Odds and Ends

It's not Friday, but these are things on my mind.

Usually when I have an idea to write about something but it in no way could merit more than a few paragraphs, I throw those together for a Friday post. Well, it’s not Friday but here we are.

It’s the eve of the NFL season, and I don’t think enough is being made of the fact that there are 32 NFL head coaches, and three of them - ten percent have the following names:

• Mike McDaniel

• Mike MacDonald

• Mike McCarthy

I mean, that’s odd, right?

Speaking of McDaniel, I saw this and it’s just too good not to share as well:

• Speaking of oddities, Packers RB Josh Jacobs has been in the league for five years. He led the league in rushing yards and was a 1st Team All-Pro in 2022. He has 197 career catches as well for almost 1,500 yards - and zero receiving TDs. If (when?) he catches five more passes without scoring when the season begins, that will be the most catches without a TD in the history of the NFL. Also, that’s weird, right?

• It’s the end of the professional golf season, but last weekend was fairly cool. On the women’s side, the final major was held - the Women’s British Open - at St. Andrews, no less. And Lydia Ko won it for her third major - but her first in eight years. Ko is 27 years old, and this happens just week after she won an Olympic gold medal (to go with her silver and bronze medals) and qualified for the Hall of Fame. Ko has been such a presence in golf that the fact that she’s only just entered her late-20’s is crazy. But again, Ko first played on tour when she was barely a teenager, and won an event at the age of 14. Think that’s crazy? It is, obviously - but her peers Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson did it as well. All three are roughly the same age and all contemplating (or, in Thompson’s case, announcing) a retirement or something similar isn’t far away.

  

  This is actually from her first LPGA win, a year later. Can you guess what country it was in?

  There was a bit of a worry that Ko was going to flameout quickly after winning two majors and plenty of tournaments almost right away. But she’s rallied towards the second half (and hopefully not the end) of her career to be someone who is so fun to root for. She is pretty transparent, with a lot of positive energy and seems to be both liked and respected across the tour. She played a great round while others faded at the literal Home of Golf, and it’s honestly pretty cool.

  

  It’s interesting to look at Ko, Thompson and Henderson and realize how tough it is to break out as a young athlete. All three have had fabulous careers - Lexi is easily the most famous of them, and also has by far the least impressive resume at this point - and Ko has had to battle famously controlling parents (she even referenced her mother recently (!) telling her she played better golf at age 15), among her own expectations. It’s awesome to see how she’s battled her way to being who she clearly is, one of the best female golfers of all time.

• On the PGA Tour, the second to last weird playoff tournament (I just can’t even exert enough energy to add to the discussion about how silly the FedEx playoffs are in mens golf, sorry) ended up coming down to Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott. Folks, we have more OLD people involved!

  

  Bradley held out and played a great tournament, even saying that a critical 5-iron he hit was hit better than maybe any shot in his life. Bradley is, of course, the Ryder Cup captain for the 2025 team, but is ending 2024 playing well enough to be a consideration as an (ahem) Captain’s Pick. Bradley is 38 years old, which used to be a prime age for contending pro golfers. The youth movement has gotten a bit in the way of that, but it still means in a limited field like this, guys like Keegan can and do play well enough to win. Scott is the decrepit age of 44, which historically has been portrayed as an awkward age where formerly great golfers can’t win, but are too young for the Senior Tour. Scott almost won this week and has an OWGR ranking of 21. Twenty-one! That’s SO much higher than I would have assumed, not because of his age but because he hasn’t actually won since Riviera in 2020. But while the OWGR certainly has some issues, being in the top-25 means Scott has been playing fairly well, for a consistent amount of time. As someone on the wrong side of youth, it’s nice to see these old folks - 27, 38 and 44, as it turns out - show they have some spring in their steps.

  

  Adam going Tanimal in his UNQLO is hard to beat.

• The golf season is, as stated, almost at the end of its regular season - but not quite. The playoffs finish up this weekend and it’s remarkable how little even most golf fans care about it. And, in absurd fashion, the next season will start almost immediately - not too far away from where I live, in Napa Valley. Golf has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years but they still really, really need to sort this out.

• In the meantime…football awaits!