Courtroom Sacks

It should be clear to anyone who reads these rants that I am a big fan of NFL football; I am not someone who thinks the league is evil or exploitive.  Having said that, the NFL has suffered two recent setbacks in two different courtrooms, and I am happy to see those events.

Jon Gruden is suing the NFL for a variety of things including defamation and job loss.  Back in the days when Danny Boy Snyder was fouling the air with sexual harassment stuff, there was a side issue going on.  The Skins’ former team president somehow got into an email exchange with Gruden about “stuff” and some of the content in those emails was “inappropriate”.  One other side issue, subsequent to those email exchanges, the former team president and Danny Boy Snyder had a major falling out and wound up in court with each other.  And don’t you just know it, those email exchanges with Gruden leaked and Gruden lost his job as the Raiders’ head coach.

Let me be clear, I don’t know all that was exchanged in those emails and I do not condone that sort of behavior among professional adults.  But the fact is that Gruden believes he has a case and took it to court.  And the league’s position was that it had to be handled under Arbitration as described in the CBA.  Here is why Gruden and his legal team fought that:

  • The Arbitration proceedings are private.  There is no public record.
  • The arbiters are chosen by the league (a party to this grievance) and the players union (who does not represent coaches or GMs or team presidents).
  • The final decision-maker after all is said and done is the NFL Commissioner who even under the most benign interpretation of events cannot be considered “impartial” in this case.

At the moment, the existing court ruling is that the case will be tried in open court in Nevada and according to a recent ESPN.com report, Gruden’s legal team will seek to have the Commissioner testify – or at least be deposed – as part of the plaintiff’s case.  A recent filing by Gruden’s lawyers told the court that discovery could take the rest of this year and that they would seek information from Goodell along with:

“… longtime former NFL counsel Jeff Pash, former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder, Raiders owner Mark Davis, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft.

“Gruden’s list also includes designees of the New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. In addition, the filing names Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, several attorneys with Washington law firm Reed Smith and former NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.”

I have no desire to see the NFL damaged by this process, but I am glad that it will happen in open court just the way any other “wrongful termination” or “character assassination” claim would be handled.  The NFL is the “King of Sports in the US”; that does not give it any special privileges when it comes to resolving legal allegations against it.

The second “courtroom sack” for the league involved the Brian Flores allegation of racial discrimination.  Flores along with Steve Wilks and Ray Horton claim that they were denied coaching opportunities based on their race and – as in the Gruden affair – the NFL claimed that it had to be handled by the Arbitration process spelled out in the CBA.  According to Adam Schefter, last week a court ruled that the case would proceed in court and not in the closed Arbitration process.  The attorneys representing the plaintiffs here summed up my sentiments very well:

“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law.  It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”

As I said above, I am as big a football fan as anyone; I follow the game closely.  However, I am an even bigger fan of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution which guarantees everyone “equal protection” under the law.  And the imposition of the Arbitration provisions of the NFL’s CBA in both cases seems to me to be “unequal protection”.  Let the trials begin when the parties are ready…

Finally, I shall close today with some observations by US Supreme court Justices:

“The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth.”  [Justice Anthony Kennedy]

And …

“Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” ­[Justice Louis Brandeis]

And …

“Like other human institutions, courts and juries are not perfect. One cannot have a system of criminal punishment without accepting the possibility that someone will be punished mistakenly.”  [Justice Antonin Scalia]

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

 

 

Clearing Some Of The Clipboard …

Earlier this week, I wrote about NBA teams in “tanking-mode”.  I said then that the situation was bleak but as I looked into team status a bit more, I think this can get even uglier this year.  Two of the “bad teams” that are not trying to win at all costs are the Jazz and the Wizards.  Both of those teams owe draft picks to other teams to fill out trades, and both teams have their outgoing picks “top eight protected”.  Come March/April, both teams will be motivated to lose enough games to assure that they are in the “top eight” of the Draft order for 2026 and that could lead to some outrageous on-court actions and decisions.

Circle March 5th and March 25th on your calendar.  The Jazz visit the Wizards on March 5th, and the Wizards visit the Jazz on March 25th.  Make a note to do anything short of self-immolation in place of watching those upcoming tank-a-palooza games.

Moving on …  Recall that Cleveland Guardians’ pitcher Emmanual Classe stands accused of rigging pitches in games to allow gamblers to collect on in-game bets.  In the original set of charges, Classe was accused of doing that on 9 specific pitch instances in MLB games.  Well, it might be worse than that.  In recently unsealed court records in this case, prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing and Classe’s attorney said there may be “at least or in excess of 250 pitches in which bets were placed.”

Player props and in-game bets make these sorts of scandals far more likely, and I am not sure how they can be avoided because they are so profitable for the sportsbooks even accounting for manipulated results.

Switching gears …  Just about every observer seems to think that MLB and the MLBPA are on a collision course for a rancorous set of circumstances.  In a recent article in The Athletic Evan Drellich wonders if President Trump might seek to intervene.  The President has buzzed into and out of the sports world during his time in office and specifically in the MLB world where he championed the idea of reinstating Pete Rose so that there might be a vote up or down for Rose to be in the Hall of Fame.  There are thousands of permutations on the opinions people hold for or against President Trump and/or Pete Rose; I have no interest in getting into the weeds on all of them.  But this might be an interesting venue for a self-described dealmaker to help forge a deal between two combatants.

There is also an interesting historical angle here.  In 1994, the MLBPA went on strike on August 12th and that resulted in the World Series being canceled.  The President at the time was Bill Clinton and he could have invoked the Taft Hartley Act which would have provided an 80-day “cooling off period” where the players would go back to work while negotiations and mediations happened in parallel.  Eight days starting on August 12th would have yielded a World Series in 1994.  This might get interesting…

Here is a link to an interesting piece in The Athletic on all this …

Next up …  Rumors related to Maxx Crosby and AJ Brown continue to circulate and it depends on the day of the week as to whether the rumors have either player being traded or staying with their team.  Here is a thought:

  • Why not Maxx Crosby for AJ Brown even up?
  • The Eagles can use an edge rusher and – – Lord knows – – the Raiders can use a top-shelf wide receiver.

