Author: boom booms room staff

Big Stakes and Cultural Shakes

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Twelve NFL seasons ago Matthew Stafford roared in like the Lion he was.

And, now after 162 starts, 45,109 yards passing, and 282 TD’s the Rams hope he hasn’t turned into a lamb from all of the QB hits he’s taken as Lion with all of the misfits that did or did not block for him.

The Rams, as we are certain that you heard, shipped starting QB Jared Goff, two first-round picks, and one third-round pick to Detroit in a mega-deal for Stafford.

It’s a massive price for the Rams to pay.  The trade comes less than two years after Goff signed a massive four-year, $134 million contract with the Rams, which runs through 2024.

It’s noteworthy that Goff struggled in 2019 and 2020 after his first three seasons in the league that saw his star ascending.  In LA you’re only as good as your last act or two.  And director Sean McVay has seen enough.

It’s also noteworthy that Goff’s stats after five years in the league are so similar to Stafford’s that you’d swear you were watching one of those old Hollywood reruns.

For LA it’s the Super Bowl or bust.  And they’re betting big that Stafford has plenty of skill left in his 33-year-old body to give a command performance or two before the curtain comes down on their elite defense.  If they win one big one, maybe you could say the price was worth it.

Maybe.

Rarely in the NFL do you give up more people and picks to get fewer people and picks and get the better of the deal.  Rarely.

In Detroit, new Head Coach Dan Campbell roared in like the Lion that he now is at his very first press conference.  In LA they call it must-see TV.  The sound bites even include knee cap bites.

Campbell knows that Motor City is starved for a winner.  He also knows that he needs a lot more individual winners on his team than he has.

To create a winning culture out of a perennial losing one massive change is needed.  Ironically Stafford joined Detroit the same year, and played his first game ever, against a new head coach named Sean Payton in New Orleans in 2009.  Payton did just that, changing a perennially losing franchise into a winning one.

Head Coach Campbell just spent the last three seasons under Sean’s (Payton that is) wing.

We suspect that Campbell will be more than willing to change more spare parts out of Detroit for more new shiny ones.  It might almost look like an assembly line by the start of the 2021 season.

And, having more one’s and a three is a start to that start that few HCs get to tinker with.  And, what if, just what if, he can kick start Goff, too?

Rarely does the Lions organization come to mind when the word “savvy” is tossed about.

This time it should. And, maybe it’s LA like, but “bravo,” sounds about right, too.

 

 

Name Dropping

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As you know Hank Aaron passed away over the weekend.  His contribution to baseball and countless lives transcended the game.   He conducted himself on and off the field with great ease and aplomb.

His 755 home runs are surpassed by only one player in the game’s history.  And history will forever judge how that player got there.

He started his career in Milwaukee, continued the storied run in Atlanta, and finished his final two trips around the league again from Milwaukee.  Through it all, he amassed 3771 hits and was a career .305 hitter.  His place in the game is forever etched in its lore. And he did all of it with great grace in the racially charged ’60s and ’70s.

This brings us to today’s world.  Seemingly minutes after his passing social media got active.  Then it got hot like one of Arron’s hitting streaks.  The outcry was again renewed to rename the team that Aaron made famous-the Atlanta Braves.  It’s always a good time to stir the cancel culture pot.

“Braves” is insensitive they (whoever they is) say.

The organization has remained steadfast that it’s an honorable term for the Native Americans.  Though that same organization has eliminated the tomahawk chop from the battle cry for the offense to light up in the stadium.  The war beat of the drum has ceased banging as well.  Seems two-faced or at least red-faced to us, though we doubt that you could or should say red-faced anymore either.

Georgia Tech announced that they were going to retire the #44 in honor of Aaron.  What is the association of Tech with Aaron you ask?  Same city, but nothing.

The Atlanta Falcons also announced that they were retiring #44.  Really?  The town’s football team is retiring the town’s best-known baseball player’s number.  The Falcons should have quit while they were ahead.  Wait.  They already did against New England in a Super Bowl a few years back while leading 28-3.  Maybe they should retire numbers 28 and 3 as well?

While the “to be or not to be” Braves discussion plays out, maybe they should change their name temporarily a la the Washington Football Team?  How well does the “Atlanta Baseball Team” roll off of your lips?

Many have suggested that the Braves become the Hammers to honor Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.  Drop the tomahawk and add the hammer to the logo. Voila- that’s a cheap and quick fix if there ever was one.

This brings us to tomorrow’s world.  Shouldn’t we honor all of the minorities that broke through after Jakie Robinson broke through?

