The Couple

Posted on December 31, 2025 by bpriddy

Why can’t two prominent people be in love without somebody suggesting it’s all wrong and it’s all going to fall apart?

We blundered into an article on the internet the other day from something called OK! Magazine suggesting Travis and Taylor are headed for big trouble because Travis has said he and Taylor don’t argue. The writer compared them to George and Amal Clooney, with George saying they never fight.

Various “experts” chimed in that these relationships are doomed, in effect saying that two people in the spotlight can’t be happy with one another, or as the article suggests, is “whether the couple’s serene dynamic hides emotional distance rather than marital bliss.”

The article further elaborates: “One family therapist said: ‘It may seem perfect when couples say they never argue, but that can actually point to feelings being held back instead of real harmony. Disagreements are a normal, healthy part of connection – they help partners communicate openly. Avoiding conflict altogether can mean avoiding the deeper issues, too.’

Kelce and Clooney got together on Travis’ podcast, ‘New Heights” and the issue of domestic harmony came up. Clooney has spoken of his “conflict-free” marriage and told Kelce, “Neither of us are going to win the arguments, so why get in it? Dude, I’m 64 years old, and what am I going to argue about at this point? I’ve met this incredible woman, she’s beautiful and smart, and she stands for all the most important things that I believe in in the world, and I can’t believe how lucky I am, so what am I going to fight about?”

Kelce said he and fiancé Taylor Swift have “never argued” in their time together (has it already been two and a half years?). Both are 36. George is 64 and Amal is 47, for whatever value that might have to the discussion. They’ve been married for ten years.

The article continued: “One insider familiar with the Clooneys said: ‘Everyone adores George and Amal, but when they said they never argue, it raised eyebrows. It made people question what other parts of their relationship might be missing. And it means Taylor and Travis’ bond could be just as unhealthy as the Clooneys.’”

Unhealthy????? What “other parts of their relationship” are in jeopardy? To the layman, this sounds like a substantial crock.

(At our house, the biggest long-lasting point of disagreement is what’s for dinner. Couples have disagreements. Couples who love each other resolve them. A disagreement is not a fight that results in no resolution or a winner/loser resolution that creates smoldering resentments. But these “experts” seem to think that is how things should be. They’ve been watching too many soap operas.)

The breakup of celebrity relationships make supermarket tabloid headlines but the relationships that last are far more likely.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest 41 years

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick 37 years

Samuel L. and LaTanya Jackson 45 years

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Brad Hall 38 years

Denzel Washington and Pauletta Pearson 42 years

Sarah Jessica Parker and Mathew Broderick 28 years

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward 50 years

Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross 41 years

Phillip Mountbatten and Queen Elizabeth II 74 years

Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh 45 years

James Stewart and Gloria Hatrick McLean 45 years

Stan and Lilian LaBash Musial 72 years

Roy Rogers and Dale Evens 51 years

And we could go on and on.

As long as Travis and Taylor are able to ignore the tabloid’s pressures and are able to live their own lives, they’ll be okay. But the celebrity culture feasts on the beautiful, the rich, and the prominent and they have to stay above that and be whatever THEY make of their lives.

We would hope that people would just stand back and let them enjoy being part of each other’s lives—just as we would do for OUR social friends. If you would not have the same suspicions about your friends’ relationships, why would you be suspicious of theirs?

The all-star jock and the homecoming queen, that’s what we have with Travis and Taylor. It works. Just ask Norm Stewart (who will be 91 on January 20).

Norm and Virginia Zimmerly Stewart 69 years.

So, to Hell with the “experts.” Let the beautiful people be in love. Wish them a long and happy future. Remember when your eyes only saw each other and an unknown future was stretched out before you. Let them have that same joy and the same opportunity to build their own future. Find a checkout lane without a tabloid rack. Their life and their lives are nobody’s business but theirs.

(Stewarts: Columbia Daily Tribune; Clooneys: Microsoft Bling; Travis and Taylor: Instagram)

Tiger, Tiger Burning Dimly; KCK Chiefs Slouch Toward the End; Sorrow and History in the speedsports.

Posted on December 30, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

English poet William Blake wrote it:

Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright

In the forests of the night—–

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers, depleted on and off the football field, have wrapped up an 8-5 season with a defensive effort against Virginia that is easily overlooked by the lackluster offense in a 13-7 loss..

Virginia dominated the clock, holding the ball for almost 39 minutes with long drives for its touchdown and two field goals. The game-deciding touchdown came at the end of a 19-play, 75 yard drive that ran ten minutes off the clock. Missouri went 0-5 against ranked teams this year. Virginia went into the game at number 20. Missouri’s win at Arkansas let them barely back in the top 25.

The departure of offensive coordinator Kirby Moore to become the head coach at Washington State left Drinkwitz in the position of calling the plays and there are those who think he showed the need for a quick Moore replacement, which Missouri has done by signing Michigan’s offensive coordinator Chip Linsey. Mizzou also has lured Jack Breske away from Tennessee to be the Tiger president of player personnel and recruiting. More important to the playing field was he exit of tight ends coach Derham Cato

Also important to the product on the field is the departure of tight ends coach Derham Cato and assistant offensive line coach Jack Abercrombie. And the guy who works with players in the weight room has left: Malcolm Hardmon, the assistant director of football athletic performance.

With the portal opening Thursday, the defection of Brad Larrondo could be the toughest loss. As the GM and CEO of Every True Tiger Brands, the marketing arm of the football program, Larrondo has been The Guy who set up Missouri’s NIL operations. He has negotiated revenue sharing and third-party NIL funding, distributing money to the moneyball athletes attracted to Missouri while also staying within the sending cap.

The portal is open for only two weeks and presumably Larrondo made plenty of arrangements to take advantage of it before he left. But his successor will have little time to put his stamp on the program.

Fortunately, Drinkwitz has some cash to buy good replacements. His new contract provides him with $54 Millon more dollars to hire assistants.

More than a dozen players were not on the game roster, four with injuries and others headed to the portal. Most of them were backups.

The defense did not wear down despite all the time on the field but the defensive scheme against Virginia’s third and fourth down plays seemed to be missing. The fact that Virginia had to convert fifteen of them indicates the Tigers had them where they wanted them but couldn’t close the deal. Missouri went into the game ranked 19^th nationally in third down stops but let Virginia converted thirteen of them on 23 attempts. Mizzou, on the other hand, made it work only three of twelve times. Missouri never converted a fourth down in three tries. Virginia did it in two out of four.

The offense, after scoring on the first drive, was shut out the rest of the way. Matt Zollars again showed promise, especially leading a desperation last -minute drive to tie the game. He was taken out with one play left after banging his head on the field during a tackle. His replacement , Brett Brown threw a pass that was intercepted in the end zone.,

One question many fans will want answer to is why Drinkwitz didn’t use Ahmad Hardy more. Hardy reeled of a 42-yard run in the first possession but carried the ball only fourteen times after than. He finished with 89 yards and the all-time single season rushing record. Some fans were displeased and there appeared to be times on the sidelines when Hardy was chafing at not being on the field. Missouri was undefeated in games this year in which Hardy carried the ball at least twenty times. One sportswriter says the social media was “off the charts” because of his absence. In all of Missouri’s losses this year, Hardy had the ball less than twenty times.

(MIZBB)—Now it’s up to Dennis Gates and the men’s basketball Tigers to do something the football Tigers couldn’t in their season—beat a good team. The Tigers have finished their nonconference schedule 10-3. They open SEC play at home Saturday against Florida with road games against Kentucky and Mississippi. Florida is 8-4; Kentucky is 9-4 and Mississippi is 7-5.

Vanderbilt is undefeated in a dozen games. Georgia and LSU are 11-1.

The Tigers will have had two weeks to improve from their performance against 91-48 performance against Illinois that set some bad records. It was the worst loss since Dannis Gates has run the program. It was the worst loss in the 93 years the two schools have played each other and the fewest points scored since Arkansas whipped Missouri 87-43 in 2012. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—It’s going to be a long time for Missourians’ hurt to go away after the Chiefs decision to move to Kansas. It’s probably more politically emotional hurt than fan-support emotional hurt

. The turnout for the first Chiefs game after the announcement did not appear to be noticeably less. But one politician far from the conflict has weighed in with the observation that Chiefs Owner Clark Hunt is “the biggest Welfare King in America.” Congressman Brendan Boyle from Pennsylvania—where Chiefs coach Andy Reid built the career in Philadelphia that made him a great choice for Kansas City—said on social media, “Billions of taxpayer money going to this billionaire, while working people suffer. Just a disgrace.”

We can excuse Hunt for seeing it in a different way. “The benefit to the entire region will be monumental. A stadium of this caliber will put Kansas City in the running for Super Bowls, Final Fours, and other world class events. A brand new training facility and headquarters will allow the Chiefs to continue to attract top talent. And the vision for a new mixed-use district will rival that of any sports-anchored development anywhere in the country.”

There is no doubt about that. He would have said the same thing if the Chief stayed in Missouri, but Kansas simply outbid our side.

And in a sports world where some college quarterbacks prices might be reaching for five million dollars at their next university, our games have become nothing more than horses chasing carrots.

On the playing field, the Chiefs dropped to 6-10 on Christmas night’s loss to the Broncos. The Chiefs have lost ten more games nine times. They lost 14 in 2008 and 2012; a dozen in ’77,’78 and 2009. Eleven losses be the third in team history, back to back 11 loss years came in 1987 and ‘88.

The play the Raiders next Sunday for their last game until next August hen they meet the 2-14 Raiders. For the fist time in a decade, the team will have eight months to rest, recover, and regroup before they get back to football that counts.

The end of the year is filled with speculation about what Travis Kelce will do. He has equalled Hall of Famer Jerry Rice by receiving at least 800 yards a dozen times.

He is having a solid bounce-back season this year with 73 catches for 839 yards averaging 11.5 yards per catch, close to his career average of 12.1 yards.

He has promised to let the Chiefs know if he wants to be part of the team rebuilding or if is going to step aside before the draft season begins.

The Chiefs have signed yet another backup quarterback. With two QBs on the shelf, they need someone behind Chris Olodokun just in case.

The just in case person is Shane Buechele, who has been picked off of the Buffalo Bills Practice squad. He was with the chiefs in the 2021-2023 seasons and has never played in a real game. In three pre-season games ith the Chiefs he threw for nine touchdowns and six interceptions.

While it’s been confirmed that Minshew didn’t tear his ACL, providing a beacon of hope for Reid in Mahomes’ absence, he will miss time and was placed on Injured Reserve. Hence, the Chiefs need a new quarterback to join Chris Oladokun on the depth chart.

