Jim Otto died last week. He was an anchor on the offensive line for the Oakland Raiders from the time the team came into existence (1960) until he retired in 1975. Jim Otto personified the two important “abilities” for a pro football player:
- Football “ability” – – AND – –
- Avail”ability.”
He played in 210 consecutive games for the Raiders despite having nine surgical procedures on his knees during his career. Remember, knee surgery was not nearly as advanced at the time of his playing as compared to today. Jim Otto was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a first-ballot inductee in 1980.
Rest in peace, Jim Otto.
I have a very brief comment on what has become “The Harrison Butker Situation;” the central point of my comment here is:
- Who cares what Harrison Butker thinks about society, social roles and social norms?
Harrison Butker kicks a football; he kicks a football very well. Therefore, if he were to expound on things related to “kicking a football,” we should all pay attention and try to absorb what he says. But kicking a football and expounding on the roles of women in society are orthogonal topics; there is no overlap. So, can we all just agree to ignore what he said/says and move on to something else?
Jon Gruden suffered what could be a fatal blow in his lawsuit against the NFL; a three-judge panel in the Nevada State Supreme Court ruled 2-1 in favor of the NFL forcing the matter to go to arbitration run by the NFL. Gruden has said he will appeal to the full State Supreme Court based on the fact that he “lost a split decision”; it is not clear that he will get such a hearing nor is it clear that he could get a majority opinion in his favor if he did get such a hearing.
As I have said here before, I don’t particularly care if Gruden wins or loses his lawsuit but I wanted it to be an open trial and not a secret proceeding because in the process we would get a lot of insight into the people and the proceedings of NFL coaches, owners and execs that was almost guaranteed to be embarrassing at best and salacious at worst. I plead guilty to “voyeurism” of this specific form.
Moving on … The NY Giants will be the featured team on HBO’s Hard Knocks this year with the first episode to air on July 2nd. The Giants finished the 2023 regular season at 6-11 meaning that the producers and editors at HBO should have plenty of material to work with as the folks who run the team had plenty of work to do in the off season to prepare for the 2024 season.
Last year, Hard Knocks featured the NY Jets so there is a potential symmetry to be had with this cross-town participation scenario. The Giants’ braintrust must be hoping that the Giants’ experience is better than the one the Jets faced in the season after “starring” on Hard Knocks. Recall that the Jets saw QB Aaron Rodgers suffer an Achilles’ tendon tear on the first offensive series of the year, and he never saw the field again.
Next up … I had some time to look over the NFL scheduling for the telecasts to be presented on holidays during 2024. The Thanksgiving Day triple header will be:
- Bears at Lions: A division game which is usually a good game and an important one. The Bears had a good off-season on paper so this might be a key match-up.
- Giants at Cowboys: Another division game
- Dolphins at Packers: The date for this game is right on the cusp of being a frostbite game in Green Bay – – and those games are always fun.
Then, on Christmas Day, the NFL will present a double-header:
- Chiefs at Steelers: It would take a lot of misfortune on the part of both teams here for this to be a meaningless game at that point of the season.
- Ravens at Texans: Both teams are projected to be very good in 2024 and both were playoff teams in 2023.
What makes the Christmas games more interesting is that they will be shown exclusively on Netflix. Reports say that Netflix offered $300M for the rights to Christmas Games over the next three seasons; so, I can understand why the NFL would be interested in taking in that largesse. At the same time, the NFL appears to be letting the NBA off the hook for Christmas Day viewership. Recall last season when the NFL Christmas triple-header swamped the NBA’s five game marathon. Well it is hard to imagine the Netflix audience being as large as the network audience last year meaning that lots of sports fans will turn to NBA watching in the absence of NFL games on a traditional network. This is an interesting choice on the part of the NFL …
Finally, let me close today with these words from social critic, P. J. O’Rourke:
“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I always found it uniquely instructive that, after one medical operation to his depleted body, Jim Otto was forced to remain stationary in the hospital. Whereupon sports journalist Dave Newhouse camped himself at the Otto bedside. The result? “The Pain of Glory” book.