I Yearn For Sports

I’m exhausted. At my age (75), watching so much sports can make one uber tired. For days on end. Largely because all the days are filled with sports. 

Whether it is through social media or on television, sports is omnipresent. And the significance of the games—Thanksgiving, rivalries and end of the season positioning—make watching and reading almost mandatory. 

The funny thing is that there is a whole other world out there. At my gym, one TV shows games or talking heads opining about the latest sports stories. Yet on the larger, newer screen, either FOX News or NBC News Now shines with the close-captioning needed so as not to drown out the latest hip hop or oldies music from satellite radio. We must have a split of personalities in this gym, I guess; or does anybody really care what is being shown?

It’s not that I eat, sleep, and dream of sports. I simply don’t have to. My cable stations and streaming services offered sports galore. Plus I have all sorts of apps for sports.  AOL and Apple give me more articles on sports when I look at my phone or head towards my emails. 

Or maybe I escape from the vicissitudes of daily life by my continuing engagement with sports—it sure beats learning what’s up in Washington, some foreign capital or war zone or speculating what’s going to happen in New York City with a new mayor. Perhaps. 

This week I felt like the tryptophan from the Thanksgiving turkey had little effect on my senses regarding sports. Unless I was having a sugar rush from the cranberry sauce and plethora of desserts which still linger in our refrigerator. 

Because my head is spinning with a massive amount of information right now. Which won’t go away and will intensify as the week goes on. All taking place without much happening  in baseball during this off season—but not to worry—that will ramp up in short order. 

We’re now in December. The final month of a very busy 2025. Not that the end of November waned in any way. I know that my attraction to sports is self-inflicted. But let’s face it, I can sanely tolerate only so much of seeing Doug chasing the emu in a Liberty Mutual commercial. 

When Jim Nantz and Tony Romo made me feel like I had accompanied them on their well-paid trips from Indianapolis to Kansas City to Pittsburgh on Sunday evening, I almost felt the pain that they must have endured being away from family over an eleven day period. Almost. 

That’s it—being a sports fan is a tough job. From week to week, day to day, season to season, team to team—that’s one rough schedule to adhere to. Family and friends either join in or become dismissive. Sports columnists and talking heads become best friends or naysayers. 

Is it bad that I have looked up the history of ESPN SEC host Paul Finebaum on Wikipedia or that I know that the head coaches of the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers were football teammates at the College of William & Mary? That I follow where ESPN College Game Day heads to each of the 15 weeks of college football? (This past weekend they traveled to Ann Arbor for Ohio State-Michigan; this week the crew settles in Atlanta for the SEC Championship rematch between Georgia and Alabama) Or that I follow FCS, FBS, Division III football intimately? Not to mention my clarion call regarding the NFL. (I do chortle when I see a diminutive Tracy Wolfson looking skyward at a coach she tries to interview at halftime)

I am sure that you don’t want to read about my psychoanalysis relating to my need for sports. Not thrilling at all. 

Sure, I began last week with Monday Night Football. What else does one do on a Monday night? Carolina and San Francisco squared off in Northern California. The final score was 20-9 and the game really wasn’t much of a thriller. 

Tuesday is normally a slow day in sports. I knew I was not going to wait up for the 11:00 pm EST start of the battle of LA between the Clippers and Lakers (LAL won) and a mere checking in on Rutgers playing Notre Dame (and losing 68-63 to the Irish) wouldn’t do it for me. 

Instead, I opted to join my wife for a rerun of When Harry Met Sally, the classic Nora Ephron-scripted romantic comedy starring one of my favorites, Billy Crystal (a devout New York Yankees fan) and Meg Ryan. I love the line delivered in Katz’s Delicatessen, our family’s haunt for generations—“I’ll have what she’s having.” Sheer genius. 

Anyway, I rested enough to watch a triple header of NBA games on ESPN on Wednesday evening. Three games for the offing—that caught my fancy. 

The red-hot Detroit Pistons invaded TD Garden to face the Boston Celtics, a team treading water without its leader, Jayson Tatum, but still dangerous at home with a core of players who can still play hard. This contest was part of the NBA Cup, an in-season tournament designed to bring interest to the league as it hurtles towards Christmas. 

It was a thrilling game—won by Boston with a defensive play after making numerous three point shots to stay close or to take the lead in a see saw affair. I came away with a greater appreciation for the Pistons as a very tough opponent for anybody and for the team’s star, Cade Cunningham, who finished with a game high 42 points but who fumbled a ball out of bounds in the waning moments while guarded by  the Celtics’ Derrick White. (White had 27 points and teammate Jaylen Brown added 33 in the win). 

