Author: Dave Long

The Big Story – NFL Free Agency Begins: The quest to fill the holes the Patriots have for 2023 began yesterday (Wednesday) at 4 p.m. when the NFL’s new year began. It came a few days after Devin McCourty announced his retirement. Which, looking on the bright side, saved them around $9 million in cap space to leave them with around $32 million to $35 million to spend.

The need to score with that became acute following news that All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey had been traded to Miami and Aaron Rodgers could be/was traded to the Jets already.

The following are things to consider as free agency unfolds.

Ways To Add Cap Space: The biggest no-brainer way would be to cut wideout Nelson Agholor. Losing him would not hurt in any way and it would save $4 million. A little dicier would be moving out left tackle Trent Brown, who was a disappointment in 2022. If they can find a taker in need of offensive line help, a trade would give them $10.5 million more, which would give them $14.1 million to spend all or part of on a younger upgrade to replace Brown.

Biggest Needs: To reiterate what I wrote two weeks ago: (1) A ready-on-Day 1 dynamic receiver that teams must game plan for. Pay what they must in draft capital and cap space to get one for their young QB, as the Dolphins and Eagles did to catapult their questionable young quarterbacks ahead a year ago. (2) Fix the offensive line. Specifically, two tackles. The best case scenario would be one coming from free agency and the other from the draft.

Players to Re-Sign: Most important would be to pay their top CB, Jonathan Jones, because if they don’t they’ll have to draft one and a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

A Worthy Experiment: From the first Super Bowl team to the last when Julian Edelman was the MVP, slot receiver was the bread and butter of the offense. And while I’m fine with Jakobi Meyers as the third wideout (at the right free agent price) he does not give them much after the catch and lacks the quickness in space that Troy Brown, Wes Welker, Danny Amendola and Edelman gave Tom Brady.

They need a dynamic player in that role, as it’s a weapon on first down to get ahead of the sticks on down and distance, and as a target to get 7 yards or less on third down to keep drives alive.

So I’m all in on moving Marcus Jones from DB to slot receiver. While it’s not a lock he can do it, he would bring two things to the offense, dynamic speed and an ability to run with the ball when he gets his hands on it. And before you say he can’t do it: He played there some in college and historically it’s a position of misfit players who found success there as Edelman was a wishbone QB in college, Amendola and Welker were undrafted free agents and Brown was overlooked because of his size. Plus all were very good punt returners, which requires the most vital skill needed by a slot receiver, quickness to operate in tight spaces — something Jones demonstrated last year.

And trying him there also means you don’t have to use a draft pick or free agent money to fill that hole as well. Not to mention that since Coach B hasn’t hit on a wide receiver of any note since Deion Branch in 2002 it’s doubtful he’ll hit on one in this draft.

Check those boxes with trades and FA’s; it’s then on to the draft for a tackle and depth.

Thumbs Up – Devin McCourty: Thanks for the memories at the retirement after 13 years for as solid, reliable and durable a player as the Pats have had in the SB years. Bravo.

Sports 101: Detroit Mercy senior Antoine Davis fell just three points short of Pete Maravich’s all-time college record of scoring 3,667 points. Who held the career college scoring mark before Maravich?

Sports 101 Answer: With 2,973 points in 88 games (33.8 per game) Oscar Robertson was the all-time college scoring leader before Maravich.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story: I awoke from my annual hockey hibernation last week and was shocked to see that the Bruins were an incredible 40 games over .500. And that at 48-8-6 they broke the all-time mark for reaching 100 points in the regular season faster than any team in history. I don’t totally live in a dark cave, and I’ve heard rumblings all year about them being in first place with the best record in the NHL. But I never bothered to look at the standings because I generally don’t watch or even care about hockey until it’s transformed from a boring (for me) game to the one where you’re constantly on the edge of your seat when the Stanley Cup playoffs arrive.

I also now know why the Boston Globe’s Prince of Darkness Dan Shaughnessy recently wrote about what happened to the supposedly unbeatable 1970-71 Bruins during the days when I did follow the NHL closely. I thought it was his mandatory once-a-year hockey column. Instead, it was a cautionary tale to the current rampaging group, as those earlier rampaging Bs shockingly got run out of the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens behind a rookie goalie with all of six games of NHL experience. Which came after Ken Dryden joined them directly from Cornell after concluding his senior season. Dryden and company are also relevant for setting the all-time single-season record of 132 points in 1976-77, a record these Bruins are after as well. That got my attention because that Montreal team was in the middle of winning four straight Cups and was great.

