[Posted early Wed. a.m.]
NFL Playoff Quiz: In NFL history (including the AFL), seven have rushed for 200 yards in a playoff game. 1) Who was the first to do so? [Hint: 1964, AFL] 2) Who is the leader at 248 yards? [Hint: 1986] 3) Who was the last to do so? [Hint: 2008] Answers below.
Clemson 35 Alabama 31
Unfortunately, Tuesday morning, there was as much talk about how late the national championship game ran for us East Coasters as there was about one of the great college football games of all time. Personally, I kept dozing off in the fourth quarter and woke up with the post-game celebration, having missed the last two scoring drives. Oh well…I’ve seen it all since and over the weekend I’ll watch the fourth quarter in its entirety. But what a contest.
So it was 24-14, Alabama, after three quarters, when Clemson got it to 24-21 on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson to Mike Williams early in the fourth.
The Tigers then took their first lead, 28-24, 4:38 left in the quarter, as Wayne Gallman scored from a yard out.
The Tide then used a great call from newly promoted offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, as receiver ArDarius Stewart took a backwards pass from Jalen Hurts and fired a strike to O.J. Howard for 24 yards.
Hurts broke through on the next play for a 30-yard touchdown run, Alabama retaking the lead at 31-28 with 2:07 left.
But as Watson would say later, ‘Bama left Clemson too much time, telling his team, “Let’s go be great.” Watson then hooked up with Mike Williams and Jordan Leggett for great catches and big gains to get it to first-and-goal.
A pass interference call on Alabama made it first-and-goal at the 2 with six seconds left. Time for at least one more play and receiver Mike Renfrow, a star in last year’s 45-40 title thriller, slipped away from the defense at the goal line and was alone for an easy grab, the walk-on receiver’s second TD catch of the night, same total as last year.
Alabama’s 26-game winning streak was history, and ironically it was Clemson’s first win over a No. 1 team as they capture their second national title, 35-31.
Watson would say later: “The thing running through my mind was Vince Young,” Watson growing up a fan of his. “I wanted to be legendary [like him].
“I’ve enjoyed the three years [here], and I just wanted to sign my name and end it with an exclamation point, and I think I did that. Moments like this I’ll never forget.”
And off he goes to the NFL draft where he is going to be a most intriguing figure.
After accounting for 478 total yards in last year’s title game, Watson had 463 on Monday.
Dabo Swinney said after: “(Deshaun’s) the best player in the country. If anyone doubts that, it’s ridiculous. He didn’t lose out on the Heisman. The Heisman lost out on him. They lost an opportunity to be attached to this guy forever.
“This was his Heisman tonight. This is what he wanted. This is what he came to Clemson to do.”
Alabama had its streak of 97 wins without a loss under coach Nick Saban when leading by 10 points entering the fourth quarter end, and Saban lost in a championship game for the first time, falling to 5-1.
Clemson (14-1) had talked about getting revenge for an entire year, after last year’s title bout between the two. But as for the rematch, Dabo Swinney said, “That has to be one of the greatest games of all time.”
Swinney added: “Eight years ago we set out to put Clemson back on top. We came up a little short last year, but today on top of the mountain, the Clemson flag is flying.”
Chuck Culpepper / Washington Post
“For days and years and decades to come in the town of Clemson, through swaths of South Carolina and in fervent Clemson pockets beyond, they’ll talk about the nerve-ravaging fourth quarter witnessed by droves of lucky ticket holders in waves of orange among 74,512 on Monday night. They’ll talk about how their Clemson football team, so accustomed to inconvenience through a tightroping season, finally caught unbeaten Alabama at the end, with one last, tantalizing second left on the clock.
“They’ll talk about how a masterful college quarterback, Deshaun Watson, took possession twice in the last 6:33, facing three-point deficits both times, and how he moved Clemson 88 and 68 yards against Alabama’s defense of giants. They’ll recollect how, with six seconds left and still trailing by three, indomitable Clemson scored on Watson’s two-yard touchdown pass to the 5-foot-11, 180-pound wonder Hunter Renfrow for his 10th catch of the night, and the Clemson sideline went berserk.
“They’ll talk and they’ll talk about this 35-31 win in the College Football Playoff national championship game in Raymond James Stadium. They might even rewatch the thing. When they do, they will see a program that had finished a bold climb and become all grown up, redefining itself in its eighth full season under Coach Dabo Swinney. They had a third-year, graduated, NFL-bound quarterback, Watson, who said he ‘just smiled’ when Alabama scored to lead 31-28 with 2:07 left, then told his teammates, ‘Let’s be legendary. Let’s go be great.’
