🎧Sports Brief: Vikings and Lions Collide in Epic Sunday Night Showdown; NFL Playoff Spots Up for Grabs in Wild Final Weekend

Minnesota Vikings' Sam Darnold throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers in Minneapolis, on Dec. 29, 2024. Bruce Kluckhohn /AP Photo

What’s cookin’ sports fans? Welcome to another edition of the extra large and turbo-charged Epoch Times Sports Brief for Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas. It’s a brand new year, we’ve got some high-powered stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on in the thrilling world of sports.

A pair of dominant division rivals slug it out in a legendary Sunday night showdown, the NFL playoff race charges to the wire, and a couple of college contenders collide for a shot at high plains football glory.

Also, the college football playoffs have just been whittled down to four, but one team looks unstoppable, and a big-time NBA superstar celebrates an important birthday—we’ll tell you what he got as a gift.

We’ll tear open each one of these rockin’ good stories one by one and we begin with a massive Sunday night slobberknocker in the Motor City; the winner gets a week off, the loser hits the highway, millions of fans are gonna be glued to their screens, and here’s what’s goin’ on.

Vikings and Lions Collide in Epic Sunday Night Showdown

When the surprising Minnesota Vikings and the powerful Detroit Lions collide this weekend on Ford Field, the city’s gonna be quakin’, the crowd’s gonna be absolutely bonkers, and the stakes are ginormous.

The winner takes the brutal NFC North, earns a first-round bye in the playoffs, and locks up home-field advantage all the way to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the loser plummets all the way down to the number five seed in the NFC, and earns the dubious distinction of becoming the very first wildcard team ever to enter the playoffs with 14 wins.

By the way, this is the only time in the history of the league that a pair of teams with this many wins has ever played an NFL regular season game, and this one will close out the league’s regular season with a huge bang.

Right now, the Lions are an offensive juggernaut. They’re the highest-scoring team in the league, and they’ve bulldozed their way to a dozen wins in their last 13 games. However, the question we’re all asking is: How long can they keep cobbling together their completely banged-up defense before they’re sent home packing with buckets of Bactine, a couple hundred Band-Aids, and a few dozen Ace bandages?

Meanwhile, just last week, Vikings QB Sam Darnold was celebrated by his teammates following one of the best games of his career, coordinator Brian Flores leads a baffling defense, and this incredibly united team has rolled off nine wins in a row.

This is shaping up as the best regular-season finale in NFL history. The entire league and millions of football civilians are gonna all have their eyes glued to their screens when the game kicks off in just about 48 hours.

SPORTS BRIEF HOST COMMENTARY: Football, a pork roast, and a gallon of Ovaltine—life is grand. Back to the program.

We’ll stay in the big leagues just a bit longer and as the regular season comes down to the wire, teams fight to claw their way into the playoffs, and more now on the games that matter most.

NFL Playoff Spots Up for Grabs in Wild Final Weekend

Tomorrow afternoon, the Baltimore Ravens will clinch the rugged AFC North and the three-seed in the AFC if they knock off the lowly 3-win Cleveland Browns. By the way, Cleveland is flatlining, they desperately need a reboot (for football fans who are also computer nerds, that’s ctrl, alt, delete), and they’re down to their third-string quarterback—but they can make their season if they can knock off Baltimore and drop ‘em down a peg in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, over in Denver, if the Broncos win on Sunday afternoon, they’re in. They’re taking on the Chiefs, who’ve already clinched the top seed and plan to give their aging starters a well-earned rest—including quarterback Patrick Mahomes—and that simply doesn’t sit well with the other wildcard hopefuls who are still in the hunt.

If the Broncos stumble, the Cincinnati Bengals are prepared to pounce, and tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, they’ll be taking on their division rival, the Steelers, who are in a dogfight for the AFC North crown.

Look for this under-the-radar Cincinnati dynamo to complete their hard charge down the backstretch and clobber the hometown Steelers, who have dropped three straight and are now limping their way right into the postseason.

Now, in the NFC, both the South division title and the number three seed are still up for grabs, and the Buccaneers can potentially snag them both if they knock off the Saints, who come marching into Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon.

As we continue, in just a few days, a humdinger of a college football championship game kicks off near Dallas between a pair of legendary programs straight out of the American heartland, and here’s more now on that monumental rivalry.

Bison Battle Bobcats for FCS Crown

On Monday night in Frisco, Texas, the North Dakota State Bison and the Montana State Bobcats bang helmets for the big enchilada, the FCS championship, and if you haven’t seen these teams go at it, you’re missing out on some nifty gridiron action.

SPORTS BRIEF HOST COMMENTARY: I like Mexican food and I’m mildly fond of enchiladas, but just once, could college football bang helmets for lasagna, maybe quiche or even chili dogs? There’s more to the game than just playing for enchiladas. This has been a Sports Brief host commentary. Now, back to the program.

