TERRY MOSHER
Yeah, I was surprised Denver beat the Carolina Panthers. I predicted a Panthers victory by two touchdowns. I based that on Denver not being able to get to and pressure quarterback Cam Newton.
Boy was I wrong. The Broncos, led by Von Miller, the Super Bowl MVP, was all over Newton like a bad habit. It goes to show you that defenses wins championships.
Then the mysterious Marshawn Lynch retires, which wasn’t a shock. NFL running backs shelf life is just over four years. He got in nine years, so he was living on the edge. And when you take (and give) as much punishment as Lynch did, especially the way he ran as The Beast Mode, his days were numbered.
Lynch turns 30 on April 22 and reportedly has managed to keep most of the nearly $50 million he has earned paying football, so there is no need to cry over his departure. Besides, he may need that $50 million if he develops Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy (CTA) that is the main topic of discussion and law suits in the NFL.
While Seahawk fans will miss Lynch for the Beast Mode way he ran, he won’t be missed for long because Thomas Rawls, once he’s fully recovered from an ankle injury, should be a very capable replacement that brings hope that the team’s basically philosophy of running the ball will remain in intact.
Much more concern is finding a better back-up quarterback and also keeping the core defensive players that make the Seahawks one of the league’s best defenses, a factor that enables the team to be among the elite.
Maybe the most interesting development to watch in the coming weeks is not what the Seahawks will or will not do in regards to their slew of free agents but what will be built in Peoria during spring training for the Seattle Mariners.
I must confess that I have no clue what will come of the massive overhaul that new general manager JerryDipoto had done with the 40-man roster. He says he is building a team based on the ballpark (Safeco Field), which means contact hitters who have some speed. It will be interesting to watch.
Sometimes I think I must have been sleeping for the last 10 years not to see the overhaul that has occurred on basketball courts across America. If you do any watching of college basketball you know that the game has speeded up and that the guys we use to think of as slugs that were stationed in the middle to take up space and prevent incursions into the lane are no longer slugs.
When you have guys like LSU’s Ben Simmons playing the point as a six-foot-10 guard and he is only slightly an exception you know the game has changed. It appears to me that big-time college programs have rosters full of guys who have size, strength, speed and quickness and can handle the ball, crossing over at will, as well as anybody.
And they all can shoot the ball. The college three-point line of 20 feet, nine inches from the hoop is almost becoming a joke because players are making it an increasing percentage rate. Oklahoma’s Buddy Heid, a six-foot-four senior from the Bahamas, is shooting 50 percent from the three-point arc and is second in the nation in D-1 scoring at 25.7-plus points a game. He nailed the winning three Monday in Oklahoma’s three-point win over Texas with 1.2 seconds left in regulation, scoring the last 12 points for the No. 3 ranked Sooners as they rallied from behind.
That’s enough for today. I’ll soon have a story on Kent Kingman and his two tall sons who play for Peninsula High School, so look for that next week in the Kitsap Sun. In the meantime:
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.