Tag: FTW

Nate Burleson said everyone should bask in the Chiefs’ greatness (and no one will listen)

Nate Burleson was so unbelievably corny here.

With all due respect to CBS analyst Nate Burleson, he couldn’t be more out of touch.

As swaths of NFL fans seemingly roosted in pervasive angst about another Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl appearance on Sunday, Burleson took time to break the fourth wall and scold people for not wanting to see a team that will have now officially played in five of the last six Big Games. You know, because it’s boring, exhausting, and expressly against the “underdog” story America usually prefers for obvious reasons in its sports outcomes and otherwise.

READ MORE: Josh Allen said two tragic words before Buffalo Bills’ doomed final possession.

Honestly, it was a bizarre moment that will assuredly resonate with almost no one outside of the Kansas City metropolitan area:

Speaking purely for myself now, I don’t know who this admonishing speech is supposed to be for. I don’t watch sports for “greatness.” Unless it’s a team I root for, I don’t consider myself lucky to be alive at the same time as a sports dynasty that will otherwise have no tangible effect on my life outside of that sports context. Given the excessive, inherent flattery, this was a strange way to frame people not wanting the same football outcome they’ve watched for half a decade now.

I watch sports for the tremendous athletic feats. I watch for the athletes playing as one for a common goal while pouring their hearts out together. If I’m a neutral party — meaning, I’m not a fan of either team in a high-stakes game — I’m rooting for the squad that has never broken through and won it all. In Sunday’s case, that was the Bills.

But alas, they couldn’t pull it out.

I don’t have to be happy for the Chiefs or appreciate all of their accomplishments. Because that’s not why I’m here in the first place.

And I suspect many others feel the same.

Josh Allen’s apparent confident words before Bills’ doomed last possession were so tragic

Josh Allen is living out his worst nightmare.

The Buffalo Bills almost did it.

In the closing moments of the AFC title game, they had the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on the ropes. But with the game on the line, the Bills’ offense folded. Their last possession of the evening was capped by a brutal fourth-down drop from tight end Dalton Kincaid, even though Josh Allen gave him a chance to make the play.

In the end, the Chiefs closed the Bills out by getting a couple of first downs to cement a third straight trip to the Super Bowl.

All of this was particularly tragic given what Josh Allen appeared to say on camera before the Bills’ offense took the field for the last time. As the Chiefs took a 32-29 lead, Allen was captured seemingly saying, “I’m ready,” as if he was ready for his moment to take the Bills to the Super Bowl.

Given what happened after, this sequence now looks so deflating for the superstar quarterback:

Josh Allen after the Chiefs take a 3-point lead with 3:33 to play in the AFC title game:

“yeah. i’m ready.”

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— Christian D’Andrea (@trainisland.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 7:38 PM

Man. You have to feel bad for one of the best players of his generation.

Every time Allen has had a chance to upend the NFL’s latest dynasty, it feels like the Bills have spontaneously combusted for no good reason.

Alas. Allen and his teammates will just have to try again next year.

1 James Cook photo of his Herculean effort on Bills TD belongs in a museum

James Cook’s effort here was unbelievable.

Don’t let anyone say James Cook didn’t put his heart on the line in Sunday’s AFC title game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.

In a budding instant classic, with Buffalo in position to take the lead for the first time all game at the end of the third quarter, Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense elected to put the ball in Cook’s hands on a fourth-and-goal play at the goal line.

Let’s just say Cook didn’t disappoint.

After Allen lateraled the ball to Cook, it looked like he’d be stopped short. Instead, Cook held himself up with one hand while getting tackled to reach across the goal line and scored one of the best touchdowns all year in the process:

I mean, that’s just unreal.

The photo below makes Cook’s sequence seem even more unbelievable:

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Man, it doesn’t get any better than playoff football, does it?

Tom Brady explained the Super Bowl like it was a new concept at end of Eagles’ NFC title win

Tom Brady seems to think no one has ever heard of the Super Bowl before.

At this point, you’re probably well aware of how little Tom Brady brings to NFL broadcasts as a highly-compensated color commentator. His analysis is equivalent to what a half-baked AI gives you on a search engine. You already know what’s being regurgitated back to you. Chances are, part of it is wrong, too. It’s like he thinks everything he says has inherent value because of his reputation, regardless of context.

(And, unfortunately, Brady’s also not going anywhere.)

But what Brady said at the end of the Philadelphia Eagles’ NFC title win on Sunday takes the cake.

Dearest readers, as the clock ran out on Philadelphia’s second Super Bowl berth in three years, Brady was literally explaining everything that comes with the biggest American sporting event as if no one stateside has ever heard of the Super Bowl.

Dude, come on.

Sometimes, it’s better to say nothing at all and let the moment breathe if you’re just going to state the extremely obvious:

In case you’re tired of hearing Brady talk to viewing audiences like they’ve never watched football before, I have really bad news. He’s gonna call Super Bowl 59 in two weeks in New Orleans.

Ugh. Everyone has it better than us, folks.

The Commanders repeatedly jumping offsides on Eagles’ Tush Push may finally spur rule change

The NFL will put the Tush Push under a microscope after this.

The NFL decided it wouldn’t eliminate the Philadelphia Eagles’ infamous “Tush Push” play last offseason. After seeing what happened in the early fourth quarter against the Washington Commanders in the NFC title game, conversations about changing it are almost certainly likely to come back.

With the Eagles in position for their customary short-yardage play, the Commanders kept trying to beat the snap count on the Tush Push and stop Hurts before he got momentum from the Philadelphia interior offensive line. The issue is that they never actually beat the snap count and kept jumping offside, while the Eagles broke out a relatively new wrinkle and started using a hard count (which feels especially egregious).

This led to the officiating crew eventually saying it would simply reward the Eagles with a touchdown if the Commanders kept jumping offsides.

Given that the Commanders were seemingly only trying to beat the snap — one of the likely only ways the Tush Push could be stopped — instead of intentionally jumping offside, it’s unclear what else Washington could do in the key sequence of a conference championship game.

This will magnify the inherent fairness of rugby-style play in a professional football game.

Look, this happened in the third-biggest pro football game of the season with everyone watching. Whether or not you agree that the Tush Push should be banned, such tomfoolery happening under that giant spotlight virtually guarantees that the NFL will reevaluate the play with its competition committee in the offseason.

If I were the Eagles, I’d ensure I ran the “Tush Push” as much as possible during Super Bowl 59. Just in case. You never know.

Amari Cooper delivered such a selfless message despite his limited role with the Bills

Amari Cooper is so grateful to be on a winner.

Let’s make one thing clear about how professional athletes usually think.

Winning cures all. Full stop. End of story. It’s undebatable.

How else do you explain Amari Cooper’s current mindset as a member of the Buffalo Bills, who are one win away from Super Bowl 59? The Cleveland Browns mercifully traded Cooper to Buffalo in mid-October. But ever since, he hasn’t really contributed much to the Bills’ winning ways.

Seriously, for a supposed No. 1-caliber receiver, Cooper has just 20 catches for 297 yards and two touchdowns in eight appearances. In the 2025 playoffs alone, he has four total targets. Woof.

Yet, none of that seems to matter for the veteran Cooper. After being stuck on the listless Browns in the middle of his prime, he simply seems grateful he gets to be part of a winning operation in Buffalo. Period. That says it all about what kind of teammate and leader he is and what kind of example he wants to set.

Take a look at Cooper’s comments from Thursday about prioritizing team over individual success.

Man, this was so awesome to hear. I love that Cooper doesn’t seem bothered at all by his lack of production. Even more so, I’m so happy for a guy like him finally getting to experience the joys of successful playoff football. These are the sorts of athletes you truly love rooting for.

And if I know the NFL (I like to think I do), something tells me Cooper’s name won’t be as discrete as it has been through the rest of this Bills’ postseason run. I’ve seen defenses stop game-planning for playmakers who aren’t producing so often, only for those guys to inevitably explode. It’s like clockwork.

If Cooper’s opportunity arrives to actually contribute, you know his head will be in the right place.

Josh Allen (temporarily) denied his near-lateral in key moment vs. Ravens

The “good guy” on Josh Allen’s shoulder won out in the end.

The Buffalo Bills are in the AFC title game for the second time in the last five seasons. But if Josh Allen had been a bit more overzealous in a critical goal-to-go moment against the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round last Sunday, Buffalo would probably be sitting at home right now.

Late in the fourth quarter of the Bills’ win, we saw Allen seemingly thinking about lateraling the ball to running back James Cook as he was getting tackled near the goal line. Now, Cook was pretty open, and he genuinely may have scored. The issue is that because Allen was sandwiched so much in a scrum, if he had tried the lateral, it might have turned into a costly fumble instead of ever getting the ball to Cook in the first place.

