Monthly Archives: November 2018

CHRIS PICKS! WEEK 11

by John Walters | Leave a comment

by Chris Corbellini

These Saints Could Be Something Special

I learned everything I needed to know about teamwork when I was 19. I had just qualified for the Dad Vail Regatta Finals as a freshman rower, and when my teammates and I returned back from the hotel, we spotted the varsity guys playing pool and drinking beers (they had not qualified). One of them, a future commodore of the boathouse, quickly called his shot. I will never forget it.

“Tonight you will hear the greatest speech of your life.”

We were in Philly somewhere. I don’t remember where exactly – and I lived in Old City for seven years in my 30s, so I should. All I recall is that night, after dinner, in a room with all eight of us and our coxswain seated around our coach as he started …

“When you are all rowing together, as one, after all your preparation, it is magic. You will feel it. It will all click. The boat will walk on the water. It’ll feel effortless. It. Is. Magic.”

He was in his late 50s at the time, and looking back now in a hazy way he reminds me of present-day Harrison Ford, with a little more nerd to him. A lifer on that water, always chasing some eight-man boat in his skiff on frosty Lake Cayuga in October and April. He went on, but I’ll stop there. The point was made. When you work together, moving as one for a singular goal, and it begins clicking almost unconsciously … well …

You become greater than the sum.

Everything just moves. It is indeed a magical thing. Perfect synergy in all that sweat. A perfect harmony at the finish as everyone exults, exhausted. A team that manages to find that and become greater than their parts can defeat another loaded with talent. I will always believe this.

Now let’s flash forward nearly 25 years. I’m reading an academic paper about the concept of team fit, and the study used something called Frescoball as a test case (You basically hit the ball to each other using super-size ping pong paddles, and not let the ball drop). The researchers separated the teams of two into eight categories, like so:

Athlete Consistent/Athlete Consistent (AC-AC)

Athlete Consistent/Athlete Inconsistent (AC-AI)
Athlete Inconsistent/Athlete Inconsistent (AI-AI)

Non-athlete consistent/Non-athlete consistent (NC-NC)
Non-athlete inconsistent/Non-athlete inconsistent (NI-NI)
Athlete consistent/Non-athlete consistent (AC-NC)
Athlete inconsistent/Non-athlete consistent (AI-NC)

Athlete inconsistent/Non-athlete inconsistent (AI-NI)

I’ll spare you the math and accompanying graphs, and just explain that the researchers at the University of Madison-Wisconsin punched out a supporting formula for my crew coach’s speech: you whip opponents by being consistent together. The AC-AC were big winners, yes, but the AC-NC and NC-NC teams were not far behind, and in most cases, convincingly beat the others.

And I think about that coach’s wisdom, and frescoball, as the NFL reaches Week 11.  Who is the AC-AC squad, action-packed with immeasurable talent and working together as one?

If the Los Angeles Rams put it together in all three phases during the playoffs … I mean, say goodnight, kids. The Rams are already more than a contender. As of this week, Los Angeles is l1-4 co-favorites to win the Super Bowl. If they can find a No. 3 receiver now that Cooper Kupp is out for the season, and that defensive line really starts to find its groove, and the corners start believing in themselves again, then that’s the AC-AC, and they’ll happily skip away with it. But the Rams aren’t quite there yet. They haven’t found that walking on water moment.

Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints are grinding away together exceptionally well. There’s no way New Orleans should be 8-1 with that mediocre defense: slot corner P.J. Williams is atrocious (with a 42.6 Pro Football Focus grade last week), and Eli Apple isn’t exactly 2009 Darrelle Revis, either. But the sum is certainly greater than the parts. Throw in Brees and Kamara and Michael Thomas on offense, and there’s an AC-NC dynamic going on down there in NOLA. I can’t wait to see what they do with it … maybe with the HOF-bound Brees as a rallying point, the Saints find that magic and it all comes together in Super Bowl LIII.

And that’s where I’ll start this week. At New Orleans. As always, home team in caps. William Hill odds. I also added some percentages to correspond with the winners I picked – they represent the calculations made by The Quant Edge that those teams will cover the Vegas line. Full disclosure: I currently work at TQE as an advisor.

NEW ORLEANS (-7.5) over Philadelphia (57.2%, 75.5% if Brees plays great)
Iggles QB Carson Wentz is gonna light up the Superdome. Alshon Jeffery, Golden Tate, Zach Ertz, Nelson Agholor … that’s four bottles of lightning right there at his disposal. I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there in gambling-land who expect the Eagles to cover in a close loss.

