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Bar Chat

01/31/2018

SB Bits

[Posted late Tuesday due to schedule issues Wednesday.]

Super Bowl MVP Quiz: 1) Name the first defensive player to be named MVP.  2) Who was the first receiver?  3) Who was the MVP of SB XX, Bears over New England 46-10?  Answers below.

SB LII

--Really, at this point...just play the game.

--Pete M. reminds me that not only haven’t the Patriots scored a single point in the first quarter of the seven Brady/Belichick Super Bowls, but the tally is really -2, having given up a first quarter safety to the Giants in XLVI.

--Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal had a story on how while the Patriots get off to slow starts, they are incredibly successful before the end of the half, like at the end of the Jacksonville game when they cut a 14-3 deficit to 14-10.

How good are the Pats in such situations?  “The Patriots scored in the final minute of the first half 12 times this season, including the playoffs. That means in two-thirds of their games they put up points right before the break....

“This isn’t normal.  The Patriots have scored 66 points in the final two minutes of the first half this year. That’s not just more than any other team in the league.  It’s nearly twice the average of the rest of the league (37.1 points), according to Stats LLC.

“The gap between New England and everyone else is even more jarring in the final minute: The Patriots put up 56 points. The 31 other teams averaged 24 points.  Four teams didn’t score a single touchdown in the last 60 seconds of the first half. New England put up five.”

Philadelphia knows of New England’s prowess at the end of the half, and often to start out the second, from Super Bowl XXXIX.  The Eagles led 7-0 when Brady threw a touchdown pass with 1:16 left in the second quarter. Then New England got the ball back to start the third.  They scored again, the two-for-one, which proved to be the turning point in the Pats’ 24-21 win.

--Gee, it’s going to be 6 degrees, or less, air temp in Minneapolis around game time on Sunday. Too bad they have a freakin’ dome at U.S. Bank Stadium.

But in terms of the economics of holding a Super Bowl in one’s city, Kevin Draper of the New York Times had a piece the other day exploring the issue.

“Seven NFL stadiums have been built in the last 12 years. By 2020, all will have hosted the country’s biggest sporting spectacle.  When new stadiums open near Los Angeles and in Las Vegas during the next decade, they will get a Super Bowl, too.

“New stadiums, supported by as many public dollars as possible, have long been one of the league’s priorities. To get funds for them, the NFL dangles the prospect of playing host to a Super Bowl and its promised riches....

“An economic impact report commissioned by the Minneapolis Super Bowl Hot Committee stated that much of the taxpayer investment in the stadium would be recouped by the region during the event. It estimated that the Super Bowl would contribute $343 million, including $29 million in tax revenue.

“ ‘We are taking a conservative approach with the numbers,’ Michael Langley, the chief executive of the Minneapolis-St. Paul economic development agency, said.  ‘But even if you are only talking about $350 million to $400 million, that’s a huge benefit to the community, just in terms of dollars spent in February.’”

But sports economists see things differently.

“They always talk really good about that stuff, and then they go off the rails,” said Victor A. Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Kevin Draper:

“Matheson has written extensively about the effect of Super Bowls. He has found that they usually generate anywhere from $30 million to $130 million in economic activity for the host city.

“ ‘Not nothing, and not what you would sneeze at,’ he said, ‘but somewhere between a quarter and a tenth of what is being claimed.’

“Take hotel rooms, for example. To host the Super Bowl, Minneapolis had to show that there were at least 24,000 of them within 60 minutes of the stadium, capable of accommodating visitors during the entire 10-day Super Bowl celebration.  Accordingly, the economic impact report estimates the Super Bowl will generate 230,000 nights of hotel stays.

“But if the Super Bowl were not in town, many of those hotel rooms would have been filled anyway, by business travelers, conventiongoers and – yes, even in Minnesota in the dead of winter – tourists. It is the net occupancy  gain, not gross occupancy, that matters.”

And it’s not as if the money generated by charging more for Super Bowl week than would otherwise be the case goes to bellhops and maids and thus back into the economy either.  It goes to the owners of the hotels.

