Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Regular contributors include Jordan Moss, Rob Wagner, Howard Steiss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Peter Hucul, Ted Tait, Bill and Glen Myles, Frank Sullivan, Mark Hughes and Iqbal Grewall.   

Spanning the digital ether to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is Under Further Review.

Jerry Does Dallas – Well, thanks to octogenarian owner Jerry Jones, at least the Dallas Cowboys lead the NFL in something. Messy divorces.

In a blockbuster move, the Cowboys sent Parsons to Green Bay where he immediately signed the richest contract in NFL history for a non-quarterback. Parsons will earn $47 million per season for the next four years. The deal blows by the recent extensions for Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt ($41 million) and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett ($40 million).

It’s not like the Micah Parsons negotiations were a one-off. Jerry has had protracted contract negotiations with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Ezekiel Elliott and Demarcus Lawrence. Regardless of the compensation, the negotiations should never have reached that point. Jerry did the math and took a pass. Had he met Parsons demands, the combined contracts of Prescott, Lamb and Parsons would have accounted for almost 50% of the Cowboys payroll.

Two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clarke go to the Cowboys in return. The picks are sure to be late first round so Dallas will certainly come out on the short end. Jolly Jerry can talk all he wants about now having extra draft capital. You don’t replace players like Parsons, full stop. The fly in the ointment is the Cowboys may have extra picks but Jerry is making them. There’s a reason Dallas hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1996. Look no further than Jones who has steadfastly insisted on being the team’s GM.

For the Packers, it’s a big swing for a team that is all about drafting and developing. The Pack has struggled with their pass rush for several years. Parsons is a legit game-wrecker. He’s only 26 and owns highest pressure rate (20.3 percent) in the NFL since 2021.

The two teams square off in Dallas in Week 4. Should be fun.

Connor McDollars – It’s been crickets all summer on the Connor McDavid contract watch. Looks like he’s in no hurry to make a decision which raises the spectre of a big-time distraction in Edmonton in the final year of his contract.

Length of contract is what’s weighing on McDavid’s mind. Under the current CBA, a max eight-year extension would come in at $19.1 million per season which would be 20 percent of the cap.

The question for McDavid remains – Can the Oilers put together a team good enough to win a Cup? So far in the off-season, you would have to say the Oilers have taken a step back. Gone from last season are Evander Kane, Connor Brown, Corey Perry and Viktor Arvidsson. They’ve been replaced by Andrew Mangiapane, Curtis Lazar and maybe, 21-year-old Isaac Howard. Worse yet, Edmonton seems poised to bring back Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard in goal. Yikes! It should be no surprise the Oilers are angling to sign Carter Hart once he’s cleared to play by the NHL head office.

If you are an Oiler fan, you have to wonder if the team will ever get things right. It’s always been one step forward and two steps back. The signing of goalie Jack Campbell left the team hamstrung. Giving Darnell Nurse a max deal at over $9 million per season was unjustified when every dollar counts. Losing Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, two emerging stars, was gross mismanagement especially when you consider the Oilers have had all kinds of trouble with drafting and developing young talent. McDavid has to be wondering if remaining in Edmonton is really the right choice.

NHL Notebook – Will the Maple Leafs miss Mitch Marner? You betcha! Did you know that only three right wingers in NHL history have more points per game than Marner. Their names? Bossy, Kucherov and Lafleur.

Since taking over Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment just a year ago, Keith Pelley has dismissed Masai Ujiri, president of the Raptors, Brendan Shanahan, president of the Maple Leafs and Bill Manning, president of both the Argos and Toronto FC. It’s saved some serious money. Raptors GM Bobby Webster has essentially taken over as club president. Brad Treliving is operating on his own. The Argos have gone from Grey Cup champions to a tie for last place in the CFL. TFC has five wins in 27 games this season. You might want to go back to television Keith!

It’s hard not to cheer for Alexander Karmanov, the towering defenceman who’s considered to be the biggest player in hockey history. Karmanov is 7 feet tall and 277 pounds. He makes Zdeno Chara look like Danny DeVito. Karmanov has been dubbed the Moldovian Mountain and is hoping to be the first player from Moldova to play in the NHL.