(BASEBALL)—Both of our teams took the holiday off. There were no transactions. Still no blockbuster deals.

—–A somber world of speed—

(NASCAR)—-NASCAR world still mourns the death of retired driver Greg Biffle and his family in a pre-Christas plane crash. Investigators say they’re recovered data recording devices but it will be sometime before the cause of the crash can be determined.

Fans are familiar with his on-track record, but his off-track accomplishments weren’t widely circulated until we read his obituary (as is the case with many pro athletes—and people in general). He set up a foundation that gave grants to humane societies through America. He was a universal blood donor and after his racing career he got into hurricane relief and delivered fuel to stranded Floridians and then helping find places for animals displaced from their shelters. It is said he “risked his life” helping Norh Carolinians caught in Hurricane Helene.

A celebration of his life is being planned.

0-0-0-0

As we go to press with this entry, we’ve gotten word that a fire that destroyed the home of Denny Hamlin’s parents in North Carolina killed his father, Dennis, and severely injured his mother, Mary Lou, who is under intensive treatment at a burn center in Winston-Salem. Officials say both had gotten out the house but had suffered “catastrophic” injuries. The damage to the house is so severe, officials say, that it might be some time before a cause is determined.

Denny, the driver, successfully pursued his 60^th NASCAR victory this year and when he got it, he emotionally discussed the importance of the win to his father Dennis, who was in poor health and remarked that 2025 was his father’s last change to see his son with the NASCAR Cup. Denny made the final four for the final race but Kyle Larson won the Cup.

Young Denny used to sit on his father’s lap watching races on television. He started racing go-kart, when he was seven, and won his first race. Dennis had a little trailer-making business that Denny worked in during high school. His father formed a family-owned race team.

The family scrimped and saved—and borrowed—to keep Denny’s young career going up until he caught the eye of Joe Gibbs Racing and signed on for the big time. Denny remembered everything his parentsdid for him on the way up. One day, Dennis Hamlin told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Denny announce to his father, “You’re done working and you’re moving to Charlotte.” When the elder Hamlin responded that he wasn’t going anywhere, the younger Hamlin set him straight by handing him the keys to a new house and told him, “It’s finished, take your clothes, sell the business. Mom works for me now. It’s set. You’re going. You’ve retired.”

Dennis Hamlin was 75.

(INDYCAR)—A prominent color scheme will be back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2026 and its return brings one of the most exciting days in Speedway history to mind—-and the voice of a Missourian who fed that excitement who made it part of legend.

The colors of Sunoco Oil will be on a car next year for the first time in decades—and that is another story.

His name was Tom Carnegie, who grew up as a boy named Tom Kenagy in Raytown. He was quite a high school athlete until a polio virus affected the strength of his legs and forced him to turn his thoughts to broadcasting. He went to William Jewell College and while there he went to work at KITE Radio in Kansas City. He was the public address announcer for the schools sports events. He went to Indiana, where a station manager encouraged him to change his name to Carnegie and not long after, to Indianapolis.

He was the public address announcer of the historic 1954 high school basetball championship game in which tiny Milan High School upset big Muncie Central, the game on which the movie “Hoosiers’ was based—with Tom doing a cameo.

Let’s go back to 1972 and Mark Donahue’s McLaren that is in the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

Somewhere in thousands of slides shot at the Speedway that I don’t have the time or the patience to unpack from one of the several boxes of slides is this car on the track.

This car represents a historic part of the Speedway story in several ways.

First: It is the first car owned by Roger Penske to win the 500. He’s had nineteen winners since.

Second: Speed. You have to be in or near middle age or beyond to remember when Indianapolis race cars did not have wings. 1972 was the first year the rules allowed wings, big ones, that led to he incredible one-day jump in speeds.

Rain washed out the first day of qualifying, but on the second day, drivers demolished Peter Revson’s track record of 178.696 mph from 1971 time after time after time, beginning when Bill Vukovich II set the new one-lap record at 185.797. But he crashed on his second lap and had to qualify later in the rebuilt car. .

Later, after another rain shower stopped running, Joe Leonard turned four laps at 185.223, a record for a four lap, ten mile run. Mario Andretti smashed that record at 187.617.

Longtime track announcer Tom Carnegie’s bass voice had exclaimed “it’s new traaack record” several times that afternoon when Bobby Unser went out with the crowd anticipating something special. And boy, was it.

The first lap crushed Andretti’s record—194.932, the first lap in track history over 190.

The second lap: “You won’t believe it!” said the great voice on the PA system. 196.036, another new track record.

Lap three: “And it’s still going up! Forty-five and 91 hundredths of a second! 196.6781

And then the third lap: 196.678. A third new track record.

Lap four was “only” 196.121.

The four lap average (“It’s new all-time speed record”) 195.940.

The seventeen-mile jump in qualifying speed remains the record these 53 years later. Many expected the 200-mile an hour barrier would fall the next year, but it five more years before Tom Sneva did it—with Carnegie fueling the crowd’s excitement as Sneva set records on each his four laps.

Unser’s speed stood up despite challenges from Revson, who put his McLaren next Unser’s Gurney Eagle at 192.885 and Donehue put his McLaren on the outside of the front row at 191.408.

Tom Carnegie died in 2011. The Indianapolis TV station where he’d become an institution put together a 20-minute tribute that included Tom remembering that historic day. It comes about 10:40 into the program.

Tom Carnegie: The Voice Remembered

One of these days I’ll dig out the interview did with him where talks about his Missouri roots.

Donahue’s Penske teammate, Gary Bettenhausen (the Bettenhausen name is part of IndyCar legend) led for 138 of the race’s 200 laps before mechanical failure took him out. Donahue took the lead with thirteen laps left and gave Roger Penske his landmark win. It also was the first time a McLaren chassis had won the 500. Al Unser Sr., finished second, coming one position short of being the first driver to win three 500s in a row—he later won two more times.

Mark Donahue and Roger Penske had a special bond. Donahue was an engineer who knew how to set up his cars and win with them. He raced everything from Porsches and Ferraris to Mustangs and American Motors Javelins in numerous serieses before stepping away from the sport’s full-time demands. But In August, 1975 he drove a Penske Porsche to a closed-course world record speed of 221.120 on the Talladega Speedway.

He was pulled back to full-time racing when Penske tried Formula 1. He ran a couple of races late in 1974 and was in the new Penske F1 car in ’75. The car didn’t work out so Penske switched to a March chassis. He went to Austria to run the new car in the Austrian Grand Prix and crashed badly but appeared to be unhurt. But he had a serious head injury and lapsed into a coma and died the next day, August 19.

Roger Penske owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar today. He also fields cars in NASCAR.

McLaren is a powerhouse team in Formula 1 and one of its drivers, Lando Norris, won the championship while his teammate, Oscar Piastri, was third. McLaren does not build cars for the 500 or for IndyCar but does have a team led by one of the most popular drivers in the series, Pato O’Ward, the runner-up in this year’s points chase.

The fastest qualifying run at the Brickyard still be longs to Arie Luyendyk, who had a hot lap of 239.260 and a four-lap average of 236.986 in 1996.

Now, thirty years later, Mark Donahue’s sponsor returns to Roger Penske’s track.

Chip Ganassi Racing, Penske Racing’s biggest long-term rival is bringing back the familiar colors for Kyffin Simpson. Sunoco considers itself the largest independent fuel distributor in the country. It’s the official fuel for IndyCar and NASCAR.

The front wings are bigger. The rear wing is smaller. Most important this car is far safer for Simpson hat he Donahue museum piece was in its day. The cockpit/windscreen protects drivers from flying debris in crashes and does not expose their heads to restraining fence poles or other impacts as the one that killed Donahue.

They’re a little slower but are inching closer to Luyendyk’s record. And, as was the case more than fifty years ago, they make incredible sounds and provide breathtaking racing.

And in four months they’ll be on the great track at Indianapolis. History and memory will come together with the past and its legends.

(Photo Credits: Kelce—Facbook; Donahue car—Bob Priddy; New Sunoco Car—Ganassi Racing; Dennis Hamlin—NASCAR.com)

Sports: Missouri’s Miserable Monday; Beaultin’ Beau; Beaten Bears; and some Bad Basketball

Posted on December 23, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(GOOOOOO CHIEFS!)— Kansas has won the biggest plum of its long-standing economic border war with Missouri, luring the Kansas City Chiefs west of our state line where they will play in a new and enclosed stadium starting in 2031. Their new playground will be in the same economic development area that houses the Kansas Speedway, where NASCAR and sometimes IndyCar run, a track originally proposed for an area near Kansas City International Airport but which lacked sufficient Missouri government enthusiasm to keep Kansas from grasping it and making it a place that has boomed economically and will boom even louder now.

The announcement that the Chiefs will move to Kansas means Missouri has been unable to hang on to a third NFL team—the Cardinals and the Rams from St. Louis and the Chiefs from Kansas City. All three have bailed out of Missouri in disputes about state support for new stadiums.

Kansas is going to build a domed stadium project costing $3-million near the Kansas Speedway and The Legends retail district. There also will be a $300 million practice facility in Olathe, Kansas—ending St. Joseph’s role as the Chiefs training camp.

Shortly before the announcement in Topeka, Kansas legislators unanimously voted to allow STAR bonds to be issued for as much as 70% of the costs of the stadium and a mixed-use district that will be developed around it. Tax revenues on liquor and sales generated within the district will pay off the bonds.

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt says the only thing that will change will be the location of Chiefs games. Otherwise, he said, the fan experience will remain the same and the team will compete for more championships.

Missouri has lost three NFL teams—the Cardinals, Rams, and now the Chiefs, all because it was not as aggressive as the teams’ owners wanted the state to be in financing new stadiums. Kansas City also lost a major league baseball team, the Athletics.

It’s a huge economic loss to this side of the state line. Governor Mike Kehoe had called the legislature into special session last summer to put together a bond package covering up to half of the costs of a new stadium or a massive overhaul of Arrowhead, plus $50 million more in tax credits for the Arrowhead project and a new stadium downtown for the Royals, plus financial help from local government.

But the financial help from local government evaporated last year when Jackson County voters gave a strong “no” vote to extending a local sales tax that would have paid for those projects.

Now, the Royals are in play and there is a report that “an affiliate” of the team has taken a mortgage on land in Overland Park, Kansas.

(SO, WHAT NOW?)—Well, there’s always the UFL. St. Louis has its poor substitute for an NFL team. The domed stadium named for a now defunct airline where the Rams used to play is the home of the Battlehawks. Whether there still will be an Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Whatevers, if the UFL expands, is undetermined.

