VITO'S VIEWS

With the first two weeks of the NFL season in the books, seven teams are off to a 2-0 start, including three NFC West teams – Arizona, Rams and 49ers.

Of the other four, the surprise is that Carolina and the Raiders are two of them and that Kansas City, going for its third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, isn’t one of them after losing Sunday night to Baltimore.

The other two are defending champion Tampa Bay and Denver, which is now off to a 2-0 start seventh time in last nine years.

On the other hand, seven teams are 0-2 including the two worst teams from last year, Jacksonville and the Jets, who are both starting rookie quarterbacks selected with the first two picks.

Three of the 0-2 teams, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Minnesota – had higher expectations but now the odds are against them making the playoffs.

Since 1980, only 11.6 percent of the teams that started off 0-2 made the playoffs.

So after two weeks, there are 18 0-1 teams along with seven at 2-0 and seven at 0-2.

—The Buffalo Bills showed they have a defense as they blanked the Dolphins, 35-0, who lost Tuo Tagovailoa early to a rib injury. Jacoby Brissett took over but wasn’t effective. If Josh Allen overcomes his slow start, the Bills still seem to be the team to beat in the AFC East.

—Patrick Mahomes had never thrown an interception in September and was 3-0 against the Ravens before the Ravens posted a 36-35 victory Sunday night even though Lamar Jackson threw a pick-six early and the Ravens were down 11 points in the third. The Chiefs were in position for a game-winning field goal before a fumble killed their comeback. With both the Raiders and Broncos at 2-0 and the Chargers a threat, they may not have an easy road to another division title.

—Only one quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, was injured the first week, but four of them went down Sunday. Besides Tagovailoa, the other three were Andy Dalton, Carson Wentz and Tyrod Taylor. Dalton’s injury probably opens the door for a fourth rookie, Justin Fields, to start.

—The three starting rookie quarterbacks, Mac Jones, Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, are now 1-5 after Jones got the win over Wilson. New England’s win over the Jets was no surprise because Bill Belichick is 22-6 against rookie QBs.

—Derek Carr has now passed for 817 yards in two games as the Raiders knocked off Steelers after beating the Ravens in their opener.

—Dallas showed it can win on defense and running the ball instead of counting on Dak Prescott to carry the load. They rushed for 195 yards to beat the Chargers on a 56-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein. Dallas coach Mike McCarthy got a lot of flak for not trying to get closer on third down instead of letting the clock run down. His excuse was the scoreboard clock went out.

—Tom Brady still refuses to show his age as he threw five touchdown passes in Tampa’s 48-25 win over the Falcons. No 28-3 this time against the Falcons.

—Matthew Stafford is developing a rapport with Cooper Kupp. He caught nine passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns in the Rams’ 27-24 victory over the Colts after catching seven passes for 108 yards and a touchdown in the opener against Chicago.

—Sam Darnold shows what he can do with a better team around him. He is 2-0 in Carolina now that he is backed up by what is currently the league’s best defense. The Panthers routed the Saints 26-7. Getting away from Jets and Adam Gase may be the best thing that happened to Darnold.

—Are the Bengals putting enough emphasis on protecting Joe Burrow? He was hit nine times, sacked four times and threw three picks, including a pick-six, in their 20-17 loss to the Bears.-l

The Cardinals escaped with a 34-33 victory over the Vikings when Greg Joseph shanked a 34-yard field goal attempt.

—The Titans do what they do best against Seattle. They ran Derrick Henry 35 times and he gained 182 yards and three touchdowns for a 33-30 overtime victory.

The big question for the second week of the season is how many teams will come out of the week 2-0 and how many will be 0-2.

The games featuring 1-0 teams in which the winner will come out 2-0 are Steelers-Raiders, Panthers-Saints and San Francisco-Philadelphia.

The New York Giants became the first team to start off 0-2 after their mistakes cost them the game against Washington Thursday night.

