Tuesday, February 01, 2022

The GOAT Retires

Today Tom Brady officially announced his retirement from professional football, after leading the Bucs deep in the playoffs, and leading the NFL in touchdown passes this year. He takes with him the NFL records for most TD passes and most passing yards, along with a slew of other records that will be hard to top – like most Super Bowl wins and appearances. These are facts that cannot be debated.

Like many words and phrases, the term GOAT get thrown around much too often. Greatest Of All Time. But in Brady’s case, the shoe fits. Every other quarterback’s accomplishments pale in comparison.

Some people don’t like Tom Brady. They made up their mind a long time ago and don’t plan on changing it. They might’ve read the initial deflategate stories but never bothered to learn what was in the final reports. Some of these same people love Michael Jordan but fail to recognize the similarities between the two. Both are committed to winning like no other two athletes I’ve ever seen. Perhaps add Larry Bird to that list, but his body broke down.

Not sure what else kept people hating Brady: his looks, his wife, his relative silence for most of his career until near the end. Or was it all the Super Bowls he won? His relative lack of athletic superiority?

There are some athletes I’m not fond of. That’s my right as a fan. Rubs me the wrong way. Call me an old geezer. I like MJ. Not LeBron. Jerry Rice and Randy Moss, not Antonio Brown or Terrell Owens or Michael Irvin. I like Herschel. I like Bo, but he was no Herschel. Not as fast. Even in college, injuries kept Bo from coming close to Herschel’s numbers.

No, Brady is not perfect. Hell, he cusses too much for me, but it’s not the unnecessary cussing you hear from some people. Has chased a few non-Christian rabbit holes. I don’t worship the dude. He’s just one of the greatest NFL players ever. His record stands for itself.

Not really fired up about the Super Bowl, but some of the trivia is always fun. Heard some on the sports talk radio. I’m too busy to really dig into all the storylines. I don’t know that many players: Matthew Stafford, Sony Michel. UGA DL for the Rams. LA has a good lineman – Aaron Donald? Their head coach went to St Pius in Atlanta. Edged Calvin Johnson for state player of the year their senior year. Bengals have Burrow. Their kicker set records at Florida and left college with a year of eligibility remaining. Was the only kicker drafted last year. From Ft. Payne Alabama.

When we used to go to the Super Bowl party at the Hurts, Dan Toholsky was more prolific than me about bringing up obscure facts about players and the game. You could tell he’d done his reading.

Super Bowl fun facts: the combined age of the two head coaches is the lowest ever – 74, I think. If the Rams win their coach will be the youngest in history. The Rams will use their regular home locker room for the Super Bowl. The Bengals will use the Chargers home locker room. Second straight year the NFC team will be playing the Super Bowl in their home stadium. Never happened before last year.

The team wearing the white jersey has won 14 of the last 17 Super Bowls. As the home team, the Bengals will choose from a number of various combinations. The Rams will also pick from several options. This is the first Super Bowl where both teams will be wearing helmets with animal imagery, as opposed to team logos. This an be an attractive Super Bowl uniform-wise, or it can get ugly.

The Friday before the Super Bowl we’ll bring in covered dishes to work. I’ll break out my number 9 Bengals jersey – not for Joe Burrow but for Carson Palmer. I sold off most of my jersey collection, but was never able to sell the on-field Bengals jersey. If we attend a Super Bowl party I will wear it then as well. Perhaps with my matching orange KD7 Nike sneakers.

MICKEY VERNON  [SABR Bio] participated in the most career double plays at first base, with 2,044 DPs. Only Chicago shortstop Luke Appling appeared in more pre-expansion games with nary a World Series game among them (2,422 to 2,409 for Vernon). Mickey got his only World Series ring just days after his final career game as a player. Vernon was the first base coach for the Pirates in 1960 after playing nine games for them. He had also coached for them during that year.

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