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Monday, January 20, 2025 was a big day across America.
It was Martin Luther King Day. It was also the Presidential inauguration day.
For the first time since Grover Cleveland in 1893, a former President returned to the office after losing his own re-election campaign four years earlier.
Across the swamp regions along the Gulf Coast, a rare blanket of snow began on Monday night in Texas and spread Tuesday across the I-10 corridor of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida.
The National Weather Service even had to issue its first blizzard warning (ever) for Lafayette, Louisiana!
Oh, my!
This week, the sports world has supplied us with some intriguing stories, too. Much like television soap operas, several of these stories seem to linger without a resolution in sight.
Soap operas rarely resolve the underlying problems
As a youngster, I chuckled as my stay-at-home Mom (with four sons to keep up with) became mesmerized while watching a few of TV’s weekday dramas during the lunch hour.
Her favorite soap opera shows featured the usual litany of recurring themes which the primary characters were facing. The daily angst about these characters’ lingering problems apparently took my Mom’s mind off her own daily struggles of trying to raise four wild and crazy boys.
The myriad of issues in a soap opera are rarely ever resolved.
Any significant script changes usually occur when a key actor’s contract was up for renegotiation and/or the show’s ratings were sagging.
It is much like current day professional wrestling television shows.
They need to plant the hook in viewers to encourage a return on a regular basis to see how the plot advances (albeit at a snail’s pace in most weeks).
When you happen to miss a month or more of shows, you often discover that nothing significant has changed during your absence!
In sports, this week features more its share of continuing soap opera stories, too.
“Secret Storm” (or “Are referees biased to help the NFL’s preferred teams?”)
How many years have we heard about this recurring concern? Regular NFL viewers claim “The refs are biased!” almost every season.
The favored (or slighted) teams shift ever-so-slowly over time.
Just like any really good soap opera, this question tends to linger and may never be resolved.
I remember watching the Dallas Cowboys during the coach Tom Landry days of the 1970’s and 1980’s.
It seemed like the Cowboys received some type of friendly call from the refs or, perhaps, a timely no-call when the game’s outcome was on the line.
Today, the Kansas City Chiefs have become America’s team – to love or to despise
As the two-time defending NFL champions, the Chiefs have gone from lovable underdogs a few years ago to “It’s time for someone else to win the title”.
As more and more NFL fans tire of watching the same team win the Super Bowl, the naysayers start to look for any biases being shown to the league’s top rated team.
This year’s Kansas City Chiefs have played in a number of games in which the referees’ decisions (or non-decisions) have played a significant factor in the outcome of their games.
How about some proof, SwampSwami!
This season, Kansas City has been called for 45 penalties. Their opponents have been flagged for 58.
Though that differential doesn’t seem like very much, the timing of those calls can be quite consequential in tight games.
The Chiefs scored just 22.6 points per game (15th out of 32 teams) but allowed only 19.2 ppg (4th best) during the 2024 regular season. For a team which finished with a league-best 15-2 record, the 3.4 point differential seemed surprisingly low.
During Saturday’s 23-14 loss at Kansas City, the Houston Texans became the latest in a growing line of NFL teams which witnessed some key officiating calls go in favor of the NFL’s defending champions.
On Saturday, Chiefs’ MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the beneficiary of a couple of questionable calls which went against the visiting Texans.
Even former NFL quarterback Troy Aikman (in the TV booth for Fox Sports) shouted, “Oh, come on!” after a 15-yard penalty was assessed to the Houston Texans on a questionable hit on Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.
Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon agreed.
“It is what it is,” said Mixon. “When it comes down to it, you can never leave it in the refs’ hands.”
There is a growing belief that Kansas City has a cozy relationship with the NFL referees.
On Sunday, the Chiefs will host Buffalo in the AFC Championship game (5:30PM CST on CBS).
If this is a close game, millions of fans will be keeping a suspicious eye on the referees – especially during the game’s final moments.
Saints fans won’t forget the referees in the 2019 NFC title game
Now six years ago, New Orleans Saints fans still remember the Los Angeles Rams committing an obvious pass interference penalty with a minute to go in a 20-20 tied NFC Championship game.
