TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – It’s the big one of the year for the Seattle Seahawks. They win Sunday at home against the Los Angeles Rams and the Hawks are the NFC West champions. Their win last Sunday against Washington put them in the playoffs for the ninth time in 11 seasons under coach Pete Carroll. They are currently the No. 3 seed in the NFC behind the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers. Seattle will be without receiver Josh Gordon, who was activated for Sunday’s game and then was suspended by the league the next day for reportedly suffering a setback from his long-time battle with substance abuse. The Hawks have had a tough time with the Rams losing five of their last seven meetings. The Rams will probably be sky-high after being embarrassed last Sunday by losing to the previously winless New York Jets, a team the Seahawks drubbed 40-3…. The regular college football season is over and it’s on to the bowl games. Washington had to sit out the Pac-12 championship game because of COVID-19, and won’t play in a bowl game either because of the virus. Oregon took Washington’s place in the Pac-12 title game and beat USC 31-24 to claim the crown for the second straight year. Washington State finished its season on a three-game losing streak, giving up a 28-7 halftime lead to Utah by allowing 38 straight points to lose 45-28 in its last game. The combatants in the college football playoffs have three familiar faces – Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. Notre Dame rounds out the super four. So you have No. 1 Alabama facing No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 2 Clemson facing No. 3 Ohio State on New Year’s Day in the semifinals. And if you take anybody but Alabama or Clemson you are a fool. They might as well call these playoffs the Alabama-Clemson playoffs because these two are almost guaranteed to be in them. It’s getting ridiculous. Something has to be done. I would suggest having two sets of playoffs – the top four play off in one and the next four, No. 5 through No. 8, meet in another set. Then the two winners meet to determine the overall national champion. That would give teams like this year’s Cincinnati, San Jose State and Coastal Carolina a chance. Heck, maybe even a Pac-12 team could sneak in. Nah, no way, forget that. I really believe there should be a 16-team tournament. That would mean an additional four games for the lucky two that advance through the tournament. To fit it in to a football schedule do away with these meaningless games where the Alabama plays the Sisters of the Poor to open the season and end regular season early. Sure, the Sisters of the Poor will lose the big money for agreeing to be punching bags, but it’s worth it to get to a 16-tournament gig at the end. The people in power will never take my suggestion, but it’s their mistake for not doing so. Football fans outside of New York City are laughing at the New York Jets for winning when they should have lost to the Los Angeles Rams. It was the first victory for the 1-13 Jets and now they are in second place in the next NFL draft behind Jacksonville, also 1-13, and have lost the ability to draft Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence, the consensus No. 1 pick. All these fans can do now is encourage Jacksonville to win at home this weekend against the surging Chicago Bears or on the road next weekend at suddenly powerful Indianapolis. I think Jacksonville is nobody’s fool and will sleep-walk through both games while blowing big lush kisses to Jets’ fans … I didn’t realize, or even think about it, that James Harden apparently is difficult to play with. He wants out of Houston and if what I’m hearing is correct, Houston will be lucky when he’s gone. All I really know about Harden is when he was playing for Arizona State he killed the Washington Huskies. I can still see him shooting from the corner and knowing before he even released the shot that he was going to make it. He’s a great player, and a sure future Hall of Famer, but apparently a few folks believe he should be in the Hall of Shame. Of course, the four greatest college players I ever saw are Tom Stith of St. Bonaventure, Oscar “The Big O” Roberston of Cincinnati, Elgin Baylor of Seattle and Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas…. Speaking of Big O, I’m stunned by the domestic abuse accusations against Little O, Omar Vizquel, by his wife Blanca. She has filed for divorce and Vizquel has vigorously denied he abused her. He allegedly had another incident in 2019 when he was managing the Birmingham Barons AA team for the Chicago White Sox. That involved a male clubhouse worker and Vizquel was fired at the end of the season. The reason it shocks me is because Little O was the perfect gentleman when he played for the Seattle Mariners from 1989-93. I can still see him sitting at his cubical in the clubhouse giving out $20 bills to passing clubhouse boys as they walked past him. The money he was giving out was the required per diem issued to each player just before the team had a road trip. All I can say is that just when you think you know somebody, you find out you don’t. Okay, that is enough for today.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
COLLEGES
Marshall at Buffalo (Marshall)
Liberty at Coastal Carolina (Liberty)
Louisiana at UTSA (Louisiana)
Western Kentucky at Georgia State (WK)
PROS
Minnesota at New Orleans (NO)
Tampa Bay at Detroit (TB)
San Francisco at Arizona (Arizona)
Miami at Las Vegas (Miami)
Los Angeles Rams at Seattle (Seattle)
Atlanta at Kansas City (KC)
Cleveland at New York Jets (Cleveland)
Indianapolis at Pittsburgh (Pitt)
Carolina at Washington (Washington)
Chicago at Jacksonville (Chicago)
New York Giants at Baltimore (Baltimore)
Cincinnati at Houston (Houston)
Denver at Los Angeles Chargers (Chargers)
Philadelphia at Dallas (Dallas)
Tennessee at Green Bay (GB)
Buffalo at New England (Buffalo)
Last Week – 21-11
Season – 278-132-1 (67.8 percent)