Blue Links: Winston Reid’s Salary, NWSL, Vermes’ GIF, Zusi the Bachelor and #StayAtHomeChallenge

With the world seemingly grinding to a halt in the last few weeks, it’s easy to miss news from Sporting Kansas City and other soccer related items when everything is seemingly about the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Here are a few things you may have missed in the last few weeks.

Winston Reid’s Salary Potentially Revealed

When Reid signed on loan from West Ham United before the 2020 regular season, it was met with mixed emotions. Some of that was put at ease when the terms of Reid’s loan was revealed. In the last few weeks, it appears his salary information has come out. Reports are that West Ham is paying a staggering 85 percent of Reid’s £70,000 per week salary. According to our own Mike Kuhn that breaks down to about $700,000 that Sporting KC are paying of Reid’s apparently $4.6 million annual deal.

That’s a lot of money still, but much less so in the current MLS climate. If Reid pans out, you get a Premier League quality defender on a deal that can be bought down with Targeted Allocation Money (TAM). Only time will tell the contribution level he has with the club.

The GIF Heard Round the World

If you don’t spend much time on social media, you still probably saw Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes drop the F-bomb several times against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

This GIF made the rounds on social media and even made it onto the national sports news as well as Highly Questionable with Dan Le Batard. In a media day interview on 810 WHB on The Zone, Vermes addressed the GIF. He did confirmed he was saying “f#@k off” but it was in response to a Whitecaps staff member and it was more of a question, which comes across in the GIF.

Overall, the interview is worth a listen and there are also interviews with Graham Zusi and SKC CEO and President Jake Reid.

Graham Zusi the Bachelor

In that same series of interviews on The Zone, Graham Zusi dropped an interesting nugget. Zusi was discussing Daniel Salloi appearing on a local event called The Bachelor Live (which unfortunately was cancelled due to the Coronavirus) and he told a story about how ABC wanted him to be The Bachelor around the 2014 World Cup. Zusi turned it down to the dismay of all the lovely ladies who missed that opportunity.

I’ve personally never seen the show as I try not to watch reality television at all, but even that may have peaked my interest.

NWSL Broadcast Deal

While the season is currently on hold due to COVID-19, the NWSL announced a new broadcast deal last week.

“The partnerships will begin this season and will feature 87 NWSL matches through CBS, CBS Sports Network and CBS All Access. Meanwhile, Twitch will air 24 free matches in the U.S. during the regular season this year.”

The announcement was met with some controversy as CBS All Access is yet another streaming service that some won’t be able to afford. CBS is a big platform, Twitch is free but there are still some questions as to why the league would limit some of their fans access to the games that end up on All Access.

Benny Feilhaber and Rasslin’

Just after Benny Feilhaber retired All Elite Wrestling (AEW) made an appearance in Salt Lake. Good stuff.

Update 3/18: Originally this story said this was the WWE. My apologies, it is a different wrestling organization.

#StayAtHomeChallenge

MLSsoccer.com compiled several Tweets from the #StayAtHomeChallenge that is trending on Twitter. As we all try to observe the guidelines from the CDC about Social Distancing, soccer players are doing their part to entertain us. Daniel Salloi and Botond Barath make an appearance. Do they live together?

Here is the Twitter hashtag if you want to follow that.

The Blue Testament will continue to bring you all the soccer news we can find. But while the world is stuck at home, what are you doing to pass the time? Watching something good? Video games? Something else? Let us know in the comments below.