NFL Upholds Tom Brady Four Game Suspension

As if it will come as a surprise, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will uphold Patriots QB Tom Brady’s 4-game suspension for his participation in/knowledge of “Deflategate,” in which the team played with footballs below the required PSI, the league announced today.

What comes next:

Backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will stand in for Brady during the first four games of the 2015 season. Is he up for the challenge? That remains to be seen, but I look forward to seeing him take the field in the fall.

In the meantime, the war between Brady and Goodell may not be over. Tom Brady and the NFL Player’s Association may take the case to court.

The Experiences of Female NFL Fans in a Male Dominated Sports Culture

While female sports fans have existed since the beginning of sporting events in history, they face many obstacles to this day when trying to engage in a male-dominated American sports culture. Societal gender norms have been established that grant men full ownership of the sports fandom, leaving female sports fans struggling to be welcomed into this space. Aside from grabbling with their minority status in the sports fandom, female fans must also constantly assert their knowledge of sport to prove themselves worthy to male fans that constantly challenge their authenticity as sports fans. Women fans are also marginalized in media discussion of sports, and are almost never represented.

In the FIFA Master 11^th Edition study, “Sports Fandom: What do Women Want,” researchers used a multi-sport approach to identify the issues and experiences of women engaging in the sports fandom. The study was of female fans of male sports teams. According to the study, sport has been a male-dominated domain for decades, where women have struggled to gain admission and acceptance in a masculine territory. When women step into this domain, they are faced with several obstacles. First, women find that their heterosexual femininity is challenged when they show interest in sports, as sports are stereotypically masculine. Women also face logistical hurdles they must overcome to enjoy sport that many men do not face. Women may encounter difficulty finding time for sports while juggling their traditional responsibilities as wives and mothers, said the FIFA Master study. They may find themselves excluded from sport as a result of cultural expectations. To overcome this exclusion, women must gain the respect of males by speaking the bantering male language of sport – which can also be exclusionary.

Perhaps, according to the FIFA Master study, the biggest obstacle women face as sports fans is perceived inauthenticity from male fans. Many women are not accepted into fan communities because they are accused of being inauthentic. Women are consumed by a nagging feeling of being on trial. An example of this, according to the study, is when female NFL fans are constantly reminded that they do not understand the game. Female football fans are stereotyped as the ignorant significant others or female relatives to all-knowing male viewers. In the article “Parents Talk Back: Being a Female Sports Fan in a Man’s Sports World” by Aisha Sultan, Emily Albertson described growing up an avid sports fan, but still constantly being tested about her fandom. She described constantly facing questions and challenges to her knowledge, continuously having to prove herself an authentic fan. If she passed the first hurdle, the bar would be raised.

Women’s experiences with the NFL vary from watching in person, to televised sport. According to the FIFA Master study, by watching sports on TV, females are given open access to the male-dominated world of sport without the negative consequences of watching in person. According to a University of Michigan study on student sports fans and athletes, men and women (44 and 32 percent) find football to be the television favorite. In the U.S., females make up a large number of the fanbase of professional sports: NHL (40%), MLB (37%), NBA (35%) and the NFL (34%), indicating that these sports must be doing something right in terms of attracting and retaining female fans. Still, the Cornell study “Female Millennial Interest in and Consumption of Sports Media & Imperatives and Pressures in the Sports Media Market” explains that women are forced to watch sports and sports media through a male-constructed lens. The discussion of sport on TV and in print media is a largely male space, lacking a woman’s perspective. TV sports talk programs are a space where men perform masculinity by interacting with other men, for other men. The “acceptable” roles for women in this space are that of the cheerleader or sideline reporter, and are often better known for their appearance than their knowledge of the sport, according to the FIFA Master study. According to the Cornell study, increasing the number of women in sports media may help create content that appeals to females as well as males. When women are offered a space in sports media, research according to the Wilkes University study, “The Credibility of Female Sports Broadcasters: The Perception of Gender in a Male-Dominated Profession,” has shown that there is a gender bias towards female sports broadcasters, who are seen as less credible than their male counterparts. A survey found that 85% of females working in the sports journalism field felt as though they are not seen as equals because of their gender.

