Month: May 2025

Last week, a reader wanted to know my current thoughts about Bill Belichick.  I suspect these are not going to be satisfactory to many folks.  The BIG question in my mind about Bill Belichick is this:

• We know that he is a great football coach and that he had success at the NFL level for about three decades, but can those skills and coaching techniques translate to the Division 1-A collegiate level?

Currently, the “Belichick Story” has nothing to do with that question and had focused in on his “relationship” with a woman one-third of his age.  The intensity of the “investigations” into this “relationship” are even more smarmy than the relationship itself.  By all appearances, they are two consenting adults whose actions are scrutinized only because one of the participants is a “recognizable person”.  So, my current thought on the matter is to ignore this story for a week and it will dry up and blow away.

A secondary question in my mind about Bill Belichick is this:

• Does he really intend to coach football at UNC for real or is this merely a way to assure that his son gets that head coaching gig when Dad bails at the eleventh-hour and fifty-ninth minute?

Once again, a little “benign neglect” [Hat Tip to Daniel Patrick Moynihan] will yield an answer to the secondary question more certainly than any sort of “probing”.

Moving on …  I want to look at the offseason activities of the Pittsburgh Steelers; I think they have been unusual.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the Steelers are the only team in my memory ever to jettison their leading passer from last season (Russell Wilson) and their leading rusher (Najee Harris) and their leading receiver (George Pickens).  I am not trying to say that those three players are great; they are all of “starting quality”, but for a team to clean house to that degree in one offseason is more than unusual.

I mentioned the Pickens trade to the Cowboys last week and I want to elaborate on it a bit.  George Pickens is not the best WR in the NFL, but he qualifies as a starter for a boatload of teams.  The Cowboys got him for a third-round pick in 2026 and a late-round pick-swap in 2027.  Excuse me, that appears to be a stone-cold bargain for the Cowboys who desperately need another WR for their roster.

My guess – – and it is only a guess – – is that the Steelers’ organization had had their fill of Pickens’ antics and just wanted him gone.  Last year, Coach Mike Tomlin said Pickens needed to “grow up in a hurry” after he got two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in a game; and later in the season, Pickens was almost an hour late arriving for a scheduled game.  Now, before you conclude that the Cowboys are the clear winners in this matter, consider that the Steelers have a history of trading away talented wide receivers with “maturity issues” and surviving the aftermath:

1. In 2019, the Steelers traded Antonio Brown to the Raiders for what appeared to be a bag of beans.  Brown never played a down for the Raiders and ended his career walking off the field shoulder pads in hand in the middle of a regular season game for the Bucs.
2. In 2022, the Steelers traded away Chase Claypool to the Bears who subsequently traded him to the Dolphins in 2023.  Currently, he is on a 1-year deal with the Bills.
3. In 2024, the Steelers traded away Diontae Johnson to the Panthers who then traded him to the Ravens in the middle of the 2024 season.  After bouncing around on the waiver wire at the end of 2024, he signed a one-year deal with the Browns for 2025.

The Steelers seem to have a knack for drafting talented – – and flawed – – WRs and then trading them away for seemingly small prices and moving on as an organization.  It will be interesting to see how George Pickens fares with a star on his helmet.

Switching gears …  Darek Carr surprisingly announced his retirement from the NFL over the weekend.  Carr says he has a shoulder injury that requires surgery and rehab that would negate the entire 2025 season and thus he chose to hang up his cleats.  One report I read said that by retiring as opposed to having the surgery and going through the rehab and collecting the guaranteed money in his contract, Carr left $30M on the table.  Not to worry, if my calculations are correct, Derek Carr made something in the neighborhood of $200M over his NFL career; so, you are not liable to see him in a homeless state any time soon.

But leaving $30M “on the table” does make me wonder:

• Did the doctors tell him that the surgery/rehab would be arduous and that there is only a 50/50 chance for a full recovery?
• Does he realize his “fire for the game” is diminishing and his moral compass does not allow him to collect that $30M under “false pretenses”?

I obviously don’t know the answer(s) here, but I do know that the New Orleans Saints have a precarious QB situation now.  Here are the QBs on their roster:

• Jake Haener
• Spencer Rattler
• Tyler Shough – – 2^nd round pick in this year’s Draft.

We saw both Haener and Rattler in starting roles last year.  Neither one inspired much confidence.  The Saints have a rookie head coach (Kellen Moore) whose reputation is as an offensive innovator.  That situation could be fun to watch if it heads in a positive direction or it could be a massive dumpster fire.

Finally, since today dealt with football matters, let me close with something from Bear Bryant:

“If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”

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

 

 

Back from a couple of weeks in Europe visiting Dublin, Budapest, Vienna, Passau, Ringenberg, Nurenberg and Prague.  I am not quite in sync with the Eastern Time Zone of the US and I am not nearly caught up  on all that transpired during my European adventure; nonetheless, I will try to do a quick skimming of the surface regarding the last couple of weeks in sports.

