Tom Brady just won his seventh Super Bowl contest as Tampa Bay mauled the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 on Sunday night. 

On the losing side, Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City to the championship game for the second straight year and is now 1-1 in the NFL’s annual finale.

In 55 Super Bowl games, the vast majority of winning teams have featured elite quarterbacks who are gifted with both physical abilities and on-field leadership skills. 

Throughout this year’s NFL playoffs, the majority of teams who participated in the post-season have featured top caliber quarterbacks leading the offense.  In addition to Brady and Mahomes, there was NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay), likely Hall-of-Famer Drew Brees (New Orleans), Russell Wilson (Seattle), Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh) and young talented quarterbacks such as Josh Allen (Buffalo), Baker Mayfield (Cleveland), and Lamar Jackson (Baltimore). 

Down at the bottom of the NFL team rankings, most of those teams started a quarterback whose performance rating was significantly lower that the quarterbacks on the top teams.  The lone exception this season was Houston’s Deshaun Watson.  Despite the Texans’ pitiful 4-12 record, Watson’s personal stats were good enough to earn him the #2 QBR (a quarterback rating based on passing, rushing, and how the quarterback’s play contributes to winning).   His 112.4 QBR trailed only Green Bay (13-3) quarterback Aaron Rodgers (121.5 QBR).

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that a guy (Deshaun Watson) was ranked #2 in QBR when his team finished near the bottom of the league standings at 4-12.  I think it is important for the team’s overall record to be factored, too.

That’s just what I did.  Let’s give an equal rating for the team’s win/loss percentage along with the quarterback’s personal performance rating to see who the “best” in the NFL are. 

The SwampSwami.com NFL “Quarterback Happiness Ratings” (as of the end of the 2020 regular season) are shown below:

How does this work?  The team with the best overall record in the NFL (Kansas City at 14-2) was given a “1” ranking.  Their starting quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) was given a QBR rating of 108.3 which was third-best in the NFL this year.  The SwampSwami.com ranking gives Mahomes a total of 1+3=4 “Quarterback Happiness Ratings” points. 

At the bottom of the rankings, the #31 (out of 32) NFL team was the New York Jets.  Their starting quarterback (Sam Darnold) finished with the worst QBR rating (72.7).   The total of 31+32=63 points in my “Quarterback Happiness Ratings” system.   Darnold’s time as starting quarterback with the Jets should be considered shaky at best.

Let’s give the SwampSwami.com “Quarterback Happiness Ratings” a letter grade – just like in school – so that you can see where your favorite team’s needs should be in the offseason.  With 32 NFL teams, let’s give an “A” to the top eight teams, a “B” to the next eight, a “C” to the next group, and a (generous) “D” to the final eight starting quarterbacks.

The “A” grade quarterbacks were Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Packers), Josh Allen (Bills), Drew Brees (Saints), Russell Wilson (Seahawks), Ryan Tannehill (Titans), Lamar Jackson (Ravens) and some guy named Tom Brady (Buccaneers).  All of those quarterbacks played on teams which won 11 or more games during the regular season.

It was bound to happen during Super Bowl week.  When the media doesn’t have enough news to cover, they will make some up!

The Kansas City Chiefs will be attempting to win their second straight NFL championship in Tampa on Sunday night.  Before the Chiefs even set foot in Tampa, the sports media needed a controversy to get people talking about during the week of the big game. 

Tom Brady leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to be the first ever home team to play in a Super Bowl history wasn’t enough to talk and write about.  Neither was Kansas City’s quest to become one of the few back-to-back winners in Sunday’s season finale.  Even stories about Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy being passed over for an NFL head coaching job this season apparently weren’t doing a good enough job of stirring the pot of national interest.

Hmm.  What could the media bring out of their bag of dirty tricks to start a controversy when there really hasn’t been one leading up to this weekend’s game?

Apparently, they found one.  Just days before kickoff of the big game, the national headlines are being dominated by a stale story claiming that the Kansas City Chiefs’ nickname is “offensive” and that the team’s fans use of the “Tomahawk Chop Chant” at the games is equally “offensive”, too.   

