admin

The mystery over where J.J. Watt will sign as an NFL free agency has been solved. Watt broke the news of his decision to sign with the Cardinals, much to the disappointment of several teams who were pursuing the services of the former Texans future Hall of Fame defensive end.

Watt, who will turn 32 on March 22, will play somewhere other than Houston for the first time in his professional career. Consider Arizona to be a mild surprise destination based on early speculation.

Here’s why the Cardinals ended up being the best possible fit for Watt following two weeks of him being on the open market:

MORE: SN’s latest mock draft | Big board of top 50 prospects

J.J. Watt contract details

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Watt got a two-year deal from the Cardinals worth $31 million. The big part of that number was $23 million guaranteed. Watt was reportedly looking for $15-16 million annually, and that average of $15.5 million per season falls right in the middle. 

In his previous six-year contract with the Texans, Watt averaged $16.67 million over six years with $51.876 million of the total $100 million contract value guaranteed. As an older player, he got 74 percent of his new team deal guaranteed.

The Cardinals showed faith in him that he still will be an elite defender and remain a healthy producer through the 2022 season. Arizona is looking at around $11 million in cap space. The big guarantee allows the Cardinals to limit the cap hit on Watt for ’21 and push the bigger number into next year.

Arizona is a good place for ex-Texans stars

Remember how Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins “recruited” Watt on social media? Turns out that might have been a real ploy.

Hopkins immediately fit with the Cardinals and picked up his big-time pass-catching production where he left off in Houston. There’s a culture of an exciting young team, led by quarterback Kyler Murray, looking for the right mix of veterans beyond Hopkins to help lead the team going forward.

Defensively, the Cardinals will be parting with long-term star cornerback Patrick Peterson in free agency. While losing his savvy on the back end, they needed an experience and execution boost in the front seven. Watt can be on that side of the ball what Hopkins was for the offense.

MORE: Ranking the NFL’s top 50 free agents in 2021

Why J.J. Watt was a better fit for Cardinals than Browns, Bills, Packers, Steelers, etc.

The Browns and Bills never were schematic fits as base 4-3 teams under Joe Woods and Leslie Frazier, respectively. The Packers still operate a 3-4 with former Rams assistant Joe Barry replacing Mike Pettine as coordinator, but at more than a projected $11 million over the cap, weren’t in position to adjust to afford Watt.

The Steelers were players in name only because of employing Watt’s brothers, T.J and Derek, ruled out once J.J. reportedly didn’t really want to play with them. The price of J.J. Watt wasn’t great for Pittsburgh, staring at being $19 million over the cap. Among non-playoff teams from 2020, Watt was tied most to the Chargers’ 3-4 under Brandon Staley and Renaldo Hill, but that never gained steam.

The Cardinals, who just missed the NFC playoffs at 8-8 last season, had the combination of good 3-4 scheme under Vance Joseph and a key hole to both lure and splurge on Watt. Watt, who had five sacks last season and stayed dominant against the run fronting a bad overall Houston defense, was more a need-based than luxury signing for Arizona.

The Cardinals’ starting ends, Zach Allen and Jordan Phillips, struggled to hold the edge last season. Their 32-year-old nose tackle, Corey Peters is a free agent. They were No. 21 against the run and Watt is coming off a stout run-stopping year. The Cardinals did have 48 sacks, but most of that came from the second level with Allen, Phillips and Peters combining for only 6.

Don’t be fooled by Watt having a modest sack total in relation to the monster years he had in his early prime. He was active and disruptive all-around against the pass and can set an important tone for the Cardinals.

Watt’s signing confirms the Cardinals won’t be trying to afford Peterson. Now they must turn their re-signing focus to breakout outside linebacker Haason Reddick, who had a team-high 12.5 sacks in 2020.

The Cardinals have proved under GM Steve Keim they will be aggressive to acquire potential impact veterans. Five years ago, they hit the jackpot in acquiring edge rusher Chandler Jones from the Patriots. They were smart to recognize Watt was another good investment to clean up a big lingering weakness. Most important, he can help get them over the hump and get into the playoffs.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday canceled the suspension of the Iranian judo federation, imposed after it ordered judoka Saeid Mollaei not to fight against an Israeli. The CAS said it was referring the case back to the International Judo Federation which imposed the ban in October 2019.

CAS said the Iranian federation had “committed severe violations” of the international federation rules and should be punished accordingly.

“However, the CAS Panel concluded that the kind of sanction (unlimited suspension) imposed in the challenged decision of 22 October 2019 had no legal basis in the IJF regulations,” said the press statement.

