Note: Sunday p.m. I was traveling much of today and just threw something together. I’ll pick up all the pieces next time.
Pittsburgh Steelers Quiz: 1) Name the four to rush for 4,000 yards in their Steelers’ careers. 2) Name the five to pass for more than 10,000 yards wearing a Steelers uniform. Answers below.
NFL
My Jets are suddenly 8-5, but so are the Chiefs and Steelers as after this weekend it is clearly between these three for the two wild-card slots.
The Jets beat Tennessee (3-10) 30-8 at MetLife Stadium, with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick continuing his sterling recent play, throwing three touchdown passes to give him 9 in his last three games (all wins) with no interceptions. The receiver combination of Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker had another 13 receptions for 199 yards and two touchdowns.
The others in the mix, K.C. and Pittsburgh, picked up their eighth wins; the Chiefs 10-3 over the Chargers (3-10) and the Steelers 33-20 at Cincinnati (10-3), as the Bengals lost quarterback Andy Dalton to a broken bone in his thumb. Dalton is out an indeterminate amount of time, though seemingly for the regular season as I go to post. His substitute, A.J. McCarron (think Alabama) was 22/32, 280, 2-2.
The teams that fell out of the WC hunt in the AFC were the Bills (6-7), who lost to the Eagles (6-7) 23-20, and Indianapolis (6-7), which lost to Jacksonville (5-8) 51-16. However, Indy is still very much in the AFC South race, with Houston (6-6) playing New England as I write.
Back to the Eagles-Bills game, LeSean McCoy made his return to Philly and rushed for 74 yards on 20 carries.
Meanwhile, in the NFC Least, Washington is also now 6-7 after a big road win at Chicago (5-8), 24-21, as the Bears’ normally reliable kicker Robbie Gould has failed them the last two weeks.
The Giants, 5-7, are down in Miami for Monday Night Football.
In other games, Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes went bye-bye as they fell to 6-7 with a terrible 24-17 loss at home to New Orleans (5-8).
Carolina, in moving to a stupendous 13-0 by blasting Atlanta 38-0, ostensibly sent the Falcons (6-7) packing. Remember that 5-0 start by Atlanta? Good lord, they blow.
But one team that doesn’t blow, Seattle, has been rolling, the latest a 35-6 win over Baltimore (4-9) as my Super Bowl “Pick to Click” has won four in a row to get to 8-5, a seeming wild-card cinch. Russell Wilson continued his historically awesome play with five touchdowns on Sunday and a 139.6 passer rating. He now has 16 TD passes and zero interceptions during this four-game streak. However, they lost running back Thomas Rawls to a broken leg, Rawls having replaced the injured Marshawn Lynch, so it’s ‘next man up.’
Green Bay (9-4) feasted on Tony Romo-less Dallas (4-9) 28-7.
The Raiders (6-7) upset Denver (10-3) at Mile High 15-12.
College Football
So after my half-marathon in Kiawah on Saturday, more on this later, I struggled (after a long nap) to the bar at The Sanctuary there and watched the Army-Navy game, which you all know was a most entertaining contest. A retired Navy captain, John, sat down next to me and we proceeded to have a delightful chat about literally everything in the world, during the intermissions in the action. [John is a Jersey guy, but spends most of his year at his Kiawah residence.]
So Navy won its 14th straight in the rivalry, 21-17, and now holds a 60-49-7 advantage in the series. Quarterback Keenan Reynolds became the first Navy QB to go 4-0 as he also scored his 85th career rushing touchdown, the most for any FBS or FCS Division I player.
But as for Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who is now 8-0 against Army, he is said to be in line to be the new head coach at BYU.
–Running back Derrick Henry of Alabama won the Heisman Trophy with 378 first-place votes, compared to 290 for Christian McCaffrey of Stanford and 148 for Clemson QB Deshaun Watson. Now it’s all about the jobs Henry and Watson need to do for their teams in the College Football Playoffs New Year’s Eve.
–On a different topic, from Will Hobson and Steven Rich / Washington Post
“The University of Illinois paid fired football coach Ron Zook $1.3 million while he spent a year trying a new career in banking and working on his water-skiing in Florida.
“The University of California paid Jeff Tedford $1.8 million while he took a year off and vacationed in New Zealand.
“The University of Maryland paid Ralph Friedgen $2 million while he tried out retirement, played a lot of golf and cruised the South Carolina coastline in his 24-foot whaler, ‘Fishing with the Fridge.’
