The football thread

ESPN said Jon Gruden talked with the Raiders owner yesterday and Gruden says he is prepared to come back and coach but he still will not say that he is definitely coming back. Maybe he will announce it this weekend.

The Jaguars play the Bills in the wild card game Sunday and they gave 1,000 free tickets to the Puerto Rican families who lost their homes in the hurricane and moved to Florida. That was a very nice thing for the team to do.

ESPN analyst Adam Schefter tweeted today that Jon Gruden is signing a 10-year, $100 million deal to rejoin the Raiders. It is the biggest contract in NFL history for a head coach. The official announcement will be made on Tuesday, January 9.

Here is another story about Jon Gruden coming back to the Raiders. It tells how he was their coach for four years and then became coach of Tampa Bay and beat the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

http://www.espn.com/blog/oakland-rai...ing-feel-to-it

On December 31 -- go look! -- I said the 2017 Browns and the 2008 Lions are the only two NFL teams to go winless in a season. Actually, there have been eight winless teams but the Rams and Lions are the only teams to go winless in a 16-game season.

The Rams just lost to the Falcons, 26 to 13, so their season is over. But at least they got to the wild card game. They had a better season than a lot of people expected them to have.

The next playoff games will be Titans vs Patriots and Falcons vs Eagles on Saturday and Jaguars vs Steelers and Saints vs Vikings on Sunday. The Patriots won the Super Bowl last year and I think they are going to win it again this year.

He was interviewed yesterday and hired today.

Chicago Bears hire Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy as franchise's 16th head coach

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/...D=ansmsnnews11

I am watching the college football championship. Georgia got two field goals and a touchdown and had a 13-0 lead at halftime but Alabama came back and the game ended with the score tied 20-20. It is going into overtime. A big brawl started when an Alabama player punched a Georgia player.

This was a very exciting finish. Georgia got a field goal and then DeVonta Smith made a touchdown and Alabama won the game 26-23. The touchdown is already on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4XKWVTsUC0g

Jon Gruden was introduced today as the new coach of the Raiders and a lot of people think the team is taking a big gamble by giving him such a big contract. Everyone will be watching him. Here is a story about his press conference.

https://sports.yahoo.com/theres-skep...021741205.html

Here is a surprising story about Brett Favre. He has three grandsons and he said he does not want them to play football when they are grown up. He is worried about them getting concussions and he wants them to play a safer sport such as golf. I think it is good that he feels that way. Football has gotten too rough.

https://sports.yahoo.com/brett-favre...140357007.html

"Whoa, Nellie!"

Keith Jackson, iconic college football announcer, dies at 89

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2018/0...ies-at-89.html

I could quote the Steve Miller Band's Fly Like An Eagle or I could quote Isaiah 40:31, "They shall mount up with wings as eagles," or I could just get right to today's big news for Eagles fans:

Eagles advance to NFC Championship game
Reuters, Jan 13 2018 8:37 PM

Rookie kicker Jake Elliott booted three field goals, LeGarrette Blount rushed for a 1-yard touchdown and the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the visiting Atlanta Falcons 15-10 in the NFC divisional playoffs Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. The crowd erupted when Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan's pass fell incomplete in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the Philadelphia 2-yard line with less than one minute remaining. The top-seeded Eagles won their first playoff game since 2009 and advanced to host the NFC Championship Game next Sunday against either the New Orleans Saints or the Minnesota Vikings.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...ance/23332789/

The Patriots -- to no one's surprise -- advance to the January 21 AFC Championship game. They just beat the Titans, 35-14. Tom Brady now has 17 postseason wins, an NFL record. Until tonight, he and Joe Montana were tied with 16.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a franchise-record five touchdown passes in today's playoff game against the Jaguars. That record will have to be his consolation prize. The Steelers lost 45-42 and the Jaguars will play the Patriots January 21 for the AFC Championship. The two teams met in the 1996 AFC title game and the Patriots won that one, 20-6. Stay tuned.

"It stings. I feel like I let the fans down, let my teammates down." That was Ben Roethlisberger, commenting on the Steelers' loss to the Jaguars and failing to understand that nobody expects a quarterback to win a game all by himself. Roethlisberger confirmed that he will return for the 2018 season.

The Vikings just beat the Saints 29-24 in a game that saw the lead change four times in the final three minutes. The Vikings will play the Eagles in Philadelphia January 21 for the NFC Championship.

Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said last week that head coach Mike Mularkey was in no danger of being fired. He was even negotiating a contract extension. That was last week. Today.......

Titans fire Mike Mularkey

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ti...-new-contract/

FiveThirtyEight writer Neil Paine analyzed 38 years of games, scores, odds, seeds, matchups, "simulations" and "generic conference finalists" and concluded that the Patriots' path to the 2018 Super Bowl is a "cakewalk." I could have told him that without doing any of that analysis! Doy!

The Patriots’ Super Bowl path is the easiest in modern NFL history
Since 1990, no team with a bye has faced two weaker opponents than New England’s pair of Tennessee and Jacksonville.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...n-nfl-history/

A "cakewalk" indeed. Today in the fourth quarter, Danny Amendola scored a touchdown on a pass from Tom Brady. Then Danny Amendola scored another touchdown on a pass from Tom Brady. Annndddd the Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl after beating the Jaguars, 24-20.