The 2021 college football season has finally ended.   Wasn’t it fun?

Congratulations to this year’s champions – Georgia (FBS – large schools) and North Dakota State (FCS – Small colleges).  Both teams left no doubt during their final game of the year.

So, we have no more College Football (yawn) Playoffs or college football bowl games (as if 42 weren’t enough?) left.  We did have a lot of excitement this season, and we will try to do it all again next fall (pandemic/plague-permitting).

As the college football season draws to a close, there were five big issues which I noticed this season.  Let’s discuss them!

#1 – The four-team College Football Playoff won’t be changing anytime soon. 

Though the SEC just won its 12th national championship in the past 16 years, it’s not like the other major college football conferences and independent teams have not received a fair shot.  There is no doubt in most fair-minded people that Cincinnati and Michigan were the best two choices to have participated in this year’s four-team playoff along with Alabama and Georgia.

The Bearkats were unbeaten (13-0) and took down a very good University of Houston team to win the American Athletic Conference.  Michigan (12-1) won the Big Ten handily and had its best football team in years.  Of course, Georgia and Alabama (both 12-1 coming into the playoffs) were head and shoulders above the rest of the SEC this season, too.

Having a two, four, six, eight (“Who do we appreciate?) teams or even twelve or (God help us) sixteen teams in the College Football Playoffs would only generate more money for the schools and media partners.

It could also become a big dud for fans.

I heard a gentleman call a national sports talk show this week who had a terrific take.  If you had an expanded college football playoff field (8, 12 or 16) and your favorite team (let’s say Alabama) lost in the first round, many fans of those schools will not be as interested in watching the remaining teams play in future rounds.  Television ratings will be the driving force in any discussions about making changes to the current four-team playoff.

With the overly long twelve game regular season plus conference championship games (which are played simply to pocket even more money), I don’t think it is very hard to determine the four best teams in the country after playing 12 or 13 games.  Even if we reach a situation where a deserving team ranked outside of the top four is left out, those teams most likely will be financially rewarded by playing in one of the larger traditional bowl games anyway.

Right, UCF?

With the 13-0 Cincinnati Bearkats finally cracking the top four this season, the uproar about leaving a deserving team out of the College Football Playoffs (such UCF in 2017 or Boise State many years ago) actually helps to keep the current four-team playoff more relevant by fueling speculation and discussion among fans every week of the season.

Yes, many of us find it boring that a relatively small group of college football teams (such as Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, LSU, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma) annually fill two or three of the four available slots.  On the other hand, having some new teams (such as Cincinnati and Michigan this year) helps build an interest for those of us who like to root for the underdogs.

Win/win.

#2 – Playing the National Championship game on a Monday night should be changed to a Saturday (but don’t count on it changing anytime soon).

Unlike the NFL’s Super Bowl (which has become a national party on Sunday nights), the college football national championship game is being played on Monday – a work and school night.  ESPN (which pays a fortune for the broadcast rights) milks this football game for all its worth.  The game often takes upward of four hours to play due to the multitude of commercials (which help to defray the...

After the final NFL games of the season were played last weekend, the familiar annual ritual of firing head coaches is now underway.

There are now six job openings (as of this writing) available for new NFL head coaches as jobs must be filled in Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Chicago, Minnesota, Denver, and New York (Giants).

This is perfectly normal in today’s NFL.

Most seasons, upward of 25% of the NFL’s 32 head football coaches get blamed (and the ax) for the lousy records of their teams.  Though the coach certainly sets the tone for his football team, the reality is that the people who are responsible for selecting the players (the General Manager) and team’s ownership group deserve as much or more of the blame.

However, the first person to walk the plank is the team’s head coach.  It’s easier to replace the $5-$10 million per year head coach than to fire and replace an entire team of 53 players which costs $200 million annually.

In order to assure thousands of season ticket holders that your professional football team intends to return to the winner’s circle once again (soon!), the team’s general manager and owner will make the head coach the first sacrificial lamb to be sent to the unemployment office.

