Jameis Winston Shows Out at the Combine

Jameis Winston has made a couple things for sure at the NFL combine, he is NFL ready and he plans to win. It started Friday when he walked in front of a microphone and made sure everyone knew that he was there to talk football and not about mistakes he has made in his past. Talking about how this offseason is allowing him to grow as a football player due to the fact this is the first time in his football career that he has not played baseball during the spring. Telling all 32 teams he is at the combine to earn their trust and that this is his first every job interview, Winston was poised in front of the podium.

Winston went on to say that he is not here to compete against other quarterbacks, he is here to show off his talent. Talking about how he expects to win the super bowl next year, he said he is looking forward to playing against greats like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Winston left the podium looking very confident and ready to be the face of a NFL team. People that already liked him, like him even more and people that did not care for him felt like he is cocky. For Winston that edge might be what he needs to take a bad team to the next level and fight for a playoff spot.

One thing is for sure at the combine, Winston looks like an NFL quarterback. It has been a couple years since a true NFL ready quarterback has been available in the Draft. It is hard to find a college quarterback that has ran a NFL style offense and is physically ready. In 2012, Andrew Luck had everything that Winston has going for him, which has allowed him to have a successful young NFL career.

On Saturday, during his mid-day workout for the nation to watch, Winston proved that he has the best arm in the draft. Teams will ask him to change small techniques here and there when he shows up to camp but nothing major. We will see when draft day comes but I believe that even with all of the shenanigans that go on off the field, Tampa Bay has to draft Winston with the first pick.

Mayday Jay Jay

Twitter @MayDayJJSports

Regular Season Greats

Manning and Kershaw Share Postseason Blues

It might have been perfect timing that Peyton Manning announced that he will return to the Denver Broncos for the 2015 season about a week before Clayton Kershaw reports to spring training for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The timing had me thinking that since Manning and Kershaw are two of the all time greats at their respected game, how are they so bad in the playoffs? Is being “clutch” in your DNA or is it just hard work and dedication paying off?

If it was in your DNA, then both Manning and Kershaw would each have several championships under their belts. Manning has 41 fourth quarter comebacks in his regular season career, but only 1 in the playoffs. Kershaw has 17 complete games, 9 shutouts, and a no-hitter in his regular season career. In his playoff career, he has done nothing.

Lets start with Manning since after committing to the Broncos for the 2015 season, this could truly be the last chance to win another Super Bowl. Manning is 2^nd all time in wins with a chance to pass Brett Favre for the most around mid season. 70 percent of the time Peyton steps out on the field he wins. In the playoffs, he doesn’t even win half of the time and the numbers are kind of skewed by his three Super Bowl runs that equal eight of his eleven playoff wins. In his other 11 playoff runs, he is 3 and 11 and didn’t even win a game in 9 of those years. Peyton will be a first time ballot Hall of Fame inductee whenever he is eligible, but will always be known as a player that could not get it done in the playoffs.

Kershaw has put together one of the most dominant four year stretches in baseball history. He has been the National League Cy Young winner three out of the last four years with a record of 72 and 26. In the last two years alone he has a 1.8 earned run average and has thrown nine complete games. In his seven-year career his record stands at 98 and 49 with a 2.48 era. When he takes the mound it is highly unlikely that the Dodgers are going to lose. Unless it is in October. Playoff baseball is a little different than other sports because one guy can lead you to a championship. In Kershaw’s case, his dominance has disappeared. With his career record being 1 and 5 in 11 starts, he wins less that 10% of the time. His postseason era stands at 5.12. After his dominance in the 2014 regular season, in his two trips to the mound in last year’s playoffs, he went 0 and 2 with an era of 7.82.

Kershaw has plenty of time in his young career to change his ways, but the same use to be said about Manning. Every sport has people that have Hall of Fame regular season careers and carry their winning ways into the postseason. Manning will always be compared to Tom Brady, who has won 4 out of his 6 Super Bowl appearances and is one of the all time “clutch” postseason quarterbacks. Kershaw, who is about to start his eighth season with the Dodgers, has been compared to Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, who have both had dominant regular and postseasons.  Unlike football, one great postseason in baseball can make your career and Kershaw has a lot of postseason games in front of him.

We will never know the answer to why some legends of the game end up on the wrong side of the fence in the postseason, but the lack of success will always haunt their legacy. As for Peyton Manning, a lot of great quarterbacks do not have a Super Bowl ring, but most of them didn’t have fourteen tries at it either. Kershaw can turn his 1 and 5 postseason record into one above .500 with one postseason run.

There will always be all-star quality players that cannot perform in win or go home situation. Manning and Kershaw might just be two of the ones we remember in our generation of sports.

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports

New Commissioner, New Ideas

Rob Manfred Has Been Busy Talking About Change

With the time nearing for pitchers and catchers to report to their respected teams, Major League Baseball has welcomed in a new commissioner, Rob Manfred. Manfred will replace Bud Selig, who leaves large shoes to fill.

            Selig is credited for a lot of key changes that have helped baseball out. In the mid 90’s Selig introduced the wildcard, which has allowed us to watch some awesome September races. He introduced interleague play, where on mid summer days you can find your local team playing teams that you would have never seen if not for this. Selig also made the All-Star game watchable again by putting something on the line. Winner of the game will get home field advantage for the World Series. The All-Star game went from showing up to have fun to an actual competition again. With the introduction of Tampa Bay and 18 new stadiums, Selig helped move baseball into a new era while dealing with the increased popularity of steroids. All in all you have to give him a pat on the back for keeping our national pastime as it was.

