{"id":195050,"date":"2025-07-21T21:21:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T02:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=195050"},"modified":"2025-07-21T21:22:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T02:22:20","slug":"random-thoughts-football-and-more-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/07\/21\/random-thoughts-football-and-more-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: football and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest installment of Random Thoughts centers around flag football and 8-man football, high school NIL, a possible WNBA strike, and the saga involving the Cincinnati Bengals and Shemar Stewart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OHSAA football<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the OHSAA announced it will sanction a state championship game in girls flag football, starting next spring. 80 high schools in Ohio have flag football and that number is expected to increase. It\u2019ll be interesting to see if\/when it expands to this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the next area where I\u2019d like to see an increase of teams \u2013 eight man football. Yes, the OHSAA sanctions a state championship game but there are only something like eight teams in Ohio that offer it, and they\u2019re scattered mainly over northwest and northeast Ohio. The closest ones to here are Holgate and Stryker. There is one team in Pennsylvania, just across the Ohio border. All of these teams compete in the Northern-8 conference. I think a number of small schools could benefit from offering 8-man football. Heck, I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing Division VII being replaced with all 8-man teams, but that\u2019s a discussion for a different day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High school NIL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Ohio State basketball player Jared Sullinger has been vocal about Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for high school athletes in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Sullinger, not offering NIL at the high school level forces student-athletes to leave Ohio for the chance elsewhere and he\u2019s been critical of the OHSAA for not allowing it. I do know some states have NIL opportunties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all due respect to Jared Sullinger, personally, I think it\u2019s a terrible idea and apparently so do OHSAA member schools, who voted against it in 2022. Even if had passed, who would police it? Also, exactly how many student athletes have left Ohio for it? I\u2019m guessing it\u2019s a handful at most. No thank you, big pass on this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WNBA strike<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WNBA has made headlines as of late with the threat of a strike if salaries don\u2019t increase substantially, starting with the next contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been well publicized that the league, which is subsidized by the NBA, loses about $40 million per year. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s accurate or not. Most people don\u2019t know, simply because we don\u2019t have access to the books. If I had to guess, I\u2019d say there\u2019s probably some sort of operating loss but since this always comes up when discussing a new deal, it\u2019s quite possible it\u2019s a negotiating ploy with some interesting bookkeeping. The WNBA cries poor while the players are seeking a huge raise. This happens all the time during contract negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not about to get into what\u2019s what, but it probably wouldn\u2019t be in anyone\u2019s best interest, especially the players, if a strike actually occurred. Hopefully the players don\u2019t paint themselves into a corner they can\u2019t get out of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More football<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you believe football is just nine days away? Okay, it\u2019s just NFL preseason football but it\u2019s football! College football is just 33 days away. The season will kick off with a handful of games on August 23 and while none of them are what you\u2019d call barnburners, hey, it\u2019s still college football. High school football is just 32 days away for most teams. How exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shemar Stewart\/Bengals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shermar Stewart, a defensive end from Texas A&M, is the only unsigned first round draft pick. He and the Bengals have been locked in a contract stalemate for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve heard grumbling from Bengals fans about the team being cheap, etc., but that\u2019s not really the issue here. The amount of his contract is set by the rookie wage scale, a rather handsome $18.9 million over four years. It\u2019s the language of the contract that\u2019s causing the hold up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, he wants it fully guaranteed, no matter what. The Bengals want to be able to void at least some of the guarantee if Stewart violates NFL policies that warrant a suspension or if for some reason, he winds up in jail. Look \u2013 if that\u2019s the case, I don\u2019t blame the Bengals. At what other place of employment can you get your full salary if you\u2019re suspended or worse? Personally, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s unreasonable. Apparently, Stewart\u2019s camp thinks otherwise. I don\u2019t believe Stewart has had any legal issues but here\u2019s an idea \u2013 keep it that way. Sign the deal, stay out of trouble and there won\u2019t be an issue. Also, get to training camp, pronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The latest installment of Random Thoughts centers around flag football and 8-man football, high school NIL, a possible WNBA strike, and the saga involving the Cincinnati Bengals and Shemar Stewart. OHSAA football Last week, the OHSAA announced it will sanction a state championship game in girls flag football, starting next spring. 80 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 23:38:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195050"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195054,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195050\/revisions\/195054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}