This week’s Packers-49ers playoff rivalry goes back quite a ways, as I’m sure most of you with a least one or two gray hairs can attest. In fact, I found several websites showing these teams have met seven previous times in the playoffs — in 1996, ’97, ’98, ’99, 2002, ’13 and ...
Cheating is wrong. We’re told this from a very young age. From the time we’re able to walk and talk, our elders emphasize that you shouldn’t cheat. Whether it be at board games, tests at school or the sports you play. Yet for some people, those types of morals go out the window when ...
Two years ago, I wrote a column about how I missed out on watching one of the greatest moments in Minnesota sports history. Last Sunday, I almost did it again. Back in 2018, the Minnesota Vikings were in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs and were hosting the New Orleans Saints. Not ...
Here we are just a few days into the 2020s. Geesh, as a kid I didn’t think this would EVER happen. Growing up as a little kid in the 1960s, even the idea of the year 2000 was nearly unfathomable. For some reason, I then remember thinking ahead to 2020, with all the crooked numbers in the ...
Going home never seemed like an adventure to me. When I went home to Minneapolis in college my freshman year, it was cool the first time because I was living away from home and I was attempting to be an adult. The jury is still out if I’ve actually become one. Over the years though, it ...
Since we’re talking about the first round of the NFL playoffs today, let’s start with the Green Bay Packers. But they’re not even playing this week, you tell me. Sure, but what happens in the NFC this weekend affects who they play in another week during the divisional round. The ...
Can Week 17 in the NFL be both the most anticipated and most dreaded week of the season? Sure, why not? It’s the final week of the regular season, meaning that the greatest time of the season, the playoffs, are one week away. And with two berths still up for grabs and quite a few ...
What do you do when you lose a mentor? It’s a question I had to ask myself a few times over the course of this year and it wasn’t an easy one to answer. Today is the one-year anniversary of the death of my former sports journalism professor Terry “Hutch” Hutchens, and even ...
I kind of like Matt LaFleur’s chances of retaining his head coaching position in Green Bay after the Detroit Lions begrudgingly — I hope as a Lions fan begrudgingly — announced they would keep head coach Matt Patricia this week. Especially considering LaFleur is in his first season and ...
There’s a lot of things you can depend on when it comes to the NFL — some of them good and some of them bad. Two things that stand out from that ever-growing list is that the New England Patriots will cheat and the Detroit Lions will be a mess. Both of them were confirmed earlier this ...
It’s interesting to watch whether the new vanguard or the old guard will be better represented when the playoffs start in just a few weeks. Teams like Green Bay, Seattle and New Orleans are being challenged by Minnesota and San Francisco in the NFC. Eh, not such a new vanguard there. The ...
"He's a terrible person, the worst I've ever met." That's how former Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen said that about former Wings head coach Mike Babcock after he berated Franzen during a game against Nashville in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. This was also corroborated by former ...
Will the firing of Carolina’s Ron Rivera just be the first domino to fall in a string of NFL coaches getting dumped? We can only wait and see. Panthers owner David Tepper said in so many words that he was doing Rivera a favor by not keeping him around till the end of the season: “I ...
At some point Thursday, most of us probably had some flavor of pie to eat. Whether it was the traditional pumpkin, the perfect for the season apple, or the greatest pie ever, pecan, chances are you were satisfied by the time you were finished. Now, it’s that time of year where I get to do ...
There were some interesting goings-on in the NFL over the past week. And it might make some teams work harder at getting win now that we’re in crunch time for the playoffs. That’s even though a majority of the teams involved here are out, or pretty much out, of the playoff hunt. Take ...
I’ve wondered that for awhile when it comes to firing coaches. At what point does a general manager or an athletic director look at what is happening on TV or what they’re reading in newspapers and say I can’t take it anymore with this man or woman? At the college level, there’s ...
Have I got a deal for you! We’re leaving Saturday for Washington, D.C., though I better not tell you why. Wait! You mean you’d really accompany me to see the Detroit Lions play at the Redskins this weekend!?!? Well, sorry, I’m not really going, not even with the $7 seats I found ...
ALLEN PARK — As hard as this is to believe, Matthew Stafford’s injury may not be Detroit’s biggest problem. The veteran quarterback missed a second straight game last weekend with back and hip problems, but unless he could have played defense, Stafford might not have been able to win ...
Sports are oftentimes divided into heroes and villains. The heroes are your favorite team, favorite player, people who put you in awe of their abilities or just ones that can inspire you not only in athletics, but in your everyday life. They help you get through your tough times by ...
Yikes, I don’t know if I talked myself out of some obvious picks or what, but a 3-10 record last week doesn’t exactly make me a persuasive pigskin prognosticator, does it? So back to the drawing board with these picks. As I’m spending so much time on research, there won’t be a long ...