Oh the sloppy lack of editing and fact checking that goes on.
Three of what could be many examples will follow.
In John Feinstein’s book about the great NBA coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, titled “Let Me Tell You A Story,” Mr. Feinstein supposedly a basketball expert states the Celtics’ 7th game win in the 1966 NBA finals was in overtime.
He should have known that it did not go into overtime, but failing that, why not check the facts?!!
On “Decades” a newer channel, Kerry Sayers stated that Vince Lombardi, the great NFL coach died in 1971. “Vat” you couldn’t do a bit of research/fact checking and get it correct. Coach Lombardi died in 1970.
Then I witnessed Elle Pai Hong saying, in referencing Don Meredith, that the famed cold title game in Green Bay which was played on the last day of 1967, took place in 1966.
That augurs well for Ms. Hong, as I heard Joe Buck in honoring his father Jack Buck, an announcer on the famed game in question, state the game was played in 1969.
The way things work with lower standards and shoddy, mistake filled reporting maybe Hong, as was/is the case with Joe Buck, will call World Series and Super Bowls in the future.
The famed Ice Bowl/1967 NFL Title game played not in 1966 (Ms. Hong) nor in 1969 (“Emperor” Joe Buck, though right now Jim Nantz’ power is through the roof) but on the last day of 1967.
Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr (# 15 above), a true great, scored the winning touchdown. Sadly he probably does not remember that. He was the MVP in the first two Super Bowls but did not attend the most recent one when the former MVP’s of the game were honored.
We all forget and certainly err but a record of truth and correct is important. Thus I perhaps, disproportionately cringe at the sloppy reporting cited above that believe me, is so prevalent today.
The recently played 50th Super Bowl in which the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers, was the fourth match up of teams that both had lost in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs in the previous NFL season.
It marked the third time Denver quarterback Peyton Manning was involved in such a situation and the second time his team emerged as NFL champion in that scenario.
The situation, again a Super Bowl pitting two teams that had each lost in the divisional round/quarterfinals the season before, had involved the Panthers and a Peyton Manning team once before.
Then in the 2005 divisional round, on the same Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers handed Manning one of his 4 home divisional round losses when he was the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback, followed by the Panthers winning in Chicago, vs the Bears.
In the 2006 season Supe, Manning was the Colts’ “QB” as they defeated the Bears in the Super Bowl.
In the 2012 divisional playoffs, the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens beat the Broncos and Manning in Denver while the Atlanta Falcons, favored by 2 and a fraction points, took the Seattle Seahawks by 2 points.
The next season Seattle whomped Manning and the Broncos in the Supe.
Last year, the Seattle Seahawks as with the Panthers and Broncos, involved in 2 of these scenarios, beat the Panthers in the divisional round. The Indy Colts beat Manning and the Broncos in Denver, in the same round.
Then the Broncos defeated the Panthers in the just completed Super Bowl.
The other instances in some of what was written above:
The other Supe clash between teams that had each lost in the NFL divisional round/quarterfinals the year before was 1989 and 1990.
In 1989, the “real” Cleveland Browns, who became the Baltimore Ravens, held off the Buffalo Bills in their divisional round game. The next day, Willie “Flipper” Anderson hauled in a Jim Everett overtime touchdown pass, to beat the New York Giants.
The next season (1990) the Giants survived, to beat the Bills in the Super Bowl.
The other Manning home divisional round loss, the other 3 all occurred in seasons cited above that preceded Super Bowl appearances, was when he could not produce on the last drive and they fell to the San Diego Chargers in 2007.
Knowing this “stuff” and the fare will get you aboard a New York City subway train.
I looked at a tape from May 6, 2004.
Some observations follow.
Least, the New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants (2-1) in 11 innings. The game ended on a home run by now Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza.
Barry Bonds, who still is not in the Hall, an injustice not as terrible as Pete Rose being denied, but an injustice for sure, leaped for the ball but it was a home run.
