Cleaning out the Inbox: Football Passings

    Today our tributes are all from the football world.  

Goodbye to Pat Fischer at the age of 84.  

A four-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler for the Cardinals and then-Redskins, Fischer wasn't drafted until the seventeenth round in 1961 from Nebraska by the Cardinals.

Fischer played seven seasons in St.Louis before signing with Washington in 1968 as a free agent as one of only four players to use the "Rozelle Rule" to sign elsewhere as a free agent with the player's former team receiving compensation.

Fischer would play seventeen seasons in the NFL intercepting fifty-six passes in his career.

The 5'9 Fischer's battles with the Eagles 6'8 Harold Carmichael were legendary and if you can find onYouTube any of those highlights, they have to be seen to be believed!

Goodbye to Greg Landry at the age of 77.

Landry was taken eleventh overall by the Detroit Lions in the 1968 draft from Massachusetts and would spend eleven years as a Lion before being traded to the Colts in 1979.

Landry made the Pro Bowl in 1971 and was named All-Pro, leading the Lions to their only division title of the seventies but spent much of the time battling another quarterback for the starting position, first Bill Munson and later Gary Danielson.

Landry almost threw for 3,000 yards for Baltimore in 1979, playing in twelve games for an injured Bert Jones, and was one of the first players to sign with the USFL in 1983, leading the Chicago Blitz to the playoffs and leading the Arizona Wranglers to the Western Conference championship in 1984.

Goodbye to Billy Shaw at the age of 85.

Shaw was an AFL All-Star guard eight times and named All-AFL on seven occasions for the Buffalo Bills from 1961 to 1969, winning two AFL titles in 1964 and 1965.

Shaw was voted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1999 and is currently the only player inducted into the Hall who never played a snap in the NFL.

The AFL-NFL merger occurred in 1970 and Shaw retired following the 1969 season, which led to his lone designation in the HOF.

Goodbye to Lonnie Warwick at the age of 82.

Warwick was the middle linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings' "Purple People Eaters" defense from 1965 to 1972 before playing for the Atlanta Falcons for two years and wrapping up his career with the WFL's San Antonio Wings in 1975,

Browns trade Za'Darius Smith to Lions

      The Cleveland Browns were expected to be a team that would be active in trading some spare parts before the Tuesday draft deadline and the player who was a sure bet to be moved was moved Tuesday morning as Cleveland sent veteran defensive end Za'Darius Smith to the Detroit Lions.

Cleveland obtained a 2025 fifth round draft choice and a 2026 sixth-rounder in return for Smith and the Browns 2026 seventh rounder. 

The Lions needed a pass rusher after their standout defensive end Aiden Hutchinson suffered a broken leg last month and Smith was the best available rusher via trade for the Lions, who expect to be a title contender in the postseason.

The thirty-two-year-old Smith played in all nine games this season and his five sacks rank him second on the Browns behind Myles Garrett's seven.

Smith played in sixteen games for the Browns last year and finished with five and a half sacks in 2023 for Cleveland.

The Browns add a fifth for the next draft and move a seventh for a sixth in 2026 for a veteran that would have been unlikely to stick around a rebuilding team as an unrestricted free agent after the season.

The fifth could prove helpful in perhaps helping the Browns move up on day three of the draft to grab a player who should have been off the board but slipped a bit on the draft's second day.

The Lions add a proven pass rusher at a time of need as a rental for a reasonable cost, so both teams acquire something they need for a decent return.

Should the Browns make other transactions before the deadline, I'll be back with thoughts on those moves.

Road Trip: Wrapping it up

     The final day of the final leg of the road trip season was here and it started at Buc-Ees, the legendary gas station (don't call them a truck stop, no trucks are allowed) directly off I-40.

I'm not sure words can describe the activity all around when you enter a Buc-ees and that's before considering the mass of items, all of which seem to have the face of a very pleased beaver!

I had a list of things to bring home for Cherie, Rachel, and Posey, including their famous beaver nuggets, which are bigger versions with extra sugar of Kellogg's Sugar Corn Pops cereal.

I found all of their requested items but one and I used the rest of the time to check out the available food options since we would be stopping back for lunch.

The next drive was to Knoxville, home of the Tennessee Volunteers, to stop by Bargain Antiques.

Bargain Antiques is yet another former department store that has found new life with antiques.

I found a few things, a Kroger cloth grocery bag for Cherie, who always likes to pick up bags from grocery stores away from home, a small Green Lantern key chain ( from a booth with ninety percent off that cost me only fifty cents), and a Tennessee basketball program.

What I found most interesting was the parking lot which was so slanted that parking at the bottom of the lot must have felt like hiking up a mountain!

