Elementary My Dear Watson

No football being played this weekend. None. Nada. Zilch. Not that anyone cares. Yeah, right. 

Yet football remains in the headlines after the AFC and NFC winners were crowned. For good reason. This Super Bowl is bound to generate a ton of interest. 

Guess who is back to another Super Bowl? Tom Brady. Love him or hate him-and there is that kind of range of feelings towards number 12—his 10 appearances far outnumber the second closest QB to have appeared in the Super Bowl. That would be the great Denver QB John Elway. Elway made it to the big stage five times. 

The novelty is that Brady isn’t leading the Patriots in the game, Nor is Bill Belichick patrolling the sidelines in search of another gaudy ring. 

Nope. Tom Brady is the QB of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a franchise with a historically losing record. When he decided to align with the Gulf Coast Florida sun by bringing his considerable talents, along with some heavy armaments, there were skeptics aplenty. After all, Brady should be retired, not throwing passes with alacrity and accuracy at age 42 and now at age 43. Except the fortitude of this icon simply was underestimated by those who doubted him. 

It wasn’t a pretty season. The Bucs came into the NFC playoffs as a #6 seed. To many, that was a huge impediment. To Brady, it simply was three road victories in Washington, New Orleans and in the cold of Green Bay last weekend. 

The Bucs have done something no other team has accomplished. By winning the NFC, they happen to be playing in their home stadium—a feat that took 55 tries given the NFL’s penchant for neutral sites. Could this be an added advantage for the G.O.A.T.? 

Did the Bucs win the NFC title game? Yes. Did Green Bay lose it with some baffling moves? Yes again. Green Bay had to claw their way back into the contest. They had a chance to go for the end zone on third and goal. 

QB Aaron Rodgers, the frontrunner for the NFL M.V.P. award, was pressured. He stepped up, with nearly a clear path to the goal line—and threw a pass into coverage for an incompletion. He could have made the run of his life and maybe gone in for the score to put the Pack much closer to the TD they desperately needed. 

Except that Coach Matt LeFleur took the ball out of Rodgers hands on fourth down and Green Bay kicked a field goal. Rodgers could only stay on the sidelines and watch the clock expire, partly aided by a clear pass interference call when the officials had previously swallowed their whistles and not called those kinds of penalties. 

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs spotted Buffalo a 9-0 lead. There might have been a bit of worry for Chiefs fans, because this was a really good Bills team they were facing.

Nah. KC does this all the time. They seemingly need the motivation to get things in gear. Which QB Patrick Mahomes II, tight end Travis Kelce and WR Tyreek Hill did. Final score was 38-24, and it wasn’t even that close. 

Mahomes is the wunderkind. He wins and wins and wins. He thrives on pressure. He has a heck of a lot of talent on his side of the ball. 

I love the way the guy plays. He is extraordinary. It always looks like he is having fun, no matter how difficult and trying the situation might be. Mahomes is my Steph Curry for football.

Throw out the comparisons. Disregard the hype. Forget the old guard versus the new young gunslinger. So what that the Chiefs went to Tampa and defeated the Bucs in the regular season. That means very little. Nor does the 2-2 record they share in head-to-head matchups. 

There are too many intangibles in this matchup which makes it hard to predict. KC suffered some significant player injuries in the Buffalo game. Brady looks like the Brady of old—well, yes he is old—and that is a factor. Or is KC just better at defending than the Bucs? 

We’ll have to wait for another week to decide the matter. The new field is in place. There is a chance of rain, with the temperatures in the 70’s during the day and 60’s at night. The Chiefs will fly in only 2 days before kickoff, to control COVID exposure—and that could be another factor in deciding the winner.

I find I am actually looking forward to this game. I wonder if it will meet or exceed my expectations. 

One more Super Bowl note. Commercial air time was till available at the beginning of the week. Normally, the commercials are bought up by November. Coke, Pepsi and Bud aren’t participating this year. Companies anticipate ratings to be down due to the lack of Super Bowl parties in deference to the coronavirus. Does this mean the great toilet flush at halftime won’t be as bad this year?

Sticking with the NFL, I want to go back to the Buffalo-KC game. Late in the fourth quarter, Bills QB Josh Allen was sacked and he tossed the ball into the face mask of a Chiefs player. This set off a skirmish. C’mon, Josh. You can do better than that—losing isn’t fun but have some class. 

And talking about quarterbacks, Matthew Stafford and the Lions are parting ways. Stafford already has been linked to the Rams, which inexplicably means that Jared Goff is no longer in vogue in SoCal. 