(CHIEFS TODAY)—The Chiefs might have spoiled the Tennessee Titans’ chances of getting the first pick in the NFL draft, giving the Titans their first win in a dozen home games and only their third victory all season. Kansas City played most of the game with its third-string quarterback, Chris Oladokun, calling signals after Mahomes backup Gardner Minchew limped to the sidelines and then to the dressing room with a second-quarter knee injury. It was Oladokun’s first NFL game. He’s been on the taxi squad for the last couple of years.

The pitiful 26-9 loss guarantees the Chiefs with their first losing season since 2012, before the Andy Reid era began. The chiefs now are losers in four straight games, and six of the last seven. The Chiefs went into the game with the league’s eighth ranked defense and gave up 376 yards to rookie quarterback Cam Ward, who broke Marcus Mariota’s team record for most passing yards in their first season.

The Chiefs had only 133 yards of total offense and only nine first downs; the Titans had 22 first downs and . The Titans ran 70 plays; the chiefs only 43. Oladokun finished 11/16 for 111 yards.

The Chiefs entered the game in a poor physical situation. Patrick Mahomes and right tackle Jawaan Taylor are on injured reserve and nine players were declare out, including five starters.

Things appear likely only be worse this week. They play the Broncos on Christmas night

(MIZPORTAL)—The instability of college football caused by the transfer portal that allows athletes to become carpetbagging mercenaries hired by schools looking for a golden arm or unstoppable legs, in particular, is a big deal for the Missouri Tigers.

Beau Pribula has turned into one of those carpetbaggers who found a bigger paycheck at Missouri than he was likely to get at Penn State couldn’t wait until after a bowl game helped the team get to before he told Mizzou he was looking for a greener pasture.

Pribula wasn’t so bad at Missouri that he wouldn’t likely do better with a second year in the system—although the system departed when the Offensive Coordinator Kirby Moore found a portal that he could go through, too—but Pribula didn’t exactly show that he was the next great NFL clipboard quarterback to be produced by Mizzou.

So Missouri becomes just another team headed to a bowl game with a patchwork lineup because some guys would rather go campus-shopping than play another game in their latest school’s colors.

(MIZOC)—Missouri’s new offensive coordinator is bringing experience from one of the Big Ten’s elite teams. Chip Lindsey is moving to Missouri from the University of Michigan. He’s been a college coach for a dozen years in increasingly higher circles. His South Carolina team ranked 7^th in the nation in total offense in 2023, averaging almost 500 yards a game. This year at Michigan, his teams averaged almost 400 yards

He and Mizzou and Eli Drinkwitz have some acquaintances with each other. During his three-year head coaching stint at Troy, his team lost to Missouri and Coach Barry Odom at Faurot Field 42-10 and fell to Drinkwitz’s Appalachian State 48-13. He has helped develop three quarterbacks who’ve made it to the NFL including Patriots starter Drake Maye, and Jarrett Stidham and Nick Mullens. It’s not known what his role will be for the bowl game next weekend.

(THE BOWL)—The preparation for the game by freshman quarterback Matt Zollars will be different by game time. He and Coach Drinkwitz both know that he’s not a fill-in for the next game. He’s number one and the pre-game preparations are different. This game and the spring practices can put him in a commanding position for 2026. He has shown good potential as Pribula’s substitute for three games this year. The Gator Bowl could be the game in which he reduces or erases the word “potential.”

One thing to watch for—because his coach will be watching—-is how well he performs on third downs, passing downs. “You look at our four losses this year, you look at our three losses last year, look at our two losses the year before that—our inability to consistently convert third downs in critical games or throw the ball has been a major factor in our losses,” said Drinkwitz.

Virginia is looking for its first 11-win season. The Cavaliers go into the game having won two of their last three. Missouri’s season flattened out as it began facing top 10 fellow SEC Schools. They go into the wining with three losses in their last five game.

(NOT RUNNING AWAY)—-Although he could write his own check elsewhere, Ahmad Hardy is staying at Mizzou. He admits he hadn’t gotten any offers: “I think they know I’m a Tiger, so they ain’t hit me up.”

That means Missouri will have an All-American running back for the new offensive coordinator.

Hardy would have been among the hottest properties if he wanted to go portalizing. His 1500 yards-plus performance—before a bowl game—ranks him 28^th among all Missouri career rushers. Another season such as this one could get him to third on the all-time list. He’ll likely have to stick around for another year to move past Larry Roundtree (3720) and Brad Smith (4289 who, as a running/passing quarterback also threw for 8799 yards.).

But—-the Tigers’ one-two backfield punch this season might not be complete next year. Running back Jamal Roberts, who gained an average of 6.2 years every time he got the ball this year (so far) is in play as a possible portal entrant. Coach Drinkwitz hopes some moneyed supporters will cough up a lot mor NIL funding to keep him at Faurot Field in 2026.

(MOSTPORTAL)—Missouri State Quarterback Jacob Clark, who finished his college career with a 34-28 loss to Arkansas State in a bowl game in Texas, has little good to say about the portal process.

He was sacked eight times as the Bears played without their starting left tackle Ebubedike Nnabugwu, the Conference USA’s best pass protector, who is portal bound. Also missing was right tackle Erick Cade, has played out his eligibility. Defensive end D. J. Wesolak took himself out of the lineup to protect himself for the portal. Starting center Cash Hudson, also reportedly headed for the portal, DID play but left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury.

Clark pointed to Texas-San Antonio coach Jeff Traylor whose team will play Florida International the day after Christmas without almost twenty players who are going portal shopping to show the absurdity the portal is creating in college football. Traylor has blamed “all of the tampering and the agents and coaches,” who are promising “incredible” financial deals to lure players into the portal. “I hate it because I really want to coach them in a bowel game, but they’re getting leveraged out of it…I never thought we’d be punished for making a bowl game by being leveraged.”

“You’re talking about teams that have $26 million to $40 million, and the number’s just too big, and who knows if they’re being told the truth? It’s sad, it really is sad,” he continued.

“There’s no such thing as tampering. Coaches talk to players, agents talk to players. Oh, then turn them in, coach. You think those players are going to give me the coach that’s actually talking to them? Why? It’s driving the price up. The more they get driven up, the price goes up higher and higher. As long as there’s people gonna pay it, who’s going to stop it? What’s going to stop this? What’s going to stop it? Only the freedom of process is going to stop because when there’s no money left, what are we going to all do?”

—a highly pertinent question.

Missouri State and Arkansas State both finish the year at 7-6.

(MIZSIX)—CBS’s Mike Renner thinks he has identified the top 150 potential NFL draft picks—and sixTigers are on the list. The last time six Mizzou players were drafted was 2023; the record is seven, in 1981.

Linebacker Josiah Trotter is the highest-rated Tiger at number 74. Defensive Tackle Chris McClellan is 85, IOL Cayden Green is 90. In the last third are Edge Rusher Damon Wilson at 105, WR Kevin Coleman at 110 and IOL Keagan Trost, 141.

The Winter Solstice means we are one step closer to the magical day when Spring training starts.

(BRAGGARTS)—-First, we lost the Chiefs. Then we lost a basketball game to Illinois—and it was the worst loss by either team in the history of the so-called “Braggin’ Rights” game between Missouri and Illinois.

Illinois “outed” the Tigers everywhere—offense, defense, rebounding—in all facets of the game. Toward the end, the biggest question was whether the Fighting Illinois would double-up on the Tepid Tigers—and they almost did, 91-48.

Missouri heads into the SEC schedule 10-3 with losses to Illinois, Notre Dame, and Kansas, losses that could play a role in a couple of months when it comes time to decide if Missouri is good enough for post-season play..

Junior point guard Anthony Robinson talked on Sunday about a ‘TPD’ mindset, meaning tough, physical and disruptive, saying that would be a key to playing their brand of basketball and finding success against Illinois.

The Illini out-rebounded Missouri 43-24. They outscored the Tigers on second-chance opportunities 29-5. The Illinois defense produced miserable Missouri shooting—29% from the field, only 27% from the arc (6 of 22 from the three-point line).

Life won’t get easier with the start of the SEC schedule on January 3. Florida. The Seminoles are ranked 22^nd this week.

(CARDS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have taken their first deep plunge into the trading market by sending catcher/first baseman Willson Contreras to the Red Sox for three right-handed pitchers: Hunter Dobbins, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita. Contreras waived his no-trade clause.

Dobbins was 4-1 last year for Boston. Eleven of his thirteen games were starts. He fanned 45 in 61 innings and had a 4.13 ERA before he tore a knee ligament early in July and had season-ending surgery. Shipping off Contreras opens the door for Alec Burleson to become a fulltime first baseman. Dobbins takes Contrera’s spot on the 40-man roster.

Fajardo won’t be 20 until the 2026 season is almost over. He was with two teams in the minors last season, posted a 2-8 record but had a 2.93 ERA and whiffed 147 batters in 122 innings. Aita will be 23 next June. He’s seen as a potential starter. He also was with two teams last year, went 5-7 with an ERA of 3.98.

Until the Contreras trade, the Cardinals had been making only small waves. Left Fielder Matt Koperniak was put on waivers, went unclaimed, and is headed back to Memphis for a third season. He hit .309 at Memphis in 2024 but had a disappointing ’25 when he dropped to only .246.

The Redbirds signed free agent pitcher Dustin May to a one year, $12.5 million contract. May missed three weeks last season with an elbow nerve inflammation and was 7-11 with a 4.96 ERA in 23 starts for Boston and Los Angeles. He’s struggled with arm problems throughout his career and had Tommy John surgery in 2021. He is 19-20 with a 3.86 ERA in 57 starts and 14 relief appearances in a six-year career.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals seem to be taking their time in the free agent/trade markets. This past week, they traded relievers with the Phillies. The Royals added veteran left-handed pitcher Matt Strahm, who came over from the Phillies in a trade for pitcher Jonathan Bowlan.

Strahm went 62.1 innings in 66 games, was 2-3 with six saves and a 2.74 ERA. Bowlan has been in 50 games in his two-year career, 1-2/3.86 last year with 45 Ks in 44.1 innings.

Now, a little tragedy, and some and history—.

(NASCAR)—Federal investigators say it will be quite a while to figure out why the plane of retired NASCAR Cup driver Greg Biffle crashed, killing Biffle, his family and others. Biffle, who was popular in the garages and was known for his philanthropic work, was named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers in its first 75 years. He won 19 of his 515 races, was in the top five 92 times and finished 175 races in the top ten. He was the runner-up for the 2004 Cup championship and finished in the top ten in points six times.

