NFL | First, you have to learn to win

It’s too easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but we’re going to do it the same.

By now, you probably know what we already know: the next Super Bowl, the 58^e of his state, will pit the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers. For what ? Because the Baltimore Ravens and Detroit Lions don’t know how to win.

First, we can throw all our flowers to the Chiefs and the 49ers, who didn’t reach the big game by chance. In both cases, the important players responded, and to quote Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: your best players must be your best players.

But we can assume that on this early Tuesday morning, there are many members of the Ravens and Lions who are at home, lying in a little ball, listening OK Computer of Radiohead in the dark, unable to communicate with the outside world.

Let’s start with the Ravens, who did everything they could to give the Chiefs a victory on Sunday, and ended up doing just that. It’s impossible to win a game of this importance by giving the ball to the opponent, and the Baltimore club committed three turnovers. We add stupid punishments to these blunders, and what does that mean? That gives you an assured defeat. Lamar Jackson, who many see as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player this season, finds himself with a 2-4 record in the playoffs.

Lions can also do like Johanne Blouin and sing Mea culpa. With a 17-point lead at the half, they were in full control, and all they had to do was not do anything stupid. But they weren’t able to do that.

It would be very easy to point the finger at coach Dan Campbell, who likes to take risks. With a 24-10 lead, the Lions had a chance to attempt a 46-yard field goal, but instead attempted a fourth down, unsuccessfully. Four minutes later it was 24-24. Campbell did the same thing again in the fourth quarter, and the Lions again failed in an attempt to convert a fourth down.

No doubt that the coach didn’t have the greatest confidence in his kicker, Michael Badgley, a guy who walked around quite a bit and played for five teams in six years. This guy makes 77% of his career field goals between 40 and 49 yards, and he’s missed two conversions in six games this season. In short, there was no guarantee that he was going to put the ball between the posts.

We will add that the Lions also dropped balls, and cornerback Kindle Vildor will undoubtedly revisit in his nightmares for a long time this ball which hit him in the face and which then found itself in the hands of Brandon Aiyuk.

Winning is something you learn, and clearly, the Lions and Ravens are not there yet.

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While everyone is talking about Taylor Swift, without whom the Chiefs wouldn’t be here, we may not be talking enough about what Patrick Mahomes is doing.

Basically, Mahomes is heating up Tom Brady for the title of greatest.

Before counting all of handsome Tom’s rings, we must remember that Mahomes is not even close to retirement, and at 28 years old, the end of his career is still far away.

Here is a snippet of the Chiefs quarterback’s record in six seasons, including the playoffs: 258 touchdown passes against 69 interceptions, two rings, and an efficiency rating of 103.7.

At the same time in his career, after six seasons, Brady had this under his belt: 167 touchdown passes, 87 interceptions, three rings, efficiency rating of 88.4.

We’ll leave that up to you to think about, but obviously what Pat Mahomes is doing looks like something that could go down in history.

This is a good time to remember that Mahomes was the tenth player selected in the 2017 draft, and therefore nine teams believed nine other players were better than him. That includes the Chicago Bears, who thought Mitch Trubisky was a superior quarterback, and it also explains why the Bears are where they are right now.

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Moreover, if Vegas ever treats you to the weekend of February 11, know that it is time to buy your tickets for the big game now, before the market gets a little too excited.

Thus, on the Ticketmaster website, as of Monday, the cheapest ticket was listed at $8,945, while the most expensive climbed to $55,000.

It’s in US dollars too, but hey. Breathing the same air as Taylor Swift is priceless.