VITO'S VIEWS

In football and in life, few people have hit the lottery the way Steve Smith Sr. has.

Smith played 16 years in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens, gaining 14,271 receiving yards and 81 receiving touchdowns while making five Pro Bowls and earning two All-Pro honors.

“Pretty good, right?’’ he said in a letter that was posted on NFL.com.

But the letter wasn’t about his success on the field. It was to reveal that Smith suffered from depression despite all of his success on the field.

It’s easy to think the people suffer from depression are dealing with failure. But it happens to successful people, too.

Continue reading “Here’s hoping Steve Smith’s depression reveal helps others in similar straits”

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”