NFL power poll
How did this happen? When did it happen?
No, not when did Aaron Rodgers become a better-than-average QB or Matt Ryan became a below-average back-up.
Heck, I’m not even asking when Tom Brady got to a place where he consistently misses open receivers who are streaking down the field. And some with their clothes on as well.
No, the change is about Monday Night Football.
Because heading into this season, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were no worse than announcing tandem 1A, right there with Nantz and Romo, as the most famous in the sport.
Buck and Aikman left Fox for more dinero on Monday night. And in truth, I forget about them regularly.
The Monday crew used to be the bee’s knees. (Side question: Is it a bee’s knees or is it the whole crew as in bees’ knees? Discuss.)
Howard. Dandy Don. Frank as the straight man. Then Madden came along, but he also went to Monday night because that was the biggest stage.
And in some ways, maybe it was when Madden left for Sunday night football that the change started, but now — even with Joe and Troy — Monday night is barely ahead of Thursday night in terms of the pecking order of platforms.
Which also makes me wonder if announcers matter at all for any sporting event, especially the NFL?
Is there a specific in-game announcer — play-by-play or analyst — that if every big-time broadcast team in a specific sport was working the same game, you would specifically switch to that crew? I know there are several I would click off of, but I’m not sure if there is one that would draw me. Discuss.
Like Georgia voters this morning mercifully ending this Senate mud-slinging marathon, let’s get to the polls.
Powerful
1 Philadelphia (11-1). Any questions for the NFL’s most complete team? And what a time to be a sports fan in the City of Brotherly Love considering the Phillies just added the best free agent shortstop to the lineup of the defending National League champs. More on that in a moment.
2 Dallas (9-3). So if they add Odell Beckham Jr. as a third receiver, would that help the roster or hurt the chemistry? Still a team with a three-receiver set of CeeDee Lamb (think I may start going by JayJay, thoughts?), Michael Gallup and Beckham with Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott is a lot of options. And while we’re here, we need to contemplate a Rushmore of NFL coordinators who are great with an OC or a DC on their office door but overmatched with an HC title. Because Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn certainly is in that conversation. Thoughts?
3 Minnesota (10-2). Want to know something crazy? The Vikings have a five-game lead in the NFC North with five to play. Yes, a Vikings win this week and/or a Lions loss clinches the division with a month left in the season. Want to know something even crazier? The Vikings are eight games over .500 with a scoring differential of plus-10 for the season. Welcome to (cue Ron Jaworski) THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.
4 Kansas City (9-3). Yes, it appears the Chiefs have a bit of a Bengals issue. (Side question: Bugles, as a snack not as a horn, friend or foe? Like, Bugles, better or worse than Combos for example? Discuss.) But they still have Mahomes and are on track to have home-field advantage through the AFC playoffs.
5 San Francisco (8-4). Man, this may be a short stint among the top five, but consider this about the 49ers: They are the hottest team in the league as winners of five straight. They have three match-up nightmares on offense with Christian McCaffery, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel. Defensively they may be the most complete team across each level. And Kyle Shanahan may be the best offensive mind in the game. Now they are down to a third-string QB who was picked last overall last April and are so QB needy they are kicking the tires or Baker Mayfield, who’s best professional work has come pitching Progressive Insurance more than playing pitch and catch on Sundays. But the 49ers are stout. (And Josh Allen still is not 100%.)
Powerless
28 New Orleans (4-9). Let’s look at some of the draft possibilities for the dregs of the league. The Saints — like a few of the teams picking in the top 10 — certainly need to have long-term QB discussions.
29 Los Angeles (3-9). In our conversations about draft capital, know this: The Rams are headed to DFL in the West and their first-round draft pick is headed to Detroit. But hey, those Super Bowl rings are shiny.
30 Denver (3-9). Another team with a rotten record and no draft help on the horizon. As deep as Denver drops is as smiley Seattle seems. Because the Seahawks are contending for a playoff spot and could hold the third overall pick. The state of the Broncos is dire, and somewhere John Elway says nay.
31 Chicago (3-10). The Bears have been eliminated from the playoffs. It’s time to a) shut Justin Fields down for the rest of the season. He’s shown enough that you can believe you have a QB1 moving forward. And b) tank. If Houston is going QB and you can get the second pick, you have the pick across college football at WR1, pass rusher or even O-line.
32 Houston (1-10–1). There are too many draft holes for the Texans. In fact, we have mentioned in previous weeks the completeness of the Eagles, who rank in the top five in most every offensive and defensive category. That’s how you get to 11-1. How do you get to 1-10-1? Well, the Texans are DFL in yards gained at 279.3 per game and next to last in scoring at 15.7 per game. As for perfect imbalance — or would it be imperfect balance — the Texans are also bottom five in yards allowed (28th at 378.3 yards per game) and turnover margin (29th at minus-6).
College football craziness
OK, there simply are too many storylines to follow in the craziness that is college football right now.
There is the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler Optional) Contest, which is a go. We will present the games and the lines tomorrow. Deal? Deal.
There is the zaniness that is the Scott Satterfield situation. Coach Satt left Louisville to head to Cincinnati. (Side question: Any athletic program dealt with more headaches over the last half-decade than Louisville? There was Petrino, and Pitino and Papa John and now the hoops team is DEEEE-redful and Satterfield leaves a Power Five program for a Group of Five school. Ouch-standing.)
And if the defection is not enough, guess who Cincinnati plays in the bowl game? Yeah, that’d be Louisville. And guess which bowl? I don’t know the name either but it’s the bowl in Fenway, which, when it’s configured to host football, puts both teams on the same sideline. Cozy.