This morning, a national media story said that Native American groups will reportedly protest both the Chiefs nickname and the “Tomahawk Chop Chant” Sunday.  A group of people referring to themselves as “The Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality” group apparently plans to protest in Tampa prior to Sunday’s game.  Alicia Norris (a co-founder of the group) thinks the Chiefs’ version of the tomahawk chop is extremely disrespectful. 

Oh, the humanity of it all!

Before moving to Kansas City in 1963, a team known as the Dallas Texans was founded in 1960 by Lamar Hunt to play in the original American Football League.   After sharing the Cotton Bowl stadium with another Dallas team (yes, the Cowboys) for three seasons, Lamar Hunt moved his AFL team to Kansas City in May, 1963.

Believe it or not, a source indicated that Mr. Hunt actually wanted to keep the Texans’ nickname, but that was a really bad idea for a team which just made Missouri and Kansas home.  Instead, the recently relocated team adopted the nickname “Chiefs”.  The owner even created (yes, on a paper napkin) a simple arrowhead to become the team’s primary logo.

Though the great majority of football fans in Kansas City and America have no problem with either the nickname or the logo, there are apparently some who are offended by the team’s nickname.  Unlike the Cleveland Indians logo featuring a cartoon caricature of a Native American, Kansas City’s unique arrowhead logo isn’t offensive.  It is simply a rock.

Then there’s the nickname “Chiefs”.  It’s obviously intended to mean that the team’s nickname indicated a reference to the leaders of Native American tribes.  Again, the team’s logo does not display a Native American leader.  It is just a rock.

The official Kansas City Chiefs website claims that the nickname “Chiefs” was due to the home city’s affection for their Mayor for his role in moving the team to town in 1963.   KC Mayor Harold Roe Bartle was instrumental in getting the former Dallas Texans to choose Kansas City over other bids from Atlanta and Miami.

If you are a New Orleans Saints fan over the age of sixty, you can remember when the Saints were simply hoping to qualify for the team’s first NFL playoff berth. From 1967 through 1987, the Saints were a National Football League doormat for most of their first twenty seasons.

Over time, the Saints have become more consistent and competitive on the field every season. 

By the time quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton arrived with the team in 2006, the New Orleans Saints have been a consistent playoff team with nine appearances in the past fifteen years.   In February, 2010, the Saints finally played in their lone Super Bowl appearance and took home the big trophy to a still-partying Crescent City.   

Beginning in 2017, the Saints’ last four seasons have featured stellar regular seasons with 11, 13, 13, and 12 wins.  Alas, all four years have ended with disappointment in the playoffs as the Saints push for a second Super Bowl appearance never materialized.     

As nearly everyone in the NFL expects Saints’ 42-year old legendary quarterback Drew Brees to hang up his cleats soon, the New Orleans franchise is facing the most interesting offseason in recent memory.  As innovative head coach Sean Payton will continue to lead the team, the Saints’ management brain trust has a number of important decisions to make and holes to fill in the offseason if they wish to remain a contender next season. 

General Manager Mickey Loomis was spotted at the college Senior Bowl last week in Mobile, Alabama to review possible draft picks.  He expects the Saints to remain a playoff team this fall, too.  In a recent interview, Loomis said,

“Listen, we’ve got a great roster…We’re gonna do everything we can to win — win now and compete for a championship!”

The Saints are going to need a bigger checkbook to retain a number of their current star players, though.  Some analysts believe that New Orleans may be as much as $100 million over the NFL’s projected salary cap of $175 million per team in 2021.  By doing so, the Saints may face being put into the NFL’s version of the financial penalty box. 

By the rule book, the NFL’s hard salary cap is supposed to penalize teams for violating the salary cap (or the maximum amount of money a team can pay its players annually).  Fines of up to $5 million per violation, cancellation of player contracts, and/or loss of draft picks may result.   Though this punishment can sound pretty tough, the NFL’s enforcement arm of the salary cap is more akin to a WWE wrestling referee.  You know, the alert guy in the striped shirt who is supposed to make sure that a cheater doesn’t use folding chairs and foreign objects in the squared circle? 

