In Wednesday’s “First Call”: J.J. Watt to host SNL. Chris Archer fires at the Houston Astros. A major basketball brawl. A new home for Todd Graham.
Live! From New York …
How big of a personality is Houston Texans star J.J. Watt?
Big enough to host “Saturday Night Live” on NBC on Feb. 1.
Other NFL stars who have gotten that gig include Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.
Eli was the last NFL player to have the honor back in 2017.
Now, Watt gets a little sensitive about how headlines are phrased. So I’ll be careful here. How about this?
“T.J. Watt’s brother to host ‘Saturday Night Live’!”
No?
Well, T.J. should at least get a cameo on the show, right?
Can he go any further west?
Former Pitt coach Todd Graham has a new home.
Again.
After jumping ship from Pitt after just one year to become the head coach at Arizona State, Graham is now heading to the University of Hawaii.
Google tells me that Graham’s trademarked “Speed, speed, speed!” in Hawaiian translates into “Wikiwiki, wikiwiki, wikiwiki!”
I have decided to accept this as fact.
Just be careful if you say “aloha” to Graham. Because that means both “hello” and “good-bye” at the same time.
Which is a tremendous way to describe his coaching career in Pittsburgh.
Graham was fired in Tempe after 2017. He was 18-20 with no bowl wins in his last three years as head coach of the Sun Devils.
“Pōmaikaʻi,” Honolulu.
I’m told that means “good luck.”
If it doesn’t, who cares. He won’t be there long enough to figure it out.
Bucco blame
Pirates pitcher Chris Archer has jumped on the blame train when it comes to the Houston Astros.
They have been accused of cheating, via sign stealing from cameras and video monitors, and then banging on trash cans to relay the info.
Some have even started to advance the notion that they used buzzing wires to get cues as to what pitches were coming.
Archer joined New York Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman in a Twitter assault on the players in Houston.
Stroman subtweeted this video of the Astros allegedly using the trash-can banging technique during one of his starts when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays.
ICYMI – This is the infamous garbage can banging noise from a Blue Jays and Astros game back in 2017. It's very clear if you listen with headphones, too. pic.twitter.com/FLevUbzKnj
— Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) November 14, 2019
Then he ripped the Astros for being quiet on social media about it when they were brash during their World Series campaign in 2017.
Archer joined in questioning that club’s sudden lack of “swag” after having so much personality before the news came out.
Bball brawl
There was a major brawl between Kansas and Kansas State Tuesday night.
The Jayhawks were dribbling out the clock en route to an 81-60 win. Jayhawks player Silvio De Sousa was stripped by DaJuan Gordon near mid-court.
Gordon tried to go for a layup. De Sousa ran back to block his shot and stood over him and taunted him.
That emptied both benches into a fight under the basket and into the stands.
Benches emptied at the end of the Kansas State-Kansas game. pic.twitter.com/zWv46h3RJC
— ESPN (@espn) January 22, 2020
De Sousa picked up a stool and held it over his head before Kansas assistant Jerrance Howard grabbed it from him from behind.
It wasn’t a Myles Garrett helmet swing. But it could’ve become that.
Cleveland fans are probably blaming Mason Rudolph today.
