By Bob Priddy, Missourinet contributing editor

(Leaving)—ESPN reports Mizzou is losing athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois to the University of Arizona. Arizona is joining the Big 12. Its athletic department reportedly has been struggling financially.  Reed-Francois has been at Missouri for three years, has seen its fund-raising increase and has presided over development of coach Eliah Drinkwitz’s football team to national prominence and the hiring of basketball coach Dennis Gates.

Her departure might not be much of a surprise, given her track record of not staying very long at any school. Since moving into athletic department administration 24 years ago, she has worked at ten universities and now is moving to her eleventh.

Before coming to Missouri, Reed-Francois was at UNLV where, on April 30, 2021 she signed a four-year contract extension through 2026 with a salary raise to $420,000.  A little more than three months later, she bolted to Missouri and reportedly signed a six-year contract at $800,000. Mizzou paid $500,000 to buy out her UNLV contract.

Her contract at Arizona is for five years.

She was the first woman athletic director in the Southeastern Conference.

It’s kind of a homecoming for her. She graduated from the law school at Arizona.

The athletic department has named Marcy Girton as interim AD. She’s the senior associate athletic director for football and has more than thirty years experience in athletic department administration.  She once served as the COO of athletics at Auburn and again at South Carolina. She also was a football sport administrator at Texas A&M.

(More bad news)—Backup quarterback Sam Horn is going to miss all of the next football season. He’s had ligament surgery on his throwing arm. He’ll be out 12-15 months, putting him out of action for this year’s baseball season and at least part of next year’s baseball season and all of the Tiger Football season in 2024.

Missouri has another backup for Brady Cook in three-or-four-star recruit Aiden Glover who will join the team for the season this fall. He’s from Memphis, Tennessee.

(miz)—After going ohferJanuary, the Missouri Tigers are off to a good start of going oferFebruary.

They had a week to rest, recuperate, and regroup before taking on Ole Miss and it was same song 12^th verse.  Missouri led by ten in the second half, 54-44 then, as usual, forgot how to hit a field goal. Mississippi went on a 15-4 run to take back the lead. Missouri closed to within a bucket in the closing minutes but had to foul to get the ball. Mississippi hit its free throws and Missouri headed home 0-12 in the conference and losers of 14 of the last 15.

Six games are left in the regular season before the SEC Tournament. (zou)

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(THE SHOOTING)—It is a fact of American life that if there is a large crowd, there will be people with guns. And there is always the danger somebody will find an excuse to shoot someone.  Two juveniles are in custody because they did just that during he Chiefs’ celebration of their Super Bowl win. One person was killed and 22 others were wounded and, as usual, there is no solution to such things with a political chance in Missouri.

The Chiefs players, friends, and team officials are raising money to help the victims. Travis Kelce and girlfriend Taylor Swift have donated $100,000 each to the fund. In her case, the money is earmarked for the family of Elizabeth Lopez-Galvan, the woman who was killed. His donation has gone to the Reyes family whose daughters, ten and eight years old, were wounded.

The Chiefs, the Hunt Foundation (the Hunts own the team) and the NFL have contributed $200,000 to a fund for the wounded. Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, also announced that they were contributing to the fund.

(CHIEFS)—Side stories continue to dribble out from the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win as the team looks at who should come back for a possible three-peat and who might have to go because of salary cap limitations.

One of the unrestricted free agents is guard Nick Allegretti, a seventh round pick in the 2019 draft. He has three Super Bowl rings, none tougher to win that the latest one when he had to fill in for starter Joe Thuney and who tore is ulnar collateral ligament (elbow) in the second quarter but playd all 79 snaps. Parick Mahomes called him, “the beast.”

As far as who is NOT going: Travis Kelce. At least, not until coach Andy Reid decides is time for him to call it a career. Kelce and Reid started together with the Chiefs.  Reid is 65. Kelce is 34. Both have denied plans to leave this year. On his podcast last week, Kelce said, “I’m not playing for anyone else but Big Red. If he calls it quits, I’m out of there with him. He’s not, though.” Kelce missed a couple of games this year and still finished only 13 yards short of 1,000.

His backup this year was Noah Grey, who is two inches shorter and only ten pounds lighter. He’s ten years younger, had 28 receptions for 305 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

(BASEBALL)—One thing the new major league ballpark things have in common, beginning with Baltimore’s new stadium in 1992.

A skyline.

The Kansas City Royals want one, too.  Two billion dollars worth bounded by Grand Boulevard, Locust Street, Truman Road and 17^th Street, for those familiar with Kansas City. Royals owner John Sherman  says it fits right into the culture. “The arts, the music, food and drink…I believe the timing is right for the Royals to become residents of the Crossroads District,” he said, saying it would be part of a “Golden Era” for Kansas City.

The project will include a KC version of St. Louis’s Ballpark Village, a conference center, corporate offices, residential and hotel properties, and the team’s corporate offices. Whether it happens will depend on voter support of a 3/8-cent sales tax increase that goes to voters on April 1.

