Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, all!
It is Christmas Day and for a second straight year, the NFL is pushing the NBA to the side of the road. Remember the NBA owned Christmas Day, until the NFL decided to encroach on their turf and scheduled two games for streaming on Neftflix last season. The NFL won the ratings war big time.
Today they have three games slated. The schedule looked like a winner in the spring, when the games were announced, but most of the high profile participants have fallen out of contention. What is it about the “The best laid plans of leagues and commissioners…?”
Anyway, here is your schedule:
Dallas vs. Washington, 1 p.m. (Netflix)
Detroit vs. Minnesota, 4:30 p.m. (Netflix)
Denver vs. Kansas City, 8:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
The above video contains my Picks for Kicks Week 17 segment. Picking against the spread this season I am 40-40. I am hoping to make a big push these last two weeks of the regular campaign.
Fifty-plus years ago, the NFL’s regular season was over at this point of the year and the league was into its playoffs. It just so happened Christmas Day 1971 fell on a Saturday, the date of the AFC divisional playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. It was also the last game the Chiefs played at old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City. I remember the game like yesterday, as my dad, uncle, brothers and me broke away from the Christmas family gathering to watch the game. There we were, huddled in front of our RCA 26-inch screen, console color television set, watching an NFL playoff game on Christmas Day with Curt Gowdy calling the action.
The Dolphins tied it with under two minutes left in the game, 24-24, sending the contest into OT. Back then, the first team that scored won. None of this each team was given the chance to touch the ball on offense stuff. It was sudden death, pure and simple. Well the game went on, and on, and on. It turned out to be the longest game in NFL history: 82 minutes and 40 seconds. The Dolphins won it, 27-24, on a Garo Yepremian 37-yard field goal.
As soon as the Yepremian kick split the uprights, my uncle, as nice a guy as you would ever want to know and a former pitcher in the Washington Senators farm system, pulled himself up from the rocking chair and stormed out of the house. No “Good night.” No “Thanks for the Christmas dinner.” Nothing. He was through the French doors and out the front of the house faster than the fans leaving Municipal Stadium. My brothers and I were in shock as we turned to our dad. “I guess he bet on the Chiefs,” my father stated. To his credit, my uncle did call and apologize the next day for his abrupt departure. Christmas Day 1971. One for the books in my memory bank.
That is going to do it for this Christmas Day edition of the newsletter. There will not be any newsletter on Friday and for that matter, I will be taking a Christmas-New Year’s break. What that means is I may post a newsletter or two over the next few days but nothing on a daily basis, until 2026. Thank you for being a subscriber and supporter of the newsletter. It means so much!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
DAN
