In Defense of Tom Brady and the Unretirements of Legends

Tom Brady announced tonight that he will unretire and head back to Tampa Bay to help the Buccaneers franchise try for its third-ever Super Bowl title. While there are likely fans and pundits alike who believe the G.O.A.T. should have stayed in his rocking chair, Tom Terrific deserves to go out on his own terms.

When I told someone I know the news of Brady's comeback, he said when the quarterback finally does call it quits, we might remember that he used to be good, not that he still is. But a player who's won almost twice as many Super Bowls as any other quarterback in one of the most competitive sports leagues in the world has earned the right to try to be remembered in whatever way he wants to.

Plus, it's not easy for any athlete who loves their sport to call it quits, let alone the G.O.A.T. I'm nowhere near as talented as Brady, but I remember feeling almost like I'd missed an appointment the first time fall rolled around and I wasn't on a football team anymore. Brady can control when he walks away as much or more than anyone who's ever played the game. The only football player who comes to mind as being able to walk away on his terms was John Elway, who ended his career with two straight Super Bowl wins. Why shouldn't Brady come back and give it another shot if retirement didn't feel right, especially after an early exit in last season's playoffs? The legend, after all, has more than earned the right to go out the way he wants to, not the way armchair general managers might tell him to.

Washington Now in Command

The NFL's Washington, D.C. football team today revealed its new nickname that replaces the racist moniker the team employed from 1933 until 2019. The team is now the Washington Commanders.

I like the new nickname because it feels important and powerful, as if the team is a group of leaders on a critical mission. At the same time, it's not overly important or stiff. "Commanders" is a dynamic military nickname, reminding me of the San Diego Fleet in the now-defunct AAF.

The uniforms are sharp, with a new stencil-style font for the "W" on the side of the helmet. The home jerseys declare "Commanders" on the front, using a line above and below the name to make it stand out.

My initial reaction upon seeing a leaked photo of a Commanders t-shirt last night was that the nickname would jibe with the American tradition more if the team's colors were red, white, and blue. But I'm happy the team's primary colors remain the longtime burgundy and gold. Perhaps the franchise can come up with an alternate uniform and logo that includes red, white, and blue to keep the team tradition alive and simultaneously bring an important piece of America to the franchise. They are based in America's capital, after all.

How Would an Aaron Rodgers Move to Denver Affect Fantasy Football Values?

Now that Nathaniel Hackett has been hired as head coach of the Denver Broncos, it's fair to ask whether Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will follow his now former offensive coordinator from Titletown to Mile High. Should Rodgers suit up for Denver next fall, there would be a massive fantasy football impact on the Orange Crush.

For starters, the wide receiver room in Denver would get a huge boost. Denver's leading pass catcher last year was Courtland Sutton, with just 776 yards on 58 receptions, 46th-best in the NFL. Whether next year's team leader is Sutton or someone more along the lines of Jerry Jeudy, those numbers would figure to see a dramatic increase. Of course, it's unlikely that Sutton or Jeudy end up being Rodgers' top target. Pro Football Network tweeted a couple of days ago that, per Tony Pauline, Rodgers wants Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling to play with him in 2022, so a Denver offense next year could include, say, Adams, MVS, and Jeudy and make Sutton and Tim Patrick irrelevant for fantasy purposes. In that case, Denver becomes Green Bay West, with Adams and Valdes-Scantling in their normal roles and Jeudy playing the part of Allen Lazard, still an upgrade from his 2021 season.

There's also potential for Noah Fant's stats to see an increase. In the past, tight ends have had big years catching passes from Rodgers, especially Robert Tonyan in 2020, who scored 11 times on just 3.3 catches per game. Like nearly all tight ends in the modern NFL, the fantasy role of a pass-catching tight end is far from a certain, but Fant could be a late-round flier who goes boom if the fantasy gods are feeling right. Tonyan is also a free agent, however, and could decide to follow Hackett, especially if Rodgers, Adams, and MVS head west too.

Finally, there's the running back room. Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon combined for 1,812 yards on exactly 203 carriers apiece last year. Should both remain with Denver in 2022, their total combined rushes would likely decrease given what would be a heightened ability in the passing game for the team as a whole, thereby reducing their fantasy value as individuals. Gordon, though, is a free agent, and a new team for him would provide a significant increase to Williams' upside regardless of Rodgers' superb ability to get the ball to his pass catchers.

So while Denver's choice of QB for 2022 is still up in the air, the selection of Aaron Rodgers would have a huge impact on the fantasy football relevance of nearly every offensive skill player on the Broncos' roster. What ends up happening will ultimately determine the fantasy value of many Denver players in 2022.

Fantasy Drafts I'd Love

There's nothing quite like the annual rite of the fantasy football draft, and now there are websites like OnlineDraft that can make anything into a game.

I love the superhero drafts that the staff at The Ringer and Matthew Berry and Robert Downey Jr. have done in the past, and the tastiest draft of all might be the SB Nation Thanksgiving draft.

So what else can we make into a snake-style draft that can both thrill and cause copious eyerolls? Here are some ideas, mostly twists on the ones discussed above:

1. Easter foods - There's at least one draft for Easter candy, but there don't seem to be any drafts for Easter food. As one of my high school friends once noted, it's really a spring Thanksgiving. Ham is as big on Easter as turkey and stuffing are in November, so ham could be the Christian McCaffrey of draft day.

2. Holidays - All the major holidays like Christmas and the 4th of July will be taken well before the end of the first round, but there are more than enough holidays to fill out double-digit rounds, and I'm hearing that National Ice Cream Day is a solid fourth-round pick.

3. New Superheroes - We could narrow the player pool to only those heroes who appear in Marvel's "phase 4" or later. Or maybe a draft could include only X-Men characters. The possibilities for superhero drafts are sky high.

