Super Bowl Tuesday
I am cheering for the Patriots. There I said it.
I was planning on being on Team Rams for a lot of reasons.
I'm exhausted by the Saints' bellyaching, and a Rams win would only pour more salt into that aguish. (Hey, if that happens and the Rams do win - and let's say convincingly, maybe they can follow the UCF method and 'claim' a Super Bowl for 2018. Thoughts?)
I really like Sean McCoy's innovation and the way this team is built. Plus, if the Rams win, it would add even more intrigue to the decision in the next couple of years on whether they should/can afford to pay Jared Goff.
I really like Aaron Donald, a monster talent who plays the game like an underachiever and has reshaped the league every bit as much as McVay has in terms of teams desperately looking for every-down dudes who can pressure the QB through the middle.
But I'm cheering for the Patriots, and here's why:
This will never happen again, and I want the marks of greatness to be so unbelievable and lofty that in 30 years when my grandkids ask about the Patriots dynasty, the numbers are clear and overwhelming.
And, in some ways, I am cheering for the Pats as a nod to sustained excellence and what they have provided to me as a sports fan without a meaningful NFL team for which to cheer. (Other than that one season that the Pats broke the Falcons' collective soul.)
Think about it this way, if this admission is making you shake your head and forceable try not to spit your coffee on your key board: Any other Super Bowl match-up without the Patriots (or maybe the Cowboys) from this year's playoff batch would simply not be as good as the tangental connection - good or bad - and rooting interest that comes with Brady and Belichick and New England.
Plus, we have no way of knowing if they will ever get back. (Especially if the reports of Gronk looking to hang them up are true. With that in mind, here's Gronk being Gronk.)
So go out in style New England. You have earned it. (And this should make all Pats haters happy and Pats backers blue considering our adopted teams in pro title games the last few years. We've been team Cleveland, we were pro-Pats last year and pro-Falcons the year before and we grew up a Dodgers fan, so our run of backing the losing side is strong.)
Major props to the greatest run this NFL will ever see.
Los Angeles Rams offensive linemen celebrate after Greg Zuerlein kicked a 57-yard field goal in overtime to beat the New Orleans Saints in the NFC title game Sunday in New Orleans. The Rams will move on to Super Bowl LIII on Feb. 3 in Atlanta.Super Bowl contest
Speaking of props, we got great first-day response from you folks about our Super Bowl props contest. So we are committed and rolling the dice with a Super Props to the Super Prop Bets at the Super Bowl contest.
Are you in?
Here's the thought: We'll offer the following 10 prop bets with a tie-breaker and whomever gets the most right gets lunch on the 5-at-10. Deal? Deal.
(Side note: As a reminder, the first Super Bowl prop bet was offered during the '86 Bears' crushing win over New England. The bet was simple: Some enterprising Vegas bookmakers offered action on whether William 'The Refrigerator' Perry would score a TD. Yes or no, even money. He did and prop bets were born.)
To the props:
> Length of the national anthem, over/under 107 seconds?
> Head or tails?
> Total number of Tweets from Donald Trump on Sunday, Feb. 3, over/under 6.5?
> Duke's Zion Williamson points and rebounds on Feb. 2 vs. Pats and Rams first-half points combined?
> Which commercial will appear first, Doritos or Pringles?
> Which will be higher, Trump approval rating on 2/4/19 (according to Rasmussen Reports) or the badges of the longest made field goal?
> Winner of the Puppy Bowl - Team Fluff or Team Ruff?
> How many Bud Light commercials will feature the Bud Knight, over/under 1.5?
> Number of Tom Brady interceptions, over/under 0.5?
> Super Bowl MVP, a quarterback or the field?
> Tie-breaker: Distance of the longest scoring play - FG, pick 6, fumble return, any of them - in Super Bowl LIII?
Who's in? Need entries by lunch Saturday. Deal? Deal.
College hoops 103
Hard to fathom, but did you know we are seven weeks from the Tuesday night play-in games of the NCAA tournament?
Seriously.
As we are amazed by the accomplishments of the stars, the annual excellence of the elite programs, the intrigue of the unknowns and start to be wary of the eyes in March, the time has surely started to dwindle.
Seven weeks, and poof. That means we're 47 days as of this morning from the field being announced.
