The Sports Curmudgeon

If you look at the MLB standings as of this morning, your attention must be drawn to the two Western Division races.  The top two teams there – – Dodgers/Padres and Astros/Mariners – – are in a virtual dead heat.  However, there is another division race that could become very interesting over the next several weeks; I speak here of the NL East.  For the moment, the Phillies lead the division by 6 games over the Mets.

Moreover, the Mets have been in a tailspin; back at the beginning of August, the Mets were leading the NL East and here they are 6 games back at the end of the month.  However, the schedule might be set up for the Mets to make a run.

• Last night the Mets led off a three-game series in Philly winning 13-3 cutting the lead to the 6-game mark as of this morning.
• After two more games in Philly this week, the two teams meet again for a 4-game series in NY starting September 8^th – – just 12 days from now.
• In 7 games head-to-head between the Mets and the Phillies this season, the Mets lead the series 5 games to 2.
• In addition to the six games against the Mets, the Phillies other opponents include Brewers (3 games), Dodgers (3 games) and the D-Backs (3 games).

This schedule situation comes on the heels of some seriously bad news for the Phillies’ pitching staff.  Last week it was reported that Phillies’ ace Zack Wheeler had a blood clot in his throwing shoulder.  Subsequent tests and diagnosis revealed that surgery would be needed on that shoulder to alleviate venous thoracic outlet syndrome.  Any folks reading this who have medical training of any kind should go and get a cup of coffee for the next couple of paragraphs as I explain what I think venous thoracic outlet syndrome is:

1. In some people, the muscles – or even a bone sometimes – can apply pressure to veins in the shoulder area that restrict the blood flow there causing clotting.
2. People who use their arms in repetitive motion are significantly more prone to this condition than other folks – – consider swimmers, bowlers, baseball pitchers.
3. Estimated rehab time is 6-8 months, meaning Wheeler is out for the rest of the MLB regular season and the playoffs.

One report I read said that pitchers who have to undergo this type of procedure have an 80% recovery rate.  That is good news for Phillies’ fans.  Let me offer one word of caution here:

• Remember, I come to you from “Curmudgeon Central” and not “Palazzo Pessimismo”; nevertheless, this is the surgery that ended the career of Stephen Strasbourg about 5 years ago.
• Obviously, I hope Zack Wheeler comes back from his rehab regimen in the 8-month window and can start for the Phillies on Opening Day 2026.
• However, …

Moving on …  I spent some time yesterday watching part of the final Exhibition Game between the Rams and the Browns.  I was interested because reports said that Shedeur Sanders had “struggled” in the game and that he might lose his place on the Browns’ roster as a result.

Sanders did indeed struggle; here is his stat line for the game:

• 3 of 6 for 14 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs

He also took a huge sack on a play where he needed to throw the ball out of bounds because he had three pursuers and had no chance of escaping them.  I don’t know that he jeopardized his roster spot with his performance last weekend – – we’ll know that later today as cutdowns are coming – – but I came away with the conclusion that I was right back in April when I said this about my assessment of Shedeur Sanders as a QB prospect:

“Shedeur Sanders – Colorado:  Most folks have him as the second QB off the board.  My comments were ‘very accurate on short passes’ and ‘plays the screen game well’ and ‘far less athletic than his genetics would imply’.  He will go in the first round, but I think he is ‘a project – not a Day One Starter’.

Obviously, I got the “Round One” part wrong, but as for the rest, I think it is correct.  Some folks have argued that there was some sort of conspiratorial activity back in the Draft that dropped Sanders to the 5^th round before he was picked and then others – – or maybe the same conspiracy theorists using a different nom de guerre – – were sure that Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski was intentionally trying to make Sanders look bad because he only let him play with the third and fourth stringers in the Browns’ camp.

I think all of that is unadulterated Balderdash.  Shedeur Sanders is not a stiff; he is not someone whose only claim to fame is his father’s accomplishments.  He may some day become a good NFL QB – – but that day is not likely to be in 2025 or even 2026.  I think he needs to learn how to play QB from the pocket and how to give up on a play when that play is blown up by the defense.  He did not do those things when I watched him at Colorado, and he will have to learn to do those things if he hopes to hone his skills and become an NFL starter.

This may be a level of humiliation that is beyond tolerance, but I think Shedeur Sanders would benefit greatly from a season in the UFL.  It is too early for NFL teams to write him off, but he needs to play against competent-if not-great defenders to raise his own game skills.

Finally, having mentioned the surgery on Zack Wheeler above, let me observe that it does not fit the definition of “Minor Surgery”:

“Minor Surgery:  Any surgical procedure that is carried out on someone else.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

At this time last year, I deviated from earlier practice.  Instead of one massive NFL pre-season analysis, I broke it up into smaller and more digestible pieces.  After reviewing that modification, I decided to do it the new way once again this year.  And so, today will be my look at NFL coaches on a hot seat.

There are not a lot of NFL head coaching jobs – – 32 of them to be exact and there is a huge supply of folks out there who would love to “give it a go” in such a role.  Normally, that would create a buyer’s market for owners and meager leverage for agents and wannabe coaches.  Not so.  The owners’ competitive nature is a wild card in that market; few if any of them like to sit back and watch their colleagues win championships while they sit on their thumbs.  There are big financial commitments at stake here and there is a significant churn in the coaching population.  Going into this season, there are 7 new head coaches in the ranks; there have been years with even greater turnover.

I have broken up the coaches into 4 general categories which I will explain as I get to them.  Inside the categories, I will list the coaches alphabetically and will include a comment for all the individuals on the lists.  Enough preamble …

The first category is the No Way They Get Fired List.  I have 10 coaches on this list; I think it would take something like incontrovertible video evidence of someone on this list in a carnal relationship with a barnyard animal to get them fired.

1. Dan Campbell – Lions:  Turned the franchise around.
2. Jim Harbaugh – Chargers:  I think he will win the AFC West this year.
3. John Harbaugh – Ravens:  He is a Baltimore institution.
4. Sean McDermott – Bills:  His Bills should win the AFC East again for the sixth season in a row.
5. Sean McVey – Rams:  He mentioned that he was considering retirement a couple of years ago; he may do that, but he will not be fired.
6. Sean Payton – Broncos:  The Broncos’ team momentum is on the upswing.
7. Andy Reid – Chiefs:  He will be the coach of the Chiefs until he decides to retire.
8. DeMeco Ryans – Texans:  He took over a team that had gone 11-38-1 over the previous three seasons and has won the division two years in a row.
9. Nick Siriani – Eagles:  He has made the playoffs in all four years in Philly and been to the Super Bowl twice in that time.
10. Dan Quinn – Commanders:  Such a marked improvement over predecessors from the last 20 years.

            The next category is First Year On The Job Coaches.  I have seven folks so designated here.  Any of them could be fired with a disastrous performance – – see Jerrod Mayo and the Pats and/or Antonio Pierce and the Raiders  last year – – but it would have to be dumpster-fire bad to have that happen.