The Royals and Red Sox reportedly pulled off a trade just as sprng training started. The Royals add to their bullpen with John Schreiber while the Red Sox get minor league pitcher David Sandlin.  Schreiber is 29, a righty who made it to The Show in 2019 for one game. But he established his mound cred in 2022 with 64 appearances and a 0.985 WhIP  and a 2.22 ERA. Last year, he was n 46 games and had an ERA of 3.86.

The Royals are giving up Sandlin, who had injury problems last year but still got into 14 games and finished the year with 87 strikeouts and a 3.51 ERA.

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Enough of the stick and ball stuff for now. Here’s stuff about people who deal with things that are twice as fast as a 100 mph fastball:

NASCAR’s season always starts with its premier race, the Daytona 500.   IndyCar’s premier race is on Memorial Day Weekend.  Formula One’s premier race in terms of glamour and tradition is considered the Monaco Grand Prix, also held in May, although this year’s Grand Prix of Las Vegas is expected to be a huge spectacle.

(DAYTONA 500)—The Daytona 500’s history of unpredictable finishes shaped by late major crashes has been lived out again, with a historic twist.  William Byron and Alex Bowman celebrated the 40^th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports with a 1-2 finish, the first Daytona 500 victory for the sports’s winningest team since Dale Earnhardt Jr., led the field across the finish line in 2014.

Byron took the white flag as most of the rest of the field was crashing behind him, triggering a caution that froze the field. NASCAR had to review videos and timing-and-scoring data to determine the timing of the crash and the certainty that Byron had won. Byron’s victory came on the 40^th anniversary, to the day, of the first win by HMS, a Daytona 500 victory by Jeff Bodine, one of six Hendrick Drivers to win NASCAR’s biggest race. It’s the ninth Daytona 500 championship, tying Petty Motorsports’ record.

(INDYCAR)—A major change in this year’s schedule—-

IndyCar has dropped a road race through the streets of Nashville as its concluding race this year and, instead, will finish the year on the oval in the nearby city of Lebanon.  The 1.33-mile track will give the series six oval races in the last eight races, undoubtedly pleasing series fans who think ovals are always better than street or road courses. It’s the first time IndyCar will finish the season on an oval since 2014.

One of the oval races late in the season will be at Worldwide Technology Raceway across the river from St. louis. Two others will be at the Iowa Speedway, another reasonable drive for IndyCar fans from Missouri.

Another is in Milwaukee, another daytrip for some Missourians.

And don’t forget the Indianapolis 500, easily worth a couple of nights in motels going to or coming from, if needed.

IndyCar starts on a street course March 10—St. Petersburg.

(FORMULA 1)—F1 opens at Bahrain next weekend.

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—Patrick Mahomes got his thrd Super Bowl MVP trophy Sunday night. But the most valuable player in the Chiefs win was Leo Chenal, a name seldom mentioned among all of the higher-profile names in the lineup.

Chenal, a linebacker, blocked the extra point that would have put the 49ers up by four points with 11:22 left in the fourth quarter, forcing the Chiefs to get a touchdown to win. Earlier in the game San Francisco kicker Jake Moody had kicked a Super Bowl-record 55 yard field goal. Afer the block it was was 16-13 and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s 24-yard field goal tied the game with 5:46 left.

(Butker had broken Moody’s long field goal record near the end of the third quarter with a 57-yarder.

Moody put San Francisco on top with 1:53 remaining by becoming the first place kicker in Super bowl history to nail two field goals of 50-plus yards in the same game.

But giving the ball back to the Chiefs with two minutes left on the clock has been fatal to a lot of teams and the Chiefs did it again, tying the game with three seconds left in regulation on a 29-yarder by Butker.

But without that blocked PAT the Chiefs would have had to go for the touchdown, not settle for a field goal.

Moody’s field gial with 7:22 left in overtime again put San Francisco in the lead, 22-19. But Mahomes and the Chiefs went on their longest drive of the game when it counted—thirteen plays that lasted 7:19 before Mahomes threw a three-yard pass to Mecol Hardman with three seconds left in the ovetime period.

Chiefs win 25-22 because Leo Chenal blocked that PAT.

The Chiefs, who struggled during the regular season at times finished with three straight underdog wins. After the game, Mahomes told an interviewer, “Just know that the Kansas City Chiefs are never the underdog.”

(THE FUTURE)—Two names pop up in discussing the future for the Chiefs—Coach Andy Reid and Chris Jones.  Reid, who is now 65, said after the game that retirement is not on his horizon.  And Chris Jones, a holdout at the start of the year who played the season with an incentive-laden deal and hit his incentives, has been clear all along, says he has told the team Chairman Clark Hunt, “They’ve got to keep me here so we keep this thing going. We’ve got something special brewing here….We can continue to carry this thing, man.”  Even as a holdout he was saying he wanted to be a lifetime member of the team.  He’s 29 and wants to stay in Kansas City.

(mizz)—-The Missouri Tigers continue their worst conference season start ever with two more losses, both with leading scorer Sean East on bench with an injury. Neither loss was close.

Missouri had back-to-back seasons under Coach Bob Vanatta in 1965-66 and in 66-67 when hey went 6-43 overall, 3-30 in the Big Eight Conference.  But in both cases, they won a game early in the conference season.

The Tigers are now 8-16, and in the SEC, 0-11.  They have this entire week to get ready for Ole Miss, in Oxford, next Saturday night. The outlook is grim. Ole Miss is 18-5, splitting ten conference games and is 13-1 in Oxford as we go to press. (zou)

(CARDINALS)—Pitchers and catchers are reporting TODAY to Cardinals headquarters in Jupiter Florida. Their first workout is TOMORROW.  Some players have been in Jupiter for several days for informal work but the first full-squad workout is next Monday. The first game is the 24^th.

This is the 26^th year for the Redbirds at Roger Dean Stadium. They share it with the Marlins.

(ROYALS)—While the folks in chilly Kansas City are having a big parade tomorrow, the boys in blue will be assembling in Surprise, Arizona, northwest of Phoenix.  As with the Cardinals, the Royals’ first workout is tomorrow—long tosses and bullpen sessions. The first full-squad workout is on the 19^th. They’ve been using Surprise Stadium for their spring training since 2003, sharing it with the Texas Rangers, the World Series champions.

Getting up to speed now:

(NASCAR)—NASCAR rolls off for its 76^th season this week with qualifications and qualifying races for next Sunday’s Daytona 500.  The field will be forty cars. There are 42 entries. Among those who will have to race his way into the lineup is seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson who will drive a limited schedule this year.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar opens its season March 10 with a street race at St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Indianapolis 500, of course, is the marquee race of the year for IndyCar and the big headline for the 500 going into this season is 2021 NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, who is going to try to run the 500 in Indianapolis and the NASCAR 600-mile race at Charlotte that night.

He’s been getting more seat time in an IndyCar in the off-season and a few days ago ran 172 laps at Phoenix Raceway. He thought the test “went smooth” with “a good run through some things” to get more comfortable in an entirely new kind of race car. He even got to practice pit stops.

He did his first experience getting an Indy car sideways. “I almost spun out,” he said afterwards. “Just got caught off guard a little bit.” He thought the Indy car had a lot of the characteristics of the Cup car, at least on the Phoenix track but “The moments happen a lot quicker. The edge of good versus not good feels a lot sharper.”

(FORMULA 1)—Formula One’s first race is in Bahrain on March 2.

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

—–BASEBALL—-

(ROYALSRICHWITT)—The Kansas City Royals are betting the farm on shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. with the largest contract in franchise history and one of the largest contracts in Major League Baseball.

The Royals have signed Witt, who is 23, to a deal that will run for at least eleven years with a team option for three more. Sources say the heavily back-ended deal is for $288.7 million. The three-year option would add another $89 million. Witt can opt out in years 7-10 during which time he can renegotiate the contract or become a free agent.  He also gets a $7.7 million dollar signing bonus.

If the contract goes the full fourteen years it will total $377-million, the third largest contract in baseball history as of today. But baseball has been going bananas with big, long-term contracts since Fernando Tatis Jr., signed for fourteen years and $340 million in 2021.

Witt’s contract is the 26^th long-term huge money deal since then.

Witt convinced the team that he’s a superstar last year when he hit 30 home runs and stole 49 bases, the first Royals player to join the 30-30 club and only the fifth player in MLB history to have at least 49 homers and 30 steals.

In the past week, the Royals also picked up veterans second baseman Adam Frazier, a free agent from the Orioles. He’s 31, a career .268 hitter who will provide an experienced double-play partner for Witt.

(CARDINALS)— The Cardinals, who have been looking for relievers who can throw strikes past batters, have added Yankees free agent Keynan Middleton, who will get five million dollars this year. The Cardinals have a six-million dollar option for 2025 with a one-million dollar buyout.  He’s a seven-season veteran who struck out 64 in 50.2 innings last year.

(IT’S ALMOST HERE)—Pitchers and catchers report for the Royals and the Cardinals a week from tomorrow. Position players are to be in camp five days later. Opening day is March 28^th.

(JUST TWO DAYS LATER)—The football season kicks off.  The UFL season that is. The St. Louis Battlehawks are one of the eight teams to emerge from the merger of the two competing spring leagues that merged during the winter. They start their season playing the Michigan Panthers at Ford Field in Detroit. Their home opener in the St. Louis dome will be April 6^th against the Arlington Renegades.

But before that, the NFL is hanging around for one more game.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs and the 49ers are in Las Vegas getting their game faces on. Hoopla Week is well underway and the people in the sportsbook business are adjusting the odds, it seems, every day but all, as of today, are predicting a field goal will win it.  The Number one seed in the NFC plays the number three seed in the AFC, which now is saddled with the label inherited by the Dallas Cowboys in their glory days, “America’s Team.”

And that’s all that’s really newsworthy five days before the Super Bowl.

(MIZ$)—An anonymous donor has forked over the largest donation in the history of the University of Missouri Athletic Department—$62 million. That’s more than twice the previous big gift, made in 2012.  Fifty million of those dollars will go for the planned renovation of the north end of Memorial Stadium with the rest going into the Tiger Fund, which benefits athletes. The changes are to be finished in time for the 2026 football season. The Tiger fund is described by the University as a “general pool of money used on travel, equipment, marketing and mental health support for the school’s athletes.”

What will the renovation mean for the big Rock “M” that has been part of Memorial Stadium since football season in 1927? The university says it will still be there, just “reimagined.” ($OU)

miz)—Missouri has won the SEC battle for the basement, showing once again a lack of killer instinct and a continuing ability to take a lead and then forget that the ball is supposed to go THROUGH the rim for an extended spell.  Early lead, several minutes of cold shooting, loss of lead, close to within one or two possessions, and can’t find a dagger.

Vanderbilt 68, Missouri 61.  Vandy had won only five of twenty games going in. Missouri had won eight of twenty-one. Neither team had a conference win.  Missouri is still looking. Vanderbilt is now 1-7 in the SEC. Missouri is 0-9.

Texas A&M is next.  They’re 13-8 overall, 4-4 in the conference.

‘Nuff said about Tiger roundball, too. (zou)

(MIZZ-D)—Tiger football coach Eliah Drinkwitz continues to re-stock his defensive coaching staff with the hiring of Brian Early to work ith defensive ends.

Early has spent five years coaching the defensive line at Houston. He’s been a coach for thirty years. Four of his guys have been NFL draft picks. He had the Sun Belt Conference’s defensive player of the year for three straight years.  One of his first jobs will be to work with Willams Nwaneri, the top defensive prospect in the country.

Once he arrives on campus, Early will begin working with five-star recruit Williams Nwaneri, who’s the nation’s top defensive prospect. Nwaneri, from Lee’s Summit, is 6-7, 260 pounds who had 56 tackles in 14 games last year, with ten of those tackles being for loss. He had a dozen sacks as a junior. (ZOUD)

—The roar is beginning to be heard—

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar has finished its latest round of testing its new hybrid power plant and this time there were “No issues, no tow-ins, just smooth,” said two-time series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power. That’s good news from the tests at Sebring after a rocky round of tests late last year raised concerns.  Ten drivers compiled almost 3200 miles with no problems. Among other things, the new power plant allows a driver whose car stops for one reason or another to restart it, as Alexander Rossi did on one of his laps. The last time an IndyCar could be restarted by the driver was  in the late 1960s when Formula 1 champion Jack Brabham had cars of his own design in the 500.

IndyCar has not announced when the new system will be put into competition but have said it will not be until after the 500 in May.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR Cup drivers have traded paint for the first time this year with a promotional race in the Los Angeles Coliseum that was moved from Sunday to Saturday night because bad weather was on its way to the West Coast.

Denny Hamlin won the Clash within the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on the special dirt track installed around the football field. He finishd ahead of Kyle Busch and last year’s Cup champion Ryan Blaney. The extremely tight track produced only four leaders but eight cautions and a winning speed of a little less than 33 mph.

The Daytona 500 comes up in two weeks.

(FORMULA 1)—Lewis Hamilton has stunned the F1 world with his announcement that he’s leaving Mercedes, a team that has helped him to six of his  record-tying seven championships, for Ferrari in 2025.

He’s had a rough couple of years with Mercedes, the team he joined from McLaren in 2013 as the cars have battled serious handling problems.

He took to social media for the announcement: “I feel incredibly fortunate, after achieving things with Mercedes that I could only have dreamed of as a kid, that I now have the chance to fulfil another childhood dream. Driving in Ferrari red. Mercedes has been a huge part of my life since I was 13 years old, so this decision has been the hardest I’ve ever had to make.”

Ferrari’s last F1 championship was in 2007. Hamilton hasn’t won a race since December, 2021.

F1 starts its season March 2 at Bahrain, the first of a record 24 races this year.

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

We are two days away from February, a short month.  By the end of it, men will be playing baseball again, drivers of brightly-decorated automobiles will be going in circles really fast, and the frozen spirits of sports fans will have begun feeling the first tentative touches of warmth.

(CHIEFS)—A season-long work in progress is one game from being complete. The number 3 AFC Kansas City Chiefs will play the number 1 NFC San Francisco Giants after two weeks of hype in the Super Bowl, a game name coined by Chiefs and AFL founder Lamar Hunt.

Game management and big-time plays at critical moments were the keys for KC.  The Chiefs controlled the ball for 20:31 of the first 30 minutes, keeping the dynamic Ravens offense on the sidelines until the Chiefs had built a 17-7 halftine lead.  They had the ball for another 17:29 of the last 30 minutes, with the only second[half pointa coming on a Justin Tucker 43-yard field goal with 2:37 left.  Patrick mahomes hit Marquez Valdes-Scantling with  32-yard third down pass on a third-and nine challenge just before the two minute warning and that was the game.

Travis Kelce and Mahomes were perfect with 11 targets and 11 completions for 116 yards and the game’s first touchdown.  Kelce broke Jerry Rice’s record for most playoff receptions and tied Rice with 8 playoff games with 100 yards receiving.