Likewise, the NFL rarely inflicts severe penalties for teams which violate the salary cap. 

If the Saints want to keep most of their premier on-field talent, the team must become quite creative.  There are contracts to be restructured for a few willing players, cutting some expensive-but-marginal performers, using the NFL player draft to fill some holes, and then staying alert to find some inexpensive free-agent signings to plug any holes.

The good news for the Saints is that there are many talented football players who simply want the chance to play fo...

The National Football League is not at a loss for interesting stories this week.  The two Super Bowl contestants for next weekend in Florida will be Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and, going for their second straight Super Bowl win, the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs. 

In Houston, the team just named a new head football coach on Wednesday and the team’s All-Pro quarterback (Deshaun Watson) announced less than 24 hours later that he officially wants to be traded (Editor’s note – Hey, we called that one!).  Watson’s most likely destinations include the New York Jets and Washington.   

In Green Bay, the Packers’ quarterback and likely MVP, Aaron Rodgers, isn’t happy and may be playing elsewhere next year, too.   

New Orleans might like to talk with both Deshaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers as the Saint’s 42-year old perennial All-Pro quarterback, Drew Brees, is expected to announce his retirement soon. 

In Detroit, long-time starting quarterback Mathew Stafford came to an agreement to ship him to another team next year.  Indianapolis is rumored to be the front-runner in that story.

Have you noticed that the team formerly known as “America’s Team” hasn’t been mentioned at all? 

It’s been eerily quiet right now in Big D right now. Crickets, even.

The Dallas Cowboys have been fading fast from both the headlines and from the Super Bowl, too.   The Cowboys haven’t appeared in the NFL’s season finale since Super Bowl 30 back on this date (January 28) in 1996.   

For those who might like to try math using Super Bowl Roman numerals, it has been “LV minus MMM” or a total of XXV (25) years since Dallas last appeared.   Next weekend will mark the Silver Anniversary for the NFL’s season finale being played without America’s Team participating in the festivities. 

Think about that.  For those of us who have been around for every one of the 60 seasons of the Dallas Cowboys, the lack of talk about America’s Team is really strange. 

In the first thirty Super Bowls, Dallas won an incredible five times and played in the game eight times (26.7% of the games).   For those first thirty NFL Super Bowl seasons, you had a 50% of chance that the season finale would feature Dallas, San Francisco (five wins) or the Pittsburgh Steelers (four wins at that point – now six) in any particular year.

Since Dallas last appeared in the Super Bowl 30 played in late January, 1996, Pittsburgh has returned to the big stage just twice (winning both times) and San Francisco twice (losing both times).   Dallas Cowboys fans are drooling for a chance to return to the NFL’s championship game for the first time in a generation.

There is much work to be done in Big D before that will happen, though. 

Dallas failed to qualify for the playoffs again this season as the team finished 6-10.  At one point, Dallas was 3-9 and odds makers suggested that the team was likely destined to miss the post season.  The team (surprisingly) rallied down the stretch to win three of its last four games and give their legions of die-hard fans a brief fantasy of sneaking into the NFL playoffs via the weak NFC East.   

Unfortunately, Dallas lost its season finale to come-up one game short of Washington (who finished 7-9 to win the NFC East).  Since the Cowboys didn’t qualify for the playoffs,

We recently discussed the drastic listenership declines at ESPN Radio.  Where did all those former radio listeners go?

A lot of former regular listeners to commercial radio have migrated to listening to sports podcasts.  There have been many reasons for that, too.

Most current phones allow you to download these audio programs and play a show when you are ready to listen.  It is quite convenient for you.  For the podcast provider, they would much prefer to have you listen to a recorded version of a show than listen to nothing at all.

Win/Win.

If you miss one of your favorite radio shows, nearly all of them now offer a podcast version in which you can listen to all or a portion of that show on your own time.  For example, I like to plug in to listen while doing yard work and household chores.