1. Pete Carroll – Raiders:  Even Mark Davis is not dumb enough to fire someone of Carroll’s stature after one season on the job.  The Raiders were a significantly flawed roster last year; if Carroll can make the team into a “break-even proposition” this year he would be a first-class hero.
2. Liam Coen – Jags:  This is his first gig as a head coach anywhere.  The Jags only won 4 games last year; that is not a high bar to cross.
3. Aaron Glenn – Jets:  The Jets have had nine consecutive losing seasons.  If the Jets win five or six games this year, Glenn will be back in 2026.
4. Ben Johnson – Bears:  Expectations here are sky-high.  Johnson is a “certified offensive genius”, and Caleb Williams is proclaimed as a “generational talent”.  What could possibly go wrong?
5. Kellen Moore – Saints:  I do not have a good feeling about the Saints in 2025.
6. Brian Schottenheimer – Cowboys:  I think he is safe this year simply because I don’t think Jerry Jones would want to face criticism for his choice of Schottenheimer in the first place.
7. Mike Vrabel – Pats:  The Pats stunk in spades last year; Vrabel was successful with the Titans and the expectation in New England should be “an improved team.”

My next category is difficult to label so I’ll just call it I Don’t Expect Vulnerability Here But I Would Not Be Shocked Either.  There are seven entries on this list.

1. Todd Bowles – Bucs:  It pains me to put hm on this list because I think he is an excellent coach.  He has been on the job for 3 seasons and has won the NFC South every year – – but his record in doing so is only 27-24-0.
2. Matt LaFleur – Packers:  The vulnerability here is that his record in the playoffs is 3-5-0 while his overall regular season record is 67-33-0.  Some folks see that as ‘underachievement” …
3. Mike MacDonald – Seahawks:  He had a solid “rookie season” with the Seahawks in 2024 finishing second in the division at 10-7-0.
4. Raheem Morris – Falcons:  The last time the Falcons had a winning season was back in 2017; Morris posted the best record since then last year at 8-9-0.  Unless the Falcons’ record craters in 2025, Morris should be safe.
5. Kevin O’Connell – Vikes:  His regular season record with the Vikes is 34-17-0; he was the Coach of the Year in 2024.  Why isn’t he on the “No Way” list?  His Vikings are 0-2 in the playoffs.
6. Kyle Shanahan – Niners:  This will be his ninth season with the Niners; he had them in the Super Bowl two years ago and then bombed out last year with a 6-11-0 record.  By the way, that was his fourth losing season in eight tries.  If this year is another losing season, there could be an upheaval in Santa Clara …
7. Mike Tomlin – Steelers:  No, I have not ingested any hallucinogens today.  Mike Tomlin and the Steelers’ organization are bedrock stability in the NFL structure and Mike Tomlin’s teams have never had a losing season over the last 18 seasons.  Looking at that record of success, one is probably surprised to learn that the Steelers last won a playoff game in 2016 and that the Steelers are 3-9 in the playoffs since the year they won the Super Bowl.

And finally, we come to those Coaches Who Are On A Hot Seat for 2025.  I have eight names on this list – – 25% of the NFL head coaching cadre.

1. Brian Callahan – Titans:  He was 3-14-0 in his first year with the Titans.  That roster was not well constructed; recall that the Titans shed themselves of Derrick Henry and AJ Brown in the two seasons prior to the debacle in 2024.  Nonetheless, without improvement in 2025 – say 5 or 6 wins – there could be a change in Tennessee; the fact that the Titans play in the lackluster AFC South opens the door for an improved record.
2. Dave Canales – Panthers:  He was 5-12-0 with the Panthers in his rookie season last year.  He works for an incredibly impatient owner.  End of message…
3. Brian Daboll – Giants:  He has been the head coach there over the past three seasons.  The Giants won 9 games in Year 1; the Giants won 6 games in  Year 2; the Giants won 3 games in Year 3; that is a disastrous trend line.
4. Jonathan Gannon – Cards:  This will be his third year with the Cards; the first two years produced a meager record of 12-22-0.  However, the Cards doubled their win total in 2024 as compared to 2023.  He will get off the hot seat if the upward trend continues – – but with a regression …
5. Mike McDaniel – Dolphins:  He has been in Miami for 3 seasons; the Dolphins made the playoffs in the first two of those seasons albeit losing in the wild card round of the playoffs both times.  Last year the team went 8-9-0 and I think this year might just be a litmus test for McDaniel.
6. Kevin Stefanski – Browns:  It is almost unfair to have him on this list.  He has been with the Browns for 5 seasons now – – and that should knock plenty of time off his stint in Purgatory down the line.  In the first four seasons, his Browns were 37-30-0 notwithstanding the fact that the team was saddled with Deshaun Watson and his bloated contract.  Then last year was a disaster at 3-14-0.  The “Cleveland QB Circus” remains in town so I have no idea what might be an acceptable record in 2025 for him to keep his job.
7. Shane Steichen – Colts:  This will be his third season with the Colts and the team record in the first two seasons is an underwhelming 17-17-0.  He may need a playoff appearance to save his position.
8. Zac Taylor – Bengals:  The Bengals have finished 9-8-0 in each of the last two seasons and have missed the playoffs which many folks see as underperformance.  A big reason to suspect that Taylor will survive even if the Bengals miss the playoffs again is that he is under contract through 2026 and the Bengals’ owner, Mike Brown, notoriously does not like to pay people who are not “on the job”.

As usual, this set of prognostications will be subject to post-mortem analysis at the end of the NFL season.

Finally, this perspective from former NFL RB, Ricky Williams:

“If you want to surf, move to Hawaii. If you like to shop, move to New York. If you like acting and Hollywood, move to California. But if you like college football, move to Texas.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Notwithstanding the fact that no one on the planet awaited this moment with bated breath, the calendar now says it is time for Football Friday to return to this lonely Internet outpost.  Folks who have been on this journey for a while can put their minds in neutral for a moment while I explain to more recent followers here what is going to happen on most Friday’s from now until Super Bowl Weekend.  Friday’s rants will focus on college and professional football in a relatively structured way.

Each week, I will present a “Betting Bundle” – – usually between 3 and 6 games – – where I think the oddsmakers have the lines wrong.  In addition, I will usually include a Money Line Parlay or two just for fun,  The next week’s version of Football Friday will begin with a review of the outcomes of those imaginary wagers and parlays.

I will track the progress of my previously identified “Sleeper Team” in college football for 2025 – – Georgia Tech – – just because it does not take a huge effort to do so.  Next, I will track the progress of the Linfield University Wildcats football team.  The reason is that Linfield has had a winning record in Division III football every year since 1956.  Interestingly, in that lengthy span of winning seasons, the Wildcats only “squeaked by” with 5-4 records 4 times.  That is mirrored by the fact that Linfield has had 5 undefeated seasons in football during that streak.

