NFL Quiz: 21 quarterbacks have been selected first overall in the NFL draft since 1970. Name the only three who made at least six Pro Bowls. Answer below.
Playoff Postmortem
–Monday morning, New England coach Bill Belichick said of his kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who felt he cost his team a chance to win the AFC Championship Game by missing that first quarter extra point, “Steve is a great kicker. He had a great year for us. I think every coach or player who participated in the game wishes there was a couple things they could have done differently. I feel that way. Everybody I’ve talked to feels that way….I feel like it’s my fault, I’m sure all the other players who played feel like it’s their fault.”
Belichick didn’t want to discuss the NFL’s new extra point rule for this season.
“Whatever the rules are, we play by them.” Ha!
Belichick didn’t second-guess himself for a decision that drew criticism: going for it on fourth-and-1 from the Broncos’ 16-yard line with 6:03 left in regulation, Patriots trailing 20-12. Denver got the ball back on an incomplete pass.
I didn’t think it was as big a deal as a lot of Pats fans did. I think the bigger deal is how the Pats tanked their last regular season game at Miami, losing 20-10, and thus losing home-field advantage. New England wins on Sunday if it was at Foxborough, where the high temperature for the day was just 34. The significance of that? Peyton Manning was 0-5 in playoff games where the temperature was under 40.
Tom Brady was also 2-6 playing in Denver…make that 2-7.
–For the record, of the 20 hits on Brady, Denver linebacker Von Miller had four, to go with 2 ½ sacks and an interception, while DeMarcus Ware hit Brady seven times and had half a sack.
–Jason Gay / Wall Street Journal
“Carolina, meanwhile, won in a devastating laugher. It began its NFC championship versus Arizona the same way as its divisional playoff against Seattle: by blazing out of the garage at 85 MPH. At the end of the second quarter, the Panthers led 17-0. Arizona would not mount an anxious-making comeback as Seattle had done a week before, preferring to turn the ball over 85,000 times….
“(A quick ask: heading into the Super Bowl, can we please just stop those ridiculous debates over whether or not Cam Newton’s in-game and post-game celebrations are somehow detracting from the staid, serious-minded game of North American football? Newton (335 yards passing Sunday, with two passing and two rushing touchdowns) is nothing less than the most exciting-to-watch player in a sport with a lot of starting quarterbacks who are as exciting to watch as a bag of wet sand. If you could play like Cam Newton, you would never stop celebrating.) [Ed. Personally, I’m not a fan of the guy…sorry.]
“On the unhappy side of the field, it will be a long wait until training camp for Arizona, which enjoyed a great season under head coach Bruce Arians until shrinking in Charlotte. It will be similarly long for New England, which played under a withering spotlight after last season’s Super Bowl victory and the continued ‘Deflategate’ drama involving Brady. New England began the 2015 regular season as if in a revenge caper – they started 10-0 before a loss to Denver kicked off a 2-4 skid….
“Instead there will be the unexpected return of Manning, who struggled badly against Seattle in a Super Bowl loss in 2014, lost his job this season to shiny backup Brock Osweiler after an injury, and endured loud whispers of his creaky demise, not to mention published allegations of an HGH shipment in 2011 to his home, which Manning strongly denied as untrue.
“So here comes another Super Bowl, the 50th overall, and there will be so many shiny lists and histories you may need a nap… Here comes Denver and that staggering defense. And look, here comes your old pal, Peyton Manning – who would have believed that, just a month or so ago? Maybe not even him.”
–Jarrett Bell / USA TODAY Sports
“Just when you thought Peyton Manning was finished, doomed, destroyed or otherwise just plain done, he’s heading back to the Super Bowl.
“Raise your hand if you saw this coming six weeks ago. Didn’t think so.
“Manning has at least one more game to play after all. And, boy, does he deserve it….
“Like his Super Bowl-bound team, Manning’s been through a lot this season. A torn plantar fascia that put him down for six weeks. The euphoria that enveloped Broncos Nation when his backup, Brock Osweiler, served notice that he could be a capable quarterback of the future. The smudge on Manning’s pristine rep when an Al-Jazeera report (refuted by Manning) alleged that this wife, Ashley, received shipments containing HGH.