My biggest takeaway was the beautiful op art floor commissioned for the NBA Cup. Resplendent in Kelly green and gold, it paid homage to the trademark parquet floor regularly in use. Beautiful. 

Next up was Minnesota at defending NBA Champion Oklahoma City. The T-Wolves tested the Thunder last year in the playoffs and won the regular season matchup. The announcing team hyped the game more than it should have. While Minnesota is a very talented team and will make the playoffs under the guidance of F&M alum Chris Finch, they were simply no real headache for the champs, who still as of this date have only lost once this season by two points. 

What I like about the adoring fans of Oklahoma City is that they stand until the home team scores. It took a little longer than they may have liked, but it is definitely cute and folksy, especially for pro basketball. 

The finale matched Houston at Golden State. A chance to see Steph Curry continue to light up the hoop with his magic for the home standing Warriors. For no more than a half. Thanksgiving Day was ahead and I needed my sleep to power through the day and the drive to and from the Astoria section of Queens. 

When I went to sleep, GSW was leading the short-handed Rockets. Once I checked the score on Thursday morning, I saw it was Houston 104 Golden State 100. Plus Curry hurt his calf and will be out for awhile. Could my need for sleep have jinxed the Warriors?

The NFL now has the prime spots for viewing on Thanksgiving Day. While there were interesting college basketball games set for Turkey Day, pro football was a three-headed behemoth. 

First up was a more traditional fare—a battle between long-time NFC foes, Green Bay and Detroit in the Motor City. The Packers took it to the lions, whose offensive line is in shambles. Green Bay QB Jordan Love made the faithful be glad that Aaron Rodgers is hurting his old body in Pittsburgh by tossing 4 TD passes. The Pack is rising while Detroit is suddenly swooning. 

The main event involved Kansas City traveling to Dallas. A huge audience was expected to watch, providing CBS and the NFL with a ratings bonanza. Cowboys’ QB Dak Prescott dazzled while the KC offense fizzled. Jerry Jones’ team is not far from a playoff berth and could use some help from Chicago on Friday when the Bears faced Philadelphia. 

The nightcap paired Cincinnati, now with starting QB Joe Burrow back, facing former M.V.P. winner Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. Both teams remain desperate to catch Pittsburgh or vault themselves into the AFC Wild Card discussion. The Bengals position was more dire, having dug themselves a deep hole to climb from to get back into the AFC North race. 

Burrow looked better than a hobbled Jackson. Cincy won this battle. 

Black Friday’s NFL game was the aforementioned Bears-Eagles tilt. Chicago is the surprise of the league; Philly is the defending Super Bowl champs. The Bears ran off the most yardage ever gained at Lincoln Financial Stadium while the boo birds serenaded the lackluster Philadelphia offense. It really wasn’t much of a contest—Chicago pulled within a half game of the Los Angeles Rams for the top seed in the NFC with its 24-15 win. 

I started to check in on college football on Friday. I began with Utah at Kansas—a superlative performance by the Utes on the road. In all, I watched 9 games, ending my blitz with Texas and phenom Arch Manning dropping Texas A&M from the undefeated ranks and a berth in the SEC Championship game and Georgia potentially securing a place in the CFP with a win in Atlanta over Georgia Tech in a far different way than last season’s 9 OT thriller.

Friday was the appetizer for Saturday’s college showdowns. #1 Ohio State went to Ann Arbor and exorcised demons with a convincing win over the Wolverines. I checked in on a nearly-empty stadium to see Miami rout Pitt in Pittsburgh. 

I monitored scores in the FCS playoffs and Division III second round. Of interest to me was my alma mater, Franklin and Marshall, hosting Eastern. Playing from behind, the Diplomats could not muster enough of a comeback to advance to the next round. Centennial Conference members Muhlenberg and John Hopkins split their games—powerhouse Mount Union thrashed the Mules while Hopkins won its game. 

On the FCS level, the two Ivies—Harvard and Yale—recorded a first for the Ivy League by playing a college football playoff game. The Crimson were overmatched at Villanova; Nova drew a tough Lehigh team next. On the other hand, Yale authored a comeback for the ages, stunning #15 seeded Youngstown State by scoring 36 second half points in a 43-42 win. The Elis travel to #2 seed Montana State for their next game. Good luck in frigid Bozeman.

