Tag Archives: NFL

Sports news

Washington Commanders?

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OK, here comes a question that might have crossed others’ minds as well as my own.

The Washington football team is now the Washington Commanders. It’s a fine name. I won’t quibble over it. What about any references to the team’s former name, such as when they played in previous Super Bowls?

For the record, I am glad the team ditched its former name, which I consider to be an epithet aimed at Native Americans. I won’t even use it here, just to be politically correct.

However, all references I have seen to Washington’s past football exploits in the Super Bowl, where it made five appearances dating back to the 1973 game against the Miami Dolphins, uses the franchise’s former name.

Will sportscasters, therefore, be allowed to use that name when talking about the team’s past? Or must they dance around it the way I am doing it now?

Just askin’.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

AFC vs. NFC? No contest!

I have this need to disclose my professional football bias. I am a diehard fan of the American Football Conference, which once was known as the American Football League.

Of all the 55 Super Bowls that have been played, I have cheered precisely one time for the National Football Conference team to win the big game. In 2010, that honor fell to the New Orleans Saints, who gave their city the lift it needed after it had endured the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina five years earlier.

The Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in the game played in Miami.

I tend to favor the underdog. When the AFL came into being in the early 1960s, I gravitated to the young league. I enjoyed its razzle-dazzle, high-scoring brand of football. Then the leagues — the AFL and the NFL — announced plans to merge. The pro football championship would be decided in a title game between the leagues. I cheered mightily for the Kansas City Chiefs in that first game against the Green Bay Packers and for the Oakland Raiders in the second game against the Packers; both AFL teams got clobbered.

Then the New York Jets scored the big upset in Super Bowl III against the Baltimore Colts and the Chiefs came back in Super Bowl IV to manhandle the Minnesota Vikings.

My bias remains intact this year, with the Cincinnati Bengals waiting for the winner of the 49ers-Rams game this evening.

And so … may the better team win and I do hope it’s the representative of the AFC.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Hail the GOAT!

Most of us who follow football — even a little bit — understand that it is a game of numbers. You know, yards gained, yards lost, interceptions, tackles, penalty yards, sacks, punting yardage. Whatever …

Tom Brady reportedly is retiring after 22 seasons of professional football becoming arguably the greatest quarterback of all time.

I want to focus on a particular number as we ponder the effect this guy had on the game he played with excellence and precision.

The number is 198. What does that number signify?

It is the number players selected ahead of Brady in the NFL draft of 2000. Now think for a moment if you’re a general manager who had the chance to select this young man what you might have thought after he won all those Super Bowls and led the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to all that glory.

One hundred ninety-eight players got into the NFL ahead of the GOAT. Granted, not every team drafting in that sequence needed a quarterback. Still, Tom Brady quite unexpectedly became the gold standard for winning in the National Football League.

The Patriots drafted him out of the University of Michigan even though they had a decent QB calling signals for them. Drew Bledsoe then got hurt; Brady replaced him on the field. And the rest, as they, is history.

I know, we had that “Deflategate” matter involving the footballs that were allegedly tampered with by the Patriots, giving Brady some sort of advantage over his foes. Phooey.

Now, let’s look at some other numbers.

Seven Super Bowls; five Super Bowl MVP awards; more than 84,000 yards passing; 624 touchdown passes; three league MVP awards. I won’t go on. You get the picture.

The guy was a stellar athlete. He possesses an incomparable work and dietetic regimen that has allowed him to play the game at a high level until the very end of his playing days. He led the NFL in passing yards at the age of 44, for crying out loud.

Perhaps, in my mind, the greatest measure of this guy’s greatness can be found in this episode. He left the Patriots after the 2019 season and joined the Buccaneers. The Patriots, who had won six Super Bowls with Brady at QB, missed the playoffs that year; the Bucs went on to win the Big Game, beating the defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Oh, Brady did that at the age of 43.

Yep. This guy is the greatest of all time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Will Super Bowl match these games?

Whichever teams emerge next weekend from the NFL’s conference championship games will have a mighty steep hill to climb to match the excitement the football-watching public enjoyed this past weekend in the divisional playoff games.

This is my way of saying the Super Bowl, to be played two weeks later in Los Angeles, will have to go some to give us the same level of thrill.