“These are just a few examples of the golden parachutes that await many newly unemployed coaches in the lucrative world of major college sports, a phenomenon recently retired football coach Steve Spurrier once called ‘hitting that lottery ticket.’ Severance pay is the top-rising expense for athletic departments at some of America’s largest public universities, according to a Washington Post review of thousands of pages of financial records from schools in the five wealthiest conferences in college sports.
“In a decade, the total annual amount spent on severance by athletic departments at 48 public universities in the ‘Power Five’ conferences increased from $12.9 million combined in 2004, adjusted for inflation, to $28.5 million in 2014. That 120 percent jump outpaced rises on larger athletic budget items such as facilities spending (89 percent), coaches pay (85 percent) and administrative-staff pay (69 percent).”
Of course this is outrageous….
“(But) school officials defend severance pay as a necessary cost of making changes that can turn around competitively struggling programs….
“ ‘You can’t look at the short term,’ said Damon Evans, chief financial officer at Maryland athletics, which now owes $2.6 million to its latest fired football coach, Randy Edsall. ‘Our goal is the long term: How do we best position this institution, this athletic program, this football team for long-term success?’….
“ ‘Expectations have become unrealistic,’ said Seth Greenberg, an ESPN analyst and former Virginia Tech basketball coach. Fired in 2012, Greenberg is still getting paid by Virginia Tech as part of $1.2 million in severance that he is scheduled to collect through next year.
“Greenberg’s replacement, James Johnson, was fired two years later with more than $900,000 left on his contract.”
As for Maryland, the situation with Randy Edsall is a classic example of how this game has gone wrong. On June 30 of this year, Maryland extended Edsall for three years and $7.5 million. In four years, Edsall had gone from 2-10, to 4-8, and then back-to-back 7-6 seasons with bowl appearances in each of the last two.
Oct. 11 – 103 days later – Edsall was fired after a loss to Ohio State dropped the Terps to 2-4. Edsall is owed $2.6 million through January 2017.
Then you have Kansas, which I have written of over the years. In 2009, they fired Mark Mangino and paid him $3 million in severance. Two years later, they fired Turner Gill while owing him $6 million. In 2014, Kansas fired Charlie Weiss, whom the school owed $5.6 million, “which is part of more than $24 million Weis reportedly will collect in severance combined between Kansas and Notre Dame, which fired him in 2009.”
–Former Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, who many thought would return to the school after the firing of Kyle Flood, shockingly took the old job of the Scarlet Knight’s new coach, Chris Ash, in becoming the defensive coordinator and associate head coach at Ohio State!
As NJ.com’s Steve Politi wrote, October 1 just got more interesting with Rutgers headed to Columbus. “It won’t just be Ash’s first matchup with his mentor Urban Meyer, but Schiano’s first game against the program he built into respectability. Buckle up, everyone!”
But as Politi adds, and more importantly, “Meyer has another N.J. recruiter.”
This also sets Schiano up for his next move.
–Back to the action, in the Division I-AA (FCS) quarterfinals:
Richmond defeated Illinois State 39-27; Jacksonville State bested Charleston Southern 58-38; North Dakota State beat Northern Iowa 23-13; and Sam Houston State whipped Colgate 48-21.
NBA
–I was only following box scores the past few days…actually, with regards to the NBA, this early in the season I am basically only checking out box scores. But I saw how Golden State needed two overtimes to defeat Boston on Friday, 124-119, to go to 24-0, as Steph Curry had 38 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists, and there are certain things sports fans can just feel. You knew the end was near.
So Saturday, the amazing Warriors’ season-opening streak ended at 24 as they traveled to Milwaukee (from Boston…part of a 7-game road trip) and lost to the Bucks 108-95. It is going to be kind of interesting to see how they do in the next 10 or so. I’ll say 8-2.
–Meanwhile, the only other two teams worth following (but for sure not watching), for non-home team fans, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, are now 1-24 and 3-21, respectively, the Sixers having lost at Toronto on Sunday, 96-76.
–USA TODAY’s Sam Amick reports that LeBron James’ recently announced deal with Nike is “significantly more than” $500 million.
James Harden, who doesn’t know what the word ‘defense’ means, signed a $200 million deal with Adidas and Kevin Durant a $300 million one with Nike.
College Basketball
–Just a few games of note since last chat….
Providence defeated Boston College 66-51 back on Wednesday night, which I only mention because I had written of the B.C. players’ issues with norovirus, picked up at a local Chipotle. The starters, best I could tell, played Wednesday, though they were still clearly in recovery mode.
