Sheriff of Omaha

The Sheriff is done. Peyton Manning has made it official. He has retired as expected after a brilliant career. His best move today might have been ending the retirement presser with "Omaha." He made that word synonymous with quarterbacking with his crazy audibles and that Nebraska town should thank him for the strange connection he created. They should nominate him as a honorary sheriff if not their mayor for one day. I will miss him. We will all miss him. He was one of the most prolific passers in the history of the game and kept us company on Sundays for 18 years! Between him and Kobe retiring next month, it truly is an end of an era for us sports fans. These 2 guys have been entertaining us for almost 2 decades and they were a huge part of my youth and life as a sports fan. Kobe was more a thorn on my side and I was never a fan, but I always liked Peyton. I loved his play as well as his Colts teams. In his games against the Pats and Brady, I was almost alway rooting for Peyton. Speaking of the Manning-Brady rivalry, we should all be happy we were part of it. It was an historic rivalry between 2 true legends and we will be talking about it for decades. It's the NFL's version of Bird V Magic and we are going to miss it starting 2016.

As a pure QB, Peyton is definitely top 3 in the history of the game anyway you look at it.  I am a huge Dan Marino fan and I still think he is one of the best QBs ever. Marino owned every single passing record in the books for several years before the game changed. Brett Favre then erased Marino from the record books for half of those records and now, Peyton has surpassed both Marino and Favre to own almost all of the passing numbers that matter. Peyton is this generation's Marino with a couple of rings to boot. He was a passing savant much like Marino and it was pure joy to watch their mastery of the position. We can count the rings all we want, but football is a team sport and the best passer doesn't and cannot win the ultimate price every year. Make no mistake about it, Marino was the best passer and Peyton is his successor who may have taken the craft a step further. Marino never won the big one and Peyton's playoff record is also considered shaky. But Peyton does go out on top with a ring, his second, and with a resume that is rich and complete. Two championships are better than one, though this last year might have come with a huge cost for Peyton.

Peyton's play in 2015 finally slipped to the point where he was nothing more than a game manager. There was the HGH allegation from Al Jazeera and last but not the least, somehow his Super Bowl victory brought the "mooning of the personal trainer" incident at University of Tennessee back to the front pages. The fact that our media didn't care about it for 20 years and brought it back in time for his retirement as soon as he won the Super Bowl tells us all we need to know about our corrupt media.  What Peyton allegedly did was reprehensible and I wish he had paid for it 20 years back. I guess better late than never. In any case, his play on the field through those 20 years was mostly amazing. He was a true professional and a perfectionist and we can learn a lot about how we should run our careers by watching and reading about these high achievers. He is a football junkie and the game will definitely miss him. Hope we see him back as a QB coach or may be even a head coach down the road. Most legends can't coach, but I think Peyton can. But he will have a lot of money making opportunities in his retirement and let's see what route he picks. We don't know any of these guys personally and we sure can't tell if he was a good or a bad guy, but he was a truly great QB. I still rank him higher than Tom Brady. As a pure passer, it's either him or Dan Marino at number 1. Thanks for the football memories, Peyton!

Speaking of number ones, the Golden Sate Warriors laid an egg yesterday in LA against the Lakers, one of the worst teams in the league. But they did win at home today to score the all-time home winning streak record with 45 straight. Thats more games than an entire NBA season and it's one more mind-boggling record for these dubs. This was another one of those records held by MJ's Bulls. Losing road games unexpectedly to bad teams seems to be the Warrior's thing, though they are undefeated against the good teams. Curry is still putting up ridiculous numbers and despite the turnover problems of the last two games, they are in a good spot. They are still on track to break the Bulls' 72 win record. They are now 56-6 and amazingly, they are still only 3.5 games above the Spurs. Thats how good the Spurs have been, but nobody cares thanks to all the attention on the Warriors. The Spurs won't win 72 games, but they may win 68 to 70 games. That would be something if two teams win 70 games. We should all watch and enjoy this unique season.

Congrats to the Sheriff

Peyton Manning has now thrown the most number of touchdowns in the history of the NFL. He broke the record yesterday in style by shredding the vaunted and slightly overrated niners defense with a win on national TV.  The sheriff is well on his way to accumulating the numbers befitting the best QB in the history of the game - the new Dan Marino, owner of every single meaningful QB record in the book. And unlike Marino, he might have a shot at being recognized as the best ever because he has a Super Bowl ring as well. As a Marino fan, it pains me to see all his records get obliterated one by one by these QBs. The game has changed a lot and the records are not the same anymore. With that said, Peyton is a true legend and he is as good as Marino, if not better. He would have gotten to a lot of these numbers with or without the help of the modern NFL rules. It's truly a joy to watch the sheriff throw the football around when is on fire. He looks completely unstoppable most of the time.

