This time of year is usually dominated by March Madness, with the NFL playing a distant second fiddle, entertaining gridiron die hards only, with its combines, free agency and the draft.
Not so in 2020. Speaking personally, I don’t know that I’ve ever been so dialed in to the early days of football free agency. And not just because the GOAT is leaving the Evil Empire while we Jets fans play the role of the freed munchkins in the Wizard of Oz (“ding-dong, the GOAT is gone…”). Nope, we sports fans needed something, and the NFL has scratched an itch of pandemic proportions.
Now I can actually go to my NY Post app, press “sports,” and get something other than coronavirus-related accounts of minor leaguers at Yankees camp getting diagnosed. Or KD and three other Nets suffering the same fate. Or speculation on when/if the NBA will pick up the season again, or when MLB may deem it safe to roll out Opening Day, or, or, or (enough already — I can’t get away from this topic, and it’s even saturated my sports pages).
But that’s right, there’s real sports stuff going on again, folks. And I, for one, needed NFL free agency bad. So with that as our backdrop, we’ll dive into a quick turn of Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust, focusing today on real pigskin happenings that should impact a season I damn sure hope we all get to witness in its entirety come the fall.
There is a page on Twitter (Or do they call them sites? Handles?) called Super 70s Sports that makes me laugh out loud at least once a day. This afternoon they had a two minute video clip from the beginning of a 1978 Monday Night Football game between the Bears and Vikings. Man, I was ready to put the pads on and stick a hand in the dirt right there. The video began with shots of Walter Payton’s record-setting, 275-yard game against Minnesota the prior Thanksgiving, before rolling into some grainy Fran Tarkenton footage, all the while narrated by the voice — Howard Cosell — synonymous with MNF and the NFL for those of us who grew up during that time. Cue the goosebumps.
The pre-game clip had some funky graphics typical of late-’70’s television, featuring forward-thinking design work, that included a team by team population of the TV screen featuring every NFL helmet and their proud logo of the day (bring back the Houston Oilers — please!). Yeah, I’m ready for some football.
Which brings me to free agency. The New York Football Giants are spending some of their hard-earned salary cap money this offseason to try and salvage a little self-respect for the franchise. And while we should all be forgiven if our confidence in GM Dave Gettleman is shaken following these last few years of questionable decisions (and franchise-tagging Leonard Williams did nothing to lessen our concerns), it is fun to speculate in our heads over whether or not new Gints head man Joe Judge is going to be the next innovative young NFL leader, or just another consolation prize hire by Big Blue who’s in way over his head.
And across the MetLife Stadium parking lot, Gang Green made a couple of signings themselves. Nothing to the level of Le’Veon Bell a year ago, but the type of below the radar additions that hopefully begin to shore up the needy infrastructure on both sides of the ball for the Super Bowl-starved franchise.
We Jets fans must assume new GM Joe Douglas will address the glaring need for a game-breaking receiver in the upcoming draft, which seems loaded with quality wideouts more than capable of hauling in passes from Sam Darnold for the next ten years or so. Meanwhile, one can’t help but wonder what the whispering campaign is out there that is keeping teams from signing speedster Robbie Anderson (hmmm — questionable character, some drop issues and a reputation for sloppy route running? Anyone? Anyone?)? Yeah, all solid, true football stock for us fans to pick over with our sports cupboards otherwise bare.
And there remain a few big free agent chips yet to fall, so this NFL diversion remains far from over. Jadeveon Clowney remains available, and sure should sound appealing to either New York football club, not to mention about a dozen others. Twenty million per year? Call it a million a sack for Clowney’s services, and yeah, most teams (and especially their fans) would sign up for that right now.
There are also still some intriguing QB’s floating around. Cam Newton? Jameis Winston? It says here that one of those guys ends up a Patriot this season, giving Bill Belichick the chance to cement his legacy as the Head Coaching GOAT by winning one more ring with a new guy behind center, and a completely revamped style of play. Stay tuned, folks.
And oh yeah…speaking of QB’s…
Well Tommy Boy didn’t waste any time, did he? Tampa Bay? Really? I’m sure no state income tax was a nice draw. And those stud receivers he inherits from Winston will certainly look wonderful when TB12 walks into his first unfamiliar camp in twenty years.
But c’mon. None of us really thought he’d go to Tampa, did we? I know, he had $30 million reasons to make the choice he did, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that there isn’t a lack of cashflow in the Brady/Bundchen household. Personnel and playbook control? Inside knowledge that there are a couple more big-ticket playmakers on the way to solidify the Buccaneers D? There’s gotta be more to this one somewhere, but only time will tell. And that’s what makes this story so much damn fun!
In the meantime, more entertaining articles will be heading our way, chronicling Montana the Chief and Namath the Ram, all adding some level of historical context and nostalgic memories for us fans so in need of the distractions the world or sports has always provided us.
So thank you, NFL, for stepping forward and filling our entertainment/distraction void at a time when we really needed you guys.
Are we ready for some football? Hell yeah.
The Sports Attic 