Each of the coaches who were fired in this past week had been successful at some previous coaching position, or they wouldn’t have been offered the NFL head coaching job.

With this annual frenzy of coaches being fired and now filing for unemployment, let’s stop and ask the question, “What traits make a successful NFL head coach?”

During the opening of today’s companion podcast, I played a clip from a middle 1960’s Saturday morning cartoon show called “Milton the Monster”.  As the song suggests, an evil scientist and his assistant were intent on creating the perfect monster.  He then mixes in “six drops of the essence of terror, five drops of sinister sauce”.  The scientist added a touch of tenderness so his new monster would not destroy him.  Alas, he accidentally added too much “tenderness”, and the resulting Monster (Milton) turned out to be a quite harmless Herman Munster-type of creature.  Sure, it was silly but fun!

When I remembered the theme song for that cartoon show, it might be a very good analogy for what makes a good NFL coach, too.

Just which “ingredients” would you add in order to create the “perfect” NFL head football coach?

Let’s start with an examination of today’s four longest-tenured NFL coaches and see what traits make each of them successful:

Bill Belichick – 22 years with New England Patriots

Trait:  Consistency with high expectations

He’s never been considered the kindest or cuddliest coach in the NFL, but Bill Belichick has been the New England coach for 22 years and has 6 Super Bowl rings.  An Economics major in college and a defensive coordinator before becoming a head coach, Belichick is a no-nonsense coach who sets high expectations for his players.  Those who excel under Coach Belichick are willing to work hard – especially on their mental preparation for each game.  It’s his way or the highway, but everyone on the team already knows that.   His winning record (72% of regular season games and 73% of playoff games) speaks volumes about his ability to obtain great results.

Sean Payton – 15 years with New Orleans Saints

Trait:  A communicative innovator

Sean Payton is best known for his long-time association with future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Drew Brees.  Together, the Saints grabbed the team’s only Super Bowl ring during the 2009 season.  Payton was an offensive coordinator before taking the Saints head coaching job in 2006.   His teams have won 63% of their regular season games and appeared in the playoffs nine times.  A communications major in college at Eastern Illinois, Sean Payton’s Saints teams thrive on his creative gam...

After 41 years of trying to win their second national championship, the University of Georgia Bulldogs finally burst out of their kennel during the second half of Monday’s national championship game against Alabama.  The Dawgs (as they prefer to be called) trailed early but rallied down the stretch to take down the Crimson Tide 33-18 and win the school’s second football title since Herschel Walker toted the football for Georgia back in 1980.

Leading the way in this second half rally was the team’s unheralded 5’11” quarterback, Stetson Bennett.  You probably already know that this senior was a former walk-on at Georgia coming out of high school.  After Georgia’s championship win, the rest of America is now hearing about him, too.

After trailing defending the national champion Alabama 9-6 in a pretty boring first half of football, Bennett’s can-do attitude never waivered as he lifted Georgia’s offense in the final quarter.  He passed for two timely touchdowns during a 20-point fourth quarter rally by the Dawgs.

Bennett was nearly the “dog” (pardon my canine jokes) for Georgia early in the deciding fourth quarter.  After the referees (who kept Bama fans happy by throwing ten penalty flags on the Dawgs Monday night) ruled that Stetson had fumbled the football on what looked to be a forward pass back on Georgia’s own 18 yard line, Alabama would quickly score a go-ahead touchdown just three plays later and retake the lead 18-13 with ten minutes to go in the game.

Those would be the last points scored by Alabama in this football game.

After the game, Stetson Bennett told reporters that he was not going to be the reason why Georgia lost this game.  Instead of sulking on the sidelines, Bennett came back onto the field and hit three passes covering 65 yards for a touchdown and give Georgia the lead once again at 19-18 with a little over eight minutes to go.

