THANKS, SPORTS — The Weekly Opine

The NFL capped off a fun, rejuvenating weekend of sports. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Much needed respite

By now, prosecutor’s familiar names slide off the tongue like a police captain calling out names during evening shift roll call. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Special Counsel Jack Smith. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

But between the indictments, arraignments, legal analysis and cable news reporting that sometimes delves into fanaticism, even a political news junkie like me needs a break.

During the past weekend, college football, the U.S. Open and the NFL delivered relief, like jumping in a cool lake on a steamy afternoon. (Of course, baseball has been here all summer, but my Chicago White Sox are among baseball’s biggest disappointments, so I haven’t watched a complete game all season.)

Last Saturday, we received a double dose of good vibes. First, Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes pounded arch-rival Nebraska 36-14. While not as exhilarating as Colorado’s opening win over #17 TCU the prior week, watching Deion’s team play their first home game in front of a raucous crowd was uplifting. This thing in Boulder, Colorado, looks like the real deal.

After their stunning 45-42 instant classic victory against TCU (last season’s national runner-up), the natural concern was that Colorado might suffer a letdown. Nah. Coach Prime is like Popeye the Sailor. Popeye would say, “I am what I am” and open a can of spinach (or can of whup ass, as The Rock might say) and pummel bad guy Brutus.

Likewise, Deion Sanders is what he is; outspoken, supremely confident, keeps it real and backs up his bark with a bite. He also makes some people uncomfortable, just as the brash Muhammad Ali made some people uncomfortable. When Coach Prime showed up in Boulder last January, telling Colorado players – who had just completed a miserable season, winning one game while losing 11 – to enter the portal, it wasn’t anything more or less than Sanders recognizing that he had to move quickly.

Coach Deion Sanders has stirred the imagination of the college football world. (Photo credit CNN)

A Hall-of-Fame Super Bowl champion, Sanders does not put up with losing and he knows college athletic directors do not put up with losing. Sanders has turbocharged Colorado by maximizing today’s rules. The turnaround at Colorado is now the prototype, with respect to how college football teams can operate under the free-wheeling NIL and portal rules. Schools with direct connections to the NFL, through their coaches and former star players, have an advantage.

Add to the mix fat-cat NIL collectives willing to pay players top dollar and 5-star talent will quickly show up on campus. Like it or not, that’s the way the game is played now. And no one is better at it than Coach Prime, who knows as much (or more) about football and is more charismatic than any other coach. Sanders’ magnetism will attract top talent the way honey attracts bees.

With the record-setting success of Sanders’ son Shedeur (formerly quarterback at Jackson State and now Colorado’s QB), you can bet major college programs will show up at HBCUs searching for under the radar gold nuggets, particularly nuggets who play the coveted skill positions. Colorado’s new team looks like an athletic, speedy SEC team more so than a typical Big-12 team (the conference Colorado will join in 2024).

Coco, Coco!

After watching Colorado win, I settled in to watch the U.S. Open tennis women’s final. Coco Gauff, the 19-year-old American, beat Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, the #1 women’s player in the world. It was fun tuning in to what turned out to be a tale of two matches. Sabalenka dominated the first set 6-2. Gauff settled in and won the second set 6-3 and easily won the third set, and the championship, 6-2.

Gauff carries a poised, focused demeanor, along with a deadly backhand and vastly improved forehand. She has terrific family support from her parents and siblings. Gauff doesn’t get too high or too low during the match. Saturday, Gauff displayed steely determination to overcome Sabalenka, who I’m also a fan of.

Coco Gauff (L) won the U.S. Open championship defeating Aryna Sabalenka. (Photo credit Courthouse News Service)

Maybe the most competitive player on the women’s circuit, the physically dominant Sabalenka stands 6-feet tall and is sometimes combustible. Known to smash her tennis racket into smithereens when she loses her temper, Sabalenka did just that during a semi-final match against Madison Keyes and again in the locker room following her loss to Gauff.

Nonetheless, Saturday belonged to Gauff who seems on the cusp of winning more major championships.

Thursdays and Sundays and Mondays, oh my!

The NFL season is off to a wild start. The three favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl lost. On Thursday, the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs lost at home to the upstart Detroit Lions. Kansas City played without star tight end Travis Kelce and star defensive lineman Chris Jones, so I’ll withhold judgement. But do not sleep on Detroit. They have an excellent coach and tough-minded team.

On Sunday, my Chicago Bears once again proved incapable of beating the Green Bay Packers. It was another lackluster, meltdown performance by the Bears. At this point, does it matter if the Bears franchise remains in Chicago or leaves for Arlington Heights, Naperville, Waukegan or some other planet? Same with the White Sox, who are now making noises about leaving Chicago. The reality is no city in America has a collection of professional sports team owners as inept as Chicago’s McCaskey family (Bears) and Jerry Reinsdorf (White Sox and Bulls).

The NFL weekend concluded Monday night. It was stunning when New York Jets savior, Aaron Rodgers, suffered a season-ending injury on just his fourth play of the game. However, the Buffalo Bills QB, the I’m-starting-to-think-he’s-overrated Josh Allen, committed four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble) as the Bills lost to the wounded Jets.

Yes, it’s nice football is back.