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A new year is upon us, sports fans, and 2023 has already been historic. The dawn of the new year saw the Georgia Bulldogs rout the TCU Horned Frogs in the CFP National Championship game at SoFi Stadium to become back-to-back National Champions! The Sports Collectibles GameDay Auctions team was on-site in Los Angeles to witness the excitement. Stetson Bennett and team fought tough through the 2022 NCAA football season against many foes to come out on top. What a way to start the year for the Dawgs!

Let’s look back on some other FAN-tastic sports moments from 2022!

In the National Football League, the Los Angeles Rams started out the year as Super Bowl LVI Champions, beating the Cincinnati Bengals at the first big game played at the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. However, the ensuing 2022 season did not go as well for Matthew Stafford and the Rams. The Rams lost in the NFL Kickoff Game to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, who would go on to become season (and fantasy football) darlings in 2022. The 2022 season was noticeably missing some familiar faces that retired after the 2021 season including Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and longtime New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, five-time Pro Bowler Frank Gore and Georgia alum running back Todd Gurley, to name a few. Tom Brady announced his retirement in February of 2022 but then reversed the decision in March to come back to the Bucs to try to win one more ring. The Bucs had their ups and downs (as a Bucs fan I’ll admit, it was not the best season) but weren’t quite the same without Gronk and, despite making it to the top of the NFC South with stars like Mike Evans and Leonard Fournette. They lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round. The 2022 season saw Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs and Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles come out on top with the best records of the regular season. The Eagles have just been crowned NFC Champions and are headed to Super Bowl LVII in Arizona. At the time of publication, the Chiefs are battling Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals for the title of AFC Champions. The Bengals had a wild ride in 2022 with stars like Joe Mixon, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and Ja’Marr Chase. Can they make it to a second Super Bowl in 2 years? Time will tell.

2022 gave the Golden State Warriors their 7th NBA title with a win over the Boston Celtics. Steph Curry continues to dazzle on the court, now in his 14th season in the NBA. In hockey, the two-time defending champions, the Tampa Bay Lighting fought hard to try and win their third Stanley Cup in 2022 but were defeated in Game 6 by the Colorado Avalanche, who became 2022 NHL Champions. Mikko Rantanen and Nathan McKinnon led the Avs to a spectacular season and a hard-fought victory.

The 2022 World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between American League Champion Houston Astros and NL Champ Philadelphia Phillies. The Astros and series MVP Jeremy Peña defeated the Phillies in 6 games to win their second MLB Championship.

Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics and the Games made for great television during the cold winter month of February in the US. Snowboarder Shaun White made his last Olympics appearance, finishing fourth in the half-pipe before retiring at the age of 35.

Other top moments in sports from last year included the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with Argentina coming out on top and Lionel Messi winning his first World Cup Trophy. In the golf world, in April, golfer Scottie Scheffler won The Masters Tournament, taking home the coveted Green Jacket. Other golf majors tournament champions included Justin Thomas (PGA Championship), Matt Fitzpatrick (US Open) and Cameron Smith winning the coveted Claret Jug at the 150th Open Championship held at the historic St. Andrews course in Scotland.

With the NFL season winding down now at the end of January 2023, we await a new Super Bowl champion and so many more moments to come in the spectacular arena of professional sports. Stay tuned!

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This post is brought to you by Sports Collectibles Blog Dog Jackson!

– Jackson is a rescue dog born and raised in Florida. He loves watching NFL football with his pop-pop and college football with his GiGi when he visits her in Ohio. He doesn’t love that his mama has to travel often for her job as Director of Marketing for Sports Collectibles but he looooooves to greet her with big smiles and a helicopter tail when she comes home!

Football season is right around the corner and fans all over the country are salivating to watch meaningful gridiron play again. Even more than that, co-workers and friend groups are trying to nail down their fantasy football leagues (including our own office). One of the most important positions always perplexes most players and that is: the Tight End.

When should you draft a tight end? What is the ‘sweet spot’ in each round to get the most production for the draft slot? Who will be Tight End Number 1 when the year is over? Will the reign of Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce being TE1 finally end?

All valid questions, none of them with clear-cut answers. However, there is hope out there for the many loyal readers of the SportsCollectibles.com blog. Within the Kansas City Chiefs offense, Kelce looks like he should take a step forward even further from the pack losing a weapon like Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins. However, there is something being overlooked about him and that is the fact he will be double and triple-teamed even more in the upcoming season.

While Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes has had the luxury of both Kelce and Hill giving nightmares to opposing defenses about how to match up with them, he won’t have that same abundance of firepower at his disposal this season. Tyreek Hill always made defenses match his deep speed, and with Mahomes’ cannon-like arm strength 70-yard throws could happen at any time. This would usually give Travis Kelce a lot more room to operate with the rest of the field. With Tyreek getting traded to the Miami Dolphins, the Chiefs looked to free-agency and the 2022 NFL Draft to improve the weaponry surrounding Patrick Mahomes with Western Michigan Broncos rookie receiver Skyy Moore and former Green Bay Packers speedster Marquez Valdes-Scantling. These guys are solid, but won’t help Travis Kelce get as open as Tyreek Hill did while he was playing in Kansas City.

Enter Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews into the Tight End 1 chat. With Lamar Jackson losing Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to the Arizona Cardinals, the offensive skill players might look light to some fans. True NFL fans know about #89 Mark Andrews’ true dominance in the Greg Roman-led Ravens offense. A great blocker in the run game, Andrews can parlay this into getting wide-open in the play action game because defenders don’t want to get blocked by him and get sucked into the run action. This automatically gives Andrews a leg-up on his competition with how many targets he will have this season with no defenders around, giving him ample room to get plenty of yard after the catch (YAC).

Jackson is also fighting for a generational-wealth type of contract and will come out this season firing on all cylinders to prove the doubters wrong and show that he is more than a “running back playing quarterback”. Lamar also has the accolades to back up his performance come contract negotiating time led by his amazing agent- his mom. This all plays into Mark Andrews having a record-breaking 2022 season being Lamar Jackson’s safety blanket and number 1 target. It will also help if former first-round pick Rashod Bateman can demand some coverage and be another target for Lamar to throw to and another player that defenses must respect.

Most fantasy players can get Andrews a round or two after Kelce and could very well accumulate a considerable number of points this season. Make Andrews a top priority when drafting this year and you can also win your league and have bragging rights over your friends, family and co-workers. Good Luck Fantasy Players!

Find collectibles and memorabilia from all of your favorite Fantasy Football players including Autographed NFL Footballs, Autographed Full-Size Helmets, Autographed Mini Helmets, Autographed Photos, Autographed Trading Cards and of course Autographed Jerseys! Check out our custom framing options for jerseys and photos on the item pages. We custom-frame our jerseys in our frame shop at our headquarters in Tampa. Custom Framed Jerseys make excellent gridiron gifts for all of the football fans on your holiday list or to add special flair to your man cave or lady lair!

Be sure to follow our blog this NFL season for all of the best Fantasy Football News and Tips from our in-house fantasy experts.

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This post brought to you by Sports Collectibles Blog Dog Fantasy Phenom Barkley!

-Barkley is the best boy ever! He’s been with the SportsCollectibles.com team for 3 years and couldn’t imagine doing anything else! He enjoys LONG walks around the neighborhood and playing fetch. His hero is Air Bud. His favorite foods are pizza and tortilla chips. He can’t wait for Fall Football and snuggling on the couch with his Mom and Dad to watch his favorite team, the Chicago Bears!