1. The weather forecast for Saturday night’s wild-card game in Buffalo for the Patriots-Bills game calls for single-digit temperatures and possible snow.
ESPN talking head and former Ravens and Jets linebacker Bart Scott offered some creative advice to Bills quarterback Josh Allen on how to battle the frigid conditions during Thursday’s Get Up.
After host Dianna Russini revealed that Allen told her he doesn’t like playing in cold weather because he has bad circulation that affects his feet, Scott said he has a performance-enhancing suggestion.
“VI-A-GRA. Take a Viagra before the game, baby. That’ll get that circulation going right,” said Scott.
This got his fellow panelists all flustered, so Scott followed up with an explanation.
“A lot of NFL players, at least in my day, took Viagra because it opened up the blood vessels,” said Scott.
Unfortunately, nobody on the panel pressed Scott about the difficulties of playing with a constant erection.
Scott then followed up the Viagra discussion by declaring that if an NFL player can’t handle the cold, “they’re soft, anyway.”
Because this is a serious topic and I’m a legitimate journalist, I reached out to a couple of NFL players about this and their responses were interesting. One guy said he had never heard of NFL players' using Viagra to improve circulation during cold-weather games, while another guy said he had heard players joke about using Viagra but never knew anyone that actually did, before adding, “I’m sure people did it when Bart Scott was playing.”
And because everything in life is a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode, it seems fitting I end this item with this clip.
2. A brand-new SI Media Podcast dropped this morning and this week's show features an interview with Richard Deitsch, who previously hosted the show. Deitsch, who now works for The Athletic, discussed the state of podcasts, what makes a good podcast and what makes a good host. We also talked about sports media news items, including the disappointing ratings for the college football national title game and the NFL's being set up for a monster postseason when it comes to viewership.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
Please remember to subscribe to the SI Media Podcast and leave a review on Apple.
3. Bill Belichick wore a sweatshirt at his Wednesday press conference with the words "Danger Zone" on the front.
Naturally, Twitter had jokes.
4. It's not a surprise that people in L.A. don't care about the Rams. Road teams always bring in a ton of fans to L.A. and often end up with home field advantage. Fan apathy has gotten so bad that Matt Stafford's wife, Kelly, had to remind Rams fans to not sell their tickets to Cardinals fans for Monday's playoff game.
5. This is great stuff by former NFL running back LeSean McCoy talking about the time he confronted Robert Kraft about the Patriots' letting go of Tom Brady.
6. TMZ caught just-fired Giants coach Joe Judge getting a big pizza and beer delivery, but there was a nice story behind the move.
