I am going way out with esoteric notes because the hype regarding Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and its presentation with the usual loudmouthed suspects (if only we could not “round them up” but silence them/it) is too much.
A look at New England Patriots coaching history evokes thoughts of “Two elsewhere titles,” and perhaps some interesting notes.
Of course, though such near, if not legendary, football figures as Raymond Berry, Pete Carroll and Bill Parcells have coached the Patriots to the playoffs, only current coach, Bill Belichick with 4, has brought a title to New England.
Belichick starts our “Two Elsewhere” “reach” as he was an assistant coach on two New York Giants’ Super Bowl winning teams. He also was the losing coach, in games in which the Giants secured their other 2 Super Bowl wins.
The head coach in the two Giants’ Supe wins with Belichick, is the aforementioned Parcells, giving him “Two elsewhere” titles.
Last year’s 4th New England Super Bowl win was against another former coach, who guided them to playoff appearances (1997 and 1998), Pete Carroll.
Carroll’s decision not to run Mar Lynch near the goal in the game’s final minute will be long remembered.
Alas perhaps so should the “Two Elsewhere” titles not in the NFL (there he has one) but in college, a shared title in 2003, and an undisputed one with USC in 2004.
While Parcells and Carroll are near great coaches and Belichick is a great one, none come close to exuding the class of the 1985 season Pats’ coach, Raymond Berry.
He is a truly good, understated man (for the record I like Belichick and never met him, am not thrilled with Carroll but never met him and the less said about Parcells, the better) who won three road playoff games with the 1985 team, before they were trounced by the Chicago Bears in that season’s Super Bowl.
The “Two Elsewhere” involving Mr. Berry, were titles won as a great receiver of famed John Unitas passes in both 1958 and 1959 title winning seasons.
It comes full circle in this sense. Berry’s heroic pass catching of Unitas passes in the 1958 title game in media capital, New York was the start of pro football’s incredible popularity.
This week’s hype with all of those “usual suspects” probably would not have manifested without Berry’s great performance in 1958.
However, Berry’s greatness and memories of that somewhat pure great game remain, as I tune out the hype so inherent in the present monolith NFL.
Raymond Berry, Catches #’s 9 & 10 @ 1958 NFL Championship
“Unitas to Berry” indeed!
Theoretically the conferences should alternate in having the better rated later title game.
This will mark 20 straight seasons in which that has been the case. Starting with the Bill Parcells coached New England Patriots’ home win vs the Tom Coughlin coached Jacksonville Jaguars after the 1996 regular season, the AFC has been the conference with the later title tilt in 10 consecutive even years (1996-2014) while the NFC will have ten straight odd year seasons after Sunday (1997-2015.
The other 25, (in the strike marred 1982 NFL season, there were title games played on both Saturday and Sunday) beginning with the AFC/NFC configuration in 1970 were not evenly distributed. The NFC “highlighted” by a streak of 8 (1988-1995) had 17 of the 25 later conference title games in that period. Altogether the NFC has played its same day conference title game later than the AFC, sixty percent of the time (27 of 45).
Perhaps they deserved it as in the aforementioned 8 straight seasons (1988-1995) that the NFC had the later title tilt, the NFC representative won all 8 Super Bowls later contested vs the AFC representative. That was part of a 13 game win skein in the Super Bowl by NFC teams, (1984-1996).
With far less power, the AFL, the far newer league, played its title game later than the NFL in 3 of the 4 instances before each league’s winner met in the Super Bowl (1966-1969).
Click above for a more interesting and certainly humorous look at an “interpretation” of numbers.
Sidney Fields, pictured above was also involved in the classic bit.
Apparently Serena Williams, truly not deserving of the once esteemed Sports Illustrated Sportsman or Sportsperson or Sportswoman of the year award demolished a teenage opponent in Australian Open tennis action.
She then offered kind words. I say big deal.
I am still upset that Williams, who failed in her quest for a “calendar grand slam” last year and followed that with less than good behavior in the moments that followed, was given the award.
Steph Curry, who led the Golden State Warriors to the NBA title and a great record in the 2015 part of the following season was my choice. as 2015 Athlete of the Year.
