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Hacksaw’s Great Sports Weekend Podcast
You Tube Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“NFL–SEEING IS BELIEVING
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I bet you cannot believe some of what you are seeing in the NFL: Big games preview.

RAMS-49ers…LA started the season with some of its best players on injured reserve. Remember the (1-4) start? Now they are in the playoff race. Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford have willed this team to 7-wins in 9-games. The defense stood in there and slugged their way to a Thursday night win in the rain in San Francisco, and the Rams run game out-toughed Nick Bosa and friends. What a bounceback season.

CHARGERS-BUCS..I would say throwing contest, but Justin Herbert is really banged up, and despite his season (14TD-1Int) he cannot do it by himself. Here comes Baker Mayfield (28TD) to go against a beat up Chargers defense that played its heart out in the Kansas City loss

BILLS-DETROIT…Home field in the AFC is slipping away from the Bills. What a Josh Allen season, (3400APY) and an offense that has scored 49TDs this season. The Lions are giving up (318YPG) and Jared Goff has (25TD) and a (109R)

STEELERS-EAGLES..How can Pittsburgh stay in the game? I don’t know, but if they do, it will because the defense causes Jalen Hurts-Saquon Barkley to give the ball up. Philadelphia has an offense marching (371YPG) and the choking defense (284YPG). Pittsburgh with TJ Watt and friends makes things happen (28-takeaways..32-sacks) but it does not seem to be enough.

MIAMI-HOUSTON..Tua Tagovailoa is hot (107QB rating)..the Texans are not, having lost 2-of-3.

GREEN BAY-SEATTLE..Jordan Love has an offense cooking (396YPG) but the Seahawks Geno Smith is having a lifetime year (3700APY) with an offense averaging (349YPG)

Enjoy it because each of those games is huge as games tick away on the season schedule

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=======Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast…1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“NFL TO TOBACCO ROAD”
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The Hoodie to Chapel Hill !
Say what?

Yes, that is what my message is to you at this hour.

Bill Belichick is back in football, but not the NFL.  He will have his mail sent to a new mailing address:  North Carolina Tar Heels, c/o ACC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Can you say unconventional?  Maybe.
Can you say Bizarre? Definitely
Can you say successful?  Maybe
Can you say risk-gamble-failure?  Yeah that too.

Belichick is beyond intelligent.  I interviewed him 3-times in my NFL career and I found him dynamic to talk to about many things football.  Not many things related to the New England Patriots or Tom Brady specifically.

But he was big on his opinions on other things, including football philosophies, college football, the Xs-Os of playbooks, trends and more.  And yes like Woody Hayes, lots of thoughts on World Wars and Military history.

If I had to deal with him daily like those beat writers of the Boston Globe or Herald-American, or talkshow radio, I would find him dull, condescending, and tiring.  His answers-non answers would make the game not much fun to cover.

But his scoreboard does not lie.  The 333-career wins.  The 6-Super Bowls.  Of course his track record of operating on the fringe of right-vs-wrong (Spygate-Deflategate) are also part of his resume.

Pick any segment of his stay in New England and you find success.  Tom Brady and his development.  His ability to teach a most unique brand of defense.  His ability to acquire role-playing veterans (Rodney Harrison-Junior Seau-Mike Vrabel), who became stars in his system.  And his risk taking success story with players with bad track records (Corey Dillon-Randy Moss) who hit it big for a short time there, are all part of his track record.

He created assistant coaching legends too.

But in the end, once Brady left, Belichick’s magic ended too.  The draft pick failures grew, there was no QB in waiting and now there seems to be resentment from the man who gave him all that power, Robert Kraft.

The fact post-Tom Brady football has seen what Belichick left behind go (7-23) with little hope of improvement, has put a shadow over his successes on the field in its heyday.

His post Patriots career has been fun.  His podcasts and TV appearances have been full of great stories, old school football assessments, and modern day statements about players, systems and the state of the game.

Why North Carolina?  The landscape has changed in college football.  The NIL-Transfer Portal and Player’s Rights Lawsuits have flipped it from a great game to big time business.

North Carolina, the basketball school, wants its new leader to make it a raging success football school too.

They trust Belichick to bring in his assistants from the NFL, and create an infrastructure for the business of football that puts the Tar Heels on an even floor with all the other super powers.  That will be a challenge.  He is bringing longtime NFL Exec Mike Lombardi to be his GM of operations.

But if you view the electricity of what Coach Prime has created in two falls at Colorado, maybe you say if Deion Sanders can do it his way in Boulder, Coach Bill can do it his way in Chapel Hill.  Though I don’t think he will wear Cowboy Hats, Sun glasses, or bling on the sidelines.

He will have to deal with Big Boosters and more with a national network of media that might not accept his sullen way of answers-non answers, closed practices and all he did with the Patriots.  Add in recruiting, NCAA rules, tampering, limited on field practice time, and the fact the roster you sign is the roster you have all year.

This will be a storyline to follow right from the start.  His world is about to change.  North Carolina football hopes its world will too.

His closest friend, Nick Saban, walked away from the game last year, in dislike of the modern landscape of what the game flipped into.

Can old school handle the new world of college athletics?  Going to be fun to follow.

The Hoodie in Chapel Hill.  Wow..what we have ahead of us.  They gave him a (5Y-50M) deal to take the Tar Heels to a different level.

Just one other question?  Is Tom Brady coming with him at quarterback?

Bill Belichick at North Carolina.  Like the TV soap opera, ‘As the World Turns’
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“PADRES FANS-DON’T DO THIS….YET”
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Padres fans, rooting with their hearts at Petco Park during the season.
Now in off season, Padres fans worrying too much with their heads.

The Hot Stove League is rolling.
Padres fans are waiting for their team to make a deal.

Everyone knows the storylines at this hour.
The passing of Peter Seidler a year ago, changed the team’s spending pattern.

The Friars got to the playoffs with a reduced payroll of 170M.
But they have 7-name players, all due pay raises.
If the Padres wrote checks to all of them, the payroll would blow up to 210M.
Ownership won’t allow that to happen.

Rumors are everywhere, popular catalyst Jurickson Profar is gone.  Ha Seong-Kim will likely leave but might not play till June.

The price tag on 1st baseman-DH Luis Arraez is too steep for a singles hitter.

The team has yet to sign Dylan Cease and Michael King to 2025 deals, but both deserve big pay raises.

It appears Tanner Scott, setup guy, is gone, maybe to the Dodgers or Yankees.
Catcher Kyle Higashioka has gone to Texas.  The bench bunch (Solano-Peralta) are still out there but might want raises.

So AJ Preller is boxed into a corner.  Some guys will surely depart.  Replacing them will be a challenge.  God says you have to have a 25-man roster.  You wants World Series talent on that roster.

But now the rumor mill is working overtime.

Padres brass split about the true value of Arraez and his singles hitting-free swinging style.  Might he net you multiple players in the trade market?  But you create a hole in the batting order.

And now comes word, teams are calling the Padres about front of the rotation starter Dylan Cease and we now worry Preller’s hand may be forced to move an established starter for younger talent because of dollars.

You do those deals and the Padres no longer resemble anything close to the team that many viewed as a potential World Series team last summer.

The additional scary thing is this.  Front line pitching is coming off the free agent board at a fast rate, and the second level guys are disappearing.  Alarming though are the prices.  Max Fried and Blake Snell sign deals worth (36M) each.

That next level of pitchers are signing big number deals too.  Nathan Eovaldi went back to Texas for 25M.  Nick Martinez got 21 to stay with the Reds.

So you wonder if the Padres can actually afford, and convince, Jack Flaherty, Roki Sasaki, Sean Manaea, Andrew Heaney, Jose Quintana or Kyle Gibson to come here and at what price?

Will trade more the farm system to outbid others for the White Sox Garrett Crochet or the Marlins’ Jesus Luzardo or Sandy Alcantara?

If the Padres can’t pay whom they currently have, and have to trade them, how are they going to replace those who depart.  And how are you going to pay them

There are still names out there to go get  via trade or free agency.  So don’t hit a panic button yet.

But if they come back from these Winter Meetings trying to tell you they’ll be okay with a rotation that includes Randy Vazquez, Matt Waldron, Jhonny Brito or Adrian Morejon, then we will all reach for the red panic button.

You’d hate to think the Padres season would be over before it started.

Don’t do it yet, but the Panic Button is the red one in the upper right corner of the panel.  Hope we don’t have to use it.

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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast
You Tube-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“JUAN SOTO-MR MONEYBAGS”
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The Mets got what they wanted.
The agent Scott Boras got what he wanted.
The player Juan Soto got it all too, 15-years.. 765M total…51M-year.

The Yankees lost a big. bat.
MLB’s spread between the haves and the have nots-has widened.

The agent calls him a ‘centurion’..someone you may never see again.
The Mets call him a likely savior.
The Yankees view him as a traitor.

It’s the business of baseball right now.
Baseball free agency has become ‘show me all of your money’.
But it’s not just here, it’s the NFL, the NBA, the NHL.
Hell it’s even in college athletics too, under the banner of the NIL.

So what are the Mets getting?  A big time bat with big time power.
A career (.285) hitter with 205-home runs at age 26.
But they are also getting a defensively deficient outfielder.
A heavy-lumbering base runner.
A less than cannon of an arm too for a corner outfielder.

Compare the intangibles if you will.  Compare Soto’s style and personality.
Look at the heroics of Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers.
Watch the fire in the belly and the camaraderie of Mookie Betts’ clubhouse.
See the professionalism of Clayton Kershaw.

Soto is one dimension.  A bat, alot of power, an aggressive person at the plate.
Soto is self-centered.  Not much of a team player.
Not much of a leader in the clubhouse.

Compare this slugger with the other modern day phenom, Shohei Ohtani.
Compare the personalities, no comparison.
Compare the overall focus-not the same.
Compare the dimensions, bat vs a DH and soon to be a pitcher again.

And look at baseball history.  Can you say Soto is equal to the legends of the game, like Hank Aaron, Willy Mays, Mickey Mantle?

He’s more Reggie Jackson in terms of slugging style and demeanor.  Not to say that is bad, but it means he is not a complete player.

I dealt with Soto in that Padres clubhouse during the 2-lost seasons, and I found him to be aloof, boring, betting on himself and not paying much attention to anything-everything around him on his team.

Some good baseball, some crummy baseball too.  Not much accountability.  Tomorrow is another day, all the while he was hitting (.226) for half a season.  Granted the second year was better, but it was as if he was in a payroll drive, even if the team was not in a pennant race.

All his comments made me believe I was listening to super agent Scott Boras, not a team leading slugger named Soto.

The Mets are excited.  The Yankees are peeved.  The fans are going crazy, loving it or hating it.  The NY tabloids are all over it, hero, villain and more.

The money is absurd, but that is what is being paid everywhere in sports.  You just really wonder if the Mets really know the depths of the player they just gave all this money to.

Maybe it does not matter to owner Steve Cohen, whose bank account is worth 22B.  Maybe luxury tax payments don’t phase him.  Maybe he doesn’t care about team chemistry and clubhouses.

Juan Soto left a World Series team for a payday with a team that has alot of holes alot of places on the roster.  He had turned down a record (440M) offer in Washington, that led to a trade, that led to the collapse of the Nationals franchise, that plunged it into rebuilding-which takes forever.

Sure he is happy and will make alot of corporate comments about glad to stay in New York.  Don’t know that he is bothered by media pressure either in a big market.  Will be interested to see how he handles it, if he has an off season, or the team he chose, turns out to not be very good.