Why not …?  Justin Verlander will be 43 years old next week; he was drafted into the Tigers’ organization in 2004 and joined the major league squad in 2006.  Now for his 21st season in MLB he has signed a 1-year contract with the Tigers for $13M.  Verlander has not been the dominant Cy Young candidate over the past several seasons, but his career ERA is 3.32 having pitched almost 3600 innings.

This must be a “labor of love” for Verlander because it is hard to imagine that he needs the money.  According to Spotrac.com, Justin Verlander has earned $409,254,888 in career earnings.  Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can’t go home again”; Justin Verlander is out to try to prove Wolfe wrong.

Finally, since I mentioned President Clinton above, let me close with one of his observations about the presidency:

“Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”

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

 

 

MLB And NBA Problems today

With the NFL in the background for a moment or two, MLB and the NBA can step forward into the sports spotlight for a while.  And the two sports arrive at this opening in the fans’ attention with bad news.  For baseball, there has been an ongoing trial of Yasiel Puig related to gambling violations; that trial ended last week, and Puig was found guilty and could face as much as 20 years in prison.

The charges in the case include obstruction of justice and lying to Federal investigators in matters dealing with a gambling ring.  The case has been ongoing for quite a while; Puig is alleged to have begun his gambling activities as far back as 2019 and in 2022, Puig initially agreed to a plea deal where he would have been fined more than $50K and given probation in exchange for a guilty plea; but he revoked that agreement before it went in front of a judge – – so here we are.  The evidence presented at trial points to Puig betting on sports but not on baseball; so that is why he has not been banned by MLB.  According to evidence presented at trial, Puig placed around 900 bets – – and ran up a gambling debt of $300K – – with a bookie who was involved with an illegal betting ring.

A key element of Puig’s defense was that English is not Puig’s native language and that his lack of understanding of English made him confused as he answered the investigators’ questions.  That sort of argument held up in MLB’s consideration of the Shohei Ohtani gambling matter; his interpreter was able to hide all those gambling losses from Ohtani due to language barriers.  Obviously, that argument did not carry the day for Yasiel Puig.  His attorney said they planned to “file post-trial motions” which I guess means they think the defense was wronged somehow in the trial.  The actions involved here go back six of seven years so what’s another year or two added on now?

Meanwhile, over in the NBA, the sport can step out of the shadow of the NFL which has prevented much fan focus since the NBA season began in late October 2025.  However, as it does so, it presents fans with about a half-dozen teams that are clearly tanking and not trying to win games.

  • The Utah Jazz lost a game where none of the Jazz starters played in the fourth quarter.
  • The Washington Wizards traded for Trae Young and Anthony Davis in the last couple of weeks and have shut down both players for the season.
  • The Sacramento Kings have lost 13 games in a row.

And tonight, the Kings will play the Jazz in Utah in what might be hugely entertaining just to see who can tank better.

The obvious prize for tanking in the NBA is to get as good a representation in the draft lottery as possible because basketball is the sport where a single star player can make the greatest impact on team fortunes.  And until and unless the NBA comes to grip with that reality, this situation will come about next year as it has this year and in the past.  It is bad enough watching NBA games where the players on the floor are not giving 100% effort on every play; it is worse to see the subs on those teams on the court while the starters – – nominally the players the league wants to market to the fans – – sitting on the bench twiddling their thumbs.

How might the NBA resolve this recurring pustule on its visage?

  • No team can be in the draft lottery two years in a row – – or maybe three years in a row?
  • Have the 10 teams that are not in the playoffs set up in a bracket where the winner of that “bracket tournament” gets the #1 pick despite the regular season record?  [Aside: If this happens, watch players like Trae Young and Anthony Davis have miraculous healing events take place in April.]
  • It’s a shame there is no easy way to set up relegation out of the NBA and into something like the G-League because that would solve the problem very quickly.

Notwithstanding all the above, there is hope.  Pitchers and catchers have been making their way to Florida and Arizona and Spring Training games will begin in about 2 weeks.  Yes, I know that there will be loads of formulaic coverage of Training Camps and that much of the reporting from there is of no consequence, but Spring Training leads to Opening Day and that is always a welcome occurrence on the US sports calendar.  Just a heads-up there:

  • March 25:  Opening Night.  One standalone game Yankees at Giants
  • March 26:  Opening Day.  Fourteen games that day as the other 28 teams get rolling.

Finally, here is an observation by Samuel L. Jackson:

“Anybody who tells you money can’t buy happiness never had any.”

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

 

 

Rest In Peace, Sonny Jurgensen

Sonny Jurgensen died last weekend at the age of 91.  Jurgensen is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was one of the best pure passers I ever saw.  He was drafted in the fourth round by the Eagles in 1957 – one round later than one of his favorite targets, Tommy McDonald.  After the 1963 season, the Eagles hired a new coach who almost immediately traded Jurgensen to the Skins in exchange for Norm Snead; it was one of the most lopsided single player exchanges ever in sports.  Jurgensen played on some bad teams in Washington such that his overall starting record in the NFL is below .500; nonetheless, he is deservedly in the Hall of Fame

Rest in peace, Christian Adolph (Sonny) Jurgensen.

I saw on one of the sports news feeds this morning that Rick Pitino passed Roy Williams for third place in all-time wins by a men’s college basketball coach.  Congratulations to Coach Pitino for that accomplishment.  And that got me thinking about college basketball and Rick Pitino and the renaissance of St. John’s basketball under Rick Pitino.  As my mind wandered over the old Big East basketball days – – before NIL and even before “one-and-done” – – I remembered some of the St John’s games in that conference.  Back then, when St. John’s played UConn, it was Louie Carnesecca on one bench and Jim Calhoun on the other.  For those of you who are too young to have seen any of those games, let me just say that neither coach was a shrinking violet on the sideline.

