Eli Manning & Giants face rival Cowboys in primetime season opener, perhaps QB’s last best chance to win 3rd ring.
PACK THE GLOVES, feet warmers, boots and The Hoodie — yes, that Hoodie — we’re on to Minneapolis. Build a new stadium and the NFL will come with a Super Bowl. Why else would they make the football world schlep to the bitter cold midwest on Feb. 4?
On the way to Super Bowl LII, the Daily News offers 10 predictions as the season opens Sunday. It was supposed to open in Foxborough on Thursday night, but the Patriots did not show up.
Now that Elliott was granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction Friday putting his six-game suspension for domestic violence in storage, the case will be tied up in court long enough that the Cowboys’ best player will stay on the field for the entire 2017 season. In effect, this is basically following the same playbook as Tom Brady two years ago, although it was a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling on the case that allowed him to play, not a TRO.
Eventually, the NFL beat Brady by a vote of 2-1 by three judges of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Elliott didn’t get the TRO based on the facts of the case, it was because the judge in Texas agreed that he did not receive a “fundamentally fair” appeals hearing before Harold Henderson when he refused to allow Roger Goodell and Elliott’s accuser, Tiffany Thompson, to testify.
Elliott is by no means in the clear. Brady was able to avoid serving his four-game Deflategate suspension in 2015, but after he lost in the Second Circuit, he threw up the white flag rather than try and get the Supreme Court to hear his case, and sat out the first four games in 2016. He then won his fifth Super Bowl.
Although Goodell beat Brady in the final round in court and may beat Elliott, too, it’s still a bad look for the NFL that Goodell’s rulings are getting thrown out, if only temporarily, because a judge rules the league did not treat the player fairly in the process.
Clip and save the NFL standings from the Daily News before kickoff. The Jets are tied for first place. The Patriots are alone in last place. If the Jets beat Buffalo, they will have first place to themselves. A market correction is coming soon.
Okay, in the spirit of Spygate and its cousin Applegate, we’re cheating a bit here. The Patriots were embarrassed 42-27 by the Chiefs, giving up the most points and yards (537) in the 18-year Belichick Era. Alex Freakin’ Smith threw for 368 yards and four touchdowns and had a nearly perfect QB rating.
The Patriots apparently didn’t congratulate themselves enough in the days after their incredible comeback from a 28-3 deficit in the Super Bowl. Each of the Super Bowl rings that Robert Kraft had designed had 283 diamonds. As in 28-3.
On the scoreboard at Gillette Stadium before the game, it said: ATL 28 NE 3 2:12 3RD QTR. That was the score and time on the clock before Brady got the comeback started with a five-yard TD pass to James White. Belichick, who refuses to admit yesterday was even on the calendar, and only lives in the here and now, could not have been pleased.
But for all those who don’t reside in Patriots Nation or subscribe to “In Bill We Trust,” his post-game mumbling at his press conference was precious. He was morose. When he was told that Brady had just criticized the Patriots “attitude and our competitiveness” and that “we needed to have more urgency,” Belichick’s response was, “Whatever he said, go with that.”
Brady was 39 last season and played like he was 25. He turned 40 in August and played like he was 45 against the Chiefs. He really missed Julian Edelman. But once he gets his timing down with Brandin Cooks, they are going to complete a lot of deep passes. The biggest takeaway: New England’s defense stinks and there is no pass rush. That’s what happens when The Hoodie trades away Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins and cuts Kony Ealy.
Some player is going to have to discover a way to prevent concussions to beat out Watt. He set an initial goal of raising $200,000 for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and started by donating $100,000. The total now stands at more than $30.8M.
The Seahawks signed Austin Davis over Kaepernick to backup Russell Wilson after visiting with both of them in May. They were the only team that even met with Kaepernick. Prior to Tyrod Taylor getting cleared from the concussion protocol, the Bills brought in Joe Webb as the emergency QB with rookie Nathan Peterson the only healthy QB. Seattle and Buffalo each have QBs similar in style to Kaepernick and still didn’t sign him.
Looking around the league at some of the backup quarterbacks, it’s hard to find more than a few who are better than Kaepernick. Did he break any laws with his National Anthem protest last year? No, he did not. But when you are on company time on the owner’s property and have signed a contract to play for the team, you need to realize every action has a reaction.
In this case, Kaepernick turned off billionaire owners who don’t want to bring in a player with mid-level skills who could hurt business by alienating fans. Clearly, no team believes his skills are a bigger positive than his actions were a negative. The time to sign
Kaepernick was in the spring. Why? By the time the season started, he would have been situated for four months and any distraction caused by his presence would have dissipated. I don’t see any team signing Kaepernick during the season and then first having to deal with damage control.
Players who have done far worse than not standing for the anthem have been given second chances in the NFL. This just became such a polarizing issue that Kaepernick has been unable to recover.
Ambassador Johnson is the lucky one. He’s across the pond and doesn’t have to watch his team make a serious run at 0-16. When they reach 0-7, Johnson makes a stunning announcement at the Winfield House, his residence in London. He has traded the Jets straight up for the Wolverhampton Wanderers of the English Football League, one step down from the Premier League. He also receives the rights to Mark Sanchez from the Bears. Johnson explains he wanted to drop the Jets to the second division and when Goodell said one didn’t exist in the NFL and he could only offer the CFL, he decided to acquire the Wanderers.
In Johnson’s last game as owner, the Jets beat the defending NFC champion Falcons 34-28 in overtime as they came back from a 28-3 deficit late in the third quarter. The Jets refuse to remove the final score from the four huge videoboards at MetLife and they remain for the rest of the season, even when it’s a Giants home game.
The Packers (NFC North), Seahawks (NFC West), Patriots (AFC East) and Steelers (AFC North) are still good enough to win their divisions. But I see the Giants (NFC East), Bucs (NFC South), Titans (AFC South) and Raiders (AFC West) jumping into first place. No straight jacket, handcuffs or lead boots can keep Coughlin, the football executive, under control in his suite at Jaguars games. Returning to MetLife on Oct. 1 for a game against the Jets, he can no longer take it. He races down to the sideline in the middle of the third quarter, narrowly avoids colliding with the Jets Flight Crew, and Marrone becomes the first coach in NFL history to be fired during a game. Coughlin puts on the headset and promptly loses an instant replay challenge. Seriously, I think Coughlin will be coaching the Jaguars in 2018.
With attendance dwindling for Rams games in the Coliseum and the Chargers unable to fill up the 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, it’s confirmed the second biggest market hates pro football and can’t support two teams. The Rams and Chargers flip a coin. The winner moves to San Diego and the loser stays in Los Angeles. The Raiders, meanwhile, set up a blackjack table and slot machine in their facility in Oakland and bring in a sportsbook to their locker room at the Black Hole so the players can place bets on game day. It’s all to help them prepare for the move to Las Vegas in 2020. Goodell fines the Raiders and orders the bookie, gaming tables and slots removed. The Raiders appeal and are awarded a temporary restraining order. It will be Giants 27, Patriots 24 in Super Bowl LII.