The Bills wound up kicking a field goal on the drive, and those points proved necessary when the Ravens and tight end Mark Andrews later failed on a must-have two-point conversion at the end of the game.

On Wednesday, Allen denied wanting to lateral it to Cook. Well, while smirking. The superstar quarterback clarified that a younger, less mature version of himself might have actually tried it, but the “good guy” on his right shoulder ended up talking him out of the chaotic decision.

That sound you hear right now is every Bills fan everywhere letting out the biggest sigh of relief:

Even if Allen didn’t lateral the ball, let’s make one thing clear. He’s a wild boy for even considering it for a second. I can’t knock him too much, though. For one, he didn’t lateral it. That’s pretty straightforward. Good job.

For the other, this sort of adventurous, playmaking spirit has Allen and the Bills on the doorstep of the Super Bowl in the first place. And it’s really funny to think about. May Allen never change.

Fans shared the actual note that they sent to Bears president at a restaurant with Ben Johnson plea

Ben Johnson (Vontae Mack), no matter what.

If there’s one thing Chicago sports fans are known for, it’s wearing their hearts on their sleeves. If they really want something for one of their favorite teams, if they even get slightly excited about the prospects of a potentially bright future, they’ll unabashedly let it be known.

And they’ll do it in the corniest way possible (complimentary).

Along these lines, it should be no surprise to learn that some Bears fans recently tried to directly convince team president Kevin Warren to hire the hotshot offensive mind, Ben Johnson, as the Bears’ new head coach.

The kicker? In a weird way, the ploy may have worked.

At Johnson’s introductory press conference at Bears headquarters on Wednesday, Warren said he recently received a note from a fan at a restaurant pleading with him to hire Johnson. The fan saw this conversation pop up on Twitter and shared a photo of the apparent note to Warren.

In turn, they also revealed that Warren responded by sending back two shots for the Johnson note gesture. What a classy move:

Look at the Bears finally acting like a big-boy organization in a major market. Revel in this moment after landing Johnson, Chicago sports fans. Well, actually, I guess you kind of already are. So, uh … carry on!

Ben Johnson fully endorsed Caleb Williams as the biggest reason he took Bears’ job

Ben Johnson couldn’t resist pairing up with Caleb Williams.

Ben Johnson was always going to need a tremendous offer to leave an incredible situation with the Super Bowl contender Detroit Lions. As it turns out, the new Chicago Bears head coach probably just needed a quarterback with special talent.

You know, someone like Caleb Williams.

At his Bears introductory press conference on Wednesday, Johnson went all-in on the idea that Williams was one of his main motivating factors for taking the job in Chicago. Which, duh. Everyone kind of already knew that.

Nonetheless, it was really illuminating to hear Johnson talk about Williams’ talent, how a quarterback like Williams is the biggest factor in modern NFL teams’ sustained success, and everything he plans to do to build around his new signal-caller in great detail:

Johnson and Williams have a chance to make sweet music together with the Bears for a very long time. There was simply no chance an offensive genius like him would pass up on this golden opportunity.

Mic’d-up video showed what Lamar Jackson told Mark Andrews after his drop ended the Ravens’ season

Lamar Jackson is a true leader.

In the immediate aftermath of a tough playoff loss, you learn a lot about the mettle of NFL players. Will they blame someone else? Will they take responsibility? Will they be mature and measured about where and why their team fell short and what’s next?

After the Baltimore Ravens fell to the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round — in large part thanks to Mark Andrews’ unfortunate miscues — superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson showed us exactly who he is. He blamed himself for the Ravens’ latest disappointing postseason failure and didn’t throw anyone else under the bus.

As a new video from Hard Knocks shows, a mic’d-up Jackson also specifically refused to let Andrews wallow in crunch time mistakes.

That’s because he knows while everyone on the outside will focus on a play or two, football remains a team game where everyone wins or, unfortunately, loses together:

After another promising regular season ended with a thud in mid-January, Jackson’s Ravens have a lot of work to do if they’re finally going to get over the hump and win a Super Bowl. After watching Jackson’s approach to the Ravens’ latest postseason defeat, it’s clear to me that he’s the perfect franchise player to lead them back to the mountaintop.

Besides his natural talent and poise as an electric, perennial MVP candidate, Jackson’s leadership and resolve clearly seem unimpeachable.

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