FMIA Divisional: Inside Andy Reid’s Notebook, Lamar Locks In, Hutchinson’s Hometown Heroics

Boldface names/things from the playoff weekend:

The final four. San Francisco, we saw that coming. Detroit—did anyone have the Lions going this far back in August? Baltimore is built to go as their quarterback goes. And now Kansas City, so battle-tested, is the last team in.

Lamar the strategist played a role in Ravens 34, Texans 10.

Find out what Lamar Jackson says has “been eating away at me.”

Mookie Betts makes the column, and Lamar should love the comparison.

Bill Belichick is no lock to be house-hunting in Buckhead.

This just in: Jahmyr Gibbs is talented.

C.J. Stroud is allergic to the Harbaughs.

Mike McCarthy and I have something in common: We’re the two luckiest men on the face of the earth.

They said it. Sports Illustrated made those three words, in tandem, famous. I stole them for a tribute to SI.

Who said it. “WE’RE IN A SPORTS ILLUSTRATED GAME THIS WEEK!”

From Drew Brees to Drew Rosenhaus, 17 people you know pick their favorite Sports Illustrated covers.

I love Andy Reid’s. It involves a loss of teeth.

Packers: You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, and a heck of a lot to be proud of. Such as all those new receivers.

You too, Tampa Bay. Great run for the men of Todd Bowles. My call on the Bucs as the league’s 31^st team back in the spring, by the way, is in the top one of worst predictions of my career. Mea, mea, mea culpa.

Picking Defensive Player of the Year this month was hard. Seriously, nine players had cases.

Aaron Rodgers got a hole-in-one in his first round of golf since Achilles surgery? Next thing you’ll tell me is Dr. Fauci caddied for him.

The secret that’s not a secret: Jerod Mayo gives away some draft strategy for the team with the third pick.

Eric Wilson, you can play special teams on my team any day you’re free.

Niners linebackers coach Johnny Holland raises awareness for multiple myeloma, the incurable disease that afflicts him.

Come now. Fix the head-coach interviewing rules. The current ones invite foolishness.

Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune with the story of the week, the month. If you read one thing today (other than this column, of course), please read Chip Scoggins on a gifted girls basketball player in Minnesota, Chloe Johnson, who is gifted in many other ways than dribbling a ball.

It was a cool weekend in the NFL. Very cold, actually. Let’s get to it.

Strange being in Highmark Stadium, and walking down through the crowd — that’s the way it is at this old Bills stadium — to the locker room. You hear the crowd. You feel the crowd. And the feeling in the bitter cold Sunday was anger. These fans were pissed off. My friend Albert Breer heard a fan say, “I’m gonna go waterboard myself.”

I heard: “We SUCK!” … “OUR SPECIAL TEAMS BLOW!” … “Why? Why should we keep coming back!” … “Where are you, Scott Norwood!” And various forms of anger toward the kicker, Tyler Bass, who missed a 44-year field goal to tie in the final two minutes. No need to disparage the guy and make him feel worse than he must be feeling this morning.

Then, down to the tunnel, where the players from both teams were filing in. The Bills, like going down the aisle solemnly in a funeral home, going into their room to the left. The visitors, floating and preening, headed to the right. “We running it back baby!!!!” yelled KC safety Justin Reid. GM Brett Veach and Mahomes had an intense two-second hug, a defiant Mahomes giving the kind of glare he never lets the cameras see, deliriously happy.

This hit me in the locker room: a corner of the room, with Mahomes, backup Blaine Gabbert, kicker Harrison Butker and a couple of others, discussing where they were when Tyler Bass missed the fairly easy field goal that would have tied it. “It just, just FROZE IN THE AIR,” Mahomes said.

“Man,” Butker told me, “I feel for Tyler. Life of a kicker. We’ve all been there.”

Travis Kelce’s locker now. He gave me a fist bump as he sprint-dressed-packed and said he wasn’t talking; a team aide had a cart waiting, to get him to Taylor Swift and one other famous person in the entourage, brother Jason. The Other Kelce had quite a day slamming light beers in the stadium.

“Great Lakes guys,” Travis Kelce said quietly to me. He and his bro, Cleveland guys, down the southern coast of Lake Erie from Buffalo. “You bring us home, and anything can happen.”

When I told him, “What a friggin’ game,” Travis Kelce, in the middle of hurriedly packing his bag, said, “With these two teams, these two guys, Josh and Patty, man, instant classic. These are the moments you miss in the off-season. It’s why you play the game.”

I saw Mahomes walking through the room. “I love Arrowhead—I love playoff games at Arrowhead,” he said. “But man, that was fun.”

Crazy things happened here. After the Pacheco touchdown produced the final score, no one scored for the final 14 minutes. Football’s odd that way; for 46 minutes, you see 51 points and five lead changes. In the last 14 minutes, zero points, zero lead changes. There was a failed fake punt, a fumble out of the end zone, a Bills punt, a KC punt, a Bills fumble and recovery, and then the fateful Tyler Bass missed 44-yard field goal.

Some 33 years ago, Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal 18 inches wide right in the Super Bowl. Now Bass missed by a bigger margin. No wonder these fans think they’ll never win a title. Normal kickers missing makeable kicks, plunging a region that is so desperate to win into a months-long depression. I figure they’ll come out of it, oh, around training camp in late July.

As for the visitors, this was the first Mahomes-Reid playoff road game in their time atop this franchise after 12 in Arrowhead. Obviously, teams love home playoff games. But I reminded Reid of the old Bill Walshism. He loved playing on the road. “It’s 53 guys and a coaching staff against a team, a city, a state, a region,” Walsh told one of his 49ers team in the eighties. Walsh always felt it gave a good team a chance to galvanize, and the Niners always had good road records in part because of it. Well, having Joe Montana playing quarterback helped.

In the same way, Mahomes helps. Kelce caught TD passes of 22 and three yards, the second being a play Reid hadn’t had in a gameplan since Alex Smith played quarterback when Kelce was a young tight end. The play, called Flash Screen, was designed a decade ago for Smith to be able to hit Kelce on a short throw so he could make something happen after the catch. “We put it back in this week,” Reid said. “We practiced it this week, and Kelce kept asking for it --‘Can we get that back in? Can we get the Flash back?’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay, we’ll do it.’ Worked perfectly.”

So now Reid and his coordinator, Matt Nagy, will have to come up with something to attack in the AFC Championship Game. It’s KC against the talented, and astute, Ravens. “I love Lamar Jackson,” Reid said. “Patrick really likes him.” The game loves quarterback rivalries like this one. It’s odd. Thirty years ago, it was Elway-Marino. Fifteen years ago, Brady-Manning. Now, most of these rivalries feature two mobile quarterbacks. Times change but the players, and the game, are still great.

BALTIMORE—“It’s been three years and four days since your last playoff game,” I said to Lamar Jackson Saturday night, and his brow got furrowed.

“Man,” he said. “Long time.”

Yep. Buffalo 17, Baltimore 3. A putrid affair for the Ravens in Orchard Park, dropping Jackson to 1-3 as a playoff quarterback and setting up a long road to Saturday. A very long road. “It’s been eating away at me,” he told me in the hallway outside the Ravens’ locker room. He’s had lots of regular-season wins, but two injuries robbed him of a third of the last two seasons, and a rancorous contract spat with the Ravens made things worse, as did reminders annually that he wasn’t a good postseason player. It’s all why Jackson has been more serious this season after the contract got done, less euphoric after regular-season wins. And why the 34-10 rout of the Texans Saturday almost seemed like the start of the season to Jackson.

