CUP OF JOE: Starkey on sports in 350 words or less.
I wonder if New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft looks at 2023 as a wasted year. I’m guessing not. It got him back to the Super Bowl.
There are many reasons why the Patriots are in position to win their seventh Super Bowl championship, which would vault them past the Steelers. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye is No. 1 — and he’s in New England because the Patriots went 3-14 in 2023. They drafted him third overall.
New England went 3-14 again in Maye’s rookie season. Now they’re back in the Super Bowl. The Steelers just went 10-8 for the third straight year, coming off seasons of 9-8 and 9-7-1.
I mention this, because I’m still reeling from some Art Rooney II comments after Mike Tomlin resigned.
Two that stood out:
• “All in all, I’ll take being in contention every year and having a shot at it.” — summing up Tomlin’s past nine seasons, featuring zero playoff wins.
• “I’m not sure why you waste a year of your life not trying to contend.” — on the idea of a rebuild.
Let’s take the second one first and provide the obvious answer: TO GET A QUARTERBACK!
I don’t know if the Patriots tried to go 3-14 after going 8-9, but they got there. Maybe it happened organically. Great for them.
If it never happens organically, and you never win playoff games, then maybe you need to try to make it happen. That’s not “wasting a year.” It’s stepping back to fight another day. Rooney could never bring himself to do it.
He still can’t. The Steelers just hired another Mike who rarely wins playoff games.
Rooney’s first comment — being “in contention” — was flat-out delusional. When you get blown out of the wild-card round every year, you’re no more “in contention” for a championship than the Giants or Browns — and come to think of it, each of those franchises has won a playoff game more recently than the Steelers.
New England just won as many in three weeks as the Steelers have in 15 years.
