Eagles' Shocker; Super Bowl Gets Political; The Trans Question; Butler Brings It

In one of the most shocking Super Bowls of all time, the Philadelphia Eagles stunned the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22, in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Eagles' QB Jalen Hurts was named the game's Most Valuable Player after throwing for 221 yards with only five incompletions, rushing for a Super Bowl QB record 72 and accounting for three touchdowns.

But the real MVP was Eagles' defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, the former 49er and Stanford DC, who this year took the Eagles from the league's 26th best defense in 2023 to the NFL's best in 2024.

His defense smothered Chiefs' three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, sackiing him six times and forcing two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, and a fumble. The hapless Chiefs gained only 36 yards in the first half and trailed 34-0 before scoring a trio of garbage time touchdowns.

Fangio and his defensive line won the game. They pressured Mahomes the entire game without a single blitz. Hurts was terrific, but even he admitted afterwards that "defense wins championships."

Super Bowl Politics: The NFL removed its "End Racism" message from the end zone at the Super Bowl and replaced it with "Choose Love."

"End Racism" has appeared in many stadium end zones and on many NFL helmets since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, after an unarmed black man, George Floyd, was murdered by a white policeman in Minneapolis.

But a week before the Super Bowl, given the current political climate, the NFL announced it was going to end the display of "End Racism."

The explanation?

NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said that the decision was based on "sensitivity to recent tragedies," including the terrorist attack in New Orleans' French Quarter in January, the deadly wildfires in the Los Angeles area and the fatal air collision near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.

Huh? What does any of that have to do with racism? 

Absolutely nothing.

No, the script was changed based on sensitivity to the racist president of the United States, who was going to be in attendance at the game.

With Trump ending diversity programs throughout the federal government and shipping out non-white immigrants, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had to tread lightly while discussing the NFL's DEI initiatives and hiring policies.

Given how Trump and his allies come down on opponents, Goodell and his NFL cronies were walking on eggshells before, during and after thge game.

Ironically, during Trump's first term, his relationship with the NFL was contentious.

He pooh-poohed the severity of concussions in football and said the game was declining because rules to reduce head trauma were ruining the game by making it less violent. He urged NFL owners to fire players who didn't stand for the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality.

After the Eagles won that year's Super Bowl, Trump called off the traditional visit to the White House when it became apparent most players wouldn't attend.

Back in the 1980s, Trump was unable to land an NFL franchise, in part because of his sullied reputation in New York real estate circles, so he bought the New Jersey Generals of the USFL in 1984.

He obliterated the league's salary cap by signing Hershel Walker to a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract, then pushed the other owners to sue the NFL for trying to prevent the USFL (a spring league) from moving to the fall.

After a long, acrimonious trial, the USFL was awarded three dollars in damages. The league collapsed soon after.

That was then, this is now, and Trump is suddenly the fair-haired boy in the NFL.

So "End Racism" was shelved. 

I guess we were lucky it wasn't replaced with "End Diversity."

Black QBs: There is one place the NFL has finally ended racism--at the quarterback position.

Thirty-five years, black quarterbacks were a rarity in the NFL. Now, almost half of the league's QBs are Black. This year, at the start of the season, 15 of the league’s 32 starting quarterbacks were black.

Both quarterbacks in yesterday's Super Bowl were black. Three of the four quarterbacks in the conference championship games were black. Lamar Jackson was MVP runner-up and became the first quarterback in league history to pass for 4,000 yards and rush for 800 in the same season.

Caleb Williams last April became the sixth black quarterback and second in as many years to go first overall. Jayden Daniels, the 2024 No. 2 pick, was Offensive Rookie of the Year and led Washington’s revival.

Now, if we could just get the same kind of equality in the coaching ranks...

The Trans Question: There was another intersection between politics and sports last week.

President Donald Trump expanded his anti-transgender obsession with an executive order attempting to ban trans females from girls’ and women’s sports teams in schools across the nation.

When signing the order, the latest in his crusade against transgender Americans, Trump directed agencies to withdraw federal funding for any schools that refused to comply, and launched investigations into potential violations at San Jose State and Penn. 

I've written about this before, but since many of you have asked about my feelings on this issue, let me state my position once again. (I realize some of you may have strong feelings in the opposite direction).

First off, we need to realize that the number of trans athletes is very small. Out of more than 500,000 athletes playing college sports in the USA, two different studies have revealed that no more than 26 trans athletes are participating. In fact, NCAA President Charlie Baker says the actual number is "less than 10."

So the suggestion that hordes of men are changing their gender so they can dominate women's sports is pure folly. To satisfy his base, Trump has made a big issue out of something that affects very few people, when there are clearly much more important things to address, like climate change, gun violence and health care costs (not to mention saving democracy).

I was at Stanford in the 1970s when the great Dr. Don Laub--renowned internationally for his pro bono mercy missions to correct cleft palates around the world--started the gender reassignment program in the med center and I edited a book for him, so I know a little bit about the subject. These folks need our love and support, not edicts telling them they can't go into bathrooms or compete in sports. 

Some of the red states that are so enraged about this have never even had a trans athlete in their state. 

The two recent poster children for this shameful crusade--the Algerian boxer at the Olympics and the volleyball player at San Jose State--were both targeted by flat out lies and misinformation. The boxer turned out to have been born a woman and lived as a woman her whole life.

The SJS player was accused of dominating games, towering over others, and injuring players by hitting 80 mph spikes. In reality, she's 6'1, average or slightly below for collegiate hitters, and is not even the best hitter on her team. Opponents all have stated there have been no injuries, and her spikes were clocked around 60 mph, less than any male player and average among female hitters.

Bottom line, after undergoing the hormone treatment and surgery, these women aren't "men," no matter what Trump and his minions say.

Butler Brings It: The happiest guy in the NBA right now is Stephen Curry.

Closely followed by his coach, Steve Kerr.

Curry has been dying out there, to put it mildly, over the last several weeks, with no one to take the pressure off him and no one else to take the big shots in crunch time.

All that changed last Thursday when the Warriors acquired superstar Jimmy Butler, who will finally give the Warriors a No. 2 (or maybe 1.5) scoring option alongside Curry.

In their first game together Saturday, Curry ran wild, as the opposing Chicago Bulls were also forced to focus on Butler. Curry hit eight 3-pointers and scored 34 points, as the Warriors came from a 24-point deficit to win by 21.

Butler, in his Dubs debut, was equally magnificent, scoring 25 points and hitting 11 of 13 free throws. He complements Curry with the ability to finish in the paint and seemingly get to the foul line at will. 

"He's like the exact opposite player of me, which is kind of funny," Curry said afterwards. "He's dominating the paint and I'm dominating outside the perimeter. Guys working around us. It has the potential to be really fun."

And the potential to put the Warriors in the playoffs.

"Pretty fun having Jimmy on our team," Kerr said with a smile. "He's an amazing player. The ability to get fouled, it just settles the game for us at key times. His passing changes everything...The skill, strength and the ability to get to the free throw line and it goes beyond that...He's a lion out there."

Amen.