Before I cite the eleven examples referenced yesterday, involving Super Bowls matching coaches with “non 5 letter” last names and those with 5 letter last names, eight of the first nine Supes had losing coaches with 5 letter last names, five in which a coach, without 5 letters in his last name, prevailed.
This includes the first three Super Bowls in which Vince Lombardi’s Packers won the first two vs Hank Stram and K.C. and Oakland coached by John Rauch as well as Weeb Ewbank’s Jets (16-7) vs Don Shula’s Baltimore Colts.
In the 6th Supe, Tom Landry’s Cowboys beat Shula and the Dolphins while in the ninth, the great Chuck Noll and “Pitts” handed Bud Grant and the Vikings, the third of 4 Supe losses.
In 5 letter vs 5 letter Supes among the aforementioned first nine, Stram and KC beat Minne and Grant in the 4th, Shula and Miami (Dolphins) beat George Allen and Wash and Grant and Minne in the 7th and eighth.
The other four “non five” over a “five letter” coach in a Supe were in the 11th John Madden’s Raiders over Grant’s Vikings, the 18th Tom Flores’ Raiders over Joe Gibbs and “Wash,” and the last such results were Bill Belichick wins with New England.
The Pats’ first Supe win in the 36th Supe was vs Mike Martz and the heavily favored St. Louis Rams and the incredible comeback/blown game was vs Dan Quinn and Atlanta 9 days ago.
Both 5 letter coach wins vs a non 5 letter coach in a Super Bowl were recorded by Joe Gibbs.
In the 22nd Supe, Gibbs and Wash took Denver coached by Dan Reeves and in the 26th they handed Marv Levy and Buffalo the second of four straight Super Bowl defeats (’90-93).
Yesterday’s post indicated the favorites prevailed in 9 of the 11 post-season tilts in the just completed 2016 NFL season.
9/11, once best known as the number to call for emergency assistance, had a different meaning beginning on the eleventh day of September in 2001, a season in which a team from New England won their first Super Bowl.
Another nine of eleven note manifested after the unbelievable NE win/Atlanta loss in the 51st Supe.
Now in eleven Supe clashes between teams coached by men with numbers other than 5 constituting their last names and those with 5 letters in their last name, the “non fives” have won 9 of the 11 tilts.
Additionally 9 other times the losing Super Bowl coach had 5 letters in his last name but so did the winning coach.
The nine “non five” winners vs “five” and the two “five” vs non five winners will follow in tomorrow’s post.
Certainly the numbers nine and eleven have come to mean a great deal in our society.
There is a 9/11 correlation and association with the New England team as they won the first of their 5 titles in the first Super Bowl that followed the events of September 11, 2001 (9-11).
This season in the NFL post-season, nine of eleven favorites won, the Patriots doing so thrice, including their great comeback win/Falcons’ horrible dissipation of a (28-3) lead.
Another 9/11 football note manifested.
Details in my next post.
Many others, not just me, have said for years, get the loss or losses, out of the way.
Tonight in likely the last chance for a regular season loss, undefeated Gonzaga visits St. Mary’s.
Better lose now, than lose in the tournament, which by the way is wide open.
Whether they do go undefeated or not, the Gonzaga team has “much wood to chop,” before winning a title.
I am currently reading “In Such Good Company,” a great book, by a truly fantastic performer, Carol Burnett.
The book details events, including great stories primarily regarding Ms. Burnett’s great show or better stated as on the cover, “eleven years of laughter, mayhem, and fun in the sandbox.”
Carol, a true legend, recounts great experiences with greats that preceded her.
Fred Astaire for example, was “as good at board games” as he was a dancer,” I will not play vs him in heaven, thanks for the warning Carol.
On the day the great Lucille Ball was called there (I still do not believe anything “hook, line and sinker,” but why not, certainly as a conceptual possibility), April 26, 1989, Carol’s birthday, Ms. Ball’s birthday card and flowers arrived as they always did.
There is so much in this book. I love it as I love all things Carol Burnett and her great friends and cast.
Click below for more information including how to purchase the book.
In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett | PenguinRandomHouse.com
Boston major North American sports league teams are now (8-1) vs Atlanta teams in post-season entities after the finals/Super Bowl victory by the Patriots vs the Falcons last Sunday.
This was by far the most important and latest clash in post-season between the two cities.
Only in the NBA, with the Celtics (Boston) compiling wins in 7 of 8 series vs the Hawks (Atlanta) had the cities ever met in post-season before the amazing comeback win by the Patriots last Sunday.