“Take away the 2011 season that was wiped out by the neck injury that led to four surgeries, and it has easily been the most trying campaign yet for one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks.
“And look at him now, defying the odds.
“ ‘We’ve seen that resilience his whole career,’ John Elway, the former Broncos star who now runs the football operations as executive vice president, said in a corner of a festive locker room on Sunday night….
“Elway can probably relate to Manning like no other, having ended his career in the late 1990s by riding off into the sunset with a second consecutive Super Bowl victory, the old man who had enough left to take his team to the mountain top.
“When Elway performed his magic, he was the oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl. Now that distinction will belong to Manning, 39, who is headed to the big game for the fourth time, and second in three years with the Broncos….
“When I asked Shannon Sharpe, the Hall of Fame tight end who won two Super Bowls with Elway, what his response would have been had someone suggested in late November that Manning would make it to this Super Bowl, he chuckled.
“ ‘I would have said, ‘Stop it,’’ Sharpe said….
“Now Sharpe is amazed like everybody else. And the tour, the Peyton tour, has a place in Super Bowl 50.”
–Carolina opened as a 5.5-point favorite over Denver, though most seem to think it will end up 4.
David Purdum / ESPN.com
“Millions will be wagered on the Super Bowl over the next two weeks. Last year, $115.9 million was bet on the Super Bowl at Nevada sports books. The books won $3.2 million when the Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in the Super Bowl. The books have posted a profit in 24 of the past 26 Super Bowls.
“Since Nevada Gaming Control began tracking betting action on the Super Bowl in 1991, the books are up $134.2 million. Their only losses came in 2008, when the New York Giants upset the Patriots, and in 1995, when the San Francisco 49ers routed the San Diego Chargers.
“The favored team has won 32 of 49 Super Bowls.”
–Denver has been in seven prior Super Bowls (2-5) and as the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino points out that normally means a blowout.
“In their seven outings, Denver’s games have produced a whopping average margin of victory of 24.3 points. That’s nearly two touchdowns worse than the 12.6 average winning margin in all the other championship deciders.”
Just two years ago you had the 43-8 Seattle rout of Denver.
–The Broncos-Patriots game was the highest rated AFC Championship in 29 years, thanks to the snowstorm that kept the Mid-Atlantic at home. Cardinals-Panthers drew far less, no doubt in part to the fact the game sucked.
–The NFL conceded it opened an investigation into allegations Peyton Manning was using HGH weeks ago, though there is no way the league will reach a verdict before the Super Bowl, so Manning will have to face some questions on the topic leading up to the game. He has described the allegations as “complete garbage.” The source has since recanted, but neither Peyton nor his representatives denied packages were sent under his wife’s name.
—Florida State agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former student who had accused former Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston of raping her in 2012. Winston was never criminally charged in the case, with the local prosecutor saying he didn’t have the evidence needed to sustain a charge of rape. But experts in various outside investigations found the school and Tallahassee police had done little to determine the facts in the case.
Florida State president John Thrasher said the university decided that fighting the suit would have cost millions of dollars and that avoiding a trial was a financially responsible decision (even though we are convinced that we would have prevailed.” [Marc Tracy / New York Times]
–Steve Politi of NJ.com had a piece on Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and how he has reneged on two commitments; two high school seniors being told to “get ready to play for us” next fall, only to be told there was no longer a spot come signing day, Feb. 3.
Politi’s point was New Jersey recruits need to beware…Harbaugh’s word is not good. Plus he’s a jerk.
Granted, Harbaugh isn’t breaking any rules as many blue chip players regularly switch themselves when they get what is perceived to be a better offer.
“But it’s different for a teenager who is making an important life decision to change his mind than a head coach who is just trying to out-recruit Urban Meyer. His word should – emphasis on should – carry more meaning.”
–Finally, former New York Giants safety Tyler Sash, who played in 2011 and 2012, and then was cut in 2013 after what was at least his fifth concussion, was found to have C.T.E. after his death on Sept. 8 at his Iowa home of an accidental overdose of pain medications.
Sash’s mother had blamed her son’s changeable behavior after his football playing days on the powerful prescription drugs he was taking for a football-related shoulder injury that needed surgery.