In the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers went out in Round 1 losing to the Timberwolves.  Only once in 5 games did the Wolves fail to hit triple digits on the scoreboard which indicates a porous defense for the Lakers.  Indeed, in the high-profile trade where the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, what the Lakers did was to trade away their only strong defender.  So much for the conspiracy theory that the NBA engineered the trade to get the Lakers into the NBA Finals – presumably against the Celtics – to goose TV ratings with the two blueblood franchises in the Finals.

Speaking of the Celtics, they are trailing the Knicks 2-0 in that second round series.  In both victories, the Knicks rallied from 20 points down on the road to win those games.  Game 3 is tomorrow in Madison Square Garden…  If that game does not draw a big TV audience, the NBA is in trouble.

Gregg Popovich is retiring from coaching the San Antonio Spurs; he is the President of the Spurs in addition to being the head coach; as of now, he will continue in that executive role.  Popovich was an Assistant Coach with the Spurs from 1988 to 1994.  He took over as head coach in 1996 and has been there ever since.  His teams have won 5 NBA championships, and the Spurs lost in the Finals one other time.  His regular season coaching record is 1422-869 (win percentage = .621)  Popovich suffered a stroke in November 2024; he is said to be recovering well, but the idea of continuing with the stress of coaching after such a health scare makes his retirement easily understood.

Personally, I have always admired the way Popovich has dismissed the inane questions put to him by sideline reporters.  Once he was asked on the way into the locker room at halftime of a tie game what he thought the team needed to do in the second half to pull out a victory.  His response was a classic:

“Score more points than they do.”

Moving on …  I was surprised by the precipitous fall of Shedeur Sanders in the NFL Draft.  I said prior to the Draft that I did not think he would be a great first round pick, but he lasted  until Round 5 where the Browns took him as their second QB in the Draft.  My first thought was that scouts had detected a serious flaw in his game but after thinking about it for a while I have another idea.  Maybe – – just maybe – – Sanders suffers from something I will call “Colin Kaepernick Syndrome”.  Hear me out …

• Kaepernick would be the focus of media attention and reporting on any team that signed him and given his absence from the game and his performance in his last games as a regular player, the best he could hope to be is a backup QB.  Teams do not want their backup QB to be a focus for the media; teams want their backup QB to be a wallflower not a spotlight entity.
• Shedeur Sanders may or may not turn out to be a franchise QB someday, but his draft slot says that most scouts/coaches/GMs see him as a project meaning that he will be a backup for some time.  In that case, Sanders would be like Kaepernick and draw attention to himself and the backup QB position which is not what the ideal NFL team model looks like.

The Browns have 3 QBs on their roster already in Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Deshaun Watson; in the Draft the Browns took Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.  There is little likelihood that the Browns will keep all 5 on their books; usually only one player on the Practice Squad is a QB.  Suddenly, the Browns’ Training Camp became a point of interest; can Sanders even make the cut?

The Ravens released kicker Justin Tucker.  Yes, he had a sub-standard season in 2024 but historically, he is one of the best placekickers in NFL history.  The “problem” here is the allegation that he behaved inappropriately with some female massage therapists over the years.  The message there is that it is easier for the Ravens to find a replacement kicker than it is for the team to appear to condone or accept such alleged behaviors.

And of course, the Aaron Rodgers Saga continues.  All signs point to him signing with the Steelers who did not draft a QB until Round 6 last month but you never know with Rodgers.  I have said here before that he is addicted to public attention, and I think that factor is playing into the hemming and hawing at this late date.  Once again, hear me out:

• At least 5 days a week someone writes a story about Rodgers and his “decision” for the 2025 season and beyond.  The day Rodgers signs on somewhere or announces his retirement, those stories 5 days a week will dry up.
• If he signs with the Steelers, the focus will be on how he blends in with the team not about his latest “darkness retreat” or a long weekend on ayahuasca.  He will share the storyline with teammates and with coach Mike Tomlin who does not give the impression that he likes prima donnas very much.
• And to make that storyline reduction even bigger, making his decision final would open the door to another QB “narrative” that is waiting to happen as the Niners and Brock Purdy decide what their future will be after 2025.  Purdy’s contract is up this year; he will make $5M this year.  As a franchise QB, he might ask for $50M per year; should the Niners pay him that much; will they pay him that much?  There is a storyline that could relegate Aaron Rodgers to “old news”.

Meanwhile, the Steelers also traded away WR, Geroge Pickens to the Cowboys.  Mike Tomlin said that Pickens needed to “grow up” related to some of his antics with the team and the local media.  Evidently Pickens – – an above average WR – – remained immature.

Finally, another quote from Gregg Popovich:

“I’m not too interested in talking about the past. It doesn’t do us any good whatsoever.”

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