Fifth Down

10 for Tuesday: 10 Reactions from the last 7 days in Sports

March 14th, 2023

Normally, this is top 10 Tuesday but with so much going on and me missing Friday’s post, I figured this would be fitting. Don’t worry there will still be plenty to cover for 5 for Friday so you get a double dose this week. This is one of the better weeks of sports with March Madness and NFL free agency in the same week along with a few other sports shenanigans so lets dive in!

The good old Tampering period

The NFL cracks me up for many reasons but one of my favorite things is the 2 day “legal” tampering period. This is the one of the only times you see the words legal and tampering used together. The NFL is basically saying free agency doesn’t start until Wednesday, but go ahead and start signing people anyway. I mean we won’t really sign them until Wednesday…wink, wink. This is pretty much how the NFL does most of its financials. We have a salary cap that you must stay under…wink wink. We are going to pay a guy a bunch of money but most of it will never see it ways on the salary cap and a good portion will never see its way to the player either…wink, wink. Anyway, it is good fun for all of us. Also, if you are Aaron Rodgers you can tamper all you want apparently including telling the team you might be going to who to sign. More on that in a minute.

The Raiders moved on from Derek Carr to get a slightly lesser, more injury prone version of Derek Carr

In a classic Raider move, they ran off the guy who had been loyal to them for years (most of them bad) to get Jimmy G to come play quarterback for them. Jimmy G has a pretty outstanding win/loss record but that was due to a few games with the Patriots and the rest with the 49ers who for the last 4 years everyone has said has the best roster in the league…besides quarterback. Jimmy G is so good that the 49ers spent a ton of trade capital to go up and get Trey Lance. But Jimmy G is going to be reunited with Josh McDaniels who failed miserably in Denver and now is failing in Las Vegas. The Raiders are stuck with him because they don’t have any money and can’t buy him out because they are already paying a few other coaches they fired. So now they will have a lesser version of Derek Carr for 8-10 games next year before he gets injured.

Aaron Rodgers taking his weird to the big city

Reports have come out that Rodgers to the Jets is a done deal. Now that it has been leaked out, I am confident that Rodgers will drag this out as long as possible or even return to the Packers. He is even recruiting people to the Jets so it would be even funnier if they signed a bunch of players he wants and then he turns around and says…nah, I’m good. I’m gonna stay in Green Bay. Although, I think the Packers are over it. They are looking for their quarterback to put in a little more effort, like show up to practice and stuff like that. I know pretty demanding. I don’t think returning to the Packers is even an option at this point. So now it is go to the Jets or retire. Pretty much all the other teams are out. Dude is 39 years old. Also, he is high maintenance. He is weird. And he doesn’t win in the playoffs. The best part is he is following in Favre’s footsteps. Favre was debating retirement for several years until at age 39 he went to the Jets. Now Rodgers is doing the same thing. We should fully expect Rodgers to play for the Vikings in 2024. And then after retiring he will make awkward jean commercials and then several years later be a part of state welfare scandal. Just expect a lot more weird things in between all those things. Maybe Rodgers should go back to his darkness retreat and just stay in there.

The Chiefs have a new tackle

Jawaan Taylor is now a Chief. We couldn’t agree on a contract with Orlando Brown so we moved on…quickly. This is one of the things I love about Veach. We moved on from Frank Clark. We moved on from Eric Berry and Justin Houston. We moved on from Fisher and Schwartz and the honey badger. The list goes on and on. Now, they are saying they are going to move Taylor to left tackle which does concern me a little bit. He has never played left tackle. In four years with the Jags, he always played right tackle. He also only played right tackle in college. But hey, who am I to question Veach. Brown and Wylie didn’t give up any sacks in the Super Bowl. In case you missed it, they even put it on a t-shirt. Brown always makes the pro bowl. But statistically neither of these guys were very good. At one point in the middle of the season, they were 1 and 2 in pressures allowed. They did get better as the year went on. However, it isn’t like Mahomes went untouched in the Super Bowl. There are several reasons that Mahomes didn’t get sacked. Most of our plays were quick throws and runs. Mahomes is very good at avoiding pressure. And finally, the field was total crap and the Eagles defensive ends were falling every where. Brown and Wylie played pretty well but neither are great players. Taylor on the other hand, allowed the 3rd least pressures of any tackle in the league. Taylor is basically the opposite of Brown, better at pass blocking than at run blocking. Good news for us, we don’t really like to run anyway. This is at worst an even trade off. I am betting we will be happier with Taylor than we were with Brown.

Broncos spending money…again

The Broncos have made several moves and they have all been solid. But the funniest part is living here and hearing about how great the roster was for 4 or 5 years and they were just missing the quarterback. Last year they traded and paid a bunch of money for their missing piece and now all of the sudden none of the other pieces are any good. I have no doubt that Sean Payton will make them a functioning team again. And I am sure all offseason on my drive to work I’ll hear about how the Broncos are now just as good as the Chiefs. After all, it is the time for paper champions. At least they have some new material to talk about.

49ers Signing Sam Darnold

The 49ers signed another great defensive line player because that is what they do. They also are signing Sam Darnold as insurance since Trey Lance and Brock Purdy are both coming off of surgery. I fully expect Sam Darnold to trip and tear his ACL immediately after signing.

Bills, Bengals, Eagles are getting worse

It is early but arguably our 3 biggest competitors to a repeat have all gotten worse so far. They have all lost several defensive players and so they will have to rebuild that side of the ball. The good news is it can be done. We did it last year. The bad news is most teams can’t do it because they don’t draft that well and they don’t have Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes. All of this is good news for me.

March Madness is upon us!

The madness is here! I have to admit I love the tournament although it is arguably the dumbest way to determine a champion. I mean why does the 3rd best team from the Mountain West even get a shot at winning it all? But it is what it is. So just as Free agency slows down, basketball picks up. And to make it even better, Mizzou doesn’t suck and is in the tourney. I think we have a great shot to win at least one game. In all seriousness, I think we could make a little run. We don’t quit and we can shoot the 3. If we are on we can beat just about anyone. Unfortunately our weakness is rebounding and playing against good big men. Hopefully there aren’t any of those in the tourney this year. I don’t pay that much attention to college basketball but I will be tuned in this weekend. If Mizzou loses, I’ll be cheering for the field against any teams that have k and u in them. (You know who you are, kansas and Kentucky).

Tiger Woods teaches us all a new way to break up

In other news, Tiger Woods broke up with his girlfriend. That isn’t really all that newsworthy and it happened a while ago. But what we didn’t know was how he broke up with her. Apparently his staff tricked her into thinking she was going on a big vacation. Once they got her out of the house they permanently locked her out. Now different reports are saying that they had already broken up but they had a deal that she could live there for a certain duration. Either way this is crazy and hilarious. I mean not for her. But for you and me it is pretty funny. I guess this is what happens when you don’t take a hint. I’m no relationship expert but if someone breaks up with you, they typically don’t want to keep living with you. And I guess if they really won’t take the hint, you lock them out of your house. But talk about your highs and lows. Hey I’m going on a sweet vacation! Oh, wait, I’m locked out of my house and not going on vacation. That is a quick turn around of emotions. One thing is for sure, if my wife says she is surprising me with a vacation, I’ll be skeptical from now on.

NBA Players upset about having to show up to work

For several years now, players have been taking games off to rest up and in theory be better overall and late in the season. But it keeps getting worse. Charles Barkley called them all out recently and now the league is even considering implementing rules that make players play a certain percentage of games. I don’t go to or watch NBA games. But if I paid top dollar for tickets and then showed up only to find out that all the best players weren’t playing, I’d be pretty upset. I guess we are sort of used to it in baseball, but they play 162 games a year, not 82. Also, you play a game for a living. Most of us have to go to jobs we think are “eh” most of the time. We don’t do the one thing we dreamed of doing as little kids. And we have to show up 5 days a week. Granted, some of us might not work very hard at those jobs but we still have to show up. Anyway, I don’t know who’s fault this trend is but I’ll just go ahead and blame LeBron.

Tune in on Friday for the 5 for Friday as I’ll have more thoughts from NFL free agency, the tourney and we will see if Aaron Rodgers can make a decision and if Tiger Woods has locked any other girlfriends out of his house.
Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Reactions to Travis Kelce hosting SNL

March 7th, 2023
1. Travis exceeded my expectations. I thought Travis would be fun but didn’t know exactly how well he would actually do. But you could tell that although he had fun, he took it serious. Even in his monologue he got a little emotional talking about how big of a deal it was to stand where Ferrell, Farley and Sandler had stood before. He worked hard and it paid off. He is no Timberlake or Steve Martin but he held his own and performed admirably.
2. The Monologue was the best part. After the opening scene making fun of Fox news that surprised no one, we got to the monologue. I didn’t know what they would do here but it was excellent and the best part of the whole show. From the get go, he said that hosting SNL was better than winning the Super Bowl and then quickly said he was lying. He followed it by making fun of himself on the sidelines and then imitating Mahomes. Jason Kelce was in the audience and that was great. They played it well. Then he made fun of his dating show, “Catching Kelce”, it is like the bachelor except no one watched. He said that technically it should be on the streaming service Peacock but they were like “nah, were good. It was strong from beginning to end and kicked the show off right.
3. SNL writers are weird. Even though I thought Travis was great, the writers didn’t give him a lot to work with. It seemed like every sketch got weirder and weirder as the night went on. It was like what awkward scenario can we put Kelce in next. And almost every sketch had to do with sex in one way or another. It wasn’t that creative and sort of redundant which leads to reaction #4.
4. SNL still sucks. While it was entertaining because it was Kelce, there was nothing about the show that inspired me to tune back in anytime soon. It bashed conservatives a little less than I remember but still wasn’t that funny. In a lot of ways it was just the same jokes over and over again with a couple of good skits in between.
5. Weekend Update isn’t good either. Weekend Update used to sort of be the climax of the show. Everything before was good, update was awesome and then it was down hill after that. Now everything before Update is okay, update isn’t good and everything after update is weird and/or dumb. Whether it was Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Norm McDonald, Tina Fey and Fallon, Fey and Poehler, Poehler and Seth Myers and finally Myers by himself, it was always funny with good people who came on as well. But this thing was a disaster. Besides a few decent laughs, the jokes weren’t funny. The only thing worse than normal update was the guests. First was a guy dressed like Dilbert. The jokes were so bad that literally no one laughed after anything he said. Then they rolled out some woman with a brightly colored desk and clothes that tried to make Colin Jost look bad or feel awkward. The thing that was bad and awkward was the sketch. You used to be bummed when Weekend Update ended because you know the show was downhill from there. Now when Weekend Update ends, you are bummed because it is hard to imagine the show getting worse from what you just saw.
6. Kelce makes awkward work. Despite the writer’s attempt to make this an awful show, Kelce saved several sketches starting with the first one. The first sketch he was in was awkward but at least funny. It involved him going to an American Girl Cafe with just 2 dolls. Kelce played the role perfectly with enough creep to be funny but not so much that it was cringeworthy. He attempted to do the same thing in several other skits where he was dating an old black woman who had died, was sleeping with a married woman who’s husband knew about it and were explaining it to their adult kids while he played video games and finally in bed with a girl who stood up another guy who shows up at the house. The creep factor was in full effect. I thought Kelce saved all but the last sketch despite the writers attempt to make the show awful.
7. Straight Male Friend was the best. By far the best sketch was about a gay man who has lots of straight girl friends who can be high maintenance and exhausting. The idea is that these friends are great but you need a straight male friend sometimes. It then cuts to Kelce playing video games, eating wings and having little conversation. To point out how little the commitment is the gay man tells Kelce he might be moving to Europe for 7 years. Kelce responds, “Go, just hit me up when you get back.” The drama comes during a frustrating video game where Travis throws the controller and utters the words I hear my 14 year old son say all the time, “This game is stupid!”. Then Travis says, you want to go get some wings. The skit is spot on and hilarious.
8. Jason Kelce appearance was a win. Jason showed up twice. First during the monologue when Travis mentioned his family and talked about beating his brother in the Super Bowl which was awkward especially since they had to ride home together in their Mom’s minivan. Jason showed up again during a skit as Travis was at a bar with his fiancée. He runs into a past “girlfriend” who is very upset and cries dramatically with tears/water going every where. It is pretty funny. It turns out they only went on one date and the girl is a little nutty. But then her new boyfriend shows up and it is no other than Jason Kelce. This makes Travis cry like the girl although I don’t think he could get the tear tools to work correctly. But these two brothers are something else. It was great that we got to see Jason a couple of times.
9. Travis as a self defense trainer was pretty funny. The skit starts with the writers not being respected by interns so they go to a personal protection/training class hosted by Travis. First of all his name is Kurt Lightning which is awesome. He then shows that his t-shirt says You’re worth it. He then brings one of the writers up and talks him up before knocking him out. The next writer comes up and Travis says why are you afraid and he answers, because you knocked out my friend and I’m concerned he might be dead. The whole thing escalates from there including beating up an old lady and the interns throwing coffee on the writers. Kelce is solid in it and after the monologue and the straight male friend skit, it is probably the funniest thing on the show.
10. The only way I will watch SNL again is if another Chief hosts. I thought Travis was great and it was fun watching it because he was on it. I laughed quite a bit but mostly because Kelce was on there. But if this is an example of the overall writing of the show, then there is no reason for me to watch. To many skits involving sexual innuendos and non funny political stuff. Why would I watch SNL when I can watch something that is actually funny on Netflix or some other streaming network. Even if I want to watch Travis be funny, I can simply check out the New Heights podcast. In short, the show successfully got me to watch SNL once but did not succeed in bringing me back to watch again. I’m guessing I am not alone.
I said I wouldn’t get a 5 for Friday in because I am traveling but a lot has happened this week in sports so I will see if I can fit it in. Either way, have a great rest of your week.
Five for Friday: 5 reactions to this week in sports

