The Detroit Lions signed quarterback Matthew Stafford to the highest paid deal in NFL history. Stafford was surprised at the magnitude of the offer; he said, “I had no expectations going into it.”
The contract is for $135 over the course of five years. That’s $27 million per year total and $16.5 million per year in cash. The largest contract privy to the recent transaction occurred earlier in 2017 for $125 million over five years. He signed for $25 million per year total with roughly between $20 million and $18 million in cash per year. That contract exists between quarterback Derek Carr and the Oakland, soon-to-be Las Vegas, Raiders. The glaring issue with the difference in salary of the two deals is a matter of skill. That is an aspect of play that Stafford does not exceed most expectations in. Most statisticians and critics would have fans believe that the New England Patriots’ legendary quarterback, generally considered, by-some, to be the greatest player, not solely in football, but in all sports, of all-time, Tom Brady, should be the highest paid player in NFL history by leaps and bounds, but he graciously allowed the Foxboro-based organization to pay him less, so they could sign other great players. Clearly, the Detroit team has taken a different approach, with a subpar man at the helm of their offense. During his eight year career, the Michigan quarterback has only achieved a 51-58 record. That’s a winning percentage of only 46.8%. By comparison, Brady, who has been in the league since 2000, is 183-52. He has a career winning percentage of 77.9%. Going 9-7 last year, Stafford completed 65.3% of his passes for 4,327 yards and 24 touchdowns. Tied for the second worst record in the NFC playoff picture, Stafford led his team to an atrocious 26-6 loss in the Wild Card Game to the Seattle Seahawks. Again, by comparison, Brady completed 67.4% of his passes for 3,554 yards and 28 touchdowns in only 12 games (due to his four game suspension for the “DeflateGate” scandal that started the 2016-17 season), four games less than Stafford had to play during the regular season. Brady also was the MVP of the Super Bowl in his team’s historic 25 point comeback to beat the Atlanta Falcons in New England’s 34-28 overtime victory. Stafford’s dwindling numbers are representative of the absurdity of the deal. The Detroit decision is quite perplexing to the football world. Jesse A. Cook “The Matthew Stafford Deal Makes No Sense” August 28, 2017
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Heartbreak has befallen both the fans of New England sports and the foes of it, but what are the five best moments that unfortunately still came to no avail? After careful consideration, one from each of the Boston teams was found, except two for the Patriots, totaling to five moments.
NUMBER 5: The Boston Bruins 2013 Playoffs “Bergeron! Bergeron! Bergeron!” chanted Bruins radio play-by-play announcer, Dave Goucher, as Patrice Bergeron jumped into the excited arms of his teammates after the incredible 3rd period and Overtime Game 7 comeback over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Everything had looked gloomy with about ten minutes left in regulation, until Bergeron’s Bruins scored 3 goals to tie the game at 4 apiece and sent the B’s onto the next round and eventually onto the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, this great upset led to no trophy for Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane’s Chicago Blackhawks took only six games to take home the title over Boston. NUMBER 4: The Boston Celtics 2002 Eastern Conference Finals Versus the New Jersey Nets, the Celtics made possibly one of the greatest single game comebacks in NBA history: down 84-53 at the end of three quarters, Game 3 hopes looked grim for Celtics fans. Fortunately, Paul Pierce led his team to a 41-16 fourth quarter which ended in a 94-90 Celtics win. This was incredible, although the Nets took Games 4, 5, and 6 to win the series and head to the NBA Finals. NUMBER 3: The Boston Red Sox 1975 World Series Game 6 of the 1975 World Series versus the Cincinnati Reds’ Big Red Machine is what led to the left field pole on the Green Monster at Fenway Park to be called the “Fisk Pole.” The thriller of Game 6 began with future beloved Bruins singer of the national anthems of the United States and Canada, Rene Rancourt belting out the Star Spangled Banner, it got interesting when Red Sox’ outfielder Bernie Carbo tied the game in the eighth inning, and it ended when BoSox’ Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk swung his arms above his head, waving the ball fair, and hit a walk-off home run. The next game, Game 7, ended with Redlegs’ center fielder, Cesar Geronimo jumping in midair after catching the Carl Yastrzemski fly ball that finished the ’75 series. NUMBER 2: The New England Patriots 2015 Super Bowl XLIX When Russell Wilson tossed the ball to Jermaine Kearse, it looked an awful lot like the ball had hit the ground, but in actuality, the Seattle Seahawks receiver had kicked the ball up before taking control of it. Seattle then took the ball from the spot of the lucky grab and drove down to the Patriots’ one yard line where head coach Pete Carroll told his quarterback to pass the ball instead of handing it off to great running back Marshawn Lynch. Fortunately, this has a happy ending for the Foxboro based franchise because with about 20 seconds remaining in that quarter, which happened to be the fourth, young and unknown cornerback Malcolm Butler made the biggest play of his career and intercepted the ball in the end zone to preserve the Pats’ 28-24 lead and win the 49th NFL Super Bowl. NUMBER 1: The New England Patriots 2017 Super Bowl LI Apart from losing the 28-3 lead, the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback, Matt Ryan, tossed a seemingly impossible throw to future Hall of Famer Julio Jones, but he miraculously caught the projectile over the out of bounds line and slammed his feet into fair territory before falling out of play having gained the dearly needed yardage. Without that highlight reel play, Atlanta would not have made it into field goal range. Once again, to the delight of all of New England, the Patriots’ opponents would befall great misfortune: after several yards lost due to sacks that would push the Falcons out of field goal range, a Matt Bosher punt to the nine yard line, a Julian Edelman catch that seemed to transcend the realm of human ability, a Danny Amendola touchdown, a two-point conversion, an Overtime period, a James White touchdown, and a Tom Brady MVP Award, with a score of 34-28, the Patriots rendered the incredible Jones play redundant and secured the greatest NFL comeback in Super Bowl history. There have been many incredible plays in New England Sports history that tragically or joyfully did not come to ultimate fruition, but these are the obvious top five. Despite the misfortune that might meet the great city of Boston, it is important to keep in mind that they did win at least one championship in each of the Big Four sports in under ten years. Jesse A. Cook “Five Heartbreaking Failures From Great Plays In New England Sports” June 26, 2017 |
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