What it all boils down to is that the Chiefs are in their fourth Super Bowl in five years, while the 49ers are back in the big time for the first time since losing 31-20 to Mahomes and Co. in Super Bowl 54 in 2020. The last time the two teams met was in October, 2020 when the Chiefs won by three touchdowns.

(miz)—Missouri basketball has crafted an 0-fer conference season and the story continues to shoe little variety—lead, contend, watch the other guys pull away at the end.  Maybe they are waiting to peak in the conference tournament.

The 72-64 loss to South Carolina left them 0-7 in the conference.

The Tigers tried the inside game this time instead of throwing up threes (they tried only 8 and made only 2).  Trying to pick up fouls inside didn’t produce much—South Carolina committed 17 fouls that Missouri turned into 14 points; Missouri recorded 18 fouls that became 16 SC points.

The Tigers again failed to close the deal. They were within 5 with 2:28 to go but hit only one field goal afterwards.

(MIZZ-D)—The football team has a new defensive coordinator—Corey Batoon, who comes to Columbia from South Alabama where he has been in charge of the defense and safeties for three years.  Here are some of his credentials:  The school was 22-16, held opponents to the low 20s per game in scoring.  Opponents were 169/513 in 3^rd down conversions, 33/70 on 4^th downs, and South Alabama recorded 85 sacks in 38 games.

(MIZZ$)—The MU athletic department has reported it took in almost $141.6 million in fiscal 2022 and spent all but one dollar of it, both records.  The Post-Dispatch got the numbers from the NCAA.

They do not include money donated to a “collective” that goes for payments to athletes under the name-image-likeness program.  Mizzou raised $7.1 million for that program. Mississippi State was the only school reporting less.  The highest-rollers are no surprise:  LSU $20.1 million; Georgia $18.3 million; Alabama $16 million, and Florida $15.8 million. (zo047)

(BASEBALL)—We are two weeks away from the opening of spring training.  Pitchers and catchers for the Royals and the Cardinals report on the 14^th with pitchers and catchers reporting on the 19^th.  The first games are on the 22^nd.

The Cardinals avoided arbitration with Tommy Edmond with a two-year deal, and signed former Houston reliver Josh James for his potential. James had been with Houston for parts of four seasons but has had injury problems.  He’s 30, was in 87 games for the Astros 2018-21, struck out 34.2% of the batters he faced, walked 13.2% and allowed batters to hit only .204. Somehow, however, he compiled a 4.64 ERA.

As we were going to press, the Cardinals announced two additions providing possible depth and/or potential.  First baseman/outfielder Alfonsa Rivas was picked up off waivers from the Angels. He was with the Pirates, the Guardians and the Angels and last year, hit .229. He’s 27

The Royals avoided arbitration with relievers Rick Anderson and Carlos Hernandez, starters Kyle Wagner, Brady Singer and Kris Bubic. Adam Frazier, a free agent second baseman from the Orioles has signed a one-year deal . Twelve-year veteran backup catcher Sandy Leon has a minor league contract. The Royals will be his 8^th team. He has a .208 lifetime batting average.

And the engines have been fired for the first time in the major motorsports season—

(DAYTONA)—How about a race that lasted 24 hours having a winner only 2.1 seconds ahead of the second-place car.  A Porsche owned by Roger Penske came across the line first, the car driven by Penske’s 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, Felipe Nasr (who drove the last leg and got past the Cadillac that had dominated the race in the last 40 minutes), Matt Campbell and Dave Cameron.

The win is the first for Penske in the 24-hours since a team led by Mark Donohue won in a Lola 55 years ago.  It continues a roll for Penske Motorsports that began with an Indianapolis 500 victory last May, a NASCAR championship with Ryan Blaney in November. His next target is the LeMans 24 Hours in June.

Newgarden becomes the fifth reigning 500 winner to win the Daytona 24 hours to start the next racing season. Arie Luyendyk did it in 1998, Dan Wheldon eight years later, Dario Franchitti  in 2008 and four-time 500 champion Helio Castroneves two years ago.

IndyCar’s Colton Herta as part of the third-place team.

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(HALL OF FAMER)—Lemar Parrish was one of the premier defensive backs in the National Football League for many years throughout the 1970s. A lot of people think he hasn’t gotten the post-career honors he deserves.

Last week, it was announced that Lemar Parrish is a part of the 2024 class of enshrinees in the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

Parrish played for Lincoln University in Jefferson City, 1966-1969 as a kick returner and defensive back.  He was named an All-American in his final year, the same year he set a school record by running a punt back 95 yards for a touchdown against what is now Missouri State University. He averaged 16.8 yards per punt return. That record and his career average of 15.5 yards also are still school records. LU won 23 games during his career, almost ten percent of all the victories in school history (248).

He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the seventh round. In his rookie year he had five interceptions, one fumble recovery, 194 yards of punt returns and 482 yards returning kickoffs.

In 1970, against the Buffalo Bills, he took a kickoff return 95 yards for a touchdown and scored another one on an 83-yard blocked field goal attempt. Two years later, against the Houston Oilers, he scored touchdowns on interception returns of 33 and 25 yards. Against the then-Washington Redskins in 1974, he scored on a 93-yard punt return and a fumble return of 47 yards.