I did not stop with that. I watched nearly the entirety of the Penn State-Rutgers battle for bowl eligibility. Chunk plays defined this game—yardage flew by in big numbers. Still, Rutgers might have had the chance to end PSU domination but for an all-time miscue by  Rutgers QB Athan Kaliakmanis who inexplicably fumbled the ball in mid-air Sith the ball landing in a PSU defender’s hands en route to the end zone. A crushing defeat for the Scarlet Knights and a feeling of dominance had returned to Penn State with such a win. 

Yes, I watched other games on Saturday and scrolled down the scores for remaining games—from UTEP at Delaware in matchup I never could have imagined to Alabama and Auburn meeting in the Iron Bowl, a heated rivalry which divides that great state and with the win, put ‘Bama into the SEC title game. 

My wife and daughter stopped me from further damage by sitting me down to watch the second movie of the Kingsman movies. They might have been sensing the start of brain overload?

Besides, Sunday would lead to more NFL time. With our children lasting only a half at Met Life Stadium, my wife and I, joined by our daughter when she arrived wet and cold, watched the New York Jets pick up a third victory in a moribund season with a 56 yard field goal as the game ended to clinch a win over a downcast Atlanta Falcons team. 

Next up was Buffalo at Pittsburgh. The Bills, who had been awful on the road, needed the win to stay in sight of New England in the AFC East race. The Steelers could hold off the Ravens and Bengals with a win. Except that Rodgers and company weren’t much of a fight for the Bills and Josh Allen, who triumphed 26-7. 

I saw a minute of Denver and Washington on Sunday night. Fatigue had overcome me and I missed an overtime special won by the Broncos. 

Monday I took stock of what I did. I watched, read or observed a whole heck of a lot of sports. At different levels with varying degrees of interest. The NFL playoff picture has changed dramatically with the outcomes of the games played. Who really thought that the Los Angeles Rams and M.V.P. candidate Matthew Stanford would be outplayed by the hungrier Carolina Panthers, now breathing heavily on the neck of Tampa Bay? Or that the Bears would attain the top seed with the LAR loss? 

Pittsburgh, once the AFC North darling, finds itself behind the Ravens and outside of the playoffs looking in. Like Kansas City. Indianapolis, in losing to the Texans, fell out of first place in the AFC South, replaced on top by Jacksonville; third place Houston is only a game behind. Only five teams have been eliminated from playoff contention—Arizona; New York Giants; New Orleans; Las Vegas; and Tennessee. The Jets still are mathematically alive, to my amazement. 

College conference championships, a continuation of the FBS and Division III playoffs and Army-Navy are still to be played. Add to the mix the CFP games and bowls for the others with six or more wins. Four more weeks of crucial NFL games are on tap. 

There is the opening of some conference play in college basketball. Rutgers goes to get squashed by #1 Purdue. I plan on seeing F&M play Stevens Institute of Technology in men’s hoops on Wednesday and Lycoming at Drew on Saturday. 

And then there is the constant and unsavory movement of college coaches from one job to the next. Loyalty be damned in a win or else climate. I have a lot to say on that topic. Just not right now.

As for me, despite my protestations, feel no pity for me. I yearn for sports.  

A Busy Time Ahead

  I’ve been watching the National Football League closely as the teams head towards Thanksgiving. And there is no clear cut favorite to win it all, let alone any team being an automatic for the playoffs. 

Going into this past weekend, Indianapolis appeared to be head and shoulders above the rest in the AFC, along with surprising New England. Not necessarily so.

The Colts ran into a determined Kansas City team which still has championship pedigree among its key players, with a coaching staff among the best on the league. Yet KC has struggled, amassing. 6-5 record and having not been able to win any close games. Until Sunday. 

Patrick Mahomes may look a little off this season. Don’t be fooled. He rallied the team when Indy took a lead that almost appeared to be insurmountable. KC got to overtime, and the defense played its role, having stymied Jonathan Taylor, the top running back in the NFL thus far and made QB Daniel Jones appear very average in the second half. The Chiefs dominated the fourth quarter and overtime—they deserved to win this game and Indy deserved to lose it.  

Look, I am far from guaranteeing that the Chiefs even make the playoffs. Denver still has a significant lead in the division. Plus the Broncos have a win versus KC under their belt. 

