Darrelle Revis 2009 Insanity

I’m not sure what is crazier, the season that Darrelle Revis had in 2009, or the fact that one of the greatest defensive seasons ever did not lead to a DPOY.

Part of what makes Revis’s season so great is that he matched up with a Hall of Famer or All-Pro 9 different times and shut them all down. He had an NFL Record 31 passes defended and allowed a 32.2 passer rating. Below are the pathetic numbers he allowed:

  • Andre Johnson, Houston Texans: 4 Rec, 35 Yds
  • Randy Moss, New England Patriots: 4 Rec, 24 Yds, 1 INT
  • Justin Gage, Tennessee Titans: 4 Rec, 37 Yds
  • Marques Colston, New Orleans Saints: 2 Rec, 33 Yds
  • Ted Ginn, Miami Dolphins: 2 Rec, 57 Yds, 1 TD allowed
  • Terrell Owens, Buffalo Bills: 3 Rec, 13 Yds
  • Louis Murphy, Oakland Raiders: 4 Rec, 58 Yds, 1 INT
  • Davone Bess, Miami Dolphins: 4 Rec, 18 Yds
  • Mike Sims-Walker, Jacksonville Jaguars: 3 Rec, 49 Yds, 1 TD allowed
  • Randy Moss, New England Patriots: 5 Rec, 34 Yds, 1 TD Allowed
  • Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers: 1 Rec, 5 Yds, 2 INT
  • Terrell Owens, Buffalo Bills: 3 Rec, 31 Yds, 1 INT
  • Antonio Bryant, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 2 Rec, 22 Yds, 1 INT
  • Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons: 2 Rec, 16 Yds
  • Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis Colts: 3 Rec, 33 Yds
  • Chad Johnson, Cincinatti Bengals: 0 Rec, 0 Yds

Despite those performances and the Jets being the number 1 defense in the league, Revis lost out to Charles Woodson for DPOY. Woodson had a great year, but nowhere near what Revis did. Despite not winning any major awards, this season rightly has gone down in history, and it’s good to see that people still talk about it 15 years later.

Major News

The Pats traded their best defensive player Matt Judon to the Atlanta Falcons for a 3rd round pick. This is laughable. I have no problem with them not overpaying for an older Judon coming off a season ending injury. But why not do this before the draft? They could’ve gotten another offensive weapon to help out Drake Maye. Or a defensive player to help replace Judon. Now, they lose their best player and have nothing to show for it this year.

J.J. McCarthy is out for the year. This is sad to see. McCarthy had probably the best situation of any rookie QB with a great offensive coach and a ton of weapons. I definitely think he could’ve won OROY this year. It’s also odd how the situation progressed. He played a great game last weekend and no one was really talking about an injury. Then it seemed liked he had a minor injury that wouldn’t really affect him being ready for the year. And now he’s gone for the year. Regardless, he should still be a solid QB for this team once he’s back next year.

How to Stream Patriots Games This Year

In my article reacting to the NFL schedule release (https://wordpress.com/post/wheelhouseblog.com/1308), I mentioned how if an NFL fan wants to watch every game this season, it would cost at least $850 and require 6 different streaming services. Many fans mainly care about being able to watch their team every week. As a Patriots fan, this is what to do to watch every Pats regular season game if you don’t have cable/YouTube TV and don’t want to rely on random NFL streams.

  • Paramount Plus Subscription to watch 7 games scheduled for CBS: $6/ month for 4 months = $24
  • Venu Sports (Brand new combination of Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, and ESPN for sports) to watch 6 games on FOX: $43/month for 4 months = $132 (UPDATE AS OF 8/16: A judge has blocked this venture and it could cause it to be delayed)
  • Prime Video to watch 1 TNF game (9/19/24) on Prime: $9/month for 1 month = $9
  • NFL Plus to watch 1 game (10/20/24) on NFL Network: $7/month for 1 month = $7. NFL Plus can only be watched on a phone or tablet. If you are okay with watching games on a phone or Tablet for the whole year, NFL Plus has local and primetime games for $7/month ($28 for the 4 month period 9/8/2024 – 1/5/2025). This should allow you to watch most (if not all) Pats games for a very low price.
  • Two of the Pats games are TBD and likely will be 1 pm or 4 pm games on CBS/FOX because it’s unlikely the Pats will get a primetime game Weeks 17 or 18.
  • NOTE: *The Pats regular season is from 9/8/2024 – 1/5/2025, so this blog is assuming you would purchase the subscriptions for Paramount and Venu on 9/7/2024 and cancel on 1/6/2024. If you keep them for longer in order to watch the playoffs, it will cost more.*