With preliminaries out of the way, there will be college football commentary reviewing some games from the previous week and the games on tap for the week at hand.  As the season progresses, there are some imaginary events I like to pretend are real:

• I track the teams in contention for what I call the Brothel Defense Award.  It goes to the team that gives up the most points per game for the season.  It gets its name from the fact that it is easy to score in a brothel.
• At the end of the year, I imagine a tournament to determine on the field of play the worst team in college football; I call it the SHOE Tournament where “SHOE” is an acronym for “Steaming Heap Of Excrement”.  It is a simple 8-team field selected by a Committee of One – – me – – and the rules are straightforward.  As games are played, the loser must play on until there is only one ultimate loser left to make fun of.

After that tomfoolery, there will be NFL commentary, a review of previous games and a look at the games on tap for that weekend.

That summarizes the content.  There will be weeks when there is no Football Friday because some other life event or family involvement will make such an offering impossible.  But I will try to keep those interruptions to a minimum.

•            OK, long-term readers; it’s time to pay attention again …

Obviously, there is no “Betting Bundle” to review from last week since this is the start of a new season nor has Georgia Tech played a game that counts.  As a Division III school, Linfield has a 9-game regular season that will not begin until September 6^th so there is no tracking of progress toward another winning season there for a couple of weeks.  So that brings me to…

 

College Football Commentary:

 

            Two years ago, Northwestern fired head coach, Pat Fitzgerald, when hazing incidents surfaced at the school.  Fitzgerald denied any knowledge of whatever happened and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school seeking $130M in recompense.  That lawsuit was settled earlier this week; I have not seen a report as to the details of the settlement but there is one report of a statement by Fitzgerald after the fact:

“For the past two years, I have engaged in a process of extensive fact and expert discovery, which showed what I have known and said all along — that I had no knowledge of hazing ever occurring in the Northwestern football program, and that I never directed or encouraged hazing in any way.”

And …

“Through discovery, I learned that some hazing did occur in the football program at Northwestern. I am extremely disappointed that members of the team engaged in this behavior and that no one reported it to me, so that I could have alerted Northwestern’s athletic department and administrators, stopped the inappropriate behavior, and taken every necessary step to protect Northwestern’s student athletes.”

Pat Fitzgerald was a successful coach at Northwestern given that the school played in the Big-10 and is a “disadvantaged conference member”.  In his 17 years at the school, his teams won 10 or more games 3 times, which is spectacular, given the football environment in which that happened.

The NCAA put another coaching behavior matter to rest last week.  The “Michigan sign-stealing scandal” is no more and the NCAA made it clear that they believe that former Michigan coach, Jim Harbaugh, was not an innocent bystander in the matter.  Without going into details, Harbaugh cannot be hired to coach at the Division 1-A level of college football without the school producing a “show cause order” to the NCAA stating how and why such a hiring is necessary.  That “banishment” will be in force until 2039 when Jim Harbaugh will be 76 years old and unlikely to be seeking college football employment.

That punishment is mostly symbolic; what is not symbolic is that Michigan will be fined $20M as part of the punishment.  That will not bankrupt the Athletic Department, but $20M is indeed a lot of cheese.

Last year, the Big-12 had 5 teams that finished with conference records of 7-2.  If you believe the oddsmakers, the Big-12 will be wide open again this year.  In the futures wagering structure for this year, there are six teams with odds between +550 and +800 to win the conference championship – – and get an invite to the CFP.  Those six teams are:

1. Texas Tech (+550)
2. Utah (+550)
3. Arizona State (+600)
4. Kansas State (+600)
5. Baylor (+650)
6. TCU (+800)

The Big-12 may not have the best teams in the country, but the conference is one that needs to be followed just for the potential drama from week to week.

And speaking of the oddsmakers, there is one aspect of college football that I wish would be eliminated.  I refer here to the intentional scheduling of gross mismatches by almost all of the best teams in the country.  I know; there has been progress in recent years; some of the best teams do schedule out-of-conference opponents who are of a similar caliber.  Nevertheless, there are still too many games where the oddsmakers see the outcome as a 5 or even a 7 TD spread.  Those games are not interesting or entertaining.  When a mismatch occurs between two conference members, such a situation cannot be avoided; but the cupcake scheduling out of conference should be an embarrassment to the schools and to the folks who run college football.

Now before anyone starts to think that I am dissing college football as an entertainment vehicle, that is not the case.  However, a game where the halftime score is 45-3 is not entertaining and college football has produced lots of real entertainment so that blowout waste of time stands out like a sore thumb.  You want an example of an entertaining game from the past?

• October 2016 – – Texas Tech versus Oklahoma
• QBs were Patrick Mahomes versus Baker Mayfield
• Sooners won 66-59 with no overtimes
• Mayfield was 27 of 36 for 545 yards and 7 TDs with 0 INTs
• Mahomes was 52 of 88 for 734 yards and 5 TDs with 1 INT
• Total Offense in the game was 1708 yards – tackling was optional that day.

In the past, Penn State was called “Linebacker U” with justification.  It turned out some outstanding linebackers for the NFL.  Under the radar however is the fact that Penn State could also be labeled “Running Back U” – – and I don’t just mean Saquon Barkley.  Consider:

• KiJana Carter – – Overall #1 pick in the Draft but blew out a knee
• Franco Harris – – Pro Football Hall of Fame
• Larry Johnson – – Gained more than 1700 yards in one season
• Lenny Moore – – Pro Football Hall of Fame
• Miles Sanders – – Lead RB on a Super Bowl team

I seriously think that the current lead back at Penn State – – Nick Singleton – – could join that list; he is that good.

 

NCAA Games This Week:  Since there are only 5 games this week involving Division 1-AA teams, I will treat all of them as “Games of Interest”:

 

Iowa St. vs Kansas St. – 3 (50.5): Game is played in Dublin, Ireland.  That’s right; the first game out of the gate is a matchup in the highly unpredictable Big-12.The rivalry between these two rural schools is known as “Farmageddon” and the line opened at 3.5 points.  It then jumped briefly to 4 points and then scooted down to the current 3-point level.  I cannot pretend to know enough about these two teams to make a “Betting Bundle” selection, but I do notice that K-State is returning more starters on offense than I-State – – if that means anything to anybody.

Sam Houston St. at W. Kentucky – 10.5 (61):  This is a conference game between two teams that had winning records overall in 2024.  Sam Houston St was 10-3 overall and 4-1 in conference while W. Kentucky was 8-6 overall and 5-1 in conference.  Could be a good game to watch …

Fresno St. at Kansas – 12.5 (51):  This line has jumped all over the place.  It opened at 14.5 points; it went up to 15.5 points for a while and then started dropping like a rock.  It is at this level this morning, but momentum seems to be clearly with Fresno St. for the moment.

Stanford at Hawaii – 2.5 (50):  Stanford started out as a 2.5-point favorite and now Hawaii is the 2.5-point favorite.  I think Stanford is going to have a “difficult season” in 2025; Andrew Luck is their football GM and not their QB; were he their QB, they might be CFP contenders.  It is not easy for teams from the Lower-48 to schlep to Hawaii for a game; last year Hawaii was 4-3 at home and no one thought of Hawaii as a powerhouse.