“They had a head coach who, through the headsets toward offensive coordinator Tony Elliott as Clemson neared the goal line and forewent a tying field goal, said, ‘Hey boys, if you want to be a champion, we’ve got to go win it.’….
“When Clemson won its first national title in 35 years and its second overall, it not only avenged the madcap 45-40 defeat to Alabama from the same final stage last year, and it not only left Alabama among those rare teams in all sports that never lost until just before the curtain dropped.
“It joined two of college football’s sovereign types, Ohio State and Alabama, among the first three champions in the newfangled College Football Playoff era.”
And it can now be said, Clemson belongs.
For the record, Watson finished 36/56, 420, 3-0, plus 43 yards on the ground with another touchdown.
Mike Williams caught 8 for 94 yards and a touchdown, while fellow receivers Jordan Leggett (7-95-0), Deon Cain (5-94-0), and Hunter Renfrow (10-92-2) also all went for 90 yards.
Alabama’s Jalen Hurts was 13/31, 131, 1-0, and 63 yards on the ground with a score.
O.J. Howard caught four for 106 yards and a touchdown.
Bo Scarbrough rushed for 93 yards on 16 carries, with two scores, before leaving with an injury (we learned later he broke his leg), though Scarbrough’s replacements, Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs, were hardly slouches this season, rushing for a combined 1,600 yards.
Over the course of this campaign, Clemson defeated the winners of the last seven national titles.
The Tigers opened by beating 2010 champ Auburn.
Midseason, they won 37-34 at 2013 champ Florida State.
In the College Football Playoff semifinal, the Tigers defeated 2014 champ Ohio State 31-0.
And then on Monday, they knocked off ‘Bama – champ in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
And just a word on Alabama interim offensive coordinator, Steve Sarkisian. He clearly wasn’t the reason ‘Bama lost, though as he put it, their drives were short. “We scored quickly or we were off the field quickly and put our defense in a really difficult situation….(We) couldn’t sustain drives to get the momentum back in our favor.
“In the end, they ran almost 100 plays, and we ran in the mid-60s, and that’s not a good formula for success against a really good team like Clemson.”
Nick Saban said the players handled the coaching change well and also downplayed its impact on the game.
“I thought our organization was good, and I thought we gave our players a chance in this game to have success. Was it challenging? Yes. Did everyone involved handle it extremely well? Absolutely.”
—Las Vegas bookmakers got creamed on the game, with William Hill, which has 108 sports books in Nevada, saying it lost more than $1 million in what the British company said was the worst loss on any single game in its U.S. history.
The beating was due to a lopsided amount of betting on Clemson, which was not only a sizable underdog, but its 21 points in the fourth quarter helped lead to paydays for everyone betting the ‘over,’ which was set at 51.
A Vegas expert told the Washington Post’s Des Bieler that “The public was all over Clemson from the moment it beat Ohio State 31-0 in the CFP semifinal,” while the pros went with Alabama.
MGM sports book manager Jeff Stoneback told CBS Sports, Clemson’s win “was one of the worst college football losses we’ve ever had, definitely one of the top three.”
–Among those declaring early for the NFL Draft are North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky (a big fave of the Cleveland Browns) and Michigan All-American all-everything Jabrill Peppers.
—Final AP Poll
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. USC…wow
4. Washington
5. Oklahoma
6. Ohio State
7. Penn State
8. Florida State
9. Wisconsin
10. Michigan
15. Western Michigan
NFL Bits
Here in the New York area, it was still all about Odell Beckham Jr. on Monday and he brought it all on himself. My point as I wrote late Sunday was that Beckham’s, and Sterling Shepard’s, early crucial drops cost the Giants valuable momentum and the result could have been different had they been clutch. But they weren’t. I like Sally Jenkins’ comments below on how some athletes step up, while others fail in the big spot and, yes, the Miami adventure hurt the Giants.
Mark Cannizzaro / New York Post
“The Giants season of such progress and promise sank like the Titanic in a stunning 38-13 NFC wild-card loss to the Packers on Sunday night at Lambeau Field a week after four of their receivers partied in a well-publicized bender in Miami with Justin Bieber and other celebs.
“To exacerbate matters, the receivers – led by Odell Beckham Jr. – who were pictured posing shirtless on the yacht with Bieber and fellow musician Trey Songz, were complete no-shows in the game.
