Month: November 2026

I have run across some thinking that the Tennessee Titans need to bench Cam Ward for a game or three so he can “get his head right”.  I do not think that is a good idea because the critical objective for the Titans at this moment is to find out if Cam Ward is going to be their QB going forward or not.  If not, this is a QB-rich draft coming up; if so, the Titans can focus on the abundance of other holes in that roster.

Ward’s backup is Mitchell Trubisky; I may not know as much about NFL football as the GMs around the league, but I am pretty confident in saying that Mitchell Trubisky is a career backup QB and not anyone’s “QB of the Future”.  So, what might be gained by the Titans’ braintrust in sitting Cam Ward and watching Mitchell Trubisky for a couple of games?  Perhaps, if the Titans had a backup who might be a longshot to become that future team leader such a move might make some sense.  But with the current roster reality, I think that would be a bad move by the Titans coaches and GM.

Moving on …  The Las Vegas Raiders’ record is 4-4-0 this morning; that puts them in third place in the AFC West only two games behind the division-leading Denver Broncos.  The Raiders are not going to catch the Broncos absent some bizarre intervention(s) by the football gods, and I say that for this reason:

• The Raiders have won 4 games; that is more than 14 other teams in the NFL as of this morning.  Congratulations to the Raiders.
• The Raiders’ wins have come over the Dolphins, Chargers, Saints and Jets.
• The cumulative record for those four vanquished foes is 5-24-0 as of this morning and the best record of those four is 2-5-0 (Saints).
• Strength of schedule matters …

Switching gears …  There is a lot of chatter around the idea that there will be a broadcasting divorce between Joe Buck and Troy Aikman at the end of this year’s NFL season when the pair will broadcast the Super Bowl on ESPN.  Maybe that is real; maybe that is just rumor; time will tell.  One of the ideas that someone threw up on the wall to see if it would stick is that Aikman would leave ESPN and Joe Buck would stay on with a contract extension and get a new partner who might be Pat McAfee.

Let me address that single possibility:

• I have been critical of McAfee in the past for his over-the-top bombast; that aura continues to exist on his weekday program and on College Game Day.  Big-time bombast and Joe Buck are not close to a good idea.
• However, to be fair, McAfee has also shown a toned-down broadcasting style on ESPN’s studio and onsite coverage of Monday Night Football.  If that lower intensity “temperament” can be projected continuously, McAfee might indeed be a quite acceptable color analyst.

If I were part of Mahogany Row in Bristol CT, I would try to see if a pairing of Joe Buck and Jason Garrett had any “chemistry”.  I am not nearly an ESPN exec, but I think that is a combination I would explore if I had the chance.  And most importantly, all of this depends on the accuracy of the “reports” that Troy Aikman will leave ESPN in the Spring of 2027.  If all this hype about a rift between Aikman and Buck is only hype and nothing more, then ignore all the above and just enjoy the two of them bringing NFL games to us in the future.

Finally, with the mid-term elections now behind us, let me close with this observation by H. L. Mencken:

“If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.”

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

 

 

I want to explain my unannounced absence over the past several weeks.  I have been in the midst of a health challenge that has included the following events:

• A visit to an urgent care center where I arrived in a wheelchair
• A visit from 9-1-1 after I fell at home and could not get up
• Two in-person visits with my primary care physician
• Two tele-health consultations with my primary care physician – — AND – –
• A two-and-a-half day stay in the hospital.

Among the many symptoms of my condition, intense fatigue kept me from the keyboard.  At the nadir of the last several weeks, there was a 28-hour timespan where I slept for 23 of those 28 hours.  I could not stay awake enough to read up on sports happenings; I could not stay awake through an entire football game.

I seem to be on the mend and even though I am not current on happenings in the sports world, I do have a few “ranting points” that will work for today.

So, I am sure that more than a few people are wondering who will be the first NFL head coach to be fired in 2026.  I don’t have an answer, but I do have some comments on potential candidates:

• I imagine that there are a significant number of fans in Philly who would be happy if that “honor” went to Nick Siriani.  I don’t think that will be the case because of the injury factor for the Eagles in 2026 and also because none of the coordinators on the team have ever sniffed a head coaching job in the NFL.
• When the Jets lost to the Dolphins, that did not help Aaron Glenn in making his case to stay on as the head coach in NYC.
• The Colts’ owner has fired the GM and has signed off on trading away the team’s best offensive lineman and its best defensive lineman.  Clearly they are going into a rebuild mode and the question is simply whether the owner thinks Shane Steichen is the coach to oversee the rebuild.
• The Chargers are a mess; the record is 0-7-0 and the Chargers are the only team in the NFL not to have scored a total of 100 points in this regular season.  Jim Harbaugh might be the one held accountable for that disaster, no?

And speaking of the LA Chargers, here is a potential scenario that would test the limits of irony:

• As of this morning the Chargers have the worst record in the league and that means they would have the overall #1 pick in the Draft next April.  Imagine for a moment that situation continues to obtain through January and the end of the regular season.
• Now imagine that the team decides to tear everything down and start a new chapter in the team history and the Chargers announce that they will use that overall #1 pick on Arch Manning – – QB Texas.
• Now imagine further that Grandpop Archie and QB Arch hit the replay button from the 2004 draft where Uncle Eli was drafted overall #1 by the Chargers but refused to play there forcing the Chargers to trade Eli to the Giants.
• The Giants don’t need another young QB now; they already have two in Jaxson Dart and JJ McCarthy – – but there are other “QB needy teams” in the NFL…
• Probability of this happening is very small – – but it would be fun times if it did.

Finally, I will paraphrase Tony Kornheiser’s signoff line for PTI and close today with the promise that I will try and do better the next time.

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