In today's podcast:

(00:52-11:40) The Cincinnati Bengals shocked the world and defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime in th AFC Championship Game. John discusses the reasons why the Kansas City Chiefs lost at home to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game, and he discusses the Chiefs' play calling at the end of the first half, Patrick Mahomes' performance in the second half of the game, their inability to finish plays in the 4th quarter on defense, and that the season cannot be declared a success and with Mahomes' record contract extension kicking in next year, meaning a big hit on the salary cap, why the Chiefs will be making really difficult choices over the next three months. Plus, how did Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo figure out how to stop the Chiefs offense, and why the Bengals played like they had nothing to lose on their way to the Super Bowl, with a second year QB in Joe Burrow?

(11:40-18:25) The Los Angeles Rams are going to their second Super Bowl in four years following a 20-17 win over their NFC West division rival San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. So how did the Rams pull it out? How important was head coach Sean McVay's input in the Rams' game plan? Plus, how about the performances by quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham, Jr., with general manager Les Snead's fingerprints all over this roster? And the defense stepping up when it mattered the most in the 4th quarter? And flip side, what about how Deebo Samuel's injury changed everything in the game, and Jimmy Garoppolo's inability to get the job done in a big game for the 49ers and if Garoppolo's time with the 49ers is over? And the lack of discipline and poorly timed illegal procedure penalties on the 49ers?

(19:03-42:04) John goes around the NFL to talk about the recent head coaching hires around the NFL, with the Denver Broncos choosing Nathaniel Hackett to be their next coach, the Bears hiring Matt Eberflus, the Giants bringing in Brian Daboll, and the Raiders hiring Josh McDaniels as head coach and Dave Ziegler as next general manager? Plus, where should Jim Harbaugh go to coach next year if not Michigan, and what to make of the Jaguars, Texans, Dolphins, Saints, and Vikings head coaching searches? Plus, Ben Roethlisberger announced his retirement and rumblings around the NFL suggest Tom Brady will do so as well. 

In today's podcast:

(00:57-23:06) John discusses the latest breaking news surrounding the NFL this week, including the shocking departure of Sean Payton, who stepped down as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday to focus on other ambitions, but is his NFL coaching career over. The New York Giants, Chicago Bears, and Minnesota Vikings all made decisions on their general managers over the last seven days. The Giants selected Buffalo Bills assistant GM Joe Schoen, the Bears hired Kansas City Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles, while the Vikings made an ambitious call with hiring Cleveland Browns Vice President of Football Operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. What does John think of the hires? Now that leaves the Las Vegas Raiders to choose their next general manager, and they can go at whatever pace they want and need to. Then, John goes over who should be the next head coaches of the nine teams that need successors at the position.

(23:45-34:39) Then, John picks the AFC and NFC Championship Game winners, and we have two games with rematches of thrillers at the end of the regular season. The AFC Championship Game has the Cincinnati Bengals travelling to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. The Chiefs are looking to go to the Super Bowl for the third year in a row representing the AFC. Meanwhile, the NFC Championship Game features two historic division rivals from the NFC West, as the Los Angels Rams play host to the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers won both matchups in the regular season, including a win in Week 18 to bring the team back to the playoffs, so will Sean McVay and the Rams take down Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers this time?

(01:11 – 46:39) John goes over what happened in the greatest Divisional Weekend in NFL history, with four amazing games, four instant classics. So what should people make of Ryan Tannehill’s performance in the Tennessee Titans’ 19-16 home loss against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, and who should get the most credit for Cincinnati’s first road playoff win in franchise history? Also, is it over for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers after their latest playoff failure? John goes over why the Packers lost 13-10 at home to the San Francisco 49ers and whether or not Aaron Rodgers will play for a different team next year, and how the 49ers should feel about their confidence going into the NFC Championship Game next week. The Rams collected a road playoff victory, as they survived a huge scare, overcoming blowing a 27-3 lead to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before winning at the final buzzer to win 30-27 in Tampa. So was that Tom Brady’s last game ever? And how did that game stack with games in NFL history? Then, finally, the epic showdown between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, in which Kansas City yanked out a 42-36 overtime win over the Bills in thrilling fashion, and John says Chiefs fans and football fans should never take for granted the greatness of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, while Bills fans might never recover from one of the most devastating losses a team could possibly suffer, and why it might take a while with impending coaching departures.

