Latest news with #AlDavis
USA Today
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
9 of the most devious fantasy football punishment ideas for your 2025 league
In fantasy football, your job is to do one thing, as the late Al Davis said: Just win, baby. Because of pride and -- most times -- there's a monetary prize that usually comes with it. There's other stuff to perfect that makes it fun, like picking that perfect team name. But there's also another thing to remember in so many leagues: DO. NOT. FINISH. LAST. There's a lot of shame that comes with it. But in many leagues, there are punishments for last place, many of them very humiliating that are shared on social media. So it's a good time to round up some ideas you might need to use in your fantasy football league for that last-place penalty. Let's run through a few examples: 1. Wear an opposing team's jersey to a game or event This this is brutal. At least the sign lets you know what the deal is. 2. Audition for something professional that you are terrible in The more embarrassing, the better. 3. Sing a song in a random place with lots of people Not the worst, to be honest. 4. Sit in one place and drink/eat for 24 hours This has become classic and almost a little stale. Still makes for good content. 5. Cross a body of water in a raft built from scratch 6. Go on a "date" with a stuffed animal Remember the Winnie the Pooh punishment? 7. Wear the Sign of Shame An absolute classic. 8. Take the SATs I always hated this one the most, because I hate standardized testing. 9. Buy a billboard to declare you stink at fantasy football From WIVB: One Western New York fantasy football league took last place punishments to a whole new level by bringing a public billboard sign to North Buffalo calling out this year's worst player. When driving on Elmwood Avenue heading towards Kenmore, a sign can now be seen boldly declaring that 'Josh sucks at fantasy.'
New York Times
14-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
The Giants drafted Gavin Kilen, a crowd-pleaser and analyst favorite
With the 13th pick in the 2025 MLB draft, the Giants selected Gavin Kilen, a 22-year-old shortstop out of Tennessee. If you're in a hurry, the quickest way to describe him is he's a left-handed college bat who should move quickly — maybe even very quickly — although he's likely to move to second base. Advertisement But if you're in the market for a long-winded but semi-accurate way to describe the pick, I have you covered, too. All you have to do is remember a few things and use your imagination. First, remember that teams almost never draft for need. They choose the player at the top of their board, regardless of any holes in the organization or major-league roster. Second, remember that teams don't expect instant gratification. They pick the best player available, whether they're two or six years away. Now pretend that there's a team that hated all those stupid draft norms. Maybe they have an impetuous owner, one of the noisy ones. They want to draft a player who fits what the team needs now. And they don't want to wait. They want the fast-moving players, the ones who will help everyone keep their jobs. That's also the kind of team that would have made this pick. To be clear, the Giants are still the normal organization from the first example. But if they were to draft like they had their version of Al Davis or George Steinbrenner in the room, this is also the selection they would have made. And that's the best way to describe Kilen: He just happens to be exactly the kind of player the Giants need right now. He might move quickly. Heck, he might get to the upper minors by this time next season, and once a player is in the upper minors … That would make him the pick of a Yosemite Sam-type owner, and he just so happened to be the pick of an organization that was acting responsibly. That's always a fun coincidence. Kilen's best tool is his bat, by all accounts. Here's what Keith Law wrote about him after the pick: He's on the smaller side, and he's not going to stick at shortstop, but he combines excellent contact skills, very strong exit velocities, and a swing that tends to put the ball in the air on a line. Advertisement Lots of contact. Line drives. Gap to gap. If it's a profile that seems rough for a left-handed hitter at Oracle Park, that's a fair concern, but don't overthink the ballpark. Left-handed hitters definitely help the Giants win. They just break more helmets after 420-foot outs. That's their problem. You still get the left-handed hitters who can contribute and hope they have good senses of humor. Another note of interest is with Kilen's developmental path, which took him from Louisville to Tennessee this last season. At his new school, his exit velocities took off, and his plate discipline stats improved, too. Not only was he hitting the ball harder, but he was swinging at less garbage while doing more damage at pitches in the middle of the zone. If that sounds familiar, that's because that's been the organizational philosophy for the last several years. Whatever Tennessee helped Kilen with is exactly what the Giants want their hitters to do. It's what they've been preaching since the last front office was running things. Also, if you were wondering