The Packers upended the Bears in one of several NFL Week 14 games that proved highly consequential to the NFC playoff picture.
Josh Allen and the Bills caught fire late against the Bengals in the snow, all but extinguishing Cincinnati’s postseason hopes.
The Jets extended their postseason drought to 15 seasons as they joined a growing list of teams already eliminated from playoff contention.

The 32 things we learned from Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season:

1. The number of times Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow has lost to the Buffalo Bills – his first defeat coming Sunday in snowy Western New York in what basically seems like a fatal setback for the Stripes.

2. The number of fourth-quarter interceptions served up by Burrow in what was otherwise another captivating performance in his second game back from turf toe surgery. Burrow’s picks flipped a 28-25 Cincy lead into an 11-point deficit from which the Bengals never recovered (and may never recover). It also snapped his personal streak of consecutive starts won at eight.

3. The number of consecutive seasons the Bengals have missed the playoffs – assuming this one is their latest failure since dropping the 2022 AFC championship game. Burrow returned earlier than anticipated in a bid to spark a belated drive to the top of the AFC North. But the Bengals (4-9) now have a roughly 1% shot of qualifying for postseason, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

4. This is an appropriate time to shout out Bills QB Josh Allen, the reigning league MVP. He’s now 3-0 this season against Burrow, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. If he salvages a split next week against the New England Patriots’ Drake Maye, who’s trying to become the next NFL MVP, then maybe Allen has a legit shot at retaining the hardware.

5. The numbers don’t lie after all. Sunday, Allen become the first man in league annals with 50 games in which he’s produced a touchdown both with his arm and legs. And no one else has ever posted three separate seasons with 20 TD passes and 10 rushing TDs.

6. Yet Buffalo’s primary hero Sunday might have been CB Christian Benford, who had a sack of Burrow and a 63-yard pick-six that effectively changed the game’s complexion.

7. While Burrow has basically proven the still-undead Bengals were right to activate him amid their (very) longshot bid to reach the playoffs, the argument to shut down a vulnerable franchise quarterback was exemplified by the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels. He didn’t finish his team’s whitewashing at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings after appearing to reaggravate the injury to his left (non-throwing) elbow in what was effectively a meaningless game for the now-eliminated Commanders.

8. The number of consecutive losing seasons for the Atlanta Falcons following Sunday’s blowout loss at home to the Seattle Seahawks.

9. Atlanta was also officially eliminated from playoff contention, the Falcons to remain absent from the playoffs since their last appearance during the 2017 season.

10. The number of consecutive games the Indianapolis Colts have lost in Jacksonville, Sunday’s setback costing Indy a share of first place in the AFC South to the surging Jaguars.

11. Of course, the loss of injured QB Daniel Jones (Achilles) is what figures to crater what once seemed like it could be a surprisingly magical season for the Colts.

12. The Seattle Seahawks blasted the Falcons 37-9, recently acquired WR Rashid Shaheed a big reason. Though Shaheed isn’t one of the league’s more widely known players, the trade for him prior to last month’s deadline was expected to be an impactful one. He started delivering Sunday with four catches for 67 yards and a 100-yard TD off a kickoff return out of halftime that helped put the game away. Shaheed had four catches for 37 yards in his first four games with Seattle.

13. A week after their 26-0 loss at Seattle, the Vikings blanked the Commanders 31-0. Per NFL RedZone, it’s the first time since at least 1992 that a team has pitched a shutout the week after suffering one.

14. Minnesota orchestrated a second-quarter TD drive that consumed 12 minutes and 1 second, the longest in the league in four years.

15. The number of consecutive seasons the New York Jets have missed the playoffs after being officially eliminated Sunday.

16. The NYJ’s ignominious streak is not only the longest active one in the NFL but also in North America’s four major professional men’s team sports leagues.

17. But you’d known for weeks that the Jets were in the gutter. It just wasn’t until Sunday that they’d tried to obscure the sewage with manhole covers.

18. The Baltimore Ravens outrushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 217-34 on Sunday but still figured out a way to lose the game and their share of first place in the AFC North … though some questionable officiating decisions certainly didn’t help them. Still, it was the largest positive rushing differential for a losing team in three years.