March 3rd, 2023

It’s been another interesting week in sports. Here are 5 reactions to all the happenings of the week.

Win with Quin!

You remember when Quin Snyder was the coach of the Mizzou basketball team? He was actually pretty good before the recruiting allegations, drugs and rumored relationships with female students. Sure we interviewed Bill Self and John Calipari and chose Snyder over them. But hey, he gave us 4 pretty good years plus another 2 and half bad years. After that he bounced around in the NBA minor leagues before getting a job with the Jazz. He left last year after issues with the ownership, etc. But to everyone’s delight…he is back in the league. For whatever reason, I have always rooted for Quin. He is sort of like the kid in high school who made a bunch of dumb mistakes and has crazy hair but you know deep down he is pretty talented and likable so you are cheering for him. To make it even better he is coaching the Hawks. Growing up in KC where the Kings left when I was 6 years old, I never really had an NBA team. I wouldn’t say I was a bandwagon fan although I certainly cheered for the Pistons and Bulls during their runs especially in the NBA finals. But my two favorite teams were probably the Warriors because Chris Mullen was left handed like me and the Hawks because I liked Dominique Wilkins. So this is a great fit for me. Go Hawks! I will now be cheering for 3 NBA teams. The Nuggets because I live here in Denver, I guess. The Warriors because I like to cheer for the team everyone else hates. And now the Hawks. I still won’t watch any of these teams play until the playoffs but now that will be more fun because I have a team in the East. Now to just figure out who is actually playing for the Hawks these days.

AJ vs JuJu:

JuJu is an interesting character. I don’t know if he will be back with the Chiefs next year. But I do know he knows how to get under AJ Brown’s skin. It all started on Valentine’s day when everyone was creating the little valentine’s cards with football player’s faces on them with funny comments. JuJu tweeted one with Bradberry’s face that said “I’ ‘ll hold you when it matters most.” I am not saying this is something I would do. But I must admit that this was hilarious. AJ Brown took offense and stood up for his teammate. He ripped JuJu for not being a good receiver, being on tik tok too much and a few other things. JuJu again responded by brilliantly just stating that he was happy AJ could finally get things off his chest. I thought this would be the end of it but then JuJu made some tik tok video that honestly doesn’t make any sense to me. But it got AJ upset and he again tweeted and sent JuJu a private message that AJ took a pic of and also tweeted. AJ basically said stop putting me in your tik toks or whatever or you are going to get beat up. AJ later deleted the tweets. Wide Receiver beef is the best sort of beef. JuJu is literally just poking at him for fun now. And AJ is very upset about it. It will be interesting to see where this goes next.

The NFL Combine:

The NFL combine is this week. It is the NFL version of a dating app. The players run as fast as they can, jump as high as they can, and see how many times they can bench press 225. Spoiler alert, I can bench press 225 zero times. 20 years ago when I was these guys age, I could throw that up 10 times though, so take that. Anyway, while the guys do all the jumping and the ever important life skill of the shuttle run, the NFL scouts, coaches and gm’s look on to decide if they want to pick them or not. I hear dating apps are similar these days as you can just swipe and swipe until you find someone you like. Now not everyone participates. The last couple of years the Rams have not gone and the media makes a big deal about it. But guess what and I know this is going to shock you…the Rams never have any draft picks so there is no reason for them to go anyway. This is also why they don’t have depth and if they have any injuries they are terrible. But hey, Matt Stafford told his wife that they were going to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl next year at Sean McVay’s super bowl party. So look out world. Anyway, the combine is sort of fun and gives us a little NFL fix in the offseason so that is nice. So feel free to tune in today, tomorrow and Sunday to watch a bunch of guys who are way more athletic than me have their own little field day minus the ribbons, sack lunches and the embarrassment of not being able to climb the rope in the gym. (Did that happen to you? Or was that just me?)

2 Strikes and 8 seconds and you are out!

There are several new rules within the MLB that you may not be aware of because a lot of us don’t pay that much attention to baseball. Among them are rules taking away the shift, bigger bases and a timer when batters are at the plate. You can read the entire new rules here:

https://www.mlb.com/rule-changes-2023?mlbkw=ds-g-p75171614941&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0oagBhDHARIsAI-BbgcVYsEiNNzqnouZfMqBSkw-85UqKe25c3khOsO0PXA8s3eGJrD686gaAh0NEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

All these rules are designed to make the game go faster and be more entertaining. Here is the problem. All sports are taking longer but the other sports aren’t losing popularity. But Baseball has been losing fans for decades. And so people have to answer why they are not a fan. But I think we are over complicating things. I have some friends and family members who have communicated that they think the NFL games are too long and the officiating is so bad that it is ruining the game and making it unwatchable. All these people have one thing in common. Their team sucks. But every year they come back at the beginning of the season and seem excited. It is only at the middle to end of the season that they start to complain about these things. You know who isn’t complaining? Chiefs fans. Sure there is the occasional complaint about the officiating from winning teams fans. But no one states that they aren’t going to watch anymore. Look I get it. As adults we only have so many hours in the day. We don’t want to waste it watching our favorite team getting their butt kicked week in and week out. But if our team is winning we will suffer through just about anything. I would argue that there is no officiating in the world worse than college basketball. But guess what, now that Mizzou is decent, I tune in as much as I can to their games. The Royals have been pretty awful for years now. Do I check the box score every day, sure. Am I looking for a local bar in Colorado where the Royals game is showing or figuring out how to stream it on my computer? Nope. But from 2013 to around 2017 or 2018 I tuned in regularly. Why? Because my team didn’t completely suck. The problem with baseball is that more teams suck than don’t suck and because there is no salary cap you have no hope most years. Sure a smaller market might build up their minor league system and make a run for 3-5 years. But mostly we all know it is going to be the national league teams in California versus Boston, NY or Houston. The other problem is baseball just isn’t as fun to watch on TV. I have always enjoyed going to the ball park and having a below average hot dog and an overpriced beer. Whenever I am at the game, I never think this is taking too long or I wish the bases were bigger. But on tv it just doesn’t play as well. Hockey is a better experience in person too and is another sport I seldom watch on tv. It’s just how it is. There is only one thing that will make me watch more baseball. The Royals not sucking. Besides, I can already watch baseball with more offense before the rule change because I live in Colorado. Whoever the road team is always comes to town and scores lots of runs. But these new rules are great for making the baseball purists and traditionalists throw fits and that is for sure the most entertaining part.

NFLPA Survey and Rankings

For the first time ever they NFL Players Union did a survey of players where they could unanimously give a grade to their team in the following categories: treatment of families, nutrition, weight room, strength staff, training room, training staff, locker room and travel. The top 3 teams were the Vikings, Dolphins and Raiders. The bottom 3 were the Chargers, Cardinals and to no one’s surprise based upon ownership, the Commanders. Interestingly enough, the Chiefs finished just above the bottom 3 at 29. Of course they didn’t ask questions about treatment by coaches, relationships with teammates or my favorite category that makes players happy…winning. There were some funny issues though that came up.

The Jaguars had the best complaint, rats. Apparently they had a rat infestation in the laundry room and locker room. This is valid. If I came to work and there were rats, I’d complain too. The Bengals who also were down low like the Chiefs have plumbing and electrical issues as their showers and toilets often don’t work and they don’t have plug ins to charge their phones. This is basic stuff here. The bathrooms on our floor at work didn’t work for a few days and it was super annoying. For the first time in the last few years, I sympathize with the Bengals. Maybe we aren’t too different after all. Nah, I still hate you.

The Ravens are down on their strength coaches, which isn’t surprising. They are like the 49ers of the AFC and always have a ton of injuries. Most happen in the preseason or first 4-6 weeks but many are season ending. This is why the Ravens always start out hot and fade away quickly.

To no one’s surprise the Cardinals are cheap. They charge their players for their food if they take it home or get food during off season work outs. And of course the Commanders players pretty much hate absolutely everything about being a Commander player.

The Chiefs players complaints were a lot about the practice facilities and the trainers. They would like chairs instead of stools by their lockers so they can lean back. That in theory should be a pretty easy to fix. They also do not like the main trainer Rick Burkholder. They like his staff but not him. Apparently they felt like they couldn’t come to him with injuries and couldn’t speak up about getting better care. Well guess what the Chiefs were one of the healthiest teams all year and just won a Super Bowl. I don’t know what will happen with everything else but I am guessing nothing changes here.

My favorite complaint though was about travel. Apparently the younger players have to room together at hotels on the road trips. This is hilarious and embarrassing. In my mid 20’s to around 30 I worked for financial companies. I had to go to lots of trainings and conferences. Every where I went I got a nice hotel room and everything was paid for. Around 31 I switched gears and started working for a non profit. I was signing up for my first training and one of the questions was “who do you want to be your roommate?” Easy answer…no one. I am a 31 year old man. I don’t want a roommate. Over the 9 years I worked for the organization, I got used to it but never felt great about it. At times I got to room with my brother who also worked for the organization, so that was fun for old times sake. We used to stay in hotel rooms with our parents and sister when were kids. Ruth would get the cot because she was a girl and the boys got to sleep in a bed together. This bothered Justin way more than it did me. I moved around a lot in my sleep as a little kid. Apparently a 12 year old boy didn’t want to cuddle with 5 year old me at 4 AM. Anyway, while I didn’t like the set up, I understood. We were a non-profit after all so the name of the game was save money.

But the Chiefs are not a non profit. They are worth billions of dollars and just won a Super Bowl. The idea of Trent McDuffie having to room with Jaylen Watson is pretty ridiculous. But also pretty funny. I wonder if they had to take turns on who has to give the hotel a card for incidentals. Anyway, this should be an easy fix as well.