“You knew with a Giants loss, particularly one in which Beckham played poorly, that day-off road trip to Miami was going to come back to haunt him. And so it did.
“Beckham, the team’s biggest star and playmaker, caught only four passes for 28 yards on 11 targets and – worse yet – he had three key drops in the game, a potential touchdown in the second quarter and two others on third-down conversions.
“When it was all over for Beckham, the biggest impact he made on this night was a fist-sized hole in a wall outside the Giants’ locker room that a member of the Packers grounds crew said Beckham left as a parting gift on his way out.
“Earlier, according to teammates, Beckham was crying inconsolably in the locker room after the game.
“In his session with reporters after cooling down, Beckham was extremely subdued and not particularly personally accountable for his poor performance, preferring to credit the Packers rather than call himself out for coming up small in the biggest game of his life.
“Beckham, too, denounced anyone trying to connect the Miami trip to the loss to the Packers.
“ ‘There’s just no way you can connect something that happened seven days ago to this game and how we came out and played,’ he said.
“Fellow boat partiers Sterling Shepard, who also dropped a potential touchdown, and Victor Cruz combined for seven catches for 90 yards. Roger Lewis, also in Miami, didn’t have a catch.”
Beckham also contended afterwards that the Miami trip “did a great job of creating distractions for us.”
Good lord. What a freakin’ idiot.
Giants linebacker Jonathan Casillas, a team captain, probably got it right when he said the moment on Sunday “might have been too much” for Beckham.
“He made some decisions to do it [go to Miami], and we all knew if he had a bad game or if we lost the game or if he dropped a pass it was going to come back to him,” Casillas said. “He didn’t have the game he wanted to have, I know that for sure with a couple dropped passes. I’m pretty sure you guys [media] are going to get after him a little bit, and I guess that comes with the territory.”
Steve Serby / New York Post
“It was his first playoff game, the biggest game of his life, and Odell Beckham Jr. (three drops, one a dropped touchdown), came up too small, smaller than Justin Bieber, quieter than Trey Songz.
“But while common sense tells most of us that spending his off day last Sunday night and Monday with his entertainer friends had nothing to do with his no-show, Beckham made this boat, the same way Tony Romo made his Cabo boat cavorting with Jessica Simpson, and now he’ll have to sink with it.
“Because in a game that was there for the taking, on the stage he has dreamed of doing Jerry Rice things, he failed to make the big-time catches that big-time players are supposed to make. The catches that Randall Cobb (three TDs) was making all night….
“This wasn’t any Catch-13: Beckham wasn’t damned if he did, only damned if he didn’t, and he didn’t….
“Party’s over.
“Season’s over.”
Sally Jenkins / Washington Post
“When Odell Beckham Jr. got hit in the hands with the ball, his arms flew open. It could have been the effects of sunburn.
“Yachting is good preparation for many things, namely the Cannes Film Festival, the Monaco Grand Prix and SeaFair Miami. It’s not good prep, however, for an ice fight in Green Bay. Of course it mattered that Beckham and his fellow New York Giants receivers ditched their shirts and cleats for boat shoes a week before the NFL playoffs. Of course it had an effect on their NFC first-round game. To say otherwise is just making excuses for them. Otherwise, we would see more practices held in Portofino.
“If you don’t want scolds in the bleachers and the media to question your performance, don’t go boating and nightclubbing in Miami Beach the week before the biggest game of your career. That’s one obvious takeaway from the 38-13 stomping the Giants absorbed at the hands of the Green Bay Packers in 1-degree temperatures. But it’s not really the relevant one. More important: Don’t do it if you don’t want to question yourself when it counts. Understand that every little seed or grain of doubt you put into your competitive psyche will show up in your performance under pressure. That’s the real lesson for young athletes.
“You’ve got a game coming up in one of the harshest environments in the country, against a quarterback, in Aaron Rodgers, who must be kept off the field at all costs, making every yard and down you can gain critical. And you go sunning and clubbing with Justin Bieber on Monday, just days before the game? One thing such a stunt says is that you’re overconfident about your abilities. Something else it says is that, deep down, you were ready to get warm and loose, not cold and sharp. The main thing it says is that you don’t fully understand yet how to call up a great performance on command, how to foster your talent properly, because you are so young and exultant in your physical prowess….
“None of this is to say that the NFL should be a joyless endeavor of 24-7 tape-watching, with never a day or night out. Some guys can do both. If you can sun yourself or do the clubbing thing and still show up Sunday and have a career day, all hail to you. But if you drop a bunch of catchable passes and come away with your second-lowest yardage as a pro, then you’re obliged to ask what you might’ve done differently. Especially if it happens in a season-ending playoff game….
