And The Emmy For Making History Goes To . . .

English: Viola Davis at the film premiere of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows in Alice Tully Center, New York City in November 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For all the talk from the Television Academy and others about how this year's Emmy Awards nominations would be more diverse than last year's, not everyone believed it would actually happen until it did.  That moment came when Viola Davis became the first African-American woman to win Best Actress in a Dramatic Series, for her role as a crime-fighting college professor in the ABC series "How to Get Away With Murder".

Two other women of color took home trophies in supporting roles:  Regina King for the limited ABC drama "American Crime", and Uzo Aduba for the comedy-turned-drama (for Emmy purposes) "Orange Is The New Black" on Netflix.

Then there was Jeffrey Tambor, a white heterosexual male who played a transgender woman on the Amazon sitcom "Transparent", winning a Best Actor in a Comedy Emmy.

And that was the diversity part of our program.  The rest of the three-hour telecast of the 67th Emmys on Fox, hosted by Andy Samberg (the first one in years not to come from a late night talk show, since Fox doesn't have one of those) of the sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", was your typical mix of lame jokes and skits, Donald Trump-bashing, acceptance speeches that ran too long, a not-so-awkward "In Memoriam" segment (this time), a salute to departing series that should have read "spoiler alert", Amy Poehler mugging it up as compensation for not winning a trophy once again, and awards presenters used as product placement for the network's shows.  Or was it Samsung, for all the Hollywood types in the audience taking selfies?

Here are the other Emmy winners, by category:

Comedy  HBO's "Veep" ended "Modern Family"'s long run as an Emmy winner for Best Comedy Series.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale both took home awards for female lead actor and male supporting actor, respectively.  Allison Janney won her seventh Emmy, tying her with Ed Asner and Mary Tyler Moore, with a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role on the CBS sitcom "Mom".

Limited Series or Movie  With the exception of Regina King, HBO's "Olive Kitteridge" dominated this category:  Best Show and acting awards for Frances McDormand (actress), Richard Jenkins (actor) and Bill Murray (supporting actor).

Reality Competition went to NBC's "The Voice".  If only they had this much luck in finding talent that's more memorable than celebrity judges in swinging chairs.

Variety  After saying goodbye to David Letterman and Jon Stewart plus a change of network for Stephen Colbert, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" was sent on its way with an 11th Best Talk Show Emmy.  Amy Schumer's big year continued when her "Inside Amy Schumer" won a newly-created award for Best Sketch Series.

Drama  In "Mad Men"'s final season, Jon Hamm gets a long-overdue Best Actor Emmy for playing the iconic Don Draper all these years.  HBO's "Game of Thrones" took home the most trophies, including Best Drama and Best Supporting Actor for Peter Dinklage.

These Emmys also made history of another sort.  According to Nielsen, 11.9 million were tuned into the telecast, making it the lowest-rated in the awards show's history.  With most of the nominated shows seen on either cable or streaming services and the withering competition from NBC's "Sunday Night Football", how long can the folks who run the Television Academy convince all those cord-cutters out there that the kind of TV they hand out Emmys for is not only relevant, but worth paying for?  That's a hard sell to those who've decided they'll make do with "The Big Bang Theory" than shell out for "Game of Thrones" or "Orange Is The New Black". 

The NFL 2015: Less Than Golden

Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots during warmups in a preseason game against the Washington Redskins at FedExField on August 28, 2009 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The National Football League's 2015 season will conclude with the 50th anniversary Super Bowl next February, which is why you saw those 50-yard line numbers painted gold during the preseason games.  Why, they've even asked Bruno Mars to headline their halftime show for the second time in three years, according to media reports.  The game may be more popular than ever, but everything else seems to be tarnished.

(1) A federal judge lets the air out of the NFL's case against the New England Patriots and their quarterback Tom Brady for allegedly deflating footballs during the AFC championship game.  The league-imposed four-game suspension against Brady has been rescinded, pending an NFL appeal.  Nobody looks good here.  Not commissioner Roger Goodell, which for him is par for the course.  Nor for the Patriots and Brady, who now look like the type of people who think they could get away with just about anything.  And they have all those Vince Lombardi trophies as proof.

(2) The usual assortment of players who were fined and/or suspended for drug and/or domestic abuse.

(3) Players who retire prematurely when they realize that all the safety measures in the world didn't prevent them from getting concussions, or they just didn't want to wait until it happened to them.

(4) The San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams--three franchises that once called Los Angeles home--are battling to see which one (or two) of them is going to ditch their current stadium situations for the City of Angels.  LA hasn't seen NFL football since the Raiders and Rams left in 1995, and there's some question as to whether they'd be interested even now.  But there are owners and developers with dollar signs in their eyes who are willing to find out.

All of this should matter to the millions who fill the stadiums, watch on TV and participate in fantasy leagues.  Right now it just doesn't, because it's time for kickoff.  American sports fans certainly don't demand much, do they?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, the Vikings and coach Mike Zimmer think they have all the tools necessary to make a run at a playoff spot.  Teddy Bridgewater is the undisputed starting quarterback, which is something you couldn't say for years unless your name was Brett Favre.  Mike Wallace (brought in from the Miami Dolphins) and Cordarrelle Patterson are here to enhance the offense.

Adrian Peterson returns from NFL-imposed exile and a brief hankering to try his luck with another team (only to be told he couldn't), to see if he has anything in the tank left at age 30 after such a long absence.  Peterson might also be wondering if everyone would forgive him, but not forget, the reason why he was suspended in the first place.  Having a good season has a way of inducing collective amnesia among Vikings fans.

This is indeed a team that could make the Wild Card round of the playoffs if it weren't for one big fat question mark:  How will the offensive line be as effective in protecting Bridgewater, now that Phil Loadholt is out for the season after getting injured in a preseason game?  If the Vikings can't find the answer to that question, they'll spend their last season at TCF Bank Stadium out in the cold.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those who care what we think, here's our picks for who will be in the Super Bowl tournament come January.

NFC North  Green Bay Packers
NFC South  Carolina Panthers
NFC East     Dallas Cowboys
NFC West    Seattle Seahawks
Wild Card    Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions

AFC North   Baltimore Ravens
AFC South   Indianapolis Colts
AFC East     New England Patriots
AFC West    Denver Broncos
Wild Card   Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals