Category: Sports

What a difference 14 days can make. After the Red Sox lost two of three to the lowly Orioles in the second to last series of the year, talk show blowhards and other media types were getting ready to bury them after what they thought would be a final week collapse. Then there was the friend of mine who I call Mr. Sunshine for his, let’s call it dour, outlook on local teams on Facebook the second anything goes wrong, calling them “pathetic” after the Game 1 loss to Tampa Bay. But after taking out Tampa Bay in four there’s a breezy “had it all the way” as they moved into the ALCS.

Sorry, but that kind hypocrisy and abandon ship mentality after one loss makes me absolutely nuts. Especially when it comes from “fans” or those supposedly attuned to make informed media judgments.

I think there should be a standings among the media to see who is most often right and wrong. Most wouldn’t do it because that brings accountability for what they say, even though they expect it from players and coaches. For the record, I had the Sox for 82 wins. So I missed and think they’re playing with house money.  

That’s my take on the week’s biggest story. Here are some more on the other big stories.  

I’m sure they’ll disagree with me in Dodgertown. But seeing arguably the greatest head to head pennant race in baseball history end on a blown check-swing call doesn’t seem right. If the bases were loaded maybe I’d change my mind. But the cardinal rule of sports should be to let the players decide it, not the umps, and certainly not a guy over 100 feet away on a near impossible angle making the call as happened in the NLDS. Isn’t that why instant replay was brought into the game? Joy in L.A. A sports tragedy for SF. Major-league black eye for baseball.  

Baseball 101: Who led the 2021 Red Sox in stolen bases?

Pretty rich hearing Rex Ryan ripping Mac Jones by calling him Danny Wuerffel-like, a reference to the guy who won a national title at Florida in the ’90s because the talent around him was so good they didn’t need much at QB. After buying the bluster early, Rex was treated like a buffoon at the end in NYC. Then after two dismal years in Buffalo, who immediately got better after he got axed, he got demoted to TV. So given that, who’d have thought the two-time failure would be worse at broadcasting than he was at head coaching? 

Speaking of announcers: John Smoltz has beenexcellent during the Red Sox playoff games on FS1/Fox, as was partner Joe Davis in the ALDS. He excels at talking us through situations as they arise, especially on the pitching end. Case in point, not more than five seconds after Smoltz said in Game 1 vs. Houston, “you can’t pitch Jose Altuve up and in because his short arms let him get to those pitches” as a graphic illustrated his hot spot, Tanner Houck did it and Altuve put it into the left field seats. That is great work by a color analyst. A stark contrast to the steady stream of nonsense A-Rod delivered in the wild card game vs. the Yanks.

And Earth to Alex: Listen to what Smoltz said about yanking starters too early as you regularly do. “I get the analytics” but I’m not gonna yank a pitcher who’s clearly in his rhythm for someone I hope will be in his. 

Along a similar vein, my friend Gary Parsons, the displaced Red Sox fan in Michigan, asks regarding the practice of the day, how can you regularly use eight pitchers in a game and expect all of them to get the job done?

So much for the 5-1 start that seemed possible for the Patriots with four of their first six games at home while playing what looked to be the easier part of their schedule. Instead, after Sunday’s loss to Dallas, they’re 2-4 after losing all four of those home games. But while you can’t unring the bell of the losses, they were three or so inches away from end-of-the-game field goals bending the wrong way for them vs. two 5-1 teams and an ill-timed fumble 9 yards away from the winning field goal vs. Miami from being 5-1 themselves. Not exactly sure what it means, good or bad, beyond that it’s a game of inches.

Think it’s just a coincidence Cam Newton magically changed his mind about getting vaccinated? Or is it because he hasn’t had even a nibble from another NFL team since being cut by the Patriots and figures not being vaxxed isn’t helping the cause?

Which brings us to the now benched, un-vaxxed Kyrie Irving. Disagree with Nets GM Sean Marks saying Kyrie“loves playing basketball.” His self-created, me-first distractions that get in the way of playing show he does not. He’s just a guy given the gift of having great “talent” and he’s been fawned over for that from an early age. I think he likes playing basketball, but there are clearly other things important to him. That’s fine and his choice, just don’t be a fraud about it, which he’s been since he was in Cleveland.   

Baseball 101 Answer: While he’s not exactly in Ricky Henderson territory, believe it or not catcher Christian Vasquez was the Sox stolen base leader with eight.

Don’t know how accurate it will be if it actually happens, but I noticed on the map in last week’s Boston Globe showing the effects global warming will have on shorelines around the city it said if we have an average 3 degrees Celsius increase in temperature in Boston, the shoreline will engulf Fenway Park to put it under water. Of course they project that to happen in 200 to 2,000 years so your seats are safe for now.

The baseball playoffs are underway, having gotten started nicely when the Sox croaked the Yanks 6-2 in the play-in game. More interesting, at least to me, is what we can learn about team-building from watching Tampa Bay, even if I don’t care for what their robotic stat geek approach is doing to the game. They have athletic talent and pitching depth used in a different relay-race way than the olden days, and they have figured out how to win cost-effectively. I’d say maybe there’s something there for the Sox brass to learn from, but that’s why they hired TB alum Chaim Bloom in the first place.

Now for some more thoughts.

I don’t know if TB stumbled on it just trying to save money, but they show that the most cost-effective way per out is to load up on six or seven hard-throwing relievers whom they usually turn the game over to after five innings. That’s because if those guys pitch four innings per game every game and are even making $3 million per (which they’re not) that’s 648 innings for a paltry $21 million. As opposed to the Yanks getting 181 innings from Gerrit Cole for $32 million per year. That’s $10,802 per out for TB vs. $60K for NY and since most of those D-Rays are under 3.00 in ERA they’re competitive to Cole’s 3.23. So tell me which way is better.
So the trick is to draft and develop guys to be one-inning power pitchers who are interchangeable and not married to a specific role, including closer. Since the Red Sox have not developed a starter to win 10 games or more since Clay Buchholz came up in 2007 they should try that instead of what they’ve been so unsuccessfully doing for 20 years.

One final note on Cole: When he refused to talk about the Astros moments after he and they won the 2017 World Series because he was now a free agent and didn’t work for them any longer, he went on my sports hate list instantaneously. So it was great to see him spit the bit (as the Boss used to say) in the big moments. Well-spent $324 million I’d say.

In case you’re wondering, the 106 games won by the 2021 Dodgers are the most ever by a team finishing in second place. Even more amazing is that even though the 107-win Giants seemingly clinched a playoff spot in July they didn’t clinch the NL West until the final day of the regular season.

Incidentally, a big payoff could be coming for those who bet on them to win the World Series before the year in Vegas, where they were a 100-1 shot.

Since no one was in the stands to do it last year during the playoffs, expect the booing of the Astros for their cheating scandal to continue until their final playoff out.

I count 11 ex-Red Sox in the playoffs, including Jackie Bradley, who hit a microscopic .163 for Milwaukee this year; TB’s Manuel Margot, who was traded for White Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel (5.09 in 24 appearances after being traded to Chi in late July) when Kimbrel came to Boston from San Diego; Chicago’s Michael Kopech (44 games in relief with a 3.50) and Yoan Moncada, who were the big chips in the Chris Sale trade; Marwin Gonzalez, who hooked on with Houston on the Jamie Collins plan after being DFA by the Sox in August to hit below the Mendozza line for both teams; Pablo Sandoval, still somehow in the majors with Atlanta, and Yaz’s grandson Mike, a key player for SF.

Then there’s the L.A. contingent managed by 2004 Game 4 hero Dave Roberts. Injury-riddled Mookie Betts didn’t have one of his better years while hitting .258 with 23 homers and 58 RBI. Meanwhile only 11 of David Price’s 39 appearances were starts when he pitched just 74 innings and had an ERA of 4.04, and 2018 postseason stalwart Joe Kelly was 2-0 and 2.85 in 44 games.

Between the injured Clayton Kershaw and suspended Trevor Bauer L.A. has $71 million in starting pitching sitting not available in the playoffs. That’s more than the D-Rays’ entire payroll.

The Giants did what they did with their leading homer guy Brandon Belt (29) and the only guy who could hit for TB in the early days, Evan Longoria, only playing 97 and 81 games respectively

Thanks to a .306 lifetime batting average and winning two batting titles while mostly playing the game’s most physically demanding position, many see ex-Twins catcher Joe Mauer as a likely Hall of Famer. If that’s the case, does the same go for Giants catcher Buster Posey? He’s a .302 lifetime hitter, with one batting title and more homers already than Mauer, while being the linchpin of three World Series winners to none by Joe. And No. 4 could be in progress as we speak.

The evening Massachusetts daily lotto numbers on the day before the Yankees-Red Sox playoff game on Tuesday were 1-9-7-8. That was the year of the last one-game playoff between the Sox and Yanks, otherwise known as the Bucky bleeping Dent game won by NY.

The omen didn’t work this time. Though I must say, good strategy by Alex Cora to pull the in-total-control Nathan Eovaldi after just 5.1 innings so they could lure Aaron Judge into barely being thrown out at the plate after a difficult double relay by bringing in Ryan Brasier so Giancarlo Stanton could hit another one of the wall to start the play in motion. Worked perfect. What a strategist.

Finally, Giancarlo, are you kidding me? Posing on a ball you think is going out instead of hustling to first in a winner-take-all playoff game? Really? Where do they find clueless meatballs like that?

Not that we didn’t know it already, but the outcomes during last week’s huge sports weekend once again showed how unfair sports can be. Despite infuriatingly losing two of three to the worst team in baseball during the final week, their best pitcher spitting the bit in both final-week starts, including just lasting into the third inning on Sunday, and Alex Cora yanking Tanner Houck with a slim 1-0 lead in the season’s biggest game after just five innings and 53 pitches on Saturday with a perfect game in progress, the Red Sox somehow managed to move on to play in Tuesday’s play-in game vs. the Yanks. Meanwhile, with their beleaguered coach abandoned by the memory-challenged in Patriot Nation showing the returning hero he doesn’t have all the answers to every test as he was being mostly outplayed Sunday night by a prodigy QB, the luckless Patriots lost 19-17 to the TB Brady’s when the 56-yard game-winning field goal attempt faded just enough to doink off the upright and away, instead of in.

Those were the news highlights of the big week and here are a few others.

News Item: Wickersham Book on Pats No Sham       

The post-Brady Patriots are in the crosshairs with ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham back with his second tome on the Patriots dynasty. Despite skepticism throughout Patriot Nation at the outset of the last one, it is being heavily scrutinized now after almost of all what he said last time was proven true. Given some of the disagreeable things that have leaked out, some unpleasant moments are ahead after some things owner Bob Kraft allegedly said to others about Coach B. For his part Bill Belichick says the relationship is solid. But if that’s fake news, you have to wonder where the end of Kraft’s rope might be if the 1-3 record during what was supposed to be the easiest part of their schedule continues to go south. Stay tuned.

News Item: Sox Exceed Expectations; Still Many Aren’t Happy

Got to love the expectation game in sports, where when things go bad it’s “I told you so” but when they go far beyond what many anticipated before eventually coming up short it’s not “thanks for a better season than I expected,” it’s instead “thanks for ruining our summer.” Granted a last-week Red Sox fold would have left a sour taste behind. But I’ll ask many in the media and cheap seats how many wins they were expecting in March. Given the obvious holes everywhere, Chris Sale injury questions and last year’s debacle, I doubt it was 92. I had them in the low 80’s and was bracing for worse. But they unexpectedly held the AL East lead into July and fought to the final out in Game 162. Not perfect and there’s still work to be done but it’s thanks for a great summer.

News Item: Low Expectations Greet 2021 Celtics

Speaking of expectations, with a 10-deep lineup and seven first-round draft picks over the next three years the Celtics had the ammo to compete for an NBA title going into 2018. But, after their second dumpster fire season in three years, Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens squandered that chance, which led Ainge to, ah, retire, Stevens to be kicked upstairs and a boatload of roster changes. First was the hiring of a guy I never heard of as the head coach, Ime Udoka. That he worked under legendary coach Pop is reassuring to some, but given that Gregg Popovich is in his own “Brady vs. Belichick” debate, as his team hasn’t done much since Tim Duncan retired, I’ve got see for myself what Udoka can do. Then there is the belief Stevens only became GM because the owners still owe him tons of money, something that was fortified when Brad had his lunch money stolen in his first three trades. We’ll leave the specific details to the season preview. But for now, Celtics expectations are at the lowest point since about 2015.

News Item: Worst Great Pennant Race Ever  

You have to understand the logic to get this headline. “Great” pennant races are defined here as those that go down to the final weekend with multiple teams involved. Like the AL race of 1967 when five teams entered the final week with a chance to win the pennant. When Yaz concluded the most inspirational season by a player since DiMaggio in 1941 by going 7 for 8 and knocking in the winning runs both times vs. Minnesota to eliminate them during the final two days of the year. The other way is a titanic two-team battle that pushes them to heights epitomized by what Reggie Jackson told Jerry Remy and Carlton Fisk as he entered the Sox locker room to thank them after the famed 1978 playoff game: “I hate to play you guys, but I love to play you guys.”

This year had both, with the Giants and Dodgers bringing to mind not only 1978 but their own rich history that saw them in special playoffs to determine the pennant in 1951 and 1962. And with the Yanks, Sox, Blue Jays, Mariners and A’s bunched together to start the final week the AL was more like ’67, though it’s been more of a study in bad baseball, where everyone survived terrible stretches to fall out of it before going on runs to get back in it, only to stumble again. It was like watching a slow-motion game of musical chairs where when the music stopped the Yanks and Sox just fell accidentally into their seats. Still, it had drama that lasted to the ninth inning of the final game.

All of which was fitting for the craziest baseball season I’ve ever seen.   

The Brady Bowl finally arrives Sunday night at the razor, though with a little bit of the luster gone after twin disasters last Sunday. The media is making a big deal of it as usual, but for me given all the Super Bowl wins, big games to get to those SB’s, the Manning-vs.-Brady games and even a few with the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets, it’s hard to rank what the most anticipated game has been since the Patriots became worth following every Sunday over the last three decades.   

If it’s for being driven by off-field drama like this, the Brady Bowl doesn’t top Bill Parcells’ first visit to Foxboro after defecting to be the HC of the NYJ’s microseconds after the Pats got creamed by the Packers in SB 31. Thanks to his one foot out the door, ah, effort during SB week everyone in the stadium was out for blood that night because Tuna was viewed as the villain who had ignited the border. Sunday will be the exact opposite where TB-12 will be treated like a hero coming home from war. And after he does the aw-shucks routine, even those on the Coach B side of the “Was it Brady or Belichick?” debate will be happy to see him. And, after all the thrills he gave us, why wouldn’t they? So there won’t be any sports hate Sunday and that’s a vital ingredient for great drama.

So what we actually have to all but the anti-Bill crowd is more like a college homecoming game with people on hand looking to see old friends like Brady and the great Rob Gronkowski. Here’s the skinny on that.

The basics: After respective bad games last Sunday the Bucs enter at 2-1, with the local 11 coming in 1-2 and the natives getting restless.

Big Mac: The big yack coming in from those looking to knock his early-season play is about not throwing the ball down field. Really? Then consider this Rookie Tom vs. Rookie Mac comparison. In the first five games Brady started in 2001 he threw for 167, 86, 334, 202, 206 with no TD passes or picks. In the first two he threw for 253 to Big Mac’s 476 while completing 59 percent of his passes to Mac’s 73 percent. Both were 1-1 with each losing to Miami. Brady by 20 (30-10), Mac by 1 and only after he’d gotten them inside the 10 with three minutes left before a fumble killed it. Thanks to awful protection and two drops that turned into picks, Sunday was a rough one for Mac, which was similar to Brady’s 4-picks loss to Denver in Week 5. But he’s being brought along exactly like Brady, and how’d that turn out?    

