VITO'S VIEWS

It would seem likely that a Super Bowl loser would have a good shot at returning to the Super Bowl the following year and winning it.

They have the incentive of overcoming the loss the previous year to give them motivation.

And that’s what often happened in the early days of the Super Bowl.

The Dallas Cowboys lost to the then-Baltimore Colts in the fifth Super Bowl, then beat the Miami Dolphins in the sixth one. The Dolphins then came back in 1972 and had their unbeaten season and won the seventh Super Bowl.

Believe it or not, that is the last time a Super Bowl loser has won it the next year.

Continue reading “History says the Patriots won’t win the Super Bowl this year — or even return to it”

The Buffalo Bills have been looking for a franchise quarterback since Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season.

Thirteen passers have started five or more games for the Bills since Kelly retired — and none of them could fill Kelly’s shoes.

Now they have three candidates to become the 14th starter in that procession this year. Will one of them finally be The Answer?

It’s too early to tell, but the Bills’ nightmare scenario is that none of the three turns out to be the long-term answer, even though they made a big investment at the position in the offseason.

The 13^th was Tyrod Taylor, who took them to the playoffs with a 9-7 mark last year, but sealed his fate with a poor performance in the postseason loss at Jacksonville and was traded to Cleveland, where he is now the starter.

Continue reading “Bills counting on more question marks to finally end their QB drought”

So how did the Jacksonville Jaguars go from 3-13 to the AFC title game in one year?

The conventional wisdom is that drafting Leonard Fournette as the triggerman of their run-first offense made the difference along with their tenacious defense.

Fournette rushed for 1,040 yards and added 302 pass receiving yards while playing in just 13 games, and he did it by running against eight men in the box 49 percent of the time — the most in the NFL.  And he was more elusive than his reputation, evading 74 tackles and gaining 420 yards on those plays

The Jaguars were so enamored of their run-first offense that they doubled down on it this year, making guard Andrew Norwell the centerpiece of their free-agent class to bolster the blocking up front.

They seem ready to try the same strategy again.

Continue reading “Jaguars’ run-first philosophy worked last year, but it’s still a gamble”

It’s time for the NFL to stop letting Donald Trump bully them on the anthem issue.

They should get together with the NFL Players Association and issue a statement saying the NFL and the union set the league policies according to what they feel is best for the owners and the players without outside interference.

That would be a reference to Trump without mentioning his name.

They then should announce the two sides have agreed that the players have the right to peacefully protest before and after the games.

They would only prohibit protests during the game.

Continue reading “The NFL needs to start tuning out Trump and his relentless idiocy”

Al Davis used to say the shelf live for an NFL coach was about a decade.

This is probably because Davis was the Oakland Raiders and didn’t want a coach staying too long and upstaging him.

Yet the problem with staying too long is that most coaches win with just one quarterback — and once the quarterback leaves, so do their title years.

Although Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls with three difference quarterbacks, most winners of multiple Super Bowls won with just one.

For example, Paul Brown’s titles came with Otto Graham, Chuck Noll’s with Terry Bradshaw and Tom Landry’s with Roger Staubach.

Continue reading “Could this be the end of the line for Belichick and the Patriots dynasty?”

Doing the popular thing is not always the right thing.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s decision to virtually ignore Terrell Owens at the induction ceremony because he is refusing to attend falls in that category.

It was a popular move because it was an in your face answer to Owens’ refusing to show, probably because he was snubbed the first two years he was ineligible.

The move cements Owens’ reputation as an immature, me-first kind of guy who was often a cancer on the teams he played for.

He wore out his welcome so often that he played for five teams despite his talent.

Continue reading “Hall of Fame is botching it with in-kind snub of Owens”

A year ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were upbeat about their future while appearing on the “Hard Knocks’’ show.

As it turned out, the optimism was premature. The team fell to 5-11, raising doubts about their future.

And things got worse when Jameis Winston was suspended for the first three games against the New Orleans Saints, defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers.

If they start off 0-3, the season could be in freefall and the jobs of general manager Jason Licht and coach Dirk Koetter could be in jeopardy.

The Tampa Bay Tribune has already reported that of the last 173 teams to start off 0-3, only five have made the playoffs.

Continue reading “Buccaneers will continue to pay for their Winston mistake”

Mark Rypien was obviously a natural at playing golf.

When he came to Washington in 1986, he says he had a 25 handicap and played 75 straight days when it wasn’t raining and got himself down to a 7 handicap.

By 1990, he won the first American Century Celebrity Championship, then won it again in 2014 and will be playing in the tournament in Lake Tahoe the weekend of July 13-15.

Of course, Rypien made a bigger name for himself as an NFL quarterback, winning Super Bowl MVP honors after the 1991 season when the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24.

Unfortunately, like many other former NFL players, Rypien paid a big price for his success in football.

Continue reading “Rypien’s concussion comments are yet another wakeup call for NFL and football in general”

There have been just three quarterbacks to win four or more Super Bowls.

Two of them, Tom Brady and Joe Montana, are usually considered to be the two best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL.

The third one, Terry Bradshaw, is usually overlooked because he played on the Pittsburgh Steelers teams of the 1970s with eight other Hall of Famers. They were the only team to win four Super Bowls in a six-year span, the only one to win back-to-back twice and were probably the best team ever.

I was reminded of the way Bradshaw doesn’t get his just due when I was reading a recent O-Zone column on the Jacksonville Jaguars website by John Oesher.

Continue reading “Bradshaw’s Super Bowl greatness still greatly unappreciated”

In Myles Jack’s two-year NFL career, his signature moment is a play whistled dead in the AFC title game in New England last January.

Jack is on the cusp of becoming an NFL star, but unless the Jaguars win a Super Bowl, that play might overshadow the rest of his career.

With 13:53 left in the game, Jack knocked the ball out of Dion Lewis’ hands and recovered the fumble.

He got up and seemingly was going to score a touchdown to put the Jacksonville Jaguars up 27-10 when the officials blew the whistle and ruled he was down.

Jack and the Jaguar Nation vehemently disagree, and the phrase “Myles Jack Wasn’t Down” has become a thing in Jacksonville.

Continue reading “It’s not too early to look ahead to Jaguars’ September revenge match with Patriots”