Karmanov is just 17 and has verbally committed to play at Penn State. However, he will join the OHL’s Belleville Bulldogs first. The biggest issue he’s had so far is getting equipment big enough. Karmanov requires size-15 skates. Under Armour is having to custom-make sweaters from a goalie’s cut. Finding a hockey stick long enough is a bigger problem. The standard length is 60 inches. Karmanov’s stick measures around 70 inches with a 122 flex. Chara played with a 67-inch model. Victor Hedman is the only other player to play with a stick with the same stiffness.

The expanded rosters for the Olympic Games should be an advantage for Canada. The rosters will be expanded to 25 players, three more than at the Four Nations Face-Off. You will be able to dress 20 skaters for each game. Look for teams to dress seven defencemen and 13 forwards. It should open up some nice options for Team Canada coach Jon Cooper.

Jim Bob RIP – It’s time we closed the book on Jim Bob Benning. His ill-fated run as Canucks General Manager left the organization in a world of hurt. The real irony of his reign of error was Benning had a scouting background and he was supposed to be a draft guru that was going to help the Canucks unearth draft gems every summer. Well, it didn’t happen.

Benning’s first draft came in 2014. His first ever selection was Jake Virtanen, sixth overall. We know how that turned out. William Nylander and Nik Ehlers were selected two and three picks later. It would be a sign of things to come. The Canucks had a second first-round pick that year. Benning took Jared McCann, 24th overall. With the very next pick, Boston chose David Pastrnak. Man, how that would have changed the Canucks fortunes. McCann was later part of a swing-and-miss trade to acquire Erik Gudbranson, a deal that also cost the Canucks second and fourth-round picks.

In the second round in 2014, Benning chose Thatcher Demko which turned out to be one of his best draft picks. Benning unearthed Gustav Forsling in round five but in typical fashion, traded him away a year later for the forgettable Adam Clendening.

Benning gets high grades for choosing Brock Boeser with the team’s first pick in 2015, 23rd overall. Other than Boeser, the 2015 draft netted two spare parts in Guillaume Brisebois and Adam Gaudette. The 2016 draft was a disaster. Benning took defenceman Olli Juolevi with the fifth overall pick, directly ahead of Matthew Tkachuk, also missing on two solid blueliners in Mikhail Sergachev and Charlie McEvoy. No other 2016 draft pick made the roster save for a brief cameo from William Lockwood.

In 2017, Benning hit on Elias Pettersson with the fifth pick in the draft. He struck out on Kole Lind and Jonah Gadjovich in round two. Goalie Michael DiPietro and defenceman Jack Rathbone never panned out.

Benning hit the jackpot in 2018 with the selection of Quinn Hughes, mainly thanks to Detroit’s mystifying decision to draft Filip Zadina directly ahead of him. Benning took Jett Woo in the second round and Tyler Madden in the third and neither worked out. Pettersson and Hughes became foundational pieces but no other players emerged from the 2017 and 2018 drafts. This is when organizational depth became a big problem.

In 2019, Benning whiffed by taking Vasily Podkolzin in the first round, tenth overall. He missed on Matt Boldy, Cole Caufield and Thomas Harley when all were available. Nils Hoglander was picked in round two. Arturs Silovs was a nice choice in round six.

The 2020 draft was a wasteland thanks to a slew of traded picks. The Canucks didn’t select until the third round and missed on defenceman Joni Jurmo. Benning’s final draft came in 2021. The Canucks top pick was Danila Klimovich, a Benning favourite, taken in the second round. No draft picks from 2020 or 2021 would ever play a single NHL game.

Overall, Benning never lived up to his reputation as a draft expert. The team has still not recovered from the constant exodus of draft capital. The OEL buy-out will continue to impact the Canucks salary cap for another four years. What’s most evident in retrospect is there was never any clear plan. It was mix and match, plaster and patch. The best word to describe Benning’s reign of ‘error’ is desperation. Maybe the best comparison is the Mike Milbury debacle on Long Island. It took the Islanders more than a decade to recover.

Seahawks Notebook – The Seahawks open the season at Lumen Field on Sunday, September 7 against the rival San Francisco 49’ers. At +500, FanDuel Sportsbook has the Seahawks with the worst odds to win the NFC West. Yes, behind every one of their division rivals.

The Athletic published their win projections for this season and you have to wonder how they come up with this stuff. They have the 49’ers with the second-highest win projection in the NFL, just behind the Super Bowl Champion Eagles. The Seahawks have a win projection of 8.6 which falls behind both the Rams and the Cardinals in the NFC West. There’s zero chance the Seahawks will end up in last place. And forget about the 49’ers having the second-most wins this season. Look for the Hawks to topple the Niners in week one.