(INDYCAR)—There are few higher-ups in big-time sports who spend more time relating to fans and sometimes getting their hands dirty while doing it than Doug Boles, the President of IndyCar and of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Most often, he’s the guy looking cool in a blue suit in a crowd of one, two, or three hundred thousand people in verrry casual, if not sometimes outrageous, summer attire. The fact that he got a journalism degree before becoming a lawyer (three of my former Missourinet colleagues did the same thing, so we relate on that level, too) means he can speak board room lingo as well as he comfortably can wander among the hordes of folks who like to mix sunshine, hot dogs, beer, and really, really fast cars on hot summer weekends.

He finds adventure outside the office and inside the speedway and enthusiastically shares it with Speedway fans and worshippers with videos that he calls “Behind the Bricks.”

The track is called “The Brickyard” because it once was paved with millions of bricks that sometimes cause problems for the modern paved squared oval where cars have touched 240 mph before making a left turn. There still were a few feet of bricks on the main straightaway when my parents took me to the track for the first time.

His enthusiasm about the old place is shown in three recent episodes that shows us “under’ the bricks—a project to repave part of the track when some the old bricks shifted and caused a bump that cars going four miles a minute shouldn’t encounter, especially in a turn. The project turned into an archaeological expedition that recalled the earliest days of the track and became three podcasts that mix technology, history, and the guy who runs the whole place.

Bing Videos

Behind the Bricks: Turn 2 Repave, Part 2

Behind the Bricks: Turn 2 Repave, Part 3

It’s grey and it’s cold and we’ve had a bad day in sports in Missouri. It seems like a long time before we’ll write again about daring men and women doing remarkable things when the asphalt over the old bricks is hot again. But Doug reminds us that the good times are waiting.

(Photo Credits: Stadium, Hardy—Instagram)

A Bad Weekend in KC; Bowling for Two; NFL Debut

Posted on December 9, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(KC)—Missouri’s men’s basketball team had a disastrous game against KU in KC and the Chiefs had a disastrous game Sunday night in Arrowhead Stadium against the Texans. We’ll get to them later but first, let’s look at some better news.

(BOWLING)—-Both of our top Division I football teams have another game to play before the shoulder pads get put away until Spring.

(TIGERS AND A GATOR)—The Missouri Tigers are headed to the Gator Bowl on December 27 to play Virginia. Virgina, from the ACC, finished its season 10-3 with an upset loss to Duke, 27-20 in overtime—just two weeks after beating Duke in the regular season 34-17. The Cavaliers head into the bowl season ranked 20^th and 19^th in the polls. They were 3-1 this year in overtime games. Quarterback Chandler Morris threw for more than 2800 yards, going 257/398, sixteen touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Running back J’mari Turner ran for 1,962 yards on 222 carries and also caught 43 passes for 253 yards. Trell Haris led the receiving corps with 59 receptions and 847 yards. Two other players had more than 500 yards receiving. Defensively, the Cavaliers had 31 sacks for 211 yards in losses and 13 interceptions.

Missouri Quarterback Beau Pribula had a similar passing percentage: 182/270 after missing some action with an injury. Virginia will be the latest team to try to contain Ahmad Hardy, who finished he regular year number two in rushing with 1,569 yards. The Tigers ran for well over 2,000 yards. Kevin Coleman caught 63 passes for 715 yards, one of five players with 25 or more catches. Missouri’s defense racked up 35 sacks and seven interceptions.

Missouri crept back into the top 25 with its last game win over Arkansas. The Tigers played four top ten teams and lost all of those games, two by one score. Virginia played no to ten teams. The early line has Missouri winning by a touchdown.

(BEARS AND WOLVES)—The Missouri State Bears meet the Arkansas State Red Wolves in a borderline battle in the Xbox Bowl on the 18^th. Ark-State is 6-6. The Bears are 7-5. Both teams played Kennesaw State this year. Arkansas State lost 28-21. Missouri sate lost 41-34.

State’s Jaylon Raynor hit two-thirds of his passes this year for almost 3,100 yards, sixteen TDs and 11 interceptions. The Red Wolves’ top rusher, Devin Spencer, ran for 529 yards on 102 carries. Cary Rucker led the team in reception with 69 catches for 866 yards. The defense had 31 sacks and 33 interceptions.

Missouri State played six one score games and went 5-1, leading some to refer to them as the Cardiac Bears. Jacob Clark was 222/341 passing for 2,895 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Shomari Lawrence should go past the 1,000 yard mark in the bowl game. Jmariyea Robinson caught 40 passes for 536 yards, one of five players with at least 400 yards receiving. The defense wracked up 33 sacks and eight interceptions.

This is the first bowl game in school history for the Missouri State Bears and the prognosticators think the Bears will be a touchdown better.

(NIL SUIT)—Sooner or later, somebody was going to get nasty about this NIL stuff. The University of Georgia is going to court to recover $390,000 it invested in edge rusher Damon Wilson II. Georgia says he broke his NIL agreement when he transferred from Georgia to Missouri. The lawsuit says Wilson signed a contract a year ago that would pay him $30,000 a month with bonuses that made the whole package worth one-half million dollars. The lawsuit says Wilson informed the university a few weeks later that he was transferring to Missouri.

Wilson was in 11 games with Georgia as a freshman. He had nine sacks and an interception this year for Missouri.

(CHIEFS)—-It is increasingly likely that Kansas City Chiefs players will be watching the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl from the comfort of their favorite chairs at home. Their dispiriting 20-10 loss to the Houston Texans—at Arrowhead—has left them 6-7, needing to win every game from here on and few observers thinking they can do it.

Injuries that made the front line more porous than usual, penalties, and (in particular) dropped passes all made for a frustrating evening. Harrison Butker continued his unaccustomed erratic season by missing his eighth kick for a field goal or extra point this year when be dinked a field goal attempt off the coal post upright.

And this final note, an update on a former Tiger—

(BRADY)—-Brady Cook got his first extended time as an NFL quarterback Sunday as the backup to the backup quarterback when both guys ahead of him were sidelined with injuries. Starter Justin Fields was inactive because of a knee injury and backup Tyrod Taylor left with a groin injury six play into the game. Cook connected on 14 of his thirty pass attempts for 163 yards. Two of his passes wound up in the wrong hands. He was sacked six times and fumbled twice, one of which was recovered. The Jets lost 34-10 to Miami to fall to 3-10 for the year.

Head coach Aaron Glenn said after the game, “He was put in a tough situation. It’s always tough for a backup quarterback to actually go in and get the rhythm that he needs from not getting as many reps as you want ot get during the week…I thought he really had true command of the huddle with the players. ..It’s a tough situation because of the score at that point. [It] put him in a situation where he had to drop back and throw the ball probably more than we wanted him to. But I thought he handled that well.”

As for Cook: “It was definitely a challenge, but a great challenge. One that comes with the job of being the backup quarterback. I felt ready to play today, and obviously I didn’t do enough to get a win, Coming in at half, talking it over, just taking a deep breath, and then coming back out there, I definitely did (settle down). I think you definitely saw flashes there in the fourth quarter of us moving the ball. So, we need more of it.”

As for whether Cook will see more action next weekend? Glenn says that depends on how the other two quarterbacks recover during the week.

(MUBB)—The last few minutes of the first half and the critical opening minutes of the second half became the dagger in the heart of the Missouri basketball Tigers Sunday. Kansas outscored the Tigers 23-3 during that span and maintained the 20-point lead at the end. The game was played in Kansas City. Turnovers (10) and 21 for 61 shooting against the number eight defense in the nation during the first half led to the deficit at the break that grew in the second half.

Alabama State and Bethune Cookman should get Missouri to the ten-win mark before their game against Illinois on the 22^nd.

(BASEBALL)—This is the week we might expect some significant news about the Royals and the Cardinals. It’s time for the Winter meetings.

The Cardinals have picked up right-handed reliever Richard Fitt from the Red Sox. Fitts’ pitching arm went numb for a couple of weeks in the last season but he’s healthy again and hopes he can make a mark in St. Louis. he’s pitched in parts of two seasons and has a 2-3 record with a 3.97 career ERA. He’s been in 15 games, all but one as a starter. He’s 25.

The Royals haven’t caused many ripples this winter as they consider ways to beef up their offense. One thing they did make clear is that pitcher Cole Ragans is not on the trading table.

As the Royals continue to search for ways to elevate their offense for 2026, the conversation usually takes a turn toward their pitching. The Royals have a lot of rotation depth and could use it to land a bat in a trade this offseason. That’s a logical connection, and one the club has continued to discuss as this week’s Winter Meetings kick off in Orlando.

But who would the Royals really be willing to part with, and does it actually include their ace, lefty Cole Ragans? Not as far as General Manager J. J. Piccollo is concerned. He says it would be “really difficult” to trade Ragans. “If we didn’t have Cole Ragans in our rotation, we’d feel like we’re missing something really big.”

On to the fast stuff:

(NASCAR)—The big antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR has dominated the automobile racing headlines for several days. Things have turned increasingly nasty in the first week with the entrance into the evidence file of internal messages, letters, and documents belittling the teams and drivers who have filed the suit. NASCAR’s franchise system is being challenged by 23XI racing (owned by Michael Jordan whose uniform number was 23) and driver Denny Hamlin (whose car number is XI—eleven).

(INDYCAR)—We are 81 days away from the first IndyCar race of 2026.

Seats are being filled for the next season. The driver with the most appropriate name in the series will return to Juncos Racing. Sting Ray Robb is considered “a key pillar” in the team efforts to improve its standing.

Kyle Kirkwood has a contract extension from Andretti Global. He’s been with the team for the last three years during which he has become serious contender with five wins, three poles and six podium finishes.

(Credits; Xbox Bowl, Gator Bowl, New York Jets)

Sports; Tigers Having a Long Drink and Wait for a Bowl; Chief Playing for Highest Draft Pick in Years; It’s Basketball Season

Posted on December 2, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—Missouri ground up Arkansas and spit it out as it wrapped up its 8-4 season that leaves fans with several “what ifs.” What if Sam Horn hadn’t lost his season in his first game of the year? What if Beau Pribula had not lost three games with his ankle injury and wasn’t mobile for a fourth? What if the team’s field goal kicker had not been hurt.

—all of which is meaningless, of course. Missouri is 29-9 in these last three seasons with a chance to win 30 games in three years for only the third time (Missouri was 30-11 twice, from 2007-09 and from 2006-2008) in school history. For the record, Missouri went 40-14 from 2007-2010, 38-16 from 2006-2009 and 36-17 from 2008-2011.

Three Tigers had more than 100 yard of offense in the game: Ahmad Hardy with 149 rushing yards, Jamal Roberts with another 100, and Pribula, who was 4-7 passing for only 25 yards but who ran for 78. It’s Hardy’s eighth 100-yard game of the year.

(POTY)—Despite Hardy’s performance, including his astonishing tackle-busting TD run, SEC Player of the Week honors went to two other Tigers.

Wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr., was named Special Teams POTW for his 67-yard punt return for a touchdown, the first return for a Missouri touchdown since 2022. Defensive tackle Chris McClellan was the defensive lineman of the week for recording two sacks and three pressures. His sack after Coleman’s return created a six-yard loss on first down, putting the Razorbacks in a hole they couldn’t get out of, forcing a three-and-out that stifled any chance for a rally.

(MIZPOLLS)—Missouri will go to its bowl game as a ranked team, but just barely. The AP sportswriters led Missouri squeak in at 25 in their poll, only a couple of votes ahead of Tennessee. The Tigers aren’t so highly regarded by coaches. Iowa and Houston are ahead of Missouri as the first teams outside the top 25 of their poll.

(DOAK)—Ahmad Hardy’s yardage against Arkansas moves him to 1,560 for the year, just 28 yards behind Jacksonville State’s Cam Cook. He is one of the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the best running back in college football for the year. It’s named for the SMU All-American who won the Maxwell Award in 1947 and the Heisman Trophy in 1948.

How do the three stack up statistically? Physically, really close. Performance-wise, close.

Ahmad Hardy Missouri 5-10 206 pounds 241 carries 1560 yds. 6.5 average 16 TD

Kewan Lacy Ole Miss 5-11 200 pounds 258 carries 1279 yds. 5.0 average 20 TD

Jeremiah Love Notre Dame 6-0 214 pounds 199 carries 1372 yds. 6.9 average 18 TD

Love is a Junior. Hardy and Lacy are Sophomores.

Here’s one stat that might give Hardy a leg-up, if you will: More than 1,000 of his yards have come after breaking at least one tackle. His 53-yard touchdown run through, it seemed, the entire Arkansas defense could be a clincher.

Instagram

(DRINKWITZ)—His team won’t win ten games this year but Tiger Coach Eli Drinkwitz has won a bid extension to his contract—six years with an average paycheck of #10.75 million. The University Board of Curators authorized the extension through the 2031 season after rumor increased that he was on the short list of coach choices in several major universities.

The six-year deal is two more years than the extension he signed earlier. It’s worth $64.5 million, putting Drinkwitz in the top-ten list of football coach salaries.

He was frustrated by all of the speculation about his possible candidacy for a job elsewhere. He said he was never interviewed for any of the high-profile positions that gossip put as a favorite to take: Penn Sate, LSU, Florida, or Auburn. He said after the Arkansas game, “We’ve got to figure this out, where we’re not putting pressure on coaches and programs and people during the middle of the week where there’s nothing but speculation…We’ve got Twitter trending with bets on who’s going to be leading or get this job… That’s annoying. That’s bullcrap. OK? And it’s just speculation, it’s just media throwing stuff on the wall, and it’s tough on everybody. It’s tough on players, it’s tough on coaches…I just felt like we weren’t done yet. That north end zone isn’t completed. And, so, my job here is not completed yet.”

In his six years at Mizzou, the Tigers are 46-28 and 26-24 in the SEC. He’s 58-29 in his career after gpomg12-1 as a first-year coach at Appalachian State. The Mountaineers finished 18^th and 19^th in the polls that year.

(MIZMBB)—The undefeated season-opening string for the Missouri Tigers has reached eight games with a Dennis Gates homecoming win at Cleveland State, the school from which Missouri hired him four years ago. The hiring became something of a swap because Cleveland hired former Missouri coach (and former Gates assistant), Rob Summers, as its head coach.

The Tigers were never challenged in their 86-59 win, running off the first 23 points of the game. The Vikings were scoreless for half of the first half. Five Tigers were in double figures with Jacob Crews finishing with 19.

Seven-foot-five center Trent Burns saw action in his second straight game as he works his way back into shape after foot surgery. Although he was in for only six minutes and didn’t score, he two rebounds, a block, and a pair of assists.

Things get more serious now. The Tigers play Notre Dame tonight before facing the Kansas Jayhawks in Kansas City on the 7^th.

Missouri got the 28^th most vote from the AP, the 29^th most from the coaches. Notre Dame did not receive any points in either poll. The Fighting Irish roundballers are 5-3.

Kansas is 21^st in both with a 6-2 record.

(MIZWBB) The women’s team is off to a 7-2 start after a big win against Northwestern in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida. The Lady Tigers used Grace Slaughter’s 33 points to win 85-70. It was a landmark day for two people. Slaughter’s last bucket got her to 1,000 career points. It also lifted coach Kellie Harper to her 400 win.

Five players racked up double figures for Mizzou with Shanno Dowell getting her fourth double-double of the year—12 points and 13 rebounds. Northwestern drops to 6-1.

Missouri faces California in the ACC/SEC Challenge Thursday night in Columbia. The Tiger women received no votes in this week’s Ap women’s basketball poll. (ZOU)

(POST-SEASON)—Northwest Missouri State made it to the Division II playoffs but didn’t make it past Harding, losing 38-16 in the first round.

Missouri State and Delaware are the last two teams to get into the 82-team FBS post-season tournament. The Bears will learn next Sunday who their first-round opponent will be. They’re 7-5 (5-3 in Conference USA) after losing their last regular-season game, 42-30 to Louisiana Tech.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs continue to make it appear likely they’ll be in the best position inyears for the college draft next Spring. Their 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys dropped their record to 6-6.

There still is time to mess up their draft status, though. Last year the Chiefs also had split their first dozen games and wound up in the Super Bowl.

It was a familiar story against Dallas—inconsistency, a leaky offensive line, momentum-robbing penalties, and a vulnerable defense.

(BASEBALL)—Other than the Sonny Gray trade to the Red Sox for two minor league pitchers, the Cardinals have been pretty quiet. Any speculation that reliever Ryan Helsley would come back to St. Louis after his trade last season to the Mets has been killed by Halsley’s two-year $28 million dollar deal with the Orioles.

The Royals have been quiet, too.

Nineteen of the game’s top 25 free agents remain unsigned as we head to the winter meetings, starting December 10 in Dallas.

As we experience our first bitter cold and snow of the winter, here’s a warming reminder—Pitchers and catchers report for spring training on February 11. The days can’t pass fast enough.

Speaking of things that are fast—

(INDYCAR)—The 110^th Indianapolis 500 next May will have an even more patriotic mood about it than usual, as the race and the nation celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the document that created our nation, the Declaration of Independence.

The first part of the race’s promotion is the unveiling of next year’s logo.

The speedway says, “the logo colors directly match those of the American flag. The shield harkens back to the coat of arms, now called the Great Seal of the United States. The red stripes represent the stripes of the flag, as well as the wings of the IMS Wing & Wheel logo, while the four stars represent IMS’s four “founding father.”

At least one of the cars will carry the theme. A. J. Foyt Racing will have this car for Santino Ferrucci next year.

HFOT stands for Homes For Our Troops a nonprofit organization that provides custom homes for severely injured post 9/11 veterans. A team statement says, “Most of these veterans have sustained injuries, including multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, blindness, severe burns, and/or severe traumatic brain injury.

(NASCAR)—The antitrust lawsuit filed by two NASCAR Cup teams against the sanctioning body (and owner of most of the tracks where the series’ major races are run has begun. The pre-trial climate has been increasingly ugly and the trial is expected to follow suit.

(FORMULA1)—The last race of the last major racing series to call it a year will be Abu Dabi next weekend. Max Verstappen’s win last weekend moves him to only 12 points behind Lado Naorris.

Sports: Frustration in Norman; Elation in KC; A Former Tiger Gets a Kick Out of Playing in LA

Posted on November 25, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—A frustrating day for the Missouri Tigers in Norman Oklahoma means Missouri must win at Arkansas next weekend to have the chance for a nine-win season when much more was anticipated.

Missouri is now 7-4 after its 17-6 loss in Norman, a game the defense saved for Missouri but the offense could not claim. Missouri took an early lead on a Robert Meyer field goal and had a chance to make it a six-point lead when Meyer’s kick from inside the red zone in the second quarter was blocked.

Oklahoma seized the lead on the only big play of the game—an 87 yard pass from John Mateer to Isaiah Sategna, who’d gotten a step ahead of Tiger safety Marvin Burks Jr. Mateer hit Javonnie Gibson for a second touchdown after Missouri went three-and=out on its next drive.

Bo Pribula was back from his ankle injury and went 20/35 for 231 yards but had two interceptions and the Sooner sacked him four times. Playing on the ankle injured a month ago, Pribula did not show the mobility that had helped open the Tiger offense in previous games.

Missouri has become a team that cannot beat a top-10 team. It’s the fourth time this year they have failed and Coach Drinkwitz drop to 0-7 against top-25 SEC teams in the last two years.

The loss drops Missouri to 29^th in the coaches poll; 28^th in the AP.

(MIZBB)—-The Missouri Tigers are undefeated through their first six games but have yet to dent the top 25 in either major poll. The Tigers are 33^rd in the top 25 rankings by the AP and in the Coaches poll. The Tigers play South Carolina State at the Mizzou Arena tonight. State has yet to win after six games this year.

(MIZTHICKER)— Jushua Karty is still on the Los Angeles Rams roster as a place kicker and former Tiger Harrison Mevis is doing his best to make sure he stays there. Mevis kicked four more extra points this weekend to run his consecutive string to 13 and then was two for two on field goals—from 42 and 50 yards—in the Rams win over Tampa Bay. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—They were down by eleven with only the last quarter ahead of them and the Indianapolis Colts were ready to hammer the nails into their playoff coffins. The hometown fans had been watching the Kansas City Chiefs once again with a sluggish offense, a disappointing defense, a team crippled by penalties at wrong times and unable to put a coherent offense together.

And the Chiefs stopped the Colts in their tracks and played a fourth quarter out of the past to win the game in overtime 23-20 on a Harrison Butker field goal.

Rashee Rice was a key figure in the comeback. The Chiefs were pinned close to their end zone line, Patrick Mahomes found Rice for 47 yards. His fourth and 3 grab that went for 19 yards kept the final drive going before the game-winning field goal.

If Rice was the lightning, Kareen Rush was the thunder in the second half. He finished the day with 30 carries for 104 yards, giving KC a 100-yard rusher and a 100-yard receive in a game for the first time this year.