But looks at those odds: 75% if Brees has a great game! On that turf, in front of that moveable feast of New Orleans fans, I submit that the Brees bar for great would be in the 310-yard, 2-TD passing range. With all that momentum after scoring a combined 126 points in the last three games, Brees could do that after three quarters, and let Kamara take it from there and pad the stats of his adoring fantasy owners from coast to coast.

I see the Saints winning by 10, with their embattled defense (and that D has been embattled since the ‘60s, with a blip of awesome in the early ‘90s) making a big play that surprises us all. There is a danger of NOLA peaking in this one, but let’s not knock the Big Easy off that cloud just yet, shall we?

Houston (-3) over WASHINGTON (58.2%, 81% if Deshaun Watson plays great)
The Texans have a nearly nine-point advantage when comparing their PFF grades on defense to that of the Redskins offense. Houston still can’t cover a tight end, so Washington’s Jordan Reed might enjoy this one (I feel like I write that every week). But the Redskins offensive line is a gooey mess at the guard spots, and the Texans should stunt inside to rough them up.

And here’s a Keanu Reeves “whoa” stat: corner Danny Johnson and his 39.4 PFF rating will face DeAndre Hopkins and his 90.8 score … a 51.4 differential. They will have to double Hopkins, right? Or throw Josh Norman his way? In either case, Watson is gonna throw a bunch while on the run in this one, as that Redskins front can pulverize you in the pocket (their linemen grades last week: 71-64-71-78). And when Watson does roll out, Hopkins is shifty enough to slip free of anyone. I see Houston winning this one on the road by a TD.

Carolina (-4.5) over DETROIT (58%, 73.3% if Cam plays great)
Norv Turner is yet another example of a failed NFL head coach absolutely tearing it up as an assistant. As offensive coordinator of the Panthers, he’s proven to Cam Newton that a two-man game with he and Christian McCaffrey is their best chance to win every week, and it’s worked well so far. That pair will face a Lions linebacker corps that are average at best, and a slot corner who shall remain unnamed who has a PFF-low grade of 29.6.

Still, this might be one of those fantasy-vulture games, where Carolina’s No. 2 receiver has, say, three touchdowns in the first half — instead of McCaffrey or popular tight end Greg Olsen. You wouldn’t expect Lions coach Matt Patricia to fall for such decoy tactics, but this was a weird f-cking week for him, as he spent a testy afternoon with reporters having to defend practicing outside when his next four games are indoors.

ARIZONA (-5) over Oakland (63.5%, 78.6% if David Johnson plays great)
A purely analytical pick, and one totally against my gut. I don’t typically go with a rookie NFL QB at -5. But New Cardinals offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich realized that maybe featuring David Johnson, one of the league’s best players, is, you know, a worthwhile thing. At this point I expect Arizona to ride Johnson like one of Khaleesi’s dragons, burning defense after defense to cinders. A shame it’s too late for the Cards (2-7) to make a real run.

Oh, by the way, the Raiders D is ranked 29th against running backs in the passing game, and 32nd overall, so I punched in David doing well into TQE’s betting tool, and it gave me 78.6%.

Good luck to you all this week.

In the words of the late, great William Goldman: “May all your scars be little ones.”

Last week: 2-2
Overall: 16-21

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 7 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right

and from the same game…

Starting Five

The Daily Kerfuffle: All-Houston Edition

The city of Houston was ground zero for all sports kerfuffles last night: the Warriors, who are in the midst of dealing with a minor tiff between two of its starters, were visiting the Rockets, who announced that they were bidding adieu to Carmelodrama after just 10 games (this saga will become ESPN’s first :30 for :30).

And on the gridiron, future Top 10 pick Ed Oliver of the University of Houston fumed at coach Major Applewhite when the latter doffed the former’s oversized jacket that is only for active players who are on the sideline. Why jackets are a necessity at 50 degrees is another issue.

Oh well, at least the Pardon My Take gang will have plenty to discuss all day.

The Warriors lost, by the way. The Cougars won.

2. It’s A Little Bit Funny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNbSgMEZ_Tw

I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind our including this Christmas advert by John Lewis & Partners, which are a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom.

