My favorite Broadway musical has always been “The Music Man”.

The show (set in the year 1912) features the lead character, Professor Harold Hill.  This somewhat shady-but-interesting musical instrument salesman creates his own demand for his band instruments by getting the townspeople to believe that their youth are being corrupted by a local billiards parlor.  Though Professor Hill is a super salesman, he doesn’t know a thing about teaching the kids how to play music.

His goal?  Just keep finding new people to make sales and then move along to the next town.

What does this have to do with today’s topic?  Plenty.

Many local radio stations (mostly on the AM band) around the country have been converting from a traditional sports talk format into sports talk featuring a big emphasis on sports betting.  Though most of us understand that “Cincinnati is a 4-point underdog in this week’s Super Bowl”, I was a little confused to hear, “Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp is +600 to win the Super Bowl MVP”.

So, what does +600 mean?  I’ll explain later.

Way back in the early 1980’s (before children), I worked as a talk show host on weekend mornings at New Orleans radio station WSMB (1350 AM).

WSMB is a 5,000 watt AM signal which covers New Orleans and areas to the east along the Gulf Coast to Biloxi, Mississippi.  The station was eventually sold in the 1990’s to the same company (Entercom) which owns New Orleans’ clear channel 50,000 powerhouse signal WWL-870AM.

WSMB’s name was changed to WWWL-AM.  The format has morphed from Sports-Food-and Fun to All Sports-ESPN Network to R&B Blues.  As radio’s consolidation trend continues, “The Thrifty 1350” (as we jokingly referred to it back then) struggled to make a dent in the local radio ratings book ever since the 1980’s.

Last night, I learned that the radio station was now featuring a new sports-talk sports betting format.  The radio station became known as “The Bet New Orleans” last summer.

In many metropolitan areas around the United States, a quiet trend has been occurring with traditional sports talk radio stations.  Entercom (now rebranded as “Audacy”) started to convert several of its traditional sports talk stations into a new sports betting-oriented format beginning in 2021.

Jeff Sottolano, EVP for Audacy’s radio group said, “When we launched the ‘BetQL Network’ in January, 2021, we committed to giving our national audience a home for compelling sports betting content as this new landscape was rapidly growing.”

Seemingly overnight, the sports betting business has morphed from a taboo subject just a few decades ago to almost mainstream today.

What is driving this dramatic change?  Money, of course!

In May, 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled that each of America’s fifty states could decide for themselves whether to allow legal sports gambling (which had been limited to Nevada before that decision came down).  Many states already offered casino gambling (especially in Louisiana), so the familiarity of professional and college sports teams was seen as a lucrative new revenue stream which cash-starved state governments could grab a piece of, too.

Since the 2018 landmark ruling,  Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia have all entered the sports betting business and have taken at least $1 billion in sports bets.  Louisiana just joined the sports betting parade a few weeks ago in late January, 2022.

As the Cincinnati Bengals look forward to playing in their first Super Bowl game since 1988 this Sunday, the NFL franchise in Houston has been pondering its next head coach.

The Houston Texans are just completing their 20th season in the NFL.  Houston (the Texans and, before then, the “Luv’ Ya Blue” Oilers) have never played in a Super Bowl game.  That elite group of teams also includes the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Alas, that isn’t an elite list which any NFL team should want to be known for.

Two years ago in the 2019 NFL season, the Cincinnati Bengals finished the regular season with a league-worst 2-14 record.  The team’s young head coach (then 36-year old Zac Taylor) had just completed his first year with Cincinnati and many worried that the team’s issues were too big for him to handle.

That same year, the Houston Texans had just completed a 10-6 regular season and lost in the AFC Divisional round of the playoffs to the Kansas City Chiefs 51-31.

Over the past couple of years, these franchises have passed themselves like two elevators going different directions.

The Bengals improved (slightly) to 4-11-1 in 2020 and then blossomed into this year’s 10-7 team.  The “Who Dey” Bengals have reeled off three straight playoff wins to capture the AFC title and will play in this Sunday’s Super Bowl game against the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams.