“What’s fascinating to any sportswriter, or anyone who studies human performance, is how they manage to do it on a regular basis. It’s not random, or luck, or inspiration. They learn how to control their bodies with their minds.
“You could tell from that hole punched in the all, from his head-banging and tears, that Beckham was beyond frustrated with himself over the performance. Afterward, he said he didn’t ever want to walk off a field feeling that way again.
“ ‘These are the learning experiences, as tough as they are,’ he said. ‘This is what you stand on and grow from. It sucks. There is no other way to put it. It is a horrible feeling….I’m sure it’s going to be a long offseason. At the end of the day, you just have to take it, and you have to grow. You have to learn from it and find ways not to have this feeling again.’
“The best way to start learning is to quit denying that Miami was a mistake – and admit that he and the Giants’ receivers could have managed themselves and their talents better during their important week.”
Monday, as the Giants packed up back at MetLife Stadium, Odell wasn’t to be found, so, as has often been the case, quarterback Eli Manning, who it needs to be said, played just fine, and if his receivers had caught the ball, we’d be saying he played great, said of Beckham’s performance.
“You do things, you’ve got to back it up. Maybe [he] put too much pressure on himself.”
Manning added: “Going to the playoffs is different. It’s different for everybody, and we didn’t have a whole lot of people who had been to the playoffs. And you hate to say it’s a learning experience for a group – and I hate to say that when I’m in my 13th year – but sometimes guys have got to go through what it’s like to understand that they can’t make it bigger than what it is. You’ve got to have a calm mind-set and just go out there and play football. Relax and bring out your best. Don’t try to play your best, you’ve got to trust the training….Every year is just a learning experience for him.”
General Manager Jerry Reese said Monday of Beckham: “I see a guy who needs to think about some of the things that he does. Everybody knows that he’s a gifted player, but there have been some things that he’s done that he needs to look himself in the mirror and be honest with himself about some of the things that he’s done….
“He’s a smart guy but sometimes he doesn’t do smart things….We all have had to grow up in different times in our lives. I think it’s time for him to do that.”
Evidently, in his exit interview with Beckham, Reese read him the riot act.
Finally, the Sports Pope, Mike Francesa, can be funny at moments like these, so he opened his radio show Monday with a rant about Beckham, having not criticized him last week for the Miami trip.
Addressing the other deal that Beckham and other Giants warmed up without wearing shirts Sunday in the brutal cold:
“Nobody cares if he wears sleeves, catch the ball. Nobody cares if he’s out there with no shirt on, catch the ball. Nobody cares if you can make one-handed catches, try making two-handed catches!” shouted Francesa. “Catch the ball. Grow up.”
Francesa said the whole idea of becoming a celebrity has come to Beckham in spite of him not winning first.
“Now you become a star by outrageous behavior and doing something outrageous like making a one-handed catch when basically you drop every fourth ball,” he said. “I’d rather a guy who doesn’t make one-handed catches, but doesn’t ever have a problem making two-handed catches.”
And: “You know how you show those guys that the cold doesn’t bother you? By catching the ball! They’re not going to be impressed that you’re running around with your shirt off, they don’t care.”
–The Patriots opened as a 15.5-point favorite against the Texans. It was the biggest opening spread in a playoff game in nearly 20 years (January 1999 when the Vikings closed as a 16.5-point favorite over the Arizona Cardinals).
As noted by John Breech of CBSSports.com, during the Super Bowl era, dating to 1966, there have been only five playoff games where a team was favored by 15 or more points.
The only time the underdog actually won came in Super Bowl III, when the 18-point underdog Jets beat the Colts! Yes, Joe Namath guaranteeing victory was a big deal.
Besides the Namath game, the only other time a playoff team didn’t cover a spread of 15 points or more came in 1978 when the Cowboys beat the Falcons 27-20 as a 15-point favorite.
—Russell Wilson has an 8-3 career playoff record…Matt Ryan 1-4…just sayin’.
–The Pittsburgh Steelers and coach Mike Tomlin have a distraction they didn’t need. While fans wonder just how serious the injury to Ben Roethlisberger is, the quarterback being seen in a walking boot (though he swears he’s playing in Kansas City…and I’m sure he will), assistant coach Joey Porter allegedly assaulted a doorman and was arrested on multiple charges on Sunday night, including for aggravated assault, resisting arrest, public drunkenness, and terroristic threats, after an off-duty officer, who was serving as a security guard at a South Side restaurant, witnessed Porter assault the employee of the nearby bar, as first reported by the Beaver County Times’ Chris Mueller.