The defense stopped Colts cold in the second half, giving up only five first downs and giving up first downs on only two of seven Colts chances. They dominated the fourth quarter, holding the ball for 10:39 of the quarter’s fifteen minutes and stopping the Indianapolis passing game as well as its rushing attack.

Patrick Mahomes set a new passing record in the game. His 352 yards (but no touchdowns) put him past the 35,000 yard mark for his career. It was his 123^rd game, breaking Matthew Stafford’s record of 126.

The Chiefs avoided falling below .500 with the win. The loss was only the third of the season for Indianapolis. They lead the AFC South by a game over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Chiefs have a short week before their Thanksgiving game in their original home town against the Cowboys, who have struggled to a 5-5-1 season. The Cowboys had won their last two games but they’re giving up a lot of points—314 so far. The Chiefs have given up only 201.

CARDINALS)—The Cardinals are laying the groundwork for free agent signings, trades, or promotions from the minors in coming weeks. They’ve decided not to offer contracts to four players, including Yohel Pozo, who finished second in all of the major leagues with seven pinch-hit runs batted in. They’ve also non-tendered reliever John King and minor league pitcher Sem Robberse. They’ve DFA’s reliever Jorge Alcala. It’s thought Pozo could come back with a minor league contracts next year.

There are three guaranteed contracts: William Contrares, Sonny Gray, and Noen Aranado. Seven more are eligible for new contracts—Nolan Gorman and Alex Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbar, Matthew Liberatore, Andre Pallante, and JoJo Romero.

Three players have guaranteed contracts==Nolen Aranado, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contrerras. The list of players eligible for new contracts stands at seven: JoJo Romero, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbar, Andre Pallante, Matthew Liberatore, Nolan Gorman, and Alex Burleson. Pre-arbitration contracts have been offered to 27 other guys.

Two top minor leaguers are hoping to head north with the team after spring training next year—J. J. Wetherholt and Brycen Mautz.

Wetherholt has been named the Cardinals’ Minor LeaguePlayer of the Year. He’s considered the fifth overall prospect in the majors. A left=handed batter, he hit .306 in 109 games last year, one of six minor leaguers to exceed .300/400/510 last year with 17 homers, 28 doubles, a pair of triples, 23 steals, and 59 RBIs playing for Springfield (double A) and Memphis (triple A). The last player to do that in the Cardinals system was Ted Savage, fifty-nine years ago. Savage bounced around among eight teams in his ten-year major league career.

Mautz was a second-round draft pick in ’22 and was the Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the year this year. He was in double-A last summer, started 25 games, went 8-3 with a 2.98 ERA in 25 starts. He fanned 135 and walked only 33 in 114.2 innings as he led Springfield to a Texas League championship.

(ROYALS)—Catcher Salvador Perez has been named he captain of the Venezuelan team in the World Baseball Classic that will be played in March.

The Royals have are gambling that reliever Alex Lange can return to major league level after he missed most of last season. Lange’s deal is worth $900,000 in 2026 with $100,000 in performance bonuses, a source told MLB.com. He will make $2.5 million in his two-year contract and will be under Royals control through 2028. Lange was DFA’s by the Tigers on November 12. He was in one game for the Tigers last season before going on the injured last season after surgery on a right lat injury. When he returned, he was sent to Toledo in triple-A. He was released after posting a 4.64 ERA.

With the Tigers in 2022-23 when he was in 138 games with a 3.55 ERA, and rang up 26 saves in 32 opportunities. He’s a home town boy who went to Lee’s Summit West High School before going to LSU and becoming a first-round pick by the Cubs.

The Royals have signed infielder Jonathan India to a new deal after his first season with the team. He came over from the Reds. He’d been considered a possible non-tender player after hitting .233 last season. His deal is worth $8 million, a million dollar raise from 2025.

But the Royals are cutting loose J. J. Melendez and pitcher Taylor Clarke. Melendez didn’t seem to match his promise although showing good power. He was a second-round pick in 2017 who made his major league debut in 2022. Last year, he was in just 23 games and hit .083 with five hits in sixty at-bats before being sent down to Omaha. He had 20 homers and 64 RBIs at Omaha and hit .261 last season.

Clarke was in 51 games for Kansas City last year, posted a 3.25 ERA, had one save, and was 1-1. He’ll be 33 next year.

The Royals have offered contracts to their arbitration-eligible players: outfielder Kyle Isbel, infielders Vinnie Pasquantino, Maikel Garcia, and Michael Massey, and pitchers Kris Bubic, Angel Zerpa, John Schrieber, Daniel Lynch IV, and Bailey Falter.

Now, the speedy stuff:

(INDYCAR)—Immortality, at least as long as sterling silver lasts, has come to Alex Palou, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500 as well as his fourth IndyCar championship. His image joins the images of all of other 500 winners of the race on the Borg-Warner Trophy.

He had never won a race on an oval until last May when he got past former winner Marcus Ericsson and led the last thirteen laps. He’s the first driver from Spain to make it to the trophy.

Seeing his image on the big trophy provoke emotions that other winners have felt when they saw their images for the first time. “I know that it’s always going to be there forever, if I race one more year or if I race 50 more years. And whatever the history of INDYCAR is going to be, it’s always going to be there. So, it’s great to be part of all those amazing drivers. And, yeah, I feel that now. I want to get that face again on that trophy. Try and be part again of the history of our sport.”

Palou’s image joins that of 2024 winner Josef Newgarden and 110 other images on the trophy created in 1936.

(Roger Penske and Josef Newgarden with their Baby Borgs after Newgarden’s 2024 win)

The trophy has the image of only one non-winner of the race. Long-time track owner Tony Hulman, who rescued the Indianapolis Speedway from destruction after World War II, and owned it until his death in 1977, is portrayed by a gold image.

-0-

Another former Formula One driver is moving to IndyCar—Mick Schumacher, who has signed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He’s the son of Michael Schumacher, a seven-time world champion. He’s part of a team that includes veteran Graham Rahal and IndyCar Rookie of the Year Louis Foster.

It’s a new chapter in Schumacher’s life after a career in F1 and in endurance races. He’s never raced on an oval. Six of next year’s races are on ovals. He’ll run his first race for RLL on the St. Petersburg, Florida street circuit on March 1.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen repeated his victory on the glitzy streets of Las Vegas, taking a first lap lead over points-leader Lando Norris and running away from any challenges. It was the third F1 race in the States this year as the series hopes to build its constituency in this country.

Norris crossed the finish line in second place twenty seconds behind Verstappen with George Russell third and Norris teammate Oliver Piastri fourth.

But Norris and Piastri were disqualified because the skid plates under their car were short of specifications, relegating them top 19^th and 20^th place in the race and allowing Verstappen to take a bite out of Norris’ points lead.

The results put Verstappen and Piastri 24 points behind Norris with two races to go.

(Photo Credits: Mahomes—KC Chiefs; Mevis: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images © Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images; Palou—Indycar; Penske and New Garden—Detroit News)

The Border War

Posted on November 21, 2025 by bpriddy

I might not be considered a loyal Missourian—

because I don’t give a hoot on which side of the state line the Royals and the Chiefs play. If I’m going to drive three hours to get to a game in Kansas City, what’s another ten or fifteen minutes on Interstate 70? A game is a game wherever it’s played.

I long ago thought the Missouri-Kansas sports rivalry thing was stupid. The pre-war Civil War ended more than 150 years ago and to liken two teams of big guys trying stomp on each other, or two teams of tall guys jamming a ball into a metal circle has any significance to the universe is insane.

The great sports columnist Heywood Hale Broun wrote in the forward to his wonderful book, Tumultuous Merriment;

“The actual importance of the contest is immaterial to both spectators and players once the period of magic has begun. The level of excitement is subconsciously chosen by those present and after a time exists beyond their control. It is only harmful when, like some lingering germ from a tropical paradise, it darkens the future. All of us should play as if life and honor depended on it, and all of us should cheer as if it were Lucifer State versus Angel U. in the arena; but at game’s end all of us should recognize that paradise was neither won nor lost. None of us should emulate those middle-aged men who stare glumly into the bottom of a highball glass when they think of a shot that failed to drop in the last second of some long-ago basketball game.”

In other words, the game is what is important and it is important only within the time of the game. Attaching any importance outside that period is a waste of time.

So, then, is all of the anguish about economic advantage of one place over another unimportant within the entirety of an economic area. And that should be what we are talking about here because the metropolitan cities and counties form their own economic area regardless of rivers and streets. Why there continues to be a counterproductive economic civil war within that area is beyond my understanding.

It’s not a case of whether the teams play on one side of the Missouri River or the other. The river as a boundary is a manmade abstraction as are state lines. The grass is the same color on both sides. Drive down Stateline Road. One side is in Jackson County, Missouri. The other is in Wyandotte County, Kansas. If you drive north, you’re in Missouri. Drive south and you’re in Kansas. The difference is a white line about six inches wide in the pavement..

The Chiefs and the Royals are still going to be “The Kansas City Whatevers” regardless of which side of a manmade line on which they hold their contests.

Get over it.

For years, Missouri and Kansas have waged an economic war, giving tax breaks to snatch this or that business from the other side only to have the other side a few years later offer tax breaks to get the company back.

If one state or the other is economically ahead, it can’t be by very much.

This silliness almost became—and maybe should have become—academic in 1855, the days of the pre-war border war, when pro-slavery Westport resident Mobillion McGee decided the chances of Kansas entering the Union as a slave state would be improved if the Missouri boundary line was shifted to the east a few miles, thereby putting more pro-slavery voters in Kansas. He and newspaper publisher Robet T. Van Horn convinced the legislatures of both states to agree to the scheme. But a young man they hired to seek congressional approval went to Washington, fell in love, married and left on an extended honeymoon, during which time enthusiasm for the plan cooled and it was never carried out.

Their idea has some validity today, not in redrawing the boundary lines for slavery but in considering territory on both sides of the lines as a single economic entity. Such a move would take, as happened in 1855, legislative approval from both states to form an economic district that would jointly pursue economic development mutually beneficial to the broader area.

Call it the McGee Enterprise Zone in which rivalries would not be recognized and the economic power of two states will be combined for greater development, the value of which would be shared by both.

It won’t be simple to organize such an entity. But doing so could end decades of unproductive rivalry resulting from unnecessary adherence to manmade lines. A battle between Lucifer State and Angel U is okay in the three hours of a game. But the game does not last for more than 150 years and neither should the parochial man-made rivalry between Kansas and Missouri.