We hopped back on I-40 for lunch at Buc-ees, and because we had stopped by twice, we had some ideas about the food offerings.

Buc-ees has an amazing number of different sandwiches among other made-to-order items and I decided to try two different sandwiches in the smaller size.

I ordered a fried chicken sandwich (similar to Chick-fil-A) and a turkey sandwich.

The chicken was very good and the turkey was good but a bit chewy.

Driving home on a sunny day allowed us to take our time and make a few stops along the way with the best stop at Snoopers Antique Mall in Wytheville, Virginia.

I found two items there, two Topps posters from 1970's releases.

In the 60s and early 70s, Topps usually had an insert of some type in each pack of that season's baseball cards and in 1970, it was posters.

The 9x10 posters were printed on very thin paper and needed to be folded into eighths in order to fit the posters into a standard pack of baseball cards.

As a result, there are few in outstanding shape today as even if you haven't touched them since 1970, the materials are still vulnerable, which is the main reason that I never tried to collect the posters (or the other years that Topps used posters as the bonus prize).

However, for the price (four dollars each), and the condition (the seller had them flat and in plastic), I could not resist adding a Hawk Harrelson ( with the Indians and their red wishbone C caps) and Don Mincher (in the Seattle Pilots uniform that would not see the field in 1970) to my collection.

There were a few other shops in the area but I found nothing that I purchased, so the trip was over other than rolling the final miles out for the trip home. 

2024 was a good season for me.

I saw seven new ballparks in Portland, Maine, Worcester Massachusetts, Somerset New Jersey, Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, Florence Kentucky, and Omaha, Nebraska to raise my total to eighty-nine.

It's starting to become harder to add stadiums with few close enough now for a day trip.

The closest stadium to the north (Non-MLB) is the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (in Manchester) with the exception of Brooklyn and Staten Island as there is no way I'm fighting that type of traffic for a minor league ballpark!

There are preliminary plans to add New Hampshire early next year along with a stop in Boston at Fenway Park, so that would move me to ninety-one but unless a longer trip comes into the picture (unlikely at this writing), New Hampshire and Boston may be the only new additions for 2025.

The closest stadium to the south that I need would be in South Carolina (Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, or a new stadium opening in Spartanburg for 2025). the nearest to the northwest would be any of the Indiana fields (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, or South Bend), and the adjacent southwest stadium is even farther away in Memphis!

I've also added quite a few to the visited states list in 2024 with stops in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas for the first time.

However, the states that could be feasible to see for the first time are becoming fewer in number.

I suppose if I ever made the drive to Omaha again and if I wanted to drive somewhat out of the way, I could add Minnesota and/or Wisconsin.

South Dakota is only two hours away from Omaha, so I guess that could happen, and if I ever decided to add a Georgia park (or the new stadium coming to Chattanooga Tennessee), it wouldn't take much to add Alabama but as you can see, the low-hanging fruit has been picked!

It's been a surprisingly good road season with many memories made, and some cannot be repeated.

2025 has a high standard to meet. 

Boxing Challenge: Foster regains title

       The first fight between Robson Conceicao and O'Shaquie Foster is better remembered for the controversial decision than the actual fight.

Their second fight was far more entertaining but this time the right man received the decision as Foster regained the WBC junior lightweight title that he lost to Conceicao via split decision. 

Conceciao took the early rounds, Foster took over in the middle rounds, and the late rounds were fought evenly with the winner of those rounds in the eye of the beholder.

Two judges scored for Foster 115-113 (same as mine) with the other's card favoring Conceicao 115-113, all of which are very reasonable scores.

Foster may next face the winner of December's WBO title encounter between Emanuel Navarrete and Oscar Valdez in a unification bout, while Conceciao will look to establish himself for a third fight with Foster, which seems far more interesting now than it did before Saturday night.

The outstanding performance of the weekend was by lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla, who smashed durable Jesus Perez in two rounds.

Perez had never been stopped in losses to WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman, welterweight contender Alexis Rocha, or former title challenger Danielito Zorrilla but Muratalla blitzed Perez in only two rounds with the type of outing that fighters that are prepared for a championship attempt make.

Muratalla is expected to challenge IBF champion Vasyl Lomachenko, should Lomachenko decide to continue boxing.

If Lomachenko retires, as is rumored, Muratalla would fight for the vacant title against Zaur Abdulaev as the highest-rated available challengers in the IBF ratings.

Abraham Nova and Humberto Galindo struggled to a draw in a dull junior lightweight ten-rounder.

Neither fighter deserved the win with one judge scoring 95-95 (my score) with the others scoring 96-94 for Nova and 97-93 for Galindo.