(47:38-55:48) John discusses what fans of college basketball should take away from the latest rankings, in which five Big East teams are in the top 25, while Auburn takes the top spot for the first time in program history following a strong 80-71 win over Kentucky. Meanwhile, the Baseball Hall of Fame will unveil its 2022 class in an announcement tomorrow night, so what will the fates of David Ortiz, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens be? And how are the controversial labor negotiations going between the players and owners? Is there any real sign of hope that the 2022 MLB season will be played?

(55:50-1:03:12) We are at the midway point of the 2021-22 NHL season, so who are the five best teams in the NHL, and what teams have best distinguished themselves over the last six weeks?

(1:03:13-1:08:22) With more than half of the NBA season done, who are the five most valuable players in the NBA through the first three months of the season? Is Denver Nuggets’ star Nikola Jokic really in the MVP discussion? What about Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, or Giannis Antetokounmpo? John outlines his top five list for NBA MVP.

In today’s podcast:

(01:04 – 17:25) John goes over a few news stories from the NFL this past week. The Arizona Cardinals’ lost 34-11 to the Los Angeles Rams in the Monday Night NFC Wild Card Game and why their performance can date back to last year, where they missed the playoffs by one game and, therefore, lacked the requisite experience to handle pressure situations. The Las Vegas Raiders fired general manager Mike Mayock during the week, and John explains why they had to happen, and what should they do with interim coach Rich Bisaccia? The Seattle Seahawks parted ways with defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. this week, but John argues why there is a bigger picture problem with the franchise than just changing coordinators.

(17:25 – 30:18) When John went over his NFL previews before the season, he noted that four top quarterbacks, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady, were the reasons why their teams were going to compete, and to no surprise are playing in the divisional playoffs this weekend, which features an historic matchup between Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, while Aaron Rodgers will try to reverse previous playoff losses vs. the San Francisco 49ers, and Tom Brady will try to beat back the Rams, a team he’s lost to each of his two previous times during the regular season.

(30:56 – 56:03) Alex Wilson from the Empire Sports Media brand joins the podcast today to discuss the state of the New York Giants, a franchise in a crossroads, and what the plan should be going forward, with how the Giants should approach the final stages of their general manager search, what type of head coach might the new GM want, how the team should approach the next NFL draft, where the Giants have five selections in the first 79 picks, and seven of the first 120, what to make of touted QB prospect Malik Willis from Liberty University, and how this relates to the team’s future handlings of Daniel Jones and salary cap situations. He also discusses why his New York Knicks are struggling, and dipped back below .500 with their 112-110 loss at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday, and what the Yankees should address the most once the current MLB lockout ends.

(56:03 – 1:03:42) Then, John makes his picks for the four playoff games this weekend in the NFL. Will the Titans make their second AFC Championship Game in three years? Can the 49ers shock the world again and defeat the top seeded Packers at Lambeau Field? Can Matthew Stafford pick up his first road playoff victory against the defending champions in Tampa? And who will win the Allen-Mahomes matchup at Arrowhead?

In today's podcast:

John discusses why the Dallas Cowboys wasted a prime opportunity to win playoff games this year and why they lost to the San Francisco 49ers, the in-game and clock management and what led them down a path of endless annual disappointment, and if the Cowboys should make a head coaching change following the season (02:41 - 17:04), as well as other developments across the NFL during the games this weekend, like the Bengals' first playoff win in 31 years and a Bills-Chiefs rematch now set for Divisional Sunday (17:04 - 29:04).

