Just Ask Tom Brady

  I admit that I have not watched much college basketball this season. Nor have I gotten into pro basketball either. Which really isn’t like me. 

I have been into football since baseball ended. I have watched more hockey than Steph Curry, largely because the Warriors continue to disappoint and even my favorite NBA player went down briefly with injury. 

The NBA In-Season Tournament? I saw my first game on Tuesday night when Golden State visited Sacramento. Only for the first quarter. Not exactly scintillating basketball—even if the players professed the importance of the game. Naturally, I missed the Warriors going up on the Kings by as much as 24, needing to win by 12 or more in the point differential formula the NBA had devised to eliminate teams from the next round—only to awaken and learn that the Warriors had frittered away that lead and Sacramento had advanced to the quarterfinals with a 124-123 victory. 

The Knicks actually made the quarters as a wild card; Phoenix was the fourth team from the Western Conference. The good teams mostly advanced and there is plenty of star power—Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana, the Lakers and New Orleans also made the second round. 

Maybe it will become more interesting now. To make up for missed games, the league has devised a way to ensure that each team plays the requisite number of games it would have during the regular season. While the survivors are playing for that $500,000 top prize, no one goes home unhappy, I guess. 

Are Lebron or Giannis motivated to win the inaugural championship after earning a trip to Las Vegas where the semi-finals and finals will be played? Might we see Kevin Durant in the finals again? Could an upstart team like Sacramento, New Orleans or Indiana come out on top? 

It’s an NBA marketing coup. Will the ratings be commensurate with the risk of implementing this tournament? We shall see if it is thrilling enough to capture the attention of the masses. After all, this is prime football season in the college ranks this weekend and certainly in the NFL as the schedule winds down. 

Speaking of the NFL, His Eminence, Tom Brady remarked about how mediocre the league is. I then saw former Dallas Cowboys star and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman comment on Brady’s statement. Aikman said he once was mediocre on bad Dallas teams when he first came into the league. Moreover, compared to Brady, who else measured up anyway? 

So is the NFL mediocre as Brady says? Sure, there are bad teams. The New York Jets are currently horrendous. The big news was that Aaron Rodgers was cleared to practice. The amount of interest on his repaired Achilles tendon almost rivals what is going on with the lovebirds in Kansas City now that Taylor Swift has completed her South American tour and is with beau Travis Kelce and double-dating with Patrick and Brittany Mahomes. 

The Chicago-Minnesota snoozefest was not a good game—it was plagued by turnovers by both teams and the Bears won despite not scoring a touchdown. New England is not vey good and G.O.A.T. Bill Belichick might be gone. Frank Reich was again canned in mid-season, this time for not making the Carolina Panthers into a respectable team. Then there are the New York Giants, led by a QB who sleeps in his childhood bed; Cincinnati is below average as is Cleveland without their starting QB’s. 

There are a bevy of teams which are exceptional—Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco in the NFC; Kansas City, Miami, and surprisingly good Jacksonville are the best of the AFC.  Denver, which you recall lost 70-20 to Miami in Week 2, seems to be on the rise. I am not sure how good the Detroit Lions are, as they win too many close contests, nor am I convinced that Pittsburgh and Cleveland, both with 7-4 records are playoff worthy.

Yes, there are ten more teams with five or more wins, placing them in contention for a playoff berth. Unless they suddenly get hot, most won’t make the post-season. And there is the NFC South, where Atlanta and New Orleans are tied at 5-6. Not very good, indeed. 

I think that Brady was also ruminating about the level of play overall. Defenses are either very good or very bad. Ditto with the quarterbacks, with so many starters not playing due to injury. Plus the number of penalties seems to be at an all-time high—stupid ones at that. Look at Jason Kelce collecting two straight penalties—he’s a Hall off Fame center—then he blows up a defensive back allowing Jalen Hurts to waltz into the end zone for the winning score in overtime on Sunday versus a very average Buffalo Bills team.

I find myself drawn to watching the good teams—KC; Philly and SF which clash on Sunday before the Eagles head to Dallas. There is excitement when those teams take the field. 

