Culture
Don't count out Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers, who keep beating the odds
TAMPA, Fla. — From the very first day that Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the field for training camp, few outside the organization gave them much of a chance this season.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield was on his fourth team in 19 months, trying to fill the recently retired Tom Brady’s massive shoes. The roster lacked household names from the Bucs’ 2020 Super Bowl season and instead featured unproven youngsters in some of those key spots. Oddsmakers predicted Bowles could be among the first NFL head coaches fired this season. The Bucs just never had that championship feel, at least not to outsiders.
So, it came as no surprise early last week when, despite having defied expectations by winning the NFC South, Tampa Bay was pegged by Las Vegas as a home underdog for its NFC wild-card matchup with a sagging Philadelphia Eagles team.
The Buccaneers simply shrugged off the lack of respect, then attacked the Eagles with a vengeance Monday night at Raymond James Stadium.
Riding an aggressive defensive performance and paced by a gutsy performance from Mayfield, the Buccaneers thumped Philadelphia 32-9 to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. Tampa Bay will travel to Detroit for a Sunday afternoon game against the Lions, who are riding high after beating the L.A. Rams for their first playoff victory in 32 years.
“The underdog role doesn’t bother us,” linebacker Shaquil Barrett said. “We know our capabilities in the locker room, no matter what is projected or what people would think is going to happen in the game. We always come in thinking we’ve got a great chance of winning the game. So, people saw us as the underdog tonight, and we know they’ll see us as the underdog going into Detroit, but we know we’ve got to keep doing the same stuff.”
GO DEEPER
Buccaneers finish off reeling Eagles in NFC wild-card matchup
It’s often said that teams take on the personality of their strongest leaders, and the Buccaneers are no different. Players will readily admit they are a blend of Bowles and Mayfield.
Bowles, the second-year head coach, is stoic and unflinching but also intensely competitive. The former defensive back is calculated yet highly aggressive. Mayfield, meanwhile, is so unapologetically himself. He’s brash at times, always fiery as a competitor and plays with the toughness of a middle linebacker.
Drawing inspiration from their coach and quarterback, the Buccaneers steeled themselves all season against the outside noise, particularly doing a four-game losing streak that stretched from October to November, and morphed into a 1-6 skid.
“We just stayed the course,” Barrett said. “We always knew we were a better team than we were on the losing streak that we had. … Now, everything is starting to click and that’s why we stay with the program and trust the process and just keep doing what you’re supposed to do. We knew it was going to start working.”
The confidence grew during a four-game win streak and 5-1 run by the Bucs to close out the regular season while clinching the division. And the resolve remained just as strong this week as the Buccaneers prepared to avenge a 25-11 loss to the Eagles in Week 3.
The Buccaneers wanted to turn the tables after giving up 472 total yards, including 201 on the ground, to the Eagles in that initial meeting. Mission accomplished. Monday night, it was the Buccaneers who amassed 426 total yards and 23 first downs, converting 6 of 14 third-down attempts. They held the Eagles to 276 yards (only 42 yards rushing) and 0-for-9 on third down.
Bowles and his defense delivered a signature performance while eliminating the threat of the Eagles’ rushing attack. They forced quarterback Jalen Hurts to beat them with a short-staffed wide receiving unit while also nursing a painful and slowly healing dislocated middle finger on his throwing hand.
Turning the Eagles one-dimensional enabled Bowles to dial up one blitz-heavy package after another. Hurts (sacked three times, including a safety) and his teammates and coaches never figured out how to adjust.
ONCE AGAIN, HOW Y’ALL FEELING BUCS FANS?! 😱
📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/VtoFNKaLZ5— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024
Linebacker Devin White said the Bucs defense entered the game “with a dominant mindset. We wanted to jump on them early and just beat them. I think it was the preparation. That played a big part and coming in here with a winning attitude.”
Offensive players drew fuel from those defensive heroics, as well as inspiration from Mayfield. The quarterback was so battered and bruised from rib and ankle injuries, he brought in his personal physiotherapist twice during the week in hopes that the extra treatment would give him a shot at playing.
It worked. Mayfield passed for 337 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions while also scrambling for 16 yards on two carries. Mayfield became only the second Buccaneers quarterback — Brady is the other — to pass for 300 yards or more in a playoff contest.
“He gutted it out,” Bowles said. “I mean, if you looked at him during the week, he was limping around, he wouldn’t practice and he was getting a little better each day. … He never flinched (Monday). He made play after play after play.”
He Baked. 👨🍳
📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/GjDnqU2FLh— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024
Tight end Cade Otton, who had a team-high eight catches for 89 yards, said the Bucs as a team take on Mayfield’s character.
