The Cheat SheetBy Kevin McGuire on

No alternative facts here. Just a couple of lopsided NFL conference championship games.

I made sure to take extra care in verifying the sources and reports included in this morning’s edition of The Cheat Sheet. The last thing I would want to do to you, the good readers of The Comeback, would be to serve you up a fresh batch of alternative facts from fake news websites. So here is a top-notch, completely verifiable rundown of some of the most notable headlines form the weekend, including a couple of rather meaningful football games.

Matty Ice and Julio Jones clinch NFC crown, send Packers packing

How many Packers does it take to stop Julio Jones? The world may never know.
How many Packers does it take to stop Julio Jones? The world may never know.

The Packers had been riding a red hot streak on their way to the NFC Championship Game, but the fun came to an end in dominating fashion in the final football game in Georgia Dome history. What a way to close down the building, huh? The Falcons, with Matt Ryan and go-to receiver Julio Jones, ripped right through the Packers defense from start to finish in a 44-21 victory in the NFC Championship Game. The Falcons jumped all over Green Bay right out of the gates and put together a 31-0 lead before Aaron Rodgers could manage to get Green Bay on the scoreboard.

If you needed any more evidence that having Ryan and Julio on the same side of the ball can just be unfair, observe…



Ryan passed for 392 yards and four touchdowns in the game. Not surprisingly, Jones was responsible for 180 of those yards and two of the touchdowns. The Falcons offensive line also provided the protection for Ryan, not yielding a sack all afternoon. This also means offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who had a flu for the game, from moving on to take any available head coaching job, like the one in San Francisco for example. If and when Shanahan leaves the nest, Chip Kelly is believed to be a potential replacement.

The Falcons are now heading to their second Super Bowl in franchise history, and Matt Ryan gets to continue making his previous doubters look silly. Their first order of business will be to decide what jersey they wish to wear for the big game. Might I make a suggestion?

Patriots go on 20-0 run to pull away from Steelers for AFC title

tom brady jacket
Tom Brady looking like George Costanza in his Gore-Tex coat.

The AFC Championship Game was at least more competitive for a half for fans tuning in than the NFC offered. The Patriots took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter with a 16-yard pass from Tom Brady to Chris Hogan and a 17-9 lead into the halftime break thanks to a second touchdown combo of Brady to Hogan. After halftime, it was all Patriots with a 17-0 third quarter and a field goal midway through the fourth to essentially put the game away in a 36-17 blowout of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Not that they really needed it, but the Pats broke out a perfectly-timed flea flicker play on the Steelers to start separating themselves…

Of course, as the game was well in hand for the home town Patriots, fans in the stands began the mocking of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who was in Atlanta for the NFC Championship Game instead of Foxboro. The speculation has been Goodell is going out of his way to avoid any trips to Gillette Stadium due to the negative publicity from the Deflategate investigation and other times the Patriots broke the rules. Fans began chanting for Goodell, with Patriots radio announcer Scott Zolak leading the calls for the commish.

Meanwhile, many of us had a good laugh about Brady’s sideline jacket.

https://twitter.com/Michael_Hice/status/823328505832374278

The Patriots are now heading to their seventh Super Bowl with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, and second in three seasons. The Patriots are 4-4 all-time in the Super Bowl and have the chance to become the fourth team in NFL history to win five Super Bowls. The Steelers own the all-time lead with six Lombardi Trophies and the Cowboys and 49ers each have five championships in their trophy case. The early lines from Las Vegas have tabbed the Patritos a three-point favorite over the Falcons, but the over/under is at an astronomical 59 points. For a Super Bowl, that is nuts.

Also, Belichick played the role of Belichick by trying to suggest he had no idea the Falcons won hours prior. Yeah, OK, suuuuuure.