The San Francisco Giants could become the San Fran Say Hey Kids honoring Willie Mays.  The New York Mets could be named The New York Gooden Plenty seeing how Dwight Gooden brought the Big Apple’s little apple a championship.  And, the Pittsburgh Pirates should consider the Pittsburgh Pops for the revered Willie “Pops” Stargell.

While we’re at it the New Orleans Pelicans could retire #9 in honor of Drew Brees soon, too.  Wait.

Perhaps we’re getting a bit carried away?

Perhaps.

 

Serious Problem Solved

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Four days into the Joe Biden presidency and we can already feel what true leadership looks and feels like.  Gone are the petty arguments this same time four years ago that were being played out by the Trump team v. the media over how many people attended his Inauguration Parade.

“We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people,” said President Andrew Shepard in the movie The American President.  He went on castigating his reelection opponent Bob Rumson, “This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.”  There.

So some serious people have been weighing in on a serious problem in the last few days.  The serious problem is Covid-19.

It got serious in March of 2020.  By mid-October of 2020, Biden had seen enough.  He tweeted, “We’re eight months into this pandemic and Donald Trump still doesn’t have a plan to get this virus under control.  I do.”

Amongst other jewels on his platform, he promised 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office!  Bold goal aiming for 1 million injections a day don’t you say?

His advisers advised the press that this would be a tall hill to climb but they would do everything they could to make it happen.  How tall?  His senior advisor Cedric Richmond spoke to CNN’s Pamela Brown on air about the Covid vaccine distribution.  “The sad part is the last administration didn’t leave anything.  They didn’t leave a plan.”

The funny or not so funny thing about that is America has been averaging almost that for the last 15 or so days before Biden took his oath under heavy security.  It might be over a million a day if California, ranked dead last in the US in percent of vaccines administered versus shipped, could roll up more sleeves.

Now, this conflicts with another Biden tweet this past week.  @JoeBiden: “There is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”  Say it ain’t so, Joe?  What happened to your plan?

But for some, if you follow the science, apparently the situation is getting better after nearly ten months of stay at home orders.

One believer is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer(D).  She announced that her state would allow restaurants and bars to reopen for indoor service at 25% capacity starting early next week.  She stated, “The science around this is settled, and if we all wear masks and wash our hands while social distancing, we will be in a strong position in a few weeks.  And then we’ll even be able to do more.”  Groundbreaking really.

Did she learn this while attending Biden’s inauguration while not socially distancing?  Sounds like her husband can go clean his boat safely now, too.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser(D) found the science news refreshing as well.  She announced an identical plan to Whitmer’s on the same day.  The mad scientist, she is.

Both are timely, though both are a full week behind New York(D) Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pronouncement a week ago.  He brilliantly blabbed that New York can’t go on like this any longer.  “We must reopen,” he said.  The plan floated there is to use rapid testing administered at hundreds of government locations. Of course, it is.  Rapid testing has been available for about six months.  Let the government help you.

So, either we have a plan or don’t.  Either we reopen or not.  And, we need more vaccines that we don’t administer.  And then, there is our new leader who said there’s nothing we can do about the trajectory.

No wonder we need the government’s help to solve this.   Surely they’ll follow the science to get us there.  And, just in time we might add.

 

SB LV is the New SB I

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Six weeks ago BBR asked if we were headed to a rematch of Super Bowl One where Green Bay and Kansas City kicked of what has become the greatest championship in all of sports.

And then there were four.  And KC and GB are both favored to make it to Tampa for Super Bowl Roman numeral LV.

Abby sez:

Buffalo at Kansas City -3  –  The obvious is that Mahomes is going to miss.  What should also be obvious by now is that KC looks like a determined team to go back to back.   It won’t be easy.  And, remember,  “nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills, ” said Chris Berman 500 times in the past.  Buffalo has had a hell of a run.  Abby likes the politically incorrect.  And the nickname “Chiefs” is one of the few left standing.

Tampa Bay at Green Bay -3.5 – The battle of the Bays is what Berman used to call this twice a year meeting when these two teams were in the same division together years ago.  Back then one was bad and the other was worse.  No more.  Brady and Rodgers will be great theater.  The GOAT of them all v the GOAT of 2020.   Rodgers is on the same mission that KC is.

Picking chalk has a way of feeling like a dog bite at times.  We’ll see.

Woof!

 

 

PA, QB’s, KXLPP, and Phil

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The state of Pennsylvania has produced more great quarterbacks than any other.   Namath, Unitis, Kelly, Marino, and Montana hail from all over the Keystone State as it is known.

And, as of today, it will have produced yet another.  This one is tasked with leading the most important team of all, the United States.  His name is Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and he was born in Scranton, PA way back in 1942. 