After Georgia forced an Alabama punt, the Dawgs’ diminutive quarterback led the team into the Bama end zone again.  While Alabama was looking for more passes, a rejuvenated Georgia running game started to take over.  After Georgia ran the ball inside of Bama’s 20-yard line, quarterback Stetson Bennett knew that the Tide defense was now focused on the run.  He quickly floated a short pass to a wide open tight end Brock Bowers, and the big receiver lumbered 15 yards untouched into the end zone for another Georgia score to make it 26-18 with less than four minutes left in the game.

As Alabama’s Heisman quarterback Bryce Young took the field, the drama was ripe for one final Heisman-type moment.  The Crimson Tide trailed by a touchdown and a two-point conversion with just minutes to go.  Haven’t we seen this act before?

Unfortunately for Bama fans, they were not playing Auburn on Monday night.

Bryce Young slowly moved his team toward midfield as the Georgia faithful prayed across America.  This time, though, Young heaved an ill-advised pass downfield which was easily intercepted by Georgia’s Kelee Ringo at the Georgia 21-yard line.  As the sidelines coaches were yelling for the defensive back to hit the ground and not risk a fumble, Ringo ran it 79 yards down the field for a game-sealing final touchdown with under one minute left.

Georgia won the game 33-18 to finish 14-1 on the year and captured its long-sought second championship trophy.  The 41-year Georgia jinx had finally ended!

For Georgia’s ever-confident senior quarterback, Stetson Bennett, the win marked a storybook finish to his Georgia football career.  Or did it?

Coming out of high school in the tiny southeastern Georgia community of Blackshear, Stetson Bennett (whose parents both earned a Pharmacy degree while attending the University of Georgia) was a second team All-State quarterb...

Rule #1 in team sports should be easy to remember.  There is no “I” in the word “Team”.  The personal issues of any single player should never interfere with the team’s goals and objectives.

Tampa Bay wide receiver Antonio Brown doesn’t seem to grasp that basic sports lesson.  As a result, he is, once again, filing for unemployment after his latest NFL employer terminated his contract today.

When I heard about the very talented but mentally fragile Antonio Brown taking off his helmet, pads, and jersey along the sidelines last Sunday during the third quarter of the Bucs’ game at the New York Jets and then dancing his way into the Tampa Bay locker room, I knew we would be in for another wild week.

The saga of Antonio Brown is one of an exceptional talent on the field who is unable to stop him from self-destructing at some point at every stop along the way.

We have witnessed several years of odd escapades involving this unique NFL wide receiver.  I wrote about it back in 2019.  For every good thing you can find about Antonio Brown the receiver, there is another side of him which will find a way to self-destruct at some point.  He usually hurts himself more than the teams he plays for.

Tampa Bay really needed Antonio Brown-the-wide-receiver right now.  Several other wide receivers for the Bucs have been unavailable or injured recently.  Legendary quarterback Tom Brady was counting on AB to be one of his primary targets heading into the NFL playoffs as Tampa Bay defends its NFL title.

Instead, Tampa Bay was given another sad display of Antonio Brown-the-look-at-me diva the past several days.   Brown has been nursing a bad ankle recently and, after checking with the team trainers, still decided to play in Sunday’s game against the Jets.

After grabbing three passes from Brady for just 26 yards on Sunday, Brown came to the sidelines and concluded that his ankle hurt too badly to play anymore.  Apparently, the coaches strongly suggested (as they are known to do) that he should get back onto the field.  That’s what prompted Antonio Brown to come unglued along the sidelines and make his grand exit from the field Sunday afternoon.

We are learning today that Antonio Brown (who was due about $1 million in player incentive bonus money for his catches and yardage totals for this season) took his agent with him to visit with the Bucs’ management last week (prior to the Jets game).  He asked for his current contract be adjusted so that his 2021 incentives-based bonus money would be converted to a guaranteed payment.

The Tampa Bay front office brass told him, “Nope”.

