Links of the Week: Smokeboys, LinkedIn, and Adults Choosing a New Football Team

Links of the Week: Smokeboys, LinkedIn, and Adults Choosing a New Football Team

How do you decide on a college football team to root for?

I am under the assumption that most college football fans find their fandom in three ways: 1) genetics (Dad loves Notre Dame!), 2) you find your team while young for some weird reason (Oregon’s jerseys are rad!) or 3) you go to a school with a good team.

I think options 1 & 2 are short lived. I rooted for Michigan for reason 1 before I was old enough to know better, then rooted Miami because they were awesome when I was in high school (Ken Dorsey, y’all!). But eventually, I went to Purdue at the height of their power.

You see, I went to Purdue in the Kyle Orton era, also known as the “salad days” for the program. Since then, they've been bad. Like, when someone says, “Hey I think the Big 10 is the best conference on football,” the easiest retort is “Yeah, but Purdue is in that conference.”

I legitimately want to know what is the protocol here? Am I tied to Purdue? I'll always root for them if they're good, but until then should I just pick a team that's good know? Should I try and pick the Game of the Week? How do I decide what team I should be watching/rooting for on Saturday?

Let me hear your thoughts - here are your Links of the Week:

The Houston Rockets sold for $2.2 billion (with a ‘B’) this week, the highest amount an NBA team has ever been sold. Many teams have doubled in value recently (popularity, ratings, lucrative TV deals, etc.) so it is interesting to see when current owners cash out. Interesting read on one of the more high-risk, high reward negotiations happening in Memphis for the Grizzlies right now. [The Ringer]

I too have been tempted by the siren song of the meat smoker. THE POWER OF SMOKED MEAT COMPELS YOU. THE POWER OF SMOKED MEAT COMPELS YOU. The POWER OF SMO... [GQ]

As a new Aldi shopper (or husband of one), I found this guide of what to Buy and Skip at ALDI to be quite handy. [Lifehacker]

LinkedIn? So hot right now. [AdWeek]

This week, the current King of Oral Histories Jim Miller, he of the massively successful SNL Book, ESPN and Agency oral history books, he is taking his talents to podcasts. He released his first series of “Origins” this week, telling the history of how Curb Your Enthusiasm came to be. It features Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and the whole cast. I’m about two dozen podcasts behind where I’d like to be, but this one is going to be added to the list shortly. [Vulture]

I am going to miss Jimmy Butler on the Bulls. Half because “Jimmy G. Buckets - the ‘G’ stands for Gets” is one of the great nicknames of our time. The other half? Well, read this. [Vice Sports]

David Simon currently is the leader for Tweet of the Year. [Twitter]

The NBA is looking to re-format their draft to de-incentivize losing on purpose, right around the time the Bulls organization planned to lose on purpose for a couple of years. Cool. [ESPN]

RIP Walter Becker. #BoutDatSteelyDanLife Have a good weekend: