Time To Send In The Turkeys!

It is another weekend and I am down on sports. I know why. Besides the dearth of real exciting games right now and COVID-19 cancellations, it is the blahs before Thanksgiving and the sports world is in a tailspin.

Sure, there is the usual spate of college football cancellations. It is the frightening weekly occurrence of coaches and players falling prey to the disease as we await winter and anticipate the advance of vaccines.  

The NFL is clamping down even harder on teams, fearful that their product will not make it to the Super Bowl where The Weeknd will be performing at halftime. Calamitous.  

Look at this Sunday’s return match between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders in the desert. These two divisional rivals hate each other. Really. When Vegas won in Kansas City earlier this season, ending a lengthy period of futility at Arrowhead Stadium, the team buses circled the stadium in a joyous celebration. 

That has not sat well with Chiefs’ head man Andy Reid, who let his displeasure be known this week. Not a good thing to anger Mr. Reid.

Especially when the Raiders may be without significant defensive players for the game. Wanna believe Patrick Mahomes and the KC offense isn’t stoked over that prospect? Expect the Chiefs to run up the score in any way possible. 

And let’s not count out the KC defense either. They have a score to settle and they are going to be angry. This makes for great theater for CBS in the doubleheader game. 

I watched Thursday night’s Arizona-Seattle with a modicum of interest. These are supposed to be two of the best teams in the NFC. Maybe they are, but neither really impressed me. Sure the QB’s are pretty good; both are former baseball players in college who could easily have made it to the big leagues. Experience wise, I think that Russell Wilson is better than Kyler Murray. I also felt that the Seahawks defense was better prepared to handle Murray and the Seattle wide receivers had a good night due to Wilson’s acumen. 

What I also came away with was that the Jets have to play both Arizona (home) and Seattle (away) later in the season. Those will be blowout losses. NYJ is confronting the issue of what to do with Sam Darnold and his shoulder. Joe Flacco will be under center in Inglewood when the Jets visit the 2-7 Chargers. LA is in need of a victory and the Jets should provide them with such a moment, although in this pandemic year, it would be just enough karma for the Jets to do the unthinkable and win. Especially now that the Chargers leading tackler has COVID-19.

The suddenly relevant New York Giants are in a bye week. But not out of the news. Head Coach Joe Judge decided he wasn’t satisfied with the offensive line, so he brought in another coach with experience to augment the instruction his players were receiving; after all, the object is to keep QB Daniel Jones upright in order to have any chance to win the NFC East.

Well, that didn’t go over well with the then-offensive line coach, who had a heated disagreement with Judge. Some say punches were thrown; the Giants vehemently deny that was the case. Anyway, that line coach is now an unemployed line coach.

More importantly, right after he signed a contract extension , Giants kicker Graham Gano, having a Pro Bowl type season, was diagnosed with COVID-19. Then three other players were similarly diagnosed. All are on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Luckily for the Giants, this is the bye week. It still will have a major impact on how the team fares going forward. For now, team facilities are closed until Monday. 

Everywhere in the NFL, players are on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Star defender Myles Garrett of Cleveland is one standout who unfortunately has contracted the disease. It isn’t going to get any better. I hope all recover and can play again.

Returning to college football, Pennsylvania mask mandates are requiring Virginia Tech and Pitt to play with masks on—the first game in the pandemic to do so. The Eagles and Steelers, along with Penn State believe that they are not under the mandate. State officials disagree. Stay tuned on this one. 

After 15 of 59 college games last week were canceled or postponed, this week the number was at 16 of 63 on Thursday. The PAC-12, desperate for its teams to play—see the Cal-UCLA quick rescheduling last weekend—is willing to let its teams play non-conference games instead when a conference foe has to cancel due to COVID-19. Yet, when Clemson reported a positive test for a player on Friday before Trevor Lawrence returned against Florida State in Tallahassee, the medical staffs for the Tigers and Seminoles could not agree on a comfort level to play the game. Again, what is the message here?

I will return to college football in a bit.  We are in the free agency period in the NBA after the NBA Draft was held on the campus of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut on Wednesday. Players are finding new homes, whether by signing for bigger deals, or the result of trades. Teams are going to look dramatically different than they did last season. Even if Anthony Davis of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers did not re-up with the champs. It’s only a matter of time, Laker Nation, before he has a deal paralleling Lebron James in both time and money. Don’t get crazy. 

Speaking of crazy, Houston’s James Harden and Russell Westbrook want out of Southeast Texas. Harden has made his demands known—he wants to join the Brooklyn Nets with former teammate Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Brooklyn made a major move by re-signing Joe Harris. But they don’t have the players to send to Houston plus the draft choices that the Rockets would want as compensation. 

As for Westbrook, he has been mentioned with the Knicks and Wizards, the latter involving a swap of star guards, with John Wall heading to Texas. This is all premature, as the owner of the Rockets was hurt by the trade demands and even reminded the two starts that they may have to come to training camp in December, as they are still under contract to Houston. 

A sad note is that Klay Thompson is lost to the Warriors for this year, after suffering an Achilles tendon injury in a pick up game this week in Southern California. Thompson had made it back from his gruesome leg injury in the 2019 playoffs, only to suffer this devastating injury. Just like his NBA brethren who showered Klay with best wishes, I hope he comes back. The guy is a determined player whose greatness will be greatly missed. 

Due to the pandemic and border restrictions, the Toronto Raptors, like the Blue Jays, will have to play their home games in the U.S. this season. While the Prudential Center in Newark was discussed, which would have saved every visiting team a lot of travel costs with three teams in the New York Metropolitan area, the Raptors are playing this season in Tampa. 

MLB is also beginning its free agency mad dash. With Robinson Cano having been banned for the season due to a positive steroid test, the suddenly money-infused New York Mets might be stiff competitors for AL batting Champion D.J. Le Mahieu. Other suitors include the Blue Jays and Nationals. The word out there is that he prefers the Yankees, where he was very comfortable. I prefer him there, too. 

The Dodgers, who suddenly laid off 500 employees in a coronavirus-related move, are hot again over obtaining Nolan Arieindo from the Rockies. Could this mean bye bye for free agent Justin Thomas?

With the Yankees, Aroldis Chapman’s suspension was reduced to two games for his intent to decapitate Tampa Bay’s Mike Brousseau. I am more concerned in the coming months that I don’t hear about new injuries for Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge among other important players. NYY is too injury-plagued and I don’t get it. 

The NHL is having all sorts of issues. Commissioner Gary Bettman wants an additional 13% salary deferral, added onto the 10% salary deferral and other concessions already agreed upon between the league and the NHLPA. The players are not happy about this and the January 1 starting date is in jeopardy.

In New Jersey, interscholastic wrestling, a high contact sport, has been pushed back to March, probably in hopes that the COVID-19 vaccines will be administered. Someone had thought about a state tournament outdoors. March and early April can be a bit cold in these parts. 

Another high school football tradition has fallen to the virus. Easton, PA versus Phillipsburg. Two towns separated by a bridge over the Delaware River, with an intense rivalry, since everyone seemingly knows everyone. Usually held at Fisher Field on the campus of Lafayette College, the annual Thanksgiving game was first moved to Phillipsburg, then ultimately canceled for the first time in over 100 years. 

With so many crowd size restrictions in place along with shortened schedules, I wonder how many traditional high school rivalries will continue. In my youth, I was obviously aware of Highland Park-Metuchen, since I attended Highland Park High School. So many others were played: New Brunswick-South River; Perth Amboy-Carteret; J.P. Stevens-Edison; South Brunswick-North Brunswick; East Orange-Barringer; Bloomfield-Montclair; Vineland-Millville; Westfield-Plainfield; North Plainfield-South Plainfield, etc. Due to the NJSIAA playoffs and scheduling difficulties, these rivalries are mostly defunct. Which, to many of us older fans, is sad. 

Which brings me back to college football. Thanksgiving in my youth meant Cornell-Penn at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Due to dwindling attendance, that historical rivalry is no longer contested on Thanksgiving. 

So the first Thanksgiving Day game was Yale playing Princeton. Yale won the inaugural game, but then the Yale faculty decided not to let the team play on the holiday. The first game was held in Hoboken. They played 11 more times, all before 1900. 

Cornell-Penn still ranks number one in most games held on Thanksgiving. They met 59 times. The last one was held in 1989, at the behest of ESPN, who televised the game.

The most consistently played affair is Mississippi State-Mississippi in the Egg Bowl. Normally a hotly contested rivalry, it has been played on Thanksgiving Day 27 times. 

A game that was a constant for 54 years was Texas-Texas A&M. Until the Aggies bolted for the SEC, the bitter rivals met 54 times on Turkey Day. Both have substituted other schools for the Thanksgiving opponent, but Texas Tech, TCU and Arkansas and LSU aren’t as appealing. 

Other frequent Thanksgiving meetings included Virginia Tech-VMI (56 times); Utah-Utah State (36 times); Pitt-Penn State (33 meetings); Missouri-Kansas (32 meetings). Iowa State and Drake met in Des Moines 11 times, which was a 34 minute drive for the Cyclones. Richmond and William & Mary had met 25 times on Thanksgiving , with I-64 being the route most traveled.

Here are some other weird matchups: Maryland-Johns Hopkins (12-1 UM); Vanderbilt-Sewanee (10-3 Vandy, including a 68-4 win); Lafayette-Dickinson (14-1 LC); St.Mary’s-Oregon (4-1 SMC); Washington & Lee-NC State ((6-1 W&L); Davidson-Wake Forest (10-4 DC); and Georgia Tech-Clemson met on Thanksgiving Day 10 times, with the Yellow Jackets winning 8. Bet that won’t happen anymore. 

Finally, two other notables. Alabama State hosts a HBCU opponent every Thanksgiving. Alabama is 27-9 on Thanksgiving Day, having played Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Mississippi State among the notables. The Crimson Tide has a winning record against all but Mississippi State, who ruined Tide fans celebrations in 1913, 1914 and 1921. 

I think I have stuffed enough information into this blog. Enjoy your holiday celebrations and be smart and safe. Watch a little pro football, since there is no college football for Thanksgiving 2020. Houston visits Detroit to take on the Lions in a noon time affair; Detroit could reach .500 with a win against the Panthers in Charlotte on Sunday. Washington and Dallas reunite in Texas for the 4:30 post-dinner game; and the Ravens and Steelers collide in a good game at 8:20. 

Time to send in the turkeys!