Happy Monday, friends and fans!

Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners football family came together this weekend to give back to local hospital workers while they put in the extra time during this trying period in our nation’s (and world’s) history.

Shout out to WR coach Dennis Simmons for coming up with this idea, and to the families of all the coaches who helped put together the sweet provisions.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links! Maggie Nichols is the greatest, Anwar Richardson is confused, Messi and Marbury give back in big ways and more!

OU Links

• Speaking of Lincoln Riley, days after he publicly shared his dissatisfaction with the Big 12 not allowing its teams to conduct virtual meetings or provide workout equipment to its student-athletes, the conference is finally getting with the program. Now, coaching staffs around the league can help their players stay engaged during this offseason while the nationwide social distancing rules remain in effect.
• OU Insider’s RJ Young writes that the bar for Spencer Rattler’s first season as a starter for Oklahoma was set by the 2019 class of freshmen QBs around the nation. Considering the budding Sooner star was the top signal caller in the nation a year ago, the expectations for him are about as high as they can be following a redshirt season.
• Sooners Wire’s Kegan Reneau opines that redshirt junior RB Kennedy Brooks has something in common with former OU QB Landry Jones in that both are highly productive from a statistical standpoint yet each are equally undervalued despite that production.
• Maggie Nichols accomplished the gymnastics dream over the course of her prolific career at OU. Now you can read all about her historic run in her own words.

• Everybody makes mistakes, but only a select few choose to die on a hill when the evidence against them mounts so high it blocks out the sun. Orange Bloods writer Anwar Richardson is apparently a member of that exclusive club, because he insists on equating infamous ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic to OU fans simply because he lived and worked in Oklahoma. For starters, Joseph is from Kansas, and he actually used to live in Texas long before he migrated to the Sooner State. Oh yeah, and he’s also seen wearing several Longhorn hats throughout the Netflix docu-series. Feel free to blow up this genius’ mentions.

Around the Sports World

• The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics have been given a new start date. Now instead of beginning this July, the games will proceed on July 23, 2021 and are scheduled to conclude on Aug. 8, 2021.

• Wimbledon, which is the longest lasting tennis tournament in the world, has been canceled in 2020 due to coronavirus concerns. The prestigious event was originally scheduled to commence on June 29.
• During this past weekend, New York Knicks owner James Dolan, 64, tested positive for COVID-19. As of Saturday, he reportedly was experiencing “little to no symptoms”, and is currently self-quarantining.
• Lionel Messi and a number of his FC Barcelona teammates are taking a 70% pay cut in order for club employees to continue receiving 100% of their own salaries. Great stuff from the GOAT.
• Former NBA star Stephon Marbury resurrected his career in China and became an international sensation. Now he’s using his connections and resources to give back by donating 10 million medical masks from China to the state of New York. Major props to ‘Starbury’ for this move.

Stick to Sports!

• On Sunday evening, songwriting virtuoso John Prine’s camp announced that the 73-year-old musician had been hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms and was in critical condition. Fortunately, his wife says that he is now in stable condition and that she herself has recovered from the virus.

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