The Good, Bad, and Ugly, Last Week in Sports

The Good: Buccaneers Super Bowl Parade

What is better than a parade after winning a Super Bowl? A boat parade after winning a Super Bowl. Tom Brady, Bruce Arians, and most of the other Buccaneer players danced on boats while turning bottles up. The most controversial moment happened when Tom Brady tossed the Lombardi Trophy from his boat to the boat Rob Gronkowski was on. What did you honestly expect. Tom Brady is in I dont care anymore mode and he is still winning titles. Congrats to the Bucs and the biggest accomplishment they have had since 2002.

The Bad: Chris Beard

Just to be clear, I love everything about this except for the timing of it. Texas Tech is down by 6 to West Virginia with around a minute left in the game. It was still in striking distance, but Beard had heard something he did not like one too many times from the referee. He proceeded to berate the official earing his first technical. He goes on to give his opinions to one of the officials that sees Beard lay on the floor and given his second technical ejecting him from the game. To add a little more disrespect, he goes and knuckles up Bob Huggins as he continues giving the refs a piece of his mind. This would be the first great of the new year, but the timing was not the best. Down by 6 with a minute on the clock is a long time. Both techs ended up giving West Virginia 3 more points and shutting the door on the game. I love the action and the attention but not when your team can still come back in the game.

The Ugly: Chris Doyle

This saga lasted about as long as Brittany Spears’ first marriage (#freebrittanyspears). When the initial reports came out, the blowback should have been enough to cancel the deal. Then, Urban Meyer comes out defending the hire even after current and former players gave their testimonials about what happened under Doyle. So after about 24 hours, it went from Chris Doyle is our guy to Chris Doyle no longer works for the Jaguars, and it never needed to make it this far. Use a controlled leak to get an idea of what the hire does to the fan base. If this person is universally disliked and seen as a bully then the hire shouldnt happen no matter how bad Meyer wants it. Guess the honeymoon stage in Jacksonville has ended and now it is time for the Jags to put up or shut up early. This distraction was unneeded and unwarranted. This is an organization looking to change an image and plays like this only cause more harm and setbacks.

The Good: Kamaru Usman

In a UFC card that was the epitome of a one fight PPV, the main event lived up to all the hype. Kamaru Usman vs Gilbert Burns was billed as a war between teammates, what we got was a war of two halves. The first half saw Burns nearly put out the champion in the first round. Unfortunately for him, the second half saw Burns eat jab after jab until his chin could not take another punch. This win ties Kamaru Usman with George St. Pierre for the most consecutive wins in the welterweight division. We also got an idea of who his next fight could involve. Usman spent the last couple of moments of his post fight interview call out Jorge Masvidal in a rematch. No matter how you slice it, Usman has made great strides in resurrecting the welterweight division in the UFC, but it is truly him and then everyone else right now.

The Bad: Travel for the UEFA Champions League.

With travel restrictions still a big thing at the start of 2021, many European countries have ramped up the rules and regulations regarding international flights. Countries like Germany are not allowing travel from England forcing Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach had to be moved to Budapest, Hungary in order to be played on time. Other teams affected such as Liverpool are having to make new travel arrangements on the fly and still prepare to play a quality side in a potentially empty stadium. Its a different kind of mindset traveling to a neutral site. Some players rely on the positive and negative energy to find the motivation. This was bound to be a major hurdle UEFA had to see coming and I am sure it is helpful to have these sites ready to go. I just hope the games are still as great as they always are. Keep everyone safe and we can have teams with full stadiums in no time.

The Ugly: The Daytona 500

Before this starts, no Nascar did not do anything stupid or have an incident today, that I am aware of. No the ugly is the wreck that initially caused the race to be paused. 16 cars involved and rain immediately led to the start of the NASCAR season starting with a pause that was not even COVID related. As one of the sports that has a major individual influence, NASCAR is one of the sports that can really benefit this year from recency bias. They were a sport that could make it work. They did not have the widespread shut downs and considerable time off. This sport gained fans that it cannot afford to lose back. I hope the race goes on Monday at the latest, but it is not a good start for the auto racing group in the USA.

The Final Good: JJ Watt Foundation

Nothing screams a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year is on the free agent market quite like a major spike in donations to his charity. Yes JJ Watt announced that he has seen a major jump in 99 dollar donations over the past couple of days. Calling some of them out as potential bribes brought a lot of humor to the very serious amount of money to help boys and girls in the Houston area. JJ Watt also gave a heart felt thank you from his second home in Chicago while spending time with his new wife since they are both in their off season. To all of those who donated, thank you for your generosity. You may have ulterior motives, but the heart is in the right place and its a great sign of hope.