VITO'S VIEWS

It is not unheard of for a coach who has had success to have a falling out with an owner.

In 1987, then-San Francisco owner Eddie DeBartolo was furious when the 49ers lost a playoff game to Minnesota and failed to make the Super Bowl for the third year in a row. He stripped coach Bill Walsh of his president’s title. In 1988, Walsh won his third title and then quit. It was an ill-advised move that cost Walsh a chance at winning more titles, although he later patched things up and ran the front office. George Seifert won two more rings after he left.

Then in March of 1994, Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson was furious when owner Jerry Jones told reporters at a league meeting that 500 coaches could win with the Cowboys. Instead of brushing it off and saying that was just Jerry being Jerry, Johnson decided to leave and he agreed to a settlement and left. He took a job in Miami, but he lost a chance to threepeat with the Cowboys and went 38-31 in Miami before retiring as a coach. He then had a broadcasting career with Fox.

And now we have the Bob and Bill show which now looks like it is going to last for the forseeable future.

Patriots owner Bob Kraft fired Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with Tom Brady at quarterback but saw the team collapse after Brady left. Meanwhile, Brady won his seventh ring in Tampa Bay to foster the narrative that he was more responsible for the Patriots success than Belichick.

At the press conference announcing his departure, Kraft and Belichick made nice and said it was a mutual decision.

But it didn’t take long for it to become obvious that there was a rift between the two men. The Patriots made a 10-part documentary about their success and did not paint Belichick in a positive light. And Belichick recently published a 304-page book in which he didn’t even mention Kraft’s name, much less give him any credit.

Meanwhile, Belichick wasn’t hired by any NFL team last year. He only had one interview with the Falcons and they passed with speculation that Kraft may have warned them about the perils of hiring him. So he has taken a college job at North Carolina and gone public that he has a girlfriend nearly 50 years younger than him — a relationship that has raised a lot of eyebrows. And Kraft is trying to get the team on track when he fired Jerod Mayo after one losing season and hired former Patriot Mike Vrabel.

But neither Kraft nor Belichick seem ready to move on. Kraft seemed to show that in a recent interview.

“I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach that had only won a little over 40 percent of his games to get him out (of New York),” Kraft said in the “Dudes on Dudes” postcast co-hosted by Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski last month. “I don’t know if there are any Jets fans here. I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston area, but he was with us 24 years.”

Belichick could have let that pass. After all, it was a risk for Kraft since Belichick had a losing record in Cleveland and resigned as head coach of the Jets after Bill Parcells retired to the front office.

“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job,” Belichick said. “I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable.

“I had been warned by multiple previous Patriots’ coaches, as well as other members of other NFL organizations and the media, that the New England job was going to come with many internal obstacles,” he said. “I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previous attained success.”   

It wasn’t that risky for Belichick because he did not have a job and teams probably wouldn’t have been rushing to hire him after the way he refused to take the Jets job and had a losing record in Cleveland.

Anyway, it is obvious from most recent incident that the two men with big egos haven’t patched things up.

And the Bob and Bill show will continue. Will the Patriots win without Belichick? Will Belichick win on the college level at a school noted more for basketball than football? The Patriots are building a statue for Brady. Will they build one for Belichick?

We will see.

Call it a marriage of convenience.

The Steelers was looking for a veteran quarterback who can win now and Aaron Rodger was looking for a team that he thought would be a good fit for him.

So after spending the offseason deciding whether he wants to play, Rodgers agreed to a one year contract with the Steelers at age 41.

It is a gamble for both sides. The Steelers decided not to keep Russell Wilson and Justin Fields and signed Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson and drafted Will Howard on the sixth round. But they preferred to go with Rodgers, who kept them dangling the whole off season.

Rodgers has to prove he has something left in the tank. Last year, he threw for 3897 yards while completing 63 per cent of his passes and throwing 28  touchdown passes and 11 picks.

But the Jets finished 5-12 and the Steelers are looking for Rodgers to get them in the playoffs and win at least a playoff game. Rodgers will be 42 in December and Tom Brady is the only quarterback to win a playoff game at that age.

