I’ve been shamelessly stealing a quote from New York Giants’ defensive coordinator, Wink Martindale.
In response to Martindale’s wife asking him if he’s getting any sleep, he told the press, “Yeah, I’m sleeping like a baby; every two hours I wake up and cry and go the bathroom and try to go back to bed and get some more sleep.”
I used this phrase to describe how I physically felt during the past week; a fitting description of what a three-week span during the end of September through the second week of October feel like from the combined efforts required for the workload in my vocation, and my scholastic sports PA announcing avocation.
Martindale’s response comes from a different situation than mine. He is a very competent defensive coordinator who spent numerous years under Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh’s staff, and he now has his hands full with the struggling Giants.
Martindale’s defense this season currently sports an NFL-worst point differential of minus 91 (62 points “for”, 153 points “against”) in the squad’s first five regular season games. This is 15 points worse than the New England Patriots (55, 131).
My three weeks went better than Wink’s, on the other hand, but I am still very tired because I also slept like a baby. The to-do list made me restless, but the results were worth the price of sleep deprivation.
I’ve been told I’m anything but humble for decades, so you can take what I’m discussing in whatever way you wish to take it.
The NFL baffles me in so many ways. Many of my predictions are already going sideways, but then I remember the best prognosticators are 55% correct.
I don’t gamble, though, but I keep track of my forecasts’ levels of accuracy anyway.
My surprises going into week six are:
I knew Tom Brady covered up a lot of the Patriots’ sins for two decades. However, I did not realize the guy who some feel is the greatest coach in the NFL is so terrible at picking talent. Other than soon-to-be-hall-of-famer Rob Gronkowski Gronk, it’s difficult to think of any topflight offensive skill position player Belichick harvested from the draft field.
I used to like the Patriots in their early years of success because Brady had a chip on his shoulder related to his draft position (199th overall), and Belichick knew how to outcoach just about everyone else among his ranks. Recently, however I’ve enjoyed some schadenfreude watching him and his Patriots make way for some new sheriffs in town.
The Kansas City Chiefs are still a good football team, but they have Patrick Mahomes to cover some of their sins of giving him a huge contract resulting in limited resources to surround him with better talent. The X-factor could be head coach Andy Reid, but Reid lets his general manager Brett Veach shop for the groceries while Reid does the cooking.
The Buffalo Bills are not going to the Super Bowl this year. I’m certain of that, and I believe my pick for them to win the AFC East division title was a poor choice. The Bills are plagued with a defensive head coach whose solid offensive coordinator moved on for a head coaching opportunity.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen hasn’t been the same since. He’s another guy who has moved from his rookie contract to a huge deal, and now the resources available to keep him propped up are limited.
Conversely, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence looks even better than expected, and the Jags have the resources to shop for premium talent to bolster their offensive arsenal before the third-year field marshal completes his rookie deal.
Miami’s head coach, Mike McDaniel (the Ivy League protege of San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan), runs a track meet each Sunday with multiple players reportedly reaching the top two or three top speeds in the NFL’s action each week… in the same game.
I knew the ‘Phins would be a fun watch, but they’re even more compelling than I thought they’d be, and certain to be the foil of my original Buffalo Bills first place prediction.
I am feeling like my hottest preseason take, the Detroit Lions taking the NFC North title, was a good gut feel. They are fun to watch, and their defensive edge rusher, second-year star Aidan Hutchinson is a very athletic, and a joy to watch.
There were several seasons when I would check the local networks’ broadcast schedule Sunday morning for the NFL games, and when the Bears or Colts were in a different date or time slot, I would have dreaded seeing the Lions on my channel guide, but not this year.
After a sigh of exasperation, I would switch to the cable version of NFL Red Zone. My pet name for that channel is NFL ADHD due to the seven hours of continuous game-hopping as teams approach the Red Zone (hence the name), or if a gridder makes a highlight-worthy play.
The workload among the last three weeks resulted in watching NFL games like this:
Television on in the home office to the right of my desk, but my face was in the computer screen. If something the broadcaster said signaled a big play, I’d grab my remote and reverse it to see the replay.
Even that response wasn’t maintainable as the workload and the weekends progressed, so I’d basically hear the action, then I watch NFL Game Day Final around 10:30 or 11:30 at night.
Once I get past the last week of October, I’ll use NFL plus within my NFL app to watch condensed versions of the most compelling games I didn’t have time to watch in the previous Sundays where work, life, and high school sports owned most of my attention.
That’s how my NFL viewing season is going.