Nicki Minaj Pops Off At AmFest, Sydney Sweeney Gets Schooled On '90s Toys & A Few Good Dogs

Plus, my retirement plan is to take a punch from DK Metcalf.

PublishedDecember 22, 2025 3:35 PM EST•UpdatedDecember 22, 2025 3:35 PM EST

Well, guys, we did it. All my ranting about Tua Tagovailoa last week paid off.

Reader Tyler B. emailed me after Tua's benching on Wednesday, saying, "The Dolphins front office must have been reading Nightcaps!" And while I'm flattered at the thought of having such a powerful influence over a professional football team, I'm going to go ahead and assume the powers-that-be in Miami simply opened their eyeballs and used their big smart noggins to realize what we fans realized a long time ago: Tua just ain't it.

Do I feel bad for the guy? Absolutely not. Tua's got a couple hundred million in the bank. He'll be fine. I feel bad for ME and my decades-long suffering at the hands of the Miami Dolphins.

Nevertheless, we're onto our Quinn Ewers era.

Just look at that guy. Duck cap, George Strait T-shirt, tight Wranglers, some snakeskin boots. That looks like a man who can sling a pigskin and has 37 taxidermied animals in his draft room. And I'm here for it. I'll follow him all the way to Billy Bob's Texas and then the dadgum Super Bowl.

I'm just kidding, we won't get ahead of ourselves.

After all, the Dolphins did get molly-whopped by the stinky Bengals yesterday. Quinn had some good moments and bad moments in his first start, but it certainly wasn't a big enough sample size to determine whether he's the QB1 of the future or just another in a long line of 27 dudes who can't get us a playoff win.

Sadly, until I'm proven otherwise, I have to assume the latter.

But in the wise and inspiring words of Mike McDaniel, at least we're another day closer to death.

Anyway, I'm a Bears fan by marriage. So I'll be painting my nails and cheering for Caleb Williams in the playoffs.

Who's with me?! Grab a cold one and raise it high. It's three days before Christmas. You can go ahead and stop pretending to be working.

Sydney Sweeney Learns About Pogs

Close your eyes for a moment and try to take yourself back to a time before smartphones, doomscrolling and a never-ending supply of Netflix originals. Back when we '90s kiddos had to entertain ourselves with Tamagotchis, Skip-Its, slap bracelets, Stretch Armstrongs and little round pieces of cardboard with cartoons on them.

OK, you can open your eyes now. Or else you won't be able to finish this column.

But seriously, when's the last time you thought about Pogs?!

The cast of The Housemaid — Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and two dudes whose names I'm not bothering to look up — discussed the once-popular toy during a segment on Entertainment Tonight. Sweeney, at the ripe young age of 27, was confused. She had never heard of these mysterious Pogs.

It's beautiful to see young people learn the traditions of the ancestors.

When you think about it, it is sort of hard to believe we were once able to amuse ourselves for hours on end with little cardboard tokens. Hell, I remember spending so many afternoons just walking my Slinky up the stairs over and over again.

It was a simpler time.

What was your favorite back-in-the-day toy from the ‘80s or ’90s? Email me at amber.harding@outkick.com and let's walk down memory lane.

I think I'll go see The Housemaid on Christmas Day. I heard it's kind of campy and intentionally absurd. Our friends at Fox News rated it just 1.5 stars. But (with all due respect to reviewer Joseph Wulfsohn) the problem was sending a man to do the reviewing. The Housemaid is not a guy film — even if it does star Sydney "look at my boobs" Sweeney. The film is based on a popcorn thriller by Freida McFadden, an author whose audience is almost entirely female. Her books all center around strong female protagonists, who are often in dire domestic situations.

I loved the book, by the way. So I'll let you know what I think of the movie.

I digress. So while Sydney learned how to play Pogs, her co-host Amanda learned how to slap Sydney in the face.

If Amanda really wanted to work on her right hook, I know a certain NFL player who could help her out.

DK Metcalf, What Are You Doing?

I'm sure you've all seen the video by now of DK Metcalf punching a Lions fan during yesterday's game, so I don't think I need to set it up for you.

But just in case you need a replay:

Man, you have got to be smarter than that. I don't care if you have past beef with the dude. I don't care if he told you Santa isn't real and called your mom a ho. (I actually have no idea what the guy said.)

The point is, you're a multi-million-dollar professional athlete on live television. You cannot allow yourself to be baited into an unpaid suspension and a lawsuit by a goofball in a $6 blue wig.

You know that guy is going to CASH IN, too. Who could blame him?

Look, I'm a firm believer that some people deserve to be punched in the face. And maybe that guy was one of them. Society might actually be a lot happier and healthier if people had a legitimate fear of getting their nose broken when they act like an asshole.

Unfortunately, though, as citizens in a civil society, we do not have the freedom to dole out justice without repercussions. And I predict DK is about to have a big ol' hole in his wallet.

