Eagles crush Chiefs, leave no doubt in Super Bowl win

Trump shades Swift to create tabloid fodder

“Donald Trump likes to win.”

Fortunately, that didn’t come into play in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Philadelphia Eagles roared out to leads of 34-0 and 40-6 and hammered the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 before 65,719 spectators. The Chiefs scored two touchdowns in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter in “garbage time” to cosmetically make the final score look better.

The contest also made news as Trump became the first sitting President of the United States of America to watch the Super Bowl live in person. In a pre-game interview with Fox, Trump predicted a Chiefs victory after praising the team’s quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany. Trump was pictured getting on Air Force One more than an hour before the contest concluded.

On the flight to the Super Bowl, Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports including from Canada and Mexico. That got the mainstream news outlets fired up in Canada.

At the Super Bowl, Trump fed the tabloids content. During the Fox broadcast of the game, he was shown during the national anthem to big cheers from the stadium.

On social media channels specifically Platform-X, which is owned by close Trump associate Elon Musk, video was shown during the game of the fans booing music superstar Taylor Swift when she was shown on the facility’s big screen.

For the presidential election held this past November in 2024, Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, who was the Democratic candidate. Swift is also dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Trump responded on Truth Social to Swift’s endorsement of Harris that he hated Swift and was not a fan of her.

As the Eagles route in the Super Bowl continued, posts circulated on social media of the crowd cheering Trump and booing Swift. Trump shared one of the posts of the duel video of him getting cheered and Swift being booed on Truth Social.

He also put out a post on Truth Social that said, “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!”

Both social media actions come off as being childish and petty. Trump does like to throw dirt on his perceived enemies.

Trump supporters on Platform-X on the other hand reveled over the Truth Social post and the fact he shared the post of him getting cheered and Swift being booed.

A year ago in the Chiefs 25-22 overtime Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ERS in Las Vegas, Nevada, Swift was the big celebrity star with her relationship with Kelce drawing tonnes of attention. Now, all of that feels like it happened in some other universe.

All of a sudden, there were no conspiracy theories that the NFL officials were making calls to favour the Chiefs in order to make Swift happy.

Actually, there was no way to save the Chiefs on Sunday with favourable calls, if you believe that conspiracy theory. The Eagles were that good.

Philadelphia had the NFL’s top defence during the 2024 regular season giving up just 278.4 total yards per game, and that defensive unit was as good as advertised on Sunday.

In an NFL where it has become increasingly harder to be a physical team due to rule changes, the Eagles defence hammered the Chiefs. Philadelphia’s defensive pressure resulted in six quarterback sacks.

Linebacker Josh Sweat had 2.5 sacks to lead the Eagles, while defensive tackle Milton Williams had a pair of sacks, fellow defensive tackle Jordan Davis had a single sack and linebacker Jalyx Hurt had a half sack.

Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown that put the Eagles up 17-0 with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter. That play was a huge turning point in the contest. The body language of the Chiefs players and coaches just dropped right down after that play and never recovered for the rest of the game.

Linebacker Zack Baun had a diving interception that set the Eagles up on the Chiefs 14 yard line with 1:45 remaining in the second quarter. Two plays later, Eagles star quarterback Jalen Hurts connected with receiver A.J. Brown on a 12-yard touchdown toss that put the Eagles up 24-0 going into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Eagles pushed their edge out to 27-0 on a 29-yard field goal from kicker Jake Elliott. After forcing a turnover on downs with just under three minutes to play in the frame, Hurts connected with receiver DeVonta Smith on a 46 yard touchdown bomb to increase the Eagles advantage to 34-0.

At that point if the game was a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the fight.

It seemed like the Eagles were channeling the 1985 Chicago Bears, when they hammered the New England Patriots before the era of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. Actually, one was wondering if the Eagles were going to post the first shutout in the history of the Super Bowl and one up the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

The 2000 Ravens only gave up a kickoff return touchdown in thumping the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV.

On Sunday, Hurts had his finest hour in the NFL being named the game MVP of his team’s Super Bowl win. He completed 17-of-22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing one interception. Hurts, who won an NCAA championship with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football Team in 2017, ran the ball 11 times for 72 yards and scored the Eagles first major on the “tush push” play.

Eagles superstar running back Saquon Barkley turned heads in 2024 leading the NFL in rushing during regular season running the ball 345 times for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns. The Chiefs were focused on stopping Barkley, who ran the ball 25 times for 57 yards. Barkley did come up with six big catches for 40 yards and was overjoyed to get a Super Bowl win on his 28^th birthday.

Elliott made all four of his field goal attempts with a long from 50 yards out. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looked like a genius with how well his team played.

