SUPER SNAPS
Super Bowl quarterbacks Jared Goff and Tom Brady both have connections to the Expos ... A family reunion for anyone whose last name is McVay ... Greatest Show on Turf, 2.0?
ATLANTA — The opposing quarterbacks in Sunday’s Super Bowl game have a distinct Montreal Expos connection.
More specifically, an Expos catchers connection.
The father of Rams QB Jared
Goff is Jerry Goff, who played at least one game in six major league seasons, mostly wearing the tools of ignorance.
Jerry’s first trip to the bigs was in 1990, when he suited up for 52 games with Montreal’s now defunct National League team. With 119 at-bats, he had three homes, seven RBIs and a .227 batting average.
Jerry also played three games, and had three at-bats, with the 1992 Expos, then moved on for cups of coffee in Pittsburgh and Houston before retiring in 1996.
“I don’t know how old he was when he was an Expo, but I know he loved it up there,” Jared Goff said — when asked by the lone Canadian scribe in the packed conference room at the Rams hotel on Wednesday — about his dad’s days in Montreal and his own baseball background. “And I love seeing those old (Expos) uniforms ... they were beautiful.
“He was great for me growing up, with baseball,” continued Goff. “We were always practicing together, batting practice. We were always going to baseball camps. It was really something we shared together. It was a lot of fun.”
Tom Brady was also catching horse hide when he wasn’t throwing the pigskin while growing up. Although it was widely believed he was leaning toward a football career, the Expos selected Brady in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB draft and offered him second round money to sign.
As the story goes, they also had F.P. Santangelo — an outfielder with both the Expos and their triple-A team, the Ottawa Lynx — give Brady a tour of the city.
Santangelo delivered a lousy sales pitch.
“We were telling him, ‘Why would you make $800 a month in the minor leagues when you can be a quarterback at the University of Michigan? You’re a good looking guy, you can probably have a lot of fun off the field, too,” Santangelo told Patriots Wire a couple of years ago. “We told him, go play football at Michigan. Are you kidding me?”
Former Expos manager
Kevin Malone told Patriots Wire that Brady was better than a very good prospect.
“He had a high ceiling,” said Malone. “He was a lefthanded, power-hitting catcher who was cerebral. He had arm strength. He had everything that would warrant him being projected as a major league all-star. He had everything.”
Still, it turns out Brady made a pretty good career decision.
“I could have ruined the history of the NFL,” former Expos scout John Hughes told The Associated Press. “I love it when he goes to the Super Bowl.”
IN OTHER WORDS
While he was born in Dayton, Ohio, Rams coach Sean
McVay grew up in Brookhaven, Ga., usually a half-hour drive from Atlanta. It was a lot longer on Jan. 30, 2000, the day a 14-year-old McVay attended his first Super Bowl game at the Georgia Dome. He saw The Greatest Show on Turf (aka the St. Louis Rams) defeat the Tennessee Titans 23-16. McVay was reminded how bad the weather was that day. “I didn’t really know the entirety of what was going on, I just know that Atlanta traffic is always a nightmare but it was especially bad that day,” he said. “It took us forever to get into the Georgia Dome. Once we got in there, though, it was a great game. Really enjoyed that. But definitely do remember, even for Atlanta, it being a little more
difficult to get around.” ... McVay will be late arriving to his family reunion that’s being held here this week. “There’s a good amount of people coming in,” he said. “I got a chance when we first got in, I guess it was Sunday, it’s like a whirlwind, my parents came over to the hotel and I spent a little bit of time with them. That’s so important, when you kind of let your guard down and are just able to take a deep breath, to be around people that care about you no matter what. We’ve got a good crew coming in. I probably won’t see them until after the game though.” Asked how many he added: “I know this: If your last name is McVay you’re probably going to be here. That’s a safe way to say it. Then there will be some close family friends.” ... Brandin
Cooks was told the current Rams have been referred to as The Greatest Show on Turf 2.0. “If the fans like it,” said Cooks, “then I like it, too.”
PERSONALLY SPEAKING
Another scribe mentioned that it’s a good thing last year’s Super Bowl was held in Minneapolis and that this year’s is here, saying that the land of the Vikings was currently experiencing temperature of minus-28 F that became minus-50 F with the wind chill. After some quick calculating I was going to point out that minus-28 F is minus-33 C, while at the same time minus-50 F is minus-45 C. Instead, I kept my mouth shut, figuring I’d be asked how that can be and not knowing why myself ... All the heavy security everywhere around the Super Bowl hotels and media centre is great, even though I’m not sure why cops need to be holding machine guns like they’re about to use them. And I really don’t understand why one volunteer insisted that I pull my credentials out from under my jacket when I was leaving the work area on Tuesday night. For one thing, I couldn’t have entered the room without the credential, and for another, if I don’t have credentials, what are you going to do, ask me to leave? That’s what I’m trying to do in the first place ... While recovering from a season-ending torn ACL, Eagles running back Jay Ajayi has really let himself go. His hair, anyway. The new look is something else.