Sunday Afternoon...time for Netflix

During last Thursday's NFL season kickoff we watched Insatiable. 

We weren't the only ones who found something else to do:

Snagging 19 million viewers on the Comcast-owned network, the late starting Eagles winning kickoff game fell 13% in broadcast audience from last year’s NFL opener with the New England Patriots and the victorious Kansas City Chiefs.

That’s another year of straight double digit decline for the NFL and NBC. With last years opener holding the previous record, the 2018 battle in Philly is also the worst any kickoff game has done since 2009.

We spent much of last fall lamenting what Roger Goodell has done to the game. They're putting a bad product onto the field. Now they're going into season number two of the Kaepernick-NFL Anthem category.

So after Insatiable, we'll binge Ozark.

This is how Screwed up the NFL has Become...

Headlines abound this morning. The NFL is suspending its anthem protest policy pending negotiations with the union.

When the kneeling crisis began last fall, the NFL needed strong leadership. Instead it got Roger Goodell.

Goodell should simply have said, 'NFL players stand respectfully during the National Anthem. Those that kneel will be suspended.'

Instead Goodell tried to appease the kneelers leading to a furious backlash from regular Americans who are in the words of St. Kurt Schlichter, militantly normal.

Probably the most shameful incident last fall occurred when Steeler offensive linemen, Alejandro Villanueva, a former Army Ranger, defied the Steeler's pathetic 'locker room' anthem policy and stood on the field-by himself. What ever happened to 'you go, we go'? Mr. Rooney rolls in his grave.

Becuase of Roger Goodell's failed leadership, the NFL heads into a second season of National Anthem controversies.

The NFL is so screwed up, I actually switched teams

Will's NFL Update: Goodell

During Last Night's NFL draft the assembled fans brutally, remorselessly booed commissioner Roger Goodell every time he took the podium.

That's a good job by the fans and well deserved by Goodell.

Goodell gave Ray Rice a two game suspension for punching out his fiancé, gave Greg Hardy a four game suspension after being convicted for beating up his girlfriend....and then suspended Tom Brady four games because he might have known some footballs were deflated. Deflate Gate was an embarrassing year long debacle.

This is the man who keeps forcing teams to play games in London, and has foisted upon us all Thursday Night Football, almost always a snoozer of a game as the teams only have a few days to prepare.

Under Goodell's leadership the league has changed the rules to favor offense, one cannot harm a hair on a wide receiver's pretty head. The Instant Replay Regime is ruining the game as every play is micro-analyzed to oblivion. Replay has become a fourth part of the game as important as offense, defense and special teams.

Oh!, and players kneeling for the National Anthem? Goodell says no problem. 

We've seen sports commissioners who were unpopular. We've seen sports commissioners to whom the fans were indifferent. But we've never seen a commissioner loathed the way the NFL fans loath Goodell.

Roger Goodell-Bad for the N-F-L

CBS tells us:

As of Thursday afternoon, there are actual NFL tickets that are selling on the secondary market for under five dollars. Of course, like all good deals, these tickets do come with a catch: You need to live near Buffalo, have a high tolerance for cold weather and be willing to sit through three hours of a Colts-Bills game.

Ok, Ok, it's Indy at Buffalo. For foreign reader(s) that's like South Shoreswamp playing Upper Slobovia in a meaningless Futball match.

But it used to not matter. Buffalo has been much put upon these last twenty years or so. Here's how their last playoff game ended in 1999:

Before that from 1990-1993 the Buffalo Bills lost four Superbowls in a row. We're proud to say our own New York Giants got things going:

Still a top five moment in our life

And still the Bill's fans showed up to see their team.

What heartbreak and pain could not kill Roger Goodell could.

Let's recap what Goodell has done to the game:

-A shameful discipline policy where Ray Rice gets two games for punching out his wife but Tom Brady gets four because he might have known some balls were deflated. Oh, and Greg Hardy gets to play even after being convicted of throwing his girlfriend across the room.

-Instant replay becoming the arbiter of all things on the field; used to overturn calls where the ball moves ever so slightly. This takes away all suspense as one has to wait to see if a call 'stands' before actually celebrating. Instant replay causes needless delays, especially when every score needs to be reviewed. This has less to do with 'getting the call right' than with providing an excuse for more TV timeouts.

-Changing the rules so the passing game dominates, making defensive backs into passive backs who may only tackle the receiver after he catches the ball. Great for fantasy football, not so great for the game.

-Allowing refs to over-regulate and dominate the game. Pick up the flag? No. Don't even throw it.

-Refusing to deal with strutting, chest thumbing, look at me, hip-hop-ghetto culture addled players who jump up and down after, you know, doing things like making a tackle.

-Covering up the CTE scandal and downplaying the risk to players.

Do we even have to discuss the anthem knealers?

Of course Goodell just got a new contract.


**Via our friend William Katz

Roger's Deflated (foot)ball Game

The below sequence of plays in last night's Chief-Raider's game is unbelievable and not in a good way:

That's one reversed TD call, one offensive pass interference call reversing a TD, a defensive holding call extending the game with no time, another defensive holding call extending the game with no time, and mercifully a 'game winning' TD.

As far as the first TD reversal goes, in the age of Goodell where defense is Verboten, why even bother reversing the call and putting the ball on the 1? Everybody knows Oakland is going to score.

What a farce.

Whose Balls are Deflated now, Roger?

Behold, gentle reader(s), Roger Goodell has no soul. Follow the link to watch Roger Goodell say 'issues' and 'community' and talk a lot about 'improving' our 'communities'.