 

As is the case with all of the other Antonio Brown stories, there seems to be a little bit more information which will become known nearly every day following one of his outrageous outbursts.   This week has been no different.

In today’s “All about me” social media world, Antonio Brown and his Twitter account talked too much this week while he should have been cooling off, healing-up, and apologizing profusely.  Once he hit the “Send” button, the damage had been done and any bridges burned.

Antonio Brown may or may not have played in his final NFL game last weekend.  He is just 33 years of age and, when healthy, is still productive on the football field.  The former Pittsburgh Steeler-Oakland Raider-New England Patriot-Tampa Bay wide receiver has enough God-given skills on the football field to have earned millions of dollars, won any number of post-season accolades, and, last year, earned his first Super Bowl ring in his first season with Tampa Bay.

Antonio Brown – the football player – was talented enough to be

As a longtime fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers (which began when Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw joined the NFL team in 1970), I was feeling a little sadder and a lot older by the end of Monday night’s NFL game between Pittsburgh and Cleveland at Heinz Field in Steel City.

The Steelers still have a slim chance to make the NFL playoffs, but this game was all about the final home game to be played by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.  Steeler Nation and his Black and Gold football teammates desperately wanted to win this game for their longtime leader, #7.

Ben Roethlisberger dropped a big hint last week that Monday night would likely be his final home game as a Pittsburgh Steeler.  He is now 39 years of age and, sadly, plays even older than that.  He’s also called “Big Ben” for a reason.  He is 6’5” tall, weighs 240 pounds, and has taken so many NFL hits that he is lucky to be simply standing upright at this point in his career.

Big Ben grew up in northwestern Ohio and played his college football for Miami University (of Ohio – not Florida).   I was fortunate enough to see him play college football as a sophomore in 2002 when the Miami Redhawks (as they are now called) visited LSU at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.  Miami was thrashed by LSU 33-7 that night, but Big Ben Roethlisberger was quite noticeable with size (he was as large as many of his offensive linemen), his strong arm and toughness at the quarterback position.  The following year, Miami would go 13-1 and finish #10 in the final AP rankings.

In 2004, Ben was drafted as part of what is considered as one of the most talented quarterback classes in NFL history.   Though Eli Manning and Philip Rivers would be taken before Roethlisberger (at #11 by Pittsburgh), it was Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney who implored Coach Bill Cowher to take Big Ben when he was still available in the first round at the #11 spot.

The selection was love at first sight for Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Ben Roethlisberger came into Steel City as a rookie looking a lot like Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw – big, strong, and he could throw the ball a country mile.  Pittsburgh Steelers fans wanted a quarterback who was capable of leading their beloved team back to the Super Bowl once again.  After winning four rings in the 1970’s, Pittsburgh’s fans were hungry to finally win “One for the Thumb” upon Ben’s arrival.

During his rookie year in 2004, Ben Roethlisberger was every bit the player that Steeler fans were hoping for.  After earning the starting job early in the season, he went 13-0 and led Pittsburgh deep into the playoffs.  In the AFC Championship game played in Pittsburgh, Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to victory (and, ultimately, the Super Bowl) to pop Pittsburgh’s bubble.  Roth would win the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award for his success on the field.

The following year, Big Ben and the Steelers rolled past Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Denver in the playoffs to win the AFC title and defeated Seattle 21-10 to win the team’s fifth Super Bowl ring.   At just 23 years old, Ben Roethlisberger was the youngest starting quarterback to earn a Super Bowl victory.

Around this time of his life, Ben Roethlisberger had become a celebrity with the fame and money to go along with it.  He simply didn’t handle it very well.  Ben was quickly becoming a cartoon caricature of himself as he dealt several embarrassing off-the-field exploits which were keeping his name in the tabloids for all the wrong reasons.  Years later, Big Ben would admit to having an alcohol addiction problem.

Fortunately,

If you have been watching the multitudes of bowl games over the holidays, there were two particular games which stood out as being huge letdowns for college football fans.