Every league has bad teams. The NBA has eight teams with six or less victories, led by woeful Detroit which has lost fifteen straight games, a franchise record. Ten NHL teams have below .500 marks. 

I still find many NFL games to be entertaining. Even if the play was lackluster, the Bears won the game at the end of regulation by stepping up just enough to squeeze the winning field goal in in the past seconds of play. That was exciting. 

I guess Brady had to say something to pivot attention to him. I don’t think that Tiger Woods, Sidney Crosby, Steph Curry or Lebron James would be so critical about the product which allowed them to star. Then again, they aren’t retired, either. 

Reverting back to college basketball, I really don’t know which teams are that good. Sure, Purdue is number one; but I am never enamored with Big Ten schools playing basketball. Only Illinois, at #24, is another Big Ten in the Top 25. They take on Rutgers at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Saturday. And I have seen Rutgers beat lesser lights and lose badly to Princeton in the teams’ opener. (Why isn’t Princeton ranked after last year’s ride to the Sweet 16?) After six games and before conference play starts, eleven ranked teams are unbeaten. One unbeaten is defending champion UConn, which gets no real love with a ranking at #4. 

Evidently at James Madison, the football and basketball teams are pretty good—the Dukes are 10-1 on the gridiron and the men’s basketball team, which beat Michigan State in East Lansing, is 6-0. The same can be said at Arizona, Kansas (who would have believed that the football team might be good when the losing always abounded in Lawrence), Duke, Kentucky, Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma. Good football and good men’s hoops can co-exist. 

I watched a dreary end to the Franklin and Marshall-Gettysburg game the other night. F&M defeated the Bullets after having lost seven straight to G-burg. It was sloppy, foul-plagued and bad shooting basketball. F&M is now 5-0, which is maybe a promising start to a decent season. 

It is certain I will slowly get into college basketball. The sports channels are bloated with games every day and even more on the weekends. With conference play kicking in, there will be some more interesting matchups which will change the rankings. I doubt that there will be an unbeaten or even one loss team when tournament time rolls around. 

Have to close this up. We are headed to Atlanta for a family bar mitzvah for the weekend. Where it will be full of Alabama and Georgia fans in town for the SEC Championship Game on Saturday. Hartsfield International Airport will be buzzing. 

And when we fly back on Sunday, our plane might take us over Met Life Stadium while the Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets are beating on each other. It was the right thing to not fly back early on Sunday to make it to the game. 

Odds are I would get sick. That’s just from the product on the field. Just ask Tom Brady.

A Proverbial Turkey

 

The college football regular season has ended. It seems like it lasted for an eternity, even if the teams could only play 12 games maximum. 

I watched very little this weekend, although I saw the very tantalizing and bizarre end to the Alabama-Auburn hostilities. Auburn held a 24-20 lead in the final minute of play. Alabama was set at first and goal on the Tigers seven yard line. A bad snap and a penalty for an illegal forward pass left the Crimson Tide with a fourth and goal at the Auburn 31 yard line. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe had loads of time behind his offensive line and somehow found Isaiah Bond in the left corner of the end zone where Bond made a leaping grab for miraculous touchdown to put the Tide ahead. Auburn subsequently had its own miscues, which landed the Tigers at their own 2 yard line with one second left to play. A subsequent game-ending interception by Alabama was later overturned, resulting in a 27-24 final score in a wild ending, akin to the wild ending at Jordan-Hare Stadium ten years ago and the four overtime thriller the last time these two bitter rivals met on the Plains two years ago.

Nothing has really been decided as to the College Football Playoffs, nor have bowl game matchups been etched in stone. When the CFP rankings come out for this penultimate week, the only real movement will be for Ohio State and how far the Buckeyes drop after the loss at Michigan. The Wolverines will assume the second spot behind Georgia, which had a more difficult time at Georgia Tech than expected. Washington, another top team, struggled against in-state arch rival Washington State in the Apple Cup, winning on a late field goal by a kicker who was rewarded for his heroics with a scholarship. And unbeaten Florida State, minus its starting quarterback who was lost last week due to injury, managed to survive the Florida Gators in Gainesville. 