So like a bear in the woods after taking care of business following his winter-long snooze I’m all in on the Bs going forward.

Sports 101: Name the six coaches who’ve taken two different franchises to the Super Bowl.

Thumbs Up: To early spring news that exhibition baseball games are being played 36 minutes faster on average than games last spring due to new rules that include a 15-second pitch clock (20 with men on base) to make pitchers come to the plate quicker.

Thumbs Down: To the alarming way the Celtics often play down to the competition, which hit a new low on Friday when they blew a 28-point second-quarter lead before losing 115-105 to the 2-8-since-the-Durant-trade Nets.

Stat Sheet: Love the waxing poetically in a Feb. 27 story on ESPN.com on the “historic surge of 50-point performances.” While there have been some great performances like Damian Lillard’s 71-point game last week it’s no mystery why: the 3-point shot. Those of us who saw Pete Maravich play know that with 13 threes Lillard’s 71 would have been 58 back in the day. Not trying to knock their talent, just to give context to how it historically stacks up with guys from the past.

Homerism vs. Reality Note of the Week: A friend of mine took me to task last week when I said Patrick Mahomes was going to break every one of Tom Brady’s passing records. He then went into yahoo homer mode and said, “He won’t, because he’ll never play as long as Brady did.” I said, if he stays on his current pace he won’t have to.

Injuries are impossible to predict, but after PM’s first six seasons he has 192 TD passes and 24,211 passing yards to Brady’s l23 and 18,028. Which means if the current pace is maintained Mahomes will beat Brady’s 642 TD when he’s 37 and his 89,214 passing yards at 39.

I Disagree: with Shaughnessy applying his gift for seeing the negative side of the story in a recent column urging Jayson Tatum to focus more on basketball. Hee criticized Tatum for missing a game to go to St. Louis for his son’s birthday party. Now I’m as tough on Tatum and the practice of “load management” as anyone. But I’m fine with a young dad using his load management game to fly 1,000 miles to be at his young son’s birthday party.

And Another Thing: Speaking of load management, I wonder if personal perceptions color my opinion. I mean managers give healthy players days off in baseball all the time and no one says a word about that. In fact Cal Ripken Jr. took heat from some quarters for not missing games to rest on the belief it hurt the team when a worn down Cal kept playing. Lou Gehrig got a little of that too while compiling his 2,130-game streak.

The difference is that basketball stars have a more inordinate impact on each game than individual stars do in baseball. But I suspect I hate the concept of load management because it’s another example of the wussification of the pitch-count, five-inning-starters world of sports today.

In other words, get off my lawn.

In Case You Missed It: The Patriots announced last week they’ll cut back-up QB Brian Hoyer.

Random Thoughts: Got to say in my first time hearing him I liked JJ Redick doing color for the Celtics-Nets game on ESPN. Not a lot of extra yacking, and no restating the obvious on replays. Just understated insight.

I ain’t buying Grant Williams getting a DNP vs. Cleveland last Wednesday. I think something is going on beyond Joe Mazzulla’s match-up blather. If it’s a message to stop yacking after every call, bravo. If it is match-ups nonsense, it makes no sense because regardless of size he’s better offensively or defensively than the guys behind him.

Sports 101 Answer: The six coaches to bring two different franchises to the Super Bowl are Don Shula (Baltimore Colts, Dolphins), Bill Parcells (G-Men, Pats), Dan Reeves (Broncos, Falcons), Dick Vermeil (Eagles, Rams), Mike Holmgren (Packers, Seahawks) and Andy Reid (Eagles, Chiefs).

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Fixing the Patriots: With free agency opening in less than two weeks it’s time to look at what Coach B and company need to do to fix the Patriots for 2023, a crucial year in the “Tom vs. Bill” debate because it’s the fourth season since Tom Brady left the building and that’s enough time to recover from losing their franchise player. So a big year for the coach’s overall legacy.

There are two schools of thought about how big a fix is needed.

One says with a productive defense they can get back into the mix with the right moves on offense.

The other says no matter what they add they can’t close the gap between them and the elites because the offense needs major surgery and that might include a change at QB because they can’t go toe to toe with the likes of Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow with Mac Jones under center.

In any event, here’s a look at what needs to be considered, starting with a focus on the QB.

No. 1 Question: If I’m the Patriots’ owner, the first thing I want to know is why did a QB who was very good as a rookie take a dramatic step backward in his second season as Jones did. After that, I need to know if Mac is the guy to go forward with

Mac Jones: One theory is he’s not that good, or he’s limited, and Josh McDaniels helped mask that in 2021.