For a commercial radio station, the ability to add local commercials disappears unless the podcast originated at the local radio station by local talent.  If the show was provided by the network (such as ESPN Radio), the podcast version will only add commercials provided by the network.  Podcast versions of network shows (generally) do not benefit your local radio station. 

In addition to sports podcasts from content providers to your local radio stations and their national networks, there are countless thousands of other sports podcasts floating around available for you to listen to (such as mine, of course!).

There are thousands of sports podcasts available online today.  Why are there so many?

Let’s say that you are a fisherman and want to hear someone talk about fishing conditions on the lakes and rivers in your local area.  Years ago, there was a really good weekend early morning fishing show on your favorite local sports radio station.  At some point, it went off the air, and you really miss it!  Unfortunately, there may not have been enough radio listeners to justify the cost of the show to continue airing it. 

A podcast can be recorded by that same great local fishing expert and then distributed to potential listeners via the internet.  The podcast version of his fishing show may help meet demand by many of the show’s former radio station audience. 

The recording can be done at home with a relatively small investment in equipment and programming services.  For example, my show required a decent microphone ($100), a free audio software (Audacity), and a third-party provider (such as Apple Podcasts) to distribute the show into the vast world of the internet.  In my case, I opted to create my own website (along with most of my own work to post stories and podcasts) to insure that your ol’ SwampSwami would always have at least one platform carrying my thoughts.  It costs a little more than $100/year as I used a nationally known third-party to secure my domain name and publish via Word Press (a really nifty product for converting your words and voice to a final product over the internet).   

How is anyone going to find out about that new fishing podcast, though?  In this case, the fishing expert might want to cozy-up to one or more of his former radio advertisers to see if they would help promote the show (maybe a sign posted at a local bait store, for example).  Even better, the bait store might even consider becoming a regular sponsor to the show to help defray the costs of producing the show. 

Of course, word-of-mouth advertising also can get the word spread, too.  If the fishing show host is popular in local circles, the word will get around amongst friends quickly.  Pretty soon,

This week, it was revealed that the ratings for nationwide sports giant ESPN Radio were down 53% from just one year ago.

Though I never worked full-time in the radio business (part-time was just fine for me), one of the biggest lessons I learned beginning in the 1970’s and confirmed at other radio stations was that your job was to make your program interesting to the listener.  Give people a reason to listen to the radio!  Especially now with so many other choices available to capture their attention. 

During my initial radio announcer’s job in 1974, my bosses were quite patient.  They gave me enough time to learn the basics of the craft, but they also expected improvement over time.   The radio station’s image was always to be guarded carefully.  Poor choices made by individual announcers could be ruinous to the station’s image in the minds of its listeners. 

Think back to your youth.  You may remember one particular radio station which was your favorite and, perhaps, on top of the ratings for a few years.  Then, at some point years later, that same radio station may have changed formats or disappeared altogether.   Usually, a radio station’s ratings will fade when they cease giving listeners the kind of entertainment they were seeking.  

Radio stations depend on good ratings (usually measured a few times per year) to increase sales and revenue for the radio station.  A good ratings “book” is utilized by the station’s sales staff to quantify the number of people listening along with demographic information about their listeners’ age range and disposable income. 

Radio stations will pitch potential advertisers to spend money for commercial air time.  Advertisers usually have a good picture of who their customers are.  To reach more of those customers, they will spend their marketing dollars in hopes of reaching their target market of existing and potential new customers.   It’s that simple.

Commercial radio has now around for nearly a century.   AM radio began in 1920, and FM radio hit the airwaves in the late 1930’s.   Advertising dollars which flowed into newspapers and magazines had a new competitor in radio.  By the 1950’s, commercial television came along and split the advertising pie even further.  As the internet has provided another way to segment markets into even smaller niches, advertising dollars began to flow to start-ups such as Google (for searches) and Facebook (which, sadly, uses artificial intelligence to determine the best way to target each of us for personalized ads). 

In 2021, the competition for advertising dollars is downright fierce.  For commercial radio stations, it is more important than ever for the station’s listenership ratings to remain relatively steady.  Ratings generally do vary much from cycle to cycle, but a long term decline in ratings can signal a quick end to a radio station’s current programming.