A Daniel Jones touchdown was wiped out by a holding call and the Giants gave Dustin Hopkins a second shot at a game-winning field goal when Dexter Lawrence was offsides as Hopkins missed a 48-yarder. Given a second chance from the 43, he nailed it.

The other two games featuring two 0-1 teams with the losers dropping to 0-2 are New England-Jets and Green Bay-Detroit. All the other 1-0 teams are playing 0-1 teams and have a shot at 2-0.

A look at this weekend:

—There are three interesting attractions this weekend – Steelers-Raiders and Dolphins-Bills at 1 p.m. Sunday and the Chiefs-Ravens as the Sunday night prime time game. The MNF game pitting Green Bay against Detroit isn’t much of an attraction.

—Steelers-Raiders was once one of the best rivalries in the NFL when they played in the playoffs five years in a row in the 1970s and the winner won the Super Bowl three consecutive years. But the rivalry has waned in recent years although both teams won their openers. But it will be the featured 1 p.m. game shown in much of the country.

—The Bills, touted as a Super Bowl contender, can’t afford a second loss to drop to 0-2. But the game won’t get much coverage since it is being shown only in southern Florida and the northeast.

—The Chiefs are going for a 2-0 start against the Ravens, who are desperate to rebound after losing the MNF game to the Raiders in a game that had a wild finish. The game features Patrick Mahomes vs. Lamar Jackson, but Chiefs have beaten the Ravens the last three years so they appear to have the edge. Andy Reid is 4-0 vs. Ravens with Chiefs and 6-1 overall.

—Fifteen quarterbacks started the season with new teams and one of them, Ryan Fitzpatrick, was sidelined with an injury so Taylor Heinicke became the 32nd quarterback to start this season. The other 31 return for a second game.

—Three rookie quarterbacks will start their second game and two of them — Mac Jones and Zach Wilson — will meet as the Patriots play at the Jets. Considering Bill Belichick’s record against rookie quarterbacks as he tries to confuse Wilson, Jones figures to get his first win. The third starting quarterback rookie, Trevor Lawrence, faces a tough task against Denver after throwing three picks in the loss to Houston last week although the heat in Jacksonville may be a problem for the Broncos.

—The homefield advantage isn’t what it used to be. Road teams won half the 16 games. Last year road teams have had a 128-127-1 edge. No obvious explanation for road teams doing well although it could be the officials aren’t letting home crowd affect them.

—Defending champion Tampa Bay figures to get off to a 2-0 start against Atlanta. With Brady facing the Falcons, it will bring back memories of 28-3.

The Kansas City Chiefs are back, the Buffalo Bills and the Green Bay Packers may not be who they thought they were, the Pittsburgh Steelers can still play defense and the Matthew Stafford showed what he can do with a better team around him.

Those were some of the highlights and lowlight of the first weekend of the new season.

More on that:

—Kansas City now has to be considered to have a good shot at a third straight Super Bowl appearance. Patrick Mahomes, who was running for his life in the Super Bowl last February, had the protection to pull off another fourth quarter comeback and beat Browns, 33-29. Browns were up 22-10 at halftime and 29-20 early in fourth quarter before Mahomet did his thing. The Browns, though, showed they are contenders but have to eliminate mistakes. A fumbled snap and a punt was a dagger and then Baker Mayfield threw a late pick trying for a comeback.

—The Bills were supposed to be ready to make a Super Bowl run after winning two playoff games last year before losing to the Chiefs in the AFC title game. They were favored against a Pittsburgh team that had a meltdown at end of last year. But the Steelers still have a defense that harassed Josh Allen and kept him off balance the whole game while posting a 23-16 victory. T.J. Watt’s strip sack at the end of first half and a blocked punt for a score were keys to the victory. The Bills now have to rebound.

—Green Bay spent the off season wondering whether Aaron Rodgers was going to play. And they were playing a New Orleans team that had to switch their opener to Jacksonville because of the damage done by Hurricane Ida. It turned out Rodgers had the worst day of his career in a 38-3 loss. Meanwhile, Jameis Winston may have resurrected his career with five touchdown passes against the Packers.

