By: Joshua Brisco
Happy Playoff Weekend! As the Chiefs prepared for the Texans, I have prepared for your questions. Every week, you can send your questions to me on Twitter (@jbbrisco) and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability and/or desire.
First, here are a few things you may have missed on a full week of (Almost) Entirely Sports: We previewed Chiefs vs. Texans and discussed the non-hiring of Eric Bieniemy with Nate Taylor of The Athletic, we indulged in the sadness of Sad Patriots Fans On Reddit following their first-round elimination, and we recorded a podcast-exclusive review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
So open up one of those podcasts or subscribe to AES wherever you get your podcasts and let’s get into the questions.
There were some worrisome quotes from Matt Rhule that make me concerned for the health of Christian McCaffery and owner David Tepper’s pocketbook, but Rhule has at least been the main guy responsible for some real success. Especially at Baylor, he took a disaster and made it a contender, while showing some philosophical flexibility. It’s a ton of money and a lot of years for a college coach, but I can at least see what they’re doing.
Joe Judge already seems to be in over his head.
He’s under GM Dave Gettleman, who has repeatedly led the organization in the wrong direction. He’s tied to QB Daniel Jones, who has a long way to go before hitting NFL viability. He’s starting his tenure by saying that the team will practice in pads and practice live tackling, which they will absolutely not be doing because the CBA won’t allow it.
Ultimately, my hunch is that Gettleman, Judge and Jones will all be replaced after a couple of underwhelming seasons. The Giants should have hired Eric Bieniemy, but they probably won’t realize that until a few years from now.
Three-parter!
On Trubisky: The Alex Smith/Mitchell Trubisky comparison is totally understandable, but I think more highly of Matt Nagy (and the consistency of one offense) to fully make that connection. Smith started in a way more hostile environment. Regardless, Nagy should bring another option in this offseason. Still, Nagy’s view of Trubisky impacts any potential moves, since there’s a difference between bringing in a mentor, a competitor, and a replacement. If the Bears have hope for Trubisky, they could bring in someone like Marcus Mariota or Josh Rosen, or they could go all-in on Cam Newton and see if he can be refurbished in a new offense.
On the QBs: Not only do I think we’ve seen those guys fizzle out, but we’ve also seen the end of an era. The AFC has been completely owned by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger since 2003, with one Joe Flacco exception. That time is gone now, and that’s still hard to believe.
On the music: I’m a full-on music-streaming millennial at this point, so the last album I bought was twenty one pilots’ Blurryface on vinyl because I’m insufferable and occasionally buy some of my favorite albums on vinyl. The last album I listened to the whole way through (and would buy if I had to) was probably Matt Maeson’s Bank On The Funeral. It’s excellent and everyone should listen to it.
I have, of course, given this a lot of thought. After watching Detective Pikachu over Christmas, I had to reconsider, but I ended up at the same place. If we’re going purely on pet-like aesthetics and reasoning, the answer is a Piplup. Penguins are my favorite animal, and Piplups are basically penguins but cooler.
If we’re going by utility or how useful they’d be… ask me next week.
No.
I’m afraid that I’ll answer this too hastily and accidentally shame myself forever. Currently, I’m leaning towards the waffle fries at Talk of the Town, but that could be recency bias and I feel like I’m forgetting somewhere else. This answer has a better chance of coming back to haunt me than my Joe Judge dismissal.
The Nintendo Switch is an absolute masterpiece. I love it and all of its console-to-handheld magic. My first handheld device was a Nintendo DS Lite, which I still have and occasionally break out, but the Switch is overwhelmingly excellent and has a really impressive catalog of outstanding indie games. I fully recommend it and also now want to go back to playing Stardew Valley.
Last one for the week! I have a couple of Kansas City Monarchs and Athletics hats that are the best KC teams have to offer. Going with standard, team-official designs, the Royals win the currently-existing-team division, and the Chiefs follow that. Sporting and the college teams don’t really do much for me in the default cap department, but just about every team has a few good designs if you look around long enough. Regardless, the Monarchs are the reigning champions.