Say goodbye to these NFL teams, plus a volleyball stunner

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Good morning! I hope you don’t run into your nemesis today. Coming up: 

• 🏈 Big-name NFL teams eliminated from the postseason. 
• 🏐 Volleyball juggernaut toppled. 
• 🙅‍♂️ Alabama coach says no to suitors.
• 🗳️ Vote on front-office rankings.

Goodbyes: It’s holiday cleanout time in the NFL

Today is Dec. 15, which means it is a prime hour to clean. Maybe you’re clearing out old clutter toys to make room for new ones at Christmas. Maybe you’re getting an early start on the end-of-year reset. 

In the NFL, it’s just time to say goodbye to some teams. Yesterday brought some jarring reminders of it. Who and what we’re saying goodbye to, posthaste: 

1. The Kansas City Chiefs
The defending AFC champions are eliminated from postseason play before 2026 begins, which is a concept I have a hard time processing. Their 16-13 loss to the Chargers yesterday ended a streak of 10 straight postseason appearances for the franchise. It also brought a more immediate toll: Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL with less than two minutes to play. Brutal. 

A good note from Jesse Newell’s column from the game: Kansas City was 12-0 in one-score games last year, which ended with a Super Bowl appearance. This year: 1-7. That’ll do it. 

2. The Cincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings
Both were also axed from postseason contention yesterday, and poor Minnesota didn’t even get a chance to play first. It was a particularly dour day in Cincinnati, where a 24-0 loss to the Ravens and an unhappy Joe Burrow have put a pall over the fan base. Burrow doesn’t want out (not yet, at least), but it’s quite clear the franchise cannot waste another season of his prime again. Also contributing to the bad vibes: not shoveling the snow in Cincy. 

Minnesota started its audition tape for next year’s contender status with a 34-26 win in Dallas last night that had J.J. McCarthy hitting the Griddy while walking into the end zone. Too late for 2025, fellas. 

3. The Green Bay Packers … maybe
Green Bay, on paper, remains a legit contender at 9-4-1 with a 94 percent chance to make the postseason, per our simulator. But the season suddenly feels in extreme doubt after a 34-26 loss to the red-hot Broncos left superstar acquisition Micah Parsons with a non-contact injury that could be a torn ACL. Standout wide receiver Christian Watson also left the game with a chest injury and was evaluated at a Denver hospital afterward. Don’t forget that star tight end Tucker Kraft tore his ACL last month, too. 

Let’s do a lightning round of other things we’re waving bye to before we get to the presents that can stay under the football tree: 

4. The sack record 👀. Myles Garrett tallied 1.5 sacks in Cleveland’s blowout loss, putting him one sack shy of tying the NFL single-season record with three games to play. 

5. Any worry about Matthew Stafford. The 37-year-old Rams quarterback who started the season as an injury worry cemented his spot as the MVP front-runner in a wild win over his former team yesterday. 

6. Au revoir, Cowboys. Dallas is essentially done (less than a 1 percent chance to make the playoffs) after that loss to the Vikings last night. At least the team has been interesting this year.  

Now, let’s quickly talk about who’s still here:

Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images

• My first thought upon seeing the Chiefs eliminated: I wonder how the Bills feel. Buffalo (10-4) saw its boogeyman vanquished and beat the division rival Patriots in a thriller yesterday, which is about as good of a Sunday for the Bills as possible. Josh Allen quite literally left it all on the field.
  
  
• About those Broncos. Denver, despite some earlier skepticism, has won 11 straight to reach 12-2 and looked as impressive as ever in yesterday’s win over Green Bay. Add them to the cadre of AFC teams thrilled that Kansas City is done. 

We have full takeaways from the weekend, of course, and it’s always good to fiddle around with the playoff simulator at this point in the season. Oh, and I didn’t even get to mention Philip Rivers’ comeback day. 

Let’s keep moving:

News to Know

Dylan Widger / Imagn Images

A volleyball stunner
Texas A&M shocked Nebraska to advance to the NCAA volleyball Final Four yesterday in an upset I don’t think anyone expected. Coming into the match, the juggernaut Cornhuskers (now 33-1) had won 54 of 55 home sets this season before dropping the first two in yesterday’s regional final on their home floor. An epic two-set comeback was rendered moot by A&M, which heads to its first Final Four. Read more on what might be “one of the most entertaining matches” in the sport’s history.

More news

• Steph Curry hit 12 3-pointers last night, and the Warriors still lost.
  
• USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb, a Brown graduate, gave a stirring and heartbreaking speech yesterday after the shooting at her alma mater. Her comments are worth a read.
  
• Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer shut down any talk of leaving for Michigan.
  
• Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia apologized for his comments after the Heisman ceremony Saturday night. See his statement.