Tag: Blogs

Jalen Hurts has the perfect way to represent Alabama and Oklahoma at the Senior Bowl

Jalen Hurts doesn’t have to choose between Alabama or Oklahoma at the Senior Bowl.

Jalen Hurts doesn’t have to choose which team to represent, Alabama or Oklahoma, in Saturday’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. He’ll get to pay tribute to both schools with a special helmet featuring the Sooners’ logo on one side and his No. 2 from his time with the Crimson Tide on the other.

In fact, two of these helmets were specially made by Riddell, with the game’s executive director, Jim Nagy, giving Hurts one, while a second one will be auctioned off to raise money for Special Spectators, a charity that provides VIP experiences for children battling illnesses, per multiple reports.

“That’s a pleasant surprise,” the former Oklahoma and Alabama quarterback said about the helmet, via AL.com.

This helmet is perfect for Hurts, who had a remarkable college career playing for two of the best teams in the country.

Going to the College Football Playoff in each of his four years, Hurts spent the first three seasons of his college career with Alabama.

He was the starter in 2016 and 2017 but was replaced by Tua Tagovailoa in the latter season’s national championship game before ultimately losing the starting job. But he stayed with the Crimson Tide in 2018 as the second-stringer, and when Tagovailoa was injured in the SEC championship game, Hurts went in and led his team to victory.

As a grad transfer, Hurts finished his college career with Oklahoma, flourishing in Lincoln Riley’s high-powered offense. As a 2019 Heisman Trophy finalist, Hurts finished the season with a 69.7 completion percentage and threw for 3,851 yards while rushing for nearly 1,300 more.

Oklahoma finished 12-2 after a devastating blowout loss in the CFP semifinal to ultimate national champion LSU.

“I don’t think there is any experience that I would go back and exchange or change,” Hurts said ahead of the Senior Bowl, via ESPN. “Everything has happened for a reason. It’s all happened as it’s supposed to.

“I think I’m stronger, wiser, a better man, player, leader for everything.”

The Senior Bowl is Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama on the NFL Network.

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See gorgeous photos from Tim Tebow and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters’ wedding

Congrats!!!

Congratulations to former NFL quarterback, current New York Mets minor leaguer and ESPN college football analyst Tim Tebow, and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, who was crowned Miss Universe in 2017.

The pair — who went public their relationship in 2018 and who got engaged just over a year ago — wed in South Africa, where Nel-Peters was born.

The two of them shared photos from what appeared to be their rehearsal event over the weekend, and early on Tuesday, shots from their wedding began to appear on Instagram. It looked like an absolutely beautiful event.

Here’s a look at some of the photos from their nuptials and events around the big day:

View this post on Instagram

☀️🎨

A post shared by Demi-Leigh Tebow (@demileighnp) on

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Joe Montana makes the perfect Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl matchup joke

Well played.

Over the next two weeks, you’re going to be hearing A LOT about how legendary Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana played for both the San Francisco 49ers (for 13 seasons) and the Kansas City Chiefs (for two years).

Some have already started calling Super Bowl 54 “the Joe Montana Bowl” and wondered if the NFL can get the all-time great to do the coin toss, which is a great idea.

But until Monday afternoon, we hadn’t heard from Montana himself. How would he address the fact that both teams he played for would be facing off for the Lombardi Trophy?

Here’s how:

Oh yes. YES. Perfect tweet. Good work. Others agreed:

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There’s good news about the 49ers’ Super Bowl uniforms — if you’re superstitious

The Niners will wear white and gold.

You would think it wouldn’t matter to NFL teams in the Super Bowl what the color of their uniforms would be.

But sports is filled with superstitions, and in the case of the San Francisco 49ers, there’s good news (if you believe in this sort of thing) about the Niners’ unis when they face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 54.

Per The Athletic’s David Lombardi, the Niners were hoping to wear all-white throwback uniforms, and that cornerback Richard Sherman said the NFL would need to make an exception to allow them. But on Monday, it was confirmed that the Niners would go with white jerseys with gold pants. And that’s still good news for San Fran die-hards:

 

A 13-2 record with white uniforms and 2-0 for the Niners in white and gold! The Bay Area hopes those trends continue.

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How the 49ers’ Raheem Mostert uses the six NFL teams who cut him as motivation before every game

He remembers every slight.

By now, you know the legend of Raheem Mostert after what he did to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

In case you don’t, here’s a summary of the path the San Francisco 49ers running back took before he ran for 220 yards on 29 carries and scored FOUR times to clinch a Super Bowl berth: the former Purdue RB went undrafted and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015. He was cut, added to their practice squad, then he ended up joining the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Chicago Bears and eventually ended up on the 49ers practice squad before breaking out and signing a three-year, $8.7 million contract in the 2019 offseason.

