Lamm at Large

Heading into December, the Jaguars are 8-3 and the No. 3 seed in the AFC. Incredibly, six of eight victories have come away from home, including two in London.   With three home games and three road games remaining, the Jaguars have put together one of the most surprising and unusual seasons in NFL history.   Their remaining home games are Monday night against the Bengals, totally off track with the loss of […]

The Seminoles will have done enough to make the CFP if they whip Louisville in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte.   Ditto for Michigan if the Wolverines beat Iowa in the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis; for Georgia if it beats Alabama in the SEC game in Atlanta; and the winner of the Pac-12 title game between Oregon and Washington in Las Vegas.   Georgia likely is in […]

I blame the NFL front office, not the officials, for so many bad calls. The most egregious is the roughing the passer rule.   Basically, it says if a defender touches a quarterback dropping back to pass, it's roughing, a 15-yarder and automatic first down . . . and moral killer. I know the league wants to protect its most valuable and expensive players, but at what cost?   Numerous […]

I did something Saturday night that I haven't done since 1982. I got emotionally involved in a sporting event that didn't involve my son Alex.   I know this sounds difficult to believe, but in my day journalists weren't supposed to take sides. You covered an event as objectively as humanly possible. But Saturday I literally found myself screaming while watching the Florida-Missouri game. I cursed. I slammed stuff.   […]

There's no doubt in my mind a staffer on the Michigan football team spied on opponents.   I believe Head Coach Jim Harbaugh knew what was going on.   That's cheating.   But I believe it's a common practice, one the NCAA traditionally has ignored. You think the NCAA knows about the $100 handshakes with players and recruits most big-time school boosters hand out all the time? Sure it does, […]

The NFL is a cutthroat, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. Sure, many coaches and players get rich beyond their wildest dreams, but few go out on their own.   And that brings me to the wildly successful Patriots coach, Bill Belichick. Ponder the numbers: 6 Super Bowl rings, 9 Super Bowl appearances, 31 playoff victories, and a 331-173 record.   But he's 27-35 since Tom Brady left in 2020. This year the Patriots are […]

It's about time the Jaguars decided to put their original head coach Tom Coughlin in the Ring of Honor. He should have been the first, not the seventh to grace the inside wall of The Bank.   Coughlin literally built the franchise from the ground up, starting by working out of a mobile home.   I don't object to any of the people in the Ring. Well, maybe the wife […]

Maybe for the first time ever I agree with fans who've whined for years that the Jaguars don't get much respect in the national media.   It's midseason and the Jaguars (6-2) have the third-best record in the AFC behind the Chiefs and the Ravens, both 7-2; tied with the Lions for fourth-best record overall. You might not know that if you don't live on the First Coast.   I […]

For years before the start of the college football season, I’d mark down two weekends: Georgia-Florida and FSU-Miami.   UF-UGA is obvious. It’s been played in Jacksonville since 1933 and IS the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.   FSU-Miami became special starting in the late ‘80s and for more than a decade was the greatest collection of players — ever!  The list is too long to name all of the […]