In the meantime, the ruling leaves Iranian judoka free to take part in the rearranged Tokyo Olympics this year.

The International Judo Federation is currently considering what further action and decisions will be taken

The Iranian federation hailed a “great victory” and said it hoped the decision would lead to an “improvement” in relations with the International Judo Federation.

Mollaei, a former world champion who now competes for Mongolia, claimed he was ordered by the Iranian federation to throw a match to avoid a combat with Israeli Sagi Muki, who then went on to win the 2019 world 81kg title with the then-Iranian taking bronze without fighting him.

Israel’s head coach Moshe Fonti delivered a similar version to The Times of Israel: “Iranian intelligence agents went to his home in Iran and to the judo hall to warn him,” declared the newspaper.

The International Judo Federation banned Iran indefinitely in October 2019 even though they denied the claims.

“The international federation shouldn’t have taken such a measure against judo in Iran merely based on a false claim by an athlete,” said federation chief Arash Miresmaeili at the time.

Iran does not recognize Israel and its athletes usually refrain from facing Israeli opponents, whether by giving up the match or simply not participating, and are later praised by top officials.

One of the most famous cases was Miresmaeili himself, a two-time judo world champion who showed up overweight for his bout against an Israeli at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and was disqualified.

He was praised by Iran’s then-president Mohammad Khatami and the ultraconservative media, eventually becoming the judo federation’s chief.

Soccer player Masoud Shojaei — then captain of the national team — was first banned for life, before being reinstated before the 2018 World Cup, for playing for his Greek club against Maccabi Tel Aviv in August 2017.

Denounced by the Iranians, Mollaei took refuge in Mongolia and has competed in their colors since.

Last year the IOC agreed to let him compete at the Olympics for his new country, although in principle it should have taken him three years to qualify.

In February, Mollaei was given a hero’s welcome when he competed at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam in Israel.

Muki posted a photo on social networks of himself with Mollaei dating from February 2020, captioned “Welcome brother” and accompanied by the flags of Israel, Iran and Mongolia.

At the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv Saeid Mollaei took a silver medal fighting for Mongolia.

Last week’s Big Question asked how long you thought Avni Yildirim would last against Canelo Alvarez. Seemed kind of insulting on paper, I suppose, but then it was kind of an insulting fight to ask people to pay to see.

Guess what? It turned out pretty weak, too! The damned “haters” and “critics” were just right this time, sadly enough — hey, man, I’d have also preferred Yildirim gone out and fought his heart out even if over-matched. Would have been more fun. Would have been a better story.

Anyway, the voters were basically right. The slightly majority (43%) said Canelo would finish him inside of four rounds, and he did it in three. The rounds 5-8 pick was just behind (42%). Five percent said Yildirim would get stopped between the ninth and 12th rounds, three percent said he’d go the distance, and six percent had themselves a good little laugh and predicted he’d win.

This week we’ll switch our focus back over to the heavyweights, and specifically the much-discussed Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua fight. It seems like Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been saying “we hope to announce it in two weeks” for a few months now, because basically that’s the case. Top Rank’s Bob Arum and Queensberry’s Frank Warren, along with Hearn, have all expressed their confidence the deal will get done. That’s rare.

But the fight hasn’t been announced yet. The target was June, perhaps, and we’re into March now. You’d want a heavy promotional cycle for this fight, obviously. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be announced any day now (actually part of the reason I’m posting this is I hope the fight gets announced and the whole thing is old hat quickly), but there are other notes of concern.

For one thing, Arum is now pissed at Hearn for bidding on the Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr fight — neither of them won; Triller did, and for what it’s worth, Hearn doesn’t seem to care about Arum being mad. In fact, he used it to kinda poke the bear even more. Hearn has always, and probably rightly, had the sense that Arum may rant and rave and call you every name in the book, but if a deal is there to be done that makes everyone money, it can get done.

More concerning, perhaps, is Fury himself saying that the sides are “no further forward today than we were a year ago.” The “Gypsy King” just doesn’t sound all that confident, but then Tyson Fury says a lot of things if you ask him questions.

You guys have seen a lot of boxing news cycles come and go just like I have. Are you still confident Fury-Joshua is coming next for both of them?

I know, I know. Everywhere I read, except for the colour, the Yonex Voltric Z Force 2 is the exact same as the Yonex Voltric Z Force 2 Lee Chong Wei edition. But what explains the difference in price?

I’ll happily play with a pink VTZF2 LCW for a $50CAD discount!

Before I buy, any reason not to buy this racket? (I love smashing birdies)