Idaho St. at UNLV – 24.5 (64.5):  With Boise St. defecting from the Mountain West Conference, it looks as if UNLV could step in as the conference bully.  Idaho St. is a Division 1-AA team from the Big Sky Conference who finished 5-7 in 2024.

It is far too early in the season to make “Betting Bundle” picks but just to get things started here is a Money Line Parlay for this week:

• K-State @ minus-155
• Hawaii @ minus-130   $100 wager wins $191.07

 

NFL Commentary:

 

I am still working on NFL things like season predictions and coaches on hot seats and things of that ilk which will appear throughout next week – – and will be subject to post-mortem reviews next January/February.  However, there were a couple of news items from this week that deserve attention.

The Colts announced that Daniel Jones would be their starting QB – – not just for Week 1 but for the 2025 regular season.  The immediate reaction to that news from Colts’ head coach, Shane Steichen, was that Jones had won the QB competition in Training Camp with Anthony Richardson.  And indeed, that may be the case.  But I think it is interesting to take stock of those two QBs:

• Neither player has been anything more than “barely adequate” for all their time in the NFL.
• I think Anthony Richardson has the higher ceiling because he is an athletic freak.
• I think Daniel Jones has the higher floor because Richardson has a propensity to go into brain-lock and make disastrously bad plays
• If my analysis above is even close to correct, the real interpretation is that Shane Steichen did not have much of a choice to begin with.

The Colts enjoyed a long period of QB stability.  Peyton Manning played there for a long time, and he was succeeded by Andrew Luck.  However, Luck retired after 2018 and here are the Colts’ starting QBs since then:

• 2019 – – Jacoby Brisset (15 games)  Bryan Hoyer (1)
• 2020 – – Philip Rivers
• 2021 – – Carson Wentz
• 2022 – – Matt Ryan (12 games) Sam Ehlinger (3) Nick Foles (2)
• 2023 – – Gardner Minshew (13 games) Anthony Richardson (4)
• 2024 – – Anthony Richardson (11 games) Joe Flacco (6)
• 2025 – – The eighth straight year with a different starting QB in Week 1.

One good thing going for Daniel Jones as the Colts’ starter is that rookie tight end, Tyler Warren, should provide him with a security blanket as an outlet receiver and as a pass blocker.

There is a completely different vibe surrounding the Giants’ QB situation.  Russell Wilson has been named as the Game 1 starter but the fanbase there has put itself into a state of orgasmic delight with rookie Jaxson Dart.  His play in the preseason games has given Giant’s fans hope they have not had for a while now; the last time the Giants won the NFC East Division was in 2011.

• [Aside:  Let me pat myself on the back here for a moment.  Back in April as we approached the NFL Draft, I said this about Jaxson Dart, “Frankly, he might be the best pro QB from this year’s crop.”  Giants’ fans hope I am correct.]

Frankly, the entirety of the Giants’ QB situation in 2025 looks significantly better than it did last year.  Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Jaxson Dart are a more positive troika than last year’s ensemble of Daniel Jones, Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito.

Browns’ head coach, Kevin Stefanski, announced the resolution of part of the Browns’ QB “situation” this week.  Joe Flacco – – at age 40 – – will start the season under center.  In this week’s Exhibition Game against the Rams, Flacco will start and then be followed by Dillon Gabriel who will then give way to Shedeur Sanders.  That could mean that Kenny Pickett is the odd-man-out in Cleveland – – or it might mean that Pickett is going to be retained, and this game is to determine if Gabriel or Sanders is the rookie to hang onto a roster slot.  This one seems to remain up in the air.

I find it stunning that two of the best pass rushers in the NFL remain unsigned at this date AND that one of them – Trey Hendrickson – is being mentioned as a trade candidate by the Bengals.  The other player in a similar situation is Micah Parsons but there are extenuating circumstances in Dallas that tend to explain his situation.  Jerry Jones notoriously stretches out signing his star players and that has been the case ever since Emmitt Smith and through the years with the likes of Dez Bryant and Dak Prescott.  But Hendrickson has no such atmosphere about him; he is simply dealing with an organization that tosses nickels around like manhole covers.  The Bengals have a top shelf offense and a next-to-dysfunctional defense.  Hendrickson is the best player on that defense, which can hardly stand to get any worse if the Bengals hope to reap benefits from the offense they have assembled.  Yes, it takes the ability to score points to win football games.  It also helps a lot if you can stop the other guys from scoring once in a while.

The coaching roster in the AFC West is a formidable lineup; I cannot recall anything as imposing.  Consider:

• Broncos – – Sean Payton – – He has been to the Super Bowl as a coordinator and he has won a Super Bowl as a head coach.
• Chargers – – Jim Harbaugh – – He has been to the Super Bowl as a head coach and has won a collegiate National Championship via the CFP.
• Chiefs – – Andy Reid – – He has been to the Super Bowl 5 times and has won the Super Bowl 3 times.
• Raiders – – Pete Carroll – – He won a Super Bowl as a head coach and he won 2 Associated Press collegiate national championships.

The closest I can come to such a lineup would be the NFC East back in the 1980s when the coaches were Tom Landry (Cowboys), Bill Parcells (Giants) and Joe Gibbs (Skins), all of whom are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Just to review, there is a Money Line Parlay inserted above:

• K-State @ minus-155
• Hawaii @ minus-130   $100 wager wins $191.07

Finally, these words from Tom Landry:

“Confidence comes from knowing what you’re doing. If you are prepared for something, you usually do it. If not, you usually fall flat on your face.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Late last evening, I was gathering information about college football to use tomorrow for the inaugural Football Friday for the season.  And then, I went down a rabbit hole for about two hours chasing stuff that is not sufficiently material to be called “ghosts”.  Let me use this morning to take you on this journey into phantasmagoria…

It all began when I ran across the fact that UMass will be part of the MAC this year.  I guess I should have known that – – but I did not – – and the news struck me in a curmudgeonly way.  I often make fun of MAC football, particularly those televised games in late October/early November on Tuesday nights when one can count the house on TV because no one is there.  Added to that sort of scorn is the fact that some teams in the MAC recently have been “less than fully competent” on the field.  Kent State last year was the only winless team in Division 1-AA and they won the Brothel Defense Award for 2024.

I figured that UMass would fit right into the MAC.  In fact, UMass is a two-time winner of the Brothel Defense Award back in 2021 and then again in 2023.  I was contemplating a competition between UMass and Kent State in a “race to the bottom” and immediately found that UMass will visit Kent State on October 11^th.  It was at this point that a thought entered my mind:

• The MAC is where high school football aspirations go to die.

I quickly realized that it was way too harsh.  I know that Ben Roethlisberger played for Miami (Ohio) and went on to recognize his football aspirations.  I also know that Jason Whitlock played for Ball State and even though Whitlock never made it to the NFL, he has been hugely successful as a sportswriter and TV commentator.  That is when the rabbit hole appeared, and I saw a white rabbit scurry into the hole with me in hot pursuit:

• Has the MAC produced solid NFL players?

