6 comments MMQB Review: Russell Wilson Free Agency Panic Edition

Peter King did a insanely early power ranking of all the NFL teams in last week's MMQB, as well detailed how he was accosted by panhandlers on the streets of Seattle while he was handing out cash to some of these panhandlers. Where were the police to arrest these people who weren't committing a crime? Peter also detailed the Vikings and Adrian Peterson standoff which was resolved soon after he posted MMQB. This week Peter talks about how the Russell Wilson contract talks may be in trouble (I can't help but think this is the cousin to the "Will the Ravens let Joe Flacco walk?" discussion a few years ago), discusses the internal destruction of the 49ers, and hits his readers with the revelation that Canada is a big country. Seriously, Russell Wilson isn't leaving Seattle. It's not happening, so any discussion about why contract talks may be in trouble are pointless. The Seahawks have another year of Wilson's contract and then can franchise him for two years. Every negotiation hits tough points and Wilson isn't leaving Seattle, just like the Ravens weren't going to let Joe Flacco hit free agency after he won a freaking Super Bowl.

In my last column for a spell—hooray! (your emotion, not mine)—I’ve got a couple of annual events.

One week off, writes two columns, and then takes a month off. It seems Peter is on the "Bill Simmons Schedule of Column Writing." Now all Peter has to do is to promise weekly mailbags when he gets back from vacation, then get fired, and the similarities will be too eerie.

First: My collection of commencement speech snippets, from the Self-Depracating Graduation Line of the Year by former president Bush (the younger) at the Southern Methodist University graduation, to the best advice I’ve read from any speaker this year, by ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz to the Kenyon College grads in Ohio. Second: Part one of the annual Fathers Day book review section, a really interesting book by St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny on the crisis in youth sports and his little-engine-that-could recipe to fix it.

I think I'm one of the few who don't like this book review and graduation speech section. The book section is more tolerable, but the only thing worse than hearing someone give a speech is having to read about that person's speech. People talk a lot already, and even when the speakers are giving out great advice, I tend to wish Peter would skip the commencement speech section. Alas, I tend to skip it.

Now, I didn’t want a 12,000-word June column, so the Matheny review is today and the rest of the books I plan to cover Wednesday in my weekly mailbag column.

Or you could just put the commencement addresses on a piece of paper in your desk, then lock the drawer. That seems like a good idea too.

While I’ll address the Niners here, I’m leading with another ominous note from an NFC West team that’s not getting much attention. And maybe it shouldn’t. Yet.

It shouldn't. Russell Wilson isn't going anywhere. He's staying a Seahawk. The team and Wilson have almost three more years to work a contract out if they choose to. This is a concern on the level of worrying the Ravens wouldn't re-sign Joe Flacco. It's simply not happening.

But something about the dragged-out negotiations, and apparently fruitless ones, between Seattle and quarterback Russell Wilson is starting to raise alarm bells.

Both sides are playing hardball until it's time to get serious and come to a real agreement. This type of thing happens all the time in sports. Wilson is pretending he will go play baseball, the Seahawks are trying to get him to sign a new favorable contract for them and Wilson wants to hold out for as much money as possible. The Seahawks aren't going to let Wilson become a free agent nor will they trade him immediately if negotiations are dragging out.

The Seattle quarterback is due $1.542 million this year, the final season of his four-year rookie contract. It’s been thought for some time that 2015 would be the time a new Wilson deal would get done, seeing that the first opportunity to re-do the deal of a third-round player who has monstrously out-performed his contract is in year four. That’s now.

And no contract was signed, so obviously there is a massive problem that is bigger than the fact these are simple negotiations on a long-term contract that may take some time to complete while each side takes a tough negotiating stance.

What Schneider said is something he’s said a thousand times, in various forms. No one is bigger than the team...Any general manager worth his salary would say that. And Schneider is one of the best in the game—maybe the best.

Which is why he won't let Russell Wilson just walk away when he still has some time to sign Wilson to a new contract and this isn't the time to start a panic.

I still don’t think it was a body blow to the negotiations, but imagine you’re Wilson.

Imagine that I'm going to get paid a lot of money, but I'm not sure who will end up paying me? Yes, it must be tough.

At North Carolina State, in each of your freshman and sophomore and junior years, you lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in touchdown passes, and in the spring before your senior season, while you’re playing minor-league baseball, your coach, Tom O’Brien, releases you from your scholarship so he can have backup Mike Glennon start for the last two years of his eligibility.

This Russell Wilson fable is getting to be like the Drew Brees fable. You know, the fable that the Dolphins didn't want Brees when they had legitimate worries about his shoulder being healthy, so he went with the team (the Saints) that believed in him the most. What that means is the Saints offered Brees the most guaranteed money. It was a decision about money, no matter how much the narrative dips into "The Dolphins didn't believe in him enough, so he went to New Orleans where he felt a connection to the people" territory.

Russell Wilson wouldn't stop playing baseball during the summer. Tom O'Brien wanted him to stop playing baseball, but (sound familiar?) Wilson wouldn't. So O'Brien chose to give Wilson the heave-ho and go with the quarterback who has more eligibility and a lot of talent, Mike Glennon. It was a decision made by Tom O'Brien that had merit at the time. If N.C. State can get two years of Glennon and Wilson won't commit to football full-time, then why not release Wilson from his scholarship? But it all started with Wilson refusing to choose football over baseball, which by the way, is something that Peter brought up when discussing Jameis Winston as a knock against Winston. Peter wondered if the Buccaneers were concerned Winston may want to play baseball at some point. It's interesting how the need to play baseball is suddenly forgotten when discussing Russell Wilson.

I threw 76 touchdown passes for him in three years, but O’Brien thinks Mike Glennon’s better than I am? I’ll show Tom O’Brien.

Except, you know, that wasn't the real issue at hand. The issue was that Wilson was playing baseball when O'Brien wanted him playing football.

I walk into Wisconsin in July, learn the offense in about 10 minutes, set the NCAA passing-efficiency record for a season, get the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, and five quarterbacks get picked before me? Brandon Weeden goes 53 picks before me? I’ll show the NFL.

Because Wilson would have been the first great college quarterback to fail in making the transition to the NFL, so how could every NFL team who passed on him not have known how good he would be?

He quarterbacks his team to the playoffs in each of his first three years, to the NFC title in two seasons, and to the Super Bowl title in one of those seasons. In all three years, he’s in the top 10 in the league in passer rating. He quarterbacks his team to more wins, overall, than any other quarterback in football—Wilson 42, Tom Brady 41, Peyton Manning 40—including playoffs. (I know quarterback wins can be a misleading stat. But if you play well enough to win big, and Wilson has, is that a number that should be ignored?) And by all accounts, Wilson and the Seahawks aren’t close to a deal. Oh, and Cam Newton, four games over .500 in the same three years that I’m 28 over, just signed a contract with $56 million coming in the first two years.

Yeah, but Cam was told at the University of Florida that they would rather have Tim Tebow as their quarterback. Then he went to a community college, won a championship, went to Auburn and won a national title, and then experts still said he couldn't be an NFL quarterback even after he was drafted #1 overall. Oh, poor him. He's so maligned.

My point is that every player has some slight that can get them motivated. Every player feels doubted at some point and the fact the Seahawks haven't immediately made Russell Wilson the highest paid quarterback in the NFL after Newton signed his contract means not very much.

My franchise had finished below .500 four straight years before I got here, and we’re 42-14 with two trips to the Super Bowl in my time, and we can’t get a deal done? I’ll show management.

I can't imagine Wilson is too concerned about a deal getting done. He knows there is time. I feel like Peter is creating a story where there isn't one right now.

In the past 10 years, one quarterback with legitimate franchise potential—Drew Brees, in 2006—hit the market, and that came in large part because of a serious shoulder injury in 2005 in San Diego. Quarterbacks of value always re-sign with their teams.

Brees also hit the market because THE CHARGERS HAD PHILIP RIVERS ON THE ROSTER ALREADY AND HOLY SHIT HE'S NOT BEEN BAD AT PLAYING QUARTERBACK.

There’s little question, to me, that Wilson will be the Seattle quarterback through the end of the 2016 season. If no deal gets done this year, he’ll play for $1.5 million in 2015, and if the two sides can’t agree after the season, Seattle’s very likely to franchise him the exclusive-rights number of about $24.5 million for 2016. That’s a best guess.

A deal is going to happen. I'm not sure why Peter is so concerned otherwise. It took Newton four years and five months away from free agency to get his deal. Wilson can easily get a deal done during the season. Just like the Ravens weren't letting Flacco hit free agency, Wilson will get a deal done with Seattle.

Rodgers said he didn’t think Newton’s deal was one that would force Wilson’s deal to get done, the same way he said Ryan Tannehill’s extension in Miami (he was drafted the same year as Wilson) wouldn’t be a spur to get Wilson’s deal done. Rodgers sounded conciliatory when I asked about the state of the talks. “There’s no deadline, no pressure,” Rodgers said. “Russell has a contract for this season, and he is fully prepared to play the season out if he does not sign another contract. It’s early June. They don’t report to camp till late July. I’ve always assumed this contract would take a while to get done.”

But Peter King will not hear of this. A deal has to get done and even though nobody but Peter King seems worried about a contract extension for Wilson not getting done, there is a real chance (so much so that Peter had to lead the column off with this non-story) that Wilson and the Seahawks won't be able to come to an agreement.

But beyond that, as we sit here a year and a half before that Molotov cocktail could be lobbed into the Pacific Northwest, I have some growing doubts about Wilson’s long-term Seattle future.

Three reasons why I think the talks between Wilson and the Seahawks could be in trouble:

Rodgers is a baseball guy, and it’s clear he loves the prospect of his players maximizing their value on the open market … some day. As does Wilson. I don’t know what Rodgers wants, but I can assume it must be close to making Wilson the highest-paid quarterback in football.

Baseball free agency is very different from football free agency. In the NFL, a quarterback needs to have an offense built around his specific strengths and weaknesses. Throw Russell Wilson into the Colts offense and I'm not sure he is successful, while if you put Albert Pujols on the Angels then there's not a ton of maneuvering that has to be done in order to help him be successful. There are more moving parts in the NFL when it comes to free agency and helping a quarterback (who plays under a salary cap with the contract not fully guaranteed) be successful. NFL teams know that. In baseball, a team with a decent outfield could still acquire an expensive free agent outfielder, while in the NFL, there are only 32 starting quarterbacks. So the entire league won't be bidding on Wilson, which means the market for his services is smaller. A smaller market means few bidders and fewer bidders with cap space means less of a chance to drive Wilson's price up to where he wants to be. The team with the most incentive to sign Wilson would be his current team. Hence, I don't think he's leaving Seattle.

Wilson’s $22 million average deal, if that’s anything near what he wants, would be for 15.4 percent of the Seahawks’ 2015 cap. I only say that because it’s fair to think Mark Rodgers would be taking into account the fact that teams have $20 million more to spend this year, and the cap is only going to go up.

This is true. The cap is going up. I think this means the Seahawks would have a good chance to sign Wilson just like every other NFL team interested in Wilson would have.

