Benjamin Franklin supposedly said:
“There are two things you can count on: death and taxes.”
I have no intention of upstaging one of our Founding Fathers, but those are but two of the certainties of life. Others might include:
- Next year, there will be a new “fad diet”
- Politicians prevaricate
- Every posting on the Internet is subject to “debate”.
In the world of sports, it seems that there are two ongoing examples of what appears to be “certainty”. The first one comes from Buffalo where the Bills announced that Joey Bosa is injured – – already and again. Bosa was working out with the Bills prior to mandatory mini-camp and pulled a calf muscle in those workouts. He is scheduled to miss minicamp entirely, but the prognosis is that he will be ready for Training Camp in mid-July.
Bosa was a significant signing by the Bills in the off-season despite his injury history with the Chargers. He has been in the NFL for 9 seasons but has missed at least 1 game in 7 of those seasons. Over the last 3 seasons, Bosa has appeared in only 28 of 51 regular season games. Standing in opposition to that injury history, he was the Defensive Rookie of the Year and has been selected to the Pro Bowl 5 times. When healthy, he is valuable.
Basically, the Bills decided to go with Bosa as a replacement for Von Miller and that move makes sense so long as Bosa is on the field. An injury this early in the cycle is not an encouraging sign – – but it is not exactly something out of left field if you will pardon the mixed metaphor.
A second sports example of what seems to be “sports certainty” is another injury report out of Indy. Colts’ QB, Anthony Richardson has an injury to the “AC joint” in his throwing shoulder and is out “indefinitely”. Richardson has been in the NFL for only two seasons; he has appeared in 15 out of a possible 34 games over that time span. Making this news potentially dire is the fact that the reason he missed 13 games in 2023 was an injury to that same AC joint and that required surgery in the offseason.
Colts’ coach, Shane Steichen said that Richardson will miss mini-camp and that he will not begin throwing until Training Camp and then “we’ll ease him into throwing and then we’ll go from there.” During the off-season, the Colts signed former Giants’ QB, Daniel Jones as a free agent and declared that there would be an open competition for the starting job between Jones and Richardson. In addition, the Colts took QB Riley Leonard (out of Notre Dame) in the late rounds of this year’s NFL Draft. Once again, not good news for the Colts or their fans – – but not exactly surprising.
Moving along … When the Steelers finally signed Aaron Rodgers, it set up a story line that is almost like a screenplay plot element. The Steelers (and Aaron Rodgers unless he is injured) will open the regular season on the road in NY to play the Jets (and Justin Fields who was in Pittsburgh last year). Please do not be surprised when you hear about that coincidence 3 bazillion times between now and Week 1.
And since I am in the mode of looking ahead at football scheduling, let me point out the “Football Orgy” that awaits fans over the Christmas/New Years season. Buckle your seat belts:
- Thurs Dec 18: Rams at Seahawks
- Sat. Dec 20: Packers at Bears and Eagles at Commanders
- Sun Dec 21: Normal 12-game slate of NFL games
- Mon Dec 22: Niners at Colts
- Thurs Dec 25: Cowboys at Commanders and Lions at Vikes and Broncos at Chiefs
- Sat Dec 27: 5-games from the normal 12-game slate of NFL games
- Sun Dec 28: Remaining 7-games from the normal 12-game slate of NFL games
- Mon Dec 29: Rams at Falcons
Intermixed with those NFL games from December 18 through December 29 will be 17 minor college bowl games along with the 4 first round games of the CFP. If I counted correctly, that means there will be 53 football games available somehow for fans to watch or wager on in 11 days. And if that is not enough, the second round of the CFP games will take place on December 31 and January 1. You can exhale now …
Finally, this from former Steelers’ coach, Chuck Noll:
“A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports ………