Super – Super Bowl

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This is what you want.  This is why you go thru OTAs, 2-a-days, the grind of a season, to get the chance to play on Sunday.
 
And this one could be a classic, this Seahawks-Patriots game.  Great quarterbacks, an explosive offense, a state of the art running back, a great defense, and brilliant coaching.  It does not get much better than this, and on a fast track, in a domed stadium, perfect elements for the best game.
 
So for 4-hours, we will set aside ‘Deflate-Gate’, Defiant coaches, mean-spirited comments, and the myriad of NFL problems, and concentrate on the game.
 
Tom Brady is after his 4th Super Bowl ring, in his 6th appearance.  He has thrown for (593Y) and 6-TDs in these playoffs, and has his full arsenal of pass catchers, in Rob Gronkowski (92R), Julian Edelman (109R), and Brandon LaFell (83R) healthy and ready to go.  Late arriving RB-LeGarrette Blount gives them the bull rush run game they have not had for much of the season.  And then of course there is Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels, his wild formations, the 4-OL package, and putting anyone and everyone in motion.
 
Seattle has the quarterback and the beast of a running back, but not much else on offense.  But Russell Wilson is as diverse as any Super Bowl signal caller we have seen, accounting for (524APY) throwing and running in the postseason.  Marshawn Lynch is the toughest running back since the days of Earl Campbell, and has over (1500R) this season plus the playoffs.  He makes everyone else play bigger with his power and ability to crash for extra yards after contact.  Seattle has speed at wide receiver, though Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse are not equal to what the Patriots present.
 
The season long stats of the two signal callers are staggering.  Brady (4,702P-39TD), Wilson (4648APY-30TD).
 
Bill Belicheck’s mad scientist approach to defense will be fun to watch.  Use the phrase ‘do you believe what you see’ when you get to the line of scrimmage.  The Patriots are historical in showing you one look at presnap, and shifting.  You might get Vince Wilfork lining up inside at tackle, or outside at end.  They might blitz run lanes like they did against the Colts.  They will likely spy Wilson at quarterback, assigning Rob Ninkovich to that role.  They will probably commit to load the box against the load of a running back in Lynch, figuring Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner will handle the Seahawks receivers one on one.
 
Seattle’s Pete Carroll has defense in his DNA, and this will be fascinating how he employs the Legion of Boom secondary.  Does Richard Sherman draw Julian Edleman?  Can Kam Chancellor handle Rob Gronkowski? Who does Byron Maxwell cover on the other side?  Does Earl Thomas double up on Gronk?
 
The Patriots and Seahawks can both move the ball, (365YPG-344YPG), and neither one turns it over much (13Tov-14Tov).  The Seahawks like to gash you with a big run play, make you change your defense, then throw deep sometimes.  New England will spread you out and throw the ball down the seam to open spaces.  Seattle has 43-TDs this year, the Patriots 52 scores.
 
But it is defense that could alter the outcome.  Seattle has given up just 3-TDs in the final 6-games of the regular season.  Adding in postseason, that’s just 6-TDs allowed in 8-games, 6-TDs in 32-quarters of football.  For the year allowed just 27-touchdowns in 18-games.  They have 42-sacks and 24-takeaways, and have allowed the least yards in the league (267YPG); they don’t let you in the endzone.  New England slows you down, but has allowed yards (334YPG) and 32-TDs this year, but they do have 26-sacks-25-takeaways.
 
It will be fascinating to watch the one on one battles.  Can Seattle, with Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril get to Brady without the blitz package?  Can New England’s secondary hold up in single coverage against speed, while they commit people up front?  Will Seattle bust a big play against the big package Patriots defense up front?Can a leaky set of Patriots offensive tackles, Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer, and a young offensive line,which allowed 40-sacks, hold up against speed rushers?  Or doesn’t it matter, because Brady gets the ball out so quick?
 
And will the refs allow New England  to speed up with their 4-OL mix, who’s eligible, who’s not, and will it confuse the Seahawks alignment?  Will there be turnovers?  Will it be fast tempo?  How many defensive hold-pass interference flags will there be, or will mugging be part of the day?.
 
Look for New England to spy Wilson, and fence in Lynch by committing to load the defensive box.  Take away the read-option, and make Lynch run over people, lots of people, at the line of scrimmage.  Seattle will move people around on defense, lining up in zones, man, zero blitz coverage, and try to knock Patriots receivers off their routes.
 
This will be more than Tom Brady-vs-Russell Wilson.  It is more than a matchup of mad scientists, like Pete Carroll and Tom Brady.  It will be fun, it will be good.  I’d like to say (49-42) someone, but these defenses are too good to allow that to happen.  The Seahawks have the defense and two bullets on offense.  The Patriots have loads of weapons and just enough defense to slow the Hawks down.  Pick New England (31-24).
 
It will be a super Super Bowl.

How Do You Like Your Job?

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The weeklong Super Bowl festivities are at fever pitch.
 
We have heard from the players; heard from the coaches; heard from the owners.  Next up, hearing from the Commissioner.
 
These used to be hum-drum affairs, where Paul Tagliabue, and before that Pete Rozelle, would give you plain vanilla answers, avoiding whatever hot topic was out there.
 
The NFL would introduce new ideas, talk about football rules, marketing plans, TV ratings, business partners, and things to look forward to.  Oh, to have those days again, where the Commissioner would talk and really say nothing.
 
Not now, not any longer, at least what is ahead for this Commissioner Roger Goodell.
 
The NFL league office is under siege.  Lawyers, lawsuits, probes, police investigations, union issues, drugs, appeal hearings, and challenges to the good old boy network.
 
We won’t be hearing about 9B-industries, growing TV ratings, new business partners and the like.
 
A media grown hostile, fueled by the 24-hour news cycle, and blazing storylines in every corner, will confront Goodell going forward.
 
The war over the concussion lawsuits is indeed not over.  The barrage of arrests for domestic abuse can no longer be pushed behind the curtain.
 
The challenges to the NFL discipline program and the appeals process, is no longer acceptable.
 
HGH drug testing is in place, but not perfect, and now year long suspensions to players is front and center in lots of different cities.
 
The Pain-killer lawsuits and allegations will not go away.
 
We have ‘Deflate-Gate’ on the heels of the ‘Bounty Club’, the ‘Hazing Club’ and ‘Spygate’.
 
The headlines scream about Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy, Stan Kroenke, Josh Gordon, Johnny Manziel and more.  Coverups, defiance, player’s rights and faulty decisions dot the NFL map.
 
You have stadium issues in Los Angeles, San Diego, St. Louis and Oakland.  You have franchise free agency, and the threats of more litigation that LA should be an open market and not NFL controlled.
 
There is the London factor and the feeling there is another money-grab just across the pond.
 
Sometimes you wonder if the fun of games is forever gone, even if we get to see Tom Brady-vs-Russell Wilson, the beast and best running back Marshawn Lynch against the brilliance of Bill Belicheck’s defense.  Game day has been replaced by Problems most everyday.
 
Roger Goodell makes lots of money, something like a 40M payday package to be the Lord of All.  His job is hard, getting tougher, and he will get no slack from anyone at the Commissioner’s Press Conference.
 
Nothing super about Super Bowl week’s stories off the field.

The Beast and a Bore

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Super Bowl Media Day has come and gone.
 
The NFL credentialed 6200-plus people to be inside the University of Phoenix Stadium; some were actors, some were celebrities, some were hangers-on, many were working media.  As usual, it was a circus.  A crush of more than 300 to try to listen to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.  As little as 4-to talk to Seahawks punter John Ryan.  
 
And then there was Marshawn Lynch, the beast, the bull, the belligerent Seattle running back.  In typical fashion, because he was a star, he drew 200-plus working media members, and he was condescending and insulting to every last one of them.
 
Whereas teammate Richard Sherman, spoke, lectured, and answered questions for nearly the entire one hour mandated by the NFL, Lynch spent 4:59 in front of the throng, got up and then left.
 
Topics as dynasties, history, turning points of the season, deflate-gate, coaching styles, lifestyles and even erotica novels, were all part of media day.  Everyone had something to say except the power running back from Seattle.
 
Lynch, who has been fined $136,000-in his career, for suspensions, media violations and obscene gestures showed up.  And in typical fashion, acted like he has acted in the past year, disrespectful of the league, its rules, and the people trying to do their job.
 
In his nearly 5-minutes at the podium, he was asked 29-different questions, ranging from his career, to NFL rules, to playing with Russell Wilson, to Coach Pete Carroll.
 
He responded thusly, “I am here so I don’t get fined.”  That was the sum total of his contributions on Media Day.
 
Few know him well, except his teammates and coaches.  Few from outside his circle know much about him either.  And that’s too bad.
 
He has put together amazing back to back seasons in Seattle, after the Seahawks gave him a chance after Buffalo gave up on him, as a wasted draft pick.  Coach Pete Carroll calls him unique.  He knows about his game prep, and how he is viewed in his locker-room, and he surely knows his contributions to what the Seahawks have become.
 
No one, since the days of Earl Campbell, runs with the thunder of Marshawn Lynch.  The bruising running back, who is big, fast, violent, has an extra gear, and is next to impossible to bring down, has put up enormous stats in a vaunted Seattle playbook.
 
In four years as a starter with Seattle, he has 1,189-carries for 5,357-yards rushing and 48-touchdowns.  Add to that 682-yards rushing and 7-more TDs in postseason.  It’s an amazing accomplishment of endurance and toughness, over 6,000-yards rushing and 55-TDs in four seasons, of taking hits, dealing out punishment and dragging gang tacklers with him as the Hawks marked man.
 
But the careers of NFL players in that position are not long-term.  You get hurt, or you wake up one morning an old man, and no longer the same players.  His numbers are a powerful statement about a powerful man.
 
But he is a man with a chip on his shoulder, with no explanation as to why he acts the way he does.  Tough upbringing in a fatherless home in Oakland.  A struggle to be a student athlete at Cal.  The demise of the promise so much expected in Buffalo.  The rules and regulations with the law in the streets, and the law that is the NFL.
 
Maybe we don’t need to know.  Maybe he doesn’t care to have us know.  But know this.
 
The short reputation you develop as a player will carry with you into life after your playing career is over.  Then the goodwill of your name carries you to something else, if you had a good name.  
 
I think of Marshawn Lynch now and I think of great running backs in the past, and how it ended for them.  The enduring stats of Chuck Muncie were washed away by all his problems with substance abuse.  The greatness of Duane Thomas in Dallas, was eroded away by how he acted.  Mention either of those names, and the positives as a player were overshadowed by the shortcomings of the person.
 
When the money is gone, or the cheering stops, or the health fails, what do you want to be remembered for?  Quality, class, dignity of someone like LaDainian Tomlinson, Marcus Allen, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders or Walter Payton,  or the sadness that is attached to those names who tarnished their image?
 
Marshawn Lynch wants to be the Beast of a player, and bore of a person.  That’s okay, except, that when the career is over, people will remember him for how he acted, not just what he did.  If he wants to act like an “ass” to everyone, then he will be remembered as an “ass” by everyone.

Los Angeles and the NFL – The Stadium Game

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Somewhere in the middle of all this lies the truth.  There are rumors here, there and everywhere.
 
The only real part of the LA Stadium storyline is the fact the St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders, and San Diego Chargers, can opt out of their leases and move.
 
Rams maverick owner Stan Kroenke has gone public with his Hollywood Park plan, to build an 80-thousand seat stadium amongst other entertainment buildings in Inglewood.  He has the land, he has the franchise, he has the developer, and he has money..  
 
What he does not have is the NFL’s approval, but what he does have is the historical court case verdict, that gave the Raiders 34M in damages and the right to move to Los Angeles without NFL approval  Kroenke may wind up in court before the first shovel of dirt is turned, but he is farther along that anyone else.
 
Philip Anschutz and his legendary firm AEG, have the resources at Farmer’s Field, but do not have a tenant for his proposed stadium adjacent to Staples Center.  But Anschutz has one thing, others don’t, an enormous track record of getting projects done. Look across the street at the Staples Center.  Look at the franchises he co-owns, the Lakers and Kings.  Look around the country as the facilities he has built.  He is a doer.
 
The third piece of the puzzle is Majestic Realty, and Ed Roskie, a great entrepreneur.  He has the land, all the easements and approvals, but he does not have a tenant, and working against him is the location, away from the city.
 
Dean Spanos runs a money making Chargers franchise the community loves, even if the fans relationship with the family is luke-warm at best.  He has the franchise, but not the resources to build a stadium himself.  He has struggled to find a way to get a deal done with the ever-changing factions of city leadership, plus the antagonists in City Hall.  They must move out of outdated Qualcomm before it falls down around them, but who, how, where and then someone to finance it.  
 
Mark Davis, the Raiders owner, is in an even worse situation.  A rag tag football franchise that has lost 2-of every 3-games it has played since a Super Bowl appearance in 2002.  Added to that is a sewer of a stadium, what was once the Oakland Coliseum, whose nickname really fits everything there, ‘the Black Hole’.  Davis has neither a good product, nor money, and that means he could sell.
 
Kroenke will control his own destiny.  Spanos wants to use his imagined power to get a deal done without his own money.  Davis is the one who could move, sell a chunk of a team or the entire team, and wind up in LA, with a new leader and then a new image, and down the road a better product.
 