While males can participate in the sports fandom without being perceived as inauthentic, and challenged because of this perception, women have much more difficulty finding a place in sports culture. Women and men do not experience sports in the same way. Women are marginalized in sports culture to a great extent, on a personal and institutional level. On a personal level, women are made to feel ashamed to act according to the same way men do. If women blatantly and deliberately display any sort of passion towards the game, they are challenged or judged. The consequence of this is a sports culture where almost half of the fandom is left out. At an interactional level, this increases the perceived gender divide. Female fans who are perceived as the unknowledgeable girlfriend, sister, or wife, are unable to interact in a healthy way with other male sports fans. This gender divide is apparent even at the institutional level, where most females in the sports journalism industry are limited to sideline reporter jobs. There are almost no female voices on sports talk shows, perpetuating the notion that women are not valid sports fans, and that their voices don’t matter. The consequence is that women’s voices are left out altogether, and half of the sports fandom is not represented.

NFL Hires First Female Official

The NFL announced this week that Sarah Thomas has been hired as the league’s first full-time on-field official. The Mississippi native will be a line judge for the 2015 season.

Thomas began working with high school football in 1999, moving up the ranks to become the first female to officiate a major college football bowl game. (which game, when?) She also has experience officiating NFL camps and practices.

Most surprisingly, Thomas said that she doesn’t feel it has been harder for her because she is a female.

“I think that we are just out here working as officials. … I think just on our credentials, just as officials, I think that’s what moves us along, not because of our gender or our race,” she told ABC News.

The wife, mother, and pharmaceutical representative said that the challenges she faced while rising through the rankings were shared equally among all new officials, saying she seldom felt put down or discouraged by players, coaches, or other officials. Still, I expect there will be some fans who will question her position in the “man’s world” of football. Along with the eight other first-time referees, it is inevitable that Thomas will have some calls questioned. The difference is that Thomas’ calls may be questioned not for the call, but because she is a woman.

When it was announced that Thompson was hired by Conference USA, four women applied for officiating jobs that afternoon, which no women had ever done before. The NFL’s vice president of officiating, Dean Blandino, said he hopes that Thomas will not be the only female NFL officiator for long. According to Blandino there are currently 10 to 15 women at different levels of officiating who are on the NFL’s radar for hire within the next few years.

“I don’t want Sarah to come in and us to be waiting 10 years for another female official,” he said.

In the meantime, Thomas hopes to go unnoticed on the field. She said she’ll continue to wear her long hair tucked under her cap, which she began doing to blend in with other officials, and now does out of habit.

The NFL’s hiring of Thomas comes at the heels of the NBA working women into their officiating crew. The NBA has two current full-time female officials – Violet Palmer and Lauren Holtkamp. Palmer and Dee Katner became the NBA’s first female referees back in 1997 (also becoming the first female officials in any major American sports league). Since then, more and more women have been officiating NFL games, and their gender has gone fairly unnoticed – but not always. In February, Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul was under fire from the National Basketball Referees Association for being disrespectful toward women following comments he made on Holtkamp.

As far as the other major American sports are concerned, there are currently no female umpires in the MLB, and there has only been one female referee in men’s professional hockey, and she stopped working in 1999.

Hopefully hiring Thomas will set the precent for the hiring of more female officials in the NFL and across major and minor American sports leagues.

Goodell Addresses Abuse in NFL

The past few weeks of NFL offseason have been filled with signings, scouting combines, and a lot of speculation. One of this week’s highlights (if you can call it that) was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s press conference which wrapped up a three-day owners’ meeting in Phoenix, AZ.

Coming off of a tumultuous year of scandals and controversies, Goodell was not short on potential talking points. Arguably the biggest issue the NFL faced this year was the way in which the organization dealt with multiple occasions of abuse by its players. Goodell addressed these cases of abuse in his conference this week. As per usual, he really didn’t have anything constructive or informative to say on this particular issue.

To recap, Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list after being indicted for reckless or negligent injury to a child for disciplining his 4-year-old son with a “switch” in May. He played one game during the season and later pleaded no contest to the charges.

According to Goodell, April 15 is the relevant timeline for a decision on whether or not Peterson should be allowed to return to the NFL.

“We’re going to continue the evaluation. We’ll have our people and I expect to meet with Adrian before we make a final determination on his status, but we expect to keep that timetable,” he said in the press conference.