If you listen to those who voted for him, Joe’s facing fourth and long given the job done by his predecessor, outgoing QB Donald J. Trump.

But, undaunted, the Scrapper from Scranton has promised much to many.  His game plan is aggressive on day one and even more so in the first 100 days.

One of the first plays he is expected to call is a halt to the Keystone XL Pipeline Project (KXLPP).

If you’re not familiar with the project here’s where the bouncing ball stands after three phases were completed.  The pipeline became well known when a planned fourth phase, Keystone XL, attracted opposition from environmentalists, becoming a symbol of the battle over climate change and fossil fuels. In 2015 Keystone XL was temporarily delayed by then-President Barack Obama. On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump took action intended to permit the pipeline’s completion. On January 17, 2021, it was announced that President-elect Joe Biden planned to cancel the Keystone XL project during his first days in office.

You’d think that it’s the first of its kind as opposed to likely the safest of its kind.

Opponents cheered.  If you’re in the stands waving pompoms for the Green New Deal, it’s a touchdown.  Proponents jeered.  If you’re a member of one of the four national unions that have nearly 7000 of their teammates working on it, or if you prefer North American oil refined in North America, you booed lustily.

So the Keystone State commander in chief will punt the political football known as the Keystone Project down the field.

And, that’s how it goes these days.  Every four years we spend a lot of time, energy (not the dreaded fossil fuel type), and money undoing what we’ve been doing.  Next up immigration laws, then the dreaded wall, then corporate taxes.  Then?  Well, how about the inheritance tax?  How dare you die and leave your hard-earned money to your family!

It’s hard to win the office and keep the office when 50% of the stands are filled with the opposition to your game plan.  It’s harder still when you make choices like stopping the KXLPP.  The union vote of confidence is waining and you just kicked off.  Fifty percent of 50% of 50% of 50% is, well you understand, not enough after four years in the biggest league of them all.

And, speaking of kicking off, this QB is a mere 78 years old as he takes office, but we digress.  Former Oakland Raider QB George Blanda grew up in Pennsylvania as well.  Blanda retired from pro football in August 1976 as the oldest player to ever play at the age of 48.  Maybe 78 is the new 48?

Blanda played in four different decades.  Biden has been in political offices of one kind or another for at least that many.

With that type of longevity, you must be pretty good at knowing when to run v. when to pass.

Good luck Mr. QB President-elect Biden.

Puxatawny Phil will be watching.  He too is from PA.  Will he see his shadow, take his ball, and go home?  Or does hope eternally spring early this spring?

 

 

Brees’ Passing

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The BBR staff is off today as we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and his too soon, unfortunate passing.

Some also are mourning the unfortunate passing of Drew Brees last evening.  No, he is still very much alive.  It’s his right arm that isn’t with us any longer.

It was a great run.  But it’s time, says Father Time.

Century to date only the man that beat him yesterday, Tom Brady, has had a clear-cut better run.  Peyton Manning might have a strong argument, too.  And with how Aaron Rogers is playing his body of work might soon pass Brees as well.

Brees will be remembered on the field for what was and was not.

What was, was a statistical rewrite of the QB passing record books.  He’s the career leader in passing rating, completion percentage, total yards, touchdowns, and a few other significant measures.  He won nearly two handfuls of playoff games and one Super Bowl.

What wasn’t, was more Super Bowls than one.  History judges QBs with two or more Super Bowl wins on a different level.  It’s almost as if “you did it once, now prove that wasn’t a one time deal.”  For Brees and for Sean Payton (so far) it is a one time deal.

And, Payton, who has had a magnificent run with the New Orleans Saints franchise, does and should get credit for molding the team’s run of success.

But Payton must shoulder blame that the run has so far stopped at one.  From 2012-2016 he failed to field a defense to match his high octane offense.  From 2017 till now they’ve greatly underachieved come playoff time.  Last year they didn’t have enough skill position weapons around Drew but had a salty defense.  This year Payton basically played the same hand and got the same results.

Off of the field, Brees has been a tremendous asset in the community.  The kneel/no kneel controversy aside, his foundation, charity work, and business ventures have helped hundreds and employed hundreds more.

He said after the game that he would take some time to decide if “this was it.”  But, minutes before he had tears in his eyes for a reason while walking off of the Superdome’s floor.

Next year he’ll take a seat in the NBC broadcasting booth.

And, in five years a spot in Canton will have his name on it.  After all, as Dr. King once said, “the time is always right to do the right thing.”

 

 

Abby Takes Down the NFL

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Abby was taking some grief down at the doggie parlor yesterday morning.   Enough already, she barked.  Growing tired of getting hounded about her refusal to allow her expertise in NCAA football to bare its teeth in the NFL, she relented.