Thus one solution is to bring in someone else while recouping a couple of draft picks by trading him. One proponent of this is Christopher Gasper, who wrote in the Boston Globe last week they should dump Mac and bring back free agent Jimmy Garoppolo, in a column that was remarkably like him saying last January the Celtics had to trade Marcus Smart for a real point guard or they’d never go anywhere. Boy, he nailed that one.

This is the same. Lamar Jackson is one thing (though that would require major cap surgery). But the last thing they need is an injury-prone/slow-healing QB who’ll cost three times what Mac does on his rookie contract, whose injuries derailed two of the last five SF seasons. And it would have been three this year if a circa-2001-Brady-like miracle hadn’t surfaced when he broke his leg. Especially since it cost them once already when in 2016 all he had to do was last four games during Tom Brady’s suspension and didn’t make it to the second half of Game 2. Sorry, if you can’t stay on the field you can’t play. Don’t want him.

Plus, while I’m under no illusion Jones did not have his own 2022 issues, I know what I saw in 2021, so I’m not willing to give up on him yet.

I think it was an amalgam of the following.

Play Calling and Game Planning: It’s no secret Matt Patricia in these roles was a total disaster. It was simplistic, predictable and overly cautious to the point where it seemed the goal was to not get a turnover rather than to make plays. It was also often done too slowly, which led to an unacceptable number of timeouts called to avoid penalties. All of which played into some publicized immature, frustration-driven sideline antics by Jones.

Offensive Line: In a word, it was awful. More specifically, penalty-prone, often porous and inconsistent from week to week. That likely contributed to the knock Mac locks on receivers. That leads to bad habits, as when you don’t have a lot of time you look to get rid of it quickly, over going through progressions to find the open guy. And of course sacks lead to down and distance issues, which make sustaining drives more challenging.

The Weapons: They’re below average. It’s the same problem Brady had as he sulked his way through 2019 and Cam Newton had in 2020. They get little separation, don’t do much after the catch (besides Kendrick Bourne) and no one puts the fear of God into defensive game planners. That was exacerbated by the play calling, because throws to Hunter Henry up the seam worked when tried but were rarely called until the end of the year.

Can They Fix It For 2023? It’s a little of both schools of thought. I do like the defense, but, given their swing-and-miss ratio on recent personnel decisions, especially during the 2021 spending spree, I don’t have much faith in the personnel department to have a good enough batting average to hit on enough FAs and draft choices to fill all the holes. However, it doesn’t mean they can’t do it. Plus with Bill O’Brien named to replace Patricia the play calling issue has been addressed.

The 2023 Fix: After one up and one down year it’s too early to give up on Mac. You won’t know what he really is until the other issues are fixed. If you don’t believe me, compare Brady’s 2019 numbers and when they no longer were an issue in Tampa Bay the next year. Help is needed now, so they should focus on the next three years and put whatever draft capital is needed for trades and aim all free agent spending to get ready on Day 1 solutions to do these things:

(1) Fix the offense line, which starts with getting two, new younger tackles.

(2) Bring in a consistent A+ home run-hitting deep threat/wide receiver that teams must game plan for. Exhibit A is what adding A.J. Brown to DeVonta Smith in Philly did for Jalen Hurts. Ditto for Tua after adding Tyreek Hill to Jaylen Waddle. Mac was better than both guys at Bama when he was teamed with Waddle and Smith.

(3) Apply whatever is left to plug other holes as needed.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story: With the All-Star game history, the NBA begins what it calls the second half of its season even though the Celtics have already played 71 percent of their 82 games. The good news is that with 42 wins and 17 losses they start the stretch run to the playoffs with the best record in the league, a fact made more impressive by their doing it playing the first two months without Robert Williams and the last two weeks with a majority of their starters out with injuries.

The Bucks along with the 76ers and Cavaliers round out the Top 4 in the Eastern Conference and are the teams that pose the biggest obstacles to getting back to the Finals. Though I’m not counting out the Heat until I see them pick up their fourth loss in any playoff series.

Thumbs Up: The interim tag being taken off Joe Mazzulla’s title. Well-earned.

Thumbs Down: Can’t say I was happy to see Jaylen Brown play in the All-Star game. I know it’s a thrill, but when you miss three games going into the All-Star break it’s better to take the additional time off to heal, rather than risk getting dinged or worse. Leadership is about putting team over personal disappointment.