Both of the so-called “College Football Playoff” games were simply duds.

As I told one of my long-time friends a week ago, my sole rooting interest in the two games was to avoid a rematch of Alabama vs. Georgia in the championship finale coming up one week from today.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m a lifetime SEC football fan and love nothing better than seeing an SEC team being crowned as the national champion.  It’s just that I enjoy the title game more watching an SEC team playing (and beating) a team from another part of the country for the national title.

Hailing from Louisiana, I obviously prefer to see LSU win (the Tigers have won three titles in the past 18 years).  However, if LSU isn’t in the championship game, the tradition among SEC fans is to put your differences aside for just one night and pull for your conference to continue opening up another can of SEC brand Whoop@$$ on another conference opponent.

For the last 15 seasons, the Southeastern Conference has grabbed the national championship trophy an astounding 11 times.  Alabama (6), LSU (2), Florida (2), and Auburn (1) have put a virtual choke hold on the championship belt on behalf of the SEC.  The ACC has claimed three of the other titles (Clemson has 2 and Florida State 1) while Ohio State remains the lone winner from north of the Mason Dixon Line during that span.

If you were hoping for either Cincinnati or Michigan to square-off against an SEC opponent in the national championship game, you were sorely disappointed by both of Friday’s national semifinal games.

In the opening game, Cincinnati (which came into the contest 13-0) learned the answer to the old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the Beef?” in the opening series against 12-1 Alabama.  The Crimson Tide (whose offensive line outweighed Cincinnati’s defensive front by over 50 pounds per player) ran the ball for ten consecutive plays to start the game.  Alabama then attempted its first pass of the game and found a wide-open slot receiver for the game’s first score.

Wait a minute!  Wasn’t this the same Alabama offense which ran the ball for just six yards on 26 attempts against a 6-6 LSU team a little over a month ago?  Yes, and it was the same relatively weak Alabama rushing attack which only netted 40 yards in 22 attempts against 6-6 Auburn in the Tide’s regular season finale.

For the national semifinal game last Friday against Cincinnati, Alabama rushed for 301 yards as senior running back Brian Robinson, Jr. toted the pigskin for a career high 201 yards on 25 carries.  Alabama’s Heisman Trophy quarterback Bryce Young literally had the night off as he only passed for 181 yards in the game.

Alabama clobbered Cincinnati 27-6 and put most of America in a sleeper hold for the second half of the game.  The odds makers had established Bama as a 14-point favorite coming into the game.  They were right.  This football game was downright boring for most fans to watch (even a few honest Crimson Tide fans will agree with me).

The second national semifinal was expected to be a hard-fought match-up between 12-1 Big Ten champion Michigan and 12-1 SEC runner-up Georgia.  Georgia had been “exposed” by Alabama in the SEC Championship game three weeks earlier, and Michigan was excited to be appearing in its first national semifinal in school history.  Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and this team of Wolverines would likely try to follow Bama’s blueprint to take down the Dawgs.

Except that it just didn’t happen.

Georgia chased Michigan out of Miami with an overwhelming 34-11 win on Friday night.  The Bulldogs raced to a 27-3 halftime lead and, like in the first national semifinal game,

It keeps happening every spring.

The NFL’s worst teams from the previous year are rewarded with the top picks in the next NFL player draft.  The theory is that these teams will be able to carefully evaluate and select the best available college football players and start to rebuild a winning franchise over a few years.

Though a few of these first round draft choices bring a revival of fortunes, the majority of the NFL’s bottom feeders continue to find a way to make draft mistakes when evaluating and selecting the top talent in the first round of the draft.

On the plus side, the Cincinnati Bengals went 2-14 just two years ago.  They had the first pick in 2020’s draft and selected quarterback Joe Burrow from national champion LSU with the #1 overall choice.  Just two seasons later, Joey B and his talented trio of young pass receivers have led the Bengals from the bottom to the top of the ACF North standings with two weeks to go in this season.  Cincy is just one win away from playing in their first playoff game in six seasons.