All told, it will cost you $172 for the year to watch every Patriots game on your TV (with the exception of the NFL Network game), which isn’t too bad. Additional benefits of the above platforms: Paramount Plus has Champions League and some other CBS NFL games. Venu will provide some other FOX NFL games, Monday Night Football, MLB (including the World Series), NHL, and college football games. Prime Video will also provide other TNF games. And of course, Paramount Plus and Prime Video have shows and movies. All told, each person will have to make the decision of the best way to watch their favorite teams play. Following the above strategy is a little annoying, but also is doable and not crazy expensive.

NFL Market Cap

Sportico released their list of most valuable NFL teams today. From Sportico’s estimate, all 32 NFL teams combined are worth $190 billion, which includes team related businesses and real estate. If the NFL was a public company, a market cap of $190 billion would make them THE 36th MOST VALUABLE COMPANY IN AMERICA. The Cowboys have become the first sports franchise to be worth over $10 billion dollars ($10.32b) and the next closest NFL team is worth $7.79b (Los Angeles Rams). The full list:

  1. Dallas Cowboys, $10.32 billion
  2. Los Angeles Rams, $7.79 billion
  3. New York Giants, $7.65 billion
  4. New England Patriots, $7.31 billion
  5. San Francisco 49ers, $6.86 billion
  6. New York Jets, $6.8 billion
  7. Miami Dolphins, $6.76 billion
  8. Philadelphia Eagles, $6.75 billion
  9. Las Vegas Raiders, $6.7 billion
  10. Washington Commanders, $6.3 billion
  11. Chicago Bears, $6.26 billion
  12. Houston Texans, $6.01 billion
  13. Atlanta Falcons, $5.9 billion
  14. Seattle Seahawks, $5.59 billion
  15. Pittsburgh Steelers, $5.55 billion
  16. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, $5.5 billion
  17. Denver Broncos, $5.49 billion
  18. Kansas City Chiefs, $5.43 billion
  19. Green Bay Packers, $5.39 billion
  20. Minnesota Vikings, $5.32 billion
  21. Tennessee Titans, $5.29 billion
  22. Los Angeles Chargers, $5.22 billion
  23. Cleveland Browns, $5.14 billion
  24. Carolina Panthers, $5.13 billion
  25. Baltimore Ravens, $5.12 billion
  26. Buffalo Bills, $5.08 billion
  27. Indianapolis Colts, $4.99 billion
  28. Detroit Lions, $4.93 billion
  29. Arizona Cardinals, $4.85 billion
  30. New Orleans Saints, $4.79 billion
  31. Jacksonville Jaguars, $4.76 billion
  32. Cincinnati Bengals, $4.71 billion

An American’s Guide the Premier League Part 2

Now that you’ve picked a team to root for, how does the Premier League work?

No Playoffs: The league consists of the 20 best teams in English Football. They all play each other at home and away for a total of 38 games. Each game is 90 minutes plus stoppage time and either ends in a win, draw, or loss. A win is worth three points and a draw worth one. At the end of the season, whoever has the most points wins the league. Many Americans don’t understand a lack of playoffs and I was the same way. But what makes it cool is that each game has the importance of the entire season being on the line. Most of the games are on Saturday and Sunday mornings which is great because it gives you something to watch early on weekend mornings and mostly doesn’t interfere with the NFL, college football, or other US sports leagues. The tie breaker for two teams with the same record is goal difference, so teams are incentivized to continue playing hard even in blowout games.

