Chill Sports

Watching the Jets - Patriots game on Sunday morning was, in a word, tough. And I don’t mean as tough as watching just about any New York Jets game from the past decade-and-a-half or so. It was far worse than that. Not since Sam Darnold’s iconic “seeing ghosts” game have I watched four quarters from a quarterback who I didn’t particularly care for before and come away just feeling awful for him.  Watching Jets rookie quarterback Zach Wilson join Darnold as one of just four players in the last twenty years with a zero-touchdown, four-interception game, however, made me feel a pit in my stomach. Image from: NFL.com Considering both of those poor young quarterbacks played against a devastatingly complex Patriots defensive scheme, it makes me believe Bill Belichick is the NFL’s equivalent of fraternity hazing for rookie quarterbacks. Except, instead of having the newbies drink tequila in place of water all day, he brutally crushes their confidence with exceptional defense, leaving the...

Regardless of whatever you think about the National Football League, you really have to tip your cap to their marketing team for their long-term success. Over the years, they’ve turned a regular sport into an American institution and a near-synonym for a day of the week. And they do it all while hardly even operating for the majority of the calendar year. How did we let this happen? It’s agonizing. Seriously, our favorite teams only play 16 games (or 17, starting with this season) lasting just about four months of the year, or five if you’re lucky. That’s not a lot! This is especially true when you compare this to other major sports leagues. The Major League Baseball regular season runs from late March through September with teams playing 162 games apiece, and the season continues into October with its playoffs. The NBA regular season generally runs from October through April, with teams playing 82 games each, and the playoffs spill all the way into mid-June. European soccer leagues us...