But Schneider watched Wolf make cold-hearted decisions when needed. He watched Thompson stick with the unproven Aaron Rodgers when the momentarily retired Brett Favre wanted to come back to the Packers in the summer of 2008. Schneider is proud as heck of sticking his neck out for Wilson, but his “we’d love him to be our quarterback but…” statement this spring sounds very much like a man who believes in sticking to the value the team sets for a player, whatever it is.

It also sounds like a man who understands Rodgers sat behind Favre for three years, so the Packers had a good idea of what they had. Schneider wouldn't necessarily have the advantage of drafting a quarterback to immediately replace Wilson with.

This opinion from Mark Rodgers: “Sometimes, the best deal is the deal you don’t do. For me, there would be a greater disappointment in taking a below-market deal than there would be in honoring the fourth year of a contract.” This is not how an agent talks if he’s thinking of taking a hometown-discount deal for his client.

This is a negotiating stance, Peter. Have you never negotiated something? EVER? Each side says stupid, outlandish shit as if they will hold out forever for a deal, until they get a deal close to what they want. Hence, Mark Rodgers acts like he's fine hitting the market with Wilson, but this doesn't mean this is the truth. It's a negotiating tactic. Is Peter this naive? Peter seems to consistently not understand how negotiations work.

But I’d ask you this: What if Wilson wants Aaron Rodgers money now, and a deal doesn’t get done, and what if Wilson in 2015 simply does what he’s done in each of his first three seasons—have a passer rating near 100, make the playoffs and get the team in or close to the Super Bowl? What happens then, when the cap will be at least $30 million higher than it was when Aaron Rodgers signed his deal? 

Then the Seahawks will be giving Wilson a huge deal or he won't be a Seahawk (which I doubt happens). It's hard to trust anything said during a negotiation. Both sides are going to be firm until they decide they will work a deal out. Concessions are made, deals get done.

Let’s just say I doubt the asking price will be the same next year as it is now. It’ll be higher.

So Peter is working under the assumption that another NFL team will give Wilson this deal. What if after the 2015 season the value of Wilson is very high, but there is no combination of teams with salary cap room to get Wilson under contract and the want to sign Wilson to the type of deal he wanted with the Seahawks? Wilson is also assuming that someone would pay the price he wants on the open market, when that may not be the case. Who knows? Yet, Peter acts like the risk is all on the Seahawks.

Luck will make $3.4 million this year and $16 million next year, and owner Jim Irsay—who absolutely, categorically, will not let Luck out the door—said earlier this year it’s likely the Colts will get serious on trying to get a long-term deal done with Luck early in 2016. Contracts for players taken after the first round do not have fifth-year options. So for Wilson, it’s either a new deal or some form of free agency in 2016.

Or he signs the exclusive rights as a franchise player tag with the Seahawks. I believe the Seahawks could tag him one year after that as well. I just don't think this is a huge issue right now. A deal will probably get done.

I don’t often write about contract stuff, 

Unless Marvin Demoff requests that Peter try and help a client get out from under a franchise tag that Demoff client's present team placed on him. Ask Alex Mack about this.

and I’m not convinced in any way that Wilson and the Seahawks are headed for splitsville.

Peter isn't convinced they are headed for splitsville, except 20% of this MMQB is about how they could be headed for splitsville.

If you had asked me for the 25 most important 49ers for the near future—and I’m talking players and coaches combined—six months ago, I’d have given you a list something like the one that follows. Look at the list, and see where the people are now:

Player/Coach	Current status
1. QB Colin Kaepernick	San Francisco
2. Coach Jim Harbaugh	Head coach, Michigan
3. LB Patrick Willis	Retired
4. Pass-rusher Aldon Smith	San Francisco
5. T Joe Staley	San Francisco
6. Def. coordinator Vic Fangio	Chicago
7. WR Michael Crabtree	Oakland
8. LB NaVorro Bowman	San Francisco (coming off serious knee injury)
9. G Mike Iupati	Arizona
10. T Anthony Davis	Retired/sabbatical
11. G Alex Boone	San Francisco
12. LB Chris Borland	Retired
13. TE Vernon Davis	San Francisco
14. S Eric Reid	San Francisco
15. DE Justin Smith	Retired
16. RB Frank Gore	Indianapolis
17. Off. coordinator Greg Roman	Buffalo
18. S Antoine Bethea	San Francisco
19. WR Anquan Boldin	San Francisco
20. LB Aaron Lynch	San Francisco
21. RB Carlos Hyde	San Francisco
22. P Andy Lee	Cleveland
23. CB Perrish Cox	Tennessee
24. CB Chris Culliver	Washington
25. Spec. teams coach Brad Seely	Oakland

In San Francisco: 11. Playing elsewhere: 6.
Coaching elsewhere: 4.
Retired: 4.

The retirements are odd. I admit that, but the 49ers had a coaching change, which results in all the coaches leaving...at least most of the time that's what this means. So some of this roster turnover is expected given from year-to-year, while I expected the coaches to go somewhere else six months ago if Harbaugh wasn't there. It's just how it usually goes. 

When your coach and three coordinators go … and two promising young players retire by the age of 25 … and your defensive leader retires … and your top wideout heads across town … and two good cover corners go … and a mauling guard goes to a division rival … and when you’re putting your franchise quarterback coming off a checkered season in the hands of a position coach (Steve Logan) who was doing a talk show for the past couple of years…

If the 49ers and Kaepernick end up having a great year then this will be a cutesy story about how Steve Logan was doing a talk show for a few years, but for now, it's a strike against him. The 49ers have had a tough offseason, there's no doubt about that.

Tomsula is well-liked by the players from all reports. But losing does funny things to relationships. The chemistry experiment in Santa Clara will be the most compelling one to watch in the NFL this year.

It's the most compelling chemistry experiment except for the one in Seattle where Russell Wilson is going to end up going into free agency, because each side is taking a hardline negotiating stance. The 49ers just feel like a disaster, though if Harbaugh was such a pain in the ass to play for as the players now claim he was, maybe the team isn't so screwed and all that young talent Trent Baalke has seemingly acquired will step up and fill the voids left behind.

Don’t get him a tie, or a gift card. Get him a book. Or put a book on his Kindle, or his tablet. Today and Wednesday, I’m going to recommend several books I’ve read in the past year. There’s a fascinating book on life behind the North Korean curtain—my favorite of the year. There’s a terrific page-turner by Bill Pennington on the life and times of Billy Martin; can’t recommend that one highly enough. And more. I plan to write about those two and the others on Wednesday.

Peter can't simply make book recommendations. He has to stretch the recommendations over a two column span.

The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life (Crown Archetype)
 
By Mike Matheny with Jerry B. Jenkins.

Apparently this is the greatest book ever written. Peter loves it. 

This is a self-help book that so many parents need. It’s so important today, with so many wacky stories about how win-at-all-cost coaches and driven parents are ruining the games kids play. You’ve got to know someone who could use this book. You’ve got to know 10 people who could use this book. They’ll thank you for getting it.

"Thank you for giving me this book about parents who are ruining games for kids, thereby making it seem like I'm a person who needs to change my parenting style to fit what this book states my parenting style needs to be. I appreciate you second-guessing how I interact with my children in the realm of sports. I enjoy your criticism of me."

By my count, this is the eighth year I’ve looked for good stories and lessons in the commencement addresses given to graduates. It’s a fun exercise, reading wisdom from Garry Kasparov and George Bush and Joyce Carol Oates. Not a lot of football in here, except from Matthew McConaughey, who recalled a painful moment for Houstonians.

"There's no such thing as forgiveness. People just have short memories." Then Matthew McConaughey walks off-stage. 

“Anthony Davis to retire.” 

And every New Orleans Pelican fan shits his/her pants. 

—A statement from the San Francisco 49ers Friday afternoon, surprising the football world by announcing the retirement of starting right tackle Anthony Davis at 25.

“After a few years of thought, I’ve decided it will be best for me to take a year or so away from the NFL. This will be a time for me to allow my Brain and Body a chance to heal … I’m simply doing what’s best for my body as well as my mental health at this time.”

—A statement from Anthony Davis later that same day.

Not so fast on the retirement thing.

Not so fast on the retirement thing, Peter? You just talked about how Steve Logan had spent some years as a talk show host, as if he can't come back and coach in the NFL after that. But Peter really thinks Anthony Davis can stay away from football and the NFL for a few years, come back from no longer playing at a high level of athletics, and then unretire and be successful again? Maybe, but I find it somewhat hard to believe. Davis is young, but if he does something else for a couple of years can he really come back to the NFL and have the same success he had previously? I think Peter should think Steve Logan can come back and coach if he thinks Anthony Davis can come back and play. I have a feeling Peter should be smarter than to believe this retirement thing for Anthony Davis may not stick.

I count 10 starters from last December’s Niners now gone: Iupati, Davis, Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore on offense (as well as part-time starter Jonathan Martin, whom I did not count);

Just last week Peter thought Jonathan Martin was too shaky to protect Cam Newton's right side, but this week when it's convenient to show how many quality players the 49ers lost in the offseason, Martin is all of a sudden one of the missing pieces on the 49ers offense.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

As the New York Daily News pointed out Sunday, the last time there was a Triple Crown winner—Affirmed, on June 10, 1978—you could buy Wheaties at your grocery store with reigning Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner on the box.

And now Bruce Jenner is a woman. Great factoid, absent the fact Peter still doesn't know exactly what a "factoid" truly is.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Travel Note of the Week

After the wedding of our daughter, my wife and I went on a cool 35th anniversary trip: VIA Rail’s Vancouver-to-Winnipeg train through the Canadian Rockies. Fifty-two really fun and relaxing hours, with some of the prettiest scenery you’ll ever see. The highlight was this announcement over the 24-car train’s intercom one day into the journey: “Ladies and gentlemen, on the left side of train you’ll see a black bear.” Sure enough, there was a large black bear, eating something in a field as we approached the Rockies.

A motherfucking bear. It was a bear. Astounding. Here's another little factoid. At the point Peter was on this train after his daughter's gay lesbian wedding between two women, Bruce Jenner still went by his male name and not by Caitlyn Jenner.

Good food on the train. Good beer. (Lots of it.) Day two of the trip, a long Sunday, was mostly through the plains from Saskatoon to Winnipeg. There’s not much out there. Good chance to get in a lot of reading. Then we flew from Winnipeg to Toronto and spent the last two days of our trip sightseeing in Toronto.
Canada is one huge and scenic country.

What? Canada is huge? No way. Peter is bullshitting his readers now. First, he talks about how he saw a bear and now he's saying Canada is a huge country.

I just love how Peter is so precocious (probable Peter King definition of the word) about things like this. He goes to Canada and his report back is that he saw a bear, the food was good, he got bored because there was nothing to see and Canada is big. It's like what a 10 year old would report back from a trip to Canada, thereby fulfilling behavior that is the opposite of precocious, but Peter would probably call it precocious anyway.

Ten Things I Think I Think

Which, as usual, has to be differentiated from all the other comments in this column that essentially consist of things Peter King thinks.

1. I think these notes caught my eye from the NFL’s announcement of its roster of officials for 2015:

a. Veteran Bill Leavy’s out as a referee. Mike Holmgren and Seattle fans won’t forget a couple of iffy calls in the Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh nine years ago. Now Leavy will be an officiating supervisor for the league. The newest of the NFL’s 17 referees: ex-line judge John Hussey.

