📈 Paul Skenes, NFL TV Deals, & Scottie Scheffler

⚾ Pirate Paul

First overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, Paul Skenes, has already made his mark on the MLB. The right hander out of LSU accelerated through minor ball and got the call up to the Bigs in early May. Two starts in and Skenes seemed to settle into his grove the second time he took the mound.

Facing the Chicago Cubs in both Major League starts so far, Skenes had the Cubs lineup figured out the second time around at Wrigley. Striking out 11 guys total, including the first 7 batters he faced, Skenes threw 6 no hit innings before being pulled after 100 pitches. Skenes got his first Major League win in the 9-3 Pirates victory over the Cubs.

Per thescore.com, Skenes became just the fourth Pirates pitcher to strike out double-digit hitters in a game before his 22nd birthday, and the first since John Candelaria in 1975.

📺 NFL TV Deals

The rights to broadcast NFL games on your network or streaming platform has gotten almost as competitive as the games themselves. New TV deals kicked in in 2023 when the NFL and broadcast partners agreed to an 11 year deal. CBS and Fox are the lone networks to air exclusively on their channel, while ESPN & ABC are joined at the hip, and NBC owns Peacock.

Amazon’s deal is significantly lower as they only have the rights to Thursday Night Football and one Prime Pre-season game, per sportspromedia.com. All other broadcast stations carry Sunday and Monday Night Football (ESPN/ABC only).

Adding to the pot of gold, Netflix threw their hat in the ring this past week as the NFL and the streaming giant agreed to a $150M deal to air 2…yes 2….NFL games exclusive to Netflix on Christmas Day. While the NFL benefits greatly from the purchase on Christmas day, the NBA really suffers as fans who chose to watch football cant flip channels back and forth as easily.

🚓 Scottie Scheffler goes to Jail

Scottie Scheffler had a weekend he will probably like to block out of his memory and it wasn’t related to his play on the golf course. Early Friday morning, Scheffler was on his way to the course when he and the rest of the field and patrons, were stopped in traffic due to a fatal wreck near Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, KY. Scheffler misunderstood instructions by a local police officer and bypassed an area that was supposed to be shut down. Scheffler ended up in handcuffs and booked into jail 3 hours before he was scheduled to tee off.

In a quick turn of events and everyone realizing it was all a misunderstanding, Scheffler was released and played his entire Friday round shooting a 66 (LOL, so impressive). In a whirlwind of a weekend, Scheffler finished T-8 shooting -13 under par.

Scheffler has been a class act about the entire situation, to no surprise,& latest reports suggest that all charges against Scheffler will be dropped.