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It’s an exciting and sad time of year for Water Cooler Talk as the NFL playoffs are set to begin this week as well as the National Championship in college football, but that means football season is drawing to a close. Let’s take a look at the Wild Card games on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the title game between Clemson and Alabama on Monday. Black Monday didn’t have as many surprises as expected, but are there more coaches on the move? Water Cooler Talk talks about the Hall of Fame voting in MLB and some free agents who may be signed soon. Let’s get 2016 kicked off right! Hide the monitors from the boss (because let’s face it, you’re not ready to be back), kick back, and let Water Cooler Talk help you be this week’s sports guru of the office.

NFL:

Are any of us surprised that Cleveland fired their head coach and GM? Probably not. Is anyone surprised on how the Browns will look to fill those positions? Probably not. Usually, you look for a GM first so they can bring in a head coach they can work with. The Browns however are going about the process backwards, they’re looking for a head coach who will then have input on who will be hired as the GM. Is it any wonder this team has been so bad for so long? This job is very undesirable, which leads me to believe they’ll have to reach to bring someone in.

Tom Coughlin stepped down as the New York Giants head coach after 12 seasons at the helm. Kudos to the ownership for not firing the future hall of fame coach, they instead let him walk away with dignity. The players didn’t find this to be a satisfying move, but 12 years is a long time with one franchise. I think Coughlin finds another job in a hurry, and I think the vacancy left for the Giants will be filled in with a very viable head coach.

The Miami Dolphins are interviewing anyone who has ever coached…that’s exaggerated but they are talking to a lot of former head coaches. They are obviously ready to put a record together that matches their on-field talent.

49ers owner Jed York admitted he made a mistake last offseason by hiring Jim Tomsula, and after a 5-11 2015 he’ll look to get the team back to the glory days of winning. This too would be a desirable destination, but GM Trent Baalke is staying put. If you remember, this is the guy who drove Jim Harbaugh away to Michigan, so a red flag still remains within the 49ers front office.

The Eagles are also looking to get back to their days of winning consistently, and I’m sure it begins with someone who’s the total opposite of Chip Kelly. This is also a desirable destination, and whoever fills the position should have success for numerous years to come.

Tennessee is another desirable destination seeing as they have an established QB for years to come, a solid defense, and the #1 overall pick for the 2016 NFL Draft.

After a disappointing 8-8 season, the Indianapolis Colts didn’t fire Chuck Pagano, they instead gave him a new contract. I don’t disagree with the move as Pagano is a good coach who just happened to fight injuries on his squad throughout the season. With this new contract, let’s see if he and GM Ryan Grigson can work out their differences and get the Colts back on top in the AFC South and eventually get to the Super Bowl.

Sean Payton is still employed as the New Orleans Saints head coach, but that could change in the weeks to come. Both parties seem ready to part ways after 10 years, but the Saints won’t let Payton go so easily. Word has it that the Saints want a 2^nd-round draft choice for Payton’s services. Plenty of teams will inquire about Payton, and I think the 49ers are the team to get him.

Four games are on tap for this weekend with the AFC Wild Card games on Saturday and the NFC games on Sunday. Let’s predict who will win this weekend:

Chiefs at Texans – Houston will look to embarrass Kansas City after the Chiefs put a whooping on the Texans in the season opener. The Chiefs are riding a 10-game winning streak while the Texans won 6 of their final 8 after their bye. The Texans suffered a big loss on Sunday when LT Duane Brown was lost for the season. KC continues their hot streak and gets by Houston with a score of 20-14.

Steelers at Bengals – The Steelers needed a lot of luck to get into the playoffs, but no one cares how you get in as long as you’re in. The Bengals have played surprisingly well with AJ McCarron as the QB and were close to having a first-round bye. If D-Will is out for the Steelers, this game will go to the Bengals. Should D-Will play with his ankle injury, I still think he’ll be ineffective enough that the Bengals strong secondary can contain Big Ben and Antonio Brown enough to move on to the next round. Cincinnati wins 23-15.

Seahawks at Vikings – The Vikings got embarrassed by the Seahawks just a few weeks ago, a game which was played in Minnesota. The Vikings want revenge, but I don’t know if they’re receiving corps can do enough. Sadly, I think Seattle will win 27-16.

