Vikings at Cowboys (-6½)

Minnesota sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy shocked the world last Sunday with a three-touchdown performance in the Vikings’ shutout of Jayden Daniels and the hapless Commanders. The Commies’ effort was the most nauseating performance to come out of the nation’s capital in at least several minutes.
Pick: Cowboys by 7

Chargers at Chiefs (-5½)

Patrick Mahomes was terrible again last Sunday night against Houston in a loss that severely damaged Kansas City’s faint playoff hopes. But on the bright side, the Chiefs’ quarterback is the early favorite to win the next FIFA Peace Prize.
Pick: Chiefs by 3

Colts at Seahawks (-10½)

Forty-four-year-old Philip Rivers is coming out of retirement to fill in for Colts QB Daniel Jones, who suffered a season-ending torn Achilles‘ tendon to go with his broken fibula. Since his retirement, the 10-time father has been mostly keeping busy by repopulating the planet.
Pick: Seahawks by 14

Raiders at Eagles (-13½)

Philly QB Jalen Hurts had a historically poor Monday night against the Chargers, committing five turnovers, including an NFL record two on a single play. It was a display of irresponsible giveaways that would make even Tim Walz blush.
Pick: Eagles by 17

Bills at Patriots (+1½)

New England needs a victory to dethrone Buffalo and clinch a division title. It would be the first since the Patriots were led to the 2019 AFC East crown by Bill Belichick, about three years before he officially turned in his Man Card.
Pick: Patriots by 3

Packers at Broncos (+1½)

It’s hard to believe, but the mildly-talented Bo Nix and his Broncos are tied for the best record in the National Football League. Colorado fans have been deliriously happy about their quarterback’s play, mostly due to the state’s historically high consumption of cannabis products.
Pick: Packers by 3

Browns at Bears (-6½)

Chicago QB Caleb Williams threw away last Sunday’s pivotal game with an ineptly underthrown pass in the final moments in Green Bay. This surprised many longtime Williams watchers who thought he’d wait until the postseason to disappoint everyone who has ever known him.
Pick: Bears by 16

Dolphins at Steelers (-3½)

Miami football fans are super excited that the Hurricanes have qualified for college football’s championship tournament. That’s because most won’t live long enough to see the Dolphins play for a championship in God’s Waiting Room.
Pick: Dolphins by 3

Ravens at Bengals (+1½)

Joe Burrow and the Bengals collapsed down the stretch last Sunday against Buffalo, all but knocking them out of the AFC playoff chase. Cincinnati sports fans haven’t been this chagrined since the last time they caught sight of Marge Schott.
Pick: Ravens by 7

Jets at Jaguars (-12½)

Jacksonville is suddenly in prime playoff position, leading the AFC South and on pace to host a first-round playoff game. Tragically, that means some unfortunate wild-card team will have to spend part of January in godforsaken Duval County.
Pick: Jaguars by 7

OTHER GAMES

Lions at Rams (-4½)
Pick: Lions by 3

Titans at 49ers (-13½)
Pick: 49ers by 17

Panthers at Saints (+2½)
Pick: Panthers by 7

Cardinals at Texans (-7½)
Pick: Texans by 7

Commanders at Giants (-1½)
Pick: Giants by 3

Record

Week 14
8-6 straight up
8-6 vs. spread

Season
130-77-1 straight up (.628)
105-103 vs. spread (.505)

All-time (2003-25)
3949-2178-15 straight up (.645)
3016-2982-145 vs spread (.503)

You can hear Kevin Cusick on Thursdays on Bob Sansevere’s “BS Show” podcast on iTunes. You can follow Kevin on X– @theloopnow. He can be reached at kcusick@pioneerpress.com.

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Today is Friday, Dec. 12, the 346th day of 2025. There are 19 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 12,2010, the inflatable roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome collapsed in the early morning hours after a snowstorm dumped 17 inches on the city. (There were no injuries, but the NFL had to shift an already rescheduled game between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants to Detroit’s Ford Field.)

Also on this date:

In 1870, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first Black lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.

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In 1963, the east African nation of Kenya declared independence from Britain; it became a republic exactly a year later.

In 1985, 248 American soldiers and eight crew members were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland.

In 2000, George W. Bush became president-elect as a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court recount decision in Florida’s tightly contested presidential election.

In 2015, nearly 200 nations meeting in Paris adopted the first global pact to fight climate change, calling on the world to collectively cut greenhouse gas emissions but imposing no sanctions on countries that didn’t do so.

In 2020, thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump gathered in Washington for rallies to back his efforts to subvert the election he lost to Joe Biden.

In 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, capping a whirlwind two-day visit to Washington, D.C., urged Congress to approve more assistance to fight Russia’s invasion of his country.

Today’s Birthdays:

Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Pettit is 93.
Singer Dionne Warwick is 85.
Hall of Fame race car driver Emerson Fittipaldi is 79.
Actor Bill Nighy is 76.
Gymnast-actor Cathy Rigby is 73.
Singer-musician Sheila E. is 68.
Actor Sheree J. Wilson is 67.
Tennis Hall of Famer Tracy Austin is 63.
Football Hall of Famer John Randle is 58.
Actor Jennifer Connelly is 55.
Actor Regina Hall is 55.
Actor Mayim Bialik is 50.
Model-actor Bridget Hall is 48.
Actor Lucas Hedges is 29.
Actor and rapper Sky Katz is 21.

When the sun rose over Minneapolis on Dec. 12, 2010, something was missing from the city’s skyline: the white Teflon bubble of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

A weekend blizzard had dumped a whopping 17 inches of snow on the dome faster than the short-staffed facilities crew could hose off its 10 acres of surface area with hot water.