Unlike its football brethren and its exclusive group of four, the block party of the NCAA tournament is open to the whole world. (Yes, everyone, because if you have a conference tournament, you technically have a spot in the NCAA tournament. You just have to win nine to 10 or maybe 11 straight tournament games to win the whole thing.)
Debate the merits of that all you want, but that's a conversation for another day.
This day our college hoops lecture will fall on the most intriguing race in the country. That race is not (directly) about any conference; that race is about class. It's not a race for postseason pride; that race is about post-postseason positioning.
Yes, wins and notoriety are appreciated and lauded. As they should be.
The wise view on these final 50 or so days before the ball is tipped in earnest and Jim Nantz starts looking for a hard-working senior to give his necktie too, is knowing that planting the seeds for seeding has already started.
And that process must be cultivated. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, 9 times out of 10 - heck 19 times out of 20 - the college basketball regular season can be as important as the NFL preseason. As we mentioned before, the world gets a ticket to a dance, and if they peak at the right time, that dance can become a ticket to The Dance.
But this year the race for one of the top three No. 1 seeds is supremely interesting and more important than we can remember.
We feel obligated now to reference the river of coach cliches about, "Play the next game," "We can't worry about things we can't control," "That's too far down the road," "Anyone can beat anybody on any given day," and the rest of the verbal diarrhea that, while undeniably true, makes my ears bleed about once a week. (The 'can't control' phrasing is especially important when dealing with an NCAA selection committee that sometimes makes decisions that only Stevie Wonder could see.)
Anyhoo, look at this projection from Joe Lunardi. Yes, it's his best guess, but man, if Duke and UK are in the same region that means Duke must do more. It also has UT as the 1 seed in the midwest, with a potential date with what would be a No. 3-seed Kansas in Kansas City mind you. No es bueno for the current No. 1 overall team in the country.
I firmly believe, while there are more good teams, there are no more than seven great teams. Duke, Tennessee, UK, Michigan, Michigan State and Virginia. The last two on my list are more flawed than the others, in my opinion because each goes through long stretches of offensive struggles. That's dangerous in March.
So if whittle that list to the best five, that means the top three, if the system works, should get an easier 2. Plus, if you are the No. 1 seed and you get Gonzaga as your 2, well, all the better. (And this does not even mention the obvious desires of location. Strong finishes for Tennessee or UK could mean a 1 seed in Louisville; Duke would love to be in D.C., and avoiding the sliding Jayhawks in K.C. is always a good idea.)
Through Sunday's games, the new-fangled NET ranking system the NCAA is now employing looks like this: Virginia, Gonzaga, Duke, Michigan, Tennessee, Michigan State, Houston (WHAT!?!?!?) Kentucky - which somehow lost a spot despite beating Kansas - UNC and Virginia Tech in the top 10.
Resumes will matter friends - this year more than most - and positioning now could change everything in less than two months.
This and that
- Well, pass my hat. There's a 1-in-8 chance I am getting fooled by the interwebs - like that really real looking photo of the monster shark in the flooded shopping mall or that time Jim McElwain was humping a shark - but this story is amazing. There's a new movie out - allegedly - called "The Challenger Disaster" that stars Dean Cain. (Yes, Dean Cain's rise as Superman on TV and his matinee idol good looks have not equalled the box office success he or many of us may have expected.) So Cain is the lead. His co-star and apparent foil in the movie is wait for it Les Miles. Let that sink in. Here's the story and there's a trailer for Peter Sellers' sake.
- As if my backing the Pats was not curse enough, here is news that the Madden Football simulation has Los Angeles winning 30-27. And before you poo-poo the science behind Madden, know this: The simulation has picked 15 Super Bowls and got the winner right 10 times, including the exact score of the Pats-Seahawks and picking the Pats in a big comeback over Atlanta. Hmmmmmmmmm.
- Speaking of the NET rankings, sweet buckets of John Wooden's wooden teeth, the Pac-12 is dreadful. Dread-Ful. How bad you ask, well know this: Before you get to the highest-ranked Pac-12 team on the NET (Washington at 32), there are seven Big Ten teams, five ACC teams, five SEC teams, and five Big 12 teams. And beyond the power five, also in front of the Pac-12's best are Gonzaga (WCC), Houston and Cincinnati (AAC), Nevada (MWC), Marquette and Villanova (Big East), Buffalo (MAC), and Wofford (SoCon). Wowser.
