— I’m watching HBO’s Hard Knocks tonight, and they show a 2nd grade teacher in Miami who teaches her students how to do Math by adding/subtracting using Tyreek Hill’s stats each week. She posts Hill’s stats on a white board, and are counting down to how many yards he needs for 2,000 receiving yards.
It was great; the kids are into it, both boys/girls, but it reminded me of something else, how when I was a kid, I’d the grab the newspaper as soon as I could and would study boxscores and stats- this was way before the Internet, information was a little limited.
But I got to the point where I could do Math in my head; if Reggie Jackson went 4-13 in a series, I knew he hit .308 for the weekend, or if Vida Blue gave up two runs in 6 IP, his ERA was 3.00. Not bad for a 10-year old.
— Fast forward 25 years, and I’m a Grade 6 working for New York State at a low-level job; I’m in a training session with a cross-section of employees, some of whom are big shots; the person leading the room gives out a word problem which requires calculations.
There were eight people at a table; we worked as a group. A lady at my table was the Chief of Staff for a Deputy Commissioner, she started with her calculator to get the answer for the problem, but I just told her: “Marsha, its 27. The answer is 27” She kept working the calculator, then looked at me when she came up with 27.
It happened couple of more times; this was a Friday afternoon. Three days later, on Monday, I got a call to schedule a job interview for a Grade 13, an Administrative Assistant job, a very big raise. I got the job, which is why my retirement now is a lot more comfortable than it would’ve been if I hadn’t been able to do Math in my head.
— I tell the story because this teacher in Miami is doing her students a huge favor, teaching them in a way that they’ll remember it. Hopefully they appreciate it, though Tyreek Hill didn’t play this past week, so she probably had to be inventive to get them to do some calculations.
— If you owned an NFL team worth $5B or so, the three most people in your organization would be, in no particular order:
Head Coach- Runs the team on the field.
Quarterback- This one is kind of obvious.
General Manager- Acquires the players, which in an injury-riddled sport, is really important. This time of year, teams with good depth are the ones that finish strong.
— Here are the four NFL teams with the most dead salary cap space this season. When a team is up against the cap, it takes a clever GM to find players who can still win games while they have less flexibility to spend $$$.
$78.6M- Rams
$67.3M- Buccaneers
$65.3M- Packers
$65.2M- Cardinals
— But today we’re looking at head coaches; how would you choose one?
In today’s NFL, 21 of the 32 head coaches who started this season are/were in their first NFL head coaching job. Only 3 of the 21 have won a Super Bowl.
3 of the 32 coaches won a Super Bowl in a previous head coaching job.
2 of the 32 coaches lost a Super Bowl in a previous head coaching job.
6 of the 32 coaches had a previous head coaching job, but didn’t make it to a Super Bowl.
Coaches don’t get recycled as much as they used to; Bill Belichick is one of the head coaches who didn’t make it to a Super Bowl in his first head coaching job- he’s pretty good. Josh McDaniels had two head coaching jobs and was pretty bad at both of them.
Giants’ coach Brian Daboll interviewed with five other teams before the Giants, who are damned lucky that no one else hired him- Daboll is a good coach.
Raiders have had 13 head coaches since 2003; the Steelers have had three since 1969.
It is what makes the NFL so interesting; the teams are worth a fortune, but some of the teams are run really well, some pretty poorly.
— Texas-San Antonio 35, Marshall 17
The two QB’s: Josh McCown’s son, and Chad Pennington’s son. Makes me feel old.
Marshall led 14-0 early in second quarter.
UTSA was 7-14 on third down, Marshall 5-18.
Second day in a row a backup QB wins a bowl game; gambling is difficult.
— QB Taulia Tagovailoa is skipping Maryland’s bowl game; I’m not going to rant about this again, at least not today, but Tagovailoa’s college career is over.
— Strange stats to read: USC’s defense is 110th in the country in yards allowed/play; they’re 123rd in scoring defense.
— Jacksonville Jaguars signed QB EJ Perry to their practice squad; Perry played his college ball at Brown, so he never opted out of a bowl.
— Underdogs won/covered the last seven Monday night NFL games.
— Cleveland Browns are first team in the last 70 years to have four different QB’s lead a game-winning drive in the same season.
— Atlanta Falcons are going back to Taylor Heinicke at QB this week, third time this year they have changed starting QB’s, which makes you wonder if Desmond Ridder is still their QB of the future.
Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo recently became the most accurate kicker in NFL history; he used to kick for the Chargers, but they cut him, even though he made his last six FG’s for them.
Since they cut Koo in 2017, Chargers have gone through 12 different kickers.
— As it turns out, Kansas City’s last four games are going to be against backup QB’s:
Week 15- beat New England (Zappe) 27-17.
Week 16- vs Las Vegas (O’Connell)
Week 17- vs Cincinnati (Browning)
Week 18- @ LA Chargers (Stick)
— AFC North teams are 26-12 SU in non-divisional games.
— In baseball, Pirates signed lefty starter Martin Perez for one year, $8M. He figures to be their #3 or #4 starter.