Gronk: Before getting drilled in the ribs on Sunday he looked like vintage Gronk scoring 2 TD’s in each of his previous three games. I’m not sure why, but it makes me sadder to see him in another uniform than Brady. And not just because the Hunter Henry-Jonnu Smith combo has hardly resembled the dynamic Gronk-Hernandez double tight end duo.

Brady: Even with Sunday’s loss he’s already thrown for 10 TD passes and over 1,000 yards, 432 of which came against the Rams’ stingy defense. So beware because at 44 he looks as good as he did when he was 27.

Coach B: I wish this game came closer to the end of November after all the new guys had played together in the system a little more, as it’s obvious everyone is not quite on the same page as yet. Even so, I can’t wait to see what the game plan is. Forget what Bill does to rookie QB’s; we get to see the plan against a guy he’s seen play over 200 times. If that hasn’t shown him where to attack nothing will.

Outside noise: The Brady camp was heard from in the lead-up. I don’t know about you but I’m a little tired of old man Brady. Yapping about his son’s vindication is a little like a guy barking before halftime arrives when he should be waiting until the game is over. On the other hand business partner Alex Guerrero is dead right about why the split happened in saying “Bill never evolved” because even though you want everyone to be treated alike you just can’t treat a 44-year-old 20-year veteran the same as a 24-year-old kid — it just doesn’t work. That’s definitely on Bill. Alex must read this column because that’s exactly what I said when the relationship started to rupture during the summer of 2017. 

Predictions  

Defense game plan: The two teams that had the greatest success against TB-12 while here were, as you know, the (gulp) G-Men under Tom Coughlin and the Ravens when Tex Rex Ryan was there. Both ran pressure up the middle to try and push the pocket in his face with the DB’s pressing on the short routes to make him hold it longer. I expect something similar, though since he/the Bucs probably expect that, only time will tell whether it works.

Offense game plan: Unless they fix the protection issues they’ve had all year on the offensive line it won’t matter. But I think they’re going to play action pass early to attack TB’s injury-riddled secondary and try to slow down its very good front seven.   

Key to the game: (1) Pressure on Brady. (2) Protect Jones — so it would be a good idea for all you Catholics out there to say an extra novena for the return of Trent Brown from his injured calf muscle. (3) Hit some shots down the field to Nelson Agholor. (4) Win the turnover battle — short fields help struggling teams and Brady eats them alive.

Outcome: After last week both teams need to win, though the Pats need it worse. Heart says Pats 18-16. Head says TB 31-16.

Baseball is in the final two weeks of the regular season. And while it’s not quite 1967 or 1978, with the (sliding) Yanks, Blue Jays and (maybe stabilized) Red Sox bunched together at the top of the wild card standings, with Seattle and Oakland lurking just behind there’s an engaging race underway for the winner-take-all game playoff to qualify for the ALDS. That is if you don’t mind teams staying in it because everyone else is losing more than they are. Which could make this, if you can follow the logic, the worst good pennant race in history.  

Here’s a recap of what’s happening as we go down the stretch.   

Whether you like their approach or not you have to give Tampa Bay credit for the results. They were the first to 90 wins in the AL which was the 9th time that’s happened for them since 2007, which is pretty good given since their miniscule payroll is about $100 million per year less than the Yanks and Sox spend.
The first to 90 wins was San Francisco, who also was the first to clinch a playoff spot. And even though they may have 100 wins by the time you read this, after looking over the roster and their individual and team 2021 stats I still have no clue how they’ve done it. If you want to know why, ask my friend the insurance mogul Dick Lombardi, who just sent me an email with so many stats/reasons it made my head hurt. But they do make sense.

