Let The Madness Begin!

It's here, the time is now. March Madness! The NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament has arrived. Thirty-One conferences are represented by sixty-eight schools. All fighting for the right to be called the best team in college basketball for the 2025-26 season. The next three weeks are turning into the craziest three weeks on the sports calendar. It’s time to determine a national champion in college hoops!

There’s a lot to take in for the teams in this year’s tournament. All thirty-one conferences in the NCAA are represented here. Eight of those conferences have more than one school in the dance: MAC (2), Atlantic 10 (2), WCC (3), Big East (3), Big 12 (8), ACC (8), Big Ten (9) and the SEC (10). We have two schools this year that are making their first ever appearance in the tournament, that being California Baptist and Queens. We’ve got Tennessee State (1994), Santa Clara (1996), and Idaho (1990) making their first tournament appearances in this century. And then there’s Hofstra (2001) and Miami of Ohio (2007), the only other schools who haven’t played in the dance in the last 15 years.

The four top seeds in this year’s dance are Duke, Michigan, Florida and Arizona. If history is any indication, there’s a good chance we are going to see at least one of these schools in the final four. There’s only been four instances in the history of the tournament where we’ve had none of the top seeds there: 1980, 2006, 2011 and 2023. And in two instances have all four top seeds reached the final four: 2025 (Auburn, Florida, Duke and Houston) and 2008 (North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis and UCLA).

The big question is who’s going to be the big Cinderella team this year? Keep an eye on a few teams. Like the Miami RedHawks. They sit as an 11 seed in the Midwest and come into the tournament at a 31-1 record on the year. The only team to beat them this year was an upset loss at the start of the MAC tournament to UMASS. They are one of the six schools in the dance that have 30 or more wins on the year, and are the 2nd lowest ranked school in the tournament. Only team ranked lower is High Point at 12 in the West (they went 30-4 on the year).

Another team I’d consider a “Cinderella” team this year would be UCLA. Yes, it may seem a bit odd to have UCLA listed that way, considering that they are a big name basketball school. But as a seven seed this year, they come into the dance at 23-11. They lost to Purdue in the finals of the Big Ten tournament, and they have struggled during the year against ranked opponents as the year went along. I don’t know I just have this feeling that if they can find a groove they are going to be a tough team to play against.

Lets go dancing shall we!

Thank You Mike

In the fifty one year history of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they had quite a few good offensive players. Mike Allstott, Warrick Dunn, James Wilder, Kevin House, Brad Johnson, Tom Brady. We could go on and on. There’s one name, however, that will always and forever be at the top of that offensive player list. Mike Evans. Ever since he was taken with the 7th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Evans has been an impact player on this team. That is sadly no more.

Mike hasn’t retired. He just no longer plays here in Tampa Bay. He hit free agency and signed a deal with the San Francisco 49ers yesterday. The deal is for three years and $60.4 million, $16.3 million of which is guaranteed.

Why Evans decided to leave Tampa is up to interpretation. A small part of me wants to believe he wanted to stay here in Tampa. I don’t think money was an issue. I think the Bucs made him a solid offer that was close to, or grater than, what he ended up signing for with the 49ers. Don’t know exactly what was offered by the Bucs to Mike, so I don’t think it was the money that kept him away. There’s more to it and its been floating around as to why.

Tampa has changed offensive coordinators (again). Josh Gizzard is out and Zac Robinson is in calling the plays. Having changed coordinators that many times the last few years has got to be frustrating. Plus it might not have helped the fact that the team collapsed as badly as it did as last season went along. Mike wanted another shot at a title, and he must have felt that he wasn’t going to get that kind of shot in Tampa this season. San Francisco has gone on good playoff runs in five of the last seven seasons.

No matter what happens the rest of his career, Mike will go down as the best offensive player that has ever worn a Buccaneer uniform. Mike’s name is all over the Bucs offensive record books, including most yards in a season (1,524) touchdowns in a season (14), yards in a career (13,052), touchdowns in a career (108), catches (866). Oh, and Mike is one of just 10 players in league history with at least 13,000 receiving yards and 100 receiving touchdowns, along with Pro Football Hall of Famers Rice, Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Tony Gonzalez, Marvin Harrison Sr., Steve Largent, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Larry Fitzgerald. We could keep going.

It is the end of an era in Tampa Bay. Thanks for the memories Mike and good luck in San Francisco!

Winners & Losers Trade Deadline

When the trade deadline comes around, in any sport, it means one of two things. Either you’re trying to get better for your playoff push, or you’re shedding talent in a fire sale. What happened coming out of the NHL trade deadline is no different. There’s teams that came out of the deadline that got better, while there’s other teams look like they are taking steps backwards. Will the deals actually work out? Only time will really be able to tell. But for now, after taking some time to be able to digest some of the moves, here’s some of the biggest winners and losers out of the trade deadline.

