Now that the official regular season of college football is over, football fans just have the NFL to enjoy before the Bowl season kicks into gear in a few weeks. And for my mind, yesterday was by far the most entertaining day of professional football this season. Adding to the drama was the fact that there were five games going on simultaneously in snowy conditions, the most for one Sunday since 1991.
Congrats to the Tampa Bay Bucs, the best worst team in the game. Led by stud linebacker Lavonte David, they cruised over the miserable Buffalo Bills in a dragged out sloppy as all-all heck game in ridiculously warm December weather yesterday, prevailing 27-6. Now the Bucs host my favorite team, the still-alive-for-a-Super Bowl San Francisco 49ers next Sunday at Raymond James at 1:00 p.m. The Niners manned up and squeezed by the best team in the NFL this season, Seattle, 19-17, in the last regular Sunday season game at Candlestick Park yesterday (though those who took the Seahawks and the 2.5 points cleaned up).
But what about that dramatic ending with Tom Brady and the Patriots against Cleveland? If that miracle ending wasn't enough to take your breath away (abetted, we must say, by a very weak pass interference call against the Browns with seconds to go), then you had the specter of the Pittsburgh Steelers throwing a massive number of laterals on the last play of the game vs. Miami in the snow, in what looked like a miracle ending a la Auburn over Alabama? Alas, the last Steeler player went out of bounds at the 12-yard line, but my gosh it was entertaining.
Now on to the news. The Tampa Bay Times & Miami Herald have teamed up a serious investigation examining Rick Scott's record on job creation, and they find it wanting. You'll remember the governor campaigned in 2010 on his "7-7-7" plan, which translated meant he said he'd create 700,000 during his two terms as governor. The investigative series says that goal is in serious jeopardy, but the Scott communications team has a rebuttal to the story.
There's less than four weeks until the Rick Kriseman era begins in St. Petersburg, and his various transition teams have several meetings scheduled for this week. Our Terence Smith attended the transportation task force meeting that took place late on Friday...
And this reporter was also in St. Petersburg on Friday, where the local political universe was focused on watching the various candidates vying to win the late Bill Young's congressional seat debate at Tiger Bay.