–All four NFC West teams won and it is likely at least one wild card will come from that division. Three incumbent quarterbacks, Seattle ‘s Russell Wilson, San Francisco’s Jimmy Garopollo with a cameo role by Trey Lance and Arizona’s Kyler Murray posted victories while Matthew Stafford won his debut for the Rams. Indianapolis, Detroit, Tennessee and the Bears were the four losing teams.

—All three rookie quarterbacks who started – Mac Jones of New England, Zach Wilson of the Jets and Trevor Lawrence of Jaguars – all lost. But Jones and Wilson kept it close against the Dolphins and Carolina (quarterbacked by former Jet Sam Darnold) while losing by one and five points) while Lawrence was blown out by the surprising Texans.

—Only one starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick of Washington, was sidelined with an injury. He went on IR with a hip injury and will be out at least three weeks if not longer.

—Four second-year quarterbacks – Justin Herbert of the Chargers, Joe Burrow of Cincinnati, Jalen Hurts of Philadelphia, and Tua Tagovailoa — posted victories over Washington, Minnesota, Atlanta and New England, respectively.

—After one week, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are 1-0 in Tampa and Bill Belichick is 0-1 in New England.

—Dallas lost its opener in Tampa Bay, but looked so good that they have a good shot at winning the division.

—Teddy Bridgewater may be resurrecting his career in Denver as he led the Broncos to the win over the Giants. But playing in the same division with the Chiefs and Chargers means he will have some tough ahead games although he goes to Jacksonville this Sunday.

A look at the first weekend of the NFL’s first 17-game season:

—This is the first test of the NFL’s new vax policy. It says 93 percent of the players are vaxxed. Will any key unvaxxed players – notably Kirk Cousins – test positive the day of game?

—The season opens Thursday night with the defending champion Bucs hosting the Cowboys. The fact the Cowboys got this marquee assignment shows the league still considers them ratings gold. But will they make a game of it with Dak Prescott seeing his first action in almost a year? It also pits Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn vs. Tom Brady. Quinn, of course, was the Atlanta coach in Falcons’ 28-3 meltdown vs. Brady and the Patriots. Bucs are 7.5 favorites.

—In the other two primetime games, the Rams are seven-point favorites over the Bears on Sunday night and the Ravens are four-point choices at the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night. None of the three primetime underdogs had a winning record last year, although Chicago made the playoffs at 8-8. You would have thought the league would have had better primetime matches for first weekend of the season.

—In the late games Sunday afternoon, CBS has Jim Nantz and Tony Romo doing the Browns at Kansas City and Fox has Joe Buck and Troy Aikman doing the Saints-Packers at Jacksonville. The game was moved because of damage done by Hurricane Ida in New Orleans.

—Three rookie quarterbacks drafted on the first round will make their first starts. Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars is a three-point choice at Houston and Mac Jones of the Patriots is a 2.5-point pick at home against Miami. Zach Wilson of the Jets is a 5.5-point underdog at Carolina, where he will face former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold. The Jets traded Darnold after drafting Wilson.

—Jones will start against Miami’s Tuo Tagovailoa. They were teammates on the 2018 Alabama team along with Jalen Hurts, who will start for Philadelphia. Alabama lost the national title game that year to Clemson and Lawrence by a 44-16 margin. The Patriots-Dolphins matchup is critical because they are both likely to be chasing Buffalo in the AFC East.

—Kansas City will unveil its new offensive line when the Chiefs host Baker Mayfield and the Browns. The Chiefs’ inability to protect Patrick Mahomes was a major factor in their Super Bowl loss to the Bucs, and they have revamped it. Now they have to show if they can protect Mahomes.

—Besides the Rams-Bears, Chiefs-Browns and Saints-Packers games, the other game featuring two playoff teams from last year is the Seahawks-Colts matchup.