Surely Serena Williams, pictured above, is great at what she does, play tennis. How great is the question. In my opinion, especially after the loss in the U.S. Open, not deserving of top athlete status.
On Sunday for the second time in three seasons, the Denver Broncos will host the New England Patriots in the earlier title tilt.
Though Denver is pretty far to the west in “these here United States,” this will be the fifth time in seven home title games, that the one emanating from Denver, is the earlier of the two conference title games.
Jim Nantz will be the CBS network lead announcer for this game, making it 12 straight seasons in which that has been the case.
This will be the Patriots’ 5th straight appearance in the title game and either the Pats, Peyton Manning or the Steelers have been involved in all 12 Nantz title tilts.
That fact was guaranteed after the Pats beat the Chiefs last Saturday leaving Manning and the Broncos, the Pats with the great Tom Brady and Steelers as the remaining AFC teams.
Embellishing the “earlier” title game involving the Denver Broncos. All three road AFC title games involving the Broncos were the earlier title game. Thus after Sunday, eight of the ten Broncos’title games were earlier starts than the NFC title games played that same day. Knowing that and what is it two dollars and seventy five cents will get you aboard a New York subway.
For those who try to make “legal tender” guessing on pro football results, please consider the accuracy and tremendous skill, never more evident than in last week’s NFL “slots” games.
Incredibly the favored team not only won all four games but the line maker was only off the exact margin by an aggregate 8 points in the four games!
They also were accurate in their over/under perceptions as three of the four were within 6 points.
These “guys” (I am not sexist, in fact a bit of a feminist, but I doubt there are any girls in this process) are borderline genius and again please consider this before wagering or just do not risk it.
“Clever Little Lies” now playing at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs ( 407 West 43rd Street) is uproariously funny and also touches on so many aspects of family and romantic relationships.
The cast is superb! All four performers on stage performed brilliantly in this play by Joe DiPietro.
He wrote so many great lines, the fact we did not call phones, “landlines” in the not too distant past, being a personal highlight.
One can not go wrong starting with Marlo Thomas. How does a graph go off the charts in a positive fashion?
One way, there are few others, is to see someone you adore from her television work, thoughts, charitable endeavors and a personal meeting, and watch her superb comedic timing as evidenced in “Clever Little Lies.” That is the case with the fabulous Ms. Thomas.
Greg Mullavey, who also evokes treasured great performance memories, does so again.
As Marlo’s character “Alice’s” husband “Bill Sr.” Mullavey also gives a tremendous performance, really knocking the humor out of the park.
Playing the younger married couple children of Alice and Bill Sr. both George Merrick as Bill and Kate Wetherhead (Jane) join the humor “hit parade.”
Rarely, have I seen such live performance laughter combined so effectively, with a telling story and perhaps message for all of us.
Clever Little Lies tickets, Off-Broadway, New York, Play Tickets
Click above for ticket information.
Nothing has changed regarding the Cleveland Cavaliers’ situation despite all the hype about their loss to the defending champion Golden State Warriors in a meaningless game on Martin Luther King Day.
Cleveland and its hyped beyond reason star, LeBron James are still in the weak Eastern Conference and while the Warriors likely but not definitely will have to fend off the San Antonio Spurs just to make the finals, Cleveland appears to have no real competition in its way toward a second straight finals appearance.
In last year’s loss to the Warriors in the finals, James gained some “historic” points by playing well with all the injuries to his team.
However a) his team lost and b) he chose his team and his situation opting for the easy East and that is why despite all the hype by ESPN which is James/James/ James, I feel while he is a great player, even an all-time talent, he is not close to being one of the four greatest players ever as he purports to be.
As with Marco Polo, LeBron James has sought the comforts and advantages of the East.
While I am still not a big fan of their coach Mike Tomlin (see his decisions to go for field goals and not first downs or touchdowns in this year’s loss at Seattle vs the Seahawks and in a Supe win vs the Cardinals. Odd that the Steelers and Seahawks each lost in the divisional round on the same day while the Cardinals won in the round the night before.), the Pittsburgh steelers deserve much credit for a fine year and certainly great history.
