Some NFL thoughts after the Patriots finished out the week with their seventh straight win:1) So many wonderful and positive elements are returning to Patriot Nation.Drake Maye for MVP. Patriots have the inside track on winning the division. Patriots could win the conference. Patriots are as good as we all thought and hoped they were.Now let’s add three more words to these glorious sentences.Run. The. Table.Wow. When’s the last time you heard those three words mentioned in the same breath as Patriots? That used to be an annual rite of December. Run the table. The Patriots can possibly run the table.Okay, so now in this sudden renaissance of the NFL’s most recent dynasty (sorry, Chiefs fans), let’s see. Here are the remaining teams left on the Patriot schedule. Check this out and see for yourself if running the table is possible.Jets. At Bengals. Giants. Bye week. Bills. At Ravens. At Jets. Dolphins.Which of these games are losable? The Ravens? Lamar Jackson is back and they have won three in a row. But if you contain Jackson and force him to beat you in the air, good things will happen to the Patriots.So chew on this for a few minutes and see what you think. Yes, injuries can happen. So can “any given Sunday” games. And don’t forget those “THAT’S…why they play the game!” moments also.2) Geek of the week: President Trump joined the Fox broadcast booth for the Commanders’ game against Detroit for a little while. POTUS also tried his hand at calling the game. I’m afraid he is a little better at being a businessman and President than trying to be the next Jim Nantz or Mike Tirico or Joe Buck. On a side note, when Ronald Reagan was President, he once visited Wrigley Field for a Cubs game, and WGN invited him into the broadcast booth. President Reagan had done some sportscasting work in the 1930s on radio, so the broadcasters let him try a batter or two. Same as the current POTUS. Stick to running the country.
(PHOTO: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
3) RIP Paul Tagliabue. The former NFL commissioner passed away Sunday morning at age 84.Of the six Vinces the Patriots have won over the years, three of them were awarded to Bob Kraft by Mr. Tagliabue. Unlike the three awarded to them by Roger Goodell, Mr. Tagliabue never got booed by the crowd. Meanwhile, if you watch the NFL draft, Goodell gets booed at EVERY first round draft pick he announces, and gets booed at EVERY Super Bowl trophy presentation ceremony.Simply stated, Mr. Tagliabue was a dignified and august commissioner who had an impressive career. A lot of things happened on his watch worth noting, such as league expansion, monumental television contracts, and a string of A-list celebrities performing at Super Bowl halftime shows. While the league continues to prosper since he stepped down, Mr. Tagliabue was a stately figure who was a very much admired face of the league.4) The Patriots and Jets kept Mr. Tagliabue very busy from 1997 to 2000. When Bill Parcells wanted to leave the Patriots, the Jets made him an “advisor” despite him being under contract with the Patriots. The commissioner stepped in and told the teams that Parcells belonged to the Patriots, and to broker a deal to send Parcells to the Jets. The Patriots unfortunately whiffed on all the draft picks the Jets sent them.In 1998, Parcells poached Curtis Martin from the Patriots by signing him to an offer sheet the Patriots could not match. This forced Mr. Tagliabue to have to close that “poison pill” loophole.And in 2000, Bill Belichick “resigned as HC of the NYJ”. Mr. Tagliabue ruled that Belichick belonged to the Jets and told Parcells and Kraft to make a deal. Parcells sent Belichick to the Patriots after Kraft sent Parcells a first round pick.Mr. Tagliabue was a fair and just commissioner. Many folks wish he was still at the top of the NFL masthead.5) Back to school I: Whenever you watch an Iowa home game at Kinnick Stadium, do not take a bathroom break between the first and second quarters. At that time, all the fans and players and staffs (of both teams) turn towards this huge children’s hospital clearly visible from the stadium and start waving. This hospital is for children who are crippled, sick and terminally sick. The hospital staff wheels most of the kids to this window on the top floor to see all the stadium people waving at them, and they wave back. It was selected as the best college football tradition in the nation. I wave to my flatscreen TV when this happens. I could not agree more with the designation. It brings tears to your eyes.6) Back to school II: Number two-ranked Indiana won by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin on Saturday at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA. Penn State nearly pulled off the biggest upset win of the year. The catch for the touchdown, made by Omar Cooper Jr., was so spectacular that Fox announcers Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt almost had heart attacks. As Indiana was about to kick off, Klatt made this remark: “Ladies and gentlemen, THIS…is Big Ten football!” This was obviously a dig at the SEC, which makes no bones about how they feel over their perceived superiority. Never mind that the last two college football titles were won by Big Ten teams. Call me biased, but right now, these two leagues rule college football, and at the moment, the Big Ten is a little bit further ahead.7) If Goodell wanted to name a European expansion city to begin play in two years, he’d be well advised to pick Berlin as the first choice. The game that took place at the venerable Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens embarrassed Adolf Hitler almost 90 years ago was a terrific game, where Indianapolis survived in OT against Atlanta. There are lots of football (and we don’t mean soccer) fans in Deutschland. Just ask former Patriot Sebastian Vollmer.8) If I could rattle off my four top Euro venues, I’d say Berlin, Munich, Barcelona and London. But I want to see how Madrid does next week.