But after his death “she donated his brain to be tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated trauma that has been found in dozens of former NFL players.” [Bill Pennington / New York Times]
Last week, representatives from Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation told the Sash family the disease “had advanced to a stage rarely seen in someone his age.” [Pennington]
College Basketball
New AP Poll (Jan. 25…records thru Sun.)
1. Oklahoma 16-2 (36…they deserve this)
2. North Carolina 18-2 (29)
3. Iowa 16-3…wow*
4. Kansas 16-3
5. Texas A&M 17-2*
6. Villanova 17-3
7. Xavier 17-2*
8. Maryland 17-3
9. West Virginia 16-3*
10. Providence 17-3*
11. Virginia 15-4
12. Michigan State 17-4
13. SMU 18-1
14. Iowa State 15-4
15. Miami 15-3
19. Indiana 17-3…playing great
20. Kentucky 15-4
22. Wichita State 14-5…VanVleet and Baker back on track
24. Duke 15-5
South Carolina is out of top 25.
*Top Ten teams that weren’t in Sports Illustrated’s preseason Top 20. [SI had 1. UNC 2. Kansas 3. Kentucky]
So Monday, you immediately had another upset, a pseudo upset, mind you, as Kansas fell to Iowa State 85-72 in Ames.
Miami dispatched with Duke in Miami, 80-69, the Blue Devils’ fourth loss in five games.
Then on Tuesday….
7 Xavier (18-2, 6-2) defeated 10 Providence (17-4, 5-3) on the road, 75-68. It was the first time Providence had hosted a game featuring two top-10 teams since 1972.
Indiana (17-4, 7-1) suffered its first Big Ten loss on the road at Wisconsin (12-9, 4-4) 82-79.
San Diego State (15-6, 8-0) remained undefeated in Mountain West play with a 57-54 win at Nevada (12-8, 4-4) in a classic brickfest, with the Aztecs shooting 15 of 52 (28.8%) from the field and the Wolf Pack shooting 19 of 64 (29.7%). I can’t imagine watching this one in person. You’d have to hide your kids’ eyes.
But then there was Virginia at Wake Forest. I tuned into ESPN3 with about 8 minutes to go, after following the score online, the Deacs comfortably ahead and playing solid ball. With 1:23 to play, Wake was up 64-54, a nice upset win at home and the perfect tonic to get the season back on the right track…until it wasn’t.
By now most in the country are seemingly aware of the Deacs’ epic collapse, falling 72-71 on a last-second three-point bank shot.
Wake (10-10, 1-7) was even up 70-63 with 20 seconds to play and still blew it, as down the stretch we hit 7 of 14 free throws and committed two terrible turnovers, while allowing Virginia to score 18 points in less than a minute and a half.
I have never been more disgusted. Oh, sure, there have been terrible losses these last six dreadful years, but this was despicable…inexcusable. I’ll unload on coach Danny Manning after I see us play Sunday at Notre Dame.
Spurs-Warriors…and NBA bits…
In the first of four matchups in the regular season between the NBA’s two best teams, Golden State routed San Antonio 120-90 in Oakland on Monday as Steph Curry poured in 37 points in just 28 minutes, hitting 6 of 9 from three. It was the Warriors’ 39th straight home win as they ran their record to 41-4, while San Antonio fell to 38-7.
The teams had the highest combined winning percentage in NBA history for opponents meeting at least 40 games into the season.
San Antonio played without Tim Duncan due to soreness in his right knee but you can be sure coach Gregg Popovich is hardly concerned with his team’s performance, though he admitted to having butterflies in his stomach prior to the game.
–Also Monday, Cleveland won its first under new coach Tyronn Lue, 114-107 over the Timberwolves. Lue has said he wants to implement an up-tempo offense, which isn’t exactly what LeBron James wants. “This is what Coach wants. This is what Coach wants to do, and this is what we’re going to do,” said LeBron, with little enthusiasm.
The Cavs and LeBron are used to playing at a slow pace, but have terrific success when they do run out in transition.
–Tuesday the Philadelphia 76ers moved to 7-39, 6-9 in the Ish Smith era, with a 113-103 win over the Suns. Smith had 20 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds.
What’s clear is that the Sixers will win 20 games and finish with a far better record than the 9-38 Lakers.