19. The number of seasons Mike Tomlin has coached in Pittsburgh − and he’s now two wins shy of having a 19th consecutive campaign without a losing record … for his first-place Steelers. Sure you want to fire him, yinzers?

20. The number of sacks Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett now has – the first time he’s reached 20 in his nine-year career – after bagging Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward once Sunday.

21. Garrett now has four games to register the three additional sacks he needs to break the league’s single-season record of 22½, which is shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.

22. Ironically, it was the first time this season Ward wasn’t sacked multiples times in a game. And though his Titans got a rare win, their second of 2025, Ward was largely outplayed by fellow rookie QB Shedeur Sanders.

23. We’ve managed to bury the lead here, folks. The NFC playoff picture is wiiiiiiild.

24. The Chicago Bears lost to their archrivals, the Green Bay Packers, Sunday at Lambeau Field – a defeat that dropped them the conference’s projected No. 1 seed all the way to No. 7, just one win ahead of the Detroit Lions, who are desperately trying to qualify for a third consecutive playoff trip.

25. Bears rookie coach Ben Johnson has pushed a lot of the right buttons in 2025. Taking digs at Pack coach Matt LaFleur at his introductory news conference probably wasn’t the right lever to pull.

26. Meanwhile, Green Bay’s win launched it from the projected sixth seed up to second, just a half-game behind the Los Angeles Rams, who currently sit atop the conference standings.

27. Of course, the Seahawks had that perch – for three hours – after proving much fiercer birds of prey than the Falcons. But Seattle was just keeping the top seat warm for the Rams, who reclaimed it a week after losing it in rainy Charlotte.

28. All of that NFC dominance – and the top-seeded Rams (10-3) are separated by a single game from the sixth-seeded San Francisco 49ers (9-4) and Bears (9-4) – is sandwiched around the NFC South, which is doing its traditional thing. After losing to the lowly New Orleans Saints, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-6) fell into a first-place tie with the Carolina Panthers … who were on their bye.

29.Tell us again why a home playoff game should be conferred on a team that can barely prevail to secure a bad division? The Bucs or Panthers should consider themselves lucky to be relevant in what’s otherwise a murderer’s row of a conference.

30. By comparison, the AFC is much less compelling – though it does appear the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots could fight over its top seed into Week 18. Who had that on their bingo card three months ago?

31. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – the Las Vegas Raiders would select atop the NFL draft … something they’ve only done once. And if you need a refresher, they blew it – selecting QB JaMarcus Russell, a colossal bust, first in 2007 ahead of players like Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, Adrian Peterson, Darrelle Revis, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch and others.

32. As for the NFL’s famed parity model? Not this year. With a month left to go in the regular season, nine of the league’s teams (28%) have already been eliminated from postseason consideration.

For a third consecutive NFL season, ESPN is taking viewers to an alternate reality with an animated ‘Monday Night Football’ broadcast.

After tackling ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Simpsons’ with their previous animated alt-casts, ESPN and Disney are teaming up to feature characters from ‘Monsters, Inc.’ during the Week 14 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Chargers.

The animated alt-cast represents the latest effort the NFL is making to reach a younger audience. In addition to ESPN’s ‘Funday Football,’ the NFL has allowed CBS to air NFL games on its sister station, Nickelodeon. Those games have featured appearances from animated characters, and so too has the network’s weekly ‘NFL Slimetime’ show.

Here’s how you can watch ESPN and Disney’s ‘Monsters Funday Football’ in Week 14 as Mike Wazowski’s Eagles take on’Sulley’ Sullivan’s Chargers.

What channel is the Monsters, Inc. NFL game?

TV channel: ESPN2 | Disney Channel

NFL fans hoping to be whisked away to Monstropolis will be able to catch ESPN’s ‘Funday Football’ broadcast on ESPN2 or the Disney Channel.

The traditional version of the broadcast – featuring Joe Buck and Troy Aikman – will air on ESPN and ABC while the Peyton and Eli Manning’s ‘ManningCast’ will be on hiatus in Week 14.

