🏀 Football Hangover Cure Found

Happy Tuesday! For all you football fans currently experiencing withdrawals, hang tight as we’ll continue to be a source of happiness for you over these next several football-less months. Get this… there are 33 days until Selection Sunday and we get to fill out March Madness brackets. Speaking of college ball, we had a few top 10 teams in action last night. Then the Beanpot tourney over in Beantown gave us an overtime college hockey thriller. The NBA and NHL now take center stage for professional sports with the NFL on a hiatus and Victor Wembanyama is a confirmed freak of nature. So, let the countdown to NFL Week 1 begin as we have 206 days until kick-off, but in the meantime let’s enjoy some other sports!

WTF Stat: Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are 5-0 in games played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. That’s more wins than any QB-Coach combo in the NFL, including the hometown Las Vegas Raiders in their own stadium.

🏈 Dallas Cowboys have hired Mike Zimmer as their new defensive coordinator following Dan Quinn’s departure to Washington - Zimmer held this same role for Dallas from 2000-06 and was an assistant there beginning in 1994. Zimmer also beat out Rex Ryan for the job this time around

🏈 49ers players FB Kyle Juszczyk and DL Arik Armstead claimed they ‘didn’t know’ the new playoff overtime rules and there was no strategy session prior to the OT coin toss where they elected to receive the ball - this is a really terrible look for HC Kyle Shanahan who has coached in three Super Bowls where he had 10+ point leads in all of them, and ended up losing all of them (Falcons ‘17, 49ers ‘20, 49ers ‘24)

🏈 Sunday's Super Bowl was the most watched event in the history of television averaging 123.4 million viewers, which shattered last year’s record that was set in the Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl - Taylor Swift is growing the game whether you hate it or love it…

⚾️ Shohei Ohtani was smashing HRs in his first batting practice since getting surgery on his throwing arm back in September and will only play as a DH for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season after signing a $700M contract - he is expected to pitch again in 2025

⛳ Tiger Woods will be launching his own apparel brand called “Sun Day Red” that was announced via a motivational social media video following his recent breakup with Nike - clothes will be able to be purchased in May

NBA - Top Games

• San Antonio Spurs 122, Toronto Raptors 99: The 7-foot-4 rookie Victor Wembanyama (27 PTS, 14 REB, 10 BLK, 5 AST) held a block party in Toronto last night earning a triple-double with 10 BLOCKS in just 29 minutes of work - first player with 20 PTS, 10 REB, 10 BLK, 5 AST since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1996 and first triple-double that included blocks in over three years

• Milwaukee Bucks 112, Denver Nuggets 95: Giannis (36 PTS, 18 REB, 5 AST) helped the Bucks control this game from the opening tip grabbing a much-needed victory over the reigning champs with Doc Rivers now 3-5 since his arrival in Milwaukee - Nikola Jokic (29 PTS, 12 REB, 8 AST) didn’t get much help from his supporting cast

• Philadelphia 76ers 123, Cleveland Cavaliers 121: A big night from All-Star Donovan Mitchell (36 PTS, 6 AST) was overcame as Buddy Hield and Kelly Oubre Jr. each scored 24 points to end the Cavs nine-game win streak - longest streak for the Cavs since King James was in town (2018)

• Houston Rockets 105, New York Knicks 103 (OT): Jalen Brunson has that dog in him scoring two tough buckets in the final 42 seconds of the game to tie it, but a very controversial foul call on Brunson while Aaron Holiday heaved up a three-pointer with under a second left in the game gave the Rockets the win via made free throws - Knicks have lost four of last five games after a nine-game win streak

See the full NBA scoreboard here and the current standings here.

College Basketball - Top Games

• NCAAM | Texas Tech 79, #6 Kansas 50: While this may look like an upset based off Kansas’ No. 6 AP ranking, the Red Raiders were 3.5-point favorites at home with the injured Jayhawks now losing four of their last seven games and KU suffered their third largest loss as top 10 team in program history in over 1,000 games in such position - TTU will undoubtedly find themselves in the Top 25 next week and will be a dangerous team come March

• NCAAM | #9 Duke 77, Wake Forest 69: The Demon Deacons kept this one close chasing their first win at Duke since 1997 when Tim Duncan was on the squad, but the Cameron Crazies were ultimately too much to handle with Kyle Filipowski (21 PTS, 10 REB) and Mark Mitchell (23 PTS, 8 REB) each dropped 20+ for the Blue Devils

• NCAAW | #9 USC 81, Arizona 64: Freshman Juju Watkins (32 PTS, 7 REB) did her thing helping the Trojans to a big second half to knock off the Wildcats as she is second in the nation in points per game with 27.5 behind the one and only Caitlin Clark (32.1)

See the full men’s scoreboard here and the current rankings here. See the full women’s scoreboard here and the current rankings here.

NHL - Top Games

• New Jersey Devils 3, Seattle Kraken 1: A three-goal lead heading into the third period was just too much for the Kraken to overcome on the road as the Devils sit four points off the final Wild Card spot in the East

• New York Rangers 2, Calgary Flames 0: A subway stop away from the previous game, the Rangers took care of business at MSG only needing two goals (Will Cuylle & Jimmy Vessey) thanks to an Igor Shesterkin shutout that included 31 saves - Rangers have the second most points in the East (71) behind the Bruins (73)

• Philadelphia Flyers 5, Arizona Coyotes 3: A more entertaining game for hockey fans came in Philly where the Flyers erased a one-goal deficit in the third period with three unanswered and the game-winner coming off the stick of Scott Laughton on the power play - Philly is in the playoff picture hoping to make the postseason for the first time since 2020

See the full box scores here and the current NHL standings here.

College Hockey - Beanpot

For those new to this event, The Beanpot is an annual hockey tournament between the four major D1 college hockey programs in Boston (BU, Northeastern, BC and Harvard) played at the TD Garden. The first Beanpot tournament took place in game was played in 1952 and consists of just two rounds.

Championship: Northeastern 4, #3 Boston U 3 (OT):

• Hobey Baker (the College Hockey Heisman) hopeful Lane Hutson tucked a goal with 7.2 seconds left in the second period to take a lead, but Jack Williams tied the game with a power play slapshot sending the game to overtime

• Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (best name in college hockey ever?) scored the OT winner, which is exactly what he did against Harvard in the first round to send them to the Finals - this was Northeastern’s sixth straight title game appearance winning five of them and are 11-1 in their last 12 Beanpot games

Consolation: #1 Boston College 5, Harvard 0

• The No. 1 ranked team in the country with NHL talent across the entire roster couldn’t beat BU in round 1 but dominated the brightest school of the bunch for 3rd place - BC has not won the tournament since 2016

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Which NFL Franchise has won three straight Super Bowls?

A. New England Patriots

B. Green Bay Packers

C. Pittsburgh Steelers

D. Never been done

On February 13, 2022, the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl 56 with a 23-20 victory. This was the second year in a row a Super Bowl team was playing in their home stadium as SoFi in Los Angeles was the site of this game following the Bucs win in Tampa Bay just a season earlier, the only two such times this happened in NFL history. WR Cooper Kupp (8 catches, 92 YDS, 2 TDs) earned MVP and QB Matthew Stafford (283 YDS, 3 TDs) won his first Super Bowl in his first season as a Ram coming over from Detroit in an off-season trade.

NBA

• Oklahoma City @ Orlando Magic 7:30pm ET, TNT

• Sacramento Kings @ Phoenix Suns 10:00pm ET, TNT

• Full Schedule

NHL

• Tampa Bay Lightning @ Boston Bruins 7:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Seattle Kraken @ New York Islanders 7:30pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Detroit Red Wings @ Edmonton Oilers 9:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Full Schedule

College Basketball

• NCAAM: #7 North Carolina @ Syracuse 7:00pm ET, ESPN

• NCAAM: #25 Oklahoma @ #12 Baylor 9:00pm ET, ESPN2

• NCAAM: Ole Miss @ #22 Kentucky 9:00pm ET, ESPN

• NCAAM: Full Schedule

• NCAAW: #24 West Virginia @ TCU 7:30pm ET, ESPN+

• NCAAW: Full Schedule

Champions League - Round of 16

• 1st Leg: FC Copenhagen vs. Manchester City 3:00pm ET

• 1st Leg: RB Leipzig vs. Real Madrid 3:00pm ET

Trivia Time Answer

D. Never been done. The Kansas City Chiefs will have a chance next season to be the first ever franchise to win a third straight Super Bowl title - KC (+650) is currently behind San Fran (+550) with the second highest odds to win.

Prime Lock of the Day

Subscribe to Blitz Prime to unlock this betting slip. For those already signed up, enjoy the winner!

P.S. Don’t forget tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Go get your loved one some flowers, or maybe just have them sign-up for the Blitz. They’ll be head over heels!