You can bet any Seahawks success this season will be tied to the line of scrimmage. Seattle figures to have a top ten defense. Look out if they can generate a consistent pass rush. The big question mark is the offensive line. GM John Schneider was encouraged by the performance of the O-line in the exhibition games. We’ll see if it carries over into the season.

The new offensive coaching staff swept out all the linemen drafted last year. Christian Haynes was placed on IR but even when he returns, his status is tenuous at best. Not a single free agent lineman from a year ago remains on the roster. George Fant, Nick Harris, Laken Tomlinson, Tremayne Anchrum Jr. and Connor Williams are all gonzo. Former UDFA Jalen Sundell has taken over as the Seahawks starting center. He’s the seventh different opening day starter at that position in as many seasons. Seven of the Seahawks nine draft picks made the opening roster. The other two were added to the 16-man practice squad. Three undrafted free agents also made the team. Seattle will be fielding one of the youngest teams in the NFL.

The Seahawks are sitting with a good chunk of cap space, somewhere around $25 million. It’s tempting to make a deal to upgrade the roster. During training camp, Seattle was connected to Micah Parsons and the Bengals Trey Hendrickson. No doubt the Seahawks would be much better with either one of them in the lineup but here’s the rub. Until the Seahawks have absolutely solved the quarterback position, they should not be sending out high draft picks even for players of that calibre.

Rookie quarterback Jalen Milroe has a steep learning curve. He’s an impressive athlete but he may never be given the keys to the franchise. For now, the Seahawks have hitched their wagon to Sam Darnold. Is he long-term answer? Who knows? Let’s see how it goes this season. Fortunately, they can move on from Darnold quite easily if things don’t work out.

Bottom line – the Seahawks need to keep their options open in case they are back searching for a quarterback in the 2026 or 2027 drafts. Trading future first round picks is unwise until the quarterback position is solidified.

NFL Notebook – A year ago, Taylor Elgersma was quarterbacking the Wilfred Laurier University Gold Hawks. Yes, it’s a long way from CIAU football to the NFL and unfortunately, Elgersma was unable to earn a roster spot with the Packers as an undrafted free agent.

Elgersma has NFL prototype size. He’s 6-foot-5 and 227 pounds. He impressed the Packers with his arm strength, poise and understanding of the offence but he was unable to unseat Sean Clifford for the third quarterback spot. The CFL could be Elgersma’s next stop. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers hold his CFL rights. They drafted Elgersma in the second round of this year’s draft.

The Miami Dolphins will pay Tyreek Hill $32 million to catch footballs this season. Here’s a stat for you. Hill fathered more children last year (5) than he had touchdowns (4). With the money saved by trading Hill, the Kansas City Chiefs will roster George Karlaftis, Trent McDuffie, Trey Smith and Nick Bolton, four All Pro calibre players, for a total cap hit this season of $30.2 million. This is why the Chiefs have kept it rolling.

Cutdown day in the NFL always provides us with a great list of names. Veritable unknowns who enjoyed a brief brush with pro football. Here’s our list from among this year’s NFL cuts: Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Swayze Bozeman, Jamree Kromah, Amen Ogbongemiga, Luq Barcoo, Messiah Swinson, Xazavian Valladay, Kentavius Street, Mello Dotson, Boogie Basham, Moochie Dixon, Nash Hutmacher, Yodny Cajuste, Jahvaree Ritzie, Beanie Bishop Jr., Maximilian Mang, Geor’Quarius Spivey, Coziah Izzard, Greedy Vance, Trikevese Bridges and Stevo Klotz.

Blue Jays Notebook – There’s increasing concern in Toronto over the Blue Jays bullpen. The bullpen has blown 22 saves this season, tied for second-most in baseball. Collectively, Jays relief pitchers have a 5.40 ERA since the All-Star break which is ranked 29th. The number of walks being issued by the Jays bullpen is very concerning. Walks will crush you in the post-season.

It doesn’t help that Yimi Garcia has been shutdown for the season and is facing surgery to clean up scar tissue in his elbow.  Nick Sandlin also looks doubtful for a return to the mound. Closer Jeff Hoffman has been wildly inconsistent. He’s surrendered 12 home runs. Only one other reliever has given up more and that’s Chad Green who was released by the Jays. Trade deadline acquisition Louis Varland has been getting lit up. Varland has given up at least one run in six consecutive outings. His pitches are flat and lack movement. The Jays need to find some answers and quickly. All you want is some consistency and it just hasn’t been there.

