Tom Brady has once again retired from Football, this time at the age of 45 as he said he would.
This makes an opportune time to judge if his time in Tampa should be considered a success. First let’s consider it in terms of: “Was it a success for Tampa Bay”?
Won 11 or more games 7% of the time (3 seasons 1999,2002,2005)
Won their division 12% of the time (1970,1981, 1999,2002,2005,2007)
Made the playoffs 23% of the time (10 seasons)
Won at least 1 playoff game 9% of the time (1979,1997,1999,2002)
Won the Superbowl 2% (100% of the times they went 2002)
With Brady Tampa Bay…
Had a winning record 67% of the time (2 seasons)
Won 11 or more games 67% of the time (2 seasons)
Won their division 67% of the time (2 seasons)
Made the playoffs 100% of the time (3 seasons)
Won at least 1 playoff game 67% of the time (2 seasons)
Won the Superbowl 33% of the time (100% of the time)
By any standard for Tampa Bay the Tom Brady Years were the most successful time in their history. It is unlikely to be repeated.
Now let’s look at things from the Tom Brady standard or rather by the Tom Brady standard after age 40 In the 3 years a 40 year old Tom Brady played with the Pats he:
Had a winning record 100% of the time
Won at least 12 games 67% of the time (at least 11 100%)
Won his division 100% of the time
Made the playoffs 100% of the time
Won at least 1 playoff game 67% of the time
Gone to the Superbowl 67% of the time
Won the Superbowl 33% of the time
Here is how he did with Tampa Bay in his three years to age 45.
Had a winning record 67% of the time
Won at least 12 games 33% of the time (at least 11 67%)
Won his division 67% of the time
Made the playoffs 100% of the time
Won at least 1 playoff game 67% of the time
Gone to the Superbowl 33% of the time
Won the Superbowl 33% of the time
By the Tom Brady standard he had a small drop in performance
Here were the expectations I set at the time of his signing:
Tampa Bay Should expect to have a winning record 100% of the time Fail
Tampa Bay Should expect to win at least 10 games 67% of the time (Success)
Tampa Bay Should expect to make the playoffs 67% of the time (Exceeded expectations)
Tampa Bay Should expect to win at least one playoff game 67% of the time (Success)
They should expect to win their division at least 33% of the time (Exceeded expectations)
They should make the NFC Championship game at least once (Exceeded expectations and they one one Superbowl)
Bottom line, Tampa Bay and Tom Brady can hold their head up high. He delivered for them and they delivered for him.
Robert Stacy McCain in noting the race hustle that is going on in Memphis give a piece of solid advice to those who are elevated to sainthood after death only without an examination of their lives to discover “heroic virtue” as the church does:
Don’t resist arrest in Memphis
Just once I’d like to the see the parents in one of these cases say: “I loved my son but he was a thug who got what he deserved.” That kind of declaration would save lives, but doesn’t generate generational wealth.
Speaking of Stacy it’s been many weeks since Elon Musk stated that conservatives who had been banned by the previous regime would be restored but there is still no sign of the @RSMCCAIN account on twitter that used to have 80K+ followers, me among them, however I notice that Ali Alexander has been suspended again. I have no idea what his underlying “offense” was but from what’s being reported the twitter code is practically designed to suspend people on its own.
It’s a great reminder of the wisdom of the start of Psalm 146:3-4
Put no trust in princes,
in children of Adam powerless to save.
Who breathing his last, returns to the earth;
that day all his planning comes to nothing
These type of problems have to be solved by ourselves
I used to feel bad for people in Minnesota for the type of government they managed to get saddled with. I had always presumed that they were sensible midwest folk who had just let the left get too strong a foothold in cities.
The Minnesota Senate today passed a bill to enshrine in Minnesota law a right to abortion without limits at any time during pregnancy. Senators approved the bill, H.F. 1, by just a one-vote margin, 34-33. Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign the sweeping measure into law.
Abortion to the day before delivery? No problem in Minnesota!
It’s news like this that makes me think that Minneapolis voters are reaping what they have sown from their worship of St. George of the fentanyl, after all why should the parent who vote to allow the murder of their kids even to the day before their birth be safe on the streets?
The Cry is “racism” as the Carolina Panthers hired Frank Reich, an experienced coach with a long record for the open job rather than elevate the interim coach of color who had played .500 ball with a .500 team as the man in charge.
Wigdor LLP, the New York City-based law firm that represents Wilks in his discrimination suit against the NFL, was “disturbed” by the Panthers’ hiring process.