On Monday, the Steelers placed Porter on leave.
–Green Bay receiver Jordy Nelson spent Sunday night in the hospital with a serious rib injury suffered against the Giants and won’t practice until Saturday. If he can’t go then, he won’t play in Sunday’s game at Dallas, which would be a big blow for Aaron Rodgers and Co.
—Jacksonville named Doug Marrone as head coach and brought back former coach Tom Coughlin to oversee football operations as executive vice president. The Jags signed general manager Dave Caldwell to a two-year extension, meaning Marrone, Coughlin and Caldwell will all have matching three-year deals.
Marrone and Caldwell will report to Coughlin, so it’s conceivable Coughlin could replace Marrone at some point if Marrone doesn’t perform with himself; Marrone having coached the last two games of 2016 after the firing of Gus Bradley.
The Jags finished 3-13 in 2016, their sixth straight losing season, and they have not made the playoffs since 2007.
College Basketball
AP Poll (Jan. 9)
1. Baylor 15-0 (55)
2. Kansas 14-1 (8)
3. Villanova 15-1 (1)
4. UCLA 16-1 (1)
5. Gonzaga 15-0
6. Kentucky 13-2
7. Duke 14-2
8. Creighton 15-1
9. Florida State 15-1
10. West Virginia 13-2
11. North Carolina 14-3
21. Saint Mary’s 14-1
26. Seton Hall 12-3…if you carry out the votes.
Baylor is No. 1 for the first time in school history, but on Tuesday they traveled to No. 10 West Virginia and, this was predictable, the Bears got crushed 89-68. Bye-bye No. 1.
Also Tuesday, Villanova had an impressive 79-54 win over Xavier (13-3), while Florida State whipped Duke in Tallahassee, 88-72.
In the FSU game, Duke’s Grayson Allen appeared to intentionally shove a Seminoles assistant coach as Allen fell into the bench chasing a loose ball.
Allen was viciously taunted by the FSU crowd throughout, as he will be wherever he goes the rest of his college career.
–I do have to go back to Sunday night and Wake Forest’s loss to then-No. 11 Virginia in Charlottesville, 79-62, after I posted the last B.C. Once again, Wake (10-6, 1-3) was competitive late, the game knotted at 46-46, before they collapsed, an all-too-common occurrence.
The defeat means the Deacs are 0-20 on the road in the ACC under Danny Manning, and are 2-53 their last 55 on the road in conference play. Eegads.
Next up for Wake, North Carolina at home, Wednesday.
NBA
So I was watching the beginning of Clemson-Alabama when I saw that Derrick Rose had mysteriously disappeared and wasn’t in attendance at the Knicks game against New Orleans taking place at the Garden and I flipped it on but didn’t catch any details, which were lacking until much later.
Rose, you see, was AWOL. I never liked this guy and called him out when he was with the Bulls, but, boy, he’s not endearing himself to Knicks fans, who will be a most surly bunch the rest of the way as the team is totally imploding, including in Monday’s 110-96 loss to the Pelicans that dropped the Knicks to 17-21 after their 14-10 start.
Fred Kerber / New York Post
“The Knicks’ problems now roughly are on a numerical par with the points they surrender in games….
“Social media exploded with theories and speculation on Rose, much of it regarding his reportedly deteriorating relationship with (coach) Jeff Hornacek, a partnership possibly soured by two recent benchings. Later indications were Rose was dealing with a family matter and left the team – possibly to return to Chicago, where his 4-year-old son lives – without notifying Knicks officials until well after the fact.
“An NBA source told the Post that Knicks general manager Steve Mills spoke to Rose late Monday night. The source said Rose missing the game was ‘not a boycott.’”
You can imagine the Knicks were concerned, as well as his teammates, who were clueless. Rose had attended the morning shootaround, after all, and gave no indications he was going to miss the game.
Frank Isola / New York Daily News
“The feeling is that Rose, who has been miserable here for a few weeks, is pouting and needed to take some time off. Carmelo Anthony isn’t that thrilled with the state of the Knicks either. He waited until the third quarter to bail on his teammates [getting himself ejected on technical fouls]. Kyle O’Quinn capped the night with a cheap shot on Anthony Davis.
“The final tally is eight losses in nine games, the unhappy point guard AWOL, the frustrated superstar ejected and the bratty role player kicked out. Just lovely….