If the Jays end up meeting the Boston Red Sox in the post-season, we don’t like their chances. Three Red Sox starters are in the top five in American League ERA since June 10. Facing Garrett Crochet three times in a seven-game series would be tough sledding. The back-end of the Boston bullpen with Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman is far more reliable than the Blue Jays options in the 8th and 9th inning. Chapman hasn’t allowed a hit in 14 straight relief appearances. He’s mowed down 41 batters in a row and given up only one earned run in 34 games.

Who knows how much it will cost the Blue Jays to sign Bo Bichette this off-season? For comparison, back in 2022, Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts signed for between $280 and $300 million. Bichette is leading the majors in hits with 169. He’s sure to go over 200. You would love to see Bichette be a career Blue Jay. The issue is whether he wants to remain at shortstop where his defensive metrics are among the worst in baseball. If you sign him for six or seven years, it’s unlikely you would want him to remain at short. The question is whether Bichette is okay with a move to second or third, or maybe even left field.

MLB Notebook – What can you say about Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh? He now owns the MLB record for home runs in a season by a catcher. He’s raced by the record of 48 held by the Royals Salvador Perez. Raleigh now has 50 homers on the season which makes him only the second switch hitter to ever hit 50. Mickey Mantle was the other. Nice company. Who saw this coming? It’s a shame but you immediately wonder if Raleigh has been taking some kind of performance enhancer.

Tough to make a choice for the American League Cy Young award this season. Tarik Skubal of the Tigers and Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox are both having outstanding seasons. Crochet is 14-5 with a 2.40 ERA and 214 strikeouts. Skubal is 11-4 with an ERA of 2.28 and 212 K’s.

What can you say about the Pirates Paul Skenes, the likely National League Cy Young award winner? After beating the Red Sox on Friday night, his ERA is sitting at 2.05 through 28 starts with a 0.95 WHIP. His ERA is the lowest in the NL by 40 points and he’s whiffed 187 batters.

Another Canadian has made it to the majors. The New York Mets recalled right-hander Jonah Tong from their Triple-A affiliate. The 22-year-old hails from Markham, Ontario. No minor league pitcher posted as many strikeouts as Tong this season. He set down 179 hitters in 113.2 innings while making a meteoric rise through the Mets system. Tong was drafted in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft.

The New York Yankees have been a mess defensively all season. Shortstop Anthony Volpe has the second-most errors in the majors with 17. Every ground ball to short is an adventure. There are 88 players with 1,500-plus plate appearances since the start of the ’23 season. Volpe ranks 88th in batting average, 88th in on-base percentage and 87th in OPS. Heading into action on Friday night, Volpe was hitting .204 on the season and in the midst of a 1-for-37 drought. The Yanks may have no choice but to go looking for another shortstop in the off-season. Shocking to think that Volpe won a Gold Glove in 2023 in his rookie season.

Here’s a shocking statistic and a good reason why you don’t want your kid to be a pitcher. Kids aged between 15 and 19 account for 57% of all the Tommy John surgeries in the U.S.

Top 10 Major League Ass-Wipes – Major league baseball has had its share of jerks. Believe me, I covered a few. The toxic behaviour can ruin a clubhouse. Since acquiring Rafael Devers from the Red Sox, the San Francisco Giants have the worst record in baseball. Just a coincidence? Not a chance. Talk about addition by subtraction!

When Boston made the trade, team executives felt it necessary to gather the players together to explain the move. They didn’t need to. Both Trevor Story and Alex Bregman interrupted the exec to say, “No need to explain. We understand why. We’re good.” What does that tell you?

There was no bigger A-hole in baseball history than Barry Bonds. He had his own area in the Giants clubhouse complete with a massive reclining chair. He kept it facing the wall with his back to the assembled media. When asked questions following a game, he would act like he didn’t hear the question and simply ignore the baseball writers standing directly behind him. How the Giants ever allowed this to happen is another question altogether.

You would think Giants GM Buster Posey would know better than to acquire Devers since he played with Bonds and should know the importance of a harmonious clubhouse. Once Bonds closed out his career, the Giants immediately went on to win three World Series in a five-year span between 2010 and 2014.

In honour of the ever-charming Barry Bonds, here’s our Top 10 all-time MLB Ass-Wipes, in no particular order.

