The A-Rod story, why they play tennis & geniuses like LeBron and Bill...
Before long, we will start to hear that “Pride of the Yankees II,” the inspirational story of Alex Rodriguez’s comeback, is in development in Hollywood. I think Jay Z should play him. No kidding, eventually we’re going to start hearing that this guy is more beloved than Yogi was. Make me watch the Pro Bowl. If you haven’t watched LSU’s Ben Simmons play basketball yet, you ought to. There is a wonderful expression out of tennis that has always applied to all sports, and explains why we care and why we watch.
When there is a big upset, and there sure was a big upset on Saturday in Melbourne when Angelique Kerber beat Serena Williams in the women’s final of the Australian Open, we say this: That’s why they put the net up. So it was in this women’s final, which was something to see the way Kerber was, doing all sorts of mean lefthanded things to Serena.
Across her first six matches, Serena Williams looked as dominant as the Carolina Panthers have looked this season, especially in the playoffs.
Cam has so often looked as intimidating and impressive as Serena always does in women’s tennis.
It’s something worth thinking about as we handicap Super Bowl 50 I don’t know who LeBron James is listening to these days, if he’s listening to anybody, but he needs to stop talking about how high his basketball IQ is, as if he’s the Stephen Hawking of hoops.
And I love what he said Friday night after he dressed down Tristan Thompson for a blown coverage:
He said that if he doesn’t address “those guys” when they make a mistake like that, it might happen again. Those guys? Really? If you watch LeBron play, you know that he does look like a coach on the floor.
But then it’s the coach on the bench who gets fired.
Is there some analytic that explains how that works? I think there is no coach in NFL history better than Bill Belichick. I believe the Patriots’ excellence in the salary cap era is practically biblical.
You know how close the Patriots are to being 6-0 in Super Bowls. However: Belichick did.not distinguish himself last Sunday in Denver, especially by not kicking field goals when he had the chance instead of setting himself up — if his team did score a touchdown — by rolling the dice on a two-point conversion.
He acted as if his team was never going to get the ball back, near the end of a second half when all his defense kept doing was get him the ball back.
The Patriots should have won that game 22-20, and should be on their way to Santa Clara.
We now know the only guy who can outcoach Belichick: Belichick. The Knicks would have beaten the Thunder the other night if Arron Afflalo didn’t twicecomedown with a bad case of gotta-be-the-man disease.
Maybe one of these days the Knicks will start throwing the ball to the Latvian kid when the game is on the line.
I’m sorry, but when did Megyn Kelly turn into Walter Cronkite? You know what can’t happen to Hillary Clinton on Monday night in the Iowa caucuses?
She can’t lose to a 74-year old Socialist, that’s what can’t happen.
You know who’s going to be great on Oscar night? Chris Rock. I hope he has as much fun with the people who didn’t want him to even show up as he does with a nominee list that looks whiter — absent Dr. Ben — than the people who want to be our Presidential nominees. Love Rickie Fowler’s golf game. Hate the pegged pants. My friend Mr. Imus asks an interesting question about this political season:
How would everybody be reacting if one of the Republican candidates were carrying around the baggage that Hillary Clinton is? I will say the same thing about Super Bowl 50 that I said about the two conference championship games: I hope it doesn’t go into overtime. Because then the biggest game we have in American sports could be decided by something as random as a coin flip.
The NFL has to change that rule for the playoffs, and if the league won’t add an entire quarter, then add at least a 10-minute quarter. And then another one if need be. Because ask yourself a question, even if it’s about a double-overtime game:
Where does everybody have to be?
All the people who were calling Tom Brady a crybaby: Do they think he’s tough enough now after the pounding he took from the Broncos?
I wasn’t aware until he got to the NFL that Johnny Manziel’s goal in life was to be his sport’s version of Lindsay Lohan.
But the way things are going with Johnny Football, that’s really kind of insulting to Ms. Lohan.