While he was with the Redskins he was named Football Digest’s 1979 Defensive Back of the Year.

When he left the Bengals in a contract dispute he held the team record for touchdowns scored by
return or recovery.  Four came on interceptions, four on punt returns, three on fumble recoveries, with one kickoff return and one on that blocked field goal. Three times, he scored two return-or-recovery toughdowns in a game. In his eight years in Cincinnati, he was named to the pro bowl six times. His 25 career interceptions is still the fifth-most in franchise history and he still holds records for career punt returns for touchdowns, kick return averae and single-season punt return average. He was named to the Bengal’s All-Half-Century Team in 2017, five years after Lincoln University enshrined him its all of fame.

In the entire history of the NFL, only twenty defensive backs have been picked for eight Pro Bowls. LeMar Parrish is one of them.  He was a three-time All-Pro first team player and a two-time second teamer.

The list of inductees into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame goes back to 1951.  LeMar Parrish’s name is not on that long, long, long list. It’s hard to understand why it isn’t.

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers hit the snooze button halfway through the first half against Seton Hall and didn’t get a wakeup call until the second half was about two-thirds gone.  Once again unable to play a 40-minute game, the Tigers took the loss, their fifth of the year to go with seven wins and facing a big game next weekend against 16^th-ranked Illinois (7-2).

Missouri led early, 16-10 but dozed off, missing five of six shots and turning the ball over twice while the Pirates went on a 16-3 run and led 42-38 at the half. Seton Hall outscored the Tigers 33-18 in the first fourteen minutes of the second half. Missouri woke up down 75-56 and pulled within six with 3:32 left.  But that was as close as they got in the 93-87 loss.

The game was decided in the paint where Missouri’s bigs made no impression on Seton Hall at all.  The Tiger Trees (Trent Pierce at 6-10, seven-footer Jordan Butler, 7-foot-2 inch Mabor Majak, and Seven-five Connor Vanover) combined for just 26 minutes on the court, 12 points (two dunks by Vanover and Pierce going 3-3 including two from outside the arc), 3 rebounds, one steal amd three blocks while Seton Hall was going 17 for 21 on layups and scoring 44 points in the paint. Missouri scored just 30 points inside.

Missouri outscored Seton Hall 31-18 in the last six minutes but both teams scored 17 points in the last 3:32. (zou, weakly)

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs handed the New England Patriots their seventh home loss in eight games this year Sunday, dropping the Patriots to 3-11.  The Chiefs started slowly again and trailed 207 in the second quarter before getting their second touchdown just before halftime to take a lead, then adding 13 points in the third quarter and going scoreless in the fourth.

The Chiefs had a chance to score on their opening drive but Harrison Butker chose that moment to miss his first field goal of the season, ending a streak of 61 straight threes, one short of his own team record. The Patriots took the lead in the second quarter when Patrick Mahomes threw his 13^th interception of the season, which ties him for career-most, set in 2021. It was hs only pick of the game, however, and he finished with more than 300 yards passing and appears to be a lock on another 4,000 yards passing year. He has never had a year of less than 4,000 yards since be became the Chiefs’ fulltime quarterback.

The Chiefs meet the Raiders on Christmas Day. The Raiders are coming off a 63-21 shellacking of the Los Angeles Chargers, afer leading at the half 42-0.

(THE PRICE OF SOUNDING OFF)—It’s not nice to blast NFL officials, especially if it appears you were wrong. ESPN’s Adam Schefter says the league has decided coach Andy Reid’s criticism of the offsides call that might have cost the Chiefs the game against the Bills was worth a $100,000 penalty for violating  “long-standing rules prohibiting criticism of game officials.”  Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is $50,000 lighter in the wallet for the same thing and for unsportsmanlike conduct on the sidelines after the call.

Now we wait to hear in the NFL goes after Kadarius Toney, the accused scofflaw who was offside. Toney says the call was ‘pretty much bogus.” He claimed he had gotten no warning form officials about where he stood as the play was called.  That’s not what the officials said. A fine for Toney? We’ll see.

(ROYALS)—After being relatively quiet in the early trading/signing period, the Kansas City Royals have started assembling the improvements they want to make for 2024.  Tops on the list is Michael Wacha, once one of the young arms for the Cardinals, who has signed a $16 million one-year deal with a player option for 2025.

Wacha will be 33 next July. He’s 88-54 after eleven years in the Bigs with an ERA of less than 4.  Last year with San Diego he was 14-4 with a 3.22 ERA, his best season since he went 17-7/3.38 as a 25-year old starter for St. Louis.Wacha’s career has been limited by injuries. He’s been out with shoulder problems in five seasons. The last time he started 30 or more games and pitched more than 134.1 innings was 2017.

The past week also saw the Royals add other guys. Seth Lugo, also a Padres starter last year,  signed for two years at $30 million with a $15 million player option for 2025. Lugo spent seven years with the Mets before moving to the other coast with San Diego. He’s 40-31 in his career that has mostly been in the bullpen although he started 26 games last year. He’s another guy with a career ERA under 4 (3.50).

