Play that Funky Music White Boy

 Well, the first round of the NFL draft is done. I went to bed early satisfied with the Giants pick of Abdul Carter a defensive linemen from Penn State.

My daughter is recovering from surgery to correct a torn ACL so when I went in to the injury room (which used to be the Covid sick room) to check how she was doing I said something the Giants not picking a quarterback.

Her reaction, no, they traded up and picked that white boy from Mississippi. That would be Jaxson Dart by name. He's originally from Utah. He's young, only 21 years old and has decent size at 6'2" and 220 pounds. The evaluation on him is "Good backup with the potential to develop into starter" which is hardly overwhelming.

So, I suppose we get Eli Manning phase 2? One can only hope. 

I'm guessing Russell Wilson will start, Jameis Winston will be backup and Dart will be the student. Maybe Eli can become a special coach?

The NFL Football Player on the Supreme Court

 There was a pro football player that served on the Supreme Court of the US. His name was Byron "Whizzer" White and he was on the court from 1962 to 1993.

He played in his college days for the Colorado Buffalos, was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1937, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) in 1938 and led the league in rushing in his rookie season.

He then graduated from Colorado as valedictorian and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. The outbreak of World War II forced him to return to the US and he played two more seasons in the NFL for the Detroit Lions.

During WW 2 White served in naval intelligence in the Pacific (he wrote the intelligence report on the sinking of John F. Kennedy's PT-109), was awarded two Bronze Stars, and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1945.

They don't make men like this anymore.

Damar Hamlin Update

Damar has been released from UCMC and has been transferred to a rehab facility in Buffalo. The man is making progress daily, appear neurologically intact and hopefully will make a full recovery.

When last I looked his charitable GoFundMe was over $8 million.

Damar Hamlin

Last night on Monday Night Football two NFL players collided. One was Bengals player Tee Higgins and the other was Bills Safety Damar Hamlin. As NFL players do they both jumped up after the collision but then Damar Hamlin went back down and lay still.

Medical personnel came running out and it became clear very quickly that this was no typical NFL injury. Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest and had to be given CPR for almost 20 minutes.

Finally they got his heart beating again and an ambulance came onto the field to transport him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Nearly 24 hours later all we know is Hamlin's vital signs have gone back to normal, he's been sedated and remains in critical condition.

We don't know what happened but the speculation is that chest trauma resulting from the collision at just the wrong instant and the wrong place caused his heart to go into arrythmia. 

This is the nightmare sports scenario and can happen when projectiles, such as a baseball or hockey puck, hit a player in the chest. It's very rare in football but it can happen. It's what keeps youth baseball and softball coaches up at night.

The game was first suspended and then postponed. The NFL has yet to announce its intentions about whether the game will be rescheduled or not.

Hamlin had started a charity to help give back to his community. He had a GoFundMe active to collect money for a toy drive this Christmas. The GoFundMe exceeded its $2,500 target by $250 and raised $2,750.

That fund now has over $4.1 million in it including $50 of my hard earned shekels. I hope Damar Hamlin recovers fully and never scares us like this again.

Edit: 1/3/2023 @ 5:40 PM. Make that over $4.9 million.

The Giants-Jets Game

 We're not going to the Giants game tonight. I decided with the virus running sort of wild and no vaccine or mask mandates at MetLife Stadium it wasn't worth it.

On a whim I put the tickets and parking pass up for sale at a reduced price and somebody bought them so someone intends to go.

I'm going to take a big loss on tickets this season unless something changes. I've already sold the Cowboys and Eagles games at about face value but I still have tickets for six regular season and one preseason game plus the prepaid parking passes.

Hopefully we'll get to some game this year but thing are not looking as hopeful as they were a couple of months back.

Joe Judge as Giants Head Coach

What do I think of Judge as the Head Coach of my Giants? I don't think anything yet.

Like everyone else I was surprised and, like everyone else, I was impressed with his first news conference. I have two concerns so far.

First, I'm hoping the choice wasn't made because Judge is just going to be an extension of Gettleman going with whatever decisions are made by the GM. I suppose we won't really know about this one until the draft.

Second, Judge seems to be surrounding himself with old buddies. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It's good to have people around you that you trust but it can lead to group think if everyone is too similar.

I'm really hoping Judge can get Jason Garrett to take the OC job. That would go a long was toward calming my second fear.