So, with her winter coat coiffed just so, here are the picks that you can bank that will make your stimulus check look like the measly dog treat that it is.

LA Rams at Green Bay -6 and 1/2–  The most important benefit to getting the no. one seed in the NFL playoffs is actually two-fold.  One, at the most important time you get a week off to heal your aching bones.  Two, you get to stay home and tackle a team that just laid it all out there the week before and now must travel.  The Rams have the best D in the NFL.  The Packers statistically have the best O.  In these days and times great O beats great D, especially if it’s on the frozen tundra.

          Baltimore + 2 and 1/2 at Buffalo – Buffalo will be a tough home team out.  They’re more talented 1-45 than most people realize.  And, they are having fun and playing loose.  Abby says that Lamar Jackson will make just one more big play than Josh Allen.

          Cleveland +10 at Kansas City – No one believes in the Browns except their fans.   The Chiefs’ last six games have been decided by 6 points or less.  They’ve won all six.  Cleveland is playing much like Buffalo.  They’re having fun.  Ole’ Andy Reid will dial up a special play for Mahomes and the Browns will lose a heartbreaker to add to the lore of being the Browns, but expect a cover.  Double-digit NFL dogs have a way of doing that.

Tampa Bay v New Orleans -3 –  It’s well-known that the Saints view this year as Super Bowl or bust.  They haven’t lived up to their season-long excellence in the last three years in bad playoff losses.  The Bucs are playing better than they have all year and it’s tough to beat a team three times in one year as the Saints will need to do.  It’s also tough to beat Tom Brady.  But, this is Brees’ last year and the Saints D will gift wrap him a win late.

As a public service announcement please know that Abby wore a mask and socially distanced at all times at the parlor.

 

 

Double Drivel

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In Washington DC, the second impeachment of Donald J Trump has many implications.

For one, and especially if convicted by the Senate, it quelled any hopes for four more years in four more years for the petulant child.  But, in reality, that ended when Biden was elected and was reassured when the first pane of window glass was shattered by the ingrates who illegally entered the Capitol Building.

In Houston, the trade of James Harden has many implications.

For one, any hopes of a run to the NBA Finals went out of a very different window.  But, in reality, that ended when the petulant child stopped playing nice with his teammates and coaches.  It was reassured when he addressed the media Tuesday and told the Zoom assembled that his team wasn’t good enough to compete.

Donald Trump probably feels like he has given it his all in the last four years to Make America Great Again.  James Harden told us that he loves Houston and had done everything he could in his years here to make it great again as well.

Both love the environment.  Trump said he wants clean air and water.  Harden “makes it rain” almost nightly at a gentleman’s club of his choice.  But, we digress.

Trump feels like he carried so many incompetent people along for the ride that the task was burdensome and then some.  Harden said as much.

Trump fired people left and right along the way.

Harden forced head coaches to be fired and good to great players to be traded.

Trump is skipping the Biden Inauguration under the guise of safety.  He wasn’t ever going and now he has a thinly veiled cover to conveniently use.

Harden is skipping off to Brooklyn.  He wasn’t even playing for Houston this year.  His uniform, while he was on the court, was a thinly veiled cover to receive a paycheck.

When times call for all of the surviving Presidents to gather such as funerals of dignitaries, etc. Trump won’t get an invitation.  He wouldn’t go even if he did.

When Houston has a reunion of great players Harden won’t get an invitation.  He wouldn’t go even if he did.

Trump accomplished a lot in four years.  Even his detractors have to admit as much whether they like what he accomplished or not.

Harden won scoring titles and “led” Houston deep into the playoffs a time or three.  Even his detractors admit that.

Neither understand that there is no “I” in the word “team.”  Their egos walk through the door minutes before they do.

A meaningless basketball job has nothing in common with the most important job in the world.  It’s only ironic that one was asked to move on the same day that one was moved on.

But, if how you are remembered is important, these two have much in common.

And now America and Houston have spoken.  Don’t let the door hit you in the……

 

 

Focus on the Process

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When Nick Saban won his first NCAA National Championship in 2003 he did so with a defense that held a potent Oklahoma offense to 14 points while his LSU Tigers put up 21.  Seven of those 21 points scored were by his defense as DL Marcus Spears dropped into coverage, picked a hot route, and picked up seven on a rumble into the end zone.

Game by game in the season’s 14 games (one loss) Saban’s defense surrendered 7,13,7,10,6,19,7,7,10,3,14,24,13, and 14.  That’s 154 in all and an average of 11 per game.

Last evening Nick Saban won his seventh championship, the last six all with Alabama.  No one has won more championships in NCAA history.  In this one, his offense put up 52 and his defense gave up 24 to Ohio St.

Game by game in this season’s 13 games (all wins) Saban’s offense scored 38,52,63,41,48,41,63,42,55,52,52,31, and 52.  That’s 640 in all and an average of 49 per game.

Maybe you don’t think the game is changed.  “Defense wins championships,” you say.  The run-pass option(RPO) with an athletic QB and the spread offense with the same has indeed changed the game.

And, Saban realized this.  “It used to be that good defense beats a good offense. Good defense doesn’t beat good offense anymore,” Saban told ESPN last October 23rd.   “It’s just like last week. Georgia has as good a defense as we do an offense, and we scored 41 points on them [in a 41-24 Alabama win]. That’s not the way it used to be. It used to be if you had a good defense, other people weren’t going to score. You were always going to be in the game.”

“I’m telling you. It ain’t that way anymore.”

He adapted.  And, quickly.  Expect Bama to have four first-round players taken in the 2021 NFL draft.  All will be on offense.  Just three years ago they had four as well.  Three were on defense.

Years ago Bum Phillips said, “Don Shula could take his’ums and be your’ums, then he could take your’ums and be his’ums.”  He could have been speaking about Saban as well.

Give Sarkesian credit.  He maximized great offensive talent with beautiful, year-long scheming.  Give Kiffin credit.  Before Sarkesian he did the same.  But, give Saban the credit as he had the foresight to recruit fast cars with great turning radius’ and hand the keys over on offense to paid professional drivers.

Seven championships in the last 17 years make Saban the best ever.  But, how long can he keep the dynasty rolling?  His 2021 recruiting class, when it’s complete in February, will record the highest cumulative rating ever assigned by the major services that track these kids.  It’s going to be hard to slow the Tide’s roll.

Oh, and his coaching tree looks like a forest.  But, he keeps hiring winner after winner to his staff as well.  What’s the one constant through it all?  Nick Saban.

His uncle Lou Saban was still coaching in Division II when he passed at 82.  Yes, nothing is forever, but Saban will likely adapt and figure out that Father Time problem as well.

How?  It’s because he is forever preaching “focus on the process and the results will take care of themselves.”

And, his results speak for themselves.

 

 

 

Do Not Pass Go

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“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the rest of the play?”

The fallout continues from the storming of the Capitol Building last Thursday.  And it accelerates.  The siege didn’t last very long, but the damage in so many ways was done.

And, the door to reshaping America has blown more wide open than the courtesy shown by the Capitol Police to the not so peaceful of the mostly peaceful protesters.

Cancel culture is evolving like a revolving door that lost power.  Have you ever been in one when it came to a complete stop?  You try not to smash your face against the suddenly stationary glass.  Good luck.

Do you remember the decibel level of the media when an Oregon baker refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple wedding?  That was when the media deemed it so wrong for a private business to selectively not serve a willing paying customer.

Chick-Fil-a still doesn’t open on Sundays, but it takes some damn fine chicken to survive the cancel attempts of the culture of today.

Parler might be in the deep fry, however.   Surely you heard of them?  They are (or were) trying to build a Twitter-like platform for the right.   Amazon, Google, and Apple collectively pulled the virtual rug out from under Parler.

Every vendor for texting and email services and even their lawyers ditched them.  Poof!  It can be awfully dark on Al Gore’s internet in so many ways.

If you have no server, no app, and no search engine result, you have no social media business.  It’s pretty simple.  And, it should be pretty scary to all.

The PGA has had it with Trump too.   They exercised their right to cancel their agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminister, one of his courses.  It’s their right after all.

Major corporations are running, not walking away, from members of Congress who voted against ratifying the electoral college results.  Some have stopped political contributions altogether.  And, altogether that might not be a bad idea.

BBR has long supported a business’s right to refuse service for any reason(s) including religious beliefs but not on prejudices.

Hate Trump all you want.  Hate the right all you want.  Hell, impeach him for a second time if you want.  But, we better start pointing some vitriol and arrows at big tech and now.

The monopolies that they have and the power that they wield should scare us all.   Try working your way down the fourth side of the Monopoly Board.  Pacific, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Park, and Boardwalk are all very expensive if you land on any one of them.

The war on free speech makes the storming of the Capitol look like a bunch of misguided, misfit amateurs, oogled on by a sore loser, which it was.  And both should scare all.

The right to burn the American flag has long been ruled as guaranteed freedom of expression.

You don’t have to like it.  You just need to respect it.

The same should go for freedom of speech.