NFL power poll
So how dominant is the NFL in terms of TV and popularity?
Well consider this among the realm of football/futbol:
— Saturday’s win for Michigan over THE Ohio State was the most-watched college football game in 11 years, averaging more than 17 million viewers.
— Friday’s U.S.-England draw averaged more than 15.3 million viewers on Fox proper, a new record for a single network.
Well, that’s swell and all, but the NFL yawns because the Cowboys-Giants on Thanksgiving averaged — averaged, people — 42 million viewers across the Fox platforms. If those numbers hold, it was the most-watched regular-season NFL game ever.
Wow.
Like Warnock and Walker, let’s look at the poll.
Powerful
1 Philadelphia (10-1). Man, the Eagles are tough. Two stats of note: One, tackle Lane Johnson is the best player you are not familiar with since he has not allowed a sack in two years. Read that again. Two, Jalen Hurts passed the 100-yard rushing mark in the first quarter in Sunday night’s win over the Packers that not only sent Aaron Rodgers — and maybe his time in Green Bay — to the locker room, it killed the season of a Packers team that has the pieces to be a problem in the postseason.
2 Kansas City (9-2). Man, an Andy Reid Memorial — an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl — game in February would be a ton of fun, no?
3 Dallas (8-3). I think the Cowboys have the parts to be a Super Bowl winner. So why are they third? I like the depth of the Eagles roster — AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith give Hurts arguably the best healthy WR1-WR2 combo in the game — and I much prefer Reid over Mike McCathey.
4 Minnesota (9-2). Gang, 9-2 is 9-2, and if Brown and Smith are not the top pass-catching duo in the game, Justin Jefferson and Adam Theilen are. Side question: If you were in your fantasy draft in August and someone picked Kirk Cousins as their QB1 with Aaron Rodgers still on the board, you would have laughed right?
5 Buffalo (8-3). Here’s hoping Josh Allen is healthy come the -ry months because the game is more fun when that dude is on the field. Think back to all the memorable games you can recall not involving your team over the last couple of years, and odds are good that Allen and the Bills were involved. Good times. Well, unless you’re a Bills fan, because other than the Lions’ inexplicable clock management on Thanksgiving, all of those thrilling moments for Allen and Co. have come in defeats.
Powerless
28 Los Angeles Rams (3-9). Egad. Well, at least the Rams got to hoist the trophy before the wheels fell off. The Rams effort of late makes me think of the great story the late Frank Layden would tell. The former NBA coach who spent a long time with the Jazz said he once asked a player, “Son, what is it with you: Is it ignorance or apathy?” And Layden always said the player paused, put his hand on his chin and said directly, “Coach, I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Friends, your 2022 defending Super Bowl champion Rams.
29 Chicago (3-9). Speaking of crazy looks and whispers that proved correct from your fantasy football draft, despite battling injuries, Justin Fields is the sixth-best fantasy football QB in the league this year. Seriously. Now that is a duplicitous detail for sure, because Marcus Mariota is top 10 as well. But I do think the Bears — if they can keep Fields healthy — can emerge from this season saying for the first time since maybe McMahon, they have a QB1 who they can trust.
30 New Orleans (4-8). As Matt Stafford and Matt Ryan and all of those dudes in the "Are they a Hall of Famer or are they a stat compiler" conversation damage their legacies with ugly chapters to the end of their careers, man, Drew Brees’ time with the Saints is aging like a four-figure French bordeaux. It takes some doing for an NFL offense in today’s age of bend-but-don’t-break defense for a team to get blanked the way New Orleans was Sunday.
31 Denver (3-8). What a failure the Denver offseason was, no? Yes, the Nathanial Hackett hire has hovered halfway between Hades and a hangover. Strike one. The Russell Wilson acquisition has moved the Broncos offense from bad to worst in the league. Hmmmmmm. Now remember that when they fire Hackett, not many coaches are going to beat down the door since Denver’s 2023 first- and second-round picks belong to Seattle. Ouch-standing.
32 Houston (1-9-1). How long until pitchers and catchers report, Houston fans?
Mr. Freeze
So Auburn — my alma mater for those new to the proceedings — has hired Hugh Freeze to be its next football coach.
Freeze did wonderful things at Ole Miss. The NCAA found him to be breaking rules, and he was fired as Ole Miss was put on probation and given a bowl ban.
Granted that was all the way back in the mid-2010s, and like Fletch said when he got in the convertible as the kid was stealing it, “I’m not even sure that’s a crime these days.”
Because Freeze’s misdeeds in terms of football are now considered assets in terms of NIL and talent acquisition.