1. Barry Bonds
2. Roger Clemens
3. Steve Carlton
4. Dave Steib
5. Curt Schilling
6. Pete Rose
7. George Bell
8. A-Rod
9. John Rocker
10. Tommy Lasorda

Coming Up Clutch – It’s been a challenging couple of years for Canada’s golfing sweetheart Brooke Henderson. She hadn’t won on the LPGA Tour since January of 2023 and had only one Top 10 finish this season. The drought came to a dramatic close with her one-shot victory at the Canadian Women’s Open at Mississauga Golf Club. After opening with an even par 71, Henderson posted rounds of 66, 65 and 67. She became the first Canadian to win the national open twice. It was her 14th LPGA Tour title, the most victories ever by a Canadian golfer.

The other big story was the emergence of 15-year-old Aphrodite Deng who caught everyone’s attention with a first round 66. She ended up at minus-4 for the tournament and in a tie for 20th, serving notice she is a future star on the ladies tour. Earlier this summer, Deng captured the U.S. Junior Girls Championship, becoming the first Canadian to accomplish that feat.

If you watched the Golf Channel coverage of the Canadian Women’s Open, you had the unfortunate opportunity to listen to lead analyst Morgan Pressel. OMG. She has a voice that could etch glass.

Our favourite new name on the LPGA Tour – Pornanong Phatlum.

Ryder Cup Musings – The Ryder Cup is set for September 26-28 at Bethpage Black in New York. The full U.S. team was announced this week and captain Keegan Bradley wisely left himself off the American squad.

Bradley’s six captain’s picks were Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantley, Sam Burns, Cameron Young and Ben Griffin. Had Bradley chosen himself, it would have been the biggest story of the Ryder Cup so why open the door to so much pressure and distraction? Bradley could have made a good case for his own selection but it became painfully obvious it was not worth the amount of scrutiny and second-guessing.

The six captain’s picks will be joined by the six U.S. automatic qualifiers which include Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, J.S. Spaun, Russell Henley, Harris English and some guy named Scottie. The U.S. team includes three rookies – Spaun, Young and Griffin. It will be interesting to see how they perform under pressure. Two other Americans, Morikawa and Schauffele, have not performed well on Tour over the past several months.

Luke Donald will captain the European Ryder Cup team.  The six European qualifiers include Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre, Ramus Hojgaard and Tyrell Hatton. Donald will make his six captain’s picks on Monday. Following the British Masters, the next-highest ranked players were Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Matt Wallace.

Golf Notebook – Has their ever been a more popular winner on the PGA Tour than Tommy Fleetwood? Tommy finally broke into the win column after 164 events with his victory at the Tour Championship, shedding the title as the highest-ranked player on Tour never to have won a tournament. Fleetwood had knocked on the door numerous times but always handled the disappointment with class and dignity. He picked a good time to nail down his first win and the Fed Ex Cup title. It came with a first-place cheque of $10 million. Little know fact. Fleetwood is married to Clare Craig who also acts as his manager. She is 23 years his senior.

Here’s a few other takeaways from the end of the PGA Tour season:

• Scotty Scheffler has posted 21 straight rounds in the 60’s which matches Patrick Cantley’s all-time PGA Tour record.
• Watching Cantley in the final round of the Tour Championship was enough to drive you crazy with the constant foot stomping every time he putts. There are some dull players on the Tour aren’t there? Cantley is Mr. Charisma. Boy, do you long for the days of players like Lee Trevino and Greg Norman? They understood they were entertainers and they acted accordingly.
• What a final round for Canada’s Corey Conners! Conners fired an 8-under 62 to vault all the way up to a tie for fifth at the Tour Championship. That helped Conners earn a healthy $2,616,667 which is more than first place money at many tournaments.
• If I hear one more golfer say “I just need to follow my process” when talking about swing issues, I am going to vomit. It’s the most overused phrase in sports right now and it’s nauseating.

Welcome to America – The U.S. crackdown on immigration is having a massive impact on travel plans for the World Cup of Soccer. There’s an increasing fear that fans will be unable to attend games in the U.S. and may have to watch from home. It also appears as though Canada stands to benefit.

