Archive for the ‘NFL’ Category

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TMQ Watch watch.

Thursday, September 9th, 2021

But that’s not going to stop TMQ:

Yes. Because two teams that had bad records last year, and turnover in the off season, will automatically be playing a bad game to start off the new season.

In other news, the loser update returns Tuesday.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 7, 2021.

Tuesday, September 7th, 2021

Damn.

Michael K. Williams, “Omar” on “The Wire”, “Leonard” in “Hap and Leonard”, “Chalky White” on “Boardwalk Empire”, and lots of other stuff. THR.

Keith McCants. He was picked fourth overall by Tampa Bay in the 1990 draft, but turned into a bust. Tampa Bay let him go after three years, he bounced around a bit (playing with Houston and Arizona) before leaving football, and fell into addiction. He was 53, and apparently died of an overdose.

Jean-Paul Belmondo, legendary French New Wave star. (“Breathless”, among other credits.)

Tony Selby, British actor. (“Doctor Who”, “Eastenders”).

Posted in Movies, NFL, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: June 9, 2021.

Wednesday, June 9th, 2021

Erin O’Brien, actress. She appeared on several Western series, and in the pilot of “77 Sunset Strip” (among other credits).

NYT obit for Jim Fassel, which did not go up until late in the day yesterday.

Posted in Movies, NFL, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: June 8, 2021.

Tuesday, June 8th, 2021

Jim Fassel, former coach of the New York Football Giants. ESPN.

Fassel’s Giants lost to the Baltimore Ravens 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001, after going 12-4 and winning the NFC East that season. Fassel was 58-53-1 overall with the Giants.

Posted in NFL, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 3, 2021.

Monday, May 3rd, 2021

Getting caught up:

Pete Lammons, tight end for the New York Jets. He was 77, and participating in a fishing tournament in East Texas.

Major League Fishing, the sponsor of the tournament, said that Lammons, who was participating in the event, had fallen out of his boat on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, a popular spot for bass fishing, and that the other man in the boat tried to rescue him. A team equipped with sonar recovered Lammons’s body a few hours later.

Olympia Dukakis, for the historical record. THR. Variety.

Jill Corey. This was a little before my time, but still an interesting story. She grew up in Avonmore, Pennsylvania (literally a coal miner’s daughter) but was discovered at 17 and went on to a career in music.

Before the end of the decade, Ms. Corey had a spot on the “Johnny Carson Show” (a variety show precursor to his late-night talk show) and the NBC series “Your Hit Parade,” in which a regular cast of vocalists sang the top-rated songs of the week.
For a time Ms. Corey even had her own show, 15 minutes of song that followed the news once a week, a programming format that placed many popular singers in similar slots across the networks.
She recorded many records and performed at Manhattan nightclubs like the Copacabana and the Blue Angel. (Mr. Miller, in tight control of her career, turned down Broadway roles for her because her nightclub work was more lucrative.) And she was courted by heartthrobs like Eddie Fisher and Frank Sinatra (as he and Ava Gardner were divorcing).
She also made a “terrible movie,” in her words, called “Senior Prom” (1958).

In one of those odd cases that seem so common during that decade, where the line between “romance” and “creepy stalking” becomes blurred, she was pursued by Don Hoak of the Pittsburgh Pirates (even though she was already engaged) and married him in 1961. She gave up singing, but Mr. Hoak died in 1969 and she went back to performing.

Posted in Movies, Music, NFL, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 9, 2021.

Tuesday, February 9th, 2021

This just in: Marty Schottenheimer, NFL coach.

Schottenheimer coached the original Cleveland Browns from midway through the 1984 season to 1988, the Kansas City Chiefs from 1989 to 1998, the Washington Redskins in 2001 (the team dropped that name last July) and the San Diego Chargers from 2002 to 2006.
His teams went 200-126-1 over all, and he was named the 2004 N.F.L. coach of the year by The Associated Press when his Chargers went 12-4 after finishing the previous season at 4-12. But they were upset by the Jets in the first round of the playoffs.
Schottenheimer’s squads had a 5-13 record in playoff games.

Mary Wilson, of the Supremes.

Joe Allen, NYC restaurateur. Noted here because he was the guy who hung posters of Broadway flops on the wall of Joe Allen’s.

Ron Wright, Texas Congressman. (District 6, which is in North Texas.)

By way of Lawrence, a burning in Hell watch: Anthony Sowell, Ohio serial killer.

Posted in Law, Music, NFL, Obits, Politics, Sports, Texas | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Monday, January 11th, 2021

Doug Pederson out as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Five seasons, 42-37-1 overall, 4-2 in the playoffs, one Super Bowl win, and 4-11 this season.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | 2 Comments »

Blood in the streets!

Monday, January 4th, 2021

This is your Monday morning after the end of the season NFL firings thread.

I was tied up last night, so I didn’t have a chance to note this then, but: Adam Gase was fired Sunday night as head coach of the 2-14 Jets. He was 9-23 over two seasons.