In Las Vegas, unbeaten lightweight prospect Floyd Schofield defeated solid Rene Tellez Giron by unanimous decision in another fight that was more interesting than anticipated as Schofield was willing to exchange more than predicted and make things entertaining.

Schofield did slow down in his first twelve-rounder as Tellez-Giron won a few late rounds and scored a flash knockdown in the eleventh round.

Schofield won on the cards 118-109 times two and 116-111. I scored 117-110 for Schofield, who is over-ranked by the WBA at second in the world.

Schofield is talented but Tellez-Giron is his biggest win and that doesn't qualify him to be rated second in the world.

In what was scheduled to be a WBA super middleweight eliminator but was reduced after Bektemir Melikuziev missed weight, and then is reported to have struggled with David Stevens (I haven't seen it yet) in winning a split decision.

Scores 118-110 and 117-111 for Melikuziev and 116-112 for Stevens.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 156 Pts (5)

TRS: 152 Pts (5)

Vince Samano: 94 Pts (3) 

Chargers short-circuit Browns 27-10

     The hope that Jameis Winston brought to Cleveland lasted for one week as the Los Angeles Chargers intercepted Winston three times and sacked him six more as the Chargers rolled to a 27-10 win in Cleveland.

Cedric Tillman caught six passes for seventy-five yards with an excellent catch late in the game for the Browns' only touchdown.

Cleveland is now 2-7 and will take next Sunday off.

Brownie Bits

1) The game ended for good in the third quarter when Jameis Winston led the Browns down the field and threw to the corner of the end zone to an open Jerry Jeudy when Tarheeb Still tipped the ball in the air to Elijah Molden for an interception.

I don't think that one can be held against Winston, as he threw the ball accurately and the defender just made a super play.

2) The Browns secondary had several breakdowns resulting in wide-open receivers and two Charger touchdowns.

Denzel Ward struggled in particular on those two touchdowns and it was clear on both scores that someone didn't take care of their responsibilities.

That someone appeared to be veteran safety Juan Thornhill, who has been a disappointment since arriving from Kansas City.

Twice in the same game and then people wonder why teams lose games.

3) Jameis Winston may have gotten a pass on the end zone interception but he doesn't on his other two interceptions and honestly, the Chargers should have gotten one or two more.

Last week, many Browns media members were chuckling it up as the "Jameis Winston experience".

They weren't wrong but it doesn't seem so funny now.

4) Myles Garrett collected three first-half sacks and hit Justin Herbert several other times.

It was one of those Garrett games that happen a few times a year and even good tackles are made to look average.

5) Cedric Tillman continues to develop and his catch in garbage time meant nothing in deciding the game but staying in bounds for the score showed the improvement in Tillman's game over the last month.

Tillman did drop a pass near the goal line on the play before the end zone

If there is any bright spot from the season, it is Cedric Tillman's development, and should he continue to progress, he could be the Browns offensive MVP at season's end.

6) The offensive line allowed six sacks, two and a half to Tuli Tuipulotu ( who had one entering the game) and two to Morgan Fox (who had 1.5 entering the game).

The Browns lost Dawand Jones during the game and Jedrick Wills replaced him.

That says it all.

7) During the game, the popular website Pro Football Talk was reporting that the Browns were close to trading defensive Za'Darius Smith to the Detroit Lions and the trade could be announced as soon as Monday.

Smith made one tackle in the game (for a loss) in what is expected to be his Browns swan song.

8) Comment of the day from analyst Adam Archuleta "The Browns defense has played well until other than those three plays".

Those three plays were touchdowns. Those pesky touchdowns.

9) Dustin Hopkins had a fifty-one-yard field goal attempt blocked by the Chargers and while it was blocked, it didn't take much effort as the kick never got above the blocker's chest.

The blocker merely needed to come forward, he never needed to raise his arm.

10) The Browns running game was almost non-existent, finishing with only seventy-nine yards for an average of 3.3 per rush.

Nick Chubb's thirty-nine yards led the team but the Browns lack of a running game led to the reliance on Jameis Winston and forty-six passes won't win many games. 

11) This season is over and the pipe dream ended after a week.

That's a good thing, now the real problem begins- how to rebuild and do you trust the guys that created the problems to rebuild?

Ohio State Stonewalls Penn State 20-13

     The two biggest question marks for the Ohio State Buckeyes before they visited Happy Valley and the third-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions concerned the offensive line and the ground attack, both of which underperformed in Ohio State's narrow win last week over Nebraska.

The two questions were answered for one week as the Buckeyes stopped Ohio State stopped Penn State four times inside the Ohio State three-yard line and then never gave Penn State another chance to touch the football as Ohio State defeated Penn State 20-13.

