In one comment Monday, the most polarizing coach in the NFL demonstrated why he is loved by some and despised by others.
“As great as today feels… we’re five weeks behind the other teams for the 2017 season,” the New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick said, scarcely 10 hours after the Patriots pulled off the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, miraculously erasing a 25-point deficit to defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28, for a fifth Lombardi Trophy.
Whether it was sincere or simply for effect, Belichick wanted to let the world know that his warm afterglow is measured in minutes, not months. The franchise that most of the country loves to hate is already on to next season.
For that matter, so are we. While quarterback Tom Brady continues to look for his Super Bowl LI jersey — mysteriously swiped from his bag in the postgame celebration — here’s a look at some issues and people likely to be in the news in the 2017 NFL season:
Los Angeles goes for two
After considering a move north for years, the Chargers have left San Diego for the nation’s second-largest market. It has been a bumpy start so far, with anger and hurt feelings in their old market and no buzz in their new one. Still, the team should not have a problem filling the 30,000-seat StubHub Center, where it intends to spend the next two seasons.
Both Los Angeles teams hired first-time coaches making the step up from offensive coordinator — Anthony Lynn for the Chargers, Sean McVay for the Rams — and each is optimistic it can take a considerable stride forward.
Ready to roll the dice?
The Raiders have applied to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, but it looks increasingly unlikely that league owners will vote on the move at league meetings in March. It originally looked as if the franchise was going to do a deal with casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, but that didn’t happen. The Raiders then told the league they could finance a new stadium with the help of Goldman Sachs, yet that too appears doomed.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league is still in the process of evaluating the Las Vegas market. It’s not necessarily having a team in a city synonymous with gambling that troubles some owners, but there’s an outstanding concern about whether the market it strong enough to sustain a team on its own if, say, an economic downturn has a negative effect on the tourism industry.
Regardless, don’t rule out the Raiders kicking the tires at some point on a move to San Diego.
In preparing for Super Bowl 51 on Feb. 5, we’ve done our homework, ranking all 50 previous Super Bowls on how enjoyable they were to watch. Arriving at these conclusions was actually pretty simple. Ask yourself a few questions: Was there exciting drama? A legendary performance? A moment that we still can’t forget? Or were they just all hype and no substance?
Here’s our complete list.
— Jeremy Gottlieb, Washington Post
Panning for gold
The San Francisco 49ers signed former All-Pro safety John Lynch to a six-year contract to be their general manager, and on Monday they agreed to terms with Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan to be the team’s new coach. Shanahan is smarting from a Super Bowl defeat in which his team had a 28-3 lead in the third quarter and opted to keep passing. People probably will dissect and question that strategy for years.
The eyes have it
There will be discussion this spring about adding an eighth official for games, most likely one who would be a part of the crew but would watch monitors in the press box rather than work on the field. That could allow for faster reviews and corrections, ideally without stoppage of the play clock.
“I think having an eighth official on the field is a waste of time,” said Mike Pereira, the Fox rules analyst who used to run the NFL’s officiating department. “I know that it’s not a money issue — it shouldn’t be — but you’re not going to get the bang for your buck by having an eighth official lined up in the defensive secondary.”
But Pereira said that putting an official in the booth and allowing that individual to directly communicate with the officials on the field could be helpful because plays and calls could be reviewed in real time.
“I want this guy to have PBJ [Press Box Judge] on his back, in a striped shirt, sitting there,” Pereira said. “I don’t want anybody with him. An official who just has the benefit of looking at the monitors and saying, ‘Aye aye aye! That pass was incomplete. Hey, Ed, it’s an incomplete pass! Change it. Let’s go.’ No challenge. No three-minute break.
“If you’re going to change or really improve officiating, which is dictated by the strive for perfection, not that they’re all that bad right now, then you need to think way outside the box. I think you need to throw the tradition away.”
And that might mean a PB&J. Hey, that’s catchy.
Stay tuned
With TV ratings taking a plunge in the 2016 season, the league will consider tweaks to make the game more watchable.
“There are a number of things where we think we can shorten the management of the game, focus less on stoppages of the game and more on action,” Goodell said.
Among the possible changes, the competition committee will look into officials using Surface tablets on the sideline to speed up the instant-replay process; a clock that would be used between the time an extra point is kicked until the ensuing kickoff to eliminate unnecessary delays; and potentially eliminating the announcement that a replay review is about to begin, instead going straight to the review. Every spare second counts.
The next 12 months will have to try really hard to top the drama that unfolded in the previous 12. Practically every major sport has saved its best for the final stage. Here is our ranking of the best championship finals from the past year, culminating in the Patriots’ epic Super Bowl comeback.
(Chris Sosa) Finders keepers
Two of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ most dangerous weapons will be in the final year of their contracts: running back Le’Veon Bell and receiver Antonio Brown. Watch for the Steelers to fight hard to keep both, applying the franchise tag to Bell and signing Brown to a long-term deal — even though the star receiver has been in hot water lately for twerking in the end zone, repeatedly wearing unauthorized shoes and using Facebook Live to broadcast a team-only talk in the locker room. Art Rooney II, president of the Steelers, referred to Brown’s transgressions as “little annoyances.”
QB carousel
The landing spots of at least three prominent quarterbacks will be big news. There will be plenty of buzz surrounding Clemson’s DeShaun Watson and who might draft him. The top six picks belong to the Cleveland Browns, the 49ers, the Chicago Bears, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets.
Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys is expendable now that Dak Prescott is coming off one of the all-time most impressive seasons for a rookie quarterback. i The Denver Broncos might make the most sense for Romo — Peyton Manning certainly had a spectacular finish to his career there — but there are also potential suitors in the Jets, Bears and 49ers.
Then, there’s the Patriots’ Jimmy Garoppolo, who could garner a king’s ransom in a trade. The rich get richer.
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