Winner: Colorado Avalanche
Seems like the rich get richer in a sense. The best team in the entire league actually managed to get that much better. Colorado brought back Nazem Kadri and added in more depth down the middle with Nicolas Roy coming into the mix. One of the deepest teams in the game just got deeper. Colorado has the best odds for being the team to take it all this year, and what they did at the deadline helped them get that much better.

Winner: Minnesota Wild
Another team trying to make headlines at the deadline and even slightly before it is Minnesota. A lot of that, let’s be real, started in December, when the Wild added Quinn Hughes in a major deal with Vancouver. Then, as we got closer to the deadline, Vinnie Hinostroza got traded away to Florida. That’s OK, Minnesota added Jeff Petry in a deal, then brought in Nick Foligno. With the moves that the Wild have made, they are putting all their chips in for trying to chase down both Colorado and Dallas.

Winner: Anaheim Ducks 
As of this writing, the Ducks are sitting atop the Pacific Division, trying to hold off Vegas and Edmonton. The Ducks have a very good young team, that actually getting better. Sure, they moved Ryan Strome to Calgary for a pick. But the real bigtime move was sending two picks to Washington for John Carlson. That’s a huge move. Why? Because, even though the Ducks sit on top of the division, they have allowed more goals than they’ve scored (again as of this writing). So by bringing in a guy the talent of Carlson, it will in theory settle things down on that end of the ice and allow the young guys they have to fill the other net while keeping pucks out of theirs.

Losers: Toronto Maple Leafs
The team that was supposed to be good has taken steps backwards. Anybody knew it was going to be a step backward when Marner left for Vegas. It’s Toronto there’s always going to be high expectations, even with him leaving in the summer. But the Leafs have had a total fall off this year, falling to second to last place in the division (as of this writing). Because of that, it has lead to Toronto dumping off talent. Roy to Colorado for picks, Bobbly McMann to Seattle for picks, Scott Laughton to LA for a pick. Sure the Leafs are stocking draft capital but it’s really not helping their cause in the here and now.

Losers: Buffalo Sabres
Yes it seems strange putting Buffalo in this position, considering where they are in the standings. At the time of this writing, they are on a six game winning streak and have a chance at ending the long playoff drought. So why are they here? Because the management wasn’t able to do anything to improve the team. It’s not to say that they didn’t try. They looked at Colton Parayko and Luke Scheen, nothing happened out of either one. Buffalo had a real shot at trying to make improvements, but it never came to pass. This could turn out have been a massive missed opportunity.

Losers: Washington Capitals
This is a team that’s knocking on the door of a playoff spot. They sit six points back as of now and looked like they could be making moves. But then they make the deals they made. John Carlson traded to the Ducks, Nic Dowd sent to Vegas. Sure they got draft picks back in return, but if they wanted to have even a remote chance of making it to the post season, that may have gone right out the window. The team isn’t getting any younger and by the looks of it, management maybe closing the window on a title faster than expected.

As Good As Gold

Forty Six years is a long time to wait. The last time that the United States won an Olympic gold was the Miracle On Ice squad in 1980. Since then, there have been a couple of close calls. 2002 in Salt Lake City, 2010 in Vancouver. That’s as close as America has gotten to gold in Men’s hockey. Until now! Thanks to the heroics of Jack Hughes, the US has won its 3rd ever Gold Medal in Men’s Hockey!

There’s a lot to unpack from this game, from both sides. From the American side, there was a lot of emotion pouring out from this one. For one, the US has always been kind of seen as the little brother compared to Canada when it comes to hockey. Always seem like the potential is there, but the results against their neighbors to the north have never panned out. This game just felt different as it wore on. It felt like the US had something else to prove. Sure, there was times during the game where Canada dominated the play. The Americans had the answer, thanks to the brilliant play between the pipes of Conor Hellebuyck. He had to stand on his head multiple times, including a massive save on Conor McDavid, who had a breakaway that was stoned.

Then there’s the hero of the day in Jack Hughes. He took a stick up in the face late in the game, that cost him a couple teeth. Didn’t matter to Jack, who came back and scored the OT winner. All of this went down with two big points of emotion flowing out. First was the date of the game, February 22nd. The reason that date is so important, at least in hockey circles, is that on that date in 1980, the miracle happened. The US knocked off the mighty Soviet Union in the Lake Placid Olympics, which is widely considered one of the biggest upsets in the history of the game of hockey.