—Buffalo, touted as possibly to top AFC threat to foil Kansas City’s bid to make the Super Bowl three years in a row, opens against a Pittsburgh team that had a meltdown at the end of last year. Ben Roethlisberger will try to show he has something left in the tank.

—The Giants and Washington have a short week upcoming because they play the Thursday night game to start the second week. Both open at home, so the Giants will have a short road trip.

The NFL is a quarterback league and now that preseason is over, one of the major questions about the upcoming season is whether a fresh start can make a difference for six veteran quarterbacks.

Let’s look at six of them in new roles this year:

— Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff. They were virtually traded for each other. Stafford never won a playoff game in Detroit and had a 74-90-1 career mark while making one Pro Bowl. The Rams are hoping he will make them a Super Bowl contender. Goff played on a better team with the Rams and made the Super Bowl but seemed overmatched in loss to the Patriots. He did get a second contract, but after making only one playoff appearance the last two years and losing it, the Rams decided they needed to upgrade the position. Detroit hopes Goff he can make them a contender, but those hopes may be unrealistic.

—Jameis Winston flamed out two years ago in his fifth year in Tampa Bay with 30 picks to go with 30 touchdown passes. He moved on to New Orleans backing up Drew Brees last year and won the job this year after Brees retired. He has big shoes to fill and Saints face a lot of challenges since they won’t be back in New Orleans for a month while city recovers from Hurricane Ida.

—Teddy Bridgewater got off to a solid start in his first two years in Minnesota but then suffered a devastating ACL that limited him to one series in two years and he moved on after the team did not pick up his option. He went to the Jets but was traded to the Saints before he played for them. After two years with the Saints and one with Carolina, he moved on to Denver where he beat out Drew Lock for the starting job. He has to play well to keep Lock on the bench.

—Andy Dalton is one of five quarterbacks to lead his team to the playoffs in his first five seasons, but he failed to win a playoff game in the four games he played in for the Bengals. Then after going four years without a winning record, including an 0-8 start that led to his benching in 2019, he was released in 2020 after the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow. He signed last year with Dallas as Dak Prescott’s backup. He went 4-5 as a starter after Prescott was hurt and moved onto Chicago where he beat out rookie Justin Fields for the starting job. He will have to play well to keep Fields on the bench.

—Tyrod Taylor has bounced around and landed this year in Houston, his fifth team, where he got the starting job because Deshaun Watson’s career is in limbo. The problem is that he doesn’t have a good team around him. They went 4-12 last year even with Watson. Two of the wins were against 1-15 Jacksonville. Taylor faces a tough task as he tries to turn his career around.

It will be interesting to watch how these six veterans fare this year. Can any of them become a long-term answer? We will see.

Terry Brennan had one of the most unusual coaching careers in the history of college football.

His hiring at the age of 25 to take over one of the most prestigious coaching jobs in college football at Notre Dame shocked the college football world in 1954.

It was the first major decision by new president Fr. Theodore Hesburgh and showed times were changing at Notre Dame.

Brennan then pulled off another surprise, proving he was a good coach as he overcame the school’s slashing of scholarships to bounce back from a 2-8 record in 1956 and post one of the most storied victories in the school’s history – the 7-0 victory at Oklahoma that ended the Sooners’ 47 game winning streak in 1957.

And then he was fired at Christmas a year later after going 6-4, a move that was even more shocking than his hiring five years earlier, and Fr. Hesburgh never really explained why he sacked him. The move apparently even took athletic director Moose Krause by surprise.

And then he never coached again, turning down head coaching jobs at Maryland and Colorado and an offer to be an assistant to Vince Lombardi at Green Bay. It is intriguing what would have happened if he’d won those Super Bowl rings with Lombardi and what that might have led to.

But he never appeared to look back and had a good life as a TV analyst, businessman who had a law degree and family man and has mostly faded from public view.

Then his children talked him into writing a book on his career, which led to the publishing of “Though the Odds Be Great or Small” written by William Meiners.