The short answer is, “Yes”.  However, the way I got to the point where I could say something so terse took about two hours of Googling.  From that search, I am confident that Ben Roethlisberger is the best QB to have emerged from the MAC, but I was surprised to find as many pass catchers of note who were MAC alums:

• Antonio Brown (Central Michigan)
• Julian Edelman (Kent State)
• Antonio Gates (Kent State)  HoF
• Randy Moss (Marshall)  HoF

I only found one running back who ”made it” in the NFL out of the MAC.  Michael Turner (Northern Illinois) played nine years in the NFL and was invited to the Pro Bowl twice and made the All-Pro team once.

That is not a long list of offensive “producers” coming out of the MAC and the reason for that seems to me to be that there have been some outstanding defensive players from those schools.  Just consider these four linebackers who are MAC products:

• James Harrison (Kent State)
• Jack Lambert (Kent State)  HoF
• Khalil Mack (Buffalo)
• Jason Taylor (Akron)

Two defensive linemen you have heard from and about who played in the MAC were:

• Maxx Crosby (Eastern Michigan)
• Bob Rowe (Western Michigan)

It is too early to know if Quinyon Mitchell (Toledo) belongs to a compendium such as this, but he certainly had a highly competent rookie season for the Eagles in 2024.  Clearly my idea that the MAC is a graveyard for high school football aspirations was overblown – -but I could not stop there and get on with what I started out to do.  No, I then wondered:

• Has UMass sent any talent ahead to the NFL that is comparable to other MAC schools?

From my set of Google inquiries, the short answer to that is, “No”.  Here is what I found to be the notable UMass contributions to professional football:

• Victor Cruz – – WR
• Vlad Ducasse – – OL
• Greg Landry – – QB

Looks to me as if UMass will need to step up its game to keep pace with its new conference compatriots …

I hope this journey into chasing ghosts has been entertaining – and sufficiently scary – such that you do not allow yourselves to get sucked into similar vortices in the future.

Finally, the only way to close out today’s rant is to hear from Lewis Carroll:

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

And …

“That’s the reason they’re called lessons, because they lesson from day to day.”

And …

“She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

On Opening Day for the MLB 2025 regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers had the eighth lowest expenditure on player salaries in the game.  According to USA Today back in April 2025, the Brewers payroll was $115,136,277.  Let me ignore that level of specificity and say the payroll was $115M.  Here is perspective on that figure:

• Five MLB teams – – Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays – – had Opening Day payrolls MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH as the Brewers did.
• The Brewers’ payroll was $5.5M LESS THAN the Colorado Rockies’ payroll.
• Five of the seven teams with payrolls less than the Brewers’ payroll – – Marlins, A’s, Rays, White Sox, Pirates – – are notorious for keeping player costs well below league average.

And yet, as of this morning, the Milwaukee Brewers sport the best record in MLB by a comfortable margin.  The Brewers are 79-45; that is 7 games better than the Blue Jays who hold the second best record as of this morning.  On Sunday night, the Brewers had a 14-game winning streak broken by the Reds; that was the second double-digit winning streak by the Brewers for this season.

Can the Brewers keep this up – – or have they “peaked too soon”?  As of today, the Brewers project to win 101 games in 2025; no other National League team projects to win as many as 95 games which means the Brewers may be able to coast into the playoffs rested and refreshed.  That may or not turn out to be a benefit, but I think this year’s “plucky underdog” has been identified.

Moving on …  The Washington Nationals are not presently considered one of MLB/s chronic “low-payroll teams”, but they should get more scrutiny in that department.  The Nats have had some great young talent that they either lost to free agency, or they traded away to avoid having to compete for their services in free agency.  Here is an alphabetical list:

• Bryce Harper
• Anthony Rendon
• Juan Soto
• Trea Turner

When the Nats traded Soto to the Padres, the Nats received an excellent haul of young players who are respectable MLB participants in their early 20s.  CJ Abrams and James Wood will be in MLB for the next decade at least and MacKenzie Gore is reportedly considered a “top-of-the-rotation starter” at the age of 26.  Gore’s contract situation is an interesting one given the Nats’ history of keeping salaries in check.

For 2025, Gore is being paid $2.89M on a one-year deal; that contract was reached as a way to avoid salary arbitration in the last offseason.  Gore faces two more years of potential salary arbitration with the Nats in control, but a pitcher identified as a “top-of-the-rotation starter” is going to be able to point to comparables elsewhere in MLB well in excess of $2.89M.  Just so you know, Gore’s agent is Scott Boras just in case you thought the agent here might be a rookie who could miss such comparisons(s).

There was some rumbling around the trade deadline that the Nats might listen to offers for MacKenzie Gore rather than face off with Boras twice in arbitration and then ultimately in free agency discussions.  Nats’ owners chose to fire their manager and GM in that timeframe and the interim GM held onto Gore as an important asset for the team.  I probably would have done the same were I in that situation; MacKenzie Gore was too young to give up on a month ago; remember, he pitched in the All-Star Game in mid-July of this year.

However, since that All-Star Game appearance, things have not gone well for either the Nats or MacKenzie Gore.  Since the all-Star Game:

• Gore has started 6 times.  His record is 1-4 in those games
• His ERA in those 6 games is north of 8.00.
• In 27.2 innings, he has walked 15 batters and given up 36 hits – – WHIP = 1.85

I will be surprised if the negotiations leading up to and potentially through arbitration in this offseason for MacKenzie Gore do not generate a tad of animosity and I will be very interested to see what sort of contract Gore plays under in 2026 – – because to a large extent, that contract will impact the 2027 contract which is the final year of salary arbitration with the Nats.

Finally, this from P. J. O’Rourke:

“I live in New Hampshire. We’re in favor of global warming. Eleven hundred more feet of sea-level rises? I’ve got beachfront property. You tell us up there, ‘By the end of the century, New York City could be underwater,’ and we say, ‘Your point is?’”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Over the weekend, the English Premier League began its 2025/26 season with ten matches.  At least one of the sides promoted from the Championship won its first game of this season; Sunderland beat West Ham by a score of 3-0.  Sunderland may not remain in this company, but for the moment they are lumped in with Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal; that is heady space for the Sunderland Black Cats.

The folks in the UK take their futbol more seriously than Americans take NFL football or college football.  A former manager of the Manchester United squad – – Alex Ferguson – – became Sir Alex Ferguson when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in1999.  I wondered if that ceremony was solely for his futbol achievements or perhaps if there was some other societal contribution that he had made to his country.  Please do not consider my “research” into that question as extensive or authoritative, but the best I can come up with is that he was knighted for a “treble-winning season” in futbol.  His Manchester United team:

• Won the EPL title – – and – –
• Won the FA Cup – – and – –
• Won the UEFA Champions League – – all in one season.