“We are shocked and disturbed that after the incredible job Coach Wilks did as the interim coach, including bringing the team back into playoff contention and garnering the support of players and fans, that he was passed over for the head coach position by David Tepper,” the firm said in a statement.
I’ll make a deal with Wigdor LLP. I’ll start worrying about the supposed underrepresentation of blacks among NFL head coaches (10% of the league when blacks represent 11% of the population of the nation) when the NFL address the overrepresentation of blacks among those who play the game making six to eight figure paychecks annually (70% of the players when blacks represent 11% of the country).
Sooner or later an undrafted or released player will sue on those ground claiming “racism” and the fun will begin.
Finally as my wife has been picking up extra days at work to supplement her gardening budget for 2023 I have rediscovered the joys of going to a restaurant with a good book and slowly enjoying a meal while I read.
This week it was Commodore Hornblower by CS Forester I had a first edition sitting on my shelf but a book is not meant to sit on a shelf it’s meant to be read.
It’s amazing how relaxing such a thing can be and it’s a rather large contrast to all the cell phones around me.
Who ever thought reading a good book would be such a radical act?
Until last Monday, when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest in the first quarter of game with the Cincinnati Bengals, the tragic death of 28-year-old Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes in 1971 during a game was nearly forgotten.
But not by me–I’ll always remember. When I learned that Hamlin collapsed during a play at Paul Brown Stadium, my first thought was of Hughes–and I switched on ESPN, which was airing the Bills-Bengals game. I was stupefied when members of an ESPN studio panel repeatedly, and of course incorrectly, said that Hamlin’s collapse on the field was unprecedented.
I believe it was James Joyce who said something along the lines that the first death a person experiences is the most tragic. For me, at the age of nine, the passing of Hughes was my first death.
I was at home in the Chicago area that afternoon watching the CBS broadcast of the Chicago Bears game against the Lions. The Bears were several years into a long stretch of mediocrity, while the Lions were just entering their time in the wilderness. The prior year the Lions made the playoffs. Since then, the Lions have been victorious in just one playoff game.
Unlike the Bills-Bengals matchup, which was nationally broadcast on ESPN, the Bears-Lions game probably aired only in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest.
Late in that ’71 game with, the Bears leading by four points, the Lions, led by quarterback Greg Landry, were on a drive–which was aided by a reception by Hughes–and they were deep in Bears territory with a little more than a minute left in the game when Hughes collapsed at the end of a play.
Not only were there no smartphones or even camcorders in 1971, but NFL broadcasts five decades ago used fewer cameras than what is used now. There is no videotape of Hughes’ collapse. And there is no videotape of Chicago Bears’ middle linebacker Dick Butkus frantically waving his arms to draw attention to Hughes. Last week, Butkus recalled what happened on that afternoon in Detroit. “He was coming back after an incomplete pass, and I couldn’t believe it, the color that he had. He just dropped,” the NFL Hall of Famer said.
Trainers and doctors from both teams, as well as a physician attending the game, tended to Hughes as he lay on the grass. My recollection is that Hughes was on the turf for about twenty minutes. Although Gary Dymski, who later became a journalist and who attended the game, said it was “ten or fifteen minutes” before an ambulance arrived.
In this ABC Detroit clip, Hughes’ nephew discusses Hamlin and the death of his uncle.
Unlike last week’s Bills-Bengals game, the Bears-Lions game continued, ending with a Chicago victory. Butkus recalled that there was no talk of cancelling the game. About ninety minutes later, Hughes was declared dead at Henry Ford Hospital. I was stunned when Hughes’ passing was announced as I watched a local news program.
The cause of Hughes’ death was a heart attack. After his autopsy it was discovered that his arteries were 75 percent blocked. Hughes had been treated at Henry Ford that summer, apparently, he had suffered a minor heart attack, but medical personnel attributed his chest pains to a spleen injury.
The next day at my elementary school, the Hughes death was what everyone was discussing. As well as a rumor that Butkus “killed” Hughes after a powerful hit. Not true. That night on the Chicago ABC Monday Night Football pregame show, one of the hosts, Detroit Lions legend Alex Karras, was nearly in tears as he reminisced about his former teammate. I was close to tears too.
Immediately after Hughes’ death, the NFL made it a league rule that there must be an ambulance at all games. Life-saving protocols have since been added by the NFL–each team is required to have an Emergency Action Plan, which was activated after Hamlin’s collapse. Generally, there are over two dozen doctors of various specialties at each NFL game.