Completing a pass in the NFL, even in this day and age, is hard and there are many QBs who remind you of that fact every Sunday. Just look at Andy Dalton's performance yesterday. But Peyton makes it look so easy. It's beautiful to watch the velocity, trajectory, and the accuracy on his balls. The only other QB that dominates the game quite like him in today's NFL is Aaron Rodgers. These two are in a class of their own and there is no real, near-term threat to Peyton's record because Rodgers started his career a little late sitting behind Favre. He may not have the time to put up Peyton's numbers despite his brilliance. The next legitimate threat to Sheriff's numbers might actually be the little Sheriff, Andrew Luck, who is also having an incredible season this year. Luck himself is so good that there is no regret in Indianapolis about letting Peyton go despite how good Peyton has been in Denver. Thats because Luck is just a younger, smarter, humbler, and more athletic version of Peyton. But he needs another 15+ years of sustained excellence to catchup to this record. Given the direction the sport if moving in, passing is only going to get easier and somebody will break Peyton's record sooner or later. But congrats to the sheriff here and now on his latest achievement.

Peyton and the Broncos look very much on track to get back to the Super Bowl. Then again, Peyton always looks great in October more so than in February. That is one knock against him. The team he lost to last year in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks, are looking rather mediocre and losing to teams like the Rams. The niners have a bunch of injuries and suspensions and are not looking great either. This opens up a great opportunity for the Arizona Cardinals who are leading the NFC West, the best division in the NFL, with a 5-1 record. The Cards have a couple of tough games coming up and have to still deal with the good niners, seahawks, eagles, and cowboys team in the NFC, but they are looking solid with a well-balanced offense and a stout defense. It should be a good stretch run in the NFC west. But then again, it always is across the NFL and thats why we like it so much as an entertainment option. Lets hope the Cardinals make it far this year. AFC West, NFC North, and NFC East are the other three divisions that are going to go to the wire. The NY Giants are not going to make it, but the SF Giants are probably going to win the World Series in 6 games. Thats my pick for the baseball World Series starting tomorrow.

Big, Dark, Fun Day in the Bay

The Bay Area has not had a big Monday night football game in a while like the one this week when the 10-3 steelers rolled into the stick to play the 10-3 niners. Many great things happened for the niners on a night that started with darkness all around - literally, as the stadium lost power before the kick-off and then again in the first half delaying the game both times. It was not a great advertisement for the city of SF or the stick, but the niners probably secretly liked the fact that the old stadium they are trying to get out of looked bad. Of course it doesn't really help anything with the new stadium as that's well on it's way in Santa Clara. The delayed start and the interruptions probably didn't help the 2 teams either, but I am not sure if it hurt Big Ben with his injured ankle to the point of affecting the outcome of the game. But the Niners dominated the Steelers anyways. It was a big win for the niners - a defining one this late in the season, coming off a loss to the Cardinals.

There has always been some doubt around the true elite status of the niners despite their impressive record. Unlike the other contenders in the NFC, they don't possess a great offense or a stud QB. Alex Smith's biggest critics are mostly niner fans given what they had to endure the last 7 years with him. So even the niner faithful didn't feel comfortable with the playoff prospects of this team and after the loss to Arizona last week, there was open talk of a one and done playoff date. That is why this MNF game was big, not to mention the actual impact of this win on the standings and the bye week positioning. A tradition-rich, experienced and legitimate contender was coming to town, albeit with a hobbled superstar QB. By dominating them, the niners have reestablished themselves as a worthy playoff contender. Now the fan-base is convinced they can beat anybody at home - except the Packers that is. And they can even beat most NFC teams on the road, except the Packers and may be the Saints. They needed this confidence boost. The media and the fans had to truly believe that the niners are a true contender, but it was even more important for the players and the coaches to win a game of this magnitude for some positive reinforcement.

The niners defense is truly elite. The most amazing stat of the year is not all the gaudy numbers the QBs are putting up against soft pass defenses, but the fact that the niners have not allowed a single rushing TD in 14 games. It has gotten to a point where offenses have stopped trying to rush in the red zone against them. That's respect. As good as this defense is, it's hard to imagine them bottling up a Drew Brees or an Aaron Rodgers and that's why they were expected to be one and done in the playoffs unless the offense started scoring with some consistency. The best part of the Pittsburgh game for them is the fact that the offense showed up. Alex Smith looked more comfortable making some tough throws, though he did miss a few easy ones as always. They scored twice in the red zone and that was two times more than what they usually do. Of course, things are week-to-week in this league and the niners can come crashing back to earth next week at Seattle. The seahawks are no joke at home and the niners will have trouble, but they still needed this one against the steelers.

As for the rest of the NFL, it was a bizarro weekend as the packers finally lost at Kansas City of all places and the colts finally won against the Titans. New York had a rough weekend with the giants losing at home and the jets getting crushed by Philly. The eagles are surprisingly still alive in the muddled NFC East. Oakland had a rough 1-point loss at home and if not for the end of Tebow magic against Brady and the Belichicks, they would be in a world of trouble. They still are, but there is hope for the silver and black in a division that's tightening up every Sunday. The other big news of the weekend was Drew Brees abusing another defense and virtually assuring himself of besting Dan Marino's single season passing yardage record. This is the clearest sign yet that the game has become almost too easy for the QBs and the passing game over the last several years. Marino's record stood for 27 years, but now is under serious threat from 4 QBs, all in one season - Brees (for sure now), Brady, Rodgers and even Eli Manning. If that's not enough proof, Cam Newton is threatening Peyton Manning's rookie passing yardage record and he and Andy Dalton have become the first pair of rookies ever to pass for more than 3000 yards in a season. It must be hard playing corner-back or safety in the NFL these days. Imagine having to defend a Dan Marino every other week.