This weekend’s edition of HBO’s “BALLERS” began with Spencer Strasmore, played by DWAYNE JOHNSON, and his ASM boss meeting with two members of the “acquisition team” at IMG, but Strasmore is hesitant to sell out because he feels he can manage the company’s athletic clients and the deal to bring an NFL team to Las Vegas simultaneously. Strasmore told his boss, “Before we go down that road where where we're okay with IMG, I just want you to know I'm perfectly capable of running Vegas and ASM.” The boss, played by RICHARD SCHIFF, wants to sell the company to raise capital to build a stadium in Las Vegas, but Strasmore said IMG “just swim along with their mouths open like f---ing whales, just eating everything in their path like plankton.” The post-concussion syndrome plotline continued as free agent WR Ricky Jerret, played by JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON, is told by ASM agent Jason Antolotti that negotiations are going well with the Patriots but “they just want you to see a specialist.” Antolotti said, “Who cares if they think you're a little off upstairs? You work for the NFL, not the U.S. nuclear program. Besides, they'd rather you be emotionally damaged than physically.” After Jerret agreed to pick up the kid he punched in the face at school to make the story go away, he then admits to the kid he's “not right in the head.” Jerret: “I've taken a lot of hits over the years and I'm not fully healed.”
LINES OF THE NIGHT
* Dolphins Assistant GM Charles Greane said to Antolotti about footage of Jerret appearing on “SportsCenter” of him punching a teenager in the face in the kid’s own house, which Jerret has mistaken for his own house, “It’s so much worse seeing it than hearing about it.” Antolotti replied, “Talk to RAY RICE about that.”
* Reggie, played by LONDON BROWN, and associate of Cowboys DT Vernon Littlefield, talked to an NFL exec about reducing the suspension of Littlefield because of his association with CBD oil, “He made a mistake. We all know the league policy is gonna change, you know, soon enough with CBDs, as is the whole world. We know it's not approved yet and he shouldn't have done it, but we said we're sorry and y'all should accept it. I mean, y'all are the NFL. People in this country look to y'all to set the vibe.”
CAMEOS: Former NFLers EDDIE GEORGE and MARK SCHLERETH appeared as themselves, with MMA fighter NICK DIAZ making a brief appearance.
