The mobile phone company threatens to move jobs out of Overland Park, Kansas if a ballpark is built.

Officials from T-Mobile have said. If the owner of Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise, John Sherman, cuts a deal with Overland Park, Kansas elected officials near a T-Mobile campus in town, they are moving and taking with them around 3,500 employees. T-Mobile might find another area in Overland Park to relocate or simply leave the town. Sherman is considering Overland Park and other areas. Kansas politicians have set a December 31^st deadline for Sherman to decide on whether he wants Kansas taxpayer money to help pay to build a park in the state

Sherman has been looking for financial help from Kansas and from Missouri since Jackson County, Missouri voters said no in April 2024 to extending a sales tax that would have partly paid for a downtown Kansas City baseball venue and a renovation of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs’ business home stadium. Missouri and Kansas have proposed financial packages to help pay for the construction of the stadium or in Missouri’s case the renovation of the football stadium. North Kansas City and Clay County, Missouri political and business leaders are interested in bringing Sherman’s business north of Kansas City. Kansas lawmakers approved a proposal that would see STAR bonds used to help pay 75% of the cost of building two stadiums in Kansas. Additionally, sports gambling and lottery gaming and sales tax revenue from businesses in the stadium development districts would cover bond debt. Another source of revenue to pay off the debt would come from a liquor tax. Kansas lawmakers could use a mechanism that would allow up to 100% of sales tax revenue on alcoholic liquor sales within a stadium district to pay off bonds for the structures. Missouri politicians will pay up to 50 percent of the construction costs in an attempt to keep the businesses in the state.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Could we see some surprise exits once NFL regular season ends?

One month, four games remain in the 2025 NFL regular season and while some teams will be headed to the postseason, others are already thinking about the 2026 season.

Part of that thought process will include whether to keep the coaching staff in place, or go out and find replacements. Two teams — the New York Giants and Tennessee Titans — are already in that mode. Who will join them? Here’s a team by team look.

NFC East

Philadelphia — There are fans who might want Nick Sirianni gone. Spoiler: It’s not going to happen. You go to two Super Bowls and win one, you’re not losing your job. The only way that happens is if he balks on bringing in a new offensive coordinator.

Dallas — Brian Schottenheimer has actually done a nice job in his first year. The Cowboys have gotten better as the year progressed and still have a slim shot at the postseason.

Washington — Despite a disaster of a season, Dan Quinn isn’t going anywhere.

New York — Brian Daboll was fired midway through the season. Mike Kafka hasn’t justified having the interim tag removed from his title yet. Look for a big name with head coaching experience to take over.

NFC North

Green Bay — Matt LaFleur heads into the final year of his contract in 2026. New President Ed Policy says he doesn’t want a lame duck coach. So how the Packers do in the playoffs might determine LaFleur’s extension.

Chicago — In his first season Ben Johnson has been as good as advertised and is probably the runner-up as Coach of the Year.

Detroit — Dan Campbell missed Johnson and Aaron Glenn as his coordinators this season, but he’s done enough to stay around Motown a few more years.

Minnesota — Kevin O’Connell and Co. really messed up the QB situation the team is paying for it. But he’s not going anywhere.

NFC South

Tampa Bay — If the Bucs blow the division there may be some in the organization who blame Todd Bowles. It would be a mistake letting him go, however.

Carolina — Dave Canales, in his second year, has done a really nice job in turning the Panthers into a playoff contender.

Atlanta — Raheem Morris was a curious choice two years ago. Two bad years and it’s time to move on to someone else. The Falcons might want an offensive minded coach to work with their young stars on offense.

New Orleans — Kellen Moore, in his first season, has done as much as he can do with the least talented roster in the league.

NFC West

Los Angeles — If the Rams win the Super Bowl it wouldn’t be a shock to see Sean McVay step away. And that’s the only was a change would happen.

San Francisco — Same goes for Kyle Shanahan.

Seattle — Mike Macdonald will also be on the Coach of the Year list for the job he’s done with the ‘Hawks.

Arizona — When a team loses seven games by four points, or less, and then looks like it quit, the coach is in trouble. And that’s the case for Jon Gannon.

By: Matthew Weatherby

How the Heisman trophy will be viewed for years to come will be announced on Saturday. The four finalists are Julian Sayin (Quarterback, Ohio State), Fernando Mendoza (Quarterback, Indiana), Diego Pavia (Quarterback, Vanderbilt), and Jeremiyah Love (Running Back, Notre Dame). From my view, there is a very discernible split between the four candidates. Julian Sayin and Fernando Mendoza are different candidates from Diego Pavia and Jeremiyah Love. The two BIG 10 quarterbacks are very valuable to their teams and their success, but I would not describe what they have done as outstanding. Which brings me to…

SPORTS TALK GEORGIA

SPORTS TALK FLORIDA

Heisman Definition

This definition comes directly from the Heisman website.