However, if I am Clark Hunt I would be like we just won the Super Bowl so if I make these changes we are still going to win stuff…right? While this survey is fine and maybe helpful, you don’t hear a lot of players from winning teams complain about anything. Winning solves everything even having to awkwardly decide who is going to take a shower first at the Best Western.

I have a work trip the end of next week so no 5 for Friday but tune in on Tuesday for the top 10 takeaways from Travis Kelce’s SNL hosting job. This will be the first time I have watched SNL in like at least a half a decade so that should be fun.
Top 10 Tuesday: The 10 Greatest Expos

February 28th, 2023

I have always been a die hard Royals fan and always will be despite a lot of really bad seasons. But as a little kid you like to cheer for multiple teams. Or at least I did. A lot of times you are drawn to teams for random reasons, a favorite player, a mascot, the teams colors. Thus was the case with my national league team for many years. Red, White and Blue seemed like the way to go. Ironically, all though they wore America’s colors, they were actually in another country. Oh Canada rang before there games as my national league team was none other than the Montreal Expos. Of course the Expos no longer exist which is a sad story in itself. The Expos like the Royals suffered a lot of rough years. But in 1994 things were good for both teams and I was into baseball as much as ever. The Royals were 64-51 and 3 games out of first place. One of my favorite players, Tony Gwynn was batting .390 and chasing the elusive .400. My other favorite player, Ken Griffey Jr. was sitting on 40 homeruns chasing after the home run record. It wouldn’t be unheard of for Griffey to hit 22 more in the last 50 games and a guy named Matt Williams was already 3 ahead of him. And to top it all off, guess who had the best record in Baseball? None other than the Montreal Expos. But then the season abruptly ended as the players went on strike and it was not only the end arguably of the Expos greatest season, it was pretty much the end of the Expos. So with that sadness in mind, and with Spring training now in full swing, I thought it would be a great time to honor the team that is no more. Here are who I consider the 10 Greatest Expos of all time!

10. Larry Walker

Here is a guy who only played for the Expos for 6 years. There is a bunch of them…if they made it that long. Larry was great where ever he played. He won two gold gloves with the Expos and hit .322 his last year with the Expos which happened to be the same year of the strike. He was part of an incredible outfield of Walker in Right, Marquis Grissom in Center and Moises Alou in Left. Grissom also left after 94 and immediately won a world series with the Braves. Alou left two years later and immediately won a world series with the Marlins. Walker spent many years with the Rockies so he of course never won anything. But he did hit a lot of balls and became a hall of famer.

9. Pedro Martinez

A lot of really great players started their careers in Montreal including several that didn’t make this list because the barely played there before becoming stars elsewhere. Randy Johnson for instance didn’t make the list after only spending a year and half in Montreal. He turned out alright. Pedro just made the cut playing only 4 years in Montreal. Pedro went 55-33 and was part of their success in 94. 3 years later in 97 he won the Cy Young going 17-8 with a 1.90 ERA and 13 complete games. He of course ran off to make all the money in Boston. That worked out alright for him…but not so much for the Expos.

8. Jeff Reardon

Reardon was one of many closers to find or start having success in Montreal. But Reardon had the most success. Although he was only there for 6 years, he is the all time save leader with over 150 saves. He led the league in saves in 85 and was an all star in 85 and 86. Like all former Expos he left and found immediate success winning a World Series with the Twins in 87. But hey you can’t be mad at Reardon. Not when he is rocking that awesome beard. He wore a beard before beards were cool.

7. Dennis Martinez

When I think of the Expos and pitching, I think of Denny Martinez. By the time Martinez got to Montreal he had already had a long career in Baltimore. But from 86-93 he was the most consistent pitcher for the Expos. While guys like Reardon, Johnson, Pedro and Ken Hill came and went, Martinez was the stability on the mound for the Expos when I was a kid. He had 6 winning seasons which is hard to do in Montreal. He was an all star from 90-92 and should have been one in 93 as well. In 91 he led the league in ERA, complete games and shutouts at age 37, which is younger than me now but seemed real old at the time. From 88-93 he started 30 or more games each year and is the all time Expo leader for lowest ERA. And he was a pretty funny and entertaining person as well.

6. Tim Wallach

Wallach spent an incredible 12 years with the Expos playing mostly 3rd base. Most good players didn’t last half that long before leaving for greener pasture. But that was the beauty of Wallach. He was good but not good enough to get paid elsewhere. He eventually left for the Dodgers but his glory years were definitely with the Expos. Tim made the all star game 5 times and collected 3 gold gloves. 1987 was probably his best season when he batted .298 and hit 26 home runs. 26 home runs doesn’t seem like a lot but in 1987 that was pretty good. And in the midst of many of my favorite expo players leaving, I could always count on old Timmy to be there for me. He is the all time Expo leader in hits, doubles, and RBI’s.

5. Steve Rogers

Steve was the one Expo who never left, playing his entire 13 year career in Montreal. In fact he is literally the only player to play his whole career in Montreal. That alone should get him on the list. I only caught the tale end of his career as he played from 73-85. He was a 5 time all star and is the all time Expo leader in wins, strikeouts and shut outs. His best year he went 19-8 and led the league with a 2.40 ERA in 1982. Steve also has the same name as Captain America. And to top things off, he was born in Jefferson City where I lived for 9 years. One of the managers, Dick Williams, didn’t like Rogers and said he was only good when it didn’t matter and didn’t come through in big games. Williams was fired during the 1981 strike season. That year they split the season in halves. With Williams gone, the Expos won their division in the second half and the Expos made their one and only playoff appearance. They beat the Phillies and then lost to the Dodgers. During that playoff run, Rogers went 3-1 with a .97 ERA. That seems pretty clutch to me.

4. Gary Carter

From 1974 to 1984 Carter was behind the plate for the Expos. He was an 8 time all star including 7 in a row from 79-84. I was pretty little when he played for the Expos but I remember wearing my plastic Expos helmet backwards like Gary. Carter was a heck of a player and now is in the hall of fame and was easily the best catcher in Expos history. In fact, I dare you to name another Expo catcher. After the 1984 season, Gary wanted too much money. And the one thing the Expos were great at was being cheap. So they traded Carter to their divisional rival, the New York Mets for Hubie Brooks and some other guys who barely ever played. Besides saving money, this trade did not work out for the Expos. Meanwhile, Carter went on to make the All-Star game the next 4 years. After 12 years and making it to the playoffs only one time in the strike season, Carter helped the Mets win the world series in 1986. But to this day, it is hard to picture the Expos without picturing Gary Carter.

3. Andre Dawson

The Hawk would probably be higher on most people’s list but I am still bitter about him leaving to go to the Cubs during my prime baseball youth fandom, especially after talking smack on Gary Carter after he left. But Dawson was the real deal. He played only a few games in 1976 but then for about a decade, he was mister expo. In 77 he was rookie of the year. He was a great player who routinely hit 20 home runs and stole 20 bases. He was an all star from 81-83 and really probably should have got the nod more. In his time with the Expos he hit 225 home runs, stole 253 bases and hit .280. He was also on This week in Baseball a lot. If you did not grow up watching This Week in Baseball, I feel sorry for you. The 80’s were the best.

2. Vladimir Guerrero

Vladi was the last great Expo. After playing a few games in 1996 he really got going in 1997 and left the Expos shortly before the Expos left themselves. He never hit below .300 and is the all time leader with 234 home runs as well as batting average at .323. He also had a cannon for an arm. He left the Expos but of all of the players that left, I blame him the least as the writing was on the wall that the Expos were going to be no more. Guerrero was a freak athlete. In 2002 he led the league in hits with 206 and hit 39 home runs and stole 40 bases. This was back to back years of 30 plus home runs and 30 plus stolen bases. Watching Vladi play is my last good memory of the Expos.

1.Tim “Rock” Raines

Raines was phenomenal. He was an all star from his rookie year in 81 through 1987. From 81-86 he never had less than 70 stolen bases and led the league 4 years straight from 81-84 until Vince Coleman showed up and stole 100. Raines often slid face first. My brother once told me that it was because he had cocaine in his back pockets. I have no idea if that was true but it does make me question his nickname “rock”. It could be true as doing cocaine and playing major league baseball in the 80s went hand in hand. But around the same time, my brother also told me that I was adopted. So he wasn’t the greatest source of accurate information. What I do know is that Raines stole 635 bases in Montreal, had 1,622 hits and batted .301. He is 5th all time in MLB history in stolen bases and is in the Hall of Fame. In 86 he led the league in batting average and on base percentage. The Rock was awesome and my all time favorite Expo.

Honorable Mention:

Ken Hill, Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom, Tim Burke and Andres Galarraga also known as the Big Cat. He almost got on the list based upon his nickname alone.

Check out next week for the next Top 10 list and don’t miss the 5 for Friday covering hot topics in Sports from the week.
Five for Friday: Five Reactions to this week in Sports

February 24th, 2023

Here are 5 reactions from things that happened or are happening in sports.

My Sad Time:

Its amazing how quickly I can go from absolute jubilation to depression in such a short period of time. There is nothing better than the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl but it also means that football season is over which means I enter into what Danielle calls my “sad state”. I do love all sports but to be honest as I have gotten older and have more responsibilities it gets harder to follow everything. The last few years I have mostly focused on football, specifically the NFL. While this makes for a great 20-25 weeks or so, it also means that I don’t have any sports to be super passionate about the other 30 or so weeks a year. (Yes, I know there are 52 weeks in a year and the math isn’t perfect). I know that there are a lot of other sports options out there but here is my issue with embracing them besides the time and effort.

NBA: Why should I care about this before the playoffs if the players don’t?

NHL: Until I can understand icing, I am not watching.

College Basketball: The officiating is soooooo bad! I know all officiating is bad but College Basketball is the worst. At least in the NBA it is bad but consistently bad. In College one thing can be called 3 different types of fouls in the same game. I just can’t do it.

Baseball: What’s less exciting than regular season baseball…spring baseball. Plus I am a Royals fan and the Royals suck.

Golf: Always good…if I want to take a nap.

XFL: This I could get on board with but the women in my life (my wife and 10 year old daughter) have given this a hard no. Especially the 10 year old.

So there you have it. Depression has set in. I do have the Super Bowl recorded so I will probably just watch that a couple of hundred times before next season starts.

EB to the Commanders:

I like Eric Bieniemy. I do not understand why he can’t get hired to be a head coach. He has interviewed with 16 teams over the last few years and each year has gotten less interviews. He only interviewed for one head coaching job this year. In fact the two coordinators of the losing Super Bowl team got jobs the next day. Arizona didn’t even interview EB. None of this makes sense to me. I understand he is in Andy’s shadow but so was Doug Pederson, Matt Nagy and others. So why does it matter with EB. I have heard he is a bad interviewer. This I can sort of see. But at the end of the day, a proven tract record of success should count for something. Look at some of the yahoos who have gotten opportunities instead of him. Nathanial Hackett, Kliff Kingsbury, Jeff Saturday, John Gannon (who EB just worked over in the Super Bowl) and many others. Now there has been one critic, and that is LeSean McCoy. Shady says that EB doesn’t do anything but he quickly got blasted by none other than Tyreek Hill that said he is just bitter because EB told him to stop fumbling. Regardless, EB now has a chance to prove the critics wrong. All he has to do is win in Washington which is sort of a big ask. But they do have a lot of weapons so if Sam Howell can just not completely suck, he might be alright. Anyway thanks for all your hard work, EB and good luck.