I like how Peter says Leavy is "out" as an official with the connotation being that Leavy was being punished or his performance didn't merit his being "in" as an official. Instead, he's an officiating supervisor now, which means he kind of got a promotion. Failing upwards is not what I think of when someone is considered "out" of a job.

b. As expected, Sarah Thomas, the first female official hired by the league as part of a permanent crew, will work on easygoing referee Peter Morelli’s crew. She is a line judge.

BUT HOW WILL SHE RESPOND WHEN BIG MEAN COACHES START YELLING HER? HOW EMBARRASSING IS IT GOING TO BE TO SEE A GIRL OFFICIAL CRY WHEN THIS HAPPENS?

4. I think one of the football stories we’ve paid far too little attention to this offseason is what the Eagles have done with their skill positions.

Wait, wait, wait. "We" haven't paid enough attention to what the Eagles have done with the offensive skill positions? The entire offseason discussion around the Eagles has surrounded how they have gotten rid of high-paid offensive skill position players and replaced them with guys Chip Kelly wants to have his system. This has led to a discussion of whether it is the player or the system that can make a team successful. If anything, the discussion about the Eagles during the entire offseason has only surrounded what they have done at their skill positions.

Added: running backs DeMarco Murray (the number one rusher in the league in 2014) and Ryan Mathews (number seven in 2013), first-round receiver Nelson Agholor. Subtracted: running back LeSean McCoy, wideout Jeremy Maclin. With Murray, Mathews and Darren Sproles—who, I’m told, is still a major favorite of Chip Kelly—I think you’ll see the Eagles be a top-three rushing team in 2015. That is: If they’re efficient at it, the Eagles will be in the top three in the NFL in rushing attempts this year.

Again, this is mostly what has been talked about when the Eagles have been discussed and Peter thinks far too little attention has been paid to it? Really?

5. I think you’re surprised by that, aren’t you?

No.

Don’t be.

Well, I am not.

I'm more surprised that Peter still doesn't understand how an outline works. This is the same topic that was being discussed in Topic #4, so it should not be Topic #5, but included as part of Topic #4.

With a quarterback, Sam Bradford, that the Eagles don’t want to expose to more punishment than necessary, and a potential workhorse back in Murray, the Eagles are strong candidates to run the ball more than half of their offensive snaps. That’s something no one thought Kelly would do as an NFL coach.

Chip Kelly has always run the ball a lot, even at Oregon. So the assumption is his team throws the football a lot, but reality doesn't bear this out. I'm still not surprised the Eagles will have a lot of rushing attempts this year, mostly because I know he does like to run the ball a lot.

7. I think this is the offseason that a storm cloud simply will not vanish from the airspace over Foxboro. That includes, apparently, a highway near Foxboro, where, on Sunday morning, an abandoned and damaged car was found after an unreported accident overnight. The car apparently belongs to former and current New England linebacker Brandon Spikes. Stay tuned for the developing story.

The Patriots released Spikes on Monday morning. I'm sure this seen as just another example of the decline of the Patriot Way.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Two overtime games in the NBA Finals. One the Cavs should have won and lost. One the seriously undermanned Cavs should have lost and won. That’s what’s so great about sports.

Deep AND insightful.

b. The LeBron hatred by so many on Twitter and elsewhere is so foolish, such a waste of time. I don’t care how many shots he missed Sunday night. He willed that team to a win, along with a spunky little guard I never heard of until two days ago.

Right Peter, but you don't like or watch the NBA so it shouldn't be a surprise that you had never heard of that "spunky little guard" whose name you are too lazy to look up. How many times has Peter said he doesn't watch many NBA games, yet it's supposed to mean something when he says he had not heard of a Cavs player?

d. Really enjoyed the Belmont on Saturday. I was lucky to attend for the first time, thanks to some NBC ducats. I’m no horse racing fan, 

I like how Peter is always like, "I hate this sport, but here's some insight about this sport I hate..."

How hard it must be, to keep a lead in a race that long. This really impressed me: The horse has won its last seven races by an average of five-plus lengths.

By an average of five-plus lengths? That's almost as crazy as the unnecessary use of italics in this sentence. Even with Bill Simmons not writing, the unnecessary use of italics still lives.

 f. Beat Writer Stat of the Week, from the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham, on Friday, in the midst of another crash-and-burn Red Sox season: “The Sox are 95-122 the past two seasons and 296-317 since the 2011 All-Star break. The ESPN ‘30 for 30’ documentary on how the 2013 Red Sox were one of the great outliers of all time will be fun to watch in 10 years. The Jonny Gomes quotes alone will be great.”

Cry me a fucking river and then get the hell over it. "How the 2013 Red Sox were one of the great outliers of all time..." "OUR OUTLIERS ARE MORE OUTLYING THAN YOUR OUTLIERS!"

The teeth gnashing around the 2015 Red Sox team from sportswriters is obnoxious to read.

i. Coffeenerdness: Toronto’s a huge coffee city. I bet there are more per-capita Starbucks outlets (and other independent shops) downtown than in Seattle’s downtown.

Well, Canada is a huge country.

k. This column will have guest writers for the next four Mondays. We’ll open next week with Jenny Vrentas, and Robert Klemko and Andrew Brandt will also be writing in the coming weeks. As for the fourth columnist, it’s still TBA, but I’m working on an option you’ll enjoy if it pans out.

MMQB won't be posted at all on the fourth Monday?

I’ll be back in this space July 13, ready for another season.

No Peter King, no Bill Simmons and no Gregg Easterbrook. Such a tough time the middle of the summer is.

The Adieu Haiku

Coach of the Year? Now? I’ll take Mike Zimmer. Easy.
Stood firm on AP.

Of course no Peter King means no Adieu Haiku. 

It's June and Peter is ready to give Coach of the Year to Mike Zimmer for holding firm on Adrian Peterson when just last week Peter thought the Vikings should give-in a little to Peterson. Of course, Peter holds these two fairly distinct points of view. He thought the Vikings should give-in a little, but also thinks Mike Zimmer did a great job of standing firm on Peterson.  

7 comments MMQB Review: Vocabulary Lessons With Peter King Edition

Peter King named the wrong "Goat of the Week" for the third straight week in MMQB. He also detailed how Russell Wilson and the Seahawks pulled off a miracle comeback with the help of the inept Green Bay Packers. Peter was impressed with an airport coffee shop in Detroit (and he was shocked the best airport in the country would be in Detroit...I'm still not sure why this is shocking) where the ladies at the coffee shop took the time to make sure his Highness properly enjoyed his coffee. Peter wishes other coffee shops and service industry workers would take the same time to give personal attention, except for when Peter is waiting in line of course. When Peter is in a long line, he just wants the conversation to stop so he can get his food/coffee/whatever he's ordering. When it's Peter getting the personal attention, he appreciates the customer service. This week's MMQB is "offbeat" according to Peter King. He talks about an officiating comeback story, discusses the Patriots deflating footballs against the Colts, provides an absurd "Fine Fifteen," and condescendingly teaches his readers a new word. Because occasionally Peter lets his elitist attitude toward the idiot "normals" who read MMQB come through just a little bit.

We interrupt the Deflategate hysteria (I do believe that is not an overstatement) to bring you this incredible factoid

It's a fact, not a factoid. Since Peter will be teaching his readers a vocabulary lesson in slightly condescending fashion later in MMQB, I wonder if he needs a lesson in the definition of the world "factoid" himself. A factoid is:  

"A questionable or spurious statement presented as fact, but without supporting evidence." 

The word does have other meanings with the second meaning also indicating a statement isn't factual. The third meaning is the CNN version with means a trivial piece of interesting information. The word mainly means a statement that lacks fact. Peter uses the word a lot in MMQB and I sometimes wonder if he knows the word's main meaning indicates he isn't exactly spitting out facts.

One player out of 106 active Seahawks and Patriots was not healthy enough to practice when the two teams worked out this weekend. That player, starting Seattle right guard J.R. Sweezy (ankle), still is listed as probable for Super Bowl 49, meaning it’s very likely he’ll play in the biggest game of his young life next Sunday. So, barring someone straining an oblique on the golf course Tuesday afternoon, it is surprising to report in the fifth month of a brutal NFL season that the two teams left standing are ridiculously healthy as they begin final preparations for the game.

See!? An 18 game schedule would absolutely work for the NFL because this season the two Super Bowl teams are very healthy. Roger Goodell thinks that he should just go ahead and ram the 18 game schedule through. It's not like any of the teams who didn't make the Super Bowl are injured or injuries may have helped prevent another NFL team from having a shot at the Super Bowl or anything like that. The Colts didn't need Ahmad Bradshaw and I'm sure the loss of B.J. Raji was no big deal to the Packers. Plus, the Cardinals were just as good without Carson Palmer as they were with him. Why is an 18 game schedule a bad idea.

My point is that an 18 game schedule is still stupid and it sometimes happens the teams that are able to stave off major injuries to key players are the teams that are able to advance in the playoffs.

I dare to defer one of the biggest pre-Super Bowl stories in the 48-year history of the game to page two of the column today. Page one belongs to Bill Vinovich, the Super Bowl referee.

I feel like every Super Bowl there is a story that is one of the biggest pre-Super Bowl stories in the history of the Super Bowl. Whether it is whether Terrell Owens will play or not, if the Patriots can have a perfect season, if the Patriots can get revenge on the Giants for ruining their perfect season, or whether the Steelers can win another Super Bowl. If it's not Peyton Manning trying to secure his legacy by winning another Super Bowl or Jon Gruden getting revenge on the Raiders by defeating them in the Super Bowl, there is always a story that is one of the biggest stories in the history of the Super Bowl.

Vinovich went to work out one day near his southern California home, and when he came home, his back was killing him. “It actually felt like somebody stuck two knives in my back,” Vinovich said from California the other day.

Sort of how many NFL teams feel after having their games officiated by NFL officials.

At the hospital, his blood pressure skyrocketed. The CAT scan stunned the doctors: The descending portion of his aorta had torn off. This “aortic dissection” caused this huge blood vessel to tear and blood to pour through the area.
 
“They said it was inoperable,” Vinovich said. “I heard them say, ‘The next 48 hours will tell if he’s gonna make it or not.”

Wow, that sounds pretty severe. So at this point, Peter King will either continue with the story or explain to his readers who he seems to think are morons what "...tell if he's gonna make it or not" means. Because that's a phrase Peter apparently thinks his readers aren't smart enough to understand without him condescending a bit and explaining the phrase. Very lofty of him to do.

They meant, The next 48 hours would determine whether Vinovich would live.

Yes Peter, we understand that's what it means when the phrase "if he's gonna make it or not" is used in front of the words "the next 48 hours." I'm sure that Peter would be shocked to learn his readers aren't complete morons, because he insists on treating them that way. Why would you have to explain what this phrase means? It's obvious.

After 11 days in intensive care and a few weeks of in-home rest, Vinovich felt good, and he sent all his medical records to the NFL so he could be cleared to officiate the season. League physician Dr. Jeffrey Borer, whose job it is to clear officials for duty, not only wouldn’t clear Vinovich for the season. “They said they weren’t going to allow me on the field anymore,” Vinovich said. “Ever.”

