1. I think the Bucs lucked into a good thing with Baker Mayfield this season. Rather than investing the 26th pick in the draft in three months in a quarterback, the Bucs should try to sign Mayfield for two years at decent starter money, nothing crazy, and see if he can develop into the long-term starter.
2. I think, in the interest of full disclosure, here are a few nuggets from my post-season awards ballot:
- Lamar Jackson, Brock Purdy, Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, Tyreek Hill were 1 through 5 for MVP.
- Christian McCaffrey for Offensive Player of the Year, edging Hill. Why Hill number 5 on the MVP list and not McCaffrey? In terms of value, I thought Hill was the most important non-quarterback for his team this year, while McCaffrey was most outstanding.
- Hill, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Deebo Samuel were my three first-team all-pro receivers; CeeDee Lamb, Puka Nacua and Mike Evans second team. (Re: Deebo: I’m not ruled by numbers, but rather impact.)
- Kevin Stefanski nipped DeMeco Ryans in a photo finish for coach of the year. Winning 11 games with five different QBs decided it, but easily I could have gone with Ryans.
- C.J. Stroud over Nacua for Offensive Rookie, Rams DT Kobie Turner over Will Anderson for Defensive Rookie.
- Crowded ballot for exec of year, in order, with five GMs: Brad Holmes (Detroit), Les Snead (Rams), Nick Caserio (Houston), Eric DeCosta (Baltimore), Brian Gutekunst (Green Bay). The construction jobs by all five have been exemplary.
- Damar Hamlin over Baker Mayfield for Comeback Player. Easy choice.
- Jim Schwartz over Mike McDonald and Bobby Slowik for Assistant Coach.
3. I think I feel like a game is in control when it’s in the hands of referee Alex Kemp, who did Green Bay-San Francisco Saturday night. Very good young official.
4. I think this is what I want to see in the Vegas odds this week: a line on whether Greg Olsen ties his tie for the NFC Championship Game Sunday evening.
5. I think, if Bill Belichick coaches Atlanta and Jim Harbaugh the Chargers, we’ll see some interesting games next fall:
- Harbaugh at Harbaugh. Baltimore at the Chargers.
- Jerry Jones at Belichick (Dallas-Atlanta).
- Belichick hosts Jim Harbaugh.
- Mahomes at Belichick.
6. I think, again, I call on the NFL for common-sense coach-interview rules. And again, I simply can’t believe the league allows a system to exist that permits coaches of teams in the playoffs to do interviews in the biggest weeks of their seasons. As much as it hurts teams in the market for head coaches, the league should outlaw interviews with coaches in the playoffs until their teams are out of the playoffs.
7. I think I used to believe all interviews should be put off until two days after the Super Bowl. But it’s fine, even if a team with an opening has its eyes on a Super Bowl coordinator, to allow that team to interview coaches on the street or whose teams have finished play. The problem I have is fairly simple, and I’ll use the Lions as an example. Last week, the Lions were coming off the emotional win over the Rams in a Wild Card game, and preparing for their divisional game—the most important game the franchise has had in three decades. Meanwhile, the two coordinators, Ben Johnson (offense) and Aaron Glenn (defense) were lining up virtual interviews to happen between the end of practice Friday and late Saturday before the game. Johnson was juggling five interview requests, Glenn four. Tell me: How is it fair to the Lions to have a system that bifurcates the attention of two vital coaches heading into the most important game they’ve ever coached?
8. I think you could hear it in Dan Campbell’s voice when he discussed the interest in Johnson and Glenn—he cannot like his most important coaches being distracted in a week like this. No head coach would, even those who have gotten their head-coaching jobs through this ridiculous system. “They are worthy candidates and I think both of them should be at the top of everybody’s list,” Campbell said. “But we’re in one of these unique years where there’s a ton of jobs available, so that’s also why they all want to speak to them. They’re going to have to crunch [the interviews] in there.”
9. I think there’s one other part of this that’s bothersome: Yes, Johnson and Glenn have enough hours in the day to figure out how to squeeze eight hours of interviews in. But what about being fresh for the biggest game of their lives, instead of being fried from six, eight, 10 hours of interviews? Does that count for anything? What about the message it sends to some players on your team, players who would rightly think, “Why can’t I begin to talk to teams about my free agency coming up after this game?” What about the late-night phone calls and texts to coaches Glenn and Johnson would hope to have on their staffs? Teams with vacancies are going to wonder with Johnson, for instance, “Who’s the defensive coordinator you have in mind? What kind of defense will you run? Who else would you plan to bring on staff?” The whole thing is unfair to the coaches, and unfair to the teams that employ them.
Florio: Johnson a ‘favorite’ for Commanders HC job
Mike Florio provides an update on Lions OC Ben Johnson’s head coaching opportunities and explains why many in league circles believe he’s likely to land with the Washington Commanders.
10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:
a. Wow. Looks like Jerry Jones could get the World Cup Final for 2026 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Amazing. When the bidding process started, that game was going to New York or L.A. But Jones and the Dallas team have been trying to sell the World Cuppers on the proximity to soccer-mad Latin America, and on the how that stadium will be the biggest and most tricked-out venue in the Americas for such a spectacle.
b. Ironic. The Jerry business is booming, even after one of the most disastrous losses in his ownership, even after the massively unpopular decision to keep Mike McCarthy as coach. Jones loves the Cowboys, but he loves the business of the Cowboys just as much, and he loves the business of Jerryworld perhaps even more.
c. Sports Story of the Week: Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on a star 16-year-old basketball player, Chloe Johnson, using basketball to help fight her demons.
d. An excellent writer uses the power of detail to weave an unforgettable story. Scoggins is excellent. He writes that Chloe Johnson practices basketball on a court 64 paces from her bedroom. Details. Always details. This story’s full of great ones.
e. Scoggins wrote about the importance of those trips to the basketball court for Chloe, and says she’s free there:
Free from worry. Free from intrusive thoughts that can paralyze her. The medical term is “obsessive-compulsive disorder.” Her family calls it a “secret storm.” Not visible by outward appearances, its cruel impact they know too well.
The daily routines and rituals that go by in minutes for others would throughout Chloe’s childhood take her family hours. In addition to OCD, Chloe has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and a rare childhood condition known as selective mutism. Just leaving the house or talking in public became intense challenges, and Chloe’s parents searched for answers, coping mechanisms, help — anything.
Basketball became their anything, and when it entered Chloe’s life, in some ways, it saved her. For reasons that everyone, including Chloe herself, find difficult to explain, the storm clears on the court.
“It’s my safe place,” she says.
Today, the 5-11, blue-eyed kid with a long, braided ponytail and sweet nature is a straight-A, eighth-grade student and force for the Duluth Marshall varsity team. She is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, players her age in the country. She already holds scholarship offers from eight universities, including the [Minnesota Golden] Gophers, Wisconsin and Maryland.
Her game is a blend of strength and grace. Her brilliance shines not in being flashy but with skills so exceptionally sharp she makes basketball look effortless. Chloe is not yet in high school, but she ranks among the state’s leaders at the varsity level in every statistical category.
Special. Unique. Different. She hears these words often. Chloe will tell you that she is different from other kids, and the tapestry of her young life reveals it. She is a teenager who doesn’t enjoy being on her phone or using social media. A waste of valuable time, she says. She averages only 18 minutes of screen time per day.
f. Eighteen minutes of screen time per day. Such a powerful detail. No question many of her peers average more than 18 minutes per hour.
g. Scoggins got Chloe to share her journal with him. Man, does that take trust. You’ll love to read her writings about living with OCD. Great job, Chip Scoggins.
h. Tribute of the Week: Matt Porter of The Boston Globe, on Tim Murphy, retiring after 30 seasons as the football coach at Harvard.
i. His most famous grad: Ryan Fitzpatrick. But there were many others. Wrote Porter:
Tight ends were a specialty for Murphy, whose NFL alums include Cam Brate, Anthony Firkser and Kyle Juszczyk, as well as Tyler Ott (who became a long snapper). Linebackers like Isaiah Kacyvenski and offensive linemen like Matt Birk shined in the pros. Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, Texans DC Matt Burke and longtime NFL coach Joe Philbin are in Murphy’s coaching tree.
He also produced the youngest general manager in NFL history — and called it well before it happened. Fitzpatrick recalled Murphy predicting that specific future for Andrew Berry during his years as an All-Ivy cornerback (2006-08). Berry was 32 when the Cleveland Browns appointed him GM in 2020.
j. Cool Story of the Week: From Harry Benson for Vanity Fair: When the Beatles Stormed America, I was With Them.
k. As the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ invasion of the United States approaches, we’re reminded of what an incredible moment it was, just three months after the assassination of President Kennedy. Benson was a photographer embedded with the band, starting with its pre-America trip to Paris. His insights are historic. I was especially interested in how creative the group was at all hours. Instead of being focused on debauchery, John, Paul, George and Ringo were into their music.
l. In France, Benson saw the creativity first-hand, as the Beatles were captive in their hotel; they couldn’t go out without being swarmed. Wrote Benson:
After their second night performing in France, they came back to the hotel at around a quarter to 11. They wanted to go somewhere, but there weren’t many places open at that hour. And when they did go out to a club, their table was immediately surrounded by women. They couldn’t move. They couldn’t dance. Always a swarm. So they usually just stayed in the hotel suite with their handlers and me. They’d smoke cigarettes and play guitar, surrounded by tea sets and coffeepots, vases of flowers, baskets of fruit, newspapers with their pictures in them.
I soon saw how the music came naturally. It wasn’t like they’d built in time to compose—they had to do it on the fly. There was a piano in Paul’s room. At one point, John pulled up a chair and started tinkering. Paul joined in. John started humming what I would later recognize as the tune to “Baby’s good to me, you know / She’s happy as can be, you know / She said so…” But they got stuck: Where should it go after the melody? George wandered over with his guitar and played a catchy rhythm-and-blues riff, plucking away. He seemed to be improvising. Although John was later credited with writing the riff—influenced by Bobby Parker’s song “Watch Your Step”—the way I heard it that day was George coming up with it.
They appeared to be writing a song right in front of me. And as John and Paul kept at it on the piano, Ringo, in a black turtleneck, came over and stood next to George. And I had my shot: the Beatles composing “I Feel Fine.”
m. One of my favorite Beatles songs here.
n. Back in the day when songs were 2 minutes, 16 seconds.
o. RIP, Crazy Joe Davola.
p. It’s hard to be delusional and scary and funny and a psychopath in one 22-minute TV episode, but that’s what Peter Crombie, the actor who portrayed the nutty Davola, did in five “Seinfeld” episodes.
q. Not saying the Red Sox will win 65 games this year. But they might.
r. Great line, Pete Abraham (of The Boston Globe, on Friday): “Yanks DFA’d Jeter today.”
s. Jeter Downs.
t. My writing music, as Saturday turned to Sunday in the Pier 5 Hotel, Baltimore.
u. I don’t sing. I never have. But I look at Lady Gaga in that 11-year-old video from the Prudential Center in Newark and think: What must she be thinking being on stage with Mick Jagger and singing “Gimme Shelter”?
v. Then, at times like these, there’s the Foo Fighters.
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