Fast forwarding in my imagination made me realize that St. John’s and UConn are in the same conference this year meaning they will play each other and that game would showcase Rick Pitino on one bench and Danny Hurley on the other.  That pairing should equal if not exceed the histrionics level routinely presented by Carnesecca/Calhoun games in the past.  So, just for giggles, I went to see when that game might happen – – hoping that it was not already in the books.  So, circle this date on your sports watching calendar:

  • February 25th at 7:00 PM ET

Both teams are currently ranked in the Top 20, which should make the game on the court interesting.  I am confident that the two coaches will present an exciting show off the court as well.

And while my mind is on the subject of college basketball, this will be the final year for St. Francis (PA) being a part of Division I college basketball.  When the season is over, the Red Flash will drop down to Division III and compete in basketball at that level.  According to reports the impetus for that move is money.  In order to compete in today’s college sports environment, schools need NIL money and St, Francis (PA) does not have any.

The Red Flash compete in the Northeast Conference along with the likes of Long Island University, LeMoyne and Wagner.  St. Francis won the conference tournament last year putting them in the NCAA Tournament field as the conference champion; that placement was in spite of an overall record of 16-17 in 2025 but as conference champs …

After that cameo appearance in March Madness for 2025 – – St Francis lost a play-in game by 2 points – – the school announced its decision to drop down to Division III.  As you might suspect, that created an exodus of the players from that team with remaining college eligibility and in their final Division I season, St Francis now sits in 8ith place in the ten-team Northeast Conference with an overall record of 6-18.  Last year, the Red Flash won its final 6 games including the conference tournament to make it to the “Big Dance”.  The odds weren’t in their favor last year and they certainly are not in their favor now, but you never know …

That overall record of 6-18 may be deflated a bit because St Francis has played road games against top teams around the country as a way to fund its program; top teams pay small schools to come and take a drubbing at the big boys’ homes using those games to enhance their records and as entertainment for their fanbase.  Already this year, St. Francis has lost to Oklahoma, TCU, Xavier, Temple and Florida; there was no way the Red Flash was going to win any of those games and indeed the smallest margin of defeat in them was 22 points (loss to Xavier).  But that is what small schools need to do just to stay afloat these days.

This is yet another unintended consequence of the basic concept of paying collegiate players straight cash instead of reimbursing them with scholarships, education expenses and educational opportunity.  I have been – – and I remain – – fully in favor of players getting NIL money.  At the same time, I can feel bad for smaller schools like St. Francis who may need to drop their Division I status to “stay in business”.

By the way, St. Francis’ basketball program has produced some top-shelf basketball players for the NBA including:

  • Maurice Stokes – – He played 3 seasons in the NBA; he was Rookie of the Year in 1956 and an All-Star in all three seasons.  His career was cut short by a fall on the court that knocked him out, sent him into a coma and rendered him permanently paralyzed.
  • Norm Van Lier – – He played 10 seasons in the NBA; his calling card was defense.  He made the first or second “All-Defense team” in 8 of those 10 seasons.
  • Kevin Porter – – He played 10 seasons in the NBA; he led the league in assists four times and in the 78/79 season averaged 13.1 assists per game.

Finally, it seems proper today to close with these words from St, Francis of Assisi himself:

“Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. He who has persevered to the end will be saved.”

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

 

 

Football Friday 2/6/26

            The lyrics from Willie Nelson’s song back in the 1970s seem relevant to today’s Football Friday:

“Oh, the days dwindle down
To a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days
I’ll spend with you
These precious days
I’ll spend with you.”

            This collection of Football Fridays ends today; it is a precious day; I shall spend it with you.  The football season that began in the last week of August ends on Sunday; news from and about the NFL will not stop, but there will be no reason for a Football Friday for six months.

 

College Football Commentary:

 

            There really wasn’t any groundbreaking news on the college football front in the last week; so, let me take some oblique items about the NFL which have a “college flavor” to them and include them under this heading…

            This information came to me in an email from a reader – – and a frequent commenter – – about two weeks ago.  Currently there are 5 colleges/universities in the US that have graduated both a Super Bowl winning QB AND a US President:

  • Delaware:  Joe Flacco and Joe Biden
  • Michigan:  Tom Brady and Gerald Ford
  • Navy:  Roger Staubach and Jimmy Carter
  • Stanford:  Jim Plunkett/John Elway and Herbert Hoover
  • Miami (OH):  Ben Roethlisberger and Benjamin Harrison

            And so, you ask, why does this belong in this particular Football Friday.  Here is the deal:

  • If the Pats win on Sunday, the University of North Carolina will join that list with Drake Maye as its Super Bowl winning QB and James K. Polk as its US President.

            Now, I would not want anyone to think that I am biased toward Drake Maye in Sunday’s game for that collegiate tie-in to the game; therefore, I shall include one more college-flavored item about this year’s Super Bowl game featuring Sam Darnold.  Unless he gets run over by a bus between now and game time, Sam Darnold will be the first QB out of USC to start a Super Bowl game.  When I read about that status, I was surprised because USC has produced a lot of highly regarded QBs who were high draftees by NFL teams since the Super Bowl came into being.  Consider:

  • Matt Cassel
  • Pat Haden
  • Rob Johnson
  • Matt Leinart
  • Carson Palmer
  • Rodney Peete
  • Mark Sanchez
  • Caleb Williams

            There are probably others that did not come to mind as I pondered Sam Darnold’s stature as the first Trojan QB to start a Super Bowl game.