When the World Cup was awarded to the U.S., Canada and Mexico in a joint bid, the U.S. was scheduled to host the majority of the games, over 60 of the 104 games including the opening ceremonies and the final in New York. Economists forecasted a $40 billion dollar boost for the host cities of Dallas, Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

However, a new sweeping travel ban on 12 nations has already excluded tens of thousands of fans. For those who are still eligible, the application process is daunting including a $250 visa fee and appointment backlogs that stretch past a year. Corporations have taken note. Emirate Airlines has quietly shifted $15 million dollars in sponsorships to Canada. VISA, a core FIFA partner, has trimmed its American ad budget and boosted investment to activations in Toronto and Vancouver.

FIFA has reportedly made contingency plans to shift games to Canada and Mexico if necessary. The average wait time for a U.S. visa interview is now over 300 days in many countries. It now means the tournament will be over before fans can be cleared to visit the U.S. The likelihood of half empty stadiums in U.S. host cities is very real. Some host cities have already begun to scale back plans for big public gatherings and festivals. Executives at FOX Sports are already pressing FIFA for guarantees on crowd size before they lock in advertising packages.

This could end up being an historic nightmare – a World Cup that looks and feels hollow.

Random Leftovers – Only in the CFL would a team honour Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Miles Gorrell on the same night. That’s exactly what the Ticats did earlier this summer. Do you think it might just be a good idea to give the NBA MVP his night in the spotlight and pay tribute to the big offensive lineman sometime later? Bush. Oh, that might cost more money.

There’s cheap and then there’s the Cincinnati Bengals. In coordinating a Ring of Honor Ceremony, the Bengals asked their franchise legends to pay for their own flights and hotels while giving them only one day to RSVP. Nice. Real classy organization.

Gotta love Luke Willson, the former Seahawk tight end, for speaking out against the CFL despite the fact he works for TSN and they own CFL broadcast rights.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nfl/tsn-s-luke-willson-rips-cfl-rats-for-attempting-to-silence-him-then-removes-post/ar-AA1KEqXj?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ASTS&cvid=0a00a5451a464d419969bb7456f6ad89&ei=6

Just an observation but can TSN reporter Mark Masters be any more of a nerd? He’s the second coming of Baby Huey.

Memo to Canada’s latest tennis darling Victoria Mboko, surprise winner of the National Bank Open in Montreal. Please don’t be a one-hit wonder. Mboko was bounced in the first round of the U.S. Open but it may have had more to do with a sore wrist than anything.

There’s another Sedin bursting onto the sports landscape. Valter Sedin, son of Canucks legend Henrik Sedin, has been selected to the Canadian men’s U-18 soccer roster for two friendly’s taking place in early September. Sedin currently plays as a midfielder for Swedish club Hammarby U19 in Stockholm. He came up through the ranks of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Academy.

Remember the name Cooper Lukenhaus. The 16-year-old high schooler from Oregon ran an incredible 1:42:27 in the final of the men’s 800 meters at the USATF Outdoor Championships to finish second in the country. The performance qualified him for the World Athletics Championships, set for September in Tokyo. He crushed his own high school national record, broke the U18 world record, and immediately became the next-big-thing in distance running.

YouTube Videos of the Week – We have a couple of outstanding music videos for you this week starting with Bryan Ferry reworking the Bob Dylan songbook from his album release Dylanesque. Here he is performing All Along the Watchtower during a performance on the BBC in 2007.

https://youtu.be/Vqg4V4BmJj0?si=2AnzxUJlbs5IAbOG

Here’s the late, great Amy Winehouse performing I Heard It Through the Grapevine alongside Paul Weller live on Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny in 2006.

https://youtu.be/9PpWBS3mf7w?si=Q69z5uAGux2mzX3e

Ten Tracks for End of Summer – Here’s 10 great tunes to keep you cool over the Labour Day weekend.

1. Hope I Don’t Bleed – The Far West – from the release ‘Everything We Thought We Wanted’
2. Some Kind of Woman – Rodney Crowell – from the new release ‘Airline Highway.’
3. Summertime Thing – Chuck Prophet – from the album ‘No Other Love.’
4. It’s Too Late – The Meltdown – title track from their upcoming release.
5. I Am the Cool – The Boneshakers – from the release ‘Live to Be This.’
6. So Cool – Pete Alderton – from the album ‘Something Smooth.’
7. Cool Cool Thing – Pete Karp – from the release ‘Magnificent Heart’
8. Ancient Light – I’m With Her – from the album ‘Wild and Clear and Blue.’
9. Cool Cool Rain – Ray Bonneville – from the album ‘Goin’ by Feel.’
10. Eden – Halle Elliott – from the new release ‘Carry Me Home.’

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