Though quarterback Joe Burrow has been the most visible reason for the team’s turnaround, the Bengals wisely selected additional difference makers to their team during the later rounds of the NFL draft over the past few years.  The young players are now contributing to Cincinnati’s pro football revival.

The NFL brass can point to Cincinnati’s turnaround and say, “See, we told you so!”

Just one year later, the worst teams in the NFL flocked to select five first round quarterbacks in hopes that those highly touted players would become the next Joe Burrow.  Let’s take a look at the Class of 2021’s first round quarterbacks:

Trevor Lawrence – Selected #1 overall by Jacksonville.  The former national championship quarterback from Clemson had been touted as the top pick for years.  He has all of the physical attributes (height, weight, arm strength, footwork, and ability to scramble) that professional football teams seem to covet.  Trevor also has the prettiest hair of the first round QB’s, too!   Lawrence has underwhelmed in his rookie year in Jacksonville by throwing for 14 interceptions against just nine touchdowns as his team is just 2-13 with two games to go.

Another future Hall-of-Famer struggled mightily during his first professional year as the #1 overall pick.  Payton Manning’s rookie season with the Indianapolis Colts was ugly.  The team went 3-13 as Manning tossed 26 touchdowns but also threw 28 interceptions.  It’s too early to give up on Trevor Lawrence, but the expectations will remain high after being the first overall pick.

Trevor Lawrence was expected to be this season’s version of Joe Burrow.  That didn’t happen.  Let’s give him a “D+”.

Zach Wilson – Selected with the #2 overall pick by the New York Jets.  Wilson’s college days at Brigham Young were simply amazing.  In his final year, he passed for nearly 4,000 yards with 33 touchdowns and only three interceptions.  A tough runner, Wilson added another ten touchdowns on the ground for the Cougars in his final year at BYU.  In his first year with the New York Jets, Wilson is struggling just like Trevor Lawrence.  He has tossed just seven touchdowns against 11 interceptions for a Jets team which is currently 4-11 with two games left.   If the Jets were hoping for the next Joe Burrow, it is looking grim.  Let’s give Zach Wilson a “D”.

Trey Lance – Selected #3 overall by the San Francisco 49ers, Lance has seen the least amount of time on the field this year among the five first round quarterbacks taken in the 2021 NFL draft.   Jimmy Garoppolo remains the starting quarterback in San Francisco as Lance underwhelmed during a couple of opportunities early in the season.  Trey Lance played college football at North Dakota State and was the starting quarterback for just his final year.

Do you remember watching those Godzilla movies of our youth?  In nearly story, Godzilla seems to appear out of nowhere to inflict untold damage and upset the lives of the people who are affected by his presence.

Just when you thought it was almost safe to emerge from COVID hiding, he’s ba-a-a-ck!

Yes, we were able to get most of this fall’s college football season completed in 2021.  In addition, the never-ending saga of the COVID-19 related issues had artfully been avoided by the most lucrative sports league in America, the National Football League.

Early season television ratings for all football games have climbed back to pre-COVID levels as viewers at home (along with fans in the stands) celebrated the return of America’s favorite fall sport.   Football had just started to look as if it was returning to normal once again.

But then, all of a sudden, the COVID Monster’s latest movie was released over the past few weeks to inflict more mayhem across the country.

With the advent of this new Omicron variant of the COVID Monster spreading faster than I can apply grape jelly onto my peanut butter sandwich, the NFL is now being forced to dance with this ornery virus once again just as it enters the home stretch of the football season.

Three of last weekend’s 16 games were postponed and pushed back to as late as Tuesday to allow the teams a chance to find enough healthy players able to suit-up.

Each new day brings an additional group of pro football players who have tested positive during this newest COVID outbreak.  Since well over 90% of the NFL’s players had already received COVID vaccinations, the league and the players union is working together to shorten the time which players must be kept off the field after receiving a positive test.

Even the coaches are coming down with this Omicron variant.  Last weekend, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was not on-hand to watch his team shut-out Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0 and move back into possible playoff contention at 7-7 with three games to go in this overly-long 17 game NFL season.

As soon as Coach Payton was being cleared to return this weekend, the Saints will be without quarterbacks Taysom Hill and Trevor Simien were put onto the COVID-19 list and unavailable for a key Monday night game against Miami in the Superdome.

New Orleans was so desperate for a quarterback this week that they dialed-up retired legend Drew Brees to check on his willingness to make a brief comeback.  Brees politely declined, and the Saints eventually signed veteran Blake Bortles to join the team.  The Saints will start rookie Ian Book (Notre Dame) with Bortles serving as a valuable back-up.

The Saints situation is not dissimilar to most other teams across the NFL this week.  Key players on a number of NFL teams are being sidelined by positive tests and mandatory waiting periods to return to the field.

This problem is affecting nearly every sport – both college and professional.

The National Hockey League took a more dramatic approach to dealing with the new COVID outbreak as it shut the entire league down this week.  The number of available hockey players plummeted and made scheduling extremely difficult.   The league stopped all games this past Wednesday with plans to return to the ice this coming Tuesday.  The NHL and its players union agreed this week not to allow players to participate in February’s Beijing Winter Games in China.  The hockey league will utilize that time to catch-up on this month’s cancelled games and finish its 82-game regular-season schedule.  Maybe.

The NBA hasn’t been immune to this Omicron issue, either.

Sometimes, you just never know what the answer will be when you ask a celebrity for an exclusive interview.

In my annual letter addressed to the North Pole, I asked Mr. Kringle (aka Santa Claus) if he would grant my Christmas wish and allow me a few minutes to get his take on the world of sports. Much to my surprise, he agreed!

Here’s how our phone conversation went earlier this week:

Me:    Santa, I am so thrilled that you have agreed to find a few minutes to talk sports with me before your busy day this Friday!  I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time.

Santa:  Yes, I’ve known you were a sports enthusiast ever since you asked for that set of plastic golf clubs back when you were seven years old!  Your Mom wasn’t very happy when you hit your older brother over the head with that plastic putter, you know.  To your credit, you seemed to have improved on that temper problem over the years.  Ho, ho, ho!

Me:    Hey, you really ARE Santa Claus, aren’t you?  What’s your most requested item this year?

Santa:  That’s easy!  I just received a big order for 500 million COVID home testing kits from the President.  Talk about a tough order!  He wants those ready by January.  Hey, when are we going to talk about sports?

Me:    Of course, Santa!   Since I’ve lived my entire life down South, I was curious if you are much of a football fan.

Santa:  Ho, ho, ho!  You’re looking at a man who loves watching football on television as much as anyone.  How do you think I got this belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly?

Me:   At your age, you’re allowed, big guy!  By the way, just how old are you?

Santa:  I figured you might be going there.  My official answer is, “I am as old as my nose and a wee bit older than Mrs. Claus!”  A few of these newfangled internet websites say that I am 1,751 years old this year.  For a man who eats as many cookies as I do one just one night of the year, I stay on my paleo diet the rest of the time to drop some of the extra pounds.  Hey, maybe you should try it too, tubby!  I see you’ve only lost one pound this year instead of the ten pounds you promised to lose.

Me:  Watch it, Santa, or I’ll ask if venison is on your paleo diet!

Santa:  Good one!  I’ll use that line during my next interview!

Me:  Back to football, what did you think about the recent LSU football coaching change?

Santa:  I liked Coach Ho-Ho-O’s personality, but his last two years as a coach just weren’t up to par.   He got an early Christmas present with that huge severance package, so Santa will be putting a list of good tax accountants in his stocking later this week!

Me:  What’s your opinion of their new football coach, Brian Kelly?

Santa:  If he can recruit a great offensive line to come play at LSU like the O-lines he had at Notre Dame, I think Tiger fans are going to warm-up to him just fine.  Keep an eye on that new high school quarterback Coach Kelly just signed last week from south Louisiana.  That young man plays looks like a young Drew Brees.  He might be really good!

Me:   The SEC and the rest of the country just can’t seem to take down Alabama from the top of the college football world.  Santa, are you helping Coach Saban more than the rest of the college football coaches?

Santa: Well, it’s hard not to like another guy who is called St. Nick!  I will admit to putting a few extra 5-star recruits in his stocking every year.  Ho, ho, ho!

Me:   Thanks for being truthful, Santa.  Let’s switch to pro football for a moment.  Do you think the Dallas Cowboys will finally get back to the Super Bowl this year for the first time since 1995?

Santa:  I may be one of the few people who realize just how many Dallas Cowboys fans there are in America.  Me and Coach Tom Landry were buds for the longest time, you know.

This Saturday at 2:30PM Central on ABC, the 11th oldest college football bowl game in the United States will be played once again..

No, not the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, or the Peach Bowl.  If you said, “The Poulan Weed Eater Bowl”, you would be (sort of) correct!

The 45th playing of Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana takes place Saturday afternoon between #13 Brigham Young (10-2) and the 8-4 UAB Blazers from Conference USA and Birmingham, Alabama.  Based on their regular season records, this ranks as one of the strongest match-ups in the 45 years of this bowl’s fascinating history.

The I-Bowl (as the locals call it) is more like “The Little Bowl that Could”.   It is a testament to a good idea and the unrelenting positive spirit displayed by a group of local people who sought to bring a little recognition to the oft-forgotten northwestern corner of Louisiana.

Born during America’s bicentennial birthday year of 1976, the Independence Bowl is still carrying to the torch 45 years later.

Shreveport is one of the nation’s largest cities which does not have a college football team to call its own.   On any given Saturday in Shreveport and Bossier City, thousands of vehicles will head east via Interstate 20 to Grambling to watch the G-Men, to Ruston to see the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs play, or into Monroe to roost with the ULM Warhawks.  Thousands more college football fans from the Shreveport area make the 240-mile trek down I-49 South and I-10 East (or via US 190 if you plan to watch your speed carefully – hint, hint) to Baton Rouge to watch the LSU Tigers play football.

Shreveport’s population (about 200,000) may decrease by up to five percent on some Saturdays during college football season.

In the middle 1970’s, the population of Shreveport was still growing.  The Baby Boom generation of kids had been born to returning veterans of World War II.  Many of those military veterans settled in Shreveport and bought their first house with the help of a G.I. Loan.  At the time, the Shreveport area was still home to several large oil and gas companies and manufacturing concerns which provided an abundance of steady jobs for the local workforce.  With Barksdale Air Force Base (home of the country’s B-52 fleet) located just across the river in Bossier City, the area had become a popular home for military families and retirees.

Though Shreveport doesn’t have a college football team, the city (which is home of the annual Louisiana State Fair) owns a rather large football stadium located on the fairgrounds.  Louisiana Tech played local rival Northwestern State University for decades in Shreveport during the annual two-week run of the Louisiana State Fair.  Grambling University also came to town to play a few football games at State Fair Stadium, too.

Though a few of the city’s largest high schools play their Friday night football games and playoff games utilizing this big football facility, Shreveport’s State Fair Stadium remains empty on the north side of Interstate 20 on most Saturdays during college football season.

In the early 1970’s, a group of local business people helped to lure a struggling World Football League (WFL) franchise from Houston to Shreveport in 1974.  Renamed the Shreveport Steamer, the area’s first pro football team regularly drew more than 20,000 fans to State Fair Stadium.  Interested football fans from northwest Louisiana, east Texas and southern Arkansas fell in love with the chance to be part of football’s “big leagues”.