3. Why Are We Fighting The Holocaust All Over Again?

Earlier this week, for reasons that make no sense at all, we started watching Schindler’s List at midnight (and watched it in its entirety). It’s only a coincidence that we were watching just a couple of nights after Jews in our neighborhood were gathering at local synagogues to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, when the Nazis in Germany and Austria destroyed more than 1,400 Jewish synagogues, businesses and homes.

This commemorative gathering came only a week after many Jews in New York gathered to commemorate the slaughter of their denizens at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Jews are forced to do entirely too much commemorating, we feel.


Earlier this week, during a production of Fiddler on the Roof in Baltimore, a man stood up and shouted, “Heil Hitler! Hell Trump!” and we guess it was just a relief that he did not pull out an AK-47 and start mowing folks down. Those are the things we get to be thankful for. We sorta think Sarah Silverman (also Jewish) put it very well the other night (Here she was on Real Time last Friday: “In this age, I consider myself very lucky that I get a star and I don’t have to sew it on my clothes…”) when she opened her Hulu show this week by stating that we should be thankful for Donald Trump.

Why? Because Trump has brought our ills to the fore. “Trump’s shamelessness brought to light things that were going on in the dark. We can see them now. He is like a black light at a Holiday Inn Express exposing America’s….” (Well, you know where she’s going).

Whether you want to consider him directly responsible or not, Donald Trump has made it safe for Nazis and White Nationalists to feel bold all over again (oh, and while we’re at it, don’t type “Make France Great Again” when they won the Freakin’ World Cup last summer on the backs of African immigrant players; the U.S. failed to even qualify for the most important sporting event in the world). There’s a faction of Americans, a sad faction, who wonder why we took the wrong side in World War II. And thanks to Trump, they’re no longer in hiding. In a bizarre way, we should be thankful for that.

4. A Rock Star Is Born

The trailer alone is enough to make us want to drop everything and see Free Solo, which we can happily report is not the latest installment of the overcooked Star Wars franchise. Alex Honnold, 33, is the world’s greatest (still) living free climber and in June of 2017 he became the first human to scale the 3,200-foot wall of El Capitan without any gear except shoes and a chalk bag. No ropes. No pitons. No carabiners.

I’m off the deep end, watch a I dive in….wait, that doesn’t work.

Knowing how this film will end shouldn’t dull your fascination with it. It’s easily one of the greatest human feats ever, even more impressive than Sweet Pea leading The Land to an NBA championship. And we think we all should see this on a big screen, not on Netflix. That’s just our thought.

5. Aussie Rules

Yes, that’s her….

Is Nicole Kidman in every film AND at every awards show right now, or are we just imagining things? The Aussie actress is 51 but in a bizarre way she’s entering her prime. By the way, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Margot Robbie. When did Australia’s most valued export become actresses? And then you add Saiorsie Ronan and Kate Winslet to the pile and you wonder if any American actresses can compete…

Anyhoo, we went back down a “73 Q’s” worm hole yesterday and have decided that Kidman is one of the planet’s more delightful people. You tell us what you think. Is Kidman truly this delightful or is simply that convincing of an actress? Does it matter?

Music 101

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vUsQMgEveo

Debbie Harry inspired more crushes, the sisters in Heart had more powerful vocals, and Joan Jett got more love from the MTV, but in the late Seventies and early Eighties no female rocked harder than Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders. This was the closing tune off their eponymous 1979 debut album and while it was never released as a single, it deservedly garnered plenty of airplay from album-oriented FM stations.

Remote Patrol

Medal of Honor

Netflix

Learn a little more about American heroes…

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 6 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right


 Starting Five

1. Stormy Weather

Attorney Michael Avenatti, the man who never met a cable news appearance he didn’t like, was arrested yesterday on a felony suspicion of domestic violence charge. The man who crusades for the likes of Stormy Daniels and other wronged women is now going to be receiving a plethora of black kettles for Christmas.

We’re reminded of two vignettes: One, Chris Rock’s joke about how Nelson Mandela survived 18 years of being imprisoned on Robben Island but then sought a divorce from Winnie just a few years after being released. Second, there’s a scene in the film Lincoln, after watching a movie in which the president has demonstrated profound patience in dealing with political rivals as he seeks to get the 13th Amendment passed, in which Honest Abe nearly loses his sh*t with Mary Todd because, let’s face it, she was looney tunes.

We’re not equating Avenatti with Mandela or Lincoln. Don’t misunderstand. It’s just that behind a lot of crusaders there’s a home situation that is not handled as easily.