Coach Mike Tomlin, who wanted to bring in Rodgers, has never had a losing season but hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016,  They’ve made the playoffs four of the last five seasons but  have lost their first playoff game each year.

Meanwhile, the Steeler fans, spoiled by watching their team win six Super Bowls, are getting frustrated with many calling for the Steelers to fire Tomlin.

But the Steelers haven’t fired a coach since 1968 and have had just three coaches since 1969 — Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. Art Rooney II, the son of Dan Rooney and grandson of team founder Art Rooney Sr., is sticking with Tomlin.

And Tomlin is betting on Rodgers being the answer for at least one year even though the Steelers are in the same division with Baltimore and Cincinnati. Tomlin and the Steelers will find out this year if he made a good bet. 

The 49ers recently made a big bet on Brock Purdy’s future when they gave him a five-year, $265 million extension.

Now the question is whether Purdy can play well enough to justify  the contract.

There has been much debate about how good  Purdy is and is he more than a game manager surrounded by a lot of talent.

Which is probably why the 49ers have given themselves an out after guaranteeing him $115.346 million for the first three years, according to PFT. If they cut him after two years on April 1, 2027, the can avoid paying him $55.05 million in guaranteed money for 2028. 

So in some ways, there is no pressure on Purdy he will pocket over $100 million no matter how he plays in the next two years. 

On the other hand, he has $55 million at stake depending on how he plays. And the debate how good he is will continue.

As the Eagles plan to bid for a repeat, they will still be able to use one of their best weapons — The Tush Push.

The Eagles are so good at it that a majority of the teams tried to ban it for the upcoming season but fell two votes shy. They need 24 and got 22. Nine teams teams joined the Eagles in voting to save it. Seven were from the AFC and they only play the Eagles once every four years.

The debate at the recent owners meeting in Minneapolis got very intense. Owner Jeff Lurie gave an hour long-speech and concluded it by saying it is “every teen’s wet dream” to devise a play that other teams can not stop so they want to ban it. Then league exec Troy Vincent admonished Lurie for using that phrase with women in the room, which was a strange thing to say. And retired Eagle center Jason Kelce gave a speech endorsing the idea.

The opposition often said it could lead to injuries although there is no history of it causing injuries. Their real complaint is that they haven’t learned to stop it and they aren’t good at doing it themselves. Buffalo is the second-best team in doing it and their owner voted to end it. 

Another interesting fact is that Warren Sharp reported teams are more likely to pass than run on fourth and run even though the sneak is more effective. They even run with a running back even though the quarterback sneak is more effective. They need to implement a better quarterback sneak.

Now the question is whether teams will find a way to stop the Eagles’ Tush Push or whether it will continue to give them an advantage this season.

The NFL’s success isn’t built on the usual economic formula for running a profitable business.

In most businesses, profits don’t usually go up if sales don’t go up. In the NFL, however, it doesn’t matter one bit that TV ratings have been stagnant overall since 2015 and even fell 2% this past season. 

That’s because the league had record gross revenues last year of $23 billion, according to the Sports Business Journal.

After all, each team will get $418 million from league national media, sponsorship and other revenue, plus the revenue the clubs generate locally that they don’t have to share.

And the national revenue dwarfs the $279.2 million that each team has to pay the players, so huge annual profits are almost guaranteed. Last year, each team got a $381 million share of league revenue, so the individual share shot up almost $40 million just in one season.

There are several reasons why revenue continues to grow despite stagnant viewership. The major reason is that in the era of cable, streaming and social media, the viewers have many choices so no shows get the kind of ratings and mass audience like M*A*S*H, Cheers and All in the Family used to receive in the 1970s and 1980s. But the NFL still has its core audience, so its games remain the most viewed events on TV — and the networks are willing to pay big money for them.

And while the NFL knows it will be challenging to reach Commissioner Roger Goodell’s goal of $25 billion in league revenue by 2025, the league always seems to find new ways to increase revenue with a possible 18-game regular season and new broadcasts rights deals on the near-horizon.