The other point of emotion for this contest was that the Americans were playing for Johnny. Johnny Gaudreau was a big star in the NHL, playing for the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets. Two years ago, during the prime of his career, he was killed by a drunk driver. Many believed that had he still be alive, he would have been a big star for this Olympic squad. When the game ended, a lot of the US players skated around the rink with Johnny’s jersey, symbolizing that he was there with them. It really was something to tug at the heart strings.

There’s also going to be quite a few questions from the other side of this coin as well. And they are kind of connected to each other. The injury to Sidney Crosby was a factor for Canada. It’s no secret Sid is the best player in the world, although both Conor McDavid and Nathan MacKinninon are catching him quickly for that title. So having that kind of impact player be absent is for sure a factor. And that ties into the other factor, which was line juggling. Coach Jon Cooper was and is known for doing that here in Tampa when the Lightning offense is sputtering. He did that with his Canadian squad, trying to find the right mix to jumpstart his team. Didn’t quite work.

Of course, this begs the question, is this a full blown rivalry? There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind now. With the great battle they had during last years four nations tournament and now this, there’s never a doubt. This was also a way of the US for kind of getting back at Canada. They have met twice before in gold medal games. 2002 in Salt Lake, and 2010 in Vancouver. 2002 was Canada’s year, breaking a fifty year medal drought. 2010 was Canada winning on their home ice in Vancouver. Now it was the US’s chance at redemption, which they got in the most dramatic way possible. There’s always talk about it during the NHL regular season which country puts out the best players. This tournament shows that the balance of power on the international scale is starting to even out.

Between the Men’s and Women’s tournaments at these Olympic Winter Games, we hockey fans have gotten royally spoiled by the high level of play. Both USA vs Canada games with gold on the line, both going to overtime, could not have been scripted any better!

Rivalry Renewed For Gold

Here we go again. Thursday Afternoon, with the biggest prize in international hockey on the line between the two biggest powers in the women's ice hockey game. It's USA and Canada once again for Gold.

It's no surprise that the two biggest power in international hockey are the United State and Canada. They have been the biggest powers in hockey for as long as anybody can remember. It was shown to the whole wide world once women's hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998. And these two nations have won every gold medal at the Olympics since 98. There was one year when it wasn't USA-Canada for gold and that was in 2006, when Sweden upset the US in the semifinals.

This year has a different vibe going into the gold medal game. Canada went 3-0-0-1 in the tournament. The only loss was a 5-0 shutout loss to the Americans in the preliminary round. More on that in a second.  Canada scored 14 goals in the tourney, giving up just 6. It was a 4-0 over Switzerland, a 5-1 win over Czechia, a 5-0 win over Finland and that 5-0 loss to the US. Once the medal round started it was a 5-1 win over Germany and a 2-1 win over Switzerland.

As for the Americans, they rolled through this tournament with a perfect record, going 4-0 and outscoring opponents 20-1. The only goal the US gave up was one late in the 2nd period in their opener against Czechia. They won that game 5-1. America followed it up with a 5-0 win over Finland, another 5-0 win over Switzerland, a 5-0 win over Canada. Then in the medal round it was a 6-0 win over Italy and a 5-0 win over Sweden. 

Now to the game itself. The US has beaten Canada twice for gold, in 1998 and then again in 2018. This game is going to be another tight checking affair. The last three meetings for gold, they have been the same 3-2 score, so expect nothing different here. What might make a big difference in this game is Canada's best player, Marie-Philip Poulin, is back in there. She scored both goals for the Canadians to get them into the gold medal game. On the other side of the ice, Caroline Harvey has been powering the ship for the Americans. USA has a very balanced attack and they been getting scoring from every line in this tournament, which is going to make things a lot tougher for the Canadians to handle.

Whatever the final result turns out to be Thursday afternoon, its going to be one hell of a hockey game.

2026 NFL Honors

It was one of the biggest nights on the NFL calendar. NFL Honors! Right before the Super Bowl, the NFL honored the best of the best from the 2025 regular season. It was a collection of the best football players in the world and handing out the hardware of the guys who were head a shoulders above the rest during the regular season this year. So with that being said, here’s the full list of who won what at NFL Honors!

