This past week in the world of sport has been a huge one, with a range of standout moments occurring around the globe. We just wanted to quickly delve into those moments to really highlight how big a week it has been for sport. In doing so, we have once again come up with our three biggest headlines that could shape seasons or even the long-term futures of teams.
On that note, let’s dive in.
The Lane Kiffen Saga Comes To A Head
College football is one of the fastest growing sports from a fandom standpoint as it grows alongside the NFL. However, with all the changes to NIL and it essentially becoming a professional sport, there are certainly many things that need ironing out. One of these is the calendar, which requires coaches of current teams fighting for a national championship to potentially take better jobs and give up on their current season.
This is exactly the case for former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, who brought the programme to the best place in its history while earning them a home college playoff game that is set to be the biggest event in the state’s history.
There were multiple blue blood programmes wanting to sign Kiffin as their next head coach, including Florida and LSU. The one that stands out the most is LSU, which in recent history has become one of the best programmes in the sport. After weeks of speculation and media links, Kiffin was watched closely by the media, and he eventually announced that he would forgo his opportunity to take an Ole Miss team he had been building for six years into the biggest moment in their history and instead become the head coach of LSU.
The decision was met with a multitude of emotions as Ole Miss fans tracked his private jet and hurled abuse at him for abandoning them. He also claimed that some fans on his way to the airport tried to run him off the road. Meanwhile, on the other side of the flight in Baton Rouge, he was welcomed as a saviour of one of the biggest sporting institutions in the world.
Does Lamine Yamal Have Competition?
As we know, last year the football world was turned on its head as a new superstar was born. Spanish sensation Lamine Yamal led his national side to a European Championship. Many felt he was on his way to becoming the best footballer in the world and could hold that title for more than a decade. He has since taken his game to another level for Barcelona and has quickly shot up the Ballon d’Or rankings from last year.
The question was whether there would be a player who could rival Yamal’s talent and stop him from running away with that title by a country mile. This week it seemed a new star might have been born in the form of the potential next Brazilian superstar, Estêvão. While he did not get much international recognition, coming out of Brazil he was being hyped as the next Neymar.
Many doubted that would be the case, but he has started to quieten those doubters in his first four months as a Chelsea player, and his hype reached a boiling point when he came up against Yamal in a Champions League tie at the Bridge. To begin with, Lamine Yamal struggled against his national teammate Marc Cucurella, while Estêvão was the biggest threat on the park, shredding the Barcelona defence. This led to the moment of the night when he took on multiple defenders with the ball sticking to his foot like glue, then blasted it into the roof of the net with his weak foot to give his side a 2 to nil lead and effectively put the game on ice.
Now, I am not saying Estêvão is at the same level as Yamal, because what Yamal has done over the past 18 months has been generational, but he is certainly shaping up as a fierce competitor.
Those Cowboys Might Be For Real
This NFL season has been about as strange as it gets, with many of the premier quarterback teams not having their best seasons and some teams that in recent memory have been bottom feeders rising to the top, showing the level of parity in the league.
One of the moments that highlighted this was on Thanksgiving, when the most up and down franchise in the league, the Dallas Cowboys, beat the dynastic Chiefs on national television. The Cowboys offence went toe to toe with Patrick Mahomes, powered by their three headed monster of CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and George Pickens, who in recent weeks have been taking the league by storm.
While that was promising, the biggest worry was always going to be the defence which, from a talent standpoint, looked ready to be historically bad after trading away Micah Parsons. However, the additions of Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson, along with the return of DeMarvion Overshown, have turned them into a decent unit.
This level of complementary football delivered their massive win against the Chiefs and has me believing they could run the table and make a strong push in the playoffs.
