tBBP

And see now I'm finding myself doing stuff I've never done in my life: learning how point spreads work. Had that Bears TD stood, they'd have won (presuming a good PAT) 34-29. That's a seven-point swing for them. They still almost won last night despite the obvious refball going on. (And yeah, it bore entirely too much resemblance to Super Bowl Xtra Ludicrous.) Among the phantom blocking foul, the noncall on the late hit to Justin Fields, and the hip-check personal foul penalty, yeah, one could reasonably assume the fix was on. (By the way, how many times have players run into refs before just by incident and not been flagged? Just saying.) But of course Black and Yellow Nation will deny these allegations--some in just about the most annoying of ways--and the talking heads will keep talking up the Steelers like they're one of the top teams in the league (they're not, and last night showed that). But heh, whatever...at the end of the day, it's all just entertainment for paying spectators, I suppose.

You ain't hardly the only one. I lived there for seven years and witnessed exactly what you mentioned (plus some) year in and year out while there; it's still going on today. On the topic of officiating, I really do try to keep as objective a perspective as I can, because the truth of the matter is that some of the things officials see in real time that they get right is also amazing in their own rights. I'm talking about knees barely grazing the ground but the player not being down, fingertip grabs of the ball inches if not a half-inch off the grass--but yet those don't get talked about. I know we have one who used to officiate in our midst, so I'll let him speak on that more. All that said, human nature is such that we don't comment on the good stuff, oh but when it turns bad all the tongues (and/or fingertips) get unleashed. All of that said, the bad has gotten egregiously bad over the past couple years, and last night was another perfect example of why more and more people are wondering how much the betting line is affecting these officials, which would then plausibly presume that either they, or the league office, is/are in the bed with the bookies, and if so, are the officials under any pressure from their superiors to "monitor calls so as to preserve the betting line"? That plus the proliferation of fantasy football (which I've long felt was the major driving force behind all the rule changes favoring offenses--think about it, you draft individual offensive players but then draft entire defenses) leads me to suspect there's a deeper profit motive going on. At the end of the day, pro sports is pretty much entertainment anyway. Now, all of that said...yeah, Pittsburgh has probably gotten more preferential treatment and benefits of questionable calls (or, in the blatant case of the non-called late hit on Justin Fields that just about knocked him out of the game) than just about any team out there short of the Brady-led Patriots over the years. What that's about, I don't know, but the proof has been in the pudding.

I tell you what, though: if the Snatit stay smothering on defense like they did tonight--and on the road, on the west coast, no less--and learn to soundly beat the teams they should (*cough*JETS*cough*), you're staring another solid dark horse straight in the teeth. They do say that defense wins championships, and tonight they balled out of their minds, especially Jeffrey Simmons. And Ryan Tannehill actually wasn't terrible without Derrick Henry. All I'm saying is don't sleep on the Snatit just yet.

Cincinnati is an interesting case to me. I know there's a lot of people that wish for them to get back to the Big Red Machine days, and I do get it--but that's also just too easy and too predictable. I've long loved their team typeface for how modern and at the same time vintage it looks and I'd hate to see them toss that aside in favor of drinking the red nostalgia kool-aid. That said, I think if they keep their current font, strip out all semblance of black, and trim their scripts and numbers to just one-layer, that'd go a long way toward both sharpening and freshening their brand.

Minnesota, tho... ...and man did Josh Allen make some big plays today. (No, not that Josh Allen...the other one.) So um, how bout them Jaguars??? *scratches head* Or maybe it's "what up with them Bills tho"??

(I keed, I keed)

I thought about this, and I honestly don't know how the NBA isn't already doing this. I mean, it's a built-in moneymaker in terms of revenue, and it's the one big-4 league for which it makes sense to do this (especially since half the time these days we can't tell who's who on the court anyway). They'd be smart to keep it to a 3- or 4-year rotation of "kits", though. (I'm just readying myself for the inevitable, being that I aged past the NBA target demographic long ago...)

