If you live along the I(ce)-20 corridor from Dallas eastward through northern Louisiana into central Mississippi, you are fortunate to have electricity today (Monday, January 26).

Some locations received a few inches of sleet and snow for the kids to play in.  Unfortunately, it was a layer of freezing rain which added another 1/2” or more of ice onto trees and power lines across the region on Saturday and Sunday.

Several of the region’s electricity providers have power outage maps which are redder than Santa’s suit.

Hundreds of thousands remain without power today.  Temperatures across the region are not expected to budge above freezing until Tuesday afternoon.

Let’s try to warm things up today with a review of several interesting sports stories from this weekend which you may have missed.

AFC Championship Game – New England Patriots 10, Denver Broncos 7

If you like snow, the second half of Sunday’s AFC title game in Denver was definitely the game for you!

A 1 PM local kickoff started under sunny skies in the Mile High City.  Denver (playing without injured starting quarterback Bo Nix due to a broken ankle suffered one week ago) thrilled its orange-clad fans during the first quarter.  Back-up quarterback Jared “Stiddy” Stidham sparked the home team with a couple of timely completions in taking a 7-0 opening quarter lead.

Who would have believed that seven points was all that Denver would score on Sunday afternoon?

The resilient New England Patriots tied the game at 7-7 heading into halftime after “Stiddy” fumbled the football deep in Denver territory late in the second quarter.  New England quarterback Drake “Look ma…I can run!” Maye scampered in for a game-tying touchdown.

Earlier snow flurries quickly turned into a Colorado snowstorm during the second half of this game.

New England took advantage of the wind in the third quarter and booted a short field goal to grab a 10-7 lead going into the deciding fourth quarter.

Denver’s defense provided its offense with several scoring opportunities. Alas, the Broncos failed to convert excellent field position into any points. 

Former New Orleans Saints kicker Wil Lutz missed two field goal attempts.  “Stiddy” became unsteady with his second half passing game.  He also didn’t show much of an inclination to run the football when the opportunity presented itself.

Denver finished a woeful 181 yards of total offense in the AFC title game.  New England wasn’t much better with just 206 total yards – mostly on the ground.

NFC Championship Game – Seattle Seahawks 31, Los Angeles Rams 27

Seattle came into the NFC title game with one of the league’s best defenses and the home field advantage.  The visiting Los Angeles Rams rolled into Seattle after having won two difficult road playoff games by three points each at Carolina and Chicago.

The Seattle Seahawks offense took center stage in this high scoring back-and-forth title game Sunday evening. 

Surprising quarterback Sam Darnold (who is playing for his fifth team in eight NFL seasons) sparked the Seahawks by completing 25 of 36 pass attempts for 346 yards and three touchdowns.   More importantly, Darnold did not throw an interception or lose a fumble during Sunday’s game against the Rams.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford looked sharp (as always) in keeping his team within striking distance.  He also passed for more than 300 yards with three touchdowns.

The game’s outcome was unfortunately determined by a fumbled punt return by Rams’ special team player Xavier Smith early in the third quarter.

Smith had dropped an earlier punt but quickly fell onto the ball.  On his second punt return attempt, Smith fell backwards while trying to secure the ball and fumbled deep in Rams’ territory.  The Patriots recovered and quickly took advantage.  One play later, Sam Darnold connected on a 17-yard touchdown pass to give Seattle a 24-13 lead which they would never surrender.

The NFC #1 seed Seattle will now face the AFC’s #2 seed New England Patriots in the NFL title game in two weeks on Sunday, February 8 at 5:30PM CST and televised by NBC.  This year’s game will be played in Santa Clara, California on the home field of the San Francisco 49ers.

Pittsburgh Steelers just hired…who?

Former Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy was fired one year ago by team owner Jerry Jones. McCarthy posted three winning seasons out of his five years in Dallas.  However, his Cowboys’ teams went a woeful 1-3 in the NFL playoffs despite posting three consecutive 12-5 regular seasons from 2021-2023.