You should know going in that Montana State hasn’t lost a game all season long, they’re 15–0, they run the spread option, and they’ll be looking to control the ground game, pound the rock, and bring to an end their extraordinary season without a blemish.

Meanwhile, North Dakota State has barreled off five in a row against the Cats, including a crushing victory a few years ago in the championship game and a gut-wrenching overtime backbreaker in last year’s playoffs. They’ll be looking to air it out and take deep shots against a very sturdy Montana State back seven.

As you know, the Bison are a legendary program that churns out NFL-quality quarterbacks, they can go toe-toe with anyone in the country, as they proved earlier this season against Colorado, and a few days from now, they’ll be looking to sew up their 10th championship in the last 15 years.

On the other hand, Montana State is aiming to grab hold of its first championship trophy in decades, and as the saying goes, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog—or the cats—the Bobcats, as the case may be.

We’ll move along now to the top division in college football where the semifinals are set, a quartet of legendary programs are in, but one absolute beast appears to be unstoppable. A quick preview now of next week’s coming attractions.

Powerhouse Programs Steamroll Into College Football Semis

In just six days, Notre Dame and Penn State will lock horns at the Orange Bowl in Miami, with the winner earning a spot in the college football championship game.

Both teams have had fairly easy runs to get this far but for one of these well-respected programs, the buck stops right here.

Notre Dame is led by its defense but the Fighting Irish are still going to have to score some points to win this game. Meanwhile, Penn State’s offense seems to be getting better every week, and injured defensive lineman Abdul Carter looks like he’ll try to give it a go, providing a huge boost to the Nittany Lions and their already formidable D.

In the other semi, the Texas Longhorns will try to get in the way of the barreling Ohio State freight train. A few days ago, the Buckeyes absolutely pummeled and flattened the Oregon Ducks—that was just in the parking lot and things got worse after kick-off.

Lucky for the Horns, next week’s game will be played at the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, basically giving them home-field advantage for this crucial contest.

Ohio State is a snowball rolling downhill and if Texas has any chance of stopping this absolute monster, they’re gonna have to bear down and knock Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard off his high horse or it’s gonna be a long lonesome night in the Lone Star State.

We have time to jam in one more story for you and one of the greatest players in NBA history is still dribbling, scoring, and rebounding, and he says he’s not ready to hit the back-nine with Shaq—not yet anyway.

LeBron Turns 40

Just a few days ago, four-time MVP LeBron James hit the big 4-0, and he says that if he wanted to, he could keep on going for another five to seven years—and the way he’s playing right now, we believe him.

Check it out: He’s averaging about 24 points a game, to go along with nine assists and eight rebounds—and that’s not too shabby, whether you’re 40 or 20.

Just last night at the Crypto.com Arena in L.A., he dropped in 38, including a season-high seven three-pointers, as the Lakers knocked off the Trail Blazers, and right now, his team is in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.

However, LeBron still has the worst plus-minus ratio on the team—meaning the Lakers are giving up a whole boatload of points when he’s on the court. Hey LeBron, you gotta play some defense too—just sayin’.

By the way, the Lakers just gave their superstar an early birthday present when they shipped guard D’Angelo Russell to the Nets and picked up versatile wingman Dorian Finney-Smith in return, and all to bolster their sagging roster and give the oldest player in the NBA one last hurrah before the sun finally sets on his brilliant career.

From all of us here at the Sports Brief, happy birthday, LeBron. We’d get you a present, but you’d probably want another championship ring. Unfortunately, that’s something we simply can’t deliver—and right now, neither can the Lakers, so quit staring us down—we’re not the bad guy here.

Before we call it a wrap, I am required by law to squeeze in one more Sports Brief Host commentary and here it is:

It’s a crime that based on nothing more than pure jealousy, the writer of this program failed to mention that this host, a one-time semi-professional golfer once almost scored a hole in one.

Sadly, the windmill spun around and sent the little green ball back 24 times in a row, otherwise, I would be a golf legend at Putt-Putt Fun Center in Modesto, California. Now, back to the program.

I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today, but before we head out, we’d like to wrap things up with one of our favorite quotes, and this one comes to us from longtime Yankees catcher Yogi Berra who said:

“Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”

Berra won more World Series championships than any other player in Major League Baseball history and later, he went on to become a manager for both the Yankees and the Mets.

By the way, if you’re a baseball fan, some good news: spring training begins just over six weeks from right now.

Now, it really is time for us to hit the road, but don’t worry, we’ll be back again next week with another edition of the soon-to-be almost-award-winning Epoch Times Sports Brief. We don’t do this for the money—we simply want an award, a certificate, or a trophy.

If you have any thoughts or comments about this program, we’d love to hear from you, and you can always find us at [email protected].

For all of us here at The Epoch Times Sports Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

The Sports Brief program is written each week by Davey Ross.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, almost-accurate, and engaging rundown of all the sports stories you absolutely need to know about.

Enjoy another great weekend of sports, stay safe, have a superb day today, and don’t forget to keep your eyes on the game. Bye for now.