Good Sports: Five Hail Marys for 2021

It’s that time again! We’re back with some wild predictions for the NFL season, which starts tonight with the reigning champ Buccaneers hosting the Dallas Cowboys for the first Thursday Night Football of the year.

As I’ve progressed with this blog, my favorite aspect to relate to sports is to make some wild predictions and hope one of them sticks by the end of the year. So, without further adieu, let’s take a look at some things that are certainly possible, but less likely to happen:

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1) Cleveland Bakes

The hot pick right now is to go with fourth-year quarterback Josh Allen for MVP this year – he did come in second last year with an improved offense and the line guarding him stabilized better in Buffalo than had been seen for two decades. With the team remaining virtually the same, it’s the no-brainer pick to win the award. However, it just feels so easy. While regression isn’t terribly likely to drop Allen off a cliff, I think the entire league anticipates him winning it. This, in turn, gives defenses incentive to knock the prize from his hands. I’m looking at a fellow 2018 draftee to snag the MVP from him, from a team who also broke their massive playoff drought last season. Perhaps because of the extensive history of flaming out at the top position in Cleveland, Baker Mayfield has had an unfair handicap placed at his feet since entering the league in 2018. I think he’s due to finally break through the naysaying and emerge victorious as league MVP.

Where Did All the Good Sports Go?

In light of all that’s gone on this past month in America, it seemed inevitable that I wouldn’t be writing about sports for some time, if at all the rest of the year. This time last week I would have been presenting you with my thoughts on the upcoming baseball season with five wild predictions, and then later this weekend I would be sharing my expectations for both the NHL and NBA playoffs. In July I’d be hunkering down on what we would get out of this summer’s Olympics out of Japan, and shortly afterwards I would have been lamenting the fading of the leaves in time for autumn football.

While I still think we’ll likely crest the wave by September, it will surely effect all five major North American sports, and we’ll be seeing repercussions for the next season or so. With the absence of any articles to write for the foreseeable future, I figured I’d give my five thoughts on each sport, and bid you adieu until we all find ourselves safely inside a stadium once more.

1) Missed Opportunities

In the hockey world, teams were about a week away from wrapping things up, and certain squads were inching forward in the standings, enough to make a run for the playoffs. The biggest one was the New York Rangers, who had a potential MVP in Artemi Panarin almost single-handedly hoisting his fellow players into the win column each night. With the season sputtering, there’s almost no chance they will get in if the NHL leaps straight into playoffs. Even with a win percentage variable, they’re behind Carolina and Columbus by two whole points. On the other side of the league, Vancouver had just slipped behind Nashville for the second wild-card in the West. I would wager the Canucks would love to have the season resume at the point where everyone left off, because otherwise they don’t even get in on that percentage chance. It’s going to be like this no matter what, a “what could have happened?” for every sport. It’s just a shame if they don’t even reward the Stanley Cup to any team, even the one who would have won the President’s Cup, the Boston Bruins.

Good Sports: Five for Football 2019

As I mentioned around the start of last year’s playoffs, I would start picking some outlandish predictions for each sports season. Perhaps I would just approach each in some different fashion. It seems it went over well with MLB and the World Cup, so here we are at the big one, the 100th season of the NFL. What a day to discuss it, eh? Let’s imagine:

1) Cleveland Browns continue their playoff drought.

Everyone’s predicting proudly that the Cleveland Browns finally have all the pieces to play meaningful football. This isn’t to say they won’t be incredible to watch all season. Odell Beckham is shucking the notion that his best days are behind him in New York. Nick Chubb has his best chance to prove his potential elite status as lead running back. Baker Mayfield is do or die to make it to the top of the list of the best quarterbacks in the league in only his second season. That should make sense on paper, but I’ve seen too many teams have such high expectations only to stumble at the worst possible moments. What if Chubb ain’t it? Kareem Hunt returns in the second half of the season and is expected to be the jolt in the arm that Chubb hasn’t been, yet can’t return to form himself. We all realize that Odell was only as good as Eli was, while Baker Mayfield gets the sophomore jitters. That’s not even getting into the fact that most pundits have written off the rest of the division. Ben Roethlisberger is still alive, and despite losing most of his “weapons” he has plenty of replacements in Donte Moncrief, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Vance Macdonald, and the run game is solid under James Conner. While the Bengals might get written off, and that makes total sense – they’re a complete mess – they could steal a few games in direct competition with the Browns. Meanwhile, everyone thinks the Ravens are in a bit of flux as they get used to their own second-year stud, Lamar Jackson. He’s potentially the second coming of Cam Newton, a run-first dynamo that also happens to be able to throw the ball well. Mark Ingram’s days may be behind him in New Orleans, but he’s suddenly very under-rated. I think he can still turn in an opposite field run possibility that defies expectations. Willie Snead is nothing to sniff at and Marquise Brown is perfectly apt at the wideout position. I just think everyone’s getting ahead of themselves to give the Browns the division, while I think their best chance is slipping into a 5 or 6 seed….or what I really expect, to go 9-7 and miss yet again.

Good Sports August 13th – Bad Boys, Bad Boys

Recently there have been a string of incidents involving drugs, sexual abuse, violence, or other tragic misdemeanors that force professional sports teams to ride a fine line of morality. It seems to me that every week something new crops up, threatening to dismantle the very fabric of the games we love to watch. Here are five players that have recently dominated the news feeds for things they shouldn’t have done:

1) Jarret Stoll

The New York Rangers surprised the hockey world on Monday by taking a chance in signing on the 2014 LA Kings poster child for misbehaving – Jarret Stoll. In April, Stoll was arrested in Las Vegas apparently in possession of cocaine and ecstasy. In June he pled guilty, and thus begins his rehab, at least in the eyes of the NHL. At a contract of one year, $800,000, the Blueshirts get a fairly decent player at quite a low price. Perhaps he’ll be suitable adequate for the team on their journey towards a Stanley Cup. By that time, the sting of drug abuse and the fallout with the Kings will be far behind him, which is interesting. Stoll’s case is not a huge one, but drugs like these shouldn’t be taken lightly either.