Happy New Year, everyone! We made it to 2020, so let the roaring ’20s commence!

I resolve to bring you more serious and hard-hitting content in this year’s Mailbag. No more nonsense …

Just kidding! Here’s to even more nonsense in this space in 2020.

Here are your questions for this week’s Mailbag:

@DKing2796:

What were your top 5 sports moments of the decade?

I’m going to take this as my personal top-5 sports moments, and I had a very front-loaded sports decade, with most of my favorite memories coming in either 2010 or 2011. As you’ll see, that’s the life of a Mizzou/Green Bay Packers/St. Louis Cardinals fan.

Here are my personal favorites from the 2010s:

  1. St. Louis Cardinals win 2011 World Series — Game 6 of the 2011 World Series is something I’ll never forget as long as I live. I am still getting chills thinking about it right now. Down to their last strike, the Cardinals battled back and saved their season. Then, David Freese hit a home run to send it to Game 7, which the Cardinals won convincingly. That was easily my top moment.
  2. Mizzou upsets No. 1 Oklahoma in 2010 — College GameDay was in Columbia for this one, and the Tigers beat the Sooners convincingly (starting with a Gahn McGaffie kickoff return touchdown). I was at this game and stormed the field after the win. It was quite a party, and the Tigers’ biggest win of the decade, in my opinion.
  3. Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XLV — The Packers took down the Steelers to win the Super Bowl following the 2010 season. I am lucky enough to have seen the Packers win a title with both Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. Here’s hoping they win another one before Rodgers’ career is done!
  4. Mizzou basketball takes down No. 8 Kansas — I was very lucky during my college days, getting to storm both the football field (mentioned above) and the basketball court. I did it in 2009 after Zaire Taylor hit a buzzer-beater against Kansas. And I did it again after Marcus Denmon’s late heroics helped Mizzou take down the Jayhawks in 2012 (scoring 9 straight points to bring the Tigers back in the final 2 minutes).
  5. Philadelphia Eagles win Super Bowl LII — My then-fiance (now wife) and I were living in Philadelphia at the time and actually hosted a party for this Super Bowl, when the Eagles knocked off the Patriots. I didn’t particularly care for the Eagles (being a Packers fan and all), but I hate the Pats. When the Eagles won, we went out into the streets and joined in on the city-wide riots that were going on. It was such a fun night. Even if the Super Bowl was in Minnesota that year, Philly threw one heck of a party.

Looking back, that was quite a decade for me, even if it was pretty front-heavy. Thanks for allowing me to relive some of these awesome moments, Dylan!

@ChazPhillipsIV:

What would be the best SEC city to be in for New Year’s Eve?

This one is easy. The answer is Nashville. As SEC fans, we don’t really give Vanderbilt a ton of credit, but Nashville is an incredible city.

I’ve never actually been there on New Year’s Eve, but I imagine there’s a ton of good live music, plenty of alcohol and dancing, and lots of interesting people out and about (just like literally every other night in Nashville).

I’d give second place to Baton Rouge, simply because it’s more than just a college town. You don’t want to be in a town that’s strictly a college town on New Year’s Eve, because it will be dead. Going to school at Mizzou, I spent exactly 0 New Year’s Eves in Columbia because I was always back home celebrating with my friends over winter break.

Robert:

If not for college football, which annual New Year’s Day TV marathon would you have indulged in — Twilight Zone, Chappelle’s Show or SpongeBob?

I was not feeling so great on Wednesday (mostly due to an illness, only partially due to a hangover), and it must be noted that I did indeed make college football my top priority. Alabama-Michigan and Auburn-Minnesota were riveting games, as was the Rose Bowl between Oregon and Wisconsin.

However, I did find myself flipping back and forth between those games and Twilight Zone a couple of times. SpongeBob is easily my favorite show of these 3 options (I’m a lot like Joe Burrow in that way), but that show is on literally all the time.

Twilight Zone is sort of a special occasion, so I do enjoy watching that on New Year’s Day over the other 2 options you gave me.

@Dobbe8:

Could 2 SEC offensive linemen throw a kicker over the goal line? If so, why isn’t this used? Refs don’t call the “Bush Push” anymore, so this should be legal, too, right?

You’re right in that it’s no longer flagged when offensive linemen push a player forward, but I have to imagine it’s still illegal to literally fling a teammate into the end zone. I couldn’t find anything to disprove that theory, though (and I’m not about to read through the rulebook, which no one, not even college referees, fully understands).

I’ve long wondered why NHL teams don’t just put a bunch of pads on a sumo wrestler and sit him in front of the goal, so I do like this idea for a loophole on 4th-and-1 or goal-line situations. But, if tossing a smaller teammate were legal, you can bet guys like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban would have already exploited that rule.

After all, literally throwing an Alabama kicker into the end zone on a 2-point conversion try would be a higher-percentage play than the Tide actually attempting the extra point. Hey-o!

BONUS: Dobbe’s Locks of the Week went 2-1 last week, with him easily clearing the “over” in the Peach Bowl between Oklahoma and LSU. Here are his final picks for the 2019 season, with a chance to finish above .500 for the year:

  • Armed Forces Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Tulane (Over 56.5) — The teams may change, but the legacy of a bowl lives on. The Armed Forces Bowl has gone over 69 total points each of the past 5 years.
  • LendingTree Bowl: Louisiana-Lafayette (-14) vs. Miami (Ohio) — Miami stinks. It beat a winless Akron team by only 3 points. That Akron team will go down as one of the worst of all time.
  • National title game: LSU (-5.5) vs. Clemson — I don’t expect another blowout, but LSU still hasn’t given me a single reason to doubt it.

Dobbe’s Locks of the Week season record: 26-27-1

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.