Overall, the Eagles were full marks for their impressive win, and they were the night’s biggest story. The Trump shading Swift tabloid moves on social media was a secondary story that is attracting a lot of looks.

Welcome to the new reality where sports and politics mixes with Trump serving a second term as President of the United States. Don’t expect these types of occurrence to go away any time soon.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Hilltops have best tradition for graduating players

Players to make walk to field with parents

Matt Wist (#44) stands at attention for the national anthem.

It is one the most heartwarming traditions in Canadian sports for graduating players.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field, the venerable Saskatoon Hilltops (7-0) will close their 2023 regular season hosting the Winnipeg Rifles (2-5). While the Hilltops are going to do everything in their power to have a long post-season run, they use their final regular season home game as an opportunity to honour their graduating players.

During a pre-game ceremony, the Hilltops graduating players will be announced one by one and make the walk to the field with their parents. In past years, the parents usually take the field decked out in cool looking team gear.

This season, the Hilltops took the field with a younger squad, but their roster still contains eight graduation players, who are playing out 22-year-old and final seasons of CJFL eligibility. The Hilltops were unsure where they would stand this season as the Prairie Football Conference they play out of went through a great reset, where teams experienced lots of graduations following the 2022 campaign.

Hilltops legendary head coach Tom Sargeant said his squad sits with a 7-0 record this year due largely to the work of the team’s graduating players.

“When we started out the year, we knew we were a young football team,” said Sargeant. “There is only one reason we’re 7-0, and that is the work and the leadership of this coaching staff and our fifth-year players.

LB Jordan Levesque gets a short-yardage carry.

“We always say the mantra is our goal is to win a championship for our fifth year players. They’re the ones who have stepped up and shown the right leadership and the right way to practice and to perform and to get ready for games. They’ve been our best players on game day.

“At the end of the day, they’ve done their job, and now, it is our job to step up and come out and play our best football of the year. I think when we do that good things are going to happen for this blue and gold squad.”

A total of six players from the graduating group were rookies with the Hilltops when they last won the CJFL championship posting a perfect 12-0 overall record in 2019 in linebackers Matt Wist and Wade Keating, defensive back Carter Wingert, running back Boston Davidsen, defensive lineman Craig Torgerson and receiver Evan Ward. Ward left the Hilltops following the 2021 campaign but rejoined the storied CJFL squad about halfway through the current 2023 regular season.

Linebacker Jordan Levesque and offensive lineman Justice Walker joined the Hilltops following the 2019 campaign.

All of these graduating players are still in the CJFL playing with the Hilltops even with navigating their individual journeys around the fact the 2020 campaign was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world. 

There were all sorts of various restrictions and shutdowns in place when the 2020 season was supposed to happen in order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boston Davidsen charges downfield for the Hilltops.

During that time, there were many athletes that decided to move on with the next step of their lives. Some eventually returned to the high level sports they played, when things returned to action as restrictions were lifted.

This year’s group of graduating players are the second last class that had to navigate around how pandemic restrictions affected their CJFL playing careers. When the Hilltops returned to action in 2021, they have played an important role in getting the Hilltops in a position where they could meet their lofty standards of the past that have seen the team win 22 CJFL titles in their history dating back to 1947.

In 2023, they played an even bigger role helping lead a young roster. While the Hilltops ultimately hope their last game comes playing for a CJFL title on November 11, Sunday’s upcoming game against the Rifles provides ample opportunity to salute the graduating players before they ultimately ride off into the sunset.

Taylor Swift fun at End Zone Dinner

Jorgen Hus, left, and Derrick Moncrief react to a Taylor Swift question.

The Saskatoon Hilltops End Zone Dinner usually provides lots of laughs, and the laughs for one moment surrounded a famous development at the professional level.

The End Zone Dinner, which raises money for the Saskatoon Hilltops Scholarship Fund, went on Saturday, September 30 at the main hall in the Gordie Howe Sports Centre building before the Hilltops downed their provincial rivals the Regina Thunder 19-10 at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

Guest speakers included a pair of alumni from the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders in Al Johns and Carm Carteri along with current Roughriders players in Jorgen Hus and Derrick Moncrief. Johns was a defensive tackle for the Roughriders from 1980 to 1987 and played for the Hilltops in the 1970s. Carteri played linebacker for the Roughriders in 1979, 1980 and 1985, and he had a long run as a colour analyst on Roughriders radio broadcasts that concluded following the 2016 campaign.

Hus is the Roughriders veteran long snapper and he played linebacker with the Hilltops from 2007 to 2009. He helped the Hilltops win a CJFL title in 2007 after graduating from St. Joseph High School.

Moncrief is a veteran linebacker with the Roughriders. He often comes out to Saskatoon to help coach with Saskatoon Minor Football’s Playground To Pros Camp that is held annually in April.