And then there’s the hidden elephant in the room, California, LA and San Diego; a near bankrupt state, financially ailing cities, and a mandate from voters, we’re not giving a rich man a stadium
 
Rumors are everywhere.  Tough to sort out fact from fiction when a bunch of people lie, or some don’t know what they are really doing, or you deal with a power broker like the NFL that wants the best deal, their deal, that guarantees them their profits.
 
Will Kroenke have the courage to fight the NFL in court if need be?  Will Spanos up and leave after years of failed attempts to find a partner he trusts, or city leadership that trusts him?  Will Mark Davis give up, as a non football man, and sell a bad football team and allow it to be moved from a dying city?
 
Lots of moving parts, lots of moving targets.  Nobody pinned down yet in the LA Stadium game.

NFL Circus Comes to Town…

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They’re headed to Arizona, these New England Patriots, with a bunch of tin cans tied to their tail, as they go to the Super Bowl press conferences.  The tin cans make lots of noise, and that’s what they made this past week.  Instead of placards at the tables in the Media Center with their names on them, they should print just one word of them, one word will describe it all, “Cheats.”
 
In fairness to the media, they have to cover the stories involving all these press conferences, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady; write down all these quotes, relay all the explanations, then sort out what was said as compared to what was not said.  Ah the circus is in town, wearing the Red-Blue-Silver jerseys and helmets.
 
It was fascinating to listen intently to the Belichick press conference Thursday, the ‘total denial’ one, where he said he had learned more about inflating footballs, the rules, and Chain of Custody, in three days, than he had learned in 40-years of stomping, snorting and winning on the sidelines.
 
Then Saturday, another surprise press briefing, where the Patriots coach turned in a guest-lecturer performance that would make people at MIT proud, talking about the scientific study he had done in previous days about inflating balls, weather conditions, temperatures, weight on balls, the sun-the moon-the stars.
 
The non-personality he is, Belichick even invoked cult hero stuff, lifting lines from the Joe Pesci movie, “My Cousin Vinnie” and actress Mona Lisa Vita.  It was theatre at its best.  All this from a guy who loathes dealing with the media, and yet he had 13-and-23 minute press briefings.
 
But please, let me sales pitch this to the intelligent ones, even those located in the State of New England.  
 
With the raging beast that is Marshawn Lynch, the Seattle running back, next up on the horizon, and the dynamics of read-option quarterback Russell Wilson taking Seahawks snaps, do you really believe Belicheck would spend all this time, on the valuable game-prep week for the Super Bowl, worrying about 12.5 pounds of air pressure in balls, whether it was rainy or hot, windy or not?  Please, common sense, please, even to you people from the 617-area code.
 
So now Belichick has flat out said the Patriots are innocent; word like, transparent, followed rules to the letter, we learned out lesson, and innocent.  What he did not say now is he is challenging the NFL and investigator Ted Wells, prove we did something wrong.  Where is the smoking gun; do you have a witness?
 
Of course there are holes in the Patriots coaches argument.  If the atmospheric conditions caused changes in the Patriots balls, how come they did not impact the Colts balls, you know, the 12-legal ones, compared to the 11-illegal ones?  Was it because the ball bag was in the sun on the South sidelines of the stadium, while the Colts ball bag was on the North side in moderate weather?
 
If there was a major air inflation gauge malfunction, how come it did not malfunction when the NFL weighed and examined the Indy ball bag after they looked at what the Patriots ball bag contained?
 
And again, at the most important time of the year, the biggest game of the season, Belicheck was talking to people at Princeton, Harvard, Yale or MIT about balls, rather than gap control, blitzes, and cut blocks with his coaches?
 
Bill Belichick vs Pete Carroll, in a battle of mad scientists prepping for a game, should have consumed every waking minute this past week.
 
C’mon now!
 
Give credit though for this.  Belichick will use this past week to rally his team.  “Us against them” he will remind them.  They don’t believe you can win, unless you cheat.  And the coach has now deflected the glare of the spotlight during Super Bowl week, off his players (they won’t talk about Deflate-Gate), to him, where he will talk on and on, more nonsense than reality, some fact-vs-a bunch of fiction.
 
This will be fun to observe all this week, but understand this.  The credit card bill always comes due, and when NFL lawyer Ted Wells is done, there likely will be a bill with a fine attached.  Either some 23-year old Patriots ball boy is going to cry infront of NFL officials and spill it all, or so many teams will come forward, that the league will reach the decision, Deflate-Gate and Spygate are one and the same, authored, created and executed by the same guy, wearing the hoodie..  
 
The Patriots, trying to gain a competitive edge, were actually cheating.  Bill Belicheck, Tom Brady, here’s the bill, pay the fine, when the Super Bowl game is over…