From Green Bay to Rhyl, it’s time for the Far From Lombardi awards. These are not your standard MVPs but awards for moments or people who we feel showed exemplary Far From Lombardi spirit.. Get on board to find out the winners of the following illustrious, highly prized categories…
The Tony Plant Award for Shit-housery
The Tom Scott Award for Acca Let-downs
The Mark Byrne Award for Schadenfreude
The Rob Thomas Award for Misplaced Egotism
The Ian Stokes Award for Working Behind the Scenes
Keep scrolling to listen right here on the site or you can listen on your favourite podcast provider…
The most anticipated NFL season ever is in the books. Let’s take a quick look back to 2020 and with the arrival of Covid, the questions surrounding the league as to whether or not we would even get the 101st season of American football. There were numerous player opt-outs, the draft was moved from the fountains of the Bellagio Hotel to the basement of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Games were moved due to Covid outbreaks at team facilities, truly a season like no other. With the constant lockdowns and changing of the rules here in England, the NFL offered an escape from the real world on a Sunday. Something I well and truly lived for with no access to pubs with the lads.
I’ll touch on the super bowl briefly here and for me it was a strange one. Since I got into the NFL, all that I’ve known is our own super bowl party, “Farrbowl”, and without it it just didn’t feel the same this time. The regular season has been great but the super bowl, for me, is a party atmosphere with the boys; drinking, betting, dancing, taking the piss out of people and annoying Mark at all moments. This super bowl was a let-down! No tops off for the half time show, no half-naked piley-ons and no taking the piss out of Rob for going asleep at half time. Stokesy’s laminate squares game that always causes trouble was actually organised and ran virtually with no hiccups (I hate when it all runs smoothly) with no passing the quid cup round. Ian’s had the sense to stay away from these events, he’s always the man behind the scenes (- he likes to keep his hairy moobs covered at all times – [Ian])! Tom, the Farrbowl virgin, would have hated every second of it and also loved it all at the same time. The other regular lads I’m sure feel the same; Far, Ashy & Dyson, we all live for Farrbowl!
Associated Press
Back to the NFL 2020 season then, there were some huge upsets and we’ll cover some of these on the Podcasts over the close season; the Jets not getting the number 1 overall pick for this upcoming draft; the Dolphins accelerating through the rebuild; Josh Allen balling out; Lamar Jackson’s struggles; Joe Burrows horrible injury; the emergence of Justin Herbert at the Chargers; the amazing comeback story of Alex Smith at Washington; the abysmal NFC East shattering records left, right and centre for being terrible; Derrick Henry once again proving what a wrecking ball he is. And, of course, that huge half a billion-dollar 10-year contract Mahomes signed for the Kansas City Chiefs! The other big news of the offseason sparked the debate of Brady or Belichick, they finally split up and the dynasty was over, now just who was the main man behind the success of the New England Patriots? Was it QB Tom Brady or was it the defensive specialist head coach Big Bad Bill? Tom left New England after a hugely successful career plenty of people wrote him off, me included, ‘he’s finished’ ‘past it’ and plenty more not-very-nice things were said about Brady. He went to retire in Florida because that’s what old people do allegedly. Rob Thomas, host of the pod, king bullshitter’s throw-enough-shit-around-something’s-bound-to-stick approach, said why would Tom Brady go to the Bucs to a team that’s got a pirate ship and fires cannons? Oh, how sweet last night was, the “joke of a franchise”, in Rob’s eyes, made Patrick Mahomes look like a kid in this one.
It was billed as the G.O.A.T passing on the torch to Mahomes who was going to sweep his second super bowl in a row and be the youngest QB to win back to back Super Bowls… #runitback. Tom Brady wasn’t going to allow this. The man in his 10th super bowl had the chance to chalk up more Super Bowls wins than any franchise has won! Tom Brady won his 7th ring last night, now, was it down to him alone? Most definitely not. Todd Bowles had Mahomes like a deer in the headlights. The Bucs D had him scrambling around all game and Mahomes, to his credit, even banged up still made some incredible throws, however, he was let down by his offensive line, an O-Line that gave him no time to survey the field. The Bucs D was incredible and worthy of winning the super bowl. Tom Brady, however, took a losing franchise, in a season like no other, and turned them into winners, bringing that game-changing, winning mentality. It didn’t start rosy, but the Bucs under Arians, Byron Leftwich, Todd Bowles and of course TB12, got their act together after the bye week and haven’t lost a game since. The first team to ever host a super bowl at their own stadium and of course TB12 gets another record in the books, the only team to ever win a super bowl in their own stadium.
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The game was completely different from the championship game for the Bucs, Tom Brady protected the ball at all times, moved the offence, made use of his 2 running backs, which was always going to be the key to winning this one and relied on the Bucs D doing what it’s done the past 7-8 games since they were humiliated in the first quarter of the last game against Kansas.