Think of this: The Cincinnati Bengals beat the top seed in the AFC, the Tennessee Titans with a game-winning field goal; the San Francisco 49ers went to Green Bay to defeat the favored Packers after trailing the entire game — until the end; the LA Rams went to Tampa Bay and knocked the defending Super Bowl champs, the Buccaneers, with a game-ending field goal; then came the capper, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the Buffalo Bills in overtime with a touchdown pass in what many call the “greatest game in NFL history.” 

The conference championships will have plenty of drama. My favorite story line belongs to the Bengals. They hadn’t won a road playoff game in the franchise’s history, yet they beat the Titans in Nashville. They haven’t played in a Super Bowl since 1989, when they lost a thriller to the 49ers.

Whether it’s the Rams vs. the Bengals, or the 49ers vs. the Bengals, or the Rams vs. the Chiefs or the 49ers vs. the Chiefs in the Big Game, know this: The players will take the field knowing they are capable of delivering a Super Bowl for the ages.

Here’s hoping they don’t disappoint.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

NFLers come to play

My football-watching tastes have evolved over the years, in that I usually watch little pro football and concentrate my attention on college ball.

However, this weekend has been one for the ages for those who love to watch the National Football League.

Three visiting teams won the first three divisional playoff games. They all were underdogs. Oh, and all three games were decided by field goals.

Cincinnati beat the AFC’s No. 1 seed, Tennessee, in Nashville; the San Francisco 49ers ventured to frigid Green Bay to beat the Packers after trailing them the entire game; Los Angeles traveled to Tampa to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers and won that game as time ran out.

What’s more, Cincy won its first road playoff game in the history of the franchise.

As I type this brief post, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills are playing for the final conference championship spot. It’s still early, but my hunch is that this one could down to the wire, too.

Yep, these high-priced millionaire athletes do have a way of stepping up to provide the kind of entertainment we all love to see.

Update: The Chiefs and the Bills put a wrap on the most exciting football playoff weekend I can remember. KC won with a touchdown in overtime; the game ended 42-36. So help me, that was among the best football games I ever have seen.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Dak offers real apology

Dak Prescott came under intense fire for a comment he made after the Dallas Cowboys blundered their way into a first-round professional football playoff loss.

He seemed to endorse the notion that it was all right for unhappy fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to throw debris at officials who, in their eyes, gave the game to the San Francisco 49ers.

Then came what I believe was a first-rate apology from the Cowboys’ quarterback. He said he is sorry for his remark. He didn’t offer one of those phony “if I offended anyone” non-apologies. Oh, no. Prescott stepped up and said he blew it.

He said this, via Twitter: “That was a mistake on my behalf, and I am sorry.”

I am willing, therefore, to offer a bit of grace to the young man.

I don’t really care about whether the Cowboys will ever win another Super Bowl. Sure, I live in the Metroplex and I am bombarded with Cowboys news all the time by local media. I get that.

However, I do care when young, highly paid professional athletes are able to act like grownups after they blurt out regrettable statements. Dak Prescott demonstrated to me that he is a grownup and I hope that this tempest blows over quickly.

I believe it will, largely because the man at the center of it offered a sincere apology.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Fire the GM, Mr. GM

OK. I have shared this view privately with friends and family members, but I am going public now with this bit of, er, wisdom from the Peanut Gallery.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who doubles as the team general manager, needs to fire the GM. He needs to find a competent, experienced and knowledgeable individual to serve as general manager. Then the owner needs to step back into the shadows — as much as his ego will allow it — and let the football brainiac assemble a championship team that can take the team back to the very tippy-top of the professional football ranks.

The Cowboys’ loss on Sunday to the San Francisco 49ers was an exercise in bumbling and bumbling followed by grumbling from fans, coaches, players and, yes, the owner himself about how the Cowboys couldn’t deliver the goods when it mattered the most. They fell out of the first round of the NFL playoffs … again!

Back to Jones.

He bought the team in 1989 and pledged to become involved in every aspect of its operation. I can’t recall the precise quote, but he said something about being involved with “washing jocks and making executive decisions.” He decided he would become the team’s general manager.

I do not know all there is to know about professional football, but I know enough to assess Jones’s performance as GM. Jerry Jones ain’t cuttin’ it.