We have hit the midway point of the NBA regular season, and there is an unclear picture in the Eastern Conference with 11 teams separated by less than seven games at the top, while the Golden State Warriors have struggled without Draymond Green on the floor and the Nets have new injury issues (29:44 - 35:49). Meanwhile, a topsy turvy season atop the college basketball rankings continues as defending champion Baylor has lost two games in a row at home to Texas Tech and Oklahoma, while Purdue and Wisconsin continue to flex their muscles in the Big Ten and Auburn, now No. 2 in the rankings, will now be battle tested again when they host John Calipari's Kentucky squad on national TV this week (35:50 - 41:19). 

Plus, what should people think of the situation with Novak Djokovic not playing in the Australian Open because of his COVID vaccination status and comments an NBA owner made recently about the Uyghur Muslim genocide taking place in China?

In today's Hooked on Sports podcast:

John goes into depth on why the perception of the New York Giants should change now that the Giants fired head coach Joe Judge and compiled a lengthy and strong list of general manager candidates (03:18 - 11:59), and why George McCaskey's press conference earlier this week is proof that the Chicago Bears will produce more of the same mediocrity they've had for years and that there is no hope as long as Ted Phillips and Bill Polian are calling the shots for the Bears as they hire their fourth new head coach in a decade (12:00 - 19:07). Plus, he talks into why the Houston Texans fired David Culley and why the Miami Dolphins' head coaching gig is one of the least attractive of the seven or eight vacancies around the NFL (19:10 - 25:02).

Then, George Whitbread joins the show today to make picks and predictions for Super Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, and what two games do George and John disagree on in outright winners and which wild card teams can yank out a road victory (25:40 - 50:55).

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In today's podcast:

John discusses the wild and wacky sequence of events in Week 18 in the NFL, including the unprecedented nature of the Chargers-Raiders game and how it lived up to the hype, how everything broke the Steelers way the last six weeks to get into the playoffs as the seventh seed in the AFC playoffs, and the Colts shocking loss to the Jaguars to end the season, as well as the 49ers comeback victory vs. the Rams to make the playoffs on the NFC side.

Then, he gets into the breaking news of head coaching and general manager dismissals, including both the Bears and Vikings firing their general managers and head coaches, the Giants letting Dave Gettleman retire, and the Broncos firing head coach Vic Fangio, and in other sports, his pick for the college football national title game between Georgia and Alabama, Klay Thompson's much-anticipated return to the court after three years away due to injuries, and the return of Kyrie Irving to the floor.

In today's podcast,

John exposes the hypocrisy behind Hub Arkush's comments about Aaron Rodgers not getting his vote for MVP because of outside circumstances and why they are irrelevant to the case against him, what the Pittsburgh Steelers should do to fix their roster after Ben Roethlisberger retires, and with reports about Jim Harbaugh potentially being tempted to return to the NFL, which head coaching vacancies best fit the bill for Harbaugh to be successful in the pros?

Then, John goes over the many playoff scenarios and implications ahead of this weekend's action and picks every game against the spread for Week 18 in the NFL.

In today's Hooked on Sports Podcast:

John goes over some of the highlights and big stories that came out of some of the college football FBS bowl games over the weekend, including a controversial take about players opting out of non-CFP bowl games and how that relates to their actual lives and love of the game, and why it should be no surprise that Alabama is once again in the national title game.

Also, John will discuss four key stories from the NFL on Sunday that should be discussed further, including the Antonio Brown saga, what might potentially hold the Dallas Cowboys back from winning a Super Bowl, the job status of Giants head coach Joe Judge, and the Cincinnati Bengals winning the AFC North with an astounding 34-31 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

In today's Hooked on Sports special!!

We have several topics of concern as we round out 2021, many of it predictions based as the calendar turns to 2022.

1) RIP John Madden (01:47-07:24)

2) NFL Awards Leaders with two weeks left in the regular season (07:27-19:31)

3) Week 17 NFL Picks & Predictions Against the Spread (19:33-37:55)

4) New Year's Six and College Football Playoff Bowl Game picks (37:57-41:28)

5) Headline Predictions for 2022 (41:28-46:07)

6) Predictions for Clayton Echard's season of The Bachelor (names to watch, final four, who will get Clayton's final rose) (46:08-1:01:15)