College Basketball

AP Poll (Jan. 29)

1. Villanova 20-1 (47)
2. Virginia 20-1 (17)
3. Purdue 21-2 (1)
4. Duke 18-3
5. Michigan State 20-3
6. Xavier 19-3
7. Kansas 17-4
8. Cincinnati 19-2
9. Arizona 18-4
10. Texas Tech 17-4
11. Auburn 19-2
13. Saint Mary’s 21-2
16. Wichita State 17-4
21. Kentucky 16-5
22. Rhode Island 17-3

--No surprises Monday, but Tuesday, 22 Rhode Island needed another three-pointer, this one with 11 seconds to play, to win a road game at UMass (10-13, 3-7); the Rams now 10-0 in the A 10.

And in a biggie in the ACC, 20 Clemson defeated 19 North Carolina at home, 82-78, the Tigers improving to 18-4, 7-3, while the Tar Heels fall to 16-7, 5-5.

And I can’t help but note an otherwise meaningless contest, Rutgers at Illinois.  The Scarlet Knights were shelled, 91-60, falling to 12-12, 2-9. The thing is, the Illini blow, and they’re now just 12-11, 2-8. 

Rutgers-Wake Forest would be a good game these days.

--The other day I mentioned former Jacksonville player Rex Morgan, who averaged 26.7 points per game in 1968-69, knowing that it would get a rise out of alum Steve G., who I then heard from.

“Rex Morgan!!!  I just spit up my Shiner Bock.  He was back on campus (after the Celtics’ season had ended, having been a second-round draft pick of Boston in 1970), playing one-on-one games in the gym.  He took on Henry “Hank” Williams (a then-freshman high-school All-American from Norristown, PA) who proceeded to whip Morgan’s ass so bad I don’t think he ever showed his beer belly around campus again.  Williams went on to have a cup of coffee for the Utah Stars, but got barred by the NCAA for cashing a check issued to him by an agent during his junior year.  He was stupid enough to cash it at the university run student center.”

Now Steve, who was a student there in those days, claims Williams could not have had a higher GPA then he did, Steve being a self-deprecating sort, but I assured him I beat both “Hank” and him in that category.

Rex Morgan, by the way, was a bust in Boston.

NBA

Pretty staggering trade on Monday.  Detroit receives Blake Griffin, Willie Reed and Brice Johnson...the latter two total bit players.

Los Angeles receives Tobias Harris (forward, 18 points, 5 rebounds, just 25), Avery Bradley (solid guard, 15 points, 27), Boban Marjanovic (7-3 Serb who could be a quality backup center), plus a 2018 protected first-round draft pick and a 2019 second-round pick.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweeted: “For Clippers, three objectives with the trade were these: Stay competitive on the floor (two starters, Harris and Bradley). Get young players/draft picks and create some payroll flexibility. Organization isn’t interested in bottoming out and tanking.

“Clippers will continue to discuss contract extensions at the right price, while engaging teams in trade talks on DeAndre Jordan and Lou Williams.  They’ll try to do a hard thing in the NBA: Rebuild on the fly with younger players/picks, without gutting roster.”

Detroit wants to get back in the race for the playoffs and Griffin (22.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists) can help them do that, though Harris and Bradley were their top two scorers.

Bill Plaschke / Los Angeles Times

“Did the Clippers really just do what I think they did?

“Did they just trade the best home-grown player in franchise history, their one real connection with Hollywood, the most glittering mural in the rafters?

“Did they do it barely six months after basically making him a Clipper for life by giving him a five-year, $171-million contract?

“An about-face on the franchise’s face? Calling a car for the guy who once dunked over a car?

“Works for me.

“The Clippers trade of Blake Griffin on Monday was stunning but smart, a gutsy admission of a mistake and a calculated gamble on the future.

“Some of their longtime fans will mourn it, and the city will miss him, but long-term hopes for anything beyond the second round of the playoffs demanded it.

“Griffin was traded to the Detroit Pistons with Willie Reed and Brice Johnson for Avery Bradley, Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, a first-round pick and second-round pick.  Translated, that’s one five-time All-Star for two starters, a potentially starring kid, and cap space for potential free agents. As an equation, it tilts heavily in the Clippers’ favor.

“The Clippers have never really had a trusted personnel guy running the show before now, so it’s understandable if this is all very hard to endorse, but with Jerry West pushing it and Lawrence Frank making it happen, their first bold move makes sense....

