Year: 2017

Matt Ryan makes Super Bowl loss worse with dumb ad appearance

Thanks to the invention of the DVR, I rarely watch commercials. I just zip through them until the program starts again.

But when I was watching a show the other night, I could see several athletes were featured, so I stopped to watch it.

It’s been out for a couple of weeks so you’ve probably seen it, but it opens with Michael Jordan saying, “ You want to know the secret of victory? Fail to make the varsity team.’’

Then it goes to J.J. Watt saying, “Start your career as a walk-on.’’

A couple more athletes appear and then Jordan returns and says, “Really want to know the secret of victory?’’ Then it shows Matt Ryan walking on the field after blowing the biggest Super Bowl lead in history and he says, “Defeat.’’

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There’s finally a feel-good story about NFL players and their money

It is no secret that many NFL players lose money on bad investments.

That is why it is interesting that a group of NFL players have made what may be a good investment in a feel good story.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the players made an $810,000 investment in the lemonade business started by a 12-year-old in Austin, Mikaila Ulmer.

But it’s not like they’re just trying to help her get off the ground.

The girl got an $11 million, four-state contract with Whole Foods in 55 stores in the South last year for what she calls Me @ The Bees Lemonade.

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Kaepernick, unlike his critics, remains on the right side of history

As the Fourth of July approached earlier this week, I was curious if Colin Kaepernick would have any comments about the holiday.

It’s not surprising that he not only talked the talk, but walked the walk.

As many of you probably know, he first visited Egypt with former 49er teammate Marquise Goodwin.

Then on July 4th, he was in Ghana, which Kaepernick says he traced his ancestral roots to and from where the ships left Africa on the infamous Middle Passage.

Kaepernick then tweeted about the Fourth of July, “How can we truly celebrate our independence on a day that intentionally robbed our ancestors of theirs.’’

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NFL’s scheduling greed is finally taking a toll

Is the NFL suffering from oversaturation?

That is a question asked a lot last year when the NFL’s TV ratings dropped, although the league blamed first-half plummet on all the interest in the presidential election.

That’s why the ratings will be watched closely this year.

But it’s not the only barometer the NFL and its broadcast partners will be watching. The league also has to be concerned that advertisers aren’t rushing to make buys even before the season begins.

According to Advertising Age, some insiders say the ad buys are the softest since the 2008 recession.

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HBO’s ‘Ballers’ is bad TV but also a guilty pleasure

Here’s a fun fact for your holiday weekend: Would you believe that Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she is a fan of the HBO comedy “Ballers’’?

She revealed this earlier this year in her book This Fight Is Our Fight, claiming she and her husband binge-watched the show on Election Night, which really seems unbelievable.

Anyway,  I first heard about her interest in the show watching Samantha Bee’s “Full Frontal’’ on TBS last week.

The senator said, “It’s actually a story about hard work, a story about perseverance.’’

That’s news to me.

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Tebow has no future in baseball, but the guy can still sell tickets

We now have the answer to one of the two major questions about Tim Tebow’s minor league baseball experiment.

After 64 games in Columbia, we have the statistical evidence that at age 29, he is not a major-league prospect.

What we don’t know is if he will continue to be the box-office smash he was in low-A Columbia now that he’s been called up to high-A Port St. Lucie by the New York Mets.

His showing in Columbia, though, provided no evidence he’ll ever make it in the majors. It’s not only that he hit just .220 with seven errors. That was enough to show a player wasn’t a prospect back in the day when I covered baseball before the NFL became a year-round beat.

But now there is a lot more statistical evidence that baseball isn’t his thing. Starting with Bill James and now with computers, baseball is the dream sport for computer-savvy types.

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Jackson just the latest to prove that no one can compare to Auerbach

The lack of a sense of history in sports – and in real life – is one of my pet gripes.

Everything that happens today is always the greatest or the best ever. The past tends to be overlooked or forgotten.

That brings me to the firing of Phil Jackson by the New York Knicks after a three-year reign of error.

Jackson showed that, for all his coaching skills when he had Hall of Fame players and won 11 titles, he wasn’t cut out to run a team.

To put it bluntly, Jackson is no Red Auerbach.

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Leftwich faces impossible task grooming Gabbert into legit quarterback

Imagine an NFL team drafting a quarterback with a top-ten pick twice in nine drafts.

Imagine that both of them are busts.

And imagine that one of them winds up coaching the other one.

Sounds a bit far-fetched, but that’s happening with the Arizona Cardinals this year.

Byron Leftwich, the seventh pick in the 2003 draft by the Jaguars, was hired as Arizona’s quarterbacks coach by Bruce Arians in the offseason.

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Reid’s hands look like they were all over Dorsey’s abrupt firing

Clark Hunt was, as they say, to the manor born.

He’s the grandson of flamboyant oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, who was once one of the richest men in the world – if not the richest – and had 15 children with three wives. The J.R. Ewing character in the TV series “Dallas’’ was loosely based on his life.

Clark also is the son of late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who changed pro football by co-founding the American Football League, which led to the merger with the NFL and the creation of the Super Bowl. He even named the game after a kid’s toy called the Super Ball. Lamar was very down to earth, always wearing a blue blazer and gray slacks and never showing the trappings of wealth.

Clark, now 52, was No. 1 in his class at SMU and took over running the Chiefs when his father died in 2006.

Clark, though, is showing that being smart and rich doesn’t always translate into being a good owner. Or from doing dumb things. In a family run business, the third generation is often the one that has problems keeping things on the right track.

Continue reading “Reid’s hands look like they were all over Dorsey’s abrupt firing”

Bashing of Kaepernick continues to know no bounds

Colin Kaepernick is like the guy at the county fair who sits above a tub of water while fair goers throw balls attempting to dunk him in the water.

Trying to dunk Kaepernick remains a popular sport in the NFL and the media these days.

In what amounts to blaming the victim, Kaepernick gets bashed for teams not signing him after he refused to stand for the national anthem. He doesn’t get saluted for standing on principle.

The latest bashing was by Albert Breer of The MMQB, who quoted a 49ers employee – it wasn’t clear if the employee is still with the team – bashing Kaepernick’s work habits. Kaepernick is gone, but the 49ers can’t stop taking shots at him.

Breer said the employee told him Kaepernick wouldn’t stay late at the facility, saying he would take the work home instead.

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