So now most of the college football world waits while conference playoffs begin. In the Southeastern Conference, Georgia and Alabama clash in a battle of the titans. A rematch in the last Pac 12 championship looms when Washington and Oregon clash again. Texas draws troublesome Oklahoma State, victorious over BYU with some luck on Saturday. Louisville, a loser to Kentucky, will face Florida State in the ACC finale. And Michigan draws Iowa, a good defensive team in the Big Ten title game. 

Improbable losses for the top teams could create havoc for the CFP committee. It could conceivably open the door for Alabama, which has consistently been underrated and penalized for its loss to future SEC foe and Big 12 powerhouse Texas in week 2. Beating Georgia in Atlanta with a probable hostile crowd on hand would be a big boost to the Tide’s resume. To reach the Final Four, Michigan, Washington, Florida State and Texas need to lose, and even then, the  question remains whether the Tide would have enough quality points with a win over the Bulldogs to overcome Oregon, too. It’s going to be interesting this coming weekend. 

Meanwhile, a whole lot of teams which achieved at least six victories over the course of the season await their bowl eligibility fate. Some teams, like fast-fading Rutgers, which has gone from 6-2 to 6-6 with its home loss to Maryland, should not even be in a bowl game. RU’s first week conquest, Northwestern, managed to win seven games after the off season turmoil, and has righted the ship and led to the interim tag being removed from David Braun’s title. Deservedly so. Rutgers may have attained the prerequisite to play in a bowl game, but the program still has a long, long way to go before it can be considered respectable. 

For those following the Division III football playoffs, tiny Alma College out of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, pulled off a shocker on Saturday when it defeated perennial power #2 Mount Union in Ohio. Alma College is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,288 full-time undergraduate students.

Alma has won two straight outright MIAA football titles. The team is a veteran group and it needed all its noise to overcome a 10-0 deficit on the road entering the fourth quarter. The final score was 24-20, just like Alabama-Auburn, and the Scots needed some last minute scoring to overcome the Purple Raiders. Next up for Alma is a home game against SUNY Cortland. 

The rest of the DIII field is this: Centennial Conference champion Johns Hopkins rolled over Union College and hosts Randolph-Macon, which has steamrolled all its opponents this season; Wisconsin-La Crosse and North Central tangle—both high-powered offenses have put up whopping scores in their two playoff games, with La Crosse having dropped 71 points on Trinity (TX); Wartburg and Wisconsin-Whitewater also meet in the quarterfinals. 

Notice that I haven’t gone with the NFL as my lead. While the Kansas City Chiefs did themselves in with a fumble by Travis Kelce in the red zone and bad drops of Patrick Mahomes passes, the San Francisco 49’ers and Dallas Cowboys looked good in their Thanksgiving Day wins, while Detroit stumbled over themselves in a loss to suddenly surging Green Bay on Turkey Day.

Call it a gimmick. Amazon, left out of the NFL Thursday spotlight, paid a whopping sum to the league for the rights to the first Black Friday telecast. In return, the match was a good one when the schedule was announced. Miami, with its lethal offense, would take on Aaron Rodgers and the tough New York Jets defense. A potential ratings bonanza. 

Except that Rodgers remains on the sidelines, recovering from his Achilles tendon surgery (he still crazily hopes to come back for the December 24 Washington game—which I have tickets for) and former QB starter Zach Wilson was replaced by Tim Boyle, a former Green Bay back up to Rodgers.

The Jets fared no better with Boyle at quarterback. In fact, on a Hail Mary pass to end the first half, Boyle’s throw was intercepted and returned the length of the field for a touchdown. This may have outdone the Butt Fumble which so ignominiously defended the Mark Sanchez era not so long ago. 

Both New York franchises are bad. At least rookie Tommy De Vito, living at his childhood home in Cedar Grove to save expenses, showed up on Sunday and led the Giants to a road victory over the Commanders. 

The team with its headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey is in free fall. Fingers are being pointed everywhere. So many are blameworthy. Most of all, my astute wife pointed out, there has been absolute silence from team owner Woody Johnson, who does not normally shy away from the spotlight. Does this mean heads are going to roll? Or is he waiting to see whether Rodgers plays and what happens then? 

There is so much wrong with this team that even a full remake next year might not be enough. As I conclude my 47th year as a season ticket holder, my angst grows stronger, especially when the promise at the outset, including watching the HBO show Hard Knocks gave me reason to falsely believe that this would be the year the franchise turned things around. 

I was only fooling myself. The plight of the New York Jets is a sad one. Being a fan of this team is even a sadder scenario. It is likely that the Christmas stockings for the team will once more be filled with coal. 

As the NFL season winds down, I will have to be content to watch the Eagles, Chiefs, Niners, Cowboys, Lions and others head to the post-season. Fans in those cities must be having fun. 

I guess it is time to have the last slice of pumpkin pie and wait for next Thanksgiving to see if the Jets are any better. Or if, once more, they remain a proverbial turkey. 

Happy Thanksgiving

  I like Hubie Brown. I really do. Hubert Jude Brown has a wealth of basketball knowledge from his experience in the National and American Basketball Associations, as well as Cranford and Fair Lawn High Schools here in New Jersey. Although he has a career record under .500, Brown has an ABA championship with Kentucky in 1975 and was chosen NBA Coach of the Year twice. His resume is so dynamic that Brown is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor a well as in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. What makes him most remarkable is that at age 90, Hubie Brown still works games as an analyst for ABC and ESPN. He has almost become iconic. 

Yet as good as Brown is, I still like the late Dr. Jack Ramsay more as a man who understood the game. Ramsay’s career highlights are similar—he won his NBA title with Bill Walton leading the Portland Trail Blazers, while Brown had Artis Gilmore on his Kentucky team. What separates the two is that Ramsay made the list of the Top 15 NBA coaches when the league celebrated its 75th anniversary. What makes that list impressive is that three head coaches are still coaching teams—Steve Kerr with Golden State; Gregg Popovich in San Antonio; and Eric Spoelstra keeps on running the show for Pat Riley, another Top 15 coach, in Miami.

Why am I addressing this subject? Because I had a reader feel that I did not adequately recognize how impressive Brown is broadcasting at his age. But I do. I just don’t like gravel-voiced analysts. No matter how much they know the game. 

P.S. Neither one is among my favorite ex-jock/coach commentators in the NBA. I am not going to elaborate on this now. Suffice it to say that I believe I answered my critic. 

I had thought about going to State College, Pennsylvania this upcoming weekend to take in the Rutgers-Penn State football game. It would have been a two-fold bucket list day—watching RU away from Piscataway, which I failed to do and finally seeing a Nittany Lions home game, something my wife and I did not do while our daughter was a PSU student. 

While I was gung ho about the prospect of fulfilling two wishes,  my decision not to go was affected by a few other things. First, we attended a Columbia University home game at the Baker Athletic Complex. The Lions play in Lawrence A. Wien Stadium which houses Robert K. Kraft Field. You might have heard of Mr. Kraft—he is the owner of the New England Patriots and a major benefactor to the university. 

This locale was 18 blocks away from where my wife spent much of her childhood years at the Dyckman Houses. Those buildings sit on the site of the old Dyckman Oval, once a venerable sports venue until the landlord could no longer pay the bills and the City of New York took over the property. 

It was a blustery day on West 218th Street in Upper Manhattan. The clouds obscured the sun enough to make the 50 degree temperature feel at least 10 degrees chillier. 

The stadium is not much to look at. A lot of concrete with a turf field  and track encircling it. The visiting stands have coverings, as the Lions rarely fill the stands to the listed 17,000 capacity. 