 

NFL Commentary:

 

            Over the last two weeks, I got two emails from the “reader in Houston”.  He is an acquaintance of “Mattress Mack” – – the Houston entrepreneur who owns furniture stores in the area and who offers promotions in those stores related to “Mack’s” gambling on sporting events.  “Mack” often wagers on Houston teams, and I was surprised that he did not have a bet on the Texans at the start of the playoffs.  Nonetheless, here is his promotion for this year:

  • “Mack” has bet $2M on the Pats to win the game straight up at +200 odds.
  • Any customer who bought a mattress for $4000 or more in a time window prior to the game will be fully reimbursed if the Pats win. 
  • If the Pats lose, sleep tight…

            That third entry on the list above is mine; “Mack” would know better than to be that snarky.

            Evidently, “Mack” has not been faring all that well with his large wagers recently; presumably he has ameliorated some of those losses with increased sales in his stores.  The reason I say that is the closing line in one of the emails from the “reader in Houston”:

“Based on Mack’s recent history, bet the house, ranch, and kitchen sink on Seattle SU.”  [SU = Straight Up]

            Speaking of wagering, back in August 2025, the odds on the Pats making it to the Super Bowl were +8000 and the odds on the Seahawks making it to the Super Bowl were +6000.  If you had parlayed those two futures wagers and put $100 on the wager, you would now be looking to collect $494,000.00.  Nope, I did not have that one either…

            Looking back on the NFL season, there were some significant events in the 2025 season; some will be “historic” in the sense that they were a first – – like Sam Darnold’s start in the Super Bowl on Sunday; others will have consequences in future seasons.  Here is my retrospective on some big happenings in no particular order:

  • Mike Vrabel turned around the fortunes of the Pats
  • Ben Johnson turned around the fortunes of the Bears
  • Liam Coen turned around the fortunes of the Jags
  • John Harbaugh was fired in Baltimore
  • Mike Tomlin stepped down in Pittsburgh
  • Tomlin – – with Aaron Rodgers – – produced another winning season in Pittsburgh
  • Both coaches of the two NY teams had very bad seasons
  • Raiders hired and fired Pete Carroll in the same season.
  • Bill Belichick was not elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
  • The Chiefs missed the playoffs this year
  • The Cowboys traded Micah Parsons away to the Packers
  • Philip Rivers made a cameo appearance as a QB after about 5 years in retirement
  • Myles Garrett set a new single-season record for sacks.

            The Pro Bowl as an institution exposed itself once again as a fraud.  There were 3 QBs on each team; here are the three QBs that showed up for the AFC:

  1. Joe Burrow – – No problem
  2. Joe Flacco – – He was traded in mid-season and then benched around Thanksgiving
  3. Shedeur Sanders – – He threw 7 TDs and 10 INTs in 2025.

            And if that list is not sufficiently embarrassing, consider that the Cleveland Browns had two of those three “Pro Bowl QBs” on their roster at the start of the season and posted a record of 5-12-0.

 

The Game:

 

(Sun 6:30 PM ET) Seahawks – 4.5 vs. Pats (45):  The game will take place in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA – – the home field for the Niners.  The spread for the game has been virtually unchanged for the last two weeks; occasionally, the spread jumped up to 5 points for a short time and this morning there is still one of the sportsbooks that I check offering the game at 5 points. 

The same situation applies to the Total Line; the oddsmakers and the betting public are looking for a low scoring event.

The Money Lines for the game as of this morning are

  • Seahawks at minus-230 to minus-245 depending on which sportsbook you use.
  • Pats at +195 to +205 depending on which sportsbook you use.
  • Again, these numbers have seen only minor fluctuations for the last two weeks.

I will be interested to see how Mike Vrabel and his staff have chosen to work on defense here.  I think Vrabel is a “Belichick disciple” in that he wants to take away from the Seahawks that element of the Seahawks’ offense that is most threatening.  And therein lies the choice:

  • Do you try to “take away” Jaxon Smith-Njigba?  Or …
  • Do you try to “take away” Kenneth Walker III?

If I were making the choice there, I would “take away” Kenneth Walker III because if the Seahawks cannot run the ball effectively, that will allow the Pats’ Front 7 to pressure Sam Darnold and that is the vulnerability in Darnold’s game – – under pressure he sometimes makes “bad decisions”.  However, Walker is not nearly the big-play threat that Smith-Njigba is and that is why I have a hunch the Pats will try to take him out of the game with Christian Gonzales and some safety assistance.  That could very well work – – but it will give the Seahawks a less predictable offense and some greater comfort for Darnold.

I think both defenses are excellent and that is why I think it is important for each team to get into a situation where their offenses are not predictable.  For the Seahawks, it is the ability to run the football effectively; for the Pats it means keeping the game as a one-score contest all along. 

The Super Bowl is the only time in the season where I predict the exact score of a game and a key element of the contest:

  • Final Score:  Seahawks 27  Pats 17
  • Key Element:  Seahawks sack Drake Maye 4 – 5 times in the game

            Finally, Vince Lombardi was the winning coach in the first two Super Bowl games back in the mid-60s; I will close out these Football Fridays with some of his thoughts:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

And …

“We didn’t lose the game, we just ran out of time.”

And …

“If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score.”

And here is Lombardi’s view of college football …

“A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.”

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

 

 

 

Washington Post Sports Is No More

Two days ago, many folks commemorated “The Day the Music Died” – — the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper; today we should contemplate and come to terms with the death of the Sports Department at the Washington Post.  According to reports some of the sports staff will be reassigned to other sections of the paper; the rest are free agents in sports parlance.

Many folks outside the DC area probably think of the Post in terms of its investigative reporting like Woodward and Bernstein breaking the Watergate miasma; as a subscriber to the paper for the last 56 years, I recognized that the sports staff there was as good if not better than just about anywhere else in the country.  In addition to beat writers for local teams and folks who covered leagues or sports via a synoptic view, the Post sports section had great columnists – – and I mean great in the literal sense of the word.  Over the years I have been reading it, the Sports Section has had contributions from the likes of Shirley Povich, Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, John Feinstein, Tom Boswell, Norman Chad, Sally Jenkins, Christine Brennan, Jerry Brewer, Ken Denlinger, Dave Sheinin – – and probably another half dozen or so that do not spring to mind right now.  In case you are not familiar with the work of those people, let me assure you they were all informative and entertaining.

