It took the Kansas City Royals five years to return to the World Series, and win it, after falling to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980. But did you know it took the Royals less than one offseason to avenge their defeat in '80 by whooping the Fightins on the "Family Feud" game show?

The 22 glorious minutes of video feature host Richard Dawson at his most snarky, slugger Mike Schmidt at his most clueless and a John Wayne-impersonating John Wathan coming through with perhaps the biggest fast-money comeback in show history. Through it all, the Royals and Phillies cemented their respective places in pop culture history by playin' the Feud.

Highlights include:

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim isn't the first figure from the sports world to take the opportunity to make a political point with the spotlight shining on him and he won't be the last.

Boeheim became only the third men's coach in Division I history to win 900 games Monday night when the Orange beat Detroit 72-68. At the tail end of his postgame press conference, Boeheim spoke out about his belief that more gun control is needed in America after the tragedy last week at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

A gunman killed 20 children and seven adults Friday in a mass shooting spree. The nation continued to mourn the deaths Monday as some of the first funerals were held for victims.

(AP)

Former five-star Oregon recruit Jabari Brown made his debut with the Missouri Tigers in a 102-51 win over South Carolina State.

Brown had to sit out the first semester to satisfy NCAA transfer rules after leaving Oregon last winter. His first action with the Tigers was highly anticipated and helped attract a crowd of more than 10,000 to a predictable blowout.

It's too early to say whether the Tigers now have back much of what they lost when Michael Dixon left the program. Brown and Dixon have different styles and abilities but they both are perimeter scorers who can make it tough on opponents on the defensive end.

This face says it all. (Getty Images)Even after all the circuses, all the bad plays, and all the execrable coaching decisions, the New York Jets actually still had a shot at the 2012 playoffs if they could keep the fires burning and get a little help. But that 6-7 Jets team went into LP Field in Nashville and played its most depressing game of the season. The 14-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans not only ended any hope the Jets had of a postseason, but left several questions looming large for an offseason that will come all too soon.

The Jets invested heavily in quarterback Mark Sanchez before the 2012 season, signing the alleged franchise quarterback to a five-year, $58.25 million contract extension in March. If they were to cut Sanchez in the offseason, it would put a $17.1 million cap charge on the team for the 2013 season ... but after the way he played in this game, and has played through much of the season, it might be worth it for the Jets to do so. Sanchez completed 13 passes in 28 attempts for just 131 yards, one touchdown pass, and four interceptions. His fifth turnover of the game came from the Titans' 25-yard line with 47 seconds remaining in the contest.

Titans punter Brett Kern gave the Jets a golden opportunity they didn't deserve with a horrible 19-yard punt, and it took Sanchez just one play to waste the opportunity. He couldn't handle a low shotgun snap from center Nick Mangold, running back Bilal Powell inadvertently kicked the ball away, and that was all she wrote.

"It doesn't feel good," Sanchez said after the game, when asked if this was his worst performance in recent memory. "To hurt your team like that, it's not a winning formula. Where it ranks on the scale, I don't know."

Rex Ryan knew -- the Jets' head coach was clearly depressed, and a far cry from the boisterous man who has liked to predict Super Bowl titles in previous seasons. Ryan seemed to understand that the team he, general manager Mike Tannenbaum, and owner Woody Johnson put together this year had no margin for error -- there simply isn't enough talent to afford mistakes.

"As big as this game is ... we knew it was a huge game for us," Ryan said. "You turn it over five times, get the ball on the 25-yard line, a chance to win it at the end, and you turn it over again. Obviously, it's extremely disappointing, to say the least."

Backup Tim Tebow got in for seven snaps in the first half, and no action in the second. There is no indication as to where the team will turn in its last two games of the 2012 season at that position. Tebow had one pass attempt -- an incompletion - and he was sacked once. Still, he had a higher quarterback rating than Sanchez (39.6 to 32.6).

"I'm not ready to say who will be our quarterback for the next game," Ryan said, opening it up for yet another week of dismal Tebow speculation on all the morning yap-yap shows.