Monsters, Inc. Funday Football live stream

Live stream: ESPN Unlimited | ESPN Select | Disney+ | NFL+ | Fubo

Cord-cutters hoping to watch Funday Football will have a variety of options to do so. ESPN features a new direct-to-consumer streaming platform, ESPN Unlimited, and will also offer the game via ESPN Select, which is a rebrand of the network’s ESPN+ service.

Disney+ – the proprietary streaming service owned by ESPN’s parent company, Disney – will also carry the battle between Wazowski and Sullivan.

Additionally, fans can stream the action with Fubo, which offers a free trial.

Watch Monsters Inc. NFL game with a Fubo free trial

‘Monsters, Inc.’ NFL game start time

Start time: 8:15 p.m. ET/7:15 p.m. CT

The Mosnters Inc. Funday Football broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT) with kickoff slated for 8:15 p.m. ET.

Who are the ‘Monsters Funday Football’ announcers?

Drew Carter (play-by-play) and Dan Orlovsky (game analyst) will be on the call for the ‘Monsters Funday Football’ broadcast in Week 14. Katie Feeney will also appear as a social media correspondent on the broadcast via a series of pre-produced segments.

Carter has been on the call for all previous editions of ESPN’s ‘Funday Football’ series – which began during the 2023 NFL season – while Orlovsky made his debut on ‘The Simpsons Funday Football’ broadcast in 2024.

What is ESPN’s Funday Football?

ESPN’s Funday Football is an alternate broadcast that uses real-time player movement tracked by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats to create a live-animated representation of an NFL game.

As part of the entertainment, various characters from Disney’s library of entertainment will be animated into the game along with avatars resembling NFL players. The 2025 version of the alt-cast will feature characters from ‘Monsters, Inc.’ – most notably, Mike Wazowski and James P. ‘Sulley’ Sullivan will take the field as players while Roz will serve as a ‘sideline reporter’ for the game.

‘Monsters Funday Football’ will be the third edition of the alt-cast. In 2023, ESPN featured a ‘Toy Story’-themed edition of a game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons. The 2024 edition of the broadcast featured ‘The Simpsons’ characters during a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys.

Notre Dame football’s season has come to an end, with the Fighting Irish declining a bowl invitation.

The Fighting Irish failed to reach the College Football Playoff despite finishing with a 10-2 record and 10 consecutive wins to finish the regular season. They lost to Miami and Texas A&M, which both earned CFP bids this season, in the first two weeks of action.

Notre Dame was ranked No. 10 in the final CFP rankings before the bracket reveal, but was bounced to No. 12 in favor of Miami on Sunday, Dec. 7, which the committee said came down to the Hurricanes’ head-to-head win.

Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame were the top contenders for the final two at-large bids in the CFP this season, and the CFP committee was set up to spark controversy, regardless.

Here’s why Notre Dame is declining a bowl invitation, thus ending its season.

Why is Notre Dame skipping a bowl game?

Notre Dame’s decision to skip a bowl game starts with its omission from the CFP, as the Fighting Irish were kept out of the 12-team bracket in rather controversial fashion.

Notre Dame, the first team out of the playoff, would’ve had likely the best available bowl that wasn’t a CFP game, likely going to the Pop-Tarts Bowl or the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. With the CFP’s expansion to 12 teams, though, those bowl games have become increasingly irrelevant to many teams. Players set to be NFL or transfer portal bound opted out of the non-New Year’s Six bowls anyway prior to the CFP even expanding.

‘Bowl games not affiliated with the CFB playoff are destined to become the Pro Bowl (extinct),’ wrote Fox analyst Brady Quinn, a former Notre Dame quarterback. ‘Why are we acting like these young men should sign up for an exhibition game that puts them at risk and benefits EVERYONE but them?’

Playing in a bowl game also offers teams 15 additional practices, which are essentially used for younger players to earn more reps ahead of the next season. Early enrollee freshmen from high school also sometimes participate early, giving them a head start at the college level.

Multiple other programs have also opted out of bowl games this season, although Kansas State and Iowa State did so due to changes at head coach. At least seven teams that finished 5-7 also opted out of bowl games, although those programs didn’t reach the 6-win threshold. The 5-7 teams were only eligible due to other teams opting out.