if Buster Posey was going to prefer ballplayer's ballplayers, the square-jawed, toolsy grinders, here's your answer: Sometimes he'll pick the player that the quants and analysts love, too. Heck, sometimes he'll even make the same pick that the last guy might have. A lot of the same people are still around, after all. The pick was less of a statement and more of a confirmation: Yep, still picking the best player on the draft board, regardless of who's in charge, thanks for asking. Will it work? No idea, of course. Kilen seems like a fast mover with a high floor and a high ceiling, but a lot of prospects have had that profile. The only thing we know for sure is that among prospects with that profile, he'll have a career somewhere between Eddy Martinez-Esteve and Will Clark, unless it's a little better or a little worse. Advertisement Still, it's a fascinating pick, one that just happens to align with all sorts of interests. It aligns with the interests of the impatient. It aligns with the interests of the common fan who knows more about the NFL Draft and expects to see this guy soon. It aligns with the interests of the fans who don't really give a rip about the draft or minor leaguers, but are still hoping for good players to arrive on the Giants roster quickly and out of nowhere. And, yes, it aligns with the interests of dorks like me who care about exit velocities and chase rates, both of which, in Kilen's case, hint at a player with a great chance of success in the majors. The Giants had one more pick on the first day of the draft (they forfeit their second-round pick to sign Willy Adames), a third-round pick that they used on Trevor Cohen, a outfielder out of Rutgers. He was also a metrics darling at the MLB Draft Combine, with the fifth-highest average exit velocity (101.1 mph) on the second day of the event, and Giants director of scouting Michael Holmes touted his low strikeout rate (8 percent) on a conference call after the draft. He said the combination of high exit velocities and contact rates didn't lead to much power because of a swing that resulted in a lot of grounders, but that it was something the organization feels confident they can work with. The Giants are also hoping Cohen can stick in center field as a professional. A fun fact is that he was playing right field at Rutgers because center was filled by Peyton Bonds, Barry's nephew and Bobby's grandson. Bonds will be eligible for the draft next year, and while you're not sure if he's among the top 1,000 prospects, you're pretty sure the Giants should draft him. You're not wrong. If you were looking for batted-ball metrics, the Giants had a draft for you. If you were hoping for a hitter who could help the Giants score more than a couple lousy runs against the Dodgers, the Giants had a draft for you. If you were looking for both, well, you just might be the audience for this article. The Giants definitely had a draft for you. We'll know in a year or nine if it all worked out.
USA Today
04-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Sporting News projects Auburn football to meet FSU in bowl season
Sporting News forecasts Auburn to meet an old nonconference rival in bowl season. Auburn football fans have the same mindset as former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis when it comes to its outlook on the season, "just win, baby." Auburn football has failed to win more than six games since the 2019 season, and its coaching staff has worked to bring in the best talent to rebuild the program into an SEC Championship contender, as well as a player in College Football Playoff chatter. However, fans are antsy and are ready to see rebuilding efforts show on the field. One publication believes the Tigers are taking a step in the right direction as a recent projection sends the Tigers to a quality Florida bowl game. Sporting News recently dropped its preseason bowl projections, pairing Auburn with an old non-conference rival in Florida State. The forecast, published by Bill Bender, predicts the Tigers and Seminoles will meet in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Dec. 27 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. This projection is interesting as it puts two teams on similar paths together in a postseason game. The Seminoles showed promise of being a College Football Playoff contender in 2023 by entering bowl season with a 13-0 record. However, their playoff dreams were dashed when quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury in Florida State's win over North Alabama. Travis was deemed a Heisman Trophy candidate, and the playoff committee felt that the Seminoles were not as powerful of a team without him, which resulted in Alabama earning the fourth College Football Playoff slot. The Seminoles lost to Georgia in the Orange Bowl, 63-3, a game that the Seminoles are still recovering from. Last season, Florida State finished 2-10, and are looking to return to national prominence. The two programs, which are separated by less than 200 miles, have played 19 times in history. Auburn owns a 13-5-1 record over the Seminoles, but Florida State won the recent game, 34-31, in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game. Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__
NBC Sports
