Three & Out

Three & Out Sports is very excited to announce that Patrick Ricard of the Baltimore Ravens has been awarded the very real and legitimate 2019 Concrete Charlie Award, which honors the best two-way player in the NFL . It is named after the last full-time two-way player, Philadelphia Eagles legend and accomplished  Deion Sanders -hater  Chuck Bednarik . On offense, Ricard played 348 offensive snaps, mostly at fullback. He caught 8 passes for 47 yards and a touchdown, and his blocking helped the Ravens finish 1st in the league in rushing yards and rushing yards per attempt. He was named to the 2019 AFC Pro Bowl roster for his work at fullback.  On defense, Ricard played 146 defensive snaps, mostly at defensive end. He recorded 9 tackles (8 solo), 1 tackle for loss, and 2 quarterback hits. As at team, the Ravens ranked thirds in points allowed and fourth in yards allowed. Ricard was an all-conference defensive end at the University of Maine . Ricard ...

I was watching the Lakers - 76ers game over the weekend and was looking at the court design: Considering that the the court requires a center circle, and the 76ers logo contains a circle element, wouldn't it be much better to align the two? The answer, of course, is yes.

I've had the sense for some time that XFL ticket sales have been sluggish. This weekend, XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck removed all doubt in an interview with The Seattle Times . [Luck] said the league would like to average at least 10,000 per game in attendance, but the hopes are much higher than that in Seattle, which is expecting more than 20,000 for its home opener Feb. 15 against the Tampa Bay Vipers. ...    ST: What are you most excited about?   OL: Just getting into a stadium like CenturyLink — a great venue — and if there are 22,000 or 24,000 people in the lower bowl, and that atmosphere of being something new, that’s pretty cool to be a part of. League supporters will probably try to spin this as though 20K was always unrealistic. That's not the case. Luck was on record as saying that the minimum expectation for each market was to average at least 20K in attendance. And given that the original XFL averaged just over 23K in attendance, it was an entirely rea...

I was struck by the juxtaposition of the fallout of the Astros (and now Red Sox ) electronic sign-stealing scandal and this viral video of Aaron Rodgers casually changing a play call with just seconds left on the play clock.  Linsley asking Rodgers "What do you want to do here?" with 7 seconds left on the play clock like its nothing... pic.twitter.com/lkckRMdGVp — Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) January 13, 2020 After all, if NFL teams can communicate complicated information with the whole world watching, certainly catchers can adequately encrypt their pitch calls.  And in fact, that’s basically what has happened. Look no further than the lengths the Washington Nationals took  in the 2019 World Series . The Nationals also decided that they would use multiple signs regardless of whether there was a runner on second base or not. No one on? Runner on first? Let’s make sure the catcher runs through a series of signs anyway, just in case. Next came the way the Nats ...

With XFL 2020 adopting a much more … diplomatic tone than its ancestor, it’s Ice Cube’s BIG3 that most hearkens back to the original XFL’s bombast and theatrics. Check out this hype video for Season 4 of the league playing the sport formerly known as 3-on-3 basketball: The BIG3 is who we are. #FIREBALL3 is what we play. pic.twitter.com/pHTqbfWkIy — BIG3 on CBS (@thebig3) January 15, 2020 Off-colored ball? Check! Needless trash talk? (“FIREBALL3 is not that BORING ASS 3-on-3 FIBA style that they about to play in the Olympics!”) LOL! A new absurd rule? (Players can challenge foul calls by going 1-on-1 with an opponent.) What!?!?! And even Vince didn’t have the stones to rebrand the sport itself ! Bravo, Cube.