Sports 101: The most surprising nugget mentioned during the hoo-ha of LeBron James becoming the NBA all-time scoring leader was Bob Ryan writing in the Boston Globe that LBJ is fourth on the all-time assist list as well. So name the three people ahead of him and, just for fun, the six behind him to round out the Top 10.

News Item – Jayson Tatum: Even though the 184-175 final shows what a competitive joke the aforementioned All-Star game is, I guess Tatum was ready to play. When you think of the guys who’ve played in that game, it’s impressive he now sits atop all of them after going for a record 55 points as he also took home MVP honors. Though since three others scored over 30, including Brown, who had 36, it wasn’t exactly a defensive struggle. For the record, he was 22-32, 10-18 from deep while making just one free throw.

News Item – the Kyrie Irving Press Conference: Speaking of people who put themselves above team (and everyone else): The self-delusional quote of the week came from (who else) Irving, who said at his introductory press conference in Dallas that after getting suspended for supporting a racist film this year, derailing their 2021-22 season by refusing to get vaxxed and the previous two with his usual array of injuries, that he “felt very disrespected” by the Nets and that what he wanted was to be in a place where he’s “celebrated, and not just tolerated.” Oh, and after missing what would have been his third game with Dallas with a back issue on Thursday, he played in the All-Star Game a few nights later.

Random Thoughts – Lou Grant Award: Only old bucks will get this. But there is a famous scene in the late great The Mary Tyler Moore Show when her grumpy boss Mr. Grant says to her, “You’ve got spunk,” which Mary takes as a compliment until he adds, “I HATE spunk”! Well, that’s what you have to say about the Celtics bench, which likely is the best since the days when John Havlicek was the sixth man. Though the ones from ’85-’86 and ’07-’08 may take issue with that. But they have done the job all year long and especially during the recent deluge of injuries heading into the break. However, instead of Mr. Grant hating their spunk, it was Philly, whom they beat without four starters, and Milwaukee a few nights later when the Celtics narrowly lost in OT with all five starters missing, when the Bucks only got to OT because Jrue Holiday dropped a 70-foot heave at the end of the first half.

GiannisAntetokounmpopulled off a box score miracle in the ASG by being credited with scoring two points while officially playing no minutes in the game. It happened because he played just one play due to a sprained wrist. So someone please explain what was the point of playing at all?

Media Notes: (1) Somebody please tell Brian Scalabrine that LaMelo Ball is nothing like Pete Maravich as he continues to say on Celtics broadcasts. Pistol Pete was like trying to follow the sleight of hand of a great magician, which in Pete’s case was the ball because you were never sure where it was going. Low dribble, high dribble, hesitation dribble to the blow-by drive. Behind the back, through his legs or sometimes yours. No-look passes, high off the glass or pull up from 35. LaMelo is a nice young player, but he ain’t got any of that. Pete was a magician with the ball. (2) Similarly, please tell back-up play-by-play guy Sean Grande that an NBA player playing occasionally on back-to-back nights is not akin to scaling Mt. Everest like he makes it out to be by mentioning it over and over when they do it.

A Little History: For the record: In the year Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 points a game (1961-62), he “only” scored 42 points in the All-Star game. However, if you take out the three-pointers that didn’t exist in those days Tatum only beats Wilt by three points, 45-42.

Sports 101 Answer: Nos. 1 through 3 are John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul.

Nos. 5 through 10 are Steve Nash, Mark Jackson (that one surprised me too), Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Isiah Thomas and Russell Westbrook.

The Final Word: Glad the Celtics didn’t dismantle the team to get Kevin Durant. Great player, but trading a 25-year-old 27-point-a-game scorer and key defender who also is a very good contributor to team rebounding for a 34-year-old who has missed all but 111 of his team’s last 300 games makes no sense to me.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story: It wasn’t quite the Patriots coming back in dramatic fashion to beat Atlanta in SB 51. But given that it ended with a game-winning field goal kicked in the waning seconds after a frenetic second-half comeback led by a gritty, bloody sock-like star (for the second straight game), it’s fair to say SB 57 goes into the books as one of the Top 10 Super Bowl games. Though Kansas City’s 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles does not make the Mahomes Chiefs a dynasty, as the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin said they were on Monday. At least not yet. To be that they need to win two or three more times and hang around the top of the league’s contenders for another 10 years. For now let’s just celebrate the two-time champs’ admirable win and give a shout out to Philadelphia for fighting the good fight and just coming up short in a great game.