“Reports of the relationship between Rose and head coach Jeff Hornacek being frayed are accurate. Rose was benched in the fourth quarter against both Milwaukee and Indiana.
“Rose wants to strike it rich in free agency this summer. It’s been his obsession for two years now. Being benched for a losing team is not a good look. Maybe this will lead to Rose asking for a trade. Or perhaps even a buyout….
“While Rose went AWOL, (team president Phil) Jackson was also missing. He attended Monday’s game but he elected not to address the media regarding the whereabouts of a player that he acquired last June.
“It was classic Jackson; the invisible team president whose inflated bank account is matched only by his inflated opinion of himself. All you need to know about Jackson as a team president and leader is that he left it to the head coach to answer questions about a situation that is above Hornacek’s pay grade….
“Garden Chairman James Dolan was said to be upset on Monday and rightfully so. He is paying Jackson a fortune to turn the Knicks into a winner and make them a credible franchise again. He’s done neither.”
Well, Derrick Rose showed up Tuesday morning at the team’s practice facility and Rose was fined by the Knicks but is expected in uniform for Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia.
Rose addressed the media, saying he went to Chicago Monday because he needed to be with his mother. He returned Tuesday morning.
Rose said he apologized to his teammates and spoke to GM Steve Mills and Phil Jackson. He added that he didn’t want to pick up the phone when the Knicks reached out to him Monday because he needed his “space” to process what was happening with his family.
Pathetic.
Golf Balls
–Golf World’s Jaime Diaz posited 10 Questions (and answers) for 2017. A few snippets.
How will Tiger do?
“Woods seems to have a new outlook and brighter attitude. He’s committing early, and playing more often. His newsletter is long, and he has a book coming out. His performance at last month’s Hero World Challenge was a triumph over low expectations, and Paul McGinley was right to call the reaction over the top. Who knows how Woods will play once he finally rejoins the rank and file, but if he’s sound of mind and body, here’s a sage view from legendary instructor John Jacobs in 2011: ‘When Tiger’s mind was clear, he was probably as good as Jack, but I wouldn’t say better. Jack was not as well-equipped in his short game, so he had to be better internally, and that’s where Tiger is being tested now. Tiger hits more bad shots than Jack did, but he has saved them with his putter and short game. Going forward, he should be focused on hitting fewer bad shots and needing his putter less.’”
Will slow play finally hit critical mass?
“It never seems to, but Jason Day hit a nerve last week when he candidly remarked that he expects to be taking more time before his shots this year. ‘I don’t care so much about speeding up my game,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to get back to what makes me good. …I didn’t care what people thought, and I played better.’ On the Internet, he immediately became Jason All-Day (a nod to Glen), or even Jason Week. But here’s golf’s dirty little secret: Tour pros play better when they play slow. The pre-shot machinations, deep breathing, eye fluttering and looking at putts from every angle? Sorry, in the hands of true experts (Hogan, Nicklaus, Faldo and Woods, for example), it all helps. Which is why any fight against slow play in the pro game remains an uphill one for golf’s leadership.”
This is going to be a huge issue this year. And more than ever before, you are going to see players pitted against players. More below on the topic.
Continuing with Jaime Diaz:
Does Donald Trump being POTUS help golf?
“As far as professional golf, it would be an upset not to see President Trump at the Presidents Cup in September at Liberty National in Jersey City, N.J. The matches will require only quick hops from either Trump Tower or Trump National Bedminster. Will Trump support the PGA Tour after officials moved the WGC from Trump Doral to Mexico? Stay tuned on Twitter.”
What will Phil do next?
“Whatever it is, he needs to do it quick. Phil will be 47 in June, and he enters this year recovering from not one but two umbilical hernia surgeries. Mickelson has overcome psoriatic arthritis, most notably by winning the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield, but that was also his last victory. His six top-fives last year were impressive, as was his performance in the Ryder Cup, but The Thrill at this stage hopes to use whatever bullets he has left for a major, ideally the U.S. Open to complete the career Grand Slam.”
–So I’m reading a bit on Patrick Reed in Golf World and his appearance in last weekend’s Tournament of Champions was his 67th worldwide start since the beginning of 2015. Over that time Jason Day played in just 41 events. No one in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking plays as often as Reed, who is No. 8. [Hideki Matsuyama is next at 53 starts.]