Notre Dame is making it pretty clear that college football’s most elite programs – at least as far as it’s concerned – are CFP or bust in the new 12-team CFP era.

The 10-game glimpse NBA fans got of Victor Wembanyama this season was tantalizing. The 7-foot-5 French star was leading the league in blocks again, averaging career highs in many of the major statistical categories and had the San Antonio Spurs positioned as an early Western Conference contender.

But just like last season, Wembanyama’s momentum has been slowed by injury. He’s closing in on nearly a month since his last NBA appearance, though the Spurs have done an admirable job in his absence to remain within striking distance in the standings. The good news is Wembanyama seems to be nearing his return after a positive update during the team’s current road trip.

The Spurs face the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, Dec. 8. Will Wembanyama be playing? Here’s the latest update on his injury situation, as well as his status when San Antonio plays the Pelicans:

Is Victor Wembanyama playing today?

No. Wembanyama is listed as out on the Spurs injury report ahead of their game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, Dec. 8. He is expected to miss his 11th consecutive game.

Victor Wembanyama injury update

Wembanyama joined the team in New Orleans after not traveling to start this current road trip and was a full participant in a practice on Sunday, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Wembanyama appeared in just 46 games last season after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.

Victor Wembanyama stats

Wembanyama was off to a strong start in his third NBA season, leading the league in blocks again (3.6 per game) and ranking second in rebounds (12.9). The 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year is averaging a career-best 26.2 points while shooting better than 50% from the floor through 12 games of the 2025-26 season.

The Indianapolis Colts lost their third straight game in a 36-19 Week 14 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. They also lost their starting quarterback to a significant injury.

Jones remained down after the play and was visibly upset while being tended to by the Colts medical staff on the field. The 28-year-old was able to slowly hobble off the field under his own power but eventually headed to the locker room before being ruled out for the remainder of the contest.

And it seems like the Colts quarterback will be sidelined much longer than that given the serious nature of his injury.

How long is Jones out? Here’s what to know about the severity of his Achilles injury and when he may return to the field.

How long is Daniel Jones out?

Jones will miss the remainder of the 2025 NFL season after suffering a torn Achilles, according to multiple reports. The 28-year-old quarterback is set to have surgery to repair the injury.

Colts coach Shane Steichen didn’t have additional specifics about Jones’ injury during a postgame news conference. However, he acknowledged ‘it’s not looking good’ and that the ailment ‘could be season-ending.’

The bigger question for Jones will be about his availability for the start of the 2026 NFL season.

That will make Jones’ rehab one to watch as he heads towards free agency following a breakout season during which he posted an 8-5 record as a starter and completed 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Who is the Colts backup quarterback?

Steichen came out of the loss impressed with what Leonard had achieved after playing just six career NFL snaps entering the Week 14 game.

‘I thought Riley stepped in and did some good things in a tough situation,’ Steichen told reporters. ‘He battled like crazy.’

Leonard was a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after helping lead Notre Dame to an appearance in the national championship game. The 6-4, 213-pound quarterback played one season for Notre Dame after transferring from Duke, completing 66.7% of his passes for 2,861 yards, 21 touchdowns and eight interceptions while adding 906 yards and 17 scores on the ground.

Leonard began the season as the Colts’ third-string quarterback but was elevated into the No. 2 spot after Anthony Richardson suffered a fractured orbital bone during pregame warmups against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 6.

It isn’t clear whether Richardson will return from that injury during the 2025 NFL season, so Leonard could be entrusted with the starting job over the season’s final month.

Colts QB depth chart

Below is a full look at the Colts quarterback depth chart as it currently stands.

Daniel Jones (injured)
Anthony Richardson (injured)
Riley Leonard
Brett Rypien (practice squad)

Leonard and Rypien are currently the only healthy quarterbacks in the Colts organization. Rypien joined the team in October after spending time with the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals earlier in the season. The 29-year-old has a 2-2 career record as a starter but has completed just 58.3% of his career passes for 950 yards, four touchdowns and nine interceptions.

The Colts will likely add another quarterback to their roster to provide depth behind Leonard and Rypien.

