I can’t remember previously paying much attention to NFL awards, especially for the regular season. Usually, I only know who won the MVP because Aaron Rodgers talks about it on his buddy’s three-hour ad for supplements, explaining why missing the Super Bowl doesn’t matter. This season, though, I paid attention. Who would have, even in his best college years, pegged Brock Purdy as a debate-generating machine?
The most controversial NFL award was, in a funny twist, Comeback Player of the Year, where the voting broke down as follows (bh/t Rob Maaddi):
- Joe Flacco: 151 points (13 first-place votes, 26 second-place votes, 8 third-place votes)
- Damar Hamlin: 140 points (21 first-place votes, 7 second-place votes, 14 third-place votes)
- Baker Mayfield: 93 points (10 first-place votes, 10 second-place votes, 13 third-place votes)
In a situation around which Kate Upton has been suspiciously silent (this is a Rick Porcello Cy Young joke, you’re not missing any Kate Upton–Damar Hamlin conspiracy theory), Damar Hamlin won the most first-place votes and didn’t win the award.
The NFL MVP is a well-defined award with terrible methodology. Most Valuable Player is a straightforward mandate for voters, but voting is not straightforward. The Comeback Player of the Year? That is a poorly-defined award with fittingly poor methodology. In this case, the debate seems to come down to whether the word “comeback” or the word “player” matters more. Hamlin had a pretty wild comeback. But he didn’t play much. Also: The biggest part of the comeback happened last year?
Chekhov’s Doink Cam, Or a Reverse Jinx?
In Super Bowl camera angle news, CBS will be offering a Doink Cam, which probably sent Brent Musburger into a tizzy until he noticed the “i” in that word. Twitter user Gourmet Spud posited that this might naturally lead to a doinked kick, through the narrative law of Chekhov’s Gun. Are we sure it isn’t a Reverse Jinx, though? When Bill Simmons wrote for Kimmel, that was still on ABC, right?
Joe Barry’s Chaos Continues
What if Joe Barry had done a better job? Would Jeff Hafley have left Boston College to replace him? Would Bill O’Brien have left Ohio State to replace Hafley? Would Chip Kelly have left UCLA to replace O’Brien? Would PJ Fleck be reportedly poised to leave Minnesota to replace Kelly?
In a roundabout way, Joe Barry just put some Vikings fans in a hopeful position that will likely end poorly. What more could we ask him to do?
Major League Baseball Takes On Flopping
Work with me here.
Billy Eppler suspended for faking injuries?? Imagine if the NBA did this with LeBron!
Etc.
The NIT, NITexas, and 2019 NIT champion Shaka Smart:
- So much good NIT action this weekend, but I’m personally partial to Minnesota’s trip to Iowa on Sunday. What does it make you feel? Nothing at all? But a vague feeling you should be feeling something more? Congratulations. You’re in perfect NIT shape. (We’ll be amping up the NIT coverage post-Super Bowl. We’ve been trying to pace ourselves, but with Taylor Swift season finally ending, we think the time has come to throw caution to the wind.)
- Texas hosts West Virginia, which should be a non-story. I’m not even playing the ominous music. Rodney Terry is a good enough coach to not get swept by West Virginia. Let’s not be rash.
- Shaka Smart faces Rick Pitino at the Fiserv Forum, which reminds me: Doc Rivers, now 1–5 as the Bucks’ coach, is by winning percentage the worst head coach in Milwaukee Bucks history.
Chicago:
- In what’ll be a touching induction when it happens this summer, Steve McMichael has been announced as a Pro Football Hall of Famer. As Ron Coomer loyalists, McMichael will always be best remembered to us for his Angel Hernandez incident. Everybody’s got one. Also being inducted is Devin Hester, though Bears fans are trying to claim Julius Peppers as well, which feels like imperialism towards the NFC South.
- The Bulls won in Memphis, and I have a new Artūras Karnišovas theory: What if he loves single-elimination basketball? Big Play-In Tournament guy because of that. Maybe he’d like the NIT? We should tell him about the NIT. That game tomorrow against the Magic feels a lot like the NIT.
Burnley and the Sens:
- Burnley plays Liverpool tomorrow morning, and despite how memorable the Ashley Barnes win was, that and the Covid Season draw are the only times since 2017 Burnley hasn’t lost to Liverpool. I’m sure tomorrow will go great.
- The Sens finally play another game, hosting the Leafs tomorrow night. Then? Off on Sunday. We should have known that if we called a team the Senators they’d take long recesses while the rest of us worked.
