NFL News:

• Because they can’t wear hoods instead of helmets, the Patriots will wear white during The Big Game™
  • 12 of the last 13 Super Bowl winners have worn white
    • The Pats are 3-0 in white at the Super Bowl; 2-2 in blue.
    • The Eagles are 0-2 in green.

• ESPN is going to talk to Peyton Manning about taking Gruden’s spot in the MNF booth.
  • Their backup plan is Matt Hasselbeck.
    • Just like half the league, until 2016.

• The Cowboys have hired former Seahawks DC Kris Richard.
  • He will become the “defensive passing game coordinator”.
    • Because there aren’t enough coaches on sidelines anymore.

• Al Riveron is staying as NFL Senior VP of Officiating through the 2018 season.

World War One Centenary:

January 23, 1918 – Negotiations between Russian Bolshevik Government and Central Powers suspended.

The Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917 installed Lenin and his followers in power over Russia. [For those who don’t know, the Bolshevik Revolution was actually the second revolution in Russia that year. The first occurred in March, overthrowing the Tsar but keeping Russia in the war.] Lenin and the communists came to power promising a swift end to the war, as part of his “peace, bread and land” pledge to gain popularity and cement the foundation of the Revolution.

The Russians declared a ceasefire on December 22, 1917 and began peace negotiations with the Germans. But Russia had a poor bargaining position:

• Lenin wanted Russia out of the war, and
• Germany knew it

Germany, as a result, demanded huge territorial and financial concessions, primarily

Lenin didn’t care. His government entered negotiations on the premise that all losses would be returned after anticipated revolutions in Germany or the West. In fact, the Russian withdrawal from treaty negotiations on today’s date was done in anticipation of stretching out the negotiations in hopes there would be a revolution somewhere in the West  that would avoid Russia having to lose territories. Commissar of War Leon Trotsky led the Russian negotiating team, and demanded peace without concessions, knowing the Germans would never agree to it. In Trotsky’s words: “To delay negotiations, there must be someone to do the delaying”.

That thinking had some resonance. There were agitators working to foment revolution in the West, primarily Germany. To aggravate the German negotiators, Trotsky would appear at negotiation meetings with Bolshevik propaganda written in German, supposedly “being distributed” on the streets of “Berlin”. These tactics would work until mid-February, when the Germans decided to resume actions in the East, to either force Russia to capitulate to their demands or achieve total victory over Russia itself.

This German offensive quickly reached the outskirts of the-then capital city of Petrograd (later Leningrad, now St. Petersburg), forcing the Bolsheviks to move their seat of government to Moscow. This was made worse by the fact that the Bolsheviks were having to devote large amounts of resources to fighting their enemies in the Russian Civil War – the “Whites” – a loose alliance of former Provisional government supporters, Royalists and anti-communists. In essence, the Bolsheviks were fighting a two-front war in a concentrated area, and they needed something to give. The Russians hurriedly resumed negotiations, leading to the disastrous Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, a treaty that would ultimately have implications impacting the rise of Hitler and the outbreak of World War Two.

One unintended effect of the Bolshevik’s delaying tactics was that it allowed the US time to become fully involved in the European theatre, despite having only joined the war in April 1917 in a primarily naval effort. Their army & armoured support on the Western front offset the German advantage to no longer fighting on two fronts. This allowed the Western allies the ability to push the Germans during the summer of 1918 into recognizing that defeat was inevitable, ultimately forcing German surrender in November 1918.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Bruins at Devils – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Flyers at Red Wings – 7:30PM | NBCSN
  • Columbus at Vegas – 10:00PM | Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • Cavaliers at Spurs – 8:00PM | TNT / Sportsnet1
  • Celtics at Lakers – 10:30PM | TNT / Sportsnet1
  • Knicks at Warriors – 10:30PM | TSN2
• NCAA:
  • Providence at Villanova – 6:30PM | FS1
  • Kansas at Oklahoma – 7:00PM | ESPN
  • Wisconsin at Iowa – 7:00PM | ESPN2
  • Creighton at St. John’s – 8:30PM | FS1
  • Mississippi State at Kentucky – 9:00PM | ESPN
• WWE:
  • Smackdown – 8:00PM | USA / Sportsnet360
    • the final show before Sunday’s Rumble
      • expect lots of posturing

DFO: come for the historical content, STAY FOR THE MOOSE GIFS!