That day Willie Mays turned 74 years old and it was the 50th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile.
Bannister did so on Willie’s birthday in 1954, Mays’ greatest and only world title season. Willie’s great catch and base running in game 1 of that year’s World Series followed.
Not aware of the time, I looked up and it was 5:06, a coincidence with 5/6 or May 6th
As I did, WFAN radio’s Mike Francesa correctly predicted a Denver outright victory as roughly 6 point underdogs in the recently completed Super Bowl.
Now Francesa, who claimed a (35-21), mark likely has it.
He did a good job forecasting this year and in remarking how CBS had so many promotions during the Supe that we/the viewers were denied replays.
Early on I could see the man behind the “shades,” Carolina coach Ron Rivera was out of it, running others than quarterback Cam Newton, on first down. He and offensive coordinator Mike Shula (the Shulas father Don and son Mike now have been a part of a total of three Supe losers who were favorites in the game) continued that horrible practice virtually the entire game.
Unlike another Rivera, New York Yankees pitcher Mariano and not heeding the loud, abrasive words of a character portrayed so well by actor, Alec Baldwin in the film “Glengarry Glen Ross” (ABC-always be closing), Ron Rivera and the Panthers, could not close an otherwise great season, with a title.
Of course, the great but over rated, reliever Rivera, failed on at least three occasions at different levels of the baseball tournament, in games in which his New York Yankees had a chance to clinch that “level.” Subsequently they lost all three games and in that “level” of the baseball tournament.
Unlike Mariano, Ron Rivera will not get many, if any chances, to rectify the “failure” to win it all. He certainly will not get 5 titles, 4 of which won by pitcher Rivera, came in the “closer” role.
Mariano Rivera played on 5 New York Yankees World Series winning teams.
ALEC BALDWIN GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS ALWAYS BE CLOSING FULL SPEECH
Click above to view a scene in which Baldwin’s skill as an actor makes me despise his character and all he represents.
The other teams from the Super Bowl participant’s regions in action on the day of the game had similar results.
Actually the Carolina Hurricanes fared better, as they got one point despite a loss at Montreal vs the Canadiens.
Also it certainly was not the Super Bowl.
The Denver Nuggets won their game in New York vs the Knicks.
The Hurricanes still have the only Carolina region pro title. They achieved that by winning the Stanley Cup in 2006 vs the Edmonton Oilers, who for the record were decimated by the New York Islanders yesterday.
Dan Issel a Denver Nuggets’ star, pictured above, was a near great player in both the ABA and NBA.
Yesterday’s 50th Super Bowl game was the 20th telecast exclusively on the AFL/AFC network.
The success of AFL/AFC teams in those games continued as the win by AFC Super Bowl representative, Denver (Broncos) raised the AFL/AFC teams record in those games to (13-7).
The AFL/AFC teams started (7-0) in those games, fell to (7-6) and then Denver’s 1997 season Supe win closed the AFL/AFC record at (8-6) while NBC was their network.
The AFC team is now (5-1) with CBS as its network.
Counting 2 losses in which the AFC team covered the point spread, AFL/AFC teams are (15-5) vs the point spread in games telecast exclusively on their own network.
The 1966 season, first Super Bowl was telecast by both the NFL network (CBS) and AFL network (NBC).
Jim Nantz was the CBS lead announcer for a 4th Super Bowl in yesterday’s game.
The Denver Broncos now (3-5) in Super Bowls, seven of them lackluster at best, including yesterday’s, are the 2015 NFL Champions, having beaten the now (17-2) Carolina Panthers.
Credit the Denver defense, led by Super Bowl MVP, Von Miller helping coach Gary Kubiak win a title in his first year as Broncos’ head coach.
This was just the 10th post AFC/NFC configuration Supe win by an original AFL team, in the 46 such games.
A Miami Dolphin link or three, as the ” ‘Phins” regular season finale win vs the New England Patriots, gave the Broncos the chance to be the AFC one seed, which helped tremendously, as they rode to the title.
