Mysteries

 And now for a new Blob feature, "Things The Blob Does Not Quite Get," a limited series that could go on for as long as man walks the earth if you listen to some people, most notably the Blob's wife and kids.

Anyway ...

On to the mysteries.

OK, so stuff the Blob finds mysterious:

* It appears the Packers are finally done with their weirdo diva quarterback, Brett F- er, Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers is back to playing his usual offseason games with the Pack, and the Pack is clearly fed up. They've given their blessing to the Jets to talk with him, which essentially is Green Bay saying "Hey, he's all yours. Good luck with that."

Now, it's not that Rodgers can't still play. But at 39, his expiration date is clearly in sight. So the Jets would be getting a a guy who makes too much money, is thisclose to checking out rest homes and, oh, yeah, did we mention the weirdo diva part?

Hence the mystery, at least for the Blob: Why would the Jets want a Rent-a-Rodgers? And why wouldn't the Packers have gotten fed up with him earlier, so they could move on to either Jordan Love or the next collegiate hotshot?

* What's the deal with Jim Boeheim, anyway?

Yesterday Syracuse announced he would not be returning as its men's basketball coach, shortly after the 'Cuse lost 77-74 to Wake Forest in the ACC tournament. This is momentous, given that Boeheim is a Hall of Fame coach who's been on the Syracuse bench for 47 years, or since Gerald Ford was president. If he's not on the college buckets Mt. Rushmore, he's on the slightly smaller backup Mt. Rushmore.

The mystery here is what actually happened yesterday.

Did Boeheim retire? Or was he kinda-sorta, um, not fired, exactly, but decide mutually with the university it was time to ride off into the sunset at 78?

Hard to say. And Boeheim didn't make it easier with what he said about it in Wednesday's postgame.

"I always have the choice of retirement, but it's (the university's) decision whether I coach or not," he said. "It always has been."

Alrighty then.

* Last but not least, are the Baltimore Ravens really getting ready to push Lamar Jackson out the door?

The 2019 NFL MVP is one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in football, and, at 26, he's not exactly Aaron Rodgers. Before a knee injury knocked him out for the season in week 12, the Ravens were 7-4 and Jackson had thrown for 2,242 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushed for 764 yards and three more scores. He'd completed 62.2 percent of his passes and was averaging 6.8 yards per carry.

In other words, Lamar was being Lamar. And it's not like the Ravens had given him any weapons to work with; their top receiver last fall was a career backup named Demarcus Robinson. 

And yet ..,

And yet, instead of getting Jackson some weapons, the Ravens have apparently decided to risk moving on from him.

By putting him under the non-exclusive franchise tag, they've essentially told him "Go talk to some other teams if you think you can get a better deal." What's weird about this is so far no other team is interested even in talking to him. Best explanation for this is everyone in the league has been scared off either by what they think the Ravens would be willing to match, or by the quarterback salary bubble created by the absurd deal the Browns handed Deshaun Watson, serial tallywhacker exposer.

Did the Ravens know this going in, in which case they might be more clever than we think? And if they did know it, why engage in such a risky strategy to begin with?

If it's the latter, well, the Blob doesn't get it. You'd rather risk having Jimmy Joe Bob as your quarterback instead of Lamar Jackson, simply because he might want a Watson-esque deal (which, when you compare the two resumes, would not be unreasonable)?  

Weird, man. 

Weirder than Aaron Rodgers, even.