TWEETS AND TAKES
Twitter has its character limit and that’s just fine. But sometimes a little more elaboration is called for …
The Eagles coach played in 66 games as Favre’s backup but was never needed to start. He was a Packer from 1996 — when Green Bay beat the Bill Parcells-coached Patriots in the Super Bowl — through 1998 before leaving for two seasons. He got nine starts with the Eagles in 1999 (on a 5-11 Andy Reid team) and eight more with the Browns the following year but wound up on the losing end 14 times, throwing a combined nine touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. He happily returned to Green Bay from 2001 through 2004 before retiring. In seven seasons with the Pack, he threw for three touchdowns with two picks. The Cowboys would claim another Lombardi Trophy two years later with Johnson’s talent and Barry Switzer babysitting, but they have won only three playoff games since, a total even the Texans have matched. Owner Jerry Jones, of course, is in the Hall of Fame, but he wouldn’t be if he hadn’t had the good sense to replace Tom Landry with Johnson, as startling as it seemed to everybody at the time. Which is to be expected. Vrabel was already the spiritual leader of the New England defense when Brady won his first Super Bowl. Another huge fan of the new Titans coach is Dick Vermeil, who took both the Eagles and the Rams to the Super Bowl. Vrabel earned Vermeil’s everlasting respect in the Patriots’ 20-17 victory in XXXVI in New Orleans, when the Patriots held the Rams’ “The Greatest Show on Turf” to 17 points despite surrendering 427 yards. Says Vermeil: “He brings so much intensity. I think he’s a great hire (for the Titans).” We’ll see. We didn’t see much intensity with Vrabel’s Texans defense this season. The Fed’s knocking off Pistol Pete in the fourth round on Centre Court as a teenager told us everything we needed to know about his potential. But it took him four years to fully figure out how good he could be. He has been making up for “lost” time ever since. Now, only Rafael Nadal with 15 major titles is even within five of Federer. That surpasses the spread between Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tiger Woods (14) in golf. With two rings won with the Giants, Bill Belichick is chasing a record eighth Sunday. He’s currently tied with — bonus points if you already knew this — Neal Dahlen, who won five working for the 49ers in a variety of roles, then two more after moving to the Broncos as the director of player personnel in 1996. There, he ascended to general manager in 1999, a year after the second John Elway-led Super Bowl victory. Tom Brady, of course, is pursuing a sixth, which would break his tie with Charles Haley for the most by a player. Haley won two with the 49ers and three more with the Cowboys. There are least six other players/administrators in possession of a half-dozen rings, including Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II (as Steelers executives), Chuck Noll (four as the Steelers’ coach, two more as a Steelers consultant), Bill Nunn (as a Steelers scout), Joe Greene (four as a Steeler, two more as player-personnel assistant) and Mike Woicik (three with the Cowboys and three with the Patriots as strength coach). The trade speaks loudly to the astonishing dearth of elite quarterbacks in the NFL today. Smith, who turns 34 in May, had a nice final season with the Chiefs, leading the NFL with his 104.7 passer rating. But really? He’s 2-5 in the playoffs over 12 seasons and one of those victories was the 30-0 trouncing of an unworthy Texans team led by the even less worthy Brian Hoyer (who, as Tom Brady’s backup, stands to win a Super Bowl ring). In Smith’s defense, though, the postseason failures have been largely the fault of other 49ers and Chiefs. His playoff passer rating is 97.4 and he has thrown for 14 touchdowns against only two interceptions.