Will Howard threw two touchdown passes and Quinshon Judkins rushed for ninety-five yards to lead Ohio State, who improved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten after the victory.

Ohio State will host Purdue next Saturday in Columbus.

Olentangy Offerings

1)  You cannot talk about this game without mentioning the fourth-quarter goal line stand that stopped Penn State from the tying score.

Three runs from Penn State's big back Kaytron Allen were turned away before knocking down a fourth down pass with just under six minutes to play.

2) Coming on the heels of a similar stand against Nebraska, the Buckeye defense is playing well and living up to preseason expectations.

If they are going to be looked at as vulnerable because Oregon's athletes ran by them at times, other defenses have to be just as vulnerable as the Buckeyes run by them.

Give defensive coordinator Jim Knowles credit for an excellent game plan.

3) Caleb Downs is such a standout that he might be one of the rarities in the NFL draft when he comes out - a top-ten safety.

There is nothing he can't do and against Penn State, Downs was making one-handed tackles, blitzing Drew Allar, running like the wind, and on those rare occasions that a passer dares to float the ball in hs area, a ball hawk on the elite level.

4) BUT the play of the game came late in the first half with Penn State at the Buckeye three with eleven seconds remaining in the half and a touchdown would give Penn State the lead. Drew Allar lofts a pass that Gus Johnson screams touchdown but after replay, it's clear that Davidson Igbinosun grabbed the pass away and kept a foot in bounds for an interception to end the half.

That play didn't mean the game as PSU would have likely kicked a field goal that wouldn't have been enough in the big picture but it did douse the fans going into the half.

5) Will Howard wasn't outstanding in his personal revenge against his childhood team that wasn't interested in recruiting him but he did enough to win.

Howard threw a pick-six to Penn State's Zion Tracy on his first pass but he didn't make any other backbreaking mistakes that could have given Penn State cheap points.

6) Howard did fumble through the end zone for a turnover rather than a touchdown that would have almost clinched the game in the first half but it was Howard's scramble that put him in the position to score and it was a fluky bounce of the ball that sent the ball through the end zone.

An inch either way and the ball goes out of bounds at the Penn State one, so it's hard for me to fault Howard too much on that play.

7) And the running game returned to expectations with Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson rushing for just under one hundred fifty yards.

The two combined to average six yards per carry and gave the offense the balance that it lacked against Nebraska.

8) The running game is what allowed Ohio State to essentially end the game after the goal line stand in the fourth quarter.

Taking over at their own one-yard line and just over five minutes remaining, Ohio State pushed Penn State back with eleven runs (counting the final kneel-down) without a pass and moved the ball from the OSU one to the Penn State forty.

Penn State needed a stop and couldn't get it, so much for the running game having problems.

9) The offensive line had been a target of the fans and pundits since their struggles at Nebraska but they stepped up in this game.

Carson Hinzman, who started last season at center, had been supplanted by Alabama transfer Seth McLaughlin and dropped to the backup spot but for this game, Hinzman was installed at guard and the line looked much improved.

Hinzman moved to the guard spot vacated by Donovan Jackson after Jackson was moved to left tackle due to the injury to Zen Michalski against Nebraska after Michalski replaced Josh Simmons after his season-ending injury that Simmons suffered in the loss to Oregon.

10) Donovan Jackson had never played a game at left tackle in high school or college and had to deal with Penn State All-American Abdul Carter off the edge in his initial game.  

Carter finished with two sacks but wasn't constantly harassing Will Howard in the pocket and overall I would rate Jackson as doing as well as could be hoped against a pass rusher like Abdul Carter.

Boxing Challenge: Ortiz returns

   Two Friday main events in the boxing challenge saw interesting bouts with contender Jamaine Ortiz dropping late replacement Cristian Mino four times before the fight was mercifully stopped in round four.

Ortiz vowed before the fight that he was going to scrap the boxing style that allowed him to fight close fights with Vasyl Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez and planned to make more exciting fights.

Ortiz lived up to those statements against Mino but time will tell if Ortiz actually exchanges toe to toe with the best in the division or how effectively he will be in such swaps.

Earlier in the day from Belfast, Northern Ireland, junior welterweight Robbie Davies narrowly defeated Javier Fortuna in a ten-rounder filled with sloppy exchanges and physicality without lots of punches landed.

Fortuna scored the only knockdown with under a minute in the tenth round but Davies would survive until the final bell.

In the ridiculous English system that has only the referee judging the fight in a non-title event, Davies was judged the winner 95-94.

I scored Fortuna the winner 95-94.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica : 151 Pts (2)

TRS: 147 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 91 Pts (3)