Sunday Morning Coffee — January 11, 2026 — Sunday Morning Scramble

By Roy Berger, Las Vegas, NV.

Happy belated New Year. So, it’s been three weeks. Did you miss us? I probably don’t want the answer. This is our first post of 2026 which means we’ve now been Sunday Morning Coffee’ing for almost nine years. What began as a Facebook whim has turned into something much larger with about 1,800 followers, most from word of mouth as we don’t extend much promotional effort to get subscribers. Which doesn’t mean that referrals are not encouraged. In fact, it’s flattering that so many people pretend to enjoy this, or say they do, this side of Andi and my kids. SMC has been on the expanding Substack platform for about a year joining some 75,000 other authors. Substack monetizes by encouraging its writers to charge an annual subscription of which the host site takes a piece. About 36% of the contributors do charge a fee which results in over five million readers subscribing to one publication or multiple ones. One thing you can count on is that we won’t do that, primarily because who in their right mind would pay for this? Nevertheless, we very much appreciate you taking the journey with us.

Of course, taking us at our word we would never go to paid subscription format, we modeled our guarantee after former UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Two days before UNLV’s bowl game on December 23 he told the assembled media he would be returning to Vegas next fall for his senior season because “Money is never going to be part of my decision. Money comes; money goes. Just stay to who you are. Stay to your principles. My future is here (at UNLV).” All Rebels fans breathed a sigh of relief. Four days later Colandrea entered the transfer portal. Earlier this week he committed to Nebraska to make more money.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t thank Medjet for their continued sponsorship support of SMC over the years. Dozens of readers have told us they’ve become Medjet members (medjet.com) for that travel peace of mind the protection program offers.

With the prettiest lady at the U pre-game alumni party at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday; granddaughter Harley’s expression when she found out Miami will play undefeated Indiana for all the marbles on January 19.

There’s an old University of Miami victory cheer, dating back to the 1940s, saluting the school’s athletic prowess and ends with ‘Skit skat, how bout that?’ Well, ‘how bout that?’ is what all ‘Canes fans and alum are chanting through the first three weeks of the College Football Playoffs. Miami’s post-season surge is so unexpected despite such a promising start then October losses to Louisville and SMU plummeting our hopes like the Hurricanes did in the polls. The Canes reached as high as number two in the rankings and then after the two losses fell to 18. But then the magic happened again in early November and the winning resumed and hasn’t stopped. Miami was awarded the last spot in the 12-team playoff field over Notre Dame because of the ‘Canes early season win over the Irish. That was justified. Then surprising playoff wins over Texas A&M and Ohio State as underdogs led to a spot in the Fiesta Bowl semifinals on Thursday night against Ole Miss. When the playoffs began, neither side figured to be there. Phoenix’s State Farm Stadium is only a four hour and change ride from our Las Vegas front door so on a whim last Monday, three days before the game, I asked Andi, “Do you want to go?” “Sure,” she said. So, wheels in motion I found two nice seats, a hotel 20 minutes away and most importantly a premier parking spot. My dad taught me never discount a good parking spot. We bought tickets to the Miami Alumni Tailgate Party with thousands of other alums, when did they get so young looking, and their guests. As much fun as the pre-game was the game was even better with a last second ‘Canes 31-27 win and trip back to South Florida on January 19 to play for the national championship against undefeated Indiana. Whether Miami beats the Hoosiers or not, this season with wins over Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State, Texas A&M and the bullies from Ohio State hasn’t been a good season, but a great one. Skit skat, how bout that?

I don’t care how much money she makes but kudos to Taylor Swift for her benevolence. In appreciation of her father’s successful quintuple bypass surgery last year, Ms. Swift donated $1 million to the American Heart Association. Every one of us who is a member of the zipper club owes her and every other AHA contributor a debt of gratitude.

The music got quiet last night with the passing of legendary Bob Weir. Weir was a founding member, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Grateful Dead since they formed in 1965. The group disbanded in 1995 but Weir played on and for the last ten years was forefront in Dead & Company, a reclamation band of sorts, performing Grateful Dead covers and still touring. Bob Weir was 78.

