Did you know that Andy Reid is the only person in NFL history to have won more than 100 games as the head coach with two different teams?

Reid has won more than 100 games as a head coach with one team in the NFC and the other in the AFC.

Andy Reid was formerly the head coach in Philadelphia.  He now coaches in Kansas City.  This Sunday in Tempe, Arizona, his former team will be playing his current team for the NFL championship in the Super Bowl.

While the head coach of the NFC’s Philadelphia Eagles (1999-2012), Andy Reid won 130 games (losing 93).  That’s an average of ten wins per season.

Upon moving to coach the AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, Reid has compiled a record of 117 wins against only 47 losses.   At KC, Coach Reid is now averaging more than 11 wins per year and has yet to post a losing record in ten seasons with the Chiefs.

I also had no idea that the 64-year old Andy Reid has quietly moved up to #5 in career wins as an NFL head coach.

His 247 career wins is now just three behind one of America’s best known NFL coaching legends.  Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys is currently #4 in career wins with 250.   Next on the list comes #3 Bill Belichick (New England Patriots – 298), #2 George “Papa Bear” Halas (Chicago Bears – 318 wins), and #1 Don Shula (Baltimore Colts/Miami Dolphins – 328).

Coach Andy Reid has significantly more wins than other well-known coaching legends such as Bill Parcells (#12 overall with 172 wins), Chuck Noll of the Pittsburgh Steelers (#8 – 193 wins), and the man who gave Reid his first NFL job as a tight ends coach at Green Bay, Mike Holmgren (#17 – 161 wins).

After thirteen years in Philadelphia and nine playoff appearances, Andy Reid was fired as head coach of the Eagles after the 2012 season after posting a 4-12 losing record.

There was a good reason for the coach’s only bad season in Philly.  Less than a month prior to the start of that 2012 NFL season, Reid’s oldest son, Garrett, died from a heroin overdose in Philadelphia at the age of 29.

Five years earlier, Garrett Reid’s addiction issues became public in 2007 when he admitted he was high on heroin while running a red light while ramming his vehicle into another car.

While in court for sentencing, Garrett Reid told the judge, “I don’t want to die doing drugs. I don’t want to be that kid who was the son of the head coach of the Eagles, who was spoiled and on drugs and OD’ed and just faded into oblivion.”

The younger Reid was imprisoned off and on through 2009.  By 2012, Garrett Reid was assisting the Eagles’ strength coaches during the team’s training camp session.

Andy Reid was dealing with the death of his son while he continued to coach the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2012 NFL season.

On December 31, 2012, Andy Reid was terminated by Philadelphia after that 4-12 season.  He had never been fired from any job in his thirty years in coaching.

Just five days later on January 4, 2013, Clark Hunt (the Chairman of the Kansas City Chiefs) happily announced the hiring of Andy Reid as the team’s new head football coach.  Clark Hunt is the son of Chief’s founder, Lamar Hunt.

In the 2012 season, the Kansas City Chiefs posted a woeful 2-14 record.  They released their coach, Romeo Crennel, and then learned of Andy Reid’s dismissal from Philadelphia.

Clark Hunt wanted to see if Andy Reid was ready to move to the Midwest to coach the Chiefs.

He and Reid spent an entire day together getting to know each other.  Clark Hunt already knew that Reid was a great coach.  He was trying to determine if Andy Reid was mentally ready to continue coaching so soon after the loss of his son and a v...

The Florida Gators football faithful were salivating recently that their team was about to reel in a top rated high school quarterback to join the program next year.

This potential fish on the hook was a young man who boldly proclaimed that Florida’s NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) collective was paying him $13 million over four years in sponsorships if he signed with the Gators.

In July, 2022, this same high school quarterback had already verbally “committed” to play for the University of Miami (FL) after the Hurricanes’ NIL group offered a $9 million package of endorsement deals.  Upon hearing the University of Florida’s $13 million offer, he backed away from his previous commitment to play for The U (Miami).

As the national high school football signing day approached, the $13 million deal from the Florida NIL collective never fully materialized.  As you may have guessed, this particular high school football player was not at all happy.  He asked for and recently received a release from his commitment to play for the Florida Gators.

Last week, the high school quarterback signed yet another letter of intent to play college football for Arizona State University.   The terms of the value of his newest NIL deal have not surfaced yet.  A source suggested that the player’s family did not want to engage in negotiations with Arizona State University’s NIL collective prior to the high school quarterback’s signing with the Sun Devils.