Meanwhile, the Houston Texans have quite literally imploded with back-to-back losing seasons.  They posted a 4-12 record in 2020 and 4-13 in 2021’s first year of the NFL’s 17-game regular season.   After the team’s playoff loss to Kansas City two years ago, the Texans former Head Coach/General Manager Bill O’Brien shocked the NFL world by inexplicably dealing one of the AFC’s premier receivers in D’Andre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for a running back whose best playing days were likely behind him (David Johnson).

Bill O’Brien’s questionable personnel decisions after being handed the GM duties in Houston would eventually be his downfall.  When the team started the 2020 season 0-4, O’Brien was fired.

Since that time, things have only worsened for the Houston Texans.

Longtime defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel (age 72 at the time) was promoted to become the team’s head coach for the remainder of the 2020 regular season.  Though he guided the team to a 4-8 finish during his short stint with the team, Crennel was not made the team’s permanent head coach.  However, he was named as the Texans “Senior Advisor for Football Performance” (translated – he was being paid to stick around another year – just in case).

After the season, Texans long-time All-Pro defensive end J.J. Watt refused to sign a new contract with the team and joined his former teammate D’Andre Hopkins with the Arizona Cardinals.   It turned out to be a wise choice as the Cardinals made it into the NFC playoffs this season.

Meanwhile back in Houston, the team named 65-year old career NFL and college football assistant coach David Culley to become the Texans top man last season.  Culley had worked at 15 different assistant coaching positions (college and pro) during his 40+ year coaching career before being named a head coach for the first time in Houston last year.

Alas, the Texans finished 2021 with another 4-win season.

Despite the team’s poor on-field record, the undermanned Texans competed well and kept most games close.  Many expected Culley to receive another season to try and turn things around, but he was fired recently after just one first year as Houston’s head coach.

David Culley was certainly not the biggest problem for the Houston Texans last year.

The team’s All-Pro quarterback, Deshaun Watson, was kept off the field for the entire 2021 season after being named in several lawsuits.  A number of local women have alleged sexual misconduct by Watson after they were...

With the NBA’s annual trade deadline approaching on February 10, the basketball league and the fans have declared open season on speculation.

In most seasons, the NBA’s trade deadline rarely sees any kind of “blockbuster” deals where the star players from contending teams are involved in a swap.  In most cases, one or two struggling teams attempt to dump their highest-priced player’s contract in order to cut overhead and improve their chances for a better draft pick for next season.

Did anyone say “tanking”?

Of course not!  Getting rid of the team’s highest scorer for another team’s benchwarmers doesn’t necessarily mean that one team is throwing in the towel on this season, but that ploy doesn’t fool most of us.

My favorite line is, “Bad teams keep making bad deals, and good teams usually make good deals.”

Keep that in mind when you start seeing the deals start to happen around the NBA this week.   If a bottom-feeder’s star player is dealt to a contender, that franchise will promise its dwindling fan base that the draft pick(s) they received in return will be a key part of the team’s future rebuilding process.

Don’t believe them.  The deal was made to preserve money and cover annual expenses.

Let’s start with the most widely discussed player who may or may not be traded this week.  Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers is in the midst of a season-long pouting session.

His contract calls for him to be paid a whopping $30 million per year, but he is unhappy because his employer and the team’s fans want him to improve his shooting percentages from the field and the free throw line.   In 2021, he scored just 14 points but added seven assists per game.

During last year’s NBA playoffs, the 6’10” Simmons (as usual) became an unguarded man by the opposing teams because of his reluctance to shoot the basketball from outside of a few feet from the rim.  If he doesn’t have a clear path to the basket for a layup or short shot attempt, his shooting accuracy is so bad that he wouldn’t have made my high school basketball team.