The book not only covers Brennan’s career, but the history of Notre Dame back to such legends as Knute Rockne, George Gipp and Frank Leahy down to the present day.

What we will never know is what kind of career Brennan would have had if he’s been coached another decade or so at Notre Dame. Brennan writes that he thinks the program was an upswing because Fr. Hesburgh abandoned his scholarship restrictions and no longer made the coach wait until April when the College Entrance Board results were in to offer scholarships.

“Those changes didn’t help me much, but it did my successors,’’ he writes in the book.

As it turned out, the coach Notre Dame hired to replace Brennan, Joe Kuharich, was a disaster, but they rebounded by hiring Ara Parseghian in 1964. He was only the third coach to coach the Irish for a decade or more. The first two were Rockne and Leahy. Lou Holtz was the fourth and the current coach Brian Kelly is the fifth.

Meanwhile, the administration whiffed on some hires, notably Gerry Faust, Bob Davie and Charlie Weis.

Notre Dame will never be what it once was as a football power because Fr. Hesburgh was focused on turning it into an Ivy League type institution and he succeeded. The average SAT score of a Notre Dame student is now 1475. Fr. Hesburgh once said he wanted to be a level with Princeton and the Irish are now close because Princeton is at 1505.

But Fr. Hesburgh came to terms with football at Notre Dame, realizing it was too important for the alumni to play football on an Ivy League level.

They can recruit good enough to be competitive on a major college level but can’t bring in very many blue chip prospects and won’t be winning a national title any time soon. They’re kind of like Stanford, which is completive but hasn’t won a national title since 1940.

As Brennan wrote of Hesburgh, “Hesburgh wanted to be the “education president” and he was. I don’t think he deliberately destroyed the football program, but he certainly didn’t understand it. In my opinon he did a very clever thing I’d call “modified secularism.” He bent the school towards secularism as far as he could without removing religion entirely. It was a good move and a good sell to big corporate donors and industries who were not necessarily Catholic.”

When he took over, Notre Dame had an endowment of $9 million. It is now $13.3 billion. He doubled the enrollment and 40 buildings were put up. The ironic thing is that Brennan probably would have been the perfect coach for the kind of school Hesburgh wanted Notre Dame to be.

Meiners writes that Brennan’s legacy is his family of six children, seven grandchildren and thirty-one great grandchildren.

Brennan, now 93, has seems to come to terms with his tenure at Notre Dame and has attended Notre Dame games.

But his late wife, Kel, made sure that none of their six children went to Notre Dame.

What is it like chasing a dream that always seems to elude you before eventually finding success in a direction that never crossed your mind?

That question is answered in the book “The Point After” by Sean Conley with the subtitle “How One Resilient Kicker Learned There Was More to Life than the NFL.”

Conley grew up thinking there wasn’t more to life than kicking in the NFL.

Growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, he was obsessed with becoming an NFL kicker even though at the time (1993) there were only 28 kicking jobs.

He was first intrigued with football when he tried in a Punt, Pass and Kick competition.

Even though he didn’t win, he writes, “I was eight and it was fun. That was the same outlook I would need years later. But I was hooked. That night, I began sleeping with my football.”

He felt, “There was one way to succeed and be happy and that was to play football.”

But the road was never easy for him. His high school didn’t have a team and he didn’t get to a Division I school until his senior year when he went to Pitt and won the job.

He made 16 of 19 kicks, was named to First Team All Big East Team, the First Team All-Academic Big East Team and nominated for the Lou Groza Award given to the best kicker in college football.

He wasn’t drafted but got into camps with three teams, but he couldn’t overcome the damage he’d done to his leg by overtraining.

He could kick well in the tryouts but then his leg was no longer strong enough to do it consistently. And he had to deal with a lot of pain.

He did make it through a short season in or the Scottish team in the World League of American Football. He made nine field goals in six games and got a $2,500 check for having the second-longest field goal in the league.