In July, Carolina Panther’s Greg Hardy was found guilty of a brutal assault on his ex-girlfriend in which he dragged her by her hair, choked and beat her, and threatened to kill her. He was signed by the Dallas Cowboys in a one-year deal this week.

Goodell responded that, “any club was free to sign Greg Hardy. They understood that we were reviewing his case for potential discipline. That continues. We are trying to get as many facts as we possibly can to make the most informed decision we can, so that we can uphold the standards that we put forth in our personal-conduct policy. I expect that will conclude sometime in the near future and we’ll make a decision shortly after.”

The most high-profile instance of abuse this year came in February 2014 when Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens knocked out his now-wife Janay in an elevator, proceeding to drag her unconscious body out of it. Goodell responded with a slap-on-the-wrist two game suspension of Rice – which he extended only after TMZ videos from inside and outside the elevator went viral. Following a public outcry that Rice was let off too easy, he was suspended indefinitely by the NFL and released by the Ravens, a movement that was overturned in November, but Rice has not been picked up by a team.

Following public outcry, the NFL did respond with new policies to deal with cases of abuse in the league, which include a mandatory six-game suspension.

For me, Goodell’s “in the near future” response to questions about a timeline of deciding disciplinary action for Hardy and Peterson seems a bit loose, but I do look forward to hearing the league’s concrete decisions on these cases. Ideally Goodell would have addressed the owners and said “look – there is a clear problem. And here is what we’re doing to fix it.” Instead they were met with the typical “we’re working on it” response, which seems to further sweep the issue under the rug. There also continues to be little discussion in the league on why cases of assault and abuse are so prevalent in this sport. In any case, the way in which the league responds to the current instances of abuse it is investigating will set an important precedent going forward.

Understanding the NFL Salary Cap & Cutting Veterans from the Roster

Thirty-two teams. Four divisions. One ring. Millions of dollars. (Cue Game of Thrones theme). It’s a game of money in the NFL, and you play it well or you lose.

New England Patriots fans were in a fervor this morning when news broke that the Pats would be declining to pick up defensive tackle Vince Wilfork’s contract option. New England fans especially have a false sense of permanency, but who can blame them when the team hasn’t faced a permanent QB, head coach, or ownership change in a decade. Under these circumstances it’s easy to forget that in the game of money, nothing is ever permanent.

This time of year there is a lot of movement among NFL teams who are trying to make their budget work. Peyton Manning took a $4 million pay cut this week for the 2015 season with the Broncos (no tears – he’ll still be earning $15 million). Matt Cassel will trade his Minnesota jersey for a Buffalo one, which will give the Vikings some wiggle room without Cassel’s paycheck. These are only a few out of dozens of moves currently occurring in the offseason as teams rework their budgets, including cutting veteran players and fan-favorites like Wilfork from the roster.

Wilfork broke the news this morning in a statement via Twitter, in which he said, “I’m in a good place, I have a good relationship with the Patriots organization.” Wilfork has been a Patriot for 11 seasons, and has made a lasting impact on the franchise, its fans, and the community. Wilfork distinguished himself as a locker room leader for the team, and amassed a social media following where he shared family moments with his fans. Even though Wilfork is a staple to the community in Foxboro, it comes down to only one thing this time of year: money. By declining Wilfork’s option, the Pats created $8.06 million in salary-cap space.

This is how it works: The NFL has a salary cap, or upper limit on how much teams can spend on players. The 2015 cap is set at $143.28 million. The salary cap figure is annually derived from NFL revenue, which players receive between 47 and 48.5% of. The NFL continues to grow larger every year, and as its revenue rises, so does the salary cap. The cap has risen over $20 million since 2013, which has resulted in NFL players earning more and more annually. Without a salary cap, the NFL might look more like the MLB, with certain big market teams that are able to afford to buy the best free agents year after year.

Tony Romo has the highest cap hit in the league at $27,773,000. He earns $18 million annually, on average. To put in into perspective: A surgeon will earn $233,150 annually.

The easiest way for teams to save money under the salary cap is to cut players, restructure contracts, or for players to take pay cuts like Manning. Patriots QB Tom Brady also took a pay cut last year (and the four-time Super Bowl winner still makes less than Manning, but I digress). Teams can also “franchise” players into a one-year deal to keep them from becoming free agents, paying them a set amount depending on their position.