The Trophy remains a national symbol of collegiate football experience, prowess, and competitiveness, awarded annually to an athlete designated as the Outstanding College Football Player in the United States

Why Mendoza and Sayin do not fit the criteria

I make my case against them based on the word outstanding. I must preface the argument by saying that they are great players, and this does not diminish them or what they have accomplished this year.

What I do think is that Mendoza has had the benefit of being on the best team in the BIG 10 with the best coaching staff in the BIG 10. When you pair that with a top 5 rushing attack in the country (yes, I am aware that Mendoza was a part of that). I don’t find what he has done this year to be outstanding. Very good? Absolutely. When I watch Mendoza, it doesn’t feel like he does outstanding things; it just looks like a well-coached quarterback who is in control of an offense. I know people will talk about the throw and catch that it led to when Indiana played at Penn State. It was a good throw, but also the one that kids are taught to throw. Throw it at the crossbar so only your guy can get it. That is how it is taught.

It is a similar case for Sayin, but I have a stronger one against him. In the two games against top competition, Sayin has been ok at best. Against Texas week 1, he had 126 yards passing and 1 touchdown. Against Indiana last week, he had 258 passing yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. He was good against Washington and Michigan, but again not outstanding. He has not put up a stat line or made a throw against a team that isn’t Rutgers or Purdue that made me think this guy deserves the Heisman.

Again, these guys are good football players and important to their team’s success, but not irreplaceable. Nor do they make plays every Saturday that wow me. If you don’t believe me, Kurtis Rourke threw for more yards on fewer completions last year at Indiana and didn’t even sniff New York. The same goes for Will Howard at Ohio State. He had similar numbers to Sayin but no invite to New York.

Why it should be Pavia or Love

Because they have done some outstanding things this year. Allow me to elaborate…

As much as I think Pavia may get a bit too much airtime, he turned Vanderbilt into a place that won 10 games this year. He played a large role in their ability to recruit blue-chip guys now. He gave substance to a recruiting pitch that, if I were guessing, hasn’t changed a whole lot for Clark Lea since he has been at Vanderbilt. Now he just has a tangible result to point to.

Unlike Sayin or Mendoza, Vanderbilt is not where it is today without Diego Pavia. There were times this year when the Vanderbilt offense just could not get it going, and Pavia quite literally had to will them to some wins. His stat line was not always pretty, especially at the start of SEC play, but he wasn’t throwing to Elijah Surratt or Jeremiah Smith. He had Eli Stowers and Junior Sherrill. No disrespect to those guys, but they aren’t the aforementioned guys. Oh, by the way, Pavia LED VANDERBILT IN RUSHING YARDS. There was almost nothing more outstanding than what Pavia did this year, unless…

You turn on Jeremiyah Love’s tape. Some of the things this guy did with the football in his hands this year were ridiculous. I will go ahead and point out the elephant in the room in reference to Love’s case for the Heisman. His numbers aren’t exactly gaudy. Love spent all year splitting carries with backfield mate Jadarian Price, who amassed 113 carries on the year.

So if Love doesn’t have the numbers, how does he have a case? When you compare him to last year’s Heisman runner-up, Ashton Jeanty, they had the same average yards per carry at 7. Love scored 21 touchdowns on roughly half of the touches that Jeanty received last year. Oh, and by the way, he was doing all of this against a P4 schedule. Unlike Jeanty, who likely did not win the award based on what conference he played in. But as I said before, Love’s strongest case isn’t on a stat sheet, it is found in the film room.

Why the Heisman could be in danger

People talk about the NFL MVP award a bit begrudgingly now because it is an award that is given to the best quarterback on the best team seemingly every year. The Heisman is not the NFL MVP. In fact, extremely different by definition.

If it goes to Mendoza or Sayin, it feels like we trend strongly in the direction that the NFL MVP award has gone. In which case, we should just ship the quarterbacks of the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff to New York every year and save people the watch time to find out who it is.

The Heisman system already does not work as intended. That is shown by the fact that Texas Tech Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez will be watching the award ceremony from his house. So if it goes to one of the BIG 10 Quarterbacks, it will signal the end of the most outstanding criteria they have in place.

So how do we fix it? The guys who vote on the award should probably be required to watch these guys first. But that feels like a long shot, so instead, it starts with Pavia or Love walking away with the award Saturday night.