As coach John Harbaugh told me: “It’s just the idea that everything that we do, everything that he does, every game up until this point was to put us in position for this. This is when it begins.”

“All season,” Jackson said, “I’ve thought, finish 13-4, get the one seed, first-round bye, then it’s only two games at home to get to the Super Bowl. That’s got to be our goal.”

The full Lamar was vital Saturday, because the Ravens were in trouble at halftime. They were lucky to be in a 10-10 game after the Texans—not a big blitzing team normally—blitzed on 13 of Jackson’s 18 first-half pass-drops (including scrambles), per Next Gen Stats. Houston sacked Jackson on two of the last three snaps of the half. So at halftime, the QB did something about it. “I talked to coach Tee [Martin, quarterback coach],” Jackson said. “I said, we can’t keep trying to get deep and developing routes because our guys can only block for so long. Then it might be holding, or me getting sacked. I gotta move. Just gotta get the ball out. Second half, it was more like us.”

Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

In the first half, Jackson’s time to throw per Next Gen was 3.53 seconds, an eternity in today’s NFL; it let the blitzing Texans pressure Jackson consistently. In the second half, prodded by Jackson’s halftime suggestion, the number went down to 2.70. Jackson wasn’t sacked. Baltimore dominated the half, shutting out Houston 24-0 and gaining 234 yards. Jackson ran for two scores in the last 30 minutes and threw for one, a touch pass plucked out of the air by TE2 Isaiah Likely, who has played very much like TE1, with six touchdowns in seven games since Mark Andrews went down with an ankle injury.

The Ravens have been impressed with offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s flexibility in year one. This is the best receiver corps Jackson has had in Baltimore, with field-stretchers like Zay Flowers (someone check his tracking device; seemed like he sprinted five miles in Jet Motion against Houston), Odell Beckham and Rashod Bateman. Monken obviously wanted to test the Texans’ back end; they were 23^rd in the league in passing yards allowed. But Monken listens to his coaches and listens to Jackson. Thus the second-half metamorphosis.

Jackson’s never going to have the biggest stats, but this game, particularly the second half, was a perfect illustration of who he is as a player. He knows how to control a football game. His 152 yards passing and 100 yards rushing, and two TDs throwing and two rushing, and no turnovers, led to a 37:35 domination of time of possession. His mastery of the clock late in the game was Brady-like. From the midway point of the third quarter to :00 of the fourth, Houston had the ball only four minutes, five seconds. Jackson milked every second he could from the play clock, suffocating any chance C.J. Stroud had to rally his team. It was so maddening for Houston that coach DeMeco Ryans started using his timeouts with 6:26 left.

The story angle out of this game, clearly, was Jackson playing his best playoff game after four mostly lousy ones. Fair, certainly; Jackson was football’s Mookie Betts here, a five-tool player you might hold down for a few series but eventually he’s going to kill you with his arm and legs, and he doesn’t care which extremities he uses. There was something else impressive about Baltimore: Stroud came in having led 25 offensive touchdown drives in his previous nine games. Here, he got none (Houston’s lone TD came on a punt return). Last week, against Cleveland’s top-ranked defense, he put up 31 points. On Saturday, he led one field-goal drive. Nothing else. That led Harbaugh to tell me post-game: “We can win games in a lot of different ways.”

So now the Ravens move on to host the first AFC Championship Game in the city since, well, the first AFC Championship Game. True fact. The AFL and NFL merged in 1970, birthing the AFC and NFC. And in January 1971, John Madden brought his Raiders to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium to play the Colts … and the Indianapolis Colts weren’t a gleam in anyone’s eye back then. Baltimore 27, Oakland 17, with one TD pass by the great Johnny Unitas. To Ray Perkins.

Unitas, Louisville Cardinal product. A half-century later, there’s another slightly more versatile one.

Lots of celebrating in a frozen Charm City Saturday night, savoring a playoff rout and anticipating the first title game in the city in 53 years. The most famous Raven was not celebrating, yet.

“It’s cool,” Jackson said, smiling only a little. “I feel all right. Still got a lot of business to take care of.”

Thoughts on the two games I did not attend:

Detroit 31, Tampa Bay 23. You could see the emotion on Aidan Hutchinson’s face after the game — what it meant for him to be playing for the NFC Championship in his second NFL season. Amazing, really, for the second pick in the 2022 draft, who was born in Michigan, went to high school a few miles from the Lions’ practice facility in Allen Park, Mich., went to college in nearby Ann Arbor at Michigan — and wanted badly to get picked by the Lions to try to help turn around his hometown team. And so it happened. Hutchinson spent the day buzzing around Baker Mayfield, the way he’s buzzed around quarterbacks all season. He finished with six pressures of Mayfield and one sack, the league-high 16^th time this year he’s had five or more pressures in a game, per Next Gen Stats. No other player has more than 12 such games.

I’ve always thought one of the factors people don’t value enough in draft prep is drive. Like, the drive to be consistently great. You hear about traits like that, and you say, Ah, right, Cliché. But if you dig down deep, you’ll find some players have it in spades. Tom Brady did. Amon-Ra St. Brown does. Hutchinson does too. And the vibe in Detroit right now is something that values that kind of drive above almost all things. It’s a feeling that the fans are identifying with, the kind of ethos that makes this a dangerous team Sunday at 3:30 California time against the Niners.

“Last week,” Hutchinson said Sunday postgame, “it felt a little foreign. That atmosphere that vibe, it was different. I feel like getting one under our belt, getting a playoff game under our belt, getting the win, we can move on from the 30 years, from all the history of what we haven’t been able to do in the past and it was good to get over that hump. We’re just getting over mountains right now. That’s what we’re doing. It’s just one mountain after another. They said we couldn’t win two playoff games in a row. Now we’re going to keep climbing that mountain.”

San Francisco 24, Green Bay 21. Jordan Love throwing a hugely ill-advised pass across his body into traffic to end the Packers’ chance is not what I’d have figured after his amazing nine-game stretch entering Saturday’s game: seven wins, 21 TD passes, one interception. But pressure does different things to different people, even very talented ones.

There’s something both impressive and worrisome about the Niners now. Impressive: They came back to edge out Green Bay, in a game they probably didn’t deserve to win, without Deebo Samuel playing for three quarters. And while Brock Purdy was terrific on the game-winning late drive, with or without Samuel this weekend against Detroit, the 49ers need Purdy to be better for four quarters. He had a potential pick-six dropped by Darnell Savage and was wilder than usual on a 59-percent night. It’s not like there’s a fire alarm going off for Purdy, but if he’s not sharp against the Lions, I don’t love the Niners’ chances.

A few thoughts on coaching searches:

Bill Belichick. I believe we’ve all assumed Belichick was going to get a high-quality job, or at least, in the case of the Falcons, a decent job. Now the question is: Will he get one at all? Seems the Falcons are open to opening up this search after two meetings with the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach. Atlanta will have a second interview with Jim Harbaugh this week, and the Falcons seem to be interviewing every candidate of a high profile — Ben Johnson, Raheem Morris, Joe Brady, Aaron Glenn, Brian Callahan, Steve Wilks, Bobby Slowik, Mike Vrabel — and maybe even the Flowery Branch milkman. I also think the Falcons must be thinking, If we hold Belichick in high regard, why does no other team? He’s had no other interviews, at least not any we know of. It’s weird. Maybe teams sniffing around coaches don’t think hiring a soon-to-be 72-year-old guy regardless of resume is such a good idea. We shall see.