Opposing teams have resorted to fouling Ben Simmons instead of letting him get a close shot near the basket.  Simmons only shoots about 60% from the free throw line (the NBA league average is about 75%), so opponents usually only surrender one point instead of allowing him to dunk the ball for an easy 2-point score.

For reasons which I simply do not understand, Ben Simmons fathoms his basketball skills to be akin to one of the NBA’s Hall-of-Fame players, Magic Johnson.

Earvin “Magic” Johnson was the tallest point guard in the NBA at 6’9” during his playing days in the 1980’s and 1990’s.  He was just as likely to whip a clever pass to a teammate as he was to shoot the ball himself.  He was a spirited team leader and made all of his teammates better players by keeping them involved in the game.

Like Ben Simmons, Magic Johnson’s shooting skills were rather weak coming into the league.

Unlike Ben Simmons, Magic Johnson quickly recognized this deficiency in his game and worked hard in the offseason to improve his outside shooting skills.  He became a reliable scorer and free throw shooter and went on to become one of the NBA’s greatest players.

After being the most sought-after high school talent in years, Ben Simmons played just one season of college basketball for talent-starved LSU.  The Tigers allowed freshman Simmons to have free reign on the court as he and the school both “used” each other for their own reasons.  “The Ben Simmons Show” at LSU allowed the player to have the ball in his hands most of the time, while thousands of curious fans showed up at LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center in hopes that Simmons would help turn around the Tigers’ basketball fortunes in the SEC.

Though Ben Simmons scored about 19 points per game during hi...

If you thought that the past two weekends of NFL football games had the closest finishes which you can ever remember, you were right!

With four divisional (semifinal) games played two weeks ago and the AFC and NFC championship games played last weekend, every single game was decided in the final seconds.

Six games with six incredibly close finishes.

If I hadn’t seen most of these football games with my own eyes, a legitimate case of eyebrow raising suspicion might be in order.

How close were the six games?  A total of just 21 points (or 3.5 points per game) was the total winning margin after all six games were played.

Let’s review the final scores from each of the playoff games over the past two weekends:

AFC Divisional/Semifinal Game 1 – Cincinnati 19, Tennessee 16 (walk-off 52-yard field goal by Cincy as time expired)

AFC Divisional/Semifinal Game 2 – Kansas City 42, Buffalo 36 (Overtime – first possession TD by Chiefs)

AFC Championship Game – Cincinnati 27, Kansas City 24 (Overtime – second possession score by Bengals)

NFC Divisional/Semifinal Game 1 – San Francisco 13, Green Bay 10 (walk-off 45-yard field goal by 49ers as time expired)

NFC Divisional/Semifinal Game 2 – Los Angeles Rams 30, Tampa Bay 27 (walk-off 30-yard field goal by Rams as time expired)

NFC Championship Game – Los Angeles Rams 20, San Francisco 17 (Rams intercept a pass with one minute left in game to preserve the win)

So, the AFC games were decided by 3+6+3 for 12 points.  The NFC games were decided by three points each for nine points.  That’s a 12 + 9 = 21 total point differential for the six games.

Let’s now see how that stacks up against other recent years.  The prior year’s 2020 NFL playoffs saw a 62-point (10.33 points per game) final score differential over the same six football games.

I researched all the way back to the year 2000 and have confirmed that the 2021 NFL playoff finales were, by far, the closest six games played since the turn of the century.

If you look back to the year 2003, you will find that the six games had a meager point differential of just 40 points (6.67 points per game).   Just two of those games in 2003 had a point differential in double digits (10 and 11).  Indeed, it was another good year for close playoff games.

The “worst” year for divisional and championship games was in 2000.  None of the six games were particularly close as victory margins ranged from a low of ten points to an incredible high of 41points as the New York Giants blanked Minnesota 41-0 in the NFC Championship game.

The average for the first 21 years of this century has been a little over 69 points for the six playoff games.  That equates to an 11 ½ point winning margin in each game.

