National Football League

At some point last Thursday morning, we realized that one of our two cats had gone missing. If you’re a pet owner, you likely know this feeling – or you can imagine it. You’re basically frantically searching through every deck and garage in your neighborhood while running a social media campaign worthy of the drop of a new Taylor Swift single. And before I bury the lead, yes, we did find George the cat, ending up 48 hours later hiding in the springs of a couch we had put in our garage. But in that run, what you realize is there are lots and lots of people, most who you’ve never met, who care deeply about your pet and hoping your find him. In other words, despite the perception of a highly divided and angry public, we all can coalesce around our collective love of cats.

So in case you haven’t noticed, which is pretty much impossible, it’s been pretty cold around the US the past week or so. Like arctic cold, the kind of cold where TV news runs stories about how quickly a bottle of water freezes kind of cold. There were a lot of cities that had a minus sign in front of the temperature, and that’s in Fahrenheit. Which is worse. So, it goes without saying, this past weekend was not the best to hold outdoor sporting events unless they involved a dog sled.

Fresh off of thrilling 2023 Super Bowl win for the Kansas City Chiefs, Sports Journalists and Authors Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd have written the new book: "Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback."

One of the greatest advantages in all of sports is playing on your home field or court. It’s why they call it home field advantage. There’s a lot that goes into that. Fans would have you believe they’re the difference, harassing the opposing team while lifting the home favorites. But there’s much more than that. You’re playing in a familiar space, no travel, and you can sleep in your own bed the night before. It’s familiar food and driving yourself instead of team charters. It’s a long list, which is why the home team always has a slight edge over the same game on a neutral field.

At this point, most of America has now heard of Damar Hamlin, the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety who prior to Monday night was fairly anonymous outside of truly passionate NFL fans. That’s because during the first quarter of the Bills’ Monday night game against Cincinnati, Hamlin collapsed on the field after a tackle and was given CPR by medical professionals after going into cardiac arrest.

Like most people, I get a series of push messages on my phone throughout the course of the day, a mix of stories from the NY Times and CNN and some other places where I somehow opted into messaging and can’t figure out how to turn it off. Most of these barely register, even though 90% are headlined BREAKING NEWS in all caps. But yesterday afternoon, a headline from ESPN made me take pause, enough that I felt compelled to read it to the other two people on a Zoom call.

Even without an extensive knowledge of the history of professional football, it would not be an overreach to call last weekend the greatest in the history of the NFL playoffs. That’s because all four of the divisional round playoff games were decided on their final play.

Baseball's World Series is underway, the Major League Soccer season is nearing the finish line and heading for the playoffs. College and pro football seasons are rolling and so is basketball, hockey and others. This is a great time to convene one of our semi-regular sports Vox Pops. Call in and join the chat. 800-348-2551.

The quick and decisive story of Jon Gruden’s downfall is as remarkable in its unintended origin as its expedience. The now former NFL head coach was not the intended target of an ongoing investigation of abusive workday practices in the Washington Football Team’s operations. That was supposed to be Washington owner Dan Snyder and his senior leaders, including former team president Bruce Allen, a process that resulted in a $10 million fine and a whole lot of workplace sensitivity training. But the real loser in this exposition was Gruden when it was revealed that he had written a series of emails with misogynistic, homophobic, and racist content to Allen over the course of several years.

On a positive note for the Jacksonville Jaguars, they finally have something to distract fans from their awful 0-4 start to this football season, which, if you’re keeping score, marks 19 straight losses for the franchise.