Other Coaching moves:

Jonathan Gannon got hired as the Arizona Cardinals head coach after giving up 38 points in the Super Bowl. Sometimes you can just tell when something is going to be a disaster and this relationship is one of those times. You have a coach who I believe is in way over his head. You have a quarterback who is injured and apparently would rather play video games than study film. And the rest of the team isn’t very good. You are probably going to try to trade your best receiver, which will be difficult because he is so expensive. This is going to be a dumpster fire. Mark it down.

Speaking of dumpster fires, Vance Joseph is coming back to Denver. After failing there after two years as the head coach, Joseph left to be an average defensive coordinator at Arizona. Before coming to Denver he was an average defensive coordinator at Miami. He really doesn’t have anything great on his resume. But hey, he knows the area of Denver so there is that. And he will already know all the media guys so that’s good too. At first I was excited about the Sean Payton hire for my Denver fan family members. But this isn’t looking nearly as good as he slowly puts this staff together. Payton was only 25-23 his first 3 years in New Orleans and after some great success he had another stretch from 2014-16 where he finished 7-9 three years in a row. But I guess this would be a great result for the Broncos compared to what they have suffered lately. Oh and they also hired Davis Webb to be their Quarterback coach. In case you don’t know who Davis Webb is, he was a back up quarterback for the Giants last year and this will be his first coaching job. Hey our 34 year old quarterback was terrible last year. How are we going to fix him? I know, lets bring in a 28 year old who couldn’t make it in the NFL and has never coached a day in his life. Hey, Sean, I think Jeff Saturday is available for your offensive coordinator position. In fact, I am also available for the offensive coordinator position. Except I don’t like to work weekends. Of course, it didn’t look like Saturday did either. Anyway things are really starting to come together here in Denver.

Also, I don’t know if you caught this, but the Chargers defensive coordinator left the Chargers to go be the defensive passing coordinator at Miami under Vic Fangio. That is how bad things are for the Chargers. Guys are taking demotions just to get out.

Mizzou Basketball doesn’t suck:

I know I said I wasn’t going to watch college basketball but I do suffer through bad officiating at times to watch Mizzou play. Although, they seem to play better when I don’t watch. If you would have told me this team was going to win 20 games I would have laughed at you. Barring a complete melt down, we should make the tournament which is a huge accomplishment for this squad. And if we shoot the ball well, we could be dangerous. However, when we don’t shoot the ball well, we lose real bad. We can’t really rebound or play half court defense so those are pretty big weaknesses. But the fact that we are even relevant is pretty cool. But since I am a Mizzou fan I am clearly preparing myself for a first round exit out of March Madness.

It’s cut and restructure season:

In case you haven’t noticed, teams are starting to cut veterans and reorganize contracts in order to make cap space. The Salary Cap in the NFL is pretty funny, easy to manipulate and darn right confusing. But anyway teams are starting to get rid of people. Bobby Wagner who was the highest graded linebacker by Pro Football Focus last year got released by the Rams. The Titans cut several people including wide receiver Robert Woods who had a classic one word tweet in response, “Free!” That tells you everything you need to know about playing receiver for the Titans.

Expect the Chiefs to part ways with Frank Clark soon. Maybe they restructure instead but if we hang on to Clark, it is 28 million hit to the cap. If we release him it is a 7 million hit to the cap. This decision is not hard. I do love playoff Frank but regular season Frank is definitely not worth 28 million. I say we release him and then resign him around week 14 so that we have him for the playoffs. This is best case scenario. Looking forward to a fun NFL offseason of cuts, trades, signings and speculations. People are already picking the Chargers to win the West and a guy on the local radio said the Broncos were going to go 12-5. Paper Champion season has already begun!

Tune in on Tuesday for another top 10 list! In honor of the start of baseball season, I am going to break down the top 10 best players of all time for my second favorite baseball team. See you then!
Top 10 Tuesday: Top 10 Mizzou Football losses of my lifetime

February 21st, 2023

As Mizzou fans we suffer a lot of defeat so much so that I thought I would make up one list but ended up having to divide it into two, a football list and basketball list. Sorry Norfolk St. and Tyus Edney, you will have to wait your turn. I am also sure there were some terrible defeats before my time so keep in mind this is just in my lifetime. Without further ado, here we go.

10. 2008, Loss to ku to end the regular season:

2008 was supposed to be our year. Following arguably Mizzou greatest’s season, the Tigers started the season ranked in the top 4. But after two losses already all hopes of a national title had already ended. And so we were just trying to not lose to ku in order for the season not to be a complete disappointment. Spoiler alert, it was a complete disappointment. This was actually a great game, especially if you like offense. Neither team could stop the other one and the scoring was back and forth all game. Unfortunately, the jayhawks got the ball last. Todd Reesing threw a td with less than 30 seconds left to stupid Kerry Meier to take the lead 40-37. Mizzou didn’t have enough time to score. A close loss to our most hated rival to end the most disappointing season in Mizzou history…why isn’t this higher you might ask. Well this is actually the same day I became a father. My wife asked if we won and I said no and she said I’m so sorry and it was like it is all good, we just had a kid. She was impressed that I didn’t care about the game since we were having a baby. I am not sure what that says about my fandom but I am thinking it says it is maybe borderline unhealthy. Anyway, it is sort of the perfect way for a new little Mizzou fan to be born into the world, in utter disappointment. The Tigers still somehow made the Big 12 championship vs Oklahoma. For some reason they decided to talk a lot of crap before the game and then they lost by like 40.

9. Mizzou loses to Auburn in Overtime this year:

While this game doesn’t have a big impact on the overall Mizzou history, but it is such a classic Mizzou game it had to be included. The teams combined for 12 consecutive punts in the second half. As the game was coming to a conclusion, Mizzou drove down to kick the game winner. But Mevis who is one of the best kickers in school history missed a 26 yarder. Then Auburn got the ball in overtime and the Mizzou defense held to a fg attempt. The Auburn kicker missed but we were offsides so he got a second chance and made it. We got the ball and our running back made a great run all the way to the 1 yard line when he fumbled and the ball rolled out of the end zone for a touchback and we lost 17-14. If this game doesn’t epitomize Mizzou Football, I don’t know what does.

8. Weird Kentucky Losses

I am sort of cheating with this one. But it seems like every time we play Kentucky something weird happens. The two most prominent ones are this year and 2018. In 2018, Drew Lock was our quarterback and we were up 14-3 at halftime. We had 8 possessions in the 2nd half and had a solid 8 3 and outs. Our defense kept us in it. They even got a stop as time expired but got called for a questionable pass interference. They got the ball at the 2 with no time remaining for one last play and scored a touchdown giving the Wildcats the game 15-14. All we needed was 1 first down. Just 1 first down the entire second half and we would have won this game. But an offense featuring Drew Lock couldn’t get it done.

This year down 21-17 we forced a punt that would give us the ball back with a chance to win the game. Kentucky snapped the ball over the punter’s head. The ball went all the way to the goal line. The punter just grabbed it and one of our players tackled him as he tried kick it and it was called roughing the punter. Technically he was still in the tackle box even though he was 40 yards behind the line of the scrimmage. You can’t make this stuff up. Two brutal losses to Kentucky and I am sure there have been others and there will be more in the future.

7. 2010 Loss to Nebraska

We had just beat #1 Oklahoma with Game Day on hand in perhaps the biggest win in Mizzou history. We were in the National title hunt and we were heading to face hated Nebraska. I some how scored 3 tickets for the 50 yard line. My dad, brother and I met up and made the drive from Mid Missouri to Lincoln. Seats were great. Weather was great. The fans were, eh. Nebraska fans back then were a lot like Cardinals fans. They are “the best fans” in sports because they show up every year to watch their winning team perform. They are also snobby and wear entirely too much red. And this is coming from a Chiefs fan. Anyway, all was well until the game started and they basically knocked the crap out of Blaine Gabbert for 4 quarters. If you don’t remember Roy Helu Jr., let me remind you. He is the guy that ran for 307 yards on our defense. I am pretty sure Gabbert got a concussion and kept playing. In fact, I am pretty sure Gabbert still had a concussion the next week when he played awful against Texas Tech and we lost to them too. Anyway, it made a rough exit to the game. Nebraska was leaving the Big 12 and fans were like hey try to stay relevant and maybe we will play each other again sometime. Well guess what Nebraska…you suck too so neither of us are relevant. Take that Cornhuskers.

6. SEC Championship loss against Auburn

In just our second year in the SEC we won the East and made it to the big game. It was exciting and to make things even more exciting, we weren’t playing Alabama or LSU and so we might actually have a shot. It was a back and forth game full of offense and the 3rd quarter ended with us trailing by just 3 points, 45-42. Unfortunately, the 4th quarter was not good to us and we lost 59-42. We gave up 545 rushing yards. 545 yards!!! We actually had 534 yards of offense ourselves. But we could not stop Tre Mason. He had 304 yards himself. To add insult to injury, Mason said that we changed our defense and if they players had just stayed home, he would have had no where to run. Ouch. Auburn went on to lose the national championship to Florida State. It was great year but this game made it feel like it could have been so much more if we could have just at least occasionally stop the run.

5. Oklahoma State loss that ruined a would be great season

The year is 2008. We were 5-0 and ranked #3 in the nation. We had Heisman finalist Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman on offense and we were unstoppable. Until we weren’t. Hosting #17 Oklahoma State was the beginning of the end. Chase threw 3 interceptions and we couldn’t finish drives. While we were on offense, Mike Gundy wasn’t even paying attention to the game. He was drawing up plays for their next offensive possession. After all, he’s a man. He’s 40. Anyway it worked. We scored with like 5 minutes to go to pull within 5. But we never got the ball back. It was a tough loss. But it was also the beginning of the end. We got rolled by Texas the next week, lost to ku at the end of the year and got rolled by Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship. It was a disappointing beginning to what was supposed to be an awesome year.

4. South Carolina 2013, double overtime

This was a crazy game. We had just beat Georgia at Georgia and Florida at home. James Franklin got hurt so we were rolling with pre drug selling Maty Mauk. Things started off well. We were up 14-0 at the half and had one of our longest td’s in school history when one of my all time favorite Tigers, L’Damian Washington caught a 96 yard touchdown pass. We were up 17-0 going into the 4th quarter. Then the dreaded back up quarterback came in. We are historically bad against back up quarterbacks. Connor Shaw was hurt but came in anyway. He led them to 17 unanswered points which led to overtime. We scored quickly and easily. It was SC’s turn with the ball. It was 4th down and forever and Shaw was almost sacked before launching it to the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. In the second overtime we held them to a fg. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score a td and had to settle for a fg ourselves. Andrew Baggett kicked the 24 yarder off the left upright and we lost. This is literally the only blemish of the regular season. We could have been 12-0. Luckily we bounced back and won out and still made it to the championship game but it was rough way to lose…especially in that end zone.

3. Big 12 Championship 2007

This game was brutal. We had lost a close one to Oklahoma in Norman earlier in the year. I remember being in a bar in Colorado watching the game and there was this annoying Oklahoma girl talking crap through the whole game. I told her we would see them again and I was right. Unfortunately the outcome was worse. It was tied 14-14 at halftime but it felt like we had missed some opportunities. But we just couldn’t do anything in the second half. Their defense was one step ahead and they ran all over us to a 38-17 victory. We were #1 in the country but only scored one td and were held under 30 for the first time all year. Although not as depressing because it wasn’t a close loss as some of the others this one hurt because this was arguably our best team ever and the closest we have ever been to a national title game. It was a sad loss and one that hurts even more considering how disappointing the next year was. The second half of that game was the first non fun half of football all that year.

