VITO'S VIEWS

When Bill Belichick started his new gig as a commentator on “Inside the NFL” recently, he pointed out an interesting fact about his first game as an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts in 1975.

It was a game against the Chicago Bears, and Walter Payton made his debut in the same game. So a Hall of Fame running back and a future Hall of Fame coach made their debuts in the same game. Payton struggled in the opener with no yards in eight carries and a one catch for a four yard loss.

It was an example that even the best of rookies sometimes don’t get off to a good start.

They also showed clips of Payton making some good runs in the College All-Star game against the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers a year before the game was discontinued. On one play, he was one-on-one with No. 58 of the Steelers, who overran him while Payton cut the other way for a nice gain. They didn’t identify No. 58, although Chad Johnson said he was the man with no teeth. Of course, No. 58 was Jack Lambert.

The Bears played Pittsburgh that year in the regular season and the coaches  held out Payton with a minor injury. The Bears knew they had no chance against the Steeler and didn’t want Payton to risk further injury. After the game, a writer told Payton that Jim Brown never missed a game. Payton never missed another start.

Here are some other tidbits about NFL openers:

–The Saints have won their last five openers.

–Of active coaches, Andy Reid has won the most openers with a 17-4 mark after Thursday’s 27-20 win over the Ravens.

–Jim Harbaugh returns to the NFL with a 4-0 mark in openers. Nick Sirianni is 3-0 in openers and Mike McDaniel is 33-0.

–O.J. Simpson owns the rushing record for openers with250 yards in 1973.

–Norm Van Brocklin owns the passing yardage record for openers with 554 yards in 1951.

–Three rookie quarterbacks — Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix — will start their first games.

It has never been easier to play quarterback in the NFL.

The NFL has made numerous rule changes in recent years to protect the quarterbacks and enable the receivers to get open so it has become much more of a passing league.

Yet it is still not easy to find quarterbacks. Although the league has an influx of promising young quarterback, Patrick Mahomes is the only active quarterback to win more than one Super Bowl. He has three rings.  

Three  young quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow and Mark Purdy, made the Super Bowl once and lost.

Among the young quarterbacks who have yet to make a Super Bowl are Josh Allen, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert. Plus Love and C.J. Stroud, who had sensational rookie seasons. 

Three veteran quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and Russell Wilson, have each won one ring.

Meanwhile teams keep looking for quarterbacks.

This year, eight teams have new quarterbacks and that doesn’t include Aaron Rodgers of the Jets and Anthony Richardson of the Colts, who were both injured much of last year. And Will Levis, who played about half the snaps last year in Tennessee, is now the full time starter. 

The newcomers include three rookies, Caleb Williams of the Bears, Jayden Daniels of the Commanders and Bo Nix of Denver.

The starting veterans who changed teams are Kirk Cousins of Atlanta, Russell Wilson of Pittsburgh, Sam Darnold of Minnesota, Jacoby Brissett of New England and Gardner Minshew of Las Vegas, 

The future of Cousins, Darnold and Brissett are up in the air because their teams drafted quarterbacks on the first round  — Michael Penix of Atlanta, J.J. McCarthy of Minnesota and Drake Maye of New England. But McCarthy is out for the year with a knee injury. And Minshew, who took Indianapolis to within a game of the playoffs last year after Richardson was hurt, has to prove he can be the long-term answer.

The rest of the quarterbacks returning were starters last season.

The list, of course, starts with Mahomes, who has played in four Super Bowls and won three and is trying to threepeat for the first time in the Super Bowl era..

He is followed by Burrow, Hurts and Purdy who are trying to return to the Super Bowl for the second time.

Then Allen, Tagovailoa, Lawrence and Herbert are young players all trying to get to the Super Bowl. Stroud and Love will try to guild on their rookie seasons. And Young hopes to  bounce back from a disappointing rookie season.

Jared Goff of the Lions, Dak Prescott of the Cowboys, Daniel Jones of the Giants, Deshaun Watson of the Browns, Baker Mayfield of the Bucs, Geno Smith of the Seahawks, Kyler Murray of the Cardinals and Derek Carr of the Saints are veteran starters who are returning. Goff, Mayfield and Carr seem set as long-term quarterbacks, but Prescott is in the last year of his contract and Jones need to prove he can be the Giants long-term answer. Watson is still trying to live up to his fully guaranteed contract.

Now we see which quarterbacks can avoid injuries and have standout seasons.

When Tom Moore was hired as the Steelers wide receiver coach in 1977, I was covering the team for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

My story line on his hiring was whether the college coach could make the transition to the NFL and be successful on that level.

He certainly proved he could. At age 85, he is in his 46^th 4^th season as an NFL assistant coach. He has been an offensive coordinator for 22 years and called plays for 23 years. He has coached 16 division winning teams and in 48 post season games and won four Super Bowl rings and has been honored at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is one of the best assistant coaches ever if not the best. He is in his sixth season as a senior offensive assistant with the Bucs.

He coached three Hall of Fame quarterbacks – Terry Bradshaw, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady — and numerous other Hall of Fame players.

He has chronicled his career in his book entitled “The Players’ Coach from Bradshaw to Manning, Brady and Beyond” with Rick Stroud.

He later commented to me about that first story so he hasn’t forgotten it. He told the story about it in his book and his version is that I said he was joining a team that had won two Super Bowls and I said, “What do you bring to the table?” I don’t remember asking it quite that way, but his answer was, “Hard Work.”

He certainly believes in hard work. He likes to get to work at 3:15 a.m. with plays sketched in pencil on a legal pad. Being old school, he isn’t into I pads and computers. He likes knowing if the power goes out he still has his playbook.

He has a page of diagrams of some famous Steeler plays including 60 Prevent Slot Hook and Go that they used twice in the fourth period of Super Bowl XIV against the Rams.  The first one went for a 73 yard third down touchdown pass from Bradshaw to John Stallworth that put the Steelers ahead to stay. Another one was 93 Tackle Trap that Franco Harris ran for a touchdown in Super Bowl XIII against the Cowboys.

The strange thing is that he never was offered a head coaching job in the NFL and got only two interviews. But he expresses no bitterness and admits he doesn’t have a lot of charisma.

His career has lasted so long that he coached Tony Dungy as a teen age quarterback at the University of Minnesota and then worked for him when Dungy was a head coach with the Colts. In between, he helped recruit him to sign with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent.

The Steelers told Moore he could go to a $5000 signing bonus but to start at $2000. Moore decided to offer him the $5000 and a three year contract at $15,000, $17,500 and $20,000. Dungy was making less money than some of the writers covering the team but salaries had yet to explode in those days. Dungy even worked in the offseason at a bank to complement his salary.  When Dungy decided to coach, Moore again recruited him to be a Steeler assistant before winding up working for Dungy in Indianapolis. Moore worked 13 years for both the Steelers and Colts.

 Moore provides a lot of insights in the book including a series of coaching points. For example, he says coaches have to guard against boredom. He said coaches are insecure and start thinking you need to add plays as the season goes along, which means you have to practice them and then you stop doing what worked in September. You never think of boredom becoming a problem.

He also adds a lot of interesting comments what he experienced in his career.

For example, when the Colts visited Tampa Bay in 2003 in Dungy’s first game there after being fired by the Bucs, the Colts fell behind 35-14. Dungy asked Moore if he thought they should pull Manning and Moore suggested they give Manning one more chance. Dungy did and the Colts rallied to win in overtime.  Moore said that win gave them a boost of confidence and helped them rally from a 21-3 deficit in 2006 AFC title game against the Patriots. They then beat the Bears to win the Super Bowl in the first Super Bowl featuring two black head coaches.

He also Barry Sanders often fell asleep in meetings and when Moore confronted him and said he needed to stay awake, Sanders said what he sees on film isn’t what he sees on the field. He explained the game starts fast, but when he carries the ball, the slower the game gets.

He also said one of that one of the reasons Brady had a frustrating last season with the Bucs is that Brady was dealing with his divorce. Moore said he lost 20 pounds and his face was drawn and he was surprised he didn’t get hurt because that can happen if you lose concentration.

“If it affects Tom, then it affects the guy next to him, and all of a sudden, it affects everyone,” Moore said.  The Bucs rallied to make the playoffs but were routed by Dallas.

It is insight that like that makes this a must read for NFL fans. The only question now is how long Moore will continue to coach. He doesn’t seem like the retiring type.  

–The 2024 season begins with two time defending champion Kansas City hosting the Thursday night opener for the second year in a row as they begin their quest for the first threepeat of the Super Bowl era and only the third in NFL history. Last year, the Chiefs lost the Thursday night opener to Detroit and then won six in a row and went on to repeat. This year they play the Ravens in a rematch of last year’s AFC title game. It is a good quarterback matchup pitting Patrick Mahomes, who has three Super Bowl rings, vs. Lamar Jackson, who has won two regular season MVP titles but has yet to make the Super Bowl.

–The prime time games on Sunday and Monday nights feature the Rams at Detroit and the Jets at San Francisco. The Lions beat the Rams in a wild card game last January while the 49ers lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs. The Jets are out to prove they will be a contender if Aaron Rodgers can stay healthy. The Packers and Philadelphia in Brazil on Friday night it will be only streamed on Peacock plus in Philadelphia and Green Bay. The NFL hops to get more viewers than it did last year on Peacock because many sports fans signed on to watch the Olympics this summer and many may not have cancelled their subscription. But it won’t get the ratings it would have gotten on a broadcast network. The NFL likes to pocket that streaming cash.

–The Sunday second game on Fox will feature Dallas at Cleveland with Tom Brady making his debut as a broadcaster. Brady supposedly won’t get the usual access the network broadcasters do because he has made a bid to buy a share in the Raiders. Whether that hinders his ability to give insights in the booth remains to be seen. The other Fox late Sunday game is Washington at Tampa Bay with rookie Jayden Daniels starting at quarterback vs. Baker Mayfield.