There is the ever-growing crowd in the transfer portal, which opened on Monday and now has names like Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei, NC State QB Devin Leary, Oklahoma State QB Spencer Sanders and Texas A&M QB Haynes King. Here’s a monster list of the ones that have been reported.
And then there is the whole Heisman thing.
I was somewhat surprised on the principle of Alabama being ranked over Tennessee despite the Vols beating the Tide head to head. At least debating the merits of two two-loss teams could be a conversation, even if I believe head-to-head more than scoring margin or comparative scores.
But I’m not sure what to do with the apparent move of the sport’s biggest individual award to becoming a team thing.
Hendon Hooker not getting invited to the Downtown Athletic Club as a Heisman Finalist while Stetson Bennett is named a finalist is hard for me to understand. Here’s Paschall with the details.
(Side note: Maybe the Republicans should have put Bennett on the ballot today rather than Walker. I think Bennett could have toppled Warnock to be honest. That Senate race is truly the worst choice of two terrible choices.)
Bennett is no better than the third-best QB in his conference and not even the best offensive player on his team. That’s Brock Bowers.
But he’s one of four Heisman finalists? Nuts. Simply nuts.
Hey, Bennett’s story is a great one. Bennett’s loyalty to Georgia and his dreams of being a Georgia QB are going to make a wonderful Rudy-esque kind of movie in the not too distant future.
But if Bennett is more deserving that Hooker or Bryce Young as a finalist then a couple of things need to happen. First, the criteria of the voting needs to be changed from “college football’s best player” to “college football’s best team’s QB.”
Second, we need to go back and redirect some awards to those dudes who were deserving but were hurt with the “This is not a career achievement award” because simply put if Georgia is not the reigning national champ, Bennett is not invited.
Maybe we should expect it from college football, a sport that has become beloved by so many of us through the years because of the hysteria and the hype.
But in the modern age, when coaches leave at the drop of a hat then bemoan the transfer portal and schools pay tens of millions in buyout money for coaches not to coach but then complain there’s not enough money to pay the players, the hysteria and the hype is far too often replaced with hypocrisy.
On the move
So, I don’t really remember this happening before, but when did baseball start having an all-MLB first team?
Here it is, with four Astros and a couple of Dodgers and no Braves.
Also of note: Somehow, Stetson Bennett was not picked for this team. So there’s that.
Two of the names on that team — shortstop Trae Turner and AL Cy Young winner Justiner Verlander — signed free agent deals in the last couple of days.
And the Braves will see more of each as Turner inked an 11-year, $300 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. Verlander signed a two-year, $86 million deal with the Mets.
As for Verlander — who will be an immediate fill-in for Jacob deGrom, who went to Texas on a five-year, $185 million deal — well, the soon-to-be-40 year-old righty was historically good for his age last season for the Astros on the way to the world title.
But at $43 million per year, if he gets 30 starts a season over the length of the deal, the Mets will pay him $1.4333 million for showing per game. That’s insane money when you consider 30 years ago, Greg Maddux made $4.2 million — total — for the 1992 season when he won the Cy Young in his final year with the Cubs.
Still, the eye-opening deal for Braves fans is less about the competition that is coming to the NL East than the market set for star shortstops with Turner’s mega-deal.
Because now Dansby Swanson can see what Turner got — and yeah, Turner’s better and younger than Swanson but still $27.3 million per over an 11-year deal is huge coin — and there is a high-spending L.A. team in need of a shortstop.
Somehow I feel like Alex Anthopoulos had his Monday ruined when the Turner signing became official.
Thoughts?
This and that
— And to offer a counterbalance to the above, I’m not sure why Kirby Smart (and in previous years Nick Saban) do not get more Coach of the Year appreciation annually. Sure, Josh Heupel was a fine choice, but far too often the voting for the CoY award is all-too-silent mea culpa from the voting media who underappreciated a UT or an LSU before the season. That’s especially true in college football, when the coach is also the GM and in charge of assembling the roster, because who has done that better than Kirby over the last two-plus seasons?
— Rest easy Kirstie Alley. She was 71. Not many stepped into a bigger role on a bigger show and handled it as well as when Alley replaced Shelley Long as the female foil to Ted Danson’s Sam "Mayday" Malone on “Cheers.” As great as it was, “Cheers” is kind of like Kareem — it’s one of the GOATs and still is consistently underrated is that’s possible.
— Dan McLaughlin, the longtime TV voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, was arrested over the weekend for his third DWI.
— Wow, Tom Brady with some late-game heroics to keep the Bucs in this thing.
— Greg Norman answers back to the Rory and Tiger criticism.
— Man, UNC was preseason No. 1 in the college hoops poll and now the Heels are unranked? It’s Dec. 6, people.
— “Yellowstone” discussion tomorrow. Deal? Deal. What a debacle this has become.
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday. Hello Ernie, hope you and Karen are ready for Christmas.
True or false, the moves by the Mets and the Phillies in recent days force the Braves to over pay for Dansby Swanson.
True or false, Dansby Swanson getting a reported $10-plus-million a year more than Ronald Acuña Jr. is going to divide the locker room.
True or false, while it certainly would not work for most traditional names that sound like back-to-back initials, CeeDee Lamb’s spelling of CeeDee is awesome in its awesomeness.
True or false, no baseball player ever is worth $1.433 million per game.
True or false, Stetson should be a Heisman finalist over Hooker or Bryce Young.
You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs, leave some T or Fs.
As for today, Dec. 6, let’s review.
Pete Rozelle died on this day in 1996. Rushmore of all-time Commissioners, and be creative.