Time for Mock Draft 3.A.0-5

Posted on April 1, 2024 by guelphbossman

The A stands for April. Or Awesome. Or Asshole. Whatever.

Mock draft time! And it’s three glorious rounds of (probably) incorrect picks. Lovin’ it! Let’s go!

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
3	New England	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
11	Minnesota	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
12	Denver	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
13	Las Vegas	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
14	New Orleans	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
15	Indianapolis	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
16	Seattle	J.J. McCarthy, QB (LSU)
17	Jacksonville	Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon)
18	Cincinnati	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
19	LA Rams	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
20	Pittsburgh	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
21	Miami	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
22	Philadelphia	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
23	Minnesota	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
24	Dallas	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
25	Green Bay	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
26	Tampa Bay	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
27	Arizona	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
28	Buffalo	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
29	Detroit	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
30	Baltimore	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
31	San Francisco	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
32	Kansas City	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
34	New England	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
35	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
38	Tennessee	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
39	Carolina	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
40	Washington	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
41	Green Bay	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
42	Houston	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
43	Atlanta	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
44	Las Vegas	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
45	New Orleans	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
48	Jacksonville	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
49	Cincinnati	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
50	Philadelphia	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
51	Pittsburgh	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
55	Miami	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
58	Green Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
59	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
60	Buffalo	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
64	Kansas City	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
67	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
68	New England	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
69	LA Chargers	Ben Sinnott, TE (Kansas State)
70	NY Giants	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Devontez Walker, WR (North Carolina)
73	Detroit	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
74	Atlanta	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
75	Chicago	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
76	Denver	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
77	Las Vegas	Jonathon Brooks, RB (Texas)
78	Washington	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
79	Atlanta	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
80	Cincinnati	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
81	Seattle	Christian Mahogany, OG (Boston College)
82	Indianapolis	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
83	LA Rams	D.J. James, CB (Auburn)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
86	Houston	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
87	Dallas	Renardo Green, CB (Florida State)
88	Green Bay	Khyree Jackson, CB (Oregon)
89	Tampa Bay	Beau Brade, S (Maryland)
90	Arizona	Andru Phillips, CB (Kentucky)
91	Green Bay	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
92	Tampa Bay	Dominick Puni, OG (Kansas)
93	Baltimore	McKinnley Jackson, DT (Texas A&M)
94	Kansas City	Braelon Allen, RB (Wisconsin)
95	San Francisco	Kalen King, CB (Penn State)
96	Jacksonville	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
97	Cincinnati	Josh Newton, CB (TCU)
98	Pittsburgh	Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB (Clemson)
99	LA Rams	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
100	Washington	James Williams, S (Miami)

The top few picks seem set in stone. Maybe on in that specific order but those top four will, most likely, be the top four come draft night. As for some of the other picks, man there were some huge drops. Like Kris Jenkins. Only a few weeks ago, a fair amount of mocks had him in the first round. I don’t think he’s even being considered as a first rounder anymore. Almost the same with Byron Murphy II. I had him going fifth to the Chargers which may have been a bit high in retrospect. But for him to drop to almost completely out of the first round is an alarming drop. Sometimes it’s fairly easy to find out what has happened to lower a potential draftee’s stock and sometimes…well, sometimes who the hell knows. It just happens.

Potential Draft Day Trades

OK so these would include trades coming up toward the draft as well, not just the ones on draft opening night. And no, I can’t see the Bears or the Commanders trading their picks so let’s start with the #3 pick.

New England (#3) – Chances of the Patriots trading this pick are slim but considering the haul that some teams have received for a top 3 pick in NFL history, the right package might come along to entice them to trade down. I have a feeling it would take at least two first-rounders, two second-rounders, and at least one other pick.

NY Giants (#6) – Probably the highest pick with true potential to be dealt is the Giants at #6. The Giants desperately need help on both lines but there are a few options available meaning they could trade down a few spots and still get one of the guys they covet. A first-round pick swap would have to happen and the team trading with the G-Men couldn’t be far below the #16 spot for this to work. Other picks would come the Giants way as well.

Tennessee (#7) – This becomes a possibility if the Patriots trade down. The reason is, one of Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels would be available and there are a few teams that would love to trade up to get one of the two. That includes the Falcons, Vikings, Broncos and Raiders. Knowing that, the Titans could get a larger pick haul than the Giants even though the pick would be later.

NY Jets (#10) – The Jets are hoping that Aaron Rodgers will be healthy this year. And to help with that, they want an offensive lineman desperately. The hope is that one of Olu Fashanu or Joe Alt fall to them. If neither of them are available, I would fully expect the Jets to shop the pick and they could drop a fair way if they wanted to.

The Vikings feel like the most likely pick to move up since, for some reason, many are saying they really want J.J. McCarthy. I think it would be crazy to trade up because I think McCarthy, at least at this point, would be available to the Vikings at #11. Maybe I’m wrong with that. They would most likely just trade picks but they have one bargaining chip that some teams might not be able to ignore: Justin Jefferson. If the Vikings can’t extend Double J, then they might include him in a trade to see what they could get. Arizona would be a trading partner if (and only if) this was a possibility.

In non-draft news, the UFL has commenced their season. Not exactly a ton of fans for a couple of these games but some wacky shit happened. Jake Bates hit a 64-yard field goal to help his Michigan Stags beat St. Louis. Funny enough, it was on the same uprights that Justin Tucker kicked his NFL-record 67-yarder to beat the Lions a couple years ago. Then you had San Antonio punter Brad Wing throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 11 to the team’s centre Alex Mollette. So at least it’s entertaining, you have to give it that. And it’s football. A tiny appetizer before the CFL, then college football, then NFL season starts. So embrace it. Or don’t. I don’t care. I realize March Madness was on this past weekend so I can see why people might not watch.

OK I will do one more mock draft closer to actual draft day (which starts April 25th). And even then, most of my picks will be wrong. At least I can take solace in the fact that I will have close to the same record as the so-called experts have.

The college schedule is coming into form. It’s kind of tough with the changes coming up this season so for good parts of the schedule I have nothing to compare it to. So we shall see how that goes when I start doing my most important game posts. Anyway, I hope you all had a great Easter long weekend and have a great first week of April.

Grass and the Week 6 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on October 12, 2023 by guelphbossman

No, not that kind of grass.

The 2026 World Cup is less than three years away. It is being held in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Many of the fields in the U.S. double as football fields. Not surprising. What the issue is is that many of them use fieldturf and not natural grass. Believe me, fieldturf is WAY better than the original artificial turf which was awful to play on. Saying that, FIFA is demanding natural grass for their soccer pitches for the 2026 event.

Many NFL players want this to happen much sooner with every field in the league. Injuries happen a little too often on these non-grass surfaces and players hate it. They would prefer natural grass and I don’t blame them. The NFL says that’s not such an easy proposition. Some fields have had grass in the past and it was horrible so they switched to turf instead of improving the grass fields they had.

Much of the problem is cost, especially in cold weather outdoor stadiums. The costs to maintain grass runs into the millions. Saying that, these teams can all afford it and better technology allows for better grass fields.

So the teams that are being forced to switch are making those players happy although they are only switching because FIFA will invest in the fields. Otherwise these teams wouldn’t. The issue will become the few stadiums that will still have turf for the 2026 season. I think at some point it will come to a head and it could lead to a big NFL-NFLPA argument.

As for now though, let’s look at what you all came here to look at: TV schedules that are grass/turf-agnostic. Here we go.

American Networks


Seattle at Cincinnati	1:00	Seattle, Spokane, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown
San Francisco at Cleveland	1:00		All affiliates (except Minneapolis & Detroit)
Minnesota at Chicago	1:00		Minneapolis, Detroit
New England at Las Vegas	4:05	Minneapolis, Cleveland, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
Philadelphia at NY Jets	4:25		All affiliates (except Minneapolis & Detroit)
Detroit at Tampa Bay	4:25		Minneapolis, Detroit

Canadian Networks

Primetime Games (and Morning Game)

Denver at Kansas City	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2 (All affiliates except Toronto), TSN 1/4/+
Baltimore vs. Tennessee (in London)	9:30 AM, NFL Network, TSN 4
NY Giants at Buffalo	8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/3/4/+
Dallas at LA Chargers	8:15, ABC, TSN 1/3/4/5/+

Some Random Analysis

Realistically, this is pretty much the smallest amount of games you could see in the American Networks section. Only thing that would make it lower is if the main afternoon game got every affiliate.
TSN going with Un and Quatre for their games this Sunday. And Plus is there too with Indy-Jag-you-ares. I still wish TSN would have the stones to show two different games in a single window. All it would do is make Canadian NFL fans happier. Who says no? TSN, that’s who.
I’m a Bills fan as you know. And even I’m not looking forward to this Sunday nighter. Woof. Now watch the Giants pile up the points on the Bills defense.
As for the Monday nighter, much better. Two fairly good teams who have better teams in their way are going to try and start their (probable) Wild Card drive with this game right here.
Ravens and Titans in London. I may watch the second half.
Games not being shown here in Canada (unless you have the Reddest of Zones):
- Washington at Atlanta (although you can see this on RDS)
- New Orleans at Houston
- Arizona at LA Rams
Finally, tonight’s game…ho boy. This could be over by the halfway mark of the second quarter. Now look, my stance on what Sean Payton said about Nathaniel Hackett is as follows:
- Was Payton correct in saying Hackett was possibly the worst head coach in NFL history? Yes. Yes he was.
- Should Payton have opened his fat mouth to even say that? No. No he shouldn’t have.
There’s my analysis.

Hopefully we get a good week of football. Maybe we will get some overtime games and close finishes. Maybe even a tie! Wouldn’t that be something! Enjoy the games everyone!

I kind of hate myself for this (the 2023 NFL preview)

Posted on August 14, 2023 by guelphbossman

Ugh. I’ll be honest: I am not an Aaron Rodgers fan. Never really have been. I don’t hate the guy. I respect what he’s done on the football field. I just think he’s fucking weird and can be a complete crybaby pussy when things don’t go his way. Then again, I guess I could say that last part for many pro athletes.

OK Bossman, then why did you put his picture up to start this blog post? Well, as much as I dislike A-A-Ron, he’s still a top tier quarterback. And his move to the New York Jets after what seemed like a bunch of seasons being pissed off with Green Bay management (and rightfully so at times, I will admit) is the biggest offseason move in my opinion. It also makes it so he will be facing my favourite team, the Buffalo Bills, twice every season (and three if they meet in the playoffs). That’s a big deal. There is a shift in the AFC East and the AFC in general that’s a little more than your normal “Team A has improved and should fight for a playoff spot after not making it last year.” This is “Team A has acquired a gamechanger and could compete for the division title if the chips fall in their favour.”

It seems like every season I take a quick look at how I did the previous year with some of my predictions. So why not do that again right now? Because I don’t want to? Too fucking bad, it’s tradition. This is making me sound a bit schizophrenic.

I had Buffalo beating the Rams in the Super Bowl. Good fucking God. I mean yeah the Rams had injuries but what was I thinking?
Had the Chargers losing the AFC title game. Hey, they made the playoffs but lost in an epic collpase against Jacksonville.
In the other conference championship I figured Tampa Bay would make it there and then lose. Actually I had them with the second-best record in the league. They were good…but not that good. Even with Tom Brady.
I also had the Colts and Titans to make the playoffs. Woof.
I did have Houston near the bottom to get the top pick of the NFL Draft. I had the Falcons actually “winning” that pick and they weren’t too far off. Having the Jags, Giants and Seahawks that low though? Damn.

Alright enough of that memory shit. I think I’ll do better this time, no….I WILL do better this time. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the butt. Let’s go with the projected standings where a funny little asterisk beside a team means they get to be a Wild Card team this season (I think):

AFC East		NFC East
Buffalo	13-4	Philadelphia	13-4
NY Jets*	10-7	Dallas*	10-7
Miami*	9-8	NY Giants	8-9
New England	7-10	Washington	7-10
AFC North		NFC North
Cincinnati	12-5	Detroit	10-7
Baltimore*	12-5	Minnesota*	9-8
Pittsburgh	9-8	Green Bay	7-10
Cleveland	8-9	Chicago	6-11
AFC South		NFC South
Jacksonville	10-7	New Orleans	9-8
Tennessee	7-10	Atlanta	8-9
Houston	6-11	Carolina	6-11
Indianapolis	4-13	Tampa Bay	5-12
AFC West		NFC West
Kansas City	13-4	San Francisco	13-4
LA Chargers	9-8	Seattle*	9-8
Denver	8-9	LA Rams	7-10
Las Vegas	5-12	Arizona	3-14

Notes on all this fun and crazy crap

I figured there would be a lot of parity last year. It didn’t quite work out that way with a few teams running away to the top of the league. I can’t see a 14-win team this season but you never know. I have the Bills, Chiefs, 49ers and Eagles all getting to the 13-win mark.
The best race in the AFC will definitely be in the AFC North. Cincinnati and Baltimore look like they should be neck-and-neck to win the division and you can’t totally count out the Steelers either there although they will have to show out and garner a couple of upsets to make it a three-way race.
In the NFC, the North is going to be closest divisional race there too. The Lions might finally be the class of the division although the Vikings are lurking and have been at the top many times over the last decade.
The NFC South should also be a good race but for many of the wrong reasons. I do have the Saints getting over .500 but I could see the division winner having eight wins which I cannot stand.
As for the Wild Card race in the NFC, it’ll be…alright. There’s going to be some eight-win teams in the mix late in December and into January and perhaps even a team like the Packers still alive going into the final week. Yeah, it might be that dire.
In the AFC it won’t be quite the same. The Dolphins, Steelers and Chargers I have fighting down to the wire for that final Wild Card spot with the Broncos and Browns maybe, just maybe, being in the mix as well.
It just feels like the Cardinals are already starting their race to the bottom of the league. Sure I have the Colts, Bucs and Raiders also not doing very well but Arizona…man, I wonder if three wins is too much for them. They could be that bad…even with Kyler Murray as their quarterback.
I thought Josh Allen would win the MVP last season. He had a good year but nothing compared to Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts, who battled it out for the award with Mahomes winning it. This year…I believe Joe Burrow channels his inner “final year at LSU” and goes off for a monster season to lead the Bengals to the AFC North title.
Should I pick a Rookie of the Year? Hey, I did well with my Aidan Hutchinson choice since I think he won one of the various rookie awards (although Sauce Gardner was the real revelation last season). This year I will go with Bijan Robinson on the offensive side of the ball and Jalen Carter on defense.
I should have went with Dan Campbell last year as Coach of the Year. Trust your gut, Bossman! This year my gut says Robert Saleh of the Jets will win it but don’t count out Sean Payton or Dan Campbell yet again.

Playoffpredictionslet’sjustfuckinggo!

Wild Card Round

Buffalo (2) def. Miami (7)

NY Jets (6) def. Cincinnati (3)

Jacksonville (4) def. Baltimore (5)

San Francisco (2) def. Minnesota (7)

Detroit (3) def. Seattle (6)

Dallas (5) def. New Orleans (4)

Divisional Playoffs

Kansas City (1) def. NY Jets (6)

Jacksonville (4) def. Buffalo (2)

Philadelphia (1) def. Dallas (5)

San Francisco (2) def. Detroit (3)

Conference Championships

Kansas City (1) def. Jacksonville (4)

San Francisco (2) def. Philadelphia (1)

Super Bowl LVIII

San Francisco (2) def. Kansas City (1)

Yes the Chiefs will get back to the Super Bowl yet again. It’ll help that I have the Bengals getting upset in the Wild Card Round by the Jets. The Niners will finally get the Super Bowl that has eluded them for almost three decades and they get revenge for the Chiefs beating them four years prior. Jacksonville will get close by getting to the AFC Championship and the Lions will win their first playoff game since 1991. I can feel it. I think.

We are getting closer. That’s right, the first college football schedule of the season is right around the corner. Sure it’s Week Zero but still…it’s WEEK ZERO! As is the norm, I am so looking forward to this season. Hell, I will be on the edge of my seat watching New Mexico State hosting UMass in less than two weeks! That’s how much I am looking forward to college football returning. You all have a great upcoming week!

Sure, let’s do a bit of a draft recap

Posted on May 10, 2023 by guelphbossman

I will get to this man a bit later since he went through quite the night.

As usual, the draft was a fun time…well, the first night was fun then it got steadily less fun until the final rounds when other than NFL Network’s Stump The Truck, almost nothing was really all that fun. But I watched most of it. What can I say, I am way into football. Probably too much but soon enough I will be on my own a lot more so football may be the only thing that keeps me company. God, that’s sad. Let’s move on.

First of all, I will take a look at my mock draft and compare it to the actual draft results and…yep, I got basically nothing right. I couldn’t even get the first two picks right. I had C.J. Stroud going first followed by Bryce Young. I think Carolina made the right pick out of the two but I was sure they had their sights set on Stroud. Funny enough, though, I got two picks exactly right: Zay Flowers to the Ravens at #22 and Wanya Morris to the Chiefs at #92. That really doesn’t make any sense but it’s the truth. Other than that, everything else wrong and some were REALLY wrong.

Reaches

It’s always too soon to look at this but there seem to be picks that were universally thought of as reaches: as in a team picked a player way earlier than they probably would have gone. I know some teams absolutely want a specific player and worry about not getting them that much that they either take them too soon or trade up to get them when they didn’t need to. Still doesn’t mean it wasn’t a stretch for that player. Let’s look at a few that felt obvious.

Darnell Wright (#10 overall to Chicago) – I, along with most others, had Wright pegged as a late-1st round/early-2nd round pick at best. The fact that the Bears also passed on Peter Skoronski, from Northwestern (supposedly Chicago’s Big Ten school) is the real headscratcher here.

