Last Football Weekend of 2024
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2024 can get the hell out of my life. Anyway, lots of football today:
- Chargers vs. Patriots: The Chargers win over the Broncos last week was huge, and not simply because of the first successful NFL free kick in some fifty years. The Chargers looked cooked until Herbert took over the game in the second half. Harbaugh has been able to win in LA without relying overmuch on his exceedingly talented QB, but it was nice to see all of the pieces come together.
- Broncos vs. Bengals: Somehow the Bengals aren’t dead yet? And the Broncos remain very much alive… it seems clear to me that Bo Nix isn’t as bad as he was the first third of the season and isn’t as good as he was the second third of the season, so it will be interesting to watch him against a Bengals defense that can only be described as porous… Overall I like the Bengals, who will probably miss the playoffs in some kind of absurd fashion.
- Cardinals vs. Rams: Stafford and the Rams should win this, which I believe will clinch a playoff sport for LA.
The college bowl game slate also has some interesting games, the highlights of which are undoubtedly the Pop Tart Bowl (Iowa State vs. Miami) and the Alamo Bowl (BYU vs. Colorado). With respect to the former I beg you to watch simply from the point of view of the sociology of religion; if you didn’t watch last year, you missed the mascot voluntarily toasting himself to death then being consumed by the winning team. It’s… a helluva thing. The Alamo Bowl should be an actually good game, although I imagine Prime Time’s Buffaloes will beat BYU.
We should also pause to note the passing of Greg Gumbel:
Greg Gumbel joined CBS Sports in 1989 after years of hosting and play-play duties for New York Knicks basketball and New York Yankees baseball for the Madison Square Garden Network, as well as other MSGN programs, which earned him a local Emmy Award. He also worked for ESPN, WMAQ-TV Chicago, where he won two local Emmys, and WFAN Radio in New York City
At CBS Sports, he hosted “The NFL Today,” the network’s NFL pre-game, halftime and post-game studio show, from 1990-93 and 2004-05, Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, and Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
He served as primetime anchor of CBS Sports’ coverage of the 1994 Olympic Winter Games and as co-anchor of the network’s weekday morning broadcasts of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games.
He was also play-by-play announcer for regular-season and post-season Major League Baseball, host of the 1990 MLB All-Star Game, college football broadcasts for CBS Sports, and host and play-by-play announcer for the College World Series for several years.
I always found Gumbel to bring an air of reassuring competence to whatever he was doing, from running the desk at NFL Today to calling the wide array of events he became associated with. Rest in Peace, Greg.
Recall that this is a sports-only thread.