“It’s just watching his actions. The way he plays, the way he practices, the way he leads, it’s very genuine and he is always just competing,” Otton said “He’s wanting to win, but he also wants camaraderie with us. It’s just a great person to have as the leader of our team.”
“He’s a dog,” left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “He’s a super tough guy and incredible competitor. He’s been doing everything he can to be out there with us. It’s just awesome to see.”
The Buccaneers listed Mayfield as questionable entering the game, but the quarterback said there was never a chance in his own mind that he wouldn’t play Monday night.
“We worked extremely hard to get a chance to be in the playoffs and we just wanted an opportunity and our guys came out and played really, really well,” said Mayfield, whose three touchdown passes went for 44, 56 and 23 yards. “Special teams, defense — once again … we’re happy, but still got more to go.”
The redemption tour continues Sunday in Detroit, where the Bucs will attempt to avenge a 20-6 Week 6 loss to the Lions. Detroit is an early 6 1/2-point favorite, but no one in Tampa cares about that. Why would they, given the odds they’ve defied thus far?
(Photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
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Catherine and Heathcliff. Since 1847, when Emily Brontë published her only novel, “Wuthering Heights,” those ill-starred lovers have inflamed the imaginations of generations of readers.
Who are these two? Definitely not the people you meet on vacation. The DNA of “Wuthering Heights,” set in a wild and desolate corner of Northern England, runs through the dark, gothic, obsessive strains of literary romance. Heathcliff, a tormented soul with terrible manners and a worse temper, may be the English novel’s most problematic boyfriend — mad, bad and dangerous to know. What redeems him, at least in the reader’s eyes, is Catherine’s love.
As children growing up in the same highly dysfunctional household, the two form a bond more passionate than siblinghood and purer than lust. (I don’t think a 179-year-old book can be spoiled, but some plot details will be revealed in what follows.) They go on to marry other people, living as neighbors and frenemies without benefits until tragedy inevitably strikes. In the meantime, they roil and seethe — it’s no accident that “wuthering” is a synonym for “stormy” — occasionally erupting into ardent eloquence.
Take this soliloquy delivered by Catherine to Nelly Dean, a patient and observant maidservant who narrates much of the novel:
This all-consuming love, thwarted in the book by circumstances, has flourished beyond its pages. Thanks to Catherine and Heathcliff — and also to the harsh, windswept beauty of the Yorkshire setting — “Wuthering Heights,” a touchstone of Victorian literature, has become a fixture of popular culture.
Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon played Heathcliff and Catherine in William Wyler’s 1939 multi-Oscar-nominated film adaptation.
Since then, the volatile Heathcliff has been embodied by a succession of British brooders: Richard Burton, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hardy. At least for Gen X, the definitive Catherine will always be Kate Bush, dancing across the English countryside in a bright red dress in an indelible pre-MTV music video.
Now, just in time for Valentine’s Day, we’ll have Emerald Fennell’s new R-rated movie version, with Margot Robbie (recently Barbie) as Catherine and Jacob Elordi (recently Frankenstein’s monster) as Heathcliff.
Is theirs the greatest love story of all time, as the movie’s trailer insists? It might be. For the characters, the love itself overwhelms every other consideration of feeling. For Brontë, the most accomplished poet in a family of formidable novelists, that love is above all a matter of words. The immensity of Catherine and Heathcliff’s passion is measured by the intensity of their language, which of course is also Brontë’s.
Here is Heathcliff, in his hyperbolic fashion, belittling Catherine’s marriage to the pathetic Linton:
Which is what romance lives to do. It’s a genre often proudly unconstrained by what is possible, rational or sane, unafraid to favor sensation over sense or to pose unanswerable questions about the human heart. How could Catherine love a man like Heathcliff? How could he know himself to be worthy of her love?
We’ll never really have the answers, which is why we’ll never stop reading. And why no picture will ever quite match the book’s thousands of feverish, hungry, astonishing words.
Culture
Annotating the Judge’s Decision in the Case of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-Year-Old Detained by ICE
One of the many unsettling images to emerge from the recent ICE surge in Minneapolis was that of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, in his blue bunny hat, standing in the January cold with the hand of a federal officer gripping his Spider-Man backpack.
Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, an asylum seeker from Ecuador, were taken from Minnesota to Texas and held at a detention facility outside San Antonio. Lawyers working on their behalf filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, an ancient judicial principle forbidding the government from holding anyone in custody without providing a legally tenable reason for doing so. On Saturday, Fred Biery, a federal judge in Texas’ Western District, granted their petition, freeing them.
