Sunday 1/5/25
All of Boston sports media said throughout the season that there was no way Patriots coach Jerod Mayo wouldn't be brought back for his second year, whereas I was saying, "Not so fast." Most of Boston sports media, over the past couple weeks, has stuck to what they were already saying, whereas I say he's gone on Monday. That's not me saying I think he should be gone--I know he should be gone. I'm talking about what's actually going to happen now, even with a heel-dragging, not-very-sharp owner. Jerod Mayo never should have been hired to be the head coach of the Patriots. The truth is that Mayo wasn't given this job because he deserved it or could do it, but because he licked the boss's ass. That's what Robert Kraft wants, Jerod Mayo knew this, and he did what he had to do with his tongue to get hired.
I predict that all of the staff will be blown out by Kraft--who is not competent himself--on Monday. In part for the wrong reasons--he's embarrassed at the empty seats. But allowing that the Patriots lose today--which, admittedly, they could screw up and find themselves tripping into a win--and have the number one pick, there's no way you can have Mayo and this front office in charge. Because if you don't get it right right now, you are really adding on to the period time for which you will be bad. A poverty row franchise.
They need a major shake-up. Everyone's either going to be right and I'll be wrong--as to Mayo's situation--or I'm going to be right and everyone else will be wrong. I've said all along, though, that this coach has no clue what he's doing and, more than that, he has no aptitude for the job. What's the difference? Well, if you don't have a clue at a given juncture, you might have a clue later. Aptitude is skill. A knack for something. He's not a head coach. I'm unconvinced he's a defensive coordinator, too. I think he's just a linebackers coach.
Of course, I could be wrong, because my prediction is predicated on Robert Kraft having the semblance of a clue and axing one of his many unofficial sons. But I'll tell you what I'm not wrong about: This team won't go anywhere with Jerod Mayo as coach.
I heard some NFL talking head say the other day that Russell Wilson deserves three-year contract for $100 million dollars. I was talking to a friend yesterday, and I said the difference between people on ESPN who are paid millions and millions of dollars to talk about football and some drunken middle aged guy in a too-tight Jerome Bettis jersey in a bar is that that the second guy talks like he has a couple sausages in his mouth and the words can't escape and out comes this fragmented English and the guy on ESPN--who says the same equally stupid things--just sounds like has less sausage in his mouth.
Seriously--listen to how people talk out on the street. The literal man on the street. Hear how uneducated--I mean the degree to which they sound uneducated, not as to whether or not they went to college, which is meaningless--people sound. They can't even pronounce most words properly. They can't speak in complete sentences. Their words are all thumbs.
Russell Wilson is done. He's so done he shouldn't play again. The Steelers are getting bounced immediately with Wilson. But if you play Justin Fields, you may get a spark and the team will play for him and you have a shot, anyway, even if it's a very slight one. Russell Wilson has some Aaron Rodgers in him with less physical ability and without being as cancerous to a team as Rodgers. But he's not a winning player, he was always overrated, and he has little left. They should have made a change earlier at that position, which is on Mike Tomlin.
USA handled their business--they were impressive--in the World Juniors after that setback to Finland in OT, who they will now play play in the championship game. I will be watching. I find myself more interested in the World Juniors and the NCAA men's tournament than I am in the NHL and the NHL playoffs. There's more excitement because a loss is bigger--usually it means you're done--and the games tend to be more open. You get more up and down, more creativity, greater drama. NHL playoffs games tend to be grinds. The series last for upwards of two weeks.
BC--with six players--has more guys on team USA than any other school. BC itself isn't as deep or dynamic as last year's team, but there should be a legit push to a national title this year. Anything can happen with a one-and-done format, and there are other good teams, and sometimes a goalie is just locked in, but they should be right there. They're likely to lose half of these six players that they have on this World Juniors team after this collegiate season--you might see one or two of them in the NHL during this NHL season.
I was wrong about ASU--thought they'd get blown out by Texas and they hung in there and clawed back to even before losing in OT. All of these Ohio State fans calling for the head of Ryan Day after the Michigan loss and they may win it all. They're the favorite in the clubhouse, certainly. Which, ironically, means that if they don't win it all there will be more calling for his head.
I was also wrong about Notre Dame. Thought they could perhaps play Georgia close but would lose by two scores--like ten points--in the end, but they won. A lot of luster has come off the SEC this season. What is different? NIL. Players are paid now. Given that everyone can pay players, the SEC has come back to the conference pack. It shouldn't be help up and above the others like it was before and I think one result of this bowl and playoff season is that it won't be. Look at Alabama in their bowl game.
People are saying that words to the effect of "Look what would have happened if we had the old format, the four remaining teams wouldn't have even made it," with the implication being that these four teams are the best teams. But that's not true. Or not necessarily. They are the teams that are left. Look at baseball back when you had two teams make the postseason, which was the World Series, and that was it. You don't think if there were more teams that some of those other teams don't win?
The 1990 Chicago White Sox could have been World Series champions. Instead of winning five World Series in a row, the late 1940s-early 1950s New York Yankees maybe win three and don't repeat a single time. Really this just comes down to how you want to do it. What I would say about the old baseball format, anyway, is that you usually had the best team win. But that doesn't mean that team would have won with a different postseason format. I'm saying that if you're in first place at the end of what was then 154 games and you take the World Series you were the best team that year. Were we to run this college football play off again from the start, you'd have assorted different results with the same teams. Perhaps all of the teams who had the bye who were knocked off--which were all of the teams with the bye--advance. Again, it's just a matter of how you want to do it. How you want to do it will change the result often enough from how you were doing it before.
Sieve Swayman was up to his old tricks last night with his .852 save percentage in the Bruins' drubbing at the hands of the Leafs. Great job, market-setter. You're the man, right? You said you were. The market-setting man! He's a platoon-starter. Co-starter. Duo guy. Not the guy. He's paid out the ass like the guy, though. Will go down as one of the worst deals in Bruins history, if not Boston sports history. The rest of the team was true to their 2024-25 form: The Bruins beat bad teams and mediocre teams and usually are beaten soundly by good teams unless they catch them on the second night of a back-to-back.
I don't pay attention to NFL stats that include the seventeenth game. That changed what end-of-season stats mean. 1000 yards for Mike Evans? This ridiculous streak? What does it even mean to get 1000 yards in seventeen games? That's not a lot, is it? And the all-time rushing record? I know--there used to be fourteen games. But it was sixteen for so long and that produced a numbers culture and history. Numbers had an understood meaning. Understood value. They do not now. So what I do is look at the numbers after sixteen games and to me that's your year. If a quarterback edges over 5000 yards in the last quarter of his seventeenth game, I don't really see that as a 5000 yard passing season. Sixteen is where it should have stayed. You should be able to have teams be .500. The season needs to be an even amount of games in every sport. And no, that doesn't mean there should be an eighteen-game NFL season, though I'm sure that will happen at some point on account of greed.
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