There’s not much royalty left from the glory days of baseball. Probably only one. Happy 90th birthday to Sandy Koufax who pitched his whole career, 1955-66, for the Dodgers in both Brooklyn and LA. For those of us old enough to have watched the left-handed pitcher, he was magical. Consider that he threw 137 complete games in 314 starts. Incredible. Koufax retired early, at age 30, with three Cy Young Awards and four World Championship rings, two of which he was the Series MVP. At age 36, in 1972, he was the youngest player ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Over the years he has become a recluse of sorts, with few public appearances. However, his persona is such, much like a grade school principal, when he walks into a room all conversation ceases out of respect. Mr. Koufax is probably the last of the royal class of the game whom we never really got to know because media then, compared to today’s free-for-all, was minimal. Watching Sandy Koufax on the mound was something else.

What a miserable NFL season. For me, anyway. The two sides I pull for— a lifetime New York Jets fan and now the hometown Las Vegas Raiders— cashed a daily double that’s rather hard to do. The two worst teams in the league: they will have the first and second selections in April’s college draft. The Raiders are on the clock which in past years has produced very little.

Bears 23, Jets 0. Chicago led the NFL in interceptions this season with 23. The nothing part is pretty self-explanatory. The Jets didn’t have one pick, not a single one, the lowest mark since 1933 when the stat was first recorded. That’s bad.

Closer to home maybe this is the answer: with a self-acclaimed W in the win column after last weekend’s Venezuelan invasion maybe the Trump administration can also plan a late-night attack and overthrow the Jets’ front office in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Guess who’s paying for this? When the 2026 NFL season kicks off in September, the Raiders will have five head coaches on the payroll. The yet to be chosen new guy will join former field bosses Pete Carroll, Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce and Jon Gruden, collectively owed $44 million, in getting a check from owner Mark Davis. Season ticket holders can expect to see an increase next renewal to pay the freight for another totally inept organization.

Not much meat left on the bone. The restaurant business has always been rough to make a go with but with rising prices and labor costs it’s gotten that much tougher. Consider downtown Chicago’s upscale steakhouse Kindling. The Wall Street Journal tells us that for a party of four, dinner check of about $500, after the house expenses of $190 for food and alcohol; $175 of labor and $110 for rent, insurance and other fixed costs, the establishment takes the remaining $25 to the cookie jar.

Paying a front row seating cover charge at the Top of the World Steakhouse gets you this rotating view of Vegas, which for us started with Sphere, Fountainbleau and Resorts World.

Speaking of which, back in November 16th’s Scramble we mentioned that, to my surprise anyway, the top grossing restaurant in Las Vegas is the Top of the World Steakhouse at the Strat. Never would have guessed that one. Neither did Stefanie Tuzman, the very accomplished President/CEO of the non-profit Jewish advocacy and community organization Jewish Nevada. She sent me a text and said, “I can’t believe that place is still open….let’s go!” So along with husband Jon, an exec at MGM Resorts, and Andi, we did last Saturday night. First when making the reservation you have the option of paying upfront $27 each, $108 for our party, to guarantee a window seat. That is non-refundable whether you cancel or not. The Strat is a combat zone; park and wander around the property at your own risk but go 107 floors above and it’s a game changer. Top of the Strat is a very classy, impressive venue. The seating cover charge gave us window seats 800 feet high, or 200 feet higher than the Seattle Space Needle. A great panoramic view of the entire Las Vegas Valley. The dining tier rotates, every 80 minutes it brings you back to your original view, which for us was the Sphere and Fontainebleau Hotel. Then every 15 or so minutes there is a dessert cart also on a mechanical track, that comes by with suggestions for afterwards. We actually made about a revolution and a half in a couple of hours of dining. It was fun, a lot of laughs with the ever-changing landscape view, the food was good, and the prices by Vegas standards were not unreasonable. We passed on the dessert cart; we’d seen too much of it already. I didn’t expect much going in but now, surprisingly, I’d do it again.

