Growing up in SEC country in the 1990s along the tomato fields of Southeast Arkansas left little room for passion toward an NFL team.
During college football season, it was all about the SEC. Being that far away from the University of Arkansas with Ole Miss, LSU, Mississippi State Alabama and even technically Vanderbilt being closer than the Razorbacks, there was the obligatory requirement to wear Arkansas gear, but a lot of people had another college team on the side.
For a lot of people in that area in those days it was often LSU or Mississippi State with an equal chance of Tennessee, Notre Dame, USC or a more local team like Northeast Louisiana (Louisiana-Monroe) or Louisiana Tech. Saturdays were for football.
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The mornings were pee-wee football and the rest of the day and night were college. As for Sundays, they were for church and visiting with family.
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Football wasn’t in the equation. Unless an NFL team showed up on Monday Night Football, which was the biggest game of the week in those days, it wasn’t going to be seen in most households.
Barry Sanders runs around New York Giants Tito Wooten for the Lions first touchdown in the first half of a game played Oct 19, 1997, at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich. | JULIAN H. GONZALEZ, DETROIT FREE PRESS via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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Even then, the great Barry Sanders and his Detroit Lions were only going to be seen for a half no matter how close the game or how insane Sanders was playing because school came first.
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It wasn’t until the playoffs that the NFL got watched in a casual fashion and that was only if it didn’t interfere with Nolan Richardson’s Razorback basketball teams.
People would pick a team to ride with, but it wasn’t serious with only one or two exceptions.
One neighbor followed the New Orleans Saints, another claimed the Chicago Bears, the other was a big enough Miami fan to know if the Dolphins won or lost each week and whether Dan Marino had a good game while his stepdad cared enough about Green Bay for it to bother him if I said something about Brett Favre throwing a pick to lose to Troy Aikman and the Cowboys.
As for me, I adopted the Buffalo Bills. For some reason I liked their colors and also several players. I was a fan of quarterback Jim Kelly, running back Thurman Thomas, receivers Andre Reed and James Lofton and monster defensive lineman Bruce Smith.
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After they finished losing Super Bowl after Super Bowl, I became teamless once more and the Super Bowl became what it’s about for many Razorbacks fans — the commercials.
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It was such a golden age for that because that’s when it became a true marketing focus. There was the Bud Bowl, a Super Bowl played out between bottles of Budweiser and Bud Light over multiple commercials.
We saw the arrival of the Clydesdales for the first time as one kicked a field goal and also the Budweiser frogs. There was also the great battle between Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, the Budweiser fire dog commercial, Monster.com’s “When I Grow Up” and eventually the infamous Puppy Monkey Baby.
For decades I talked and played games with friends during the game and decided whether the halftime show was worth my time, but everyone was in agreed silence when the commercials came on. Once the game was over, we all argued which were the best commercials. Were you a Terry Tate: Office Linebacker guy, or did you prefer the zebra doing instant replay to see whether a Clydesdale stepped out of bounds or perhaps the Fed Ex Castaway parody where he found out the package contained everything he needed to escape the island the whole time?
But lately some companies have begun doing their best to ruin the Super Bowl experience for people in the SEC footprint. They have started running their Super Bowl ads not only before the actual game, but weeks before the game.
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It’s like telling a young boy what he is getting for Christmas over Thanksgiving dinner. It’s just not right.
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This year’s greatest offender has been Pepsi. They started showing their Coca Cola polar bear rip-off ad a while ago and it’s been everywhere.
It’s like waiting for three weeks to go see a blockbuster movie with a family member and trying to avoid spoilers. Because of this treacherous behavior, I won’t be partaking in Pepsi during the Super Bowl or the months that follow.
It’s sacrilege. The logic doesn’t even make sense.
By the time the Super Bowl comes around. the ad has been out so long and seen so much that it’s no longer a Super Bowl commercial.
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It’s just a basic commercial at that point. It’s not special and shouldn’t even be considered when the lists come out for Super Bowl ad rankings.
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Sure, places like Arkansas don’t really matter to the NFL. It certainly doesn’t matter to the people there most of the time.
However, the one time each matter to one another is the most profitable weekend of the year for the NFL. Sure, there is little the league can do, but there needs to some sort of effort to stop practices like those used by Pepsi.
Perhaps have teams that plan to release their commercials ahead of time move down the list in priority for prime spots during the game. If they claim they won’t and do it anyway, then move them down the priority list the next year.
Just please don’t let them ruin football Christmas anymore. It’s just unAmerican.
Arkansans can now present their driver’s licenses and state identification cards on mobile devices using Apple Wallet, state finance officials announced Wednesday.