During a question and answer session, Hus and Moncrief were asked if Taylor Swift wasn’t linked with tight end Travis Kelce of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs which player in the CFL would have the best chance to date her?

The whole room broke out in laughter after the question was asked. Both Hus and Moncrief, who are both married, looked stunned for a short second before breaking out in laughter. They tried to stop laughing but couldn’t keep from chuckling.

They began whispering to each other about who the player might be. They then discussed for a short time that the player had to be a receiver.

Dave Thomas, who was emcee for the dinner, reminded both players that the choice didn’t have to be a teammate.

Hus and Moncrief ultimately settled on naming Roughriders offensive lineman Logan Ferland as being the player in the CFL who would have the best chance to date Swift, if she wasn’t connected with Kelce.

Thunder, Huskies locked in for PFC semi clash, notes

The Thunder look to lock up second place in the PFC.

The Regina Thunder and Edmonton Huskies will play each other in consecutive weeks, but the location for the second encounter is still to be determined.

Going into the final weekend of regular season play for the CJFL’s Prairie Football Conference, the Thunder (5-2) and Huskies (4-3) know they will face each other in a PFC semifinal contest on the opening weekend of the conference playoffs sitting second and third respectively in the conference standings. The location for that contest is still up in the air, because second place in the PFC is still up for grabs.

The Thunder and Huskies close their respective regular season schedules with a head-to-head clash on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Leibel Field in Regina. It is the only regular season meeting between the two squads.

As a result, the winner will lock up second place in the PFC and host the PFC semifinal clash between the two sides. Of course, a Huskies win would mean both teams would have identical 5-3 records, but the Huskies would claim the standings tiebreaker with the head-to-head win.

Along with the battle for second place, a side story to that encounter will see if Thunder star running back Ryland Leichert can hit the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the season. The 20-year-old has carried the ball 134 times for 892 yards and six touchdowns this season, so he needs 108 yards rushing to hit the 1,000-yard plateau for the campaign.

The match up of who will travel to Saskatoon to face the first place Hilltops (7-0) in the other PFC semifinal isn’t so clear. The Calgary Colts (2-5) sit fourth in the PFC, the Winnipeg Rifles (2-5) are fifth and the Edmonton Wildcats (1-6) are sixth.

The Colts hold the head-to-head standings tiebreaker with the Rifles having won the lone regular season encounter 33-21 between the two sides on Sept. 10 in Calgary.

The Rifles travel to Saskatoon to face the Hilltops (1 p.m., Saskatoon Minor Football Field), and the Colts host the Wildcats at 1 p.m. local time at Shouldice Athletic Park to close the regular season schedules for both those sides.

The Rifles will be eliminated from playoff contention if they lose to the Hilltops. The Wildcats would jump into fourth in the PFC with a win over the Colts and a Rifles loss to the Hilltops. That scenario would leave the Colts, Rifles and Wildcats sitting with 2-6 records, but the Wildcats would advance to the post-season having the best winning percentage in head-to-head games involving those three teams.

The Rifles would make the post-season if they beat the Hilltops on Sunday and the Colts take a loss or a tie in their encounter with the Wildcats on Sunday.

The Colts have the clearest path to the playoffs. They are in if they beat the Wildcats on Sunday.

• Saskatoon Hilltops running back Boston Davidsen leads the PFC win carries (150), rushing yards (1,036) and rushing touchdowns (eight) going into the final weekend of regular season play for the conference. Davidsen has hit the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the second straight season and needs two more yards rushing to set a new career high.
• Hilltops kicker Teijon Abel-Douglas leads the PFC in scoring with 95 points coming from 21 field goals, four singles and 28 converts going into his team’s final regular season game.
• Hilltops receiver Drake Douglas has 38 catches for 523 yards and three touchdowns heading into the team’s final regular season contest. Douglas’s reception and receiving yardage totals are tops on the team. His receiving yardage total ranks third in the PFC.
• Hilltops middle linebacker and punter Matt Wist leads the PFC in punting average. He has punted the ball 39 times for 1,484 yards for an average of 38.1 yards per kick. His net average of 32.2 yards is also tops in the PFC.
• I was back in the Prince Albert Daily Herald on a couple of fronts with regards to pieces for their WHL preview coverage. I put to together a flashback feature on the 1994-95 Prince Albert Raiders team that came up a win short of going to the CHL’s championship tournament – the Memorial Cup. That piece can be found by clicking right here. I also have a column about the current Raiders having intrigue going into the current 2023-24 campaign. That piece can be found by clicking right here. The locally owned Daily Herald has lots of good content and can be found online at paherald.sk.ca.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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