This Post is Brought to you by our friends at Havokk Coffee. For those that run towards the chaos – not from it
Even when your own team — the home team that wears the plain orange helmets — is not involved, you can still find ways to root in the AFC and NFC title games that will be held on Sunday.
I’m a Northeast Ohio guy, an Akron-Canton area guy, a Ohio State guy and, really, an Ohio guy overall, so I look for players who have ties to those places and I root for them.
The New England, Patriots, who play in Denver in the early game on Sunday for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, have some high-profile people from these parts to watch.
There is, of course, head coach Mike Vrabel, whose first appearance in public at a sporting event was as the ball boy for the Norton High School boys basketball team coached by his dad, Chuck Vrabel, 45 years ago. So, Mike got his appetite for coaching honestly, but only after playing for Walsh Jesuit High School, Ohio State and the Patriots. Shhhh, we’re not mentioning he also played for The Team Over East, aka the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Another guy who got his coaching appetite honestly is Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who played quarterback in Stark County, at times for his dad, Thom, an iconic Ohio high school coach.
The Patriots also have a running back by the name of TreVeyon Henderson, who, in the 2024 College Football Playoff semifinals a year ago, ran nearly the length of the field with a screen pass for a touchdown just before halftime to help lift Ohio State over Texas.
I root for the Broncos, which is something I never thought I would say after Denver defeated the Browns three times in the AFC Championship Game 40 years ago, because their longtime radio play-by-play announcer is Dave Logan, who was a great wide receiver for the Browns’ Kardiac Kids teams. Logan, who may be my favorite Brown ever for one very special reason, was the pkayer standing all alone in the right corner of the end zone when Brian Sipe threw to the crowded middle of the end zone and was intercepted in the final minute of the divisional playoff loss to the Oakland Raiders in 1980, aka the Red Right 88 game.
In the NFC title game, there’s Rams head coach Sean McVay, a Dayton native and a product of Miami of Ohio whose grandfather, John, was born in Bellaire and worked in Canton on the high school level before jumping to the NFL.
The Seattle Seahawks, who host the Rams, have an outstanding wide receiver in Ohio State product Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Even with all he did at Ohio State, he was someone who always got overshadowed there. He is now getting his just due on the pro level.
No matter whoever and/or whatever tickles your fancy, enjoy the games. They look to be good ones.
Steve King
