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!

Super Bowl LX Preview

The time has finally arrived. Two teams are left standing. One will come away with the Vince Lombardi Trophy as king of the pro football world. Super Bowl 60 is finally here! And its a rematch of Super Bowl 49, as the New England Patriots will take on the Seattle Seahawks,

Seattle is appearing in their 4th Super Bowl. They played in XL (Lost to Steelers), XLVIII (Beat the Broncos), and XLIX (Lost to New England). Seattle finished with a 14-3 record, winning the NFC West. They beat 49ers in the divisional round and then the Rams in the NFC title game.

New England is appearing in their 12th Super Bowl. They played in XX (lost to Bears), XXXI (lost to Packers), XXXVI (beat Rams), XXXVIII (beat Panthers), XXXIX (beat Eagles), XLII (lost to Giants), XLVI (lost to Giants), XLIX (beat Seahawks), LI (beat falcons), LII (lost to Eagles), and LIII (beat Rams). This season, New England went 14-3, which was good enough to win the AFC East. It took them a little longer to get here, beating the Chargers in the wild card round, then the Texans in the divisional round, and finally the Broncos in the AFC title game.

New England has had one of the greatest turn arounds in sports history. A year ago they were 4-13 and one of the worst teams in the NFL. This year, they had a high powered offense and the 2nd best team in the AFC behind only the team they beat in the title game in Denver. A major reason for this turnaround was the outstanding play of quarterback Drake Maye, who played so well during the season he finished second in MVP voting. And it's not just that high powered offense in New England that's been running the show. The defense has been just as equal to the task. They were 8th in yards and 4th in points this season, an impressive turnaround from being 22nd in the league a season ago.

Seattle had come close to making the playoffs in back to back season prior to this year, but were able to make it this year on the strength of a good balance on both sides of the ball. Sam Darnold came in and had another outstanding year, following up on what he did in Minnesota last year. He had good weapons to work with coming in from outcasts from other teams in Lockett, Metcaf and Kupp. The biggest one was Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who was the NFL leading receiver in the league this year. On the other side of the ball, Seattle has the highest scoring defense in the entire league. Seattle hasn't seen this much a dominating a defense since the Legion of Boom.

This is going to be a hard fought battle for the biggest prize in the game. For as good as the New England offense has been, and as well balanced as they are, good defense will always beat good offense. Seattle has a good defense. Oh and Seattle offense is pretty good too. They might be one of the few teams in the sport who could match up with this New England team punch for punch as the game goes along.

Pick: Seattle 30, New England 20

Kane Stands Alone

There's a new king on the thrown. It takes a lot to say that in the sport of hockey. The players that make up the National Hockey League come from all corners of the world. The two countries that dominate the sport come from Canada and the United States. Among those American scorers, for the longest time, one name had stood on top of the list, that being Mike Modano. That changed over the weekend, as Modano was passed by Patrick Kane. With an assist on a goal over the weekend, Kane picked up career point 1,375, which passed Modano for most amongst US born players.

For a kid from Buffalo, that’s a long way and long time coming. For a kid taken by the Blackhawks with the first overall pick in 2007, that’s a heady accomplishment. Kane career spanned 19 years and counting, the first 16 in Chicago, followed by a cup of coffee stop in New York. The last three years and counting have been in Detroit, where he’s still producing. While not as prolific as it was in Chicago, Kane is still finding a way to put his name on the scoresheet. And now he stands alone atop the USA scoring list.

That in and of itself is a huge achievement, when you consider some of the great players this league has seen coming from America. Modano, Doug Weight, Jeremy Roenick, Joe Mullen, Pat LaFontaine, Phil Housley, Keith Tkachuk, Joe Pavelski, the list goes on and on. Now Kane stands on top of all of it. He’s one of the best pure playmakers of his generation, and he’s got the numbers to back it up. Three Cups, a playoff MVP award, a league MVP, more than 500 goals and 1,000 points. The list goes on and on. There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind he’s a lock for enshrinement in the hall of fame when all is said and done, and his number to hang in the rafters at the United Center.

Congratulations Patrick Kane on becoming the greatest American born scorer in NHL history!

Baseball Hall Makes Call

It's the sound that any professional athlete wants to hear. You are a Hall of Famer. Getting enshrined in Cooperstown is the biggest complement a player can get. On Tuesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America made there selections for who should get in. This year, it was just two players: Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran!

To get into the Hall, you need 75% votes on the ballot to get in. Jones got 78.4% votes (his 9th year on the ballot) and Beltran got 84.2% (his 4th year on the ballot). There are also two others who are joining Jones and Beltran in the Hall this year. Jeff Kent was selected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, and Joe Buck was selected as the winner of the Ford C Frick award (Hall of Fame selection for Broadcasters).

Everybody that was elected to the hall deserves their induction. Let’s start with Jeff Kent. Sure, there have been those moments he’s had off the field. He’s had his problems in the locker room and with the media, that have been well documented. But his inclusion in the Hall is for what he did on the field. His career totaled 16 years, playing for the Blue Jays (1992), Mets (1992-1996), Indians (1996), Giants (1997-2002), Astros (2003-2004) and Dodgers (2005-2008). He’s a career .2909 hitter, 2ith 2,461 hits, 377 home ruins and 1,518 RBI’s. Kent won NL MVP in 2000, was a five time all star and a four time silver slugger winner. He is baseball’s all time home run leader for second baseman and is the only second baseman to have 100 or more RBI’s in six straight seasons, which he did from 1997 to 2002. Kent had a decent glove, but it was his bat that got him into Cooperstown.

As for the two center fielders that got selected, both are well deserving of their induction. First there’s Andruw Jones. Jones spent 17 season in the Majors, playing for the Braves (1996-2007), Dodgers (2008), Rangers (2009), White Sox (2010) and Yankees (2011-2012). Jones was a lifetime .254 lifetime hitter, picking up 1,933 hits, 434 home runs and 1,289 RBI’s. He won ten gold gloves, and was a five time all star. His 10 gold gloves were won in ten straight years from 1998 to 2007. That ranks tied for third for most gold gloves won by an outfielder. He could do a little bit of everything. He had good power and great speed, both running bases and in the outfield. The only knock on him during his career was he was a weak hitter for average. The rest of his career more than made up for it.

Carlos Beltran made a name for himself during one great playoff run and kept that going the rest of his career. His career spanned 20 season playing for the Royals (1998-2004), Astros (2004), Mets (2005-2011), Giants (2011), Cardinals (2012-2013), Yankees (2014-2016), Rangers (2016) and Astros (2017). Beltran was a lifetime .279 hitter, collecting 2,725 hits, 435 home runs and 1,587 RBI’s. He won AL Rookie of the year in 1999, was a nine time all star, a three time gold glove winner, two time silver slugger and won a world series in 2017. Carlos could do it all. He could hit for average, had plenty of power, was a great runner and an outstanding fielder. There really wasn’t anything in this game that Beltran couldn’t do.

Congratulations to everybody on their enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2026!