The Daniel Jones Era Begins

Well, well, Danny Dimes looked pretty good against the Bucs. He threw for over 300 yards with 2 TDs and no picks. He also ran for 2 TDs including the eventual winner.

Basically the defense blew the game but the Tampa Bay kicker was worse and missed a 34 yard field goal with no time left. That left the Giants with a 32-31 win.

Hey, I'd rather be lucky than good.

On the downside Saquon Barkley suffered a high ankle sprain which will put him out for 4-8 weeks. Wayne Gallman says he's ready for the challenge.

Obviously Jones is going to have some ugly games in the future. It could be a different story against the Redskins Sunday but at least there looks to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

The offensive line still needs some shoring up and the defense has lots of issues starting with the defensive line and the safeties.

This is clearly a throw away year. All we can hope for is that some of the rookies develop.

Daniel Jones Time Has Come (perhaps)

Well, after two pretty awful performances all around the Giants are 0-2 and have probably concluded that they're not going anywhere this season with an awful defense and questionable receiving corp.

Therefore they have decided to hand the keys over to Daniel Jones.

I don't think they expect miracles but they're going to see if they have the future franchise quarterback or not.

Good luck Daniel.

As for Eli, I suppose it was too much to ask him to carry the team with so little support around him. I watched both games and he isn't the reason they lost.

They lost due to the lack of anything resembling defense, a fair number of dropped passes and the sort of bad breaks that always seem to plague bad football teams and, make no mistake about it, this is a bad football team.

Still, the future always comes eventually. I was there when Manning replaced Kurt Warner but I'll have to watch this one on television.

So, Here We Go.

Another NFL season is upon us. The Packers squeaked by the Bears last Thursday by 7-3. The rest of the league gets it in gear this Sunday or Monday.

The Giants are at the Cowboys and I have no idea what to expect. Is Dave Gettleman a genius or a fool? He's probably a little of both so I'm not expecting a big surprise either way.

Manning will be under center and I don't expect to see Daniel Jones unless there is a blowout one way or the other.

There are big questions on offense. Manning's arm strength is clearly questionable despite his work with a major league baseball pitching coach. The wide receiver corps is a bit of question mark as well especially with Golden Tate on suspension.

The bigger question mark to my mind is the defense. It was really the defense that lost games last year. Hopefully it will be a bit better but I don't expect any significant improvement.

So I suppose we shall see what we shall see.

Now excuse me while I find my crying towels for tomorrow.

Daniel Jones

To say that I was upset when the Giants chose Daniel Jones with the #6 overall pick would be a massive understatement. I was ready to keel haul Dave Gettleman and feed Pat Shurmur to a hungry shark.

Using the #6 pick for Jones while edge rusher Josh Allen was still on the board struck me as an exercise in insanity.

Now we have two pre-season games done and I also saw Jones at a charity softball event where he played 2nd base and hit a home run to boot.

Granted that Jones has played against 2nd and 3rd string defensive players and the pass rush against him has been fairly light, still, I'm going to admit that I may have been wrong.

He has looked pretty impressive. He's throw bullets with a ball placement accuracy that looks pretty darn good.

But the thing that has impressed me most is after a string of disasters against the Bears, including two fumbles and a dropped pass, he came back and put ten points on the board.

Of course pre-season is not the NFL and there is a long ways to go. Josh Allen would have made an immediate impact on an anemic Giants' pass rush and Jones is a future investment. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Are you kidding me?

Dave Gettleman, with not one, not two, but FOUR outstanding defensive prospects, the consensus best offensive lineman in the draft AND Dwayne Haskins, QB from Ohio State, on the board chooses, with the #6 pick in the 2019 NFL draft...ta-da...wait for it...here it comes...

Daniel Jones, QB from Duke

This has the earmarks of being the worst draft pick ever made by the New York Giants. If they give him #17, the number he wore at Duke, he can replace Dave Brown who also wore that number and who, arguably, currently holds the honor of being the worst draft pick ever made by the Giants.

If John Mara and Steve Tisch haven't already fired Gettleman's sorry rear end, they should and let him take Head Clown Pat Shurmur with him because Shurmur didn't hog tie Gettleman to prevent this disaster.

What were they thinking?

If nothing else the level of competition that Jones has faced disqualifies him as a top 10 pick. At pick #17 I wouldn't have been so upset. I would have still been upset but at #6?

