Hamlin update
Bills safety Damar Hamlin is still in the ICU according to multiple media releases, but he is showing “positive progress” according to officials.
Hamlin’s collapse has been thoroughly detailed from multiple aspects, and all of the sports world — players and fans across all genres — are praying for his recovery.
There are other lingering details about this, and we will discuss them with the clear and direct acknowledgement that nothing is more important than Hamlin’s health.
But the unknown about making up the Bengals-Bills game has become a justified talking point.
We detailed some of that earlier this week in the NFL Power Poll, but that was speculation.
Now there appears to be two front-runner options, and let’s be clear: These are like the modern political process and election day. We are choosing the best bad option.
Option 1 is canceling the game and leaving the Bills and Bengals with 16 games while everyone else will have 17 games. This would leave the postseason schedule unaffected, and that’s it’s pro.
The con is clearly the imbalance in games played makes Cincinnati the AFC North winner regardless what happens Sunday against Baltimore. And the 1 seed in the AFC becomes Kansas City’s to lose, but would either be the Chiefs or the Bills depending on the weekend plays out.
Again, no solution is perfect, but that appears to be Option 1. Heck, according to reports, Joe Burrow has said the Bengals have had side discussions about not playing this weekend. And the emotions of being on the field when Hamlin collapsed have to be overwhelming.
Option 2 would be to replay (or even resume) the Bills-Bengals game next Sunday. That would push all the playoff schedule back a week, which is possible without moving the Super Bowl because of the ‘open’ weekend before the championship.
This would give every AFC team an even number of games and fairly seed the postseason. But it also would create some strange scenarios in the NFC as well as a national spotlight on a single game that may not matter all that much in the seeding (depending on what happens Saturday and Sunday of this week) and certainly would not matter at all in comparison to the assured discussions of Hamlin and his health.
(Side request: If anyone out there reached the championship of their fantasy football league and your team or your opponent had Bills or Bengals players, please let me know how your league addressed that scenario. I am curious about how that played out since there almost assuredly would have been some Bills or Bengals in championship games and there are so many fantasy players around. Thanks.)
How desperate is Jimbo
So, Jimbo Fisher had arguably the best/worst bell curve in 2022 that any sports figure in recent memory can offer.
He started 2022 landing the best recruiting class in the history of college football according to the services. Seriously, it was ranked better than any of the Saban hauls at Bama or the star-studded Smart classes or even the loaded crews Urban Liar landed at Florida and THE Ohio State.
And it allowed Texas A&M fans and supporters to dream big, especially after Fisher started tugging on SuperSaban’s cape through the offseason.
The Aggies started the 2022 campaign No. 6 in the country. They finished No. 6 in the SEC West.
Fisher’s got one of ‘those’ contracts that will pay him huge dollars whether he’s coaching in College Station or not for the foreseeable future.
But the pressure — despite the contract and the mother of all buyouts (if Jimbo is fired in before the end of the 2023 season, he would be owed $85.95 million; if he is fired after the ’23 season, he would be owed $76.8 million) — clearly is palatable for Fisher and his program.
How do we know this?
Well, Jimbo picked up the nuclear hotline Wednesday and dialed directly to the ‘Rock Lobster’ himself Bobby Petrino to be the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M.
Wow. Yep, Petrino, who has left more burning ships in his wake than Cortez. His last stint in the SEC was the image at Arkansas with the neck brace and the ‘motorcycle’ thing and the volleyball player rumors. He quit the Falcons in the middle of the night and left a note in the locker room. We could go on.
Hey, in terms of in-game play-calling, I’m not sure there is a better dude out there than Bobby P. But to welcome that kind of dude into your program — hey, fool me once, shame on you, fool me 23 times, shame on me — screams how badly Jimbo needs a change.
And moreover, how much Jimbo knows Jimbo needed a change.
Canton-bound?
So, this year’s 15 finalists for induction into the NFL Hall of Fame were announced Wednesday evening.
The list includes first-timers Dwight Freeney, Joe Thomas and Darrelle Revis.
Side question before we move further: Shouldn’t pass-rushers be viewed through a more critical prism considering the modern philosophy of the game, not unlike wide receivers per se?
That question is important for Freeney, who had more than 100 sacks as a pass-rushing specialist in his career, as well as finalist Torrey Holt, who posted all-time numbers but may not have even been the best wide receiver on his team for a long stretch with the Rams running alongside Isaac Bruce.
I think the other two first-timers — Thomas and Revis — are no-brainers to be honest.
The rest of the list is tackle Willie Anderson, receiver Reggie Wayne, kick-returner and two-way player Devin Hester, receiver Andre Johnson, defensive end Jared Allen, linebacker/defensive end DeMarcus Ware, linebacker ZAch Thomas, corner Albert Lewis, corner Ronde Barber, linebacker Patrick Willis and safety Darren Woodson.
If I had a ballot and realizing you can pick no more than five, my picks would be Thomas and Revis clearly.
I think Andre Johnson is easily the best receiver among the finalists considering what he posted with the Texans, while Holt and Wayne got to spend a lot of their playing days with guys named Warner and manning.
Patrick Willis was the best linebacker in the game for almost a decade, so I would vote for him too.
My last spot would come down to Wayne, Ware or maybe even Devin Hester, who is the best to ever return kicks in NFL history.
Thoughts?
This and that
— UTC took one on the chin last night at Greensboro. Here’s more from today’s fish wrapper.
— Auburn took one on the chin last night at Georgia. Georgia is better than most folks realize; Auburn will be fortunate to make the NCAA tournament.
— Man, the Rose Bowl was historically bad in terms of TV viewers. A smidge more than 10 million viewers watched the Penn State win over Utah in the Granddady of Them All. The previous low was in 2016 for a Stanford-Iowa Rose Bowl and that drew more than 13.6 million viewers.
— You know the rules. Here’s Paschall on an area receiver making his mark for the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
Today’s questions
Anything goes Thursday people. Let’s try to have some fun in these serious times.
Also, remember the mailbag friends.
As for today, well, there are some days that have no birthdays of note and some that have a bevy of big-timers.
Today is the latter. Happy 92nd to Robert Duvall. Happy 77th to Diane Keaton. Happy 48th to Bradley Cooper.
Is there any actor that has more Rushmore-worthy roles than Duvall? I mean dang, playing Frank Burns, Col. Bill Kilgore, The Apostle and Mac Sledge of “Tender Mercies” would be a stellar Rushmore for almost any actor.
And then you realize that would be — at best — Duvall’s back-up Rushmore since it does not include Tom Hagen, Bull Santini, Boo Radley and of course Capt. Augustus McRae.
Dang.
And the overlap of a couple of these leads me back to one of my favorite “What if” movie conversations in that “What if” Michael Corleone’s first wife Apollonia had not been assassinated (spoiler alert) by the car bomb in Italy and he stayed with her rather than going back to Kay, which led him to a lifetime of misery? Discuss.
I am pretty sure we have done Duvall’s Rushmore, and may have done it multiple times.
So let’s do Cooper’s and gang, there are only three spots open because “Wedding Crashers” assuredly makes the grade.
Go and remember the mailbag.