After going 7-9 in his first year, the Jets opened this season with 13 straight losses, the longest losing streak in franchise history. It was a tailspin that Gase could not recover from. Gase gave up most of the play-calling, but nothing helped. The Jets ended up winning two games in December to save some face and cost themselves the No. 1 draft pick, infuriating their fan base. The defense allowed a franchise-record 457 points. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was fired last month after a last-second loss to the Raiders.

This morning’s batch of firings so far:

Doug Marrone out in Jacksonville after 4 seasons and going 1-15 this season. But hey, they got that first round draft choice!

Marrone lost 21 of his last 24 games, including going 12-36 since leading the Jaguars to the AFC championship game and winning the AFC South title during the 2017 season.

He was 24-43 overall in his time with the team.

Anthony Lynn out as coach of the worthless LA Chargers. (Apologies for the ESPN link, but the LAT is obnoxious.)

He’d also been with the team for four seasons, and was 33-31 overall, with a 1-1 record in the postseason, and went 7-9 this year.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Tuesday, December 29th, 2020

Dwayne Haskins, previously in this space because strippers, was released yesterday.

He was the first round draft choice of the “Washington Football Team” in 2019, and the 15th overall draft choice that year.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Strippers. Always with the strippers.

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020

The Washington Football Team said it is aware of pictures on social media showing quarterback Dwayne Haskins not wearing a mask while attending an event with strippers.
The team said Tuesday it will handle the incident internally.

Posted in NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 15, 2020.

Monday, December 21st, 2020

The Rams and the Jets each had one job:

The Rams’s job was to beat the Jets.

The Jets’s job was to get the top first round draft choice.

Both teams blew it. Jacksonville is now the favorite to get the first round draft pick (if both teams go 1-15, Jacksonville wins out on strength of schedule).

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

None.

That’s a wrap for this *season, folks. We plan to be back in 2021.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 14, 2020.

Monday, December 14th, 2020

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

New York Jets

Next week, the Jets play the Rams in LA. The Rams are 9-4, so I kind of like their chances here. After that, the Browns play at the Jets: this would worry me in an ordinary year, but the Browns are actually kind of good this year. (9-3 currently, and the Browns play Baltimore tonight.)

So it pretty much comes down to week 17: the Jets play at the Patriots. New England is about average this year, and I’ve seen speculation that, if they’re not playoff eligible, the Patriots may bench their starters and write this game off. On the other hand, do they want to be the only team to lose to the Jets this year?

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Monday, December 7th, 2020

The man who Tuesday Morning Quarterback refers to as “the tastefully named” Gregg Williams is out as defensive coordinator for the New York Jets.

And speaking of TMQ, another recurring theme:

Williams was universally criticized for calling a risky, Cover 0 blitz while protecting a four-point lead against the Las Vegas Raiders. The result was a 46-yard touchdown pass with five seconds left in the game that gave the Raiders a 31-28 win and dropped the Jets to 0-12.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 13, 2020.

Monday, December 7th, 2020

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

New York Jets

I was concerned about this game: as it turns out, probably rightfully so. It sounds like the Raiders pulled this one out at the last minute.

Next week: Seattle in Seattle. I’m feeling good about this one.

(Edited to add: Sorry about the weirdness with this. I started a draft of this in advance, published it this morning because I was distracted yesterday afternoon, but WordPress for some reason published this with a date of December 5th.)

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Monday, November 30th, 2020

Dave Caldwell out as general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Jacksonville has lost 10 straight games this season, and have gone 39-87 since Caldwell took over in 2013.

Caldwell’s biggest downfall was his inability to draft a franchise quarterback, which included sticking with ineffective Blake Bortles for too long. Bortles was the third overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, going 24-49 in 73 regular-season starts and a 2-1 mark in the playoffs.
During the regular season, Bortles threw 103 touchdowns and 75 interceptions and posted a quarterback rating of 80.6 before he was released by the Jaguars in March 2019. Bortles is now on the Denver Broncos practiced squad.

…

Caldwell failed at his job from talent evaluations to sending away too many veterans in trades in exchange for draft picks instead of equal talent in return. Caldwell traded veteran defensive captain Calais Campbell, cornerback A.J. Bouye, quarterback Nick Foles, safety Ronnie Harrison and disgruntled defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, all for draft picks this offseason.
”We can’t afford a rebuilding year,” Caldwell said in early September. ”Our mindset is to put the best team out there to play, to compete, and to win. We feel like these guys, the guys in this locker room, nobody has seen them play together. Nobody has seen them play a game so, like I said, we’re going to know where we measure up.”
The Jaguars have lost 10 or more in seven of the eight seasons under Caldwell. His lone successful season was in 2017 when the Jaguars fared 10-6 and advanced to the AFC title game. Currently, the Jaguars have lost 16 of their 19 games, which includes 11 by 10 or more points.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

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