This is the part where Peter would explain "ever" meant that the NFL wasn't going to allow Vinovich to officiate another NFL game in his lifetime. 

“How long did it take you to come to grips with that?” I asked.

A few years Peter. Then Vinovich evetually came to grips with it, which is why he isn't an NFL official anymore. Great question.

“Never,’’ he said. “I never gave up.”

Obviously he is still officiating NFL games so Vinovich never gave up. The phrase "if he's gonna make it or not" doesn't seem obvious to Peter, so the fact Vinovich didn't come to terms with the NFL not allowing him on the field, and that's why he is still officiating required further explanation as well.

In 2008, he became a regional supervisor, watching and grading officials. He applied for Pereira’s job when Pereira quit after the 2009 season, but Carl Johnson got it. Imagine if Vinovich got that gig; he probably never would have returned to the field. He decided to continue as a supervisor, but to go back to his other officiating love—college basketball.

Vinovich got four thoracic surgeons to write to the NFL in 2010, saying he was healthy enough to officiate a football game. He took the NFL physical and felt great. Borer still said no. Too risky. “It was like pounding your head against a wall,” Vinovich said. “I’ve got all the information. I just couldn’t get through that wall.”

Peter wants to explain that "couldn't get through that wall" meant that the NFL wouldn't allow Vinovich to officiate a football game again. Also, Peter wants his readers to know that football is a sport, but he isn't talking about what's called football in Europe, which is called soccer in the United States, but Peter is talking about American football that's not soccer. Then I'm sure Peter wants to explain America is the country where he resides as a citizen and is often also called the United States of America. Then Peter would explain to his readers there are 50 states in the United States of America.

Six months later he was back on the basketball court, reffing games on the West Coast. Early in 2012 he re-applied to the NFL, with Elefteriades’ blessing. In May 2012, he opened his email one day to find these words from the NFL: You’re approved for the 2012 season. “I obviously started crying,” Vinovich said. “Very, very emotional.”

Peter would like to explain that Vinovich was emotional in a good way, not in a bad way. The emotions were happy emotions.

Vinovich had Baltimore-New England. In the middle of the third quarter, the bizarre New England formation occurred: Tight end Michael Hoomanawanui lined up at left tackle, eligible. Running back Shane Vereen reported on the field and said clearly to Vinovich: “I’m reporting INeligible. INeligible.” 

“It obviously caught me off guard,” Vinovich said. “I’m not gonna say what the Ravens should or shouldn’t have done. I mean, the easiest thing [for them] to do would have been to call timeout and let them match up.

Peter wants his readers to know that "off guard" means Vinovich wasn't expecting it. Okay, I'm done now.

And yes, the Ravens maybe should have tried to call a timeout, as nearly everyone suggested they do in this situation. It's like a knee-jerk reaction. The Ravens didn't like what they saw, just call a timeout.

Vinovich is aware that some critics—Harbaugh, for one, who thinks the Ravens weren’t given sufficient time to match up; and also Tony Dungy, who felt the same way—didn’t like New England being able to use that play.

I'm sure there is a bucket somewhere that can catch all the tears Saint Tony Dungy was crying over the Patriots using this play in a game when the opposing team wasn't properly prepared.

But he also knows on those three plays, the Ravens had at least seven seconds per play to adjust. So he’s sure he made the right call. “I don’t know how else we could have handled that,” he said. “You’re not going to put the umpire over the ball at that point. We told the Ravens the back was ineligible.”

It was a good move by Belichick and I thought sufficient time was given. What do I know though? I'm not Saint Tony Dungy, image rehabber to football stars.

“Has it hit you that you’re doing the Super Bowl,” I asked, “just three years after you didn’t know if you’d ever be allowed on the field again?”

“No,” he said, “and I don’t think it will until I do the coin toss, honestly. I just want to get that over with, because then it’s just football.”

“No one’s coming to see an official officiate,” Vinovich said. “Trust me.”

Karl Hess is amazed that no one is coming to see an official officiate a game.

I thought the Bill Belichick press conference Saturday afternoon was extraordinary. Clearly, he realized his integrity, and that of his organization, was under fire. He wanted to tell the world there was, in his mind, a rational explanation for the decline in pressure in the footballs during the first half of the AFC Championship Game. He wanted to tell the world stridently that he thought his team and his staff did absolutely nothing wrong. He wanted to tell the world he was proud of his players for continually persevering and becoming the best team in the AFC this season, which the Patriots certainly are. It was passionate and moving and very human.

CAN PETER TELL THAT STORY ABOUT HOW BELICHICK HAD "THE ART OF WAR" IN HIS HOME LIBRARY AND IT REALLY SURPRISED PETER A WHOLE LOT? HE HASN'T TOLD IT IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!

We still don’t know why New England’s footballs were fine before the game, low at halftime (at least 11, according to Chris Mortensen), inflated to the proper level by the officiating crew, and then fine after the game. So that’s a problem that needs to be addressed. Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk reported Sunday, quoting a league source, that 10 of the New England footballs “may have been closer to one pound below the minimum limit for inflation,” which leads to an important part of the investigation.

(falls asleep reading about the proper inflation of footballs)

A little education this morning, on the parts of this story I think people are missing.

Peter is all about the education in this week's MMQB.

1. The big issue is a six-to-10-minute window of time between when the officials release the ball to the ball boys and the start of the game.

That six- or 10-minute window is key to this investigation. In fact, it’s the biggest key. Did anything untoward happen in that time?

Okay Mr. Football, point to the spot on this doll where the Patriots touched you before the game. Don't be afraid and just show me on the doll where they touched you. No one will be mad at you. Just point.

2. How did the players and teams get such control over the footballs? Why doesn’t the league take control of the football-prep process?

Let’s go back to 2006, to something I wrote just before the start of that season. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, backed by 20 other starting quarterbacks, petitioned the league to allow each team—rather than just the home team—to condition the footballs it would use on offense each week in the way it saw fit.

“Imagine,” Brady told me at the time, “if Derek Jeter were handed a brand-new glove just before the start of every game. Baseball players break in their gloves until they feel perfect to them. It’s ridiculous to [be forced to] play with new footballs. I can tell you there’ve been nights before road games when I have had trouble sleeping because I’m thinking about what kind of footballs I’ll be throwing the next day.”

I get the Derek Jeter comparison or where Brady wants to go with it, but a glove is a personal item that a baseball player uses, so while I get the comparison, I don't think it's apt. It's like if MLB allowed each pitcher to rough the baseball up as he sees fit, because a football is used by every participant in the sport just like a baseball is used by every participant in the sport of baseball. On the other hand (no pun or glove-related reference intended), a glove is a personal item that is only used by one participant. There's the difference in Brady's comparison of a football used by multiple football players to a glove used by one baseball player.

Brady proposed that the visiting team have access to a certain number of the allotted game balls—the number turned out to be 12—so it could prepare them the way it wanted; those balls would be stamped with the visiting team’s name and kept on the visitors’ sideline for use when that team was on offense. The remainder of the balls would be prepared by the hosts to their liking, 12 kept on the sideline for use on their drives and the other dozen in reserve in case bad weather created the need for additional balls. The competition committee approved the plan the next month, and it’s been that way ever since.

I'm sure it gives those who hate the Patriots and want to see Brady/Belichick executed at halftime of the Super Bowl more ammunition knowing that Brady was part of the push to allow each NFL team to provide their own footballs. It's a decade-long conspiracy! And naturally, Manning's involvement meant he would never over or under-inflate a football so that he could throw it better. He's above that.

3. And about Bill Belichick’s or Tom Brady’s legacy and Hall of Fame status …

Too early. Way too early.

There’s just too much that can happen before then, in all ways. Let’s see where this story ends up.

So Peter is saying that neither Belichick or Brady's legacy and/or Hall of Fame candidacy can be judged prior to either of them being eligible for the Hall of Fame? I refuse to believe this should be the case. Let's make a judgment on their legacy and whether either should be in the Hall of Fame right now. It's much more fun that way.

Requiem for a sportswriter.

Paul Needell died after a long battle with multiple sclerosis Saturday. He was 57.

Peter then has four people eulogize Paul Needell in MMQB. I won't cover much of this because it's hard to be snarky about dead people. Except Joe Paterno. Apparently he's free game.

Roger Goodell, former Jets PR intern, current NFL commissioner. “Frankly, it is difficult to speak about it now.

Because Goodell hasn't seen the videotape of Needell's death. Is he dead? Roger Goodell doesn't know because he's not making a snap-judgment based on someone's word that Needell's heart has stopped beating. Bring the tape, then Goodell will say for sure he will speak about Needell's death.

I was a wide-eyed intern, and he taught me a great deal about the media business—a world to which I was admittedly unaccustomed. Most of all, he taught me about respect.

(Goodell suspends Josh Gordon for drinking beer and smoking pot, then gives a two game suspension to Luke Kuechly for murdering an entire family)

The love of his family over the past few years is the greatest testament to Paul Needell. What a special guy. He will be missed.”

Assuming he is dead of course. Goodell still needs the videotape showing Needell as indeed dead and he'll be locked in his office all day so if the information goes to someone else then he isn't responsible for that person's actions and what they do with this tape. A supervisor can't always be responsible for the actions of his employees, unless that supervisor is an NFL coach or any other NFL-affiliated person that isn't Roger Goodell. Those people are responsible for everything their subordinates do.

This comes from Jim Steeg, who for years ran the Super Bowl and big NFL events:
“Back in the seventies, the Dolphins were going to play the Raiders in Oakland. They practiced at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday, and in the locker room Larry Csonka found laying there the Raiders’ game plan for the next day’s game. He gave it to [Dolphins offensive line coach] Monte Clark to give to Don Shula, which Monte did.

“The next day the Dolphins got beat by the Raiders. Csonka went to Monte and asked, ‘How did we lose? We had their game plan.’
 
“Monte’s response: ‘I gave it to Don and he threw it in the trash. He said, ‘We do not cheat!’ ”

Sure...I bet Don Shula didn't grab that game plan out of the trash. I bet he's just embarrassed he used the game plan and then the Dolphins didn't win the game.

The Fine Fifteen (Or Two) 

A quick list, seeing that only two teams are still alive and very little has changed in the rankings since last Monday.

If you read my MMQB Review every week, then you would know that I have advocated Peter just stop doing the Fine Fifteen every week during the playoffs because not much has changed on a weekly basis and the rankings serve little purpose since many of the teams won't be playing any more games during the season.

So that's fine that Peter isn't doing the Fine Fifteen this week, but why in the hell is he doing the Fine Fifteen with just two teams? He's going to rank them equal to each other because he hasn't made his Super Bowl pick yet. What's the point of this exercise?

T-1. Seattle (14-4).

I WONDER WHO THEY ARE TIED WITH?

T-1. New England (14-4).

Sometimes I believe Peter has a contest with himself to see what is the most inconsequential item he can include in MMQB.

“I would not say I’m the Mona Lisa Vito of the football world, as she was in the car-expertise area.’’
 
