Sez Me …

Remember when Herman Edwards went all Churchillian at least once in his life?

“You play to win the game,” he said.

Tears in my eyes, I guess, remindful of Winston’s “Victory, no matter how hard and how long the road may be.”

You do play to win. If I want to watch scrubs, I’ll go to football practice, which I hate, and concentrate on the scout team, where the kids at least are playing hard.

This comes up every year as the NFL season reaches the finish line. Will teams that have clinched spots on the playoffs, or teams locked in to a certain playoff spot, sit their best players to avoid injuries?

Have we not seen what Oregon did on a month’s rest?

They can’t sit every starter. So you tell your guys to go out there and risk getting bagged when the scrubs next to you who don’t know what they’re doing can get you hurt.

“That’s what some people have a hard time with,” Bill Belichick says. “You have seven inactive guys. Who are they? And it’s tough to go to your team and say, ‘We’re not going to play you guys over here. The rest of you go out there. We don’t care about you.’”

Players don’t want to dump games. Organizations do.

And if they do, any chance of returning the ticket money to patrons who paid to watch their favorites perform?

This isn’t the NBA. But, no.

You know when your best players — especially quarterbacks — shouldn’t play? When you’re kicking a team’s ass, and yet coaches, who live their lives scared as partying teens in a horror movie, keep them in when highly-paid backups are available.

Dan Campbell’s Lions did not have to beat the 49ers last week, the outcome having no bearing on Detroit’s winning the NFC Central. Sunday’s game with the Vikings will decide that. But Dan basically played everybody on his depleted roster. No rest, despite not having a bye since Week 5.

A big deal has been made over Eagles back Saquon Barkley, who is 100 yards from Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. They’re playing the mushy Giants. Easy pickings. He’s not playing.

Should he play? Yes. But I can see why he’s not. This is the best team. And, as a running back guy, I’m not thrilled with that Dickerson record, anyway.

Dickerson did it in 16 games. Barkley would need 17. O.J. Simpson gained 2003 yards in 14. I think he might have gained a few hundred more in 16. Or 17. One day, when owners’ greed has them playing 25 games, will those records count?

Tell you what, if I spent a paycheck to see Ethel Merman on Broadway in “Gypsy” or “Annie Get Your Gun,” and some understudy replaced her, I’d be none too pleased.

The show must go on. Play to your audience, not your owner. …

The Bears, Meshuggahs of the Midway, are keeping GM Ryan Poles and allowing him to run point on their head coaching search. Caleb Williams is entering the Transfer Portal. …

Poles will choose his “guy.” He did not get a contract extension. What kind of “guy” wants to get hired by his “guy” only to see his “guy” around for maybe a season? Best of luck. …

I think Brian Flores is the best head coach who’s not a head coach. …

Jets edge Hassan Reddick has “met his incentives” and will get a bonus. He didn’t have one full sack. What were his incentives, eating breakfast and lunch? …

Troy Aikman says Lions receiver Jameson Williams could be the fastest human on earth, that he runs a 4.1-second 40-yard dash. Jameson insists he can run a 4.1, although he has no official time (he was a prep 330 hurdles guy). Why isn’t “fast” fast enough without spreading 40-yard dash lies? Troy should know two-legged creatures don’t run 4.1s. …

Oh, yes, Canada! If it does become a state, it would be awesome for football, merging U.S. and CFL rules. Longer (30 yards) and wider fields (12) to make it even more difficult for defensive coordinators. …

Know who wanted the NFL to adopt CFL rules? Don Coryell, who really loved the idea of wider fields. Imagine Air Coryell flying around with all that space. Imagine it now, with defenders playing with hands behind their backs. …

And, if they combined NFL and CFL stats, as The League did with the AFL at the merger, Damon Allen could join brother Marcus in the Hall of Fame. …

Still think Alabama belonged? Low Tide lost three games to unranked teams. …

Nick Saban, czar of college football? All for it. Groundswell. …

Michigan beat Ohio State and Bama back-to-back without throwing for 100 yards in either game. I thought Harbaugh left. …

Ashton Jeanty runs for 126 yards vs. a good defense and has a bad game? Tell you what, man, the New Sports Media stinks. …

It’s amazing how many receivers don’t run patterns to the sticks. Genius O coordinators. …

Suspending the Sugar Bowl over the heinous acts of yet another lunatic was 100% right, but it had to create a logistical maelstrom. Travel. Hotel rooms. Security. …

Louisiana produces more wide receivers than Cafe Du Monde does beignets. …

Ohio State has the best players. Finally acting like it. Looked as though the Buckeyes were playing children in Pasadena. …

It was my pleasure, during the past week, to watch some of the worst clock management by football coaches since time was invented. Pathetic. …

Loud? If Joe Tessitore were a priest giving me confession, they’d know my penance in Albuquerque. …

The Peach Bowl was a peach, but if you’re going to call targeting early, you have to call it late. That was targeting. …

Nobody should be eligible to play in 63 college football games. But the NCAA at least is considering five years of eligibility. Max. …

Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman has figs. The first Notre Dame coach since Frank Leahy who knows he has God on his side. …

Happy 89th, Sandy Koufax. He was a Dodger, so hardly my favorite pitcher (that would be Juan Marichal), but the best. And a man of convictions. …

How many field goal kickers in America? Guessing 200 million. But only water and air are harder to find. Goodness, what a bunch of stiffs. …

I always wanted to go to an opera. So my daughter-in-law took me to “La Boheme.” It was great. Warning: It’s all singing in a foreign language. …

The goal-line fade is the dumbest play in football. NFL QBs this year trying the fade: 11 for 40. But coaches love it. …

Magic Johnson is willing to supply Michigan State (his alma mater) with “unlimited” NIL funds to win titles. He learned this as part owner of the Dodgers, whose budget is the gross national product. The Aztecs need a billionaire. Anyone out there? …

Guess that would make MSU the seventh professional team Magic owns a piece of. …

Jets owner Woody Johnson: “You know, thinking is overrated.” Happy New Year to the former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James. So many millions of Americans have heeded his words.