Jahmyr Gibbs (#12 to Detroit) – Speaking of headscratchers, it’s like Detroit brought back Matt Millen and his new focus wasn’t wide receivers but running backs. Detroit did not need help at running back but took Gibbs at this point anyway. I had figured he’d end up on the Bills which didn’t thrill me but Gibbs is better than what they have at this point. Anyway, Detroit ended up trading D’Andre Swift to the Eagles because of this pick. I don’t get it.

Deonte Banks (#24 to NY Giants) – Did the Giants need a cornerback? Absolutely. Was Joey Porter Jr. still on the board? Absolutely. Was Kelee Ringo still on the board? Absolutely. Was Cam Smith still on the board? Absolutely. I could go on and on but Banks wasn’t a first rounder and I’d be shocked if he plays like one.

Derick Hall (#37 to Seattle) – The Seahawks didn’t exactly need a defensive end but they decided to pick one anyway. OK, that’s fine. To pick Hall when there were a few other guys on the board who were rated way higher made no sense. Hall was barely a second rounder in most mock drafts.

Steals

On the other hand, we have our draft steals. Every draft has their steals and yes I know Tom Brady was a “steal.” Actually, no, at the time, no one thought he was a steal of a pick. No one. At all. If you say you did, you’re a dirty fucking liar. Again, this is way too early so by the time the next draft occurred, yes, Brady was considered a massive steal. Hell, he would have been a steal as a late second rounder.

Christian Gonzalez (#17 to New England) – The biggest steal of the draft in my opinion. I had him going third overall and many mock drafts had him in the top seven picks. Did the Pats need any help in the secondary? No, but how do you pass on a guy that has dropped approximately 10 spots or so in the first round when you don’t have a huge need? Once again, Bill Belichick is playing 4-D Parcheesi while everyone else is playing Snakes and Ladders.

Dalton Kincaid (#25 to Buffalo) – I was not happy when Bijan Robinson was off the board super early. Man did he go from not even a first rounder like a month ago to Top 10 pick. Anyway, the Bills did the next best thing (that they needed) by getting the best tight end in the draft in Kincaid. Josh Allen could make the guy…well, not a star but a very dependable receiver.

Joey Porter Jr. (#32 to Pittsburgh) – How did the last into the second round? There were easily six different teams that should have taken him and passed. Yeah I’m looking at you New York Football Giants (or GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-Men in honour of Chris Berman). He may make a couple of teams pay for passing on him this coming season.

Jalin Hyatt (#73 to NY Giants) – So the Giants make one of the worst picks of the early part of the draft and then somehow snag Hyatt in the third round. Hey, whatever works. I could have also put Hyatt’s Tennessee Volunteer teammate Cedric Tillman here as he went one spot later to the Browns.

Alright let’s get down to the Will Levis situation. ESPN did this man (and his family) dirty. Well, most of them. I think the girlfriend loved the attention. Still though, to spend four-plus hours in that room and not get your name called has to suck. And ESPN loved it. You know they did. Most people had him going in the #7-#13 range. I had him going to Washington at #16. Then someone on Reddit (I think) tweeted that the Panthers were considering him for the top pick. All of a sudden, people became a lot more interested in him. It also meant that every draft pick that wasn’t him would make him look worse. And yes I know there are others that suffer the same plight but he is, by far, the most hyped of anyone who has had that happen. Also, why didn’t Tennessee move up into the first round to get him? Now they lose a potential option year if he ends up being good. Poor management by the Titans there.

Best Draft

Again, this is way too early but you can kind of tell when a team probably had a good draft (unless one of their top picks is a flop). Here is my list of the top three teams from draft day.

Philadelphia – It feels almost unanimous among experts (which I am not one of) that the Eagles had the best draft. Not only did they continue their Georgia Bulldog-riffic defense picking Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, but they also drafted Bama’s Tyler Steen who could potentially anchor the offensive line soon enough and somehow had Kelee Ringo (another Bulldog) fall into their lap in the fourth round. Finally, Detroit’s stupidity made it so the Eagles got D’Andre Swift in a trade with the Lions. An all-around great few days for possibly the NFC favourites.

Indianapolis – No, this isn’t all about the Anthony Richardson pick although that is what much of the Colts’ draft will hinge on. They had a great draft otherwise, though, with a huge value pick in the fourth round, nabbing Adetomiwa Adeboware. Really, it’s Richardson and Adeboware for the Colts. If they both hit then this will end up being the number one draft crop in hindsight. Otherwise….yikes. Huge risk-reward for a team that feels the time is right to make huge moves.

Pittsburgh – The Eagles’ cross-state rival also had quite the good, if not underrated, draft, looking like the smartest team coming out of the draft. They filled pretty much all their needs in the first three rounds and then got some great value late. Porter is a steal and teams may regret not picking him.

Worst Draft

Very rarely does a team get selected having the worst draft and then it ends up that everyone was wrong in hindsight. So yeah, this is not a good group to be in.

Jacksonville – Third worst on our list is the Jags with a bit of a perplexing draft. Things were looking great for a team that looked like it may run away with the AFC South over the next few years. That may not be the case anymore, and this draft didn’t help matters any. Unfortunately, the Cam Robinson situation forced them to pick O-line early but Anton Harrison may not have been the guy. Tank Bigsby was a pretty bad pick and could have been got two rounds later. And for a team that needed a tight end as another weapon for Trevor Lawrence, getting Brenton Strange isn’t it with other guys on the board. Just weird all around.

Minnesota – Look, they did pretty well with the Jordan Addison pick. Beyond that? Woof. Every other pick was a reach and they really didn’t do anything to help Kirk Cousins beyond getting Addison to hopefully pair with Justin Jefferson. Cousins is in the last year of his contract and this felt like the year the Vikings really had to try and go for it or start building for the future and they did neither.

San Francisco – Just like Philly, it’s a pretty unanimous vote on the other end of the draft grades. The ass end, if you will. The 49ers did a deplorable job this time around. Lucky for them, as long as Brock Purdy and/or Trey Lance are ready to go, this team is ready to battle for the NFC title at the very least. But holy shit, you’d think you would draft one guy that would help the team this coming season. Especially on the offensive line, where they needed help and drafted nobody. But hey, they drafted a kicker. Before the 100th pick. For fuck’s sakes what a joke.

Finally, a quick look at the two networks showing the draft. Most people seemed to be watching ESPN, as per usual. The NFL Network picked up the rest of the viewers. Problem was, the amount of complaints I heard about ESPN were staggering. Yet, these same people obviously outright refused to just, oh I don’t know, turn to the other network with draft coverage. I get that hearing the old NFL Primetime music is great (it really is) but if the coverage sucks then change the channel. My opinion, as you may know, is that the NFL Network has always had better coverage since they started showing the draft. I mean, that’s their whole thing: the NFL. ESPN suffers from trying to put in as many horrific stories about the draftees and too many people involved in the production. At least a quarter of the people involved could have been axed because they sucked at their job on this night.

I think that’s the first draft recap I have done in a long time. I don’t feel like looking. I’m not really a recap kind of guy but I figured what the hell. We are now 107 days away from the college football season and the posts will start coming along more frequently once again. We are getting close to true football season, folks! Not that I’m minding the XFL since it has been pretty good. The USFL, on the other hand, ugh. Have a great rest of the week everyone.

Hey, Let’s Rank the Bowl Games!

Posted on January 12, 2023 by guelphbossman

It’s been a bit since I’ve done this and since I’m currently unemployed and watching my bank account get redder than a super-ripe tomato I figured I have some time to do this.

College football is now over for another season and I am sad. But I have to say it was a pretty good bowl season, despite some in the college football media saying it was bad. Really? I’ve been through some not-so-good bowl seasons and this was not one of them. Then again, some just have to be the counterpoint so that they feel special and/or their life sucks. Oh well, let’s get to the rankings!

