Skip over this thread if the NFL isn't your thing.  Otherwise, let's discuss Championship Sunday with a fair amount of attention paid to items outside the games themselves.

1) NFL PreGame Shows...Weren't these exposed maybe 20 years ago as nothing more than mindless, jocular laugh-fests?  The one show I do enjoy is one that I'm guessing the average NFL fan is completely unaware of.  It's called TOPS (That Other Pregame Show) and it airs on CBS Sports Network.  Adam Schein is an entertaining host, Amy Trask who used to run the business operations of the Raiders offers great insight.  Kyle Long and Thomas Davis have been great additions this season (London Fletcher was a former co-host and he too was a great listen.)  They actually talk about football.

The Fox show is just embarrassing.  I can't believe they want to keep throwing Terry Bradshaw out there.   I like the CBS guys individually but they just sit there and laugh with one another, practically nonstop.    So instead, I'm glad I could:

2) Kill Some Time With College Basketball..Quite a few duds among Purdue easily handling Michigan State, and Michigan getting routed by Penn State (why couldn't Jamion bring Pickett with him from Siena?  Instead, we got Sloan Seymour?).  At least I got one good game when St. Joe's handed George Mason its second home loss of the season.

3) Commercials.  If companies are going to spend ungodly sums of money to advertise during NFL games, is it too much to ask that they make both more versions of their ads as well as better versions?  Let's start with the insurance companies.  No company has ever simultaneously run a more perplexing campaign (Flo and her friends) and a more entertaining one (Dr. Rick) than Progressive.  I've yet to crack a smile at the former, and I laugh at the latter each time I see it regardless of the fact that I've seen it hundreds if not thousands of times.  As for Liberty Mutual, that pie eating contest which calls to mind the Hitchcock thriller, The Birds, registers as creepy every time I see it.  There was one bright light yesterday.  It appears that Coors Light and Miller Lite will be squaring off in what appears to be a reincarnation of the old Bud Bowl spots.  Only this time, you can bet on the outcome via Draft Kings.  What a country.

4) The Under Hit on Losing Hope.  I found these games were difficult to wager on.  My systems came up SF and KC but my brain was saying Phil and Cinn.  So I stayed away from the spreads.  What I truly hoped for was two great games coming off a weekend where it was hard to make a case that any of the four games could be considered great.  When Brock Purdy left the game with an injury, I sensed correctly that this dream was over.  As was the "Over 44" I had bet on the game.  So for the first time in my life, and maybe my only time, I live bet the Eages minus 10 1/2 when Josh Johnson strolled onto the field.  Even when the Niners tied it at 7, I never for a moment thought my live bet was in doubt, and it wasn't.  Ended up splotting as I needed one more TD that wasn't coming my way for the over to hit.

5) Then I sat back and enjoyed the Bengals and Chiefs.  Just a great game.  Tough way for the Bengals to go down but the hit out of bounds had to be called.  You'd have my empathy with one foot out of bounds (before the hit) but when both feet are out, you just have to pull up.  I get that Mahomes had to be filled with cortisone but how someone can play after sufering a high ankle sprain is really remarkable.

6) Is it the Andy Reid bowl or the Kelce bowl?

 

Last edited by Gwmayhem (1/30/2023 12:39 pm)