Nicki Minaj Steals The Show At AmFest

At the risk of using a worn-out cliché, here's one thing that was 100% not on my 2025 bingo card: Nicki Minaj walking out on stage to pyrotechnics — "Super Bass" blaring — in a Righteous Gemstones-style rally for Turning Point USA.

I mean, what am I even looking at here? It was like mega church meets Republican National Convention meets hip-hop concert.

No disrespect to Erika Kirk or to Nicki Minaj, by the way. I was just stunned at the spectacle when it came across my X feed. I thought I was watching Wrestlemania there for a second.

That said, I learned a lot about Nicki. Like the fact that she finds Donald Trump "handsome and dashing" and that she reads her tweets out loud in the same cadence that she raps.

I had seen Nicki's tweets earlier this month taking down Gavin Newsom and her comments about Christians being persecuted in Nigeria. So it wasn't entirely out of left field to see her show up as a special guest for TPUSA.

I guess what I didn't realize is that Nicki has been based, as the kids say (I hate that term, but I think it's appropriate here?), for a long time.

Let's throw it back to this gem from 2021, where she took Tony Fauci to task for the COVID jab. Allegedly, the forced vaccine really wreaked havoc on her cousin's friend's testicles.

Nicki later confirmed she was not vaccinated, though her decision was presumably not based on swollen testicles.

Let's open the mailbag.

Robert D. Has A Tip For WNBA Players

Yesterday I wrote that the WNBA players association voted nearly unanimously to authorize a strike if their demands aren't met ahead of the January 9 CBA deadline. In the event there is no 2026 season, Robert has a solution for the players.

Robert Writes: I see a grocery store here in San Antonio is upping starting pay to $20 a hour.

PS: Tell Rocky Merry Christmas!

Amber:

$20 an hour x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks = a cool $41,600 before taxes. Throw a little OT in there, and we're pretty close to Caitlin Clark's 2025 salary. (Minus all those millions from Nike and State Farm, of course.)

And Rocky wishes you a Merry Christmas as well. I took him to PetSmart to meet Santa last week. Santa, by the way, was a lady of approximately 45 years old, and I'm pretty sure he realized instantly she was a fraud.

Still sat politely for a photo, though.

(Amber Harding Snyder)

Beware Of Sharks & Videos That Won't Load

Michael M. Writes: I never get tired of hearing about Rocky's adventures. Speaking of, I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to let my dogs swim in the ocean. This year it seemed like there were a lot of shark attacks around Florida beaches. Maybe the sharks have gone out to deep water for the winter? I read once about a man who lost his dog to a shark attack, and that convinced me to never let a dog of mine do that. Just sayin'.

I feel your pain about the cold. I live in SE VA and we've had the coldest early-December I can remember. It was 14 degrees yesterday AM! It seldom gets that cold here, and never before January. Darn global warming.

So Idk what's up with Outkick videos, but it seems like there's consistently issues with some videos, IG or X or YouTube or whatever. It's hit and miss, but today I can't see anything on your article.

That was so sad about the one guy who just lost his dog. But he definitely did the right thing getting another one. When Blizzard died, we already had 2 others: Princess, my daughter's dog, a "teddybear puppy" who has been recently diagnosed with Cushing's Disease and has lost most of her fur; and Maple, a "bagle" (basset/beagle mix) who is the ultimate couch potato and is super funny. But I still miss my big best bud Blizz, and wish I'd cloned him like Tom Brady did.

Amber:

Blizzard is one of my favorite dogs y'all have sent in. Michael lost him about two and a half years ago now, if I recall, but he was 15 years old when he passed — absolutely remarkable longevity for a 125-pound beast of a boy.

And I share your shark concerns, friend. Rocky mostly just likes putting his paws in the water while he runs down the beach — more splashing than swimming. He never really went deeper than his tummy on our trip to Florida, and even then, my husband was in there with him. So while the chances of a shark attack in the ocean are certainly never zero, I feel a little safer the closer we are to shore.

I'm sorry about the video glitches. Sometimes that happens to me when I'm trying to read something with Instagram embeds. A quick re-load usually does the trick!

Montana Tim Is On The Naughty List

Tim Writes: First off, I hate dogs! They do nothing but bite, bark, piss, shit and tear apart anything they can get their teeth on! Including Christmas trees! What’s that you say…. you keep one around for protection? Buy a gun! You don’t have to feed it or clean up any shit!

As for the Christmas parties… don’t let your husband be this Santa again this year! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year!

Amber:

Joke's on you, Tim. I have both a big, scary-looking dog and a gun.

Anyway, I can't relate. I'm currently looking over at my sweet Rocky, snoozing peacefully with his stuffed bear under the Christmas tree, and I simply cannot understand how you could not adore such a creature. You and cat-guy Dan Zaksheske would get along swimmingly.

But a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all the same! I suppose we can still be friends.

Also, our CMS won't let me upload a GIF, but Tim shared this one of a drunk man in a Santa costume wiping out in a parking garage. He's not, in fact, my husband, but I'd absolutely party with that guy.