Ironically, Pittsburgh Steelers’ longtime coach Mike Tomlin resigned two weeks ago after his team failed to win a playoff game for a record-tying seventh consecutive time.

Saturday afternoon brought a surprising announcement that the Steelers had hired 62-year old Mike McCarthy to become the team’s fourth head coach since the year 1969. 

Each of the previous three Steelers’ coaches (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin) have taken Pittsburgh to one or more Super Bowl victories over the past 56 seasons.

Before coming to Dallas, Mike McCarthy’s 13-year tenure in Green Bay (2006-2018) produced one Super Bowl champion at the conclusion of the 2010 season.

Those Green Bay Packers were led by young quarterback Aaron Rodgers as they took a 31-25 win over Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

A now-42 year old Aaron Rodgers became the Steelers’ quarterback last fall.  He piloted the Black and Gold to a 10-7 regular season and AFC North title.  However, the Steelers (and Aaron Rodgers in particular) were manhandled by the Houston Texans in an ugly 30-6 home playoff loss two weeks ago.

Coach Mike Tomlin resigned the following day after 19 years in Steel City.

Terrible Towel waving fans (like me) are now wondering what Steelers’ team owner Art Rooney II saw in Mike McCarthy to warrant giving him the head coaching job.

Pittsburgh’s woeful offense struggled under coach Mike Tomlin.  Mike McCarthy’s success has come on the offensive side of the football, but his teams’ defenses in Dallas had been less than stellar.

Can Mike McCarthy inject life into the Steelers’ offense while maintaining a top level defense?

Dallas Cowboys fans are having a good laugh about the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers hiring their ex-coach. 

Should Mike McCarthy succeed with the Steelers, Cowboys fans will have confirmation that the coach’s failure in Dallas was likely another case of meddling by team owner/general manager/face-of-the-franchise Jerry Jones.

Speaking of meddling, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney filed tampering charges vs. Ole Miss over a recent NIL transfer

LSU’s new football coach Lane Kiffin has been jetting around the country signing NCAA transfer portal players by the dozens. 

In South Carolina, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney has been roundly criticized for the past few years for his well-known reluctance to participate in the NCAA Transfer Portal/NIL transfer sweepstakes game.

The Clemson Tigers recently dipped into the transfer portal to lure University of California standout linebacker Luke Ferrelli with a nice NIL offer. 

Ferrelli arrived at Clemson in mid-January.  He signed a revenue-sharing contract with Clemson and was already attending classes and football team meetings last week.  

Until last Thursday, that is.

Ole Miss apparently waved significantly more money (a reported $1 million per year for two seasons) under the nose of Luke Ferrelli during the final days of the latest NCAA transfer portal period.  It was enough to convince the young man to leave Clemson immediately and report to Oxford to play for the Ole Miss Rebels beginning this fall.

Clemson is understandably fuming about this situation. 

Coach Dabo Swinney and Clemson’s legal staff plan to file tampering charges against Ole Miss.

Last Friday afternoon, Coach Swinney said, “It’s not about a linebacker at Clemson.  I don’t want anyone on our team that doesn’t want to be here.  It’s about the next kid and about the message being sent if this blatant tampering is allowed to happen without any consequences.”

He added, “This is like having an affair on your honeymoon!”

It appears that Clemson’s Dabo Swinney doesn’t want to annul the transfer linebacker’s hasty shotgun marriage to Ole Miss last week.

Coach Swinney (like most college football fans) urgently wants the NCAA to enact some common sense rules to govern the Transfer Portal and then enforce them with stiff penalties for the offending parties.

Good luck with that one, coach!  The NCAA that once struck fear into college athletics programs for wrongdoing seems to have vanished over the past decade.

You can only hope to be as successful as Mayberry’s Gomer Pyle when he made a citizen’s arrest of Deputy Barney Fife!  

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