1.) 'Tis the big question, ain't it? This could be a tide-over until the think-tank recharges its creative innovation juices, or...I don't know. As for #2, it'll be wildly successful if enough people go out and blow their wads on the stuff, which I'm sure enough people will. (By the way, is it any coincidence the stuff is releases this close to both Black Friday and Christmas, the biggest wad-blowing event of the year?)

For those who have yet to see the Wolves' alternates, here are some screenplays. The blue pattern-gradient fades to the back in a pretty cool way, though I've yet to see clear shots of the back of this alternate... Now, I can do without the unnecessary marketingNikespeak...they could've just said it was patterned from wolf hair and I would have been cool with it. That's the problem with "trying to be too clever". Speaking of which, check out this next image...and I want one of y'all to point out the irony in this, considering the purpose of the infographic... Anyway, moving on... I don't know about y'all, but I miss the days when teams had unique warm-ups...particularly some of the more quirky details like the script surnames on the Hornets' warm-ups above, or the whole first-name-on-front and last-name-on-back thing the Pistons used to do... I know I've been harping on this for a minute now, but I'm right there with you. This again is the problem with dang-near-idolizing your "innovation culture"...there comes a point when the barrel runs dry, yet you've committed yourself to still being "forward-thinking" and "cutting edge"--and it results in stuff like this. It happened with the whole Pro Combat phase in CFB (yeah when's the last time you heard those two words? You see my point), not to mention some of the wilder alternates and even Oregon's own uniforms tamed down after a while, and it's going on now with the NBA.

That's just wrong and you know it. They beat a JV high school team...Get it right. I can't speak for Von Miller since I really don't pay any mind to the AFC West, but I do every now and then wonder how certain guys are still in the league--and playing at something close to a high level. Like I keep looking at Tampa D-Line and wondering how in the world Jason Pierre-Paul is still playing--only to completely forget that Ndamukong Suh still plays on that same line. Ol' man Brady must be inspiring some kind of feigned-youth movement down there or something...

Meanwhile, and I saw this coming a mile away, depending on MRI results, the Snatit might well end up losing their MVP the rest of the way.

I know who he is; was just being funny was all.

Aaaaannnnd we have a Trevor Siemian sighting in New Orleans. Dude's spinning that rock pretty dang nice, too. WHO DIS??

That was a trap game scenario if ever there was one. It's possible they overlooked/underestimated the "lowly" Jets coming off that big win over Baltimore and going into another division game next week against Cleveland. Ah well...perhaps one for Cincinnati to grow on.

That was a BRUTAL way to lose a game...receiver wasn't even looking for the ball, and the defender just happened to tap the ball behind the receiver's head, tip it to himself...walk-off interception. And the Cardinals fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. (Speaking of beaten, Kyler Murray, as impressive as he's looked thus far, looked pretty beat up last night. That can't be a good sign for Arizona going forward--and for their sake, since I have nothing against Arizona or Kyler Murray, I hope it pans out for them.)

Detroit's current uniforms aren't bad by any means (well except for the gray ones--those are just ), but if they were to tweak them up some, here's what I'd do: - 86 the half-italic numbers. I don't know who thought those were a good idea, but they've annoyed the mess out of me since since start of this uniform cycle. (I personally wouldn't mind a return to those teardrop numbers they used to have or something similar--single-outlined, of course.) - reduce the width of those stripes back to something more normal. Those are a relic of Nike's at-the-time-forward-thinking innovation of oversizing certain uniform elements in the name of making things "modern". (That same ideology is what got us the last CLEVELAND BROWNS uniform set that thankfully got canned.) The rest--well, short of the WCF thing--is good as is.

Are we about to see the pendulum swing back the other way now in terms of fabrics? My own personal guess, but if Nike is willing to stick this dazzle fabric in the NBA uniforms, that tells me it's only a matter of time before we see it engineered some kind of way into Oregon's CFB uniforms (in some kind of iridescent green hue even), and then we may see the return of dazzle fabric pants again--which would then shoot down the theory that they can't produce those types of fabric (which I don't know how they can't, with as much capital as they have--but that's a different issue).