2. I Wanna Ride A Cowboy

That’s former Dallas Cowboy linebacker Jeff Rohrer (1982-87) and his partner, Joshua Ross. The couple, based in West Hollywood, are getting married this weekend. Will this upset the NFL establishment? There’s a “take a knee” joke that we have too much class to explore.

This, from The New York Times story, is the kind of sentence that a writer presents to his editor with anxious excitement, waiting for the moment the editor gets to that part of the story (and hoping he doesn’t kill it):

“The man who once spent four quarters chasing quarterback Vince Ferragamo on a Sunday, will look like a million bucks on his wedding day thanks to Salvatore Ferragamo…”

3. Family Feud

Remember the Pike County murders of June, 2016, when eight members of a rural Ohio family were all murdered in one place at one time, most of them in their sleep? And remember when it was learned that this family, the Rhoden family, were pot farmers and everyone assumed it was a drug hit and MS-13!!!

That’s at least 8 fewer NASCAR fans

Turns out it was another family whose main connection was that their son, Jake, had a child with one of the daughters but did not have custody. Yes, appears it was all a custody issue. Wow, a lot of people are paying for a little youthful indiscretion between a pair of teenagers.

4. LeBron Passes Wilt….Sort Of

In a LeLakers win over Portland last night, LeBron James had his best game of the season thus far: 44 points, 10 boards, 9 assists. Great game. He also passed Wilt Chamberlain in the all-time points department, 31,425 to 31,419.

Curious thing: Of the NBA’s five most prolific career scorers, in terms of total points, all but one (MJ) wore a Laker uniform for at least a game. Something else that’s weird? You have to go all the way down to 18th on the list to find anyone who ever wore a Celtic uniform (Paul Pierce) for at least a season, and yet Boston has the most NBA championships (the Lakers, second-most).

Chamberlain was DeAndre Jordan in a world that was in no way yet prepared for that. Two generations ahead of his time.

Finally, for perspective, the Big Dipper (Chamberlain) still is one of only two players, the other being MJ, who retired with a career scoring average of more than 30 points per game. LeBron averages just over 27 and is in fourth place all-time on that list, although Kevin Durant is at No. 5 and has averaged just 4/100ths of a point less than LeBron over a 10-year career. Our bet is that Durant will end up ahead on that ppg blotter.

5. Cy of Relief (But He’s Not A Relief Pitcher)

What the baseball writers got wrong two days earlier—failing to name Miguel Andujar, with his 47 doubles and 27 home runs, AL Rookie of the Year—they got right yesterday: naming Jacob deGrom NL Cy Young Award winner.

deGrom may be the worst pitcher in baseball when it comes to autocorrect (it always goes to “legroom”; he’s like Dalvin Cook used to be) but we don’t care about his paltry Won-Loss record (10-9). The native Floridian had baseball’s lowest ERA (1.70) AND its lowest WHIP (.91) and as far a we’re concerned those are by far the two most important metrics by which to measure a pitcher.


Nope. Nope. Nope, Michael. And by the way, deGrom’s victory is the latest but not the last example of everyone beginning to realize that the era of the STARTING pitcher is, if not over, about to be far less emphasized by clubs. Won-Loss records have made the STARTING pitcher a thing far longer than common sense would ask.

Music 101

Lithium

Band? Cult? Linen Department? Merry Prankster Wannabes? The Texas-based Polyphonic  Spree were all of that and more and they blazed a brief and memorable trail across the songosphere in the early years of this century. I’ll always remember that one evening we all shared in Irving Plaza. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Here’s Tim DeLaughter and the kids covering Nirvana‘s Lithium. This is an example of one band discovering another band’s song that actually fits the band that did not write it better.

Remote Patrol

Lost In Translation

TMC (not TCM!) 8 p.m.

For relaxing time, make it a Santori time…

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 1 Comment

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right


White Boys Can Jump

Starting Five

Sinema Verite: Krsyten Sinema (D-Ariz) becomes the first openly bisexual senator (key word there is “openly”) and Mike Pence, who doubles as president of the Senate, must have noticed the first three letters of her last name.

1. Odds ‘n Ends

We’re opening up with sort of a leftovers item:

–The Fitchburg State kid. What possessed him?

That’s Kewan Platt, who has been indefinitely suspended and has likely played his last collegiate basketball game. Which is fine with us. That’s flat-out assault. Nate Tenaglia buried the three and was able to remain in the game. Platt has also been barred from campus.

