FOOTBALL

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been in the news all week and not for good reasons. It all has to do with wide receiver, Antonio Brown and whether or not he has played his last game as a Steeler. Last week, he missed practice Thursday and Friday then missed Saturday’s walk-through. Coach Mike Tomlin said he didn’t know if Brown would be healthy on Sunday so couldn’t play him. He expressed his disappointment with Brown’s lack of communication with the team.  In a statement from Brown, he said, “My options may seem limited by people or circumstances. It is then that I remind myself I am in command of my attitude. I am divinely blessed with free will. I utilize that gift, choosing to take charge of my life; to express the creativity, vitality, and wholeness that truly define me.” The players on the team are clearly not happy with one player, Jesse James, stating, “Ah man, we are-Kardashians”. He might not be far off as Antonio Brown dressed as a hippo in a new show on Fox called “The Masked Singer” where a panel of judges try and guess the celebrity singer behind a costume. Here’s the clip.

If you’re interested in attending the College Football Playoff final on Monday night in Santa Clara, CA, tickets are cheap (on CheapoTicketing). The face value for a ticket to see #1 Alabama battle for the championship against #2 Clemson is $475 and has dropped to $115. Flights for fans from Alabama and South Carolina are around $1000, and hotels in the Bay Area are expensive which according to TicketIQ makes it “sort of a perfect storm of factors at play this year.”

In other college football news, as previously reported, there was an incident at the Sugar Bowl where the University of Texas mascot, a steer named Bevo went after Georgia’s mascot, a bulldog named Uga. Now, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is asking Universities to stop using live animals as their mascots. They wrote, “It’s quite possible that Bevo was simply scared by the noise, lights, and chaos in the stadium and tried to flee from the confines of his makeshift pen. But that doesn’t change the fact that Uga or any of the humans standing nearby could easily have been trampled and killed.”

FOOTBALL

Ohio State beat the Washington Huskies 28-23 Monday afternoon in Pasadena, CA at the Rose Bowl. The game is usually played on New Years Day (with some exceptions) and with much hype, as the Rose Bowl is the oldest of all the bowl games. Ohio State won 28-23, but the big story during the celebration after the game was the controversy over the Buckeyes Head Coach Urban Meyer. Meyer was suspended for the first three games this season over how he handled (or more appropriately) failed to handle domestic violence allegations against his assistant coach. Meyer officially retired after the game (due to health reasons), but many are upset that he’s being celebrated and lionized. He is also ironically going to be teaching a business course at Ohio State on character and leadership.

In another January 1st bowl game, the University of Texas took on the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl. The matchup was exciting even before the game began. During the pre-game festivities, Bevo, UT’s steer mascot charged through a fence and tried to attack Georgia’s mascot, a bulldog named Uga X. No one was hurt, but a few people were knocked down. During the game, the University of Texas’ quarterback Sam Ehlinger marched his team to victory after running for three touchdowns. Texas 28, Georgia 21.