🎄 A Promising Christmas For Sports Fans

Christmas is coming — and its greatest offering this year is everything that lies ahead. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider with Martin Rogers: This holiday season we look forward to what 2022 has to offer ... find out which NFL coach is a "football nerd's dream" ... and more! The best Christmas gifts are the ones that last and linger and become part of our lives over the following year. And so it is for sports fans as Santa and his reindeer start limbering up for their annual feat of athletic endurance. Christmas is coming — and its greatest offering this year is everything that lies ahead. For 2022 is going to be an extravaganza of activity that will require a certain degree of stamina from those of us enamored with sports to the point of no return. In some ways, looking forward to big sports events is almost as much fun as actually watching them, and in that sense we are spoiled for choice. There is rarely much of a break in the 2022 action, with two of the biggest ticket items — the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl — actively overlapping. The first action at the Games in Beijing will take place on Feb. 2, a full 11 days before the biggest game on the pro football calendar kicks off at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. [STORY IMAGE 1] The cold weather version of the Olympics never generates quite the same buzz as its summer counterpart but will be a worthy feast nonetheless, with some established American stars such as skiing sensation Mikaela Shiffrin once again favored, as well as some athletes not yet fully on the national radar. In speedskating, for example, the Joey Mantia is a 28-time world champion and a serious prospect in three events for the U.S. We’d love to tell you who to expect to see in the Super Bowl, but the rampant unpredictability of the ongoing NFL campaign makes it singularly impossible. In the AFC, 13 of the 16 teams are at .500 or better, and all of them are no worse than a game out of the final wild-card spot. And there is no shortage of storylines: Patrick Mahomes seeking to elevate to true greatness, Aaron Rodgers hoping past acrimony fuels present success in Green Bay, Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford and Dak Prescott chasing postseason breakthroughs and, oh yeah, some guy named Brady who has done this thing a few times. [STORY IMAGE 2] Football season will swiftly roll into March Madness, which, for the first time since 2019, will feature fans in the stands and be spiced with the plotline of whether Duke’s loaded lineup can give Mike Krzyzewski a Hollywood sendoff. Like in the NFL, the NBA playoffs figure to be similarly wide open. The hottest teams of the regular season, most notably the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns, are not the favorites for the title, that distinction going to the Brooklyn Nets. Then there is a puzzle of the Los Angeles Lakers, a team seemingly built for postseason drama but at this point looking incapable of even getting there. Toward the end point of 2022, soccer’s greatest show will take center stage, the men’s FIFA World Cup occupying a month of action in Qatar. The November-December dates are a new twist, but the plus side of it is that the world’s best players will be in mid-season form rather than exhausted from a long campaign. [STORY IMAGE 3] Those are just some of the highlights. There’s not enough space to list everything that will be going down in 2022 except to reflect upon how appetizing it’s all going to be. When a swath of big events jam into the calendar across a short span, it gives the year a special energy. Until then, hopefully there are treats to be eaten this weekend, plenty of football to watch, loved ones to spend time with and maybe, just maybe, a few good gifts to unwrap. But if what lies under the tree turns out to be a disappointment bound for regifting, worry not. The real treat — that 2022 will never be short on entertainment — is still to come. [STORY IMAGE 4] [IN OTHER WORDS] - As Aaron Rodgers passes Brett Favre for most Packers TDs, FOX Sports NFL Analyst Bucky Brooks explains [how Green Bay built its QB factory.]( - Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley is a football nerd’s dream. [FOX Sports NFL Writer Eric D. Williams explains why.]( - With contract talks in the rearview, Phoenix Suns big man Deandre Ayton is staying focused on the things going his way, [writes FOX Sports’ Melissa Rohlin.]( [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Friday Night SmackDown (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) Charlotte Flair takes on Toni Storm for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Cleveland Browns at Green Bay Packers (Saturday on FOX, 4:30 p.m. ET) Baker Mayfield and the Browns face one of their toughest road matchups at Lambeau. Camellia Bowl: Georgia State at Ball State (Saturday on ESPN, 2:30 p.m. ET) The Panthers take on the Cardinals in Montgomery, Alabama. Golden State Warriors at Phoenix Suns (Saturday on ABC, 5 p.m. ET) The Western Conference’s best teams meet again for a Christmas Day clash. Los Angeles Rams at Minnesota Vikings (Sunday on FOX, 1 p.m. ET) It’s Stafford-Kupp vs. Cousins-Jefferson in Minneapolis. New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday on FOX, 1 p.m. ET) Philly looks to stay in the playoff race against a depleted Giants roster. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Buccaneers (-10) to win by more than 10 points Per FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd: The Bucs just got humiliated [by New Orleans], so I'll take Tampa Bay. Cam Newton right now, and I don't know what happened, isn't an NFL player, and it is a problem. ... The Panthers are just not right, there's a lot of pressure and they've got limitations. I think Tampa Bay comes out and plays well off being humiliated. When Tom Brady wears a T-shirt in the postgame press conference, that usually means he's in a bad mood. [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download FOX Sports App: [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [Google Play]( [App Store]( [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [App Store]( [Google Play]( Also available on these devices: [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2021 Fox Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. Fox.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, California 90213-0900