how to talk about sports this week like a pro

TWIST: This Week in Sports Talk is our weekly recap of how to talk about sports this week like a pro. If you’re just starting to learn about sports, or need a quick summary of what’s up in your favorite league, or just want to know what’s so important that your spouse has to spend the weekend glued to the telly, here’s what you need to know to talk with a sports fan the week of December 16, 2018. 

how to talk with a sports fan this week

we begin this week moonstruck

In a head-scratching moment this week, during a group discussion on the Winging It podcast, Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry claimed that humans never landed on the moon, and that the 1969 moon landing was a hoax. This follows comments by Kyrie Irving (a graduate of Duke University), who in 2017 stated with conviction that the world is flat, not round. (Irving later said he’s since learned that certain thoughts are best kept in “intimate conversations.”)

Subsequently, NASA reached out to Curry, inviting him to visit the Johnson Space Center, see some moon rocks, and view other evidence that humans have, in fact, landed on the lunar surface. Steph later said it was all a joke. Subsequently, in a game against the Kings in Sacramento, the home team put a tape of the moon landing up on the big screen. We’re just hoping that this is now settled fact. And to our darling Steph, we say: Dude, don’t be going all Kanye on us. Please. 

what you should know to talk about sports this week 

For Those Who Do Not Avidly Follow Professional Sports, here are the happenings that you should know about for the week of December 16, 2018:

1. nfl news – 3 weeks remaining in the season

nfl must know:

With college football season over, the NFL invades Saturdays. For the remainder of the season, there will be games on most of the days of the week (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Is it a blessing or a burden that for some, their spouses/partners will be spending a great deal of time and attention on the NFL for the rest of the month? Might be a bit of both. As long as the bookstore and the mall are open, and the football fanatic is willing to do the dishes, we’re good.

Either way, there are only 3 weeks left in the regular season. Then comes wild card weekend; the divisional championships; the conference championship; and then the Super Bowl.

As a refresher, here’s how the playoffs work. The first place team in each conference gets the 1 – 4 seeds (meaning they’re guaranteed a slot in the playoffs). The next 2 best records among the remaining teams become the wild cards.  The wild card teams play the number 3 and 4 teams on “wild card weekend,” while the number 1 and 2 teams get the first weekend off. That’s the coveted “bye week” in the playoffs.

If all of this makes your brain hurt, the best way to understand it is to pick one team and follow it all the way through. If/when they lose, pick another. And ignore everything else.

nfl nice to know:

Here’s what our Sports Desk has to say about the playoff prospects.  In the NFC, things are pretty well set. The LA Rams have locked up the Western conference. Ditto the New Orleans Saints in the South. In the North, the Chicago Bears look good, although the Minnesota Vikings could still technically take the title. In the East, the Dallas Cowboys have a pretty comfortable lead. However, if they suffer a melt-down and lose the rest of their games, they could be out. The Seattle Seahawks seem to be a lock for the first wild card slot. The last wild card looks like a big fight: will it be the Vikings, or the Philadelphia Eagles, with quarterback Nick Foles subbing in?

In the AFC, there’s more drama. In the West, after Thursday night, the Kansas City Chiefs and the LA Chargers have the same record. That game was a thriller, with the Chargers coming back from 14 points down in the 4^th quarter. One of these teams will win the West, and the other will be the number one wild card. (Meanwhile, the Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, already anointed by many sportscasters as the inevitable MVP, added the “no look pass” to his repertoire. In the play of the week, he threw to wide receiver Demarcus Robinson for 17 yards). The New England Patriots will likely win the East, although the Miami Dolphins are still alive. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are in a battle for the North, with only a 1-game difference. In the South, the Houston Texans are in command.

nfl extra credit:

Given all of that, the biggest game this weekend is the Pats at the Steelers. The outcome of that game will be the difference between the Steelers gaining a wild card slot versus winning their conference.  For the Pats, it could mean the difference between a shot at the number 1 seed and the number 4 seed.

Here’s the scoop on that game: The Pats’ quarterback Tom Brady is 8 – 2 in the last 10 games against Steelers’ quarterback “Big Ben” Roethlisberger. Brady has the highest QB rating against the Steelers of any QB against any one team ever. The Steelers are on a 3-game losing streak, so they will want to break out. But the Pats are coming off the humiliating “Miami miracle” last weekend, when they were defeated by the lowly Miami Dolphins. Pats head coach Bill Belichick hates being embarrassed. Having been the laughingstock of the league last weekend with lots of criticism (like “why was Gronk even on the field, why didn’t they go for the TD rather than the field goal”) means this has been an intense week in Patriots Nation.