“As a star, Griffin was fun. But as a foundation, he was shaky.  You could cheer for him, but you couldn’t build on him.  He was great in commercials, but struggled in fourth quarters. His dunks were breathtaking, but so were his debacles.”

Griffin is also very injury prone.  This year he missed 14 games with a knee injury, thus ensuring he won’t play a full season for the fifth time in eight years.  But in games he hasn’t played this season, the Clippers were 8-8, and entering their contest against Portland on Tuesday, they were 25-24.

And now the Clippers have the potential for finding a franchise player in next year’s draft, when they could have two picks in the top 10.

--The Washington Wizards suffered a huge blow with the announcement All-Star point guard John Wall is expected to miss up to two months with knee surgery.  He’s getting his left knee, which has bothered him on and off all year, beginning with a knee-to-knee collision with a Dallas player in November, scoped.  In May 2016, Wall had double knee surgery.

The Wizards have been a disappointing 27-22 this season when it was expected to be a 55-60 win campaign after 49-33 last year.

But Washington won tonight, 102-96 over the Thunder (30-21), showing some character after the loss of John Wall.

And the Knicks returned home tonight after their seven-game road swing to beat local patsy, Brooklyn, 111-95, the Knicks 23-28, the Nets 18-33. Kristaps Porzingis had one of his better shooting games, 28 points, including 6 of 8 from three, while Enes Kanter had 20 points and 20 rebounds.  But now Knicks fans are waiting to see who is traded.

--So last Tuesday, the Celtics’ Marcus Smart missed an ill-advised 3-pointer at the buzzer in a 108-107 loss to the Lakers, after which he went back to his hotel room in Beverly Hills and smashed his hand into a glass picture frame, leaving him with glass in his hand, a broken frame in the hotel bathroom and an injury that could keep him sidelined for two weeks.

But he wasn’t upset about missing the shot. It took a while for the truth to come out but Smart was upset over photos a female friend posted on social media, the Boston Herald reported Monday.  The woman in question is an Instagram model who seemed to be trying to get revenge on Smart by uploading incriminating photos of him, all of which have since been deleted.

Smart then apologized on Twitter for his behavior, which he said left him feeling “embarrassed” and “disappointed” in himself.  He’s been averaging 10.1 points per game off the bench this season.

Golf Balls

--So I expressed my outrage at the slow play of J.B. Holmes on Sunday, Nick Faldo having commented that the group Holmes was in was taking six hours to complete their final round, which is beyond outrageous, and on Monday it was good to see I was far from alone.

John Strege / Golf World

“A jury of his peers did not deliberate long, unlike J.B. Holmes, who deliberated long enough to bring the wrath of its verdict down on him.

“The verdict was guilty. Holmes was guilty of slow play at a critical moment – on the 72nd hole of the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday. Guilty, intentionally or not, of icing a man in the lead, Alex Noren. And guilty, to those watching, of reinforcing the game’s reputation for taking too long.

“The situation was this: Jason Day had finished at 10 under par and was tied with Noren, who was in the fairway, 230 yards to the hole, on the par-5 18th on the South Course at Torrey Pines.  Holmes, who needed an eagle 3 possibly to tie, was in the fairway, 239 yards to the hole.

“Holmes was away and took four minutes, 10 seconds to decide on a club and his shot. Four minutes, 10 seconds is a good time for a high school miler, but an egregious breach of the rules and etiquette in golf.

“The PGA Tour Player’s Handbook and Tournament Regulations states that ‘a player is permitted 40 seconds to play a stroke.’ It allows an additional 10 seconds for a variety of situations, none of them applicable here. It would have had to allow for an additional 3 ½ minutes to accommodate Holmes.

“Here is a sampling of Twitter reaction from his golf brethren, none of it in defense of Holmes:

Luke Donald: “Last group was over a hole behind, we can all blame JB...and yes the player should take responsibility for their pace of play, but if they don’t that’s why we have Tour officials – they needed to step in a while ago IMO.

“1. JB needs to be fined or better yet given 2 shots
“2. Needs eagle to tie. After all that lays up? Really???
“3. Horrendous sportsmanship to Noren and (Ryan) Palmer
“4. Wow”

Daniel Berger: “Most tour players aren’t slow but because of a handful of slow ones we all get a bad rep.”

