Heading to the AFC playoffs …

For Benedick (if this doesn’t turn you into a Jets fan, I give up):

This play is the one we Jets fans will be thinking of today at 4:30 when the division game against the Patriots kicks off – from Week 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ZhoMoNesQ

This run in last week’s game against the Saints is part of what gives Seahawks fans hope for victory against the Bears today at 1 pm.  Pretty amazing run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQULIUXZst8

Call it Fate, call it Karma, call it Phil Knight Crapping Millions Upon the Innocent Citizens of Eugene, but somehow the University of Oregon Webfoots have finagled their way into a national football championship, which leaves us bewildered to host this Incredibly Awkward BCS Open Thread/Duck Season-Rabbit Season Recital. If you see any Tiny Green Fingers in crowd shots, we take no personal responsibility — they must be recycled from last year.

The college football game tonight pits Virginia Tech against Stanford at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Bettors are giving The Tree a 3-1/2 point edge over Los Hokies.

Not taking the field tonight is The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB), described by the Miami Herald as the “most outrageous marching band in the land,” as Orange Bowl organizers decided they didn’t want to risk the band doing something scandalous at the halftime show.  Instead, the band will be limited to a six minute pre-game show, which LSJUMB has announced is entitled “Recent Events in the Pro Sports World in Miami.”

Kick off is at 8:30 pm Eastern, but it’s unclear whether the networks will show the performance beforehand.  LeBron James may be breathing a sigh of relief.

[MSNBC: Stanford Band Banned from Halftime Tonight]

Well, as Mr. Bono would advise, nothing changes on New Year’s Day.  And, thus: Sport.  It begins with outdoor hockey in Pittsburgh at — oh, no, wait.  The NHL pushed the start of the Winter Classic from 1300 (ET) to 2000, on account of rain.  (See: you can play hockey outdoors when its, oh, 50 degrees or colder.  But rain is a killer.  Showers this afternoon give way to plain old dreariness tonight, so the start is pushed later.)

This is unintentional genius by the NHL.  See, they now get a prime-time slot.  The counterprogramming is… Oklahoma v. Connecticut in a Fiesta Bowl that precisely NOBODY wanted to set up, and NOBODY will watch.  Putting two of their top marketable stars — Sidney Crosby (Pgh.) and Alex Ovechkin (Wash.) against the slaughter of UConn will work quite nicely for the League.

Preceding that, it’s Cheeseheads and Frogs as the Rose Bowl features Wisconsin and Texas Christian.  Should have been Stanford in this game against the Badgers, of course, but it spares me (Tree B.A. ’00, Madison J.D. ’03) a bit of a quandry.  Again, unintentional genius.

Open thread of Sport for you, for the New Year.  Enjoy.

ADD: post-jump, a newish find on the music front.  Just got around to buying Florence + The Machine’s album, “Lungs.”  Holy shit.  I SAY AGAIN: HOLY SHIT.

Read more »