While this year’s razor-thin margins in the NFL playoffs have been a statistical outlier, the league’s television partners are not complaining about these close games.  They are thrilled with the viewership gains!

NFL television ratings have been leaking air for a few years after the Colin Kaepernick comments turned-off millions of fans.  Ditto for the NFL’s full embrace of social justice messaging at games beginning in 2020, too.

The recent pandemic didn’t help as the 2020 NFL season featured either partially or completely empty football stadiums.  The loss of vocal fans pulling for their home team made home viewing a lot less entertaining.

This year, the NFL seems to have lessened a bit of the on-field messaging.  Due to changing guidelines, fans were allowed back in the stands once again, too.  The regular season’s weekly television ratings started to recover as well.

In January, the exciting last two weeks of NFL playoff games (with photo-finish endings) have seen television ratings recover with a significant positive bump.

Every February 2 at around 7:15 AM (Eastern Time), the attention of America’s fun-loving weather geeks temporarily turns away from Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel to get a real expert’s opinion about the next six weeks of weather.  No, not the National Weather Service, either!  They, too, tend to shy away from venturing a weather guess outside of the next two weeks.

For over a century, there has been one weather stalwart (actually, rodent) who is willing to put his reputation on the line every February 2 to predict the weather for the next six weeks.

Punxatawney Phil is this weather icon.

This special groundhog of western PA is so popular that it’s hard to find a hotel room near his town for the big event.  Despite freezing temperatures most years, this annual production has become so popular that actor Bill Murray made a movie in the early 1990’s which actually boosted the popularity of this unusual day (over and over again).

On Wednesday, February 2, 2022 – for the 136th year – Punxatawney Phil will be greeted by thousands of his groupies who have made the trek 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh up to Gobbler’s Knob.  Many of these hearty Phil Phans come to town the night before and have been known to stay-up overnight (keeping warm on adult beverages) as they await the star of the show to finally appear at the break of day.

Punxatawney Phil will be asked to give the good people a prediction of the next six weeks of winter weather.  Will it be warming up soon or should the people hunker down for another six weeks of cold winter temperatures?

Since 1886, most forecasters in America have deferred to this furry little fellow for weather guidance as soon as the sun peeks above the horizon with the morning’s first light.

Phil will be asked to awaken early and provide everyone with the answer to a simple question.

If Phil sees his shadow, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of winter and returns to his hole.  If not, spring is just around the corner.

There is even a website where you can watch this event “live” by clicking here!

This year (as always) Phil will be accompanied to the stage by the Members of the Inner Circle.  According to local legend, this mystical group of keepers is sworn to uphold the grand tradition of Groundhog Day.  Their primary job is to wake up Phil from his burrow and announce Phil’s prediction.

Incidentally, Punxatawney Phil, through the human voices of his Inner Circle, has also made a few additional proclamations in addition to his famous six-week weather forecast.   Here are just a few:

* During Prohibition, Phil reportedly threatened to impose 60 weeks of winter on the community if he wasn’t permitted a drink.

* In 1981, Phil wore a yellow ribbon in honor of the American hostages in Iran.

* In 2009, Phil came out of his burrow with a “Terrible Towel” in support of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ sixth Super Bowl win.

In 2022, I am especially hopeful that this fearless forecaster might even suggest that the last two years of this never-ending COVID plague will come to an end soon, too!

You can do it, Phil!

When Punxsutawney Phil isn’t busy forecasting the weather, he resides in his special burrow (perhaps it should be renamed the “Weather Burrow?”).  It is a terrarium built into the Punxsutawney, PA Memorial Library.  His “digs” also include clear glass walls which provide him (and you) and chance to greet each other.  Thousands of visitors stop by and say hello to Phil and his friends as they play eat and do what groundhogs do best, sleep.

You might be asking, “Just how accurate is the weather forecast by a groundhog named Phil?”

Phil and I would like to remind you,

Your Super Bowl match-up is now complete.  The #4 seeds from the AFC and NFC will square-off in two weeks for professional football’s big prize.

The AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals are already listed as a 3-point underdog for this game.  Why not?  This team relishes that role and then proudly saying “I told you so” afterwards.

The opponent will be the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams who will play in their home stadium for this contest.  Actually, this is the second straight year where the season finale is being played on the home football field of one of the two participants.

For 54 years, this oddity never happened, but we’re now two-for-two during this equally odd COVID era.

Though both of these teams are #4 seeds, the Cincinnati Bengals seem to have become American’s Underdogs during the past month.  The Rams?  Not so much.

Let’s face it.  Cincinnati (which was 2-14 two years ago and only 4-11-1 last season) was expected to be more competitive this year after second-year quarterback Joe Burrow recovered from last year’s knee surgery.  The team had a growing stable of talented pass receivers for Joe Cool to throw to this season.

For Cincinnati to win the usually-tough AFC North (with perennial contenders in Pittsburgh and Baltimore and Cleveland showing improvement in recent years), the Bengals not the betting favorites to start this season to even win their own division.

Coming into this season, the Bengals were considered the fourth least-likely team to win the Super Bowl (ahead of only Jacksonville, Detroit, and Houston).   Ouch.

Just 0.8% of the betting money was favoring Cincinnati in early September.  Meanwhile, the wagering public established the Los Angeles Rams as the seventh most likely winner (behind heavy favorites Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Buffalo, Green Bay, Baltimore, and San Francisco) attracting 6.8% of the bets to win it all.

The Rams have gone “all in” this season in an effort to get back to the Super Bowl.  The team has been leveraging their long-term future in order to make a championship run.  This past year, the team made a deal to bring Detroit quarterback Mathew Stafford to Los Angeles.  In mid-season, the Rams brought veteran Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller to fortify the defensive pass rush.

The Rams’ free agency wheeling and dealing came at the expense of several future draft picks.  The team won’t have another first round draft pick until 2024.

For this year’s Los Angeles Rams, it’s “Win now… or else!”

In researching this story, I learned that the Rams actually began playing NFL football in Cleveland in the late 1930’s.   Ironically, they won the 1945 NFL championship as the Cleveland Rams and then packed their bags and moved to LA.

From 1946 through 1994, the Los Angeles Rams had a fair amount of success on the field but won the NFL championship just one additional time (1951 – against, ironically, Cleveland’s new team called the Browns).

Beginning with the 1960’s Super Bowl era, the Rams have never won the Super Bowl while the team has been located in the Los Angeles market.

Upon moving to town in 1946, the team played football in the antiquated and cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (constructed in 1923 and a key part of the city’s hosting of the 1932 Olympic Games).  The LA Coliseum was a huge facility (over 100,000 seats) which looked empty when half filled.  The Rams ownership tried for years to get the city to partner on a newer stadium for the football team.

In 1980, the Rams NFL team opted to relocate into Anaheim’s baseball facility (built in 1966 for the Angels).  Though the Rams still struggled to sell-out home football games in the smaller 60,000 seat Anaheim Stadium, the football team’s ownership continued to plead with local governmental o...

Over the past week, two of professional golf’s brightest young stars voiced an opinion which many of us have been stating for years.

Golf is getting too easy for professional golfers.

At the season-opening Tournament of Champions event in Hawaii, world #1 Jon Rahm finished his four rounds in an amazing 33-under par.  That was an average score of 64.75 for each of his four days.  However, he would finish second as he lost by one shot to Cameron Smith (who finished at -34 for the tournament).

Last weekend at the American Express Championship played at LaQuinta, California, Jon Rahm let loose with a little frustration at the lack of difficulty in which the golf course had been set-up for the professional golfers on hand.

“I mean, we’re the PGA Tour, we’re the best golfers on the planet and we’re playing a course where missing the fairway means absolutely nothing.  There were times where missing the fairway by an inch was worse than missing the fairway by 20 yards – that to me is a mistake. We played a lot of golf with zero rough. I would like a set-up that would challenge us in every aspect of the game.”