–And I can’t help but note the performance by DeMarcus Cousins on Monday, 56 points on 21 of 30 from the field (plus 12 rebounds), though the Kings lost to the Hornet 129-128 in double overtime. The problem with Cousins, who is having a superb year individually (27.4 ppg, 11.4 reb), is he’s so unlikable.
–We have a true “Jerk…” and “Idiot of the Year” candidate in Clippers forward Blake Griffin, who is out 4-6 weeks after breaking his hand in a fight with an assistant equipment manager at a Toronto restaurant; this after Griffin was already missing a month because of a quadriceps injury.
The team said they are investigating the incident and the NBA could discipline Griffin, who left the manager, Mathias Testi, with a severely swollen face but no fractures. Griffin apologized in a tweet later, writing that “a situation among friends escalated and I regret the way I handled myself towards someone I care about.”
Testi remained employed by the team as of this posting and it’s not known if he’ll pursue legal action against Griffin.
The thing is the Clippers are 12-3 without the All-Star.
Australian Open
Serena Williams advanced to the semifinals, beating Maria Sharapova, again, in two sets, 6-4, 6-1, for Williams’ 18th straight against the Russian. Serena, a six-time singles champion in Melbourne, is a huge favorite to close out her 22nd singles title at a Grand Slam event, which would tie her with Steffi Graf for second on the career list.
Williams will face Agnieszka Radwanska, the No. 4 seed from Poland, in the semis on Thursday. Serena is 8-0 against her.
Roger Federer advanced to the men’s semis with a three-set win over sixth seed Tomas Berdych to advance to his 12th Aussie Open semifinal.
So Federer will play No. 1 Novak Djokovic (again), Djokovic defeating 7 Kei Nishikori in three sets.
On the other side of the bracket, you have a semifinal matchup between 2 Andy Murray and 13 Milos Raonic.
Golf Balls
–With everything else going on Sunday, I missed noting that Phil Mickelson finished tied for third at the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, Phil the Thrill’s 2016 tour debut. Pretty, pretty good for the 45-year-old with the new coach, Andrew Getson.
Afterwards Mickelson said, “This is a great week for me. Just because it’s not a win it doesn’t mean it wasn’t what I wanted. I’m playing the way I want.”
It’s pretty amazing to think that his last win was the 2013 British Open (just as Jason Dufner’s had been the 2013 PGA Championship).
Well we’ve heard this before from Phil early in the year, but while I did not catch any of Sunday’s action, I watched a lot of it Saturday and I was most impressed with Phil’s short putting, which is what it always seems to come down to for him. Let’s just hope he has it together come April and The Masters…a tradition unlike any other…on CBS.
—World Golf Rankings (those above 7 points)
1. Jordan Spieth 11.97
2. Jason Day 10.38
3. Rory McIlroy 10.30
4. Rickie Fowler 7.87
5. Bubba Watson 7.48
6. Henrik Stenson 7.38
Rickie wants to be included in a Big Four, but he is also the first one to say he can’t be included until he wins a major.
–Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte had a piece on the late Glenn Frey’s obsession with golf.
“The Eagles’ Don Henley made it a habit of asking manager Irving Azoff why the band always stayed at hotels and resorts near golf courses. Azoff knew Henley knew the answer, as did everyone in the roadshow: Glenn Frey’s infatuation with the game.
“ ‘When the band got back together in ’94,’ Azoff told me last week, ‘it kind of became booking our tours around where Glenn wanted to play golf.’”
Frey was a regular in the two pro-ams on the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing. Following his death, testimonials were posted on Twitter from the likes of Dottie Pepper, Rocco Mediate, John Daly and Pat Perez. Arnold Palmer talked about Frey from his office at Bay Hill, where a photo of the two hangs in the grillroom. Tiger Woods remembered Frey fondly.
Frey actually had a home at PGA West, one of the courses used this past weekend at La Quinta, and he played in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic six out of seven years from 1998 to 2004. He played the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for 12 years with Craig Stadler starting in 1996. Twice they finished second in the pro-am competition.
Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade played in Frey’s own pro-am in Aspen, Colo. Frey then provided entertainment at their charity event every summer in Rhode Island. Faxon recalled:
“Glenn would always say, ‘Ever see me at the piano, I’ve had too much to drink.’ Inevitably he’d be at the piano singing with Joe Pesci.”
