This Week in Sports Talk: December 8, 2019

This Week in Sports Talk (TWIST) is our weekly roundup of top headlines and sports news, plus a preview of what’s up next. Heading into the week of December 8, 2019, here’s the top sports news, with a twist. Skim it, and you’ll be good to go all week.

This Week in Sports Talk: December 8, 2019

We begin with some short takes in sports news heading into the week of December 8, 2019.

there’s no place like home

Boston’s teams across the NFL, NBA and NHL have a perfect record in home games this season.

As of this posting, at home, the Patriots are 5 – 0. The Celtics are 8 – 0, which is their best record at home since 2007-08. And the Bruins are 12 – 0 – 5.  

college football update

This was Conference Championship weekend, the last weekend of the regular season in college football. LSU handily defeated Georgia, 37-10, in the SEC Championship game. In the Big 12 final, Oklahoma beat Baylor in overtime, 30-23. 

In an upset on Friday night in the Pac-12 final, Oregon beat Utah, 37-15. Memphis won their first-ever AAC title with a win over Cincinnati, 29-24. And Clemson rolled over Virginia 62-17 t0 clinch the ACC Championship.

Ohio State University won its third consecutive Big 10 title on Saturday night in Indianapolis, clinching a slot for the Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff. OSU came back from a 21-7 deficit at halftime to beat Wisconsin 34-21.

This afternoon, the final rankings setting the College Football Playoff teams (and Bowl Games) were announced. No. 1 LSU will take on No. 4 Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl. No. 2 Ohio State will face No. 3 Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. Both of these semifinal games will be played on December 28, 2019.

wozniacki to retire

Caroline Wozniacki has announced that she will retire from professional tennis after playing the Australian Open in January 2020. The player, 29, noted that she’s been competing since the age of 15.  The one-time Grand Slam event winner has been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. She was number 1 in the world from 2010-12 and again in 2018, and competed in the 2016 Olympics on behalf of her homeland, Denmark.

Top Sports Headlines heading into the week of December 8, 2019

Now that we’re warmed up, here’s everything else you need to know about sports heading into the week of December 8, 2019:

1. NFL

Must Know:

In Week 14 of the NFL season, there are 4 big games. The Kansas City Chiefs (8-4) at the New England Patriots (10-2). The Seattle Seahawks (10-2) at the LA Rams (7-5). The San Francisco 49’ers (10-2) at the New Orleans Saints (10-2). And the Baltimore Ravens (10-2) at the Buffalo Bills (9-3). 

headlines from Thanksgiving weekend: AFC

In case you missed any of it, the headlines to know from the Thanksgiving weekend games are the following:   

• The New England Patriots saw their second loss of the season, to the Houston Texans. And the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49’ers. So now the Ravens are the first seed in the AFC over the Pats. And even though they’re 10-2, and defending Super Bowl champions, there’s chatter that “the Pats are done for the season.” We advise you to ignore this chatter, dear reader.
• The Jets lost again to a win-less team – the Cincinnati Bengals. This year, the Browns, Redskins, Dolphins and Bengals all got their first win over the Jets.The moral of the story? If you are win-less – play the Jets! Said another way, if the Jets had won the 3 games against the worst teams in the league – Redskins, Fins and Bengals – they would be 7-8 and in the hunt for a playoff spot.
• The LA Chargers, who are the kings of losing in an excruciating fashion, lost to the Denver Broncos after having tied the game with a field goal with 20 seconds to go. The Broncos subsequently ran one play, a deep pass where they got called on pass interference. Then the Broncos won by kicking a field goal. Brutal.
• Two weeks after the infamous Mason Rudolph-Myles Garrett fight and suspensions, the Cleveland Browns lost the “WWF rematch” to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 13-20. Browns Coach Freddie Kitchens was seen wearing a T-shirt before the game proclaiming “Pittsburgh started it.”  Neither of the two principal players in the brawl were on the field for this game.

headlines from Thanksgiving weekend: NFC

• Even at 6-7, Dallas is in first place in the NFC East – but no one believes they are particularly good this season. (They lost to the Buffalo Bills last weekend, and to the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.)
• The Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Miami Dolphins, which shows – in the opinion of our Sports Desk – that “the Eagles are worse than we think, and the Fins are better.”
• The Seattle Seahawks beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-30, and they’re looking strong in the run-up to the post-season.
• The Carolina Panthers lost to the hapless Washington Redskins, which led to the termination of their coach Ron Rivera just three days later.
• And not that anyone cares but us – but the Detroit Lions lost. On Thanksgiving Day. Again.

Nice to Know:

In an interesting twist of fate, beginning this Monday night New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has the opportunity to save the job of Head Coach Pat Shurmur. It was Shurmur who benched him week 3 in favor of newcomer Daniel Jones. With Jones out with an injury, Manning is back as the starter. If he can win a couple of games, it might save Shurmur’s job. 

Meanwhile, the New York Jets are standing by their Head Coach Adam Gase. It’s been a tough year for Gase and for his team. Gase was let go by the Miami Dolphins last December, and in their first match-up this season, the Jets lost and the Dolphins won their first game of the season. Today is the rematch, when the Dolphins visit the Jets. It appears that Gase will keep his job, win or lose – but it would be a lot better for him if they win.