Peach Bowl (Georgia 42 Ohio State 41) – This was, without exaggeration, the greatest College Football Playoff game of all-time. It had a bit of everything from two teams throwing haymakers at each other. And when it looked like tOSU had it in the bag, UGA stormed back and took the lead late. And as the clock struck midnight on 2022, the Buckeyes’ season struck midnight as the game-winning field goal attempt went wide left. Just an amazing football game and what college football is all about.
Cotton Bowl (Tulane 46 USC 45) – For most of this game, it felt like a validation of Caleb Williams’ Heisman campaign. Then the Green Wave hit. Down 15 with four minutes to go, Tulane came back to score two touchdowns, the final one with just seconds left, to complete a great comeback and announce their arrival as the newest Group of Five power program.
Fiesta Bowl (TCU 51 Michigan 45) – This is the second of the two semi-final games that makes the best set of semi-finals ever in the College Football Playoff era and it’s not even close. Funny enough, the lead never changed in this game. TCU never trailed which is odd for such a high-scoring, close game. Still an incredible affair and a bit of a surprising result for some.
Liberty Bowl (Arkansas 55 Kansas 53 3OT) – I’ll be honest: once Arkansas went up 38-13 I went to put some laundry on and make something to eat. What an idiot I am. Kansas came all the way back to tie it up. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels threw for an insane 544 yards and still ended up losing. Arkansas did everything they could early on to win and everything late to lose and still ended up winning in the end. One of the wildest bowl games of the last decade and I ended up missing a decent chunk of it. Stupid.
Sun Bowl (Pittsburgh 37 UCLA 35) – This was a wild game that came down to a late Pitt field goal to win it. Honestly it was kind of ho-hum until a bit into the fourth quarter when it went completely off the rails. The Sun Bowl is weird to me: it seems like the game is always either really good or barely mediocre and nothing in between. I still think they should have a Big XII tie-in but that’s a conversation I’ve had here many times before.
Arizona Bowl (Ohio 30 Wyoming 27 OT) – If this game is on a network, a lot more people watch it. Going in, it felt like a bowl that you could forget. Wyoming with a lot of players out and Ohio’s defense somewhat decimated. Instead, it was an exciting close affair. And, to be honest, the commentary, while less informative, was hilarious, especially down the stretch with the two colour commentators being very open as to which team they were hoping to win (and had bet on).
Cheez-It Bowl (Florida State 35 Oklahoma 32) – I mean we were only told that this was a REMATCH OF THE 2001 BCS CHAMPIONSHIP a few times, right? This ended up being, unlike that 2001 affair, a great see-saw battle with the Noles kicking the game-winning field goal late to get the victory and all the Cheez-Its. In a somewhat related note, I like Cheez-Its. A lot. It’s very easy to eat a whole box of those fuckers.
Holiday Bowl (Oregon 28 North Carolina 27) – FOX ends up getting a dandy of a game for their only bowl broadcast of the season. Oregon came back in the final quarter to defeat the Heels on an extra point that doinked off the upright and in. Even then, the Tar Heels had one final shot as they somehow got the ball into Oregon territory with no time left but the Hail Mary didn’t work. Again, another fantastic game.
Gator Bowl (Notre Dame 45 South Carolina 38) – It was seriously loud in Jacksonville for this one. It felt like a huge regular season game. The fans were rowdy and it felt like both teams were desperate to win. And credit to Shane Beamer: he left nothing on the table. He threw every trick play he could at the Irish, including a fake kick/pass for a touchdown. In the end, though, Notre Dame was too much for the Gamecocks. Super fun to watch.
Hawaii Bowl (Middle Tennessee 25 San Diego State 23) – A really good game out in Honolulu on Christmas Eve (as it should be). It felt like the Aztecs were going to run away with this, going up 14 with five minutes left in the first quarter. After that, it was mostly Middle. Another game that ended with a late game-winning field goal. A nice trend to have for bowl season for sure.
Camellia Bowl (Buffalo 23 Georgia Southern 21) – This game was awful close as neither team could pull away until midway through the final stanza. I will be honest: this game would have been much lower had the Eagles not scored a late touchdown and made it interesting near the end.
New Mexico Bowl (BYU 24 SMU 23) – The 1980 Holiday Bowl this was not; however, it was still a fun game to watch…for the final quarter. Up until that point, this looked like a relatively poorly played game where one team will win because the other made too many mistakes. Instead, it was an amazing finish where SMU went for the win on a two-point conversion and came up short. I love to see teams just go for it since this is your final game of the season. Why not leave it all out on the field?
Frisco Bowl (Boise State 35 North Texas 32) – Did you know Austin Aune is 29 years old? Christ, we only heard it a million times. At least it didn’t take away from the actual game which was a really good one. A 36-point third quarter will do that after a rather blah first half.
Bahamas Bowl (UAB 24 Miami-OH 20) – How about this to start the bowl season? A very entertaining game with a wild ending, reminiscent of the Titans loss to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Boca Raton Bowl (Toledo 21 Liberty 19) – This had the advantage of being played in FOOTBAW WEATHER. A lot of rain and muck. I keep forgetting though that, as hilarious and fun as it is to see this type of weather for a football game, it really makes the actual football tough to watch. Luckily, this came down to another great ending (there’s that phrase again) with a failed Liberty two-point conversion being the difference.
Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Maryland 16 NC State 12) – The game wasn’t the greatest, let’s be honest here. It did have a close finish and Mike Locksley got a bunch of mayo dumped on him. Those were the redeeming qualities of this bowl game.
Cure Bowl (Troy 18 UTSA 12) – On paper this was a great Group of Five matchup. Two conference champions. Troy’s defense definitely showed up for this one so if you liked defensive contests, this one was for you.
ReliaQuest Bowl (Mississippi State 19 Illinois 10) – A very emotional game as it was the Bulldogs’ first outing after the death of Mike Leach. The game wasn’t very good but again, it was close. The ending on the other hand? Insane. MSU scored on a fumble return touchdown on the last play for one of the worst bad beats of the season. Some gamblers must have been crying afterwards.
Quick Lane Bowl (New Mexico State 24 Bowling Green 19) – This was a game between two teams who had not been to a bowl game in a few years. And it showed. Both teams put it all out there and the Aggies ended up with a win in their final season as an Independent.
LendingTree Bowl (Southern Miss 38 Rice 24) – Frank Gore Jr. went off in this one, to the tune of 329 rushing yards and a new FBS bowl record. And he told his auntie to chill after the game on national TV. The best night of that young man’s life so far.
Independence Bowl (Houston 23 Louisiana 16) – Another game that languished for about three quarters and had a great finish. I still feel like an idiot for picking the Cougs as my Group of Five Cotton Bowl pick.
Gasparilla Bowl (Wake Forest 27 Missouri 17) – It was a nice send-off for Sam Hartman who will transfer next season to Notre Dame. It will be interesting to see how the Deacs fare next season with some important players leaving.
Alamo Bowl (Washington 27 Texas 20) – There were high hopes for this one and it kind of fell flat. Don’t let the close score fool you since it wasn’t really close at all.
Pinstripe Bowl (Minnesota 28 Syracuse 20) – The Gophers won pretty easily. The highlight for me was people on Twitter telling me that P.J. Fleck was an awful coach. OK then.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Wisconsin 24 Oklahoma State 17) – The Badgers should be better next season with Luke Fickell at the helm. They’ve already brought in a bunch of new players. None of that mattered here as they were able to outlast a Cowboys team that struggled with a capital ‘S’ down the stretch.
Rose Bowl (Penn State 35 Utah 21) – Everything was looking like a classic until Cam Rising went down with an injury. Then things all went to shit for the Utes and Penn State cruised to an easy victory.
Idaho Potato Bowl (Eastern Michigan 41 San Jose State 27) – This was a tale of two sections. The first had the Spartans dominate early, looking like they were going to blow the Eagles out of the water. The second and last section saw EMU score 33 straight points to put this one out of reach. Entertaining for a bit but not enough to warrant a better spot on this list.
Myrtle Beach Bowl (Marshall 28 UConn 14) – I was honestly hyped for this one. I thought it was going to be interesting to see how the Huskies fared in what is basically brand new territory for them. Instead, the game was rather bland and Marshall controlled for most of it.
Orange Bowl (Tennessee 31 Clemson 14) – Clemson ran over 100 plays in this one and only scored 14 points. That feels like it would be impossible to do but there you go. The offense wasn’t better with Cade Klubnik under centre rather than D.J. Uiagalelei so there may need to be significant changes in the offseason for the Tigers. This game might have ranked even lower if it wasn’t for Joe Milton tossing piss rockets all over the place like his arm was an actual cannon.
Birmingham Bowl (East Carolina 53 Coastal Carolina 29) – This looked like it would have been far up the list after the first quarter. Then Grayson McCall went down and it was kind of easy to figure out which team was going to put up the points the rest of the way (hint: not the Chants).
Texas Bowl (Texas Tech 42 Ole Miss 25) – Ole Miss looked completely flat in this one. Like they didn’t want to be there. Texas Tech, on the other hand, looked great and played hard for first-year coach Joey McGuire who has instilled a new confidence in Lubbock. The Red Raiders also did a nice tribute to Mike Leach on their first play, lining up in the Air Raid offense.
Armed Forces Bowl (Air Force 30 Baylor 15) – The classic bowl conundrum: can a team defend against a good option team. In this case it was no. The Falcons wore the Bears down and ran for almost 300 yards in a ho-hum affair.
Sugar Bowl (Alabama 45 Kansas State 20) – Hey, for a while it looked like this was going to be a fun start to college football on New Year’s Eve. Then Bama realized they are Bama and woke up and put an absolute beatdown on the Wildcats.
Military Bowl (Duke 30 UCF 13) – I thought this would be a better game. The Blue Devils ran away with this and it wasn’t even really close. A great turnaround for Duke, I must say.
Fenway Bowl (Louisville 24 Cincinnati 7) – Other than the Scott Satterfield drama, this game was pretty boring. The unique setup of this being at Fenway Park and the potential for FOOTBAW WEATHER didn’t help enough to move this up the rankings.
New Orleans Bowl (WKU 44 South Alabama 23) – South Alabama was the fairly big favorites here and the Hilltoppers ended up mopping the floor with them. This game was good for about 17 or 18 minutes and then that was all she wrote.
LA Bowl (Fresno State 29 Washington State 6) – Man, looking back, that first Saturday of bowl games was not good. Three of the worst bowl games of the season were this day. This was one of them. Wazzu just didn’t really show up for this one.
First Responder Bowl (Memphis 38 Utah State 10) – I’ll be honest: I did not watch more than one minute of the second half of this game. It was over long before that.
College Football Playoff National Championship (Georgia 65 TCU 7) – A beatdown of monumental proportions. I don’t know if I consider it a bowl game but if you do, it’s the biggest bowl game margin of victory ever. I was wondering if the Dawgs would score 80. A rough end to a damn good season.
Las Vegas Bowl (Oregon State 30 Florida 3) – The Gators resorted to kicking a field goal in the final minute of this game. Why? To preserve their record non-shutout streak. Other than that, they were run off the field by the Beavers.
Citrus Bowl (LSU 63 Purdue 7) – “See what those Tigers did? You content with only winning by 56? Let’s beat that!” – Kirby Smart, probably
Music City Bowl (Iowa 21 Kentucky 0) – I think everyone thought it would be bad. It may have been worse than what we thought. Memories of the infamous 2018 Cheez-It Bowl come to mind as this is one of the ugliest, most unwatchable bowl game of all-time.

