KC’s Next Play: Start with Super Bowl, include some hoops and soccer... but no baseball
This is the Super Bowl, after all, so of course we’re going to watch tonight’s clash between the Cincinnati Bengals and LA Rams.
But there’s a difference between watching and hate-watching, and we suspect a fair number of Kansas Citians will be doing the latter after the Chiefs got bounced a couple of weeks ago by Joe Burrow and company — a loss that denied the Chiefs a trip to their third straight Super Bowl.
The biggest of Big Games will be played on the Rams’ home turf in Inglewood, California, and plenty are picking them to win. But here in KC, where we know all too well that Burrow’s Bengals beat the Chiefs twice this season, we can assure you Cincy’s plenty potent, too.
Should make for a good game.
Super Bowl sans Chiefs? Less (but still) super
The Super Bowl’s the Super Bowl: It’s nearly always good theater, whether you watch for the football, halftime entertainment (Whitney Houston’s performance still gives us chills), or TV commercials (remember the Budweiser frogs, or those Doritos ads, or Puppymonkeybaby? OK, maybe not Puppymonkeybaby).
The Tennessee Titans falling 1 yard short against the Rams ... Lynn Swann going off for the Steelers ... the David Tyree helmet-catch ... Broadway Joe delivering on a bold guarantee ... Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction ... All that plus lots of Tom Brady, and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs mounting a comeback to beat the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium.
You see what we’re getting at here. One way or another, the Super Bowl usually delivers the goods. Even if some of us will be hate-watching this time around.
Can we get back to baseball yet?
Major League Baseball’s owners continue to lock out their players. When this impasse might end is anyone’s guess, but teams (including the Royals) were set to report for spring training this week. As it stands, only clubs’ minor-leaguers (hello, Bobby Witt Jr.) will be allowed to do so.
The owners and players’ union continue to meet and discuss their differences, but both sides seem dug in. Even a little movement would be encouraging. Thus far, all we’re hearing is crickets.
No one’s going to miss a few spring-training workouts, but tension mounts the longer this drags on. Fans deserve a break after a COVID-shortened 2020 season and last year’s pandemic-wrought restrictions; instead, we’re force-fed a reminder that baseball is, above all else, a business.
Closing in on regular-season soccer
Next Saturday brings the final preseason tuneup for Sporting KC. Peter Vermes’ team takes on Toronto on Feb. 19. Then it’s all systems go toward the regular-season opener at Atlanta.
So while we await any sort of resolution in Baseball Land, soccer is ramping up. And it’s not just Sporting KC that has Kansas City fans excited.
The KC Current is about to begin its second season of competition. The Current is training on the Florida Gulf Coast this week, and its first NWSL Challenge Cup match isn’t that far off.
Dreaming of March Madness
We’re two weeks away from the start of March. That means March Madness is close at hand. So, too, is one of the best things to happen in KC each year: the Big 12 basketball tournament.
Before then, teams have about a half-dozen regular-season games left to play. The Jayhawks have seven, starting Monday with a Valentine’s home game against Oklahoma State. KU is at West Virginia on Saturday.
K-State plays host to West Virginia on Monday night and travels to Oklahoma State for a game on Saturday.
Mizzou gets Arkansas at home Tuesday night and Mississippi State on the road Friday (followed by a return-visit game against Mississippi State in CoMo on Sunday).