The man made his fortune in business. He parlayed his millions into purchasing a professional football team. Jones transformed the team into his own image. He immediately fired the only coach the Cowboys ever had, the late gridiron legend from South Texas Tom Landry. The Cowboys struggled early in the Jones era.

Yes, they have won some Super Bowls since Jones bought the team. They won them in 1993, 1994 and 1996 with great coaching and great players. Who hired the coaches? Jones did. Then he would fire them.

Jerry Jones does not possess a brilliant football mind. He is brilliant businessman. A story in this past Sunday’s Dallas Morning News examined how much of his fortune he has given back to the community. I appreciate his generosity and his philanthropy.

But the man wants to build a championship football team. I do not believe he will get there if he continues to pretend to be a general manager who knows how to make sound football decisions.

Building a championship team is complicated in a way that Jones doesn’t understand. I certainly don’t. There are plenty of great minds out there who have what it takes.

Hire them, Jerry. Then get the hell out of the way!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Aaron Rodgers’s white lie still stings

We won’t call Aaron Rodgers’s deception about being “immunized” instead of vaccinated against the COVID 19 virus a “little white lie.”

It goes beyond little white lie status. Let’s just call it a lie.

The Green Bay Packers quarterback is continuing to pay the price in deserved recrimination for his refusal to tell the truth — to the public — about whether he had taken the vaccine. He had taken instead some sort of cocktail of drugs that included Ivermectin, the medicine prescribed for livestock as a de-worming agent. Yeah, yeah … I get that he was prescribed by a doctor who reportedly gave him some sort of “human form” of the agent that supposedly works against the virus.

He didn’t say that. All he said was that he is “immunized.”

My beef with Rodgers — who until now I had grown to admire as a Hall of Fame-quality QB — is that his moronic reaction to the blowback suggests he doesn’t get it. He won’t take ownership of the mistake he made in lying about his vaccination status.

Rodgers now becomes what politicians like to refer to as a “distraction.” His teammates are distracted by the furor over this matter. So are the fans and the media.

This damn story won’t go away. I am not sure it should go away until Rodgers’s comes clean and owns the controversy he has created.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, Sports news

Let anthem stand on its own

The older I get the more of a fuddy-duddy I become.

There. I’ve admitted it. What caused this admission? It’s the inclusion of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at professional football games which is now being sung alongside the National Anthem.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” has become a sort of de facto “black national anthem.” It’s a lovely song. I don’t know the words, but I do hear it on occasion and I like the melody.

Do we need to sing it at pro football games as a statement that we recognize the injustice being done to African Americans to this very day? I don’t think so.

I prefer to sing only the National Anthem — the “Star Spangled Banner,” if you will — at sports events. How come?

We have one National Anthem. Just a single tune. Its lyrics were penned by Francis Scott Key in the early 19th century. It stands as the song we all learned as children. We sang it in school. We sing it today at public meetings and, yes, at sporting events.

I don’t want to dilute the meaning of the national anthem, which proclaims we are the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” Do I ignore the injustice that continues to occur? Do I accept that some Americans are treated unfairly? That they face discrimination? No! I reject all of that!

However, this notion that we sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” alongside the “Star Spangled Banner” just doesn’t feel right.

OK. I’m a white guy. I also am a fuddy-duddy. Deal with it!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Cleveland … Guardians?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

OK. I am fine with the Washington Football Team of the National Football League jettisoning the name it used to call itself: the Redskins.

But, something inside my old man’s body tells me the Cleveland Indians’ decision to change its name to Guardians is a step too far into the realm of political correctness.

The Washington Football Team’s former name clearly had been interpreted as a slur against Native Americans. Old-time western cowboys would use the term as an epithet against Indians.

However, to change the name of one of Major League Baseball’s more storied franchises to the Guardians? I don’t get where this is going or where it might go.

As a friend of mine noted earlier today on social media, a Native American suited up for the Cleveland team many decades, becoming the first indigenous American to play big-league baseball. Thus, it is believed the Indians named the team in his honor.

Maybe I shouldn’t tread onto this ground, given that I am the grandson of immigrants from southern Europe. I don’t understand how a Native American might feel about an MLB team named the Indians. It’s just that to my eyes and ears the team nickname has a decidedly neutral sound to it, unlike the former name of the NFL team that plays tackle football in Washington, D.C.

How many more teams are going to succumb to the pressure that continues to mount?

Sigh …