Sat. - Tues., Jan. 29 - Feb. 1, 2022
Let's start this post with BY FAR the most important news of the past weekend . . .
Daisy Scout Mary is selling
Girl Scout cookies again this
year, a.k.a, . . .
THIN MINT MANIA!
These are my favorite Girl Scout cookies and just have to be good for your health as they say "Thin" right on their label!
Four boxes were delivered to us on Sunday, the first wave of 2022 ordering. If this year is anything like the last one, Mary will be getting more orders from us in the next few weeks.
It was the NFL's Conference
Championship Sunday
The winners of Sunday's two contests will square off in Super Bowl LVI in two weeks.
The AFC Championship game was up
first but we had a prior commitment
Jacob, in blue, had a soccer game
that conflicted with the first half
of the Bengals-Chiefs game
This choice was an easy one for us.
RUN THAT BALL DOWN, JACOB!
Jacob kicked this ball out of bounds
which was a good thing
What I love about soccer is the non-stop running that all of the kids have to do just to be competitive. It makes for tired kids which we can all live with on a Sunday.
Another THRILLER decided in OT
A tale of two halves, the Kansas City dominated the first one and Cincinnati returned the favor in the second.
The Chiefs had the ball first in OT and promptly turned the ball over on an interception. The Bengals calmly moved the ball deep into Chiefs territory and kicked the winning Field Goal to earn their third ever trip to the Super Bowl.
The Bengals played against the Joe Montana led San Francisco 49ers in their previous two Super Bowls.
In Super Bowl XVI played in January of 1982, San Francisco prevailed 26-21.
The Bengals last appearance in the NFL's premier game was in Super Bowl XXIII that took place in January of 1989. The 49ers were again the better team on that day taking home the Lombardi Trophy with a tense 20-16 victory.
Originally an expansion team, the Bengals joined the old AFL in 1968 for that league's last two seasons before the two rival leagues merged into their more or less current NFL configuration.
The Cincinnati Bengals have never won either an AFL or Super Bowl championship in their 54 year franchise history.
The AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals
I hope that the third time is definitely not the charm for the Bengals!
Now it was time for the Big Game of the Day!
The NFC Championship was THE
game today
Your Los Angeles Rams against the San Francisco 49ers.
The 49ers had not only swept the two game regular season series between the two teams, they had won the last six games played between these two long time rival franchises.
The Rams were long overdue!
San Francisco was rallying
in memory of their longtime
hero who passed away this season
Charlie Krueger spent his entire 15 year career (1959-1973) with the 49ers and passed away last February.
This has to be one of the Topps all-time best football cards!
Agree?
What did the Rams have to bolster their play?
US!
It worked!
The Rams came from behind and won on a Matt Gay 30 yard Field Goal to win it with 1:46 left in the Fourth Quarter. This was quickly followed by a Rams interception on the ensuing 49ers drive to seal the deal!
AWESOME WIN!
If you are the NFC Champions,
that means that you are going to
THE SUPER BOWL!
In the pre-Super Bowl era, the Rams won two NFL Championships. The first one came in the storied franchises final season as the Cleveland Rams in 1945. Playing in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, the Rams (10-1) defeated the Washington Redskins (8-3) 15-14 in chilly -8°F/-22°C with QB Bob Waterfield leading the way.
Their second NFL title was won as the Los Angles Rams in 1951 in an NFL Championship game played at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. On that day, the Rams (9-4) defeated the Cleveland Browns (11-2) 24-17. Los Angeles was led by the likes of Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, Bob Waterfield, Norm "The Dutchman" Van Brocklin, Vitamin Smith, "Deacon" Dan Towler and Paul "Tank" Younger.
Those were the Golden Days . . .
The Rams have played in four previous Super Bowls.
The Pittsburgh Steelers (15-4) defeated the Los Angeles Rams (11-8), 31-19 in Super Bowl XXIV at the end of the 1979 campaign.
The St. Louis Rams (16-3) won Super Bowl XXXIV over the Tennessee Titans (16-4), 23-16 to finish off the 1999 season.
The 2001 season saw the St. Louis Rams (16-3) lose Super Bowl XXXVI, 20-17 to the Tom Brady led New England Patriots (14-5).
In 2018, the Los Angeles Rams (15-4) faced the New England Patriots (14-5) again in Super Bowl LIII with the Patriots victorious yet again, 13-3.
Now, for the Rams and Bengals, it's on to . . .