“The CBS broadcast crew expressed bewilderment over what Holmes was doing. The crowd ringing the 18th green began to vocally exhort him to hit the shot. Afterward, Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner asked Holmes whether he regretted his action.  ‘No, I was still trying to win. So that’s part of it,’ Holmes said.

“Holmes did not win. He laid up into the rough, made a birdie and finished fourth. Noren, meanwhile, waited patiently, then flew the green with his 3-wood second shot, leading to a par and a playoff with Jason Day and Ryan Palmer.

“Noren was diplomatic about Holmes’ action. Asked whether it affected him, he said, ‘Well, not necessarily, not necessarily. It’s just, you know, probably made me switch clubs.’”

Three things.  Daniel Berger’s point on sportsmanship is a terrific one. Golf is known for it; it’s part of what sets this sport apart, and Holmes was, frankly, a (cue Jeff Spicoli).

Second, as all of us watching thought at the time, Holmes dithered outrageously just to lay up?!

Third, can you imagine if Lanny Wadkins, who old-time golf fans know was not only the fastest player in the history of the game, but a rather surly sort, was playing with Holmes? [Curtis Strange rounding out the threesome would have made it even more delicious.]

One more...you have to believe Alex Noren picked up some fans this week.  As you all now know, he lost the sixth hole of the playoff to Jason Day, the duo finishing Monday morning after running out of daylight Sunday, when he hit a seemingly terrific second shot at No. 18 over the water that just needed to go about one yard further.  Instead it hit the bank and rolled back into the water, handing the tournament to Day. Afterwards, Noren was once again all class.

And speaking of class, Jason Day is a ‘good ‘mate.’ This guy has all manner of serious back issues that threaten to permanently shut down his career at any moment, yet he won this week after Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo told you on Saturday they were shocked he even made it to the first tee on Thursday, he was in so much pain the day before.

Day’s win was also a reminder that when he’s healthy, he’s in the conversation with JT and Jordan and Dustin.  The win was his 11th on the PGA Tour.

It’s easy to forget just how good Jason Day was not so long ago....like just two years ago!  We keep getting swept up with the latest emerging young star with each week on the PGA Tour.

Day’s win at Torrey Pines was his first since 2016.

2016...3 wins, including the Players’...10 top 10s in 20 events, 1st on the points list.
2015...5 wins, including the PGA Championship...11 top 10s in 20 events, 2nd on the points list.

But when you listened to him Monday after wrapping it up, you can tell he is kind of scared over his future. There are no easy answers to his particular back issue.

--As you would expect, CBS reported increased ratings for weekend coverage of the Farmers, with Tiger having made the cut.

Final-round coverage rose 38 percent from a year ago, to a 2.9 rating and 6 share in overnight markets. That was CBS’ strongest final-round performance at the event since 2013, when Tiger won the tournament.

Third-round coverage was up a whopping 53 percent year-over-year.

Meanwhile, I understand why some are upset over how much coverage Tiger received, given he never sniffed the lead, but for crying out loud, a lot of us were curious to see how he would do in his first real tournament in a year, especially since he himself had pronounced himself pain free.

And, ah, all you have to do is re-read the above ratings to know that a lot of other people felt the same way, including the casual fan the sport and networks need.

On the other hand, if at his next event at Riviera Tiger makes the cut but is mired in 40th late Saturday and doesn’t improve from there, and still receives a third of the coverage or whatever, well, detractors will have a point.

Last one on Woods. I couldn’t have been the only one thinking Saturday and Sunday, ‘Yoh, Tiger. Why don’t you just hit the stinger off the tee you used to be able to pound 270+ down the middle?  With today’s equipment and ball, I’m sure he could hit it 290.

So what if he’s then 30 yards back of the big bombers...big deal. He proved his iron play was solid and his short game superb.  Just sayin’.  [And less stress on his body with that shot as well.]

--I meant to say last time, what a great job by CBS with their new pro-tracer technology for approach shots.  That’s a major advance in coverage.  Love it.

But as John Strege noted, at the end of the day, thanks to J.B. Holmes and his threesome taking six hours to play a round, “the loser on Sunday was the game itself.”

--Shu, enjoy your Waste Management Phoenix Open.   Have a few for me.