Stafford is a fine QB. He never brought the Lions to prominence, largely because the Lions weren’t that good. I am unsure that at age 32 he can now lead a team to the Super Bowl, no matter how good his credentials may be. But if he moves to LA, he can reunite with his good buddy and high school teammate, Dodgers ace left-hander Clayton Kershaw. 

So much talk about quarterbacks this week. Aaron Rodgers vented after the loss to the Bucs, wondering what his status is with the Packers with his heir apparent on the sidelines waiting his chance. Landing spots in Denver and San Francisco have been mentioned, notwithstanding the Packers hierarchy saying that Rodgers is the team’s QB next season. 

Ben Roethlisberger has a humongous contract. He wants to finish his playing days with the Steelers. He is willing to restructure the contract to allow the Steelers to keep other necessary players. All well and good. Is Big Ben on a precipitous decline as measured by the team’s collapse at the end of the season?

All of this pales when addressing the mega talent of Deshaun Watson. Watson has a no trade clause in his contract and he signed a lucrative extension last year. Yet he wants out of Houston (sounds like James Harden?) because management did not surround him with players necessary for the team to be better than its 4-12 record. 

Watson can throw. Watson can run. He is big. He is fast. The experts are unanimous that he is a star which any team should be fortunate to have. Houston maintains that he is under contract. And that Watson is going nowhere. The new coach was hired with the expectation that Watson would be his QB.

Supposedly, Watson has a preference list. The top two teams are the Jets and Dolphins. Carolina is third because he is from that region. Both New York and Miami have a ton of draft capital. Incredibly, Tua Tagovailoa has been linked to a potential package Miami might offer. 

This is going to get ugly soon. Would a team to be wise to pass on a disgruntled player?

Turning to the NBA, Steph Curry passed Reggie Miller on the career made three point goals list. He trails leader Ray Allen by 400+ trifectas. To show what makes Curry so great, it took Miller 18 seasons to amass his total in 1389 games. Curry did it in 12 seasons and 715 games. 

The Nets are still giving up too many baskets to the other team. Which results in OT games. Usually it is Kevin Durant who is steadiest. One night Kyrie Irving was the ‘catalyst. Another night James Harden broke out of his funk and led Brooklyn. This is how its going to be—no defense and a lot of scoring. Not a recipe for a championship. 

To those who wonder if the Lakers have lost a step and might be weary from last season—forget about it. Some losses on the road are meaningless right now. Plus Lebron looks as good as ever. Anthony Davis, too. 

What was with Devin Booker of Phoenix giving a groin shot to Tim Hardaway, Jr, the other night? Uncool. Really uncool. 

What was really cool was that two female referees participated in one game when Charlotte and Orlando met. Another glass ceiling shattered.  

The Yankees secured right-hander  Jameson Taillon in a trade with Pittsburgh. A friend of Gerrit Cole, Taillon is coming off of his second Tommy John surgery and he replaces Masahiro Tanaka, who has returned to Japan. A solid move—you can’t have enough pitching.

Adam Ottavino traded to Boston is noteworthy only because the teams don’t trade much with each other. Something about a trade involving Babe Ruth may be the reason…

New York has begun talks with Brett Gardner to fill a left-handed hitting OF spot. Didi Gregorius signed a two year deal with Philadelphia, so Gleyber Torres is the shortstop. Now if they remain heathy and Gary Sanchez re-emerges…

All Star Third baseman Nolan Arenado was traded by small market Colorado to the Cardinals. This makes St. Louis even more of a threat to win the NL Central and give the Dodgers and Padres a run for the roses in the National League. 

Rutgers suddenly is playing like it did earlier. With Geo Baker at the helm, the Knights won on the road at Indiana for the first time ever, then demolished a COVID-scarred Michigan State 67-37 at home. Turning the ball over less, playing relentless defense and shooting foul shots much better than in the past, RU may still make a run at a post season berth.  

A note—Rutgers is the first major conference men’s basketball team to hold a team to less than fewer than 40 points and force at least 19 turnovers in a conference game since…2014, when Louisville beat RU 92-31 while forcing 26 turnovers. 

In a quick count, I noted that over 20 games were postponed this weekend. The University of Michigan has paused all sports activity. COVID still is greatly impacting college sports. 

UFC fighter and celebrity Conor Mc Gregor got his ass kicked in his recent fight. He’s had his 15 minute of fame. I still harken back to his chair tossing episode at a bus in Manhattan. The guy simply is not charismatic for me. 

A soccer item—Manchester United is 14-3-3 with its recent win over Liverpool. It’s good to see Man U playing well. That’s like the Yankees, Celtics and Montreal Canadiens all once more being champs. 

That’s a wrap for this week. To the current QB of the Houston Texans, who desires a new address, I offer that New Jersey is a fine place to live and play.

After all, joining the Jets is elementary, my dear Watson.