—New England coach Bill Belichick, channeling a memory of “My Cousin Vinny’’ during his rather amazing news conference Saturday, during which he said he wasn’t a great expert on the science of pressure in footballs (the way Marisa Tomei, playing the Ms. Vito character, was in identifying the characteristics of different brands of tires in an Alabama courtroom).

Yes, we get it Peter. If someone didn't get the reference in the original quote then the explanation you gave of "My Cousin Vinny" as the film where the reference comes from would then explain that a character in the movie was an expert on cars. If someone really cares enough to find out who played the character then they could use the Google machine to figure it out. What I'm saying is everything doesn't require an explanation.

“The energy is sort of sucked out of you. You do feel deflated … Awwww, shoot. Oh well.”
 
—Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, describing in a bit of a double-entendre his feelings about the sudden end of the Indianapolis season while being interviewed at the Pro Bowl.

I don't care what anyone says, I think Andrew Luck slipped up intentionally here and then was all "Awww, shucks" after saying it. He meant to do it and you can't convince me otherwise. Well done, Andy Luck, well done. 

“Everybody’s talking about Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. When is Robert Kraft going to come up and explain why, if they are found guilty of this, why do these things keep happening in this organization?’’
 
—Former Carolina GM Marty Hurney, now a talk show host in Charlotte, to Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

While possibly a good point, it's overshadowed by the fact Marty Hurney still wonders if the Patriots taped Panthers practices. It's been a decade, let's try to move on and focus on more important things like Hurney spent $80 million on running backs in a league where the running back is being devalued. I do think Hurney has a point, and not just because I'm one of the last great defenders of Hurney's legacy as the Panthers' GM, but because I would expect another owner to come out and explain why these things happen in his organization. That's probably why Robert Kraft did come out and speak on Monday, while standing by his coach and quarterback.

Ernie Banks, one of the best baseball players of all time, and a man who never had a bad day, died at age 83 Friday night. He was to Chicago what, a generation later, Ripken was to Baltimore and Jeter was to New York, and

what David Eckstein was to Anaheim and St. Louis.

Between 1955 and 1960, my rudimentary knowledge of baseball history would suggest that the four best baseball players were Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Ernie Banks. (Stan Musial would have belonged on the list in 1955, but not by ’59, when he was 38 years old.) Here’s how the power numbers matched up in those six seasons, which were 154-game seasons:

Player, Pos.	Games	HR	RBI	MVPs	Gold Gloves
Ernie Banks, SS	152.3	41.3	115.5	2	1
Mickey Mantle, OF	148.3	39.3	98.2	2	0
Willie Mays, OF	152.0	35.7	101.8	0	4
Hank Aaron, OF	152.6	34.3	112.3	1	3

Isn’t that a surprise? Prime years for all four players, and Banks with more homers and RBIs than the other three. There’s the Wrigley Field factor, to be sure, but interesting numbers nonetheless.

Isn't it a surprise that Peter's cherry-picked data goes to prove the point that he wanted to prove? Who would have thought that could happen? What a shock.

Mantle was 23-28 years of age during this sample.
Banks was 24-29 years of age during this sample.
Mays was 24-29 years of age during this sample.
Aaron was 20-26 years of age during this sample.

I would argue that neither Mays nor Aaron were in the prime of their careers during the time that Peter has cherry-picked. Both players put up better numbers after 1960 than they did during the time Peter is claiming was the "prime" of their careers. But yes, Banks was a great baseball player, but no, you can't sell me on 1955-1960 being the prime of Mays and Aaron's careers just so you can prove a point you want to prove.

Banks was good late too: At age 39, his 505^th career homer came off Tom Seaver, and his 506^th and 507^th came off Steve Carlton.

Banks was good late in his career. Well, he was good for his age, but from age 32 to the end of his career he was essentially a shortstop who could hit home runs, but didn't get on-base above .320 and couldn't hit above .276. He was still great, but he essentially became a home-running hitting shortstop who was good at fielding as well. It makes him a Hall of Famer obviously, but he definitely peaked during the years Peter cherry-picked and fell off after that.

I love the idea that’s gaining steam in Chicago: The Cubs, as a rightful tribute to Banks, should schedule a single-admission doubleheader once every year. Call it “Let’s Play Two Day.” What do you say, Theo Epstein?

I'm sure Theo Epstein makes scheduling decisions like this for the Cubs.

In Russell Wilson’s three seasons as starting quarterback for Seattle—he has started all 55 regular-season and post-season games since being picked in the third round by the Seahawks in 2012—he and his teammates have played 10 games against quarterbacks who have won at least one Super Bowl. The Seahawks are 10-0 in those games.

I know, I know—give credit to the defense for being so dominant and for holding Peyton Manning to 14 points per game and Brees 11 and Rodgers 17. The Seahawks defense has been terrific in the past three years, leading the league in scoring defense in all three seasons. But Wilson has not been just an innocent bystander here.

Peter knows, Peter knows. Point out a big reason that the Seahawks are 10-0 against quarterbacks who have won at least one Super Bowl as being the Seahawks defense, but don't forget that Russell Wilson is a winner and that should count for something too. Sure, the Seahawks defense has put him in good position against these great teams and didn't make him score 30 points to win, but wouldn't it be cool if that part could be ignored?

One more Wilson morsel that will drive the quarterback-wins-is-a-meaningless-stat crowd to drink: Wilson’s 42 victories in his first three NFL seasons, in regular- and postseason games, is six more than any other quarterback in NFL history.

I'm not of the "QB wins are meaningless" crowd, I'm of the "Let's not get carried away and put Russell Wilson in the same class as other elite quarterbacks because it's completely possible he's just a great quarterback who has won a lot of games" crowd. 

New England’s five Super Bowls in the Belichick-Brady Era have been decided by 3, 3, 3, 3, and 4 points.

It's almost like there is a thin line between winning and losing which is why stating Brady needs another Super Bowl victory to cement his legacy is probably a stupid point of view.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

Four hours and 56 minutes. That’s how long the flight was from New York to Phoenix on Sunday morning. That is also how long I had to smell the over-ripe woman in the seat behind me.

Whatever this was, it was five hours of my life I will not remember fondly. Well, I guess I should look on the bright side. It’s an easy, though odoriferous, travel note of the week.

Then realizing he had not talked down to his audience in a few pages, Peter decides that he just used a big word which most of his moronic readers didn't know and can now use at parties. It's his job to use his elitist attitude and well-educated nature to teach his readers big words.

You should look on the bright side too: Now you have a fun word to share with friends, who will be so impressed if you use “odoriferous” instead of simply “stinks.”

Thank you for the vocabulary lesson, Peter. Now that you have used the word "odoriferous" I have learned the word and will impress my friends with this knowledge. Because I, like most of your readers, am not educated enough to already be using that word in a sentence.

Ten Things I Think I Think

3. I think the most stunning bit of news in Rick Gosselin’s always-superb ranking of the 32 NFL special-teams units in the Dallas Morning News was this: Green Bay finished 32^nd, and had one of the worst seasons by a kicking unit in some time. In the NFL this season, 61 kicks or punts were blocked—and seven of them happened to the Packers.

What's stunning to me is that the two teams at 31st and 32nd both made the playoffs. That seems...interesting to me that two teams who are so bad at special teams could make the playoffs. Of course, the team that was 31st was Carolina and they were only better than the rest of the crappy teams in the NFC South, as their losing record showed. So they were more of a playoff team by default.

6. I think by the NFL putting all three London games next season (Weeks 4, 7 and 8) at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, we see the league’s reasoning—and for East Coast fans, I do not mind it at all: There is a real chance to create a fourth Sunday window for a game for FOX (once) and CBS (twice).

I love football, but I really worry that opening a fourth timeslot on Sunday for games isn't in the best interests of the NFL. Of course, I also think putting an NFL team in London (without me knowing how exactly this would work) is a bad idea too. So no one probably cares what I think, because money.

And you know what the teams like about it? All six teams—the Dolphins, Jets, Jaguars, Bills, Chiefs and Lions—will be able to return home no later than 4 a.m. local time on Monday, if they so choose. The following week will be a bye week, but the players will be able to be off that week at home if the teams wish, and the coaches will be able to treat the post-London week as if it were a borderline normal post-late-Sunday week entering the bye.

I still don't see how the NFL is going to do games in London on a permanent basis. The logistics of it seems odd to me. If there were a permanent team in London, then every team who plays in London can't go on a bye immediately afterwards playing in London can they?

8. I think it’s just a matter of time before a youth football player crossing the goal line, or a youth basketball player hitting a big shot, or another young athlete doing something great, follows that act with a crotch-grab. Well, they’ll say, I saw my favorite player, Marshawn Lynch do it; I’m following him. Lynch would be so proud, I’m sure.

Peter King is clutching his pearls at the idea of a kid grabbing his crotch like Marshawn Lynch did. Lord have mercy! It's like that scoundrel Randy Moss and how he pretended to moon Lambeau Field after scoring a touchdown a few years ago. What if "the kids" pretended to moon someone after hitting a home run or scoring a touchdown? Good thing Moss is nowhere to be found now and isn't employed as a member of the media. Because that would be embarrassing if there were other examples of professional athletes making gestures that weren't emulated by children and then that athlete ended up working in the same industry as Peter.

9. I think I’ll say one thing to you, Seattle fans, pre-emptively: Don’t tell me I’m a Marshawn Lynch hater.

I'll say one thing to you pre-emptively. It's "preemptively" (oh yeah, the English lesson goes both ways) and if you are talking about Marshawn Lynch still then this point #9 should be up with point #8 and not as it's very own number.

But do not try to defend a man who has something going on in his head that tells him to grab his crotch on national TV after he scores a touchdown. It is demeaning, and you are demeaning yourselves as one of the best groups of fans I’ve encountered in 31 years covering the NFL by defending the indefensible. 

Hey, and if anyone knows anything about defending the defensible then it is Peter King. This is a guy who has been able to defend Roger Goodell in some ways over the past year.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. I bow this morning to the six full-time SI photographers laid off the other day, all of whom I’ve worked with, all of whom take such great pride in their work—Al Tielemans, Bill Frakes, John McDonough, Simon Bruty, David E. Klutho and Robert Beck. A sad day for us.

Maybe there would be more money left over at Sports Illustrated if they had not invested a lot of their money in a micro-NFL site and pay well into six figures for Peter King to run said micro-NFL site. There may be more money left to pay for some full-time photographers if SI wasn't sinking funds into a micro-NFL site.

c. Ichiro a Marlin. Now that’ll take some getting used to.

He was a Yankee before that. That was less weird than Ichiro being a Marlin?

g. Just catching up on the last episodes of “The Newsroom” this season, and it’s the best this show has ever been. By far. Olivia Munn hit a few home runs down the stretch,

Okay, one more time.

What Peter means by "hit a few home runs down the stretch" is that Olivia Munn was very good at playing her role towards the end of the series. She was not playing baseball, but it was a phrase Peter used to point out how good Munn was at the end of "The Newsroom." Peter doesn't need his less haughty fans to get confused, so he needs to explain these things to them.

h. Can’t “The Newsroom” come back? Why is it ending?

Perhaps because it was never that good in the first place and Aaron Sorkin knew that?

i. Ernie Banks’s death reminded me of George Costanza in “The Opposite,” when his life goes up and Elaine’s down. George enters the restaurant, sees his pals and in a cocky voice, sing-songs: “Greetings and salutations. It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame! Let’s play two!”