Ryan deactivated third-string quarterback Greg McElroy so that he could put six receivers on the field, but as much as he wants to blame the turnovers for the Jets' offensive struggles, it was the playcalling, as much as anything else, that ended the team's season from a meaningful perspective. New York's offensive line was struggling all night to keep up with Tennessee's blitz packages, and Sanchez was clearly struggling with his deep accuracy. But time and time again, the calls were for the receivers to run deeper routes, while Sanchez bailed out of the pocket.

When Sanchez caught fire in the second quarter, the Jets did what they usually and inexplicably do in that case -- they pulled Sanchez after completions of 11 yards to receiver Jeremy Kerley and tight end Jeff Cumberland for 22 yards, plays that took the team from their own 16 to their own 49-yard line. Tebow came in and fumbled a handoff to halfback Shonn Greene, which Greene recovered for no gain. Sanchez came back in the game, threw two straight incompletion, and the Jets had to punt again.

Ryan said that it was his idea to bring Tebow in for the entire third series, and the results indicated that Ryan should stick to defense. The Titans blitzed Tebow mercilessly, knowing full well that he didn't have a sense of the audibles, and that he'd crack under pressure. The worst play came on a third-and-11 from the New York 42-yard line, when the Jets were busted for delay of game, leading to a third-and-16. The Jets left Tebow in for an obvious passing down -- not his strength at all.

"I have no idea what they're doing with this sequence of plays," ESPN's Jon Gruden said from the booth. "Obviously, the Titans are automatic-ing to a blitz every time Tebow's in the game, the Jets don't have an answer for it, and they can't get the plays called in time, and now it's third-and-16."

And on that play, Tebow ran around for a while, failed to find an open receiver, bent under the pressure, and threw the ball out of bounds. The failed conversion left the Jets with just three successes on third-and-10 or longer all season, by far the worst rate in the NFL.

High flying Detroit Titan Doug Anderson had several superb dunks in a loss to Syracuse on Monday. Jim Boeheim's 900th victory was the story of the night, but Anderson provided some of the best highlights for the historians.

Did you know? Anderson made 119 field goals in 2011-12 and 58 were dunks. He single-handedly makes almost any Detroit game watchable, make that recordable, just to see what he might do next.

Follow Kyle on Twitter @KyleRingo

Frank Pastore, who pitched nearly 1,000 innings in the major leagues, mostly for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s, died Monday at age 55. Pastore had been in a coma for four weeks after sustaining injuries in a motorcycle accident. KKLA-FM radio, a Christian station in Southern California where Pastore as a host, reported his death. The KKLA page includes a link to a prophetic soundbite by Pastore that describes what might happen to him if another driver were to cut him off as he rode his motorcycle home. Kind of spooky.

That's how he died. But Pastore seemed to live a full life, even if it was cut short in time.

On Sunday, with an eye on his first return to Madison Square Garden as a visitor since "Linsanity" took over the sporting world, Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin proclaimed his play thus far this year "terrible." Against the New York Knicks on Monday night, he was anything but, teaming with backcourt partner James Harden to notch the Rockets' second blowout of New York this season, a 109-96 win that wasn't as close as the final score indicates.

Playing in his first game at the Garden since joining the Rockets in restricted free agency this summer, Lin looked more like the hell-bent-for-the-rim thunderbolt that struck Manhattan in February than the tentative point man who's struggled through most of his first two-dozen games in Houston. He finished with 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting, eight assists, four rebounds, two steals and four turnovers in 39 minutes as the Rockets got back to .500 and handed the Knicks their first home loss of the season.

[Marc J. Spears: NBA's top trade candidates]

The MSG faithful gave Lin a warm welcome when he was announced as part of the Rockets' starting lineup:

And Lin seemed at home right from the start.

(USA Today Sports Images)

No. 900 looked like a waltz for 35 minutes. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim had little reason to leave his seat on the bench he has occupied for 37 seasons. Sure, he stood and paced a bit, even shouted directions to players now and then but another historic moment for the 68-year-old seemed all but certain

The Orange led Detroit by double digits most of the night, but Detroit found some confidence down the stretch and managed to slash what had been a 22-point deficit at one point to a one-possession game in the final minute.

Detroit went on a 19-3 run to cut the lead to three points with less than 28 seconds remaining, but Michael Carter-Williams made five of six free throws for Syracuse to make sure Boeheim could celebrate another milestone instead of having to wait for another game on a different night.

Syracuse 72, Detroit 68.