SUPER STUFF
Raheel Ramzanali: The 5 most memorable moments from the Super Bowl
Feb 6, 2018, 6:20 am
Nick Foles was excellent when it counted. Eagles.com
Now that we’ve had some time to reflect on Super Bowl 52, I wanted to recap the five most memorable moments from Super Sunday:
5. Never underestimate how unathletic the greatest quarterback really is in the grand scheme of things. Before you get at me with your “SUCK MY D*CK, A**HOLE! BRADY IS THE GREATEST” nonsense, just know that I’m with you - Brady is indeed the greatest player I’ve ever watched, but that doesn’t mean he’s not that athletic in the grand scheme of things. No number of pliability sessions with the great Alex Guerrero can prepare Brady to catch a pass off a trick play on the biggest stage. This was Brady’s chance to show the world that he’s somewhat capable of making a non-throwing athletic play in the NFL, but he didn’t. If he completes that pass, the TB12 Method is blowing up even more. We would have evidence that this REALLY works across multiple disciplines like throwing and catching, but instead we’re left with the same ol’ Brady isn’t athletic jokes. Don’t get me wrong, I think throwing for 3 TDs and 505-yards is super impressive, but in my opinion him completing the reception would’ve changed the course of history in how we talk about Brady. Now we’ll always revert back to his Combine picture and the still of him dropping the pass.
4. Kevin Hart is the biggest comedian on the planet. He’s found a niche in Hollywood as The Rock’s comedic relief and literally everyone knows him. With that being said, one of my fondest memories from this Super Bowl was watching Kevin Hart get heat checked after the game when he attempted to get on stage with the Eagles to celebrate their first Super Bowl win ever. I think Kevin Hart’s story is awesome. He’s paid his dues and is now enjoying the fruits of his labor. From being the MVP at the NBA Celebrity All-Star game to making the rounds on Radio Row, Kevin Hart loves being part of big events. So, it was no surprise that after the biggest win in franchise history that Kevin Hart would try to work himself into the mix with the Eagles. Seeing Kevin Hart try to get on stage and then be denied by NFL Security was fantastic. I think at one point he played the “Do you know who I am?!” card, but the NFL does not mess around. They denied him and eventually the camera panned away so we didn’t see how it ended. I could have watched that interaction for an hour to see what other cards Hart would’ve played to get on stage.
3. More and more stories will come out about why Malcolm Butler was benched, but this game will forever be remembered for the sideline shots of Butler just standing there for four hours. Bonus: at first I thought Butler REALLY REALLY REALLY loved the USA or REALLY REALLY REALLY loved Pink’s rendition of the national anthem, but it turns out he REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to play but found he wouldn’t be playing. Bummer.
2. The Eagles really pulled off the upset. Now, it wasn’t a monumental upset in terms of Vegas odds, but still how many of us really thought the Eagles would pull it off? I certainly didn’t and MyBookie.AG can verify it. Nick Foles and Doug Pederson really did it. They were supposed to be the easiest 1 seed to upset going into the NFC side of things, yet they kept winning games and Foles kept on getting better. At no point during the Super Bowl did I think Foles was in over his head. That’s a great lesson for every young player out there on being ready and confident enough when your number is called. We’ll also never forget the “Philly Special” on fourth down and Pederson’s gutsy call. At the party I was at, when the Eagles called the timeout I immediately said Foles was going to run it in, but boy was I wrong when they decided to go all college football on us with trick play. That’s how Super Bowls are supposed to be won. GO TAKE IT!
1. This Super Bowl will forever be known as the game the Eagles finally won it all and the game that inspired an Eagles fan to eat horse turd. That’s right, my number one most memorable thing about Super Sunday was this Eagles fan enjoying himself an entree of horse doodoo during the championship riots. Once you’re done burning things and flipping cars, you’re really out of things to do in a riot, so naturally they decided to munch on some horse crap to pass time. I’m not sure what this dude was on, but I feel like the great Rick James quote applies here: Cocaine is a hell of a drug. There is no amount of money you could pay me to eat horse dung, but this dude here did it for free in honor of Nick Foles. Philly, you will forever be known for Rocky, Cheesesteaks, Nick Foles, and people that eat turd cakes from horses.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.