The Big Story – Pats Win AFC East: The Patriots blasted the Jets 42-10 Sunday. Then when the Bills’ failed 2-point conversion as time ran out made them 13-12 losers to Philly, it made NE the AFC champs! Who saw that coming in August? Not me.
Sports 101: Which college has won the most New Year’s Day Rose Bowl football games?
News Item – Jets Crash Land in Foxboro:
The Pats’ 42-10 wasn’t much of a game competitively. But they took care of business from the jump and Drake Maye was something to see.
Key Stat – Maye’s five TD passes. He was unstoppable going 19-21 for 256 yards in only 35 minutes played.
Improvement – Everyone: It was their most dominant game of the year.
Backslide – The Jets: Somehow they gave up a TD the first six times the Pats had the ball. And amazingly they gave up 12 first downs on the first 15 plays of the game as NE scored two TDs and averaged 9.1 per play.
Game Ball – Maye and Stefon Diggs – Again: Diggs had five large catches for 101 yards and Maye was sensational.
Next Up – Miami, 1 p.m. Sunday: A win combined with Denver losing to the Chargers makes them the No. 1 Seed in AFC playoffs.
News Item – Predictions for 2026:
• LeBron James and Travis Kelce retire.
• Bill Belichick gets fired by UNC. Showing again it usually ends badly for even the best coaches.
• The Jets do not go the entire 2026 season without an interception as they have so far this season.
• At least five more players, coaches or refs get caught in illegal sports gambling stings in 2026.
• It’s a repeat of Henry letting Kyle Schwarber walk to hit 46, 47, 38 and 56 homers in four seasons in Philly. And aggravatingly for the same money they gave Masataka Yoshida, who has hit 29 with Boston. This time Pete Alonso hits 52 homers with Baltimore after Henry passes on giving him the money he shed in the Rafael Devers trade. Instead, to play first base, they traded for a solid but aging 33-year-old ex-catcher, Willson Contreras, who averaged 19 bombs the last four years in big park St. Louis.
• The 2026 Season Champs: NBA – Houston Rockets. NHL – no idea. MLB – L.A. Dodgers’ money buys their third in a row. NFL – 2026 Patriots come all the way back, baby.
2025 Big Numbers:
1.1 – billion dollars in deferred payment for the buy-everything-in-sight-just-because-I-can L.A. Dodgers.
3 – players — Nick Kurtz, Eugenio Suarez and Schwarber — each hit four homers in the same game.
82 & 146 – combined wins and losses of the teams the Pats played in 2025.
… 2025 Of the Year Awards:
Thumbs Up – Stefon Diggs: Very quick recovery from the ACL tear, much better than expected, with none of the diva nonsense we were warned about. A most pleasant surprise.
Thumbs Down – John Henry: You almost had me when you dumped Devers. Then you put the money back in your pocket instead of trying to win by signing a big banger to replace his big bat.
Best Individual Game – Nikola Jokic: Scoring over 50 in an NBA game like he did with 56 in an OT win vs. Golden State last week is a big deal. But then throw in the 15 assists and 16 rebounds he had as well, and that his 17 points were the most ever scored in OT. That gives it to him over the three four-homer guys because that makes 21 who’ve done that.
Sports 101 Answer: USC has far and away the most Rose Bowl victories with 25 in 35 appearances. They’re followed by Ohio State with 10, Michigan with 9 and Stanford with 8.
Final Thought – Things I Hope Happen in 2026:
• While he’s earned a big sendoff, I hope LeBron does not go out a winner, as that will keep the Celtics’ all-time 18 title wins one ahead of the Lakers. Though they actually only won 12 of them as the L.A. Lakers.
• Henry sells the Sox to someone who cares enough about winning to spend to do it. Then he gets elected to the Hall for being the owner when they ended the Curse and won three more titles before he went cheap.
• After finally knocking off the petty crap to keep Bill Parcells out of the Patriot Hall, ditto for Bob Kraft and Canton. If for no other reason than so we’ll be free from his relentless campaigning to get in (and for the six titles won on his watch).
• The very likable Brian Scalabrine gets a clue to not say “we” when broadcasting Celtics games. Even the biggest homer of them all, Johnny Most, never did that.
• The reigning blowhard of sports broadcasting, Steven A. Smith, gets a four-month case of laryngitis that starts right before the NBA playoffs begin. Happy New Year to all.
Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.