Ferguson’s time at Manchester United started in 1986 and lasted until 2013.  In that time his teams won the EPL 13 times, and they won the UEFA crown twice.  People said he was a “visionary” in the world of futbol and that he would be a hard act to follow.  I have no idea about his credentials as a “visionary” but since Sir Alex retired in 2013, Manchester United has had 10 managers – – counting those identified as “interims” or “caretakers”.  The longest tenured manager since Ferguson lasted 35 months in the job.  Maybe knighthood was more than well deserved …

Moving on …  The NCAA concluded its investigation into the “Michigan sign-stealing matter” and chose to penalize the school and some coaches for  the infractions.  The NCAA rolled in some recruiting violations as well and handed down a series of penalties for the school and individuals:

• Michigan football will be on probation for four years
• Michigan athletics pay a series of fines and cannot earn post-season revenue for two years.  This agglomeration of financial penalties is estimated to come to $20M.
• There will be some limitations on football recruitment for the next year.
• Jim Harbaugh has an ongoing 4-year “show cause order” which means it would be very difficult for him to get a major college coaching job in that time.  For his lack of cooperation in this investigation, he got another 10 years tacked onto that existing ban meaning he would not be easily hired in college football until 2039.
• Sherone Moore (current Michigan coach) will be suspended for 3 games in this upcoming season.
• Connor Stalions – – the architect of the sign-stealing enterprise – – has an “8-year show cause order” attached to him.

I think the NCAA got this one “more right than wrong” – – and that is not usually what I think about NCAA penalties for rule-breakers.  Please note, there are no “vacated wins” or “any pretense that specific games never happened”.  There is plenty of evidence as to what happened when Michigan took the field and won the CFP under Jim Harbaugh.  Pretending that some other team actually won those games would have been an explicit admission by the NCAA that it was not in a position to hand out any punishment(s).

The NCAA may now realize – – even if they would choose not to admit it publicly – – that college football is simply professional football played by teams that represent colleges or universities instead of cities.  The NCAA hit Michigan where it will hurt for a while –  – in the pocketbook.  Forfeiting $20M in revenue over a couple of years is not nearly a “death penalty”, but it will not be something the Michigan Athletic Department can just laugh at behind closed doors.  These penalties are not symbolic; these penalties are real.

Switching gears …  The flurry of lime-green dildos arriving on the courts during WNBA games seems to have petered out – – sorry, could not resist.  However, I think that if another one should make an appearance in a WNBA venue, we should give the offending member a taxonomic name.  Let me suggest:

• Phallus Felonious.

Finally, it seems proper to close today with this from Sir Alex Ferguson:

“Sometimes you’re not sure about a player. Sometimes you doubt. Sometimes you have to guess. Sometimes… you just know.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

The NFL is clearly the top dog when it comes to pro sports enterprises in the US, but the NFL has suffered a pair of losses in courtrooms this week demonstrating that it is not nearly invincible.  Since the following will deal with legal matters, I need to offer the standard disclaimer; I am not an attorney and my comments here are not to be taken as authoritative in any sense of the word.

Jon Gruden filed a lawsuit against the NFL several years ago claiming that the leaking of some of his emails with an NFL employee led to his being fired by the Las Vegas Raiders as their head coach.  The NFL contends that such a dispute would be handled by the NFL’s closed arbitration process; Gruden wants it out in open court.  The league had a ruling in its favor until this week when the Nevada Supreme Court heard the case en banc and ruled 5-2 that the case would not be heard in the NFL’s arbitration process but that it could proceed in open court.  Even more interesting to me is the statement by the Court in its ruling that the NFL’s arbitration process is “unconscionable”; that statement cannot be welcome along Mahogany Row at NFL HQs.

I have been in favor of hearing this case in court since the filing because there are potentially some salacious details that could be exposed in such a proceeding.  The NFL said it would appeal this ruling to the US Supreme Court and that leads to my uninformed misunderstandings on the matter:

• Many cases that are heard by the US Supreme Court deal with issues of constitutionality.  I cannot point to a part of the US Constitution that favors arbitration over a trial in disputes involving a pro football league.
• Many  cases that are heard by the US Supreme Court deal with issues of Federal Law and adherence with Federal Law.  Once again, I cannot think of a Federal Law that may have been violated by the ruling in Nevada that will be appealed.

If the US Supreme Court refuses to take the Gruden case or if the ruling there goes against the NFL, the league would face a choice.  It could reach a settlement with Jon Gruden, or it can go through a public trial – – with disclosure circumstances.  At least for now, Gruden seems not to be particularly interested in a settlement.  Earlier this week after winning in the Nevada court, he said:

“I’m looking forward to having the truth come out, and I want to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

That does not sound like someone looking for a payday settlement.  In fact, Gruden also said this week that he would really like to get back into coaching at the collegiate level.  Speaking to the Georgia team – presumably at the invitation of Georgia coach, Kirby Smart – Gruden said he very much wanted to get back to coaching and would love to do so in the SEC.  There are chapters yet unwritten in this matter …

The other setback for the NFL is in a similar vein.  Brian Flores and co-plaintiffs have sued the NFL and three individual teams claiming racial discrimination in hiring.  Again, the NFL claimed that this had to be adjudicated in its arbitration format; this week, a US Court of Appeals ruled that at least some of the claims made by the plaintiffs should move forward in the court system.  That ruling by the Court of Appeals confirmed a ruling by a US District Judge about 2 years ago regarding the venue for settling this dispute.

Once again, the league must not be happy with commentary contained in the ruling of the court:

• The Court said that the NFL’s constitution which sets up the arbitration process “contractually provides for no independent arbitral forum, no bilateral dispute resolution, and no procedure.”

And …

• “ … it [the NFL’s arbitration process] offends basic presumptions of our arbitration jurisprudence” because the final decision is to be made by the NFL’s “principal executive officer.”

Here is my takeaway from the above.  If this ruling is affirmed – or allowed to stand – by whatever appeal the NFL makes wherever it makes it, the entire legal foundation for the NFL’s arbitration process is called into question for just about any future confrontation.  Once again, I doubt that anyone was popping champagne corks along Mahogany Row at NFL HQs when this news arrived.

Moving on …  About a month ago, MLB Commish, Rob Manfred, said that he thought the Minnesota Twins would be sold and that the deal would close sometime later this season.  I and some other commentators thought that the Twins’ housecleaning at the trade deadline – – trading away 10 players from their 26-man roster – – was a way to clear the books for the new owner(s).  Not so …

Yesterday, the current owners of the Twins – – the Pohlad family – – announced that they would take on two limited partners but that the Pohlad family would retain control of the Twins’ franchise.  As of yesterday, the two new limited partners were not identified and as of yesterday there is a segment of the Twins’ fanbase that is not happy.  Some have suggested boycotting the team and that would not be good news for the Pohlad family or the new limited partners.