Mike McCarthy. It sounds crazy, to advocate for the firing of a coach who’s won 12 regular-season games in each of the last three seasons. And of course it didn’t happen, with Jerry Jones announcing Wednesday McCarthy would be back — on the last year of his contract — in 2024. But the way these last three seasons have ended is beyond concerning. The clock mismanagement at the end of the home playoff loss to the Niners two years ago. The utter offensive toothlessness at San Francisco last year. Falling behind 27-0 after 19 minutes to the seventh-seeded Packers at home. Seriously: With the same staff and same core, do you really expect anything different in 2024? This is a franchise that needs to be taken by the scruff of the neck, shaken, and changed from the inside out. But no. Instead, Jones is running it back. Now, it could be true that Bill Belichick told Jones — directly or through intermediaries — that he had no interest in joining the circus. Even if that’s so, Belichick Lite, Mike Vrabel, would have been a smart chase. For a man who made millions risking it all in the oil business, Jones has been surprisingly passive in trying to win it all over the past 28 years.

Mike Tomlin. To the 948 emailers to me over the past few months begging for the Steelers to fire Tomlin, I feel your pain. (Written in sarcasm font.) Tomlin has announced he’s coming back for 2024 and will welcome a new contract and, most importantly, will seek an outside offensive coordinator to come in and craft a modern offense. (Interview Klint Kubiak of the Niners and Jake Peetz of the Rams, Steelers; you’ll thank me later.) Winning after the franchise quarterback departs is difficult, as Bill Belichick — 10 under after Brady left — will tell you. Difficult, but not impossible: Tomlin’s 19-16 post-Ben. He’s not blemish-less, particularly with the seven straight years without a playoff win. And the QB situation is a mess in a division with Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow and maybe contender in Deshaun Watson. That’s not good for the Steelers, who have to add quality to the QB mix this offseason. I like Tomlin’s chances to straighten it out, particularly with a desperately needed new offensive philosophy.

Mike Vrabel. Man, what are teams out there waiting for?

Antonio Pierce. Came out of nowhere to be a most wanted man for the players on a competitive team. Good for him. Now the work begins.

As Sports Illustrated was hit with another round of debilitating layoffs Friday, putting its future very much in question, I wanted to show how significant a social and sporting impact player Sports Illustrated once was. If you’re in your fifties, you know. If you’re in your twenties, you probably don’t.

I asked some people in the media and football business to choose their favorite SI covers. Their favorites follow, with a comment or two from each. I loved what Bob Costas said about the significance of a Sports Illustrated cover. “A moment, a victory, an individual’s standing in sports, wasn’t really certified in its significance until Sports Illustrated said so,” Costas said in a text to me, and then referenced the iconic cover from the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s victory over Russia in 1980. “In the days after that remarkable night, countless Americans celebrated it, talked about it, and waited to see how Sports Illustrated would capture and memorialize it. In this case, no caption. No words besides SI’s logo, the pub date, and the newsstand price. That’s it. You knew as soon as you saw it that for millions it would be a keepsake.

“No sports publication on any platform remotely approaches that sort of primacy and credibility today. And for a while now, neither had Sports Illustrated itself, despite the continuing quality of the writing. Same thing has happened to Time and Newsweek in somewhat different ways. It’s a significant loss. And a reminder that the standards of quality and credibility that were the hallmarks of Sports Illustrated are no longer valued as they once were.”

Amen.

Covers they loved:

Drew Brees, retired quarterback
Feb. 15, 2010
Saints win the Super Bowl

“If you asked me as a kid what my ultimate goal would have been, I’d have said: ‘To be on the cover of a Wheaties box, and to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So many legendary covers. To be on one was the ultimate sign of respect and acknowledgment.”

Joe Buck, ESPN
Oct. 7, 1967
The Cardinals, after winning the World Series

“This one. Easily. It was on the wall in my dad’s [Jack Buck’s] office and the media lunch room at old Busch Stadium II. I was born the following year, and two of these men [Tim McCarver, Mike Shannon] I called broadcast partners for basically two decades. Red Schoendienst [the manager] and my dad were best friends. And it points out on the cover the ‘lunacy’ of paying a world champion team a total of almost $1 million. Ha!”

Andy Reid, head coach, Kansas City
July 30, 1984
Linebacker Jack Lambert, missing four front teeth

“‘The Man of Steel’ was the cover. I was a fan of Lambert. Mom and Dad gifted the magazine to me when I was a kid, and I still get it today.”
Reid listed four more covers, including Kingdom Comeback from February 2020, after KC’s first Super Bowl win, with Patrick Mahomes on the cover. “Too many I liked to name them all,” Reid, who once dreamed of writing for Sports Illustrated, wrote in a text.

Jarrett Bell, USA Today
Nov. 27, 1978
Magic Johnson and “The Super Sophs”

“Sophomore year. Michigan State. Kedzie Hall. The most famous student in my NatSci 100 class during the fall term of 1978 was the guy who happened to be featured in a classic SI cover wearing a tuxedo with a top hat. How cool was that? A few months after the cover shot, Magic Johnson led the Spartans to the NCAA title — and as I’ve told him, provided us alum some lifetime bragging rights. Here’s a memory that adds life to that SI cover hanging on a wall in my office: the post-class autograph signing session. There was a certain buzz having Earvin in the huge lecture hall with 200 or 300 classmates. When the magazine came out, that vibe went up several notches with the demand for Magic to sign the cover. On at least one occasion, he had an impromptu signing party after class as dozens of students lined up for him to autograph the issue. Way cool, Magic.”

Two people picked the cover of Nov. 28, 1977, “College Basketball’s Secret Weapon,” the first time Larry Bird of Indiana State appeared on the cover. He still had two years of college basketball to play. Two Indiana State cheerleaders posed in front of Bird, index fingers to mouths, making the “Shhhhhh” signal.

Peyton Manning, retired quarterback, TV analyst

“My brother Cooper got it signed years later by Larry. He wrote, ‘Peyton, you can borrow these shorts anytime, Larry Bird.’ So that cover jumps out to me. I have it framed at my house. In 1996, in college, when I got to be on the cover, Bill Frakes was the photographer. I posed in my UT uniform, leaning on top of a huge wooden frame of a 1970 cover when my dad was on it. That was a cool cover to be on, sharing it with my dad’s cover. I still have the actual magazine from 1996 with my college address that was mailed to me since I was a subscriber. Peyton Manning, College Park, 301 Lippencott St., Knoxville, TN. It’s a good keepsake.”

Chris Russo, Sirius/XM Radio

“This is the one I love. It’s really the first time anyone had a look at Bird. People had heard of him but hadn’t seen him. I was a junior at Darrow School, a boarding school in New Lebanon, N.Y. Every Thursday I remember getting my hands on SI.”

Andrea Kremer, Veteran sportscaster and reporter
July 28, 1975
Dolphins stars jump to the World Football League

“How to possibly pick just one? Most iconic: 1980 Miracle on Ice sans copy, the proverbial picture says a thousand words. Most clever: 1977 Detroit pitcher Mark Fidrych and his nickname namesake, Sesame Street’s Big Bird. But the one that is emblematic of my childhood (and I still have every SI since the ‘70s) is the 1975 cover with my favorite football player Larry Csonka along with Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield—not as Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins but as Memphis Southmen of the World Football League. That was tough to process as a fan.”

