Like most people, I watched the Super Bowl yesterday. For once, it was a great game. Of course, there will be debate over the penalty that allowed the Chiefs to run out the clock and win the game on a chip shot field goal. I will save that debate for the ages. I don’t think there is a right answer there. I have an old floor trader friend who is an official in the NFL but I am pretty sure he could never talk about his opinion on it until he retires. It would be interesting to hear his opinion for sure.
I don’t like comparisons of eras. Is Mahomes the next Brady? No. Brady couldn’t run the ball. They are not alike at all. They are very different kinds of quarterbacks running very different kinds of offenses. Can’t we just appreciate both for who they are?
I had a stats professor at Chicago Booth who was a sports fanatic, especially hockey. He ran stats on every pro athlete in the major sports. When you looked at the bell shaped curve, every athlete fell under the curve except one, Gretzky in hockey. Jordan was close in basketball, but statistically we are likely to see another Michael Jordan. We are also likely to see another Babe Ruth believe it or not, except the games of basketball and baseball have changed so much we might not. But, statistically, we could.
People compare LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Who is better? No idea. Back when Jordan was coming up, they’d compare him to Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. I know who I’d pick first for my team but I think Jordan did a much better job of selling his personality to the masses than LeBron did. Hence, he has a more favorable reputation. LeBron is a tremendous basketball player. He is one of the best to have ever laced up the gym shoes and play. Comparing the two is very difficult since the way basketball is played, and officiated is very different.
Besides, the greatest player of all time is probably Kareem but he wouldn’t be anyone’s first pick because of the way the game is played today.
Baseball is that way too. The eras are so different. Whitey Ford cannot be compared to last year’s AL Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray. The game is so different despite the fact that it still uses bats, balls, and a glove, and the mound is the same distance from home plate. We will never see Tony Gwynn, Ted Williams, or George Brett again, but only because the way the game is played has changed.
Even hockey is different. Players are bigger, and faster and the way the game is played has changed. Hockey is the only sport where I think there is a true outlier. As I said earlier, Wayne Gretzky is the greatest of all time and we will never ever see another.
Same with golf. I was hitting balls the other day and the equipment is so advanced it is amazing. Can you imagine today’s pros hitting with old equipment and balata balls? I’d actually like to see one tournament like that. Today’s pros don’t even have to deal with metal spike marks on the green! The money is different today and the game is different. Would Nicklaus win as many majors today as he did? No one will know but one thing is for sure, he didn’t have the crazy media pressure golfers have today. He still reigns supreme with Tiger being a close second.
I saw him play and literally, whenever he got the ball on a kick the air in the stadium had electricity in it. It had to be like when Jackie Robinson was on third base back in the day. My favorite Devin Hester highlight was after the Arizona Cardinals lost to the Bears on Monday Night Football. Coach Dennis Green was confounded. The Bears had played awfully and the Cardinals deserved to win. Except for Devin Hester.
I do think one game can set you up for the Hall of Fame. Look at the “Sandburg” game between the Cubs and Cardinals in 1984. Sandburg deserves to be in the HOF but that game put him on the national map.
Devin Hester absolutely deserves to be in the Hall and because of rule changes to the way the NFL plays, we will never see one like him again.
I did not watch the game. I haven't watched the NFL in a couple years, ever since the players decided to politicize it. It's a shame, because I was a die-hard Bears fan. My Sundays now are spent working around the house and spending quality time with the family, so I don't miss it at all. It's one of those things that once the habit is broken, you just don't care anymore.
But, I did watch Devin Hester, and man was he exciting to watch! Even many of the players that faced him, later admitted that their entire week's game plan had to reallocate time to special teams to avoid disaster. There is only so much time and so many reps in an NFL practice week, and my guess is that Devin Hester commanded a record amount of time just to combat whatever he was going to do. This allowed for the Bears' offense and defense to be more effective, which is why they were so competitive during the Lovie Smith era.
Baseball is my first love, and I was watching as a kid during the Sandberg Cubs/Cardinals game. So much fun. But that game is changing as well, some due to politics and the need to virtue signal, and some due to the loss of hitting strategy. I get very tired of the swing for the fences mentality, and the lack of "small ball." I like small ball, because the tension is from pitch to pitch. Otherwise we are just watching batting practice with an official score.
When they moved the All Star game from Atlanta due to Leftist bullying, I stopped watching that one as well. Now, my summers are outside and time spent on other things. It's sad, because I used to enjoy a summer night with the enjoyable pitch-by-pitch slowness of a game. It's a nice, relaxed feeling.
First play of the Super Bowl against Colts should be enough! I remember thinking we actually had a shot at a win!