Quick Sip Friday

The NFL playoffs get underway 🏈

Jan 10, 2025

We have a lot of football this weekend — Notre Dame advanced to the National Championship with a win over Penn State, Texas and Ohio State clash Friday night, and the NFL playoffs kick-off Saturday in Houston

Check it out ⬇️

Ω Denotes VaynerSports athlete

Editors Note: Today's edition focuses solely on football as we refine our content. Thank you for your patience and support as we work to make this newsletter better than ever!

Gridiron Grind: The NFL Playoffs Kick-Off and the CFP Championship Is Nearly Set

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The Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions secured the No. 1 seeds in their respective conferences, so they’ll have byes this week. Check out the six other fantastic matchups on the schedule this weekend!

Saturday:

(5) Los Angeles Chargers vs. (4) Houston Texans; 4:30pm EST on CBS/Paramount+

The Texans seem to always host the first playoff game on Saturdays, and it’ll be no different this year. Despite their seeding, the Chargers winning would not be an upset as they’re the current favorite.

(6) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. (3) Baltimore Ravens; 8pm EST on Prime Video

Can Russ cook and wake up the Steelers sleeping offense? Probably not - I expect a big game from Lamar.

Sunday:

(7) Denver Broncos vs. (2) Buffalo Bills; 1pm EST on CBS/Paramount+

While the Bills have had Super Bowl hype the last few years, this seems to be the year with how Josh Allen has been playing. They’ll need their defense to step up however as the last two playoff opponents they’ve faced, the Lions and Rams, have scored an average of 43 points against the Bills.

(7) Green Bay Packers vs. (2) Philadelphia Eagles; 4:30pm EST on FOX

Despite an 11-6 season, the Packers are the last seed in the NFC and despite winning 11 games they only beat three teams above .500 on the season.

(6) Washington Commanders vs. (3) Tampa Bay Buccaneers; 8pm EST on NBC/Peacock

Rookie phenom Jayden Daniels has turned the Commanders franchise around and will make his playoff debut Sunday night in Tampa Bay.

Monday:

(5) Minnesota Vikings vs. (4) Los Angeles Rams; 8pm EST on ESPN/ABC/ESPN+

This matchup between the Vikings and Rams was moved to Arizona due to the wildfires in Los Angeles. LA, we’re keeping you in our thoughts and prayers!

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CFB: Notre Dame Advances to the National Championship

(7) Notre Dame: 27, (6) Penn State: 24

A 10-3 Penn State lead at halftime turned into an all-time playoff game in the 2nd half. A very costly Drew Allar interception with less than a minute left gave Notre Dame the ball in Penn State territory, and Mitch Jeter knocked the game-winning field goal through the uprights with eight seconds left. Notre Dame advances to their first national title game since 2013, and Marcus Freeman in only his third full season as head coach becomes the first black coach ever to lead his team to the national championship.

(5) Texas vs. (8) Ohio State; Friday at 7:30pm EST on ESPN

Ohio State has looked like a team reborn in the CFP thus far. After inexplicably falling to Michigan in the final game of the regular season they’ve since won both playoff games by an average of 22.5 points. Texas’ defense will have a tough task ahead of them, and we’ll have to wait and see if they’re up for the task.