The Welcome to episode 51 of the Charles CW Cook podcast. Happy New Year.

Twenty-24 is now upon, so that'll be fun.

This week, I want to talk about sports, partly because I think it's an interesting topic, but mostly, to be perfectly

honest, because I need the catharsis.

I went to Nashville on Sunday

to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is my team,

play the Tennessee Titans, which is decidedly not my team, and the Jaguar is lost.

Now, for those of you who don't follow football or who don't follow the AFC or who don't follow

the jaguars, that mattered a great deal, at least to me, because by losing the Jaguars missed both the playoffs and missed out on winning

the AFC South for the second year in a row and handed that title to the Houston Texans.

And not only that but by losing the Jaguars completed what has to be one of the greatest

late season collapses in the history of sports.

Just over a month ago the Jaguars had won eight games and lost three.

They were in contention for the best record in the AFC. The New York Times playoff predictor calculator had their chances of making the

playoffs at 99%. On December 4th, I went to their game against the Bengals here in Jacksonville,

which was the first appearance on Monday night football in 12 years, and the atmosphere was celebratory.

The team had a terrific record, and if they won, they'd be the number one seed in the

AFC for a little while. But on Sunday in Tennessee the atmosphere was funereal. Six games later, they were out, having lost five and won one with that

victory coming against the worst team in football this year, the Carolina Panthers.

That cliche about it being the hope that kills you is a cliche for a reason.

And the thing is, I know I joke around a lot on this podcast.

I know I engage in hyperbole, but I'm completely and utterly serious when I say that this loss made me truly unhappy.

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