Arizona State’s football fans believe that he is now a “Sun Devil 4 Life”.

Yeah, right.  Perhaps we should review that after he finishes Year #1 in Tempe, Arizona.

I am not naming the player (he’s easy to find).  His name is not necessary for this story.

The process is unfolding all around the country today as highly sought-after high school athletes in all sports are now able to demand and receive money (legally) to play college athletics for a particular school.

With the recent advent of Name, Image, and Likeness rights for college athletes to earn money off their fame, the good old days of stuffing $100 bills into the pockets of potential recruits (which remains a “no-no”) may be waning.

There are now two ways for college athletes to legally “get paid” while attending school (outside of holding a part-time job).

First, your favorite college or university has (or soon will) establish an NIL “collective” to gather donations from supporters and redistribute the money to the school’s athletes.  Think of the NIL collective as being like a big charity which asks for donations from the general public and then redistributes those donations to the student-athletes.

The nefarious part of these collectives is determining how much money should be allocated to any particular athlete each year.  In general, the NIL collectives help many of the lesser known athletes share in the pot of gold raised from friends of the school’s athletics programs.

The other opportunity for today’s college athlete is to individually capitalize on NIL money.

For example, the University of Georgia’s star tight end Brock Bowers signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Zaxby’s Chicken (whose home office just happens to be in Athens, Georgia).   A source reported that his deal was worth $1.1 million.

Meanwhile, an NIL collective for all athletes attending the University of Georgia is known as the Classic City Collective.  Its website indicates that athletes participating in all sports at the university are eligible to receive some amount of compensation.  In return,

About six weeks ago, I wrote a story about “King” Sean Payton and how many NFL teams would love to obtain his services to become the next head coach of their football team.  Sean Payton is one of just eight active NFL coaches under the age of 70 with a Super Bowl ring to his credit.

Sean Payton represented the most proven coaching talent potentially available.  In that earlier story, I listed the Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, Arizona Cardinals, Las Vegas Raiders, Houston Texans, and New Orleans Saints (his former team) as extremely interested teams.  For the record, I suggested that the Cardinals may have represented the best pure coaching opportunity.

As usual, I was wrong!

The Denver Broncos have obtained the services of the hottest coaching commodity on the market this year.

The long-time coach of the New Orleans Saints lasted exactly one year in his television gig with Fox Sports after retiring from coaching last year at age 58.   It is now time for Coach Payton to saddle-up again and ride into Denver to resurrect one of the NFL’s most iconic franchises.

I don’t know about you, but Sean Payton never looked very comfortable on the television set of Fox Sports alongside Terry Bradshaw and Co. this past season.

Though he was hired to bring a fresh coaching perspective to their Fox NFL Sunday programs, Sean Payton looked as if he would rather have been somewhere else spending his Sundays.  He was the “last guy” in an already overcrowded television studio.

He was paid well for his time at Fox, though.

One source indicated that Sean Payton’s contract called for $10 million per year to provide analysis.  That’s about the same as his final year of pay as coach of the New Orleans Saints.

The Denver Broncos are breaking the bank once again.  They will double Sean Payton’s salary to help transform the Broncos into winners again.  The team’s owners and fervent fans expect him to become a type of knight riding into Mile High Stadium atop Denver’s beloved mascot horse named Thunder.

As a long-time Saints fan, I am truly excited for Denver.  Sean Payton may or may not succeed as head coach of the Broncos, but his time in New Orleans was the greatest era for Saints fans.

Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees were symbolic of the greatest run in Saints history.  They were the city’s tag team of hope after Hurricane Katrina made a mess of everything back in 2005.  Sean Payton was the sidelines’ mastermind who was able to best utilize the leadership and talent of quarterback Drew Brees to transform the New Orleans offense into an NFL juggernaut for more than a dozen years.

Under Sean Payton, the Saints never won fewer than seven games during his 15 years at the helm.  New Orleans made it into the playoffs nine times, played in three NFC championship games, and won the Super Bowl at the conclusion of the 2009 season.

The Saints former reputation as being one of the league’s biggest losers became permanently transformed during the Sean Payton era.  The black and gold New Orleans Saints won 63% of their games during their coach’s 15-year tenure.

After Coach Payton posted a relatively mediocre 9-8 season with the Saints just one year ago, he abruptly announced his retirement from coaching at age 58.  Payton’s first season as head coach in New Orleans without Drew Brees as his quarterback had been a very difficult one.

