COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

Early Thursday morning there were reports that former Giants coach Tom Coughlin was set to join the Eagles as their new head coach. That has now changed. At age 70, the idea of Coughlin switching to the NFC East rivals was a bizarre twist in a bizarre 24 hours that saw the Giants name Ben McAdoo head coach in order to keep him away from Philadelphia. Coughlin had interviewed with Philadelphia, and it was reported that there was a mutual interest. What changed between this morning and afternoon is anyone's guess, but Coughlin has pulled out of the running. Joining the Eagles would have been a daunting task. Not only is the city as unforgiving as New York, but the Eagles do not have a quarterback in place, and have plenty of questions on both sides of the ball. Had Coughlin taken the job, there is no telling how long he would stay in that post. Two years? Three years? Regardless, it wouldn't have been very long. Both sides are fortunate that this marriage will not happen....

The New York Giants are done searching for a new head coach. After two weeks of interviews and rumors about who exactly would replace Tom Coughlin, the Giants feel they have their guy in Ben McAdoo, the team's offensive coordinator. An in-house candidate, with a strong relationship with quarterback Eli Manning, the Giants had wanted McAdoo involved in the organization throughout the process of this search. When interviewing experienced head coaching candidates in Mike Smith and Doug Marrone, both men were believed to interested in retaining McAdoo as offensive coordinator had either been named the head coach. Now, McAdoo only has to answer to Giants ownership. Perhaps the desire to just hire McAdoo into the head coaching position immediately had to do with speculation that the Philadelphia Eagles were keenly interested in naming him their head coach. The Giants probably feared that having McAdoo leave New York only to coach down I-95, in the division with the hated Eagles was t...

Here is an excerpt from Wednesday's Open Mike Program as I discuss Mike Piazza's Hall of Fame candidacy with John Pielli of the Passed Ball Show. We discuss many things including Piazza's legacy with the Mets, and whether the franchise will retire his number 31.

The Rams are going home to Los Angeles. As weird as it sounds that the City of Angels has professional football again, the Rams return ends decades of speculation that the NFL would one day return. Now they are back. There are two sides to every story, and in the case of the L.A. Rams circa 2016, there are a lot of different sides and different stories that involve three football teams with plenty of political and economic ramifications, least of all the overall impact this will have on the NFL over the long haul. The big winner is obviously the Rams. The owners voted 30-2 to move the St. Louis football franchise back to Los Angeles. The owners preferred the Inglewood stadium proposition that Stan Kroenke had been championing for years. Perhaps this is where the Raiders and Chargers got it wrong in their deal. When the NFL told all three teams that no football team would move to L.A. in 2015 the Raiders and Chargers went back to Oakland and San Diego to re-up for the season. The ...

PACKERS 35 REDSKINS 18 The Green Bay Packers were a team left for dead by many after dropping two in a row to end the season and having lost six of their last ten before the postseason began.  Perhaps the Packers found themselves in Washington D.C., because Green Bay's resurgence from an 11-0 deficit was nothing short of spectacular. All of sudden the Packers offense began to click. A team that struggled to set the tone upfront all season, was pushing back against the Redskins, opening lanes for Eddie Lacy and James Starks, and giving Aaron Rodgers ample time to find his guy in the pocket. Green Bay would score on five consecutive scoring drive with Rodgers doing his best work before halftime, first hitting Randall Cobb from 12-yards out with a laser down the middle for a score to make it 11-7. Then, just before half he found Davante Adams in the corner of the end zone for the go-ahead score to push Green Bay up 17-11 at the break. After Washington grabbed the lead back, G...

STEELERS 18 BENGALS 16 In one of the most bizarre games anyone will ever see, the Steelers won a game thanks to a total implosion by the Cincinnati Bengals in the final two minutes of a game that Cincinnati appeared to have in their back pocket. An implosion that included a huge turnover, two personal foul penalties and a near melee highlighted Pittsburgh's stunning 18-16 victory on Saturday night. Call it the ultimate Christmas gift for the Steelers who blew a 15-0 lead, only to watch the Bengals grab a 16-15 lead with less than two minutes to go. What transpired on Saturday was not only a disgrace to the Bengals organization, it was a disgrace to the NFL. The entire game felt more like a WWE wrestle-mania match than a football game. At several points in this chippy contest, players on both sides were going after each other, even Pittsburgh offensive line coach Mike Munchack shoved a Cincinnati player, drawing a 15-yard penalty. Yet it will be the finish to this madness tha...

Baseball, you finally got it right. The BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) voters got it right this time, and made sure to keep such a classic and classy group exclusively to just two nominees: Seattle Mariners superstar and player of the 90s, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mets All Star catcher, Mike Piazza. Griffey set a record in earning 99.3 percent of the vote, surpassing that of Tom Seaver (98.84%), Nolan Ryan (98.79%) and Cal Ripken Jr. (98.53%). Known as the Kid, Griffey Jr. easily became every 90's kid favorite player. On a team that didn't get much national attention, he put the Mariners on the map. I remember kids used to run around with Griffey jerseys, Mariners binders, and hang Griffey posters in their rooms. And this was in New Jersey, some 3,000 plus miles from Seattle. Yes, Griffey, who finished with 630 career home runs, will always be remembered as the guy who could have been the all time home run champion were it not for the numerous injuries he suff...