Yes Peter, everything in life can be brought back around to "Seinfeld." Everything.

j. Klay Thompson scored 37 points in a quarter the other night. That’s got to be one of the great sports feats of recent times. Looks like such a happy guy.

Thanks for the helpful input, Peter. It doesn't sound juvenile at all.

Peter saw a puppy on the road yesterday riding a bike. That's a great feat for him to achieve. The puppy looked happy. His tongue was hanging out. Peter likes puppies.

Good to see different teams winning in the NBA.

It's good see different types of dogs out in public. Peter likes it when he sees different dogs on the street.

k. Thursday: Celtics win by one, 90-89, at Portland. Friday: Celtics win by one, 100-99, at Denver. I know nothing about the NBA, but with all the draft picks they have in the next couple of years, maybe the Danny Ainge/Brad Stevens Celtics are on the right road.

It's Peter's typical, "I know nothing about the topic I will opine on, but here's a conclusion I have reached based on my limited knowledge about this subject and I expect it to be taken somewhat seriously because it's an opinion coming from me" mention in MMQB.

r. Love Phoenix in the winter. I just wish they wouldn’t have sent the Coyotes away this week. Would have loved to have stolen a night with the pucks with Rick Gosselin.

What do you say, Theo Epstein? Is there a way you can get the NHL to build the Coyotes' schedule around the times that Peter will be visiting Phoenix? In fact, make it a doubleheader.

The Adieu Haiku

Welcome to Phoenix!  
And a week of Deflategate.
Really hate that name.

If you hate that name then don't use it. Peter used "deflategate" two other times in this MMQB. Peter has some control over the coverage of the Patriots deflating footballs and what his writers for THE MMQB refer to it as. Sometimes Peter acts like he has no choice about which stories to cover and how to cover them. 

7 comments MMQB Review: Now the Cowboys Got Screwed by the Officials Edition

Peter King detailed his crimefighting abilities in last week's TMQ when he took on a pickpocket who tried to lift his wallet, as well as focused on the Lions feeling they were screwed by the officials in their playoff loss to the Cowboys. Peter also detailed how the Rams were making a move to leave St. Louis and pushed the narratives for the divisional round games. This week Peter details how the Cowboys now feel like THEY were screwed by the officials, reveals he didn't really watch the Carolina-Seattle game (a West Coast team versus a team from the South? Who cares?) but he definitely has thoughts on the game he didn't see, picks the worst possible Goat of the Week, and has other thoughts on the playoffs he could be bothered enough to actually watch.

Peter starts the column off with a quote from Sun Tzu because, umm...., apparently destroying haikus isn't doing enough damage to Japanese and Chinese culture.

In the spring of 2004, after the Patriots won their second Super Bowl, I was working on a Bill Belichick profile for Sports Illustrated. The New England coach agreed to show me his football library, which is believed to be the single biggest existing collection of books about the sport. I was surprised to see on one of the packed shelves The Art of War, old and tattered and thin.

“The Art of War,” I said. “Wow. You read that?”
 
“Yeah,” he said with a bit of a scowl. “I got something out of it. But, you know, ‘Don’t move your troops when the ground is muddy.’ I mean …”

Peter has probably told this story about Belichick's library five times in MMQB in the last decade. Why would Belichick not read "The Art of War"? Did Peter think Belichick would have Lee Child and Danielle Steel novels on his shelf?

And I imagine Belichick scowled because he disagreed with how giddy Peter sounded when asking this question. 

Belichick learned more than that. He and his top offensive lieutenant, coordinator Josh McDaniels, used one of the strangest formations in recent history three times Saturday night, and their usage was a key element (but certainly not the reason) why the Patriots will be hosting the AFC Championship Game on Sunday evening back at Gillette Stadium. It’s the stratagem of the weekend, the stratagem of the season.

The stratagem of the decade even. Perhaps the best stratagem in record history. INCLUDING THE TRIASSIC PERIOD.

This weekend was dominated by some heart-stopping football, by the first serious questions about whether Peyton Manning has played his last game … and by the rulings of referees Bill Vinovich in New England and Gene Steratore in Green Bay, and by the opinions and interpretations of Dean Blandino and Mike Pereira and Mike Carey. Decidedly not what the NFL wants on the best weekend of football all year, four elimination games in 31 hours with the NFL’s Final Eight.

Did a ton of people watch the games? They did? That's all the NFL really cares about. They can cover up or make the public forget about any other mistakes they make along the way.

Packers 26, Cowboys 21: “A bad rule, ruled correctly.”

That’s how one longtime NFL operative referred to the call that changed the course of the season for Green Bay and Dallas at Lambeau Field. And when the play was adjudicated by referee Gene Steratore under the hood in Green Bay, connected to NFL vice president for officiating Dean Blandino in the officiating command center in New York, they made the call by the exact interpretation of the rulebook. With just over four minutes left and Dallas trailing by five, the Cowboys made a strange call on fourth-and-two with the game on the line: a deep ball down the left sideline.

It's not strange, because Gregg Easterbrook says the best time to go deep is on fourth-and-short, unless the team wants to run the ball and "do a little dance," but only go deep if the defense isn't expecting your team to go deep, which the Packers should be expecting it because on a play like this the Cowboys are only going to run the ball or throw deep. So yes, this throw made complete sense.

Dez Bryant made a leaping catch over Packers cornerback Sam Shields. But as he landed the ball became momentarily dislodged. The initial ruling was a completed catch, gain of 31, ball down at the Packer one. Green Bay coach Mike McCarty challenged the ruling on the field. After a long review, Steratore emerged from the hood and said the call was reversed; Bryant hadn’t completed the act of the catch.

The ground can't cause a fumble, unless in this case where the ground can cause a fumble. It's complicated and it's not like the officiating made a difference in the game, and hey look, it's the Conference Championship games that should be exciting so let's talk about that.

America said the same thing. It looked like a catch. By my Twitter feed, a good 80 percent of the fans who opined said it was a catch.

Because few things are more accurate than what the majority of people on Twitter think. I like how Peter selectively uses opinions on Twitter as proof for something. When it comes to 80% of Twitter thinking he's a shill for the NFL or not liking something he wrote, well those 80% are just being Twitter bullies, but when 80% agree with Peter then this majority obviously is correct.

The vital and controversial part of this rule is that as a player falls to the ground in the continuation of the act of trying to make a catch, he has to maintain control of the ball when he hits the ground.

Bryant failed to maintain possession of the ball when he hit the ground while in the process of making the catch. The ball popped from Bryant’s grasp when his body hit the turf and momentarily left his grip. He caught it while on the ground without the ball hitting the ground, but by rule, that’s not important. Bryant would have had to possess the ball without it leaving his grasp when he hit the ground.

I get the rule. It's the rule. The ground can't cause a fumble. I understand that rule too. So if Bryant had the ball possessed until he hit the ground, then why can the ground cause an incomplete pass if the receiver possesses the football all the way to the ground after being touched with two feet in bounds? I understand if the receiver doesn't have possession or the football hits the ground, but Bryant appeared to possess it all the way to the ground.

Crucial point two: If Steratore and Blandino had ruled Bryant fumbled the ball while making a football act “common to the game,” they could have ruled the catch good and the ball down at the one. For instance, if they ruled he caught the ball and then extended both arms “while making a football act common to the game”—that is, while trying to extend the ball across the goal line, with the ball never being lost in his grasp—it would have been a catch.

You know what else is a common act to the game? Catching a football while jumping in the air and then landing on the ground. It just seems silly to me that an additional act other than catching the football is required to make this a good catch. If he caught the pass while trying to put the ball over the goal and fumbled it out, that's fine as a catch, but why does that mean Bryant had more possession of the football than simply landing on the ground with possession and two feet in bounds? Because he tried an additional football move? The assumption a receiver is making an additional football move, so he must have possession of the football is a bit shaky to me.

“That’s an incomplete pass by rule,” said FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira, who used to have Blandino’s job. “The rule is very specific. In the process of going to the ground, you must maintain possession. That’s what happened here. The ball hit the ground and popped out immediately.”

The rule was enforced correctly. What got me was that Bryant had the ball all the way to the ground and then it popped out a little bit. I think if the receiver has possession all the way to the ground and has been touched then he should be down. Maybe that's a bad idea.

Maybe there will be enough momentum for a revolutionary change—for a catch to be catch as soon as a receiver gets two feet down and possesses the ball clearly. The problem with that in the past, as another source said Sunday, is “the cheap fumble.” Think of what happens when a pass, a catch by a receiver, a thudding hit by a defender and a fumble all occur at lightning speed. Did the receiver actually have possession before getting whacked and losing control of the ball?

I don't know. That's what instant replay is for. I understand the idea of a "cheap fumble." In a situation where a receiver catches a pass and then gets hit, I think that's a different situation. That's a question of whether the pass was complete or not. If the receiver made a football move as defined by the NFL rules then this would be a fumble. If he didn't, it's an incomplete pass. In a situation where the receiver has possession of the football all the way to the ground, is touched and it's contact with the ground that causes the ball to come out of his possession then I don't see why it wouldn't be a complete pass.

With the anger over this call, expect debate to center on the either two feet down and possession constituting a catch (with the requisite likely rise in the “cheap fumble”), or a proposal that a receiver doesn’t have to maintain control when going to the ground after taking two steps.

Change the rule, don't change the rule, I don't care. I just think this was a situation where the catch was completed and the ball was jarred loose by the ground. Maybe it shouldn't be a catch, but I didn't think Bryant lost possession all that much. It's not like he lost possession prior to hitting the ground. I think if he maintained possession, had two feet down, and completed the catch until he hit the ground then it looks like a catch to me.

But understand one thing: These games are so close, and the calls made so agonizingly vivid and on a sword’s edge by replay technology, that you’re not putting the genie back in the bottle. There are going to be teams sent home by incredibly close calls now and into the future, because we can see these calls so well, and because replay is here to say.

Which is fine with me. It's better than not having the technology and the calls on the field being incorrect and deciding a game. I don't love the rule, but at least it was applied correctly. It beats the alternative.

It was not pretty watching Peyton Manning’s twilight. That certainly is what Sunday’s 24-13 loss to Indianapolis in the Broncos’ playoff opener looked like. And now, Manning, who turns 39 in 10 weeks, will have to decide whether he’ll return for a fourth season in Denver, and an 18th season in the NFL, in 2015. “I guess I can’t just give that simple answer right now,” Manning said after his 53rd game as a Bronco. “I’m processing it.”

It's not like this has been a mystery. Teams have pressed Manning's receivers and forced him to throw into tight windows before. It just looks really bad for Manning when a team does it well, which the Colts did. I personally thought that what we are seeing at the end of this year would happen two years ago. I really did. I thought the wear of the season would hurt Manning's arm in the playoffs and thought this right when he came back from his neck surgery with the Broncos. It took longer than I expected.

Manning threw a few balls late, or shy of their target. The crispness of a Manning march down the field wasn’t there. In his last 11 drives, two resulted in field goals; the rest, nothing. He had no zip on the ball. His downfield throws were consistently arced. He looked like, well, a 38-year-old quarterback.