Art Rooney Award (outstanding sportsmanship on the playing field): Budda Baker Safety, Arizona Cardinals

Walter Payton Man of the Year: Bobby Wagner, Linebacker Washington Commanders

Jim Brown Award (NFL leading Rusher): James Cook, Buffalo Bills

Decon Jones Award (NFL Sack Leader): Myles Garrett, Cleveland Browns

Comeback Player of the Year: Christian McCaffery, Running Back San Francisco 49ers

Coach of the Year: Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots
Nothing against any of the other coaches who were nominated for this award, but lets be realistic here. This was really a one man race as the season went along. What Vrabel was able to do with this Patriots team. He had some level of success in Tennessee, but when he took the job in New England, he had a large task ahead of him. New England was a four win team last season. This year it was a 14-3 record and winning the AFC East. A ten win turnaround and a division title. There’s no way this wasn’t going to go to Vrabel.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Carson Schwesinger, Linebacker Cleveland Browns
Taking a chance on him in the 2nd round seemed to pay off in a big way for the Browns. When the injury bug started to take hold in Cleveland, Schwesinger stepped in and made an impact right away, almost running away with DROY this year. 2.5 sacks and 141 total tackles in 16 games this season. Eye popping numbers for an impact player in his first year. Offensive Rookie of the Year: Tetaiora McMillian, Wide Receiver Carolina Panthers When Carolina had their resurgence late in the year to make the playoffs, something nobody really expected them to do, this guy was a major reason for it. Finishing the year with 70 catches (7 of which went for touchdowns) and 1,014 receiving yards are good numbers. Really good actually, especially for a rookie. He made an impact right away for a young Carolina team that has something they could really work with in the passing game.

Defensive Player of the Year: Miles Garrett, Defensive End Cleveland Browns
There’s dominating seasons. Then there’s what Miles Garrett did for Cleveland this season. Garrett set the NFL single-season record for sacks with 23 this year. And it wasn’t just that. It was 60 total tackles and being such a threat and dominating force on the Browns line that he was a major disruption point for opposing offenses. Opposing teams could have had a game plan in place, and it all went right out the window when having to deal with Garrett this season. He was that dominating and then some this year.

Offensive Player of the Year: Jaxon Smith-Nijgba, Wide Receiver Seattle Seahawks
For the first time since 2005 (Shaun Alexander), a Seattle player won offensive player of the year. It was a close race between Smith-Nijgba and Christian McCaffery of the 49ers. But finishing the year as the NFL top receiver (1,793 yards on 119 catches) pushed him over the edge to win this award. Catches put him 4th in the league this year, but leading the entire league in receiving yards, and getting it done with Sam Darnold at QB is a major statement. Nothing against Sam Darnold who is a fine QB. But Smith-Nijgba was that dominating a force in the Seattle pass attack. No matter what defense was thrown at him, he was able to gain the yards to help that Seattle offense to keep moving forward and walk away with a 14-3 record and an NFC West title.

MVP: Matthew Stafford, Quarterback Los Angeles Rams
In one of the closest MVP races in recent memory, Stafford just barely beat out Drake Maye of the Patriots for the honors. Not to take away anything Maye did in New England, he had an outstanding year and has nothing to be ashamed of. Stafford had just put up slightly better numbers that lead him to walking away with the award. But if we are being honest here, the award could have gone to either guy and there would have been no complaints from anybody.

So what do you think? Did the right guys walk away with the right awards at NFL Honors?

Title To Seattle

What we saw in Santa Clara yesterday was a big deal. To say that the performance put on by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX was outstanding would be a major understatement. Moreover, the play of the Seattle defense is what really stands out here. In a battle of 14-3 teams for the greatest prize in all of professional football, it was the Defense, and running game as well, that lead the Seahawks to their second title, a 29-13 win over the New England Patriots to claim the second title in franchise history.

It was a great way for Seattle to cap off the best season in team history. Winning fourteen games during the regular season was the most that Seattle had in their 50-year history. This coming after narrowly missing the playoffs the two seasons prior. This also turned into the deepest playoff run Seattle had since their other title win in 2013.

As for the game itself, let’s be realistic here. There were two major reasons why Seattle was able to walk away with the Lombardi trophy in their hands. One was the outstanding running performance of MVP Kenneth Walker III. The other was that smothering defense. From that side of the football, what Seattle’s Defense did was one of the more dominating performances that has been seen on this stage. They picked off Patriots Quarterback Drake Maye twice, caused him to fumble once and managed to sack him six times. Those six sacks are the 2nd most in a single game, behind seven (which has been done four times).

Drake Maye, for as good a year as he had, had no time whatsoever to try and even remotely make plays. Sure, he threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns. But the six sacks where a killer as were being forced to throw the ball 45 times. The run game was nonexistent on the day, which forced Maye to have to make plays with his arm more than he wanted to or was able to get done effectively.

That ties into the other key for Seattle, the running game. Walker rushed the ball 27 times for 135 yards. Sure he wasn’t able to get into the endzone, which is the only knock that was on him for the day. But because of his outstanding play, he was able to open up a little more of an effective pass game for Sam Darnold. Sure Darnold wasn’t perfect either, but because of the play of Walker, he didn’t have to try and be as on point as Maye did. It was an all around dominating performance.

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks on their Super Bowl victory!