The return of Philip Rivers, Cam Newton and Paul Pierce, the rule about running quarterbacks, despondent Joe Burrow, almshouse Red Sox

Sunday 12/14/25

I'm baffled by what Philip Rivers is doing. Intrigued to see how it plays out, but baffled as to the motivation. Why would you want to return to the NFL at age forty-four, after having not played in five years? You're going to show up, take a few days, and just jump in there? He must know something I don't. Surely. Because I don't see how that can go well.

If it does go well, that's not going to look great for the league. That it's that easy to play the quarterback position. It's easier than it's ever been, but that easy? He doesn't look to be in the best shape either. I'd be curious to know his reasons, though. Can't be money. Love of the game? I doubt that. He didn't have to retire when he did. To prove something? To who? Himself? I can't see him whipping the ball over the field for 260 yards. But I guess we'll see.

You can be good at that age, including in sports that are more physically demanding than playing quarterback in the NFL. Carlton Fisk caught until he was forty-five. He was really effective in his early forties, too. Obviously there's Brady. Chris Chelios was a fine defensemen well into his forties. Gordie Howe was a serviceable NHL hockey player at fifty.

You can do some interesting things with time. Re-posit/re-frame your understanding of something. For instance: For all their great wins, one of the least likely victories for the Patriots between 2001 and 2019 came against the Chargers in the 2006 playoffs. Talk about a game where it looked like the Patriots had no shot. That Chargers team was stacked. They should have won it all. Going away, as they say. And then within the game itself, the Patriots were dead on the table and need a minor miracle of a play from Troy Brown to force a fumble after a Tom Brady interception. And you know who was the quarterback for those Chargers? Philip Rivers. But there's more: That was his third season in the league! Albeit his first as the starter. And now he's going to start for someone in that league today after last playing during COVID.

The thing about time is that you both less of it than you think you do, and more...at the same time.

Cam Newton complained that he wasn't brought in. You can't take him seriously. Newton and Paul Pierce strike me as similar; broken individuals who aren't very bright, are immature, and don't, somehow, know much about the games they played, and in Pierce's case played so well. As an analyst, Newton is just a bad punchline, whereas Pierce has no clue; you can pretty much go with the opposite of anything he says as being closer to the truth. I could also envision either or both ending up in prison.

As I've said before, Cam Newton wasn't even good when he was good. People are thick and simple, so when he ran for a bunch of yards, they assumed he was great. In his MVP season, Cam Newton's completion percentage was below 60%. How many people do you think know that? Not very good, is it? That was ten years ago. He also has rocks in his skull, so forget picking up an offense. Rivers at least played in that offense. Which was the thinking, as such, in going with him.

Here is an NFL rule worth remembering. It's only an NFL rule. It's not a college football rule.

You can win the games that count the most with a quarterback who can run, but you won't win it all with a quarterback who needs to run.

Quarterbacks who can run: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Montana, John Elway, but you don't think of them as running quarterbacks. Cam Newton: running quarterback. Lavar Jackson: running quarterback. I wonder how many people now know that Montana and Elway can run. I say that because if people weren't there, they almost certainly wouldn't bother to learn. People think that life begins only when they start paying attention to what is contemporary to them. And to go back and correctly learn? No one is going to do that save myself. Which is one reason why people tend to have no idea what my age is. Or, I should say, don't think of me in terms of any age. I'm temporally unaligned.

These quarterbacks--barring Allen to some degree--ran sparingly and when they had to, when there were no other options, and--this is key--after having gone through all their reads. When the situation called for it.

Do you know how hard it is at this point of the season, in the current day NFL, and be second in yards passing without a single 300 yard game? Because that's Drake Maye. You need to basically have the same game every week. Throw for 270 yards week in, week out. Helps to be on a winning team, too, to fill off this statistical anomaly because you're not throwing it 45 times a game because you're trailing by multiple scores in the second half.

