Kyler Murray made the right choice
Look: Kyler Murray's decision was always his to make. Even if the first-round MLB draft pick and Heisman Trophy winner chose to move to Thailand to pursue a career in sepak takraw, on spec, because he saw some highlights on YouTube and thought it looked cool, it would not be my place to tell him it was the wrong call. (It does, after all, look cool.)
But Murray tweeted Monday that he is "firmly and fully committing" to the NFL. No spring training, no splitting time, no minor leagues; just football. The quarterback's announcement came only an hour or so after A's exec Billy Beane said he did not know Murray's intentions.
I am far more of a baseball fan than I am a football fan at this point, plus I spend a whole lot of time writing about why star baseball players aren't household names. If Murray picked baseball, he would've deepened my preferred sport's talent pool and become its most famous athlete this side of Tim Tebow.
A few years ago, when the NFL was actively interfering with research into long-term effects of concussions and dragging its feet on reacting to its CTE epidemic, all while MLB salaries were exploding, it would have been easy to argue that Murray would be better off with baseball - even if, again, it's his call.
But right now, the best MLB free agents in recent history are dangling on the market as owners hoodwink fans into believing teams can't afford to blow past the sport's luxury-tax threshold. And while opting for football means forgoing the $4.6 million signing bonus he got from the A's, Murray will make more than that as a first-round pick in the NFL.
Last month, I looked at some other college baseball position players drafted in the first 10 overall picks to determine what Murray's MLB timeline looked like. I found that if everything went right for the outfielder, it would likely take him at least five years to earn the same amount in baseball that Johnny Manziel made in two disappointing NFL seasons.
And here's the main thing, I think: Choosing baseball would've likely meant giving up football forever, but choosing football just absolutely does not mean he can't someday have a career in baseball. The A's maintain Murray's baseball rights, but MLB teams will be willing to take chances on him basically any time in the next 20 years.
Monday's big winner: D.K. Metcalf
The NFL Draft hopeful wowed the world with shirtless photos. I could probably do the same, but not for the same reasons.
Quick hits: Belichick's boat, Belichick's genius
- Bill Belichick has updated the name of his boat to account for his eighth Super Bowl ring. I don't know anything about boat ownership, but I have to say: That seems like a really modest boat for Bill Belichick. Right? Why doesn't Bill Belichick have a bigger boat?
- Steven Ruiz dove deep into Super Bowl footage to figure out why the Patriots beat the Rams. Surprise, surprise: It's Bill Belichick.
- Justin Verlander took to Twitter to call out MLB's "broken" free-agency system. He's right, of course, and it's good for players to be speaking up. But the MLBPA is partly responsible for the problem.
This day in dumb sports
It was on Feb. 12, 2014 that we learned people were tanning at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on a balmy 61-degree day.
Follow Ted Berg on Twitter at @OGTedBerg. Email him with questions or comments about the Morning Win newsletter.