Saturday, No. 3 North Carolina fell to Texas 84-82 in Austin for Longhorns coach Shaka Smart’s first big win, though the Tar Heels have reason to bitch as the winning field goal may have come after the buzzer.
Wichita State (5-4) has started its climb back with the return of All-American point guard Fred VanVleet, beating No. 25 Utah at home 67-50.
No. 12 Xavier beat 23 Cincinnati in their annual grudge match 65-55.
And on Sunday, new St. John’s coach Chris Mullin picked up his biggest win as the Red Storm (7-3) defeated Syracuse (7-3) 84-72 at Madison Square Garden; a huge victory for Mullin and his future recruiting efforts. Granted, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was on the sidelines as he serves out his suspension, but it doesn’t seem likely he would have made any difference.
I am not a St. John’s fan, but the better they do just makes the local sports scene more interesting.
— I have to note the Rider men’s basketball team was on my flight home from Charleston today. Yup, some D-I teams don’t exactly travel first class, these 6’7”-6’9” players having to cram into one of those little Embraer jets. It was kind of comical watching them load. Rider, a member of the MAAC, is just 2-8 but they had defeated Charleston Southern on Saturday night. [They played Maryland very tough earlier in the season.]
An assistant coach was sitting behind me and he was telling the passenger across from him about where they had gone out to dinner after the game, and the passenger goes, “Were the players with you?” “Are you kidding me?” said the coach. “We’re the last people they want to spend time with after the game.”
I was kind of shocked to see Rider had a Chinese player and just looked it up. Yup, a kid from Beijing. As I noted earlier with the likes of St. John’s and Johnny Mac’s St. Francis of Brooklyn, kids are heavily recruited from all over the world these days. The Rider coach behind me talked of going to Melbourne in September, so we’ll see next year if the ‘costly’ trip paid off.
MLB
The winter baseball meetings yielded a few big moves, but there are still more to come in December, and maybe beyond. The biggest non-pitcher free-agent signing thus far had Jason Heyward abandoning his St. Louis Cardinals for their bitter rival the Chicago Cubs. Heyward signed for a staggering 8 years, $184 million that does include two opt-outs, after the third and fourth years, if he exceeds a plate-appearance threshold.
Here’s what I love, wrote your editor sarcastically, about this one. The fellow writing for CBSSports.com described it as “Slugger Jason Heyward…” Others have fallen into the same trap.
Granted, Heyward, an imposing looking figure, is only 26, but while his major league career started at age 20 with the Braves, he has had only one ‘power’ year…2012…when he hit 27 home runs and drove in 82.
This ‘slugger’ had a whopping 13 home runs last season with the Cardinals, driving in 60, though he did hit .293 and had a fine .359 OBP. He’s also a three-time Gold Glove winner.
But if he doesn’t produce 25-90 a year, like in the first two of his contract, just what were the Cubs thinking? To some of us, Heyward, believe it or not, is still a prospect. Prospects don’t get these kinds of dollars.
But Cubs fans at least can feel that management is doing what it can to bring home a World Series, having earlier signed Ben Zobrist and John Lackey.
–It seems like light years away already, but Wednesday the Mets, fresh off their disappointment in losing Ben Zobrist, traded lefty starter Jon Niese for second baseman Neil Walker of the Pirates, a very solid deal for my Metropolitans, who in making the move were officially saying goodbye to Daniel Murphy.
And then hours later the Mets turned around and signed a legitimate shortstop in Asdrubal Cabrera, who has been a productive player in his big league career, most recently with Tampa Bay.
Mets fans also, at least briefly, welcomed the sudden retirement of outfielder Michael Cuddyer on Saturday, the team having shelled out $21 million last year for two seasons, yet he was largely ineffective this past campaign. The team owed him $12.5 million next year so that’s money that’s now available to spend on free agents, right?
Not so fast. There are major questions as to what the Mets may have offered Cuddyer to walk away. Some are saying essentially the full amount owed (speaking of severance). Cuddyer basically admitted as much in a conference call announcing his move. The Mets gave him something substantial, which kind of sucks if it was more than a $million or two. I’m sure we’ll learn the truth later.
–The Angels picked up Washington Nationals’ infielder Yunel Escobar in a trade, thus teaming him with recently acquired shortstop Andrelton Simmons, in what is likely to be their new double-play combination, though Escobar, who hit .314 and drove in 56 runs last season, can also play third.