Mike Tirico, NBC Sports
April 14, 2003
Syracuse wins the NCAA title

“Growing up, I had every issue stacked in a box and used to save them all. I was a Mets fan as a kid and the Ray Knight ‘Knight Cap’ cover in 1986 was my prize possession … Only to be replaced by the April 2003 ‘Sweet Victory’ after my alma mater Syracuse beat Kansas to win the national championship with Carmelo Anthony on the cover. It has hung framed in my basement for years—and will not come down anytime soon!”

Boomer Esiason, ex-MVP quarterback, CBS analyst
Oct. 4, 1993
Father, son on the fight to beat cystic fibrosis

“I’m both biased and sad. This is where it all began for us. Without SI, we may have never reached this place.”

“This place” is Gunnar Esiason reaching age 32, being married with one son (Kasper) and another on the way, playing hockey and working and living a healthy life. This is Gunnar and Kasper, looking quite a bit like father and son did 30 years ago:

Jim Trotter, The Athletic
Jan. 18, 1982
“The Super Catch” by Dwight Clark

“It’s the first magazine cover I ever saved. I really couldn’t explain at the time why I kept it. I just knew it was special—the shot, the game, the significance of the outcome for a lifelong 49ers fan.”

Three picked the wordless March 3, 1980 cover of the U.S. hockey team celebrating its Olympic victory over Russia:

Bob Costas, former Olympic host, baseball announcer

“I am sure I won’t be the only one to mention this cover, but it immediately comes to mind: The Miracle On Ice cover. Great picture by Heinz Kluetmeier. Captures both the surprise and exhilaration of the moment and the achievement. Iconic image of an iconic moment.”

Rich Eisen, NFL Network

“There isn’t much explanation necessary except the exhilaration and pride this team embodied for the entire country when I was 11. The connectedness I felt with everyone else in the country is something I yearn for for my kids.”

Adam Schefter, ESPN

“I was 13. Coming home from school every Thursday [on Long Island], my weekly ritual was getting into SI. It was a huge part of my childhood. My bedroom walls were covered with Sports Illustrated covers. The one I can visualize even now was when the U.S. hockey team won in Lake Placid. Pure joy, which is what all those covers provided for me.”

Scott Pioli, former NFL GM, NFL Network
Sept. 21, 1970
Dick Butkus: “Nobody thinks I can talk”

“Dick Butkus: the reason I wore number 51 throughout junior high, high school and college. This cover and this man embodied everything I dreamed about being in football. The weekly Sports Illustrated was the only way my elementary school teachers could get me to go to library class. I have this issue with the Round Hill Elementary stamp on it still to this day.”

Steve Wyche, NFL Network
Oct. 18, 1976
Chuck Foreman bruises the Bears

“As a kid born in Minneapolis, Chuck Foreman was my favorite Viking in their Super Bowl runs. This cover, from his 1975 All-Pro season, was one of my first sports magazine memories. Chuck is the most forgotten-about great player in NFL history.”

Drew Rosenhaus, agent
July 15, 1996
“The most hated man in pro football”

“I hope this doesn’t sound self-centered but one of the proudest moments of my career and life was making the cover in 1996. It was a close call between me and the tennis player MaliVai Washington. When he lost in the Wimbledon final, they decided to do the cover with me. I didn’t know until the last minute. When they faxed me a black-and-white cover, I went nuts. I was in shock. Started yelling and screaming. It’s a moment I will remember forever. I still have a few hundred copies saved.”

Nothing describes how the sports media business has changed better than the precipitous decline of Sports Illustrated. More than a bit of melancholy washed over me Friday, processing the news of the battered place. Because even if SI survives 2024, it will do so as a skeleton of what it was.

I have only good memories of my 29 years with the franchise. In the midst of the sadness and bitterness over SI’s demise, I want to share a few of the reasons why I will always consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth because I got to work for the greatest sports journalism franchise for the guts of my career.

I remember the phone call—absolutely, totally out of the blue—from managing editor Mark Mulvoy in spring 1989. I was 31, covering the Giants for Newsday. Mulvoy asked if I was interested in interviewing for a job at the magazine. It’s still one of those things to this day that I can’t quite believe happened. I went into the mag’s Rockefeller Center offices, across from Radio City, and Mulvoy got to the point pretty fast. He wanted me to write the “Inside the NFL” column and, in fact, there wasn’t much of an interview. He asked me if I wanted the job.

Outer voice: “That’s fantastic. I’ll talk to my wife today and get back to you tomorrow. That okay?”

Inner voice: Are you bleeping kidding me? WHERE DO I SIGN BEFORE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?

Much excitement when I got home. My wife, Ann, asked me: “What will they pay you?” I told her I had no idea. I never asked.

I remember being sent to Philadelphia in week three of the ’89 season to write a futures story on why the 49ers were such a good road team. I rode the bus with the players, in the row behind Joe Montana, to practice on Saturday, then watched the best defense in football lay waste to Montana on Sunday. The Reggie White/Jerome Brown boys sacked Montana seven times and led 21-10 with 14 minutes left. Then Joe Montanaed the Eagles, throwing four touchdown passes to four different receivers in 12 minutes. The third, to Brent Jones, put the Niners up 31-28, and the phone next to me in the press box rang. (Back in the day, they had landlines in press boxes, and you told the office the number of the nearest one in case they needed to reach you.) It was Mulvoy.

“If the Niners win, you’re writing. Plan on two pages.” Whoa. Okay.

Montana to Rice, 33-yard TD a couple minutes later. Phone rang. “Four pages,” said Mulvoy. “You got enough?” Of course, I said. What was I going to say?

Niners 38, Eagles 28. Downstairs, I saw owner Eddie DeBartolo jump into Ronnie Lott’s arms in celebration. I got what I could, then went back upstairs to write the lede before going to my hotel to finish. Phone rang. “You got the cover,” said Mulvoy. “Don’t f--- it up on me.”

I never saw the cover until it landed in my mailbox on Thursday.

JOLTIN’ JOE

The 49ers go 3-0 as Joe Montana throws five TD passes.

I remember one Friday afternoon in 1990, as the Dallas Cowboys started to get good, and I got assigned to their game that week. I worked their locker room during the media-availability period and introduced myself to Michael Irvin. Man, was he happy to see me. “Hey!” Irvin announced to the locker room. “WE’RE IN A SPORTS ILLUSTRATED GAME THIS WEEK!”

I remember going to a lobby phone in the downtown Pittsburgh Hilton late on a Sunday afternoon in August 1992. “Could you ring the room of Redd Foxx please,” I said. Deion Sanders’ pseudonym in road hotels. He’d given it to me because he knew in the media world there was SI and everyone else was angling for second place, and he wanted a pipeline to the magazine. I got him on the phone, he told me his room number on the 19^th floor, and I went up. I found Sanders shirtless, with a crucifix against his glistening chest, bat in his hand. He’d gone hitless against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield that afternoon, and now he was taking swings in front of a mirror in his room—all the while trying to figure whether to play football or baseball full-time, or whether to split the baby. He was depressed.

“I want the damn zoo to stop,” Sanders said.

I had a room in the hotel. After an hour with Deion, I went to my room, wrote 2,400 words in seven hours, filed the story. My guess is the nervous front offices of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons saw the DEION’S DILEMMA cover four days later, and read that the weary two-sport star wanted the damn zoo to stop.

