Jeff Darlington's Daughter Drops Baby Jesus, Gruden Busts Out Oakland Gear & Leaked Club Pro Guy Audio
It was nice to see a familiar face along the Chargers sideline last night
All eyes in my house were on Chargers right tackle Storm Norton Thursday night as he got the start in the 30-27 win over the Raiders. Besides being a University of Toledo guy who happens to now live in this lovely little suburban city I call home, Storm was also a participant in my 2020 Put-In-Bay Two-Club Invitational. He has been supportive of many projects I've worked on over the years. There he was this summer, teamed up with Steelers defensive tackle Chris Wormley, at the Invitational, using the most ridiculous pitching wedge seen on a golf course this summer. Just a couple NFL guys hanging out with us scrubs.
Now he's starting for the Chargers. The guy literally went from not knowing if he'd make the Chargers, to the practice squad, to becoming the starting right tackle in the course of 3 1/2 months. Undrafted in 2017, Storm bounced from the Lions to the Vikings to the XFL, and now here he is, making game checks and hugging Justin Herbert after touchdowns. His offensive snap counts over the last three games have been 81%, 96% and 100% against the Raiders.
You're damn right I'm happy for that guy and his family. A player with less than one year of NFL experience will make $510,000 minimum if he plays the full 16-game schedule. I have that at $31,875 per game. Storm has appeared on the stat sheet for four games. That's a cool $127,500, not counting what he made as a member of the practice squad. Throw in game checks for the remaining two games of the season, and the Nortons are on track to have a pretty nice year.
• We're not going to get the Coastal Carolina-Louisiana Sun Belt Conference Championship Game that figured to be incredible. The game has been canceled over COVID. That's a bummer, but the schedule remains loaded. The Pac-12 title game is tonight on Fox. ESPN counters with the MAC title game.
• Boy, it sure sounds like Tom Rinaldi was fed up with ESPN. He didn't even give the Worldwide Leader the chance to match his increased salary at Fox. He had nice things to say going out the door, but not even considering a matching offer says it all.
• Jon Gruden says someone pranked him into wearing an Oakland Raiders hat last night. "I will say I apologize for not having the right hat on. Somebody played a pretty good trick on me,” said Gruden at his virtual press conference.
• If you think the weather was bad in the northeast the last 36 hours, how about 1,000 vehicles stuck on a highway and 86" of snow over three days in Japan? I'll pass.