2. The Fifth Down:

While I am thankful for this event as it gave me a clever name for a blog, this loss was ridiculous. Again, you cannot make this stuff up and it couldn’t happen to anyone but us. On 1st and goal they spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down they handed off to no one other than Eric Bienemy who did not score. At this point Colorado took it’s final timeout and this is where the problem began. The chain crew never flipped the down marker from 2nd to 3rd down. So now things get really confusing. They hand off to Bienemy again and he does not get in on what is actually 3rd down but marked as second down. Charles Johnson gets the team to the line and spikes the ball again on what is actually 4th down but marked as 3rd down. On the actual fifth down, Johnson keeps it himself. He appears to be stopped short of the goal line but the refs say he is in. Did you get all that? At this point the refs realize there is an issue. The officials huddle for like 20 minutes and then finally say the touchdown counts even though it happened on 5th down. Like I said, you can’t make this stuff up. Now if this happened today there would be challenge flags and replays and people yelling in the officials ear to correct the down marker. But this was 1990 and our nation was only borderline obsessed with football as opposed to completely obsessed like we are today. The officiating crew was suspended for one week. The Buffs ended up being co-national champions and we went on to continue to be a terrible program. So how is this not number 1 on the list? I mean the blog is named after it. Well I was only 11 years old. I didn’t really hate Colorado and I wasn’t obsessed with Mizzou football yet. But what if something just as bizarre could happen against a team you hate a few years later when you are all in on Mizzou?

The Flea Kicker:

I was a freshman in college and was in Columbia for some reason. I didn’t go to the game but watched it at I believe Apple Bee’s with some friends and family. We were playing #1 Nebraska who was 8-0. We weren’t good but we were good for us as we were 6-3 going into the game. We were competitive from beginning to end. We had not beaten Nebraska since 1978 and it was 1997. We were up 38-31 late in the game but couldn’t get a first down to seal it and were forced to punt. Nebraska got the ball back with just over a minute left. They drove down the field and were at the 12 yard line with 7 seconds left. Scott Frost, who was a terrible coach for Nebraska, but a pretty good qb for them threw a pass. He hit a kid named Shevin Wiggins in the chest but he dropped it. It was falling to the ground when it hit a Mizzou player’s foot and bounced back up. As Wiggins was being tackled the ground, he kicked the ball back up in the air and stupid Matt Davidson dove and caught the ball. This should have been called an illegal kick but instead the refs let it stand and the game went to overtime. In OT, they got the ball first and Frost ran it in. When it was our turn, on 4th and 7, Corby Jones got sacked by no other than Webb City grad, Grant Winstrom. Bad enough we lose on a game ending sack but it was by a kid who was from our state. Nebraska went on to win a co-national championship and I realized that this was just the life of a Mizzou fan. It’s what Mizzou does. We rip defeat from the jaws of victory.

This was a hard list to create as there are so many others to chose from. But these are my top 10. What’s on your list that didn’t make it?
Five for Friday: 5 Final Reactions of the NFL Season and a prediction for every NFL team for next season

February 17th, 2023

As we conclude the 2022 NFL season, I decided to reflect back with 5 final takeaways/reactions. Also, there is a prediction for every NFL team and an update on what fifth-down will be doing in the offseason. Enjoy!

The NFL has a New Rivalry:

The NFL has never been short of rivalries. But lately we have been a little limited on them. I’m not talking about division rivalries. Those will always exist. I am talking about two teams that don’t play twice a year but have a true rivalry. The criteria is simple. Two competitive teams that often play each other in competitive games including the playoffs and have a dislike for each other. Bonus points for when the fans of both teams dislike the team and fans of the other teams. I’m talking 49ers vs Giants in the late 80s early 90s. Cowboys vs 49ers of the 90s. Patriots vs Colts in the Brady vs Manning days. And so on and so forth. Now we have Chiefs vs Bengals. With the Chiefs victory, things are no longer one sided. Further, the Chiefs have championships and the Bengals don’t. These teams don’t particularly like each other and the fan bases hate the other team. This is good for the league in general and should be the game to kick off the 2023 season.

Expect Rule Changes in 2023:

Based upon popular opinion on social media, the rule most would like to see is the “let them play” rule when the Chiefs have the ball late in the game. This is a stupid thought process, thinking the refs shouldn’t call penalties late in the game. The latest complaint is the hold on Bradberry against JuJu. This was very controversial but mostly based upon the camera angles that Fox chose to show us. Mike Periera, Fox’s official analyst felt like it was an obvious hold because he had 12 camera shots and chose the one from the angle of the ref who threw the flag. For whatever reason, Fox never gave us this angle. But if you watch the inside the nfl mic’d up version you see the play very clearly. And it is very clearly a hold. So despite dumb fans request we will not get the “let them play” rule passed. However, the rule I think we will see changed is the rugby push the guy forward play the Eagles and other teams used throughout the season. Pretty much every team used this strategy at some point but the Eagles used it many times a game. They have the right guy to do it. I don’t care if it stays or goes but I expect it to go. The NFL doesn’t like things that are automatic. And this is pretty automatic as long as you are willing to stick your QB in the middle of the scrum. The other factor is this was illegal before. In 2006, they decided to change the rule and allow players to push other players forward. Over time, this has gotten more and more excessive to the point of what we see with the Eagles, where there is basically no way of stopping it. So expect to not see this at all next year. And expect the conspiracy theory people to say it is all a plot to help rig more championships for the Chiefs.

Last to First continues:

Almost every year, a team that finishes last wins their division the following year. In 2018 the Texans did it. In 2019 the 49ers did it. In 2020, Washington did it. In 2021, the Bengals did it and in 2022, the Jaguars did it. It might go back farther than that. That is the beauty of the NFL. You can turn around your franchise relatively quickly. This means that one of the following teams will win their division next year: Jets, Browns, Texans, Broncos, Commanders, Bears, Falcons, and Cardinals. See even when your team sucks, there is hope for next year.

If you are a free agent QB…run to the NFC:

Jalen Hurts proved he is the real deal in the Super Bowl. But beyond him there is a lot of question marks. With Brady retiring and Rodgers living in a dark room or whatever, there are a lot of unknowns. Is Geno Smith the second best QB in the NFC? Will the 49ers have a healthy QB to start the season? If I was Derek Carr or Aaron Rodgers or anyone else, sign me up for the NFC. In the AFC you are competing against Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Lawrence who will all likely win their divisions. Then you add in Herbert, Lamar, Watson (if he can get back on track), and Tua (if he can stay on the field). You can go to the Jets or Raiders and try and compete with that. Or you can go to any of the 4 NFC South teams and win the division.

The Next Dynasty:

I agree with Patrick Mahomes that we are not a dynasty yet. But the key word is yet. Another championship within the next 2-3 years seals the deal. Back to back wins would definitely seal the deal. And we already have all the other things that come with dynasties. Franchise QB? Check. Historically great coach? check. Rabid and desperate fan base that has been waiting decades for a win? check. Other fan bases already hating your team? check. Conspiracy theories that you are cheating or things are rigged? check. We have it all. We don’t have the championships that the Patriots have but we have all the hate. So Chiefs fans, let’s embrace it. But lets try to be a little nicer to everyone then our east coast Patriot friends. After all, we are mid-westerners so lets at least pretend to be nice.

Predictions for every NFL Team:

AFC East:

Bills: The Bills win the east…again. And lose in the divisional round…again. But this time they do it without any of their players almost dying. So we will count this a victory.

Dolphins: Unfortunately, Tua gets yet another concussion derailing their season. But we finally get the answer that yes in fact Mike McDaniel’s is vaping on the sideline. Do you blame him?

Patriots: Bill O’Brien comes in as OC and improves the offense because he isn’t terrible at offense just terrible and running a team. Pats make the playoffs.

Jets: Surely they will have someone better than Zach Wilson play quarterback…right? Right?

AFC North:

Bengals: They win the division and are still real good and arrogant and annoying and I still hate them.

Ravens: The Ravens trade Lamar but still win 10 games.

Steelers: Tomlin goes yet another year without a losing record. Pickett improves and the Steelers improve with him.

Browns: Are still a disaster. Now they are just a more expensive disaster.

AFC South:

Jaguars: Beware the hair! Jags repeat as AFC South champs and make a run in the playoffs.

Titans: Titans go from being boring and good to just being boring.

Colts: Can’t possibly be worse than last year…right? right?

Texans: Texans show heart but still don’t have a good record and then they immediately fire their head coach for the 3rd year in a row.

AFC West:

Chiefs: They win the AFC West again and go to the AFC Championship game again. Not ready to say they win it all again but they have a great chance.

Chargers: They will be a media favorite to win the division and the whole thing. Then the season will start and they will win 10 games and lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Raiders: They trade for Aaron Rodgers giving up a ton of draft capital. Hey, Aaron said he wanted to go to a dark place and it doesn’t get darker than Vegas and the Raiders. He skips OTA’s but it doesn’t matter because all he does is throw to Davante Adams anyway. They finish with one more win than last year. Then Rodgers retires leaving the Raiders without a QB or draft picks. Raiders gonna raider.

Broncos: The Broncos under Sean Payton are no longer hot garbage. They are decent and even finally beat the Chiefs. Just kidding. They don’t beat the Chiefs but they are better.

NFC East:

Eagles: Spend most of the season complaining that they can no longer play Rugby. They still win the division.

Cowboys: Getting rid of their OC doesn’t help their offense because Dak is still their QB.

Giants: They resign Jones and Barkley. It doesn’t work out. Barkley gets hurt and Jones regresses back to old Jones form.

Commanders: EB shows up as OC and makes them more competitive on offense and Sam Howell is decent. They finish with a winning record.

NFC North:

Vikings: Brian Flores makes their defense better. Kirk Cousins is still the quarterback so they lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Packers: They trade Rodgers and immediately improve and make the playoffs and have a lot less distractions.

Lions: Dan Campbell is real excited and the team plays with a lot of passion. They finish 9-8 again and just miss the playoffs because they are the Lions.

Bears: They have lots of draft picks. It doesn’t matter. They are still terrible.

NFC South:

Bucs: Blaine Gabbert gets a chance to start and balls out. Just Kidding. They start Kyle Trask and are terrible.

Panthers: Frank Reich finds a way to win despite not having a great QB. He is used to it after coaching the Colts for several years. They win this crappy division.

Saints: Derek Carr joins the Saints…it helps a little. But not enough.

Falcons: The birds aren’t worse without Mariotta. They aren’t better either.

NFC West:

49ers: They start the year with Purdy and Lance competing for the starting job. But by week 3 they are both injured. Instead of signing other QBS that will ultimately just get injured, the 49ers decide to just run wild cat with McCaffrey and Deebo to get ready for the playoffs.

Seahawks: Seattle resigns both Geno and Drew Lock. Geno gets hurt and the Seahawks make the playoffs with Lock. Pointing out even further that the Broncos truly were a mess the last few years.

Rams: All their old players are healthy…for a little bit. They win more games than the past year but still have no depth so disappear the second half of the season.

Cardinals: John Gannon immediately regrets taking the job. It’s a dumpster fire year. After all, the Chiefs won more games in their stadium this season then they did.

Going forward, fifth-down will have two posts a week. We will have top 10 Tuesday. This will be a top 10 list of random sports things. For instance, next Tuesday you will get top 10 Mizzou losses of all time. Feel free to give suggestions for top 10 categories.

Secondly, Five for Friday will go on in a different form. Instead of 5 predictions it will be 5 reactions to the sports world the past week.

My main focus is always the NFL as that is what I follow most closely so look for special posts about free agency and the draft.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and I hope you will continue to do so.
Super Bowl Reactions: What A Game!

February 13th, 2023

How About those Chieeefs! What a great game. I’m so happy and so happy for the coaches and players of the Chiefs. Here are 13 reactions from last night’s game.

