Loose Ends Today …

I want to tie up a couple of football loose ends this morning and then put NFL “news” on hold until the trade rumors and the franchise tag applications take center stage.  The first involves the TV audience for the Super Bowl.  According to the folks who measure TV audiences for a living, the audience for Sunday’s game averaged 113 million people.  That makes it the third largest audience in Super Bowl history and it is a small increase over last year’s game which averaged 112.2 million viewers.

Certainly of interest to the folks “on the business side” of the NFL, the Spanish-language audience for the game averaged 951K people and that audience is the largest non-soccer TV audience ever on FOX Deportes.  That audience is a bit smaller than last year’s Spanish-language audience because last year it was carried by Telemundo which broadcasts to 90 foreign markets and Fox Deportes does not.

Switching gears …  I mentioned on Tuesday that Eagles’ offensive coordinator, Shane Steichen had taken the head coaching job with the Colts.  Yesterday, Eagles’ defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, was named the new head coach of the Cards.  So, in addition to losing some free agents as every Super Bowl team does in the subsequent offseason, the Eagles will need to replace both of their coordinators.  [Aside:  After the Eagles gave up that huge punt return in the final minutes of the game on Sunday, I would not be shocked if the Eagles had a new Special Teams coordinator next year too.]

And … The NFL teams have gone through another coaching cycle and Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, did not get one of the head-coaching jobs yet again.  Before we get a flood of opinion pieces attacking the league and the fans for blatant racism in the hiring processes for NFL head coaches, let me offer a hypothesis:

• The best career move for Eric Bieniemy in February 2023 is to leave the KC Chiefs job and take a job as an offensive coordinator with some other team.

I say that because the offensive success of the Chiefs over the past handful of seasons has a lot of people who are assigned credit for that success.  The Chiefs have a great QB and plenty of skilled offensive players; Andy Reid is well known as an offensive coach and he calls some of the plays himself; Eric Bieniemy does not get to bask in the glow of the Chiefs’ offensive success to the same extent that other offensive coordinators do when their team is recognized as an offensive powerhouse.

Eric Bieniemy needs to get out of the large shadow cast by Andy Reid – – and yes, that is a metaphor for Andy Reid’s reputation as an offensive coach and simultaneously a reference to his ample girth.  The Washington Commanders need an offensive coordinator and they supposedly have an interview scheduled with Bieniemy.  The Commanders have a solid defense; their offense is what let them down in 2022.  That is a job where Eric Bieniemy will be very noticeable if he brings offensive success to the team.  Perhaps, that is the kind of stepping stone Eric Bieniemy needs to get a shot at a head coaching position?

Moving on …  I received an email from Gregg Drinnan – – author of the blog, Taking Note – – with a link to a report that the Canadian Football League (CFL) had “taken over ownership of the Montreal Alouettes franchise”.  Professor Drinnan pronounced this as a good move but it was not clear to me what the “goodness” was all about.  So, I asked …

As one background note, this is the second time in 5 years that the CFL has chosen to take control of the Alouettes’ franchise; the last time they did so, the league sold the franchise to two men – one of whom passed away about a year and a half ago.  The league said lots of positive things about the current owners and the contributions they made to the franchise and to the CFL which seemed a bit confusing to me since the league was taking over the franchise and putting it up for sale once again.

According to Professor Drinnan, this is a “good thing” because there are potential new owners who will be better for the franchise and for the league as shown by the fact that free agents are signing on with the franchise despite some previous ownership issues.  I understand how that makes the franchise takeover a “good thing” because the Alouettes are the easternmost anchor of the CFL and because the franchise has a long history in the league.

While on the subject of the CFL, I also learned recently that my “favorite” CFL player, Bo Levi Mitchell, has been traded from the Calgary Stampeders to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.  As I always say:

• I’m a Bo-liever!

The NFL gave out its season awards last week.  Two things stood out to me:

1. The NY Jets had the Offensive Rookie of the Year (WR Garrett Wilson) AND the Defensive Rookie of the Year, (Sauce Gardner).  I think that merits recognition for the Jets’ scouts and the folks who put together the Jets’ draft board and strategy.
2. The Comeback Player of the Year was Geno Smith.  I think that is a misnomer and/or a mis-categorization.  I have no problem calling Geno Smith the “Most Improved Player” except for the fact that the NFL has no such award.  However, for someone to be the “Comeback Player of the Year”, he needs to have come back to a level that matters.  Up until this year, Geno Smith was a backup QB who pretty much defined “Meh!” at the QB position.  In 2022 he blossomed but that should not make him the Comeback Player of the Year since he probably has no interest in “coming back” to what he was before.

Finally, since today was devoted to tying up some football loose ends, let me close today with a paraphrase of something my 11^th grade English teacher said to me:

“If you want something with no strings attached, you first need to tie up every loose end you can find.”

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