 –CBS has three early games with the Jacksonville at Miami game featuring two young .quarterbacks, Trevor Lawrence and Tua Tagovailoa, who got big contracts in the offseason even though Tua lost his last three starts last year and Lawrence lost his last five. Two other games will have good quarterback matchups. The Houston at Indianapolis matchup will pit C.J. Stroud against Antony Richardson and the Arizona-at Buffalo game matches Kyler Murray vs. Josh Allen. Cincinnati figures to beat New England in the other early CBSgame. The two 4 p.m. CBS games pit the Raiders at the Chargers and Denver at Seattle. Rookie Bo Nix starts for the Broncos.

–FOX also has four early games with the top draft pick, Caleb Williams, making his debut when Chicago hosts Tennessee and Will Levis. Pittsburgh goes to Atlanta with two veterans making their debuts with new teams as Russell Wilson goes against Kirk Cousins. In New York, the Giants and Daniel Jones host Minnesota and Sam Darnold, who got the start when rookie J.J. McCarthy was lost for the season after undergoing surgery on a torn meniscus. In the fourth early FOX game, the Saints figure to beat the Panthers.

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.

The Las Vegas Raiders are holding training camp outside of Los Angeles this year.

That seemed to be a routine announcement, but it was not.

By training in Costa Mesa, which is about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, the Raiders are infringing on the territorial rights of the Rams and Chargers. Those clubs have the rights for 75 miles around Los Angeles.

So the Raiders can’t advertise they are training close to Los Angeles and can’t invite fans or the Los Angeles media to their practices. Only members of the Las Vegas media that make the trip can attend.

The Raiders played in Los Angeles for 13 years and still have a big fanbase there, so the Rams and Chargers don’t want the Raiders building on that fan base and are enforcing that obscure rule.

Coach Antonio Pierce wanted the Raiders to train away from Las Vegas as a bonding experience. But the Raiders aren’t getting any promotional benefits, so it will be interesting if they keep training there in the future.

The Cowboys have been training in California for years, but since they were doing that before the Rams moved back to Los Angeles and the Chargers moved from San Diego, they are grandfathered in. 

Meanwhile, this year will be like a secret camp for the Raiders since they aren’t allowed to promote the fact they are in Costa Mesa.

Raider owner Mark Davis didn’t protest.

“The Chargers and the Rams have the ability to to block us from (promoting),” Davis told ESPN. “That’s fine.”

No word on whether a Los Angeles media outlet could hire a Las Vegas writer to report on the camp for them. Or whether Los Angeles or the Los Angeles media even cares.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh doesn’t mind putting a lot of pressure on his quarterback, Lamar Jackson.

He recently said Jackson can be the GOAT.

“The vision that we have together is Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League,” Harbaugh said.

Wow. That is quite a goal.

“That’s the vision,” Harbaugh said. “It’s going to happen by Lamar, his work ethic and his brilliant talent, by all of us pouring into that effort, together as a team, teamwork, and by the Grace of God and God’s goodwill.l That is how it is going to happen. And I believe it like we’ve already seen it.”

They’ve seen it in the regular season because Jackson has won two regular season MVP titles including last year. 

Still, Harbaugh has heard the critics who question Jackson’s 2-4 playoff record and that he is more of a runner than a passer.

“Lamar’s a guy, all his life, who’s been answering these same questions,” Harbaugh said.

“He’s got a growth mindset,” Harbaugh said. “He’s going to get better and better no doubt.”

Now Jackson has to prove he can be as good as Harbaugh thinks he can be. 

Last year, the Ravens lost to the Chiefs in the AFC title game by a 17-10 margin. This year, they open the season against the Chiefs, who are going for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl win, on Thursday night Sept. 5 in prime time.

The opener will be a big test for the Ravens and Jackson and for what Harbaugh thinks of Jackson.

The NFL 18-game regular season schedule train seems to have left the station. Now it seems to be a matter of time before it reaches its destination.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has been talking about it in the offseason and he usually gets what he wants.

He said in May they want to keep making the game safer and said they have to make an agreement with the Players Association.

And Stephen Jones, the son of Cowboy owner Jerry Jones and a member of the competition committee, recently said an 18-game schedule is inevitable and that the players will go for it because it means more money for them.

The players should oppose the idea because more games and means more chance of injuries and increases the chances of a player getting CTE after they retire. 

But since they are likely to agree to it, they should make a lot of demands. Joe Burrow has already suggested an 18-game schedule include a second bye. But they should get a lot more than that, starting with a bigger share of the percentage. Starting with at least 50-50, if not more. They are taking the injury risk.

This will be the first big test for new NFLPA director Lloyd Howell. The NFLPA has a history of caving because they don’t want to give up paychecks.

But Howell must convince the owners they have to pay more for labor peace.