• Twins rank 23^rd in home attendance in 2025 – – 22,721 fans per game
• MLB average attendance in 2025 is 29,301 fans per game

Finally, here is some food for thought from Mark Twain:

“God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports ………

 

 

Last week I wrote that the Colorado Rockies – – despite their horrific record in 2025 – – were drawing above the league average in attendance.  What I said there was:

“I don’t know what sort of marketing magic the Rockies have conjured up, but despite the despicable record by the Rockies, they draw more than the average attendance for all of MLB which is 29,200 fans per game. “

Well, I received a missive from “the reader in Houston” with more than a dozen “bullet points” that contribute to those attendance figures including:

“They are the only MLB team around for almost 1,000 miles with maybe one or two exceptions like KC or Phoenix, so people come from all over the area, including states like Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming; western Kansas, New Mexico.”

“The ballpark is in a very good location with pretty good weather once May comes around.”

“The ballpark has the best background sky in baseball.”

“It’s a hitter’s ballpark often with homers galore and chicks dig the long ball.”

“Denver is a great sports town period (try getting hockey or basketball tickets).”

“You might come up with more reasons, but the bottom line is no matter how lousy a team is, if it’s easy to get to a stadium in a great location and the price is right, why not?”

In addition, he passed along some historical data that I was unaware of:

“The Rox still have the MLB regular season attendance record of 4,483,350 (Bears Stadium sat over 70,000), which was established during their initial season in 1993, which will probably stand for a long time because most stadiums today, even if full every game with the exception of Dodger Stadium (56,000) could not hit the Rox record attendance.”  [Aside:  Did not recall the 1993 stats.]

“The franchise has broken almost every attendance record except for consecutive sellouts. Even when they stink, they were still in the Top 10 most years in attendance average, though in recent years their attendance due to losing records and no big-name stars has trended down into the middle of the pack.”

“The Rox do have relatively poor TV ratings because of their recent losing ways, and though Coors is a great ballpark, there is nothing really magical about it.”

And now you know … thanks to “the reader in Houston”.

So let me stay with the Rockies for one more item today.  Last weekend the Rockies and D-Backs had a game that ended with the Rockies on the short end of a 13-6 score.  The game was in Arizona, so those loyal Colorado fans were not able to see this one in person.  As the D-Backs came to bat in the bottom of the fifth inning, the score was tied at 3-3.  The first two Arizona batters produced routine outs.  Paraphrasing King Louis XV of France:

“Après cela, le deluge …”

The next nine batters for the D-Backs hit safely.  There were no errors or walks or catcher’s interference instances tossed into that stretch; nine straight batters hit safely.  Those nine hits produced eight runs leading to the D-Backs comfortable margin of victory.  Another stat from that game also explains that margin of victory; the D-Backs were far more efficient with their hitting on that day:

• D-Backs scored 13 runs on 17 hits.
• Rockies scored 6 runs on 16 hits.

Quick update here.  The Rockies’ record this morning is 32-88 which projects to a final record of 43-119 giving them a “2-game lead” in the projection over last year’s woeful White Sox.  The Rockies’ run differential is a staggering minus-326 and they could surpass the MLB record from 1932 of minus-349 for a season.

Moving on …  I was sports grazing recently and ran across a Cards/Cubs game in St. Louis; that alone was enough to get me to put down the remote and hang around for a while.  In addition to things happening on the field, what I noticed was the large number of empty seats in the stands in St. Louis AND the significant fraction of the people in attendance wearing “Cubs’ Blue” and not “Cardinals’ Red”.   I made a note to try to explain this “aberration” as I labeled it.

Well, maybe it isn’t that much of an aberration after all.  I have in my mind that Busch Stadium is filled to overflowing with people wearing red-and-white whenever the Cardinals take the field.  The Cardinals were always at or near the top in home attendance and usually had the stadium at capacity whenever a big game or the rival Cubbies were on display.  Not so in 2025 …

• The Cards average BELOW the MLB average home attendance in 2025
• The Cards average about 2500 fans BELOW the Rockies in 2025.
• In the NL, only the Reds, Nats, Pirates and Marlins draw fewer home fans in 2025.

The Cards have been in the playoffs in six of the last eleven seasons but have tended to make early exits once there.  They won 100 games in 2015 but have only gone north of 90 wins twice since then.  Back in “the teens”, the Cards home attendance was always more than 40,000 fans per game peaking at 43,712 per game in 2014.  In 2025, home attendance is averaging only 28,767 which is a drop of 34.2% from that peak.  Even more telling than those raw comparisons, is a peek at the secondary market for tickets to Cards’ upcoming games.  What used to be a hot ticket – – something scalpers sold around the parking lots for three figures – – can now be had for as little as $25 on StubHub.

The 2025 Cards are 61-61 this morning, which is hardly an electrifying record, but the Cards are only 4 games behind in the race for the final Wild Card slot in the NL playoffs; these are not the woebegone Rockies even if this is a “disappointing season” for Cards’ fans.  I have not been to the Cards’ park in person in decades, so I have no way to assess the “fan experience” at Busch Stadium, but I have difficulty accepting that it was a positive experience as recently as 2023 when the Cards averaged 40,013 fans per game and now in 2025 it is as pleasant as a root canal.

Finally, since today has been about baseball – – at least tangentially – – I’ll finish with this from Jim Bouton:

“Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

A week or so ago, there was an article in the NY Times that made this argument:

• MLB should never have a salary cap, and the union should never allow it because it would denigrate the legacy of Curt Flood.

Nevertheless, I plan to suggest here that the upcoming CBA negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA should consider a new structure that includes a salary cap.  I do not think that denigrates the legacy of Curt Flood; the fact that his refusal to be traded away as a piece of chattel property led directly and exclusively to the free agency that exists in all major US sports cannot be changed.  No one else can ever claim that central position on the current status quo.  And just as baseball specifically – – and pro sports in the US more broadly – – needed to evolve from the model that existed in the 1960s and 1970s, so too can there be room for evolution from the current MLB model.

In terms of a financially successful sporting entity in the US, one needs to look no further than the NFL.  It has a salary cap; owners make a ton of money and players earn a ton of money.  The reason those statements are both true is that the NFL earns 2 tons of money and it is shared.  One could also use the NBA as an example of a sports entity where a salary cap exists and both owners and players reap benefits.  So, what sort of model might make sense for MLB and why?

Every NFL fan knows about “the cap” and “cap room” and the ceiling on player salaries that exists for every team.  What many do not know is that the NFL’s CBA also includes a “salary floor”.  It is an amount of money that every team MUST spend on player salaries, and it is there to prevent a team owner from taking the shared revenue money and pocketing most of it.  The salary floor is also a way to add to the competitive balance of the league and competitive balance is usually a positive contributor to total revenue.

The NFL’s salary floor is not a fixed number as is “the cap”.  For reasons that I cannot explain, the negotiators arrived at a formula for figuring out the teams’ salary floors:

• Every team must spend at least 89% of the seasonal salary caps on player salaries over a four-year rolling period.
• For the NFL’s fiscal  years 2020 – 2024, the total salary cap was $870.9M so the salary floor for those four years had to be in excess of $775.1M for each team.
• The NFLPA gets to audit the books regarding salaries and if a team were to fall short of spending for the floor, it must make up the difference in cash to the union who then distributes the money to players who were on the team roster during the years of the “under-spending”.