Reed wants to be known as a global player, and actually has dual membership on the European Tour, but while the 26-year-old has five career wins, he has zero top-10s in a dozen career major-championship appearances. Ergo, despite his terrific performance in big-time events like the Ryder Cup, The Barclays and the 2015 winners-only Tournament of Champions, he’s just playing too much, by his own admission. “The problem with me is, I love to compete,” said Reed. “I don’t want to sit home.”
But is Reed going to cut back? “Do I need to? Yes. Am I going to? I don’t know. Right now, I just want to go and play.”
Gotta admire his honesty. Last chat, I mentioned Hideki and Justin Thomas in the same category as Jason, Jordan, Rory and Rickie, and I can’t believe I had a brain cramp and didn’t mention Reed. [By the way, if some of you were wondering why I didn’t note Dustin Johnson, it’s just because he’s 32. Obviously, he’s a major factor for the next 10 years, it’s just about identifying the 20-somethings that will hopefully thrill us the next 15.]
–But back to slow play and Jason Day. Suddenly, this is going to be big and you can expect the likes of Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo (who wasn’t exactly Speedy Gonzalez himself) to skewer him and Day to lose some fan support.
Day said this past week, “I wasn’t as deliberate going into a golf shot,” explaining why he didn’t play as well the second half of 2016. He’s already notoriously slow. “I don’t care so much about speeding up my game. I’ve got to get back to what makes me good. If that means I have to back off five times, then I’m going to back off five times before I have to actually hit the shot.”
As Brian Wacker of Golf World noted: “While Day was speaking about operating within the rules – pace of play and whether it’s enforced is another conversation – his peers weren’t exactly happy. One player in Hawaii rolled his eyes in annoyance, others said he simply doesn’t need to bring attention to playing slower. Brandt Snedeker took it a step further. ‘I don’t think it’s the right statement to be making,’ said Snedeker, one of the fastest players in golf. ‘If I were to get paired with Jason on the weekend of a major championship, and this is what slow players fail to understand, is that if we get put on the clock and I need a minute on a shot late on Sunday afternoon or late Saturday afternoon of a major championship, am I allowed to have that time because Jason has played slow all day, has chosen to do that? That creates a problem with me. I don’t feel that creates a level playing field, and it’s not being respectful to your fellow tour pros.’ Snedeker added that it’s on golf’s governing bodies to enforce and penalize players for slow play but also said Day and others need to pick up the pace. ‘I’m not naïve to think we’re going to be playing in four hours,’ he said. ‘But we don’t need to be playing in five-plus hours.’”
Day was just a fool to publicize this. All good golf fans will now know and I guarantee he’ll begin hearing catcalls.
–Golf Digest’s: America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, 2017/18
1. Pine Valley
2. Augusta National
3. Cypress Point
4. Shinnecock Hills
5. Oakmont
6. Merion G.C. (East)
7. Pebble Beach
8. National Golf Links of America (Southampton, N.Y.)
9. Sand Hills (Mullen, Neb., boy this one has been soaring up the ranks since its introduction in 1994)
10. Winged Foot (West)
21. The Ocean Course (Kiawah, S.C. …deserving of this high rank)
39. Baltusrol (Lower)
50. Ballyneal (Holyoke, Colo. …new design by Tom Doak, 2006, that looks like a real pisser)
MLB
Update on the Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens situation, as we near the date when the Hall of Fame announces its inductees on Jan. 18.
According to the vote-tracking site operated by Ryan Thibodaux, of 184 votes that have been made public, Bonds is at 65.2 percent and Clemens at 64.7, down from the 70.3 percent both had a week ago, which is exactly as past patterns have revealed.
So no chance they get in, which I think we knew, but they should still end up around 60 percent with five years left.
Also, early voting appears to show Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines getting in handily, both rumored to be around 90 percent thus far, 75 percent being the magic number.
Stuff
–In a shocker, NASCAR’s Carl Edwards is expected to announce his retirement shortly after I go to post, Wednesday. He is just 37 and won 28 times in the Cup Series. Mexican Daniel Suarez is going to be named the replacement for Edwards at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Edwards had a chance to win the championship with ten laps to go in the finale at Homestead, when he crashed trying to block Joey Logano, moving him to fourth in the standings.
As of this writing, Edwards has given no reason for why he is walking away.
—FIFA announced that the World Cup was expanding from 32 to 48 teams with the 2026 competition; 16 groups of three, followed by a 32-team knockout, all within a 32-day schedule.