The beauty of the location is that there is so much to look at outside of the fences surrounding the complex. Rising high above the stands are the bridges for the Henry Hudson Parkway. To my right were apartment towers in the Bronx, with a bubble for indoor use. On my left were older apartment buildings and a view of Hill Park and the trees with the different colors on the leaves making it feel truly like a fall setting.  Sports Illustrated was right in calling this stadium the nicest in the Ivy League and one of the most picturesque in the United States. 

So what were we doing there on a frosty early November Saturday? I have no direct ties to either Brown University, the visitors that day, or Columbia. In fact, I know one person who played football many years ago and I haven’t spoken to him in nearly 20 years. 

It couldn’t be the rich history of Columbia football. Signs across from the home stands where we sat reminded us that the Lions won the 1934 Rose Bowl and were the Ivy League champions in 1961, their only title. 

Even with the game going to overtime and Brown hanging on for a 20-14 win, the play on the turf was less than scintillating. My mind wandered in many directions—watching the multitude of trains on the Metro North line of the MTA pass by the baseball and softball fields behind the north end zone—to watching two middle infielders on the Columbia baseball team, which last went to the NCAA’s in 2022, work on their double play skills. 

Or maybe it was taking in the sights and sounds of the Ivy Leaguers, dressed in all sorts of gear to insulate against the elements (except for the one guy who had to wear shorts to the game), reminding us that they were, in fact, regal Columbia graduates though their mannerisms and selective forgetfulness that others were in the stands who wanted to see the game rather than being repeatedly blocked when the consistently stood. 

My real reason to attend this meaningless game (both teams could not win the Ivy League title and Columbia remains winless in the conference heading into Saturday’s clash with Cornell in Ithaca) goes back to my childhood. I devoured the sports pages on weekdays and especially Sundays. I would read up to five New York newspapers in addition to the New Brunswick paper. I was really enthralled reading the historical and highly descriptive articles in The Sunday New York Times. The colorfulness of the prose resonated with me, just like the classiness of the ads in The New York Times Magazine.

I had seen Columbia play at Rutgers twice, bicycling to Rutgers Stadium, parking my bike free of fear that it would be taken, then finding a discarded ticket stub which an usher on the visiting team side would look at for a second then waive me through. The battles between the Lions and Scarlet Knights were hard-fought, with RU winning in 1962, then coming up losers in 1965 to Archie Roberts, who was drafted by the New York Jets in the seventh round (as much a star as he was in high school and for the Lions, Roberts graduated from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and is credited with having performed over 4,000 open heart surgeries before retiring). 

Columbia always wore its powder blue uniforms, which contrasted with the red of Rutgers. I loved the atmosphere at the Rutgers games, and with the prose enticing me, I made it a goal to some day see a game at Columbia, to experience what the writers were so enthralled with. 

The spectacle wasn’t what it might have been nearly 60 years ago. Robert Kraft wasn’t there—he felt it was better to tag along with the team he owns which was playing the Indianapolis Colts in Frankfurt, Germany; his fiery speech to the team the night before didn’t help much, as the listless Patriots fell to the Colts. 

Nor was Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce at the game. He felt it was much better to travel 5,600 miles to Argentina to see his mega-star girlfriend sing love songs to him. To each his own, I guess. 

Having been in Allentown, Pennsylvania the week before for the Franklin and Marshall-Muhlenberg game and with prospect of more cold weather the day after Thanksgiving when the fast-sinking New York Jets host the Miami Dolphins in the first Black Friday NFL game, I felt it wasn’t prudent seeing Rutgers, another team adrift, get demolished by an angry Penn State team, whose offensive coordinator was fired by Head Coach James Franklin after no progress was made against a fired up Michigan squad, whose head coach, Jim Harbaugh, was suspended by the Big Ten for his team’s sign stealing fiasco. 

Sitting in cold weather for this game and driving over 7 hours was a non-starter for my wife and daughter. Their intelligence and foresight trumped my eagerness to go. Rightfully so. 

How might I get rewarded for not doing the stupid thing? Probably by listening to Hubie Brown. Oy. I guess it could have been worse. 