Legendary, but vastly over rated Dolphins’ coach Don Shula and now Carolina assistant coach, son Mike, have lost in the two San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowls.
Von Miller pictured above, led a Denver Broncos’ defense that allowed but 4 touchdowns, one a very short distance, in the 3 post-season victories that gave the Broncos a third title.
The nomadic basketball coach Larry Brown “has nothing” on my wandering, tangential mind.
Only I could put out these notes and maybe only I would care about them.
Larry Brown the coach is the main figure but I will cite at least four other Larry Browns in sports.
A big link between today’s competing markets (so much of it is marketing) of Carolina and Denver is coach Larry Brown.
Neither region has ever won an NBA crown and nary an ABA one, despite Brown coaching each region’s ABA team to the league’s best record.
Brown did so with the 1973 Carolina Cougars and the Denver Nuggets in both 1975 and 1976.
On all three occasions Brown and the Carolina or Denver team failed to win the title, despite having the best record in the league.
The best Larry Brown, was a truly great running back, until “Wash” Redskins’ coach George Allen ran him into the ground with far too many carries in Allen’s “ground” attack.
That Larry Brown and the Redskins lost in the great back’s lone Supe appearance.
Another Larry Brown, playing for the Dallas Cowboys was the Super Bowl MVP in the Cowboys’ “no cover” win vs the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1995 season game.
I recall an infielder named Larry Brown and a hockey defenseman with the same name. Alas what good to know that “Larry Brown,” was the answer to a name that played in all four major sports.
Coach Larry Brown, denied those three times with the league’s best record won titles in both the NBA (2004 Detroit Pistons) and college (1988 Kansas University), without achieving the best mark.
In fact Brown’s Kansas title team holds the record for the most losses by an NCAA basketball champion (11).
John Forbes Nash and his “Beautiful Mind” passed on in 2015.
I really do not have a strong opinion as to which team will win or cover the point spread in today’s Super Bowl.
With the plethora of proposition bets, I will offer some “advice.”
The national anthem as sung by Lady Gaga, will go over or longer, than the allotted, perceived time.
In the coin toss at the start of the game, tails will be the side that the coin lands on.
Obviously there will be no landing on its side as what happened to Dick York’s “Hector Poole” character in a famed Twilight Zone episode.
Even if it did and one could read minds as Poole’s character could do, he still could not forecast the future.
More guesses on my part.
There will be more than 45 points scored.
In the first overtime Super Bowl,:
Denver Broncos 26 Carolina Panthers 20
Rod Serling pictured above would have a ‘field day,” with the fact that this nation stands still for this overblown football game.
No matter which team wins today’s 50th Super Bowl, it will mark the 25th time a team that played a Sunday divisional round game, wins the title.
This is the 49th season in which the NFL has played divisional round/quarterfinal games and a Sunday winner in those games will lead a Saturday winner (25-22) in Super Bowl crowns.
A Monday divisional round winner (the 1977 Dallas Cowboys) has one title.
The other time in 1968, the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Jets, still playing in the AFL, did not have a quarterfinal/divisional round game.
The first year the NFL had the divisional/quarterfinal round was 1967 while the first Super Bowl concluded the 1966 season.
Two of the Saturday divisional round/quarterfinal winners, who went on to claim the Supe title, did so before the AFC/NFC configuration.
They were the Green Bay Packers in 1967 and Kansas City Chiefs in 1969, the latter, in the only one of the AFL’s 10 seasons in which the league had divisional/quarterfinal games.
The (9-4-1) Green Bay Packers hosted and defeated the (11-1-2) Los Angeles Rams in the first NFL divisional round/quarterfinal game played on Saturday December 23, 1967. Travis Williams, my only “tag” in this post had a touchdown run for the “Pack.”
Eight days later on Sunday December 31, 1967, the Pack “Ice Bowled” the formidable Dallas Cowboys before easily turning back the Oakland Raiders in the second Supe on January 14, 1968.