All of this brings us back to ESPN Radio and their 53% annual decline in listenership over the past year.

ESPN Radio requires their network of local radio station affiliates in cities across the country to carry the lion’s share of their daily programming line-up. The network then tells national advertisers that ESPN Radio can reach “x” % of America’s population via their nationwide network of sports affiliates. 

For example, ESPN Radio can advise the ad agency handling the national advertising budget for (let’s use a phony company here) “Billy Bob’s Auto Parts” that their new commercial could be heard by (let’s say) 70 % of America’s males aged 29-54) who might be listening to the radio at that particul...

Earlier this week, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (age 39) announced his retirement from the National Football League.  He played all but one of his 17 years in the NFL with the Chargers (San Diego/Los Angeles).   

During his final season in Indianapolis, Rivers helped the Colts improve from a 7-9 record in 2019 to 11-5 and into the first round of the NFL playoffs in 2020.  Indications were that Rivers was welcome to return back to the Colts for one more season in 2021 if he wanted to keep playing.

Last Sunday evening, 42-year old quarterback Drew Brees lingered on the field of the Louisiana Superdome for at least an hour after the game ended after his New Orleans Saints ended their season with a 30-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their 43-year old quarterback legend, Tom Brady. 

A week earlier, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season ended in the first round of the playoffs after a miserable four-interception performance by the team’s 38-year old two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger.

On the plus side, those four talented quarterbacks (ages 38, 39, 42, and 43) all led their NFL teams into the playoffs this season.  Each of their teams won at least 11 games in the regular season.  Based on performance, each these four aging QB’s proved their worth in 2020’s regular season. 

Unfortunately, the NFC and AFC Championship games this weekend will feature just one of these four legendary “horsemen” quarterbacks.  Besides, most people refer to him as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) anyway.

After an incredible 20-year run leading the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowl appearances (winning six times) and three league MVP awards, Tom Brady broke the hearts of New England fans when he left the winter cold weather of Boston and head south for a warmer climate (along with much better wide receivers) in Tampa Bay last spring.   

Brady’s long-time tight end in New England, Rob Gronkowski, even came out of his one-year retirement to join his quarterback for this season, too.  Tampa Bay even extended an olive branch to talented but temperamental wide receiver Antonio Brown to join Tampa’s stable filled with gifted wide receivers. 

It seems to have worked well.  The forever young Tom Brady passed for over 4,600 yards (288 yards/game) along with 40 touchdowns (the second-most in his lengthy career) and a quarterback rating of 102.2 (higher than his career average of 97.2).   Meanwhile, his former team in New England floundered in 2020 going 7-9 and missing the playoffs entirely. 

Tom Terrific may have jumped ship at just the right time.   

As Tom Brady’s first season in Tampa Bay was incredibly successful, so was Philip Rivers’ first year in Indianapolis.  Both Tampa Bay and Indianapolis went 7-9 in 2019 and improved to 11-5 in 2020 with their seasoned quarterbacks leading their respective teams back into the NFL playoffs.

Philip Rivers led the AFC’s Chargers into the playoffs six times during his 16 seasons there.  Alas, his 5-7 record in post-season play is a sad reminder that none of his teams ever won a Super Bowl ring. 

Statistically speaking, Rivers’ career numbers are very shiny.  He finished his career with the fifth-most yards passing in NFL history (63,440) and fifth in touchdown passes (421).   Generally considered one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history to have never played in a Super Bowl, Philip Rivers was certainly one of the most durable.  During one stretch, he didn’t miss a starting assignment for an incredible 14 years.

While playing quarterback for the Clemson Tigers, Deshaun Watson led his team to the national championship in 2016.  He established himself as a leader and a winner.

In the spring of 2017, Deshaun Watson was drafted by the NFL’s Houston Texans with the 12th pick in the first round.  The Texans gleefully learned what college football fans already knew.  Deshaun Watson was something special as both a quarterback and a team leader.