What a bonehead move.

I've been going to Giants games since 1958 and this is the most disappointing move I've seen the team make since they cut WR Buddy Dial and kept WR Joe Biscaha instead.

Super Bowl LI

I was almost dozing off. I actually started finishing "Around the World in 80 Days" on my tablet. It was 28-3 Falcons. I figured I'd just kill time till the game was over.

As Phileas Fogg and Passpartout were looking for a ship across the Atlantic the Patriots scored but then missed the extra point. That made it 28-9 and I remember thinking to myself "boy, nothing is going right for these guys."

A short while later the Patriots failed to get into the end zone and settled for a field goal. The score was 28-12 and Joe Buck was desperately trying to keep the interest up by exclaiming that it was now a two score game.

I remember thinking, "yeah two scores and two 2-point conversions."

As Phileas Fogg starting burning the last of the good ship Henrietta's upper structure the Pats scored again and got the 2-point conversion. I put my tablet down. The score was 28-20 and Tom Brady was clearly in the zone.

Even so the Falcons blew a chance to just about put the game away by allowing a big sack followed by a holding penalty when they were inside the 25 yard line. Two running plays, burning time off the clock or forcing the Pats to us their timeouts, followed by a field goal would have made the score 31-20 and the Patriots would have been hurting big time.

Instead they ended up punting. Brady took the Patriots down to the tying score and then took the overtime kickoff and just as easily marched to the winning touchdown for a 34-28 come from behind win.

Is there anyone in the country that still doubts that Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL?

The 2016 NFL Season has Begun!

Oh yeah, the insanity has started.

I watched three games yesterday or, most accurately one entire game, large parts of two others and the last two minutes or so of a fourth game. Two of the four games ended with a one point margin of victory and the third and fourth came close.

I watched most of the Jets vs. Bengals game and both teams looked pretty good to me. The Bengals managed a one point win 23-22 but both teams look like they're going to be tough.

I watched the entire Giants game and almost had a heart attack at the end. Those guys are going to kill me yet. The biggest news in that game was Dak Prescott, the rookie QB of the Cowboys from Mississippi State.

He was impressive. I'd say the Cowboys no longer need fear the retirement of Tony Romo. On the Giants side Victor Cruz looked healthy and the offensive line wasn't horrendous. We'll see how things go against a tougher defense. The game was a one point affair with the Giants squeaking it out 20-19.

After the Giants game they switched to the last few minutes of the Lions vs. Colts game. The Lions led 34-28 but Andrew Luck was doing his thing and soon the score was 35-34. It could have ended as another one pointer but the Lions drove for a field goal with 4 seconds left and the Colts ended up throwing an illegal forward pass in their own end zone on the kick-off resulting in a final score of 39-35 Lions.

I then watched a fair amount of the Sunday Night Game with the Brady-less Patriots at the Cardinals. I have to tell you that Jimmy Garoppolo looked pretty good at QB for the Pats as they beat the Cardinals 23-21 in what could have also been a one point finish but the Cardinals missed a field goal at the end of the game. Garoppolo may be ready but Brady is never going to retire. He'll still be playing at 65.

The NFL has long been after parity. They want every game to be a toss-up and as close as possible. Given two one pointers in marquee games yesterday and two others that could have been I'd say they're pretty damn close to that. There was also an overtime game in Kansas City and Oakland won with a late TD and two point conversion, again by one point, over New Orleans 35-34.

Deflategate

I'm going to put my 2 cents in about the apparent deflating of footballs during the AFC Championship game last January.

At the time I said that the whole thing sounded silly but predicted that they would "through (sic) some poor schnook under the bus so the team and the league could live happily ever after." OK, so I can't spell "throw."

After an investigation concluded that the balls were most likely deflated on purpose by two Patriot's equipment staffers and that Tom Brady most likely knew about the shenanigans, the NFL handed down the following punishment.

1. Tom Brady is suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season.

2. The team was fined $1 million.

3. The Patriots will lose a 2016 1st round draft pick and a 2017 4th round draft pick.

4. The two equipment staffers were suspended indefinitely.

Well, at least I got the throwing under the bus part right.

Brady has three days to appeal the suspension.

This is less severe than the punishment handed out to the New Orleans Saints in "Bountygate" a few years ago but at least in this case it wasn't a matter of trying to physically hurt other players so I don't have an issue with that.

