Weekend winners
< Aaron 'Bad Bleep' Rodgers. Wow. The Cowboys were better at every position Sunday. Every single one. But the Packers won and advance to the NFC title game because they had Rodgers, who may not have the most dazzling all-time QB resume but is the best I've ever seen play the game. And folks, his rolling left, sideline throw to Jared Cook - who as a total bad bleep Sunday - was one of the three best throws I've ever seen.
< Atlanta Falcons. Wow, the Falcons dictated pace, controlled the ball and the tempo and never flinched despite facing a way more playoff-experienced foe in Seattle. Plus, with the Packers win, the Georgia Dome gets one more football Sunday in the sun, and this one will decide who gets to the Super Bowl. That's cool.
< CBS. How great is the Steelers-Patriots matchup in the AFC title game? Now add in the numbers from Sunday's 1 p.m. kick in Kansas City being rescheduled to a prime-time game Sunday night because of ice storms and the Eye-ball Network will have an eye-popping couple of Sundays. And as if the Patriots-Steelers needed any more hype, here's Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin dropping verbal bombs on all of New England.
< Frisky 4 picks. Well, we made four picks last week against the spread, and we went 3-1. Again. For the sixth consecutive week. Since starting this in early December the Frisky 4 NFL picks are a staggering 18-6. That's 75 percent - against the spread mind you - and with a return rate of plus-1,140 in entertainment tickets if you risked, say, 100 entertainment tickets on each pick. All told this year, we are 80-50 against the spread this year (49-34 in college football's regular season; 13-10 in the bowl season and 18-6 in the NFL season). That's 61.5 percent, which is pretty stout friends.
< Justin Thomas. There is playing great golf, and then there is doing what JT is doing to professional venues and against the best in the world. He won the Sony Open on Sunday in record fashion with a PGA-mark of 253 (27-under) for 72 holes. He also set the 54-hole and the 36-hole records for lowest score. After finishing first in the Tournament of Champions last week, it is Thomas' second consecutive win in Hawaii, and each was in dominant fashion. How dominant? Well, Jordan Spieth played in each even and finished a combined 35-under-par in the two events. That was a combined 14 shots behind Thomas' mind-blowing 49-under par for the last couple of weekends.
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid yells from the sidelines during the first half of an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga) Weekend losers
> Travis Kelce. Dude blew up this year. Monster season in which he was a healthy version of Gronk - 85 catches for 1,125 yards and four scores - and was named first-team All-Pro. Dude blew up in the locker room Sunday in a diatribe about the officiating, especially a "horse-bleep" holding call on the Chiefs' two-point try that would have tied the game late in the fourth quarter of their 18-16 loss to Pittsburgh. The emotion is understandable - especially considering his huge drop and the 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty were monster mistakes in the game too - but the level of direct insults to the referee were bush league.
> Andy Reid. While we are on the dramatic Chiefs' loss to Pittsburgh, it's pretty fair to say that Reid may be the best offensive mind in the history of the league to be this bad of a head coach. His clock-management has been a critical and fatal flaw in at least three playoff games - including a Philadelphia Super Bowl loss - and was on display for everyone to see Sunday night. Kansas City wasted two second-half timeouts in the third quarter, and then, while trailing by eight, went through the most-casual and nonchalant drive in the history of playoff football. The lack of urgency - and the lack of a full bevy of timeouts put all of the Chiefs' hopes to tie the game on the two-point conversion. How deliberate were the Chiefs on that TD drive? That seven-minute march was the only time they touched the ball in the fourth quarter.
> SNL. The decline of SNL has been gradual and consistent for the last decade. (Quick, name the biggest star among the cast regulars? OK, maybe you knew Kate McKinnon, but beyond that it's the worst collection of talent ever for a show that produced so many glorious heydays and talents over the years.) Well, the expected assault on Trump continued this past Saturday, and in truth, it's downright painful, regardless of which side of the aisle you fall. It's nothing close to political satire - it's more impersonations and third-grade potty jokes - and even worse, it's nothing close to funny. (Now the President-Elect is only making it worse and dignifying the trash by responding to it in our view. Here's hoping at some point Trump realizes it's beneath him to respond to this elementary-school garbage.)
> The Frisky 4 picks' logic in our one loss. Did we really take Brock Osweiler over Tom Brady. On the road in a night playoff game. In retrospect - which is the most meaningless word in entertainment hunting ever - are there any amount of points to justify that decision? Maybe, but it certainly should have been more than 15, no?
> Vegas. The hits just keep on coming for the guys who make their living taking the public's bets and their money. Clemson's national championship win this time last week was the worst college football lost for a majority of the casino sports books. Sunday, according to William Hill's US sportsbook operations was the single worst day since it opened. Both games had heavy action with the majority of the action on the underdogs Pittsburgh and Green Bay, each of which won outright. In case you are wondering, the Falcons opened as a 4-point favorite over the Packers with a staggering over/under of 60, and the Patriots opened as a 6-point favorite over the Steelers with an over/under of 50.