MLB

Very depressing news for some of us. Chief Wahoo, the grinning, red-faced caricature of a Native American that has been the logo of the Cleveland Indians for more than 70 years, is being phased out at the end of this coming season.  So now the pressure is really ramped up on the Washington Redskins to do the same. 

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the change on Monday in a statement, Manfred having pressed Indians CEO and part-owner Paul Dolan nearly a year ago to dump Chief Wahoo, the presence of which had been a flashpoint between fans of the team and advocacy groups that called it racist.

“Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game,” Manfred said in his statement. Dolan, he said, “made clear there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team. Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use.”

The Indians will continue wearing Chief Wahoo on their uniforms during this coming season, though in recent years it has been deemphasizing it, working in a black ‘C’ logo.

So Native American groups praised MLB’s move but wondered why the league didn’t go further, the executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio calling this but a “baby step.”

This guy, Philip Yenyo, wants the team to get rid of the name Indians.  If they don’t do so, “our culture and our spirituality are still going to be mocked by fans. They’re still going to be dressed up in red face and wearing feathers.”

But...for Chief Wahoo fans...Cleveland said it will retain the trademark and will continue to sell merchandise with the logo in the Cleveland market, at least in part to satisfy a requirement for keeping ownership of the trademark. Otherwise outside entities could profit off it.

One other, it just so happens that in terms of the timing of the Chief Wahoo announcement, the Indians are hosting the 2019 All-Star Game.

--We note the passing of former Padres and Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers. He was just 56 and succumbed to a battle with thyroid cancer, first diagnosed in 2016.

What’s even more tragic is he was admitted to a hospital with fluid on his lungs a few days ago but was supposed to come home today, Tuesday, only to die this morning.

Towers was Padres’ GM from 1995 to 2009, and then joined the Diamondbacks in 2010, where he served as GM for four years.

As he spoke last week about being elected to the Hall of Fame, former Padres closer Trevor Hoffman grew emotional when talking about the influence Towers had on his career.

Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch held up a sign honoring Towers during baseball’s “Stand Up to Cancer” moment at the World Series.

--Lastly, the other day Bobby C. and I were having a few beers at a local watering hole, fireballing lefty Bobby still holding some of Summit High School’s pitching records, the two of us being classmates, and it’s his father, Art, who was Willie Wilson’s coach his senior year.

Anyway, Bobby had just seen his dad and the two were trying to remember the name of a great Summit ballplayer who went on to Wake Forest and then was killed in World War II.

It turns out it was Art Vivian, who was a star pitcher at Summit High, 1936-38, before going to what was then Wake Forest College, in Wake Forest, North Carolina.  [The campus was moved to Winston-Salem in the 1950s...thank you, R.J. Reynolds!...Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, to be exact.]

Art Vivian became a star at Wake, with one of his teammates being future Yankees all-star hurler Tommy Byrne.  In Vivian’s senior year, his shutout in the final game clinched the Big Five conference championship for the Deacons.

Vivian enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly before graduation and, while waiting to be called for service, signed with the Yankees.  New York then optioned him to the Amsterdam Rugmakers of the Class C Canadian-American League, joining them in June 1942.

Vivian threw four games for Amsterdam, pitching to an ERA of 2.31, and then was called up to the Marines in July. As reported in the Gloversville and Johnstown (N.Y.) Leader-Republican: “Vivian was given a big hand by the fans as this is the last game he will pitch for the Rugmakers.  He will be hurling for Uncle Sam’s Leathernecks next week. He has been ordered to report to the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Va., before next Sunday.”

Vivian returned home to Summit, N.J., before leaving for Quantico.  He then served with the 3rd Marine Division (the aforementioned Bobby C. is a Marine as well), and eventually headed for the Pacific in Dec. 1942.  Vivian went to Guadalcanal for training and then he took part in the Battle of Guam, where he landed with his division on July 21, 1944.  On the morning of August 1, just nine days before Guam was made secure, Vivian was killed by a Japanese mine while traveling by jeep on the main coast road.  His name is inscribed on the Asan War Memorial there.

Art Vivian, hero of both Summit and Wake Forest and a great American.  And he was born in Plainfield, N.J., where I was. 