Relegation: The league has many great ways of ensuring teams continue to compete throughout the year. The bottom three teams get relegated to the 2nd highest level of English soccer (the Championship) and three teams from the Championship join the Premier League next year.

Domestic Cups: Throughout the season there are two domestic cups, the FA Cup and the EFL Cup. The tournaments are a one and done format. The FA Cup is absolutely awesome, with SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE teams competing this past year. I had to write out the whole number so I could capitalize it. Why so many teams? It would take super long to explain the English soccer system, but I’ll try to do it quickly. Basically anyone can start an English soccer team. That means you and I could start one and due to the fact that each level of the English soccer pyramid has relegation and promotion (no promotion in the Premier League because it’s the top dog) we could theoretically make our way all the way up to the Premier League. Unlikely, but the fact it’s plausible is still awesome. Basically the top 9 levels of the system all play each other for the FA Cup. It’s the equivalent of every single college football team in the country competing in a one and done, winner takes all tournament. That means the Division Three MIT Engineers football team could take on FBS powerhouse Alabama Crimson Tide. The EFL Cup (also know as the Carabao Cup due to sponsorships) is the same format as the FA Cup, but just consists of the top four levels of English soccer.

European championships and qualification: Another incentive for teams to keep playing hard is qualification for next season’s European championships. The top four teams from the Premier League qualify for the Champions League which decides who’s the best team in all of Europe (and therefore the world). The top leagues from countries all over Europe have teams qualify and they play each other throughout the next season. Below the Champions League, there are other levels of European football teams can qualify for. The 5th place team and the FA Cup champion qualify for the 2nd highest level of European championships, the Europa League. If the FA Cup winner was one of the top 5 teams, the 6th place team gets into Europa League. Finally, the EFL Cup winner qualifies for the third tier of European Championships, the UEFA Europa Conference League. If that team already qualified, then the 6th place team will qualify for the Conference League or the 7th place team if the FA Cup winner led to the 6th place team making the Europa League. Basically, most teams have something to play for other than pride deep into the season.

How to watch as an American: If you want to really follow the Premier League you should get Peacock. They show most of the games and USA and NBC will also show some games.

There’s your primer from an American. If it sounds confusing, it starts to make more sense as you watch more games. There’s also some good YouTube videos and articles online that explain it well. The Premier League season starts up this Friday, August 16. Welcome to being a Premier League fan!

An American’s Guide to the Premier League Part 1

As I mentioned in last week’s article about the Premier League, if you want to get into English soccer and need a team, then pick one of the top 6 teams to follow. These are Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Liverpool. You might feel like a bandwagon, but it makes it a lot easier to get into soccer when the team you’re playing for is actually good. Plenty of us are cursed by being born into fandom of US sports teams that disappoint us and let us down. Don’t hurt yourself anymore by picking a team that will never win the Premier League or even compete. Also, very few American Premier League fans you meet will accuse you of being a bandwagon fan – they’ll just be happy to meet someone else who follows it.

Manchester United: Probably the most prestigious Premier League club, they are the equivalent of the New York Yankees. They have been historically great and won more league titles than any other club. However, they have been less dominant of late and haven’t won the league in over a decade. It’s an especially tough pill to swallow given the newfound success of their main rival who we’ll talk about next. If you like teams with an awesome history they are for you. Also, if you like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Glazer family also owns United.

Manchester City: The new kids on the block. They are basically the Kansas City Chiefs of the Premier League. For years, they were Man United’s little brother, but are now the best soccer team in the entire world. If there’s any team you’ll get shit for, for being a bandwagon fan, it’s probably them. However, if you want your team to dominate and win titles then this is your team. Also, if you like following a team that historically didn’t have a ton of success, but now is dominant, this is also the team for you.