21-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Chip Kelly: Not many humans have size and speed like Raiders rookie WR Dont'e Thornton
At the NFL Scouting Combine, former Tennessee wide receiver Dont'e Thornton Jr. opened a lot of eyes by measuring 6-foot-5 and running his 40-yard dash in 4.30 seconds. He was the tallest player ever to run that fast at the Combine. That led the Raiders to draft Thornton in the fourth round despite minimal production in college: He caught just 65 passes in four seasons of college football, two at Tennessee and two at Oregon. Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly says that a unique talent like Thornton can develop into a productive receiver, even if he hasn't done it yet. 'I think Dont'e is unique in terms of he's just a hair under 6-5 and he ran 4.3. There's not a lot of humans on this planet that do that,' Kelly said, via 'And I think if you had a draw up an outside receiver, you would pick that type of body type, someone that's got length, someone that's got a huge catch radius, but also has speed. Sometimes you can get a big guy like that, but he can't really run, so they can stay with him. So, you add that speed element to him, his ability to sink his hips, his ability to get in and out of cuts.' The Raiders have a long history of valuing physical attributes like size and speed, and General Manager John Spytek said Raiders owner Mark Davis knows his father, Al Davis, would have loved Thornton. 'Mark joked that was the Al Davis pick of this draft,' Spytek said. 'The height, weight, speed, raw traits, athleticism, speed, and I think it's just focusing on what he can do and what he can be. . . . You watch his target tape, I think it's pretty impressive. And we think he hasn't hit his ceiling yet.' The Raiders think they added a uniquely talented receiver when they brought Thornton to Las Vegas.
New York Times
18-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
WR Dont'e Thornton Jr., Raiders' ‘Al Davis pick' of 2025 draft, turned heads this spring
When it comes to personnel matters, Mark Davis is a hands-off owner. While sitting in the Las Vegas Raiders' draft war room in April, however, he couldn't help but comment when his team sent in its first pick of the fourth round. 'Mark joked that was the Al Davis pick of this draft,' director of college scouting Brandon Yeargan said recently. Advertisement The late Al Davis was the Raiders' de facto general manager from 1963 to 2010, and he became known for putting a premium on speed, especially at receiver. Sometimes that panned out in a big way — e.g., Cliff Branch. Other times, it went terribly — e.g., Darrius Heyward-Bey. The pick that jogged his father's memory was Dont'e Thornton Jr., a receiver out of Tennessee with eye-popping measurements, including a 6-foot-5, 205-pound build, exceptional athleticism and, of course, elite speed. He ran a 4.3-second 40-yard dash at the combine, which made him one of just three players in the history of the event to measure over 6-4 and run the 40 in 4.35 seconds or faster. The other two players are All-Pro DK Metcalf and Pro Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson. To thrive in the NFL, however, Thornton will have to be much more than just a speedster. He had just 65 catches in his four-year college career, so it's fair to say his draft status was more about his physical traits than production. With that being said, the Raiders believe he is capable of much more at the next level. 'We think he hasn't hit his ceiling yet,' Yeargan said. 'I wouldn't limit his potential at all. We believe in what he can be, and he's got some unique qualities in terms of his size and speed. That will help him have an immediate impact, and I think he can grow from there.' That has already started to come to fruition for Thornton. By mandatory minicamp, the 22-year-old was already consistently running with the first-team offense. As receivers coach Chris Beatty put it recently, Thornton 'had a couple big plays every day.' Thornton's frame, length and leaping ability allowed him to box out and rise above smaller defenders down the field. His ability to accelerate allowed him to get open and create yards after the catch. And his route running was crisp enough to create separation regularly. He's still early in the process of learning the Raiders' scheme, refining his skill set and working out his daily routine, but he has the look of a player who could be a day-one contributor. 'I feel like I made a lot of progress,' Thornton said. 'I've been starting to get in the flow.' Thornton grew up in Cherry Hill, Md., a rough suburb of Baltimore plagued by crime, violence and murder. That came with inherent challenges for him and his family, but things got worse when his father was incarcerated when he was 9 years old. His primary focus shifted from being a kid to helping his mother, Taria Felder, care for him and his two younger siblings. Advertisement 'That forced me to mature a lot faster,' Thornton said. 'Throughout that whole process, it helped me become a man earlier than I needed to.' When Thornton turned 10, his uncle, Faschall Grade, offered to let him move in with him in a nicer part of town to lessen the load on his mother. Felder agreed, but Thornton was hesitant. He called it 'one of the hardest decisions I ever made in my life.' Thornton didn't want to feel like he was abandoning his family. But his uncle, who was married and had four kids of his own, explained why it was the right move to make. 