In the first month of his rookie season in Houston, Deshaun Watson came into a game from off the bench and has been the Texans’ starter ever since.  He started the next seven games including one game with an NFL rookie record five touchdown passes and another in which he passed for over 400 yards.  Unfortunately, Watson injured his right knee in practice late in the season and was done for the year.  In a 4-12 season, the rookie quarterback had started in three of the four wins. 

Coming off the injury in 2017, Deshaun Watson established himself as the offensive leader of the Houston Texans.  In both 2018 and 2019, he led the Texans into the AFC playoffs with regular season records of 11-5 and 10-6.

Though Texans’ fans still thirsted for their first chance to make it into a Super Bowl, the team’s recent performances gave hope that better things were still ahead.

Until…

In March, 2020, the Houston Texans’ head coach and General Manager, Bill O’Brien, stunned the team, the city of Houston, and the NFL by trading the team’s 3-time All Pro receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, to the Arizona Cardinals for a banged-up running back (David Johnson) plus a second round and fourth round draft pick.  

In addition to being (by far) the team’s best receiver in Houston, DeAndre Hopkins played his college football at Clemson just like his quarterback, Deshaun Watson.  It is hard to overstate the Clemson connection when assessing the loss of Deshaun Watson’s favorite target.

In order to smooth things over, the Texans backed-up the money truck in April, 2020 and signed Deshaun Watson to a lucrative 4-year $177 million new contract which is second in the NFL only to Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City.  Watson’s contract guarantees him an incredible $111 million. 

With the NFL draft looming for the Texans, their wealthy quarterback likely believed that the team would do everything possible to draft one or two new wide receivers or attempt to make a deal to sign another quality replacement for his departed Clemson buddy, DeAndre Hopkins.

When the Houston Texans’ name was called in the 2020 NFL draft last summer, the team (which had no first round pick due to a trade with Miami for an offensive lineman) picked once in the second round, once in the third, twice in the fourth round, and once in the fifth round.

They selected just one wide receiver – in the fifth round – by taking Isaiah Coulter from tiny Rhode Island University.   Though Coulter is still on the roster after his first season, his stats were written in invisible ink.  He never caught one pass this season for the Texans.

Instead, the Texans dipped into the free agency market and made a deal to sign wide receiver, Brandin Cooks.  Though only 27 years old, Cooks was drafted by the New Orleans Saints (played three years), was traded to New England (for one season), and then traded to the Los Angeles Rams.  After being dealt to Houston in 2020, Cooks now has four of the 32 NFL logos on his luggage.

After months of time for the Houston Texans to find new wide receiver talent ...

The Houston Rockets are now Harden-free.  Before the new NBA season began, James Harden asked for a trade to the Brooklyn Nets. 

Though it didn’t happen before the season started, his wish was finally granted on Wednesday.  The 6’6” 31-year old James Harden, the leading scorer in the NBA over the past three seasons, was traded to the Brooklyn Nets.  Harden is an 8-time NBA All-Star who also won the league’s MVP trophy in 2018.

In return, the Rockets received a quality player to replace Harden in Houston’s starting line-up (6’4” guard Victor Oladipo – age 28) plus four first round draft picks owned by the Brooklyn Nets on every even-numbered year beginning in 2022.

Twenty-2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate?  Nets!  Nets!  Thank you, Brooklyn Nets!    

The bearded Harden has been with the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets for the past eight seasons.  He has been a local fan favorite for most of his years in Houston.  “Fear the Beard” Rockets T-shirts featuring a caricature of Harden have been proudly worn by Houston-area basketball fans for several years.    

After the Rockets acquired James Harden from Oklahoma City in 2012, the Houston Rockets became a consistent playoff team.  They have made the NBA playoffs every season since Harden came to H-town.

Unfortunately, the team has not advanced to the NBA Finals during his eight years with the franchise.  During last season, the Rockets finished fourth in the NBA’s Western Conference and lost in the second round of the playoffs to the eventual champions, Los Angeles Lakers.

James Harden wants a championship ring of his own.  He apparently decided that he would never be able to do that by staying in Houston.

So, he wanted to head east and have a chance to play on a so-called “Super Team” with his former Oklahoma City forward and teammate, Kevin Durant, in Brooklyn.  Since guard Kyrie Irving was already on the team, the Brooklyn Nets will now have three recent NBA All-Stars making up 60% of the starting five.

The big question on everyone’s mind is, “How will they perform together?”

The Brooklyn Nets also have a rookie head coach in 46-year old Steve Nash (a former two-time NBA Most Valuable Player while toiling in Phoenix).  Nash never won an NBA title during his career so he can certainly empathize with James Harden.

A bigger question may be, “Can Steve Nash deal with three oversized egos and win big in Brooklyn”?

I have pondered this thought over the past 24 hours and have come up with six plausible scenarios for the Brooklyn Nets’ trio of highly paid, high profile basketball stars:

* The Three Musketeers – Led by their title-hungry coach Steve Nash, James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving and their band of Merry Men (their relatively unknown and underpaid teammates) come together as a true team.  They lift each other up and have each others’ backs.  They win together as a team and lose together as a team.  The fans of the NBA applaud them, the media loves them, and the Nets bring home their first NBA title this season.  All for one and one for all!* The Three Amigos – James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving have each other’s backs, but they aren’t exactly working very well with their teammates.  They ride into town together – arm in arm – and attempt to win every game together in spite of their supporting cast.  They love each other,

Congratulations to Coach Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide for winning their sixth national college football championship in the past 12 years.  Beginning with 2009, Alabama was won half of the national championships which have been played.

This is a recording.

This year’s Alabama football team was, by far, the most entertaining Bama team to watch over that same 12-year span.  They averaged nearly 50 points per game as the team destroyed all comers this season.  

Can you believe that “The” Ohio State University was a nearly 4-touchdown underdog to Alabama in the national championship game?   And, for those who bet on the Tide, they covered the spread by winning this snoozer by a 52-24 final margin. 

Though Alabama has a long history of winning college football championships and a national following, it’s getting a bit boring for the rest of the country. 

And why not?  Watching Bama play football on TV this past season has been like watching Godzilla destroying yet another major city without any resistance from Mothra, Rodan, or King Kong. 

So it should not come as a big surprise that the television ratings for Monday night’s NCAA college football championship game were down by a whopping 25% from last season’s LSU vs. Clemson finale (won by LSU 42-25).

A source reported that just 18.65 million people watched ESPN‘s Monday Night Bama beatdown of Ohio State compared to 25.5 million who watched last year’s LSU win over Clemson.

An erosion of 7 million television viewers in just one year should have ESPN (owned by Disney) shaking in their boots today.   The advertisers who ponied-up a lot of money to reach an expected minimum number of viewers will be seeking some type of alternate compensation from the network (in the form of future bonus spots, discounts, or an outright refund for a portion of their expenditure).

Monday’s National Championship game actually had fewer viewers than the New Year’s Day semifinal games which both pulled about 19 million television viewers. 

The long-term ramifications should be quite concerning to ESPN/Disney as America is tiring of seeing the same teams playing every year.  Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State have become regulars in this BCS Final Four Game Show.  That leaves Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Georgia or LSU, and perhaps a Pac-12 team such as Oregon or Washington slugging it out for the fourth spot.

ESPN (as usual) is its own worst enemy.  The network selected 1-loss Notre Dame (and its national following) over an undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats team and a one-loss Texas A&M for this year’s fourth slot.  Notre Dame was demolished by Alabama 31-14 in this year’s semifinal game.    

I am of the opinion that increasing the BCS field to eight (or even 16) teams would be a huge mistake as it will only drag out the inevitable outcome.  I’d prefer to see the traditional New Year’s Day bowl games feature the champions of the top conferences pitted against one another.  After that week, the Associated Press or Coaches’ Poll rankings should be used to select the top two teams to play for the national championship the following week.  If this sounds familiar, it is.  That’s generally the way college football did it prior to the 4-team BCS playoffs.    

If an “underdog” team such as Cincinnati makes it throu...