Liverpool: They are similar to Man United in that they have an incredible history. Unlike Man United, they are having much more current success. If you like a team that is currently good and has great success in their past, then they are for you. A word of warning though, their coach just left, which could have a big impact this year. Also, Fenway Sports group owns them, so if you’re a fan of the Red Sox this is an easy team to pick. For any Lebron James fans, he’s a part owner of Fenway Sports Group, so this might also be the team for you.

Chelsea: Chelsea does not have the same long-term success as some other Premier League teams, but recently became one of the best clubs in the league winning 5 of the last 20 league titles. Unfortunately, the past two seasons have been tough, as their new owners have struggled to keep the team competitive. There is hope for the club, as the new owners seem very interested in making sure the team is competitive and have spent over a billion dollars since May 2022 in acquiring players. They currently have many young players with potential too. The other teams they own, the Dodgers and Lakers, have also had recent success, so it’s believable they will make the club successful in short order. If you are a fan of West London or the Dodgers and Lakers, Chelsea’s your team.

Arsenal: Arsenal has an incredible history, though not as prestigious as Liverpool and Man United. They have not won a league title for 20 years, but are one of, if not the most, promising young teams in the league. They are filled with young, exciting players and a young manager. If you want to a follow a club with an exiting history and future or really like North London, they are for you. The owner of the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, and Los Angeles Rams, owns Arsenal so if you like those teams, this could be the team for you.

Tottenham: They are definitely the biggest underdog team of the Top 6. They haven’t won a league title since the early 1960s and are known as under achievers. If you like North London or like an underdog team that’s trying to overcome a harrowed past, this is your team.

Next week, I’ll post a quick guide to the basics of how the Premier League works.

Drake Maye Ridiculousness

Quick blog to get my thoughts out. People freaking out about Drake Maye playing bad during TRAINING CAMP is the peak definition of July/August being slow sports months. There isn’t much to talk about, so everyone wants to over exaggerate to get attention and make headlines. Maye is a rookie on a rebuilding team – there’s going to be growing pains. The Pats drafted him at 3 for a reason. They want him to grow and develop over time. The idiotic talk of Joe Milton being better is crazy. Milton played in college for 6 years and only started once for a reason. He has an amazing arm that looks good during training camp when he can’t be sacked. Once full-speed games start being played, it’ll be obvious he’s not the guy. People need to calm down and be patient.

Derrick Henry’s Underrated Football Career

Derrick Henry may have the greatest total football career of any player ever and it never gets talked about.

In high school, he rushed for 12,124 yards (most by a high school player ever) and 153 rushing TDs (5th most ever, which is crazy to imagine 4 guys have scored more than that). He did all this playing high school football in Florida no less, one of the best football states in the country. His senior year, he set a state-record 4,261 yards and 55 touchdowns. In four years, he averaged 252.6 YPG, 8.7 YPA, and never rushed for fewer than 100 yards in a game. He was a High School All-American, a 5 Star recruit, and ranked the No. 1 athlete in the nation in 2013.

He went on to play for the Nick Saban coached Alabama Crimson Tide, which is the greatest college football dynasty of all-time. As a junior, he set the SEC rushing yards and TDs record and led the country in rushing yards and TDs. He won the Heisman Trophy, the Doak Walker award (best running back), the Maxwell Award (best player), Walter Camp Award (also best player), was a unanimous All-American, SEC OPOY, and led the Tide to the National Championship. He ranks 2nd all time in rushing yards and TDs in Bama history.

His NFL career is still going, but so far he’s rushed for 1,000+ yards 5 times, 2000 yards once, 10+ TDs 6 times, and led the league in rushing yards and TDs twice. He is a 4-time Pro Bowler, 2-time All-Pro, and was the 2020 OPOY. He is 13th all-time in rushing TDs and has the most career games with 200+ rushing yards.

He is one of the few players to be a high school All-American, college All-American, and NFL All-Pro. He is the only player to have 2,000 yard rushing seasons in high school, college, and the NFL. Any way you cut it, he has had an absolutely insane career and I can’t think of a football player who has utterly dominated from high school to the pros as much as he has.