Hey that wasn’t so bad was it? Then again, I tend to be short and sweet with a lot of these. Maybe it’s because I run out of steam near the end. Who knows. Anyway, enjoy the NFL playoffs coming up and if you still have a hankering for some college football, there are a few all-star games coming up. The Hula Bowl is this Saturday at Noon on CBS Sports Network if that tickles your fancy. Hey, at least it’s something.

A Week Unlike Any Other – Week 18 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on January 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

This has been a very difficult couple of days for everyone involved with the NFL and the fans. Damar Hamlin’s on-field heart attack stunned everyone and really made everyone pause and take account of what really mattered. Football became secondary and it still is.

Hamlin is now showing signs of recovery. This is awesome. And now that it looks like he might just be out of the woods in terms of eventually recovering from this, the NFL went ahead and decided what will be done going forward. And yeah, to say that Twitter has had something to say about it would be an understatement.

Alright, here is the schedule for Week 18 and the points afterwards…well they may be the craziest in the history of this blog:

American Networks


New England at Buffalo	1:00	All affiliates (except Cleveland)
Cleveland at Pittsburgh	1:00	Cleveland
Minnesota at Chicago	1:00		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit
NY Jets at Miami	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
NY Giants at Philadelphia	4:25	All affiliates
LA Rams at Seattle	4:25		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Detroit
Arizona at San Francisco	4:25		Minneapolis
Dallas at Washington	4:25		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle

Canadian Networks

Primetime & Saturday Games

Kansas City at Las Vegas	Saturday, 4:30, ABC, CTV, TSN1/3/4/5
Tennessee at Jacksonville	Saturday, 8:00, ABC, CTV, TSN1/3/4
Detroit at Green Bay	8:15, NBC, CTV2, TSN1/3

Special Last Week of the Regular Season Notes

For the sixth straight year, the NFL has put a lot of thought into what the final week of the regular season will look like. Unfortunately, this has caused a lot of issues and, frankly, it feels like the NFL didn’t do exactly the greatest job here.
The only obvious game to put in its own timeslot is the Titans-Jaguars game. The winner wins the AFC South. Technically, there is a way for the Jags to get the final Wild Card spot and I will explain that later on. So they put Tennessee and Jacksonville Saturday night. So far so good.
The league put the Chiefs-Raiders game on Saturday afternoon. A bit of an odd choice and considering what happened this past Monday, takes on a whole new level of importance. Still, not a bad choice so this is fine.
The Sunday nighter. Ho boy. The NFL obviously went for ratings. Basically they said “Fuck the Seattle Seahawks, we want a money matchup in our final spot.” And they got it. Lions-Packers is not a win-and-you’re-in/lose-and-your out scenario. The Lions have to hope that the Seahawks also lose their game which was slotted on Sunday afternoon. Will the Lions play tough regardless of where they stand? Dan Campbell won’t allow them not to. But that isn’t the point. The point is the NFL decided that instead of putting these games on at the same time, they willingly put two teams over another one for what amounts to cash. Not surprising but kind not the best idea.
As you know by now, the Bills-Bengals game from Monday night was cancelled. It’s been ruled a no contest. Not a tie. It’s like it never happened. This means both teams will finish a 16-game schedule rather than a 17-game schedule. Ramifications for this? Oh you bet there are some.
First of all, there is an interesting situation involving Baltimore and Cincinnati. Cincinnati has now clinched the AFC North. No matter what happens in their game, the Bengals will have a higher winning percentage. This is the main reason why this game wasn’t put on Sunday night (although I have a feeling the NFL was leaning Lions-Packers anyway). Here’s the issue with all this. If the Ravens win this Sunday’s game, and the Wild Card round has the same two teams facing off, there will be a coin toss to determine who the home team is. So the Bengals could become the first division champion to not host a Wild Card game since the league went to seven (and even six) teams in the playoffs per conference.
That’s not all! The AFC Championship is now possibly going to be a neutral site game. This would also be a first-ever. The reason for this is that going into last Monday’s game, Buffalo controlled their own destiny. Win out and they get the only first round bye in the AFC. Now that the game was cancelled, they lose that. So the NFL had to figure out a way to make it so the Bills didn’t completely lose out because of what happened. This is what they came up with: if there is a chance that the Bills (or even the Bengals in one case) could have been the #1 seed after this Sunday’s games, the AFC Championship will be at a neutral site. This will only happen if the AFC title game involves two of the Chiefs, Bills or Bengals. So here are the AFC Championship Neutral Site scenarios:
- If the Chiefs and Bills lose and the Bengals win, then a KC-Buffalo OR a KC-Cincinnati AFC Championship will be at a neutral site.
- If all three teams lose, only a KC-Buffalo AFCCG would be at a neutral site.
- If the Chiefs lose and the Bills win, a KC-Buffalo AFCCG would be in Buffalo and a KC-Cincinnati AFCCG would be in Kansas City.
- If the Chiefs win and the Bills lose, KC would host the AFC Championship if they made it there, no matter who they play.
- If the Chiefs and Bills win, a KC-Buffalo AFCCG would be at a neutral site and a KC-Cincinnati AFCCG would be in Kansas City.
- If only one of these three teams makes it to the AFC Championship, they would host. Got all that?
- Was this the best way of doing things? No, however the NFL adamantly refused to drop the gap between the conference championships and the Super Bowl down to one week. So this is arguably one of the better ways to do this. Is it the best? Who knows. This is all a shitshow. And it’s unprecedented. Remember that. If this happened two months ago, the game would have been somehow rescheduled.

So now let’s look at the final playoff picture, which, obviously, in the AFC is a mess:

AFC	NFC
#1 Kansas City (clinched AFC West)	#1 Philadelphia (clinched playoff berth, leads NFC East)
#2 Buffalo (clinched AFC East)	#2 San Francisco (clinched NFC West)
#3 Cincinnati (clinched AFC North)	#3 Minnesota (clinched NFC North)
#4 Jacksonville (leads AFC South)	#4 Tampa Bay (clinched NFC South)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 LA Chargers (clinched playoff berth)	#5 Dallas (clinched playoff berth)
#6 Baltimore (clinched playoff berth)	#6 NY Giants (clinched playoff berth)
#7 New England/Miami/Pittsburgh	#7 Seattle/Detroit/Green Bay

For the Wild Cards it comes down to the Patriots, Dolphins, Steelers and Jags in the AFC and the Seahawks, Lions and Packers in the NFC. The Patriots and Packers control their own destiny so wins will put them in. If that doesn’t happen, an absolute boatload of possibilities come into play. So let’s go game-by-game and see what we’ve got before us this weekend in terms of clinching scenarios. By the way, I am not including ties here. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

Kansas City at Las Vegas

Kansas City clinches a first round bye with a win OR a Buffalo loss
Kansas City clinches a first round bye and home field advantage with a win AND a Buffalo loss

Tennessee at Jacksonville

Tennessee clinches the AFC South with a win
Jacksonville clinches the AFC South with a win
Jacksonville clinches a playoff berth with a Miami loss AND a New England loss AND a Pittsburgh loss

New England at Buffalo

Buffalo clinches a first round bye and home field advantage with a win AND a Kansas City loss
New England clinches a playoff berth with a win OR (a Miami loss AND a Pittsburgh loss AND a Jacksonville win)

Cleveland at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a Miami loss AND a New England loss

NY Jets at Miami

Miami clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a New England loss

NY Giants at Philadelphia

Philadelphia clinches a first round bye with a win OR (a Dallas loss AND a San Francisco loss)
Philadelphia clinches the NFC East with a win OR a Dallas loss

Dallas at Washington

Dallas clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Philadelphia loss AND a San Francisco loss
Dallas clinches the NFC East with a win AND a Philadelphia loss

LA Rams at Seattle

Seattle clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a Green Bay loss

Arizona at San Francisco

San Francisco clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Philadelphia loss

Detroit at Green Bay

Green Bay clinches a playoff berth with a win
Detroit clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a Seattle loss

As for seeding, things get a bit more difficult. Only two seeds out of 14 are locked in. For something new this season and to make this already-long blog post even longer, here are the seeding scenarios.

NFC

#1 seed

Philadelphia – win
San Francisco – win AND Eagles loss
Dallas – win AND Eagles loss AND 49ers loss

#2 seed

San Francisco – (win AND Eagles win) OR (loss AND Vikings loss)
Philadelphia – loss AND Cowboys loss AND 49ers win
Minnesota – win AND 49ers loss
Dallas – win AND Eagles loss AND 49ers win

#3 seed

Minnesota – loss OR 49ers win
San Francisco – loss AND Vikings win

#4 seed

Tampa Bay locked in

#5 seed

Dallas – loss OR Eagles win
Philadelphia – loss AND Cowboys win

#6 seed

NY Giants locked in

#7 seed

Seattle – win AND Packers loss
Detroit – win AND Seahawks loss
Green Bay – win

AFC

#1 seed

Kansas City – win OR Bills loss
Buffalo – win AND Chiefs loss

#2 seed

Buffalo – (loss AND Bengals win) OR (win AND Chiefs win)
Kansas City – loss AND Bills win
Cincinnati – win AND Bills loss

#3 seed

Cincinnati – loss OR Bills win
Buffalo – loss AND Bengals win

#4 seed

Jacksonville – win
Tennessee – win

#5 seed

LA Chargers – win OR Ravens loss
Baltimore – win AND Chargers loss

#6 seed

Baltimore – loss OR Chargers win
LA Chargers – loss AND Ravens win

#7 seed

New England – win OR (Dolphins loss AND Steelers loss AND Jaguars win)
Miami – win AND Patriots loss
Pittsburgh – win AND Dolphins loss AND Patriots loss
Jacksonville – loss AND Dolphins loss AND Patriots loss AND Steelers loss

Finally, the Texans clinch the #1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft with a loss or a Bears loss. If the Texans win and the Bears lose, Chicago will be on the clock. The Texans are almost assuredly going to take Bryce Young. If the Bears get the #1 pick, who knows what they will do since they won’t be taking a quarterback.

OK, now college football. I usually don’t do previews but I won’t be doing a whole post for the two national championships. The FCS National Championship is on Sunday at 2:00 on ABC. As for the College Football Playoff National Championship, it is at 8:00 Monday night as TCU faces Georgia. The game will appear on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN5. These are all the regular broadcast. You can check out the Field Pass, Command Center, SkyCast and All-22 broadcasts on TSN.ca. No Coaches Film Room and no Coaches Film Room with Open Bar this season which makes me sad. As for a prediction, I would love to say the Horned Frogs will pull this out. I would love to say Sonny Dykes finishes one of the most improbable seasons in college football history with a victory and a national title. Instead I think Georgia will repeat. It will be close but I see the Dawgs winning 38-34.

UPDATE: Well, not an update but more of an oversight on my part. The game begins at 7:30, not 8:00. Interesting choice considering it’s in Los Angeles.

Alright, if you read all this, you are prepared for the insanity that is coming up in the NFL. Have fun watching the games everyone!

That was some kind of week wasn’t it – the Week 16 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on December 22, 2022 by guelphbossman

This picture might be from the craziest part of one of the crazier weekends in NFL history. Let’s take a quick stroll down (relatively recent) memory lane:

It started with the greatest comeback in NFL history. Minnesota was down 33-0 at halftime to the woeful Indianapolis Colts. This felt like one of the bigger upsets of the season. The Vikings would claw all the way back and beat the Colts in overtime to erase the Buffalo Bills’ Wild Card comeback against the Houston Oilers back in 1993 from the record books. Poor Frank Reich. His comeback record is gone thanks to the team that fired him earlier this season for a guy who had never coached at the pro level. He is not having a good last half of 2022.
The Bills Mafia was getting a bit rowdy during Saturday night’s game between the Bills and the Dolphins. The referee had to stop the game to warn fans not to throw snowballs as if one hit a Dolphins player it would have been a 15-yard penalty. The snow picked up in the second half, the snowballs thrown decreased and the Bills beat the Dolphins in a great affair that clinched them a playoff spot.
Every game in the early Sunday window was a one-possession game. I don’t remember that ever happening. It also provided us with two near-upsets as the Bears and Texans almost pulled off the near-impossible against the Eagles and Chiefs, respectively. We did end up seeing an actual upset as the Jaguars keep their playoff hopes alive by outlasting the Cowboys in a wild shootout. Finally, more clock management buffoonery, this time by Robert Saleh as his not using timeouts in a timely manner probably cost the Jets at least a chance to go to overtime with the Lions.
Tom Brady had been 89-0 when leading by at least 17 points at home. Eighty-nine and oh. Crazy. Now it’s 89-1, though, after Joe Burrow and the Bengals outscored the Bucs 34-6 the rest of the way in yet another come-from-behind victory.
And finally, let’s get to the pic at the start and the worst lateral (if not worst bonehead play) in NFL history. I still don’t quite get what Jakobi Meyers was doing there. When Rhamondre Stevenson lateraled the ball to Meyers, Meyers was a few yards away. Meyers had to heave the ball back to (he hoped) Mac Jones and it didn’t even make it there. Just completely perplexing and an absolute stroke-of-luck at the gong of midnight for the Raiders.

So yeah it was a whole heap of fun to watch it all. I almost needed a smoke afterwards. Now let’s get to the schedule for this week and yeah it looks different than normal thanks to this thing called Christmas. Let’s go!

American Networks


New Orleans at Cleveland	1:00	Cleveland
Buffalo at Chicago	1:00	Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown
Cincinnati at New England	1:00	Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
Seattle at Kansas City	1:00		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Boston
NY Giants at Minnesota	1:00		Minneapolis, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Presque Isle
Detroit at Carolina	1:00		Detroit
Washington at San Francisco	4:05	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit
Philadelphia at Dallas	4:25		All affiliates

Canadian Networks

Primetime & Christmas Games!

Jacksonville at NY Jets	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN1/4
Las Vegas at Pittsburgh	Saturday, 8:15, NFL Network, CTV2, TSN1/4
Green Bay at Miami	Sunday, 1:00, FOX, CTV, TSN1/3
Denver at LA Rams	Sunday, 4:30, CBS, CTV, TSN1
Tampa Bay at Arizona	Sunday, 8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN1/3/4/5
LA Chargers at Indianapolis	Monday, 8:15, TSN3

Non Eggnog Stuff

Fuck, I hate eggnog.
So since I can’t seem to figure out the way to indent things properly yet (and I don’t feel like fiddling around with it anymore out of frustration), I will just mention that the games we can’t get in Canada (unless you have the almighty RedZone) are the Texans-Titans and Falcons-Ravens. Unless you are clamoring to see if the Texans can pretty much wrap up the top pick in the draft, or you like bird teams, it doesn’t matter to you.
Christmas being on a Sunday has really messed with the schedule this week. A reminder to you that all the games in the two main sections are on SATURDAY, not Sunday. So don’t get pissed off if you are eating the cookies left out for Santa (you pig) and see that there are highlights of all the games that you missed because you didn’t read this. I’ve warned you.
The NFL is going to mop the damn floor with the NBA on Christmas Day. Guaranteed.
For once, most people actually want to see an Eagles-Cowboys game. Not all, because some people still can’t stand either team or their fanbase and that’s fair. Too bad for them though because damn near everyone gets that game in the late window.
The 4:30 Sunday game is also the Nickolodeon regular season game. It’s going to suck for all the kids watching when there’s no slime because neither team scores a touchdown.