Recently, the NY Times eliminated its sports department and sports section in the paper, but the Times replaced it with The Athletic which does not provide “beat coverage” for local sports but does provide coverage and commentary at a more general level. There is no indication that there will be a similar “replacement” offered by the Post.  The NY Times seems to be surviving its sports shutdown, but before concluding that the Post will come out of this time in a positive direction, let me offer a cautionary note from right here in the DC area.

If you do not live in this part of the world, you may not know that there is another daily paper in the area – – the Washington Times.  About fifteen years ago, the Washington Times shuttered its sports section and offered no replacement coverage.  That shutdown was brief indeed lasting about six months before the Times started it up again and it was back to approximately what it had been in less than a year.  The reason for that was reported to be a precipitous drop in circulation numbers for the Washington Times.  Back then, the Post had a vibrant sports section and its dominance of the local market was magnified by the absence of any competition at all from the Times.  The current situation is the mirror image of about fifteen years ago; it will be interesting to see if the Post suffers significant subscription cancellations and if the Times sees an increase.  Stay tuned …

I mentioned The Athletic in passing above; there was a report there last week saying that the Athletic Department at Rutgers University lost more than $70M last year AND that was the third time in the last five years that the deficit had been of that magnitude.  I am not surprised that Rutgers runs a deficit athletically; I cannot think of a sport where Rutgers is a “must see” team today and it has been decades since Rutgers was a major participant in college basketball.  Here is why this is surprising to me:

  • Rutgers is part of the Big-10 and therefore gets its share of the fat media rights package that comes from Big-10 football even though Rutgers is not much more than a football doormat.
  • So, with that revenue inflow, how does Rutgers run up that big a deficit while remaining irrelevant in Big-10 athletics?

Moving on …  When the results of the Super Bowl next week are recorded, the New England Patriots will take the lead in one NFL statistic no matter what the outcome of this year’s game might be.  As of today:

  • Most Super Bowl Wins – – Pats 6 and Steelers 6
  • Most Super Bowl Losses – – Pats 5 and Broncos 5

            Ergo, as of next Sunday night, the Pats will either hold the record for most Super Bowl wins or most Super Bowl losses.  Take it to the bank …

Finally, here is an interesting perspective by author Ambrose Bierce:

“History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.”

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

 

 

Two Conundrums Today …

The NFL coaching game of musical chairs has come to an end.  No Black candidates filled any of the ten openings; so, now we will go through a short cycle of racial analysis of the entire NFL’s owners’ thinking.   According to the reports I have read, there are no allegations that any of the ten teams seeking new leadership on the sidelines violated the Rooney Rule meaning that all ten hiring teams interviewed at least two Black head coaching candidates.  So, how can that be?

First, as you read or hear from any of the commentators who will cite this situation as prima facie evidence of systemic racism, please note that one of the coaches hired in this cycle is an Arab-American of the Muslim faith.  Robert Saleh is now the coach of the Tennessee Titans and that biographical data does not fit squarely with the portrait of bigoted white owners assuring the purity of the photo that might be taken of all their head coaches.  I mention it here because it will not be a prominent part of the mind-reading exercise that will be forthcoming.

There is a Black head coaching candidate out there who can easily be held up as a victim in this hiring cycle.  However, the Brian Flores situation has extenuating circumstances.  One can easily make the case that Flores should not have been fired by Miami in 2022; he had been on the job for 3 seasons and had posted a winning record in the two seasons prior to his being fired.  Nonetheless, he was fired and in the hiring cycle of 2022, Flores alleges he was the victim of racial discrimination and has sued the NFL and three specific teams for redress of that grievance.

Two of the teams as defendants in Flores’ lawsuit are the Giants and the Dolphins.  Those two teams – – both seeking new coaches in this cycle – – specifically have more than sufficient reason not to hire Flores as of this date and the other eight teams looking for new sideline leadership might have a basis for seeing him as an antagonist at the moment.  I believe that Brian Flores would be a good head coach for an NFL team, but I understand how he might be starting at a disadvantage in his interview processes based on his legal allegations just as easily as that disadvantage might be due to his skin color.

I think this situation is set up to be an annual occurrence.  There is no reasonable mechanism one could impose on the NFL owners to maintain a specified level of minority coaching representation around the league; hiring and firing decisions are going to reside with each team.  And in that case, analyzing individual hirings requires knowing what is in the minds and hearts of the individual owners.  At this point, what springs to mind is the introduction to a radio program from the 1940s, The Shadow.  Each mystery episode began with:

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows…”

Unfortunately, “The Shadow” is a fictional character, and we cannot avail ourselves of his fictional insights and abilities.  When you hear or read declarative statements about how this hiring cycle proves that race is the key factor in NFL hiring decisions, please remember that “The Shadow” is a fictional character.

Moving on … The “scoop-du-jour” this morning is that – – like Bill Belichick – – Robert Kraft will also not be revealed tomorrow night as an entrant into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  As with the coaching debate from above, this report will conjure up some natural discussion points.

  • Is this a “league sanction” levied because of Kraft’s alleged dalliance in that “massage parlor” incident?
  • If Belichick was being “punished” for the scandals that occurred in his time with the Pats, is Kraft being similarly “punished”?
  • Is this all being orchestrated by the NFL to assure that Belichick, Kraft and Tom Brady all go into the Hall of Fame in the same class since they were together atop the NFL for more than a decade?
  • You get the point …

Here is another area where too much analysis and assertion depend on abilities reserved for “The Shadow”.  And in my mind, it obscures another topic that might be interesting on its own:

  • Other than the owners who founded the NFL and persisted with the league long before it became an economic behemoth, why are modern owners even in the Hall of Fame?
  • Other than raise a lot of money to buy a franchise with the intent of making a ton of money once installed as the new owners, what do current owners do that is “Fame-worthy”?

