Weekly Mail March 18, 2018

Hey There:

So I hope everyone had a nice and safe St. Patrick's Day weekend, and I hope you all enjoyed the Weekly Mail Special last night.



POLITICS: REXit, Stage Left:

I am fully aware that the main reason Rex Tillerson was nominated as Secretary of State was that he was a buddy of Donald Trump, and probably someone Trump could count on to do his bidding. I didn't think Barack Obama should have made Hillary Clinton his secretary of state, but she was head and shoulders above Tillerson in both brains and experience. I'm not saying Tillerson was a dope, you don't get to run one of the largest oil companies in the world if you are, but nothing he did in that job could have prepared him to be our nation's top diplomat. This was pure patronage, plain and simple.

And while many of the Trump haters are probably happy to see Tillerson go, I have to admit that part of me is kind of disappointed.

I'm not saying he was any good, but you know, at least I felt like he was trying to be a good secretary of state.

I could be way off on this. People who follow this stuff better than me might laugh at this. Others will say you can't try to be a good secretary of state, you either do a good job or you don't.

But I'm sorry. I think most of the time, his heart was in the right place. Trump obviously wants to be surrounded by yes men, and Tillerson wasn't willing to do that.

He could have just been a bobblehead doll, kind of like education secretary Betsey DeVos who has been nothing but a stooge. She has lived down to her expectations as Education Secretary. I don't know anybody especially any educators, who think she's been any good.

But I feel like Rex tried to be a diplomat. I feel like he tried to put America's best foot forward. He told Trump things he didn't want to hear. He tried to make this a better place. I know it's a low bar, but he could have taken the job just to tell his pals he held a cabinet position.

I don't think he did that.

I understand that one of the jobs Trump gave him, and one he tried to implement, was to cut the budget at Foggy Bottom. That probably wasn't smart.

But Tillerson advised Trump not to rush to meet with Kim Jong Un. He supposedly urged Trump not to reneg on President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran (full disclosure-I'm not a huge fan of this agreement either-but at this point it could use some tweaks not a blowtorch). Tillerson also supposedly called Trump "a f-cking moron" after Trump's speech to the Boy Scouts last year. That would be hard to argue with.

Again when we rank America's Secreties of State, I have no doubt Rex Tillerson will be somewhere near the bottom. But I give him an A, well maybe a C+ for effort.


BASKETBALL: March Sadness:

Lord knows I have shot myself in the foot by proclaiming things that would never happen in sports. No Met no-hitters. No more Triple Crown winners in Horse racing etc. One prediction I can honestly tell you I never made was that no 16 seed would ever beat a one seed in the NCAA tournament. Some people did, I never did.


It has come so close so many times.

The most famous was when Princeton nearly knocked off Georgetown in 1989. But there have been others. This was something that was bound to happen. And happen it finally did Friday night, to Virginia.

Yes I had Virginia going all the way. But that's not what burns my a$$ about this.

Where I lose my $h-t is that I ask why this couldn't happen to a team I can't stand. Like North Carolina.  All the years Dean Smith and Roy Williams had number one seeds, how cool would that have been? To see their obnoxious fans get so pissed off? (The Tar Heels got knocked out by Texas A&M on Sunday, by they were a 2 seed and they won their first game on Friday)

Or Duke? Those scumbags? Everyone hates Duke, wouldn't that have done our society a favor?

How about UCLA? Not that I hate them so much, as I just think their history could support it. I broke Yankee fans balls pretty bad when the Red Sox came back from 0-3 down in 2004. But the Yankees still had 26 rings to fall back on. Yes, the Sawx coming back is part of their history, but so are the now 27 titles. UCLA won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years. They could afford this.

Kentucky? John Calipari and his one and done wonders? Why not them?

No, it had to be Virginia. A school I have some family ties to. They had to be the ones to break that unfortunate glass ceiling, the punchline to the joke, the answer to the trivia question.

It never ends folks. It never ends.


BTW: The Daily News ranked the 5 biggest upsets in modern sports history on Saturday. Their top 5? Giants over Patriots in Super Bowl 42, Jets over Colts in Super Bowl 3, USA-Miracle on Ice 1980, Villanova over Georgetown 1985 NCAA Final, and Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson.

OK, the Miracle on Ice is the biggest upset in sports history. That is not even up for debate.

Anyone who saw Tyson fight in his prime never would have predicted Buster Douglas could have gone the distance, much less knock Tyson out. I'd put that at number 2. I wasn't around for Jets-Colts, but I believe Joe Namath made a deal with the devil that day. I was around for Nova-G'Town and that was possibly the greatest college basketball game I've ever seen. And yes, Giants Pats was a huge upset, but the Giants had given the Pats a game just a month before. So while I was thrilled the Pats didn't get to 19-0,  I put that upset at number 5.


FOOTBALL: How 'bout them Jets?

For some reason, this off-season Kirk Cousins has been elevated to Tom Brady/Peyton Manning status. If ever the term right palce right time applied, this was it.

Many so called experts were imploring the Jets to take a run at Cousins, and it appears that they did, apparently offering him the best contract in terms of money. But Cousins took less $$$ and worse weather to sign with the Vikings. I for one think that goes into the best deal being the one you don't make department. Because the last time the Jets threw a bucket of money at a free agent QB who happened to be on the market was Neil O'Donnell 22 years ago. We all know how that turned out, Bill Parcells couldn't get him out of town fast enough.

Instead Jet GM Mike Maccagnan pulled off a doozy of a deal on Saturday, trading up for the third pick in the draft. That should land them either Josh Rosen from UCLA, or Sam Darnold of USC.

Of course if we are using more recent history as a guide, the last time the Jets traded up in the first round was in 2009, when they also drafted a QB, also from USC named Mark Sanchez. And yes, I thought he was the man, especially when the Jets went to 2 straight AFC title games with him. We know how that turned out.

So as this is the Jets we are dealing with here, I'm probably out of my mind to praise this deal they made with the Colts. They gave up three high end draft picks this year and most likely one next year to move up. I have no doubt the Colts will use one of those picks to select someone who will no doubt be enshrined in Canton 20 years from now. Still I can't help it. I'm kind of/sort of looking forward to the draft now.

I really need to have my head examined.


This weeks Nor'Easter is scheduled for Tuesday night. At this point, people don't really care
anymore. As John Kerry used to say, Bring....It.....On.

Take Care Everyone

and Have A Great Week