Authenticity

  Someone who reads this blog asked a very pertinent question—how am I going to write about the NFL Wild Card weekend which just ended on Monday night? Good question. 

Because it was simply one of the most entertaining and defining weekends in the NFL in recent memory. The first four games had endings which were riveting. Comebacks were the name of the game. 

The Los Angeles Rams invaded Charlotte for the second time this season, looking to avenge a close loss to the Carolina Panthers. It took a gutsy pass from Quarterback Matthew Stafford in the final minute to secure the win and to move on to the next round. 

Where the Rams will face the Chicago Bears. The Cardiac Bears have come from behind seven times this season to win. Not exactly a script for success but it works. One thing for sure—Head Coach Ben Johnson let it be known how much he detests the Green Bay Packers, the team the Bears defeated. I love hated rivalries which go back eons. 

Buffalo and Jacksonville tangled in Northeast Florida. It became the Josh Allen show. The Bills QB was in and out of the blue medical tent and literally put his team on his back on a dramatic touchdown run which clinched the game for Buffalo. Up next for the Bills is a trip to the Mile High City and a clash with the top-seeded Denver Broncos. 

San Francisco limped into Philadelphia to play a very inconsistent Eagles squad. The Niners did enough on defense and offense to overcome the home team and move on to the second round where they will meet Seattle in the Pacific Northwest.  The Seahawks vanquished San Francisco two weeks ago in a winner-take-all game for the NFC’s top seed. 

Then on Sunday night, the New England Patriots throttled the Los Angeles Chargers—a team which filled a playoff slot but looked out of place in the cold of Foxborough. And on Monday night, the Houston Texans put on a defensive clinic in stifling the very overmatched Pittsburgh Steelers, making Aaron Rodgers look old and more than ready for retirement. Those two teams battle next weekend. 

I am not exactly the best prognosticator, as my wife and daughter outshined me all season long and then again last weekend when I went a very 2-4. So don’t put a lot of faith in my predictions for the upcoming weekend’s games. 

I have picked Buffalo over Denver—I think that the Broncos are white good but the Bills are the veteran team here and will survive. Seattle will once more down San Francisco—Seattle QB Sam Darnold has looked magical this year and the Seahawks defense is very tough. Plus the loud Seattle crowd will be a factor. Houston’s defense is just too good for New England; Drake Maye is still gaining experience and this group of Patriots are neophytes to the playoffs rigors. Finally, I picked the Rams to down the Bears—how many times can Chicago be so fortunate to come back and win?

The NFL coaching ranks suffered a second jolt this week when Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin stepped down after 19 years at the helm. That puts him up there with legends like Dallas’ Tom Landry for longevity. 

I felt that Tomlin was very accessible and liked by the TV media—forthright and quotable. He did win a Super Bowl and his teams were always above .500—two very laudable achievements. 

But did that give his resume enough juice to carry him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? I don’t know. There are 29 enshrined in Canton and iconic names like Landry, Shula, Walsh, Lombardi immediately come to mind. 

Tomlin will be compared more to Bud Grant, Hank Stram, Tom Flores among other. Some pretty heady guys, deserving of HOF stature. 

And he will of course be directly compared to the two Pittsburgh head coaches who preceded his tenure and are in the Hall—Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher. Both deserving of the accolade.

Should Tomlin’s coaching career end today, he would not be a first ballot entrant. That’s reserved for Bill Belichick, whose New England Patriots’ teams won 6 Super Bowls. 

The coach most comparable to Tomlin would be John Harbaugh, recently fired by the Baltimore Ravens after his field goal kicker missed a kick which would have put the Ravens into the playoffs instead of the Steelers. Harbaugh was in Baltimore and put up winning records and won a Super Bowl.

Harbaugh is choosing to return to coaching immediately, accepting the reins with the New York Giants. He has a chance to add to his legacy with a decent job in a major market. Succeed in New York and he will be beloved forever. 

As to Harbaugh getting into the Hall of Fame, a lot will depend on how he does in New York. Like Tomlin, he has one Super Bowl ring over his 18 years as Ravens’ head man. Definitely not first ballot material right now. 

Tomlin leaves Pittsburgh at a time when the franchise may be headed towards a reboot. There is plenty of talent but the issue for the past few years has been quarterback. No big name has come in and made himself indispensable running the Steelers offense. Unless the Steelers find a quarterback through the draft or via trade, they will be resigned to being also-rans. 

Speaking of perennial also-rans, the New York Jets suffered another blow when Oregon QB Dante Moore opted to return to the Ducks for next season. Moore’s potential is there. Yes, he had a disastrous game against Indiana. He left $50 mammon in guaranteed money on the table with his decision. And he made Oregon a favorite to win the College Football Playoffs next year.

