When the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots won their divisional round games last weekend, it set up an interesting question: What would Roger Goodell do this coming weekend?
After all, the NFL commissioner typically visits different stadiums on each week of the playoffs, and he was in Atlanta last Saturday and Dallas on Sunday.
With Sunday's conference championship games set in Atlanta and New England, Goodell wouldn't go back to the same stadium for a second consecutive week, would he?
Oh, yes he would.
A league spokesman confirmed that Goodell will be in Atlanta this Sunday for the Falcons and Packers.
"Well, of course. Goodell naturally wouldn't be greeted with a welcoming party if he were to go to Foxborough, given all that has unfolded the past two years," wrote Eric Edholm of Yahoo.com. "Deflategate kind of changed everything, and it would be the second anniversary of our long, national nightmare on Sunday. Goodell became Public Enemy No. 1 in the six-state region and hasn't been to Foxborough since -- and might never come back."
Edholm suggested that Goodell should have attended a game in Foxborough during the regular season.
"He should have just faced the boos before now and showed some strength on this thing," Edholm wrote. "Instead, by hiding at a stadium he has already visited in the past week -- even if it is the final game ever at the Georgia Dome -- Goodell looks like he's scared. The man has a house in New England; does he not go outside when he's there?"
No shake
When push came to shove in the closing moments of a heated Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game with Rider, Siena Coach Jimmy Patsos improvised when the opposing side ditched the handshake line at game's end.
The lighthearted response by Patsos, who offered air handshakes to imaginary players and coaches, was priceless.
"With five seconds left, I'm starting to walk toward the [scorers] table, I look up and nobody's there. I didn't know what to do," Patsos said Wednesday during a radio interview. "OK, I'll just shake hands with nobody."
The bad taste of a 10-point loss Tuesday night and the way it ended apparently was enough for Rider Coach Kevin Baggett and his team.
A scuffle that erupted with just over two minutes left precipitated the handshake fiasco. Rider's Norville Carey was called for a foul on an alley-oop pass and Siena star Marquis Wright shoved Stevie Jordan to the court near the Siena bench. Rider's Anthony Durham then appeared to throw a punch at Wright, and Baggett ran the length of the court and screamed at Wright.
That prompted Patsos to join the fray in an effort to calm everybody.
"It just kind of happened quick. I thought it was defused quick," Patsos said. "I was trying to calm him [Baggett] down. It's not worth it. Let it go. I thought it was over."
Durham and Wright were given flagrant-2 fouls and ejected, and technical fouls were called on Siena's Khalil Richard, Jordan and both coaches.
In the final two minutes of the game, there was no pushing or shoving. Baggett called a timeout in the waning seconds, and after the final horn Rider immediately left the floor at Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.
"There was no bad blood the last two minutes of that game," Patsos said. "Shake hands like you're supposed to, it's a sport, and you go on to the next game."
Sports on 01/19/2017