Baseball world mourns passing of Yordano Ventura, Andy Marte

Yordano Ventura
Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura, 25, was killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

The baseball world was struck with tragedy on Sunday with news of the passing of young Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura. Ventura, just 25 years old, was killed in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic. As if that was not enough of a punch to the gut, former major league infielder Andy Marte (33) was also killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic, where he was playing winter ball. The two deaths were not connected.

For a baseball world that was hit hard late last season by the tragic death of Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez from a boating accident, the pain of losing another talented young pitcher with a nasty fastball is disheartening.

Quick Hits

A video store that only has copies of Jerry Maguire? SHOW ME THE EXIT!
A video store that only has copies of Jerry Maguire? SHOW ME THE EXIT!

– Getting Gregg Popovich to open up about any subject can be a difficult task for those asking the questions, but there are times when the subject is seemingly so important to the legendary basketball coach that he can not hold back. Popovich unloaded on President Donald Trump this weekend, the day immediately following the inauguration after the president and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer took a stand against the reports focused on attendance for the inauguration ceremony in Washington D.C. on Friday afternoon.

– The Milwaukee Bucks held a team vote and have decided that Jabari Parker should sit on the bench after sharing details about a team meeting with the media.

– With the NFL season coming to a close, ESPN decided Sunday was the most appropriate time to honor two NFL mainstays for the network for decades by renaming its NFL Countdown studio in honor of Chris Berman and Tom Jackson. They may have run past their prime with the network, but there is no mistaking they played a huge role in ESPN’s NFL coverage for a long time. This was a well-deserved honor in Bristol.

– The Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins had to go to intermission six minutes early due to problems with the ice surface. No such problems in Ottawa where Cam Atkinson gave the Columbus Blue Jackets a wild 7-6 victory in overtime (Columbus was down 5-3 in the third period).

– The Indianapolis Colts made some front office changes this weekend by firing Ryan Grigson as general manager and backing head coach Chuck Pagano for at least another year. This was great news for Colts punter Pat McAfee, who got into a bit of a war of words with ESPN’s Dan Dakich of all people.

– Controversial Duke star Grayson Allen had a bad-looking dislocated finger injury this weekend. No word on whether this affected his ability to trip opposing players.

– There once was a time when Boise State played home game son a green playing surface, but if you ever wondered what it would look like today if the Smurf turf was replaced wiht a more traditional color…

View post on imgur.com

-Whoa. Stop the presses. The NCAA may have stumbled their way into a good decision. Of course, it comes while also making a silly decision over a complete non-issue.

– Today in “Money Can’t Solve All Your Problems,” the city of Charlotte wonders if spending $175 million will heal the racial divide. No. No it will not.

– Just another high school kid dropping an insane buzzer beater like it’s no big deal. Not impressed? Well, how about this North Carolina ball boy sinking half-court shots? It’s gotta be the shoes.

– Once upon a time, you had to go to a retail store to rent video cassettes for your weekend entertainment. I know I went every Friday after school to rent one movie and one Super Nintendo game. Imagine if the only thing your local place had was a copy of Jerry Maguire?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRMTahRj0g

– M&M’s are better than Skittles, and if you think otherwise then I’ll just call that an alternative fact. Regardless, the company that makes Skittles is investigating why a truckload of discarded Skittles may have been heading to a farm to be feed cattle.

– Warner Bros. and DC are starting to move forward with making a new Green Lantern movie in their rebooted DC Cinematic universe, and for some reason Ryan Reynolds appears on the potential short list to play Hal Jordan. Could Reynolds succeed on a second crack at Green Lantern the way he seemingly did with Deadpool? I’m just guessing somebody else ultimately fills that role.

– The lengths people have had to go through the years to hide their booze is really incredible.

– Speaking of incredible…

– For you space fans out there, a detailed look at how stars move across the night sky.

– Because you know you have always wanted to see a visual representation of the ratio of times Rob Zombie says “Yeah” per minute in his music, right?

One last gratuitous moment of procrastination

Here are two dudes riding a kayak down a drainage ditch into the ocean. Looks like fun, no?

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.

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