Despite injuries that sidelined key players including brilliant receiver Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh battled in Denver before losing to the Broncos, a first divisional round loss for the superb Steelers’ quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger.
The Steelers are the leaders with 6 Super Bowl victories and are (15-8) in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
Until 1972 when they won a divisional round game on the “Immaculate Reception” Terry Bradshaw off John Fuqua? to Franco Harris, the Steelers had never won a post-season game.
They lost an Eastern Conference unscheduled playoff to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1947 and came close losing a showdown game at Yankee Stadium vs the New York Giants for the Eastern Conference title in 1963.
I listened to the great Marty Glickman calling a Frank Gifford one handed catch in that tilt. A nice memory as I was allowed to go to the hospital lobby taking a break from a visit to my grandmother, a patient there.
Antonio Brown, pictured above, and the Steelers had another good season.
It is bitter cold, Glenn Frey and David Bowie died, while flourishing Mike Francesa lied (see the Francesa altered the truth post).
So why not cheer myself with old baseball thoughts!
Notes from the process follow:
It started thinking about Al Luplow, who played for the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates, but I remember best with the Cleveland Indians.
He once made an incredible catch robbing Red Sox player, and future Red Sox “Impossible Dream season” 1967 Red Sox pennant winning manager and Hall of Famer, Dick Williams of a home run.
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, I found and posted a link (below) to a fine read about this date in Cleveland baseball history, which is richly intertwined with the once great “Hall.”
Today in Tribe History: January 19, 1937
As I once found out the hard way driving a long way to sell what I thought was a fairly valuable Tom Seaver baseball card, the card with the Topps All Star rookie trophy superimposed (as with Al Luplow’s card pictured above) is not the rookie card, making it less valuable.
This will be quick and consider it a “throw my hands to the sky” complaint, as now before I could come close to finding words to express my love for David Bowie, another musical great/my time favorite, “Eagles” co founder, Glenn Frey has died.
The words of his family and fellow Eagles great Don Henley concerning their love and the incredible accomplishments of Glenn Frey are duly noted.
They knew him and it is a searing, terrible loss, all of us know or will know, losing family members or close friends.
After all both Damon Runyan (“life is 6 to 5 against you’) and Woody Allen, (he somehow has not only pondered but also produced words/thoughts/concepts, often humorous, about the ridiculous fact that we live knowing we are going to die), have articulated concerning the inevitable.
My thought here is about how a musical artist of one’s time can elicit a personal soundtrack of memories, that coarse through the bloodstream/brain impulse as bolts of emotion, so powerful, as not to be measured.
Such is the case for me, concerning the magnificent Glenn Frey and the Eagles.
Two of many follow.
“Sports searching” for the new Washington Capitals’ hockey games when I stopped the radio’s fine tuner above my bed, and first truly heard Glenn and the iconic group he co founded.
Sitting at Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada–the world falling apart around me, my father had died, and one he and I had watched run in rare great memories with Dad in tumultuous 1968, O.J. Simpson, was now “running” in a different way, not in a never forgotten way on the football field, but in something called a “White Bronco.”
Yet with their music that Friday night in June 1994, in the incredible, “look closely and there is something bigger” beautiful atmosphere, Glenn and the Eagles eased my pain of loneliness and loss.
He will continue to do so for millions with what he has left behind. Yet why oh why, so early, too soon, is he gone??
As my father often retorted, in a perhaps appropriate sardonic tone to some of my either inane (why did this “schmuck” manager sacrifice and not hit away) or unanswerable questions (why death)— WHY
Eagles – Hotel California Live. At The Capital Centre, 1977.
Glenn wrote it and performs “Hotel” at what was the NHL Washington Capitals home arena. Yes, a coincidence, a sign?
That same year someone else had seen the Eagles perform live. I will never forget his glowing review began with “they opened with “Hotel.” Yet it was me, She asked, if I wanted to play pool upstairs in the campus center. I responded that I did know how. You talk about REGRETS!
I will “shut up.” Click above to view Glenn Frey singing, as the Eagles perform their iconic song, now some significant time ago.
