#afc-west-rivalry

#afc-west-rivalry

The Giants went 49-43 in games they were favored on the moneyline last season, winning 53.3% of those games. San Francisco ranked 19th in the majors with 173 home runs last season, averaging 1.1 per game.

However, I find it perplexing that a player who appeared in only 78 and 136 games in 2024 and 2025, and who has had only one top 10 MVP finish (fifth in 2023) in his career, would be signed for a whopping average of $60-million annually. To earn that enormous salary over the next four seasons, Tucker should be considered the best player in baseball not named Shohei Ohtani.

Downtown San Jose was more alive today than at any point I can remember. Every street was packed, music was everywhere from the stages to the lowriders cruising the streets, and street food was abundant all throughout the area. San Pedro Square was booming, but so was SoFA, and all of Santa Clara Street. The free drone show at Discovery Meadows was also excellent. If you have the opportunity to get to Downtown tomorrow, take it.

Cheering on your favorite team can cause severe mood swings, violent outbursts, and even, at times, tightness in your chest. It's why I'm a fair-weather fan. There's a backstory: I used to have a team. As a Baltimore native, when the Ravens came to our city in 1996, I was all in. After buying tons of black and purple, winning two Super Bowls, and then white knuckling through the lackluster seasons that followed, I decided to set a boundary for my own sanity.

With the Kansas City Chiefs failing to qualify, this year marks the first postseason without Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning since the 1998 campaign. Manning reached the playoffs in 1999, while Brady joined the ranks two years later. Mahomes had been in the playoffs each season since 2018, but he tore his ACL in a Week 15 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The defeat eliminated Kansas City from postseason contention, and the Chiefs finished 6-11.

The Broncos, who beat Josh Allen and the Bills in the divisional round, 33-30 in overtime, are the top seed in the conference and feature perhaps the NFL's biggest home-field advantage because of the high altitude in Colorado. They feature a hellacious defense - the Broncos ranked second in the NFL in yards allowed (278.2 per game) and third in points allowed (18.3) during the regular season.

It was far from a pretty win, and there's a lot they will want back, but the Patriots are officially on their way to the AFC Championship to face the Broncos after beating the Texans at home. It's an unforeseen path they have gone down this season, since many believed they would win a max of eight or nine games and miss the playoffs.

Seattle is tied with the Los Angeles Rams at +950 to win the NFL's championship in 2027, followed by the Buffalo Bills at +1100, and the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens and AFC champion New England Patriots tied at +1300, according to DraftKings odds. If they hold until the beginning of the season, the Seahawks' and Rams' odds would be the longest for a preseason favorite on record (since at least 1977), per ESPN Research and SportsOddsHistory.com. Since 2015, +950 would have been the second-shortest odds on the odds board once and fifth-shortest on the board six times.