Happy Thanksgiving. 

New Observations

  Observation: I have the worst choice/luck with the teams I root for. Right now, I can identify the following which I am a long time fan of: New York Yankees; New York Jets; New York Knicks (an allegiance from my youth usurped by the Golden State Warriors led by Steph Curry); Rutgers University; Franklin and Marshall College (my alma mater); New Jersey Devils; and Highland Park High School (my high school). I do not root against the New York Rangers ( I was a season ticket holder for 11 seasons), the New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Islanders—unless they are playing my teams or vying for a playoff position which would affect my team. This is my core. All of this drives me crazy as a fan/observer, because the winning seasons are too infrequent.

Observation: the Yankees sucked wind this season. I have written much about this. I long for the Mantle/Jackson & Munson/Jeter eras. I grew up thinking a championship was a right reserved for this franchise, loaned out to others when the Bombers had an off year. Except that the off years have been more frequent, with this year’s non-playoff season magnifying the fact that the Yanks last won the World Series in 2009. With a bleak horizon, too.

Observation: Anthony Volpe winning the AL Gold Glove at shortstop shows that the kid has the right stuff. Now if the analytics people let up on swing elevation and allow him to hit like he is capable of, the team has the foundation for a great leader. 

Observation: Highland Park won its first football game in forever, ending a 51 game losing streak. What has happened in a town where football was king when I was growing up is sad. The sport has been dropped twice in the last few years. The team regularly gets trounced—a far cry from the undefeated teams I used to watch before and while I attended HPHS. Good for them, but it still hurts.

Observation: Franklin and Marshall lost to #22 Muhlenberg in double overtime. The Mules looked like they were going to run away from the Diplomats. Yet with just over 2 minutes left, F&M had the ball and a seven point lead. After running the ball for a modest gain, two pass plays were inexplicably called, to the consternation of the parents seated behind us. Both resulted in incompletions. F&M punted and Muhlenberg marched down the field to tie the score. In the first OT, when F&M, helped by a pass interference call, tied the Mules, the game was virtually over when the Diplomats settled for a field goal in the second OT. All Muhlenberg needed was three plays to come away victorious. Talk about bad decision-making. 

Observation: Rutgers led #1 Ohio State 9-6 at the end of the first half. The problem with this was that there are two halves and Rutgers QB Gavin Wimsatt, who I am not enamored with, threw an interception which resulted in a game-changing 93 yard touchdown return. If RU had scored on this possession or any of the three which resulted in field goals, the outcome could have been a shocker. But it wasn’t and this game, won handily by the Buckeyes, showed that while the Scarlet Knights are better than before, there is still a mountain to climb to get back to where the team can consistently challenge the better teams. 

Observation: Kansas City defeats Miami 21-14 in Germany. KC did not muster a ton of offense against a stout Dolphins defense. One touchdown was a fumble recovery with a lateral that created the score. Maybe it was because Taylor Swift wasn’t with Mama Kelce that the score was so close. Or maybe pundits are too harsh on the Chiefs for being in a mini-funk after losing to Denver the week before and only scoring two offensive TD’s. Last time I looked, KC only has 2 losses, is in control of the AFC West and is still a favorite to win the AFC and the Super Bowl. 

Observation: The New York Giants and Daniel Jones are snakebitten. Jones was coming off a neck injury which had sidelined him for a few games, and his immediate backup, Tyrod Taylor had suffered a rib injury which may be season-ending. Things were looking up for the G-Men until Jones went down in a heap. He suffered a torn ACL. Done for the season. Both the starting quarterbacks for the Giants and Jets are done. Swallowed up by artificial turf. Is there a message here?

