NFL23 Update: Hail to the Chiefs (Again)!

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs! When I searched "Kansas City Chiefs" on Google a second ago, fireworks flew across the screen of my laptop.

And deservedly so! For my money, not I of the previous LVII Super Bowls was any more entertaining than last night's event featuring the Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Harrison Butker, Chris Jones and the rest of the victor Chiefs; the worthy San Francisco 49ers; Taylor Swift and (hopefully) her future in-laws; Jim Nantz and Tony Romo; Andra Day, Post Malone and Reba McEntire; Dan Marino; Usher and Alicia Keys, and the rest. Starting at about 5 Central, I watched with my family virtually every second of CBS's remaining five hours of TV coverage from Las Vegas, and, my gosh, I felt so thankful to have gotten to experience the thing.

Furthermore, the Chiefs have now won two Super Bowls in a row, played in four since 2019 (winning three) and now are now 4-2 in all-time Super Bowl appearances. All time, that's the sixth-most Super Bowl appearances and fifth-most victories (along with the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants) for Kansas City, which also won more AFL championships (three) than any other team. What a franchise!

Did you know that the Chiefs' defense from 1966 through 1971 was apparently nicknamed "The Redwood Forest?" I did not. In fact, I don't think I exactly knew that the Chiefs' offense from 2018 through 2021 was apparently nicknamed "The Legion of Doom." I remember hearing Nantz and others say "The Legion of Doom" when I happened to be watching football games off mute during that time period, but I guess I always figured they were just making something up out of thin air to promote some comic-book movie that was out at the time and never paid much attention. Anyway, I learned both of these notes this morning from the Chiefs' Wikipedia page, which I intend to read over the next several days as I think back over my favorite memories from my very fun Sunday night.

Of course, at my typical HP pace, that will likely take me right through to kickoff of the Miami Dolphins' victory in Super Bowl LIX (Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans). Hail to the Chiefs, and comments flow!

NFL Update

I'm starting to think that the Bills are like the Saints from a few years ago -- they somehow always find a way to lose in the playoffs, no matter how good they look in the regular season.  Also, props to Philly for putting the Giants away early -- those guys are dangerous if you let them hang around.  And props to Patrick Mahomes for beating Jacksonville with only one leg.

Here are the scores so far in the quarter-finals:

National Football Conference:

Philadelphia 38 - 7 New York

American Football Conference:

Kansas City 27 - 20 Jacksonville

Buffalo 10 - 27 Cincinnati

That just leaves the Niners and the Cowboys, who are meeting in the playoffs for the ninth time.

Final NFL Power Rankings

We've gone with Dan Hanzus of NFL.com for most of the year, and for some reason ESPN doesn't update its power rankings after the last game of the regular season, so we're going to give Mr. Hanzus the final word on the regular season.  Here is the last top 10 of the year:

1.  San Francisco:  13-4

2.  Buffalo:  13-3

3.  Cincinnati:  12-4

4.  Kansas City:  14-3

5.  Philadelphia:  14-3

6.  Dallas:  12-5

7.  San Diego:  10-7

8.  Jacksonville:  9-8

9.  Detroit:  9-8

10.  Minnesota:  13-4

He has Miami at number 17 and Washington at number 20.  Meanwhile, here's the top 10 in point differential:

1.  San Francisco:  173

2.  Buffalo:  169
3.  Philadelphia:  133

4.  Kansas City:  127

5.  Dallas:  125

6.  Cincinnati:  96

7.  Jacksonville:  54

8.  Baltimore:  35

9.  Detroit:  26

10.  New England:  17

And that wraps up the regular season.  Congratulations to the 49ers for ending the season at Number One.

Happy To Be Here

On behalf of the Miami Dolphins, I would like to announce that we are (just) happy to be here, in the NFL22 playoffs. It would be nice to beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, and we, of course, hope for the best. But, truthfully, this season has been a huge success for us; we are totally satisfied with the results, and everything from here on is just a gravy situation. 

I saw somebody on a message board last night mocking our success with an announcement of a "Qualified-for-the-Postseason" Parade starting from the Dolphins' stadium parking lot this afternoon. I thought that was a pretty clever troll, but I actually do think this would be an excellent idea, and, in fact, I will be conducting a celebratory parade in my imagination all week long and all the way to Buffalo until noon Central Sunday. 

Go, Dolphins!

Back to the NFL

Now that we're almost finished with high school football, college football, and the World Cup, and we've gotten basketball season underway, it is time to check back in on the NFL.  For months now, the NFL has been slogging through bye weeks, but now that's all over.  Before last night, every team had played 13 games, and there were four weeks left.  Oh, and we start getting games on Saturday.  Sadly, we no longer have the AP Pro 32, but Dan Hanzus at NFL.com gives us the following top 10:

1.  Philadelphia:  12-1

2.  San Francisco:  9-4

3.  Cincinnati:  9-4

4.  Buffalo:  10-3

5.  Kansas City:  10-3

6.  Dallas:  10-3

7.  Minnesota:  10-3

8.  Baltimore:  9-4

9.  San Diego:  7-6

10.  Detroit:  6-7

The Dolphins (8-5) are number 11.  Washington (7-5-1) is number 14.