Except for Brett Favre. He somehow managed to defy time and his arm velocity was still excellent. His decision-making wasn't affected as he got older either and that's not necessarily a compliment.

You couldn’t see this coming in the season’s first two months. In late October, we were talking about Manning playing two or three more years.

I literally had zero conversations with humans about Manning playing two or three more years. I don't know who "we" is. Maybe it's Peter King and his imaginary friend who he keeps in his front pocket with his wallet.

And maybe some of this is Thomas-related.

Because if Peyton Manning doesn't have his full complement of Pro Bowl receivers then how can he be expected to win games and play well?

This is what Manning told me about his future in August:

“I’ve always said that I’m only gonna do it A) if I can help—if I can truly help—and B) if I still enjoy, not the playing—anybody enjoys playing—but enjoy the preparation and the work part of it. Right now I’m still enjoying those things. I’ve heard Drew Brees and Tom Brady say that they have this target, like, ‘I’m gonna play until I’m 45.’ I’m not in that position, I think because of my neck injury. But I think the smart way to handle it is, every March, I do this physical and we take a look at it. It’s the perfect time, because it says, ‘Hey, everything looks good.’ And it also kind of allows me to go, Do I still wanna go through a lifting, offseason schedule again? I do my neck check, but I do my heart check as well, my desire check.

Peyton is like, "I'm going to sit down on March 10 and figure it all out from there on whether I want to retire or not. If I'm not retiring, I will immediately have to get in shape to shoot the 50 commercials that I do every year."

Then Greg Bedard detailed Manning's departure from the locker room and (apparently this is important) wrote:

“What struck me was how matter-of-fact everything was,” said Bedard. “It could have been a regular-season loss based on his reaction. There was no holding his head in his hands. No long stretches of staring off into space. No devastation. No sense of finality. It just seemed part of the process for him.”

Well it probably is a part of the process for Manning. He has lost a lot of playoff games and has been one-and-done 9 times in his career. He's used to this feeling by now.

Patriots 35, Ravens 31: Thank you, Nick Saban.

On Saturday night, in the third quarter against Baltimore, New England lined up four offensive linemen in their usual spots but with a running back, Shane Vereen, split out wide right, having declared himself an ineligible receiver before the snap, with a wide receiver to the right of him. A backup tight end, Michael Hoomanawanui, was in the left tackle slot, but he was actually an eligible receiver because Vereen, wide right, was not. At the snap of the ball, Vereen stepped back from the line and held his hands out for the ball, continuing the ruse. Hoomanawanui lumbered up the left seam, and quarterback Tom Brady hit him with a pass. Gain of 14, to the Baltimore 10-yard line.

The New England play could not have been more of a carbon copy if Alabama coach Nick Saban or his offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin, had flown to New England last week to help offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels install it.

I feel like Lane Kiffin and Josh McDaniels would hang out though. Not sure why I feel this way.

There is no doubt in my mind, based on the duplication of the play, that the Patriots got this play from Alabama. And good for them. It’s perfectly legal, despite Baltimore’s protestations to the contrary, and though officiating czar Dean Blandino told me Sunday the league is going to examine the play (actually, the Patriots completed three passes, for 11, 14 and 16 yards on the three plays they ran), what rule can the NFL change?

It's not fair to come up with creative plays that confuse the defense. Of course Mike Shula has been calling plays for years now under the assumption that it's not legal to confuse the defense with creative play-calling, so I'm sure this rule change won't affect the Panthers at all.

Baltimore coach John Harbaugh protested the play because he thought the Ravens weren’t given time to “match up” after the Patriots made their switch. Here’s how the rule reads: “If a substitution is made by the offense, the offense shall not be permitted to snap the ball until the defense has been permitted to respond with its substitutions.

I timed the three plays in question to see if Baltimore had been unfairly disadvantaged by the Patriot ploy, using NFL Game Rewind as my resource. Playing the NBC telecast back, I clocked the amount of time between referee Bill Vinovich’s in-stadium announcement of the “non-eligible player” (it sounded like that was what Vinovich called the spread-wide faux fifth lineman). By my count, seven, 10 and seven seconds elapsed between the announcements and the snap of the ball.

Seven seconds isn't that much. I have to admit that, but by the third time the Patriots used this tactic I would hope the Ravens would have caught on a little bit better.

“The whole issue with Baltimore,’’ Blandino said, “is they felt they weren’t given enough time [to match up]. We will review the three plays, but it appears from a mechanical standpoint that the announcement was made properly, the defense was notified, and the proper mechanics were executed.’’

Then Dean Blandino waved his hand and said there was nothing to see here and immediately exited the Packers' party bus.

My feeling is Baltimore should have had a coach upstairs identify the New England weirdness as the announcement was made, and note that a tight end was playing left tackle. A coach upstairs should have the power to say in the headset to Harbaugh, “Call a timeout! New England’s doing something we can’t identify!” Or something like that.

If I remember correctly, these plays were all used on the same drive. So I don't have an issue with the strategy, but do have an issue with Peter suggesting the Ravens have a coach to identify the Patriots' weirdness. After the first time this formation was used, the Ravens didn't know the Patriots would use it again and there wasn't time to start handing out responsibilities for identifying when New England did something weird. Plus, burning timeouts every time the Patriots used a weird formation doesn't seem like the best use of timeouts. The Ravens could have handled it better, but I don't know if Peter's suggestion is realistic.

Five minutes later, McDaniels pulled out a call that—for the first time in my visits to the 13-year-old New England stadium—made the stadium shake noticeably. From the Patriots’ 49, Edelman, an option quarterback in college at Kent State, went in motion from right to left, and at the snap, Brady threw a backward pass across the formation to him. Edelman took a running step forward, baiting cornerback Rashaan Melvin on that side.

Edelman reached back and threw a good spiral (not great; a slight wobbler) 37 yards through the air. “I thought I overthrew Danny, but he saved me,’’ Edelman said. Not true. The throw was perfect, right on target. Touchdown. Tie game. Stadium gone mad.

It's nice to hear that Peter King attended one playoff game and has all of the details during that game, but couldn't be bothered to watch much of another playoff game. After all, it's only the defending Super Bowl champs playing.

But think about life without the imaginative calls Saturday night. Think of losing to the Ravens for the third time in six years in the playoffs. Think of the 10th straight year without a championship for the team of the generation. Think of the aging giants of the game: Belichick will be 63 next season, Brady 38. Would they ever have a better—or even another—chance to win a fourth Super Bowl?

Which is pretty much what Peter and other sportswriters have asked for 2-3 years now. While it may be true that Brady and Belichick don't have much time left, it seems like every playoff appearance for the last few years the question of "Will this be the last time for them?" gets asked.

Seattle 31, Carolina 17: The Enforcer shall lead them.

I didn’t see a lot of the Seattle-Carolina game,

And really, why would Peter watch it? There's no Brady/Manning/Rodgers playing, it's a West Coast team versus a .500 team, and it's not supposed to be a good game. There are three other games that had Peter's attention.

but what seemed to be the most impressive thing about it was the play of strong safety Kam Chancellor. The breadth of his talent was on display throughout, and it’s easy to see why the Seahawks feel they have the best pair of safeties in football and no other team is close for second place.

"I didn't see much of this game, but let me now comment on what little bit I saw and draw some conclusions on this small amount of information I gathered."

Klemko made a great point to me: “That Chancellor is the third-biggest name in the Seattle secondary behind Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas says more about Seattle’s roster than it does about the fourth-year safety, who turned in perhaps the game of his career here. Eleven tackles and an interception returned 90 yards for a touchdown were enough to fill a stat sheet, but he also did things that don’t show up in the boxscore that make you go wow. Chancellor hurdled the Carolina line twice on field goal block attempts, and he somehow made Mike Tolbert go backwards.’’

Making Tolbert go backwards is impressive. What's more impressive is Chancellor hurdled the line of scrimmage twice and on the second attempt the Panthers inept special teams coordinator didn't bother adjusting for the fact Chancellor was doing this.

Chancellor is a mild-mannered guy who is good buddies with Sherman but will never be confused with him in the press conference standings. In his postgame interview, he calmly assigned “all glory to God” …  and to his defensive line. He’ll be a tough assignment, along with his defensive mates, for Aaron Rodgers Sunday at noon Pacific Time in Seattle.

Thanks for your insights on this game, Peter. I know it's hard to watch four NFL games in one weekend, especially when they all take place at different times with no overlap, but I'm sure there were more important things you had to do.

In the wake of the Mueller report …

The 96-page report has been well-dissected in the four days since its release. But four points I think must be made:

2. There was one lie the league got called on. After the vivid TMZ footage of Ray Rice striking his then-fiancée surfaced, Goodell said the league had requested “from law enforcement any and all information about the incident.” Mueller found that this was just not true. As he wrote: “League investigators did not contact any of the police officers who investigated the incident, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, or the Revel [the casino where the attack took place] to attempt to obtain or view the in-elevator video or to obtain other information. No one from the League asked Rice or his lawyer whether they would make available for viewing the in-elevator video they received as part of criminal discovery in early April.’’

So Roger Goodell IS a liar then? I ask because this is a very basic part of Goodell's initial reasoning for why he suspended Ray Rice only two games. Goodell said he viewed the tape of the incident and talked to all parties. Then Goodell was like, "Well they wouldn't give us the tape." Now it's found out that the NFL didn't even ask for the tape. It's a simple lie that goes to the heart of why Rice was suspended for the amount of games he was.

4. It’s clear the league trusted Rice too much as a good guy when the discipline was handed out. I wish Goodell would admit why he was soft on Rice in the first place.

Yes, if only there were someone who could take the time to investigate this and ask questions. Maybe someone who doesn't get the story wrong initially and then completely back away from trying to report on the story can do some investigative reporting.

Not that it would make that much difference now, but it would shed light on how the league could go from a two-game ban to an indefinite one (which ended up being 10 games when Rice was reinstated in late November), just because a video surfaced that simply put an exclamation point on what was a scurrilous attack in the first place.

You answered your own question, Peter. A video surfaced and it looked bad. To protect the NFL's brand they decided that once the public saw Rice hit his fiance then they better suspend Rice for more games.

The Fine Fifteen

1. Seattle (13-4). Seattle safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor had 22 tackles, a pick, a forced fumbled and three passes defensed Saturday night. They dominated, particularly Chancellor.

From what Peter hears from other people who watched the entire game, they dominated. Sources say this is true.

4. Dallas (13-5). Just a guess, but I’m thinking Dean Blandino won’t be getting any more rides on the Dallas party bus.

For correctly enforcing the rules as set forth by the NFL?

7. Denver (12-5). One month ago today, who would have thought we’d be talking about a total reconstruction job of the team that John Elway so masterfully built?

Probably some people thought this. John Elway built the Broncos team to win now and the health of Peyton Manning was always the reason the Broncos were trying to win now. So if Manning gets hurt or retires, the team would probably start rebuilding in some small or big way.

Peter has a lot of difficulty getting out of his little NFL Insider bubble. Everyone doesn't think like he thinks or what he thinks. Denver's window was dependent on Peyton Manning being the Broncos' quarterback. When Manning retires or gets hurt, the strategy for the Broncos changes.