While Wacha and Lugo’s numbers aren’t big given the number of years they’ve been in the majors, they add veteran experience to a young  Royals pitching staff of Cole Ragans, Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles, who showed promise last year

Earlier, Reliever Will Smith got a one-year contract for five million. Reliever Chris Stratton has a one-year deal at $3.5 million and a $4.5 million option for ’25. Outfielder Hunter Renfroe joins the team for $5.5 million in 2024 and a $7.5 million player option for the next season. Renfro has a chance to rebuild himself in Kansas City.  He started last year with the Angels, hit .242 with 19 homers and 56 RBIs before he was put on waivers when the Angels shed a lot of salaries and was picked up by the Reds.  But he was only in 14 games for them, hitting only .128, before he was designated for assignment, then cut at the end of September.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have gone quiet, presumably because they’ve entered a new negotiating phase with somebody.

(SPENDING)—New York Times columnist Jeff Passan has ranked the teams’ free agent spending on new players so far this year and both of our teams are in the top six:

Dodgers  $717 million (plus $135 millon for the five-year deal with pitcher Tyler Glasnow, picked up in a trade)

Phillies  $172 million

Diamondbacks  $122 million

Giants $113 million

Royals  $105 million

Cardinals $99 million

(X-CARD)—Good Heavens, Matt Carpenter is still around. He’s been traded by the Braves to the Padres, who have given up an outfielder prospect.  The Padres also sent pitcher Ray Kerr and cash to Atlanta, the cash going to pay part of the $5.5 million player option salary the Padres would have had to pay him.  The Padres didn’t need him after picking him up from the Yankees after he seemingly rediscovered his bat while with the Yankees in ’22.  But in San Diego, he went back to being the Carpenter that Cardinal fans remembered in his final years in St. Loui: a .176 batting average, five homers and 31 RBIs. He played in only 76 games.

And this note about one of sports’ greatest trophies:

(THE SILVER FACE)—-It’s the only trophy in all of sports that has every winner’s face engraved in three dimensions in silver.  The trophy is almost five and a half feet tall and weighs more than 110 pounds.

It’s the Borg-Warner Trophy, originally designed in 1935, and each year the sterling silver face of the winner of the Indianapolis 500 is placed on it.  A few days ago, the face of Josef Newgarden was added in a special ceremony in Indianapolis.

Back on a warm day in May, Newgarden made a last-lap pass and a daring move as the field charged to the finish line at more than 200 mph to win the Indianapolis 500 for the first time.  He called having his face on the trophy “the highest honor you can have in motorsports.”

What became the bas-relief Newgarden face is the work of sculptor Will Behrends who first created a life-sized clay bust of Newgarden that is the basis for a tiny version that becomes a wax mold sent to a jeweler who turned it into the silver image.

Part of the process involved Newgarden sitting as a model while Behrends put the finishing touches on the bust.  The result turned into a special selfie.

(Photo Credits:  Wacha—MLB; Newgarden—Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including screenshot from trophy unveiling)

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(ALL-AMERICAN)—Before we get to anything else:  Missouri’s Cody Schrader has been named to the Associated Press All-America First Team.  He joins Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels of LSU and Ollie Gordon of Oklahoma State in the backfield.

Luther Burden III is on the second team. Kris Abrams-Draine makes the second team defensive unit.

Javon Foster is a third team offensive All-American at tackle.

The AP All=America team was picked by 18 voters who put together the weekly Top 25 football ratings.

(MIZ: Roundball)—-The Missouri Tigers outscored the second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks for the first sixteen minutes of the game in Lawrence Saturday and outscored them in the second half by three. But those last four minutes were killers as the Tigers couldn’t buy a bucket but Kansas reeled off fourteen unanswered points.

73-64, Kansas, the final.

Coach Gates isn’t interested in moral victories but for Tiger fans, the game might have shown team growth as it heads toward its pre-conference wrap-up games against Seton Hall next Sunday, Illinois on the 22^nd and Central Arkansas on the 30^th.

(MIZ: Football)—The Tiger football team might be able to say, it took a Heisman Trophy winner to beat us in the LSU game.  They probably aren’t saying it because it’s regarded as an excuse.  But LSU Quarterback Jayden Daniels could not be stopped in LSU’s 49-39 win over the Tigers this year.  He threw for 259 yards and ran for 130 more against a Tiger defense that has won national praise. He had help from LSU’s defense that stopped Missouri in the waning minutes.  The Missouri Tigers had the Geaux Tigers down 39-35 before Daniels threw a touchdown pass with less than three minutes left. The defense stopped Missouri twice, the last time on intercepted pass returned for a touchdown that stopped a Missouri drive that could have led to a tying field goal at the least.  Daniels threw for 50 touchdowns and rushed for more than 1,000 yards.

Missouri running back Cody Schrader was eighth in the voting with one first-place vote, two second-place votes and 22 third-place votes. It’s the highest finish for a Tiger player since Chase Daniel was fourth in 2007, equaling Paul Chrisman’s finish in 1939.

