There’s nothing wrong with a little hard work. Or even a lot of hard work.
But if said hard work leads to consistent vomiting? Well, we might have a bit of a problem on our hands.
Scott Frost — D
This is where we find ourselves with Nebraska head football coach Scott Frost.
The one-time coaching wunderkind, and current coaching disappointment, bragged on the Huskers Radio Network earlier this week that new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola is working his linemen so hard they’re throwing up more than a dozen times a practice.
“I laugh with the guys because there’s about probably 15-20 vomits every day from offensive linemen,” he told Greg Sharpie. “And it’s not because they are not in shape. He’s just working them hard. I think they love it.”
Are you sure, coach?
Call us crazy, but that sounds like 14-19 upchucks too many.
The Grading the Week staff could understand a barf here or there. Coaches want to push the limits, and sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly what those might be. But once you can no longer count the number of daily barfs on one hand, it’s probably time to pull back.
It’s just about an annual occurrence that at least one football player dies of heat stroke while conditioning during the harsh summer months of training camp.
In the past five years alone (2017-21), 11 football players have suffered “exertional heat stroke deaths,” according to data compiled by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, with nine of those fatalities coming among offensive linemen. In the five-year period that preceded that, six of seven heat stroke deaths related to football claimed the lives of offensive linemen.
Those facts alone should be enough to give Frost and Coach Raiola pause.
It’s one thing to work to the point of exhaustion. It’s quite another to put a player’s life at risk in an effort to channel some misguided ideal of old-school toughness that’s long since been put out to pasture.
Rockies’ STL road trips — F-
If the Rockies want to do their part in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Grading the Week staff has a suggestion: Cancel all road trips to Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
The evidence indicates any visit is a waste of time for all involved — except maybe Cardinals players looking to pad their stat lines.
The last time the Rockies won a series in the shadows of the Gateway Arch was June 2009 — back when the Obama Administration was four months into its first term, and Charlie Blackmon was a clean-shaven prospect one year removed from his days at Georgia Tech.
Since then, the Rockies have gone an incomprehensibly bad 6-35 in St. Louis, with half of their 12 series ending in a sweep. That includes this week’s three-gamer, capped by a 13-0 drubbing that would’ve been even worse had the Cardinals not missed an extra point.
At this point, we can’t help but wonder: Is it really worth the energy?
Nazem Kadri — A
While it may be unclear whether or not the Avs can win a Stanley Cup without center Nazem Kadri leading the second line this upcoming season, it’s almost certain they wouldn’t have won the last one without him.
Kadri’s gritty attacking style personified the indefatigable demeanor of the Avalanche’s postseason run last spring. And his grace in the face of unspeakable racism inspired an entire region.
The hat trick in St. Louis during the Western Conference semifinals will never be forgotten. Nor will his “too many men” overtime game-winner in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final in Tampa.
That he left the Avs this week for a $49 million payday with the Calgary Flames may be bittersweet, but it’s also well-deserved.