            Manfred would be smart to stay on the same path but it looks like early into his new job he is trying to stamp his name on baseball already. His biggest goal right now is to speed up the game of baseball. His goal would be to take 10 or 15 minutes off of every game. Making this happen by having teams ready to go after commercial breaks in between innings and he is also talking about making shifts illegal to do. Wait a minute, realigning your defense might become illegal. Yes when Big Papi walks up to the plate the whole left side of the infield can now just take a water break because it might become illegal for them to jog 70 feet over to their left.

            What Manfred needs to do is leave the rules of the game alone. Hurry the hitters up by not allowing them to adjust their gloves after every pitch or readjust their cup. I would say maybe cut down on commercial time but that would cost money and there is no way that would happen. What really needs to be done is attack the blackout rules that effect local fans. Lets make sure that local fans can watch the game, without buying high dollar cable or satellite packages, before we worry about how long the game is. Even better, lets do something about the declining attendance. Maybe make the tickets cheaper and some of the food more affordable at the game just for starters.

            Americans really don’t like change that much, especially when it comes to rules of their favorite sport. I think I can talk for almost the entire MLB fan base when I say, LEAVE THE GAME ALONE. Why not worry about the fan base who helps pay for every single players salary. Lets make the game easier to watch Mr. Commissioner and not worry about where people line up. 

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports

The Boys are Back in Town

Seattle Seahawks: Media Day

The craziest thing that was taken away from the NFL’s media day on Tuesday is that the league threatened to fine Marshawn Lynch a half a million dollars if he did not participate. The other thing is that the Seattle Seahawks are an old school football team, especially on defense.

First, as most people think that Marshawn Lynch’s interviews are ridiculous, I would have to say they are brilliant. Finally someone is sticking it to the media, you know the people that write their thoughts and use clips of any interview to make it sound however they want. Ok not all of them do that but why even chance it. Some people don’t care, but with Lynch, people aren’t going to make him look stupid again. Everyone now suffers and some don’t like it. That was very apparent when a reporter asked him “Why are you being a jerk?” Lets be honest, as stupid as the media makes him look, he did go to Cal for 3 years.

We all know that Lynch is not the role model that we want our kids to look up to, he has been fined each of the last two games for inappropriate gestures after scoring, but what is the difference between not saying anything to the media and saying the same thing over and over again? He doesn’t get fined. One thing you can’t deny is that Lynch is loved by his teammates. You can call it Beast Mode or something else, but next time Lynch starts to put defenders on their backs, take a look at the Seahawk’s sideline. You will see that the swag starts with Lynch and quickly carries to both sides of the ball.

You can call it momentum, or being confident, or swag if you want, when the Seahawks defense gets on a roll it is very hard to do anything on them. Being confident and outspoken might not be as popular in today’s softer National Football League, but in the golden days of the league, it was all about the swag and championships usually followed. Look at the best defenses in NFL history, the legendary No-Name defense of the 1972 Dolphins went undefeated. The nasty defense of the 1985 Chicago Bears won a championship. Ronnie Lott and company sent people out on stretchers in San Francisco in the late 1980’s. Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens dominated the league in 2000. Warren Sapp’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers made opponents pay for showing up on Sunday during the 2002 season. Now the Seattle Seahawks are very similar to all of these dominating teams. The one thing that makes them all similar, they make you fear being hit and they let you know just how good they are. It is nothing new to football, it just looks bad during a time that hard hits and trash talk is looked down on.

One thing will be certain Sunday, the Seahawks defense will show up ready to play and if that swag carries over from the second half of the Packers game, the Super Bowl will not be that entertaining.

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports

Nothing To Do This Weekend? Watch 24 Hours of Action

For most people this weekend marks a weekend full of rest before the big game next Sunday. Wait, wait, wait… I forgot that you do have the Pro Bowl to watch if you want to see what Friday walkthroughs look like for professional athletes. Unless you want to watch some racing, and by some racing, I mean 24 hours of none stop racing.

At the Daytona International Speedway this weekend, drivers from every series in the world will all meet up to race for 24 straight hours. At 2:10pm on Saturday afternoon, teams will take the green flag hoping that their equipment will hold up and they will be in victory lane 24 hours later.

Don’t think this race can be competitive, think again. Last year, the team that won crossed the finish line less than two seconds ahead of second place. In 2009, we saw the closest finish in the 24 hour race history, 0.167 seconds. No that is not a misprint, after 24 hours the margin of victory was 0.167.

Chip Ganassi has won five out of the last nine 24 hour races at Daytona setting the record for most wins by an owner along the way. Ganassi will again have the well-known 01 and 02 cars in the field this year. The 01 car will have veteran Scott Pruett leading the way.  Pruett is tied with Hurley Haywood with five overall wins, this could be the year Scott Pruett becomes the all time winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The 02 car though, might be the sexiest car in the race, at least to American race fans. Well-known Indy car drivers Scot Dixon and Tony Kanaan will join NASCAR rookie of the year Kyle Larson and fellow NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray. Look for both of these Target sponsored cars to be fighting at the end.

            In other classes it is hard to go against Andy Lally, who has more wins and podium finishes than anyone in the history of the Grand Am Class. While the final minutes tick off the clock, it will be a surprise if Lally’s #44 is not fighting for the win.
            For someone to confidently pick a winner of this race is crazy. You will see brake pads being changed, body parts being repaired, and all kinds of other maintenance taking place on pit lane and sometimes it comes down to the seconds used by the crewmembers.
            Don’t take my word for it, save your money for Super Bowl weekend, stay in and tune in to watch the prototype cars fly by other classes on the high banks and fast straightaways of Daytona International Speedway’s road course. Check your local FOX channels for television coverage or you can catch all the coverage on Fox Sports Go and IMSA.com.
            If you enjoy it, the best part of this great event is that usually you can find four-day infield/ grandstand wristbands for 90 bucks. Comment if you know about another 4 day sporting event that will allow you in for 90 bucks. 

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports