Challenge Cup Final Talking Points

Stick here for live updates and analysis as Denver takes on the Bills in Orchard Park, N. Y. Live updates Pre-game updates Uniforms (10:15 a.m.): Broncos are wearing blue helmets with white jerseys and orange trousers. Not my favorite combination. But again, i am bias. I love the throwback look. And I prefer today’s combination over blue jersey and orange pants.

If Colorado ever meets Nebraska on a football field again, it won’t feel as important anymore because Bill McCartney won’t be there to watch it. As part of CU’s football recovery, McCartney declared Nebraska a rival. Never mind that the Cornhuskers didn’t feel that way. They hadn’t lost to CU since 1967 and were too busy hating Oklahoma. As a directionless program, CU required a compass to navigate the road to redemption. “Better dead than red,” McCartney famously said. McCartney died Friday night after suffering from dementia for nearly a decade.

There’s a common theme for the Colorado Avalanche at the midway point of the 2024-25 season: It’s a team that hasn’t been quite as good as expected, but the context might help some awards voters. The Avs were 25-15-1 at the midpoint, a 102-point pace. They started the second half with a loss to 32nd-place Chicago, then blasted Minnesota, one of the two teams ahead of them in the Central Division. Given all of the injury and availability issues, it was a successful first half.

If Colorado has another trip to Winnipeg this season, it will be during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Avalanche will have to hope it can find its mojo from the 2024 postseason. The Avs made the second of two regular-season appearances at Canada Life Centre on Saturday, and for the second time, they did not score a goal.

The red? The red misses Mac already. “I think one time, we might’ve gone horseback riding,” ex-Nebraska football coach and AD Tom Osborne, 87 years young, said Saturday when I called to ask him about the late, great Bill McCartney. “But I don’t remember much more than that. It was just kind of a vague memory.

Luke McCaffrey believed that for NFL scouts to take him seriously, he needed to top his famous brother. After Luke emerged as one of the best receivers in the American Athletic Conference at Rice in 2023, teams were still unsure of his speed or if his playmaking ability at a Group of 5 school would translate to the NFL. So Luke made it his mission to beat the marks of his older brother Christian, the 49ers’ All-Pro running back, at the NFL Combine. “When I told NFL scouts that Luke was going to be a 4.4-something in the 40-yard dash, a lot of them didn’t believe me,” recalled then-Rice wideout coach Mike Kershaw.