JAYDEN DANIELS TAKES OVER THE PLAYOFFS AS BRADY — SHAME — SEEKS JOHNSON
Welcome to megastardom as Daniels might become the first rookie quarterback to start a Super Bowl, stunning the Lions — will they ever win a title? — and prompting a Fox analyst to seek his next coach
The tears trickled down his nose and dropped into his beard. Any misery we felt for the slice of Detroit love known as Dan Campbell — the Lions remain one of four teams never to reach a Super Bowl, as Eminem wails — quickly was supplanted by the joy of Jayden Daniels. He already is among the best quarterbacks of his day, if not any day.
We were officially introduced to him Saturday night, when a team once known as the Washington Redskins and owned by a scoundrel named Daniel Snyder created a culture placing the Commanders in the NFC championship game. Daniels has become a massive delight for tens of millions who know Patrick Mahomes wants to win three straight Super Bowls — and would love to see them play in three Sundays.
For now, he and his teammates have turned the Lions into an overpublicized mess with a 45-31 victory in a depressed Ford Field. “You can’t put this into perspective. It’s God, the notion that we would win four games last year and be in the NFC championship,” said managing partner Josh Harris. “Let’s go. One game from the Super Bowl.”
And why?
“Jayden,” he said, “Jayden is a special guy.”
It’s stunning to see an NFL franchise present new proprietors, a new general manager and a new head coach and rally within two victories of glory. Daniels, just 24, would be the first rookie quarterback to start a Super Bowl, the sort of magic relatable to owner partner Magic Johnson, who also has invested in the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. As they celebrated — with GM Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn, whose hiring was endorsed by Bob Myers, the architect behind Golden State’s NBA dynasty — who couldn’t stop and wonder about the league’s blurry preferential go-around?
Sure, for a moment, we stared at Campbell and wondered why Jared Goff threw three interceptions and lost a fumble. Do they still love him in Michigan? Aren’t Lions fans wondering if they’ll ever win, as Barry Sanders watched stone-faced from the sideline? Sobbing, Campbell said: “It’s hard when you lose these games. What our players put into it, people don’t know what they go through and how you have to get up when your body is beat to s—, to mentally stay locked in. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. … We didn’t play great, and I mentioned we didn’t complement each other. At the end of the day, I didn’t have them ready. It’s hard to look at. We’re here to get to the show and fell short. That hurts.”
“I’m still kind of processing this,” Goff said. “I’m going to have some hard nights. It's hard. I wish I could give you guys a better answer right now. It's disappointing. It's hard. We had everything we wanted. Home field advantage, the fans were incredible and unfortunately, we just let it slip out of our hands.”
But it turns out a 15-2 regular season had hidden warts. All we did was celebrate the Commanders, including Daniels, who destroyed Detroit’s blitz when he threw for 242 yards — in the first half — and fired two touchdowns in a moment of complete poise. He passes, he runs, he leads. Welcome to megastardom — as he makes the front office in Chicago shudder again. “It feels good. It’s a surreal moment, just for the Washington fan base,” Daniels said. “It’s just an awesome feeling.” He was surrounded by new celebrities including Kevin Durant, actor Jeffrey Wright and, of course, Joe Gibbs, who once coached the (Redskins) to three NFL titles.
As they partied and awaited today’s Eagles-Rams result — my gosh, if Los Angeles wins, the NFC championship game would be scheduled near the wildfires at SoFi Stadium — we have more Tom Brady news. He broadcasted the game for Fox Sports and — shame, shame — he didn’t mention the name of Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Why?
Oh, Brady is a part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and spends today interviewing Commanders assistant GM Lance Newmark for the GM position. Newmark spent 26 seasons in Detroit and has a sturdy relationship with Johnson. They seem headed to Sin City, which makes it a bigger conflict of interest when Fox crybabies — did you see an executive complain about our concern that Brady is running the Raiders and analyzing games? — won’t remove him from the booth with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Integrity is lost if Johnson and Newmark are hired by Brady, as The Athletic referenced his performance.
“Ben Johnson dials up a trick play like no one else and they normally work, but that was a disaster,” play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt said.
Brady said nothing. He wouldn’t want to anger Johnson, right?
“Back to the trick play that failed,” Burkhardt said.
Brady: “Tried to run something a little bit gimmicky … and at this point, (Jameson) Williams trying to make a decision, a non-quarterback, trying to throw the ball and read a defense and … not a great time for a trick play.”
Worse, Brady was critical of an officiating call when he isn’t allowed by the league to take down referees. Yet there he was, raving about Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who once backed him up as a QB in New England. “This year, he got back into coaching. He absolutely loves it,” Brady said. “One of the great playcallers … he has such great passion and a great work ethic.”
Well, when he’s so happy for Kingsbury and silent about Johnson, it appears Brady might have his choice. They can meet for an in-person interview, if they haven’t already. Might the Bears — as I’ve said often — look seriously at Kingsbury? If he can create wonders with Daniels, what about his relationship with Caleb Williams? “It's just been a great learning experience,” Brady said of the process. “What you realize is the league's full of great potential— and what I believe is, the resumes, the accolades, they're all earned by what people do on the field. You earn your opportunities, and you do your performance, and let that all do the talking — just as it should be, and as I did when I was a player.”
The beauty of the NFL? We have two great games today and two next weekend. All attention will be on Daniels. “I always believed that we could achieve more than people give us credit for,” he said, holding a basketball.
“He just has a different poise about him than most and he’s a rare competitor,” Quinn said. “But in those moments — if he was a basketball player, he’d want the last shot. As a ballplayer, he wants the ball in his hands to make the difference, and he makes great decisions with the football. And that takes real mindfulness.”
“I knew Jay was ready, day one,” running back Brian Robinson Jr. said. “I knew he was ready not only for everything, all the great stuff he's done this year, but to have himself prepared for the playoffs and the big-time moments.”
Daniels led the offense to 28 points in a record-breaking second quarter. “We’re not done yet,” receiver Terry McLaurin said. Could the Commanders beat the Eagles in Philadelphia or the Rams in … wherever?
What we know is that Dan Snyder was nowhere in the scene. “We,” said Harris, “are a team of destiny.”
Count me in.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.