Doug Pederson is back in the NFL, this time as the new head coach in Jacksonville. That looks like a very solid hire to me, as opposed to Jag owner Shad Khan’s “flyer” on Urban Meyer a year ago. Pederson hung a SB pelt on the wall four years ago when his Eagles upset the Patriots 41-33. Unlike Meyer, Pederson does not wear a red rubber ball nose and floppy shoes, and this will not be a clown show in Jax. He’ll get Trevor Lawrence straightened out, too.
A couple (at least) of NFL owners have some ‘splainin’ to do. The Denial Derby is underway in Miami and Cleveland. Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross and the Browns’ Jimmy Haslam deny they ever offered to pay bonuses to a head coach to tank games.
Ross is largely (and wisely) lying low right now, but Haslam couldn’t help himself, saying that former Cleveland coach Hue Jackson “Has never accepted blame for one thing.” What exactly is Jackson supposed to accept blame for?
John Elway says he is both punctual and sober. OK.
The Giants say their Rooney Rule head coaching interview with Brian Flores was not a sham. Not OK. There’s hard evidence the Giants had settled on Brian Daboll at least three days before Flores’ formal interview. Now the G-men are trying to make The Hoodie the bad guy.
How is this gonna play out in Houston? The Texans clearly want to hire first-time head coaching candidate Josh McCown. But they have stated that Flores is also a finalist for the job. Once again, the Texans have cornered themselves. They will catch hell if they hire McCown, and if Flores gets the job it will look like “appeasement” or even an attempted bribe by the NFL.
And, man, right now I don’t even want to talk about this latest scandal involving the Redsk…I mean the WFT, I mean the Commanders. And RG III hasn’t even released his book yet…
How much money do you have in your mattress? Houston businessman/marketing genius Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale drove across the Texas border into Louisiana yesterday, pulled over at a gas station, pulled out his phone, and placed a $4.5 million dollar Super Bowl bet on the Bengals with Caesar’s in Vegas. If Burrow and Brothers come through, Mack gets 7.7 mill. And if he loses, he will have bought 4.5 mill worth of great publicity. Don’t sleep on Mack.
It got ugly last night at McKale Center in Tucson. The home fans were happy after their U of A Wildcats whipped UCLA 76-66. UCLA was exiting the floor following that road loss when Bruin redshirt freshman forward Mac Etienne clearly spit on at least one Arizona fan. It’s right there on video. Yes, Etienne faces assault charges.
This on the heels of what happened in LA Sunday after the NFC Championship Game. A Niner fan pushed a Ram fan in the parking lot. The Ram fan clocked him in the mouth. The 44-year-old Niner fan then hit his head on the pavement. Daniel Luna remains in a medically-induced coma.
Good on you, Klay Thompson. You got your stroke back! Seven for nine on three-point attempts last night in a home win over the Kings. It’s a pretty thing to watch.