THE NFL 2017 Season

Another 4th quarter game winning drive in Detroit…oh wait, no, a few inches short and the game ends with a 10 second runoff. Karma coming home from all those 4th quarter comebacks last year, maybe.

There was certainly a lot of nothing by many talking heads, as one would expect. But I was impressed with what was said on NBC in their pregame show, before the Sunday night game. Collinsworth called for Trump to apologize. Dungee called Trump out for making the situation worse, not better. And they showed quite a few clips of players and coaches, the best of which IMHO was Mike Tomlin. His first priority was keeping his team together and focused on the job at hand - you ask me, that’s showing real leadership.

Yay, my Redskins actually won a game.

Some crazy games across the league though.

Why so surprised? Washington had looked solid in the last two games. “You like that?!”

Well the Raiders were favored in the game (admittedly by only 3 points, which I thought was low).

I thought in the first two games the Redskins pass defense looked a lot like it looked last year (i.e., porous). And on the offensive front, the passing game looked pitiful. None of that last night, though. The defense was on the ball, and the secondary was covering and tackling like nobody’s business - I haven’t seen them play this well for a couple of years. And Cousins shook off any early-season rust and looked really good. The running game was mediocre most of the night and the pass rush seems to disappear in the second half, but as a team they definitely played a really good game.

Definitely a shocker!

Charlatan summed it up well. But we lost our excellent offensive coordinator in the offseason. I’ve watched and been happy with their progress so far this season but it’s lacked the togetherness and ‘oomph’ that it has had in the past.

That, plus being a lifetime Redskins fan has taught me to never get my hopes up. Jaded, maybe, but I’ve seen the good and the bad.

You are the best kind of fan, the one that sticks by his team in the best and the worst.

Also one apparently unafraid of giant shirt collars.

Hey, any NFL fan is awesome. I’ve seen those who change teams or pick a team doing well, doesn’t really matter so long as they pull for a team. What’s amazing when you think about it is how huge professional football has grown since we were all younger. It’s a very big business these days.

I can’t be the only one who’s come to the conclusion that the real and surreal have become inescapably intertwined.

I was talking to a coworker this morning about Brady and the 2 minute drill. How if you leave him any time on the clock, he’ll score and win. That used to be Peyton Manning. It was so goddamn infuriating to watch the Patriots go up on Manning but leave him 60, 90 seconds on the clock. You just knew he was going to win, and there wasn’t shit you could do about it.

That’s Brady now. I guess it’s always been Brady, but we like to focus on failure in Boston so we didn’t realize it until Manning was gone and there is no one left who can challenge Brady.

As a mental exercise, I like to think of ways to outflank divisive political issues to bring people together. I’ve come up with a solution for the anthem protests:

#takeakneeandpray

The saying goes “God, family, country” (and the NFL says football is family, heh) so no one can complain about the priority. All races get to participate. Atheists are left out, but they can take care of themselves.

Atheists can take a knee to look for their contact lenses. Everybody wins!

Dat Bengals loss…guess the offensive coordinator wasn’t the actual problem, but then, we all knew that anyway. I expect this will be Marvin Lewis’ final season with Cincinnati.

As for the anthem protest controversy, I thought most teams handled it well enough. Not a fan of the Steelers and their decision to stay in the tunnel, that feels cheap. I did really like the Cowboys idea last night of the entire team kneeling to show unity and support for the idea behind the protest, but then standing in unity for the anthem. It neatly circumvented the moronic idea that somehow these protests are anti-American and are trashing the flag and veterans, which still showing support for the real purpose behind the protest, which is to call attention to the inequality still rampant in this country. It was especially interesting given Jerry Jones was originally very much against the kneeling protest, but in his comments afterwards he seems to understand what the purpose is now and wants to support it as a team, which is how it should be.

It’s really hard for me to say this as an Eagles fan, but the Cowboys probably handled it the best of any of the teams in the League.

They still got booed…

Yeah, gotta love their move. The fans who booed can go jump off a cliff for all I care.

Really, My son, a Purple Heart veteran, doesn’t have a problem with the protests. He figures the right to protest is what he fought for, but all these people who fancy themselves patriots do. Yeah, they can take a flying leap.

The thing about the protests too, is there is clearly something to protest. There is a systemic problem within some police departments. The protests also have made some people at least consider the issue. These protests have had the desired effect IMO.

I agree with the movement’s call for attention to police corruption, but just thought doing it during the anthem was a misfit. It’s like it’s saying America is wrong, even if that wasn’t what was intended. For me, the flag stands for more good than bad.

But I was never against Kap’s right to peacefully protest even if I didn’t agree with the medium. Trump totally triggered the Streisand effect though and has brought it all more attention. I just hope it yields progress on the issue…rather than it turning into a battle about something else, respect for the flag or whatever instead of a drive for police reform. Anyway, sorry if I offended anyone…certainly didn’t want to turn this into a P&R topic.

I can’t wait until Sunday. When everyone on my Facebook feed who promised to boycott the NFL bitches about how their team is playing.

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I mean, there’s fantasy leagues to disentangle from, season tickets to find buyers for, and all this beer to drink.