9. Carolina (8-9-1). Nothing to be ashamed of. The Panthers put up a good fight, and they should be well-prepared, with a rebuilt line and receiver corps, to make a run in the NFC South next year. 2015 will be a big year for Ron Rivera, who is 33-33-1 after four seasons as Jerry Richardson’s coach.

Shitty team or no shitty team, he made back-to-back playoff appearances. That's something the franchise had not done before. Every year is a big year for 50% of NFL head coaches. Job security comes and goes on a yearly basis. I would be interested to see Peter King write that 2015 is a big year for Jeff Fisher, who is 20-27-1 after three seasons as the Rams' coach. He won't write that though, because no Marvin Demoff client is going to put another Marvin Demoff client on the spot like that.

11. Cincinnati (10-6-1). Most important question the Bengals will answer this offseason for the future of the franchise: Who will be brought in to challenge Andy Dalton for the quarterback job? I’ll be clear here. Dalton shouldn’t lose his job because of the four straight wild-card losses. He has done a tremendous amount to help this team be a consistent contender. But it’s irresponsible for the team to not set up some competition at the quarterback position.

Yet again, I would be interested to see Peter write this about the Rams. They have had three seasons of no quarterback competition for a quarterback who hasn't made the playoffs once and has been injury-prone. But again, no Marvin Demoff client will second-guess another Marvin Demoff client. Peter King is a good boy and will stand down.

Maybe it makes Dalton better. Maybe it results in him losing his job. But it’s a slap to the fans to do business as usual this offseason.

I just want to read these words written by Peter King about the Rams. They would apply in that situation as well. I know, I know...Peter can't rock the boat too much with his agent's clients, but Rams fans have been slapped in the face by Jeff Fisher and the Rams organization for a few years now. Fisher is paid to do better than that.

12. Houston (9-7). I’d be doing a ton of homework on Jameis Winston if I were the Texans.

Sounds like they would have to trade up for him.

13. Arizona (11-6). I’d buttress the quarterback position by overpaying a third playable one if I were the Cardinals.

Maybe Shaun Hill will be available.

15. Buffalo (9-7). So … I just wonder about the fate of Jim Schwartz, who, by the end of this season, had built a top-three defense in Buffalo. What of Schwartz? What of his effective scheme? Why a defensive guy as head coach instead of the best available quarterback-whisperer? And who is the quarterback, while we’re on the subject?

It's January. Calm the hell down about who the quarterback is come September.

Defensive Players of the Week

Vontae Davis, cornerback, Indianapolis. With five passes defensed (the last of which should have been an easy interception against the declining Peyton Manning), Davis continued to solidify his position as a top-10 cornerback in the league. And I continue to ask: What was Miami thinking, trading him to Indianapolis in 2012?

They were thinking they wanted a second round pick for a player who had difficulty grasping the Dolphins' defensive system. The best part about this award Peter gives is that a picture of Davis accompanies the award in a sidebar.

Notice how Davis has his arm around Emmanuel Sanders before the ball has gotten there. So that's pass interference potentially, right? The officials didn't call this type of pass interference much in the Colts-Broncos games. Perhaps Sanders didn't flop enough to get the call.

Goat of the Week
 
Rashaan Melvin, cornerback, Baltimore. This feels almost cruel.

It sort of is cruel, Peter. Rashaan Melvin is an undrafted free agent who was basically starting for the Ravens because they didn't have too many other quality options. It's unfair to call him a "goat" because he wouldn't be starting at this point in his career if injuries had not decimated the rest of the Ravens secondary.

Melvin is a limited cornerback, picked up out of desperation by Baltimore with a month left in the season because the Ravens’ secondary was being wiped out by injury. He played credibly in several games, making some big plays last week to help Baltimore win the wild-card game at Pittsburgh. But on Saturday night in Foxboro he got lit up by Tom Brady as few corners have been lit up in recent times. The very ugly numbers, per Pro Football Focus:

Targeted: 19 times. Receptions surrendered: 15.
Receiving yards allowed: 224.
Touchdowns allowed: 2.
Quarterback rating allowed: 150.9.

Yikes. That is one burned evening.

Yeah, he got killed by Tom Brady. It seems cruel to call him the "goat" because it is cruel to call him the goat. Say that more was expected of him, but I don't know what else was expected from Melvin when going against Tom Brady in the AFC Divisional Round. There were no other goats on the weekend? None?

“If Christie is still a serious presidential candidate, it was a very peculiar performance. In fact, it made sense career-wise only if he was campaigning for a future job as a team mascot. Look at the picture, and it’s hard to imagine him giving a State of the Union address, but you can really see him dressed up like a bumblebee or a duck, bouncing around the sidelines and firing a T-shirt cannon into the stands.”

—Columnist Gail Collins of The New York Times, on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s awkward three-way embrace, caught by FOX cameras, with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and son Steven in the waning moments of the 24-20 wild-card win over Detroit.

Christie might be the only presidential candidate who may be able to look back on his career and say, “Rooting for the Dallas Cowboys cost me the White House.”

Whaaaaaaaaaaat? "The New York Times" is ripping a conservative who may run for President? No way, I don't believe it. Cheering for the Cowboys will cost Christie the White House, but Hillary Clinton setting up residency in New York, even though she had few other ties in the city, specifically to further her political career was just fine by them. I can't believe the "Times" would rip a conservative politician.

I know, it's a strawman argument. I just can't read anything the "Times" writes without sensing a bias. 

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

Stayed at the Renaissance Hotel in the parking lot at Gillette Stadium over the weekend, in the growing Patriots Place complex.
There are Belichickian reminders around the place. Understated sign on one of the entry doors to the hotel, complete with a Patriots logo, and on one of the shops in the mini-mall here:

DO YOUR JOB.

He figures if everyone on the team worries about doing his job to the best of his ability, and all those efforts are combined, the Patriots have the best chance to win—rather than one unit wondering why another unit isn’t playing well, and maybe making suggestions, etc. It’s a mantra around the team,

It's a great mantra. It also helps to convince the players on the active roster to stick to doing their job when the other units on the roster do their job well. Success makes every mantra sound brilliant. Try to tell the Cleveland Browns defense to "do their job" while the offense has injuries and continues to lack direction. It's harder to stick to doing your job on a team when there are units on that team very clearly not doing their job well. As always, success makes everything so much more perfect.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think this is what I liked about the playoff weekend:

a. The death of the Dallas-bought-off-the-officials storyline.

How about the Dallas-was-screwed-by-the-officials storyline? 

b. Andrew Luck, on the read-option, beating DeMarcus Ware around the corner for a would-be touchdown. Though it was called back, that was a heck of an athletic move by Luck.

It's a "sneaky athletic for a white boy" mention.

i. Amazing back-shoulder throw by Joe Flacco to Owen Daniels for his third touchdown. Perfectly executed. “Flacco doesn’t know the difference between playoff football and playing in the backyard,” Cris Collinsworth said on NBC.

That's great insight from Cris Collinsworth. Such brilliant words.

2. I think this is what I didn’t like about the playoff weekend:

a. Watching Peyton Manning struggle like a great pitcher who’s lost his fastball.

He's 38 years old. It had to happen at some point.

c. Carolina’s pursuit on the 90-yard Kam Chancellor interception return.

Apparently Peter King only watched Kam Chancellor for the little bit he watched Carolina-Seattle because he knows almost nothing else about the game that doesn't involve Kam Chancellor.

They did pursue him. They simply weren't catching him, but there were Panthers players who chased after Chancellor. But observations from a guy who says he didn't watch much of the game is always appreciated. The replay shows no one would have caught him, but a couple Panthers did chase Chancellor.

i. Denver in the postseason. 2012 divisional loss as a one seed, 2013 Super Bowl loss as a one seed, 2014 divisional loss as a two seed. In my opinion, the Broncos were too good to be 2-3 in the last three postseasons.

The Broncos did make the Super Bowl last year, so it's not like they are complete failures. Still, Peyton Manning is too good of a quarterback to have the career record in the playoffs that he does.

3. I think the earth shifts so fast these days in the coaching search business, but here are a few things I hear about the status of certain jobs:

I wonder if the same source that gave him the information on what happened in Roger Goodell's office between Ray and Janay Rice is Peter's source of this information?

a. Atlanta, after Rex Ryan went to the Bills (too much uncertainty in the Falcons organization to hire him, from what I hear), likes two NFC West defensive coordinators—Seattle’s Dan Quinn and Arizona’s Todd Bowles. I bet they’d hire Quinn if he were available right now, but knowing he might not be on the street for three more weeks might play into it.

I don't understand why the Falcons wouldn't wait three weeks to interview the guy they would hire right now if they could. They would really not hire the guy they want because they can't wait three weeks to interview him?

c. Denver, I believe, is not going to replace John Fox. I hear there haven’t been any talks internally to replace him. But when Jay Glazer, who is close to Fox, says Fox may not be around if the Broncos lose, and then they lose, my antennae goes up. 

He's gone. 

d. New England, I believe, will not lose offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. You never know if he’ll be the heir to Bill Belichick, but he interviewed in Atlanta and San Francisco. Not that either place would offer him the job—I hear nothing of the sort—but my guess is he would not leave New England for a place that didn’t have stability and a quarterback.

So McDaniels would go to Atlanta or San Francisco? The way that Peter words this confuses me. McDaniels wouldn't leave for a place that didn't have stability and a quarterback, but Peter isn't referring to San Francisco and Atlanta as not having stability and a quarterback I hope.

8. I think “Divisional Playoffs’’ is the worst name for any round of any postseason in any sport. What, “Interesting Playoff Weekend” was already taken? Should be “Conference semifinals,” at least.

I don't see how it matters at all. There are much bigger concerns in the NFL than the name of the second round of the playoffs.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

c. Congrats to Boston on being the 2024 Summer Olympics nominee by the U.S. Olympic Committee. I can’t see the Olympics in Boston—just seems too small—but people would have a great time in the summer in that area, I can promise that.

If Boston ended up winning the bid for the 2024 Olympics then Bill Simmons and Peter King would state these Boston Olympics were the greatest Olympics ever.

d. Ohio State 37, Oregon 30. But my knowledge of those two teams would fit on the head of a pin. I watched their two bowl games, and Ohio State has that won’t-be-denied air.

Having very little knowledge of what he is talking about has never stopped Peter from opining before.

e. The NBA season is three months old and the New York Knicks have won five games. That Phil Jackson can sure build a basketball team.

The Knicks are terrible but was Phil Jackson supposed to turn it around in three months? I wish Peter King could answer that question. It would have been an incredible turnaround for Phil Jackson to have turned the Knicks around in three months.

g. First Joe Maddon. Now Ben Zobrist? Who are you, Rays?

Have you ever paid attention to the Rays? Ever? What about trading Ben Zobrist and not giving Joe Maddon the money he wants surprises you?

i. Beernerdness: Tried the Smoke and Dagger black lager Friday night—I’d never heard of such a beer, a black lager—

(Shakes head sadly)

The Adieu Haiku
So: Whither Peyton?
Over-under for his call:
I’ll guess March 7

You mean two days before his bonus that the Broncos have to pay him comes due? That's the day by which Manning will make a decision regarding his future? Don't go too far out on that limb, Peter.