TWIST: This Week in Sports Talk January 21, 2018

You don’t love professional sports, but your livelihood and/or personal happiness depends upon your being able to converse intelligently about it. It’s a common dilemma with a simple solution: you need to learn a new language. You need to learn how to talk sports. And we’re here to help! The TWIST is our weekly Dandelion Chandelier guide to what’s happened on the field, on the court and on the ice. Every weekend you’ll find the three (and only three) things you need to know this coming week to speak cogently about professional sports with the boss, the gang at the office, your barber, your barista, your secret crush, or your in-laws. Do the TWIST every week and we promise you’ll know how to talk about sports like a champion.

This week’s edition of TWIST: This Week in Sports Talk begins with a nod to the Young Guns of the NFL. In last week’s divisional championship games, the “old” experienced quarterbacks were defeated by the “young” newcomers in every case except the Pats’ Tom Brady. The next-generation Blake Bortles, Casey Keenum, and Nick Foles are the other three starting quarterbacks in today’s conference championships, and at least one of them is going to the Super Bowl. In another inspirational twist, both Keenum and Foles were the backup QBs for their teams, and are now poised to make history.

It’s another weekend for NFL underdogs to try to reign supreme: The Philadelphia Eagles are the underdogs in the Vegas betting line for their home game against the Minnesota Vikings today. As a result, dog masks have sold out in greater Philadelphia, as fans are planning to fill the stadium wearing them. Who let the dogs out? Now you know.

Meanwhile, for Those Who Do Not Follow Professional Sports, here’s what you need to know this week (and not a single thing more).

3 for the week of January 21, 2018:

1. Its NFL Conference Championship Weekend. Must know: Today the conference championship games will decide who goes to the Super Bowl. The two games are the AFC Jacksonville Jaguars at the New England Patriots; and the NFC Minnesota Vikings at the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pats and the Vikings are favored to win, and there’s a great deal of chatter about whether the Jags and their coach Tom Coughlin could be the Pats’ nemesis (Coughlin led the Giants when they defeated the Pats in the Super Bowl. Twice.) If the Vikings win, they’ll be the first team to play the Super Bowl on their home field. Ever. Nice to know: The Pats’ quarterback Tom Brady injured his thumb this week, and appeared at practices and at the weekly press conference wearing two red and black Under Armour gloves and an inscrutable expression when asked about the seriousness of his injury. The Executive Editor of our Sports Desk notes that everyone is talking about how much free advertising Under Armour is getting for their glove. “It’s probably the most famous glove since ‘if the glove does not fit, you must acquit,’ or Michael Jackson’s glove.” The amount of free publicity that Under Armour has already received from the multiple shots of Brady’s hands is worth at least 10 Super Bowl ads (at $5 million per 30 seconds) in terms of exposure. Extra credit: You will never be wrong if you proclaim “Defense wins championships.” You don’t even need to know what that means. Just say it, and heads will nod. All four teams in the final round of the NFL postseason were in the top 5 scoring defenses in the league.

2. The Australian Open rolls on. Must know: Number 2 seed Roger Federer and top-seeded Rafael Nadal are going strong. Number 14 seed Novak Djokovic has a new serve, developed after an elbow injury, and it seems to be serving him well so far (pun fully intended). Nice to know: After all the controversy about the tournament organizers having invited Maria Sharapova to take on official duties at the opening draw ceremony, Sharapova is out, having been routed by former Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber. Extra credit: 4^th-seeded Alexander Zverev, always discussed as a Grand Slam champion, has once again made an early exit from a major tournament, losing to Hyeon Chung in the third round. And “bad boy” Nick Kyrgios was defeated by Grigor Dimitrov, who now enters the quarter-finals.

3. Fight Night in the NBA. Must know: LeBron James can’t seem to carry the Cleveland Cavaliers past their weak defensive woes: the team fell apart against a surging, star-led Oklahoma City Thunder team this weekend. Nice to know: Late Monday, inside Staples Center in Los Angeles, four Houston Rockets – lead by Chris Paul – tried to storm the LA Clippers locker room through a side entrance and instigate a fight. Paul, according to various reports, may have wanted a piece of his two former teammates, Blake Griffin and Austin Rivers. The LAPD had to break up the donnybrook. No one was injured. Extra credit: This weekend, the Golden State Warriors lost on the road to the Rockets, 116-108, in a dramatic match-up that some say might be a preview of the NBA finals, if Cleveland keeps playing this way. The loss snapped a 14-game winning streak on the road for the Warriors, and maintained Houston’s undefeated record in games where Chris Paul, James Harden and Clint Capela all play.

Finally, let’s end on a note of community and connection:

New Orleans Saints fans were very supportive and forgiving when their team returned home after a shocking and heart-breaking last-second loss to the Minnesota Vikings in the division championship game last weekend.

The Winter Olympics are nearly here, and the North Koreans are attending in a combined team with South Korea, proving the power of sports to bridge divides between nations.

And the trend toward charitable contributions from fans of opposing teams is becoming more common. As we reported in a prior TWIST, Buffalo Bills fans contributed $250,000 to Andy Dalton’s charity when he beat the Ravens at the last minute to give the Bills their first playoffs in 17 years.

In a similar move, this week Minnesota Vikings fans donated $200,000 in a show of appreciation for an act of sportsmanship by New Orleans Saints punter Thomas Morstead. After the Vikings clinched a win over the Saints with a touchdown, NFL rules still required Minnesota to kick an extra point. Even though the Saints’ had zero chance at winning, Morstead, in intense pain due to a rib injury suffered earlier in the game, led a group of New Orleans players back onto the field as Minnesota lined up to kick. It was not required, but it was a classy display of respect for the game and the opposing team. In return, Vikings fans raised money for his charity – and then Morstead pledged to donate 100% of the funds raised from Vikings fans to the Child Life department at Children’s Hospital in Minnesota. Nice.

That’s it. You’re good to go. See you next week.

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