Until this blog post, that is:
"Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle dead at 90" by Richard Goldstein, New York Times
October 9, 2017
NEW YORK — Y.A. Tittle, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the New York Giants to three consecutive NFL championship games in the early 1960s after the San Francisco 49ers had discarded him as too old and too slow, threw for dozens of touchdowns and thousands of yards, won a Most Valuable Player award, and was selected to seven Pro Bowls. But he endeared himself to New York not as a golden boy but as a muddied, grass-stained scrapper.
He was a balding field general with a fringe of gray who, at 34, in his old-fashioned high-topped shoes, had undeniably lost a step or two, but kept picking himself up off the ground to find a way to beat you, and New York cheered.
Mr. Tittle led the Giants to Eastern Conference titles in 1961, ’62, and ’63, though they were beaten each time in the NFL championship game.
He threw for 242 touchdowns and 33,070 yards in his 17 years as a pro, and his 36 touchdown passes in 1963 set a record that stood for 21 years. He was named the league’s most valuable player in 1963 in an Associated Press poll and elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
The end for Mr. Tittle as one of football’s best and most resilient quarterbacks essentially came in Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, 1964, in his 17th bruising year in the pros, when a massive lineman slammed him to the ground in a game that Mr. Tittle’s Giants lost to the Steelers.
Slowly, Mr. Tittle tried to pull himself up off the turf, woozy from a concussion, and Morris Berman, a photographer for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was there to snap the picture: Mr. Tittle kneeling, his shoulders drooped, his helmet knocked off, his bald pate exposed, his face bloodied.
Perhaps more than the Pro Football Hall of Fame would do later, the image immortalized Mr. Tittle in football lore — in the image of the aging warrior who had finally fallen.
Will they be taking a look at his swelled brain?
Mr. Tittle took the Giants to the 1961 NFL championship game. But they lost, 37-0, to the Packers on a frozen field at Green Bay.
Mr. Tittle tied an NFL single-game record by throwing seven touchdown passes against the Washington Redskins in 1962. He threw 33 touchdown passes for the season, setting a league record, but frigid wind gusts and a strong Green Bay rush in the NFL title game at Yankee Stadium stymied him in the Packers’ 16-7 victory.
Mr. Tittle passed for 36 touchdowns in 1963, but he tore a knee ligament in the first half against the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field in the NFL championship game when he was tackled by Larry Morris. Heavily taped, Mr. Tittle returned for the second half but was unable to properly plant his feet and was intercepted four times as the Bears scored a 14-10 victory.
The Giants were an aging team that looked nothing like the Eastern Division defending champions when they regrouped for the 1964 season. The opening game turned into a 38-7 beating at the hands of the Eagles in Philadelphia, and then it was on to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers.
The Giants were leading, 14-0, by the second quarter when Mr. Tittle, deep in Giants territory, dropped back to pass. From the right side — Mr. Tittle’s throwing side — John Baker, a 6-foot-7-inch, 280-pound defensive end, saw an opening and smashed into Mr. Tittle, 6 feet and 190 pounds or so, as he was about to pass. The ball floated loose and into the arms of Steelers tackle Chuck Hinton, who easily ran it back for a touchdown.
As the Steelers celebrated in the end zone, Mr. Tittle knelt, dazed and injured, as Berman captured the moment. The Post-Gazette did not run the photo the next day; editors there did not think it was anything special. But Berman entered it for prize consideration, and it won the National Headliner award for best sports photograph of 1964. It now hangs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
“Baker had crushed the cartilage in my ribs and brutally gashed my forehead,” Mr. Tittle recalled in his memoir, “Nothing Comes Easy” (2009), written with Kristine Setting Clark.
“I also suffered a concussion and a cracked sternum. That photo would later become one of the most enduring images in sports history. What a hell of a way to get famous!”
The play was a turning point: Pittsburgh went on to win, 27-24, Mr. Tittle played out the season hampered by the rib injuries, and the Giants would finish with only two wins. “After that I knew it was time to quit, especially when I saw our other quarterback, Gary Wood, was wanting to date my daughter,” Mr. Tittle told Richard Whittingham, author of “Giants in Their Own Words” (1992).
Mr. Tittle announced his retirement on Jan. 22, 1965, never having played on a championship team in high school, college, or the pros.....
The Hail Mary went unanswered.
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Failure is an annual occurrence around here:
"The long-suffering Houston Astros are headed to the American League Championship Series.
The Red Sox? They are going home after yet another failed October foray (the Sox are a sorry 1-6 in their last two postseasons). In the end, Boston’s regular-season show horses, brought here to deliver postseason glory, again failed to “Do Their Jobs” when it mattered most. Red Sox starting pitchers were abysmal throughout the series (23 hits and 16 earned runs in an aggregate 11⅓ innings), putting Boston in a hole in every game. And then there was closer Craig Kimbrel, indomitable just about all season, failing dramatically in the eighth and ninth innings of the elimination game.
It would not be a Red Sox playoff loss without some serious second-guessing, and Farrell fed the talk show beast with his own Grady Little moment. Ejected in the second inning while defending Pedroia, who argued a called third strike, Farrell continued to call the shots via satellite (Fitbit, perhaps?) and failed to see...."
He got blindsided in favor of a winner:
"In series of tweets, Trump threatens NFL, belittles Corker" by Peter Baker and Ken Belson New York Times October 10, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened on Tuesday to use federal tax law to penalize the National Football League over players who kneel in protest during the national anthem as he sought to escalate a political fight that has resonated with his conservative base.
In one of a series of combative early morning tweets, Trump said that Congress should eliminate a law that has allowed the NFL central office to avoid paying taxes as a nonprofit entity.
The tax break for the NFL has been a point of controversy for years, and other conservatives have taken up the cause in recent weeks as the president has repeatedly assailed the league over the player protests. But the idea would be more about symbolism than impact. The tax break applies only to the central office, not the teams, which already pay taxes as for-profit organizations, and the NFL voluntarily gave up the tax exemption for its league office in 2015.
Point of controversy? It's the first I've heard of it.
Trump on Tuesday also focused his fire again on Jemele Hill, the “SportsCenter” host on ESPN who previously called the president a white supremacist. Hill was suspended Monday for suggesting that fans boycott advertisers of the Dallas Cowboys after the team owner, Jerry Jones, threatened to bench players who knelt during the national anthem.
“With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have ‘tanked,’ in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
ESPN has faced significant challenges recently and is now available in just under 88 million homes, compared to 100 million homes in 2011. In the first half of 2017, its prime-time ratings were up 1 percent compared to 2016, although its total day ratings were down more than 5 percent. But ESPN is still a ratings behemoth and still highly profitable. In the third quarter, it led full-time cable networks in total day and prime-time ratings among key demographics, men ages 18 to 54.
That explains the programming, and I'm wondering if that is the best environment for women.
Next week, when the owners meet in New York, where the anthem protests will be on the agenda. Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners want the players to stand “because we think it’s an important part of the game,” said Joe Lockhart, the NFL spokesman, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, and “there’s a strong feeling at every level that we ought to be getting back to football.”
I agree. Ditch the song before the game and just line up and play.
Also Tuesday, the president honored the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins, calling them ‘‘true champions and incredible patriots.’’
He invited the Penguins a day after disinviting the Golden State Warriors of the NBA because its star, Stephen Curry, said he would vote against attending.
Meanwhile.....
Time to put a cork in it.
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He is acting like a child and you can't make this stuff up.
Or maybe they can. To boldly go where no one has gone before.
"Corker’s blast at Trump gives voice to Republican fears about their leader" by Peter Baker New York Times October 09, 2017
WASHINGTON —Senator Bob Corker said in public what many of his Republican colleagues say in private and he feels liberated now and his passionate statements reflect growing troubles for a president attempting to govern with a narrow and increasingly disenchanted Republican majority.
One close associate of the president, who asked not to be identified to discuss the situation more candidly, said Trump’s entire agenda could be dead because Corker has a lot of friends on Capitol Hill, but that does not mean other Senate Republicans will rush to the microphones to second Corker’s sentiments.
While privately nodding their heads, Corker’s colleagues remained conspicuously silent Monday. Many Republican senators were no doubt relieved not to be in session this week in Washington, where they would be intercepted by reporters asking them to comment.
Hollywood, Washington D.C., what's the difference?
Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, acting in what he says is the president’s interest, is organizing a rebellion against the Republican establishment and recruiting candidates to challenge incumbent senators in primaries next year. Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff has talked about a “purge” of Republicans who are not loyal to Trump.
How Stalinist of them!
Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor, said Monday that Corker had been “insulting” to the president.
“I find tweets like this to be incredibly irresponsible,” she told Fox News. “It adds to the insulting that the mainstream media and the president detractors — almost a year after this election they still can’t accept the election results. It adds to their ability and their cover to speak about the president of the United States in ways that no president should be talked about.”
She then proceeded to tightly wrap Trump in a flag.
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Related: California’s Dianne Feinstein, the oldest US senator, announces reelection bid
She's a five-time winner.