We are getting close to the end of the season. Three weeks to go! Let’s look at what the playoff picture is looking like:

AFC	NFC
#1 Buffalo (leads AFC East/clinched playoff berth)	#1 Philadelphia (leads NFC East/clinched playoff berth)
#2 Kansas City (clinched AFC West)	#2 Minnesota (clinched NFC North)
#3 Cincinnati (leads AFC North)	#3 San Francisco (clinched NFC West)
#4 Tennessee (leads AFC South)	#4 Tampa Bay (leads NFC South)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Baltimore	#5 Dallas (clinched playoff berth)
#6 LA Chargers	#6 NY Giants
#7 Miami	#7 Washington

And here is your list of eliminated teams starting with the, uh, most eliminated I guess:

Houston
Chicago
Denver
LA Rams
Arizona

The Texans can actually already clinch the #1 pick if the lose and the Bears win their game. Not likely but you never know. Now, on the other end of the spectrum, here are the clinching scenarios:

First Round Bye

Philadelphia clinches with a win

Division Title

Philadelphia clinches the NFC East with a win
Buffalo clinches the AFC East with a win OR a Miami loss

Playoff Berth

NY Giants clinch with (a win AND a Washington loss AND a Detroit loss) OR (a win AND a Washington loss AND a Seattle loss) OR (a win AND a Detroit loss AND a Seattle loss)
Cincinnati clinches with a win OR a NY Jets loss
Baltimore clinches with (a win AND a New England loss AND a NY Jets loss) OR (a win AND a New England loss AND a Miami loss) OR (a win AND a NY Jets loss AND a Miami loss) OR (a NY Jets loss AND a New England loss AND a Cleveland loss AND a Las Vegas loss AND a LA Chargers win AND a Tennessee loss)
LA Chargers clinch with a win AND a Las Vegas loss AND a NY Jets loss AND a New England loss

Elimination

New Orleans is eliminated with a loss AND a Tampa Bay win
Atlanta is eliminated with (a loss AND a Tampa Bay win) OR (a loss AND a Carolina win AND a New Orleans win)
Green Bay is eliminated with a loss AND a Washington win
Indianapolis is eliminated with a loss OR a Tennessee win OR a Jacksonville win
NY Jets are eliminated with a loss AND a LA Chargers win AND a Miami win AND a New England win AND (a Baltimore win OR a Cleveland loss)
Pittsburgh is eliminated with a loss OR (a LA Chargers win AND a Miami win) OR (a LA Chargers win AND a New England win AND a NY Jets win)
Cleveland is eliminated with a loss OR (a Baltimore win AND a LA Chargers win AND a Miami win) OR (a Baltimore win AND a LA Chargers win AND a New England win AND a NY Jets win)
Las Vegas is eliminated with a loss AND a LA Chargers win AND (a Miami win OR a NY Jets win OR a New England win)

So a lot of things can happen over the next few days but there’s still a lot of intrigue that will be left for the final two weeks no matter what. One thing that might not happen: a team in the NFC South having a winning record.

Alright, there you go. Enjoy the games (both NFL and bowl) everyone!

Even Success Won’t Save You (the NFL Week 14 TV Schedule)

Posted on December 8, 2022 by guelphbossman

Do you know who this is? Some will. If you don’t, it’s Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson. Sorry…FORMER Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson. I get that you might not recognize him because most NFL general managers are unrecognizable other than Dallas’ GM.

It’s very interesting timing for this shitcanning since the Titans are doing relatively well and should win the AFC South in a cakewalk. But that isn’t enough for this franchise and a few of his past moves looked terrible and one in particular came back to haunt him. His draft day trade of AJ Brown to Philadelphia looked bad at the time and looks like one of the worst trades of the last decade now, especially after Brown torched the Titans for two touchdowns in the Eagles’ destruction of Tennessee this past week. That’s not the only reason for him being let go but I’m sure it was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak.

So there you go: if you are a GM you better do well and continue to do well and not have any moves seriously backfire like that. If you’re a coach, no problem. You’ll get second and even third chances depending on the circumstances (i.e. Did you coach under Bill Belichick? Hot damn, here’s a big contract despite the fact you are an abject disaster as a head coach.). OK, schedule time.

American Networks


NY Jets at Buffalo	1:00	Seattle, Spokane, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
Cleveland at Cincinnati	1:00	Cleveland
Philadelphia at NY Giants	1:00		All affiliates (except Minneapolis & Detroit)
Minnesota at Detroit	1:00		Minneapolis, Detroit
Kansas City at Denver	4:05	Minneapolis, Detroit
Carolina at Seattle	4:25	Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane
Tampa Bay at San Francisco	4:25		Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle

Canadian Networks

Primetime Games

Las Vegas at LA Rams	Thursday, 8:20, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN1
Miami at LA Chargers	8:15, NBC, CTV2, TSN1/4/5
New England at Arizona	Monday, 8:15, CBS Boston, TSN1/3/4

The Briefing

Let’s start with the game that was flexed into the Sunday Night Football spot. This game is massive for playoff seeding and what will happen going forward in the AFC East and AFC West. The Chargers are being flexed into SNF for the second time this season so, despite their record, the NFL thinks they are a good team. This was a great idea since the original SNF matchup, the Chiefs and the Broncos, would probably have been awful.
You will notice that the MNF matchup also allows people who get their CBS affiliate out of Boston to watch this game.
The NFL has to hope that the Thursday nighter is close because this looks awful on paper. The dysfucntional Raiders against a team who has lost a ton of players to injuries in the Rams. I’ll watch it because nothing else is on but man, that’s rough (and reminiscent of Thursday Night Football back around the time it started).
The Jets and Bills were the other possibility to be flexed to become the Sunday nighter. Instead they are the big early game and are being shown damn near everywhere. Which is impressive since the early schedule is not a bad one in the least.
Unfortunately, the late schedule is a different story. Again the majority of the country is getting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A mediocre team playing in a shitty division that the networks fucking slobber over. Well, they slobber over Tom Brady but you get the idea.

Alright let’s take a quick look at the playoff picture.

AFC	NFC
#1 Buffalo (AFC East)	#1 Philadelphia (NFC East)
#2 Kansas City (AFC West)	#2 Minnesota (NFC North)
#3 Baltimore (AFC North)	#3 San Francisco (NFC West)
#4 Tennessee (AFC South)	#4 Tampa Bay (NFC South)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Cincinnati	#5 Dallas
#6 Miami	#6 NY Giants
#7 NY Jets	#7 Seattle

We finally have two teams eliminated from playoff contention in the Texans and Bears. Along with the Broncos and Rams (uh, I mean Lions), they will all be competing, in essence, for the #1 pick in next year’s draft. Houston currently has a 1.5 game lead over Chicago with four weeks to go. Three more teams could be officially eliminated but having only five teams eliminated with four weeks to go seems like a low amount to me.

At the opposite end, you have a few teams who could punch tickets this weekend. The Chiefs clinch the AFC West with a win and a Chargers loss. This is shocking since I, along with many others, thought the AFC West would be one of the most competitive divisions in the league. Doesn’t help that the Raiders have a terrible head coach, the Broncos let Russ cook (fish in the microwave) and the Chargers are just, well, average. In the NFC, the Eagles and Vikings clinch playoff berths with wins. That will be the big storyline going down to the end, at least at the top of the NFC, is who will get that singular first round bye.

Ugh, I have to put up the Christmas tree. I hate doing it. Let’s just say there’s history from a long time ago that makes me hate the process. December just brings a lot of stress into many of our lives, mine included, so watching football is a great escape. I just have to make sure I use the rest of my time in a constructive manner. Have a great rest of the week and enjoy the games everyone!

Now what? (and the Week 2 NFL TV schedule)

Posted on September 15, 2022 by guelphbossman

The Cowboys, in my mind, felt like a pretty clear favorite to win the NFC East. I didn’t think they’d make hay in the playoffs at all but they would get there yet again. But now, there is no Dak Prescott for the next month-and-a-half at least. So we shouldn’t expect to see him before November. What does this do to the Cowboys? What does this do to the NFC East? Well, for that last question, this opens the door for an Eagles team that looked like a borderline playoff contender this year, and even may open the door for the ~~Football Team~~ Commanders and Giants to make a move in a season where both teams didn’t exactly look like playoff possibilities. The Cowboys are not planning on signing a quarterback (so keep your Kaepernick-to-the-Cowboys fantasies to yourself) and going with Cooper Rush until Dak returns. This could end up being a loooooooong season in the Metroplex.

OK let’s get down to business. Last week was a great set of games. Let’s see if we can make it two-for-two. The week two schedule followed by some notes tastier than brisket (man, they must be pretty tasty then):

American Networks


New England at Pittsburgh	1:00	All affiliates (except Cleveland)
NY Jets at Cleveland	1:00	Cleveland
Tampa Bay at New Orleans	1:00		Minneapolis
Washington at Detroit	1:00		Detroit
Carolina at NY Giants	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington
Seattle at San Francisco	4:05		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane
Atlanta at LA Rams	4:05		Boston
Cincinnati at Dallas	4:25	All affiliates (except Seattle)
Houston at Denver	4:25	Seattle

Canadian Networks

Primetime Games

LA Chargers at Kansas City	Thursday, 8:20, CTV2, TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
Chicago at Green Bay	8:20, NBC, CTV2, TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
Tennessee at Buffalo	Monday, 7:15, TSN1, TSN4
Minnesota at Philadelphia	Monday, 8:30, ABC, TSN3, TSN5

Tastier than Brisket Notes

Cincinnati-Dallas will capture the most eyeballs in the late window on both the American and Canadian networks. With the aforementioned Prescott injury this isn’t as spicy a matchup now but the alternatives are Cards-Raiders (OK not bad) or Texans-Broncos (oof). So consider yourself lucky…except for you west coast people who don’t get this game.
Games not being shown here in Canada (unless you have RedZone):
- Indianapolis at Jacksonville
- Arizona at Las Vegas
In the early slate, it’s no surprise the Patriots-Steelers game gets the most play. Two of the biggest fan bases among Canadian NFL fans. Plus it spares many people from witnessing the Commanders and the Lions (sorry to the people who get CTV out of Kitchener or Ottawa or CBS out of Detroit).
Yes there are two Monday Night Football games this week. I hate this. It makes no sense. This is ABC/ESPN’s way of getting that two-game MNF matchup without having to have the second game start at 10:30. Still stupid.
Speaking of Monday night, the Titans-Bills game will also be on NBC if you get your NBC affiliate out of Buffalo.

