We start with an excellent piece from ESPN as the "Worldwide Leader" looks back at one of those sports stories that not only is a fascinating "What If" tale but one of the rare stories that the story has not been told from the participant or one of their confidants.
Twenty years ago, Bill Belichick resigned as head coach of the New York Jets after holding the position for all of one day after Bill Parcells "retired" for the third time ( there would still be one more for Parcells and Belichick was promoted to head coach via a contractual obligation that was signed when Belichick joined the Jets as defensive coordinator under Parcells.
Various people commented that were with the Jets at the time and quotes are taken from a book that was written by Parcells about the 1999 Jets season, but not Belichick or anyone close to him.
It's an interesting read and you'll wonder what could have occurred had Belichick stayed as "the HC of the NYJ" rather than leave for the Patriots, but the true reasons and story might have to wait until Belichick's retirement.
Another 20th anniversary was recently marked and ESPN was there again as the Music City Miracle was remembered.
The Miracle talks to the players and coaches involved with "Home Run Throwback", which saw two laterals for the Tennessee Titans result in a touchdown with only seconds remaining to eliminate the Buffalo Bills in the AFC playoffs.
The article talks about the play, how it was drawn up, and why certain players were selected to be involved with the play.
It also talks with the players about the play, how it affected them thereafter and what they are doing currently.
One final ESPN story writes about the effect that the 2019 season had on the LSU Tigers with the National Championship won last Monday with a win over Clemson.
The article writes about the historic offense and Joe Burrow's SIXTY touchdowns passes, but it also looks back at Tiger history, which was interesting to me with the portion that I did not know about the influence of Huey P. Long on the importance of building LSU as a football power.
Long's antics included telling coaches to run particular plays, giving halftime speeches in the locker room, promising players jobs if LSU rallied to win a particular game, and moved players into the locker room!
Imagine the NCAA fun with that happening today!
I enjoyed reading about the Tigers tradition but considering that LSU had won national titles in 2003 and 2007 (that one over Ohio State), I'm not sure I'll buy that their fan base has suffered that much in the last twenty years.
The Athletic takes over with an article on the Cleveland Browns and the people that they referred to as the "Sons of 1-31".
The Browns have only five players remaining from the 2016 and 17 Browns that combined for one win in thirty-two games and of those five players, most could be former Browns by next season.
Joel Bitonio is locked up under a long-term contract and long snapper Charley Hughlett will likely remain, but Christian Kirksey has missed a lot of time for an expensive player, Joe Schobert could sign elsewhere if the analytics group decides that his value isn't what their numbers say that it is and I would have thought that Rashard Higgins would have been on his way out after being buried by Freddie Kitchens, but it is possible that Higgins may stay, especially if Andrew Berry is the choice as general manager that I think he will be as Berry was part of the team that drafted Higgins.
The article talks to each of the five about 1-31, the disappointment of the 2019 campaign, and what and where their future could go.
The Athletic is again with a Browns draft pick, but it's the story of a Browns player that never played a game in Cleveland.
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu was the top-ranked cornerback for the 2015 NFL Draft, but a devastating knee injury in a practice for Oregon's Rose Bowl saw Ekpre-Olomu fall to the bottom of the seventh round to be drafted by Cleveland.
Ekpre-Olomu would spend the 2015 season rehabilitating the knee but was released before the 2016 season by the incoming regime (this one was the Sashi Brown version).
The Dolphins claimed him off waivers, but another knee injury in Miami ended his career without playing in even an exhibition game.
The article also discusses his background from Nigeria and what he's up to today as he is about to start a job with Nike as an athletic trainer.
We wrap with a football goodbye as George Perles passed away at the age of 85.
Perles was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers for all four Super Bowl championships that the "Steel Curtain" won in the 70s, serving as the defensive line coach for all four teams and the defensive coordinator for the final two champions in 1978 and 79.
Perles would later become the head coach at Michigan State for twelve seasons and his 1987 team that won the Rose Bowl is the final Michigan State team to win an outright regular-season Big Ten title before the conference championship game era.
Perles left the Steelers to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL in 1983, but before training camp opened for the Stars, Michigan State fired their head coach, Muddy Waters, and with Michigan State as the alma mater of Perles, Perles asked to be relieved of his obligation to the Stars, who reluctantly allowed Perles to leave and hired the then-unknown head coach Jim Mora.
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