Super Bowl

Time to update my link on I’m Just Sayin…

The Super Bowl is over and a lot has been said about individual players more so than each of the teams. Peyton Manning and Richard Sherman, for instance, have gotten a lot of the press lately. For the record, I like both of these players. I was watching the interview after the NFC Championship game when Sherman went off on Michael Crabtree live as it happened. My initial response was that is completely unnecessary. Incidentally, Sherman after the fact, agreed. However, when you stick a microphone in the face of an intense player after a game clinching (and Super Bowl berth) play, what happened should not have been surprising. We ask these players to play with a ferocious intensity between the lines, and then ask them to turn it off when the game is over. That is exactly what Sherman does. Anyone who can graduate from Stanford (in three years, I believe) ain’t no dope. His demeanor off the field is very professional. Those who took to Twitter and other Social Media to criticize him in a brutal fashion only show their own ignorance, that same ignorance that they accuse Sherman of having. It is not unlike sticking a microphone in the face of a Tony Stewart or other emotional driver right after someone put them into the wall at 200 MPH.  “How do feel about almost losing your life?” Are we really surprised when those drivers start dropping the F-Bomb? Well you shouldn’t be. What happened with Sherman is EXACTLY what FOX, NBC, CBS, ESPN, etc. all want to happen. When you wait to interview players and coaches in the pressroom after they have had a moment to decompress, it takes some more prodding by headline seeking reporters to get most of them to spout off at the competition or maybe the refs. Get them in the heat of the moment and somebody better have their hand on the 8-second delay dump button. Ratings, whatever it takes.

Now let’s talk about Peyton. When you try to decide who is the greatest _______ of all time, you have to take into account many, many factors. There are very few athletes in any sport who can without debate, be considered the greatest of all time. Michael Jordan as the greatest NBA star of all time is about as close as you can get. Maybe another day we will debate those other sports, but right now I want to focus on football. I heard the analogy of the greatest quarterbacks sitting at the table and trying to decide who should be at the head of the table. If you don’t think that Manning deserves to be at that table and at least in the discussion, you can stop reading now because logic doesn’t apply to you. Championship rings do matter. But they are not the only criteria to being a great quarterback. Dan Marino is widely considered one of the greatest QB’s of all time; in fact he is often considered the greatest without a championship. That was Manning’s tag until he won a Super Bowl. Now it’s, one isn’t enough. I contend that Manning, like Marino before him, and Tom Brady now, make their teams achieve more than they would have otherwise. Miami hasn’t done squat since Marino retired. They can’t find the next Marino. Manning not only set the season record for TD’s this year, but he did it by having 5 different players catch 10 or more TD passes. Tom Brady wins with guys we’ve never heard of. I still try and go by what I heard Joe Morgan say one time about trying to say who was the greatest of all time. You really can’t compare players from different eras. What you can do though is compare their numbers to those who they played with and against. By that standard, what Marino accomplished statistically, if not with championships, puts him in the conversation. He put up numbers in a time when defense ruled the game, all but his Miami defenses. Hence, no Super Bowl victories. And Peyton, only Tom Brady is really in the same category as him. Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Aaron Rogers are all great QB’s and you could make an argument for them, but what Peyton has done at this point of his career puts him right at the top if not on top. Greatest of all time? Maybe, maybe not. But the abuse he is taking for his playoff record and Super Bowl record is to me, a little ridiculous.

So rock on Richard Sherman and Peyton Manning. Both of you, and your teams, had great seasons.

By the way, my wife loves Peyton Manning. I think if he were to walk into the room…wait a minute that gives me an idea. Does anyone have a Peyton Manning jersey I can borrow?

MLB Hall of Fame

If you are a fan of baseball then by now you should be aware that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas have all been elected to the MLB Hall of Fame. There is no real argument from anyone that those three deserve to be enshrined. The system they use to determine who gets in and who doesn’t is really a simple process. A number of reporters who are a part of the Baseball Writers Association of America are sent ballots and they vote on eligible retired players. If 75% of the people feel like they are Hall of Fame worthy, then they get in. If less than 75% feel that way then they do not. That sounds simple enough. The problem is in all the other rules. Deciding who gets to vote is another issue that I may take up later but for now I want to focus on the process. First of all a player has to have 10 or more years of experience and been retired for 5 years. At that time they come on the ballot. Each voter can only vote for 10 players in any one year. I don’t think there has ever been a year where 10 players retired at the same time and were are all HOF worthy. The problem is if the player doesn’t make the 75% cutoff, then they stay on the ballot for 15 years or until they drop below 5% of the total vote. Therefore, the ballot can get crammed. This has especially been an issue as more and more “steroid era” players are coming up for election. Why? Because some voters don’t think anyone in the steroid era should be eligible or at a minimum feel like anyone accused should be kept out. Since there are others who vote on them regardless, there are many who would otherwise be in that are hovering in that 5% - 75% range. That means as more of these HOF worthy players come up for election it makes it harder to vote for only 10. The most shameful part about this year’s voting involves Craig Biggio. He missed the 75% cutoff by 2 votes. He deserves to be in. I say that’s the most shameful thing but perhaps it is that Greg Maddux was actually left off of some peoples ballots. Are you kidding me? I will attempt to address these two issues in later posts. For now I’ll just leave you with this little nugget. I have watched all three of these inductees play in person. I saw Maddux and Glavine multiple times while they were with the Braves and Thomas when he was at Auburn and they came to Clemson to play while I was a student there. Yes, he was big and strong then too.