I think the gatekeepers for the Hall of Fame – – in all sports not just in pro football – – have two equally important mandates:

  1. Enshrine worthy candidates as soon as possible – – AND – –
  2. Keep unworthy/marginally worthy candidates out forever.

Only when those two mandates are enforced together will the Hall of Fame in question be a tribute to “greatness”.  There may be years when no one is considered worthy of induction and there may be years when the floodgates swing open.  That’s OK if it preserves the Hall of Fame as a bastion of “greatness”.  The very fact that there is a predetermined number of potential candidates in any given year means that “greatness” – – at best – – is on an equal footing with other criteria for induction.  Moreover, allowing a decade or so of eligibility for induction also speaks to the downgrading of “greatness”.  Think about it; after a player retires for 5 years and then is on a Hall of Fame ballot for 10 more years, he has done nothing to enhance or detract from his worthiness for enshrinement.  All that has been known for what seems like “forever”.

Finally, a closing thought today comes from author, Nelson Boswell:

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake.”

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

 

 

College QBs And NFL QBs

The Las Vegas Raiders are expected to draft Fernando Mendoza with the overall #1 pick in the NFL Draft in April – – or they might trade the pick to another QB-needy team, and the Raiders will try to fill out a badly constructed roster with the bounty from that trade.  The point here is that Heisman Trophy winner, Fernando Mendoza is destined to be the overall #1 pick.  That Draft is still almost 3 months into the future and so, a lot can change; but the idea that Mendoza will go off the board first seems reasonable to me.

I agree that he is the best QB prospect this year – – and the emphasis there is on the word “prospect”.  The NFL is resplendent with examples of great college players – – QBs particularly – – who just cannot translate their excellence to the NFL level.  And to that end, allow me to present the NCAA QBs who had the most TD passes in a single season.  For some of these players, I suspect that many folks here will not recognize the name – – let alone where the QB went to college.  Moreover, only one of these players has had a successful – – albeit still incomplete – – NFL career:

  1. Bailey Zappe – – 62 TD passes in a single season – – W. Kentucky
  2. Joe Burrow – – 60 TD passes in a single season – – LSU
  3. Colt Brennan – – 58 TD passes in a single season – – Hawaii
  4. David Klingler – – 54 TD passes in a single season – – Houston
  5. B.J. Symons – – 52 TD passes in a single season – – Texas Tech
  6. Dwayne Haskins – – 50 TD passes in a single season – – Ohio St.
  7. David Carr – – 50 TD passes in single season – – Fresno St.
  8. Sam Bradford – – 50 TD passes in a single season – – Oklahoma
  9. Brandon Doughty – – 49 TD passes in a single season – – W. Kentucky
  10. Anthony Gordon – – 48 TD passes in a single season – – Washington St.
  11. Derek Carr – – 48 TD passes in a single season – – Fresno St.
  12. Case Keenum – – 48 TD passes in a single season – – Houston

            College football and NFL football are two different games and projecting success at the college level onto the NFL level is not an easy thing to do – – particularly at the QB position.  On that list of 12 highly competent QBs in college, I would argue that only one – – Joe Burrow – – is rightfully compared to the top NFL QBs as he was compared to top college QB.  In addition to Burrow:

  • The Carr brothers – – David and Derek – – were starters in the NFL for several years but neither ever really ascended to “star status”.
  • Sam Bradford made a lot of money off NFL owners and GMs who signed him to big contracts, but he never “lit it up” at the pro level.
  • Maybe – – MAYBE – – some day Dwayne Haskins might have become a competent QB in the NFL but the Grim Reaper saw to it that we will never know if that might have happened.

The NFL and NCAA football are different games particularly for QBs.  When a college QB who has innate/God-given talent breaks the huddle and “surveys the opposing defense”, the chances are that he might be playing against one or maybe two defenders who are of NFL caliber.  Most college QBs in most of their games have a couple of opposing defenders who are – – to be polite – – easy pickins.

Now take that same QB to the NFL and when he breaks the huddle and “surveys the opposing defense” he is going to see 11 NFL caliber defenders staring at him fully anticipating making his life miserable at best.  Sure, some defenders are better than others; and indeed, the QB’s coaches will try to exploit the weaker defenders on the other side of the ball.  However, that “weak sister” on an NFL defense is still a mile-and-a-half better than what the new NFL QB was used to facing in his college days just a year ago.

This is not a knock on Fernando Mendoza; I think he fully deserved to win the Heisman Trophy; I will in my Pre-Draft Analysis come April call him out as the best QB in the Draft.  And, frankly, I hope he works out positively for the Raiders or for whichever team trades with the Raiders to acquire Mendoza.  But it is not a layup …

I think the overriding way of looking at this Draft-and-Hope Scenario is the sports version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  In quantum physics, you cannot know the position and the velocity of a particle exactly at the same time; the more precise you are in measuring one of those variables, the less precise will be your measurement of the other.  Here, the more you know about college football stats does not diminish the uncertainty of projecting a player into the NFL at a competent level, but it is still not an exact science.

Finally, the only person who can logically close today’s rant is Werner Heisenberg:

“Certainly, in the course of time, the splendid things will separate from the hateful.”

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

 

 

The Business Side Of sports

Late last week, government regulators approved a deal between ESPN and the NFL wherein the NFL gets a 10% stake in ESPN and ESPN gets a couple more games to televise and control of NFL Network and the Red Zone Channel.  Various reports have called this a “blockbuster” and a “multi-billion dollar deal”; normally, I would associate those sorts of labels to deals that would have a positive effect on my life; in this case, I sense there could be more negative than positive effects.

ESPN is a far cry from what it used to be.  I know that the “E” in ESPN stands for “Entertainment”; but in the beginning, it was mostly sports.  Now ESPN shows us some sports but most of its time on the air is filled up with talking heads talking about sports.  And because the NFL has brilliantly devised an information space that fills up the entire calendar, much of what ESPN talks about is NFL football.  Don’t get me wrong, most of that the NFL does is good stuff and the league does it quite well; but they are not perfect.