Above the desk in Faxon’s office is a picture of Frey serving as his caddie at the Masters Par-3 Contest.
Tim Rosaforte: “For Frey, all the Grammys and sold-out stadiums didn’t compare to the rush of standing on the 18th tee at Pebble tied for the lead. As he himself would say: ‘What could be better than that?’”
—Jim Nantz said he wants to do the CBS’ Masters telecast for at least 20 more years, which would make it 50 for him. He’s 56.
But then Nantz realized the 100th playing of the tournament would take place in 2036. So he wants 51, friends.
Men’s Division I College Hockey Poll (Jan. 25)
1. Quinnipiac
2. North Dakota
3. St. Cloud State
4. Providence
5. Boston College
6. Michigan
7. Harvard
8. Massachusetts-Lowell
9. Boston University
10. Notre Dame
11. Yale
15. Penn State…kind of surprised by this…forgot they had a big time program.
But take a look at the competition in the greater Boston area, including Providence. Then throw in Connecticut and in a fairly small geographic area you have seven of the top eleven. As Ronald “Dutch” Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’
Stuff
–MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported Yoenis Cespedes turned down a five-year offer worth $110 million from the Nationals, not the initially reported $100 million, before deciding to take less from the Mets ($75 million over three).
—British adventurer Henry Worsley died after collapsing from exhaustion just miles from becoming the first person to cross the Antarctic solo.
Worsley was 30 miles short in his 1,000-mile trek. He called for help and was airlifted out, but his family said he died “following complete organ failure.”
Worsley had been attempting to complete Ernest Shackleton’s attempt of a century ago to cross the Antarctic via the South Pole. Shackleton’s voyage ended when his ship, the Endurance, was trapped and sunk by pack ice in 1915, but he was able to save his crew.
Worsley had to abandon his mission on day 71 after he was unable to leave his tent for two days. His final message was:
“The 71 days alone on the Antarctic with over 900 statute miles covered and a gradual grinding down of my physical endurance finally took its toll today, and it is with sadness that I report it is journey’s end – so close to my goal.
Prince William, who was a patron of the expedition, said, “We are incredibly proud to be associated with him.”
The expedition had raised more than 100,000 pounds for wounded troops. [Jill Lawless / Wall Street Journal]
—Abe Vigoda is officially dead…94. Of course for years this has been a running joke that he himself participated in. But the lovable actor finally succumbed for real and his family said it was simply old age.
Vigoda is best known for his role as Detective Phil Fish on ABC’s “Barney Miller,” for which he earned three Emmy nominations, and, famously, as one of Don Corleone’s soldiers in “The Godfather.”
It was back in 1982, after Vigoda’s character had been spun off from “Barney Miller” (“Fish”) that there was a wrap party for the final episode of Barney and because he was doing a play in Calgary, People magazine just assumed he was dead and said so, referring to “the late Abe Vigoda.”
Vigoda told the Toronto Star in 1988, “My wife keeps getting condolence cards from people who believe I died. Many are producers. I’m sure there are many who may have thought about me for a role but said, ‘No, he’s dead.’”
And then others over the years made the same mistake.
As a Bloomberg story noted, “At a 2004 Friars Club roast of Donald Trump, Vigoda was introduced with the word, ‘If Abe Vigoda were alive today.’
But in a famous scene from “The Godfather,” Vigoda, playing the role of Salvatore Tessio, the gangster who arranged the murder of Michael Corleone (until it wasn’t), said it was “only business” and then pleaded with Robert Duvall’s character, Tom Hagen, to “get me off the hook for old times’ sake.” Tessio is then led off for his own execution.
Vigoda long after told the New York Times, “ ‘The Godfather’ changed my life.”
–Rachel Bachman in the Wall Street Journal had a story on how professional and college sports teams are focusing more on Vitamin D levels in their athletes and how low levels of same could be contributing to the risk of injury.
“A study of the Pittsburgh Steelers published in 2015 in the American Journal of Sports Medicine was especially striking. It found that vitamin D levels were significantly lower in players with at least one bone fracture. Players who were released during the preseason due to injury or poor performance also had significantly lower D levels than those who made the team, the study found….