Build stadiums wherever negotiations lead them to be built. It’s all still the Kansas City area and in the end we should be glad they don’t move to Nashville.

Sports: A Runaway in Columbia; A Toasting in Denver; Other Teams AND Suppose Every Quarter or Inning Started at Zero

Posted on November 19, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—A Chiefs dynasty was kicked to the curb Sunday evening in Denver when the Bronco’s Wil Lutz drilled a 34-yard field goal on the last play of the game. Denver 22, Kansas City 19. It’s the eighth straight win for Denver and runs their record to 9-2. The Chiefs are 5-5, their first time they’ve lost five games in the regular season since 2017.

Each team scored only one touchdown. Denver had five field goal. Kansas City four.

Bo Nix and Wil Lutz showed off their clutch genes again, and the Broncos are now firmly in control of the AFC West — a division the Chiefs have won nine straight times — after a 22-19 win over Kansas City. It’s Denver’s eighth consecutive win.

Kansas City had taken a 19-16 lead halfway through the quarter but Lutz hit a field goal from 54 yards to tie it and then the 34-yarder to win.

Denver QB Bo Nix outplayed Chiefs QB Patrick Mahome, especially in the final drive. He converted a 3^rd and 15 with a 20 yard completion, completed another pass on 3^rd and 5 for another first down and hit Troy Franklin for 32 yards to set up the winning field goal

Denver is 7-2 in one-score games this year and lead the NFL in that category. The Chiefs are winless in five one-score games after going 12-0 last year in that category.

The Chiefs are now third in the AFC West behind Denver (9-2) and the Chargers (7-4.) They are 9^th in the playoff standings, two games on the outside. They’re one game behind the Jaguars and do not have them on the schedule for a second game this year.

One bright spot for the Chiefs: Mahomes and Travis Kelce combined for a touchdown that gave the Chiefs their only lead for the day in the fourth quarter. Kelce now has 84 TDs, one more than Priest Holmes had in his career.

(THICKER)—The Los Angeles Rams activated former Tiger Harrison Mevis from the practice squad for the second weekend in a row for their game against the Seattle Seahawks and he was perfect again—three for three on points after touchdowns. He’s now 9 for 9.

(MIZZFB)—Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy ran over, around, and through Mississippi State in the Tigers 49-27 win that has returned the Tigers to the top 25 in the ratings. Theyu’re 23^rd in the AP poll. Coaches have them 21^st. They’ll get another stiff test next weekend against Oklahoma, ranked 8^th in both polls.

Hardy’s 300 yards gives him 1,346 for the season, fifth on the all-time list but with a chance to break Cody Schrader’s record of 1,627.

Speaking of Schrader, where is he? Still in the NFL, now on the Jacksonville Jaguars roster but not good enough to get in any games. He was considered healthy inactive for last week’s game against the Chargers. The Jags resigned him October 8. He’s about fourth on the running back depth chart, important enough to be on the regular roster rather than the practice squad but buried in the sideline crowd and inactivated for weekend games.

(SECPOTW)—Two Tigers have made the SEC Player of the Week list after the 49-27 win over Mississippi State. But they have to share their honors with players from other teams.

Ahmad Hardy’s 300-yards on 25 carries and three touchdowns earned him co-offensive POTW with Ole Miss running back Kewon Lacy. It was a game of superlatives for Hardy:

The seventh 300-yard game in all of the SEC history, the second-best in Tiger history, less than twenty yards behind Devin West’s 318 in 1995. Forty-six of his yards came after contact. He forced eight missed tackles. Ten of his runs on third-down plays became first down. He had five gains of 20 or more yards including touchdowns of 72 and 43 yards. His third TD was a run of “only” ten yards. He now has seven 100-yard rushing games this year.

Lacy had a career-best 224 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-24 win over Florida. He also set a new team record with his 19^th touchdown of the year.

Cornerback Toriano Pride Jr., had an interception that turned into a touchdown and a picked up fumbled field goal placement that he almost took back for a score. He shares this week’s award with Oklahoma Cornerback Eli Bowen whose 87-yard touchdown return of an intercepted pass.

(BEAUBACK.)—Pribula ready to return? CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reports Beau Pribula might be back for Oklahoma. If so, it’s a quick return for a guy whose season was thought to be endangered just three weeks ago with a non-fracture dislocated ankle. The report characterizes it as “early optimism.”

Pribula was on the field before the game throwing some light passes, sanding on both feet with leverage enough to throw the ball.

True Freshman Matt Zollars is still listed as the starter early in the preparation week. Pribula’s mobility gave Missouri an important dimension while he was playing. Zollars has not shown that kind of mobility in either of the games he has started in Pribula’s place; Ahmad Hardy pretty well eliminated that as an issue.

(MIZBB)—Mizzou’s basketball squad made Prairie View its latest tune-up victim last night, 91-73, the second game the Tigers have gotten to 90 or better. Six players were in double figures with Jacob Crews hanging up 20 points in 24 minutes on 7-of-10 shooting, including four of five from outside.

Missouri is 5-0 going into its next game—against South Dakota on Thursday night at the Mizzou arena. The Tigers have three straight wins of 15 points or more.

(MIZRECRUITS)—Looks as if the hits are going to keep on coming for Missouri basketball. Recruiting season has wrapped up and Missouri has the nation’s #1 class for 2026 that includes three of the nation’s top 100 prospects—Jason Crowe Jr., the number five recruit in the country, toni Bryant, who was 14^th, and Aidan Chronister, who comes in at 83. Coach Dennis Gates says, “His work ethic is unmatched, his discipline is unmatched and his performance on the court is unmatched…On the court, J2 is as smooth as a player as there is. He is extremely crafty with a high basketball IQ that allows him to score in any situation.”

Bryant is a 6-9 power forward from North Tampa Christian High School in Florida. He’s considered the fourth-best player at his position who hit two-thirds of his field goal attempts (43% from three land), and had an average double-double last year—21 points and almost 12 rebounds. Gates compares his skills to those of Kobe Brown and Mark Mitchell and says he’s a “top shot blocker and can rebound the ball with the best of them.”

Chronister is a small forward at 6-6 and 175 pounds from Rogers Arkansas. Gates had his eyes on Chronister early on and thinks he is “a seamless fit” to the Tiger system with “elite shooting skills.” (ZOU)

(MOSTATE)—The Missouri football team is not the only 7-3 top-drawer team in the state. The Missouri State Bears bounced back from a bad third quarter to dominated the fourth quarter against UTEP and come away with a 38-24 victory, their sixth straight win. The Bears are now 5-1 in Conference USA and next meet Kenesaw State, which has the same record.

Quarterback Jason Clark’s school-record 30 completions Saturday (in 39 attempts) to ten receivers earned recognition as the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week. His passing was good for 330 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. It was his tenth 300-yard game and his 19^th game with more than 200 yards, tying a school record.

It’s Clark’s second POTW this year.

(BEARCATS)—The football Bearcats of Northwest Missouri State has made the NCAA Division II playoffs for the 27^th time. They’re an at-large team and will play their first round game at Searcy, Arkansas next weekend against undefeated Hardin University’s Bisons.

Harding is 11-0. Northwest Missouri is 9-2 and is the MIAA champion for the 32^nd time. Harding hopes to make the Bearcats their 22^nd straight home-field victim. Northwest Missouri has won all four of the games they’ve played against each other.

The 27 playoff appearances is an NCAA record for Division II. Their 53 playoff victories also is a DII record. Their playoff record is 53-20. Their six national championships are a Division II record. They have won repeat championships twice, 1998-99 and 2015-16.

Some wheel thoughts—.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR is expected to make some changes in the off=season in how it crowns its 2926 Cup champion. The twelve-driver playoff system has been attacked on various fronts and one of the biggest criticisms is that it does not guarantee the best driver during the entire season gets the big prize.

Another part of the NASCAR racing system that draws mixed reviews is stage racing. Although it was added to encourage more racing throughout each event, particularly through the long mid-race laps that seemed to lack excitement, there are those who never have been fans of the system.

Back when Columbia’s Carl Edwards was one of the top drivers on the circuit, he was not a fan of stage racing.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wiidmmf9dZk

His criticism is similar to other comments by competitors comparing racing to other sports. For instance, suppose a baseball game were divided into nine segments, each segment beginning scoreless, with only the ninth segment determining the winner of the game based on the number of runs scored in that inning or overtime innings although teams could score points for innings won. Suppose your team won the first inning 5-1, lost the third inning 0-2, the fifth inning 2-3 and the ninth inning 0-1. Instead of your team winning the game 7-6, it would lose because the other team got a run in the ninth and it would finish with one point in the standings while the other team emerged with three plus a bonus point for winning.

Theoretically, at the end of the season, a team with a mediocre win-loss record could become the champion because it won more innings.

And that’s a problem for NASCAR. A driver who would not even be in the top five, or in the top ten in total points for the year might finish no higher than 13^th in the final standings because he made the playoffs but did not win one of the three races in the first playoff round.

But one widely-recognized part of racing is “the show.” Are they putting on a good show? Is there a reason for the entire season to be entertaining if a driver has enough points to clinch the championship with three races to go?

Should the NCAA championship be given to the only undefeated team left after the regular season or should there be a 69-team tournament that gives a team with a losing record a chance to play for a national championship? The big tournament is the answer, in no small part being the ability to get more television money by playing more games.

Let’s face it, one reason we love sports is because there are underdogs. And sometimes underdogs pull upsets

An Open and Shut Case

Posted on November 11, 2025 by bpriddy

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that Governor Kehoe’s latest pitch to keep the Kansas City Chiefs in Missouri goes back to the original plans for the Truman Sports Complex, as the area that contains Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadiums on the eastern edge of Kansas City.

Kehoe told the AP there’s no talk of building an ultra-expensive completely domed stadium, but there might be another way to enclose the present Arrowhead Stadium. The leases the Royals and Chiefs have on the Jackson County Sports Complex expire in about five years, a pretty short time in stadium-building scenarios.

His concept has assumed immediate importance with a report by Pete Mundo of KCMO radio that the Chiefs have put out a request for proposals to design a new stadium near the Kansas Speedway. Mundo says the move does not mean the Chiefs have decided to move to the Kansas side. In fact he says his “gut” tells him they’ll stay on our side.

Kansas officials are not commenting and Chiefs owner Clark Hunt says the team is still negotiating with both sides.

But the story raises the stakes in the discussions.

Missouri officials well remember the failure of the legislature in the late 1990s to react favorably to a proposal to put a major automobile race track near Kansas City International Airport. The Kansas Speedway opened just across the state line in Wyandotte County Kansas and opened in 2001, triggering considerable development in the area.

