NFL’s Final Four
The NFC & AFC Championship games will happen today and it should be an interesting matchup for both conference championship games.
In the NFC, the top-seeded Philadelphia Eagles and MVP candidate Jalen Hurts will look to knock off the San Francisco 49ers and punch their ticket to their 4th Super Bowl appearance. The 49ers are on their 3rd QB in Brock Purdy and he’s been undefeated while getting the 49ers to this point. The 49ers are looking for their 7th Super Bowl berth and the 2nd in the last 4 years.
In the AFC, the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs are making their 5th straight AFC Title appearance and standing in their way is the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year – the Cincinnati Bengals. It will be a duel between what many people consider to be the two best QBs in the league in the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow.
The gang over at Inside The NFL make their picks:
My picks for these games:
- I like the Eagles to end the cinderella story of Brock Purdy & the 49ers. This will be a tough, tough game but I have the Eagles winning 28-24
- In the AFC title game, I like Joe Burrow to go into Arrowhead once again and knock off Patrick Mahomes in a shootout 35-31.
The Bulls Are Becoming Unlikeable
The Chicago Bulls are heading into the All-Star break and it feels like the 2022 White Sox season. You have a team that should be better on paper and they continue to underperform against teams(at least on paper) they’re supposed to beat. The Bulls lost 2 games last week in which they blew a 21-point lead against the Pacers and then couldn’t hold a 10-point lead against a Hornets team that at one point missed 18 consecutive free throws.
It continues to be the same story with the Bulls – lack of effort, pride and execution. 13 of their 26 losses have come against teams with a sub .500 record. That’s inexcusable. You have 3 players on this team who are All-Stars and for whatever reason they cannot put together a model of consistency. They don’t defend well. They don’t shoot the 3 ball well. They don’t consistently feed the ball into Nikola Vucevic when he’s in the post. They rely on DeMar DeRozan too much during “clutch” moments and expect him to bail the team out. The guy with the max contract has to realize that with ‘max contract money’ comes max contract responsibilities. Is it fair – no but if we’re going to rip other players on other teams with max contracts who don’t consistently perform then we gotta rip Zach LaVine when he’s not up to the task.
The players, fans & pundits need to stop with Lonzo Ball narrative. He’s not Mr. Fix-It. Not even close… and he’s not coming back this season so stop waiting for him.
The young players aren’t progressing quick enough. Patrick Williams looks to be just a guy and not the former #4 overall pick. Ayo Dosunmu looks to be in the sophomore slump. Yes, Coby White looks better but the rest of the young guys still have a ton of growing to do.
Billy Donovan has his share of the blame as well. Questions about adjustments and substitutions linger. Is he really the long-term answer at head coach? Does he really have the power in that locker room? It appears he still operates as if he’s walking on egg shells.
In short, the Bulls are becoming about as unlikeable as last year’s White Sox… and the Bulls’ brass are going to have some tough decisions to make much sooner than later… if they ever decide to show their faces.
Royal Rumble Review
Last night’s Royal Rumble laid the groundwork for the road to WrestleMania and produced some of the finest storytelling in the history of the sport.
There weren’t a ton of surprises in both the men’s & women’s rumble matches and that can be taken as a good sign for the company. Triple H had enough belief in the current roster to not rely on calling on too many part-timers/legends to fill out spots. In fact, Booker T and Michell McCool were the only legend call ups for the matches. In the men’s rumble that match set the stage for several potential matches at WrestleMania. Brock Lesnar & Bobby Lashley will continue their feud and get a prime spot at The Show of Shows. It looks as though Seth Rollins has a dance partner as Logan Paul returned from injury and in shocking fashion eliminated Rollins. Edge returned and exacted revenge on The Judgment Day. Cody Rhodes returning at #30 and winning was the right call but the MVP of the night was Gunther. The current Intercontinental Champion lasted a record 71 minutes in the rumble match and was in the final two with Rhodes. Gunther was an absolute beast and looked like a star that’s ready to have the rocket put on him.
In the women’s rumble match, it was almost paint by numbers. McCool had a cool entrance as she was actually in the crowd with her daughters when her music came up at #25. The other surprises were NXT Women’s champion Roxanne Perez, NXT superstar Zoey Stark, a returning Chelsea Green and Nia Jax. The only storyline that played out during the match was the continuing feud between Becky Lynch and Damage CTRL. Becky & Bayley appear to be headed to a high profile match at WrestleMania. The Eradicator Rhea Ripley entered at #1 and outlasted 29 other women in another record setting performance for Ripley.
The highlight of the match was what happened after the main event of Roman Reigns & Kevin Owens. Reigns retained the Undisputed WWE Universal championship and then the best storytelling in recent history reached its climax. Props to YouTube user What A Vlog:
Months of storytelling finally paid off with Zayn turning his back on The Bloodline as they decimated Kevin Owens. That chair shot to Reigns eclipsed Seth Rollins’ betrayal of The Shield. The pop for Sami was unreal.
Which leads me to the biggest question – What will WWE do with this? Sami is super over while Reigns has nuclear heat. There has to be a payoff for Sami Zayn. He has earned it due to his work with The Bloodline. He has made this storyline the best in the business and maybe the best long form storytelling in modern history. The Cody Rhodes story is nice… but it pales in comparison to how the story with The Bloodline should end.
One way to do this is to combine Reigns’ titles into one and create a RAW centric title for Rhodes to pursue. Have a tournament to determine Rhodes’ opponent and the two square off at WrestleMania. Zayn should be entered into the Elimination Chamber… and he should win it. Then with the help of Kevin Owens, and quite possibly Jey Uso, Zayn beats Roman at WrestleMania.
Let me know what you think about the Royal Rumble and how this great Bloodline story should end.
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