Observation: Josh Dobbs, signed by the Vikings to help stabilize the quarterback situation with the loss of starting QB Kurt Cousins to an Achilles tendon tear, leads the team to a victory in Atlanta. Dobbs was the de facto starting QB in Arizona while Kyler Murray was out. He went 1-7, with an upset win over Dallas accounting for that lone victory. Traded to Minnesota, he hardly had time to adjust when replacement starter Jaren Hall left the game due to a concussion. Dobbs threw for 158 yards, scored three total TD’s and led the Vikings to a comeback 31-28 win. With this performance, Dobbs became the first QB in NFL history with consecutive three-touchdown games for three different teams. Who says it is difficult to play QB in the NFL? (See New York Jets below and New York Giants above)

Observation: The Baltimore Ravens are the hottest team in the NFL. Now 7-2 with a decisive 37-3 win over NFC West leader Seattle, Baltimore has dispatched NFC Central leader Detroit by a 38-6 score and scored over 30 points at Arizona. All good for the Ravens, but when will the roof collapse again?

Observation: Don’t forget the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow has recovered from his calf injury and suddenly the Bengals are at 5-3. When Burrow is right, the Bengals are a force yo be reckoned with. Ask KC when Cincy knocked them out of a Super Bowl berth. The AFC is a lot of fun to watch right now.

Observation: The New York Jets stink. Pure and simple. The Chargers humiliated the Jets on Monday night. My children were there—thankfully they are adults or their presence might have been considered child abuse. There is no offense, and while the defense is good, it isn’t going to win games outright—especially when QB Zack Wilson was sacked eight times and costly turnovers and penalties killed any momentum the offense might have gotten. The disgust on Head Coach Robert Saleh’s face spoke volumes. Even if future Hall of Fame QB Aaron Rodgers continues to heal, why risk further injury in another lost season? 

Observation: Rutgers men’s basketball team is young and mistake-prone. On Monday evening in Trenton, Princeton schooled the young Knights. Minus some key players from last season’s run to the Sweet 16, it is clear that the Tigers are a savvy, veteran team. Not so much with Rutgers. After watching last night’s debacle, why would prize recruit Dylan Harper want to come to Piscataway?

Observation: #1 LSU women and #4 Michigan State men are upset on the opening day of college basketball play. Will this lead to a more wide-open season?

Observation: Alabama beat up on a good LSU football team in Tuscaloosa. It seems inevitable that the Crimson Tide and Georgia are headed to a showdown in the SEC Championship.

Observation: Craig Counsell, the former manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, a Wisconsin native and a free agent, neither went to the Mets where he would have been reunited with his former boss, nor did he re-sign with the Brewers.  Instead, he inked a deal with the rival Chicago Cubs. How does an astounding $8 million a year sound? Pretty good to him.

Observation: The New Jersey Devils rebounded from the loss of star Jack Hughes, who was leading the NHL in scoring, to down the Chicago Black Hawks. With Hughes and Nico Hischier sidelined, the Devils will have to rely on others to pick up the slack until they are able to rejoin the lineup. It’s going to be tough. St. Louis and Colorado have shown that with wins over New Jersey.

Observation: San Jose ended its NHL record-tying streak of 11 straight losses to start a season with a home win over Philadelphia. And I thought that the Flyers had improved greatly this season.

Observation: In the NHL, Boston and Las Vegas are picking up from where they left off last season. A team to watch is the New York Rangers; should the team remain healthy, no one will want to meet them in the playoffs. 

Observation: I have had a lousy year in picking NFL games. Luckily, this season we weren’t in a pool. I thought I could handicap games, but evidently not this year.  

Observation: Steph Curry is playing like a possible M.V.P. candidate. He always could score. Getting Chris Paul to lighten his load at point guard is paying dividends. Still, I question if the Warriors have enough to beat Denver, Philadelphia, Milwaukee or Boston among others. Denver won by 3 on Wednesday night; the Warriors haven’t played the others thus far. 

Observation: Victor Webanyama  made his first trip to New York as a San Antonio Spur. He had dinner with Tom Brady. He remarked that Madison Square Garden was smaller than he thought it would be—in comparison to the Frost Bank Center, the Spurs home arena? And he sucked in a blowout loss to the Knicks. So French, or maybe it was dining with Brady?

Observation: I have written enough for this edition. This is clear.