Author: Who Cares Sports

June 11, 1997. It was Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Bulls and the Jazz. Series was tied at 2-2 and back then the finals home/away order went 2-3-2. So far in the series each team held on their home court until that night.

In games 3 and 4 the Jazz won and held MJ in check. Jordan woke up in the middle of the night before Game 5 vomiting and experiencing other digestive turbulence. Jordan’s long time trainer, Tim Grover, insisted he was ill with food poisoning.

This is heavily disputed and adds to the lure of the “Flu Game”. The competing theories:

• Jordan flew to Vegas, partied all night and was hungover
• Jordan ate pizza that night and it was mysteriously delivered by 5 people and POISONED to help the hometown Jazz win Game 5
• It was just a random stomach bug, could’ve happened for any reason

Theory 3 is the most likely but 1 and 2 are obviously much more fun. MJ details the party antics of the Bulls players during the late 90s with Dennis Rodman taking much of the spotlight/blame for benders in Vegas (as if MJ was dragged to these types of boondoggles against his will).

Could people in Utah be sick enough to poison the GOAT before Game 5? Possibly but you’d have to imagine that would be difficult to cover up for nearly 30 years.

Pizza, hangover, viral gastroenteritis, it didn’t matter. Jordan exploded for 38 points in Game 5. Jordan had 15 fourth quarter points including a massive 3 with 25 ticks left to give the Bulls a 3 point lead they would not relinquish.

One of those reminders that even at 50%, MJ was in another stratosphere than the other players in that era.

Love hearing Bill Walton on the call on this NBC production.

January 8th, 2000. The Bills and Titans are playing in an AFC Wild Card game. This Titans team was an NFL Blitz / Madden dream. Steve McNair at QB, Eddie George, Kevin Dyson and Frank Wycheck as the primary weapons and at the time some of the coolest jerseys in the league.

I was at The Hitting Streak. A batting cage off I-270 in Gaithersburg, Maryland with my dad, honing what would a short-lived and underwhelming baseball career.

They had one of those mounted TVs in one of the corners you would typically see at a bar. 15 people were gathered around watching the game end and 8 year old me was stupefied but what I saw. This was a video game play. Frankly even more surreal, you couldn’t even do this in a game.

For years, teams would mimic this play with some subtle variations but none had that moment of shock of witnessing something never seen before. Remnants of the alley-oop scene in Semi Pro.

Often lost in our memory was the Bills benching Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson at the command of owner Ralph Wilson. Wilson was a notoriously ornery owner and it’s amazing that in the year 2000, foolish pride could have such an impact on something as large as an NFL team in a playoff game (Rob Johnson was the young draft pick with high promise and Wilson wanted to him to prove it on the big stage despite Flutie being the successful starter all year).

Ironically this Titans season ended so memorably on the 1 yard line in the Super Bowl. Truly a sports moment in history that made it feel like these events are decided by fate rather than coincidence.

The Kurt Warner-Rams were champions that year and definitely have a deeply ingrained legacy in NFL history but nothing they ever accomplished rivals the lure of the Music City Miracle.

Who Cares:

• Fans of dumpster fire NFL teams
• Skip Bayless
• The content team at every sports aggregator website

Why do you care:

• You honestly shouldn’t
• See post #1 (it’s April, we have nothing)
• You don’t want to get suckered into a meaningless pro day as a source of hopium
• Wait Shedeur threw it 55 yards on the fly?

Colorado had a pro day today and the saddest people you know watched the highlights (disclaimer: author is one of these sad, sad people).

There’s nothing notable to report outside of the fact that Travis Hunter looks really skinny for someone that’s supposed to play both offense and defense? Not sure why no one is talking about this.

Shedeur looked as good as an NFL prospect could hope for while throwing to receivers in shorts with no defense. Hopefully the many teams in attendance were pleased.

The latest buzz seems that a Shedeur slip is expected and teams are looking to trade up into the end of the first round to grab him.

Zach Wilson kind of ruined pro days for everyone after his one throw inspired a generation of Jets fans into thinking they had Mahomes 2.0 (although he’s backing up Tua this year and Mike McDaniel with Wilson is mildly intriguing).

The entire pro day ecosystem is so bizarre. It’s truly amazing what can be accomplished in the sports lull period of the calendar year. People are breaking injury scoops in real time for a glorified warm up session:

Just get us past NFL Draft season so we can redeem whatever dignity we have left.

Who cares:

• My Orioles group chat
• The guy in the AL-only Dynasty fantasy league who drafted Gunnar in 2019
• Governor Wes Moore

Why do you care:

• The Orioles are in a free fall spanning two seasons and need a spark
• It’s April, we’re reaching here

Gunnar Henderson will make his season debut tonight against the Royals after missing the team’s first 7 games on the IL with an oblique injury. Batting leadoff, Henderson adds to an Orioles line up desperately searching for a spark (and a soul?).

Billionaire private-equity magnate/Declaration of Independence owner David Rubinstein purchased the Orioles from The Angelos family last year giving Birds fans hope of sunnier, higher spending days to come. The first offseason with Daddy Warbucks, however, felt insignificant compared the team’s rivals in the deep pocketed AL East.

Keep the crushes flowing, Governor. We need you now more than ever.