To Saints fans, Sean Payton seemed a bit burned out in 2021.  Perhaps it was tougher to coach without a trusted soldier like Brees to consult and scheme with along the sidelines.

Soon after his sudden retirement last winter, Sean Payton was lured into broadcasting with Fox Sports.

The referees in major professional sports became a big part of the story line once again over the weekend.  One of Twitter’s fastest trending searches today has been “NFL Rigged”.

This phenomenon seems to happen nearly every season during the AFC and NFC Championship weekend games.  To many of us, it seems like the NFL referees often find a way to guide games toward a preferred outcome when the Super Bowl game is on the line.

New Orleans Saints fans will never forget the team’s crushing 2019 NFC Championship game loss to the Los Angeles Rams.  The NFL referees did not throw a flag on one of the most obvious missed pass interference plays in recent league history.

 

If a pass interference call had been made in the Superdome four years ago, the Saints would have retained the football with a first down inside the Rams’ 10-yard line.

The Saints were in a position to run the fourth quarter clock down to under twenty seconds and attempt a field goal from extra point distance and (perhaps) win the game 23-20.  It would have sent the Saints and 40-year old quarterback Drew Brees into a second Super Bowl appearance.  They would have faced Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

At least the Patriots beat the fraudulent NFC champion Rams 13-3.  As a long-time Saints fan, it still hurts.

Today, millions of Cincinnati Bengals fans have a right to be disappointed in the final outcome of Sunday’s thriller against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The NFL referees (whether intentional or not) again became a huge part of the storyline associated with a championship game.

Let’s start by giving credit to the striped shirts for making one correct call during crunch time.

The Bengals’ overzealous linebacker Joseph Ossai made a serious error by pushing Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes after the NFL’s MVP was clearly out-of-bounds with seconds remaining in a 20-20 tie game.  The boneheaded defensive play gave Kansas City an extra 15 yards and an opportunity to kick the game winning 45-yard field goal with just eight seconds remaining.

As a result, the Kansas City Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl in two weeks.

Just a few plays prior to the final second out-of-bounds penalty call, the NFL referees clearly swallowed their whistles on a punt return play by Kansas City with only 41 seconds remaining in the game.  As the football was in the air, a Kansas City blocker blatantly pushed down a Cincinnati defender.  The referees didn’t see it, and no penalty was called.

After the Chiefs’ punt returner caught the ball and headed upfield on this nifty 29-yard return, another KC player obviously pushed another Cincinnati player in the back.  Again, there was no whistle blown on this crucial punt return play by Kansas City.

The ugly truth is that there are penalties which could be called on almost every play during any NFL game.

This is not always the direct fault of the referees, though.  They take their orders from the NFL’s upper management.  The same people who provide them with a hefty paycheck for their work.

The league and its teams of referees allow players to get away with a significant amount of less obvious penalties in an effort to speed-up NFL games to approximately three hours.  It greatly pleases the NFL’s advertisers when they feel more certain about when their spots are going to air.

The NFL has also spent a lot of money on research confirming that pro football fans watching games on television do not want them to last more than three hours.

On a normal Sunday, NFL games all begin at 12 Noon Central time and are expected to finish within a few minutes either side of 3PM.

This is my first NBA story of the season.  As a former high school hoopster who played in adult leagues into my thirties, I have always enjoyed watching basketball.

Today’s NBA is another matter.

I simply don’t find a lot of drama in their way-too-long 82 game regular season which drags at a snail’s pace from October through April.  The NBA playoffs then consume another two months (which is a full month longer than it should take) before mercifully ending in mid-June.

Basketball season is played during the cold weather months for good reason.  Playing basketball inside a warm(er) gymnasium during the winter months is fun for both the players and fans alike.

In addition to the length of the current NBA season, there seems to be very little drama from year to year about which teams will be good and those which continue to linger near the bottom of the standings again.

In the last decade, the Golden State Warriors have captured the NBA title on four occasions (2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022).  The Warriors also made it into the Finals on two other occasions (but lost) past ten years.  The Warriors have dominated the past decade.

Other recent NBA Finals winners include the Miami Heat (2013), San Antonio Spurs (2014), Cleveland Cavaliers (2016), Toronto Raptors (2019), Los Angeles Lakers (2020 COVID-modified season), and Milwaukee Bucks (2021).