I think a $1 million fine is a joke but the loss of draft choices and suspension time strikes me as about right.

The 2015 NFL Draft

Only a couple of days to go until the NFL Draft.

The NFL and the need for SOMETHING to talk about in the spring has managed to get this thing into one of the bigger sports soap operas around.

Every year now mock drafts and analysis by "experts" whip things up into a frenzy. Last year it was the saga of Johnny Football. This year it's a tale of two quarterbacks.

The two quarterbacks are Jameis Winston from Florida St. and Marcus Mariota from Oregon.

Winston is physically everything you want in a QB. He's 6'4", 230 lbs and has a BIG arm. He's got a National Championship under his belt and comes from a school which runs a pro style offense. Draft 2015 compares him to Eli Manning which, given the two Super Bowl rings Eli has, ain't a bad comparison.

That's the good news.

On the other side of the coin, like Eli, he's known for forcing the ball into impossibly tight windows leading to a lot of interceptions and he's not really very mobile so he's not going to be able to scramble around and extend the play.

That's the bad news.

The ugly news is Winston has a penchant for getting into trouble off the field. It's unclear whether he's actually a problem or just has a knack for attracting trouble. Either way this isn't what you want to hear when you're shopping for a franchise quarterback.

Mariota is 6'4" and 220 lbs, and can throw and run. Draft 2015 compares him to Colin Kaepernick which, given Kaepernick's inconsistency last year, could be good or bad.

Coming from a spread offense Mariota could have some issues fitting into a pro style offense right away unless he ends up in Philadelphia with Chip Kelly who is in the process of changing the NFL offensive culture. Mariota played for Kelly at Oregon so that would be a match made in heaven for the Eagles and a potential nightmare for the rest of the NFC East.

Off the field he's just about perfect. No problems, no troubles and he even helps little old ladies across the street.

The consensus of opinion is that Tampa Bay, with the 1st pick, is going to take Winston. Tennessee has the 2nd pick and has been shopping around for a trade.

Teams that have been mentioned, besides the Eagles, are the Chargers, Jets and Browns.

I don't see the Browns giving up on Manziel just yet so I don't think they're going to pay the Titan's price. I don't see the Jets ponying up either. The Chargers and the Eagles maybe.

The Chargers would probably offer Phillip Rivers plus draft choices and the Eagles Sam Bradford or Mark Sanchez and draft choices. Rivers would be the better deal than Bradford or Sanchez but I'm betting Chip Kelly of the Eagles is willing to offer more in the way of draft picks.

If they don't make a deal, the Titans should take Mariota themselves and keep working the trade angle. Either way, Mariota is the 2nd pick.

The Jaguars have the 3rd pick and will probably take a defensive player. Either DE Leonard Williams of USC or Dante Fowler Jr. of Florida. My be would be Leonard Williams.

The Raiders have the 4th pick and I'm betting they'll look for a WR to give Derek Carr an additional weapon. That could be either Amari Cooper from Alabama or Kevin White from West Virginia.

The Redskins have the 5th pick and will probably take whichever defensive standout the Jaguars didn't take.

The Giants have the 9th pick and it will depend upon who's still on the board. Way to much could happen to make any predictions.

The NFL Schedule

Speaking of the NFL schedule, greed really sucks. These night games are killing me.

Four of the first six Giants games are at night. They start out Sunday night in Dallas; two weeks later there's a Thursday night game against the Redskins at home; two weeks after that there's a Sunday night game against the 49ers at home and the following week a Monday night game against the Eagles in Philadelphia.

So, do you think the NFC East is a big draw?

Then there's one more Monday night game in Miami in mid December.

Of course five of the last six games are so called "flexible schedule" so they can be changed if the game turns out to be "important." Included are games against the Redskins, Panthers, Jets and Eagles.

If the Giants have a decent year I'd bet at least one of these games gets moved to a night game. If they have a decent year. If they don't pick up some offensive line and linebacking help in the draft I wouldn't count on it though.

Tim Tebow is Back!!!

Tim Terrific has returned!

Which goes to show you that he's at least more reliable than Jesus.

No, seriously, Tim has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. So he joins Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and rumors about the imminent arrival of Marcus Mariota in Chip Kelly's stable of quarterbacks.

So what the hell is going on?