The Celtics are (4-0) in quarterfinal series vs the Hawks (’72, ’73, ’86 and ’88) winning it all in ’86 with a truly great team but failing to win another round in the other three seasons.
That includes the 1973 season, one in which the Celts won 68 games which until last season’s failure by record setting Golden State (Warriors) were the most wins by an NBA team that failed to “title.”
Boston is (3-1) in preliminary series vs the Hawks having won in ’83, ’08 and ’12 while the Hawks won in ’16. The Celts won it all in ’08, one of ten Boston titles in the “2000 years” but only in ’12 when the Celts won the subsequent “quarter” did either team win another round after playing each other save the Celts’ ’86 and ’08 title teams.
Boston won their 16th NBA title in ’86 and at that point had won an amazing 40 percent of the NBA’s 40 titles. They have won but one in the 30 seasons, since that point.
I can just hear an Atlanta fan, with but one title, say “are you complaining?!!”
No matter what enabled it, Tom Brady directing three touchdown drives, that included two must two point conversions, to win a fifth title and further cement both his and the team’s greatness, was of great masterful art.
I could see the look on his face as the chance was there, the utter precision of the pass patterns and with his superb team, especially James White on that day, and could only marvel at this greatness.
Talk need not turn to who is the greatest, one need only look at what is great.
Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots with now 5 titles, 7 Supe appearances, 14 division crowns in 16 seasons, (14 of 15 with Brady healthy), and 11 home division round games in those seasons, are among the great quarterbacks, coaches, and teams of any time, in any major North American sports league.
Great ones such as Tom Brady (pictured above) do not “pass” this way, all that often, if at all.
Click below to view “Seals and Crofts” perform “We May Never Pass This Way Again”
SEALS AND CROFTS “WE MAY NEVER PASS THIS WAY AGAIN” LIVE 1973
It was quite a clutch performance by the Patriots’ James White in the team’s amazing come from behind win in the Super Bowl.
White scored three touchdowns and on a two point conversion play, giving him a Supe record 20 points.
Of course White’s great effort on a 2 yard touchdown gave the Patriots their 5th Super Bowl victory, denying the Falcons in most heartbreaking fashion, for both their fans and bettors.
The New England Patriots overcame a (28-3) deficit and won their fifth Super Bowl, covering the “burned” Falcons and their bettors, (34-28) in the first of the 51 Supes to still be “on,” after regulation time i.e. overtime.
Along the “burn line,” the Patriots once a woebegone franchise, with a less than stellar SHERMAN as their quarterback, once again rode the greatness of Brady (as with Sherman a first name Tom, unlike Sherman and others far better, without peer), but more significantly the utter ineptitude of former Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan and the Falcons, who gave away 14 points, enabling Brady and New England’s all-time comeback.
I am not like others, who for some reason despise the New England team and its greatness. Hail to them, and their fifth title, but as Bob Murphy, once a Boston Red Sox broadcaster said just after a Dave Augustine drive hit the point of the fence bouncing back to Cleon Jones who threw to Wayne Garrett, whose relay got Rich Zisk (of Carlton Fisk, his ridiculously over rated home run, they LOST the W.S.) at the plate, “it is necessary to be good, but does not hurt to be lucky.”
In this case, Brady and Company were lucky to get the chance, but once given it, this all-time great, who essentially has never failed to deliver in the clutch, did so, leaving Atlanta sports already as of another time losing, “burned.”
Today will be Joe Buck’s 5th Super Bowl.
In the previous four “Joe Buck Supes” (his father Jack, I believe led the television coverage once), “his” NFC network team has split, winning in ’07 and ’10 losing in ’04 (to N.E.) and in a rout we can only hope for not caring which way today, in ’13.
Buck has “led” 19 World Series, the last ten (’07-’16)–G.B. 16 Giants 7 in ’62 still in December, no television in N.Y.C. and you know what–’twas better)–when rival network TBS also had LCS coverage.
The Fox Network/Buck LCS winner went on to 9 of 10 W.S. triumphs, (those are Joe DiMaggio numbers).
Only Buck’s team and certainly that of his dad, the St. Louis Cardinals, won a TBS/ LCS and then won “vs” Buck and Fox in the subsequent World Series. The year was 2011 and boy how easily could it have gone the other way.
She, the beyond beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, “presented,” as “Midnight Cowboy” won the Academy Award.
Andy B Sports 