The Manchester F-Cats alumni association is behind the Blue Jays roaring down the stretch with an offense that scored 42 runs in a three-game sweep of the Orioles two weekends ago and 108 as they went 12-2 in their first 14 games in September to climb back into the wild card race. Leading the way are alums Vlad Guerrero Jr., who may win the Triple Crown as 46 homers and .321 average lead though he’s 8 back in the RBI race, and shortstop/F-Cat teammate Bo Bichette, who has 22 homers and 88 RBI. Plus second baseman Marcus Semien has 40 homers and 95 RBI to make him the best free agent signed of the year.  

On the other side, how in the name of Bucky Dent can a team win 11 in a row to take control of a playoff spot and then immediately lose 10 of their next 12, as the Yankees did from the last days of August through the first 10 days in September? Made worse by getting swept four straight by Toronto when they never led even one batter during the entire series. That hadn’t happened to a Yankee team since 1924, which for the mathematically challenged is a whopping 97 years ago!   

Given that mess, should talk radio still be slobbering over Brian Cashman’s trade deadline brilliance to spend big in prospects for crazy Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo while Chaim Bloom got killedfor getting Kyle Schwarber? Gallo does have 10 homers, but he’s hitting .151 in 180 at-bats with 18 RBI, while it’s .203 after an e-covid illness hot 10 games for Rizzo, but overall he’s got 6 homers and 17 RBI to Schwarber’s .276 with 4 homers and 13 RBI in less at bats.   
Arguably the year’s top feat goes to San Diego’s Blake Snell’s 13.2 consecutive hitless innings pitched on Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, the longest such streak since Johnny Vander Meer pitched back-to-back no hitters in 1938. It also reinforced how wrong the Tampa Bay stat geeks were to force Kevin Cash to yank Snell in Game 6 of last year’s World Series because they didn’t want him to face the Dodgers order a third time to blow the series. This time after walking a pair he got yanked in the 7th inning of the first game with a no-hitter in progress. The relievers gave up three hits but the Pads held on to beat Arizona. But they lost Game 2 to the Angels when after surrendering his lone hit to lose a PERFECT game he was yanked and the pen immediately gave up four hits!

Speaking of needlessly yanking guys early. With the bullpen in free fall, why would Alex Cora take out E-Rod after just six innings and 90 pitches with a 4-0 lead vs. Tampa Bay while pitching his best game of the year? Ditto for Chris Sale after five innings, one run allowed and 79 pitches on Friday.

I love the Shohei Ohtani story where at 9-2 with a 3.34 ERA, 44 homers and 94 RBI he’s had a pitch-hit year few in history can match. But two major names give him a run for his money. In 1919 Babe Ruth was 9-5 with a better ERA (2.97) in his last year as a pitcher when he also led the AL in runs scored (103), homers (29) and RBI (113) during the final year of the dead ball era. On the other side was the great Walter Johnson, who was 20-7 with a 3.07 ERA while hitting .433 when the Senators won their second straight World Series in 1925. Yes I said .433! He did it in 107 at-bats with two homers and 20 RBI, which projects to 12 and 120 in a full season. And remember Ohtani DH’s when he doesn’t pitch while Babe had to play in the field, and with 115 innings pitched he won’t get near the 229 the 37-year-old Big Train threw in 1925.  

While the above gives Ohtani my Player of the Year vote, sorry, when your team is out of it after the first two months you can’t be the MVP. Thus I’m good with Vlad Jr. or teammate Marcus Semien as the most valuable player for stellar play during Toronto’s September push. But get ready for the WAR-infatuated stat geek shut-ins still voting for Ohtani.

As Frank Costanza would say, SERENITY NOW!

We got a glimpse of what the 2021 football season will be like on TV all through Thursday’s season opener when Cris Collinsworth slobbered over Tom Brady from the opening kickoff to after Ryan Succop’s game-winning FG. Not that he doesn’t deserve high praise for playing like he’s still 27, but enough already. Because if the usually solid Collinsworth continues like this unabated through the entire season the Bucs kicker ain’t gonna be the only answering to the name suck-up.  