I think Chip Kelly has a vision of an offense but it's not a one quarterback can do everything sort of scheme. Kelly must be working on a "Quarterback Situational Offense" or QSO.

He needs lots of quarterbacks because he needs to plug in the right kind of guy in the right situation.

Hey. obviously I'm kidding except for the part about Kelly having a vision. He's knows what he wants to do and he's going about assembling the team he thinks can do it.

Whether Tebow becomes a part of that vision is yet to be determined. I think it would be fun having him back.

The NFL schedules came out yesterday and the Eagles and Giants meet once again in the finale at the Meadowlands. Here's hoping that game is a meaningful one.

What is Chip Kelly doing?

In the off season there is a mood of desperation to find stuff to talk about. The big news of course is the draft but before that is the free agency and trade circus.

To say that Chip Kelly, coach of the Eagles, has been raising some eyebrows with the moves he's been making would be a drastic understatement.

First he traded LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for LB Kiko Alonso. This trade also freed up a lot of cap space for the Eagles.

Then he sent Nick Foles plus a 4th round pick in 2015 and a 2nd round 2016 draft pick to the Rams for Sam Bradford and a 5th round pick in 2015. The kicker in this deal is that if Bradford doesn't start eight games for Philadelphia they'll get a 4th round pick in 2016. If he gets injured, they'll get a 3rd round pick in 2016.

The Eagles also have Mark Sanchez and Matt Barkley at QB and are rumored to be looking to move up in the draft for Marcus Mariota. The latest rumor is the Eagles would like to trade Barkley for a low round draft pick and sign Tim Tebow.

Finally he signed Demarco Murray from the Cowboys for the same amount of money that LeSean McCoy had been making and eliminated any cap space the first trade may have gained.

So, so far, we have McCoy, Foles, a 4th round 2015 pick and a second round 2016 pick gone and Alonso, Bradford, Murray and a 4th round pick in 2016 replacing them.

Kiko Alonso is a great pick-up that's going to cause NFC East rivals headaches for years to come and Murray is at least as good as McCoy. As for Bradford rather than Foles, we'll have to see.

Other possible moves would be Barkley replaced by Tebow and some low round pick from an unknown team and a trade to move up for Mariota.

Any team which would trade for Barkley would have to be really desperate at QB because Barkley hasn't exactly shown a lot in the way of potential. Any trade to move up for Mariota would cost a small fortune including at least 1st round picks for 2015 and 2016 and perhaps even a 1st or 2nd rounder for 2017.

Some football "pundits" have questioned Kelly's sanity but I suspect Kelly knows precisely what he wants and is simply going about getting it.

Watch the Eagles go for the Ttian's 2nd round pick in order to get Mariota. I don't think he's going to fall lower than that.

Super Bowl XLIX

Malcolm Butler picks it off and the Pats win 28-24.

Why would anyone throw the ball into the middle of the field from the 3 yard line when you have Marshawn Lynch in the backfield? Wait a minute, this sounds familiar.

Let's go back to the championship game in 2013 and what I said then.

"Dear Pete Carrol, ...[you] didn't give it to Marshawn Lynch on 3rd and 1 AND didn't give it to Marshawn Lynch on 4th and 1. Pete, when you have a Marshawn Lynch you give him the freaking ball when you desperately need a yard."

Pete, when you're on the 3 yard line with under 30 seconds to play, the Super Bowl is on the line and you have a Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, YOU GIVE HIM THE FREAKING BALL!

Anyway, that makes me 10-1 for the NFL Playoffs this year. The only game I got wrong was the Colts and Broncos.

You'd almost think I know what I'm talking about. But not to worry, I'm not quitting my day job.

Deflategate?

Deflategate? The footballs were under inflated in the Patriots win over the Colts? I have no idea what to make of this one.

I mean, if the balls were purposely deflated, shouldn't this have benefited Andrew Luck as well as Tom Brady? The whole thing strikes me as silly unless there is some benefit in KNOWING that the balls are under inflated.

The latest is that the NFL is talking to a locker room attendant about having moved the footballs from the officials' locker room to a different area on the way to the field.

Was it his job to move the footballs from the locker room to the field? I mean, how long could them have been in a "different area" before someone noticed that the footballs hadn't arrived yet? Why isn't it the responsibility of an official to move the footballs from the locker room to the field?

Sounds like they're going to through some poor shnook under the bus so the team and the league can live happily ever after.