But I’m upset with myself in that I have been to the War Memorial in Guam a  few times, among my six trips there in the last 20+ years, including prior to StocksandNews.  I wish I had known to look up his name.  [Source: Gary Bedingfield / Baseball’s Greatest Sacrifice]

Premier League

--PL play resumed Tuesday, and Swansea pulled off another shocker, beating Arsenal 3-1, after defeating Liverpool in its previous contest. So the Swans are out of the basement, at least until the others play Game No. 25.

Liverpool bounced back with a 3-0 pasting of Huddersfield, and West Ham and Crystal Palace played to a 1-1 draw.

Huge game today, Tottenham hosting Manchester United.

--David Beckham was granted a Major League Soccer team in Miami, Beckham heading up an ownership group for an expansion franchise.

Miami once had an M.L.S. team, the Fusion, that folded in 2001, but the league is promising to put its full weight behind the Beckham team and they have every reason to do so.  Yet there is no name, or even a place where it will play.

Beckham, as part of his original contract with the league when he joined the L.A. Galaxy in 2007, was given an option to buy a franchise for $25 million at the end of his playing career, which has proved to be a bargain.  The owners of the two franchises entering the league in its current round of expansion, in Nashville and a to-be-named city, will pay about $150 million each for their teams.

Michigan State

There is no more public face of Michigan State than Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and in a series of tweets Monday he called for accountability at the university in light of the Larry Nassar scandal.

Johnson wrote in one that anyone at the university who knew about an allegation of sexual assault and did nothing ‘should be fired.’

“If anyone was aware of the sexual assault happening to women on the MSU campus from the office of the President, Board of Trustees, athletic department, faculty & campus police, and didn’t say or do anything about it, they should be fired.”

“Cookie and I stand in support of the victims and their families as they embark on the road to recovery; and I support the movement to hold everyone involved accountable,” he continued.  “The roles of the new President, Board of Trustees, athletic department, faculty, campus police and students will be to work together to create new policies and procedures to ensure this never happens again.

“As a Spartan, I love MSU and want to work with Coach (Tom) Izzo, the administration, and the students to be a part of the solution in any way that I can.”

Stuff

--It was funny on Monday how in going to some establishments where I know the managers, talk turned to the Grammys and we all agreed, Bruno Mars should just be the permanent Super Bowl halftime act.  I did watch the entire show Sunday night, and you know I’m a big fan of Mars’, but I was also appreciative of him staying out of politics with his many acceptance speeches.

Meanwhile, Jay-Z, who had boycotted the Grammys since 1999, was shutout despite having eight nominations.  But for the first time ever, three of the artists nominated for album of the year were rappers: Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino, the nom de rap of actor-director Donald Glover.  Yet all three lost to “24K Magic,” a collection of funk ditties by Bruno.

So some are complaining that a rapper hasn’t taken the industry’s top honor, album of the year, since OutKast in 2004 won for “Speakerboxx/The Love Below.”

Tough.

Top 3 songs for the week of 2/3/62: #1 “Peppermint Twist” (Joey Dee & the Starliters) #2 “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (Elvis Presley)  #3 “The Twist” (Chubby Checker)...and...#4 “Norman” (Sue Thompson...boy, this one hasn’t aged well...but then I imagine neither has Norman...)  #5 “I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More)” (Barbara George)  #6 “The Wanderer” (Dion...brilliant...)  #7 “Duke Of Earl” (Gene Chandler) #8 “Baby It’s You” (The Shirelles...love this one...) #9 “Break It To Me Gently” (Brenda Lee)  #10 “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (The Tokens...I tend to drive into the Passaic River on hearing this...thus stressing local emergency services....)

Super Bowl MVP Quiz Answers: 1) First defensive player...Chuck Howley, LB, Dallas, who picked it up despite the Cowboys’ loss to the Colts, 16-13, in the most boring, close game in NFL history.  Trust me, young people. This contest was hideous, even though Jim O’Brien’s 32-yard field goal decided it with 0:05 remaining.  [Howley had two interceptions...there were six overall in the game.]  2) Lynn Swann was the first receiver to win MVP honors in the Steelers’ 21-17 win over the Cowboys.  3) In the Bears’ total pasting of the Pats in SB XX, 46-10, defensive end Richard Dent won it.

Next Bar Chat, Monday. Enjoy the game.

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