World Sports Network estimated seven years later that the track already had generated $243 million a year in economic benefits to the area.

The idea of a covering for Arrowhead is not new. The original designs for the complex in the 1960s included a covering for both stadiums.

The rolling roof system would be on tracks that could move a covering over the playing fields for inclement weather. The stadiums would not be heated or air conditioned under that system but rain and snow would not be a factor.

The idea came from architect Charles U. Deaton, an innovative thinker born in New Mexico who never got a college degree. He became a certified architectural engineer after personal studies of industrial design, structural engineering, and architecture. He designed board games in addition to structures and held several patents for furniture and interior lighting designs—and for designing board games. He worked in St. Louis for a time before moving to Denver, where practiced until his death in 1996.

The original plans were for a facility much like Busch Stadium II in St. Louis, where both baseball and football games could be played. But Deaton convinced Chiefs GM Jack Steadman the dual stadium concept would be better.

If you want a more detailed description of the philosophy behind his designs, go to the KC Yesterday web page.

Deaton’s idea of the rolling roof was scrapped during the construction process—practicality time, and cost were factors. The Chiefs played their first game in Arrowhead in 1972. The Royals played their first game in their new home on April 10, 1973. Twenty years later it was renamed for Royals’ owner Ewing Kauffman.

Kehoe is not recommending a return to Deaton’s original but now outdated design. He cites more modern stadium architecture that he think would work at far less cost—-and the incredible costs of new stadiums is a huge factor. Jackson County voters rejected the extension of a local sales tax to finance an $800 million overhaul of Arrowhead and construction of a two-billion dollar ballpark and ballpark village (as it’s called in St. Louis) downtown.

Missouri and Kansas now are in a heated competition for the two teams and legislatures in both states have authorized millions of dollars in one form or another to provide the new facilities.

What Kehoe is suggesting is something similar to what he saw in Frankfurt, Germany when he attended a Chiefs-Dolphis game in 2023 at Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, a 100-year old soccer stadium that has been overhauled many times and now sports a cable-supported flexible, translucent fabric covering that can be opened or closed.

The Governor plans to meet today with the new Jackson County Executive, Phil LeVota, who also is talking to the Chiefs. The Chiefs aren’t reacting yet to the Kehoe suggestion but they have said they’d invest $1.l5 billion into the project if they decide to stay on our side of the state line. Another Kansas City (Missouri) election could be held next year.

For what it is worth, the view of the situation from the height of our hill is that this entire decades-long war for economic development in the Kansas City area has gone on too long. Somebody needs to develop a solution to it.

And we are as qualified as anyone to do that….and we will, on Monday.

(Photo credit: KC Yesterday/Jackson County Historical Society, Stadiowelt, Trip Advisor)

Sports (and the cruelties thereof)

Posted on November 4, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”

The truth in that observation by newspaper humor columnist Erma Bombeck many years ago was carried out in our sports venues in the past several days.

In baseball, the World Series ended in laughter for the Dodgers and great pain for the Blue Jays, an underdog team that carried a dream of baseball superiority into the into the final two outs of the seventh game when the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning, the first such blast World Series history. Scintillating defensive plays forced the game into the eleventh when the Dodgers got the winning run and the silent Toronto crowd realized their hopes for their first championship in 32 years were dead.

In football, the Chiefs played their way out of the playoff picture, for now, falling once more to the Buffalo Bills in Bufalo 28-21, dropping to 5-4. There was a time when Patrick Mahomes was unique and a unique offense generated points by the hands full. But the game has caught up with them. Joe Burrows at Cincinnati and Josh Allen at Buffalo also started displaying magic. Last year it was clear the rest of the league had caught up to the Chiefs in terms of talent and innovation. Last year’s run to the Super Bowl for the Chiefs was a matter of breaks. This year the breaks aren’t coming but opponents have adapted to the KC style and have gathered talent to be a stronger match for Kansas City. Burrows still is out with a turf tow problem but Allen was the superior quarterback with a better team last Sunday.

The thin line between laughter and pain was no better carried out in sports last weekend than in the NASCAR race at Phoenix Sunday. Denny Hamlin, desperate to win his first NASCAR Cup championship in his 22-year career, wanting to win it for his dying father, had command of the race with only a couple of laps to go when a flat tire by one of his competitors for the title, William Byron, that sent his car into the wall and brought out a caution flag. While several drivers hit the pits for two tires, Hamlin’s crew gave him four—-a decision that put him eighth for the restart, with several cars between him and rival Kyle Larson—-too many to work around in those last two laps.

Larson finished third in the race and won the championship without leading a single lap in the final race, a circumstance that might emphasize the demands for NASCAR to change its playoff system after Joey Logano’s championship last year in which he got into the playoff field on a tecnicalty.

Hamlin, who started on the pole and led 208 of the 319 laps, got back to fifth. “We were 40 seconds from a championship. It’s just unfortunate,” Hamlin said. “…It’s just, gosh, you work so hard. It’s just this sport can drive you absolutely crazy because it’s just that sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff just does not matter.”

Someone who can appreciate Hamlin’s situation is Carl Ewards, who saw his championship hopes vanish in a late-final race collision, and left racing, feeling that he had accomplished all of his personal goals in driving a race car at its maximum level, and realizing he wanted to live a fully life after racing with all of his physical and mental faculties intact.

Hamlin earlier this year signed a two-year contract extension that he says will be his last contract, motivated by some of the same things that Edwards cites—-wanting to leave the sport on his terms.

Ryan Blaney won the race but he wasn’t among the final four that fought for the title in the last race of the year. Blaney won his championship in 2023.

And finally, this week brought an end to the Andretti family’s hopes that one of them would win another Indianapolis 500. Marco Andretti, grandson of 1969 winner Mario, announced that he would not be back for a 21^st 500 and would retire from racing at age 38 to spend time with his daughter, his outside-racing ventures, and writing a memoir he’ll call “Defending the Dynasty.”

Marco (on the right) with father Michael and grandfather Mario, finished second once and third three times in the 500. Father Michael, in fifteen 500s as a driver was second once, third twice. Mario ran twenty-nine 500s was the runner up twice and crossed the finish line in another race.

In 1992, when Marco was five, the Andrettis were the first family to have four drivers competing in the same racing series.

Jeff, John, Michael and Mario. Michael and Jeff were Mario’s boys. John, who died in 2020, was the son of Mario’s brother, Aldo.

Next years race will be the first 500 since 1954 without an Andretti in it. The four Andrettis combined for 79 starts in the Indianapolis 500. They finished in the top ten 32 times, in the top five 16 times, ran second four times and third six times. John also competed in NASCAR for seventeen seasons.

John was the first driver to try to do “the double,” competing at the Indianapolis 500 and then running the 600-mile race at Charlotte that night. He was tenth at Indianapolis and was 36^th at Charlotte after dropping out with engine trouble just past the halfway point.

Michael hold the record for the driver leading the most laps (431) in the 500 without ever winning. However, as a team owner, his drivers won six 500s.

(MIZFB)—The football Tigers had the weekend off, an important bye for their new starting quarterback, true freshman Matt Zollars, who finished the Vanderbilt game after the ankle injury to beau Pribula. His backup will be reshirt junior Brett Brown, who came back to Missouri in September.

Zollars showed outstanding composure in finishing the game 14 of 23 for 138 passing yards. One of the passe was for a game-tying touchdown. His last one, as time ran out, was compoete to the six-inch line. It would have sent the game into overtime.

The Tigers are at home against third-ranked Texas A&M Saturday afternoon. They’re now 6-2 with four regular season games and a bowl game left as they try to win ten games in a season for an unprecedented third straight time. They’ll go into the game ranked 17^th and 19^th in the polls.

(MIZBB)—Missouri’s basketball season opened with a win on the road, 88-67, against Howard University.

Seven-foot Center Shawn Phillips dominated on the inside with a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds—Missouri outrebounded the Bison 47-28.

Freshman Guard Jayden Stone came off the bench for 13. Transfers Luke Norweather and Jevon Porter combined to match Phillips’ totals. Anthony Robinson II had eight points, four assists, and three steals.

The women’s team opened at the Hearnes Center with a 78-71 win over Central Arkansas. Shannon Dowell had 21 points and a dozen rebounds. Jordana Reisman also had a double-double for Missouri with a dozen points and ten rebounds.

(MORE BASEBAL)—The best-fielding shortstops in major league baseball are from Missouri. The Cadinals Masyn Wynn and the Royals Bobby Witt Jr., have been awarded gold gloves, the first of the off-season awards presented.

Wynn is the youngest gold-glove winner in Cardinals history at 23 years and 191 days. That breaks the record of third baseman Ken Reitz, who was 24 years, 96 days in (can it be so long ago?) 1975. He is the 100^th GG winner in Cardinals history. He’s the fourth shortstop to win it (Edgar Reneteria, Ozzie Smith, and Dal Maxwell). He had only three errors in 501 chances this year.

Witt has won two of the gloves. Also winning a Gold Glove teammate and third baseman Maikel Garcia, who joins George Brett as the only Third Basement gold glovers in Royals history.

(FREE AGENTS)—The end of the World Series is the beginning of the free agent and trade season. Royals outfielder, and former Cardinals outfielder, Randal Grichuk declined a $5 million mutual option yesterday and is in the market for a new team. The Royals also have exercised their $1.5 million buyout option for pitcher Michael Lorenzen, another mid-season addition who made 26 starts and one relief appearance and posted a 4.64 ERA.

The Cardinals and Mike Mikolas are parting ways. He is the only free agent listed in the first batch out.

(Photo credits: Chiefs vs. Bills—Paramount Plus; Three Andrettis—USA Today; Four Andrettis—RACER; Kyle Larson—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis)

Bob Priddy

A journalist's random observations

Category Archives: Sports

The Couple

Tiger, Tiger Burning Dimly; KCK Chiefs Slouch Toward the End; Sorrow and History in the speedsports.

Sports: Missouri’s Miserable Monday; Beaultin’ Beau; Beaten Bears; and some Bad Basketball

A Bad Weekend in KC; Bowling for Two; NFL Debut

Sports; Tigers Having a Long Drink and Wait for a Bowl; Chief Playing for Highest Draft Pick in Years; It’s Basketball Season

Sports: Frustration in Norman; Elation in KC; A Former Tiger Gets a Kick Out of Playing in LA

The Border War

Sports: A Runaway in Columbia; A Toasting in Denver; Other Teams AND Suppose Every Quarter or Inning Started at Zero

An Open and Shut Case

Sports (and the cruelties thereof)

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: