by 1. Most people would say that this piece of magic from Patrick Mahomes was Sunday’s play of the day.
Obviously that piece is just ridiculous, and I love Mahomes, but I saw another piece on Sunday that deserves even more credit. And all it was was an eight-yard completion.
Let me set the scene: Lions 31-23 against the Vikings. Detroit with a third and seven at Minnesota’s 41-yard line with two minutes remaining, looking to close the win.
What was the Lions’ play call? Move Penei Sewell, 5ft 8in and 700lbs away, and throw him the ball.
Now we’ve seen offensive lineman passes caught before, but 99% of the time it happens on the goal line or in the end zone.
Sewell caught a pass with his hands in the open field and turned onto the field to dive for first down. AND IT WAS AMAZING!
What a beauty. It’s actually art. From the execution to the finish to the phone call from Fox’s Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma. Just a wonderful 30 seconds of football.
Vilma was all of us when he expressed his shock at the play call. “Wowwww, are you kidding me?” asked Vilma. “I couldn’t figure out why Penei Sewell was sitting there moving. I’m like, ‘What’s going on? Why is this big athletic freak moving?’ Nobody expected that.”
After the game, Sewell had a colorful explanation for Dan Campbell’s play call.
2. Congratulations to the NFL, Roger Goodell and umpire Scott Novak for the worst call of the season during Sunday night’s Dolphins-Chargers game.
3. Speaking of penalties, while Jets shared his confusion alongside Garrett Wilson that the Bills were not called for a late hit on this play, he shared a funny story about what he learned as a rookie from a ref.
4. Niners linebacker Dre Greenlaw knocked out Tom Brady in San Francisco’s 35-7 victory against Tampa Bay on Sunday. After the game, Greenlaw asked the GOAT to sign the intercepted ball. Bold, but respectable move.
5. I don’t think I’ve seen a player more excited about a teammate scoring a touchdown than George Kittle. After rookie quarterback Brock Purdy (he was Mr. Irrelevant, in case you haven’t heard that anywhere) rushed for a two-yard score, Kittle paid homage to Purdy’s NSFW moniker and then went wild.
6. A brand new SI Media podcast fell this morning, and this week’s guest is the athletic’s sports media reporter, Richard Deitsch. Topics covered include:
- Fox’s World Cup coverage
- Jon Heyman sniffs at Aaron Judge
- Adam Schefter does PR for Deshaun Watson
- Is TNF on Amazon a Success?
- Athletes as podcasters
- Good morning America scandal
- Manning Cast
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also look at the SI Media podcast on Youtube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I must conclude Traina Thoughts with the shocking and tragic passing of hugely popular football journalist Grant Wahl. To get a full picture of what Grant was all about, you need to read this piece of it Sports illustratedby Jon Wertheim.
Personally, I was Grant’s colleagues for many, many years and he was always so nice to me. We always had fun with the fact that I’m not a football person, and he was the authority on football.
I was always amazed that Grant was the man who wrote the famous SI “Chosen One” cover story about LeBron James. But as everyone knows, Grant was all about football. SI’s football editor, Avi Creditor, told me that of all the ambitious projects Grant has worked on over the years, the one he was most proud of was his “Exploring Planet Fútbol” video series.
Make sure you catching up on old editions of Traina Thoughts and view the Sports Illustrated Media podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