An American’s Perception of English Soccer

Growing up my whole life, I always thought soccer was such a dumb, boring sport. Going to New England Revolution games and my friends’ high school soccer games never changed my mind on the subject. In addition to that, European soccer always seemed so confusing with a lack of playoffs and all the different competitions these teams played in. Furthermore, I never had a team to root for, which made it even harder to get into.

However, my opinion forever changed in January of 2022, when I got an in depth tour of Stamford Bridge and then went to a Chelsea FC – Tottenham match there later that month. I can honestly admit how wrong I was about soccer, because at that moment I realized I had never witnessed high-level soccer with the best players in the world. Me watching the MLS and concluding soccer was boring is the equivalent of a European going to a UMass football game and deciding football is a boring sport not worth watching.

The atmosphere at pubs around the stadium and during the actual game was like nothing I’d ever experienced. The entire crowd singing the same chants in unison was awesome and the game was super interesting to watch. Easily the most surprising thing was how much more physical English soccer is than I would’ve thought. I never could get why soccer players were always on the ground so much, but getting slid into by a guy going full speed when you’ve played 70 minutes of a soccer match isn’t fun, and it’s obviously going to take you a little bit to get up. Seeing Chelsea win 2-0 was absolutely awesome and I’ve been a Chelsea fan since, even if the last two seasons have been rough.

I know not everyone can get the chance to go to a game in person, but anyone who thinks soccer is boring or soft should give the Premier league a chance. It’s not as entertaining as football or hockey, but it’s defintely worth watching. The games go by much faster than American sports and they tend to play Saturday and Sunday mornings so it doesn’t interfere with watching other sports later in the day.

A word to the wise, pick one of the top 6 teams to follow if you’re going to become a fan. These are Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Liverpool. You might feel like a bandwagon, but it makes it a lot easier to get into soccer when the team you’re playing for is actually good. Plenty of us are cursed by being born into fandom of US sports teams that disappoint us and let us down. Don’t hurt yourself anymore by picking a team that will never win the Premier League or even compete.

The next two weeks, I’ll post a quick guide to those six teams and how the Premier League works.

Is the 2020 QB Class the Best Ever?

The 2020 NFL Draft Class of QBs is starting to look like they have what it takes to become the best ever. All five of the below QBs have received massive deals upwards of $50 M a year and four of them have been Pro Bowlers. Let’s dive into the stars of the class:

Joe Burrow, Cinncinatti Bengals: Round 1 Pick 1

Burrow is widely regarded as a Top 5 QB in the league, with his only kryptonite being his health. When healthy, he is the only QB other than Tom Brady that has shown he can consistently best Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. In his only two fully healthy seasons, he has made it to the AFC Championship twice, the Super Bowl once, and has a 5-2 record in the playoffs. He also has the best completion percentage in NFL history.

Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins: Round 1 Pick 5

The most controversial QB from this draft. There are some who consider him a great QB, and others who think he is average and aided by a great coach and offense. The past two seasons he has upped his game and led the league in passer rating in 2022 and passing yards in 2023. He is 5th in career completion percentage.

Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers: Round 1 Pick 6

He is possibly the most talented QB in the entire league. He has shown how brilliant he can be, but has dealt with terrible coaching and many injuries to players around him. Despite this, he has thrown the most passing yards and 2nd most passing TDs in league history by a player in their first 4 years. Jim Harbaugh is only going to help elevate his game and help him start winning more.

Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers: Round 1 Pick 26

He was an extremely controversial draft pick, but it looks genius now. He still is a little bit of an unknown, having only played one year as a starter. He took over from Aaron Rodgers and played great. The last 8 games of the year, he completed 70.3% of his passes, had 18 TDs and just 1 INT. Unlike Favre and Rodgers, he made the playoffs in first year and won a game.

Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles: Round 2 Pick 53

His success has been the most surprising since Carson Wentz looked like the franchise QB in Philly when he was drafted. He took over from Wentz and has been great. In 2022, he was the MVP runner up, an All-Pro, and led the Eagles to a Super Bowl appearance. He has 41 rushing TDs already in 4 seasons.