Let's get something straight, Goodell. Our community is filled with nice people from all over the world who work, raise kids and keep up their lawns. We like to get together for block parties and inter-holiday festivals. Dewali is a lot of fun, Roger. Our community is just find and needs no improvement from the likes of you.

Your community is filled with show-boaters and unpatriotic tattooed millionaires with long rap sheets. Remember how you gave Ray Rice two games for punching out his fiancee and how you let convicted girlfriend beater Greg Hardy back in the league? Of course, Tom Brady got four games for deflated balls.

So please just stay away.

 Roger Goodell has no idea what to do about the kneeling and the plummeting ratings.

Watching this clip it's clear Goodell doesn't even know what to say.  Goodell sounds like Hillary!'s focus group people told him to keep saying 'community', 'issue' and 'improve'.

In fact he sounds like Hillary!? How did sounding like Hillary! work out for Hillary!, Roger?

You know what? Actually, he sounds like Algore.

Whose balls are deflated now, Roger?

Via CBS

Nailed it

Notes on Stroock's NFL Ban

We totally forgot their was an NFL game on Thursday night. So the ban is going well.

We should define out terms. We'll be folding some laundry later and will probably have a game on in the background while doing so.

[What are you, a woman?-Ed]

This is more of a soft ban, but a ban nonetheless.

[We don't know what that means.-Ed]

Let's review our reasons.

1-We hate the rules. Because one cannot so much as get a hair out of place on a wide receiver offenses march down the field. No lead is safe. This great for ratings and fantasy football stats, but not for the game.

2-We hate instant replay. Every play gets a full IRS style audit. Were both feet down? Did the ball move? Did the player make a 'football move' to establish possession. As the great John Madden said, let's just have a catch be a catch a touchdown be a touchdown and a fumble be a fumble. Enough.

3-We hate the players. This goes way beyond Kaepernick. We loath the best player on the Giants, the showboating but un-accomplished Odell Beckham. We loath the hip-hop culture in the NFL. The braying, the preening, the taunting. These guys are worse than my 4 year old showing off her pink pony dress.

4-We hate the pandering. Because the NFL has a yuuge problem with its players beating up the women in their lives, October is breast cancer month. This means the players are decked out in pink crap; cleats, bandannas, wrist bands. Hot pink does not go great with NY Giants blue.

5-We hate the cheerleaders [Yeah sure-Ed.] No seriously. They look more like strippers. What is this, the XFL? Jesus. [You watched half a season of that-Ed] I did, and it sucked.

6-We hate the commercials. First the way the breaks are scheduled, touch down-commercial, extra point-commercial, kickoff-commercial  Second, to watch an NFL game means being bombarded by commercials in which the NFL tries to sell you stuff, jerseys, aps and the like. It also means being bombarded by DirecTV Sunday ticket ads, Peyton Manning Papa John's ads, Viagra ads, Levitra, ads, Cialis ads [Gee those seemed to catch your attention-Ed].

Yeah, yeah. Shut the fuck up, Ed.

[Why don't you shut the fuck up and go fold some laundry-Ed.]

Roger Goodell: The form of the NFL's Destruction I

Its the first Sunday of the NFL season and we see that ratings for the Thursday opening between Kansas City and New England were down:

With 21.8 million NFL fans tuning in, the kickoff of the 2017 regular season was down 13% for the NFL and NBC from last year’s opener. Not only does that represent a very real smack down for the league and the net coming off a previous season that saw double-digit declines in its early months, but it is the worst an opening game has done since 2009.

I know I didn't watch.

Be it known, foreign reader(s), that was a marquis match-up.

As noted before the most interesting aspect was the fans really giving it to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

His latest screw up is the Ezekiel Elliot affair. Elliot is accused of beating up his girlfriend. Goodell suspended him for 6 games.  Elliot went to a judge and convinced him that Goodell violated his rights by conducting an unfair investigation. This is at least the 4th investigation Goodell has screwed up. There was the Ray Rice affair (Rice punched out his fiancee on camera) Goodell gave him 2 games, the Greg Hardy affair (Hardy beat up his girlfriend and only got 4 games) and of course the Tom Brady Deflate-gate imbroglio. Tom Brady got four games, just like Greg Hardy!

The man makes a mess of every NFL disciplinary action. Count on it.

Investigations and suspensions aren't the only things Goodell screws up.

We'll come back to that later in the week.

Mr. we could use a man like Pete Rozelle again.

The Media is Decadent and Depraved: Sports Edition

We're trying to give up the NFL for a host of reasons we'll get into in another post.

We caught about ten minutes of last night's game between the Chefs [great googly-moogly-Ed] and the Patriots. No one made mention of what was going on in the stands.

Via the Daily Caller:

Roger Goodell was welcomed into Gillette Stadium ahead of the game with thunderous boos and tens of thousands of turquoise towels featuring his face with a clown nose on them. Everyone knew it was going to happen and it was impossible to ignore, yet the NBC crew didn’t mention the towels, or the shirts with the same Goodell image on them, once.

Roger Goodell, who makes nearly $40 mil-per, is the devil, worse than Hitler even. Between commercial breaks and over-officiating he's made the game unwatchable. He's also out get the Pats, and cooked up this idiotic 'deflate-gate' scandal. Don't ask.

So the Pats fans really let him have it last night. Good for them. As we said, worse than Hitler.

NBC made no mention of this because they're in partnership with the NFL.

What a bunch of ass-kissers you are, NBC.

Howard Cossell would never have kept his mouth shut.

Mr. we could use a man like Howard Cossell again.