The night before we spun around at dinner Andi and I went to see John Fogerty at Planet Hollywood. We saw him previously in late 2019, before the world shut down, and then, by far, he was one of our favorite shows. Fogerty’s song catalogue, from both his days as the Creedence Clearwater Revival lead and then a solo career, takes a back seat to almost none save for the Beatles. From Fortunate Son to Proud Mary to Down on the Corner to Green River to Lookin’ Out My Back Door to Who’ll Stop the Rain to Rock and Roll Girls to Centerfield to, well you get the idea. Fogerty is 80, his sons Shane and Tyler on guitars now front with him and the memories are long and wonderful. However, his voice has become shrill since we saw him last and some of the tunes either were shortened or became a jam session to help his energy through the ninety-minute show. After all, how many 80+ year old artists can still do it the way they used to and their name isn’t McCartney?

Make up your mind: back in July the Big Ten Conference, with no traditional midwestern territorial boundaries anymore, held their annual football media days in Las Vegas. For some reason Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule wasn’t particularly enamored and made the mistake of telling the assembled media at Mandalay Bay “I’ll be honest, I don’t think college sports should be in Las Vegas.” Actually Coach, there is no venue like Vegas for a major event. Then guess what happened? Nebraska, with a 7-5 season, was selected to play in the December 31 Las Vegas Bowl. Oops. Rhule changed his tune in a hurry. He had dinner at Park MGM’s Bavette’s and called it one of the best meals of his life. UNLV head coach Dan Mullen took him to see Kenny Chesney at the Sphere and he couldn’t stop raving about it. Rhule’s wife got him tickets to see the Backstreet Boys also at his new favorite venue- the Sphere- and boy was that over the top. The Las Vegas Bowl committee treated Rhule and his team like royalty during bowl week. The coach reveled in all of it. He told the Las Vegas Review Journal, “Las Vegas is hospitality and tourism done right. It’s sports done right. We have kids from all over the country and to be able to bring them here and have this experience is just unbelievable. It’s really, really cool.” Except for one thing. Utah smacked Nebraska 44-22 in the bowl game. No word from Coach Rhule on whether he’s still waving his Vegas pompoms but he did go home with a souvenir—signing former UNLV quarterback Colandrea. And next year’s CFP championship game is right here at Allegiant Stadium. We rather doubt Rhule would be disappointed to come back for that one.

Who needs Realtor.com? This from Sports Illustrated—Back in October when Pittsburgh played Green Bay, Steelers quarterback Aaron Rogers, a long time former Packer, while scrambling to avoid newly acquired Packers defensive end Micah Parsons, asked his pursuer if he’d be interested in buying the house he still owned in Green Bay.

Speaking of Pittsburgh, another one bites the dust. After serving the Steel City for 240 years, even older than Aaron Rogers, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced it will cease publication this spring. The inaugural edition rolled off the press on July 29, 1786, making it the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains. The final edition will hit the newsstand on May 3. The sad decline of the industry marches on.

And finally, many of you have probably seen this already. Even if you have, but especially if you haven’t, invest three minutes in the link below (after clicking skip on the promo~) and watch 104-year-old, WWII veteran Dominick Critelli with his ode to America prior to the New York Islanders hockey game on December 27. Then I dare you to tell me your knees didn’t get a bit wobbly:

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I’m proud that Medjet is sponsoring Sunday Morning Coffee. I spent 20 wonderful years with Medjet in Birmingham, Alabama, and can tell you unequivocally they are the standard-bearer for medical assistance membership programs. A talented staff, who cares about its members, is at the forefront of the company’s success. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, domestic or international, a Medjet membership should be an important part of your travel portfolio before you leave home. Check out the Medjet website at medjet.com or just tap on the Medjet logo and you’ll be able to get a look at Medjet’s services, rules and regulations, pricing, and an overview of the organization. And remember, any opinions expressed in Sunday Morning Coffee content or comments belong to the author and not the sponsor. Safe travels with your Medjet membership! — Roy Berger