Recently, I’ve been writing about how the Denver Broncos are mismanaging the Drew Lock situation. On more than one occasion, I’ve been called out for being a part of the so-called “participation trophy” generation.

That is so funny to me, because these people (almost always my parents’ age) don’t seem to get the irony in that. All I know is that, when I was 6, I wasn’t pooling my allowance money together with my teammates to buy cheap plastic trophies to make ourselves feel better about having been part of the tee-ball team.

These people who rip “millennials” for being soft are the ones who were out there buying those trophies and demanding that their kids be rewarded. Yes, there are some soft people out there, but that’s true of every generation — always has been, always will be.

All I ask is that you find some other terminology to disparage younger generations, because if you follow the money, we weren’t the ones buying the participation trophies.

With that rant over, here are your questions for this week’s SDS Mailbag:

@SChinni12:

Which sport (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, college basketball or college football) has the worst officiating?

Wait a minute, let’s not forget horse racing! The Kentucky Derby just had a winner stripped of its title because of a replay review, so there’s plenty of controversy there, too.

However, I’m going to go with the NBA, but I will say that with a caveat. I don’t think the refs are the worst, I just think the league doesn’t do anything to give them power. For example, any time a whiny superstar (think LeBron James, Chris Paul, James Harden, Draymond Green, etc.) complains that a foul should have been called against an opponent or a foul that was called on them was bogus, refs need more power to settle the dispute.

I recommend allowing refs to review a foul when a player complains. If the player is right, the foul is rescinded. If he’s wrong, he’s assessed a technical foul. I bet that would stop a lot of the performative theatrics that have plagued the league for the past few years.

The NFL is also fraught with bad officiating, and that’s because the rulebook keeps changing on a whim and no one can keep the rules straight. College football also faces those issues, but I do think they are trying to find solutions, so they deserve credit for that.

Shoutout to Major League Baseball, as I think umpires do the best job of all the pro sports. The MLB has the best replay review system, and yes, balls and strikes are sometimes points of contention, but the umps do a fine job more often than not.

@HReside:

Be honest with yourself — how would you fare on the Oregon Trail? Which SEC football coach and player would you take with you and what would take you down in the end?

So far in my 29 years on this planet, I’ve lived in Illinois, Missouri, Utah and California, so outside of a couple of years in Philadelphia, it feels like I’ve been scouting out a trail to the West Coast my whole life (oh, and my sister lives in Portland). I’m quite familiar with the I-80 corridor through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, so I’d probably follow that route if I needed to trek west without the use of technology once the apocalypse strikes.

As for my team, I’d want to take LSU coach Ed Orgeron and Georgia QB Jake Fromm with me. Coach O is an absolute beast and would have the strength to do whatever is necessary on the trail. Fromm strikes me as an outdoorsman (though I’d prefer him to have a few less outdoor-related injuries on his resume), so he’d be useful, too.

What would take me down? I’m a pretty healthy guy, so I think I could hold off dysentery and the other ailments. However, I’ll throw this scenario your way — in the deserts of either Utah or Nevada, I am bitten by a rattlesnake. It doesn’t kill me, but it does slow down our party significantly.

Now, all of a sudden, we are forced to try to make it through a mountain pass in the early part of winter. I don’t handle the cold well, and I can’t imagine a pair of southern boys like Coach O and Fromm do, either. Eventually, the frostbite would get us and we’d come up about 100 miles short of our goal.

Either that, or we’d make it the whole way. I bet we’d make it the whole way.

@MichaelJtr8:

With Detective Pikachu now in theaters, what Pokemon would you most want on your football team?

I’m going to stick with the original Pokemon here, because those are the ones I grew up with and I hate all the newer generations of Pokemon. Also, I’m going to assume that these Pokemon are bound to the current rules of college football — for example, Hitmonchan can’t just punch an opponent and Pikachu can’t shock someone on the other team and Charizard can’t breathe fire all over the place. I’m actually pretty sure college football doesn’t have rules against using electricity or fire, but I bet they’d make a rule pretty quick.

Therefore, the correct answer here is Machamp. The dude has four arms, and they all appear to have hands with opposable thumbs. According to the Pokemon site, Machamp is only 5-3, but weighs 286 pounds. So, while he’s ridiculously small for a tight end, his extra arms make up for it. Plus, he’d be a heck of a blocker.

Forget Gronk, forget Tony Gonzalez, forget Antonio Gates — Machamp goes down as the best tight end in the history of football.

@Dobbe8:

It looks likely that Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Fromm will be first-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft if they declare early. Which other current SEC quarterback is most likely to be a first-round pick (not just limited to 2020)?

You’re right. If Tagovailoa and Fromm declare for the 2020 draft (and they most likely will), they’re likely to be first-round picks. Behind them, there are some interesting candidates for future first rounders.

I’ll give you two answers here, and both will technically be eligible for the 2020 draft, though I don’t expect either of them to actually enter — Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond and Florida’s Feleipe Franks.

I know what you’re thinking. Franks? Really? Yes. He might not have the consistency that NFL scouts want to see, but he has the size and arm strength that they’ll absolutely drool over. If he has a huge 2019 season, we could see him declare. However, I think he’ll return and join a 2021 quarterback class that might be a bit weaker behind Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence.

Mond will be a junior this year and is a true dual-threat quarterback who also has a rocket arm. He had a great 2019, but I think he’ll also read the market and realize that the 2020 draft class is absolutely stacked with quarterback talent. But, as a part of the 2021 class, both Franks and Mond could be first-round picks behind Lawrence.

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.