He’s gone
So Tom Brady alleged he was still going through the process about whether he’ll retire or not. Then about 9:30 this morning, he announced on InstaGram that he’s done.
Good. It’s time.
Should he retire? More than nine times out of 10, I try to never say should in these scenarios. If a player wants to play, play. If a coach wants to keep coaching, keep coaching.
But for Brady, this seems to be the perfect time. Well, the next best thing to the perfect time, anyway. Walking into the sunset and going to Disney after winning it all with the Bucs this time last year would have been perfect.
And I say perfect because the last image we have of him is almost completing the impossible comeback earlier in these playoffs.
But still, the time feels right.
Peyton came back and was dreadful that final season. DEEEE-redful, as he completed less than 60% of his throws with a TD-to-Int ratio of 9-to-17. But Manning came back to get a second ring, and that’s assuredly understandable.
A stink-pants swan song for Brady serves no real purpose, right?
So long, Brady, and thanks.
Thanks for setting a standard of franchise success that will almost assuredly never be matched by a QB.
Goodbye Tom, who rides into the sunset as the most accomplished QB ever and the greatest over-40 team sports competitor of all time.
College hoops potpourri
OK, before we get net deep into the college hoops topics du jour – hmmm, that sounds good, I think I’ll have that – does anyone have a relative – and if it’s you that’s fine too – who purposefully mispronounces words like potpourri? (As in Pot Pour Red.)
My mother always did, and hence, now I do it quite frequently as well. Some of my favorites include “horse-due-vers,” “Sham-pag-knee,” and everyone’s favorite little dog, the “chia-who-a-who-a.”
First, you know the rules. Here’s Weeds on college hoops because when Weeds writes on college hoops you will be a smarter college hoops fan when you read Weeds on college hoops.
Couple of takeaways from Weeds’ wise work: First, the Big East was an absolute beast in the mid-1980s. So much fun to watch.
Second, I don’t think the SEC has three Final Four teams, but to his assertion about his beloved Cats and my beloved Tigers, I believe this assessment is fair.
Kentucky has the best A game in the country. At their best, the Wildcats are No. 1. Auburn, with incredible depth that goes at least to a 10-player rotation, has the best C-minus game in the country, and while no one wants to toss out their average to below-average showing at any important time, that’s an important NCAA trait, as Weeds notes.
Next, UT point guard Kennedy Chandler was named as one of 10 semifinalists for the Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the nation’s top point guard, as Paschall tells us here.
When I first saw this, I guffawed because I thought to myself that Chandler is likely not a top-five point guard in the SEC. Then I saw there were four SEC PGs on the list of 10. TyTy Washington must be in the running for the Jerry West shooting guard award.
(Side question, part II: For Pistol Pete’s sake, how can you have a college collection of positional awards and not have one of them named for Pete Maravich? This is unacceptable. Also of note, the power forward award is the Karl Malone Award, and while Malone was an all-time in the Association, in the name of Cliff Clavin and mailmen everywhere, should the college power forward of the year win the Christian Laettner Award?)
One more college basketball tidbit. This extended analytic look at the nation’s shot-blocking leaders on NCAA.com is aces.
Looking back at the play-by-play transcripts, the writer explored the scenarios around each block and determined ‘projected’ total points saved by the top five shot blockers in the country.
From that article comes this mind-blowing stat: Walker Kessler, who is second in the country with a smidge more than four blocks per game, blocks better than 18% of all two-point FGs attempted by Auburn’s opponents. That’s Kessler turning away roughly two of every 11 shots opponents are taking anywhere inside the arc.
Baseball’s silent struggle
Wow, that got lengthy, so let’s move quickly.
Not a lot of good news to report from the MLB negotiations. The Athletic is reporting that the players and the owners are quite divided on some key financial issues including arbitration and manipulation on the six-year service time for players at the big league level.
Worse, the players want a raise on the league minimum from $570,500 to $775,000. Ownership has countered with a staggered increase of first-year players at $615,000, with $650,000 for second-year players and $715,000 for players in their third year.
And this was striking to me, according to The Athletic, more than 60% of players were in their first three years in the league as recently as 2019.
To be blunt, with pitchers and catchers slated to report in about two weeks, that looks like an absolute no-go. And it’s starting to creep toward that projected March 1 day, which has been circled as the date a deal would need to be in place – at least a verbal agreement – to avoid missing actual games this spring and summer.
This and that
– Speaking of college hoops, I meant to circle back, but tip of the visor to Jules’ spot-on reasoning about TyTy needing to cut his Ty total in half moving forward. To be fair, he’s still a teenager, but the TymeTyme is now for TyTy to cut tieties with the double-up.
– We had a “Back to the Future” reference in Monday’s program as well. And then I saw this story, and I never knew this. Did you know that Eric Stoltz was the original pick to be Marty McFly and even started shooting the film before being replaced by Michael J. Fox? How did I not know this before now? Wow. “Back to the Future” without Fox would be like Ferris Bueller without Broderick, no?
– Here’s Paschall with an interview with Luke List in today’s fish wrapper.
– Here’s Paschall with some college football moving and shaking. Quick analysis: It’s a great thing that UT has had zero coaching turnover from last year to this. It’s a terrible thing – and an even worse look – that Bryan Harsin is about to hire his fifth coordinator in 13 months at Auburn.
– Side question: Are there 28 hours in a Paschall day or does he simply work that much smarter than everyone else? Discuss.
– Uh, there’s professional pillow fighting now. So there’s that.
– There will be plenty of time to preview all the Super storylines from the Super Bowl, but how about this for Vader’s favorite player Joe Burreaux: Joey Touchdown would be the first QB to complete the amazing triple crown of a Heisman, a natty and a Super Bowl with a win in 12 days. Chew on that.
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday. Morning, Ern.
True or false, the SEC will have half of the Final Four.
True or false, Tom Brady will be a good football analyst.
True or false, you would watch professional pillow fighting.
You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs and leave some T or Fs for the group. As for today, Feb. 1, let’s review.
“Late Night with David Letterman” debuted on this day 40 years ago. (True or false, at the height of its powers, the Letterman show was better than Carson’s “Tonight Show.”)
Space Shuttle Columbia exploded on this day 19 years ago.
Clark Gable would have been 119 today, and dude had one debonair ‘stache.
Rushmore of Clark. Go.