Nobody will be surprised if the NFL’s revenue keeps going up regardless of whether the ratings go up.

It is that time of year when quarterbacks and teams are looking for a match.

For example, Geno Smith went from Seattle to the Raiders, where he reunited with Pete Carroll. Sam Darnold resurrected his career in Minnesota and then moved on to Seattle to replace Smith. Justin Fields joined his third team in as many years as he moved on to the Jets after leaving Chicago for Pittsburgh last year. 

Who knows whether a change of scenery will work out for these quarterbacks and their new teams? And of course, the merry-go-round continues as Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson look for new homes, and then rookies like Cam Ward will be in the mix once they are selected in the draft.

But the most intriguing switch was the Colts’ decision to sign former Giants quarterback Daniel Jones to a one-year deal for $14 million. Jones asked for his release by the Giants after being benched last year and finished out the season in Minnesota but didn’t appear in a game.

The move was puzzling because the Colts presumably already have their starting quarterback in Anthony Richardson, and Jones’ price tag was too high for a backup. The Colts quickly announced that Jones will compete with Richardson for the starting job.

That was less than a vote of confidence for Richardson, who is entering his third season and has been disappointing. He played in only four games as a rookie and 11 last year. He has only 11 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions.

But in six years with the Giants, Jones struggled except for a 9-6-1 record in 2022. His career record is 24-44-1 with 70 touchdown passes and 47 interceptions.

If Richardson can’t beat out Jones, the Colts may have a real quarterback problem because Richardson’s future would be in limbo. And if Richardson wins the job, the Colts will have a $14 million backup.

Either way, the Colts’ quarterback duel will be one of the more interesting developments in the league this year.

The NFL’s regular season TV ratings haven’t gone up in a decade, but that hasn’t stopped money falling on the league like the confetti dropping after the Super Bowl.

And two recent announcements illustrate why NFL revenue is likely to continue to skyrocket. The first one was the league’s letter to the teams that the salary cap will go up at least $22 million this year after going up a record $30 million last year.

That was followed by an even bigger announcement when Bela Bajaria, the chief content officer at Netflix, said the company may want to bid on a Sunday package.

Netflix dipped its toe in the water when it did Christmas Day games, but now it may be ready to be a major player. And the NFL likes having a global streamer to grow their international market.

Fox and CBS currently have the two Sunday afternoon packages. They run until 2033 but the league has the option to end them four years early.

Both have the right to match whatever offer Netflix makes, so the NFL gets more money regardless of whether Netflix gets a a contract.

Fox figures to match any bid because the Murdoch family owns it, and it is a central part of a network that doesn’t have a news division and has limited prime-time offerings. They got the NFC package in 1994 when Laurence Tisch, then head of CBS, declined to match the offer. CBS then got the AFC package in 1998.

Whether CBS would match is an open question because it is uncertain who will be owning the network in the future. Currently, CBS pays $2.1 billion a year and Fox pays $2.2 billion to the NFL.

The minus for fans if Netflix gets a Sunday package is they have to subscribe to Netflix to watch the games, and even if they do, it is a convoluted process to go back and forth between streaming and network TV if you want to check in on another game or Red Zone. And going back to check out a play is more difficult when you are streaming. It is obvious streaming is better for watching movies than sports.

If Netflix doesn’t get a Sunday package, there is a chance the league could still carve out an international package for them.

Either way, the NFL is going to continue get a gusher of money, even if the ratings don’t increase.

The best thing the league does these days is make money, even if the games aren’t as good as they once were. 

As the offseason begins, the test for the Philadelphia Eagles is to show if they can stay on top.

They had a great offseason last year, including bringing in Saquan Barkley as they bounced back from last year’s late season collapse to win the Super Bowl..

But repeating won’t be easy. The first problem is dealing with all the complacency and celebrating that comes with winning.