Now, he’s the lead back for a Super Bowl team. And he certainly didn’t forget the slights. He said after the NFC championship game that he looks at the dates of those six times he was cut by those teams before every contest:

It reminds me of Draymond Green remembering all the names of the players taken ahead of him in the NBA draft. Pretty good motivation, I’d say.

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Paul Rudd and Eric Stonestreet had the most fun celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl berth

These two Kansas die-hards who are super psyched.

Insert all your “Hey, look at us” memes here.

The Kansas City Chiefs are off to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years, and they’ve got a pair of celebrity fans who supported them on Sunday as Patrick Mahomes and Co. clinched a trip to Miami: Ant-Man star Paul Rudd and Eric Stonestreet of Modern Family fame.

Stonestreet and Rudd both grew up in Kansas and have been seen rooting on Kansas City teams over the years (Rudd had a blast celebrating with the Royals in 2015), and they were on hand to give their support to the Chiefs:

And afterwards? Well, see for yourself:

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NFL fans had so many jokes about missing out on a Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers ‘State Farm Bowl’

We were so close.

On Sunday afternoon, one piece of the Super Bowl LIV puzzle had been put into place: the Kansas City Chiefs had clinched a spot with Patrick Mahomes.

NFL fans wondered if Aaron Rodgers would follow suit in the NFC championship game with a Green Bay Packers win over the San Francisco 49ers, but nope! The Niners are off to Miami.

That robbed us of seeing a Super Bowl with the two quarterback stars of State Farm’s latest ad campaign, in which Rodgers and Mahomes share the same agent, Gabe. The spots were everywhere during football season, especially in the playoffs … and lots of folks spent Sunday night joking about how we missed out on the State Farm Bowl:

 

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Fans had wild conspiracy theory about Titans-Chiefs ref throwing penalty flag at the snap

What really happened …

If there’s anything you should always expect from NFL fans, it’s a good conspiracy theory after conference title games.

The Tennessee Titans’ season ended one game short of the Super Bowl with Sunday’s 35-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. While the Chiefs managed to take control of the game in the second half, there were a couple big calls that went Kansas City’s way, including a questionable, 40-yard pass interference penalty.

But NFL Twitter couldn’t get over a call from the Titans’ final possession of the first half. The Titans handed the ball off to Derrick Henry for no gain, but you can see the side judge immediately reach for his flag and throw it upon the snap. The call ended up being holding against the Titans.

The video certainly is suspect. Obviously, there’s no way that the side judge could’ve had that kind of quick reaction to call holding. It’s the kind of conspiracy video that predictably had Titans fans fired up.

But in all likelihood, the side judge wasn’t calling holding. He was likely throwing a flag for illegal formation.

The receiver closest to the side judge, A.J. Brown, was in position on the line of scrimmage. Since the Titans already had the tight end on the line of scrimmage (giving them a total of seven), Brown should have been positioned off the line of scrimmage.

Now, the officials only announced the holding penalty on the Titans, so at the very least, they made a mistake by not announcing both penalties. But they weren’t preemptively making calls to favor the Chiefs. There’s just no way.

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The Chiefs used one of Colin Cowherd’s bad takes to pump up the crowd

They played the clip.

The Kansas City Chiefs made their second straight appearance in the AFC Championship Game, and for the second straight year, it was cold in Kansas City.

Cue the Colin Cowherd video …

Last year, ahead of the Chiefs’ eventual loss to the New England Patriots, Cowherd doubted that Arrowhead Stadium would present a hostile environment for Tom Brady because the noise would be muffled out by ski masks in frigid weather. Given that Arrowhead Stadium holds the literal Guinness World Record for loudest outdoor stadium, Chiefs fans took the slight personally.

In case you missed it last year, this was the Cowherd video.

Fast forward to Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Titans, and the Cowherd video was used to the Chiefs’ advantage. The Chiefs production staff played the clip on the videoboard before a crucial defensive play, urging the Chiefs fans to get louder.

Even Cowherd took notice.

The CBS broadcast had the decibel level well over 100. It didn’t look like the 19-degree weather had any negative impact on the crowd noise this time around either.

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Klay Thompson named a Washington State player a Splash Brother after a deep three

Klay Thompson went nuts after this shot.

Klay Thompson is one of the greatest shooters the game of basketball has ever seen on any level — NBA or otherwise.

So when he gets excited about a particular player or a particular shot, you know it’s legit. And, man, did he get excited about an insanely deep 3-pointer from Washington State while on the call.

Thompson was being interviewed about having his jersey retired at Washington State by the school’s broadcast team when, all of a sudden, guard Isaac Bonton dropped this bomb.

He even named him an honorary Splash Brother.

Shoutout to Bonton for getting Thompson out of his seat. That’s big respect from an all-time great shooter. Salute.

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