Gronkowski Retires

[Rupert Patrick]

I never heard if they had already fixed or if they were going to fix, or if they were even able to fix, the Lombardi Trophy that Gronk damaged when he used it as a baseball bat about a month ago. It is hoped that teams will learn from that experience and will be more careful with handling the Lombardi Trophy.

In the NHL, it used to be true, don't know if it still is, when a team wins the Stanley Cup, each of players on the winning team gets possession of the Cup for a day. I was living in Detroit after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997 and there was a stink when it was revealed that a couple players took the Cup out on Lake Huron with them, and actually tied it atop an innertube and dragged the tube behind their boat. I don't believe NFL players get the Lombardi Trophy for a day if their team wins the Super Bowl, but the Gronk bunting incident is a good reason why players should only handle the Lombardi Trophy on the day they win the Super Bowl and the parade, and it should go in a case forever after that.

[Bryan]

Some other site implied that Mackey at the top of all-time TE lists is revisionist history. I don't recall the site, but the argument was related to his post-season honors. I thought his highlights were pretty impressive, but the only game film I've seen of him was SB III and I think he had a drop early and then kind of disappeared. Seemed like a great player to me, I was just reminded of all that when an earlier poster mentioned him. Without watching the all-22 or knowing why a game plan was what it was, I don't think that much can be inferred from SB III. There are some players where I wonder why there wasn't more of an effort to feed them the ball - Nagurski, Motley, Mackey may be another.

Mackey is weird to me as well. His highlights are some of the most impressive I've ever seen of any player in NFL history. I've only seen him in a couple games on film, none of them early in his career, and he drops passes and is kind of peripheral to the action. As you said, we can't infer much from particular games, but Mackey's stats are a little head-scratching. Jerry Smith and Jackie Smith were more 'prolific' from a stats standpoint, although Mackey was almost always in the top 2-4 TEs in a given year. Even though his 1968 stats are just 45-644-5, he did lead a SB team in receptions which is very rare for a TE. Bill Curry said in Gift of Grab that the Colts had a whole offense designed just to get Mackey the ball, but I'm not sure if the numbers really bear this out.

I think Richie Petibon put it best when he described Mackey as "the toughest runner" he ever had to face, because Mackey's speed/size was off the charts (if that makes sense).

[SixtiesFan]

Some other site implied that Mackey at the top of all-time TE lists is revisionist history. I don't recall the site, but the argument was related to his post-season honors. I thought his highlights were pretty impressive, but the only game film I've seen of him was SB III and I think he had a drop early and then kind of disappeared. Seemed like a great player to me, I was just reminded of all that when an earlier poster mentioned him. Without watching the all-22 or knowing why a game plan was what it was, I don't think that much can be inferred from SB III. There are some players where I wonder why there wasn't more of an effort to feed them the ball - Nagurski, Motley, Mackey may be another.

Mackey is weird to me as well. His highlights are some of the most impressive I've ever seen of any player in NFL history. I've only seen him in a couple games on film, none of them early in his career, and he drops passes and is kind of peripheral to the action. As you said, we can't infer much from particular games, but Mackey's stats are a little head-scratching. Jerry Smith and Jackie Smith were more 'prolific' from a stats standpoint, although Mackey was almost always in the top 2-4 TEs in a given year. Even though his 1968 stats are just 45-644-5, he did lead a SB team in receptions which is very rare for a TE. Bill Curry said in Gift of Grab that the Colts had a whole offense designed just to get Mackey the ball, but I'm not sure if the numbers really bear this out.

I think Richie Petibon put it best when he described Mackey as "the toughest runner" he ever had to face, because Mackey's speed/size was off the charts (if that makes sense).

Years ago in Pro Football Weekly, San Diego columnist Jerry Magee wrote something like: "Mackey dropped two passes for every one he caught." I just checked and John Mackey's stat line for the 1964 NFL Championship game was one catch for two yards. I think he had at least one drop.