The Train Daddy is back with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk. All aboard! I am excited for this one, my favorite article of the year—the annual Merry Christmas shout-out! Daggum, time moves so fast; it’s insane to realize I have been doing this Merry Christmas shout-out since 2010.

Let’s get into this festive spirit: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Yuletide Greetings, Feliz Navidad, Season’s Greetings . . . I am sure there are 1,000 ways to say it, but for me it’s always been “Merry Christmas” once December hits, so let’s say it over and over to a wide variety of personalities.

Merry Christmas to you, the reader! I wish you and your family a wonderful December. I know that I tend to say ridiculous things in these articles but, being genuine, I do it because I know somewhere out there somebody may learn something . . . or better yet may get a proper laugh from something goofy I say. Those who follow this column know it’s not as much about strict journalistic rules as what’s on the brain of the Train. I say whatever is on my mind without too much thought about whom it may upset; the world could probably use more of that rather than too many folks walking on eggshells, overly concerned with hurting someone’s feelings.

Merry Christmas, Todd Downing! From some poor play-calling to DUI activity, we all are so proud of you these days. Had it been up to me, I would have fired you after the Bengals playoff loss last season. You better Titan Up, Todd.

Merry Christmas, Mattress Mack! You put down $10 million before the season on the Houston Astros to win the World Series and daggum, you hit! Bookmakers forked over the largest payout in sports betting history, approximately $75 million, to furniture store owner Jim McIngvale. Mattress Mack may be the most successful marketing genius in America right now.

Merry Christmas to the Tennessee Vols! What a roller coaster of a season. The loss to South Carolina hurt as a diehard Vol, but at the end of the day I am proud of the boys in orange and Coach Heupel leading this team to a 10-win season. Coach Heupel is creating a culture within that locker room that we haven’t seen for some time. Josh exceeded expectations in Year 1 going 7–6 and getting hot at the right time, followed by this season going 10–2 with some big wins. I can’t wait to see what year three brings.

Merry Christmas, Qatar! It’s the first-ever Middle Eastern country to host a World Cup . . . what could go wrong? Don’t drink, don’t be gay and don’t talk politics, and I’m sure visitors will have no problems in beautiful Qatar.

Merry Christmas to the Washington Commanders, formerly the Washington Redskins. What an absolute dumpster fire of an organization. Prior to Washington’s game against the Falcons the team held a ceremony to uncover a memorial for Sean Taylor, the star safety who was killed in the prime of his career. Despite the good cause, the memorial looked like something three blind morons put together. It’s unfortunate but really no surprise. Commanders owner Daniel Snyder runs the most incompetent team in the NFL. Hopefully with all the outrage on social media they’ll fix this and build a real statue rather than what was shown to the world in November. (The Commanders, however, are in the thick of the playoff race, entering December at 7–5.)

Merry Christmas to the Titans and the city of Nashville! Do us all a favor and build that expensive billion-dollar new stadium. Don’t listen to the folk crying about fixing the roads and schools and blah, blah, blah. What will make me and my Titans family happy will be a nice, new, beautiful state-of-the-art stadium that my Titans can play in eight Sundays out of the year. My only real complaint is the capacity level of 60,000 seats. I know it will still be amazing, but come on, can we not be the smallest stadium in the NFL? At least make it 70K and be in the middle of the pack!

Merry Christmas to Lamar Jackson! I would recommend not interacting with the haters on social media. Someone should probably take Jackson’s phone away. I won’t repeat what he said here, but it wasn’t befitting a QB wanting to get paid over $250 million. I mean, I would expect it from a diva wide receiver like A.J. Brown or some defensive player with two brain cells, but not from a franchise QB.

Merry Christmas to the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow! I hate you.

Merry Christmas to the Tennessee Titans defense! Thank you for the gritty performances every week! Keep it up. I am loving what this defense is doing as a unit, creating chaos up front, holding opposing offenses to limited points, stopping the run and just being tough. Keep up the sacks! Keep up the intensity on third downs and just stay healthy as we enter December.

Merry Christmas, King Henry! With another season at over 1K rushing yards, the King is running his way into the history books with this franchise. Coming off an injury last season and being another year older, the haters were lining up to say King was washed up. King is that dude, and as we head into December it’s that time of year for this team to put itself in position for him to do what he does best.

Merry Christmas to all the people who were crying about COVID and lockdowns in 2020. You think we have forgotten all the BS that ensued? I saw a study the other day pointing out that the majority of recent COVID deaths are those who have received a vaccine. It wasn’t fake news—the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted this study for The Washington Post’s Health 202 segment and the Post reported on the data in a piece titled “COVID Is No Longer Mainly a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.” Take what you will from that, but I sure am glad I didn’t get that damn jab. A bah humbug to every one of you pointing your finger and crying about it. It’s hilarious how quiet all those loud people back in 2020 are now. Pathetic. Crickets! Many of us told you goofs to mind your own business!

Alright, time to roll into the station! At the end of the day, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I may not like all of you, but I do wish you all happiness, genuinely. I wish you all good health. God bless you all and Merry Christmas!