He added, “I just think it was a bit too easy for the best players in the world. That’s just my opinion.  No matter where you hit it, you’re going to be able to hit it on the green and it becomes a putting contest.  Who can make the putts.  That’s about it, there’s no premium for anything else.”

When you are the current #1 golfer on the PGA Tour, people listen.   This week, the World’s #2 ranked golfer, Collin Morikawa, voiced his support for his fellow golf competitor’s take.

“It’s fun to shoot 34 under sometimes but if I had to do it every week, I’d get kind of sick of it,” he said. “You need a balance.”

Somewhere, I hear Jack Nicklaus snickering and saying, “Told you so!”

There is no question that today’s professional golfers are in better physical shape than tour players of 50 years ago.  The older golfers made a lot less money playing golf on tour, and a much higher percentage of them socialized later after their day on the golf course was done.

Today’s PGA professional golfers (both men and women) have become like a traveling small business.

On the revenue side, today’s professional golfers earn significantly more money (when they make the cut, that is) from the higher purses offered during this Tiger Woods golf era.  Some are even offered financial “guarantees” (such as Phil Mickelson or Rory McIlroy) for just showing up at a tour event regardless of what they shoot.

Elite professional golfers can earn millions annually from corporate sponsorships whose name adorns their golf bag, clubs, balls, hats, shirts, pants, and shoes.   As you watch on television, try to count the number of sponsors each golfer has.  Look closely, or you’ll miss a few!

With such serious levels of money at stake, today’s golfer has (sadly) become more “serious” about each event, too.

Just like yesteryear, most pro golfers still hire a caddy for the season to tote their golf bag and offer (if and when asked) on-course assistance.

However, today’s professional golfer might also bring along a personal trainer to help work out the kinks after a hard day on the links.  Some even bring their own personal chef to make sure that their diet is championship caliber, too.

Let’s not forget the new mental coach – whose job it is to remind the professional golfer that they are still a top talent despite dumping a ball in the water on that par-3 hole on the back nine.  “Hey, just shake it off, mate!”

Despite the accuracy of Jon Rahm’s assessment about many of the PGA Tour event golf courses bei...

Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints finished 9-8 this year but missed the playoffs.  The season is over, but nobody (including the Saints team owner) seems to have been able to find the long-time coach of the Saints in the past few weeks.

Until today, that is.

This afternoon, I listened as Saints head coach Sean Payton held a lengthy news conference to talk about his very successful 16-year career with the team.  Alas, he gave very little information about his future plans.

“I don’t like the word ‘retirement,’ Mr. B [late owner Tom Benson] didn’t like it either.  He always said ‘retirement’s overrated.’ So, yeah, I still have a vision for doing things in football and, I’ll be honest with you, that I might be coaching again at some point. I don’t think it’s this year, I think maybe in the future but that’s not where my heart is right now.”

He later added, “I felt the time was right. Trust your gut. We’re not writing an obituary today.  My plans are not to be coaching in 2022. ”

Asked by a reporter about whether he felt burned-out, Sean Payton replied, “Burnout seems to be the wrong word.  It’s about the next challenge – as in what’s next?”

When asked about the pressure of trying to guide the New Orleans Saints back to another Super Bowl, Sean Payton responded, “Look, we’ve won more games the last five years than any other team in the NFL except the Kansas City Chiefs.  It’s a challenge, and it’s difficult chasing it.  But one is not enough.”

Payton’s former Saints quarterback Drew Brees joined NBC this season after his lengthy career.   Since Sean Payton said that coaching wasn’t in his immediate plans, what about television?

“I’d like to try TV.  I talked to Drew (Brees) about it last night.  That would be something which would interest me.  I hope that opportunity comes.”

During the press conference, the eloquent Sean Payton mentioned more than once that he considers himself to be a teacher at heart.   His record indicates that Payton has been one of the best teachers in the NFL.  He spent 16 years in the same city (second only to Bill Belichick’s 22 years in New England), and his Saints teams won over 63% of their games during that span.