He is very candid about how difficult those days were when he was often broke, only spent $30 for wedding rings at a flea market and had five roast beef sandwiches at Arby’s for $5 on his one-night honeymoon.

Still, he didn’t want to give up. He contacted teams in the Arena League, which paid $500 a game.

He went to a workout with the Albany Firebirds and was offered a contract. What happened next is the most poignant scene in the book.

He told the executive he had to talk to his wife and they found a quiet spot under the stadium bleachers to talk.

“You always told me it was the NFL or bust,” she said “This isn’t the NFL. You played in the NFL. You’ve done it.”

“But I’m quitting,” he said.

“What else do you have to prove,” she said. “It’s hard watching you go through the pain.”

“I looked out at the indoor arena…Is this the end? My heart felt nothing. I looked back at Karen. I placed my hands on her shoulders.”“You’re right,” I said. “It’s time.”

They left without telling the executive because he feared if he went back to his office, he would be talked into signing.

So it was over.

And he suffered another setback when his father died of colon cancer.

But the book has a happy ending. His wife had a yoga studio but she got a teaching job and would have had to close it. Sean then decided to become a yoga instructor to keep the business going.

Their shop, Amazing Yoga, now has three locations in Pittsburgh.

He found out there was more to life than football. And he has written a captivating book about his journey.

He ends the book, “I am grateful for right now.”

The Buffalo Bills are the latest team in the NFL to play the stadium game.

Teams have been playing this game for decades, attempting to get cities and states to build them new stadiums. If they don’t get them the threat – implied or otherwise is that they will move.

But no team has ever asked what the Bills apparently want from the city of Buffalo – a $1.1 billion stadium plus $400 million to renovate the hockey stadium. And the husband-and-wife team of Terry and Kim Pegula, who own the team, reportedly aren’t offering to kick in any money.

At least that is what the Buffalo News reported. A spokesman for the owners said the figure isn’t accurate but didn’t say if it is less. Or even more.

What happens next is a critical question that may affect stadium building for years to come.
The negotiations should be fascinating. If the Bills get anywhere near a billion dollars, other teams will likely use that as a benchmark.

Nobody knows if this is just the opening bid from the Pegulas or if they are serious about not putting some of their own money into the stadium. On the other hand, the city and/or state officials aren’t going to kick in a billion dollars. But would they go for $200 million to $300 million? Who knows?

To put what the Bills are asking in context, no city has ever put up a billion dollars to retain a team. Las Vegas put up $750 million to build a new stadium to lure the Raiders from Oakland. Total stadium cost is estimated at $1.9 billion.

There is already speculation that Austin and San Antonio would be possible future homes of Bills, but it is hard to believe Jerry Jones would allow a third team in Texas.

St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego lost teams, so it is hard to imagine they would put up a billion dollars to lure the Bills.

And the Buffalo News reported the idea of taxpayers footing all the cost was a “non-starter” in Albany, the state capital.

Still Erie County executive Mark Poloncartz suggested there could be a compromise.

“It takes compromise on both sides and my goal is to get a deal done that is fair to all parties: Bills fans, to ensure the Bills are playing in Buffalo, but also the citizens of Erie County,’’ he said. “There is no blank check. Hopefully, there will be a compromise.”

He also said the Bills have never said, “If you do not give us what you want, we are leaving town.”

But they don’t have to say it. Many teams have moved when they don’t get what they want.
Most economists also say that subsidizing stadiums is a bad deal for the taxpayers.
But there’s more than economics involved. The Bills are such an integral part of Buffalo that losing them would be a devastating blow to the city and area.

The Sports Business Journal said the team will argue that staying in town would amount to a contribution by the team, but that argument would likely to fall on deaf ears.

So this is where things stand. The Buffalo News say the Pegulas want a deal done in a couple of months. That is totally unrealistic, especially since their lease doesn’t expire until after the 2023 season.

And things are in turmoil in Albany with Governor Cuomo facing impeachment if he doesn’t resign in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.

So which side will blink first? Will the Billls stay in Buffalo?