- The Anthony Davis spinning pieces are interesting. There's a ton of smoke around right now but very little fire, and the Pelicans are saying they will be patience. Lonzo Ball is saying he does not want to play for the Pelicans. (Side note: Lonzo spell-checked becomes Gonzo, so there's that.) Davis reportedly is not super keen on joining the Celtics. Crazy right? The league allegedly is looking into possible tampering claims, and mid-market teams should be understandably concerned because the pendulum of power has shifted to the superstars and they now can dictate where they want to play and with whom.
- Here's this morning's Snow My Lord! column on A2 on the annual frenzy that is the snow-pocalypse in the South - and the heckles that come with it.
- We know Chas is particularly high on Josh Allen's chances for being pick Numero Uno in the NFL draft later this spring. We love the draft - you know this. But this mock draft mirrors my view on who I would take first. Yep, Quinnen Williams, in a class full of difference-making defensive linemen, is a bigger version of the Aaron Donald prototype who gets pressure up the middle that NFL teams covet. Dude will be a Pro Bowl in Year 1 and an All-Pro by Year 2. (For what it's worth, that mock has Allen at 3 to the Jets.)
- We mentioned them a little bit earlier, but man when Duke is rolling, this team ranks with Anthony Davis' UK bunch a few years ago, the Fab Five and the early 1990s UNLV teams as the most entertaining, must-see TV teams in recent memory. Sure, we all have our favs - be them players, teams or conferences - that draw our attention, but Duke right now is great theater. Plus, playing with those freshmen - and with the supremely enticing 'What will Zion do next?' angle - it's hard to not want to watch Duke play.
- Interesting look at five uncommitted recruits that are drawing a lot of attention as we are roughly a week from national signing day. It's fair to say that the early signing period has watered down the hoopla around the first Wednesday in February festivities. And that's not an entirely bad thing. Plus, four of the five kids in that story were three-star recruits who are now getting wooed by some major programs because those classes still have spots. Without the early signing period, those major programs would be in the song and dance - wasting a lot of folks' time and public universities' money - trying to flip some kid who is headed to Alabama or Georgia anyway. Other than hard-core recruitniks, who miss taking a vacation day to watch the live feed of the fax machine at State U., I don't really see how anyone can claim the early signing period is not the better system, especially for the recruits.
- Gang, while we are here, great and lively discourse yesterday around these parts. And while I never expect all of us to agree or would even wish for that - that would be much less entertaining and thought-provoking - I am forever proud that we can have disagreements here with civility and respect. Thanks for that friends.
Today's questions
It's Tuesday. True or false.
True or false, this is the Pats' last trip to the Super Bowl with Brady and Belichick.
True or false, you are rooting for the Patriots.
True or false, Les Miles will win an Academy Award before he wins a conference title at Kansas.
True or false, you got bread and milk on the way home last night.
True or false, you are in the Super Props to the Super Prop Bets at the Super Bowl contest.
You know the drill, answer some Ts or Fs and leave some as well.
As for today, well, some days are forgettable. Some, like today, have a lot of noteworthy items.
Tom Selleck is 74. He's a dashing man, and has a Rushmore-worthy 'stache. Mustachioed is a great word.
It's seeing eye dog day, and those creatures do the Lord's work folks. It's also National Puzzle Day and National Corn Chip Day.
It's also national curmudgeons day. That too is a great word. Isn't the far left face of the Rushmore of Curmudgeon Wilford Brimley? Discuss among yourselves.
On this day in 1595, "Romeo and Juliet" is believed to be performed for the first time. In 1845, Poe's "The Raven" was published. In 1886, Karl Benz patented the Benz Motorwagen, the world's first automobile with a burning motor. In 1892, a little company called Coca-Cola was incorporated in the A-T-L. (Wow that's some heavy stuff huh?)
The first MLB Hall of Fame class was elected on this day in 1936.
Oprah is 65. That's star power, and she may be far left on the one-name Rushmore of current/living celebrities. (Tiger's on there too folks.)
Rushmore of one-name living celebrities. Go, and remember the contest.