Wilfork was one of many who have and will continue to be cut to save money under the salary cap. When your price tag becomes too high, your role with the team is reevaluated. We should not forget that the priority of the league is fiscal growth – and that teams will continue to make decisions with money on the mind – not the fans.

From the field to the screen: NFL goes Hollywood

This week’s weird sports rumor from the world of tabloids comes from Star Magazine and a report of a possible post-NFL Hollywood acting career for New England Patriots QB Tom Brady.

Whether Brady’s Hollywood dreams are real or not, he wouldn’t be the first NFL player to transcend pop-culture categories and act. There have been plenty of athletes who have gone on to act when their career in the sports world ended, from cameos to full-length films. There’s also college football stars whose dreams of playing professional ball turned into them pretending to on the screen as stunt-doubles and stand-ins. Think, the guy who wanted to play football, but instead earns a living by getting tackled over and over during the filming of a commercial so that the star QB doesn’t have to.

The relationship between the NFL and Hollywood is so tightly knit that there is an NFL Pro Hollywood Boot Camp, a filmmaking workshop for players who aspire to make a career in the movies. The workshop includes classroom and hands-on instruction in moviemaking and the film industry. The players work directly with industry professionals to learn the ins and outs of filmmaking and what it takes to be a Hollywood actor. Tom Brady didn’t participate in the last Hollywood boot camp – maybe because he’s already so confident in his acting skills. Plenty of NFL players go on to become actors, turning their on-field stardom into on-camera stardom, but what’s more impressive is the players whose careers inspire films about them. Notably, Michael Ohr’s zero to hero story inspired The Blind Side, Vince Papale inspired Invincible, and the friendship of Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers which inspired the tearjerker Brian’s Song. On a less-serious note we also have Marshawn Lynch’s budget “biopic” to look forward to.

As far as Tom Brady’s acting career is concerned, The Boston Herald picked up the story, which claims that Brady, who “knows he only has a few seasons left before retirement,” has his sights on becoming a movie star. Brady has already dipped his feet into acting, appearing in The Entourage and Ted 2, set to premier next summer.

He has at least one fan in Mark Wahlberg, who said, “we have an amazing performance from none other than the greatest quarterback of all time. He plays himself, but he does an amazing job. Funny, funny moment.” Tom Brady’s bromance with Wahlberg could continue to be his gateway to Hollywood superstardom. Only In Boston published a list of four movies in 2015 that Tom Brady should star in. What a great time to be alive.

While a Tom Brady acting career would be pretty awesome to witness, I’d definitely pay the $12 to go to Showcase Deluxe at Patriots Place to watch a film about the Bob Kraft/Bill Belichick/Tom Brady legacy.

The Rooney Rule & Front Office Diversity in the NFL

The NFL is far from the perfect organization, but one area that needs serious improvement is diversity. I’m not talking about diversifying the players – but the front office. It’s high time the league puts some serious work into improving the diversity of its highest offices.

Under the Rooney Rule, the NFL must interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and senior football operation positions. The rule does not, however, provide a necessary quota of minority hires. There is much debate over whether the Rooney Rule is working to diversify the NFL, or if it is just an attempt by the league to appear that it cares about diversity.

The Rooney Rule was enacted after a 2002 report by Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Cyrus Mehri revealed that black head coaches are held to a higher standard than their white counterparts, and are denied a fair chance to compete for head coaching jobs as a consequence.

In a recent New York Times article, David Walstein explored the successes and shortfalls of the Rooney Rule. One of the biggest issues with the rule is the clear disparity between interviewing and hiring. While teams are required to interview at least one minority candidate, the league is dominated by white coaches. There have been slow improvements to diversity in the wake of the rule, however. According to the article, “among the league’s hundreds of assistant coaches, 16 percent were members of minority groups in 1991; that proportion increased to 36 percent in 2007 and 29 percent in 2013.”

This year there were only six minority head coaches in the league – but 68% of NFL plays are African American.

In addition to the lack of minority head coaches in the league, the vast majority of NFL franchise owners are white. All but one owner of NFL teams is white. (Jaguars owner Shahid Khan is Pakistani). While ownership has nothing to do with hiring practices, it’s worth pointing out that the higher you go in the league, the less diverse it gets.