I remember on a Wednesday night in May 1996 getting a call from Brett Favre, telling me he was entering a rehab program in Kansas the next day for an addiction to painkillers. We talked for 45 minutes. He spilled it all—14 Vicodin tablets one night at the ESPYs, etc. And this is what the media was like 28 years ago: That story held for a week. There were no other outlets for the magazine at the time, and we just prayed Favre told no one else before going into seclusion. He told no one else. “Brett Favre details how playing in the NFL led to his addiction to painkillers,” was in the May 27, 1996 issue. Imagine the frenzy today around the NFL MVP checking into rehab for painkillers and telling one person. It wouldn’t have held for 10 minutes, that’s for sure.

I remember being at a hotel in Manhattan on a Tuesday night in December, 2005, when Tom Brady won the Sportsman of the Year award. I met his dad, who was ebullient. He told me the award was significant for many reasons, mostly this: When Tom was young, he’d come home from school on fall Thursdays and immediately look for Sports Illustrated to see if there was anything in there about his beloved Niners. The magazine was that important to Brady and his family.

That’s what the magazine has meant to me, and to so many in sports. Unfortunately, we’re not likely to ever see one media entity that emphasizes words be as significant, or close, again. It’s sad. It’s life.

The day my NFL awards ballot was due to the Associated Press 12 days ago, I finished seven categories, knowing for a couple of weeks I’d struggle on the eighth. In very few cases over the years filling out this ballot have I agonized the way I did this year on Defensive Player of the Year. I’ll take you into my deliberations.

I thought there were five strong candidates, all edge players: Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons and T.J. Watt, in alphabetical order. (Four very good ones didn’t make my cut in Josh Allen, Nick Bosa, Danielle Hunter and Aidan Hutchinson).

This contest, as has happened with many of the awards now, has been impacted by advanced metrics. It used to be, maybe 15 years ago, that you’d look at the sack leaders or the interception leader and give the nod to one of them. But times have changed, with deeper dives into numbers and pass-rush metrics from Next Gen Stats and PFF. This one number illustrated how close this contest was: Garrett and Watt, the front-runners in the eyes of many, each had 86 regular-season quarterback pressures (sacks/QB hits/hurries), per PFF.

My criteria is not precise. Which player lifts his defense the most, perhaps making a good defense great? Which player both masters the new-age metrics and passes the eye test for major impact all season? How do players and coaches and GMs I’ve spoken with during the year rate the best players?

The cases for all five will show you I could have picked any of them and had a strong argument:

Crosby, Las Vegas: For my money, the highest-energy defensive player in football. Best run defender of them all, with 42 run stops and 18 run stuffs (rushers tackled for zero or negative yards). Played every snap in 10 Raider games this year, a rarity; four other players with one each were the only others to do that. Had more overall pressures (94) than Garrett and Watt. His negative is time to pressure—3.19 seconds per pressure, per Next Gen Stats. That’s almost a full second slower than Parsons and Garrett.

Garrett, Cleveland: Heartbeat of his team. “I’ve coached three players who made every coordinator who ever played us say, ‘That’s the guy we’ve got to account for on every play,’” Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz told me. “Ray Lewis, Calvin Johnson and Myles Garrett.” Average time to get to the quarterback: 2.32 seconds, which was second only to Parsons’ 2.31 seconds. His most impressive metric: PFF rated Garrett number one in pass-rush grade and pass-rush win rate—how often the pass-rusher is judged to have beaten his blocker on pass-rush snaps. His win rate of 27.3 percent was significantly better than Watt’s 16.9-percent win rate.

Mack, L.A. Chargers: Sneaky excellent season, including against the run, with the same number of tackles behind the line (38; 21 tackles for loss and 17 sacks) as T.J. Watt. More passes batted down (10) than any edge player, and the most forced fumbles (five) in this group. He forced his way into this group despite his team being the worst among the top candidates.

Parsons, Dallas: There’s a stat Next Gen uses called “quick pressure.” It’s a measure of how many pressures a rusher gets in 2.5 seconds after the snap or less. Parsons had 62, Garrett 54 and Watt 37. Parsons had the highest average pressure rate (pressures divided by overall rushes) at 21.4 percent, 4 points ahead of Garrett, 8 points ahead of Watt.

Watt, Pittsburgh: This year became the first player to win the NFL sacks a third time with 19.0 sacks. That’s 4.5 more than Crosby and five more than Garrett and Parsons. That matters, getting home more than anyone else. It matters a lot. Per Next Gen Stats, though, Watt had a pressure rate of 13.7 percent per rush—good, but down the list from the best edge-rushers. Watt would have won it in bygone years because of his sack numbers, and his terrific overall play could win it this year when the awards are announced in Las Vegas on Feb. 8.

I almost thought: Flip a five-sided coin.

I picked Garrett. In order, my top five were Garrett, Parsons, Watt, Crosby and Mack. Garrett was high in both PFF grade and Next Gen pass-rush metrics, and his team was the number one defense in football. More than that, I kept thinking of one play—amazingly, not a pass-rush or strip-sack or some great spin move. Here it is, from week seven at Indianapolis.

Diamond Images/Getty Images

Freakish, jumping like Tyreek Hill over the center and smothering the field goal. That day, in the 39-38 Cleveland win, I’d argue that Garrett accounted for 17 points. Blocked a field goal for three. Strip-sack of Gardner Minshew in the end zone, recovered by a teammate for a touchdown. Strip-sack of Minshew, recovered by the Browns, leading to a short-field TD. He had three stuffs of Colts runners for zero or negative yards, including stopping Jonathan Taylor for no gain with 3:31 to play; the Browns got the ball back and drove for the winning touchdown. One great game wouldn’t get my vote against such an august field. Garrett had a bunch of them, and a great, worthy DPOY season.

I wanted to write about this because it tells you how hard these votes can be, at least for me. I’m not sure I’m right. I’m not sure there is one right candidate. When the votes are revealed, I hope we see a damn close race, because all these players deserve to be recognized. We’re in an era when the edge players are way ahead of the men asked to keep them from the quarterback, and on any given day, any of the nine I mentioned could be the best in football. My eyes, and the numbers, told me the best overall was Garrett.

You may disagree, and if so, I’d love to hear from you at peterkingfmia@gmail.com.

A recurring element in the column this year: a video memory of one of my favorite memories of 40 years covering pro football.

Thirty years ago, I covered a rivalry playoff game that had it all—and the hatred of which I doubt will ever exist again. Broncos-Raiders, at the L.A. Coliseum. It had it all. Brawls, sniping at the highest level (Al Davis versus John Elway), a dead fish on Howie Long’s pillow. And an earthquake. They don’t make ‘em like Raiders 42, Broncos 28 anymore.

Offensive players of the week

Christian McCaffrey, running back, San Francisco. When the 49ers had to scratch and claw for every point in the 24-21 cage match win over Green Bay, the leader of the pack was McCaffrey. He grinded out 128 yards from scrimmage on 24 touches, and his second-half TD runs of 39 and six yards won the game. If John Lynch hadn’t traded for McCaffrey 15 months ago, the Niners would out of the playoffs this morning.

Jahmyr Gibbs, running back, Detroit. His beautiful diagonal touchdown run from 31 yards out broke a 17-all tie early in the fourth quarter. Did you see it? It’s like he picked out a point near the left pylon and sprinted for it, and made it, and made sure Detroit advanced to its first NFC title game in a million years. The Lions needed virtually all of his 114 scrimmage yards to survive the Bucs.