Last night San Francisco beat Seattle to move to 10-4.  There are no games between top 10 teams this week -- the closest we get is tomorrow's 7:15 CST game between the Dolphins and Bills.  But I'm sure we'll have more drama before the season is over.

The NFL in the 21st Century

Between 2001 and 2022, the NFL played 22 different seasons of football -- as many as it played, say, from 1971 to 1992.  What are the best games of the 21st century?  Pro Football Reference picked the NFL's top 100 games in history last year, and here are their picks for the top 10 games in this century, along with where they ranked in the overall top 100:

5.  Super Bowl XLII:  New York Giants 17, New England 14 (Feb. 3, 2008)

8.  Super Bowl XLIX:  New England 28, Seattle 24 (Feb. 1, 2015)

9.  Super Bowl LI:  New England 34, Atlanta 28 (OT) (Feb. 5, 2017)

12.  Super Bowl XLIII:  Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 23 (Feb. 1, 2009)

14.  Super Bowl LII:  Philadelphia 41, New England 33 (Feb. 4, 2018)

15.  2001 AFC Divisional Playoffs:  New England 16, Oakland 13 (Jan. 19, 2002)

20.  Super Bowl XXXVI:  New England 20, St. Louis Rams 17 (Feb. 3, 2002)

21.  2006 AFC Championship:  Indianapolis 38, New England 34 (Jan. 21, 2007)

24.  2017 NFC Divisional Playoffs:  Minnesota 29, New Orleans 24 (Jan. 14, 2018)

30.  Super Bowl XLVII:  Baltimore 34, San Francisco 31 (Feb. 3, 2013)

This list came out last year, so it didn't include the 2021-22 playoffs.  I would certainly put last year's Kansas City/Buffalo game on the list -- I thought it was the best game I'd seen since the Chargers/Dolphins playoff game back on January 2, 1982.  They had that Chargers/Dolphins game as number 4, on their list, but above the Super Bowl where the Giants ended New England's perfect season.  I would fit the Kansas City/Buffalo game in between those two.  In other words, for me it was the best game of the 21st Century.  There were a lot of good playoff games last year, but I think that's the only one that would make the top ten.

I think that from now on, I'm going to try to think of sports more in 21st century terms.  There's so much nostalgia in the sports world now that we aren't giving enough credit to what's happening in front of us.

1975: What Was On TV Last Night?

02 Sep 1975, Tue The Miami News (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com

Monday night after the Jerry Lewis telethon, we got to see Dolphins-Vikings on Channel 3. And, as you can see, even though it was just a preseason game, the rematch of Super Bowl VIII(!) was given significant play in The Miami News the following morning. It made 1A of the Minneapolis Tribune, too--though not with the above-the-fold, bigger-than-the-masthead alarm visible in passing by newsstands or vending boxes.

02 Sep 1975, Tue Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com

As previously reported, 6-year-old I raged and sobbed when the Dolphins' 1974 season ended in that horrible "Sea of Hands" game against the Raiders. By the time this preseason game turned up on NFL Monday Night Football nine months later, though, I was 7. I'd gone through Csonka, Kiick and Warfield (finally) actually leaving for the WFL, and a (probably necessary) stoicism had set in around my relationship to the Dolphins. 

Also if I wasn't already girlcrazy by Monday, Sept. 2, 1975, I was right on the precipice of it. Because at the first chili supper of the 1975-76 school year at Concord Elementary, when some sixth-graders did a lip-sync performance of "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers, I was totally dazzled by at least two of the girls in my second-grade class. And I think that must've happened not long after the Bay City Rollers made their U.S. debut on Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, which was Oct. 4. 

So somewhere between Dec. 21, 1974, when the Dolphins lost to the Raiders, and a Monday night not long after Oct. 4, 1975, is when I tipped into being more interested in the girls than the Dolphins. Now, as to trying to more precisely pinpoint this change, I noted a little braincell of decades-old innocent sadness when I scrolled upon the following story today inside the Sept. 2, 1975, Miami News.

02 Sep 1975, Tue The Miami News (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com

It was a sense of genuine discovery this morning, as though I felt at the time this was really bad news (and I would've been right; neither Anderson nor Buoniconti played in NFL75) and hadn't revisited the original feeling since. The intensity of that memory might indicate that my girlcraziness hadn't quite claimed dominance in my heart by the time of Monday Night Football game. But there's no way it hadn't taken hold by the Bay City Rollers thing a month later. And while I never quit loving the Dolphins after that, I never again cared about them as much as I cared about the girls.

For pretty much my whole life I've thought it was kind of cruel that the amazing Dolphins turned me on at such a young age, only to never achieve that same success since. But as I type this morning, I see grace and blessing in the timing--the Dolphins were at their best when I was least encumbered in enjoying their success, and whatever disappointments I experienced with them in the years since never consumed me.

