Broncos! Nuggets! Santa! Same day!<\/p>\n
Well, same night, at least. Team Grading The Week (GTW) loves marathons of \u201cA Christmas Story\u201d as much as the next leg lamp, but American TV options on Christmas Day<\/a> could use a good kick in the backside after mid-afternoon. At which point, if your family is even remotely like the goofballs in the GTW offices, you\u2019ve already opened all your presents, drank most of the eggnog and are starting to get sick of looking at one another.<\/p>\n In other words, we need more things to talk about, more things to rally around \u2014 other than which gifts with receipts are getting returned first.<\/p>\n The NBA capitalized on the value of a captive audience \u2014 no stores and only a few restaurants are open, after all \u2014 to the point where it was only a matter of time before the NFL horned in to grab a piece of that action.<\/p>\n Denver fans\u2019 early Christmas gift \u00a0\u2014 A<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Broncos fan, player\/coach, staffer, etc., best get used to working the holiday, we\u2019re afraid.<\/p>\n It\u2019s only a matter of time before the No Fun League\u2019s Christmas triple-header becomes a foursome or fivesome. And with the orange and blue boasting a familiar\/marketable coach (Sean Payton) and a hot, young\/also-marketable QB1 (Bo Nix), it\u2019s a good bet that they\u2019re going to be on the Grinch\u2019s TV sked for some time.<\/p>\n With the Broncos visiting Kansas City on Dec. 25<\/a>, just before the Nuggets host the Timberwolves<\/a>, a Front Range sweep feels like an awful big ask of Old Saint Nick. But what the heck. We\u2019ve been good.<\/p>\n More to the point, the Broncos and Nuggets should be, too.<\/p>\n Broncos-Nuggets Christmas overlap \u2014 D<\/p>\n One problem, though. Look, we get that the AFC West matchup (like the NFC West) gets pigeonholed into the latest time slot of the day. But with the Broncos slated to kick in Kansas City at 6:15 p.m. local time, a regulation game would likely end around 9:35 p.m. or so. The NBA has Nuggets-Wolves tipping off at 8:30 p.m., which is \u2014 well, kinda tight.<\/p>\n Hey, America needs more Nikola Jokic on TV, not less. But the NBA would be doing Mile High fans a solid if they could delay \u2026 that \u2026 tip \u2026 for \u2026 as \u2026 long \u2026 as \u2026 possible.<\/p>\n Given the expected playoff stakes (and just clean, old-fashioned hate, let\u2019s be real), those smartphones in the crowd at Ball Arena are going to be trained on Arrowhead for most, if not all, of the first half of Nuggets-Minnesota.<\/p>\n Lionel Taylor\u2019s legacy \u2014 A<\/p>\n He was the first pro receiver, AFL or NFL, to catch 100 passes in a season.\u00a0 He was the first wideout to catch 90 balls in a season more than once. As a coach, he\u2019s believed to be the first Black coordinator in the modern NFL, calling plays with the Rams from 1980-81. A GTW toast to the late, great Lionel Taylor<\/a>, the first star receiver in Broncos history, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 89.<\/p>\n Like AFL defenders, it took a long time for pro football to finally catch up with him. Too long.<\/p>\n