I'm good with this hire. Heck, I'm just happy Auburn did not end up turning to some current Alabama assistant to be honest. And thank goodness we did not go down the Urban Meyer rabbit hole.
As for the here and now — and yes, recruiting becomes the biggest hurdle, and using the $13 million NIL war chest Auburn has reportedly assembled — well, Freeze could go a long way toward his first victory as Auburn’s coach by making Carnell "Cadillac" Williams his associate head coach.
Unite the clans Hugh, like William Wallace tried to do with Robert the Bruce.
And do it today. Then get to work "escorting" high-dollar talent to the Plains.
MLB intrigue
OK, as H.I. McDunnough told Glen in the kitchen of their trailer, “Well this whole thing is just who knows who and favoritism. Ed has a friend at one of the agencies.”
Yep, ol’ H.I. was speaking of the "adoption" of Junior. But he may as well have been speaking about the shell game that is the current version of the Veterans Committee for the MLB Hall of Fame.
Because as a star-studded list of names — including a slew under the shadows of PEDs — hits the Veterans Committee, some new names have been added to the crew. And those names should make Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy and eventually even Andruw Jones very hopeful.
According to Dave O’Brien, who covers the Braves for The Athletic, here’s the skinny. Chipper Jones and Greg Maddux comprise 1/8th of the 16-person panel that will vote on the "contemporary era" players that have been nominated.
And if you don’t think that’s a big deal, and the math still has a long way to go to get to the required 12 votes, remember this: Two of the most controversial players to get into Cooperstown in recent years were Harold Baines and Ted Simmons.
Both were longtime favorites of former White Sox and Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa. Want to guess who was on the committee when Baines and Simmons were given the A-OK? Yeah, LaRussa — provided he was not napping during the discussion that is.
The rest of the current committee along with Maddux and Chipper are Hall of Famers Jack Morris, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Frank Thomas and Alan Trammell; major league executives Paul Beeston, Theo Epstein, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Dave St. Peter and Ken Williams; and veteran media members/historians Steve Hirdt, LaVelle Neal and Susan Slusser.
The voting will be announced Dec. 4.
This and that
— So our daily best play continued to smoke right along with last night’s plus-125 payday on FanDuel’s boost of Jonathan Taylor, Najee Harris and Georgia Pickens combining to score at least two TDs. Good times. Yeah, we missed on the Colts, who are inexplicably struggling. Man, the last 12 months have been dog years for Matt Ryan.
— Catching up on the after-hours chatting from Monday and felt obliged to include this. Of course I remember Kim King, but not as the Tech QB. I first recall him as the "Young left-hander" who was Al Ciraldo’s sidekick in the Tech radio booth. And friends, in terms of all-time great being followed by an all-time great, you can offer Favre to Rodgers in the QB conversation, but I will offer Ciraldo to Wes Durham in the college radio play-by-play category. I also knew Kim King as Mr. King, because for a couple of years his daughter went to my high school. But she was on the cover of Vogue — seriously — by age 17 and moved to some big-time modeling school somewhere.
— The Bulldogs will almost assuredly be ranked numero uno tonight in the penultimate college football rankings. Here’s more on the Dawgs from Paschall, because, hey, you know the rules.
— Speaking of the Dawgs, Georgia has to hope for TCU and USC to handle their alphabet business over the weekend. Georgia will be favored against anyone they line up against, and rightly so. But THE Ohio State or Alabama present way more issues than either of the three-letter pretenders in my view.
— Terrell Owens got into a brouhaha over the weekend at a CVS. T.O. said he was provoked. Man, side note: Imagine the headline spinning that could have happened here. “NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens involved in fight outside known drug-dealing establishment.”
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday. How ya doin’ Ern?
True or false, THE Ohio State will be 5 tonight, Alabama will be 6 and Tennessee will be 7.
True or false, that’s how they should be ranked.
True or false, you trust Patrick Mahomes arm over anything else — including Jalen Hurts’ legs — among QBs in today’s NFL.
True or false, Dale Murphy should be in the Hall of Fame. Same question for Fred McGriff.
True or false, Hugh Freeze was a good hire for Auburn.
As for today, Nov. 29, let’s review.
Wow, there simply are too many Rushmores off of this momentous occasion.
It was 50 years ago today that Pong debuted in a tavern in California.
It was the first arcade game. Wow. For those of us a certain age, there were few things as awesome as going to the arcade and getting 8 tokens for a dollar and going to town.
OK, your favorite coin operated video game. Go.
Chadwick Boseman would have been 46 today. Man, “Black Panther 2” is very good, friends.
Rushmore of 'Freeze' and be creative.
Go and enjoy the day and participate in Giving Tuesday if you can.