–And the Orioles withdrew a seven-year, $150 million offer they had on the table for slugger Chris Davis, though the team says they still want him to return to Baltimore, where he slammed 47 homers and drove in 117 last season.
Premier League Standings…16 of 38 matches complete
1. Arsenal 33 points
2. Man City 32
3. Leicester City 32*
4. Man U 29
5. Tottenham 26
6. Crystal Palace 26
7. Watford 25
16. Chelsea 15*
*Both play each other Monday for their 16th of the season.
Tottenham was hosting lowly Newcastle on Sunday, riding a 14-game unbeaten streak, but they lost 2-1. Bad Spurs….Baaaad Spurs.
Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 2-0, and newbie Bournemouth upset Manchester United 2-1. Talk about embarrassing.
Meanwhile, Man U failed to advance to the Round of 16 in the Champions League, though fellow Premier League members Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man City did, along with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Dynamo Kiev, Bayern Munich, and Paris St.-Germain.
Stuff
—Stanford won its first men’s NCAA soccer championship, defeating Clemson 4-0 in Kansas City on Sunday.
—Lindsey Vonn won again, a giant slalom race in Are, Sweden, her fourth straight victory, though fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin may have suffered a serious knee injury in a crash during warm-ups.
–Friend Brad K. is rightly scared of protecting his family from bears in rural New Jersey. As I wrote before, there were two attacks in the town of Chester recently and the other day, in neighboring Long Valley, like a mile from Brad (and Leah’s) home, “a hungry bear terrorized a family’s property by attacking one of its animals…then came back looking for more that same night.” [Long Valley Patch]
What animal was the bear originally attacking? A llama. The property owner has four llamas and two donkeys. A vet was called and the 17-year-old llama was euthanized. Our sympathies to the extended llama family, including the Dali Lama in Tibet. Actually, the latter is in exile in India and has nothing to do with said llama.
—As for my half-marathon on Saturday, it was a disaster. I’m old, sports fans, but didn’t think I’d age 9 minutes chip time in one year! Granted, the conditions were brutal…59 and humid at the start, 70s at the end, and I knew after three miles my time would suck. What I didn’t know, but should have from my training, was I would collapse the final three miles.
Folks, I have never walked a single step of my many half-marathons, going back long before I started StocksandNews, just out of principle, but I was real close to doing so near the end on Saturday.
I told you I thought I’d do 2:15, three minutes worse than my previous four years, and I did 2:21! Yikes. Very depressing.
But I’m doing it again next year for sure as I attempt to turn back the clock. Dammit, I will.
[In all honesty, when I crossed the finish line I was on the verge of heatstroke. So when you are about to die, what’s the remedy? Drink beer. Within 20 minutes I was my old self.*]
*Kids, do not follow this advice without first checking with your parents. I’m a professional beer drinker and hack jogger. I know what I’m doing…or maybe not.
Top 3 songs for the week 12/10/83: #1 “Say Say Say” (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson…the collaborations by these two tarnish the images of both big time…just awful music…) #2 “All Night Long (All Night)” (Lionel Richie…sucked…) #3 “Uptown Girl” (Billy Joel…not one of his better ones…)…and…#4 “Say It Ain’t So” (Daryl Hall – John Oates…not bad…) #5 “Love Is A Battlefield” (Pat Benatar…not a fan…) #6 “Islands In The Stream” (Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton…I love Dolly, but she was looking for a fast buck with this piece of merde…) #7 “Union Of The Snake” (Duran Duran….sorry, was never a fan of these guys either…) #8 “Cum On Feel The Noize” (Quiet Riot…I was a huge oldies fan during this time and for good reason…) #9 “Crumblin’ Down” (John Mellencamp) #10 “Church Of The Poison Mind” (Culture Club…anything these guys did made me want to do some heroin…)
Pittsburgh Steelers Quiz Answers: 4,000 yards rushing: Franco Harris, 11,950, 1972-83; Jerome Bettis, 10,571, 1996-2005; Willie Parker, 5,378, 2004-09; and John Henry Johnson, 4,381, 1960-65. Frank Pollard had 3,989; Dick Hoak 3,965; and Barry Foster 3,943. 2) 10,000 yards passing: Ben Roethlisberger, 41,764 (prior to this week), 2004-15; Terry Bradshaw, 27,989, 1970-83; Kordell Stewart, 13,328, 1995-2002; Neil O’Donnell, 12,867, 1991-95; and Bubby Brister, 10,104, 1986-92. Bobby Layne had 9,030 (1958-62).
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
