Month: August 2024

Do you like debating sports questions with your friends?

If so, the book “Got Your Answers” by Mike Greenberg with Paul “Hembo” Hembekides is right for you.

The book, published by Hyperion Avenue, is their second. The first, “Got Your Number,” was more about sports history. This one is designed to settle the 100 greatest sports arguments.

Of course, it won’t settle all of them,  but it will start the debate. Some you will agree with and some you won’t.

For example, he does not include the Tom Brady Patriots on his list of the top 10 sports dynasties of all time. He has the Bill Russell Celtics with 11 titles first with the Casey Stengel Yankees with seven titles from 1949-58 second. The two pro football dynasties he includes are the Vince Lombardi Packers third and the Chuck Noll Steelers third and sixth with five and four titles.

He said he doesn’t include the Patriots because they don’t fit the traditional definition of a dynasty because by the time they won their sixth, Brady was the only player left from the first three. In effect, Brady won with three different teams because he won his last one with the Bucs.

I agree with him that the Patriots don’t fit the definition of a traditional dynasty, but many fans won’t, although that is why it is interesting to debate these questions.

I think it is just a matter of time before the  Patrick Mahomes Chiefs are added to the list. The success of Brady and Mahomes shows that in this era, when all the rules favor the passing game, you don’t need a great team to win; you just need a great quarterback.

In the past, John Unitas had Alan Ameche, Otto Graham had Marion Motley, Bart Starr had Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung and Terry Bradshaw had Franco Harris. Brady didn’t need a great running back and Mahomes hasn’t needed one, either, to compliment the passing game.

 I would include the Paul Brown Browns who went to 10 title games in a row with Otto Graham at quarterback and won seven from 1946 to 1955, but since the first four were in the AAFC, I guess that is why they were left out.

On the pitchers you would want with the season on the line, the authors have Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Christy Mathewson as the top three and there is no argument there. But they have Curt Schilling and Whitey Ford at Nos. 4 and 5, and they left off Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander and Warren Spahn from their top ten.

In the rule changes that had the most impact, he starts with the NBA three-point line in 1979. But he leaves the five-yard bump rule that the NFL instituted the previous year. It was the first step into turning the NFL into a pass-first league. 

In his list of the top NCAA tournament team, he has Gail Goodrich over Magic Johnson at guard. I know Goodrich won three rings and became a Hall of Famer playing with then-Lew Alcindor at center, but Magic’s win over Larry Bird in the Michigan State-Indiana State game made March Madness a prime time event.

His perfect all-time baseball lineup includes five old-timers (Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson, plus Ruth and Gehrig plus one Negro League player, Josh Gibson. He has Ruth hitting second because according to analytics, he would get more at bats. Ted Williams makes it as a DH batting fourth behind Josh Gibson. Barry Bonds leads off and knocks Ty Cobb off the team. Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt round out the lineup. The only team to have more than one player was the Yankees of the 1920s with Ruth and Gehrig. That is why the 1927 Yankees are still in the running for the accolade of being the best of all time. If you have Ruth and Gehrig, you can just fill in the other seven.

The book includes a lot more answers, which is why it is a good addition to the library of any sports fan. And the book also includes 100 trivia questions so you can see how many you can answer.

Here’s one: Bart Starr went 9-1 in playoff games. Which team beat him?

The answer is the Philadelphia Eagles in 1960. Vince Lombardi said after the game  they would never lose another title game and they didn’t, winning the next nine before he left the sidelines in Green Bay.

You will want to see how many you can answer. 

The NFL’s new kickoff rule is obviously a work in progress.

The Jaguars-Chiefs first preseason game Saturday night showed that teams are still adjusting to some of the nuances of the new rule.

A good example came when Jacksonville kicker Cam Little hit a kickoff that bounced just into the end zone and then bounced forward to the one. Chiefs returned Mecole Hardman grabbed the ball and pulled back in the end zone and took a knee.

The officials ruled a touchback and were putting the ball on the 30 when Jaguars coach Doug Pederson objected and talked to the officials. Jaguars special teams coach Heath Farwell alerted Pederson it was a safety under the new rules.

“My point to the officials is you’ve got to review it at least,” Pederson said. “Give us an opportunity to review it –not me because I couldn’t but let the official review it.”

The crew led by referee Tra Blake held a conference and agreed Pederson was right and ruled a safety.

But the interesting thing is that neither the Chiefs nor the officials knew that it was a safety at first.

“The ball landed in the end zone and now by rule and now by rule is still a live ball,” Pederson said.

Andy Reid is a future Hall of Fame coach who has won three Super Bowls as the Chiefs coach, including the last two, but he wasn’t up to speed on the new rule and obviously the returner wasn’t either.

“We’ll get it cleaned up,” Reid said.

It was a positive that it happened in the preseason so other teams can use it as a teaching tool to make sure their players know the new rule.

The Jaguars also did well in the return department as Parker Washington returned their first kickoff 73 yards to set up a touchdown and Tank Bigsby returned a free kick after the safety 45 yards.

The idea of the new rule is to have more kick returns. But are teams going to risk long returns or just kick it out of the end zone and have the ball placed on the 30?

The averaging starting position for all kicks was the 29 and 28.5 for returned kicks according to PFT. Maybe the starting position should be the 35 to encourage teams not to kick it out of the end zone.

Teams have two more games to experiment as they decide what to do during the regular season. First, they have to learn all the new rules.

Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL has suddenly gotten more difficult.

When Harbaugh took the Los Angeles Chargers’ head coaching job after winning the national title at alma mater Michigan, he seemed set at quarterback with Justin Herbert as his starter.

That all changed early in camp when Herbert was sidelined with a plantar fascia injury in his right foot. The Chargers put the best face on the situation, saying he would be in a boot for two weeks and then make a gradual return and be ready to play in the season opener against the Raiders.

That is the optimistic report. But the injury, which is an inflammation of the fibrous tissue along the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone to the toes, can cause intense pain and take a lot of time to heal.

Meanwhile, the quarterback instead will be Easton Stick, who threw one pass in his first four seasons. Last year he came in after Herbert suffered a broken finger on his throwing hand in the second quarter of a loss to Denver. Stick then started and lost the final four games while throwing three touchdown passes and one interception.

While Herbert had started the previous 62 games, he often played hurt with bruised ribs, a torn labrum on his non-throwing shoulder and a broken finger on his non-throwing hand before missing the last four games last year with the broken finger on his throwing hand.

Last July, he signed a five-year $262.5 million extension, so the Chargers are committed to him.

The quarterbacks behind Stick are second-year pro Max Duggan and undrafted rookie Casey Bauman.

Herbert’s injury is the first major one suffered by a quarterback in the NFL this year. The timing isn’t good because the Chargers have a virtually new cast of wide receivers, running backs and tight ends, and he won’t have much time to get in sync with them if he does manage to return for the start of the season.

The Chargers can only keep their fingers crossed and hope this isn’t the start of another star-crossed season.