'It was about teaching him how to become a man and just giving him traits to help him grow,' Grade said recently. 'I wanted to put him into a much safer environment. Where he was born in Cherry Hill has a lot of crime, killings and things of that nature. I just wanted to separate him from that, to broaden his horizons and to show him: 'This is what you can get to.' … It was just giving him more of a family atmosphere, security and stability.' After making the move, Thornton immersed himself in sports and went on to enroll at Mount St. Joseph High, a Catholic all-boys school. It was there that he blossomed into a four-star football recruit, receiving offers from many of the top programs in the country. Thornton's dream school was Oregon, and he enrolled there in 2021 under then-head coach Mario Cristobal. It seemed everything was going right for Thornton both on and off the field. In addition to landing a full football scholarship, that was also the year his father was released from prison and began trying to make up for missed time. 'He faced a lot of obstacles,' Grade said of Thornton. 'He never gave up. Some kids get deterred. He always had that fight in him. You can't teach that 'it' factor. He wanted to become better and just step up to the challenge.' Advertisement From a football perspective, though, things never really got on track for Thornton. He earned a role as a backup as a true freshman, but then Cristobal bolted for the University of Miami job. Thornton was convinced to stay by incoming offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, but then he left the following November to become the head coach at Arizona State. In the wake of that change, Thornton decided to transfer to Tennessee. He'd seen the success they had in 2022 with quarterback Hendon Hooker lighting up SEC defenses with an offense that featured receivers Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman and thought it was a strong fit. But Thornton didn't achieve that level of success. He caught just nine passes in 2023 and missed the last four games due to injury. And while he stayed healthy and took on a larger role in 2024, he still had just 26 catches for 661 yards and six touchdowns. 'I left a lot out there,' Thornton said. Tennessee used Thornton in a limited role focused on attacking defenses downfield, which raised questions about his route-running ability. That and his lack of production led to him being a Day 3 pick. But falling in the draft won't stop him from getting a chance to prove himself with the Raiders. 'No one has seen the best of him yet,' Grade said. 'It's still in that phase of, 'What can he do?' … I feel like Dont'e will definitely get the opportunity to just go be him.' It's easy to dismiss OTA hype as insignificant. Defensive end Maxx Crosby, though, doesn't give out effusive praise lightly. And after seeing Thornton up close in practice for a few weeks, he took his thoughts to his podcast. 'He hasn't hit his full potential yet,' Crosby said of Thornton. 'Seeing him on the field and realizing what he can be is, from a player perspective, like, 'Holy s—. This dude could be something serious.'' Advertisement The Raiders drafted versatile inside-outside receiver Jack Bech in the second round, but they're still figuring out where he's best suited to play. His skill set has some overlap with receiver Jakobi Meyers and tight end Brock Bowers, so it's been trickier to find where to use him. In Thornton's case, the fit is much more precise. He's a prototypical 'X' receiver who'll line up almost exclusively on the outside. By the end of OTAs, he was taking the most reps as an outside receiver alongside Tre Tucker, while Meyers primarily operated from the slot. Bech will certainly have a chance in training camp to shake up that lineup, but Thornton's combination of size, length and speed should make him a fixture in the rotation. 'If you had a draw up of an outside receiver,' offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said, 'you would pick that type of body type.' Crosby did go on to acknowledge that Thornton still has a long way to go. That will start with sharpening his knowledge of Kelly's scheme. It's a complex system that can be tough for even veterans to grasp. Although Thornton is coming from a simplistic offense at Tennessee, he said the transition has gone well, partially because he is a very detailed notetaker. Physically, Thornton displayed the ability to sink his hips and get in and out of cuts during OTAs, but his short-to-intermediate route running remains a work in progress. He's well aware that was a knock against him leading up to the draft, and he's eager to cast aside those concerns as the season draws closer. 'Everybody doubted me in that part of my game,' Thornton said. 'I never felt like I lacked that. I feel like it's just a bunch of people who didn't watch a lot of film of me. … Just hearing that a bunch of people feel like I can't do that, it's more motivation for me to get better so I can prove everybody wrong.'