Want an example of how easy it now is to play quarterback in the NFL? Here are the stats of someone most people would say isn't any good here in 2025. Try and guess who it is. Ready?

65.4 completion percentage, 2370 yards passing, 20 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 96.2 quarterback rating.

Once upon a time, that got you the MVP. Now, you'll be a player that people think lowly of.

Who is it?

Aaron Rodgers. You want him as your team's quarterback? And just about everyone says, "No."

For all the complaining about the college football playoffs, there are some compelling bowl match-ups. I wish there wasn't a playoff. You cheapen the regular season, which used to be like a playoff. A team lost a game, and they could be done. Now upsets don't mean as much, and upsets were one of the very best things--if not the best--about college football. They were up there. The playoff is a venal product of a gluttonous capitalistic society/approach to everything, which helps create homogeneity. If there's going to be a playoff, I wish it was played on campuses the whole way through. That would be exciting.

Joe Burrow comes across as a moody teenager. He's older than most people think he is. Watching clips of his press conference the other day, one may have thought that he could leave it all behind at any point. I don't think that's the case. But this is a player who needs a change of scenery. Playing for the Bengals, or the Jets, the Raiders--but the Jets more than anyone else, though--just isn't good for you. There are enough obstacles without your own organization being one.

Navy nipped Army 17-16 yesterday. Howard is likely pleased.

The Red Sox appear to be doing what I worried they'd do this off-season, which is to say, nothing. They want to compete on the lowest of levels--nudge into the playoffs--and not be a prime time player. To be the latter, you must spend. The Red Sox don't have a burning passion for championships any longer. I know what they're going to try and sell as their plan, which they'll do to skepticism if not boos at their ridiculous off-season town hall meeting thing they do with the fans: We did make additions! Like second-year Roman Anthony! And healthy Triston Casas!

The Baltimore Orioles hugely overpaid for Pete Alonso, but come on...even the Orioles are willing to do that, but you, the Boston Red Sox, aren't willing to dust off the wallet? Overpaying is how it works now, unfortunately. Alonso is a one-dimensional slugger, and that used to not be a good thing--Rob Deer, etc.--but they're very "in" right now with how the game is played. He won't be close to a Hall of Fame player in the end, and look at that money...for not being one of the greats. It's absurd.

But look: It's Fenway Park, it's the AL East, someone has to hit the ball out of the ballpark. You can't have a guy leading your team in homers with 21 of them. The Sox have zero big bats. I wouldn't expect power from Anthony this coming season. Be nice if you got it, but I'm not expecting him to hit 32 bombs. Now you need Jarren Duran's bat, so there goes that trade chip. And don't tell me Alex Bregman--is he's brought back--is some top quality MLB bat, because then you're just someone who doesn't know their stuff.

I think the Sox are lukewarm on Bregman who was underwhelming last year and now one year older, and Bregman's finding out that no one is all that high on him. The two parties may dispassionately come back to each other. Hooray. Then you can get 120 games played, a .267 average, 20 homers, and 65 RBI. Maybe. I do know this: If Bregman resigns with the Sox, the Sox will tout that as a big signing. They'll in effect count Bregman twice: Once last year, and then again this year.

John Henry doing that staged victory cigar photo for signing Alex Bregman--Alex goddamn Bregman--last year tells you what an arrogant, out of touch old ghoul he is. It's funny when you think about it. Alex Bregman, like 1980 Mike Schmidt had been pried away from the Phillies somehow. That photo reminded me of dimwitted narcissistic women who tell their boyfriend to take a photo of them from back up there on the beach while they theatrically gaze "living my best life/protecting my peace/I'm so deep"-style out to sea.

And people being as dumb as people are at present were like, "Way to go John Henry!" instead of calling him out and laughing at him. Boston sports media used to call it like it saw it, and now it's along the lines of, "Let me get a big box of tissues to clean up after we jerk you off." The Celtics broadcast crew probably has a Kleenex warehouse.