That’s the boilerplate. But Judge Biery’s decision — which has gotten a lot of attention in legal circles and beyond — is much more than a dry specimen of judicial reasoning. It’s a passionate, erudite and at times mischievous piece of prose.
That may not have surprised some Texas court watchers. Judge Biery, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994, is known for his wit and writerly flair. His judicial order in a 2013 case involving San Antonio strip clubs is famous for its literary allusions (“to bare, or not to bare”) and its cheeky double entendres. A 2023 profile in San Antonio Lawyer magazine called him “a judge with a little extra to say.”
The extra in this case transforms what might have been a routine decision into a thorough scourging of the Trump administration’s approach to governance. This text isn’t much longer than one of Mr. Trump’s Truth Social posts. In fewer than 500 words, Judge Biery marshals literature, history, folk wisdom and Scripture to challenge the theory of executive power that has defined Trump’s second presidency.
It’s worth looking at how he does it.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE COURT
Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ of habeas corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law. The government has responded.
He starts by juxtaposing the grandeur of habeas corpus with the modesty of the father and son’s claims, implying that what makes the writ “Great” is precisely its ability to protect the basic right of ordinary people not to be locked up arbitrarily. It does this by requiring that the government either provide reasons for holding them in custody or else let them go.
Judge Biery’s footnote directing readers to Blackstone’s commentaries and Magna Carta may be intended to give a remedial lesson to members of the administration. His larger point, though, is that to flout the guarantee of habeas corpus — as he insists the current deportation policy has done — is to threaten the integrity of the American constitutional order itself.
The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children. This Court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures.
He calls attention to the grandiosity and sloppiness of the administration’s position while suggesting that its overreach reflects a more sinister intention.
Apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were:
1. “He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.”
2. “He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.”
3. “For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us.”
4. “He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures.”
As the 250th birthday of American independence approaches, the president is being cast as King George III. The federal government’s indifference to habeas claims places it on the wrong side of the historical divide between individual liberty and unchecked state power, and thus at odds with the founding documents of the Republic.
“We the people” are hearing echos of that history.
And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized.
U.S. CONST. amend. IV.
Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster.
In constitutional terms, the judge finds that the administration has defied the Fourth Amendment and disregarded the separation of powers.
That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.
A barnyard metaphor puts the matter in plainer language: Because executive authority has the potential to be predatory, it needs to be checked by the judiciary branch. Judge Biery might also be sending a sly message to his colleagues on the U.S. Supreme Court, who have looked favorably on many of Mr. Trump’s expansive claims of executive branch power.
Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration’s detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.
The language in which the judge renders his decision also sends a message, in this case to the president himself. Capitalization is a hallmark of Mr. Trump’s style, as it is of American legalese. The paragraph granting the petition bristles with uppercase nouns, which makes it all the more striking that the president’s name, otherwise absent from the ruling, is rendered in lowercase, as a card-table verb.
This may be a subtextual swipe at the president’s ego, but it’s consistent with the decision’s fundamental argument, which is that the president — any president — is ultimately smaller than the law.
Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.
For Judge Biery, the case involves procedure, and morality too. When he allows himself to express his disapproval — to write judgmentally, rather than judicially — he is in effect arguing that these principles can’t be separated. Due process and human decency are two sides of the same coin.
Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.
Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: “Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?” “A republic, if you can keep it.”
With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,
It is so ORDERED.
Benjamin Franklin famously (and perhaps apocryphally) pointed out the fragility of orderly self-government, while the Dutch boy immortalized in the 19th-century novel “Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates” did what he could to protect his neighbors from the fury of the unchecked sea.
That Judge Biery puts himself in their company suggests that he sees this decision less as a final judgment than as a warning.
SIGNED this 31st day of January, 2026.
FRED BIERY
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Credit: Bystander
After his cautionary conclusion, the judge still has something extra to say, something that shifts the focus away from the rational, secular domain of jurisprudence.
Below his signature, he attaches the widely seen photograph of Liam. Underneath that — after an eloquently anonymous photo credit — are references to two verses from the New Testament. The judge doesn’t quote them, but they speak for him all the same.
Matthew 19:14
The Matthew verse — “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: For of such is the kingdom of heaven” — is a well-known statement of compassion and care.
John 11:35
So, in its way, is John 11:35, the shortest verse in the English Bible. It is often quoted when things are so terrible that all other words fail:
“Jesus wept.”
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights thriller and mystery novels set in towns around the United States. (Even if you don’t know the book, each question offers a clue about the state.) To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.
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