We broke all the trends, streaks, and superstitions

No one who has led the league in passing has ever won the super bowl…until Mahomes. No one who has won MVP has won the super bowl since 1999…until Mahomes. No one has won the Super Bowl when winning the coin toss in the last 9 games…until last night. The coach coaching against his own team doesn’t win often…but Andy Reid did. All those things are now done. We now will only hear about these things as stuff that Mahomes, Andy and the Chiefs ended.

MVPat

Mahomes is amazing. People will say Hurts out played him and that is fine. What I saw last night was a mature Pat. He didn’t force balls down the field. He took what was given to him. He moved around the pocket and ran when he needed to. He was willing to let his running backs and o-line carry a lot the load. And he led. He got the team back on track at halftime. He led on the sideline and he led on the field. Dude reinjured is high ankle sprain and was still running around out there. He ran 6 times for 44 yards. His stat line wasn’t amazing from a yardage standpoint with 182. But he was 21-27 with 3 touchdowns. He only had one incompletion in the second half and that was a throw away. He completed arguably the greatest quarterback season ever. He led the league in passing yards and touchdowns. He threw for over 5,000 yards. He set the all time record for total yards by a quarterback. He won MVP. He won the Super Bowl and he won Super Bowl MVP. 6 seasons in and 5 seasons as a starter, he is already a hall of famer. He is arguably a top 5 QB of all time. I am not sure he is human.

Just like we all expected, the Chiefs ran for more yards and Eagles threw for more yards

If I said one team threw for over 300 yards you would have likely guessed that team was the Chiefs. If I said one team ran for over 150 yards, you would have for sure have guessed the Eagles. But the opposite was the case. Both teams were very balanced from a play calling stand point, with the Chiefs passing on 27 plays and running on 26 plays. The Eagles threw 38 times and ran 32 times. Both numbers are a little off due to quarterback scrambles counting as runs but regardless fairly balanced by both teams. What was less expected was that the Chiefs would average over 6 yards a carry. Pacheco was the work horse with 15 carries for 76 yards. McKinnon didn’t get the ball a ton but had 4 carries for 34 yards. Meanwhile the Eagles only averaged 3.6 yards a carry. And it wasn’t the QB sneaks bringing down the average. If you take Hurts out of the equation, the 3 Eagle running backs had 17 carries for 45 yards or 2.6 yards a carry. Turns out the Chiefs run defense was a little underrated.

Hurts is that dude

Speaking of Hurts, he is real good. He was phenomenal last night. I expected the success with his feet and him to get a lot of quarterback sneaks. But he was amazing throwing the ball. He was fitting passes in some very tight windows and just played great from beginning to end. He made one mistake and it cost them greatly but he rallied back and played great afterwards. He is about to get paid a lot of money and deservingly so. He is legit.

Nick Bolton is also Legit

Bolton is amazing. The fact that he was not a pro bowler this year is ridiculous. He is everywhere on the field. If you want to know where the ball is, just find number 32. 9 tackles last night and a touchdown. That is the way he has played all year. He has been phenomenal and he was fantastic last night.

Eagles D got exposed

I am not saying they aren’t good but they also played a lot of bad quarterbacks. Against good quarterbacks they were average at best. They led the league in sacks and had zero last night. Credit the Chiefs offensive line some as they did a nice job. But again, this has more to do with Mahomes than the line. No offense to the guys in the trenches but the Eagles pressure rate was actually slightly higher than their season average. Before last night, the Eagles were getting sacks on 33% of their pressures. Last night, they struck out even with a higher pressure rate. The reason, Patrick Mahomes is real good at sports. He was elusive stepping up, back and around the pocket as needed. He escaped and ran for big yards. Also, the play calling by the Chiefs was incredible. I mean both Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney were literally wide open on touchdowns. The run plays were creative and successful. The Eagles d is good, just not as good as advertised and not as good as the Chiefs offense.

That Field was a disaster

It’s the Super Bowl. You got to have a good field for the game. I don’t understand what happened but that field was a mess. The only good news is both teams were effected equally by it. So at least it was even. But the NFL has to do better in the future to make sure a disaster like this doesn’t happen again.

If you have a guy who can only stay healthy, save him for the 4th

There was much talk that Kadarius Toney was going to have a big impact on the game. However, through 3 quarters he had barely seen the field. My fear was that he would play early and get hurt because he always gets hurt. Maybe the Chiefs had the same fear because they barely used him. He was only actually out there for 5 offensive snaps. But boy did he have an impact. First, he ran a route that left him wide open for a touch down. Then after we forced a punt, he returned it for the longest punt in super bowl history. He made a great move early and then was so patient down the sideline allowing the blocks to line up. It was beautiful. Hopefully he can get in a work out program in the offseason that will keep him healthy. But regardless, this was another genius move of how to use him and get the most bang for your buck on a guy who you weren’t sure if he could play a lot of downs.

The play everyone is mad about

I got to admit, I didn’t love the flag being thrown either. It gave us an anti climatic ending to an otherwise great game. My wife was even confused that I wasn’t happier in the moment. One of the reasons I was bummed was because I knew this would be the topic today. But what made me feel better is the player who the penalty was on said he committed the foul. Bradberry said he held him and was hoping it wouldn’t get called. It’s a class act to admit it and he does grab him. It was minor and they had missed several similar calls earlier. But it was still a penalty and technically the right call. Some are claiming he didn’t hold him, which is an odd take since the player admitted he did. People are saying he said that to protect the league. That is a dumb idea. First of all, why would he care about the league’s image. That’s not his job. Secondly, you think in the locker room after the game, he is plotting to protect the league? Maybe he got asked a question and in the spur of the moment just answered it honestly. Another argument is that the NFL is scripted. This is dumb too. If it was scripted, wouldn’t you want the Eagles to get another chance with the ball? Wouldn’t that be a better script? The final argument is that they should just let them play at the end of the game. This argument is dumb as well. If players knew that then they would just pi or do whatever all the time. Also, any play at any time can have an impact on the game. In the first half, JuJu got held and they didn’t call it. Had they called it, the whole game could look different. The ref saw a hold, called the hold correctly and it cost the Eagles. It’s sort of a bummer of an ending but still the right call. Just like Dee Ford was offsides a few years back. Was I bummed they called it? Yes. Do they usually give a guy a warning first? Yes. Did I think they shouldn’t have called it? No. He was offsides. They got the call right. Just like Bradberry held and they got the call right. Regardless, the Eagles were up 10 and absolutely could not stop the Chiefs in the second half and that is why they lost.

We are the new Patriots but more likable

We always win. We are starting to get so called controversial calls going our way. Everyone is tired of us. Everyone hates us. Everyone is hoping we lose at every turn. This is how everyone felt about the Patriots. Well, almost everyone. I always respected the Patriots. I admire greatness. I don’t hate dynasties just for hating sake. I didn’t hate the Patriots before they were good so why should I hate them for becoming good? But I know that isn’t the norm so I get it. And it is fine, you can hate us. I’ll take your hate if it means we keep winning. But I will argue that we are more likable. Andy Reid is way more fun than Belichick. Pat is more fun to watch than Tom Brady, not better, just more fun. And he is good kid. He is humble. He compliments those who played before him. He always credits his teammates and coaches for his success. People calling him arrogant and other things are just being lazy and not really paying attention to what he is doing and saying. Anyway, as Chiefs fans we should enjoy the hate because it means we are winning a lot.

We aren’t going anywhere

I think we will actually be better next year. We are super young. Brett Veach has done an incredible job in the draft the last two years. Think of all the players drafted in the last two years that had an impact on last night’s game. Creed, Trey Smith, Pacheco, Skyy Moore, Bolton, McDuffie, Watson, Williams, Noah Gray, Cook, Karlaftis, and Chenal. That is 12 guys who played significant time in the biggest game of the year from the last two drafts. We have the best player in the game, the best tight end, arguably the best DT and the best coach in the league. We may not win it next year and we may end up losing more games but we will be very good next year and for years to come. Also there are a lot of good teams but there is a window before you have to pay your young quarterback that you have to take advantage of. The Bills didn’t and now the Eagles and Bengals missed their opportunities as well. It’s not that they can’t still win but it is much more difficult which is what makes this win all that more impressive. We won after paying our guy and we have a great young team that is going to be tough for a while. Its going to be a fun ride and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Henne thing is possible…in retirement

We must give a shout out to Chad Henne. He has probably helped Mahomes a lot more than we know. He was also crucial in helping us get to two super bowls. He stepped up big in two different playoff games when Pat got hurt. This year, he led the team on a 98 yard touchdown drive against the Jags. A few years ago he stepped up in the Browns game with a huge scramble and then a 4th and 1 throw to clinch the game. He will always have a special place in the hearts of Chiefs Kingdom. Enjoy retirement Chad and thanks for the memories.

This was a fun year

When we won in 2020, I was very emotionally invested in our success. It was a rough year and honestly I needed them to win. Every Sunday was sort of an escape from reality and they really came through for me. Then then last couple of years it became less fun. You felt like we were missing an opportunity every time we lost. This year, I entered the season committing to having fun again. If we lost a game, it wasn’t the end of the world. My expectations were higher than the national media but I wasn’t expecting a super bowl. I thought it was possible but I really just wanted to have fun watching. And this team made it easy. I love Tyreek and he helped make us great. But he was a little selfish as most top receivers are. They want the ball all the time. This was one of the most unselfish teams I have seen in a while. Each week it was different guys coming through. MVS played an incredible game in the AFC Championship and didn’t catch a pass in the Super Bowl. Guys like Watson and Moore would have games where they had 4 or 5 catches and others where you didn’t even know if they were playing. One of the best examples of unselfishness was McKinnon sliding at the 1 instead of scoring a td in the super bowl. I know they practice that but in the moment it has to be hard not to score a td in the biggest game of your career if you are able to. Pat handed off instead of throwing all the time. He had less than 200 yards passing because that is what was needed to win. it was a team effort all year round. And it is easy to cheer for Big Red. He deserved this win. I am really happy we won. But I am even happier that the coaches and players on this team won. I’m happy for them. And that is what made this year great.

Tune in on Friday for one prediction for every NFL team and a preview of what Fifth-Down will do now that the NFL season is over.
Five For Friday: Super Bowl Edition

February 10th, 2023
It is a bitter sweet day as this will be the last 5 for Friday until next season. I kicked off the blog with the very first ever 5 for Friday on November 18th. It has been a fun ride and am excited to start back up next September. Don’t worry the blog will live on with posts until then but predicting NFL games is one of my favorite things so I will miss it. But I am also very excited about this one since it is the Super Bowl and the Chiefs are playing…so let’s do this thing!

Here are 5 predictions for the Super Bowl:
1. Trent McDuffie gets an interception. I think McDuffie is going to be a really good player and he is already pretty solid. He is a great tackler and besides losing his footing occasionally, is usually in the right place at the right time. He has been so close on several almost interceptions but hasn’t pulled one in yet. Sunday is the day he gets his first one.
2. Both teams run at least 2 trick plays. The Super Bowl is where you pull out all the stops. Anything you have been saving you bust out in the big game. We have already seen the “philly special” and the “rose bowl right parade” from these two franchises. With two of the more creative offenses battling it out, I am guessing we will see more surprises on Sunday.
3. Patrick Mahomes will score on a QB sneak. As the Kelce brothers always say, the QB sneak works 92% of the time which is a made up statistic but sounds about right. We haven’t ran it with Pat since that dreadful day in Denver when a freak accident made Pat’s knee cap move to the side of his leg. But at some point you have to go back to it, right? Late in the 4th quarter with the ball at the 1, it is time do whatever it takes. Pat calls his own number and gets in because no one sees it coming.
4. AJ Brown scores on the longest td of the game. Brown is a matchup nightmare. He is tall like Tee Higgins but faster and stronger. Hurts throws a ball to him down the sideline that he jumps over one of our corners to get and then jogs into the end zone after the same defender falls down. It’s a 50 yard plus td.
5. Jerrick McKinnon has a day. McKinnon was on a tear the last 5 or 6 weeks of the season but has been relatively quiet in the post season. It has been the Pacheco show the last two games. But because of the rush of the Eagles they rely on McKinnon more to help block as well as sneak out of the back field for screens and dump offs. McKinnon totals over 150 yards as he stacks up 50 plus yards rushing and close to 100 yards receiving on the day.
Super Bowl 57: Chiefs vs Eagles in Arizona

No matter what happens, some trends have to get broken. Here are the list of trends that are stacked up for this game.