“Doctors are testing more patients in the general population for vitamin D deficiency as research connects the nutrient to more important functions. Debate continues about how much vitamin D is best, even after the nonprofit Institute of Medicine in 2010 tripled the minimum recommended daily intake to 600 international units (or 800 IU for those over age 70). That is equivalent to six cups of fortified milk. But some sports dietitians say athletes should get at least 1,000 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily through food, supplements or both….
“The University of Virginia has made 2,000 IU vitamin D supplements available to all of its athletes for at least the past six years, says Randy Bird, director of sports nutrition. It is the only vitamin he encourages every athlete to take, he says.
“ ‘The research on it outside of muscle and bone injuries is that it’s great for your immune system,’ Mr. Bird says. ‘And we can’t afford to have athletes missing for illness.’”
Of course the sun is a major source of vitamin D and I’m one of those winter slugs who gets little of it.
But Ms. Bachman reports that even USC athletes, despite all the sun they absorb, can have vitamin D deficiencies, so you know what the athletic department added to the food offerings? Frosted Flakes, because it is fortified with vitamin D. Coupled with vitamin-D fortified milk, “it provides quick fuel for morning workouts,” says Becci Twombley, USC’s director of sports nutrition.
Well look at Tony the Tiger…I mean the dude has been buffed for decades and you never hear of him hitting the injured reserve list. [I looked it up…he’s been associated with the cereal since its introduction in 1951…so he’s 65 this year.]
–We have a “Dog of the Year” potential winner come December, though not necessarily in the hero category. Ludivine, a 2 ½-year-old bloodhound living in Alabama, finished the Elkmont Train Trek Half-Marathon on Jan. 16, finishing seventh among a field of 165 runners.
Ludivine’s owner had just let her out for a quick bathroom break and there she was, placing herself in the field from start to finish.
As Cindy Boren writes in the Washington Post, “Ludivine seemed to make friends along the way, stopping once to sniff out a dead rabbit.
“ ‘One time she went over and met another dog next to the course,’ one runner told Runner’s World. ‘Later on, she went into a field with some mules and cows. Then she’d come back and run around our legs.’”
Elkmont being a small town, everyone just assumed Ludivine belonged to a runner.
Well, from here on the race is going to be renamed the “Hound Dog Half” in Ludivine’s honor.
–With the controversy over the Oscars having an all-white lineup of 20 acting nominees, host Chris Rock is reworking his opening monologue. Look for him to utter a ton of lines like one he did right before hosting the Oscars in 2005. “What straight black man sits there and watches the Oscars? Show me one.”
The producers of the show, as Justin Wm. Moyer of the Washington Post put it the other day, seem to “have a masochistic streak.” Academy Awards producer Reginald Hudlin, who is African American, said the Academy “is ready for him to (skewer them)….They know that’s what we need. They know that’s what the public wants, and we deliver what the people want.”
Ricky Gervais, the irreverent Golden Globes host, wrote on Facebook, “If I were Chris Rock…I’d be thinking ‘This s— is live. I can do some serious damage.’”
Top 3 songs for the week 1/27/73: #1 “Superstition” (Stevie Wonder) #2 “You’re So Vain” (Carly Simon) #3 “Crocodile Rock” (Elton John)…and…#4 “Your Mama Don’t Dance” (Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina) #5 “Why Can’t We Live Together” (Timmy Thomas…err, I was kind of hoping for J. Lo, Timmy…) #6 “Me And Mrs. Jones” (Billy Paul…or Mrs. Jones, just don’t tell anyone…especially Mr. Jones…) #7 “Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?” (Hurricane Smith…great tune…) #8 “Trouble Man” (Marvin Gaye) #9 “Rockin’ Pneumonia – Boogie Woogie Flu” (Johnny Rivers) #10 “The World Is A Ghetto” (War…their greatest hits album as good as any…)
NFL Quiz Answer: Three QBs selected No. 1 overall in the NFL draft since 1970 who made at least six Pro Bowls are…Peyton Manning (Tennessee) 14; Troy Aikman (UCLA) 6; John Elway (Stanford) 9.
[Seven QBs selected first overall have never been selected for a Pro Bowl…Jameis Winston, Sam Bradford, JaMarcus Russell, David Carr, Tim Couch, Jeff George and Jim Plunkett…though Mr. Plunkett did win two Super Bowls.]
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
