Football Finale

The football season has come to an end with the BeliBrady’s taking yet another Super Bowl victory yesterday. Bears fans can take comfort that Tom Brady is 41 years old, unless he is some form of AI… I’m not ruling that out. The Patriots happen to be Cubs GM Jed Hoyer’s favorite NFL team and our North Siders need look no further than the Patriots to see what a true dynasty looks like. Seeking to understand the Pats success and how it might translate to baseball, is something the Cubs have already done. You can read about this direct from Hoyer in Jesse Rogers wide-ranging interview a few days back, it’s worth the read.

Not sure if Jed Hoyer plays fantasy football, I know  Joe Maddon gave it up a few years back because it was driving him crazy and not allowing him to enjoy his Sunday football watching. Do you play fantasy football? If so, how did your team do this season? Most people know me as a baseball guy, but I also consider myself somewhat of a fantasy football aficionado and felt proud as my teams proved worthy again. One of my brothers, who probably feels a bit like Maddon did, must have told me twenty times over the football season, “I hate fantasy football.” Alas, he did not make the playoffs.

I did kick myself for losing out on drafting Chiefs QB dynamo Patrick Mahomes. Pretty sure I announced Patrick’s father in a game or two for the Cubs in spring of 2002, the lone year he pitched for the Cubs. I know I announced Patrick’s Godfather – LaTroy Hawkins many times. In regards to the last sentence, sorry about bringing up the name LaTroy… and damn, I must be getting old if players are now playing in the pros and I’ve also announced their fathers! But I digress.

If I selected the QB Mahomes where I had in all my mock drafts, I would have had both Mahomes and Andrew Luck on my main roster. I was caught trying to be the smart guy and sneak him a round later, bad decision. He was taken two slots before my next pick. As it turned out, I was able to beat two Mahomes QB’d teams in the playoffs, but I sure would have rather had him on my squad.

Since this is turning out to be an end of football season post, did you see the Super Bowl halftime show with Maroon 5? I did not, although reading some headlines today, it appears Adam Levine and the crew gave a less than stellar performance. All the pre-game controversy notwithstanding.

I’ve watched most of Super Bowl half-time festivities since they started bringing in big name performers in the early 1990’s. It’s an impressive list, Micheal Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Phil Collins, U2, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and Beyonce, the list goes on. However, the best half-time performance I’ve seen, has to be Prince, in the rain in 2007. Granted I’m biased, having gone to high school with the purple one, but if you don’t remember it, or haven’t seen that performance, it’s worth the 8 minutes. Hard to believe come April it will be three years since he passed.