Team who wins the coin toss is 0-9 in the last 9 games.

Team in dark jerseys are 20-36 in the big game.

Andy Reid has never lost when these two teams play.

The MVP of the league hasn’t won the Super Bowl since 1999.

The Passing leader has never won the Super Bowl.

And I am sure there are others. At the end of the day, the best part of this game is we have two teams that are really good and probably the best two teams all season. The Eagles, including playoffs, are 16-1 this season with Hurts as the starter. The Chiefs have gone 32 straight games with either winning or losing by 4 or less. I can say for certain that that Eagles have not played anybody as good as the Chiefs. And the Chiefs only play close games so I think we are in for a treat. Also, I know that a lot of people are tired of the Chiefs but once they start playing, they are enjoyable for all to watch. The Eagles are also fun to watch. So we have two mostly likable teams playing which isn’t always the case. I think this will be great back and forth game and here is how I see it going down.

It has been a back and forth game and early in the 4th, the Eagles score a td to tie it up 24-24. The Chiefs go on a long drive that ends with the Mahomes QB sneak mentioned above with about 7 minutes to go to take the lead 31-24. On the ensuing Eagles drive, on 3rd down, Chris Jones bats down a pass to force an Eagles punt with just under 6 left on the clock. Andy Reid actually lets the Chiefs run the ball and they eat up around 4 minutes off the clock. Right after the 2 minute warning, Butker hits a 47 yarder to push the lead to 10. After the Eagles get a couple of first downs, they face a 4th and long. Frank Clark gets the game sealing sack to move to second all time in post season sacks. The Chiefs take a knee and Big Red gets a Gatorade bath.

Final: Chiefs 34 Eagles 24

MVP: Patrick freaking Mahomes

The only thing Pat really hasn’t done is played a great 4 quarters of football in the Super Bowl. That changes on Sunday. He throws for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns and adds on the rushing td and 30 other yards on the ground. He completes arguably the greatest QB season ever, leading the league in passing yards, breaking the all time record of most combined yards, winning MVP, winning the Super Bowl and winning Super Bowl MVP, something no one else has ever done. On Monday, Nick Wright says he is a God among men. Skip Bayless says he played alright and was the second best QB in the game. Colin Cowherd splits the difference and says you can’t argue anymore, Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league.

We will see if I am right come Sunday! Go Chiefs!
Top 10 Reasons the Chiefs will win on Super Bowl

February 9th, 2023

Yesterday we gave you 10 reasons why the Eagles will win. Today we flip the script and tell you the top 10 reasons the Chiefs will win.

10. Andy Reid doesn’t lose to either of these teams.

When Andy was with the Eagles, he went 3-0 against the Chiefs. Now that he is with the Chiefs, he has gone 3-0 against the Eagles. He simply can’t lose when these teams play each other.

9. The Chiefs are wearing White.

The team that wears white is 36-20 in the big game. Oddly, the Chiefs haven’t worn white since Super Bowl I which we didn’t win but we don’t need to talk about that.

8. Andy Reid wins every other super bowl.

This is just logic right here. He is 1-2 in the big game but won the middle one, meaning obviously he is due to win this one. It’s in the bag.

7. I’ll be drinking Kansas City beer…with my sister…who is also from Kansas City…who I just drank Kansas City beer with a few weeks ago…in Kansas City.

Although, my sis and I are from KC originally we both live in Colorado now. She lives in the mountains and I live in the burbs. One of my favorite beer companies is Boulevard Brewing Company but it is pretty difficult to find out here. MLK weekend, Ruth (my sister) and I drove across Kansas to hang with my parents and our brother. After the parents left we hit up the Blvd. Brewing Co facilities and had some delicious drinks. I picked up some beer to take home. I’ve only had a couple and have been saving them for the big game. Little does Ruth know, one of the ones I bought because I know it is her go to drink. There will be some KC Pils in the fridge when you arrive, sis. Anyway…KC Beer in foreign territory means a KC victory.

6. Is Hurts hurt?

There has been a lot of talk about Pat and his ankle. But very rarely is anyone mentioning Hurts and his injured shoulder. Sure it hasn’t stopped him from running and the last couple of weeks rest should help. But is he completely healthy. I’m not so sure. He hasn’t looked the same since coming back. If he doesn’t have his A game, the Eagles could be in trouble.

5. I told my brother we were going to win it before the season started.

I’d prove it with the actual text message but my bro and I text almost daily and that was a long time ago and I don’t have time to scroll that much. There is probably an easy way to find it but I am not that tech savvy. Anyway, we were talking about losing Tyreek and having so many young guys, and we might not be as good, etc., etc. And I said I think they might just win the thing. I thought Pat would be more focused and driven and that Andy and Pat were out to prove they don’t need Tyreek. And boy did they prove it. I think the last couple of years Pat got bored and would just sort of chuck it towards Tyreek instead of going through his reads. Without Tyreek, Pat had to work harder. And it worked. Here we are.

4. The Chiefs are listening

Some teams pretend to block out the noise. The Chiefs embrace it. They heard the world when people said they wouldn’t win the division and might not even make the playoffs. They heard when everyone said Burrow and the Bengals were better and now they are hearing how good the Eagles defense is and how good Hurts and all the weapons are and that the Eagles have the best offensive line. Most of the talking heads are picking the Eagles. Most of the bets are going towards the Eagles. The Eagles are favored in Vegas. The Chiefs hear it all. When the Chiefs are listening they are at their best.

3. Mahomes to Kelce connection

Did you know that Kelce is pretty much second in every post season receiving category? He is only behind Jerry Rice the greatest receiver of all time. The Mahomes to Kelce connection is one of the greatest ever. It’s like they are in each other’s heads. I don’t know if I have ever seen anything like it. The best example of this was in the playoff game against the Texans a few years back. NFL films caught this dialogue of the two of them on the sideline discussing a big pass play that happened on the last drive.

Kelce: How did you know to throw it there?

Mahomes: I knew that was where you were going to go.

Kelce: How did you know that? I didn’t even know I was going to go that way until after you threw it!

Mahomes: Well that is the way I wanted you to go. So I threw it there.

And then they both laughed. This is their relationship. It is special. It is once in a lifetime special. It will make a difference on Sunday.

2. Speaking of Mahomes…He’s real good.

Mahomes is amazing. People try to find ways to criticize him but lets be honest, he is incredible. In 5 years as a starter he has won 80% of his games (64-16). He has thrown for over 5,000 yards twice. He is 27-3 in the division. He has never lost a road division game. He is about to win his second MVP. He has never not hosted the AFC Championship game. He hasn’t lost a playoff game in regulation. He has gone to to 3 super bowls. He is 10-3 in the post season. He set the record for most total yards in a season…the year after losing Tyreek. And while everyone who hates him will say he is cocky and arrogant he is actually pretty humble. He is always talking about the team and how great Andy is and how he can’t do anything without the guys up front, etc. Also, as opposed to Kevin McCallister of the Bengals, he has a respect of the history of the game and honors those who came before him. He talks about how great Brady, Manning and others are and even calls both Tom and Peyton for advice. Not to mention he is tough. Dude plays through everything. My foot sort of hurts so I haven’t gone on a walk in a month. Pat has a high ankle sprain and just plays through. During the opening night ceremony, he was talking about how it takes a team and how they don’t worry about proving everyone else wrong but instead try to prove themselves right. As a team they go out and believe in themselves and try to live up to the standard they have for one another. Danielle was watching with me and said, “That right there is why he is so good. Well, that and genetics. I am pretty sure genetics has a pretty big role.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

1.We started in Arizona and we will finish in Arizona

When the schedule came out and I saw that we started in Arizona and that the Super Bowl was in Arizona…I thought that would be pretty dang cool to finish where we started. Also, after back to back years of a team getting to play the Super Bowl on their home field, we knew it wouldn’t be a 3rd because no way were the Cardinals making it. Many were skeptical. But in the first game we put on a show. Will it be another offensive display by Pat and the gang? Will we win our last game of the year at the same stadium that we won our first game of the year? We find out in a few days. But it would be a fitting end to a wonderful season.

While there are 10 good reasons for both teams to win, it will apparently all be decided with the coin toss. The last 9 teams that have won the coin toss have lost the game. I guess tails does fail sometimes.

Tune in tomorrow for the 5 for Friday which will include 5 bold predictions for the game followed by my final pick of the season.
Top 10 Reasons the Eagles will win the Super Bowl

February 8th, 2023

I think this is going to be a great game between two great teams. I’ll give you my prediction on Friday but here are 10 reasons the Eagles can win on Sunday.

10. Big Brothers Beat Little Brothers

I know from experience. My Grandpa used to always tell my older brother, Justin, to not pick on me too much because eventually I would grow bigger than him and kick his butt because that is what happened to him and his older brother. Well, I am still waiting. Maybe when I am 83 and Justin is 90 he will have shrunk down to my size but he currently has 5 to 6 inches on me. Sure I beat him in a few things. I was first to get married. I was first to move out of Missouri. I was first to stop tight rolling my jeans. (He hung on to that trend a little too long). But when it came to sports I always lost. Granted he was 6 and half years older than me and half a foot taller but you’d think I’d eventually beat him in something. Anyway, the Kelce bros are playing and the older brother usually wins so this gives the Eagles an advantage. Ironically, Travis and the Chiefs are 3-0 against him. That means the older brother is definitely due.

9. Beards are better than mustaches

I have seemed to notice that their is a mustache trend right now. I think this is based upon younger men not being able to grow a beard so they are trying to make the mustache cool. Hey, I get it, I did the same thing in 7th grade. But spoiler alert…it’s still not cool. And it is borderline creepy. I remember talking to my friend Dave when I was in college about mustaches. I was like some guys can pull them off. He said no they can’t. I said what about this guy or that guy (names being withheld to protect the guilty mustache owners). Nope and nope he said. He said it always looks creepy. I can’t say I disagree. Now I will say, if anyone can rock the mustache it is big red and I am not going to tell him he can’t. But Sirianni is rocking the full beard which is the far superior facial hair look, so advantage Eagles. Although Sirianni does have sort of the Matthew Fox from lost look that appears more like he just forgot to shave this week as opposed to having a full beard but it still counts.

8. The guy who has won MVP hasn’t won the Super Bowl since 1999.

Mahomes is likely to win his second MVP. In the last twenty plus years, no MVP winner has won the Super Bowl. A lot of them haven’t even made it to the big game and when they do they are 0-9. Not great odds for Pat. The last guy to win MVP and a Super Bowl was former grocery stocker, Kurt Warner.

7. Jalen Hurts is 14-1 as a starter this year

With Hurts under center, the Eagles have been near unstoppable. Hurts has been excellent as a double threat guy and has made this team very hard to beat as long as he is starting.

6. They have the better overall roster

Top to bottom, the Eagles have the better squad. They have better receivers. They have better running backs. They probably have a better O line and definitely have better tackles. They have a better defensive front. They have the better secondary. Some would argue their linebackers are better. Basically the Chiefs win at QB and TE. And Hurts and Goedert are no slouches at their positions.

