doesn’t really exist? Because that’s what it sounds like.

The fact of the matter is that in 2014, Goodell implemented an automatic six-game suspension for a first time offensive of domestic violence. Under that rule, when Brown was arrested in May, despite charges never being filed, he should’ve been suspended for six games, but he wasn’t.

The NFL investigated Brown’s case, but came up empty handed and decided the one-game suspension was warranted. To make matters worse for Goodell, many news websites including Deadspin wrote lengthy articles outlining how the NFL had access to information showing that Brown did more than he admitted to. In short, the NFL had access to info that would 100% guarantee a six-game suspension, but just somehow couldn’t find it!

Turning away from Goodell, there are still some good people in the sport of football.

An all-deaf High School Football Team made its ESPN debut

sign-language-national-anthem

For the first time ever, ESPN decided to broadcast a high school football game involving an all-deaf football team.

California School for the Deaf-Fremont faced off against Woodland Christian in California on Thursday, and ESPN opened up the broadcast with a 100% silent all-sign language national anthem.

ESPN stated earlier this week how it planned to make this broadcast unlike anything it’s done before. It’s safe to say they succeeded with flying colors.

“Our mission is simply to pay attention and capture how this team plays the game,” said John Vassallo, ESPN senior coordinating producer. “We want to take the viewer into the classroom, the meeting rooms, locker room and on campus to experience what the student-athletes experience at their school.”

This matchup will incorporate several unique production elements into the telecast, including a Silent Drive, where one or two drives will be aired in complete silence; announcement of starting lineups (which will be signed); in-game interviews with the mothers of several CSD players; and coverage of the national anthem, which will be signed by the CSD cheerleaders.

Photos and videos from a watch party at Gallaudet University, where several CSD graduates now attend, will also be shared during the game. Gallaudet, which is located in Washington, D.C., is a private university for deaf students.

The idea for the broadcast came from an E:60 story on the deaf school last year that was titled “Silent Night Lights.”

Quick Hits

d-wade-face

– Dwyane Wade is a bad bad man on the hardwood. How bad? Well he hit one heck of a three before making one heck of a throat slashing gesture.

If there’s anyone that can learn from Wade on how to make threes and celebrate afterwards, it’s Michael Gary Scott.

– Joe Buck isn’t biased, he’s just really grateful and happy with his life. No seriously.

With the World Series returning to Wrigley Field on Friday for the first time since 1945, Buck is the first broadcaster to call a Cubs’ World Series game on TV ever. That’s right, nobody has ever called a Cubs’ World Series game on TV EVER.

No matter what you think of Buck, that’s pretty freaking cool.

– A 76ers fan flipped off Russell Westbrook and was forced to apologize. Need we say more?

The 76ers fan apologized ON HIS FACEBOOK. That’s a way to apologize. But hey, at least he’s more honorable than this fan who never apologized (at least that we know of).

https://twitter.com/Dpolice4/status/769200203647840257

– West Ham went where no English Premier League team has gone before this year… they banned 200 fans from their stadium. That’s right, Wes Ham banned about 200 people from their stadium after violence broke out during a match against Chelsea.

– A Cubs fan cried on Jimmy Kimmel. Seriously.

– Aldon Smith is trying to make a comeback! Aldon Smith is trying to make a comeback! Aldon Smith is trying to make a comeback!

Did it work? Someone once told me if you say “Aldon Smith is trying to make a comeback!” you’d wake up from a “Aldon Smith is trying to make a comeback!” related dream. Did it work? Ugh.

No seriously the linebacker who is seemingly arrested every single year is trying to return to the NFL.

“Aldon is doing well,” Raiders’ General Manager Reggie McKenzie said Wednesday. “That situation is going to be totally up to the league because he’s been in the program and they’ve monitored him. It’s up to Goodell to say yah, nay or when. And he could say no to everything … that part is out of our hands.

The best part about McKenzie’s quote? He can’t have direct contact with McKenzie according to the NFL’s rules so all of that information came from Aldon’s agent.

– Bill Simmons took the Browns to the Super Bowl. It’s not the good kind of Super Bowl either.

Simmons listed some great facts in that segment too. Here are three of the best:

1. Odds: The odds of not winning a playoff game like the Browns haven’t since 1999? 1/56. The odds of starting 26 different quarterbacks since 1999? 1/769.

2. Horrible draft picks: The Browns picked quarterbacks in the same round or draft just picks ahead of Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady. That’s bad.

3. Four greatest moments: Maybe the harshest of facts that Simmons brought up are the “four greatest moments” in franchise history, all of which are arbitrary. They include: losing to the Steelers in a playoff game, Peyton Hillis on the cover of Madden 2012, Kevin Costner playing a Browns’ exec in “Draft Day”, and when LeBron James fictionally announced he was signing with the Cleveland Browns.

– A student at Ohio State who has the coolest professor ever and everyone else should be jealous.

The student in question went to one of his classes, turned in his homework, marked down that he was in attendance, and then ditched to go to game one of the World Series. Unfortunately for him, the professor took attendance later in the class again.

Luckily for him, the professor was okay with his excuse.

https://twitter.com/C_tWINO/status/791362574671642624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Roll Tribe indeed.

– To wrap this thing up, here’s an article that everyone should read. The basic explanation of this article is it’s about a writer who was incredible, but unfortunately drank herself to death. Seriously, go read it.

A random ‘The Office’ related video:

Matt Clapp decided when he writes a Cheat Sheet, he’s going to include a scene from a show he likes. As a result, I decided I’m going to include a random The Office related video whenever I write the Cheat Sheet. Sometimes it’ll be a scene from the show, sometimes it’ll be a scene from a movie or TV show involving an actor from The Office, and sometimes it’ll be a random video involving an actor from the show. This time, I decided to go with that last option.

One last glorious moment of procrastination

Stranger Things seasons 2 needs to come out ASAP. However, for now, this will have to do.

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