–The insane shooting of a hero security guard officer in Midlothian, Illinois, about 20 miles south of Chicago. Jemel Roberson, 26, was working security at Manny’s Blue Room. A few drunk and disorderly patrons were asked to leave after 3 a.m. One returned and opened fire. Roberson subdued him, had a knee in his back and had him pinned to the ground, pointing a gun at him. He was reportedly wearing a vest that read “SECURITY.”

Then the cops arrived and one nervous, hair-trigger idiot fatally shot Roberson. I’m sorry, this guy is even worse than Kewan Platt.

She’s got the right idea with “no longer deserves the honor of serving in the White House,” if not the right person

–Speaking of firing and hair-trigger idiots, since when do retired Slovenian bikini models get to decide whether key White House employees get to keep their jobs? Hate the Dems all you want, but their last two First Ladies held law degrees from Yale and Harvard, respectively. And they only interfered with staff if one of those staffers was, you know, turning the Oval Office into the oral office.

 

2. The Fantastic Finke Family

Imagine being the Finke parents this weekend in New York City. Imagine how proud you must be. Your daughter, Alex, is one of the female leads in Come From Away, one of the most acclaimed musicals on Broadway.

Your son, Chris, is a former walk-on at Notre Dame who is now a starting wideout for the 10-0 Irish, who will be playing at Yankee Stadium. These parents should be charging big dollars to give seminars on how to parent. Well done, folks.

3. MH Lunch Date!

The wall/door, on the right

The staff was fortunate enough to be invited to a lunch today held in the wine cellar of NYC’s renowned 21, the legendary eatery located at 21 W. 52nd Street. Something about awards for the best free daily blogs written by cat-owning males in flannel sweats, we think. Or maybe not.

Anyway, what we learned: During Prohibition there were as many as 35 speakeasies located on 52nd Street alone in midtown. 21 was perhaps the best-known, and raids by police into the building always proved fruitless. Why?

Well, first of all the wine cellar is literally that. You have to walk through the kitchen and then down a flight of stairs to reach the hallway. Then, you need a key that’s nearly two feet long (it resembles a dipstick with a hook on the end) that releases a latch that allows you to push open the two-ton brick wall that hides the stash.

You walk past the bottles (we saw a private reserve bottle for Richard Nixon) and then into the dining room above. New York City holds so many secrets. It takes more than a lifetime to uncover them all.

4. For Whom The Bell Toils

Apparently, no one. Point made, LeVeon. And everybody loses. Hope it was worth it.

From Bell’s vantage point, he did not appreciate the Steelers pinning the “franchise tag” on him, which would guarantee him a $14.5 million price tag, which is somewhat below market value. By our vantage point, while $14.5 million is below market value, $0 is even less and running backs have a finite shelf life.

Bell is only 26 and he probably has at least five more good seasons in him. Besides, a year off isn’t the worst thing for an NFL running back in his prime: ask John Riggins, whom we discussed yesterday. Either way, Bell is going to be wealthy beyond most fans’ comprehension. There are no winners here, and really no losers besides the fans.

5. Blunt Object

We’re a fan of Vogue‘s “73 Q’s” series and yesterday checked out this one with actress Emily Blunt (we also checked out the Seth Meyers, Cindy Crawford and Zac Efron episodes: Seth’s was our favorite while Cindy telling us that her favorite food is “caviar” left us rolling our eyes).  Anyway, this one provides a a peekaboo of Vogue’s editorial offices and we also learned that Emily has a famous brother-in-law and she did the setting up.

Music 101

You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine

The king of the three-piece leisure suit and romantic soul, that’s Lou Rawls. Although Rawls was the guy your parents listened to in the Seventies, this 1976 hit reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts, chart-blocked from No. 1 only by the Bee Gees later K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Interesting Lou Rawls note: For his first marriage, in 1968, his best man was Sidney Poitier.

Remote Patrol

Country Music Awards

8 p.m. ABC 

For one night each year—whom are we kidding? Only for the first 20 minutes of the show—the MH Manor goes country for this tremendously entertaining opening. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are the best and here’s hoping he gets in a job about her “Game On” SNF theme and that she gets a few in about his cheating on her with Peyton Manning.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

 

Starting Five

Marvel Us

Comic book super hero Stan Lee, the wizard who created The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man,  The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther and Captain America, among others, passes from this universe at the age of 95.