It may not be exactly accurate for every team; but for the most part, NFL teams have to pay the players on their rosters in 2025 less than a total of $279.2M and more than $$248.5M.  That is a very narrow window as compared to the disparity of player salary expenditures by MLB teams according to these figures for salaries committed to players on the 26-man rosters at Spotrac.com:

• Mets – – $298.0M
• Phillies – – $248.7M
• Dodgers – – $245.5M
• versus
• Nats – – $37.9M
• Marlins – – $36.7M
• A’s – – $31.4M

A salary cap and a salary floor would probably benefit MLB as an enterprise – – providing that the owners do as NFL owners do and share a significant chunk of total league revenue – – and a greater number of players will benefit as well because lots of “low-spending” teams will need to open up their wallets significantly.

The MLB average salary expenditure for the 26-man rosters at the moment is $115.0M  thirteen of the thirty MLB teams are above that average and seventeen teams are below it.  If as a starting point, one says that the average salary cost per team should not go up or down, and that there would need to be a 10-15% gap between the cap number and the floor number, that would mean the putative 2025 figure would be:

• Cap is approximately $121.9M
• Floor is approximately $108.1M

With the floor as stated above, fifteen teams – – half of MLB – – would need to increase their expenditure on player salaries.  Obviously, that sort of team disruption cannot be condoned meaning that there would have to be a ramping up period to achieve better salary equity across the league.  [Aside:  By the way, some of the more penurious owners may not want to spend in such a narrow window and might choose to sell their franchise to the delight of their fans.  Just saying …]

I do not think this sort of contemplation tarnishes Curt Flood’s legacy, nor does it do anything to negate his confrontation of baseball and its “reserve clause”.  To the contrary, what he did was to set in motion the change that happened to MLB in the 1970s which generated the economic conditions that exist today which can be optimized once again.  Thomas Edison invented the light bulb; the fact that we use LED bulbs today does not change that fact nor does it demean Edison and his work.

Finally, these words from Curt Flood succinctly summarize the basis of his fight with MLB:

“I’m a human being I’m not a piece of property. I am not a consignment of goods.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

With the College Football Preview for 2025 in the rear-view mirror, I spent some time yesterday thinking synoptically about things I will want to write about regarding the upcoming NFL season.  There is a rather consistent correlation in pro football:

• The “better teams” tend to have “better than average QBs”.

It can be very challenging to figure out if an “average QB” is going to have a career year upcoming which might translate into a surprisingly good year for the team.  Recall that Jeff Hostetler, Mark Rypien, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson have all been the starting QB on a Super Bowl Champion squad.  All the above is intended to explain how my mind was processing info yesterday afternoon.

• Barring injury, I need not worry about teams like the Bills, Chargers, Chiefs, Commanders, Eagles, Ravens etc. getting positive play from their QBs.
• Barring a miracle, which teams are going to do poorly in 2025 simply because their QBs will be outplayed by most of their opponents?  That is an important question and one that is not easily answered.

As I thought about those teams with problematic QB situations, I came to separate them into two categories – – Potential Trouble and Almost Assuredly Trouble.  I’ll start with Potential Trouble:

• Colts:  Both Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson have shown flashes of ability to date; both have also shown that those flashes are separated by periods of malaise such that neither has been able to establish himself as a solid #1 QB in the league.  Can one of them emerge this year as “the man”?  If neither shows up in that mode, there is no reason to expect help further down on the depth chart from Riley Leonard and/or Jason Bean.
• Jets:  Justin Fields is in the spotlight here.  The Jets will rise and fall with his production.  Behind him are Tyrod Taylor, Adrian Martinez and Brady Cook.
• Seahawks:  Sam Darnold had a wonderful year in 2024; that was the first and only year he was anything better than “merely satisfactory” at QB.  Was that an indication that he has “figured it out” or was that a “one-off aberration”?  Behind Darnold on the depth chart are Drew Lock and Jalen Milroe.
• Titans:  They were a question mark even before Will Levis needed season-ending shoulder surgery.  They have the overall #1 pick from last year’s Draft which will create a tsunami of hope for Titans’ fans.  Sometimes that first pick turns out to be a Joe Burrow or an Andrew Luck or an Eli Manning and all is well in the neighborhood.  And sometimes, that first pick turns out to be a JaMarcus Russell, a Sam Bradford or a Jameis Winston.  The jury is out …
• Vikings:  JJ McCarthy has never taken a snap in a real NFL game.  Behind him are Brett Rypien and Max Brosmer.  The Vikes think McCarthy is the real deal; but if he is not …

            The five teams with Potential Trouble at QB for 2025 are also teams that can be surprisingly positive in the upcoming year.  The next category – – the Almost Assuredly Trouble teams – – ought to be in the mode of battening down the hatches and hunkering down for the next 20 weeks or so.

• Browns:  There is a saying in the NFL: if you have two QBs,  you don’t have a QB.  Well, the Browns currently have SIX QBs on their roster, and they may be hard pressed to find a bona fide starter in that mix.  Forget about Deshaun Watson, he is on IR and is rehabbing an Achillies tendon injury.  Maybe he can be physically available late in the season and maybe not.  The other five QBs on the roster – – in alphabetical order because no other ordering makes sense to me – – are:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Joe Flacco:  He was a Super Bowl MVP – – in 2012.  He is 40 years old.  Flacco will not be an embarrassment on the field; he is too savvy for that.  At the same time, his best years are in the past.
            2. Dillon Gabriel:  A rookie from Oregon.  I did not see him as a top-notch QB in last year’s draft – – but what do I know?
            3. Tyler Huntley:  He has been a competent backup QB in the league but has never made me think he was a “starter in waiting”.
            4. Kenny Pickett:  The Browns will be his third team in three seasons.
            5. Shedeur Sanders:  I did not think he was the top QB in last year’s Draft, but I would start him if I were the Browns simply because he seems to me to have the potential to be better than any of the other QBs on this list for 2025 and beyond.  Put him out there and see if he can produce …

• Saints:  This situation looks to me to be a certified hot mess.  When Derek Carr retired due to a shoulder injury sustained last season, the Saints had no real answer as to who was the “next man up”.  Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler took turns under center, and neither was impressive to be as polite as possible.  The Saints took Tyler Shough in the second round of the Draft; Shough may emerge as the starter there but there are warning signs galore around his candidacy for the job:
  • • He is a rookie AND he is 25 years old.
    • He played at 3 different schools over a 7-year period from 2018-2024.
    • He has an “injury history” in his college career – – collarbone, shoulder and ankle.
• The fourth QB on the depth chart for the Saints is Hunter Dekkers – – an undrafted free agent out of Iowa State and Iowa Western.  The Bible says that the Lord will separate the wheat from the chaff in the final days.  In the NFL, Training Camp is supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak.  I fear that the Saints’ QB situation is all chaff…

Finally, hear this from legendary NFL coach, Don Shula:

“Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………