CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings

So I recently got interviewed by a podcast. It was... interesting. I will admit it was sort of fun to have my Warholian 15 minutes of fame. Everybody likes an ego boost after all. I haven't actually listened to it yet. I'm guessing I will at some point. But I already know I'm not super fond of the sound of my own voice. What if it's a George Constanza risk-management-book-on-tape situation: Or maybe I'm just worried how it got edited in the end. Did that one (several) dumb thing(s) I said make the final cut? I did not follow Mr. Tony Kornheiser's lead and decline the interview out of fear of how I would be edited. I'm not quite as neurotic as he is though - at least I hope I am - the anxious self reflection does not bode well on that front. So live and let live, I guess. Also, was I really me in the interview? In retrospect, I was certainly a more heightened, performative version of myself, trying to impress people I do not know. Oh, if you're reading th...

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...

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...