Thumbs Up: To LeBron James for breaking Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record of 38,387 set in 1984. Say what you want about LeBron, and my only issue is how he unethically got around tampering rules to get Anthony Davis to quit on his teammates in mid-season to make him a Laker. Beyond that he always puts the team first, plays hard and almost always shows up to play. Along with talent, durability and effort are the prime factors for someone to break a record that takes as long as it does to become the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. Well done, young man.

Thumbs Down: To the bloated monstrosity the Super Bowl has become. Born simply as the NFL/AFL championship game, it has become an “all things to every possible aspect of society” attempt to cram as many eyeballs in as possible to maximize TV ratings. It leaves us with ridiculous sights like jamming what seemed like 110,000 people around the mid-field coin toss, including kids from NFL PR/marketing programs no one ever heard of or cares about; worthy people being used in transparent “Hey Aren’t We Great, Guys?” PR ploys, and a 40-minute half-time distraction with a person wearing a bright red outfit that made it look like one of those high-flying objects the Air Force shot down last week had avoided detection and landed on the half-time show stage, followed by about 200 people filling in divots kicked in by said show on a field that already had people slipping far more than players should for a game of this magnitude. All of which makes the actual purpose for the massive production (the game) a sideshow. Sorry to those insulted by this “get off my lawn” rant, but I’m a frustrated guy who just wants to watch the freaking AFL/NFL championship game devoid of all the other crap.

Sports 101: How many of the seven other people who at one time held the all-time NBA scoring record can you name? Hints: One guy’s son later played in the league and another played for the Celtics before he took over the lead for a short time.

News Item – NBA Trading Deadline a Doozy: Can’t remember as active a trade deadline as last week. The dual big stories were the Nets scrapping the plan that almost everyone (except me) said would lead to multiple championships in Brooklyn and their star Kevin Durant landing in Phoenix. It makes them more dangerous for sure, but it did strip a weak bench of its best guy (Cam Johnson). Though the pick-up of Terrence Ross after a buyout in Orlando was a nice helpful addition. The two other biggest winners were, with LeBron leaving the GM-ing to the brass for once, the Lakers coming away with three nice additions to their bench while dumping ill-fitted Russell Westbrook’s gargantuan contract (and ego) and the Nets, who’ll be better than you think, starting over with a zillion unprotected first-round picks, a better team-oriented point guard and three more solid wing players to give trade flexibility this summer. Finally Jae Crowder going to Milwaukee makes them tougher vs the Celtics because he’s a lot better than Grayson Allen.

And then there’s the they’ll-never-learn chatter that teaming Kyrie Irving with Luka Doncic will make Dallas a legit contender. SPOILER ALERT: That’s what they said about the KD-KI pairing, which ended in disaster, just like it will in Dallas.

Do The Math: in case you are interested in the final Durant/Irving Tally in Brooklyn, it went like this: Durant played in 114 games out of 300 they played when he was a Net, while for Kyrie it was 143 in 300 as they went 159 and 141 (53 percent) while going one and done in the playoffs twice and losing in Round II the other time.

Not to mention Brooklyn let two inmates run the asylum, leading to the firing of three coaches in three years, Kenny Atkinson (totally undeserved), Jacque Vaughn (the first time when he was passed over ’cause Durant and Irving didn’t approve) and the disrespected all-timer Steve Nash (deserved). All for the bargain basement price of $22.9 million.

Sports 101 Answer: The NBA all-time leading scorer parade started with Piston George Yardley, followed byGeorge Mikan, the traded-for-Bill Russell Easy Ed Macauley, Dolph Schayes, whose son Danny was an NBA’er, first 20,000 point career scorer Bob Pettit, Wilt Chamberlain and Jabbar.

Finally, Greg Olsen doesn’t have the star power of future No. 1 Tom Brady, but Fox hit a homer with its new-for-now lead analyst. He was on all year with useful insights and thinking ahead strategies, like saying two plays before it happened KC runners should get down before the end zone to run out the clock before kicking the winning field goal. Not sure I agree, but it gave viewers something to consider, which is what a good analyst should do. And since Harrison Butker hit the FG the strategy worked too.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Super Bowl: If I make it to Sunday I will have seen all 57 of them. Regarding this one, not exactly sure what to make of the Eagles-Chiefs match-up. But I do know a lot will be made about their being Andy Reid’s last two teams. Wonder if they’ll mention that since Andy got pushed out in Philly they have done what he couldn’t do there: win the Super Bowl, with a chance for another on Sunday. Of course KC has won one and been to two more in the Reid era there as well.