Unfortunately, the refs blindly didn’t see a pass interference infraction which the entire nation observed on television.
No penalty was called on the play. The Rams went on to win the 2019 game 26-23 in overtime. As a consolation to Saints fans, the Rams lost in the Super Bowl to New England.
Afterwards, the NFL stated it was a “judgment call”. For Saints fans, it was the team’s best and final chance to win a second Super Bowl for quarterback Drew Brees.
Do the NFL’s referees really give friendly breaks to one team over another? If so, who controls those decisions? Is the gambling community somehow involved? Can we expect to see more questionable calls this weekend in the AFC and NFC title games?
Just like in any good soap opera, you must come back next week and found out!
“As the Portal Turns”
One of sports’ newest soap operas has been the NCAA’s wild and woolly activity involving college athletes now being permitted to change schools every semester – if they choose to.
When you combine these increasingly frequent player moves with very loose rules (?) associated with Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) payments, this new soap opera is gaining more fan interest by the week.
Major college athletes (primarily football and basketball players) are signing deals, playing for one semester, and transferring to another school with a higher offer for the next sports year.
This weekend, a new story emerged where a freshman football player at the University of Wisconsin was not allowed to utilize the NCAA transfer portal to bolt for the University of Miami.
The first-year defensive back signed an NIL revenue sharing agreement at Wisconsin earlier this fall. Under the agreement, the player apparently bound himself to remain with the Big Ten’s Badgers for a two-year period.
As a result, the University of Wisconsin refused to enter the freshman football player’s request to place his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal.
Under the current NCAA rules, a college athlete must be timely placed into the transfer portal by his or her current school. That allows the school to know that an athlete is planning to leave.
New Soap Opera – “Onward from Wisconsin”
In this week’s soap opera story, the former Wisconsin football player and his family are considering obtaining an attorney to sue the school for its failure to place the player’s name into the NCAA’s transfer portal.
Despite the lack of a release from Wisconsin, the player (whose family lives in South Florida) simply left the university and recently enrolled at the University of Miami.
It is unknown how much NIL loot (if any…cough, cough) that The U may have offered him to transfer.
This standoff may signal the first of many more which we may hear about in the coming months.
These recent changes in college athletics have become a continuing soap opera with no end in sight.
“The Bold and the Beautiful…and the Coddled and the Overpaid…”
Jimmy Butler currently plays basketball for the NBA’s Miami Heat. The 35-year old All Star basketball player might be suiting up for some other team at any moment, though.
The NBA has long been one of sports’ longest playing soap operas. This year is no different.
The former Marquette player earns $49 million per year in Miami and will earn $52 million if he remains with the team next season.
Regardless, Jimmy Butler issued a very public demand in December that he wanted to be traded from Miami.
He claimed to have lost his “on-court joy” of playing pro basketball in south Florida.
For making those comments, Jimmy Butler was suspended by the Miami Heat – without pay – for seven games for “conduct detrimental to the team.” The 7-game suspension cost Butler more than $2.5 million.
Perhaps Jimmy Butler might find more “joy” by playing for another NBA team willing to offer him a new contract to pay him even more money than he already makes.
“All my Children” – want more respect…and money, too!
The Miami Heat is 21-20 today and in 8th place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. The team would be in the playoffs if the season were to end today.
Last Friday, Jimmy Butler’s 7-game suspension ended, and he suited up for the first time in three weeks. Miami lost to Denver 133-113.
Ouch.
Afterwards, Butler (who scored 18 points in Friday night’s loss) said that his beef with the Miami Heat has not been with his fellow teammates.
He said, “As much as anybody may think, I don’t got no problem with these guys. My beef is not with them and never will be.”
Perhaps, but his English teacher definitely has a beef with former student Jimmy Butler!
Now in his 15th NBA season, Jimmy Butler has played for franchises in Chicago, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and now Miami. If he gets his wish to play for a fifth NBA team, it will likely be accomplished before the league’s trade deadline on Thursday, February 6.
Jimmy Butler’s new “Search for Tomorrow” show may become a successful spin-off from the NBA’s annual soap opera line-up.