4. All-Time Fantasy Football - If we could find a way to get Jerry Rice, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Pat Mahomes into the same fantasy game, the first round of the draft alone would be epic! Would Jerry Rice go first overall? When would the first QB go off the board? We need to find a way to make this happen!

5. Pick Your Own - What else could we draft? Next Gen football stats, sports announcers, offensive linemen.... Just like Captain America, I could do this all day!

Improving on the Already Terrific NFL RedZone

NFL RedZone is one of the best inventions in the history of professional football, but there are ways that it could be even better. 

One of the things I find myself doing constantly during NFL Sundays is checking my phone to see how my fantasy team is playing. Am I winning my matchup? Has my player's long TD catch been accounted for yet? How many points, exactly, do my players have?

It's because RedZone only shows total fantasy points for full PPR leagues that I end up checking on that last question. But what if RedZone included point totals for multiple types of fantasy leagues? (1) Including half PPR totals on the bottom line during the broadcast in addition to full PPR stats would give fans easier access to a more diverse array of fantasy numbers.

And why stop there? NFL Network's marketing department can go to work to find out which fantasy formats are most popular or growing and cater to their largest fan bases the most while also spending time calculating stats for even the most unique scoring formats.

Maybe in the future the NFL will even develop its programming so fans can customize the stats they see while watching RedZone. Then every fan could get exactly what they ask for, and perhaps RedZone would increase its reported weekly viewership of 1 to 1.5 million (2). The sky is the limit for NFL RedZone when it comes to fantasy football.

1- Let's be honest, I'd still be checking my fantasy team on my phone, even if RedZone added these features.

2 - According to The Athletic's Richard Deitsch in "The Future of NFL RedZone beyond episode No. 200: Media Circus": NFL RedZone

Improving Fantasy Football

Every week, millions of Americans set their fantasy football lineups in hopes of a head-to-head victory over one of their friends. They check their score, root for their players, and banter jokingly over the best waiver wire pickups for the week. But despite the enjoyment that so many people take away from fantasy, there are still tweaks that can make it an even more interesting and equitable game.

To start, I'd like to add a little more flavor to the kicking game. I propose that leagues give kickers six full points for a field goal longer than 59 yards and award bonuses for game-winning or record-breaking field goals. The public league I play in already gives bonuses for field goals of 40-49 and 50+ yards, so why not reward special teamers who make even lengthier kicks? I also think fantasy players should receive an additional one-point bonus for any game-winning field goal. That 39-yarder as time expires? It gets you four. And when someone makes the first 67-yard field goal in NFL history, it should count for eight fantasy points: six for the kick and two for breaking the all-time record.

Speaking of breaking records, I would also like fantasy managers to earn bonuses for any record that is broken or milestone that is set by a player they manage during a game. Prominence of the record will play an important role in determining the amount of the bonus. Tom Brady's 600th TD earlier in the year would be worth somewhere around eight to 10 fantasy points, four for the passing TD and four to six for the milestone. Justin Tucker's 66-yarder would be a two-point bonus for the distance record, while an RB surpassing the all-time rushing record would earn somewhere around eight to 10 bonus points. Among other things, this adds to the intrigue and fantasy-relevance of players who are still legends on the field, but no longer produce in fantasy on a weekly basis. Drafts and waiver wires will be more competitive whenever record-breaking opportunities come up as fantasy managers compete for the players likely to receive large bonuses. Managers will need to make difficult roster decisions about who to keep or drop in favor of the legends of the game.

There is caveat here that needs to be addressed, and that's the fact that there could be leagues somewhere in this fantasy football multiverse that already use rules like these. There's no easy way to check an entire planet's leagues, although I have to admit there's something about the task that I find enticing.

As great a game as fantasy football is, it can still use a few tweaks. I think awarding kickers additional bonuses and giving out additional points for record-breaking and milestone performances will make the game even more interesting and add more skill-based incentives to the sport.

Julian Edelman and the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Julian Edelman this week retired from professional football after failing his physical with the New England Patriots. Chatter immediately began as to whether or not the former slot receiver was worthy of a spot among the immortals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Edelman presents an interesting case as he seems to fall far short of enshrinement standards, but excelled when it mattered most in the postseason. Let's take a look at some arguments for and against the wideout.

Perhaps the best comparison to Edelman is Lynn Swann. Swann is the only Hall of Famer among Julian Edelman's pro-football-reference comparables. Like Edelman, he has relatively weak regular season statistics that were buoyed by excellent postseason play. In regular season scrimmage yards, Edelman bests Swann by just over 1700, though Swann has a huge leg up when it comes to average yards per touch thanks to a shorter career. Swann led the league in touchdown catches in his sophomore campaign, while Edelman has no black ink on his pro-football-reference page.

The differentials between their postseason numbers are similar to their regular season ones. Edelman leads Swann by nearly 600 in postseason scrimmage yards, despite playing just three more games, but Swann's touchdown and yards-per-touch totals are superior to the former Patriot's. So while Edelman and Swann are close, Swann has a little bit of an edge, so if he's a borderline Hall member, that bodes poorly for Edelman.

Edelman is also 156th all-time in receiving yards, sandwiched between fullback Larry Centers and 1960s wide receiver Charley Hennigan. (Hennigan perhaps isn't the worst Hall candidate himself, leading the league in nine categories over two seasons of AFL action).

So I don't think Julian Edelman is a Hall of Famer. These arguments can be looked at from dozens of viewpoints, so maybe there's something I haven't thought of that would give Edelman a better case. Regardless, I have him on the outside looking in right now, an all-time great who will live on in sports history forever, but who falls a little shy of Canton's standards.