I don't have pics, but you might can add what was originally Nashville Arena, now known as Bridgestone Arena, to the list. It was finished in '96 as a multi-use entertainment facility (with an obvious eye on attracting pro sports); in '98 the Predators moved in. May fit your criteria...

I don't know that I'd call this a little thing, but it's definitely been aggravating me lately... Derrick Henry has been doing it for a while, but in the past year or two lately increasing number of Snatit Titans players have been electing to go with red accessories with their uniforms...and it just looks so out of place...

Oh yes you can...ever been to a Steeler game at Heinz? Or anywhere in town while the game's going on? If so, you've heard this about eleventeen pazillion times more than you need to... Listen at your own risk. (This doesn't even count the dolt who made a whole song out of mispronouncing Troy Polamalu's last name.) That said...I've been to Lambeau twice (though not to a game...YET). For what I have to say about it, Cheeseheads are some of my favorite fans to converse with. They (y'all?) know they're spoiled with success, but don't act all entitled or pretentious with it, unlike a certain fanbase anchored in western Pennsylvania (or North Texas--but that's a different discussion). Y'all good with me, man!

I must concur. Although...I got used to that idea last week, and if not for the kickers playing keep-away from the inside of the goalposts last week, they would've beaten Green Bay. That's simple enough to say...but here's where I knew these weren't your baby brother's Bengals: they were down by double-digits in that game, and yet fought their way back and at one point were ahead. Against Green Bay...and Aaron Rodgers. And again, if not for them missed field goals...oh and yeah, their defense is pretty stout. They've got something special cooking in The Jungle (I don't know if y'all call it that, but if not you should; I am.) That is...if they can keep Joe Burrow upright long enough to see it through. That's always the big worry. But yeah, through 6 or 7 games, Cincinnati is looking like a real sleeper just-woke-up pick for the postseason. Good on them.

Football in the rain can be ugly sometimes. This game here tonight though? This game been oogly. Like...straight up OOGLY. Good showing for the Colts' defense, though...I think.

Granted, the Snatit were turning the corner before they dressed up as Gladiators of the Gridiron, but yeah, I get your point. I've been trying like crazy to find some type of way to like their current uniforms, but...it ain't happening. There's things about them that can be salvaged, bu--man who am I kidding? The only thing on those worth saving is the sword-shaped yoke--which seriously needs to be just one color. The numbers--especially the backwards 1s--can get gone tomorrow. As for them losing to the Jets...well, both their starting receivers I believe were out for that one, but other than that, well...there's a reason I call them the Snatit, you know...

^ Add that to the list. Of course, the other part of NE's greatest strength was paying everybody below market. It's like they brought players in and went all Chuck Daly on them like, "do you wanna win...or do you wanna get paid?". But hey, hard to argue with all them Super Bowls, so...

There's a couple things going on here... - Tampa Bay showed the league the blueprint for how to contain Mahomes and that offense in the Super Bowl: take away the long ball and force them to play ball control i.e. slow down the tempo. (KC also went into that game banged up, down a couple offensive linemen, so that definitely didn't help.) - The other side of the coin of being a dynamic gunslinging playmaker is that when other things break down around you, the ugly side gets amplified, and now it's being magnified. Mahomes' internal wiring for making plays out of the impossible has caused him to commit some ugly turnovers. That, plus dude is getting straight beat up. All of that is taking its toll.. - Going back to point one, defenses are taking away the long balls, forcing KC to keep it all underneath. That's not exactly their style, and they're being exposed for it. Tyreek Hill was a non-factor, and Travis Kelce looked like he's been playing hurt the past couple weeks. - @Red Comet has remarked on this, but KC's defense is ...that ain't helping either. - Not talked about but worth mentioning: KC has had deep postseason runs going for a few years now. All those extra games take their toll, and I think the fatigue is starting to show up. Now, they still got 10 games amd a lot of football left to play (because 17-game season ), but to me KC looks cooked.