So, in the circumstances where the NFL “screwed up” on something, how am I supposed to hear ESPN’s take on the issue when the “offending party” so to speak is a 10% owner of the reporting entity?  The terms “journalism” and “journalist” get tossed around prodigiously these days adorning lots of people that I do not consider performing anything resembling “reporting” or “investigating” or “enlightening”.  So, if I now have to consider that the person on my screen talking to me is also and employee of the entity being “reported upon”, should I believe much of what they are saying?

One item in the reports of this agreement is not yet clear to me.  According to the report in The Athletic,

“The NFL and ESPN will do away with the “Monday Night Football” doubleheaders, shifting four of its overall games to NFL Network.

“ESPN will broadcast 28 games per season, including NFL Network’s seven. NFL Network retained three games it already had. ESPN previously had 25 games. The NFL took back four games that it is expected to sell, potentially to one of the streamers.”

It is not clear to me where those four “MNF doubleheader games” will sit on the NFL schedule next season.  Clearly, they will not be on Monday nights, but where might they be going?

Moving on …  There was a report in the Washington Post last weekend under the headline:

  • NFL may not be done adjusting its kickoffs

Two years ago, the NFL got rid of the “old-fashioned kickoff” opting to try what was basically a UFL version of the play.  The intent at the time placed a large focus on trying to minimize player-injuries on kickoffs – – a goal that most people should find agreeable.  In Year One, there was a dramatic decrease in injuries attributed to kickoffs despite a greater number of attempted returns; however, in Year Two, the number of concussions was increased as compared to Year One.  Therefore, the league’s Competition Committee is going to take a look at the current situation and see if there are ways to make it better.

Personally, I think the rules need to be tweaked.  Absent the injury dimension, I greatly prefer the “old-fashioned” kickoffs – – the ones still in use in college football.  Yes, there are more returns now that the NFL “penalizes” kickers who simply put the ball into the stands beyond the end line eliminating the possibility of any return.  However, the greater number of kickoff returns have begun to look formulaic.

  • Kicker pins the receiver near one sideline around the 5 yardline
  • Defenders hem the receiver in on that side of the field.
  • Tackle occurs somewhere between the 25 and 32 yardline.
  • First and ten…

I do not want to see more injuries; if the NFL’s numbers say that the new rules show an increasing number of concussions, they need to change something.

Switching gears …  If I have followed this story sufficiently closely, the NY Jets have fired just about everyone on the coaching staff save for the Strength Coach and the Special Teams Coordinator.  A season record of 3-14-0 with a point differential of minus-207 points will do that to a coaching staff.  However, allow me two observations there:

  1. Those guys who were fired were hired about a year ago by Aaron Glenn and Aaron Glenn is going to select the folks who will be the Jets’ coaching staff next year.
  2. Should the Jets stink again in 2026, there might not be a large number of others for Aaron Glenn to blame for poor performance; the records may show some sort of consistency but in the coaching staff there is very little that would be constant year over year.

Finally, I’ll close today with this from Margaret Mead:

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”

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

 

 

Football Friday 1/30/26

This is the next-to-last Football Friday for the season; my long-suffering wife suggested that I would be happy to see all of that “deadline pressure” finished until late next summer.  She doesn’t understand the rhythm and the focus that Football Friday brings to the table.  I will actually miss doing these after next week.

As usual, I shall begin here with the results from last week’s “Betting Bundle”:

  • Spreads and Totals:              2-0-0
  • Season to Date:                     42-43-2

And …

  • Money Line Parlays:             0-1                   Loss = $100
  • Season to Date:                     17-26               Profit = $357

  

College Football Commentary:

The TV numbers are in for the CFP Championship Game between Indiana and Miami, and the numbers are most impressive.  I have no idea how the Nielsen folks make their determinations of audience size, but here are the data:

  • Average viewing audience = 30.1million viewers
  • Peak viewing audience = 33.2 million viewers

Even if those numbers are inflated somehow by 25%, that is still a huge TV audience for a game involving one team that is the antitheses of a “college football blueblood.”  According to one report I read, this was the largest TV audience for something other than an NFL telecast since Game 7 of the 2016 MLB World Series.  In case you don’t immediately recall that watershed event, it was the Chicago Cubs that won that Game 7 over the Cleveland Guardians giving the Cubbies their first World Championship since 1908  Oh, by the way, that baseball game went into “OT” or extra innings as they call it in baseball.

NFL Commentary: 

The Baltimore Ravens hired Jesse Minter to be the successor to John Harbaugh in “Charm City”.  I am not going to pretend to know a lot about Jesse Minter other than to say that he was the Defensive Coordinator for the Chargers in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.  It would be difficult to suggest that he was a failure in that role.  One thing is certain in that hiring decision; the Ravens’ coach should bring a much younger perspective to the job than did John Hartbaugh:

  • John Harbaugh will be 64 years old in September 2026
  • Jesse Minter will be 43 years old in May 2026

Meanwhile, the Steelers hired Mike McCarthy as their new head coach.  That decision represents two major deviations for the Steelers franchise:

  1. Steelers’ coaches have been on the job for 15 years or more since the late 1960s.  Mike McCarthy will be 63 years old in November 2026; I would not be penciling him in as the Steelers’ head coach come 2040.
  2. Mike McCarthy is basically an “offensive guy”.  The last two Steelers’ coaches – – Mike Tomlin and Bill Cowher – – have been “defensive guys” who have set up the image and the narrative of Steelers’ teams since 1992.

The Cleveland Browns hired Todd Monken as their head coach.  His calling card is as an offensive coordinator; some if not all of his recent success in Baltimore has to be attributed to Lamar Jackson playing the QB position.  I am not a Shedeur Sanders’ hater, but I cannot bring myself to think that Monken will have the same talent level at QB in Cleveland that he did in Baltimore for the last few years.  Then again, Monken is 60 years old and this is his first NFL head coaching gig; it’s not like he is looking at this job as a stepping stone leading to another 25 years in the league.

The Buffalo Bills promoted from within and have hired Joe Brady as their new head coach; Brady has been the offensive coordinator in Buffalo for the last two years.  His ascension to the top job can be seen as organizational stability if that is what you want to see.  However, something about that decision makes little sense to me:

  • In explaining why ownership fired Sean McDermott, one of the major points made was that the owner sensed a hugely negative vibe in the losing locker room after the Bills lost to the Broncos in the Divisional Round of the playoffs this year.
  • Let me assume that the owner(s) indeed sensed all that and that the owner(s) concluded that something had to change and then decided that it was the coach that had to change and not the players or the GM or any other factotum in the organization.
  • OK, so riddle me this…?  Joe Brady was part of the coaching staff in Buffalo in a variety of roles since 2022.  How does he represent an organizational reset to change the vibe in the locker room?

Unless I missed something recently, there are still two open jobs as the head coaches of NFL teams.  The Cards and the Raiders are still prowling about looking for a new leader.  Those are two BAD jobs.

  • Neither team has a bona fide QB.  I think the Kyler Murray Era in Arizona is over and even if the Raiders draft Fernando Mendoza, it will be a while until he possibly leads them to respectability as measured these days by a 9-8-0 record.
  • The Cards spent a lot of money on their defense in the last offseason and it led to nothing formidable on the field.
  • The Raiders have – in my opinion – 4 players on their roster who could be considered “difference makers” if they were not the only players on the roster who were competent pro players.
  • Any coach taking either of those jobs needs to be sure that his agent has an iron-clad clause in there to assure full payment of the deal when – not if – this new coach gets shown the door.

Just for fun, please consider these two coaching records:

  • Coach A:  Nine years with the same team; five times in the playoffs; regular season record = 82-67-0; playoff record = 9-5.
  • Coach B:  Nine years with the same team; eight times in the playoffs; regular season record = 98-50-0; playoff record = 8-8.

            Those two résumés are comparable.

  • Coach B is Sean McDermott who was just fired after losing a playoff game by a field goal.
  • Coach A is Kyle Shanahan whose team was clocked in this year’s playoffs by 5 TDs.
  • Hmmm …

The Pro Bowl Games will happen this weekend and I will miss every moment of the “action”.  However, there is a comment that needs to be made here:

  • It is finally time to apply euthanasia to the Pro Bowl and any of its variants such as a flag football game.
  • Shedeur Sanders was just “elevated” to Pro Bowl status because Drake Maye is otherwise occupied by preparing for a Super Bowl game.
  • Shedeur Sanders threw 7 TDs this year and 10 INTs.
  • Shedeur Sanders is in the Pro Bowl over the likes of Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and/or Trevor Lawrence.  Don’t bother comparing those QB stats with Sanders’ stats.  Oh, and if some NFL “official” says that the likes of Burrow, Jackson and Lawrence were invited to be in the pro Bowl but declined, consider that those players are sending the same message to the league that I will send here – – only in not nearly so subtle terms:
      • If such is the honor of “Pro Bowl Status” as of February 2026, the time has come to – – as George Burns used to say – – “say goodnight Gracie”.

Last week’s Games:

Pats 10  Broncos 7:  I said it at the time and I will say it again here; the game changed completely when the Broncos led 7-0 and had the ball 4th and 1 at about the Pats’ 10-yardline – – and they went for it and failed instead of taking the chip shot field goal.  I don’t know what the analytics say in that situation and I don’t care what the analytics say in that situation, failing to take a two-score lead at that point in the game was a blunder.  For the last decade, the narrative has been that Sean Payton is an offensive genius and a play-caller extraordinaire.  Well not last week…

The Pats’ defense gave up one long completion to Jarrett Stidham in the first quarter and it led to the only score for the Broncos with 10:19 left in the first quarter.  From that point on, the Pats’ defense looked almost like the Steel Curtain Defense; the Broncos gained 59 yards on that early TD drive; for the game the Broncos gained a total of only 181 yards for the day.   Or maybe it was just that Jarrett Stidham demonstrated on a national stage just why he has been a career backup QB since coming to the league in 2019.

Having said all that, let me be clear that the Pats’ offense was not exactly humming along; the Pats Total Offense was a measly 206 yards in the game; that unit will need to do a lot better than that next week.

If you like punts and punt returns, this was a game for you; the teams combined to punt the ball 14 times.

 

Seahawks 31  Rams 27:  There was another play-calling blunder in this game too.  With about 5 minutes left in the game, the Rams had the ball at the Seahawks 6 yardline with a fourth-and-four trailing by 4 points.  Instead of taking the field goal and making it a ”field-goal game” as opposed to a “touchdown game”, the Rams went for it and failed.  [Anyone else see any parallelism here?].

Sam Darnold put to rest the critics for his stinker of a game in the playoffs last year with the Vikes; consider these stats:

  • Darnold: 25 of 36 for 346 yards with 3 TDs and a passer rating of  127.8
  • Stafford: 22 of 35 for 374 yards with 3 TDs and a passer rating of 127.6

Matthew Stafford might just be the league’s MVP this season and Sam Darnold was his equal on this day.  Moreover, in clutch situations, Darnold outplayed Stafford:

  • Seahawks converted 7 of 13 third-down situations
  • Rams converted 1 of 8 third-down situations.

There are no games this week.  Ergo, there is no “Betting Bundle” and the look-ahead to the Super Bowl – – nine days from now – – will have to wait until next Friday.

So let me close this next-to-last Football Friday with these words of wisdom from Bill Parcells:

“I think confrontation is healthy, because it clears the air very quickly.”

And …

“I can’t live my life worrying about something that might never happen.”

And …

“There are two things in New York, euphoria and disaster.”

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