TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE OWN – Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers both should retire and Geno Smith deserves a raise, but not the $35 million a year I saw in various news reports. Brady is way over the hill. He will be 46 in August, has more money than he needs, can get a job in TV that pays him well, so why should he continue? Rodgers may not be over the hill yet, but he is 39 (he will be 40 in April) and I believe he has worn out his stay with the Green Bay Packers. There are plenty of places he could go to continue playing football, but like Brady why? Rodgers has a ton of money, is very intelligent and can just about name his job in TV. So why go on? Well, there is his current 3-year-contract worth $150.8 million. Next season his base salary is $1.165 million with a signing bonus of $58,300,000. What you and I would give for receiving $58.3 million just for signing our name. So maybe Rodgers will stay with the Packers. Father Time, though, has caught up with both Brady and Rodgers. I don’t believe Geno is worth the money he can command after leading the Seahawks into the playoffs. The Hawks did lose six of their last nine games, including the 41-23 playoff loss to the 49ers. Is that all on the back of Geno? No. But that shouldn’t happen, either. I don’t think he’s a true leader. He is liked by his teammates, but there is a difference between being a nice guy and being a fierce, tough and unbending leader who inspires for his toughness. Geno is not that guy. The Seahawks need to bolster their defensive front through the draft or free agency, but they also need to pick up a young quarterback the Hawks can coach into their future franchise QB. Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C. J. Stroud will likely be gone before the Seahawks pick in the draft, but there are other who can be nurtured for a few years and then turned loose and be better than Geno. BYU’s Jaren Hall could be available. Hall completed 68 percent of his passes, threw for 3,100 yards, 31 touchdowns and six interceptions this past season. … I don’t understand why it is so difficult to find guys who can defend against the run. If I’m scouting for the Hawks I’m looking for a quiet guy who stands in the back for team photos and will not back off for anything. They are easy to find. So get a few of them through the draft, coach them up and let them go and destruct offensive lines and running backs. … Hey, the Kraken are fun to watch. They are good. Matty Beniers, a 20-year-old that played college hockey at Michigan is the best young hockey player I have seen in a while. He understands the game well, is a great passer and scorer. He’s worth the price of admission just to watch him skate. Yanni Gourde, a 5-9 forward who won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay Lightning, is a tough guy who doesn’t back down. He’s not a big goal scorer, but scores high for setting the tone while he’s on the ice. … Pro baseball (MLB) is a strange game. It’s a game that has evolved into three tiers — the Haves, Have Nots, and the Never Will Haves. Teams in the major TV markets (New York, Los Angeles) can pour money into purchasing big-name players and it’s tough to beat those teams on a yearly basis. The Mariners fit into the Have Nots and have a tough time paying enough to bring in the super stars. It’s almost like the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals night after night with the Generals getting beat night after night. Sure the Mariners and other Have Nots can beat the Haves, but in the long haul it’s a losing proposition. The luxury tax is supposed to level the playing field, but teams with billionaires don’t mind playing the tax as long as they get their man. It’s a problem that is not fixable. So teams like the Mariners hope they can get lucky once in a while, as the Mariners did last season to make the playoffs. Try as hard as they did only got them respect as the Astros swept them out of the playoffs. The solution would be to have some billionaire buy the Mariners, spend way over the luxury tax, take the money lost and go home and have a scotch and soda and smoke a big cigar and reach into petty cash and do it all over again. That’s it for today. Stay safe.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.