Category: Sports

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh says that payers from the Alabama and Michigan football programs are more NFL ready.

The Baltimore Ravens have held a reputation for years upon years of being the best drafting team in the NFL. Sure enough, their 2022 class has received near-universal praise, as the team looks to return to the playoffs after missing it last year.

When speaking with the media, head coach John Harbaugh says that there are athletes from two programs in particular who hold an advantage at easily making the transition to the NFL — Alabama and Michigan.

“There are certain college football programs that are built like NFL programs,” Harbaugh said, h/t Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk. “Alabama is one, Michigan is the other one. The two top ones, I would say. Those are the ones I’m thinking of off the top of my head. So those guys generally come in and they know what to expect. It’s a little flatter for those guys in terms of practice and understanding how it works.”

John Harbaugh: Alabama, Michigan athletes are more NFL ready

Sure enough, the Ravens did select a Crimson Tide and a Wolverines player in this year’s draft. One being Michigan edge rusher David Ojabo and the other being Alabama cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis. Ojabo in particular is in a favorable situation. He was originally set to be a first-rounder, but he tore his Achilles at Michigan’s Pro Day. He fell to the second round and will get to reunite with former Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who now holds the same position in Baltimore.

Alabama has shown over the years since Nick Saban has taken over that they are the top program with its numerous National Championships and its propensity to recruit the top players in the country. Then there is Michigan, which has had some great players make the jump from college to the NFL. Harbaugh’s Michigan comments are interesting, especially since his younger brother Jim is running the program.

This year, in particular, Alabama had seven players drafted, while Michigan had five.

Of course, Harbaugh naming Alabama and Michigan will cause debate among college football fans.

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The worlds of Patrick Mahomes and Paolo Banchero collided at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday thanks to an all-time snafu by F1 reporter Martin Brundle. 

It seems redundant to point out, but things happen incredibly fast at an F1 course. Not only is the very nature of the sport blindingly fast, but the need to process information is heightened thanks to the high octane stakes at play.

Life also comes at you fast during a Formula 1 event, which is something longtime reporter Martin Brundle found out when he did the one thing no one wants to do: Go viral for the wrong thing.

Thankfully this isn’t an old tweets situation, but rather a seasoned pro getting caught in real time being way too far out of his depth.

Here’s the situation. Brundle was mingling with the famous faces in attendance for the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday and came across who he accurately recognized as an athlete. Everything after that couldn’t have gone more poorly if Brundle had tried.

F1 reporter Martin Brundle thought Paolo Banchero was Patrick Mahomes

In one of the toughest looks in recent memory — and a true all-timer — Brundle kept referring to the person he was speaking to as Patrick Mahomes. The only problem was that the man he was speaking to was not Mahomes and was in fact future NBA lottery pick Paolo Banchero, who most recently helped Duke to the Final Four a month ago.

Banchero had some fun with the goof once it started to go viral.

And of course Mahomes weighed in on being mistaken for someone decidedly less famous than he is and categorically a different kind of athlete.

A brief comparison of Patrick Mahomes and Paolo Banchero:

• Patrick Mahomes is 6’3″, Paolo Banchero is 6’10”
• Mahomes is the face of multiple national ad campaigns, Banchero is not (yet)
• Mahomes is one of the most famous athletes on the planet, Banchero is still taking Finals exams
• Once more, Mahomes is 6’3″ and Banchero is nearly seven feet tall

Personally, I’d like to thank Brundle for this algorithmic snafu. He managed to combine Patrick Mahomes, Duke basketball, and F1 into one content creation dream come true. So this might actually be a stroke of genius and not at all the blunder it initially appears to be.

Let’s not kill Brundle too much for this, because it’s less a case of a reporter not being good as their job and more a reporter being asked to cover something they’re clearly not familiar with. This isn’t the first time an athlete has been mistaken for another, but it’s certainly the most hilarious example we’ve seen in quite a while.