Then there is facing the fact that several NFC teams are going to be aiming for them. Detroit is likely to have Aiden Hutchinson and several other defensive starters back from injuries. Washington will have Jayden Daniels back for his second year. Chicago has a new coach. Minnesota and Green Bay will be contenders. So will the Rams and San Francisco may bounce back.

Then the players will be looking to cash in with bigger contracts now that they’re on top. They have to decide which players they can keep. Free agency is always a challenge for winning teams as they try to keep as many players as they can.

And they have to find a new offensive coordinator now that Kellen Moore is heading for the Saints.

General manager Howie Roseman has done a great job of improving the team.

The Eagles have now been in three Super Bowls since 2017 and won two of them.

Barkley is already talking about being part of a dynasty.

They’re talking the talk. Now they have to walk the walk.

Did we see the end of one dynasty and the beginning of a new one in the Super Bowl?

That is the big question after the Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score sounded. The Eagles were ahead 24-0 at halftime and led 40-6 before the Chiefs added two late touchdowns.

The loss foiled the Chiefs big for the first three peat since the Green Bay Packers won three in a row from 1965-67.

The Eagles exploited the Chiefs shaky offensive line by being able to rush four defensive linemen without blitzing and sacked Patrick Mahomes six times and intercepting two passes – one a pick six – to dominate the game. They kept constant pressure on him.

It was the second time in three years the Eagles have been in the Super Bowl. They lost to the Chiefs two years ago.  They are now trying to match the Chiefs feat of repeating the previous two seasons. Before that no team had repeated for 17 years since the Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs obviously have to improve their offensive line if they are to rebound and try to win their third in four years and become the fifth team to win four in a decade. They also are trying to become the first team to lose a Super Bowl and win it the next since Bob Griese and the Dolphins did it in their perfect season in 1972. Tom Brady and the Patriots did it once. 

Mahomes still needs four more Super Bowl wins to match Brady’s record of seven. Of course, the Brady fans point out he beat Mahomes twice including a Super Bowl blowout. But Brady also lost three Super Bowls 

Still, the Eagles bid for a repeat and the Chiefs attempt to rebound from the loss will add some interesting story lines to the upcoming season.

–We’ve seen this movie before.

The Kansas City Chiefs are heading for their third Super Bowl in a row and a shot at the first threepeat since the Green Bay Packers did it in the 1960s and the first time in the Super Bowl era after beating the Bills, 32-29, with a fourth period drive in the AFC title game.. Yes, they found a way to win another one score game and they did it with the help of a controversial call.

–The controversial call came early in the fourth quarter. The Bills were at the Kansas City 41 when they decided to try Josh Allen on the push play on 4th and one after failing to make it on third and one. Allen appeared to get just enough for the first down before being pushed back although it was difficult to tell because the camera angle was to Allen’s back. The officials on each side of the field seemed to disagree but the call that was made that he was stopped short and the review didn’t overturn it. The Chiefs took over and scored a touchdown and the Bills matched it to tie the game 29-29 before the Chiefs got a field goal for a 32-29 lead..

–The Chiefs took over with just over three minutes left. Plenty of time to drive for a game tying field goal or game winning touchdown. But the drive ended after six plays when the Chiefs called a corner blitz on fourth and five and Allen had to rush a deep throw and Dalton Kincaid dropped to it and the Bills had another heartbreaking loss the Chiefs. The Bills may have made a mistake by not giving James Cook a carry on the last drive. It was another heartbreaking loss for the Bills, who are 4-1 against Patrick Mahones in the regular season and 0-4 in playoffs.

–Anyway, the Chiefs kept their drive alive for the first the first Super Bowl threepeat. They will take on the Eagles for the second time in three years in the Super Bowl. The Eagles beat the Commanders 55-23. Saquan Barkley ran 60 yards for a touchdown on the first snap and wound up with 118 yards and three rushing touchdown and quarterback Jalen Hurts added three more.. The Eagles scored three touchdowns off Washington turnovers.

 –The Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35 without Barkley two years ago in the Super Bowl and it figures to be another close game now that the Eagles have Barkley. Let the hype begin.