5. Mahomes led the league in passing

You think that would be a good thing for the Chiefs, right? Did you know that no one that has led the league in passing yards has ever won the Super Bowl? Well, now you do. Mahomes greatness may lead to his demise. So just like winning the MVP, this could come back to haunt him.

4. Head Coaches going against their former teams are 1-4

Only Jon Gruden got the win against his former team, the Raiders after inheriting an incredible roster that just couldn’t get over the hump in Tampa. He beat his old team the Raiders that he couldn’t quite get to the big game. Everyone else has lost these match ups. As we all know, Big Red will be going against his former team. Can he break the trend?

3. Andy Reid forgets to run the ball

This has been less of an issue this year, but we all know Andy hates to run. Sometimes in these bigger games he abandons it all together. And with Pat at QB, I don’t blame him. But with this pass rush, the Chiefs need to be more balanced. If they go full pass mode, it could be a problem.

2. Carl freaking Cheffers

The Chiefs have actually won a lot of games when he is the ref, but man have they been stressful. I am no conspiracy guy, nor do I think the league is rigged. But I do think Cheffers and his squad love to throw flags on the Chiefs. We tend to get a bunch of them. I am guessing the Chiefs will have to over come a lot of holding calls on our tackles going up against great edge rushers and our defensive backs going up against great receivers. Neither match up bodes well with Cheffers running the show.

1. The Eagles are birds, playing in a bird stadium

Arizona is home to the Cardinals where the game is being played. What team is most like the Cardinals…well the Eagles of course. So they will be more at home with all the bird logo floating around. It will be like playing at home which will give the Eagles a flying chance (see what I did there?).

Tune in tomorrow to see the top 10 reasons why the Chiefs will win on Sunday.
10 Best Super Bowls of my Lifetime

February 7th, 2023

I have watched a lot of Super Bowls in my life. Yesterday, I did my 10 least favorite. Today, we get my 10 favorites.

10. Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers 27 Cardinals 23

I am no Steelers fan but this was a great game. This is the only time the Cards have made the big game. Towards the end of the half, the Cards were down 10-7 and driving. They got all the way to the goal line when James Harrison intercepted Kurt Warner and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown in one of the more incredible super bowl plays of all time. Down 20-7 going into the 4th, the Cards scored 16 unanswered to take the lead with 2 and half minutes to go. Big Ben drove the Steelers down the field and Santonio Holmes made an amazing catch for the win. Holmes won MVP and then we never heard from him again.

9. XLVII Ravens 34 49ers 31

This game had it all. Two great teams. Lots of points scored. Two brothers coaching against each other. Electrical issues that made the lights go out. You name it, this game had it. It was all Ravens early on led by Joe Flacco and his one good season that led him to become super rich. But then the blackout hit. Maybe Jim Harbaugh unplugged something because after the blackout the 49ers team was a different team and came storming back. They were down 34-29 late in the game and drove all the way to the 7 yard line only to be denied. The Ravens won and big bro beat little bro. Flacco got paid and then was average for another decade or so.

8. Super Bowl: 49ers 20 Bengals 16

This was the game I realized how awesome football is. I sort of liked Boomer Esiason because he was left handed like me. They had some other entertaining players like Icky Woods who did the Icky shuffle when he scored. But they were going up against greatness. Down 16-13 with 3 minutes to go, the 49ers had the ball on their own 8 yard line. Joe Montana had the famous line as he looked into the crowd and said, “hey there’s John Candy.” He then led the team down for the winning drive with a touchdown pass to John Taylor. I remember watching and thinking this is awesome. football is awesome!

7. Super Bowl L: Broncos 24 Panthers 10

I don’t like the Broncos. I never really liked Peyton Manning as a player. This wasn’t a super entertaining game. So why is it on the list? Well, as you know, my wife is a diehard Broncos fan. First of all, I respect her fandom. She is super loyal win or lose and it has been a lot of losing lately. We were watching the game and she kept getting closer to closer to the tv. By the end she was sitting right in front of the tv on the ground, hitting the floor in excitement. She was super happy and even though I am no Broncos fan, it makes the list because I like my wife being happy. On a side note, that Broncos defense was exceptional.

6. Super Bowl XXXVI: Patriots 20 Rams 17

The Patriots were underdogs to the Rams as the Patriots snuck into the playoffs behind the leadership of some guy named Tom Brady. The greatest show on turf was very popular and everyone was cheering for them. So I of course cheered against them because that is how I roll. Plus the Rams were from St. Louis, and if I have not made it clear before, the only thing I like about St. Louis is the zoo. It was a battle right from the start. Belichick had an incredible defensive game plan and slowed down the Rams explosive offense. Brady did enough and drove them down the field in a tie game. Adam Vinatieri made the game winner and a legend was born. Also Tom Brady became the full time starter from there and had a pretty good career, himself.

5. Super Bowl XXXVIII: Patriots 32 Panthers 29

Look there is a lot of Tom Brady on these lists because the dude made a lot of super bowls. I mean he has played in roughly 25% of the super bowls I watched so of course he is going to be on the list some. Anyway, this game got off to a slow start with a scoreless 1st quarter. Things picked up in the second quarter with both teams scoring twice and the Patriots up 14-10 at halftime. The 3rd quarter was scoreless as well but ended with the Patriots driving. The Pats quickly scored to take a 21-10 lead. Then things got real interesting. Jake Delhomme who is now residing in the “where are they now” files, played the quarter of his life. They went down and scored but missed the 2 pointer but cut the lead to 21-16. The Patriots drove down to the red zone but then Tom Brady threw a pick. On 3rd and 15, Delhomme hit Mushin Muhammad for an 85 yard touchdown. The Panthers took the lead 22-21. Brady answered by throwing a touchdown to a linebacker named Mike Vrabel, you might have heard of him. They scored the 2 pt conversion and took a 29-22 lead. Carolina again answered and scored the tying td with just over a minute left. Unfortunately for the Panthers, their kicker kicked the kick off out of bounds giving Brady the ball at the 40. He drove down and much like last time, Vinatieri kicked the game winner.

4. Super Bowl XXV: Giants 20 Bills 19

This game kicked off with Whitney Houston belting out the Star Spangled Banner in an emotional time as we were in the middle of the gulf war. The Bills arriving in the first of four straight super bowls were heavy favorites because of their high scoring offense. They had put up 51 in their conference championship win over the Raiders. Meanwhile, the Giants were without Phil Simms and some dude named Jeff Hostetler had led them to victory over the 49ers without scoring a td. The main thing I remember about Hostetler was that awesome mustache. It was a game of contradictory styles. The Bills had fast no huddle drives. Meanwhile, the Giants tried to eat up as much clock as possible. The Giants also had some guy named Bill Belichick as their defensive coordinator. The Giants ate up a ton of clock on every possession. They limited the Bills to only 19 points. The Giants had a 9 and half minute drive in the 3rd quarter. Then after the Bills scored in a minute and half to take a 19-17 lead, they ate up another 7 and half minutes and Matt Bahr kicked a 21 yard field goal. The Bills had enough time to answer. They drove down and set up a 47 yarder. I remember the specific distance because my brother set a high school record at our school from this exact distance that season. A little different scenario here…not that the Platte County football field didn’t have it’s challenges at the time. Anyway, poor Scott Norwood hit it wide right and the Bills lost. This would be and still is the closest the Bills have ever gotten to winning the Super Bowl. As Donald Trump would say, “Sad.”

3. Super Bowl LI: Patriots 34 Falcons 28

This is the only Super Bowl to go to over time, so it has to be included. It was a game of two halves with the Falcons dominating the first half and leading 21-3. My wife was super excited because Lady Gaga was doing the halftime show. I am sure she was wearing some pieces of meat or something weird. The Falcons continued to dominate as they scored again to take a 28-3 lead. At the time it seemed like the game was over, instead of creating a meme that we now see constantly. Brady led them down for their first td but then they missed the extra point and were down 28-9. The Patriots then kicked a fg, scored a td and got a 2 pt conversion to pull within 8. Down 28-20, the got the ball back with 3 minutes to go. Brady started to move them down the field. Edelman made some crazy catch and the Patriots eventually scored and got the 2 pointer and the game went to OT. The Pats won the coin toss and drove down and scored. I don’t remember any outrage about over time rules. I guess that only happens if the Chiefs win in OT. Anyway, this was the largest lead ever given up in the Super Bowl. Matt Ryan is good at giving up leads as he proved this year as well.

2. Super Bowl LII: Eagles 41 Patriots 33

I know, I know another Tom Brady super bowl. But like I said, he is in 25% of the super bowls I have watched. Also, besides the super bowl against the Chiefs, they have all been very close. This was no different. Just like we all expected, Nick Foles outdueled Tom in this high scoring fun game. This game got off to a fast start and didn’t slow down. The Eagles jumped out early to a 15-3 lead. But the Pats came back and it was quickly 15-12. Then the Eagles ran the Philly special where tight end Trey Burton threw a td pass to Nick Foles. It was 22-12 at halftime. The Patriots had been behind before, including the year before when they were down 25 late in the 3rd quarter. But Foles would not be denied. He answered every Patriots td with one of their own. Down 33-32, He led them on back to back scoring drives to take the lead 41-33 with a minute left. Usually that is enough time for Brady but this one wasn’t meant to be. The Eagles won and Brady lost for the first time in the big game against someone other than the Giants. Also, this is when my daughter conveniently became an Eagles fan. She will be rocking her Eagles t-shirt on Sunday. We will be baking cookies on Saturday and decorating them in Eagles and Chiefs colors. Hey, at least she is excited to watch the game for a change. She did tell me I wasn’t allowed to use bad words or hit the table again. I told her, I save all my bad words and punching things just for the Bengals.

1. Super Bowl LIV: Chiefs 31 49ers 20

Oh the joys of winning. I had sort of a crappy year going into this season so I was more emotionally invested in this team than normal which says a lot. We had lost in OT to the Pats the year before. At one point Mahomes knee cap was on the side of his leg. They had a bunch of new guys on D and it took them a while to come together. They battled through it all and finished on a nice winning streak. They got to the playoffs and quickly went down 24-0 against the Texans. Then they miraculously came storming back in one of the weirdest halves of football ever and were up 28-24. They went on to win 51-31. The next week the Titans came to town and again were down by double digits. Mahomes had one of his greatest runs ever down the sideline and then cut back in and rumbled into the end zone. This is win I knew we were going to the first Super Bowl of my life time. The big game was more of the same. Down 20-10 mid 4th quarter things were not looking good. Mahomes had not played well. He had just thrown short to Hill and the play was being reviewed and was overturned. While they were reviewing, he said the famous line, do we have time to run wasp. They did, barely. Mahomes heaved it down the field to an open Tyreek. A few plays later he would hit Kelce for a td to pull within 3. The D got a stop and Mahomes led them down again. This time a big pass to Sammy Watkins followed by a td pass to Damien Williams. Then the D got another stop. Before Wasp Savannah had hopped into Danielle’s lap and she wouldn’t let her go because at that point everything started going the Chiefs way. We handed off to Williams and he broke it for a big td win that sealed the deal. It ended with an interception by Kendall Fuller and the rest is history. I ran around my house yelling. My whole family, even Danielle was cheering. It was a special moment. Right before the game started my brother asked me what my prediction was. I said 31-20 Chiefs. With 7 and half minutes to go, that seemed very unlikely. But 7 and half minutes later, the dream had become reality. I know this won’t go down as one of the greatest super bowls of all time but it will be the one I always remember the most because of the win and the special time with my family. And isn’t that what sports are all about? The memories with people you care about? And also…the winning.

Tune in tomorrow for 10 reasons the Eagles will win the Super Bowl. Followed by 10 reasons the Chiefs will win the Super Bowl on Thursday and a special Super Bowl Edition of 5 for Friday.