Mark Madden: Don't underestimate NFL's power, impact on economy

We don’t have sports. But we still have refreshing sports notes! (When these notes were prepared, they were positioned 6 feet apart and doused with hand sanitizer.)

• If any sport can start on time with fans in the stands, it’s the NFL. Don’t underestimate the league’s power, political connections and impact on the economy. If WWE can be declared an essential business in Florida, the NFL can strike a like deal nationally.

• Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward had an interesting tweet: “We ‘bout to find out how much guys like football. #StayReady” The NFL doesn’t trust its players’ level of dedication. OTAs and mini-camp are the equivalent of a watchful eye. Will NFL players maintain offseason fitness when left on their own? Heyward seems to be wondering.

• When the Steelers traded their first-round pick (18th overall, as it turns out) to Miami for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, it made their draft wholly uninteresting. Getting a talent who helps immediately with the 49th pick is 50-50. No mock draft can pretend to pick accurately that deep into the draft. Fitzpatrick was All-Pro. But at some point, Steelers fans will wonder if it was worth sacrificing the chance to add a quality component on offense.

• Jacksonville wants to peddle running back Leonard Fournette. Perhaps the Steelers should have interest. His $4.16 million salary could be absorbed by restructuring some deals. It’s more plausible than any of the lame backup quarterback scenarios being bandied about. But the Steelers have few resources to trade for Fournette. Last year’s acquisition of Fitzpatrick was out of the team’s character. They won’t go there twice.

• During Monday’s draft briefing with the media, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said, “We’ll have a healthy James Conner.” Want to bet?

• JuJu Smith-Schuster is 14th in NFL merchandise revenue but finished 77th in receiving yards last season. That’s the new normal. You don’t have to be good at football to be a football hero. Just have an engaging smile and saturate social media. If you think Smith-Schuster can fetch a first-round pick in a trade, he can’t. GMs don’t monitor revenue numbers but are aware of receiving yards. The Steelers would be lucky to get a second-rounder.

• Steelers investor Thomas Tull gave $4.2 million to covid-19 relief. Pirates owner Bob Nutting gave $50,000 to a food bank. That’s the difference between class and cheap.

• Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had the lowest Wonderlic score among quarterbacks in the 2020 draft. He’s had three surgeries. We keep getting told none of that matters. It matters. But taking the 6-foot-6 QB (Oregon’s Justin Herbert) because he looks the part is a sucker’s bet.

• LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, the presumptive first pick, should refuse to play for Cincinnati. John Elway refused Baltimore. It worked. Eli Manning refused San Diego. It worked. When’s the last time playing for Cincinnati worked? Longtime Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer says the team was “never committed to winning a Super Bowl.”

• Pro sports can survive for a bit with empty stadia. High school football can’t. It needs game-night revenue. The pandemic’s effect on high school football could be chilling.

• Crazy schemes enabling sports to dance around the pandemic keep being devised. How long ‘til a league names Wile E. Coyote commissioner and takes on Acme as a sponsor? There’s talk of the NCAA playing football in the spring. But that would diminish March Madness. Two college football seasons would be played in a calendar year. That can’t be good for bodies and brains. If you’re a top prospect like Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence, you’d be nuts to play that close to the draft. Getting hurt would damage your draft prospects all the more. Skip the season and work out on your own.

• Top high school basketball prospects like LaMelo Ball have skipped college ball to play pro overseas. Now the NBA’s developmental loop, the G League, will pay top talent six figures to skip the “one-and-done” silliness of the NCAA. Jalen Green will reportedly get $500,000. Anything that foils the NCAA’s remorseless pimping is welcome. In NCAA sports, the kids do most of the work and the adults get all the money. That’s pimping.

• If the NHL resumes and goes right to the playoffs, Philadelphia is a good first-round matchup for the Penguins. The Flyers were the league’s hottest team, but that has been killed by the pandemic. Same goes for the Penguins’ negative momentum. The Flyers’ goalie phenom, Carter Hart, has zero playoff experience. Philadelphia’s defense is inferior to the Penguins’. The Flyers have a good top six, but Jake Guentzel might be healthy. The Penguins win in six. (Or four, if the series is best-of-five.)

• The first two episodes of ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary were good, and will get a big rating because sports is shut down and Jordan’s fame transcends basketball. But it’s storytelling 101: Jordan and coach Phil Jackson are the good guys, GM Jerry Krause is the bad guy. Scottie Pippen comes off bad because he signed a deal that was too long and for too little, then pitched a fit because the Bulls wouldn’t fix it. But Pippen will turn babyface. Even casual basketball fans didn’t learn much new, though “The Last Dance” is very inside. It’s good that it finally premiered, because the hype was overbearing.

• During Jordan’s rookie season, several Bulls players reportedly used cocaine to excess. It was 1984. It would be more shocking if they didn’t.

• Pirates pitcher Derek Holland said if stars like Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout refuse to play in the Arizona bubble mooted by MLB, lesser players (like him) will do likewise. That beggars belief, because lesser players need the money. In the NFL, the voting of non-stars approved a CBA that’s bad for the stars and which the stars didn’t want. But when the bell rings, all the NFL players will show up. Not sure about MLB.