Nostalgia Blast

I received an email from JD Sports, with 'Newcastle's 'Bring Back' range is here' in the subject line, this morning.

It has been a long time since I supported Newcastle United. I mentioned that LAST WEEK. But, I did open the email. What a blast from the past that turned out to be.

There it was. A shirt I had back during my misspent youth. Without looking it up, I'd bet on this being the away top from the 1995/96 season. I owned both home and away shirts from that campaign.

Remember when I wrote about finding out about Kevin Keegan's second departure from Newcastle, in last week's post? Well - there's a 33.3% chance I was wearing that shirt at the time. I know I had one on, I just cannot recall which.

The third top - in my Newcastle supporting arsenal - was a very unique one, if I say so myself. It was green with blue vertical stripes. I believe it was from Newcastle's third strip during the 1994/95 season. I recall being stopped at least twice* and asked if the shirt was a Leeds United one. They did look vaguely similar to be fair.

Anyway, that's my nostalgia blast quota done for the day. Thanks JD Sports.

*Yes, people used to stop me in the street and ask about my football shirts. It happened a lot. I was once stopped and asked 'who is on your shirt?' when I had a Snoop Dogg one on! Another time I was asked what 'nWo' meant when I wore a New World Order t-shirt while shopping.

Last Night And Tonight

What a brilliant Wild Card Weekend it has been. And we still have one more game to go.

Following on from yesterday's post, I was obviously happy to see the Bills sneak through to the next round. I was on edge throughout the fourth quarter. Buffalo won 27-24, doing more than just covering the +2 spread.

For tonight, I'd like the Pittsburgh Steelers to upset the Houston Texans. The Aaron Rodgers led team are currently three-point home dogs.

I am contemplating staying up for it. If I do, I'll watch the Manningcast version.

Curiosity And The Socks With Buffalos On Them

The socks with buffalos are on. The Indianapolis Colts Nikes aren't.

I don't know why I forgot the latter. I know why I remembered the former.

Early this evening, the Buffalo Bills will play the Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild card round of the NFL Playoffs. I'd like Buffalo to go as far as they can, so I'll be rooting for them over the next few weeks. 

If they make it that far, of course.

I haven't used the spreadsheet to make any of my picks at all this season. It has all been done with the database results. However, for today, curiosity has gotten the better of me. I have to see what it's predicting for the Bills' visit to the Jags.

One moment please.

* * *

Eek.

It has the Jaguars winning by only one point. Close.

Going by the lines, that does actually call for the Bills to cover the spread. That's because the bookmakers have them listed as two-point road dogs. 

As for the database: it shows that the series has gone 4-4 (50%) straight up when these teams have met in Jacksonville. The Bills are 6-2 (75%) against the spread from those games. They've been road dogs on five of those occasions and have a 4-1 (80%) record from only those fixtures.

I, for sure, would have picked Buffalo in the handicapping contest had this been a regular season game. The only thing against them is the spreadsheet giving the Jaguars the win by one measly point. 

One measly point is all it takes in the playoffs, however.

McIntyre Wins The Gold, What Happens Next?!

I thought WWE's decision to strap up Drew McIntyre as Undisputed WWE Champion was quite a cool move when I saw it play out live as I watched Smackdown yesterday evening.

The Scot won the Three Stages of Hell match against Cody Rhodes in the main event from the show filmed in Berlin. It now opens up many side streets along the road to April's biggest show on the WWE calendar.

I had a feeling Rhodes would carry the title all the way through to WrestleMania 42 where he would face-off against Roman Reigns in the marquee bout of April 19th.

It could still happen. Obviously. However, we now get to see how the title finds its way back to Rhodes. Or to Reigns.

Or not?

I'm keen to see who McIntyre defends the title against at the Royal Rumble in three weeks from today. On Smackdown, it was announced that there will be four singles matches on next Friday's show from Wembley Arena. The winners of those contests will then square-off in a Fatal 4-Way match on the January 24th edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. 

The four qualifiers are:

Damian Priest .vs. Solo Sikoa

Matt Cardona .vs. Trick Williams

Randy Orton .vs. The Miz

Sami Zayn .vs. Ilja Dragunov

I made what I believe to be a reasonable prediction in THIS POST last night. I stated that Sami Zayn winning the title shot for the Rumble makes sense to me when you consider Zayn will be a strong babyface to the Saudi audience. 

Seems quite perfect on paper, if I say so myself.

