GuyWhoLikesSport Archives - Page 6 of 25

Why the Patriots Have to Make the Super Bowl

I hate to sound like a centrist, but two things can be true: This is an average Patriots team, and It would be a major disappointment if they don’t make the Super Bowl. Let’s start with the first thing, this Pats team isn’t very good. For the regular season they were first in offensive EPA/play and 11th in defensive EPA/play. That first in offensive EPA/play number is a Drake Maye and schedule stat, because he has deeply mediocre help elsewhere. The Pats were 16th in EPA/rush with their leading rusher, Treyveon Henderson, running for 911 yards at the 29th best success rate in the league. Their leading receiver this year was 32-year-old Stefon…

The Broken Promise of Charlie Curnow

19 Jan • GuyWhoLikesSport

The Sydney Swans are big game hunters. They kind of embody the city in that way. They want stars, glitz and glamour. Often, they want to import it. They’re like the Lakers. Sure, they home grow talent, but when they’re looking for a cherry on top, since the mid 90s they’ve gone with Demott Brereton, Tony Lockett, Barry Hall, Buddy Franklin, and now Charlie Curnow. While they’ve not always turned into premiership glory, each of Lockett, Hall, and Franklin were stars for the Swans and made the Swans a name brand in the AFL. But with Curnow, my fear is that they’re barking up the wrong tree. This player is not Lockett or Franklin. He’s far closer to the broken…

Is This the Rams' Last Best Chance to Win the Super Bowl?

14 Jan • GuyWhoLikesSport

Heading into the playoffs, I picked the Rams to win the Super Bowl. To me, they have the right balance of an efficient running game, an explosive passing game, a young and dangerous defensive line, as well as a super hero at quarterback and play-callers on both sides of the ball that have built mansions on the cutting edge of the NFL scheme world. This is, to my eye, the best McVay team ever including the one that won the Super Bowl. Even after a relatively average last month of the season, and a life and death win against the 8-9 Panthers, I…

Why History Suggests the Suns Could Win the 2026 AFL Premiership

12 Jan • GuyWhoLikesSport

You can chart the course of how football has been played over the last decade or so through the last three great runs in the AFL over the last decade: Hawthorn’s threepeat from 2013 to 2015, Richmond’s three in four years from 2017 to 2020, and Brisbane’s back-to-back in 2024 and 2025. If you look in broad strokes at the way those teams played, you can understand how footy has moved and where it might be going. The Hawks were doing surgery when they had the ball. With their collection of raking, pinpoint left foot kicks and Matt Suckling, the Hawks picked the eyes out…

Credit to Jake Paul

17 Dec 2025 • GuyWhoLikesSport

I have given Jake Paul – the combat sport identity – credit numerous times. To me, he deserves credit from three angles. Firstly, for his promotion of Amanda Serrano and women’s boxing generally. The combination of Paul and Eddie Hearn working with genuine stars like Katie Taylor and Serrano made them both million-dollar athletes. The greatest female fighter of all time stands tall!Last time Katie Taylor & Amanda Serrano foughtThey sold out MSG, 1.5 million tuned in Worldwide, and it was the fight of the Year in 2022Tonight, they shall shatter EVERY RECORD and set the new BENCHMARK, inspiring even… pic.twitter.com/6Ouh201zFF— Boxing Tickets NI…

The Chiefs Need a Makeover

16 Dec 2025 • GuyWhoLikesSport

I remember Patrick Mahomes’ first week 1 start against the Chargers in 2018. Watching him, I remember thinking “this is supernatural”. It was how I imagine people felt when The Beatles released Sgt Peppers: I couldn’t tell if I was more confused, amazed, or scared. It was like he was playing quarterback from the future. He had Matt Stafford style crazy arm angles, but with Randall Cunningham movement abilities and a rocket ship attached to his right shoulder. The ball just exploded out of his hand. The pass catchers exploded with the ball in their hands. This was a team built on explosiveness.…

The Jahmyr Gibbs Contract Conundrum

9 Dec 2025 • GuyWhoLikesSport

Immediately after running back Jahmyr Gibbs delivered Detroit yet another win, destroying the Cowboys to the tune of 19 touches for 120 yards and three touchdowns, the Lions leaked via Ian Rapoport that extending Gibbs is their “priority #1 this offseason”. Extending Jahmyr Gibbs considered "priority No. 1" for Lions in offseasonMore performances like this for years to come in Detroit(via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/aZKXtINHyu— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) December 5, 2025 In recent years, the Lions have shed their tag as a cheap organisation as Sheila Ford Hamp has taken over from her mother and, unlike most children of billionaires, is, refreshingly,…

Seattle’s Superpower might be their Undoing

8 Dec 2025 • GuyWhoLikesSport

In the mid-late 2010s, the NBA turned heliocentric. The general idea was that a team has one clearly dominant guard, why not just have that guy make virtually every decision for the team. The poster boy for it was James Harden and the Rockets. Between 2014 and 2019, Harden was never below a 30% usage rate for a season. It was generally successful in the regular season, with the Rockets at .500 or over every year of that run. I still can’t believe James Harden dropped 60 points in 3 quarters.Rockets Harden was different. pic.twitter.com/WcrGZsW3sZ— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) October 19,…

A Christmas Wishlist for the NFL Teams in the Wildcard Race

3 Dec 2025 • GuyWhoLikesSport

Have you been making a list? Have you checked it twice? I’m 29 now, so I want to move from a Dyson vacuum to a Shark. Maybe you have a more exciting list. Maybe you’re an adult who games. I understand that they exist. The NFL is heading down the stretch too and seems like the Wildcard spots are going to come down to the wire in both the AFC and the NFC. With that, the teams that are currently just out of the playoff picture could be relying on a Christmas gift to give them a boost over the…

The AFC has an Exceptionalism Problem

2 Dec 2025 • GuyWhoLikesSport

Post World War II, the US was riding high. They’d swanned into Europe’s war in 1942 after Pearl Harbour and swung the tide for the Allies. They beat the Nazis, dropped the bomb, and won the war. Then they reoriented the western world in their image, economically and militarily colonising Europe with the Marshall Plan, the introduction of NATO, the UN and I could go on and on. They asserted themselves as a global power and they were feeling themselves in every way. However, slowly but surely, the world changed but the US didn’t change with it. They won the…