What the Jets will do now is questionable. Moore and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza were the two top QB’s in almost every draft projection. With the Jets history of messing up quarterbacks (think Sam Darnold now thriving in Seattle; Zach Wilson now a back up in a muddled situation in Miami; Aaron Rodgers ready to retire from Pittsburgh; Justin Fields never materializing as the one and Mark Sanchez facing felony charges), whatever they do isn’t going to necessarily remedy the situation quickly. 

Speaking of college football, the finale to the 2025 playoffs is on Monday night in South Florida. The University of Miami plays its home games in Hard Rock Stadium, the location of the championship game. The betting favorite are the Indiana Hoosiers, the sole unbeaten left in the tournament. 

If Miami’s defense can negate Mendoza, the local kid having a homecoming in the biggest college football game of the year, (tell that to those Ohio State and Michigan fans who consider their rivalry to be larger than a mere CFP crown) then Miami can make a game of it. However, if Indiana plays to the level it did against Oregon, this game will be over quickly. 

Indiana is the sentimental favorite for what it has accomplished in the era of N-I-L play for pay. The Hoosiers have the second-most losses of any college playing big-time football (only because Northwestern surpassed them this season by losing a couple of games while IU lost none). The top (or bottom) 10 are: Northwestern; Indiana; Rutgers; Wake Forest; Kansas; New Mexico State; Iowa State; Kansas State; Tulane; and Vanderbilt. Thus the Big Ten has the three worst college football-playing schools ever at this level, and those three are the only ones with over 700 losses (Northwestern 718; IU 715; RU 708).

But sentimentality does not rule the playing field. Miami was considered a pre-season favorite to win it all. With the home field advantage, they have a chance to actually win this game or at least make a contest out of it if, as I stated earlier, the defense plays well enough to thwart Mendoza. 

My wife and I attended another Drew University game on Wednesday night. Sitting down low, the effort and physicality of the play is very apparent. This is not DI-level play nor are  the players as athletic as their taller counterparts. However, the intensity of play is clear and enjoyable. 

For the record, Drew shook off a loss to league-leading Catholic at the Palestra to win 97-88 over Wilkes in a Landmark Conference game. Burying three pointers unlike Wilkes (Drew shot 13 for 32 while Wilkes could only connect on 3 of 16, all in the second half), the Rangers opened up sizable leads to as much as a margin of 16, only to have the Colonels chip away repeatedly to as close as 5, before Drew secured the win.

The star of the game, as much as it was a team effort was the career high 34 points scored by junior Andre De Los Reyes. The Business major has now scored over 30 points twice this season. He combines quickness and an unwavering belief that he can score given the opportunity—especially from three-point range where he went 5 for 10 against Wilkes. 

We probably have one more Drew game which we can attend. The price is right, the parking is free and only 170 showed up according to the box score. There isn’t a pep band and the cheerleaders will likely reappear when school starts for the Spring Semester. 

It is merely a fun activity within a 20 minute drive from home when there is no traffic. We know the players from watching them over the years. The coach is always coaching, disagreeing with the referees or involved in some way. My expectations are low, unlike with Rutgers, and I come out entertained. 

Drew has the third best overall record in New Jersey—right after 15-0 Montclair State and 14-3 Seton Hall, a recent loser to UConn, the top dog in the Big East. Are any of these teams title threats outside of their conferences? No. 

Will Drew lose another game this season? Absolutely—and more than one. Sitting in tiny Baldwin Gym with people who have a rooting interest in a child or friend is comforting. 

The glitz and glamor of Rutgers, with TV cameras, a loud band, t-shirt tosses and dance and cheerleaders who are on scholarship is nice. Rutgers is not competitive within the Big Ten, even with its two overtime wins at home against Oregon and Northwestern. 

When the referees handling a Drew game go to video replay, the play-by-play announcer carefully walks down four rows of empty bleachers to share his computer with the officials to assist in making the correct call. Then he goes back to his motley table to continue his streamed broadcast. 

Yet Drew is a threat to repeat as Landmark Conference champions. They are in third place, a game behind 13-1 Scranton and two back of Catholic, undefeated in conference play at 7-0, with an identical 11-3 record. 

When the season ends, I will have likely seen four Drew games and one Franklin and Marshall game at Stevens. And I will have had a better feeling heading home than when I watched Rutgers struggle against American, a middle-of-the pack Patriot League team, which is 3-2 in conference and 10-8 overall. 

For there is something realistic about the DIII hoops. Which it shares in common with the NFL Playoffs, John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, Dante Moore, Fernando Mendoza and a lot of others I have the good fortune to watch.

What is that commonality? Authenticity.