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Weekend winners
Sam Darnold. He did not play great, and the better-or-worse chats about Trent Dilfer or Brad Johnson can wait. Because the former can’t-miss, who missed terribly, is now a Super Bowl champion QB1. Forever. And he permanently removed the bust label from his backpack and pasted it on the Jets.
Lindsey Vonn. Look, the final scenes were catastrophic. Downhill crash, air-lifted from the course, and a broken leg as well as dreams of Olympics history dashed. But Vonn even competing north of 40 was cool, and battling through a torn ACL to keep chasing that storybook ending was ice cold. Know this: Vonn will be on NBC as a prominent face of the Winter Olympics for decades.
Chris Gotterup. Scottie who? Kidding. Scheffler is still the PGA big cat on the stoop, but Gotterup took an offseason of motivation of being left off the U.S. Ryder Cup team to the range and is cooking. He has two wins in three 2026 starts and three in his last 10 worldwide. And friends, dude hits the ball a long, Long, LONG way.
Alabama hoops. It was a Saturday filled with rivalry comebacks. Despite trailing for most of the games — even by double-digits in the second half — UNC toppled Duke and UK edged UT to grab narrow wins in critical and emotional meetings. But the Heels and the ‘Cats did their rallies at home. Alabama was at Auburn, and despite being behind for a large part of Saturday’s shootout, the Tide grabbed an impressive win in Neville Arena. And count me among those who think Alabama guard Labaron Philon should be the front-runner for SEC PoY.
Those debating against trans-athlete women competing against naturally born women. Look, the science here is impossible to debate or defend. But the latest ripple speaks directly to it being simply a decision rather than a right or obligation or whatever else and creates quite a splash. Meet Elis Lundholm, a naturally born female who identifies as male but is competing in these Winter Olympics in the women’s mogul skiing. So, she decides to compete against women despite living life as a man? Can I compete in the Little World Series because more times than not I identify as a 12-year-old? Just ask my wife. The IOC is set to tighten transgender eligibility rules after these Winter Games.
Weekend losers
Everything New England. Sure, the shine on a franchise going from 3-14 to 14-3 and getting to the Super Bowl will be heartwarming before long. But this morning? A week filled with stories about -gates –locking the Hall gates for Kraft and Hoodie — was capped with a total tail-kicking. And Drake Maye looked lost and played more like a 3-14 QB1 than MVP runner-up.
We’ll have more on the Super Bowl sideshows, but the worst showing from a Patriot since Benedict Arnold belongs to OC Josh McDaniels. (Hey Josh, you know that Drake Maye led the NFL in rushing yards for a QB, right? We can’t work in a few more QB runs against a pass rush that was relentlessly tormenting your second-year QB1? Please?)
Randy Moss. In the hubbub of the Kraft and Belichick HoF snub, Moss uttered this wretched take: “If you didn’t play it, if you didn’t coach it, you shouldn’t have a vote.” Look, the snub is a whole different kettle of fish. But no GMs. No owners. And let’s flip it. Hey Randy, the ESPN broadcaster, if you didn’t study broadcasting or journalism, can you be in the sports media?
Winter Olympics medals. Apparently, the famed gold, silver and bronze awards are breaking bad more than Walter White.
Atlanta Falcons. Yes, it takes a special crew to lose Super Bowl weekend when the gear has been packed for more than a month. But how do these line items grab you. First, before hiring since-fired Raheem Morris, Atlanta also interviewed Mike Vrabel and Mike Macdonald. Wonder if they were busy Sunday? More noticeably, James Pearce, the former UT rookie pass rusher the Falcons dealt their 2026 first-rounder for last April, was arrested for domestic crimes in Miami on Saturday. According to online reports, Pearce was charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated stalking, all connected to domestic violence.
Super storylines
All the details and minutiae of Seattle’s complete and comfortably Super thrashing of New England can be hashed and rehashed all over the interwebs this morning.
I mean, how many folks can tell you, “New England couldn’t protect their QB, and Seattle suffocated them because of it” these days?
But the tangents here must be explored because we all know there was close to half the country watching this for a variety of reasons.
Let’s try to explore a few of them.