Another year over, blue Gatorade the colour of choice to go over Arians, some questions remain to be asked. Is Mahomes as good as everyone thinks (of course he is)? Will Tom Brady hang up his cleats or will he feel he can go again and make it a mind-blowing 8 super bowl rings?
I for one am absolutely gutted this season is over and I’m already counting the days until Scott Hanson next says “7 hours of commercial-free football.”
As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to do battle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are playing in their own back yard, the first time a team as played at home in the Super Bowl, let the FFL team get your ready for the big game.
Whether you are an NFL veteran or an undrafted rookie, the Far From Lombardi boys have been working overtime this week to bring you 2 podcast previews for the big game, one aimed at the NFL casual fan and then something a bit more in depth but, as always, with same FFL arsing around!
One for the Rookies
The Casual’s Super Bowl Special: We all know how it is for some fans and certain people, you’ve not really paid attention or ben interested all year but now it’s all anybody can talk about you’re ready to be all in, poor takes and ill-researched-opinions and all. Well we at Far From Lombardi are here for you, we’ve got you covered with the story of each team’s season, their strengths and weaknesses as well as all the nuanced bits in between that got them to the big game. So don’t be scared to look a fool as Far From Lombardi’s own fools, Rob and Tom, give you everything you need to know to not miss out.
Keep scrolling to listen right here on the site or you can listen on your favourite podcast provider…
The off-season hasn’t even begun yet and there has already been a blockbuster trade! A week before the Super Bowl LV takes place in Tampa, between the undisputed GOAT and the young up and coming stud and 2020 super bowl MVP, it’s the LA Rams who’ve decided to move on from Jared Goff – a man who they moved heaven and earth to move up for and take with the number 1 overall pick in 2016. Goff signed a $134 million 4 year contract extension in 2019, with plenty of people questioning the move at the time after his poor performance against the New England Patriots in the 2019 Super Bowl! The Rams lost that game 13-3 with Goff completing just 50% of his passes, zero by TDs and 1 interception…
Less than 18 months later and the Rams have realised the mistake they made, credit where credit’s due. There’s no point keeping a QB you don’t believe in, especially when the Rams have a number 1 defence and enough talent on offence to make a strong push for next years Super Bowl… which just so happens to be in Sofi Stadium where the Rams play their home games.
The Trade
So, with the news after the 2020 regular season ended that the Lions and QB Matthew Stafford were going to part ways, we all knew there would be plenty of suitors for number 9, who when healthy is a top 10 QB in the league. Maybe even top 5 on his day? The Lions have done right by Stafford, allowing him to go to a team he wanted to go to and also getting a haul of picks in return (even though the Rams don’t even have a 2021 1st round draft pick, due to the trade last year for lockdown corner Jalen Ramsey)!
Jared Goff has moved from sunny LA to Motor City and let’s be honest, the Lions are in a 2-3 year rebuild and I’d be amazed if Goff is still hanging around come the end of his contract. In addition to Goff, the Lions have also taken the Rams 2022 and 2023 1st round draft picks – the second first-round pick had to come as compensation for taking Goff’s contract on! The Rams now won’t have a 1st round draft pick until 2024! Their last first-round draft pick was actually Goff in 2016.
Winners
For me, the Lions have got the best deal for the future. New Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell has got a lot of work to do to make the Lions a competitive team in the near future especially with 2 of the teams best receivers looking highly likely to move on in the offseason. The Lions pick at 7 in the 2021 draft and with a QB not being a pressing need currently, it will be interesting to see how they go about this draft. I’d personally write this year off, trade back and acquire more assets for 2022s draft where they will have 2 first-rounders.
The Rams are the short term winners, they are all in on McVay being ‘the man’ at Head Coach. With the talent on D, if the Rams can keep all the pieces together this offseason with the cap number reducing due to Covid, they could make a strong push to go all the way. Stafford is a huge upgrade if he stays healthy and deserves a shot at going to a team capable of winning it all.
With all that being said, if the Rams fall short next year, the long term future of the Rams franchise isn’t looking too rosy; an ageing QB, who would need replacing in the not-too-distant future, and no first-round picks to make a play in the draft in the next couple of years. All of their eggs are in the one basket. If I was a Rams fan I’d be excited for the coming season but at the same time be absolutely terrified about how the franchise will look in 3-4 years.
So there it is, we’ve got our two Super Bowl teams and I’m delighted to say it doesn’t include the Packers (obligatory: F**k the Packers!) as Rodgers fluffs yet another championship game making it 4 straight losses in his championship appearances, NFL history right there…
I think it’s fair to say the other game went according to expectation, the Chiefs giving up the lead, as now seems customary, before turning on the style and winning comfortably in the end.
Listen to the lads as they discuss how the Championship Weekend went down in more detail (and slightly less biased than my Bear Goggles!) Includes all the latest updates from the end of the NFL regular season.
Far From Lombardi 