A venture into football commentary

 I think I  figured out at least one way Patrick Mahomes identifies his favorite receivers as plays develop and 21 other players are flying around in a blur in front of him.. but we'll get to that soon enough.

Travis Kelce (Fundamism.com)

First let's look at the sports pundits. The whole panel I watched before the Chiefs played the Ravens picked the Ravens for a variety of reasons. Result: Chiefs wiped up the field with the Ravens. That was the third such occurrence over the weekend. Thursday everybody with anything to say about football picked Jacksonville over Miami. The Dolphins won. Enough said. Then come Sunday night, a panel of four or five men and one woman almost unanimously had Dallas beating Seattle. Unanimous except for the woman, She picked the winner. Russell Wilson has been amazing this year. I have always wondered why the sports shows think it's important to predict the winners. As Chris Berman used to say, "That's why they play the game." 

A large part of the talk before the Chiefs played the Ravens surrounded the two quarterbacks, each announcer highlighting the pluses and minuses of Lamar Jackson and Mahomes. Generally it seemed they found the two were equal. Only Steve Young pointed out a weakness, saying Jackson and the Ravens had not won a game when the team trailed by10 points or more sometime during the action. Give Young some credit, after Baltimore went down by 10 points they never recovered. But, from listening to the two quarterbacks in interviews I had another suspicion and watched for confirmation during the game.

Tyrek Hill

I suspected a gap of intellect. Over the years I have wondered how at the level of play in professional sports standouts like Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and a few others can be so much better. Beyond athletic ability, intelligence and acuity seem to figure into the equation. Here's an example. In a game when he was playing for Kansas City Joe Montana came off the field after he had to throw away a pass out of bounds to prevent being sacked. He was explaining to his coach who had been miced up for the game, so we could hear what Montana said. What he did was point out where each of five receivers had been on the field naming them along with the people defending against them and how they were being covered. All this he had seen and processed enough to remember it in detail while avoiding potential tacklers during the three or so seconds a quarterback's allowed before defenders begin to reach him in the backfield. I have seen what I think is that ability only in Mahomes, though he may remember whole games. Lamar Jackson does not seem to have this ability to much extent.

In pregame interviews, Mahomes is obviously the more articulate of the two, but that isn't always a fair comparison: Still here is a paraphrased version of how the two spoke after the game: 

 Jackson: I ran over there, once I got out of the pocket. I threw that pass, I couldn't get around the corner.

Mahomes: We knew going in our defense needed to step up and they did, getting them off the field. Our offensive line was outstanding with prtotection. The receivers were getting open and that all made it almost easy for me. He went into more detail than that.

Late in the game as it was winding down even the TV announcers picked up on what makes Mahomes different. They marveled at how well a quarterback in his third year was able to read defenses as he approached the line of scrimmage. When the camera allowed you could see how he scanned the whole field in front of him without turning his head. He can change the called play depending on what he sees and often does, and, again, in a few seconds. We know the results.

Now about that trick. Imagine standing looking out over the field with 21 players flying around in all different directions in front of you while others the size of pickup trucks are bearing down on you with the intention of tearing off your head. Eleven of those players are wearing black jerseys, 10 of them are wearing white. Who's who? Then a splash of bright yellow crosses your field of vision, so out of place in the general surroundings. There he is. React, throw, another completion. That yellow is not a player showing off his fashion sense. Only Mahomes' two favorite receivers wear the yellow Micky-Mouse-looking gloves: Tyrek Hill and Travis Kelce. Kelce even wore bright yellow shoes. That splash of color identifies them, making it easier for the quarterback to find them quickly in a crowd. As the game proceeded even I was able to find them when the camera allowed a wide field of vision. Maybe others have tried this and maybe I am not the first person to point it out, but none of the announcers doing the game mentioned it.

Well there you have it, the first and we can hope the last of my comments on football this year.