They should put the negotiations on Pay-Per-View.

It would seem logical for the losing team in the Super Bowl to win it the following year.

Which explains why the Chiefs are favored to win it all this year after getting routed by the Bucs 31-9 in last year’s Super Bowl.

But it is more difficult for a losing team to win the Super Bowl the following year than you might think.

It has happened only once since 1972 when the perfect Dolphins won it all after losing to Dallas at the end of the 1971 season.

That team was the Pats when Tom Brady led them to a victory over the Rams after the 2019 season after they lost to the Eagles the previous season.

Now Brady, who won his seventh ring with the Bucs last year, is trying to repeat for the second time while the Chiefs are going for their third Super Bowl appearance in a row after they beat the 49ers two years ago and lost to the Bucs last year.

The problem for the Chiefs in last year’s Super Bowl is that their offensive line was ravaged and Andy Reid, not noted a premier playoff coach, didn’t adjust and Patrick Mahomes was running for his life much of the game.

Reid is only 17-15 in the playoffs and 1-2 in the Super Bowl and also didn’t coach well when his Eagles lost to the Patriots after the 2004 season. Trailing by 10 in the fourth quarter, Reid didn’t go to the huddle late in the fourth quarter and took two much time scoring a touchdown and lost by three.

This is a pivotal year for Reid as he enters his fourth year coaching Mahomes. The Chiefs put a lot of emphasis on improving their offensive line. We’ll see if that effort will pay dividends.

Does Reid join the elite ranks of two-time Super Bowl winning coaches or does he fall short again?

The Chiefs are virtually guaranteed a spot in the playoffs but then things will get dicey for Reid.

Reid has established himself as one of the great regular season coaches but has won only one title in 21 years as a head coach with the Eagles and Chiefs.

Now he has Mahomes in his prime for several years. We’ll see if he can win more rings with him.

We live in an era when several top coaches won it only once with a premier quarterback like Sean Payton with Drew Brees and Pete Carroll with Russell Wilson and Mike Tomlin with Ben Roethlisberger.

Reid doesn’t want that to be his legacy.

The odds appear to be against the Tampa Bay Bucs repeating.

Even though they have Tom Brady and virtually the entire team back that crushed the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, the oddsmakers still have the Chiefs favored to win it all. Tampa Bay is the second choice.

That is because repeating is more difficult than you would think in the 21^st century. It hasn’t been done since Brady and the Pats won back to back after the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Brady would win three more Super Bowls with the Pats but didn’t repeat each time. And didn’t repeat after he won the first one so he is one for six while trying to repeat.

He is now attempting to join Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterback to repeat twice.

Among the quarterbacks who have failed to repeat since Brady did it are the Mannings, Peyton and Eli, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson.

But if Brady does win his eighth and repeats twice, the Bucs have another challenge.

How do they top this year’s Super Bowl ring? They set a new ring standard.

Teams have been trying to outdo each other with gaudy rings in recent years, but the Bucs did something unique with a ring designed by Jason of Beverly Hills, a custom jeweler that has produced several rings for championship teams but had never done a Super Bowl ring.

The company CEO said the Bucs wanted to define what a Super Bowl ring looks like and since there comes a point where you can’t make them any bigger, he said you have to do better.

Their biggest innovation was the twist-off top, the first for a Super Bowl ring. On the bottom of the removal top, laser etched in gold, is the word HISTORIC along with a description of the fact the Bucs were the first team to win it on their home field.

When the top comes off, it reveals a handcrafted replica of Raymond James James Stadium. The left and right bands feature two panels, one customized for the player and other focused on the team.

On the top are two Lombardi Trophies in honor of the team’s two Super Bowl rings and it contains 15 carats of white diamonds and 14 karat yellow and white gold along with the team’s signature flag logo carved from red stone. The 319 diamonds represent the 31-9 final score.

Those are just some of the highlights of the rings – every person in the organization got one—and gives the players more incentive to repeat.

Imagine what that ring would look like if they do it.