There’s your schedule. I hope it turns out to be as good as last week’s set of games. Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey, what happened in the NFL offseason? Probably nothing.

Posted on August 29, 2022 by guelphbossman

Oh wait, it’s the NFL…all sorts of shit happens in the offseason. It’s a year-long drama with this league. Even soap operas look at some of this stuff and say “that’s unrealistic.”

Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback (and I use that term this season loosely) will be suspended for the first eleven games of the 2022 NFL season because of his issue with masseuses. Big issues. Bad issues. “If they’re true” some will say. I don’t remember players in football getting suspended for more than half a season for something they didn’t do.

Tom Brady decided to retire then got pissy because Adam Schefter broke the news too early I guess. So he unretired. There’s more to it but still, I am 99.9% sure that’s part of it.

Sean Payton is no longer the coach of the New Orleans Saints. You watch that movie about him going to coach his son’s team while he was suspended for a year? He was played by Kevin James. It was not good.

Brian Flores sued the NFL for racial discrimination. It will be interesting to see where this goes as it’s not a good look for the league. Now if he sued Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for being a complete shitbag, then he’d win no problem.

Aaron Rodgers again played coy and acted like he’d leave the Green Bay Packers. He didn’t although he very well could have and made a lot of many elsewhere. A-A-Ron also knows that Matt LaFleur will put up with his bullshit for another season so that helps.

Receivers now making crazy money, Russell Wilson out of Seattle, Baker Mayfield out of Cleveland (and no more commercials from that stadium I assume), Matt Ryan ending up in Indy, Washington getting a new team name and still being a gongshow of an organization, the playoff overtime format changing (thankfully) and many other things happened as well. So yeah…calm.

OK enough of all that because we are almost ready for the NFL season! September 8th, the Bills travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams to start the new season. I am very much looking forward to this and you might see why from the upcoming predictions. Let’s get right to them (as per usual, an * means that team was able to snag a Wild Card spot…good for them):

AFC East		NFC East
Buffalo	13-4	Philadelphia	10-7
New England	9-8	Dallas*	10-7
Miami	9-8	Washington	7-10
NY Jets	6-11	NY Giants	5-12
AFC North		NFC North
Baltimore	10-7	Green Bay	12-5
Cincinnati*	10-7	Minnesota*	9-8
Cleveland	8-9	Detroit	6-11
Pittsburgh	8-9	Chicago	5-12
AFC South		NFC South
Indianapolis	10-7	Tampa Bay	12-5
Tennessee*	10-7	New Orleans	8-9
Jacksonville	5-12	Carolina	7-10
Houston	4-13	Atlanta	4-13
AFC West		NFC West
Kansas City	11-6	LA Rams	12-5
LA Chargers*	11-6	San Francisco*	9-8
Las Vegas	9-8	Arizona	9-8
Denver	9-8	Seattle	5-12

Notes on those standings predictions:

Yep, I have the Buffalo Bills as the only 13-win team in the league. I know that probably won’t happen. They may win 14!
The NFC will be a bit clogged at the top with three teams trying to get the only first round bye. I have the Bucs getting that first round bye thanks to a complicated set of tiebreakers that ends with a game of dizzy bat.
I foresee quite a few close division races with the AFC North, AFC South, AFC West, and NFC East all ending up tied at the end of the season. Not having a home playoff game can be seriously rough so feel bad for the Bengals, Titans, Chargers, and Cowboys if you feel like it.
As it normally is, the Wild Card races should be fun. I have the Titans and Bengals being one game up on the Patriots, Dolphins, Raiders, and Broncos to nab the final two spots. In the NFC, the Vikings and Niners do just enough to stay ahead of the Cardinals to make the playoffs.
The race to the bottom pits Houston against Atlanta, although the Jags, Giants and Seahawks will try their best to dive to bottom of the NFL ocean. I have the Falcons “winning” the #1 pick for next year’s draft and the chance to, at this point, bring in Bryce Young as their franchise quarterback.
I think Josh Allen beats out a bevy of other quarterbacks to win the MVP. Tom Brady, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow will be close but not enough to overtake the man who I believe will take the Bills to the best record in the league.
Rookie of the Year is, as I always say, a complete crapshoot. I will go with the players that I believe will play the most. So I am picking Aidan Hutchinson on the defensive side and Kenny Pickett on the offensive side.
Coach of the Year? Ah, why not, I’m good at getting these predictions wrong, what’s one more? I’ll go with Sean McDermott of the Bills since, other than Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions, I don’t see another team having a big improvement from the previous year.

And now it’s time to go to the playoff predictions. Last year’s were…not good. Let’s hope for better time around.

Wild Card Round

Kansas City (2) def. Tennessee (7)

Cincinnati (6) def. Baltimore (3)

LA Chargers (5) def. Indianapolis (4)

Green Bay (2) def. San Francisco (7)

LA Rams (3) def. Minnesota (6)

Dallas (5) def. Philadelphia (4)

Divisional Round

Buffalo (1) def. Cincinnati (6)

LA Chargers (5) def. Kansas City (2)

Tampa Bay (1) def. Dallas (5)

LA Rams (3) def. Green Bay (2)

Conference Championships

Buffalo (1) def. LA Chargers (5)

LA Rams (3) def. Tampa Bay (1)

Super Bowl

Buffalo (1) def. LA Rams (3)

Yes for the second year in a row I have the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. I feel better about this year’s prediction than last year’s. Then again, last year I picked Seattle to go to the Super Bowl so it’s a low bar to begin with. At least now if they go to overtime, they know they will get a chance to score.

I hope you enjoyed Week Zero of the college football season. It was…technically college football. I wonder if Scott Frost was left in Ireland. Anyway, soon enough we get back to in the old rotation of things and all will feel right in the world. Have a great week everyone!

So how are they going to follow that?

Posted on January 28, 2022 by guelphbossman

Last weekend’s games were the most ridiculous set of playoff games ever. In history. Nothing comes close. I won’t get into the fact that the NFL’s overtime rules are crap but nevertheless, it was exciting football from the start of the Bengals-Titans game to the end of one of the greatest playoff games of all-time, the Bills-Chiefs game. Can they follow it up with something even more special? Not fucking likely but even if it came close it would be something to behold. Here’s the sked:

Sunday


AFC Championship: Cincinnati at Kansas City (3:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates
NFC Championship: San Francisco at LA Rams (6:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates

A few notes

You see the times there. They get such good ratings (and no complaints from fans as far as I know) that they do it on Divisional Round Sunday as well. I can’t remember the article off hand, but someone proposed at least one NFL regular season week having these timeslots. It would also include two or three games at 11:30 and one starting at 10:00 (all times EST). Interesting proposal and I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen once just to see how it goes.
As per usual, CBS and FOX have the conference championship games. This won’t change until the contracts for either CBS or FOX (or both) are up. CTV has both games as well which is the norm of the past little while as well.
For the third year in a row, NFL Primetime will air on TSN2 at 10:00. No, it’s not quite the NFL Primetime of old but still not bad. I wish they would take it off ESPN+ and put it on regular cable somewhere so we can watch it up here but oh well.

I am a bit sad that the Buffalo Bills aren’t going back to the AFC Championship. What a game it was, though. I think my blood pressure was off the charts for the final part of that game. And yes, I have not liked the NFL overtime rules since they changed them so it’s not just because the Bills lost.

When it comes to the college game, it’s time for weird all-star games! Bizarre rules but still, it’s football and this is where you start to learn about many of the draft-eligible players. This Saturday is the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at 6:00. It is on the NFL Network and is played in the Rose Bowl. On Thursday, at 8:00, the East-West Shrine Game is on the NFL Network. And then on Saturday February 5th, there are two all-star games. The Senior Bowl starts at 2:30 and that is followed afterwards by the HBCU Legacy Bowl. Both games are on the NFL Network as well. And then….no more college football. I’m sure I’ll shed a tear at that point.

Alright, everyone enjoy the games this weekend!