CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings

Tbe CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS 1) Tracy Smith In a first, the top spot goes to someone who did not appear in the episode. Alas, apparently the Tracy Smith/Joe Burrow interview we were (I was) clamoring for never materialized while the Bengals cruising around the City of Angels, bringing a Cincinnati flavor to SoCal. (Mmm... it tastes like ice cream and a Greek Bolognese .) I went through two or three different Super Bowl bits that I was going to write up that centered around Sunday Morning 's Southwest Ohio native and resident Bengals fan . (Although, did anyone really want the Rams to win?) One idea was to write a fictional transcript of Tracy interviewing Joe Burrow and fill it in with screengrabs of the two of them. Another idea was to have every all power ranking entries 1-10 be Tracy only to have the "committee" inform me that Tracy did not actually appear in the episode before revealing the true rankings. But this is more work than I have time for and I do t...

Regrettably, we've fallen behind here at CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS . A common re-occurrence, I suppose a recap is whys and wherefores of our slow start to 2022 is not why you are checking in - I can hear my one reader out there shouting, "Just get to the damn show!" Well, these oftentimes confessional introductory paragraphs are not required reading, so feel free to skip to the power rankings if you wish - they are clearly labelled below. But in case you are wondering what has been distracting me the non-obligation of pushing these posts out in a timely fashion, I give you the following list: The Cincinnati Bengals highly unlikely Super Bowl run. Not an excuse for this week, I know... Tennis. The Australian Open ended last week so you don't have to listen to me on that unless I decide to circle back to complete my unfinished "Requiem for Jennifer Brady's Foot." Back injury. So I somehow aggravated my back taking a shower of all things a few weeks...

Unexpectedly, improbably the Cincinnati Bengals are going to Super Bowl LVI. I was five years old the last time that happened. I was seven the last time any Cincinnati sports team played for a championship of any kind. I need some time to process this. This happened. I have two weeks to unpack this. Until then, I'll tie it into Sunday Morning by bringing up that Tracy Smith is from the Cincinnati 'burbs and currently based in LA. The Super Bowl is in LA. I don't know when she would moved away or if she's a Bengals fan, but Bengals fans/ Sunday Morning recap bloggers are clamoring for Tracy Smith-Joe Burrow interview to hype the game. I know that media rights pretty much prohibit because NBC is carrying the game this year, but crazier things have happened this year - see the above picture. Heroes & Villains Please forgive an obsessive tennis fan a few words about the Australian Open. Halfway through the Świątek/Kanepi quaterfinal, I texted the following to a friend...

It's Saturday night and I'm buzzing a little bit. The team of my youth, the hometown Cincinnati Bengals are going to play in the AFC Championship game. I won't spill many words about the game. It was a defensive struggle that the Bengals won on a walk-off field goal. I thought I had excised the NFL and Cincinnati Bengals from being a meaningful part of my life. But then... well, Joe Burrow is a special human being. I never played football as a kid. Well, I sort of did. Just not with other people. What sort of football can you play by yourself? You can kick and punt. I spent cool Saturday afternoons with a kicking tee and football, using our backyard swingset as makeshift uprights for kicking field goals. I taught myself how to punt a spiral. I remember the first time I punted a spiral while also making solid contact with ball and it rocketed off my foot in a way it never had before. It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. As such, my favorite Bengals as a kid were the kicker a...