That Unofficial NFL Thread

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The week after the Super Bowl, they should get all the league's refs together, put them in a stadium, and give each of them a claw hammer.  They will be instructed that they are to fight until the last man standing.  That man and his family will be given an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World.  The losers and their families will be sold to Houthi rebels.

I don't think anything has really changed about officiating in the leagues history. Bad calls happen and that is unavoidable over time because each ref only has 2 eyes and several players at a time to keep track of. Unless they are going to go to video tape on every call, which would slow down the game and be impractical, this is always going to happen. Nobody likes bad calls, but if your team is playing well enough bad calls won't hurt you. I think it is far more important to play mistake free football and have balance and depth on all sides of the ball.

Actually, bad referee calls - in ANY sport - do indeed hurt you, regardless of how well you play. This is why they’re known as ‘bad calls.’

Boru

[Brian37]

The horrific train wreck called the Commanders has it's last act of being the rotisserie chicken today against Dallas. Then our misery will be done for another 6 months. 

Was there any point in Danny selling the team?

[Angrboda]

[Brian37]

4 wins and 13 loses for Washington. Oh joy. Break out those paper bags.

[arewethereyet]

4 wins and 13 loses for Washington. Oh joy. Break out those paper bags.

There's always next season Brian.  Keep the faith.

[Brian37]

4 wins and 13 loses for Washington. Oh joy. Break out those paper bags.

There's always next season Brian.  Keep the faith.

Nope, I am an atheist, my attitude is "I will believe it when I see it." Yes of course I want them to do better, but not liking what I am seeing so far.

[Nay_Sayer]

4 wins and 13 loses for Washington. Oh joy. Break out those paper bags.

Try having the Giants and the Jets as two of your home teams

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's the end of the Belichick era in New England:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Six-time NFL champion Bill Belichick agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots on Thursday, bringing an end to his 24-year tenure as the architect of the most decorated dynasty of the league’s Super Bowl era, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because it has not yet been announced.

A news conference is planned for later in the day in which team owner Robert Kraft and Belichick will address the decision.

Belichick, 71, became just the third coach in NFL history to reach 300 career regular season wins earlier this season, joining Hall of Famers Don Shula and George Halas. With 333 wins including the playoffs, Belichick trails only Shula (347 wins) for the record for victories by a coach.

But the Patriots ended this season 4-13, Belichick’s worst record in 29 seasons as an NFL head coach. It supplanted the 5-11 mark he managed in his last year in Cleveland in 1995 and again in his first year in New England in 2000. Including the playoffs, he ends his Patriots tenure with a 333-178 overall record.

https://apnews.com/article/bill-belichic...9d17e4dc6e

[Thumpalumpacus]

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) blasted the NFL on Friday, demanding the league end its experiment of placing playoff games on streaming services only, instead of national broadcast television.

The wild-card match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on Saturday will be broadcast on NBC’s streaming service Peacock and nowhere else. It will be available on broadcast television only for people who live in the Kansas City and Miami markets.

“How much more profit do Goodell and NBC need to make at the expense of hard working Americans?” Ryan said on X, formerly Twitter, referring to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “I’m demanding NFL and NBC Sports end this Peacock bait-and-switch BS and offer the Dolphins-Chiefs game on TV. Millions of loyal fans already pay for NBC. Let us watch the damn game!”

NBC reportedly paid about $110 million for the deal, the first of its kind in football. Streaming-only games have become an increasingly common part of NFL, with Amazon taking over exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” last year for its Prime video service.

Fans who wish to watch Saturday’s game will have to sign up for Peacock, which starts at about $6 per month.

“It’s a disgrace. Fans already face exorbitant prices to watch every game during the regular season; they don’t deserve to be squeezed even further by greedy corporations,” Ryan wrote in a letter included in the X post. “This bait-and-switch is particularly egregious for consumers who already pay for NBC as part of their cable package.”

“Enough is enough,” he continued. “The NFL raked in $12 billion in 2022, while NBCUniversal made nearly $40 billion. It’s time we put power back where it belongs: with the fans.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/44050...yoff-game/

I could live without the rhetoric, I agree it's crap that playoff games should have restricted viewership. I won't be signing up.

[Thumpalumpacus]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes walked back to the huddle in the third quarter of the Kansas City Chiefs’ wild-card playoff win over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday night, looked around at his teammates and couldn’t figure out why they were all staring at him.

Might have had something to do with the hole in his helmet.

The reigning league MVP had shattered it on a hit from Miami safety DeShon Elliott on the previous play, when Mahomes was scrambling for a first down. Mahomes had seen the goal line just in front of him, so rather than slide for safety, he went for it — and took a big hit that included a clash of helmets that sent a shard of red plastic flying.

“I was trying to get there. A young Pat would have gotten in,” Mahomes said with a smile. “I try not to do it too much, but it’s playoff time, and sometimes you have to put it on the line to get in the end zone and win football games.”

https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-mahome...0c7484a21a

Warm-weather teams playing in the cold ...