Other key match-ups? The Green Bay Packers at the Chicago Bears. The Pack is hoping to stay alive. And the Miami Dolphins at the  Minnesota Vikings. Both are hoping for a wild card slot. Finally, the Philadelphia Eagles are at the LA Rams. The Eagles (who won the Super Bowl last season, as you may recall) are hoping that substitute quarterback Nick Foles’ magic returns and that they can stay alive for the conference title or a wild card slot.

Yesterday, the Houston Texans rallied to defeat the New York Jets, 29-22. The Texans are now 10-4 for the season. Despite the loss, Jets rookie quarterback Sam Darnold won praise for playing a good game. The Cleveland Browns beat the Denver Broncos at home in a nail-biter, 17-16. The Browns have now won four of their last five games and remain mathematically alive for the playoffs.

nfl bonus round:

In a bit of intrigue, there is a lot of controversy over the “injury” suffered by Eagles’ starting quarterback Carson Wentz.  He’s one of the best young QB’s in the league, and didn’t appear to have any issues. It’s still not clear what occurred and when.

Head coach Doug Peterson says Wentz was fine, and they X-rayed him just to be sure.  (But wait. If he was fine, why did they get him x-rayed?). The team says the quarterback has a stress fracture in his spine, and that it might take 3 months to heal. But curiously, Wentz is still going to travel with the team and dress for the game today. Huh? Meaning that if they need him, he will go in and play with his broken spine? To this query, coach Peterson replied in a very Forrest Gump kind of way: “And that’s all I am going to say about that.” 

Finally, Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys this week became the first offensive player to be called for “helmet to helmet contact.” He was fined $27,000. The NFL instituted the new rule at the beginning of the season to prevent player injuries. When it was announced, there was concern about how it would be implemented, given that such contact is common for players on offense.

2. nba news

Must know: Part of the fun of following the NBA is there’s always a beef going on. This week, it’s Kevin Durant (KD). He threw additional shade by implication at LBJ (LeBron James). In an interview, when asked to name his top three players of all time, he responded: “Kobe [Bryant], MJ [Michael Jordan] and Kyrie [Irving].” He was strangely silent about LBJ, who is always compared to Jordan as one of the greatest of all time. Says KD: Jordan and Kobe are “far better than anybody who’s played the game.” Will LBJ clap back? Watch this space for further updates.

Nice to know: The Boston Celtics are heating up after a mediocre 500 start to the season. They went from 10 – 10 to 18 – 10. More impressively, in that 8-game stint, the Celts have outscored their opponents by 182 points combined – that’s a franchise record. This week they beat the Chicago Bulls by 56 points, the most ever by a Celtics team. However, as of this posting, they still lag the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference.

Extra Credit: Former New York Knick Joakim Noah (now of the Memphis Grizzlies) admitted to partying too hard while in New York City. He played in just seven games for the Knicks last season. In a revealing interview, he admitted to being “too lit” to perform well in the Big Apple. Apparently, all those late nights hampered his recovery from injury. While sportswriters conjecture that perhaps the past 17-18 years of Knicks’ under-performance could be due to too many temptations in the big city, Noah believes “Memphis is perfect for me.” Everyone there must be in bed by ten, we’re guessing?

3. elsewhere in the world of sports

Must know:

In the NHL, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is on fire. He’s scored 28 goals in 33 games this season, making him the league’s highest-scoring player. At 33, he’s playing some of the best hockey of his career in his 14th season. This after winning his first Stanley Cup just six months ago.

Nice to know:

In the MLB, the annual winter meetings in Las Vegas ended with very little meaningful action. The top free agents – Manny Machado and Bryce Harper – remain free agents, for now. Rumors have Machado going to the Yankees and Harper going to the highest bidder (right now, that looks to be the Chicago White Sox). The Yanks are still looking for top-tier pitcher to get them to the World Series. To date, they’ve only added 35-year old J. Happ with a 3-year deal.

Extra credit:

Finally, in the cold cruel world category comes a final headline from the NFL. The love shown to the new generation of offensive and defensive coordinators has proven to be just a passing fling. Once considered on the list of the next hotshot head coaches, John DeFilippo has instead been fired. He was the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, and was summarily dismissed after their Monday night loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

For those who may be wondering why we’re strangely silent on the topic of our friendly football pool, it’s because we’re getting crushed. Every week. This is extremely embarrassing. We have enrolled in an emergency football clinic. The struggle is real. Pats, don’t fail us.

That’s what you need to know to talk with a sports fan this week. You’re good to go.

By the way, if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the sports fans in your life, check out our gift guide, here.

See you next week.

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