Juan Soto has closed the book on his free agency.  Interesting to see what the rest of his big money career looks like.  And what kind of person he becomes after the person-player we saw in San Diego.  Next chapter coming up.

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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast..1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“A GREAT FOOTBALL WEEKEND”
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Did you get your money’s worth of football this weekend?
Did college football’s final Saturday wind up like you thought?
How cool were some of the games in the NFL?

Exciting for sure, with the knowledge that the college playoffs are coming.
And the NFL still has 4-more weekends to go and playoff slots on the line.
Wow.
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CHARGERS-CHIEFS…The Bolts did everything they had to do to win..but did not win…It was not ‘Chargering’ as we have known it..but it was gut wrenching…They hit-chased-flushed-sacked-pressured Patrick Mahomes all night…Justin Herbert was under siege the entire first half and took big hits…The Bolts came back with a jumbo package running the ball-to wipe out a 13-0 deficit and take a 14-13 lead…But Mahomes being Mahomes, hit enough big plays, his backs controlled the fourth quarter on the ground..and Matthew Wright’s last of 4-field goals-hit the upright and bounced in for the game winning kick with (:01) left…KC has won 19-of the last 22-games with the Chargers..Herbert is (2-7) vs Chiefs red…Mahomes is (10-2) vs the Bolts…The Chiefs are not what they used to be..and even with that, the Chargers cannot beat them…A rugged night..a Chiefs win.

RAMS-BILLS…Isn’t Sean McVay a spectacular leader?  Isn’t Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua willing the Rams to wins?  Isn’t Josh Allen a spectacular individual.  The Rams pull off a wild win over Buffalo.  Big play after big play. Amazing defensive plays.  Joah Allen’s 6-TD outing, almost a one man gang on offense.  And (902Y) in offense between both sides.

GREEN BAY-DETROIT…The Lions going for it 5-times on 4th down in that Thursday night game.  The defense was fierce.  Jared Goff was dominant.  A bombastic AFC-North game.

STEELERS-BROWNS..Who could think the way the season started that Mike Tomlin would have his team (10-3).  Russell Wilson very much a comeback player of the year.  The Browns have lost 21-in a row in Pittsburgh.

MIAMI-JETS….Aaron Rodgers throws for a ton (339Y) but it’s not enough and his team is (3-10).  Tua Tagovailoa has his team (6-7) and hitting big plays.  The Jets have lost 9-straight in Miami.

RAIDERS-TAMPA..Hopeless, all these injuries and now a 9-game losing streak and losing another QB-Aiden O’Connell..

MINNESOTA-ATLANTA…Sam Darnold, a career best (347Y-5TD).  Staggering, the four game Falcons losing streak, and the fact Kirk Cousins, in that streak, has 0TDs-8 Interceptions.
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And then there was the college football weekend.

TEXAS-GEORGIA…A Hollywood script, with injured QB-Carson Beck coming off the bench for the final snap in overtime for a game winning TD run, giving the Dogs the win over turnover prone Texas-which had an unusual bad day.

OREGON-PENN STATE…What a show by QB-Dillon Gabriel and that vibrant-explosive Ducks offense.  What a comeback effort from the Nittany Lions and Drew Allar and a Penn State offense that had (292Y) rushing in a loss

CLEMSON-SMU..Quite a Mustangs comeback, but quite a passing day by young QB-Cade Klubnik, whom most people wanted benched at the start of the season.

ASU-IOWA STATE..How about those Sun Devils, winning the league the first time they walked down the Big 12-Conference highway.  A great offense, throwing and running, and a message the Sun Devils are very much a national power.

BOISE STATE-UNLV…They are one field goal (against Oregon) from being unbeaten.  It is RB-Ashton Jenty, it is also a big play pass attack, and a rugged in your face defense.  This is a real deal (12-1) team.

If you were like me, you watched football, all day and night on Saturday, then did it again on Sunday in the NFL.  More to come in the next couple of weeks.

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