> Ben Affleck. The much-publicized "Live by Night" tanked at the box office. Affleck directed, produced, wrote and starred in the $65 million production of a early 20th century mob tale. It earned a meager $5.4 over the opening weekend and with the holiday today, may top the $6 million mark for its opening long weekend. Ouch-standing.
Skip BaylessBet you know what the fastest growing sports show is?
One of the big reasons TV networks pay big money for sports contracts is the internal marketing opportunities during the broadcast.
In today's modern viewing world, a growing number of shows are DVR-ed or watched online or on demand. But sports remains in-the-moment viewing, especially with social media platforms like Twitter adding to the viewing experience for so many. (Not surprisingly, the top-20 watched shows in 2016 were live events: 15 sporting events - including 11 NFL games - four political debates and the Oscars.)
That also means that every now and then we are going to get absolutely overrun with a commercial that becomes so ubiquitous that it becomes painful. If advertising mission is to create at least interest and hopefully intrigue, the over-inundation of some of these ads goes from interest to indifference to enraged. The first time we can remember this happening was with a variety of TNT shows during the NBA playoffs. Whether it was "The Closer" or "Rizzoli & Isles" or "The Last Ship," man, we couldn't watch a lay-up line without seeing Kyra Sedgwick or whoseherpants that was on "Law & Order" and married Jason Sehorn.
That's where we are with the "Undisputed," Skip Bayless' show on Fox. Man, did you guys know it's the fastest growing sports show on TV? Yeah, we heard something about it this weekend, and with Fox having the Super Bowl, we figure to hear something about it then too. Now if you want to argue the merits of that claim well, going from 12 viewers in that time slot to 122,000 is a monster growth. That said, the numbers for First Take, Bayless' former show, had 530,000 viewers going head-to-head. That First Take number is up more than 12 percent compared with last year at this time with Bayless arguing with Stephen A. Smith rather than current combatant Max Kellerman.
But, the growth of Bayless' show is, by definition the fastest growing sports show.
And while we are contemplating definitions, if Skip Bayless, arguably the biggest gas bag in an industry that rewards gas-baggery, has made millions arguing on TV for a living, then how can any show on which he stars be called 'Undisputed' since he disputes everything? The very definition of 'Undisputed' according to thefreedictionary.com is "Not disputed or doubted: an undisputed champion; an undisputed claim" and "not challenged or questioned."
The very premise of Bayless' career is completely undermined by the name of his show, right? And if that's the case, wouldn't this be the first time an oxymoron actually was oxy (containing oxygen, because dear Buckets Bayless and Shannon Sharpe are blow hards) and morons?
This and that
- Gang, longtime good egg and former Baylor School golfer Luke List has finally establish himself as the professional golfer many of us around these parts knew he could be. So far in the 2016-17 season, which started last fall, List has played six tournaments. He has made six cuts and collected more than $868,000. He has two top-10 finishes and five top-25s, including Sunday's tie for 13th at the Sony. His on-course stats are equally as amazing: He's first on tour this season in performance on par 5s (43-under) and par 3s (15 under); he's second in eagles (4) and third in total birdies (99); second in driving distance (320.5 yard average, folks); and eighth in scoring average at 69.3. Well-played sir. Well-played indeed.
- We are almost to the halfway point of the NBA season - we'll do some half way stuff later this week, deal? - and with that comes this news: Russell Westbrook has 20 triple-doubles in 40 games this season. It is the eighth time in NBA history a player has had that many triple doubles in a season. Oscar Robertson did it five times and Wilt Chamberlain had the other two. Of course, there's a real chance James Harden will do it this year, too.
- Thought this was a very interesting story from USA Today, looking at what players would lose in distance without some of the modern technological advances in today's golf equipment. It cost Fowler about 10 yards to use an old-school persimmon driver, but a lot of that was roll (more than 20 yards) so it likely would be less in competition and even less with old-school ball technology, too.
- Very nice road wins for UT and UTC this weekend at Nashville and Macon. In truth, though, we did not give a whole of attention to college hoops. Alas.
Today's question
You know the drill: Who won the weekend and who lost it? Go.
Hope you guys enjoy the MLK Holiday. There will be no Press Row today as we celebrate it.
Strange day in history, this Jan. 16. On this day in 1439, England banned kissing. (While the English did it to stop the spread of germs, it certainly sounds a lot like Spy's high school days. Kidding. Mostly.) On this day in 1493, Columbus leaves the new world and sets sail for Spain. Today in 1972 was Super Bowl VI, and the next year it was the final showing on "Bonanza" on NBC. In 1974 on this day "Jaws" was published. Jimmy "The Greek" was fired by CBS for his racial remarks on this day in 1988.
Of all of that, let's go with this: What's the Rushmore of TV westerns.
Go.