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Happy New Year! I’m hoping for a constructively boring 2026… in life, not in sports.
The NFL’s Sunday and Monday Night Football packages afforded fans some exciting closing moments in each game. NFL fans who turned off whatever device they used to watch Monday night’s Los Angeles Rams-Atlanta Falcons contest at halftime when the Rams trailed 21-0 might not have paid close attention to how things work in the NFL.
The two sides reached a late fourth-quarter tie, and the falcons salvaged a field goal with 21 seconds left in the final quarter.
This is the NFL.
Stay tuned. Always stay tuned.
How many times have NFL games reached three-touchdown leads only to end up with a close final score?
Everything you need to know about the likelihood such games will remain in a blowout point differential lay in the points oddsmakers set before each NFL contest kickoff. It’s rare to see more than 7 points given to an underdog.
You’ll witness a convincing win throughout the game, but the final score tends to be close to where the oddsmakers set the spread.
If a team beats a spread set greater than 7 points, take a look at the box score or the injuries list.
This current season, in fact, had an unprecedented (at least going back to 1990) number of convincing wins on a single Sunday, blowouts in some cases by NFL standards.
Week 8 action served up 11 of its 12 Thursday and Sunday games with double-digit margin final scores. 8 of the 24 starting quarterbacks were not the affected teams’ preferred signal callers.
Ironically, for the numerous Bears fans in our readership, the Baltimore Ravens were the only convincing winners 30-16 while the Bears were fortunate to have starter Caleb Williams under center.
The NFL is full of nuance, and when something is perturbed among varied slight differences between two pro football teams it pays to stay tuned to most of the games from weeks 1 through 17.
Week 18? Depends on where the playoff contenders and clinchers are on the final regular season week.
How many of you have heard the tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists tell you the NFL is scripted, and the Steelers’ 13-6 loss to the Browns was an outcome the NFL directed so it could stage a division-on-the-line Sunday Night Football TV matchup with the Baltimore Ravens?
All conspiracy theories have two things in common: 1) they lack common sense and 2) people spouting these theories tend to seek attention or the feeling of importance within themselves.
Those of you who know athletes currently coaching or playing, or who have coached or played among the levels of scholastic sports and professional sports have also witnessed how hypercompetitive competitive each of these individuals is.
How in Heaven’s name could the NFL mandate – at a minimum – two teams comprised of more than 90 athletes and 15-20 coaches to play out a script?
At least a handful of those individuals affecting the contest’s outcome are gonna go rogue. Furthermore, it’s even more likely these same individuals know how physically dangerous half-measure or taking a dive would be in a sport whose impact the ensuing two mornings following the contest make well-conditioned athletes feel like they were hurt or injured in a major vehicular accident.
Look at professional wrestling, where choreography requires preparation to ensure safety, but still poses injury risks. Imagine how much choreography it would take more than 100 participants among the field, the sidelines, and the press box to script and to execute a mandated outcome.
A final thought turns to my favorite sports team of all, THE Ohio State University Buckeyes football squad, a team I strongly believed would go chalk and face Indiana University in a CFP final, a Big Ten championship rematch, to boot.
“Hey, Kool-Aid!”
The second half of the Indiana-Ohio State clash, and the entire Miami (FL) Cotton Bowl-CFP quarterfinal exposed the difference between playing two CFP seeded teams versus how dominant the defense looked in more than a handful of 2025 tomato cans on the Buckeye’s schedule.
The Buckeyes had a tough time on crucial third-down plays and received – and succumbed to - more pocket pressure than they were accustomed to experiencing in most of their regular season contests.
Someone already texted, “Ugh – our Buckeyes!” to me early New Year’s Day.
I replied, “I got nuthin’,” and punctuated it with a vomit emoji.
I knew aside from a three-word reply, it was best to resume eating Thursday morning’s serving of crow in silence. I could have easily commiserated with this person via a longer volley of texts.
