Don’t make the 98-yard mistake

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Uh-boy … In a matter of seconds – 12 to be exact – the Baltimore Ravens’ season came crashing to an end in a flashing turn of events that essentially proved to be a microcosm of the entire frustrating season that is now mercifully over. In the fourth quarter of…

Pirates, McCutchen get this one right

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports There’s an old adage adopted from the title of a 1940 Thomas Wolfe novel that says, “You can never go home again.” The saying is meant to infer how nostalgia causes us to view the past in overly-positive lights, and how we tend to remember people and places from our…

We got wieners (and losers) right here

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Here we go, now. The #NFLTheTVShow intramural tournament begins on Saturday and will last into late Monday evening this first weekend because, of course, the TVShow sold its soul long ago. So, who ya got? Well, it’s pretty much impossible to beat Vegas unless “Raiders” is attached to it, but…

Whatever happened to the 14-game season?

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports It was the darndest of seasons, it was a really weird season for the Washington Commanders – new look (I like the new look), new team name (not crazy about the new team name), a costly new starting quarterback (starting in theory), a feisty, energetic back-up quarterback engineering a legitimate…

He didn’t do this with Cowher’s players

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports I assure you every team in the AFC playoffs right now is relieved, delighted and thrilled the Pittsburgh Steelers are not in the playoffs with them, because nobody wants to play the Steelers right now. So maybe they’re not too flashy, but guaranteed, if you’re playing in the playoffs right…

Don’t take money, don’t take fame

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition and is likely to for some time, having suffered cardiac arrest last Monday night during what had been up to that point a so-called important football game. Yet Damar Hamlin sat up in his bed on Sunday and watched his Buffalo…

Sonny to finally have his day, his moment

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The Washington Commanders will officially retire the jersey number 9 of Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen Sunday during halftime of their game against the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx Field; which, of course, means there will be more Cowboys fans in attendance to see it than Commanders fans. Jurgensen, now…

Steelers earned it; so did Ravens

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Bad weekend for the Harbaughs. And I’m not so sure Jim’s Michigan Wolverines deserved what they got; but John’s Baltimore Ravens surely got what they deserved, namely their fourth loss of the season in which they’ve held at least a 10-point lead in the second half. Yes, the Ravens got…

Terps proving best is yet to come

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports What an ugly football game, yet what a thing of beauty for the Maryland football Terrapins, as they raised the mayonnaise in triumph with a 16-12 Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over our old friends from North Carolina State Saturday afternoon in Charlotte. It was a true rock fight between the…