Supe By Comparison Note

Neither college basketball or the NBA has any meaningful action toward its title pursuit until the post-season. Hockey and certainly baseball have it to some degree, with varying factors.

However, baseball once with a truly meaningful, at times beyond dramatic regular season, added the bogus wild card. Enough said.

The Olympics are not for me. I am not into jingoism. Now, not only is Bob Costas not involved in its coverage, but don’t look now at the continued ilk (Mike Tirico, why?) taking his place.

Thus the 21 to 26 week violent, puzzle of football, gets notes as the rain  continues to descend.

Twenty years apart, and only then, did a team sans a Super Bowl win defeat the defending champion in the Super Bowl.

Denver (0-4) in Supes with an (0-3 and all poor efforts quarterback (John Elway) and led by the unheralded Terrell Davis, beat (3-0) in Supes Green Bay in ’97.

Then last week, twenty years later, the (0-2 in Supes), Eagles with a reserve quarterback, Nick Foles, underdogs in all 3 ‘0ffs games, two at home and one neutral and spread victors in all 6 post-season halves, beat the (5-2) in Supes Pats, a team with a, in my book, THE great quarterback, Tom Brady.

Someone who sounded like Keith Olberman and probably was him, back at ESPN, completely shortchanged Claude Provost (pictured above) in his segment regarding Brady, title teams and how to assess them.

Of course, it is opinion, but his tone regarding Provost, Michael Cooper, even Sam Jones and Bill Russell was not only distasteful, but so far off.

Provost played on 9 title teams with the Montreal Canadiens. He was an integral part of those great Montreal teams, a great defensive player, shadowing/containing the likes of the great Bobby Hull, in playoffs competition.

Olberman merely called him good. If you know anything regarding basketball, Michael Cooper was similar with better offense skills and contributions on great Lakers’ teams.

One more as it has been a while. I let Collinsworth and Michaels, neither of whom had a clue in the Supe, off the hook.

Not so Sage Steele, who actually said regarding a possible Philly touchdown down (33-32), they would LIKELY go for 2. Need I say more. There is no more “Man of Steel,” just Sage Steele and on we go, down the “standards drain!”