Packers at Redskins – The Packers just can’t click offensively, the complete opposite can be said for the Redskins. With Green Bay struggling as bad as they are, I think Kirk Cousins leads the Redskins to a 30-24 victory. You like that!

NCAAF:

It comes down to Clemson and Alabama for the national championship. These are the two teams that absolutely deserve to be in this position, as they’re the best teams in the nation, especially after convincing wins on New Year’s Eve. Offensively, Clemson has a significant advantage. Defensively, these two teams are evenly matched. Both front-sevens have superb talent while each team fields an above-average secondary. Clemson DE Shaq Lawson is expected to play, which helps the Tigers have hope. I’m a fan of the Crimson Tide, but I think Clemson gets their first title since 1980 with a 28-27 win.

NCAAB:

If you missed last night’s Oklahoma-Kansas 3 OT thriller, then you missed what will most likely be the game of the year. #1 ranked Kansas and #2 Oklahoma showed us why they’re ranked where they are and should continue to do so throughout the remainder of the season. There’s plenty of buzz in Lawrence, KS and Norman, OK, as both teams have squads to potentially get to the Final Four. While Kansas is more balanced, Oklahoma has POTY candidate Buddy Hield, Ryan Spangler and Jordan Woodard. The next time these two will meet is on February 13th.

Let’s not forget about Michigan State. They were #1 until last week when they lost to Iowa, and that was without their best player on the floor, Denzel Valentine. The Spartans will soon have their POTY candidate back and are heavily favored to make a push to a Big Ten title and a Final Four appearance.

MLB:

The Los Angeles Dodgers made a couple of moves last week to bolster their starting rotation. The first signing included LHP Scott Kazmir who got a 3-year deal with an opt-out option after 2016. The Dodgers then signed Kenta Maeda to an 8-year deal. Maeda hails from Japan and has a variety of pitches to include a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, slider and changeup. This past season he won Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award and has a lifetime 97-67 record with a 2.39 ERA. LA now has six arms to work with in the rotation, with five lefties and Maeda who is the lone right-hander for now.

Yoenis Cespedes is still the one name we’re all waiting for to sign. It sounds as if the Baltimore Orioles are the front-runners to sign the superstar outfielder, which indicates they’re moving on from Chris Davis. The remaining chips should fall in place shortly after he signs, names like Justin Upton, Howie Kendrick, Denard Span, Dexter Fowler, and Ian Desmond will find landing spots.

The voting results will be in tomorrow on who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this July. Ken Griffey Jr. is definitely in, and the consensus is he’ll be the first player to ever be unanimously voted in. Other names who should make the list this year are Mike Piazza and Tim Raines. Names who should be in but will probably have to wait another year are Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina.

Alan Trammell, who played for the Detroit Tigers from 1977-1996, will also most likely not get voted in which means he’ll move off the ballot starting next year. Known more for his defense than offense, the second baseman hit a career .285 with over 2,300 hits and 1,000 RBIs. If Trammell hopes to make it in,he’ll need the Veterans Committee to make that vote, but no one from the Golden Era has been voted in by this committee.

Then there’s Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Not going to happen…ever.

That’s it for this week’s edition, the first of 2016 Water Cooler Talk. I hope to have helped make you become the sports guru of the office this week, and if I have hit me up on Twitter and tell me about your conquest. Have a great week everyone!

It took an extra day for March to come this year, but with the day finally here it’s time to get excited about March Madness. While there’s still quite a lot of parody in college basketball thanks to the continuing “one and done’s”, it makes for predicting who will advance to the Final Four and winning the national championship hard. We’re still a bit of a ways off from that (we’ll at least let the brackets be set first) but there’s no shame in saying who needs to win during the final week of the regular season this week and make some noise during conference title games next week. So sit back, relax and let Water Cooler Talk help you be the sports guru of the office this week.