Extra Credit:

The Carolina Panthers have fired Head Coach Ron Rivera after 9 seasons. There’s chatter that he could be a serious candidate for the New York Giants head coaching position if they do choose to fire Pat Shurmur at end of season. Rivera was head coach when the current Giants General Manager Gettleman was the Panthers General Manager – so there’s some history there. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars have benched $88 million quarterback Nick Foles. And our Sports Desk reports that it appears that Head Coach Doug Marone will be out soon. Some are speculating that Executive Vice President of football operations Tom Coughlin could soon be out as well, in a complete overhaul of the front office.

Bonus round:

Lamar Jackson needs only 63 yards to break his childhood idol Michael Vick’s quarterback rushing record of 1.039 yards.

As our Sports Desk predicted, retired New England Patriot Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski is officially ineligible to return to the NFL this season as he missed the deadline last week to return.   

Finally, there’s noise out of Cleveland that Odell Beckham Jr. (OBJ) may want out of his contract with the Browns after this season. Some are not surprised – but after the orange Rolls Royce, and the orange Richard Mille watch, we thought his heart was really in this. 

2. NBA

Must Know:

Heading into the week, two teams are dominant in the NBA. The LA Lakers, led by the duo of LeBron James and  Anthony “Unibrow” Davis. And the Milwaukee Bucks, led by Giannis “The Greek Freak” As of this posting, both are at 19-3. In a head-spinning reversal of fortune, the Golden State Warriors are in last place in the West, at 4-19. In the basement in the East? The New York Knicks, at 4-17.  Wow.

Nice to Know: 

The Houston Rockets want a do-over because of a blown call from the referee during Tuesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs. With 7:50 left in the fourth quarter, James Harden made a dunk that went fully into the basket and then bounced off the rim. The replay is clear on that sequence of events. At the time, though, the ref said it wasn’t completed. The Rockets missed the 30-second time limit to challenge the call. So the game went on, and the Rockets ultimately lost by 2 points in double overtime.

Now the Rockets either want to be declared the winners (since they were ahead before this blown call). Or they want to replay the last 7 minutes of the game against the Spurs. As of this posting, both of those seem unlikely. A part of an NBA game has not been replayed since 2008, when it was incorrectly ruled that Shaquille O’Neal fouled out. The final 51.9 seconds were replayed the next time the two teams met.

Extra credit:

This week the New York Knicks became only the 7th team in NBA history to lose back-to-back games by at 35 points or more. They lost Monday night 132-88 against the Milwaukee Bucks and Thursday night 129-92 to the Denver Nuggets. In related news, the Knicks fired coach David Fizdale on Friday, after a 4-18 start to what looks likely to be the team’s seventh straight losing season.

Bonus round:

For further proof that you shouldn’t ever count anyone out just ’cause they had a couple of bad seasons, look no further than Carmelo Anthony. Melo was signed by the Portland Trailblazers after very short stints in Houston and Oklahoma last season. Many commentators thought he should just retire. Fast forward, and he was just named Western Conference Player of the Week in the sixth week of the NBA season, averaging 22.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists. 

While those stats weren’t as good as the ones put on the board by James Harden and Luka Doncic during the same time period, as one sportswriter notes: “He never gave up hope that he’d be back. And he stayed in such good shape and committed himself so much to the project that he got signed and immediately performed well enough to earn a Player of the Week honor.” Great lesson for all us kids at home.

3. MLB

Must Know:

This week, Major League Baseball’s New York Mets lost one of their starting pitchers, Zach Wheeler, to free agency. Their division rivals the Philadelphia Phillies signed him for 5 years and $118 million.  

Nice to know:

The two best free agent pitchers – Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg – met with the New York Yankees this past week. Everyone expects that they’ll command contracts in the $250-300 million range. Both players have strong West Coast ties, so the Yankees may have to pony up an extra East Coast premium to land either one of them. The LA Dodgers and LA Angels are circling as well.

Cole is represented by Scott Boras, and so far has dominated the off-season conversation. At 29, he’s coming off a two-year run with the Astros in which he went 35-10 and posted a 2.68 ERA in 65 starts. Strasburg may very well re-up with the Washington Nationals — he pitched them to the World Series title and was named the MVP this year.

Extra Credit:

It appears that the New York Mets may soon have an ownership change. Financier Steve Cohen, currently a minority owner, is looking to increase his ownership stake. And the rumor is that the Wilpon family will reduce theirs.  Which, according to our Sports Desk, is making the fans are deliriously happy, as they blame everything bad that has ever happened to the team on the Wilpons.

Neither party is without an interesting back story. The league had to extend a loan to the Wilpon family after they lost a large sum to Bernie Madoff’s fraudulent schemes. Cohen is no stranger to financial scandal, either, having closed his hedge fund, SAC Capital Partners, as part of the firm’s guilty plea to an insider trading charge. What happens next? Stay tuned.

This Week in Sports News Date

That’s it. You’re good to go with the top headlines and coming attractions heading into the week of December 8, 2019. Have a good one, and see you next week.

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