OK, now we finally know where Saints coach Sean Payton has been the past few weeks.  Actually, he let it slip during the news conference that he had “known” this outcome for the past week and was simply letting it sink in before making an announcement at an appropriate time.

Let’s now review this situation in more depth and contemplate a few of the issues.

Q:  Why did Sean Payton leave the Saints now?

A:  Why not?  Coach Sean Payton rode into New Orleans in 2006 with a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback named Drew Brees.  They helped build the Saints into a perpetual winner and, most importantly, helped the Saints win a Super Bowl title.

Since that glorious day (February 7, 2010 – which all Saints fans will forever cherish), the New Orleans Saints football team has remained highly competitive but couldn’t quite get back to making a second appearance in the season ending game.

Drew Brees finally reached 40 years of age and, one year ago, decided to hang up his cleats and become a broadcaster for NBC Sports this past season.   I’m sure his aching body appreciates the change as much as his family likes having Dad around more.

Life after Drew Brees in New Orleans this past season wasn’t easy on Coach Sean Payton.  When a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback has been running your offense for the prior 15 years, it made the rest of your coaching job a lot easier.

Sean Payton was a former quarterback himself.  He played college football at Eastern Illinois University (the same place where Tony Romo ...

Don’t break our hearts,

Our shaky quaky hearts.

You other fans won’t understand.

How could we lose those games?

Our season’s down in flames

It’s worse than I can bear to stand.  Oooh, hoo!!!

In Nashville, they’re really feeling it.  Same up in Green Bay, too.  They saw it down in Tampa Bay, and Buffalo still has the deepest blues!

After four fantastic finishes in the NFL’s semifinal rounds this weekend, football fans in four cities (Cincinnati, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Kansas City) are ecstatic.  And why not?  Their pro football teams scored the final points to end the game and take an exciting and, in some cases, improbable win to advance to their Conference championship games next Sunday afternoon.

But if you’re a pro football fan of Tennessee, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, or (bless ‘em) those poor  Buffalo Bills, this was a very cruel weekend, indeed.  The Titans, Packers, and Bucs each lost – at home – by a field goal kicked by the opposing team on the final play of the game.

As for Buffalo, the Bills rallied during in a wild fourth quarter to take a three point lead with just thirteen seconds left in regulation at Kansas City.  Buffalo (being Buffalo) then found a way to let Kansas City move the ball nearly 50 yards in just ten seconds and kick a game-tying field goal on the final play in regulation to send it to overtime.  I don’t think anyone watching was surprised as Kansas City literally waltzed down the field on the first possession in overtime to take a 42-36 win.  The Chiefs Kingdom of fans erupted in joy and are likely still partying right now.  Buffalo’s offense never even had a chance to take the field in overtime of this game.

Instead of “Let’s go, Buffalo”, the team’s signature tune changed to “Oh, no, Buffalo!” once again as the Bills chance to capture their first Super Bowl title quickly evaporated.

The NFL’s television ratings (which were already significantly higher than average after the prior week’s Wildcard games) should be even higher this week after these four nail-biters.

Though I try not to come across as a person who actually believes that the NFL might encourage its participants to play such close games (cough, cough), the probability that the first three games’ road teams would each win on a field goal on the final play of the game would come with some microscopic odds.

After those three wild finishes, what would have been the chances of Buffalo giving up a game-tying field goal when kicking off to Kansas City with just thirteen seconds remaining in their game Sunday evening?

I suggest it would be infinitesimal.

If I had not have watched most of this weekend’s games, I doubt that even the WWE’s Vince McMahon could have scripted four more exciting finishes for these weekend playoff football games.  Assuming (of course) that the NFL did not script such close endings, the league’s incredible lucky streak could have made for a great weekend in Las Vegas!