Yet I am hardly convinced that Denver will survive the AFC playoffs and reach the Super Bowl. They have a challenging schedule ahead, beginning with a Monday night contest at the Washington Commanders. Home games against playoff competitors like Green Bay, Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Chargers along with divisional foe Las Vegas are helpful. Circle Christmas night—the Broncos head to KC for a rematch—where the Chiefs will sorely want to exact revenge for an earlier loss and derail Denver getting home field for the playoffs.

Kansas City has to travel to play at Dallas on Thanksgiving in the marquee matchup. Not an easy game at all. Then hard-charging Houston comes in—the Texas downed an inconsistent Buffalo squad—followed by the Chargers, a road clash with a weak Tennessee team before ending the season with Denver and at Las Vegas. 

I didn’t mention the Chargers. Although the team is 7-4, they fail to overwhelm me with their play thus far. What makes me wonder if they will even make the playoffs is their remaining schedule: Las Vegas followed by Philadelphia, KC, Dallas, Houston before ending the season in Denver in a game which may hold major significance for both teams. LAC needs to step it up. 

With the loss to KC, the Colts find themselves one game ahead of Jacksonville and two ahead of Houston. The AFC South will be decided with Indy squaring off in four of the final six games against the Jaguars and Texans. Jacksonville has more breathers, as they have home-and-home games with Tennessee and host the New York Jets. 

In the AFC North, Baltimore emerged from the near-dead to take over first place with its win over the Jets on Sunday. The Ravens hardly looked formidable, with the Jets carrying the play to them and escaping real trouble when NYJ RB Breece Hall fumbled near the goal line and the Ravens recovered the ball. 

Pittsburgh gave the Chicago Bears a battle with backup Mason Rudolph replacing the injured Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. The Steelers fortunes will rise and fall on the ability of Rodgers to return to form and play to his Hall of Fame best despite the injury to his left wrist. 

The Steelers and Ravens meet twice, including for the final game of the regular season. Buffalo and Miami come in while the team travels to Detroit and Cleveland in late December. 

Baltimore has two games against division rival Cincinnati and games against AFC East leader New England and a trip to a very frigid Green Bay on Saturday December 27. Not an easy task. 

Finishing up with the AFC East, New England continues to confound, while Buffalo isn’t dominating like expected. The Patriots host the Giants on December 1, then are off 13 days before clashing with the Bills at home. Games at Baltimore and the Jets before hosting Miami on the cold of Foxborough round out the schedule. Beating the Giants while maintaining a two game lead should clinch the division for Mike Vrabel’s team. 

Meanwhile, Josh Allen and mates better get it together starting with the upcoming game at Pittsburgh. Besides playing New England away, games with Cincy, Cleveland and NYJ— all losing teams—and hosting the Eagles completes the Bills schedule. They should make the playoffs as a Wild Card.  

Sunday’s epic comeback by the Dallas Cowboys in winning the game with a field goal as time expired, showed that the Philadelphia Eagles are not the dominant defending champion their fans thought they might be. Still ahead of Dallas by 2.5 games, Philly should win the NFC East even with a game against NFC North leader Chicago on Black Friday, a trip to LA to meet the Chargers, and going to Orchard Park for what will be the penultimate regular season game in the old ballpark. 

The other divisions all have tight races which will go down to the end of the season to set up playoff seedlings. I was impressed with how the Los Angeles Rams mauled NFC leader Tampa Bay. QB Matthew Stafford has been playing unreal thus far—it is likely that he and Indy RB Taylor are the M.V.P. front runners. I give Stafford the edge as he has thrown 30 TD passes with only 2 interceptions. 

What remains for LAR are four away games at Carolina, Arizona. Seattle and Atlanta, with Detroit and Arizona coming to Inglewood. Except for a blocked field goal attempt in Philadelphia and a goal-line fumble against San Francisco, the Rams might have been 11-0. Are they that good?

The NFC West could send three teams to the playoffs: Rams, Seahawks and 49’ers. Then again, so could the NFC North. 

That division is tight, with Chicago clinging to a .5 lead over Green Bay and a 1.0 game margin over Detroit. Outside of a home game with Cleveland, the Bears meet the Packers twice in three weeks and end up with games at San Francisco and home versus Detroit. Starting with the Black Friday game, we will learn how much Chicago has improved, 

Nothing is close to decided in the NFC South. Tampa Bay and Carolina are tied atop the division standings. Atlanta looms just two games back. With QB Baker Mayfield suffering a left shoulder strain, the Bucs chances might be fading. Carolina has the opportunity to overtake the Bucs. It would not surprise me if the winner of the division is at best 9-8. 

