Morning Cup Of Joe
May 21st, 2025
Welcome to your Morning Cup of Joe, an eye-opener to help Joe’s readers ease into their busy workday with a few football links, wacky news and a pleasant distraction.
If NFL strongman Roger Goodell gets his way to changing the playoff format, it opens up a can of worms for regular season scheduling (which is why Joe said the NFL is better off without divisions). [PFT]
Teams that would benefit from seeding the playoffs. [CBS]
Patience with Nick Sirianni has paid off for Eagles. [Yahoo!]
Wait a minute: Travis Hunter can break how many records? [NFL]
Bad rasslin.’ [TikTok]
Hallmark Channel is producing a Buffalo Bills Christmas movie. [Outkick]
Ryan Clark and RGIII get into heated back-and-forth in the social media/podcast world. Going after someone’s wife seems kinda low. [Awful Announcing]
A new Tennessee state law that went into effect May 1 allows Tennessee’s football program to break SEC rules. Now, it appears, the SEC is considering evicting Tennessee from the conference. Yeah, right. The Vols will be on the street for five seconds and get an invite to join the B1G (and make more money). Don’t get blinded by your ego, Greg Sankey. [On3]
This women’s non-basketball association is some piece of work and appears to be giving the SEC a run for drama. Seems the married owner of the Phoenix women’s non-basketball association team was having an affair with one of his players. Was that supposed to be in lieu of bonus money? [Complex]
Budweiser dog? [TikTok]
Every Anthony Richardson throw of 20+ air yards from a clean pocket in 2024: pic.twitter.com/gtETkE9anp
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) May 14, 2025
Sometimes @TheLegend120139 just gets too much 'Bama in him… pic.twitter.com/m8a3PO3pZf
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 19, 2025
May 21st, 2025 at 4:45 am
The sports analysts should be talking about Angel’s and Caitlin’s basketball skills and their games, not anything else. It is getting tiring and taking away from two great women athletes that deserve much better coverage.
I am really excited about the Hallmark Bills movie. Cute video! Michael J. Fox wife Tracy Pollan is in it. She is such a wonderful person. Jim Kelly and other alum will be in it too. Can’t wait to watch this movie.
May 21st, 2025 at 6:41 am
The Hallmark channel is producing a Buffalo Bills Christmas movie- Because the Bills winning a super bowl would truly be a Christmas miracle.
May 21st, 2025 at 7:30 am
I can recall Joe yelling, “NO! NO! NO!” regarding the Bucs possibly drafting AR coming out of Florida. Good call J-man.
May 21st, 2025 at 8:01 am
HeyJude
Still love that moniker but i grew up with the Beatles, even had their haircut in high school much to the chagrin of my Geometry teacher.
“The sports analysts should be talking about Angel’s and Caitlin’s basketball skills and their games, not anything else.”
Largely agree with perhaps one minor caveat. As a guy once said “any publicity is good publicity”. But I get the disrespect in the lack of coverage overall.
Magic and Bird saved the NBA. Angel and Caitlen are instrumental in doing the same for the WNBA. Why that comparison isn’t drawn is beyond me.
In addition I feel sorry for players like Napheesa Collier and Kelsey Plum who are GREAT players in their own right.
Bottom line for me is I’m just glad the WNBA is getting coverage now.
May 21st, 2025 at 8:48 am
Ryan Clark is good at looking and acting smart while saying the dumbest things you will hear all day.
May 21st, 2025 at 9:44 am
The NFL risks losing a significant number of fans if it eliminates divisions. Just look at how that approach played out in the NBA. Their de-emphasis of divisions hasn’t exactly galvanized fan engagement or simplified the playoff picture. In fact, it’s arguably made the regular season feel less meaningful. Look at the Numbers RATINGS ARE DOWN WAY WAY DOWN. We need to stop making changes simply for the sake of change—nine times out of ten, the current setup works well. Last year was an anomaly.
May 21st, 2025 at 9:53 am
The NBA has reported a 24% drop in NBA Package subscriptions and a 2% decline in regular season viewership year over year — clear indicators that interest in the regular season is fading. While playoff viewership has increased, this isn’t a sign of success; it’s a symptom of a larger problem. Most teams don’t even make the playoffs, meaning fans are largely disengaged for the majority of the season. The fact that people are only tuning in when the stakes are highest reveals that the regular season — once the foundation of consistent fan investment — is losing its value.
But ok let’s do this with the NFL… SMH it will literally kill off interest in half the teams halfway through the year if not sooner…