And then there’s the overdoing it on the Kelce brothers, KC tight end Travis and Philly center Jason.

Sports 101: In the wake of Denver trading for Sean Payton to be their new head coach last week, how many Super Bowls were won by the last four teams to trade their head coach to another team during the reign of Don Shula, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and Jon Gruden in their new location and how many SBs were won by their new team with them as coach?

Thumbs Up – Tom Brady Retires: Congrats on an All-World career and thanks for all the great memories.

Thumbs Down – Tom Brady Retires Again: Now, unlike after the first retirement, be a man and thank Bob Kraft, Bill Belichick and the entire organization properly for what they did for your time in New England.

Random Thoughts Regarding Said Retirement: To ever pompous ex-WFAN guy Mike Francesa’s declaration on First Takethat Peyton Manning was a better “regular season” QB than Brady, as my father used to say, hokum.

The numbers say the following.

On Manning’s side, he had five MVP Awards to Brady’s three. He also was the QB on the 2000-09 All Decade team and had the record-setting 55 TD pass season of 2013.

On Brady’s side, he was the QB for the 2010-19 All Decade team, he has more wins as a starting QB (243 to 186), and despite playing 68 more games he has fewer losses than Manning (73 to 79). That means he has a far better winning percentage (78.2 to 70.1). Brady, also, oh by the way, has the record for most TD passes, passing yards and completions in league history. And despite playing those 68 more games Brady threw 41 fewer interceptions (211 to 252). And if Manning had played the same 333 games and maintained his one-pick-per-game average Manning would have 111 more interceptions. Given how important a factor turnovers are in winning and losing, that edge probably accounts for much of Brady’s W/L percentage edge.

And most importantly, Brady also has the better head-to-head record at 11-6.

Case closed – slam dunk.

As for Joe Montana being the better Super Bowl QB, maybe, but which would you rather have, seven rings and three near misses or four rings and no losses? And in a final category: By winning 10 Conference championships to the paltry four won by Montana and Manning he is by far the best overall QB in the playoffs of them all.

Mark It Down: On the day Kyrie Irving got traded/dumped by the Nets to Dallas, the Mavs were 28-26 and the sixth seed out West. I’m betting they finish below .500 and land in the play-in round by year’s end.

Passing of the Guard: In the “stars always get the big call” NBA, was it bad officiating to miss Jayson Tatum clearly whacking LeBron on his miss that let the Celtics-Lakers game go to overtime two Saturdays ago? Or a sign that Tatum’s stature is now such that he’s going to get those calls going forward? Especially in light of Lebron’s falling on the floor begging act that made him look like his fortune just got wiped out by an evil computer genius in a Mission Impossible movie.

Do I Care About – The NFL Pro Bowl? No. Now no longer content with being the worst of the All-Star games and dumbest to play in because of the injury risks, it’s fallen farther into irrelevance because of these factors: (1) It’s been “re-imagined” as a flag football game. (2) And that makes it so embarrassing to play in they had to go down the QB list to Ravens backup Tyler Huntley,who threw two TD passes all year, before they could find a QB who wasn’t faking an injury to get out of playing in it. Bailey Zappe was probably next behind Huntley. I give it three years until it’s re-imagined to the dumpster of dumb ideas.

I Disagree With:Ben Volin. Sorry, Ben, you saying in the Boston Globe that ticky-tack calls by the zebras interfered with or ruined the 49ers in their drubbing by the Eagles in the NFC title game is wrong. It happened because the SF defenders played like undisciplined boneheads with late hits and running into the punter to hand Philly a gift score at the end of the first half to make it 21-7 instead of the one-score 14-7 game it should have been. And Kyle Shanahan looked like a whiner constantly yelling at officials instead of at his own guys for hitting guys after they went out of bounds.

Sports 101 Answer: Among the Colts, Jets, Pats and Raiders, only the Baltimore Colts won a SB (in the year after trading Shula). Meanwhile the Patriots (after getting Coach B), Miami and Tampa Bay won a combined nine SBs after trading for their new HC. So history says Denver will likely win the deal getting Payton, even for a first- and second-round pick.

Prediction: The game will come down to how the best QB in football deals with arguably the greatest sacking defense in history. I suspect those quick hitters over the middle to Travis Kelce will be even more important than usual. As will their screen game, which is always among the best in the NFL. Philly 23-21.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.