Two other NBA teams (Phoenix Suns – 2021 and Boston Celtics – 2022) participated on the runner-up side of the NBA Finals in the ten seasons.

That makes a grand total of just nine teams (out of 30) which have participated in the NBA Finals over the past decade.

It’s like the other 21 teams might as well be named the Washington Generals.  That’s the team which nearly always lost to the Harlem Globetrotters.

Did you know that there are six NBA franchises which have never even played in the NBA Finals at any time during the team’s history?

* Charlotte Hornets – 2004 (18 years)

The Bobcats/Hornets have yet to appear in the Eastern Conference finals.

Interesting note – the primary owner is Michael Jordan.  He bought team for $275 million in 2010.  The team is now worth an estimated $1.5 billion.

* Memphis Grizzlies – 1995 (27 years)

The Griz (who began as the Vancouver Grizzlies prior to moving to Memphis in 2001) have played in only one Western Conference final (losing to San Antonio in 2013)

* Minnesota Timberwolves – 1989 (33 years)

The T-wolves have appeared in the Western Conference finals only one time (losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004).

* New Orleans Pelicans – 1988 (34 years)

The team (which actually began as the Charlotte Hornets prior to coming to the Crescent City in 2002) has never even played in the Conference finals.

* Denver Nuggets – 1976 (46 years)

The Denver Nuggets (a former ABA franchise prior to entering the NBA in 1976) have played in four different Western Conference finals (1978, 1985, 2009, and 2020).  Denver has never advanced into the NBA Finals.

The NBA FUTILITY WINNER!  Los Angeles Clippers – 1970 (52 year draught)

Founded as the Buffalo Braves, the team moved to San Diego in 1978 and became the Clippers.

The team moved to Los Angeles in 1984 but retained the Clippers nickname.

The team’s first and only Western Conference Finals appearance came in 2021 (losing to Phoenix).

In recent years, the Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets have become frequent guests at the NBA Draft Lottery trough.

Though the NBA playoffs allow 16 of the league’s 30 teams into the post-season, the remaining 14 teams participate in the league’s annual draft lottery each spring.

Last weekend, the four best teams in the NFL this year won their playoff games to advance to the AFC and NFC championship games this coming Sunday.

If you would like to tell me that the Cincinnati Bengals are not one of the NFL’s four best teams, take a look at how many games they have lost in November (none), December (none), and January (none).

For some reason, the average football fan (helped by a fawning media – especially that over-caffeinated CBS Sports analyst named Tony Romo) believed that Kansas City and Buffalo were the two best teams in the AFC.

No, Tony!  It is Cincinnati which is the defending AFC champion and the team which played in last year’s Super Bowl.  Going on the road on Sunday, the 14-4 Bengals destroyed Buffalo 27-10 in a game which was not as close as the final score indicated.

“WHO DEY? INDEED!

The team which is referring to itself as “The Uninvited Guests”, the Cincinnati Bengals will travel to Kansas City on Sunday evening to play the 15-3 Chiefs for the AFC title.

In San Francisco, the 49ers’ Frankenstein-like collection of spare quarterback parts just defeated the Dallas Cowboys and their $40 million per year golden quarterback, Dak Prescott, by a 19-12 final score.  15-4 San Francisco now travels to 15-3 Philadelphia this Sunday afternoon with a chance to earn the NFC championship trophy and advance to this year’s Super Bowl game.

Three of the four teams playing this weekend have won 15 games.  Only Cincinnati (which had a regular season game against Buffalo canceled after the collapse of Bills safety Damar Hamlin) has “only” 14 wins.

There are no flukes playing in this Sunday’s two championship games.

There are no underdogs to pull for.  No matter which two teams come out of Philly and KC with a win on Sunday, the winners are worthy Super Bowl contestants.

Can you remember a recent NFL season in which there wasn’t at least one NFL “surprise” team  playing in one of the two championship games?

This year, I am having trouble finding a rooting interest.  Each of these four teams is a worthy champion based on their season records.  There will be no surprises winners after this Sunday’s two games.

In reviewing last weekend’s four semifinal games, only the Dallas Cowboys kept their game in suspense until the final few minutes of the final quarter.  Unfortunately for Dallas fans, their team’s very expensive $40 million per year quarterback (Dak Prescott) was outplayed by the final pick in the final round of last spring’s NFL draft.

HE’S PURDY GOOD! 

The NFL’s 2022 winner of “Mr. Irrelevant” (the final person selected in the NFL draft), Brock Purdy came into pro football after having posted a solid career as the quarterback for the Iowa State Cyclones.

See if this story sounds familiar.  As a college freshman, Brock Purdy was the team’s third string quarterback.  After one quarterback was injured and Iowa State’s back-up QB was ineffective, freshman Brock Purdy was handed the football for the Cyclones.  Iowa State went 7-2 in those remaining games.  Brock Purdy was the starting quarterback for 3 ½ more years as Iowa State posted a winning record in each of those seasons.

My Dad used to say, “Why is anyone surprised?  This guy has probably been an exceptional football player ever since junior high school!”

In the case of quarterback Brock Purdy, there was only one NFL team which saw enough promise to select him with the final pick in the entire 2022 NFL draft.  The San Francisco 49ers signed Purdy to a four year rookie contract which pays him about $870,000 beginning this season.

In case you were wondering,

LIV Golf has finally found a television network partner.  On Thursday, LIV Golf proudly announced that the CW Network will telecast the Saturday and Sunday rounds for the LIV Golf tour in 2023.

Let’s review LIV Golf.  As we ended 2022’s golf season, the LIV Golf tour featured:

* Former PGA and European golfers – most of whom signed for a more-than-generous multi-million dollar signing bonus. We’re talking Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and one of the PGA’s hottest young stars, Cameron Smith.

* A unique 54-hole (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) format with huge prize money

* In addition to the traditional stroke play tournament, each golfer is part of a 4-person team. On Sunday, the golfer who is last in the field can post a fantastic final day score and help boost his team into the winner’s circle (where the foursome shares a healthy pot of money, too).

* LIV Golf’s weekly telecasts feature the very popular commentator, David Feherty.

* Despite all of the positives above, the LIV Golf telecasts were only available to be viewed in 2022 via their own website and a You Tube channel.

As last year’s golf season ended, I commented that LIV Golf must find some type of television partner to carry their golf tournaments in 2023 if they were going to have any chance of gaining any traction in their competition with the traditional PGA Tour.

Thursday’s announcement by LIV Golf that they were partnering with The CW Network seems to be a “win/win” for both sides.

LIV – finally landed a bona fide (albeit small in national stature) television partner which has  outlets in more cities than any other traditional over-the-air network.

Will Staeger, chief media officer of LIV Golf said, “Our innovative product attracts a younger viewership demographic to the table than the traditional golf fan, and we’re thrilled to be part of The CW’s growth into its new era of sports programming featuring the biggest stars in golf and our industry-leading storytelling and format.”

 The CW Network – has gained a sports identity and will begin to reach a target audience which its new owners covet to become a part of the network’s planned retooled programming mix.

The television company’s new President, Dennis Miller (not related to the comedian) said, “For The CW, our partnership with LIV Golf marks a significant milestone in our goal to re-engineer the network with quality, diversified programming for our viewers, advertisers and CW affiliates. This also marks the first time in The CW’s 17-year history that the network is the exclusive broadcast home for live mainstream sports.”

As we covered in 2022, one party (LIV Golf) desperately needed a marriage partner.

The other party (The CW) also needed a relevant and cheap way to gain new and more affluent viewers.  The television company’s website stated that they want The CW to become profitable by 2025.

WHO IS THE CW, ANYWAY?

If you’re like me, “CW” means country-western music!

Every time I hear that name “CW”, I think of classic country music stars like Buck Owens, Roy Clark, and the whole Hee Haw television show gang!

Actually, The CW gets its “C” from CBS Television and the “W” from Warner Bros.

Formed in 2006, the CBS portion of this partnership was a network of primarily UHF and low power television stations known as the United Paramount Network.  Remember the UPN?  Apparently, not too many people did!  The “W” side of this equation brought a long history as a producer of media content.

For the majority of The CW Network’s existence, it remained relatively obscure.  If you’ve ever watched a couple of television series based...

It’s a new year and time for a thorough financial review.  Around our house, that means it’s time to make a closer review of our spending habits and see where we need to make a few adjustments.

If you’ve made a trip to the grocery store in recent weeks, you understand that the food inflation problem has not eased.

Yesterday, I paid $95 at our local grocery store for what used to be my $80 grocery list.  That’s nearly 19% higher!

Then, the mail arrived yesterday with the latest bill from our cable television/internet provider.

Beginning this month, they plan to charge an extra $30 per month for the privilege of providing television services which include about 95% more channels that we actually watch and desire to pay for.

This morning, I read that the US government has reached its debt limit again (now at $31.4 trillion).  Since the House and Senate remind me of the Keystone Kops of the finance world, I predict that your hard-working Congress and Executive Office will:

* Blame the other political party non-stop for weeks or months

* Threaten to shut down the federal government (well, at least some of it) to prove a point

* Do very little or nothing at all to reduce spending

* End-up kicking the can down the road for another year.

* Provide back pay for those who were temporarily furloughed as they return to their non-essential (?) jobs

Unlike Congress, our budget must balance or we’ll learn a new word – bankruptcy.

Our household will, indeed, achieve its goal to reduce spending and cut back on things which we really don’t need in 2023.

Since my wife won’t agree to a significant trimming of our grocery bill, that new cable and internet bill seemed like a great place to start.

When you examine your television bill, have you ever wondered why the provider charges you so much money?

I did, and I’m going to share a little information with you.

As a sports fan, it is most appropriate to start with the cost of the most popular sports channel.

ESPN is part of the Walt Disney Company (DIS).  The self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports depends heavily on our monthly contributions.

Depending on your cable television package, you may be paying as much as $16 per month for ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network, and an assortment of other Disney-related channels including your local ABC affiliate (which you could watch for free using an antenna – more on that later).

For just ESPN, it costs more than $8 per month alone.   Good luck trying to buy it as a stand-alone entity, though.

ESPN has invested a lot of money in long-term sports contracts granting the company rights to cover college football, the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, and other significant sporting events.

In addition to those very significant fixed costs for broadcast rights, ESPN must pay for its on-air talent and a very large team of talented professionals to operate some very expensive broadcasting equipment in order to bring us sporting events during the year.

In addition to the $8 monthly fees, those seemingly endless commercial breaks during ESPN’s coverage of major sporting events helps to generate additional revenue to offset its costs.

By the way, ESPN2 costs you about $1.05 per month, SEC Network is about $1 per month, and the assorted other ESPN and Disney-related channels cost anywhere from $.80 per month down to about $.20.

Disney attempts to bundle as many of their family of programming channels as possible.  Though most sports fans simply want ESPN (and, perhaps, ESPN2), the parent company is reluctant to provide ESPN without forcing cable television providers and others to carry as many of the other channels as possible.

According to Disney’s most recent (2021)

You already know the tune, so let’s add a brand new verse about Tom Brady.  Sing along!

“Here’s a story

Of the Bucs Tom Brady

He’s the QB with seven rings of his own!

A divorced man

Handsome and single…

Yet he lives all alone!

‘Til one Monday when his arm turned into Jello

And he knew that it was much more than a hunch

He’s now facing – a tough decision

One more year and he could end up getting crunched!

I’ve got a hunch…he won’t get punched

Where’s the next place Tom Brady eats his lunch?”

Just one year ago, NFL quarterback legend Tom Brady told football fans that he was finally done.  He retired at age 44 to spend more time with his wife and three children.  Good for him!  After appearing in a record ten Super Bowl games (winning seven), this man earned it.

A few months later, Tom Brady abruptly changed his mind and returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  A few months later, we learned that Brady and his wife were getting a divorce.  The separation became permanent in October.

Moving forward in 2022, Tom Brady played another season for Tampa Bay.  In doing so, he posted the first losing regular season as a starting quarterback in his durable and incredible 23-year NFL career.  Though the Bucs finished a mediocre 8-9, they still won the pitiful NFC South.  As a reward, they hosted a first round home playoff game against the 12-5 Dallas Cowboys on Monday night.

Dallas hardly broke a sweat in winning this Wild Card mismatch by a 31-14 margin.

The only drama in this football game was watching the Dallas placekicker, Brett Maher, miss four straight extra point attempts before Tampa Bay even scored a point.

For his part, Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady passed the ball an incredible 66 times in this game and completed 35 of them for 351 yards.  That works out to a measly 5.3 yards per pass attempt for Brady.

Brady’s “dink” passing game reminded me of the other two older gentlemen who I watched the game with last night – Peyton Manning and his brother, Eli.  ESPN2 featured interesting commentary from the Manning brothers – winners of two Super Bowls apiece.

Peyton Manning is now 46 years old (just one year older than Tom Brady), while Eli is 42.  Both of them retired from the NFL around age 40.

As a young quarterback, Peyton Manning used to heave the ball downfield with ease.  By age 38, Peyton Manning (like Tom Brady) was unable to throw the ball downfield with his usual zip.  He had to adapt to the realities established by Father Time.  Though Manning won a final Super Bowl game with the Denver Broncos in 2013, he rarely passed the ball more than 15 yards downfield with any velocity.

Tom Brady has now entered that stage of his career.  He rarely runs (a smart idea for a 45-year old quarterback).  The Dallas defense simply moved most of their players within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage in the playoff game and dared Brady to beat them deep.  It didn’t happen.

So, what’s next for Tom Terrific?

He holds nearly every NFL quarterback record.  Though he still throws an accurate pass, he must release the ball quicker to avoid the increasingly quick defensive pass rushers.  That doesn’t give Brady’s receivers enough time to get more than ten yards downfield before the ball is already heading their way.

Father Time may have finally defeated Tom Brady this year.

Other than his recent divorce (he and his wife have three children), Tom Brady has a standing offer for a whopping $37.5 million per year for ten seasons to join the broadcast booth as an analyst for Fox Sports.

That is what most of us would call “stupid” money.  Seriously, what is he waiting for?  Fox made that offer to lock-up the NFL’s greatest quarterback as longtime Fox NFL hosts such as Terry Bradshaw and others finally retire.

No matter where you work, there will always be someone that makes the most money on your team.

In the NFL, the highest paid person on most football teams is usually the quarterback.

In this weekend’s opening round of the NFL playoffs, there will be 12 talented quarterbacks playing in the six first-round games.

Of the 25 highest paid players in the NFL in 2022, the top 12 spots were all quarterbacks.  Occupying the 13th spot was Aaron Donald, the talented defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams.  After that, there was a mix of quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive standouts.

Drum roll, please!  The winner and highest paid NFL player in 2022 was…Aaron Rodgers! 

In Green Bay, 39-year old Aaron Rodgers was paid $50.3 million this season.  His team finished a weak 8-9 and failed to qualify for the playoffs.  Rodgers’ salary is nearly 20% of the team’s total payroll.

How would you feel if you were one of his Packers’ teammates earning “just” $1 million this season (or 2% of Rodgers’ pay)?   Would you believe that your offensive leader earned his paycheck this year?   Would the team be better served without such a highly paid prima donna quarterback?

At your office, how would you feel to learn that the senior person in your work group earned 50 times what you made last year?  Though the senior staffer’s job may be slightly more difficult, both of you still work hard to meet departmental goals and objectives.

Whether it is in the huddle on the football field or in your office, the pay disparity is bound to cause friction with at least a few teammates.

Meet the second-highest paid NFL player – Denver quarterback Russell Wilson  

The second highest paid player in the NFL last year was Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson.  Like Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, the Denver Broncos did not qualify for the playoffs, either.

In 2022, Russell Wilson (who formerly played in Seattle) was handed a nifty $50 million signing bonus by the Broncos!  He will continue to earn about $50 million per season for another four years.

Denver finished 5-12 this season with Russell Wilson.  They went 7-10 last year without him.

The Denver Broncos’ locker room doesn’t seem to like Russell Wilson, either.  Though he led Seattle to a Super Bowl win years ago, his passing and running skills have obviously diminished.

It’s not Russell Wilson’s fault that Denver offered to pay him such a lucrative deal.  The Denver Broncos’ management should take the blame for that.  The team will pay for this mistake for years to come.

Coming in at #3 was Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray!

As you may have surmised, the 3rd highest paid player in the NFL plays for a team which also posted a losing record.  After finishing 4-13 this year, the Arizona Cardinals immediately fired their head coach, Kliff Kingsbury.

That’s because it is cheaper to fire the team’s head coach than to dismiss the entire football team (which was paid $230 million this year).

Arizona Cardinals ownership and management (like in Green Bay and Denver) are to blame for offering such a big money contract to their young but petulant quarterback.

Kyler Murray often whined about how underpaid he was.  After the Cardinals surprised the NFL by going 11-6 to reach the playoffs in 2021, the quarterback immediately demanded to be paid as if he was a top level NFL quarterback.

He even took to social media to announce it by saying (in all caps – just in case we were deaf), “ACTIONS SPEAK MUCH LOUDER THAN WORDS IN THIS VOLATILE BUSINESS.”

It worked!  His brand new contract paid him a cool $46 million in 2022.  He also gets another four years with even higher pay.  What a great deal…for him.

Today,