Notre Dame has declined to participate in a bowl game after being left out of the College Football Playoff.
The team was passed over for the CFP in favor of Miami, a team that defeated the Irish during the season.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight. The team that gets more help, more deference from the College Football Playoff and the bowl system than any other, is taking its ball and going home. 

Well, boo-freaking-hoo. 

They’ll walk right out of the bowl system, and into the loving, waiting arms of self-pity. Which, of course, tracks.  

You’ve got to be kidding me. 

Notre Dame lost to Miami, and lost the CFP argument. Not only that, the Irish have beaten no team with a pulse, and had no argument that could stick. 

No amount of whining and complaining is going to change it. Certainly not a statement released four hours after the CFP did the right thing by choosing the Canes over the Irish, one that humbly thanked friends, family and fans and declared the team was “hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”

How about finishing 2025 first?    

How about toughen up, hop on a plane to beautiful Orlando and play a grinder of a bowl game against a tough, physical BYU team that — I know this is going to shock you — is also upset about not reaching the CFP.

To say nothing of the life-sized Pop-Tart that awaits the winner of the best non-CFP game of the postseason. 

This Notre Dame move just smacks of elitism, of we’re better than you and your playoff and we’re going to prove it. Only there’s one teeny-weeny problem: The CFP does’t need Notre Dame. 

The games will go on, a national champion will be crowned and another year will be added to the last time Notre Dame won it all. Which is 1988, in case you’re wondering. 

Just how long ago was that? It was also the same year Indiana last beat Ohio State before Saturday night’s monumental moment in the Big Ten Championship game. 

That game, that specific night in Indianapolis — merely 130 miles from South Bend — should be a defining statement for Notre Dame and any other blue-blood college football program of the past. The game has changed, drastically. 

What was once elite, can easily no longer be. What was once the worst program in college football — with the right hire and whole lot of NIL cash — can be its best. 

College football doesn’t need Notre Dame like it used to, doesn’t need the charm and glory and pageantry of the Four Horsemen and Touchdown Jesus and those magnificent gold helmets. Get over yourself, Irish — it’s a new world. 

The quicker Notre Dame figures it out, the quicker it realizes every game, every moment on the field, is another chance to convince high school and transfer portal players to come play in the freezing Midwest and try to win a national title for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Young men aren’t interested in taking a stand against anything. They’re invested in making money by playing football, and if you’re really fortunate, maybe somewhat interested in graduating from the same school.

Decades ago, there was an unwritten rule at Notre Dame that prevented the school from playing any bowl game outside the major bowls. But there was a dirty secret behind it. 

It wasn’t that Notre Dame was standing on principle, and only wanted to extend a season for players if it meant a major bowl game. It’s because by playing in a bowl game, television-friendly Notre Dame was elevating the status of other schools.

Especially if the Irish lost. 

But now there’s another not-so-secret reality for Notre Dame: BYU doesn’t need the Irish. Nor does any other program in college football.

Nor does the CFP or the bowl system or any blue-chip player. The ACC still does, but that’s why Notre Dame is in this mess in the first place.

The best part of the temper tantrum is Notre Dame has been revealed to be just another team, just another program trying to find its way in the ever-changing college football world. 

One that isn’t waiting around for the Irish anymore. 

Jeff Kent received 14 of the 16 votes by the Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.
Former MVPs and 1980s-era icons Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy came up short in the Hall of Fame voting.
It seems highly unlikely that seven-time MVP Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens never get inducted into the Hall of Fame.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Every San Francisco Giants fan knew the day would eventually arrive that their legendary slugger would be elected into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Who would have ever imagined second baseman Jeff Kent would be the one to enter Cooperstown while Barry Bonds, baseball’s all-time home run king, was shut out again.

Maybe this time, for good.

Kent, whose 377 home runs are the most by a primary second baseman in baseball history, received 14 of the 16 votes by the contemporary era committee and was the only player elected on Sunday, Dec. 7. Kent, who received 46.5% of the votes in his final year on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot in 2023, needed 12 votes (75%) to be elected.

Outfielder Carlos Delgado was second with nine votes, with former MVPs Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy finishing with six votes apiece.