Let’s examine each of these Fantastic Four finishes:

Saturday Game 1 – #4 seed Cincinnati 19, #1 seed Tennessee 16 (AFC Semifinal #1)

Though Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow continues to impress, Tennessee’s starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill continues to make some people wish he would go back to playing the wide receiver position he once suited-up for at Texas A&M.  With Tannehill tossing three interceptions in this game, it was clear that LSU’s Joe Burrow was the better quarterback on the field last Saturday.  Though Tennessee held the #1 seed in the AFC, remember that they play in the same lousy AFC South division featuring the 3-14 Jacksonville Jaguars and 4-13 Houston Texans.  In case you missed it, Houston actually beat Tennessee 22-13 in Nashville back in November.  This #1 seed had “fraud” written all over them.  Cincinnati earned this win.

Saturday Game 2 – #6 seed San Francisco 13,

This Sunday afternoon at 2PM in the big Pirate Ship in Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers will be led on the field again by their swashbuckling, never-aging seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady.   At 44 years of age, Brady is the oldest active player in the NFL and still plays well enough to be in the running for this year’s NFL MVP award.

Across the field from Brady on Sunday afternoon in Tampa, the second oldest active player in the NFL will suit-up for the Los Angeles Rams.

Former LSU offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth turned 40 in December and is still considered one of the premier offensive linemen in the NFL.  At 6’7” and 330 pounds, Whitworth has suited up and played in over 92% of his career NFL games since coming into the league way back in 2006.

He is also just the fifth offensive lineman to play in an NFL game after turning 40 years of age.

Four years ago, Tom Brady (then in New England) ruined Andrew Whitworth’s first chance to win a Super Bowl ring as the Patriots downed Los Angeles 13-3.  That was Tom Brady’s sixth Super Bowl championship while in New England.  He would later move to Tampa Bay in 2020 and win his seventh ring as a member of the Buccaneers last season.

These two old warriors will meet once again this Sunday afternoon in Tampa in one of the two NFC semifinal games.

Andrew Whitworth was born in Monroe, Louisiana and played high school sports at one of the state’s most fertile football programs in West Monroe.  While in high school, Whitworth’s football teams won two state championships.   This big offensive lineman was also nimble enough to be a championship caliber tennis player and an excellent golfer while in high school.

While quarterback Tom Brady was riding the bench during his first few years at the University of Michigan during his college days, Andrew Whitworth was winning a national championship at LSU.   No, he didn’t play for LSU’s former head coach Ed Orgeron’s 2019 15-0 national championship team.  He also wasn’t around for the 2007 championship team of former Coach Les Miles.

Sophomore Andrew Whitworth was the starting offensive tackle in all 14 games for the 2003 LSU national champion team coached by none other than Nick Saban.

Just how long ago was that?

Coach Saban would later leave LSU for the NFL, coach two seasons in Miami with the Dolphins, and return to coach college football at Alabama in 2007 where he has won six more national championships.  Andrew Whitworth was in Nick Saban’s first recruiting class – when he arrived at LSU.

Twice named to the All-SEC first team as an offensive tackle, Andrew Whitworth was drafted in the second round of the 2006 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.  Prior to last weekend, it was back in 1990 when the Bengals had last won a playoff game.

Whitworth spent the first eleven years of his professional football career with the Bengals through the 2016 season.   Twice named to the first-team NFL All-Pro team and playing in the annual Pro Bowl game four times while in Cincinnati, Andrew Whitworth’s Bengals teammates actually reached the playoffs (and lost in the first game) six different times during his eleven years in southern Ohio.

After the 2016 NFL season, Andrew Whitworth left Cincinnati and moved west to play for the Los Angeles Rams.  His head football coach, Sean McVay, is four years younger than him!   The young coach made it point to recruit the big talented offensive lineman to join the team before his first season on the field as the team’s head coach.

“He sure has meant a lot to this organization both on and off the field”, McVay said recently.  “I think sometimes you take for granted that he’s 40 years old.