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Did The Grinch Steal Your Christmas?

Christmas week is always a great week if you’re into watching sports, it always has been. College football is in the thick of the bowl game season and there’s like over 40 to choose from. The NBA pretty much owned Christmas Day in years past with several marquee match ups to look forward to after the presents and the feasting. Larry versus Magic, Michael versus everyone, LeBrone versus Steph. Christmas Day was basketball day for as long as we can remember. Well, move over NBA and make way for the NFL because it’s gonna get crazy and it’s not even the playoffs yet!No one, including myself, looked forward more to a Christmas Eve match up this year then Dolphins fans. Going into a sold out Hard Rock stadium filled with faux Santa’s and Elf’s in bikinis the Dolphins had a lot to prove against a strong but floundering Dallas Cowboys team eager for a win. Many questions surrounded a Dolphins squad who, even at 10-4, had yet to achieve a quality win against a winning team. All doubts however were set aside as The Fins were able to squeeze out a win 22-20 after 5 field goals and a bit of Christmas luck. There’s no such thing as an ugly win right? Let all of South Florida rejoice as Miami is now officially in the playoffs. I can finally take a week off from therapy!The last time the Detroit Lions won their division Bill Clinton was president. There were no iPhones. If you wanted to listen to music in your car you used the cassette player or if you were really lucky you had a CD player. An Apple IIc was a hot item in the computer world and most of the players on the 2023 Lions squad were not even born yet. Well, hello 2023 and hello to Motor City Madness! The Lions are in the playoffs and are for real. They’re not a fluke regardless of the fact that they are in a weak division. As a big fan of the underdog, I’m excited to see how far they can go in the postseason. Let’s do it Lions! Some people wake up on Christmas Day to a load of beautifully wrapped presents. Others wake up to a bag of coal. It’s hard to say what exactly The Kansas City Chiefs woke up to but it certainly wasn’t something on their Christmas wish list. Playing at home on Christmas Day in front of a sellout football crazy crowd in Arrowhead Stadium against a shaky Las Vegas Raiders team should have produced a gift-wrapped win however all The Chiefs got from Santa was a big fat “L” in a loss falling 20-14. With a very visible Taylor Swift in attendance NFL viewers were treated to a show of million-dollar professional athletes acting like sand lot bullies as Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelci both had very public meltdowns. It may be that their luck has finally run out for the Chiefs. Either way they are certainly not the team they once were. Maybe Taylor Swift can start writing that break up song early, she can name it “The Way We Were”.The game of the day was most obviously The San Francisco 49ers hosting The Baltimore Ravens. Again, a sellout Christmas Day crowd, playoff and divisional championships on the line and a battle between the two (or three) top contenders in The NFL MVP race, Christian Macaffrey, Lamar Jackson and Brock Purdy was sure to provide a crowning moment in a game that was billed as a possible Super Bowl preview. The Grinch however was not finished in The Bay Area as The Ravens literally embarrassed a 49er squad with a defense that tore up San Francisco’s offensive scheme like a sack of feathers. In a loss that was, quite frankly, extremely ugly, the 49ers fell 33-19. Wonder Boy Brock Purdy completed more passes to The Ravens then he did to his own receivers, or so it seemed, and was only successful in reigniting talk of being a flash in the pan. I hereby rest my case for Lamar Jackson. Sure, there were other games over the holiday weekend but let’s get real. We’re staring at the beginning of the playoffs so it’s time to get choosy about what games we watch. We can’t watch them all right?(or can we?)By the close of business on Christmas Day I had watched a ton of football and eaten enough roast beef to sink a battleship. I had also recorded enough NBA basketball to keep me occupied for the next several days and that’s not counting the NCAA bowl games that seem to be on every afternoon for the next week as well. In a few short days we’ll be treated to the College Football Playoffs and a Championship Game that sadly will not include the only undefeated Power Five Conference team, The Florida State Seminoles. I’ll save the FSU situation for a story on another day. It's going to be another week of agonizing tension and drama I’m sure (Go ‘Bama!!) In the end the excitement is why we all watch isn’t it? Play On I Say!!KevKev's Corner Our Staffs Weekly Sports perspective(click here for more of Kev’s past articles)