Most telling was that Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela each received fewer than five votes, which means they will be bypassed when the committee meets again in three years. They won’t be eligible again until 2031. If they don’t receive five votes the next time on the ballot, they’ll be permanently ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

Considering that the BBWAA declined to elect Bonds and Clemens for 10 years, and this is the second time that the seven-time MVP and seven-time Cy Young winner were bypassed by the contemporary era committee, the reality is that they will never be inducted into the Hall of Fame with their links to using performance-enhancing drugs during their career.

“I don’t think I ever saw a better player play the game overall,’’ Kent said of Bonds, his teammate of six years. “Everything he did, every phase of the game, he was one of the best players I ever saw. …

“If you’re talking about moral code and all of that, I’m not a voter, and I’m trying to stay away from all of that the best I can because I really don’t have an opinion. I left it. It doesn’t matter to me anymore.

“And I know he’s been argued amongst a lot of baseball elites about if he ought to be in or not. Keep having that argument. You argue through it, and if he’s not, he’s not. And if he is, he is.

“It’s not going to matter to me, one way or the other.’’

While Kent certainly had the offensive numbers to be enshrined into Cooperstown, his election still was a surprise. There was so much campaigning for Mattingly and Murphy, who were media darlings and fan favorites playing in New York and Atlanta, respectively. They were considered the favorites to be elected by the contemporary era committee.

Kent, who hardly was considered the warm and fuzzy type like Mattingly and Murphy, and considered surly at times by the media, but was admired as a fierce and fiery competitor by Giants manager Dusty Baker and his teammates. Maybe this is why the announcement Sunday on the MLB Network in the lobby of the Hilton Bonnet Creek resort was greeted by a smattering of boos by the scattered fans who gathered around the studio set.

Yet, Kent showed a different side of his personality this night, breaking down at times, using a towel to wipe tears streaming down his face, saying he was caught completely off guard by the announcement. He was disappointed, frustrated, and angry at times that he didn’t come close to being elected on the writers’ ballot. He has never even been inside the Hall of Fame, or been to an induction ceremony.

“I didn’t think about it much, you know, during the 10 years of opportunity to get voted in,’’ Kent said. “It would come up every year and the moments seem to, you know, pass by. And not utter disappointment, but just disappointment, you know, frustration, a little bit that I wasn’t better recognized.’’

Kent, 57, never completely gave up on the idea of one day being elected into the Hall of Fame, but took particular disdain at the narrative that he was a poor defensive second baseman, and admired only for his offensive numbers. Yet, he said he took pride in his defense, was much more bothered by making an error than striking out three times in a game.

“I can tell you this, it truly mattered to me more about playing defense than offense …’’ Kent said. “I think I turned the double play better than anybody in the game during my era. So, you know, it irked me when I made an error, it didn’t bother me so much when I struck out three times, but when I made one error, boy, it bothered the heck out of me. So maybe that gives you a little bit of an understanding of how much defense mattered to me.’’

It also didn’t help, of course, that when Kent started his career in Toronto, he was blocked by Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar, and struggled defensively when he played for the New York Mets.

“I probably started out in the wrong direction in New York a little bit,’’ Kent said, “so I think that there was this perception when I left New York and came to the West Coast that he wasn’t a good middle infielder. That was so false. It never mattered to me to try to change that. I was a big guy playing up the middle. …

“You know, I wasn’t a flashy guy,’’ Kent said. “I wasn’t a guy that sought out headlines. I played on the West Coast, so some of the best parts of my career on the West Coast. So, everybody was in bed on the East Coast, they never got to watch me.’’

He also was never considered the best player on any of the six teams he played for in his 17-year career, but as Baker can attest, few players wanted to win more than Kent.

“Jeff was just a ballplayer that was out to beat you,’’ said Baker, who was praised effusively by Kent for helping him develop into perhaps the best power-hitting second baseman in history. “Barry and Jeff made each other better, especially Barry making Jeff better, whether he wants or Barry wants to admit it.’’

And now, one is in the Hall of Fame.

The other likely never will be.

Follow Bob Nightengale on X @Bnightengale.