In fact, the last moment that the Dolphins actually seemed like they might win another Super Bowl--in the third quarter of the Dec. 21 Dolphins-Vikings game in Week 16 of NFL02--is literally when my eventual wife and I started dating. The 2002 Dolphins were fantastic until the fourth quarter of that game. Then I left Matthew's before the game was over to go see her, and then we decided that day that we would be a thing, and then the Dolphins lost to the Vikings and didn't even make the playoffs, and now we are still a thing.

I've got more girl stuff going in my life than ever now--the wife and since a daughter, a female cat and a female dog. Happily, totally girlcrazy, still. I'm excited about the 2022 Dolphins; I think they might end up being pretty good. Heck, I'm excited about the 1975 Dolphins, and I know they end up being not super. Mostly, though, I'm just trying to be breathy Patti York at the 1975 Jerry Lewis telethon--"so strong and bold as life unfolds its mystery to me."

Here are the previous and future 1975 reports. 

My Favorite 10 Songs of the Last Seven Days

Hat tip to Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who introduced me to the Isley-Jasper-Isley song (go, big Dolphins!):

1. First movement of "Rocket Man" show, Madisonville-North Hopkins High School Marching Maroons
2. "Weekend Groove," Jesse Thompson and Althea Rene
3. "I’ve Just Seen a Face," Beatles
4. "Wild As A Birdsong," Heather Maloney
5. "I’m Coming Home," Spinners
6. "Caravan of Love," Isley-Jasper-Isley
7. "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 (6)," Sesame Street
8. "Typical Situation," Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
9. "Without Her," Glen Campbell
10. "Last Date," Blue Boys

NFL Update

Following up on a previous report, in Miami yesterday, ... 

 

Meanwhile, in Madisonville, ... 

NFL73 Draft (Real/Pretend)

I love to pretend, and today I'm pretending that I'm at the 1973 NFL draft, which took place for real at the Hotel Americana in New York. We're just a couple of picks in, and everything just went crazy:

The Baltimore Colts desperately wanted LSU Quarterback Bert Jones, and they mentioned Bubba Smith to the Oilers in exchange for the right to draft first. But when the Oilers held out for more, the Colts traded Defensive Lineman Billy Newsome, a durable player but no Bubba, to New Orleans for the second pick on the first round.

That left the Oilers in a quandary. If they took Jones, they would have three young and possibly unhappy quarterbacks—Jones, Dan Pastorini and Lynn Dickey—with 25 clubs waiting for one to be discarded sometime next August or September. Houston's indecision was obvious when the actual drafting began. Instead of announcing the No. 1 pick immediately, as is customary, Coach Bill Peterson fidgeted for more than half of the allotted 15 minutes before naming Defensive Tackle John Matuszak of Tampa. Scouts strongly doubt that Matuszak is any Bubba Smith. The Colts, drafting next, got the man they wanted, Bert Jones.

That's all real, from the Feb. 12, 1973, Sports Illustrated "Scorecard" section. But it's obviously going to have terrific bearing on my pretend, because we're only 13 selections away from the first choice of the (formerly real) Evansville Crimson Giants (now pretend), right after (pretend) Idaho at No. 14 and before (then real) Oilers (now defunct) again at No. 16.

Comments flow!

Previous and future NFL73 reports:

-- NFL67 wrap (as posted Jan. 13, 2013)
-- NFL68 wrap (as posted Jan. 11, 2014)
-- NFL69 wrap (as posted Jan. 11, 2016)
-- NFL70 wrap (as posted Jan. 17, 2017)
-- NFL71 wrap (as posted Jan. 16, 2018)

-- NFL72 wrap (as posted Feb. 2, 2019)
-- (Pretend) expansion (as posted Nov. 19, 2018)
-- Blockers for O.J. (as posted Oct. 29, 2018)
-- Divisional playoffs (as posted April 4, 2015)

-- NFL78 so far (as posted Jan. 31, 2019)
-- NFL79 so far (as posted April 15, 2015)
-- Welcome to Madisonville, Fran Tarkenton! (as posted Jan. 3, 2009)
-- NFL14 so far (as posted Jan. 28, 2019)

-- NFL15 so far (as posted Sept 13, 2015)
-- NFL16 so far (as posted Jan. 8, 2017)

NFL72 Update

OK, here's where things stand through eight weeks of NFL72 ...

That's per Pro!, the official NFL game program for games of Sunday, Nov. 12, and Monday, Nov. 13, 1972 ...

At some point, I picked up a bound volume of all the Pro!s published for Washington Redskins home games in 1972 ...

I love game programs ...

I'm excited about working on my Football Crossword Puzzle all week ...

And I'll want to be sure to enter the Taster's Choice Super Bowl contest ...

Of course, I don't need all week to discern how I'm going to fill out my Vitalis NFL Man of the Year ballot ...

Tomorrow's game at RFK is Giants at Redskins ...

And, as you can see, I've got pretty big plans for it ...