Sez Me …
The easiest — and most times the only — way to win a Super Bowl is the perfectly legal smash and dash. You grab it and run with it.
Which makes Sunday’s 49ers-Chiefs NFL championship game a tough call.
The focus of course will be on the quarterbacks — K.C.’s Patrick Mahomes and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy — but I see SB58 decided not by the jet jockeys, but the foot soldiers.
The rule, like everything else, is neither hard nor fast, but odds are the team dominating on the ground will win the game. Which means running backs and offensive line. Once January comes around, so do they.
The Niners have the best and most versatile tailback in The League in Christian McCaffrey. The Chiefs have Isiah Pacheco, the hardest to bring down. Runs as though he’s on fire.
I hope I’m wrong, because I can’t stand the Chiefs and how they have welcomed players with incredibly suspect backgrounds, but I like K.C. to win this game, with Pacheco as the MVP — although, if you go by Super Bowl scripture, Isiah can gain 300 yards and Mahomes will still win it.
K.C. can’t come close to matching San Francisco’s offensive skills, but I can’t stop thinking how the Lions’ ground game pulverized them into flour in the NFC championship game. Manhandled. David Montgomery averaged 6.2 yards per carry.
Niners coach Kyle Shanahan is another of those offensive gurus who never has won anything, but he won’t make one of the (several) incredibly stupid mistakes the Ravens did vs. K.C. in the AFC championship game. Baltimore’s tailbacks carried six times.
And Purdy, although a great story — and much better than his doubters believe — isn’t Mahomes. But nobody is.
Mahomes has not thrown a pick during his last five playoff games and been sacked five times. He had 14 interceptions during the season, none in the playoffs.
His outside skill isn’t close to what it’s been — and, thus, doesn’t score nearly as much — but there’s tight end Travis Kelce-Swift, who, for whatever reason, either can’t be covered or defenses simply don’t feel like doing it.
I see it low-scoring, maybe boring. The Niners must keep Mahomes from winning it, which means playing keep-away, and the Chiefs have a better rush defense.
Rarely do I regret saying anything, but there is this: Unless Andy Reid botches time and game management and the Niners patch their running leak — all certainly possible — Chiefs win. …
————————————————————————————–I don’t have the space to get into the royal Pro Football Hall of Fame snubbing of Antonio Gates, Art Powell and Eric Allen. Next week. I am too angry and expansive to let it . …
The best NFL quarterback I saw this season was CJ Stroud. And a Jordan Love Costco sample was close. …
George Kittle is the best tight end in football. Problem is, he’s been married since 2019 and doesn’t date pop stars. …
No team has had a worse time of it in one-score games than The NFL Team That Used To Be Here. Over his four years running the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh was OK in those outcomes. Yeah, 20-8-1. …
Mike Vrabel didn’t get a head coaching job because he’s enormous and intimidating? No wonder Orson Welles and Raymond Burr never got jobs. …
Hard to say why Caleb Williams may be reluctant to be drafted by Chicago. The Bears’ last great quarterback, Sid Luckman, was FDR’s favorite. …
Chicago, which never has had a 4,000-yard er, is a place to go and hand off. …
Only saw a clip from the Pro Bowl flag football game, but it had to be the highlight because it was so unusual. Nobody covered Tyreek Hill. …
The huge crowd for the Pro Bowl Games was not surprising. This country is not well. …
Here’s hoping the second installment in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is better than the first, although it seems impossible for it not to be. Absolutely stunk. …
Kliff Kingsbury looks like Bill Johnston, which, of course, is a good thing. …
Snapdragon, the Soccer Capital of San Diego, doesn’t get a 2026 World Cup match? And Qualcomm Stadium was being groomed for one. …
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman says the A’s “should stay in Oakland,” marking the first time in history anybody has said anything or anyone should stay in Oakland, the city without “there.” …
Taylor Swift has won 14 Grammys, Diana Ross zero. Diana’s fault for not dating a tight end. …
Dartmouth’s basketball players have been decreed employees of the college and thus free to form a union. All three of them. …
If Peter Seidler wanted nothing to do with Trevor Bauer, neither should we. …
Rick Pitino says college basketball needs a salary cap. But not for coaches. …
Away from home, SDSU’s men’s basketballers have found the road less winnable. Something’s missing. That’s not promising, but knock on my door in March. …
Four words: In. Ev. It. Able. Asked if a streaming Super Bowl is in our future, Roger “Costanza” Goodell, one of our top fabricators despite not being proficient at it, said: “Not in my time.” So, it appears Roger will retire in a few years. …
On the matter of that Chiefs-Dolphins wild card playoff game streaming on Peacock, Roger said: “We have to fish where the fish are.” Roger, the fish (bettors) are everywhere, not just in streams. …
Peacock paid The League $110 million to stream that one game, and it was a large success (25 million gamblers … ah, viewers). That’s a rather large school of green fish. Amazon gets one next year. …
ESPN+, Hulu and Max are combining forces to form their own sports streaming network. For your 2027 Super Bowl viewing pleasure. …
A sloppy 2025 NFL game will be played in Madrid, Spain, on the plain, where it mainly gets the rain. …
I thought I’d see the Second Coming before a Super Bowl in Vegas. But, , the NFL is an omnivore. Will eat anything — for money. …
Tony Romo says gambling has made football “less pure.” Interesting. I believe the loss of purity began when the first bet on an NFL game was placed — Oct. 3, 1920. …
Is it that crazy, Chip Kelly leaving his UCLA head coaching gig to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator? Everything is about money now. …
I when assistant coaches — college and pro — worked for tip money. Every assistant in every sport should thank the great Ernie Zampese, who with the Cowboys became the first wingman to make big dough. …
Now we have a Coaches Portal. …
Dazed following the tornado warning, I didn’t know what part of the country I was in — until I saw a Waffle House and went in for grits. …
I finally took my doctor’s advice and bought a Salonpas mattress. …
Question for our stupid times: When, exactly, pray tell, are you too old? Novice shrinks say they know but are sworn to idiocy.
