Football Nfl: i 49ers e l’idea Brady. I Bengals e Burrow da riempire d’oro

To celebrate the winning heroes of sport we also need the losers. Those who make them so by facing them and surrendering on the field, then. The Glendale Super Bowl, the LVIII, is scheduled for Sunday, February 12, and now we know that the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will contend for it. There will be time to present the huge game, now it’s time to understand what went wrong in San Francisco and Cincinnati, beaten in the Conference finals.

PURDY’S INJURY

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The 49ers showed up in Philly with 12 straight wins, 10 in the regular season, 2 in the playoffs, over Seattle and Dallas. Perhaps the Californians, for overall talent, boast the best NFL workforce. After all, they were in the third final of the Conference, of the NFC, in four years. Yet they never won the Super Bowl, with Coach Shanahan. Injuries over the years have been a factor, this time bad luck took them out of the game with the Eagles from the ready, preventing them from playing it. At the sixth offensive snap, with 7 ‘to play in the 1st quarter, Brock Purdy, the revelation quarterback, Mr Irrelevant, the absolute last call freshman of the 2022 Draft, broke a ligament in his right elbow, the one for throwing. He had to go back on the gridiron to close the game because the unfortunate substitute, Josh Johnson, after having combined all the colors he had to go out, entered in the protocol concussions after hitting his head violently on the ground backwards. Purdy could not throw again, except for short distances, in pain, the 49ers lost 7-31. The Qb from Iowa State will be out for at least 6 months. It remains to be established whether he will have to undergo surgery, a solution advocated by the deductible, or not. However, the recovery times are the same: the intervention would give greater certainty of solving the problem.

49ERS PERSPECTIVES

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They had already lost their first two quarterbacks to injuries. Trey Lance, the young mobile Qb then imagined as the future of the franchise, had broken his right ankle in his second outing of the season, Jimmy Garoppolo, the veteran pocket quarterback, had broken his left foot in the 13th week of the NFL. In short, a curse. The 49ers will be racing again next season. They will have to try to re-sign at least some of the most illustrious free agents on defense: linebacker Al-Shaair, defensive end Samson Ebukam and safety Jimmy Ward. Then we have to convince Robbie Gould, the eternal kicker, one of the most reliable under pressure. But the future of the franchise depends on the choice of the quarterback. Purdy earns less than $900,000, it will be confirmed. Garoppolo can instead choose his team: does he deserve a new investment? Because Lance is a question mark: if you take away athletic explosiveness from a Qb who excels in racing… Then there’s the Tom Brady suggestion: farewell to Tampa is increasingly probable, and he may not decide to retire. He’s from San Mateo, a stone’s throw from San Francisco, he’s waiting for proposals and with that talent around him he could almost “guarantee” the Super Bowl …

THE DISASTER OF OSAI

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The Bengals won 10 straight before losing 20-23 in Kansas City. Like last season they had managed to find peak form when it matters most. Dragged by the magic of Joe Burrow, best quarterback in the world together with Mahomes, today as today. The game in Missouri seemed destined for overtime, but with 8” to go Joseph Ossai, the 22-year-old Nigerian defensive end from Cincy, pushed Mahomes off the field, not realizing that the action was already over. He has lost all sense of time and orientation, if anything he should have tried to tackle the opponent on the pitch to make the clock run. The referees applied the regulation to the letter: 15 yards penalty. And Butker’s kick at the end suddenly became not only possible, but even automatic. The Chiefs pass to the Super Bowl. A mortal sin that of Ossai. Back in the locker room, fellow defender Germaine Pratt yelled at him, words caught on snooping cameras. Throwing alive a season that started last summer, everyone’s efforts… hard to swallow.

BENGAL PERSPECTIVES

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When you have Burrow back in center, he’s only 26, you have a chance to play it with everyone. All time. So, as she is for the first time she becomes eligible for an extension, Cincy will have to shower him with money. As soon as possible. Break the piggy bank without delay. It’s not a big market, the Queen City, by no means the navel of the world. But he is an Ohio boy, tied to the area by personal reasons, despite the marketing disadvantages. However, to be safe, it is better to offer him the moon: about 50 million a year. They can, they will. The Bengals have nearly $49 million in salary space going into 2023, the sixth-best NFL situation. They will therefore try to renew the expiring defensive backs: the secondary is full of free agents. Priorities are safety Jessie Bates and Von Bell. Then if via Draft they manage to further strengthen that offensive line, to protect Burrow’s health…