TAMPA BAY, FL – The Super Bowl has a lot of pressure on it to come through with an exiting game. The rest of the major sports have the advantage of four to seven games to make it entertaining. Take the last World Series – everyone remembers Snell being pulled too early in Game 6 and the wild Rays comeback in Game 4. Nobody remembers the snoozer Dodgers 8-3 victory in Game 1. Well, this Super Bowl was that snoozer. You are probably tired of talking about it. Too bad. Here’s a few more Scattered Super Bowl LV thoughts.
Nantz’s Air Ball
Tony Romo is a master. If you get the chance to re-watch the 2018 Chiefs Patriots AFC Championship (the Dee Ford off-sides game), you will be floored by how many plays Romo called at the line of scrimmage. No other color guy come close to matching him. He should be a coach.
Anyway, he set up Jim Nantz for an absolute slam dunk but Nantz botched it. Romo was on his high horse, criticizing Antoine Winfield for taunting Tyreek Hill late in the game (never mind that it was sweet payback for Winfield). This is how the exchange should have gone down:
ROMO: I don’t condone that. That’s kicking someone when they’re down.
NANTZ: Kinda like Tyreek has done to so many women, amiright Tony?
ROMO: Zing!
You could’ve been a legend, Nantz.
The NFL’s Race Farce
Does anyone take the NFL seriously when they try to pretend they care about race? Here’s an idea, apologize to f@ckin’ Colin Kaepernick already. Maybe it wasn’t collusion in the exact definition of the word, but you did him wrong. Your admitting there’s a problem means the man was right. Give him some love already.
Further, the NFL is going to lecture me on race with three black head coaches. Great. And speaking of black candidates that deserve a head coaching job, maybe Byron Leftwich is the better offensive mind that other teams should be looking at, not Eric Bieniemy. Hey Eric, here’s an idea. Keep someone in to help your turnstile tackles (TM). A three-man route with Hill, Kelce, and Hardman is still dangerous. It’s definitely more dangerous than Mahomes throwing horizontal throws from 6 inches off the ground.
To Bruce Arians’ credit, he deferred a lot of the credit.
“I mean, people give me way too much credit because I don’t do sh-t, really. He does it all. He calls the plays. I’m really upset he didn’t get a head-coaching interview. . . . Byron didn’t even get a call, and I think people give Tom Brady and Bruce Arians way too much credit and not enough credit for Byron Leftwich.”
Poor Pat and the Offensive Line
I expected the makeshift KC O-line to be a problem, but I thought the Chiefs would be able to work around it enough. I did not expect it to flip the entire game. How were the Bucs taking away both the deep ball and the quick throws? How could Reid and Biemiemy not find some workarounds with all that talent?
Mahomes decided at one point that the only way he would have enough time is if he juked three or four rushers himself. He had to go Full Fran Tarkenton (hat tip AW). And you should never got Full Fran Tarkenton. It was pretty comical how Mahomes would take the snap and just start running. Hee made some incredible, gravity-defying throws. There’s no quit in that guy and I don’t put much of this game on him. If the pass protection was flipped, Mahomes throws for 350. Even Brady said he was in a “near impossible situation” for him.
Fun Tidbits
Somehow Travis Kelce and Rob Gronkowski are both 31 years old. That shocked me. If feels like Gronk has been around twice as long as Kelce.
Methinks the Giants might have sold low on Jason Pierre-Paul. I’m sure BJ Hill is about to do big things, but JPP has another ring and has never lost a playoff game.
If the Rays had left Snell in, we might be talking about the Tampa Bay trifecta right now.
Moving to Florida
It was nice to see some fans in there. Florida has been getting criticized for mask-less after parties, but people haven’t been wearing masks there anyway. And they haven’t been doing any worse than the rest of us, eh? Hey, maybe we can’t really control this thing? Florida looks pretty good to me right about now, even without the mountains of snow I’ve shoveled in the last two weeks. F@ck man, if it works for this guy.
Anyway, it was a fun football season. I look forward to watching the Rangers play the Islanders, Flyers, and Bruins about 15 times each. I’m not complaining. Maybe baseball will start on time.
Come back tomorrow for the Chairman of the Ron DeSantis For President exploratory committee, Angry Ward. Follow us on Twitter at @BenWhit8, @MeetTheMatts, @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