In addition to the Rooney Rule, the league works with the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation, whose mission is to “promote diversity and equality of job opportunity in the coaching, front office and scouting staffs of NFL teams.” The foundation, named after the first African American coach, works with the league to develop hiring guidelines and advocate for policy changes in hiring practices. It remains unclear whether the foundation have made any serious gains in diversifying the league.

While the Rooney Rule has certainly helped to foster diversity in the NFL, it is not a permanent, stand-alone solution to the problem.

The power of the media in vilifying NFL draft picks

Draft Day. Each NFL franchise sits down to select newly eligible college football players to draft onto their team. It seems that every year, some prominent sports journalists choose one or two big-name players to hype up before the draft. If people are talking about the draft, people will watch the draft.

In 2010, Tim Tebow was the chosen one. The Heisman Trophy-receiving Florida Gators’ quarterback was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 2010 draft, went on to lead the team as starting QB through a winning streak, taking them to their first playoff game since 2005. During the offseason he was traded to the New York Jets after the Broncos acquired Peyton Manning, where he received little playing time and was released in 2013. Tebow went on to sign with the New England Patriots, but was cut after a month with the team.

Despite Tebow’s success as a college football player, his NFL career was so short-lived that any non-football fan would be surprised that his name was talked about at all. The hype about Tim Tebow was more about his life off the field than on, however. His devout Christian beliefs garnered so much attention that they overshadowed his career as an athlete.

On the other side of the coin we had Michael Sam. The University of Missouri defensive lineman finished his senior season 12-2, won the Cotton Bowl, and was named a first-team all-American defensive player of the year. Before the 2014 NFL draft, Sam publicly declared that he is gay. The sports media became a frenzy of stories about Sam being the first openly gay NFL player – a story that needed to be told, but overshadowed his achievements on the field, just as Tebow’s Christianity did. Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams, but was cut by the end of training camp. He then spent time on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad before he was waived.

Most recently, we saw the rise and fall of Johnny “Football” Manziel, comparable to the Tebow hype. Manziel’s potential NFL success was so hyped up that Drake’s song “Draft Day” starts off with the line, “Draft Day, Johnny Manziel.” What set Manziel apart was that the hype that surrounded him was mainly focused on his potential success in the NFL. He didn’t live up to the hype, however. In his 2014 rookie season, he lost every game he played in before succumbing to a hamstring injury. In February 2015, Manziel voluntarily checked himself into an unknown rehabilitation center.

What Tebow, Sam, and Manziel have in common is their stamp of “distraction” by the NFL. There is a sort of unofficial rule in the league that a player’s talent on the field must outweigh their “distracting” coverage off the field.” Sports analysts treated Tebow and Sam differently – generally, Tebow was ridiculed for his open faith, while Sam was praised for his open sexuality. Regardless of their treatment in the media, they were talked about, which was arguably one of the factors that lead to the ultimate downfall of their NFL careers. 

What comes first, the raw talent or the media hype?

Richard Sherman – the guy sports media loves to hate

As the game clock ticked to an end, the Seattle Seahawks were lined up at their 1-yard line, preparing to win their second consecutive Super Bowl. Seattle’s coach Pete Carroll just needed to make the call. Hand the ball to “beast mode” Marshawn Lynch and win the game. Instead, Carroll asked QB Russell Wilson to throw the ball. On the 1-yard line, Wilson threw an awkward slant pass, and rather than connect with Ricardo Lockette, the ball landed directly into the hands of Patriots undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler. Tensions were so high after the game-ending INT that a hockey-esque fight broke out . As the game clock ran out, one more unexpected thing occurred. When Tom Brady took a knee, Seahawks corner back Richard Sherman was the first to shake his hand.

Lets rewind. In 2012, the Patriots fell to Seattle 23-24 in a regular-season match-up. A barrage of trash-talking ensued, famously coming to a head with Sherman’s “U Mad Bro?” post-game tweet directed at Brady. This is old news now, but Sherman has maintained a reputation of being a smack-talking troublemaker in the NFL. After Seattle’s 23-17 NFC Championship win over San Francisco in 2014, Sherman angrily ranted to Erin Andrews in a post-game sideline interview, calling himself the “best corner in the league.” Instantly, Sherman was pegged into the stereotype of the angry black man.

It’s much too narrow-minded to continue to view Sherman as a trash-talking thug. Sherman scored a 1400 on the SAT and graduated high school as salutatorian with a 4.2 GPA, going on to earn a degree from Stanford University. Despite his achievements, sports media has focused on his unsportsmanlike, “thuggish” trash-talking. According to iQ media, the word “thug” was used 625 on local TV and radio stations while talking about Sherman’s post-49ers rant in 2014.

Time Magazine called Sherman one of the top 100 pioneers of influence in 2014. “Sherman’s rant solidified his reputation as one of the brashest and most candid players in the buttoned-up NFL. More important, it sparked a national conversation about race, stereotyping and sportsmanship,” writes Sean Gregory. “When critics labeled the dreadlocked defensive star a “thug,” Sherman, a Compton, Calif.–raised Stanford graduate, engaged the debate, asking if the term was today’s way of calling him the N word? In a heartbeat, Sherman altered the discourse and emerged as the smartest voice in the room.”

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/01/richard-sherman-compares-thug-racial-slur

Sherman’s pigeonholed reputation does him little justice. He is brazen, sure. He is unafraid to get in your face, to be loud, and to be proud of his accomplishments on and off the field. But that’s precisely why he should be respected – or at least not racially labeled. He’s unafraid to speak his mind in a league where white players can do the same without fear of being pegged as a troublemaker. The NFL has seen its fair share of thugs, from Aaron Hernandez to Michael Vick – but Richard Sherman is not one of them. You don’t have to like him, but you shouldn’t fall for the trope that sports media has placed him in.

Super Bowl XLIX: Youth vs. Experience

Ozzy the bear predicted a Patriots win. Penguins at the Cincinnati Zoo chose the Seahawks. Animal predictions aside, it’s time to make your bets because Super Bowl XLIX is a only day away. The New England Patriots will meet defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks in Arizona on Sunday in the final matchup that NFL fans have waited for all season. If you’re torn on which team to put your money on (or you’re just not sure who to cheer for), here is a brief look at Sunday’s matchup.

The Championship

Ahh yes, the less-talked about but equally as exciting championship round of the playoffs. The Patriots earned their ticket to the Super Bowl in a 45-7 point win against the Indianapolis Colts. Subsequently, New England was accused of cheating in a scandal that Twitter took to calling #Deflategate, where the Pats were accused of deflating footballs in the AFC Championship game. Sports media spent the next two weeks speculating, and reporting on assumptions and opinions from sources with little to no credit (Michael Rosenberg, I’m looking at you). P.S., adding “gate” to a word doesn’t make it a scandal, people. Watergate wasn’t about water. Still, it would be doing the Patriots a huge disservice to say their slaughtering of the Colts was because of a football with a below-regulation PSI, and even Colts tight end Dwayne Allen agrees. Post-game controversy aside, NFC Championship game was arguably one of the most exciting (or upsetting, if you’re a Packers fan) games of the post-season. Seattle, by some miracle, erased their 0-16 deficit against Green Bay in a 28-22 overtime comeback win. If Seattle wins tomorrow, they will become the first team since New England in 2003-04 to win back-to-back Super Bowls.

Old Dynasty vs. New Dynasty

Owner Bob Kraft’s Patriots have been a force to be reckoned with in the league. The team, which was established in 1959, has eight Super Bowl appearances, twelve AFC East titles since 2001, and have not had a losing season since 2000 when Bill Belichick signed on as head coach. Tom Brady and the Patriots also won three Super Bowls in four years. The Seahawks are a much younger team than the Patriots, established in 1974. Some would say that the team saw a rebirth in 2012 when they acquired current quarterback Russell Wilson. Seattle is owned by Paul Allen, and coached by Pete Carroll, who was the head coach in New England before Belichick from 1997-99. The Seahawks have won only three conference championships, and have appeared in just two Super Bowls, numbers that wane in comparison to the Patriots’ dynasty.

The Frontmen

It would be downright unfair to compare QB-to-QB in this matchup. I could list Tom Brady’s accomplishments with the Patriots in his 15 seasons, but it wouldn’t be fair to Seattle’s 26-year-old Russell Wilson, who has only played three seasons. Despite the huge gap in experience, TB12 boasts a passer rating of 97.4 and Wilson rates 95.0. I think Wilson’s career might rival Brady’s in the future, but tomorrow we’ll see how the matchup plays out head-to-head in the first-ever postseason meeting of the two teams…I’m with Ozzy the bear.