I want to talk about the first team eliminated from playoff contention. That would be the New York Giants. They fought hard against the Lions in Detroit. Interim Head Coach Mike Pafka pulled out trick plays. The team’s downfall was that Detroit RB Jahmyr Gibbs was unstoppable, repeatedly roaring through the over-matched Giants defense. 

As a New York Jets fan on the verge of playoff elimination, having secured a 10th straight losing season with the loss at Baltimore, I feel the pain in East Rutherford. It is remarkably similar in Florham Park. 

Another player worth mentioning is Shedeur Sanders’ debut as the Cleveland starting QB. He performed well in the win in Las Vegas. He was the first Browns rookie QB to win in his debut since 1995. 

The Browns defense, led by all-NFL Myles Garrett, who made five tackles, sacked Raiders QB three times (the team recorded ten sacks in the game) and forced two fumbles. Maybe there is some hope for the future along Lake Erie. 

I want to briefly note that two teams in the NBA are really rolling to start the season. Defending champion Oklahoma City went out to a 17-1 mark, after opening the season with two back-to-back double overtime victories. The Thunder has been rolling. Their only loss was by two points in early December at Portland. Could they actually be better than when they won it all last season?

The other team on a roll is Detroit. The Pistons gave the New York Knicks a ton of trouble in their 2024-25 playoff series. They are currently riding a 13 game winning streak. Detract is young and hungry. There still remain a lot of games to be played. The Eastern Conference will be no picnic. BTW—OKC and Detroit don’t meet up until late February in Detroit with the return match at the end of March. 

College football devotees should know that the run to the FCS playoffs will be a mad scramble. The three unbeaten, Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M face traditional rivals to end the regular season. Can OSU reverse the apparent jinx they have when meeting Michigan in Ann Arbor? Will Indiana not stumble versus Big Ten doormat Purdue? And will A&M hold up enough to prevail over in-state rival, #17 Texas? 

The rest of the teams in the hunt for the playoffs have at least 1 loss and a few have lost three contests. None of these schools can afford another loss, as the rankings could shuffle dramatically as a result. 

I watched OSU host Rutgers. RU fought valiantly in Columbus but succumbed by a score of 42-9. While the talent gap is there, the Buckeyes didn’t play a real sharp game. That has to be rectified once they play Michigan and then face Indiana before heading to the playoffs. Otherwise, there will not be a repeat champion. 

And I checked on Penn State hosting Nebraska. The Nittany Lions dominated the Cornhuskers. The interim head man at PSU, Terry Smith, downed his close friend Matt Rhule’s team. Both had roots in Happy Valley. 

Smith has the team back on track. He has the support of his players. With a win at Rutgers on Saturday, the Lions will be bowl eligible in a tumultuous year which saw former head man James Franklin canned mid-season (Franklin has re-emerged as the new Head Coach at Virginia Tech, a school very much needing a program revival). I am pulling for PSU to take the interim tag from Smith, no matter what happens in Piscataway. 

And in two major rivalries, both Harvard and Lehigh entered their games undefeated. Yale rolled the Crimson at home, sending the boys from Cambridge home with a daunting loss. Lehigh won on the road in Easton and secured its bid to represent the Patriot League in the FBS Playoffs.

In Division III action, four Centennial Conference teams were in action. Muhlenberg won its play-in game against Union; the Mules now meet top-seeded Mount Union. Carnegie-Mellon and Ursinus won their bowl games in the Centennial-MAC series, with Dickinson suffering a two point loss at Delaware Valley. F&M hosts Eastern and Johns Hopkins has a  home game with Springfield, winners over Cortland. 

To end my recounting of a busy sports week, I went to Jersey Mike’s Arena and watched Rutgers down American in a very uninspired game. American played  better than RU but fell apart in the second half. 

RU is not going anywhere fast with this group. The home loss to Central Connecticut State, a NCAA team last year still was embarrassing. I see the bottom of the Big Ten beckoning. 

I remain of the belief that RU basketball Catch Steve Pikiell and football legend Greg Schiano might not be back next year. But what do I know? 

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Whether it is with bird or birdless. Don’t be like UConn basketball coach Danny Hurley. He moved up his team’s celebration of  the holiday to Wednesday so that the #3 squad would not be suffering from tryptophan ahead of Friday’s game at Madison Square Garden against #8 Illinois. Would he qualify as a grinch at Christmas with this kind of attitude? 

A busy time ahead for sports fans. Don’t overeat. Indeed.