NFL gives hope with inspiring weekend
A 43-year-old quarterback has revived professional football in Tampa Bay and made the Buccaneers relevant again.
A 41-year-old QB fought through11 fractured ribs and a collapsed lung this season to reach the second round of the NFL playoffs, and will soon face the Bucs’ 43-year-old QB with the nation watching.
The Cleveland Browns won a road playoff game for the first time since 1969.
The Buffalo Bills won their first postseason contest since1995, the season after blowing a 16-0 late third-quarter lead to Deshaun Watson’s Texans in an AFC wildcard game inside NRG Stadium. Cleveland and Buffalo. Tom Brady and Drew Brees. The athletic brilliance of Lamar Jackson, the dominance of Josh Allen and the perseverance of Taylor Heinicke.
Inspiration is everywhere, if you want to find it.
Hope is one play, one name or
one game away in the NFL.
Jackson ran for136 yards as a thrilling dual-threat QB in Baltimore’s wildcard road victory against the AFC South champion Titans, rewriting his story in a tough come-from-behind win.
Jared Goff went fromthe No. 1 overall pick in 2016 to a Super Bowl loser in 2018 and then an injured backup to little-known John Wolford entering last weekend. Goff departed Seattle as a 30-20 winner, playing more efficiently than former MVP candidate Russell Wilson and ending the Seahawks’ season.
Heinicke, who attended Old Dominion and threw one pass for the 4-12 Texans in 2017, was a better story than Brady on national TV.
“It was gutsy,” Washington coach Ron Rivera told reporters.
Wide receiver Terry McLaurin: “When (Heinicke) first got here amonth or so ago, I didn’t know too much about him. The first time I even caught a pass from him was last week. But he earned my respect.” And then some. Why dowe keep turning to sports during chaotic times like these?
How was wild-card weekend so thrilling, even though the 4-12 Texans were already dormant (except for their endless frontoffice drama)?
Because all you have to do is click on the TV, check your phone or scroll through social media for a few seconds to find something inspiring and amazing in 2021.
Heinicke went from online math classes to quarantine QB to a potential upset of Bruce Arians, Mike Evans, Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski, Chris Godwin, Leonard Fournette and Brady.
Jackson outran Tennessee’s once-unstoppable Derrick Henry, unleashing a 48-yard touchdown sprint that eventually ended the Titans’ season.
If all of the above doesn’t get your blood pumping in January 2021, you should make sure you still have a pulse.
Brady is older than I am. Somehow, the 21-year veteran QB appears to be in the best shape of his life. And during a season when New England’s two-decade dynasty ended and TB12 replacement Cam Newton disappointed while leading Bill Belichick’s 7-9 Patriots, the best QB of all-time turned Tampa Bay into one of the NFL’s must-watch teams.
Brees could retire after this season. On Sunday night inside the Superdome in New Orleans, a 43year-old will match up against a 41-year-old with a spot in the NFC championship game handed to the winner.
It sounds like a badly dated 1970s movie. But that script would be impossible in modern Hollywood — impossible, overreaching, too fantastic — and, yet, it’s real life in 2021.
The NBA is postponing games and fighting off coronavirus problems for the second consecutive season.
MLB is sleeping through a boring offseason that has barely existed.
But even with a string of positive COVID-19 tests leading up to wild-card weekend, the NFL continues to be what it has been since March 2020: a steamroller.
The best should still await, with Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers set to join the postseason this weekend, as No. 1 seeds Kansas City and Green Bay attempt tomake their wild-card byes pay off.
Brady versus Brees is a reminder that we all can keep learning, adapting, improving and evolving as age sets in and time does its thing.
The Browns are a great story.
The Bills are a great story.
Heinicke was an unbelievable story. So was Rivera, who battled cancer and fought through controversy to lead Washington into the playoffs. And Alex Smith, who overcame a near career-ending injury to eventually hand the ball to Heinicke.
In March, May and July, therewas constant chatter. There was no way the NFL could pull off a full season. Even if the league began its 2020 campaign, it surely wouldn’t finish it.
As the divisional-round games draw near and the coronavirus refuses to go away, daily hope is just as essential as it was last March.
Sure, I miss the packed stands and sold-out stadiums. The electric roar.
But there’s no way I’m missing the NFL’s next four games.
Athletic inspiration goes a long way when the real world is still this crazy.