By Frankie “The Horn” Calderón — 94.3 The Bird Every great season leaves behind a ghost. For UTSA, that ghost wears No. 27. Robert Henry Jr. walking out of the Alamodome for the final time was not just a roster change. It was not just a senior fi…
There are seasons you remember. There are teams you celebrate. Then there are years that stop being a schedule and start becoming scripture. For UTSA, the first season of the Clay “Stonewall” Merritt Era was not just a rise. It was a hostile take…
The Finals are here, the Avalanche front office just got hit with a shakeup, the World Cup conversation is officially back on the table, and somehow we still found time to start a superhero civil war. Welcome back to The Far End of the Bench, where…
There are some episodes that feel like a normal show. This was not one of them. This Memorial Day edition of Ridin’ the Pine started where it needed to start: with respect. Before the Avs collapse, before the Denver sports pain, before the jokes a…
There are episodes where we get to celebrate. There are episodes where we get to laugh through the chaos. Then there are episodes where we have to sit down, look at the wreckage, and admit the thing we all saw with our own eyes. Episode 276 of The …
Ridin’ the Pine is officially back on the bench, and this one had everything: playoff hockey chaos, Western Conference Final hatred, Bengals schedule anxiety, and a Michael Jackson movie review that turned into a full-on musical performance ranking.…
The coolers are filled. The towels are heated. The playoffs have hit conference final mode, and Episode 275 of The Far End of the Bench came in loaded. The Avalanche are back in the Western Conference Finals for the first time in four years. The NB…
The bench is open. The first member-exclusive Ridin’ the Pine is officially here and is now available to all YouTube subscribers. This is not just another extra video. This is the start of a new lane for The Far End of the Bench universe. The ma…
Avs Push Wild Off the Brink, Wemby Drama & NFL Schedule Week There are times in the sports calendar when everything starts moving at once. The weather finally turns, the playoffs get nastier, the chirping gets louder, and every fan base suddenly de…
I had to ride solo for Episode 273, but honestly, this was one of those shows where the topics carried themselves. Niko was out handling PLL training camp duties, and while it is always better when both of us are on the mic, the sports calendar did…
Niko is back on The Far End of the Bench, and Episode 272 landed right in the middle of one of the most chaotic Denver sports weeks of the year. This episode was recorded Wednesday night, before the final results were locked in. At the time, the Nu…
If you didn’t catch this one live, you missed one of those episodes that remind you why we do this. No script. No guardrails. Just a straight reaction while the sports world was popping off all at once. We had Brandon, CEO of Variety Sports Networ…
Sometimes a title ends up being more accurate than you even planned. This was one of those episodes. Pure Colorado Chaos pretty much says it all. Dom jumped back on the show, and we covered a loaded sports slate that somehow managed to include A…
The real meaning of Invincible’s rematch was never just power Every once in a while, a fight in a show stops being just a fight. It stops being about who hit harder.It stops being about who scaled higher.It stops being about who has the louder fan…
Every now and then, the schedule forces you to adjust. This was one of those weeks. So Ridin’ the Pine came back. No episode number. No normal two-man setup. No need to fake it and pretend the sports world slows down just because life gets busy. …
The first weekend of March Madness always feels like a four-day sports blackout. You blink, your phone is buzzing every eight seconds, your bracket is already bleeding out by dinner on Friday, and somehow by Sunday night, you are sitting there tryi…
If there was any doubt about who owns this era of college wrestling, Saturday night buried it. Penn State did not go a perfect 6-for-6 in the finals. They did not get every belt. They did not have a totally flawless night. And it still did not mat…
If there is one lesson this tournament keeps teaching, it is this: Stop throwing around words like “unbeatable.” I have used that word in these recaps, and let’s be honest, that term lives more in fantasy than fact. Wrestling has a funny way of hu…
If you have never experienced competition like the NCAA quarterfinals, I genuinely feel sorry for you. This is one of the best rounds in all of sports. As a high school wrestling coach here in Colorado, the closest thing we have to this kind of …
If anybody was still pretending this tournament was wide open after Session I, Session II should have put that nonsense to bed. Penn State is not sneaking up on anybody. They are not “just surviving.” They are not getting by. They are beating the …
If you were looking for the first session of the NCAA Wrestling Championships to give us a clear message, it did. Penn State is not here to mess around. The Nittany Lions came out in Round 1. They did exactly what a title machine is supposed to do…
There are moments in sports where everything just hits at once. This is one of those weeks. The Denver Broncos went from “what are we doing?” to “oh… we’re COOKING” real fast. And at the same time?It’s March. Which means chaos, brackets, and a wh…
There’s nothing like this. Three days.Ten weight classes.The best wrestlers in the world are all in one place. March Madness might get the headlines…But if you really know competition, toughness, and what it means to earn something— This is the t…
If the opening days of NFL free agency taught us anything, it’s that logic doesn’t always win in the NFL offseason. The biggest head-scratcher came from the situation surrounding Max Crosby, the Raiders, and the Baltimore Ravens. A blockbuster deal…