The Billsare having a rough year. (PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
9) When you see Buffalo go into Miami and lose by 17 points, you, the Patriot fan, have to really feel good about the division.10) Both the Browns and Jets are 2-7 following New York’s 27-20 win Sunday. I hereby declare the Jets the best 2-7 team in the NFL.They had better be 2-8 come Thursday night.11) This has been quite the year for 44-22 games. In the entire history of the NFL, a 44-22 score has happened four times. Two of them happened this Sunday: Seattle beat Arizona and Detroit beat Washington. If this isn’t enough, one of the other two times happened last month as Dallas beat Washington on October 19th. The other time was in 1967 in the AFL when Oakland beat Kansas City.So, if Washington scores 22 points in any game in the future, chances are their opponent doubled up on them.12) Remember him: Not enough tributes, in my opinion, are paid to perhaps the biggest catalyst of what eventually became the NFL-AFL merger, the one key person the AFL was looking for to emerge as a guarantee that the league would survive in the long haul. David “Sonny” Werblin bought the Jets from founding owner Harry Wismer in 1963. According to Werblin’s son David, Wismer and Werblin were drinking and got into an argument which ended when Wismer spoke an anti-Semitic racial slur to Werblin, causing then-AFL commissioner Joe Foss to step in and break it up. Werblin, according to his son, told Wismer that “I will own your team in one year!”, and he did. Werblin was the deep-pocketed owner with the big name (he was a talent scout) in New York which was just what the AFL needed. Werblin built Shea Stadium, signed Joe Namath, shaped the Jets into the franchise of the people (the Giants were the franchise of the rich white collar hoi polloi), and helped broker the eventual merger of the two leagues. Werblin was fired by the Jets just prior to when the Jets won Super Bowl III and helped turn the NFL and the Super Bowl into what it is today.13) Late word came in regarding the firing of Giants’ head coach Brian Daboll. Patriot Nation will remember Daboll as an assistant coach under Bill Belichick for several years. Now that the Giants have their quarterback in Jaxson Dart, it is too bad that Daboll won’t get the chance to work with him and develop him into, hopefully for Giants fans, the next Phil Simms.14) Simms is a name that sits better with Patriot Nation. There’s this other guy who is 2-0 in Super Bowls who should remain nameless.15) I understand that Philadelphia beat Green Bay Monday night, 10-7. Too bad all the YouTube TV customers didn’t get to see it. Word came on Monday that the government shutdown may finally end soon. It would be nice if the same thing happened between YouTube TV and the Disney corporation.16) To all veterans: Thanks so very much for your service to our country. Shout out to my late father, who served in the US Navy in the Korean War. I did my part as a retired teacher; I played Taps on my trumpet at an assembly at one of my former feeder elementary schools. A veteran who was invited to the ceremony came up and thanked me for playing Taps. I thanked him for his service. I’m not a hero. Instead, I’m one of the grateful ones.And when I wasn’t retired, I marched in 32 Veterans Day parades here in my city. I live in a county that bleeds red, white and blue. I love this country, and all the men and women who fought for and died for it.We invite you to catch Bob George’s Boston Sports Podcast, broadcast on YouTube. Go to YouTube handle thepic413 to view the podcasts. Please click on the Subscribe button so you don’t miss any of the podcasts. Also, please follow Bob on X at @bobgeorge413.
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