Of course it’s about the money, with FIFA estimating an extra $1 billion in income from broadcasting and sponsor deals, plus tickets sales, compared to the $5.5 billion forecast for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
FIFA also wants to expand the World Cup experience to more nations, though they have yet to make an announcement on how many more teams out of the additional 16 each continent is to receive.
—Three Australian tennis players were found guilty of corruption by the sport’s international integrity watchdog, only days after another promising junior was charged with match fixing.
As Nino Bucci of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: “A Tennis Integrity Unit investigation also revealed that the only confirmed criminal case of match fixing in Australia was significantly wider than was first thought, raising further questions about the conduct of the nation’s young tennis players.
“The TIU confirmed in a statement that Nick Lindahl, Brandon Walkin and Isaac Frost were all found to have committed corruption offenses in relation to a match at a tournament in Toowoomba in 2013.”
Talk about serious penalties, Lindahl, 28, was banned for seven years and fined $US35,000 for his role in the fix, which occurred at a Futures tournament. [Lindahl once beat teenage sensation Bernard Tomic in the Australian Open play-offs in 2009.]
The other two were hit with six-month suspensions.
Earlier, it was reported that Oliver Anderson, the reigning Australian Open boys champion, had been charged by Victoria Police with match fixing offenses in relation to a tournament last October. Anderson was approached to drop the opening set of his first-round match at the event.
–Phil W. passed on a bit from MeTV on “F Troop,” which I was surprised was around just two seasons, kicking off in September 1965. “There has never been a show quite like this slapstick historical farce, and there never will be again.” I watched it as a kid, the repeats, and they cranked out 65 episodes in those two years, but I loved this description.
“Despite its setting [an Army outpost on the frontier, post-Civil War], the series played fast and loose with history, as that was often the point. Rock & roll blasted from Native American villages. Samurai warriors and Canadian Mounties passed through Fort Courage. Few shows better encapsulate the zany spirit of LBJ-era TV. Watch and keep an eye peeled for cameos by Don Rickles, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Milton Berle, Julie Newmar, Vincent Price, Harvey Korman and many more swinging stars.”
As for the name of the local tribe, The Hakawi, it was based on the punchline to a joke, “Where the heck are we?” Originally, the writers used a moniker they tried to push past censors, “Fugawi,” but the censors got the joke.
Top 3 songs for the week 1/9/71: #1 “My Sweet Lord” (George Harrison) #2 “Knock Three Times” (Dawn) #3 “One Less Bell To Answer” (The 5th Dimension…incredibly haunting, albeit beautiful, tune…)…and…#4 “Black Magic Woman” (Santana) #5 “I Think I Love You” (The Partridge Family…yup, big Susan Dey fan back in the day…) #6 “The Tears Of A Clown” (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles) #7 “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” (Chicago…I’ve got 12:43 p.m. here…) #8 “Stoned Love” (The Supremes) #9 “Lonely Days” (Bee Gees…the good Bee Gees, before they went bad…) #10 Stoney End” (Barbra Streisand)
NFL Playoff Quiz Answers: 200 yards rushing in a playoff game… 1) First to rush for 200 was San Diego’s Keith Lincoln in a playoff contest against the Boston Patriots, 206, 1/5/64. 2) Eric Dickerson holds the record at 248 while with the Rams vs. Dallas, 1/4/86. 3) Green Bay’s Ryan Grant was the last to hit 200 in the playoffs against Seattle, 201, 1/12/08.
The other four to rush for 200….
Lamar Smith, 209, Miami vs. Indianapolis, 12/30/00
Timmy Smith, 204, Washington vs. Dallas, 1/31/88…the Super Bowl (when he came out of nowhere to do this)
Lawrence McCutcheon, 202, Rams vs. St. Louis Cardinals, 12/27/75
Freeman McNeil, 202, Jets vs. Cincinnati, 1/9/83…I vividly remember watching this at the Lion’s Head Tavern in Greenwich Village with my brother, as we quaffed more than a few domestics.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
Finally, I seldom get political in this space (like I do elsewhere on the site), but watching our president Tuesday night, being of a certain age I of course thought of the following, which was quite different from Obama’s farewell in tone and place.
I know some of you will see it and recoil, but others will like it and I am repeating this in my next WIR, the column I actually sign.
For you younger folk, and new readers, if you ever wondered why I use the phrase, “not bad, not bad at all,” catch the end of this. I hope on my death bed, when someone is hovering over me, hopefully a pleasant looking nurse, and she asks me about my life, I’ll remember to say it was OK…and then add Ronnie’s words as I expire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKVsq2daR8Q