First, the game was a snoozefest, even for the most staunch Seattle supporter.
It was boring and sent a lot of casual fans back to the cooler or the wing tray.
Second, despite the limited action or intrigue, Mike Tirico was terrific as NBC’s point guard on the broadcast.
In Al Michaels style on the very back end of his career, and considering Tirico’s incredible range — he anchors golf, the NFL, college and pro hoops and assuredly is headed to the Olympics as we speak — I think he is the best play-by-play guy doing it right now.
Third, while the game was blah-tastic, I didn’t think the commercials were all-that good, either.
My mini top five would be the star-studded Dunkin’ commercial, the Budweiser Clydesdale and the bald eagle, the Ben Stiller and Benson Boone concert commercial, the Jurassic Park alternate ending commercial, and maybe the Polar Bear (iconic from previous Coke commercials) flipping sides and going with Pepsi.
Conversely, what in the world did Coinbase pay its marketing folks for coming up with words on colorful screens for 30 seconds at the price of more than $8 million?
Fourth, and we’ll dive into this more Tuesday, but if you had to bet on one of these two teams to make it back to Super Bowl LXI, you taking Seahawks or Pats?
Finally, the entertainment.
This just in: Donald Trump and Bad Bunny are not buds.
And Trump’s attempt to strong-arm the NFL and the most popular musician on the planet backfired Sunday.
How popular? The NFL will again have something like 48 off the top 50 viewed shows when the numbers are released from 2025.
As for BB, well, dude has 51-plus million Instagram followers and has never made an Instagram post. That’s right, the population of California AND Ohio combined are following Mr. Bunny (that’s Bad to his buddies) on the off chance that he decides to make an Instagram post.
And let’s not forget the Grammys domination last month and the coronation that Bunny has had the most global downloads and streams four times in the last handful of years.
In truth, this was a PR nightmare from the start.
If DTJ ignores the announcement last fall, it’s a one-day story and then his folks could squawk this morning about not knowing a single word Mr. Bunny uttered during halftime.
Well, it became a mushroom cloud that included Turning Point trotting out Kid Rock in an alternate halftime show that sounded more like a Jerry Lewis MDA telethon than concert.
By most critiques, the masses loved the Bad Bunny show. It was not my cup of tea.
It had a party vibe for sure, and was star-studded and well-choreographed, which is all you can really hope for in a 13-minute concert that takes five minutes to set-up and five minutes to take down.
But the music wasn’t for me, and I found myself in my phone more than in the moment.
And that’s OK.
Mr. Bunny is clearly globally popular, and in the end that’s what any business would/should want for a mid-game entertainment option, right?
Thoughts?
This and that
> Speaking of AI and tech advancement, well at least one technological advancement has been culturally put on the back burner. Have you been to Walmart lately? Within the last year to 18 months, the superstore was switching to almost entirely self-check kiosks. The one at the bottom of Whiskey Hill is in the process of switching back, and at least one of the employees I talked to said it was because of all the goods that were getting five-fingered discounted in the new process. Hmmmm.
> Baylor School grads Harris English and Stephan Jaeger finished among a group at T28 at the Waste Management event. They each made a smidge less than $63K. Keith Mitchell was two back of their 7-under score at T41 and made a smidge more than $34K.
> Fun Super Bowl stat that should make every Seattle fan even more giddy this morning. Seattle’s Mike Macdonald became the third coach to win a Super Bowl as a DC of the NFL’s top-scoring defense and to win a Super Bowl as the HC of the NFL’s top-scoring defense. The other two are guys named Bill Belichick and Chuck Noll.
> Man, UT Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell said her team quit in a world-class tail-whipping at South Carolina.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers, go. Yes, you can offer Super Bowl and non-Super Bowl entries.
As for multiple choice Monday, what was the best part of Sunday’s Super Bowl?
> The game,
> The commercials,
> The halftime show,
> Other, and specify.
(For me, it was the company, so I will go D.)
As for today, Feb. 9, let’s review.
The Beatles made their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on this day in 1964.
Joe Pesci is 83 today. Pretty sure we’ve done his Rushmore.
Michael B Jordan is 39 today. What’s his Rushmore, TV and film. Go.