SUPER BOWL LVI
For only the second time in the Super Bowl's history, one team will be playing the game on their home turf, SoFi Stadium, as the Los Angeles Rams (15-5) host the Cincinnati Bengals (13-7).
Last year, in Super Bowl LV, Tampa Bay (15-5) won the game in their home stadium, 31-9, over the Kansas City Chiefs (16-3).
Good Omen!
You know, I got to attend a Super Bowl once . . .
Thank GOODNESS a good friend
got us FREE tickets through his
work/union connections!
At Super Bowl I in 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the Green Bay Packers (14-2) vs. Kansas City Chiefs (12-3-1) game, the average ticket price was $6. The Vince Lombardi Packers won that first AFL-NFL Championship game, 35-10.
We were in a LUXURY box at Detroit's Ford Field in 2006 for Super Bowl XL.
The Pittsburgh Steelers (15-5) defeated the Seattle Seahawks (15-4), 21-10 with The Rolling Stones providing the Half Time entertainment.
If it wasn't for Mark Johnson's generosity, I would never have been able to afford a ticket to that game for a whopping $700!
Little did we know what a bargain that would be compared to the Super Bowl LVI prices on the Ticketmaster web sit.
The CHEAPEST ticket (1) is $5,900
YIKES!
The MOST expensive ticket (1) is $29,000!
DOUBLE YIKES!
A look at various SoFi Stadium
INDIVIDUAL seat prices for
Super Bowl LVI
Then I found this StubHub listing for a VIP parking spot at the game . . .
OH MY GOD!
Absolutely incredible!
After seeing all of these financials, I need to get back to some grass roots, play for the love of the game, EuroBall action.
In the UK, the Cambridge University Pythons
in the green jerseys took on the
University of Kent Falcons
According to my Pythons connection, Steve Guy, it was an amazing game.
With just eight minutes left in the
game, Kent had a commanding
20-2 lead over the Pythons
Whether it is Pop Warner, high school,
college, NFL or EuroBall, that pigskin
ALWAYS draws a crowd!
In a frenetic turn of events, Kent's 20-2 lead was not commanding enough as Cambridge stormed back to win the game 27-20 with only five seconds left in the game.
WOW!
The Italian Federation announced the line-ups for the 2022 Division I, II and III seasons this week.
Sort of.
There were to be 13 teams
in DII this year divided into
three leagues or girones
I say sort of because as soon as the girones were announced, the Varese Skorpions' Girone B had a defection. The Venezia club decided to drop out of DII over the weekend. Now FIDAF will have to re-shuffle the girones into more than likely three four-team girones.
Speaking of the Italian leagues, I was interested to see what the pandemic had done to the league as sponsors had suffered economically over the last two years which meant problems for all of our Italian clubs.
When I first signed on as the DII Skorpions Head Coach in 2018, we had 24 clubs in DII dictating an eight game regular season schedule. A total of 72 teams were playing American football in Italy in 2018.
Still in DII in 2019, our Skorpions were one of 19 DII clubs but we still had 71 teams combined playing DI, DII or DIII American football that year. Again, we had an eight game regular season schedule.
In 2020, my last season with the Skorpions, the season that would eventually be cancelled due to Covid-19, the Varese team was still part of the 20 team DII level of play. There were still 70 teams overall competing in for the three Italian championships going intro that soon to be aborted season. Again, the regular season schedule was set for eight games for the Skorpions.
The return to the field for Italian teams came with a drastically smaller group of clubs nationally as only 56 teams attempted to play while the pandemic was still problematic. The Skorpions remained in DII which had shrunk to 17 teams. DII teams only played six regular season games last year.
In 2022, a total of 57 teams will be fielded in Italy with only 12 playing in DII including the Skorpions. Again, the regular season will see DII teams playing only six regular season games.
Meanwhile, back in Spain with the team I'm helping as their Analytics Coach . . .
The Mallorca Voltors are wisely using
their two consecutive BYE weeks
The 0-2 start to the Spanish Serie A season was a shock to everyone.
Needing to play some inexperienced players due to Covid protocols plus still not having the full compliment of import players have been factors in the slow start.
Only one thing to do, work harder.
That included an excellent Defensive
Zoom meeting on Monday
that lasted an hour
The Voltors Defensive Coordinator
did a thorough job going over the
mistakes made in the last game
Better yet, he made several positive coaching points on what needed to be done to improve the situation before the next game.
A good teaching moment to be sure.
A GOOD OMEN
I've had this good looking, fit fellow since 1960. It's time for him to help us bring back a Rams Super Bowl Championship!
GO RAMS GO!
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