Welcome to Wednesday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.
WEDNESDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:MLB: Kansas City at Boston, 1:05 p.m. (NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7)MLB: Colorado at Chicago Cubs, 2 p.m. (MLB Network)MLB: San Diego at San Francisco, 5 p.m. (MLB Network)MLB: NY Yankees at Houston, 8:10 p.m. (ESPN)NBA: Utah at Houston, 8 p.m. (TNT)NHL: Tampa Bay at Boston, 7 p.m. (NBCSN)NHL: Vegas at San Jose, 10 p.m. (NBCSN)
AROUND THE WEB:
-- NFL executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, said Tuesday the league is not planning to eliminate the kickoff but is looking to modify it for this season.
The league is in favor of the increase in touchbacks recently, but is still concerned with the huge hits on touchbacks.
"We've got to get that out of the game," Vincent said of the hits.
The NFL is holding two days of meetings, starting Tuesday, with coaches, former players, medical officials and officiating office members to discuss player-safety related rules.
Vincent said he hopes the meetings will end with a proposal the NFL can bring to owners for a vote at their meetings in a few weeks.
Wednesday’s meetings will focus on the kickoff, while Tuesday’s talks were devoted to a new rule that keeps players from lowering their heads to initiate and make contact with the helmet to all parts of another player’s body.
The NFL said an all-time high 291 concussions were recorded in the 2017 season, with 46 percent of those coming from helmet to helmet contact.
-- Drake and Kendrick Perkins got into a spat during the Cavaliers-Raptors game on Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre.
"I'm here in real life," he said.
The beef began even before the game started.
"What happened was I was talking to my old teammate Serge (Ibaka) walking into halftime telling him 'We about to win this game,' and Drake butted in talking s--t to me," Perkins told ESPN in a text message. "So I said something back to him."