Lee was born in Manhattan and first grew up in an apartment on the corner of 98th Street and West End Avenue, not far from MH world headquarters. He graduated high school early, served in the Army Signal Corps in World War II, and loved writing short stories. He was thinking of changing careers when his boss at Atlas Comics, trying to find an answer for DC Comics’ success with the Justice League and the Flash, asked him to come up with some super heroes.

On the advice of his wife, Lee created characters, beginning with the Fantastic Four, who unlike most super heroes to that point, were also flawed humans (Batman would’ve made a perfect Lee character). The rest is comic book history.

Lee, born Stanley Lieber, was Jewish. You wonder how many Marvel fan boys may also have a little bit of white nationalist in them. You wonder if they realize that most of their comic book heroes were created in the mind of a Jewish man.

Quoting Stan Lee:

 “Another definition of a hero is someone who is concerned about other people’s well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them — even if there is no chance of a reward. That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.”

2. Bugaboo in Baraboo

Add “Prom Nazis” to the heap of things plaguing the country right now, though I think I could shop a treatment of “Prom Nazis” to AMC and we could give them 10 episodes for Sunday nights for the summer of ’19. I can even imagine Chris Hardwick hosting “Talking Nazis” live immediately after.

Should we take this photo, from the Baraboo (Wisconsin) High School junior prom last spring, seriously? Yes, and no. No, because high school boys make insensitive jokes hourly without truly grasping the weight behind their actions, and yes because many of these same boys will just grow older without really ever growing up. And they’ll have more money and less joy and use their power to punish others.. And if they have less money and less joy, look out.

And yes, the kid bottom center in the classic Trump suit is making an alt-white signal with his right hand. Also, you see the boy on the top left who is not smiling and not making a sign. He’ll grow up to create a billion-dollar artificial intelligence company.

3. Paradise Lost


Paradise, California, located roughly four hours north of the Bay Area, is mostly destroyed in the wake of both the largest and deadliest fire in state history. More than 40 people perished in the fire, many of them stuck in traffic gridlock as they attempted to flee.

If it seems as if wildfires in California have become more common, and coming closer to humans, in the past half-decade, well, you’re right. Part of that is the expansion of residential areas into what was wilderness. Part of it is drought.

4. Cuse Control

Last May I got on the horn with Syracuse coach Dino Babers and quarterback Eric Dungey and you know what? I really liked them. Like, REALLY liked them. Dino, even if he’s a stranger to Mike Francesa, is just a swell egg. The son of a career Navy man, he grew up mostly in San Diego and then attended college in Hawaii, which is odd because he doesn’t surf. In fact, he can’t even swim. Seriously.

This fall he’s got his daughter and her new husband living at his house, which is odd cuz the son-in-law is also the Orange’s starting left tackle. As for Dungey, he’s been almost criminally overlooked the past few seasons. A senior with NFL size, he’s a poor man’s Pat Mahomes.

Kid Dino-mite!

So I wish really good things for the 8-2 Orange, who barely lost at Clemson and only in overtime to Pitt. Except maybe not this Saturday in the Bronx.

What’s for sure, though, is that every single college football fan who doesn’t root for Notre Dame is on the Syracuse bandwagon this weekend, because they’re the only team (at least this week) who can throw the playoff into chaos. The following weekend Ohio State will have its chance (hosting Michigan) and then the week after that Georgia (against Bama).

This Saturday, though, almost everyone who loves college football is a Syracuse fan. And it’s hard to blame them.

5. Riggo

No, John Riggins did not die or anything. While we were not paying close attention a couple nights ago, one YouTube video bled into another and suddenly we were transported back to a time when John Riggins was the toast of New York (on a few subpar Jets teams…stop us if you’ve heard that one). And with NFL Films creator Steve Sabol interviewing him, it only gets better.

The native Kansan was a true original. Tougher than the rest, a white Jim Brown, and a guy who sat out a year and then actually returned, after the age of 30, better than he’d been before. Listening to him, you can tell he’s a very smart man, if still just one of the guys. Listen how quickly he furnishes an answer to Sabol’s terrific question: “Finish this sentence for me: ‘The mark of a great running back is…. ________?”

It’s the correct answer, too. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Music 101

My Back Pages

Roger McGuinn (The Byrds), Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, the song’s writer, Bob Dylan, and finally George Harrison taking a verse apiece on Dylan’s 1964 classic nearly thirty years later at Madison Square Garden. Time capsule stuff. Dylan went 24 years after writing this tune before first performing it live in 1988.

Remote Patrol

A Streetcar Named Desire

8 p.m. TCM

“HEY, STELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”