The roof buckled overnight before finally bursting about 5 a.m., sending chunks of snow and ice tumbling onto the field below, where the Vikings were scheduled to kick off against the New York Giants just a few hours later.

“It’s like a 100-year flood,” a Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission official told the Pioneer Press at the time. “You do everything you can to melt the snow, but Mother Nature has tricks of her own.”

That day’s football game was hastily rescheduled for the following night at Ford Field in Detroit, while advocates for a new downtown Minneapolis stadium seized on the roof’s collapse as proof that the aging Metrodome was overdue for replacement.

Snow defenses overwhelmed

The dome had several lines of defense against Minnesota’s harsh winters.

When heavy snow fell, the internal air pressure of the stadium — which kept the roof aloft — was increased to keep the Teflon taut under the load. Meanwhile, 140-degree air was pumped into the space between the dome’s inner and outer layers.

When that didn’t do the trick, members of the maintenance staff climbed onto the roof in pairs with a firehose to attack the snow with 105-degree water.

The night before the collapse, road conditions prevented some of these staffers from making it to work, according to an interview with facilities crew member Pete Eisenschenk in a video the Vikings produced in 2020.

The pace of the snowfall soon overwhelmed the short-handed crew. When the center of the dome began to droop, the now-useless firehoses were abandoned. Gravity did the rest.

The Vikings lost their make-up game against the Bears on their way to a disappointing 6-10 record that season, but the campaign to build what became U.S. Bank Stadium was reinvigorated.

The proposal won the approval of the state Legislature in 2012.

Three collapses in three years

This was the fourth time a snowstorm had knocked the wind out of the Metrodome.

While it was still under construction in November 1981, a faulty roof panel was torn in half when the building’s internal pressure was increased to support the dome after it was blanketed by 10 inches of snow.

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The very next year, maintenance crews were shoveling snow off the dome after a December blizzard dumped 16.5 inches on the building, when a crane that was being used to haul it away snagged the roof and tore a hole in it.

“All were able to scurry off the roof before the dome deflated,” the St. Paul Dispatch reported. No one was injured.

During another snowstorm the following April, a chunk of ice slid down the side of the roof and pressed the fabric against a bolt at the dome’s base. The resulting tear was repaired in time for the Twins to play the California Angels the next evening.

Veteran forward Marcus Johansson had 11 goals in each of his first two seasons with the Minnesota Wild. On Thursday, he scored his 10th and 11th goals of this season in the third period, helping the Wild to a 5-2 win over the previously red-hot Dallas Stars.

Johansson had the eventual game-winner as the Wild’s offense created traffic around the Stars’ net much of the night. Dallas, which came to town on a 9-0-2 run, got power play and shorthanded goals, but fell for the first time in December.

Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had 16 saves in the win, which snapped a streak that had seen Minnesota go its previous 15 games versus Dallas without a regulation win.

The Wild got a first-period goal from Joel Eriksson Ek, Zach Bogosian scored in the second, while Matt Boldy added an empty-net goal and two assists. Johansson’s second goal hit an empty net as well.

The Wild are now 8-0-2 in their past 10 home games.

The Wild tested Stars goalie Jake Oettinger thoroughly and repeatedly early in the game, outshooting Dallas 9-0 in the game’s first nine minutes. Then Ryan Hartman took a penalty, and the first Stars’ shot of the game, on the ensuing power play, was deflected past Gustavsson as the visitors took the early lead.

The deficit seemed to stun the Wild, who went the next seven minutes without a shot. But they forged a tie late in the first when Eriksson Ek popped in the rebound of a Matt Boldy shot. It was Eriksson Ek’s second goal in as many games.

Minnesota’s power play got its first chance early in the middle frame and controlled the offensive zone, getting pucks near – but not over – the goal line. It was the 30th consecutive penalty killed off by Dallas.

On the Wild’s second power play of the game, the Dallas penalty killers did one better, retaking the lead on a blast from the blue line. It was the first shorthanded goal the Wild have allowed this season.

Dallas appeared to take a 3-1 lead barely two minutes later, but Minnesota successfully challenged the play for offside, and what would have been Wyatt Johnston’s 17th goal of the year came off the board.

Then the Wild drew even again, when Bogosian ripped a shot from the blue line that beat Oettinger over the right shoulder. It was the first goal of the season for Bogosian, who missed 16 games due to injury in October and November.

Minnesota took its first lead near the midway point of the third when Boldy’s pinpoint cross-ice pass set up Johansson for a pop-in before Oettinger could get post to post.

Vying to be Team USA’s top goalie in the coming Olympics, Oettinger finished with 27 saves for the Stars, who had not lost a game in regulation since Nov. 18.

With forward Mats Zuccarello and defenseman Jake Middleton placed on injured reserve earlier in the day, forward Nicolas Aubé-Kubel and defenseman Matt Kiersted were called up from Iowa. Both skated in warmups, but neither was in the lineup versus Dallas.

The Wild, who are in the midst of a stretch where they have seven of eight games at home, next host Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.

Briefly

Members of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame’s class of 2025, who were officially inducted on Wednesday night in St. Paul, were introduced on the ice at Grand Casino Arena during the second intermission. Fans gave a warm ovation to Bloomington native Zach Parise, who spent nine seasons with the Wild and is fifth on the franchise’s all-time scoring list. In his induction speech, Parise thanked Wild owner Craig Leipold and then-general manager Chuck Fletcher for giving him the chance to play at home when Minnesota signed him in 2012.

Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) defends his net against Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek (14) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
ST PAUL, MINNESOTA – DECEMBER 11: Zach Parise acknowledges the crowd while being honored as a 2025 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame during a game between the Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars at Grand Casino Arena on December 11, 2025 in St Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)