Huge Christmas Present -- NFL -- December 18, 2023

Locator: 46339SPORTS.

Before we get started, for the archives: tonight on NFL MNF perhaps one of the most exciting finishes ever when the Seattle Seahawks, a mediocre team at best this year, beat the Philadelphia Eagles, a very good team this year, in a spectacular finish, 20 - 17. It took two spectacular plays in the last few minutes to pull off and secure the win.

Now, to the NFL Christmas present to fans.

Link here.

The clearest sign that Brock Purdy is a big-time NFL quarterback?

We’ve stopped freaking out that Brock Purdy is an NFL quarterback, period.

Because he’s not supposed to be one—at least not according to the edified minds who assemble professional North American football teams, who repeatedly passed over Purdy until San Francisco took him, dead last, 262nd overall, the final pick in the 2022 NFL draft.

It’s a selection so desultory it comes with a tongue-in-cheek nickname that isn’t really tongue-in-cheek: Mr. Irrelevant.

Last year Purdy’s story was: Wow, Mr. Irrelevant is actually starting games as a rookie for the Niners.

Then it was: Mr. Irrelevant is pretty good!

Now it’s: Is Mr. Irrelevant actually going to win league MVP?

Purdy faces sturdy MVP competition, including Baltimore’s dazzling Lamar Jackson, who was stellar as the Ravens beat Jacksonville Sunday night. There’s Tyreek Hill and Tua Tagovailoa in Miami, and possibly Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia. There’s Dallas’s Dak Prescott, should he rebound from Sunday’s long, losing afternoon against the Buffalo Bills.

There’s also running back Christian McCaffrey, an all-around playmaker on Purdy’s Niners team—though non-quarterbacks tend to be disadvantaged in MVP votes (Adrian Peterson was the last non-QB to win, in 2012).

It’s Purdy who has the inside track after a stellar performance Sunday in which he threw for four touchdowns and 242 yards in a 45-29 defeat of Arizona. Despite taking a heavy hit in the second quarter which caused him to miss a handful of plays, Purdy recovered to steer San Francisco to its sixth straight win and an early clinch of the NFC West division.

Lamar Jackson and Brock Purdy face of Christmas Day, December 25, 2023.

My hunch: MVP is pretty nice but going to the Super Bowl is a whole lot nicer.