It continued ad nauseam on CBS Sunday from the pregame show to game’s end when all involved did everything but nominate Mac Jones for the Nobel prize. Again, a very encouraging Game 1 for Big Mac, but let’s pump the brakes a bit, please. That let us know that right behind Brady/Tampa Bay in the news caravan will be his former team/coach and their QB heir apparent. After that are a host of interesting stories that trail the first two by about the distance the runner-up finished behind Secretariat as he finished off his Triple Crown win at the Belmont in 1973.

Here are a few random observations on some of them as we head to Week 2. 

By the way, sorry, Cam, forget “Mac and Cheese.” I nominate Big Mac as a better nickname. More descriptive and the endorsement possibilities are endless.

I think the biggest Patriots story is not the kid, it’s can Coach B pull all the new pieces together quickly enough to reclaim the AFC East?

Brady’s bunch of stories: First, got to say that Crypto FTX commercial with Tom and Yoko was pretty good. From the local barkeep — “I wouldn’t take you back.” Brady — “yes you would.” Funny.

TB is now in Babe Ruth territory. Meaning when the Babe passed Roger Connor’s home run record in 1922 every time he hit one after that broke his own record. With No. 2 man Drew Brees now retired, it’ll be the same for Brady every time he throws a TD pass. With active leader Aaron Rodgers 173 behind Brady’s 585 he’ll break his own record every time he throws one for the rest of his career.
Brady will soon go by Brees’ 80,358 yards to become the all-time leader in career passing yards. And it’s possible that (gulp) the record could fall in Game 4 at Gillette. Fitting I suppose. But just don’t make it happen on a TD pass to win the game!     

To the ceaseless “what’s Mac’s ceiling?” chatter from the yakers. First tell us what you had for Brady’s ceiling in 2000. If you got his right I might listen. But no one got it right. Ditto for Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Drew Brees, Brett Favre and Russell Wilson.

Just an idle thought watching Dak Prescott having a 400-yard passing day as he came back from an injury just as gruesome as the one suffered by Gordon Hayward a couple of years ago in the Celtics 2016 opener. It’s like he didn’t even remember it happened while it took Hayward a full playing season to mentally recover. Does that say something about football players vs. hoopsters or Zach’s mental toughness vs. Hayward’s lack of it? 

Tampa Bay is just the 6th SB winner to bring its entire team back for the next year. However, given that the 1992 Redskins were the last to do it, their feat is much harder to pull off having been the lone one done in the salary cap era.  

It’s more obvious by the game thatGronk needed that year off to rehab/refresh his body. He looked old and slow in 2018, but he was the nearly unstoppable real Gronk again on Thursday night. It makes me sadder to see him in a different uniform than Brady.  

An amazing unreported story is the QB turnover around the NFL where an astonishing 15 of the 32 teams will have a new Game 1 starter from 2020.  

Sorry, I’ll never get used to them being called the Las Vegas Raiders.    

Talk all you want about the five QB’s who got drafted but the Chargers QB Justin Herbert is likely to be the biggest breakout story among all the young QB’s.    

The saddest news of the week was the death of David Patten in a South Carolina motorcycle accident. He was a big contributor in the first three SB wins and huge in the run to the first title with TD catches vs. Pitt in the AFC title games and vs. the Rams in the SB. Gone too soon at 47. RIP.   

Predicted division winners: NFC: Washington, Minnesota, SF and TB. Wild card qualifiers:L.A., GB, Seattle. AFC:Buffalo, Tennessee, Cleveland, KC. Wild card qualifiers: NE, Pitt and Baltimore.      

MVP: Josh Allen. I’ll pat myself on the back for being the earliest guy I know of to say this guy has “it” when everyone else was saying he doesn’t after an uneven first year. Now among the league’s best.

Biggest wish for the season: Tampa Bay vs. New England in the Super Bowl. That would be the most anticipated SB since the first one.   

Bet of the year: With gambling now OK’d by the NFL, I’ll bet anyone out there that unless he gets injured and misses time Jones will surpass what Brady did statistically in 2001 when he threw for 2,843 yards and 18 TD’s in 2001 and I think the 86.3 QB rating is possible too.     

Back to Big Mac’s ceiling for a second. Here’s my take: See what I said about Josh Allen. Different game. Same result.