1 - Bills LB sends local coach to the Super Bowl
His work in the community led to him being the Buffalo Bills nominee for the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Still, Lorenzo Alexander continues his commitment, as he just sent a local father and son to Sunday's Super Bowl.
This season, Alexander helped out South Park High School's football team and their coach Tim Delaney. Spectrum News Buffalo shared the story about all the support that the Bills linebacker lent to the team.
"I wanted to be intentionally more involved in the community and find a group of young men that I could partner with," said Alexander.
The 11-year veteran worked with Delaney and his team throughout the season. He even went to some of their games. In addition, he's provided players with shoes, clothes, and school supplies.
The good deeds didn't stop there for Alexander. As a result of being named WPMOY, he's awarded with two tickets to the Super Bowl. He chose to send South Park's coach and his father to Sunday's big game.
"Obviously thrilled," said Delaney. "Getting to take my father, the person who introduced me to football and getting to share a once in a lifetime experience with him and go to the Super Bowl. It's outstanding."
For Alexander, the decision on who to send to Super Bowl 52 came to mind immediately.
"Seeing who he was. Seeing his genuine attitude toward helping the community and helping these kids," said Alexander. "It was an easy decision for me. Tim was the first guy to come to my mind."
2 – Who's Takeo Spikes taking on Sunday?
Former Bills linebacker, Takeo Spikes, jumped on the John Murphy Show to offer his take on this weekend's big game. He had a few reasons why he likes the Eagles heading into their matchup against the Patriots.
"I think you've got a Philly team who's obviously riding the wave as the underdog. I think the most important thing that happened was two weeks ago. That NFC Championship game, Doug Pederson he did a nice job of orchestrating tendency breakers. I saw a lot of things you usually do in down-in-distances," said Spikes. "He gave it to Nick Foles and said, 'You know what, I'll give you the keys to the Ferrari.' They don't know that. They think I'm going to give you the keys to the Camry. He went out and he went from first to sixth gear immediately. I think that's going to be the difference in this game."
Philadelphia's defense is a pest to opposing offenses. Spikes' a fan of their defensive coordinator, who spent the 2014 season as Buffalo's DC.
"Both coaches are very creative. On the defensive side for the Philadelphia Eagles, I really like their chance because of Jim Schwartz," said Spikes. "I love his tendencies as far as; he can beat you either way. He can beat you with a four-man rush. He can beat you with blitzing."
He didn't completely commit to it, but it sounds like Spikes' leaning towards Philadelphia. He spent four seasons in Buffalo, so it's fitting he didn't favor his former AFC East foe. After his years with the Bills, he went on and played the 2007 season with the Eagles.
3 - Roger Goodell ready to clarify catch rule
NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, delivered his annual state of the NFL address on Wednesday in Minneapolis. As expected, the catch controversy was among the long list of topics discussed.
"From our standpoint, I would like to start back, instead of adding to the rule, subtracting the rule. Start over again and look at the rule fundamentally from the start," said Goodell. "Because I think when you add or subtract things you can still lead to confusion. These rules are very complex -- you have to look at what the unintended consequences are of making a change, which is what the Competition Committee, in my view, does so well and with so much thought."
The debate between catch and no catch is one that's close to the hearts of Bills fans.
Everybody recalls Week 13 against the Patriots, when Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor tossed a four-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin. It was a beautiful play by Benjamin that was initially ruled a TD on the field, but after a lengthy replay the call was reversed and ruled incomplete.
Benjamin's overturned TD was one of the many examples that had everyone questioning what a catch is exactly.
Goodell's confident the catch rule can be improved, so instances like Benjamin's are eliminated from the game.
"Clearly catch, no-catch has been a lot of discussion and a lot of disagreement," said Goodell. "I think we can clarify this rule and I think we can do it with a lot of hard work [and] focus and get to a place where -- I'm not going to tell you there won't be controversy, but I believe we can get to a much better place."
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