Merry Christmas everyone.
We will have our normal Monday show - winners, losers, bowl updates, the whole shebang - on Tuesday.
Today is Christmas and we sit here typing amid the sounds of crumpling wrapping paper, children giggling and our 7-year-old trying to set a modern-day record of most Polaroid pictures taken in three-hour stretch.
Good times. Strike that. Great times. Strike that again.
Perfect times.
Merry Christmas.
From the "Ho-Ho-Ho" studios, let's enjoy the season with Four Quick points and a Rushmore question.
1. Falcons gag. Hard to peg all the difference on the enigmatic nature of these Falcons completely on the change at OC, but something is drastically different. Yes, the chemistry between coordinator and quarterback is obviously important, but for Matt Ryan to go from MVP to middle of the pack inside 12 months is staggering.
2. While we're here, when we discuss the big stories of 2017, the Falcons crazy ride from half-time of the Super Bowl to today is monumental. It's also historic. It also is worth noting the completely alternative universe we would be living in if the Falcons had not imploded up 28-3. We know it would have changed the forever fortune of the Atlanta franchise and given the Falcons its first title. If that game had gone on to be a, let's say, 38-24 Falcons win, it also would have redirected the paths of the 49ers and potentially the Patriots. Because the way Tom Brady played in the first half of that Super Bowl, if it had been his third Super Bowl loss as he approached his 40th birthday, the conversation about conversion to Jimmy Garoppolo era in New England would have been loud and proud. Instead Brady gets ring No. 5, Jimmy G is shipped to San Fran (and he looks legit and if the 49ers got an elite QB for a second-rounder, well, game on) and there you go.
3. Cavs-Warriors. Let's do this. OK, we're in. But please let's be fair in the "NBA is exploding in popularity and the NFL is spiraling" narrative. Yes, the NBA interest and viewership is increasing. Yes, the NFL eye balls and TV numbers are declining. But the NFL will have a Monday afternoon game between a team quarterbacked by Tom Savage that has long-been eliminated from the playoffs against a team that is without the game's best wide out. And those numbers will crush the Cavs-Warriors. (That said, man, let's go LBJ. Whatcha' got?)
4. Yes, there's a lot of NFL to get to, and we'll light it up in Tuesday's 5-at-10 and on Tuesday's Press Row (No show today; Merry Christmas). How about this tweet from Todd Gurley: "Fantasy owners you're welcome now leave us along. Merry Christmas!" Hey, we get it, Todd. You guys are out there sacrificing years off your life for football glory. But one of the main reasons the NFL is the most popular sport in this country is that it has found ways to connect to wide-ranging fans. And Todd, no disrespect to your sacrifice and with all respect to your amazing skill set, the only reason I would have given two rips about a Titans-Rams game Sunday afternoon is because of either having money on it or because of a fantasy player involved in it. And if the NFL is going to learn anything from the way it has completely botched so issues involving players and actions away from the field, it better get its hands on this. Because insulting and eventually alienating the fantasy football base for the NFL would be every bit as painful to the bottom line as the protests in this view. Merry Christmas indeed, TG.
Today's question
Happy birthday day Jesus.
Also, Happy Birthday Jimmy Buffett, who is 71 today.
Sissy Spacek is 68 today. Humphrey Bogart would have been 118 today.
Isaac Newton would have been 375.
George Michael died on this day last year; James Brown died on this day 11 years ago.
Rickey Henderson is 59. God Bless You, Rickey Henderson.
Rushmore of Christmas stuff would be easy. Almost too easy.
Let's go a Rushmore of the bets sports quotes of the last 30 years, because Rickey Henderson is a contender.
Go and Merry Christmas.