(REPLACING CODY)—The transfer portal has drawn to Missouri a running back with some strong credentials who might be a yardage chewer to replace Cody Schrader.  It’s Marcus Carroll, who rushed for 1,350 yards at Georgia Tech in 2023. He wound up in the end zone 13 of the 274 times he carried the ball.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs’ loss Sunday night was their fourth in six games, and another reminder of how much they miss Eric Bienemy, their former offensive coordinator who is now the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the Washington Commanders. His presence has not done any miracles for Washington, though, which is 4-9, losers of nine of their last eleven games, and 32^nd in the league in scoring.

Some observers point to some friction in Washington between  Bienemy and some of the players because of his high-discipline philosophy. The Chiefs are clearly playing sloppier offensive football this year than they did when Bienemy was around.  While they might complain about the referees, the plain truth is that the receivers and the quarterback don’t seem to be in sync as much as usual and the number of dropped passes is disheartening.

The Chiefs lost to the Bills Sunday 20-17 and receiver Kadarius Tony went from being hero to being the goat in a matter of seconds.  Tony scored what would have been the winning touchdown but was the reason the play was called back.  He lined up offside, not by a little but by a lot.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed a pass to Travis Kelce who while running for more yards turned to his left and threw a lateral to the trailing Tony who went into the end zone untouched.  But there was that flag that killed the TD.

While Mahomes raged and coach Andy Reid mused about why the refs didn’t warn the Chiefs that Tony had lined up offside, Referee Carl Cheffers wasted no time saying the Zebras are not there to tell players to follow the rules:

“It’s one of those things we don’t want to be overly technical on, but when in his alignment he’s lined up over the ball, that’s something that we are going to call as offensive offside,” he told pool reporter Matt Derrick. “So that’s what the down judge saw. He saw that the alignment was over the ball and that’s what he ruled on the field. That’s what he called….Ultimately, if they looked for alignment advice, certainly we are going to give it to them. But ultimately, they are responsible for wherever they line up. And, certainly, no warning is required, especially if they are lined up so far offsides where they’re actually blocking our view of the ball. So, we would give them some sort of a warning if it was anywhere close, but this particular one is beyond a warning…So really regardless of whether or not he was warned at other times during the day, if it was an egregious alignment to where he was over the ball – whether he had warnings or not – it would still be a foul.”

The Chiefs are 8-5. The’ll get out take their frustrations about the Bills game against the Patriots next weekend. The Pats are 3-10.

Now, the Baseball:

(ROYALS)—The Kanas City Royals haven’t made any big waves in the off-season. Their signing of Will Smith is a reunion; Smith started his  career with Kansas City. He’ll be 35 next July but is a low-risk opportunity fot the Royals, who have signed him to a one-year, five-million dollar deal. Smith has the distinction of picking up three World Series rings in the last three years. He’s the first major leaguer to do that with three different teams (Braves in 2021, Astros the net year and the Rangers this year). In fact, his record goes beyond baseball. He’s the only person in baseball as well as the NFL, NBA, and NHL to do this.

His numbers with the Rangers were not outstanding but were reasonable in today’s game: 57.1 innings itched in 60 games with an ERA of 4.40.  He’s 33-41 in his career with a 3.67 ERA and 113 saves.

There are other intriguing arms still out there and General Manager J. J. Picollo has let it be known that the club has about $30 millon in the budget for new players.  It appears the first five-million has gone to Smith.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals finally pulled the trigger on Tyler O’Neill last week and one of the best parts of the deal is that he can’t come back to haunt them in the immediate future if he managers to get through a season in good health.  He’s in the American League now with the Red Sox and the Cardinals have picked up a couple of young pitchers in return.

One of them, Nick Robertson, is expected to be with the team when it comes north in ’24. Evaluaters say his fastball averages better than 95, looks more like 97 and has some wicked movement. His changeup is only about eight mph slower but it moves and he has a slider that he developed late in the last season that raised some eyebrows.

The other pitcher is Victor Santos, who has spent a couple of years in Triple-A. He’s 23, has good command, and throws strikes. Slider/changeup/sinker guy with a pretty good strikeout ratio. He missed the 2023 season but is spending the winter in the Dominican League and is having a good season there.

Now, a couple of notes from the Zoom Room:

(INDYCAR)—Development of the new hybrid powerplant is moving a little slower than the series had hoped.  The series will open 2024 with the same engine that it has used for several years and won’t go to the new hybrid system until after the Indianapolis 500 in May.

IndyCar has two engine suppliers—Chevrolet and Honda.  But Honda has started counting its pennies a little more closely and says it’s considering pulling out of the series after 2026 because of high costs. Honda supplies power plants for as many as 18 entries in IndyCar races but says the cost/benefit ratio isn’t working as well as it wants it to work.

IndyCar has been trying to lure a third manufacturer into the series for several years. Honda has been a supplier since 1993.

(NASCAR/NHRA)—-Tony Stewart, who started a drag racing team two years ago is replacing his driver.  With himself.  He’s getting into the seat that his wife, Leah Pruett, had occupied. She’s taking the year off because the Stewarts want to start a family. He still is part owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series

(Photo Credit: Partial screen shot from broadcast of Chiefs/Bills game)