No, I'm not suggesting Zayn beats McIntyre for the strap. I'm stating it's a perfect babyface versus strong heel match for that night. 

The Fascinating WildEarth Channel

For the past few weeks, I've had the WildEarth channel playing continuously on my TV whenever there isn't anything else on.

I had never heard about this British-South African broadcaster which airs live safaris across the day. It truly is one of the most fascinating concepts on TV today.

Late night is when I seem to have it on the most. By then, they're airing repeats from that day's safari drives. 

I felt compelled to write about WildEarth today because - as I watched it last night - I was stunned at something I saw.

A lioness was being filmed walking along a path with a bunch of her cubs. I counted them at one point, but think I may be a couple short. Either way, there were at least six little ones. They would stop when their mother would pause. 

But, it got better.

The lioness and her offspring stopped metres from the jeep where the driver/host and camera were filming live. The lioness sat down beside the vehicle and stayed there for a short time. Even though it was a repeat from earlier in the day, I became anxious for the two broadcasters being that close to the animal and her cubs.

Yes, I noted how anxious I felt. But, it was an excited anxiety as well knowing that I was witnessing something fascinating. 

When I was younger, my mum would encourage me to watch nature programmes by saying 'you could see things you'll never get to see again'. I knew what she meant back then, but I feel that advice was even more significant last night as the interaction between the lioness, her cubs and the crew played out on my television screen.

WildEarth airs on Freeview Channel 91. It's also available to Sky viewers but the content can also be found on YouTube.

Two Managers, One Story

I was just about to write about one thing this morning, when breaking news came our way. It then dawned on me that both stories are really one story. Kind of.

What I had originally planned for today was to write about Kevin Keegan. It was announced yesterday that he was having treatment for cancer. I wanted to share my best wishes for one of my favourite people in football. I also intended to draw attention to the fact that today, of all days, is the anniversary of one of his three departures from Newcastle United.

I'm sure I've written about it in posts of the past, but - when I was a toddler - I had a football annual given to me for Christmas. I had no idea which player was which, but remember a lot of my family members would point Kevin Keegan out to me.

As a teen, I fell in love with Newcastle United under Keegan. They played some great (sometimes not so great!) football. I think it's safe to say that 75% of my best football following memories were from that period of time.

It all came crashing to a halt on January 8th 1997 when Keegan left Newcastle from his first spell as manager. I remember where I was when I found out: the then named National Sports Centre for Wales. I walked into the building for weight training classes that were run by the sixth form college I attended. I was met by one of my friends, who pointed at the Newcastle United shirt I was wearing, and he relayed the news to me.

I was stunned.

Back in that era, I supported two domestic league football teams. It wasn't abnormal to have a Premier League team to support plus whichever team was local. Mine was Cardiff City. 

One of the managers of City, around that period of time, was Terry Yorath. He had also been manager of the national team after spending his playing career as captain of Wales and played for sides like Bradford, Coventry and most significant of all: Leeds.

It was at Leeds United when Yorath became the first Welshman to play in a European Cup Final. The game, which concluded the tournament for the 1974/75 season, was won 2-0 by Bayern Munich.

Yorath has passed away, aged 75, after a short illness.

Upon reading the news of Terry Yorath's death, I thought back to a time when I actually saw him out in the wild. Not standing, or sitting, around a football dugout at a game. It was inside the foyer of National Sports Centre for Wales - the very same place where I first found out about Kevin Keegan leaving Newcastle.

It would have made for a 'wow' moment to claim that I had seen Yorath on the same day I got the Kevin Keegan news. Unfortunately, the Gods of eerie coincidences didn't go all-in. I would have seen Terry Yorath up to a year before January 8th 1997. Still - it is a surreal link considering the recent news.

CAL '25

As I was looking through old photos last night, I came across an image I used on a blog post last year. It reminded me of something.

I had forgotten to write about whether I listened to Christmas Across The Lands in 2025.

The answer: of course I did.

Kind of.

I didn't get to bed until late on Christmas Eve. I knew I would be able to find the Christmas-themed programme playing on Christmas FM out of Dublin, so tuned in there. I wasn't disappointed. I was able to catch a bit of it before falling asleep. 

Following that, I was able to listen to CAL on WCSF - a college radio station, based in Illinois, I have tuned into before for Randy Sherwyn's twelve-hour radio marathons of Christmas music and trivia notes.

With all that said, I didn't catch as much of CAL in 2025 as I would have liked. I'll try to do better this year!