Al Capp And Carson Wentz

If you are old enough to remember Al Capp’s comic strip, L’il Abner, you probably recall one of the recurring characters named Joe Btfsplk.  Joe was the “world’s worst jinx”; wherever he went, there was a dark raincloud over his head and unimaginable tragedy befell anyone and everyone anywhere near him.  Joe himself was so jinxed that he did not have any vowels in his family name.

I mention that character here because Carson Wentz seems to have been hanging out with Joe Btfsplk a bit too much.  Consider:

• In 2017 – his second year in the league –  he was playing so well that some were mentioning him as an MVP candidate.  Then in Game 13 he blew out his knee and had to watch from the sidelines as the Eagles won the Super Bowl.  Before the injury, fans in Philly were suggesting that Pennsylvania needed to be renamed as Wentzlvania.
• In 2019 with an injury-depleted set of pass catchers, he and Zach Ertz basically willed the Eagles to a winning record and a brief appearance in the playoffs.
• In 2020, his game fell apart; he was benched; he and his head coach had a falling out and he was traded to the Colts – to be reunited with his former offensive coordinator.
• In the first day of training camp this year, Wentz was rolling out on a non-contact practice play and injured his foot.  The injury requires surgery and Wentz will be on the shelf for 5-12 weeks.  [Aside:  That seems to me to be an awfully large time range for his recovery; I hope that does not mean folks are not quite sure what the injury is or what the extent of the injury is.]

Coincident to the misfortune that has come Wentz’ way over the past 4-5 years, the Colts now find themselves in an interesting situation.  At the time of the injury, here were the other QBs on the Colts’ roster:

• Jacob Eason:  He was a 4^th round pick in 2020 but did not take a snap in a game last year.  If he were a horse entering his first race, a handicapper might note that he has good breeding; his father is Tony Eason who was a starting QB for both the Pats and the Jets.
• Sam Ehlinger: He is a rookie out of Texas.  He played well some weeks and marginally well on other weeks in college.
• Jalen Morton:  He is a rookie out of Prairie View A&M.  I have now told you everything I know about Jalen Morton.

I thought that the great irony would be for the Colts to go out and trade with the Bears to acquire Nick Foles.  Recall that it was Foles who subbed in for Wentz in 2017 and led the Eagles to that Super Bowl win.  And it is not as if Foles is “unavailable”; he is #3 on the depth chart for the Bears behind Andy Dalton and rookie Justin Fields.

The Colts went in a different direction – at least for the moment.  They signed free agent Brett Hundley whose career with the Green Bay Packers was to fill in for Aaron Rodgers in 2017 and to go 3-6 as a starter.  And Philip Rivers has recently said that he might – just maybe – consider un-retiring and coming back to the NFL; and he was the Colts’ starting QB for all of 2020.

The Colts were co-favorites to win the AFC South according to Las Vegas oddsmakers along with the Titans.  The win total for the Colts was 10.5.  If Wentz is “ready to go” in 5 weeks, that means he would likely miss one game and the Colts could still be on track – theoretically – for a productive year in 2021.  Of course, if Joe Btfsplk pays another visit, consider the season flushed down the toilet.

Moving on …  Yesterday in the NY Post, there was a column with this headline:

• What to consider when betting on NFL preseason games

The column was by Matt Youmans who was formerly with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and now is with VSiN.  He has a long history of writing about the nexus of sports and gambling and about picking winners.  Personally, I have zero interest in betting on NFL Preseason Games – or Spring Training Games or NBA Summer League Games or … you get the idea.  However, I think the Post headline writer might have done better by this particular column because my immediate thought when I saw the headline was:

• Don’t do it!

Switching gears …  Here is a stat that I ran across that is interesting.  After the All-Star Game, the Atlanta Braves went 9-9 in their next 18 games; that is not particularly interesting as a whole but how they did that is interesting.  The Braves had 9 one-game winning streaks and 9 one-game losing streaks to compile that record.  Someone with lots of time on his/her hands discovered that is the MLB record for alternating wins and losses.  Someone in the Braves’ marketing department should try to get a sponsorship deal with a company that makes yo-yos…

Finally, #1 son is living and working in Ireland and so, I will close today with two observations about Ireland:

“I showed my appreciation for my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.”  George Bernard Shaw

And …

“ The Irish are a fair people – they never speak well of one another.”  Samuel Johnson

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