A wild, emotional sports Sunday.

The final Sunday of September, or occasionally the 1st Sunday of October, is always one of the busiest sports days of the year. NFL in full swing, final day of baseball's regular season. Had a good chance to take it all in this time with the Vikings off.

The Twins wrapped up a tremendously disappointing season, albeit one with a bunch of wins at the end to pad the record to a misleadingly not terrible 78-84. They swept the White Sox. And there was the day long Joe Mauer sendoff  which was pretty great. I honestly have been pretty certain he will NOT retire. But then he comes out for the 9th inning in catchers gear. It all collectively played out as one of the best sendoffs ever for a Minnesota athlete. There WAS crying in baseball today. Mauer doesn't mean to me what he seems to for fans in their teens or 20s, who know nothing of a Mauer-less Twins(he was drafted 6 months after I graduated college), but the day still struck a chord. And now the Twins embark on an offseason that could go any number of ways.

We also had some drama left elsewhere in MLB, with 2 divisions up for grabs. And thankfully the Cubs, Brewers, Dodgers and Rockies all won, so we get a pair of game 163s tomorrow.

And of course there's the NFL. This was my 1st chance this season to just veg out and watch Redzone all day, and it was an all timer.

The early games had 4 thrillers, and 3 of them actually ended up helping the Vikings a bit.
The Lions came back on Dallas, and it looked like the Vikings would have to spend the next week in last place. But then Dallas made their own comeback, and Not Dan Bailey drilled the game winner.
On to Bengals-Falcons, where Andy Dalton conjured up some ginger magic and handed Atlanta a 2nd straight crushing home loss. Hey, we better not be the only NFC favorite to slump early. And I'll be damned if they get a home super bowl when we didn't.
And on to Tennessee, where somehow the Titans, despite repeatedly trying to lose to Philly, wound up winning late in OT. Loved Vrabel's call to go for the win. That's how you win a locker room. The Eagles are really close to being 0-4. They look nothing like the team they were last year. I hope they wait at least 1 more game to find themselves.
And then over to Indy, where Andrew Luck made his own big comeback to get to OT. Frank Reich got lit up for his decision to go for that 4th down late in OT, but his offense had been red hot for like 2 quarters so why not try it? You punt, the best case scenario is a tie.

In non-thrillers, thanks a whole fucking bunch Buffalo for not doing any of what you did up here last week. The Bears creamed Tampa, whose deal with the devil has already been nixed apparently. Hatriots won big, which was the easiest call of the day. Glad to see Flash get a TD.

The late games had their own thrillers, with Seattle somehow surviving the woeful Cardinals, the CJ Beatherd-led 49ers almost beating the Chargers, and the absurd Browns-Raiders game, where the Browns came dangerously close to consecutive wins for the 1st time in like 50 years or something, only to be undone largely by a handful of really bizarre moves by the officials.