Lamar Jackson, quarterback, Baltimore. He knew everything that was being said about him. Lousy playoff quarterback. Can’t rally his team with his arm, only his legs. Jackson threw for two scores and ran for two, and he was superb rallying the Ravens from a 10-10 halftime tie to rout Houston.

Mike Evans, wide receiver, Tampa Bay. Evans enters his free-agency season coming off one of the best games of his life, considering the circumstances. His eight catches for 147 yards and a touchdown included a screened diving circus catch near the Lions goal line. In 10 terrific Tampa seasons, including playoffs, Evans’ average year: 81 catches, 1,238 yards, 10 touchdowns. With a lot of prime left. “If I’m back, I want Mike back,” said quarterback Baker Mayfield who, like Evans, is a free agent in March.

Travis Kelce, tight end, Kansas City. Broke a mini-drought with 22- and three-yard TD receptions in the 27-24 conquest of the Bills. Five catches for 75 yards in one of the biggest wins in recent times for Kansas City. That’s more like it.

Defensive players of the week

Aidan Hutchinson, edge rusher, Detroit. How must GM Brad Holmes be feeling today, for many reasons? But the biggest reason for joy, I believe, is the fact that on draft day 2022, the Jacksonville Jaguars picked Travon Walker instead of Hutchinson with the first pick in the draft. Walker’s been a good player for Jacksonville, with 13.5 sacks in his two seasons, 10 in ’23. But Hutchinson’s been a major difference-maker for Detroit. He’s had eight sacks in his last four games, including one with six pressures in the divisional win over Tampa Sunday.

Dre Greenlaw, linebacker, San Francisco. Two picks of the formerly pick-less Jordan Love (who’d had one interception in his previous 36 quarters) keyed the Niners’ survival test against Green Bay.

Christian Harris, linebacker, Houston. In the last three weeks, as the Texans have exploded onto the scene of football that matters, Harris has been the most vital defensive piece. In wins over Indianapolis to make the playoffs, over Cleveland to survive in them, and in a loss to Baltimore, Harris had 25 tackles, five behind the line, two sacks, a pick-six, and, in the loss Saturday, eight pressures of Lamar Jackson. We see you, Christian Harris.

Special teams players of the week

Eric Wilson, linebacker, Green Bay. I know the Packers lost, but what a play by this man. With Green Bay’s chances hanging in the balance in the third quarter Saturday night, Keisean Nixon returned a kickoff 73 yards deep into scoring territory—and then got the ball knocked out of his hands. As it bounced on the Levi’s Stadium turf, five players got close to it, Wilson the closest. He dove for it like Rickey Henderson diving for a stolen base at second and recovered at the San Francisco 20-yard line. Green Bay went up on a TD pass to tight end Tucker Kraft four plays later.

Steven Sims, returner-receiver, Houston. With the Texans’ offense held to three points in the first half of the divisional game at top seed Baltimore, Sims benefited from a rarity in modern pro football: He caught a punt with no one near him at the Houston 33-yard line. Waiting and watching for two split-seconds, Sims picked a hole to his right, cut upfield, broke a tackle in traffic at midfield, and blazed a trail to the left pylon for the first punt-return touchdown (after 53 tries) in his four-year NFL career. The touchdown, capped by Sims striding a la Deion Sanders to the end zone, kept the Texans in the game at halftime, 10-10.

Coach of the Week

Todd Monken, offensive coordinator, Baltimore. The word I heard about Monken around the Raves post-game: “collaborative.” At halftime, the Ravens knew they were getting smothered by the mega-blitzes run by Houston coach DeMeco Ryans. Tie game, 10-10. Instead of sticking with the plan, Monken listened to Lamar Jackson and his coaches: throw quicker, run more. In the second half, when blitzed, Jackson got the ball out in 2.25 seconds, versus 3.51 second in the first half, per Next Gen Stats. That helped Baltimore score 24 points and grind out 234 yards in the second half.

Goats of the Week

Tyler Bass, kicker, Buffalo. Oh, the pain. Bass is one of the best kickers in football. But with his team down 27-24 and 1:47 left in the divisional game against Kansas City, he pushed a 44-yard field goal wide right. Two words no one in Buffalo wants to hear, ever. Wide right. Bills lose.

Anders Carlson, kicker, Green Bay. In the middle of the fourth quarter of a playoff-elimination game, nursing a four-point lead that you’re trying to expand to seven, you simply can’t hook a 41-yard kick wide left. You can’t.

I.

--Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, after the Bills’ home playoff loss to Kansas City Sunday night.

II.

--C.J. Stroud, after a great rookie season ended in the 34-10 playoff loss at Baltimore Saturday.

III.

--Dallas owner Jerry Jones, on the decision to bring Mike McCarthy back for the 2024 season after the colossal Wild Card loss to Green Bay.

IV.

--New Patriots coach Jerod Mayo, to Steve Burton of WBZ-TV in Boston, asked about his draft priority in the first round. New England has the third overall pick. Good for Mayo. Honesty is the best policy.

V.

--Leigh Montville, one of the grandest writers in the history of Sports Illustrated, as the franchise headed toward its seeming demise Friday with another round of mass layoffs.

C.J. Stroud has started 42 games over the past three football seasons—25 at Ohio State, 17 in Houston as a Texan. He is 0-4 against teams coached by the Harbaugh brothers, 31-7 in all other games.

On Saturday night in Santa Clara, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love targeted five wide receivers and three tight ends, none of whom were on the Packers 21 months ago.

I got into Baltimore Saturday on the train from New York at about 12:20. Baltimore’s got a fine train station 1.6 miles north of the Inner Harbor, where my hotel was, and I planned to get a cab for the short ride downtown. No cabs. About 50 people with the same idea, all madly scheduling Ubers or Lyfts. When I got on the Uber app, the shortest wait was 23 minutes. So what the heck, a walk will do me good. I zipped up, pulled my knit cap down tight and set off. And it was a lovely walk.

Add to that the walk I took with Chuck the dog before leaving Brooklyn, plus I walked the 1.1 miles back and forth to M&T Bank Stadium for the football game. And when I got back to the hotel late in the second quarter of the Packers-Niners game, I looked at my pedometer app. A fit day: 19,201 steps, 7.97 miles.

Reach me at peterkingfmia@gmail.com.

Interviewing Belichick would be … odd. From Jim Petrous, of Farmville, Va.: “What are some of the questions asked of prospective head coaches? I mean, what would an owner ask Belichick or Jim Harbaugh during an interview? Their accomplishments and shortcomings are well known.”

Good question, Jim. The questions are not what they’d be in a typical job interview. Rather, they’d be along this line—let’s say, for Belichick: Would you want full personnel control? Would you want to have control over the draft? Who do you intend to bring as your offensive staff, and who will coach the quarterback? In the case of the Falcons, another question: You see our quarterback situation is weak. How would you propose to strengthen it, and would you be more interested in free agency or trade, or would you want to be aggressive in the draft trying to find one? The last one—at least one I would ask: It’s clear you had some issues with the Krafts in New England. That’s probably natural for any coach staying in a place for 24 years. But we’re a collaborative organization. Can you work in that kind of environment?

Another multiple myeloma story. From Vincent Kolb: “Thank you for the Johnny Holland story. I am one of the 36,000 who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2014. I have been on disability all year and will be retiring early this month, saying goodbye to my life as a pastor. It has been hard. The treatment was difficult, but I am exceedingly grateful to be in remission. Thanks for bringing attention to a disease that is being treated with greater effectiveness each year. Praying for a cure for Johnny Holland, myself, and thousands of others.”

