Red & Blue Sportsball

I'm back and finally writing another blog post! It's a Festivus miracle! It's Christmas weekend, and most people are off on their way to see their families. I'll even be seeing my father later this weekend whenever he can get off from work. For now, I'm here to spread the magic of Festivus to you all! For those of you who aren't familiar woth Festivus, it comes from a Seinfeld writer's dad. The  Wiki  Magic indcates that he used his childhood experiences to write the classic Seinfeld episode "The Strike".  You can watch it now on Hulu, apparently. Anyway, one of the great Festivus traditions is the Airing of Grievances, where you tell your friends and family all of the ways they've disappointed you in the past year. I have no grieveances to air of my loved ones, but I do have some grievances for my football and basketball teams. I have no grievances for my hockey team. Ironically, the Tampa Bay Lightning are still the best team in the ...

All is not well in the sports universes I follow. Bucs Julio Jones spent Sunday making the Bucs' defense look like a joke, with 12 catches for 253 yards, and the Atlanta Falcons ran down the Bucs, 34-20. At least Jameis Winston will be back at QB when they head to Green Bay to play the Packers on Sunday. Since Aaron Rodgers is still hurt, that might be a game the Bucs can win. At 4-7, it's probably too late to try and claw back into the playoff picture. I don't know if you want to risk re-injuring Jameis if there's no shot at the playoffs. I'm sure Koetter wants to save his job, but if Jameis gets seriously hurt as a result, Koetter absolutely will be fired for risking the franchise's future. Thunder The OK3 inexplicably beat Golden State the night before Thanksgiving (which I admittedly did not expect), then proceeded to resemble the team I thought they were, and lost their third straight game tonight against the Orlando Magic, who broke their own nine-ga...

Hi, gang. A quick look at the  CFP rankings  and some Thanksgiving picks before we get to the main conversation: RANK TEAM RECORD PREVIOUS 1 Alabama 11-0 1 2 Miami 10-0 3 3 Clemson 10-1 2 4 Oklahoma 10-1 4 5 Wisconsin 11-0 5 6 Auburn 9-2 6 7 Georgia 10-1 7 8 Notre Dame 9-2 8 9 Ohio State 9-2 9 10 Penn State 9-2 10 11 USC 10-2 11 12 TCU 9-2 12 13 Washington State 9-2 14 14 Mississippi State 8-3 16 15 UCF 10-0 15 16 Michigan State 8-3 17 17 Washington 9-2 18 18 LSU 8-3 20 19 Oklahoma State 8-3 13 20 Memphis 9-1 21 21 Stanford 8-3 22 22 Northwestern 8-3 23 23 Boise State 9-2 25 24 South Carolina 8-3 NR 25 Virginia Tech 8-3 NR Basically the same as last week in the top 10, except that Miami rightfully jumped Clemson. Why Clemson is still ahead of the Sooners though, I have no earthly idea. A quick update on Baker Mayfield: Sooners coach Lincoln Riley announced on Monday that  Baker will not start on Saturday  against West Virginia and w...

So I've been out of the writing game a bit longer than I ever should have been. Once I got a "grownup job" where I have to write for a living and research a lot of dry topics, I didn't feel like doing this as much. I figured an easy way to at least get back in the habit of writing somewhat creatively would be in talking about something I find less dry: sports. If anyone's found their way here that doesn't already know me, I'm a 28-year old alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, with a BA in Journalism. I do writing, research and QA for a training company in OKC, and I spend most of my free time doing my best to keep myself entertained. Sports have always been interesting to me, even though I've never been much of an athlete. (I did attempt to play football in my freshman year of high school, but that didn't pan out nearly as well as I'd hoped.) Part of it is the typical vicarious experience of being a sports fan, but the history and context...