NFL News:

• Nothing but coaching news:
  • It’s official: The Packers have hired Titans OC Matt LaFleur as their new head coach.
    • It’s a four-year deal, which means it’s one year longer than Aaron Rodgers’ extension from 2018.
  • Tampa is going to offer its head coaching job to Bruce Arians.
    • Which likely seals Jameis Winston’s fate at QB after next season.
  • Likely tipping Bruce Arians hand is reports that the Browns will promote running backs coach Freddie Kitchens to head coach, if they don’t hire Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski.
    • The improved offensive output after Hue Jackson’s departure likely played a role in this decision.
  • Meanwhile, Bruce Arians’ old team decided to go a different supremacist way by reportedly hiring Kliff Kingsbury as Koach.
    • This was a surprise to his ex-future employer, Southern Cal, but they’ll accept the $150,000 payout to let Kingsbury go.
      • Because who wants another Lane Kiffin?
  • John Elway has his choices narrowed down to Vic Fangio & Mike Munchak.
    • Fangio is considered the favourite because of Elway blocking attempts to interview Gary Kubiak.
      • Meaning the offensive ranks are already spoken for, and he’ll want the new HC to focus more on the other side of the ball.
        • This should appease Von Miller.

Let’s check the Sherwin Williams colour chart for adherence to the Rooney Rule:

Expect the usual hand-wringing & empty promises from Roger Goodell over the next few weeks.

Boy, did that National title game turn out differently than expected. Some 5-point spread that turned out to be.

But at least we got to see the rarely-viewed Nick Saban shitting the bed face.

On a more serious note, a number of sites are reporting on what a general failure the act of holding the game in Santa Clara will turn out to be. Prices on the resale ticket market plunged to $177 prior to kickoff Monday, up from the basement price of $126 the week prior & the lowest price for the national championship game since its inception, way down from the $1599 for the cheapest ticket that was being quoted after they sold out in early December. The average ticket was expected to go Monday night for roughly $650.

^{(Chart from ticketiq.com)}

Factors affecting the price & visible empty seats during the game included:

• Starting the game at 5:00PM, on the first Monday back at work, which guaranteed a large number of paid fans would be stuck in traffic on their way to York-ville after work.
• Holding the game in Santa Clara made the average driving distance for visiting fans roughly 2400 miles from each team’s home campus.
• The belief among (West Coast) fans that college ranking priority has become regionalized in the South, specifically within the SEC.
  • In this area, they are catching up to the discrimination readily apparent in basketball rankings.

Fortunately for the NCAA, this is the last time they have to hold the game out west for at least 6 years. [The math is based on each Power-5 conference hosting the game once in rotation, and then one neutral venue being brought into the mix.] By that time, Stan will have finished his stadium by LAX & the 111th Street Crips will be overseeing the offsite parking.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL: the Habs, Jets & Oilers are all regional broadcasts tonight
  • Wild at Bruins – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Flyers at Washington Capitals – 7:30PM | NBCSN
  • Rangers at Vegas – 10:00PM | Sportsnet

• NBA:
  • Hawks at Raptors – 7:30PM | TSN
  • T-wolves at Thunder – 8:00PM | Sportsnet1 / NBATV
  • Knicks at Warriors – 10:30PM | Sportsnet1 / NBATV

• NCAA:
  • Duke at Wake Forest – 7:00PM | ESPN
  • St. John’s at Villanova – 7:00PM | FS1
  • Tennessee at Missouri – 7:00PM | ESPN2
  • Texas at Oklahoma State – 7:00PM | ESPNU
  • Mississippi State at South Carolina – 9:00PM | ESPNU
  • U*NC at North Carolina State – 9:00PM | ESPN
  • Purdue at Michigan State – 9:00PM | ESPN2

If you have some time to kill after watching the Oklahoma State game, let me guide you to the perfectly adequate documentary, “Finding Big Country“, about a Vancouver basketball fan looking for what happened to the big doofus we drafted in 1995 when the NBA said expansion teams couldn’t have Tim Duncan.

Just one pick earlier, the Raptors got Vince Carter Damon Stoudamire (thanks Wakezilla), who will be playing against them tonight with Atlanta. It’s a testament to how to fail with an expansion team in a mildly hot market. If they’d signed Yao Ming two years later, they’d still be here. FUCK STU JACKSON!