Butler:

Remember when this team came out of nowhere a few years ago and made two consecutive championship games? Then head coach, Brad Stevens was a huge part of that, and then he left to coach the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Butler has held their own since his departure, but they’ve come down to earth and are again looked at as a mid-conference team. I had the privilege of watching this team in last year’s tournament when they lost in OT to Notre Dame in the Round of 32. Despite the loss, I thought this team would make quite a bit of noise for the 2015-16 season. Looks can be deceiving however as they’re currently on the outside looking in. One big win is on their resume, that was a win against Purdue in December. Overall on the season however, Butler is just 2-7 against the RPI top 50. The Big East isn’t the powerhouse conference we once knew it was, but the prestige of the conference doesn’t matter, it’s winning the conference title that counts to lock your position in the dance.

Michigan:

The Wolverines play NBA basketball, which hasn’t equated to as many wins as they could or should have. Their defense is lackluster at best and their front court is sketchy, but this team can shoot the lights out from long range. They easily have 4 players that spell danger from beyond the 3-point line and can easily burst plenty of brackets if they’re able to get to the dance. They have quality wins to include victories over Texas, NC State, Purdue and Maryland but the strength of schedule is a major weakness. A win against Iowa on Sunday will be a nice boost heading into the Big Ten Tournament, which begins on Wednesday. A trip to the championship game in the conference tournament may be enough to punch their ticket to the dance.

With the Olympics beginning August 5^th and the nation gearing up to support our beloved athletes, we look at some of the bigger storylines of this year’s Rio Olympics. There is no shortage of stories surrounding this year’s Olympics, between athletes refusing to go because of the Zika virus, all the way to golf, sevens rugby, and kitesurfing being added. Not much can compete with the storylines made during the Olympics because of the heartbreak and triumphs, but here are some of the stories to keep an eye on for the upcoming global event.

Michael Phelps Return

He’s back! Arguably the greatest Olympic athlete ever, certainly the most decorated Olympian ever with 22 medals, 18 of which being gold. In 2012 after the London Olympics, Phelps retired from competitive swimming. In 2014 he announced he was coming out of retirement, to swim again. This was a long way from the Olympics and Phelps was not in peak shape by any stretch but he wanted this. Phelps was hoping to get back to the Olympic spotlight but first came training then the 2015 US Nationals. Phelps ended up winning three events, at the same time he put up the fastest times for each event in the world. Then in the winter of 2015 Phelps swam in the Winter Nationals, winning the same three events. He then swam in the US Trials for the 200m butterfly, 200m individual medley, and the 100m butterfly, all of these he won and qualified for his fifth Olympic games. Michael Phelps can add to his legacy at Rio, but he also has the opportunity to go out on top, how he’d like too.

U.S. Women’s Triumph

At the Olympics, the US Women dominate sports like soccer, basketball, and gymnastics to just name a few. To give you some background, the US women’s basketball team is going for a sixth straight gold medal, and the soccer team is going for a fourth consecutive gold. If that isn’t defined as dominate, then I’m not quite sure what is. The US is also the reigning gold-medal winner in women’s gymnastics thanks to the “Fierce Five”, the women’s water polo team and rowing team also brought home gold in 2012. All three of these teams are in turn the same from the 2012 games and all are favored in their events. One athlete to really keep an eye on is Claressa Shields who at just 17 years old won the gold at the 2012 games in London for boxing. She is returning for the Rio games and is on a mission to prove to everyone that she is the best in the sport.

Russia and Zika

If you have seen the news in the past month, I am betting you’ve heard of Russian Olympic team using performance enhancing drugs in 2012 and I am sure you’ve heard of Zika virus. I’ll begin by saying I hope that none of the Olympic athletes from anywhere in the world even come close to getting the Zika virus so let’s look a little further into this. Zika is primarily spread through a mosquito bite and Rio is the epicenter of it. There has been a list of athletes that have turned down the opportunity to compete because of this virus. There is no vaccine for Zika either, which is a big concern for many. Some symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain, muscle pain, and headache.  All of these can be very detrimental to an Olympic athlete. On another note, a number of Russian athletes will not be at Rio, 118 to be exact. They will have 271 competing but in some events, they will have zero representation. Russia as a nation is not happy, but there is nothing they can do now as the Olympics kick off August 5^th. One thing is for sure as the team has mentioned, this is motivation to go out and prove to the Olympic Committee and the world, that Russia is no longer doping and wants to win.