One of the reasons Holland and his caregivers wanted this story to be told is so that people who feel the symptoms he felt might go get checked early, when treatment options can lead to a longer life. Thanks for sharing your story, Vincent, and best of luck to you.

Thank you. From Grant Jacobs of Holly Spring, N.C.: “One of the things I love about your column are the behind-the-scenes stories and the nicely written articles you highlight from other journalists. This week, you combined the two masterfully in the story about Johnny Holland—a story we would not have known without you, about a coach’s life off the field, and you make us feel like we were right there with you for all these moments. What an inspiring soul he is.”

Thanks Grant—and you’re right about Johnny Holland. Hard to be in his presence and not come away wanting to get everything you can out of this life.

Fair criticism. From Steve Rausch: “Somehow, the young Packers go into Dallas and completely dismantle the Cowboys and you end up writing (far) more words about Henry Hasselbeck. And you’ve been doing this for 40 years?”

Got a few such emails about neglecting the Packers in last week’s column, and I hear you. You have a point. The problem with trying to cover four games in a weekend—particularly when I attend two of them—is time and travel. If I’m going to write something worth reading on the two games in cities far apart, I am going to mostly ignore the other two. It’s possible to cover all four equally, by sitting in my Brooklyn apartment and getting a person on the phone from each game afterward. But then I wouldn’t have had 10 minutes with Dan Campbell after the biggest Lions’ win in three decades, nor the experience of being in the raucous stadium—and I wouldn’t have had personal time with C.J. Stroud after his great game against Cleveland. Re: Hasselbeck, I write about 50 percent of the column before the games start, typically, and of course that was done beforehand. No regrets on that, at all. This all comes down, to me, to wanting to give depth on some of the biggest games of the year instead of being surfacy on all of them.

On the Dolphins. From Luciano Patino: “I thought the Dolphins had zero chance to make a run once they lost so many quality defensive starters. But that really does nothing to explain the late-season ineptitude on offense. Where was Tua’s vaunted accuracy over these last few weeks? Most great quarterbacks have gone through phases where there was doubt. I still have hope, but it’s up to Tua now to overcome.”

I put myself in your corner, Luciano. Tua Tagovailoa has had some great moments and games, and I still think he’s the future for Miami. But the consistency has to improve, as well as his play in big games. Franchise quarterbacks have to be better than 0-3, 57-percent completion rate, and a 4-to-5 TD-to-pick margin, as Tagovailoa was in his last three games.

Coughlin and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. From Michael Herz: “My sense is that there is a consensus that Tom Coughlin will one day make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and that it’s mostly a question of when and where he fits in the queue of other former coaches (e.g. Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Marty Schottenheimer, Dan Reeves). My question is: If there is a belief that he will ultimately be elected, why wait at this point? He’s 77 years old. If it’s worth honoring someone, the Pro Football Hall of Fame should find a way to do it before it’s too late for those individuals to enjoy the honor.”

In an ideal world, Michael, you’re right. But I don’t agree that we should vote for the Hall based on someone’s age or whether he should be able to enjoy it. There are many coaches right now who have similar cases above what I think is probably the modern line of demarcation for Hall of Fame coaches. Bill Cowher won 161 games (regular season and playoffs) with one Super Bowl win. My feeling is that’s a bit low—without other mitigating factors—for coaches, but that’s where we are. There are 10 coaches as of today who have compiled credentials better than that. Three are eligible for the Hall today: Coughlin (20 seasons, 182 wins, two Super Bowls), Mike Shanahan (20 seasons, 178 wins, two Super Bowls), Mike Holmgren (17 seasons, 174 wins, one Super Bowl plus a Super Bowl loss). Coughlin is 77, Holmgren 75, Shanahan 71. I’ve always thought, and still do, that what matters is the coaching resume, not the age or status of health.

1. I think the Bucs lucked into a good thing with Baker Mayfield this season. Rather than investing the 26th pick in the draft in three months in a quarterback, the Bucs should try to sign Mayfield for two years at decent starter money, nothing crazy, and see if he can develop into the long-term starter.

2. I think, in the interest of full disclosure, here are a few nuggets from my post-season awards ballot:

• Lamar Jackson, Brock Purdy, Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, Tyreek Hill were 1 through 5 for MVP.
• Christian McCaffrey for Offensive Player of the Year, edging Hill. Why Hill number 5 on the MVP list and not McCaffrey? In terms of value, I thought Hill was the most important non-quarterback for his team this year, while McCaffrey was most outstanding.
• Hill, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Deebo Samuel were my three first-team all-pro receivers; CeeDee Lamb, Puka Nacua and Mike Evans second team. (Re: Deebo: I’m not ruled by numbers, but rather impact.)
• Kevin Stefanski nipped DeMeco Ryans in a photo finish for coach of the year. Winning 11 games with five different QBs decided it, but easily I could have gone with Ryans.
• C.J. Stroud over Nacua for Offensive Rookie, Rams DT Kobie Turner over Will Anderson for Defensive Rookie.
• Crowded ballot for exec of year, in order, with five GMs: Brad Holmes (Detroit), Les Snead (Rams), Nick Caserio (Houston), Eric DeCosta (Baltimore), Brian Gutekunst (Green Bay). The construction jobs by all five have been exemplary.
• Damar Hamlin over Baker Mayfield for Comeback Player. Easy choice.
• Jim Schwartz over Mike McDonald and Bobby Slowik for Assistant Coach.

3. I think I feel like a game is in control when it’s in the hands of referee Alex Kemp, who did Green Bay-San Francisco Saturday night. Very good young official.

4. I think this is what I want to see in the Vegas odds this week: a line on whether Greg Olsen ties his tie for the NFC Championship Game Sunday evening.

5. I think, if Bill Belichick coaches Atlanta and Jim Harbaugh the Chargers, we’ll see some interesting games next fall:

• Harbaugh at Harbaugh. Baltimore at the Chargers.
• Jerry Jones at Belichick (Dallas-Atlanta).
• Belichick hosts Jim Harbaugh.
• Mahomes at Belichick.

6. I think, again, I call on the NFL for common-sense coach-interview rules. And again, I simply can’t believe the league allows a system to exist that permits coaches of teams in the playoffs to do interviews in the biggest weeks of their seasons. As much as it hurts teams in the market for head coaches, the league should outlaw interviews with coaches in the playoffs until their teams are out of the playoffs.

7. I think I used to believe all interviews should be put off until two days after the Super Bowl. But it’s fine, even if a team with an opening has its eyes on a Super Bowl coordinator, to allow that team to interview coaches on the street or whose teams have finished play. The problem I have is fairly simple, and I’ll use the Lions as an example. Last week, the Lions were coming off the emotional win over the Rams in a Wild Card game, and preparing for their divisional game—the most important game the franchise has had in three decades. Meanwhile, the two coordinators, Ben Johnson (offense) and Aaron Glenn (defense) were lining up virtual interviews to happen between the end of practice Friday and late Saturday before the game. Johnson was juggling five interview requests, Glenn four. Tell me: How is it fair to the Lions to have a system that bifurcates the attention of two vital coaches heading into the most important game they’ve ever coached?

8. I think you could hear it in Dan Campbell’s voice when he discussed the interest in Johnson and Glenn—he cannot like his most important coaches being distracted in a week like this. No head coach would, even those who have gotten their head-coaching jobs through this ridiculous system. “They are worthy candidates and I think both of them should be at the top of everybody’s list,” Campbell said. “But we’re in one of these unique years where there’s a ton of jobs available, so that’s also why they all want to speak to them. They’re going to have to crunch [the interviews] in there.”

9. I think there’s one other part of this that’s bothersome: Yes, Johnson and Glenn have enough hours in the day to figure out how to squeeze eight hours of interviews in. But what about being fresh for the biggest game of their lives, instead of being fried from six, eight, 10 hours of interviews? Does that count for anything? What about the message it sends to some players on your team, players who would rightly think, “Why can’t I begin to talk to teams about my free agency coming up after this game?” What about the late-night phone calls and texts to coaches Glenn and Johnson would hope to have on their staffs? Teams with vacancies are going to wonder with Johnson, for instance, “Who’s the defensive coordinator you have in mind? What kind of defense will you run? Who else would you plan to bring on staff?” The whole thing is unfair to the coaches, and unfair to the teams that employ them.

10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:

a. Wow. Looks like Jerry Jones could get the World Cup Final for 2026 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Amazing. When the bidding process started, that game was going to New York or L.A. But Jones and the Dallas team have been trying to sell the World Cuppers on the proximity to soccer-mad Latin America, and on the how that stadium will be the biggest and most tricked-out venue in the Americas for such a spectacle.

b. Ironic. The Jerry business is booming, even after one of the most disastrous losses in his ownership, even after the massively unpopular decision to keep Mike McCarthy as coach. Jones loves the Cowboys, but he loves the business of the Cowboys just as much, and he loves the business of Jerryworld perhaps even more.

c. Sports Story of the Week: Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on a star 14-year-old basketball player, Chloe Johnson, using basketball to help fight her demons.

d. An excellent writer uses the power of detail to weave an unforgettable story. Scoggins is excellent. He writes that Chloe Johnson practices basketball on a court 64 paces from her bedroom. Details. Always details. This story’s full of great ones.

e. Scoggins wrote about the importance of those trips to the basketball court for Chloe, and says she’s free there:

Free from worry. Free from intrusive thoughts that can paralyze her. The medical term is “obsessive-compulsive disorder.” Her family calls it a “secret storm.” Not visible by outward appearances, its cruel impact they know too well.

The daily routines and rituals that go by in minutes for others would throughout Chloe’s childhood take her family hours. In addition to OCD, Chloe has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and a rare childhood condition known as selective mutism. Just leaving the house or talking in public became intense challenges, and Chloe’s parents searched for answers, coping mechanisms, help — anything.

Basketball became their anything, and when it entered Chloe’s life, in some ways, it saved her. For reasons that everyone, including Chloe herself, find difficult to explain, the storm clears on the court.

“It’s my safe place,” she says.

Today, the 5-11, blue-eyed kid with a long, braided ponytail and sweet nature is a straight-A, eighth-grade student and force for the Duluth Marshall varsity team. She is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, players her age in the country. She already holds scholarship offers from eight universities, including the [Minnesota Golden] Gophers, Wisconsin and Maryland.

Her game is a blend of strength and grace. Her brilliance shines not in being flashy but with skills so exceptionally sharp she makes basketball look effortless. Chloe is not yet in high school, but she ranks among the state’s leaders at the varsity level in every statistical category.

Special. Unique. Different. She hears these words often. Chloe will tell you that she is different from other kids, and the tapestry of her young life reveals it. She is a teenager who doesn’t enjoy being on her phone or using social media. A waste of valuable time, she says. She averages only 18 minutes of screen time per day.

f. Eighteen minutes of screen time per day. Such a powerful detail. No question many of her peers average more than 18 minutes per hour.

g. Scoggins got Chloe to share her journal with him. Man, does that take trust. You’ll love to read her writings about living with OCD. Great job, Chip Scoggins.

h. Tribute of the Week: Matt Porter of The Boston Globe, on Tim Murphy, retiring after 30 seasons as the football coach at Harvard.

i. His most famous grad: Ryan Fitzpatrick. But there were many others. Wrote Porter:

Tight ends were a specialty for Murphy, whose NFL alums include Cam Brate, Anthony Firkser and Kyle Juszczyk, as well as Tyler Ott (who became a long snapper). Linebackers like Isaiah Kacyvenski and offensive linemen like Matt Birk shined in the pros. Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, Texans DC Matt Burke and longtime NFL coach Joe Philbin are in Murphy’s coaching tree.

He also produced the youngest general manager in NFL history — and called it well before it happened. Fitzpatrick recalled Murphy predicting that specific future for Andrew Berry during his years as an All-Ivy cornerback (2006-08). Berry was 32 when the Cleveland Browns appointed him GM in 2020.

j. Cool Story of the Week: From Harry Benson for Vanity Fair: When the Beatles Stormed America, I was With Them.

k. As the 60^th anniversary of the Beatles’ invasion of the United States approaches, we’re reminded of what an incredible moment it was, just three months after the assassination of President Kennedy. Benson was a photographer embedded with the band, starting with its pre-America trip to Paris. His insights are historic. I was especially interested in how creative the group was at all hours. Instead of being focused on debauchery, John, Paul, George and Ringo were into their music.

l. In France, Benson saw the creativity first-hand, as the Beatles were captive in their hotel; they couldn’t go out without being swarmed. Wrote Benson:

After their second night performing in France, they came back to the hotel at around a quarter to 11. They wanted to go somewhere, but there weren’t many places open at that hour. And when they did go out to a club, their table was immediately surrounded by women. They couldn’t move. They couldn’t dance. Always a swarm. So they usually just stayed in the hotel suite with their handlers and me. They’d smoke cigarettes and play guitar, surrounded by tea sets and coffeepots, vases of flowers, baskets of fruit, newspapers with their pictures in them.

I soon saw how the music came naturally. It wasn’t like they’d built in time to compose—they had to do it on the fly. There was a piano in Paul’s room. At one point, John pulled up a chair and started tinkering. Paul joined in. John started humming what I would later recognize as the tune to “Baby’s good to me, you know / She’s happy as can be, you know / She said so…” But they got stuck: Where should it go after the melody? George wandered over with his guitar and played a catchy rhythm-and-blues riff, plucking away. He seemed to be improvising. Although John was later credited with writing the riff—influenced by Bobby Parker’s song “Watch Your Step”—the way I heard it that day was George coming up with it.

They appeared to be writing a song right in front of me. And as John and Paul kept at it on the piano, Ringo, in a black turtleneck, came over and stood next to George. And I had my shot: the Beatles composing “I Feel Fine.”

m. One of my favorite Beatles songs here.

n. Back in the day when songs were 2 minutes, 16 seconds.

o. RIP, Crazy Joe Davola.

p. It’s hard to be delusional and scary and funny and a psychopath in one 22-minute TV episode, but that’s what Peter Crombie, the actor who portrayed the nutty Davola, did in five “Seinfeld” episodes.

q. Not saying the Red Sox will win 65 games this year. But they might.

r. Great line, Pete Abraham (of The Boston Globe, on Friday): “Yanks DFA’d Jeter today.”

s. Jeter Downs.

t. My writing music, as Saturday turned to Sunday in the Pier 5 Hotel, Baltimore.

u. I don’t sing. I never have. But I look at Lady Gaga in that 11-year-old video from the Prudential Center in Newark and think: What must she be thinking being on stage with Mick Jagger and singing “Gimme Shelter”?

v. Then, at times like these, there’s the Foo Fighters.

Mahomes v Allen
Yes, these are the good old days.
More of these. Lots more.