The Department of Finance and Administration said Arkansans can use Apple Wallet to present their license or ID in person, online and in apps at select organizations, including at more than 250 Transportation Security
IDEMIA Public Security North America and the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s Division of Driver Services and Motor Vehicles have launched Arkansas driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallet, allowing residents to securely store and use their credentials on an iPhone or Apple Watch.
The new feature gives Arkansans the ability to present their identification at participating businesses and venues, at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints in more than 250 airports, and online or within apps when age or identity verification is required.
The launch builds on Arkansas’ ongoing efforts to expand digital identification options. In March 2025, the state introduced the Arkansas Mobile ID app, and officials say adding IDs to Apple Wallet offers residents another secure and convenient way to access their credentials.
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“We’re proud to build on our partnership with the Arkansas DFA’s Division of Driver Services and Motor Vehicles, expanding on the launch of the Arkansas Mobile ID app in March 2025. The launch of ID in Apple Wallet in the state provides Arkansas residents a new, secure way to store and present their digital credentials, with transparency and control over how their information is shared at the forefront,” said Rob Gardner, CEO, IDEMIA Civil Identity.
To add an Arkansas driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet, users can tap the plus sign at the top of the Wallet app on their iPhone, select “Driver’s License or State ID,” and follow the verification process.
Officials say privacy and security were central considerations in the rollout. Information stored in Apple Wallet is encrypted on a user’s device, and users control when and how their information is shared. When presenting an ID, only the information necessary to verify age or identity is provided.
Apple and the Arkansas Division of Driver Services and Motor Vehicles also do not receive information about when or where residents use their digital IDs.
The technology is also designed to make verification easier for businesses. Participating businesses can use IDEMIA’s Mobile ID Verify app to accept and verify mobile IDs directly from an iPhone without requiring customers to hand over their devices or use additional hardware.
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The launch marks another step toward broader adoption of digital credentials in Arkansas, giving residents a secure alternative to carrying a physical driver’s license or state ID while maintaining control over their personal information.
For information on the launch of IDs in Apple Wallet in Arkansas, click here.
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New Arkansas gymnastics coach Chris Brooks announced Monday the hiring of Zan Jones to complete his first staff, as well as the promotion of assistants Kyla Ross and Catelyn Branson.
Brooks succeeded his wife, Jordyn Wieber, on April 28 after Wieber stepped down.
Jones joins the Razorback after two seasons as an assistant coach at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. The Pioneers won back-to-back Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics National Invitational Championship titles in 2025 and 2026 with Jones on staff. He has been named a Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Division II assistant coach of the year three times, including this spring.
Jones also earned Midwest Independent Conference assistant coach of the year in both of his seasons at Texas Woman’s.
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Jones served as the Pioneers’ primary vault and uneven bars coach, and the team set a program record of 49.35 on the bars in March.
An Alabama alumnus, Jones served as a student manager for the Crimson Tide gymnastics team. He served a year at Talladega (Ala.) College in its inaugural season of gymnastics and spent time as a recreational and team coach at Trussville (Ala.) Academy of Gymnastics.
Brooks also promoted both Ross and Branson to the title of associate head coach. Ross, a former UCLA gymnast and Olympic gold medalist as part of Team USA in 2012, started at Arkansas as a volunteer assistant in 2022. Ross helped Arkansas produce program records on the balance beam in back-to-back years before taking over the vault squad, which set a program high 49.675 in 2026.
The Razorbacks ranked as high as No. 2 on the vault last season and were never lower than No. 7. Senior transfer Morgan Price landed the first 10 in school history on the vault in February.
Branson returned to the Arkansas staff ahead of the 2025 season, helping lead the floor squad. In that time, Branson has led the Gymbacks to two of their top five best floor scores ever and Arkansas has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the country on floor in the last two seasons. In 2026, over 60% of the team’s scores on floor were 9.85 or better.
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Branson served as Lindenwood’s head coach from 2022-24, where she was named 2024 Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association South Central Region Coach of the Year and the Midwest Independent Conference Coach of the Year. She led the Lions to their second consecutive and fifth overall USAG national championship and seventh MIC title in 2024.
Branson had a prior stint at Arkansas from 2020 to 2022, in which time the Gymbacks ranked as high as third on beam and second on floor.
Tom Murphy
tmurphy@wholehogsports.com
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Tom Murphy is a sports reporter for WholeHogSports. A graduate of Louisiana Tech University, he is a member of the Football Writers Association of America and voter for the Heisman Trophy and AP Top 25 football poll. He was voted the 2017 Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year.
