I watched a lot of football these last nine days, and came away with that feeling that outcomes are predetermined.

__________________

But first, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. I am not buying it. I chose the photo above because something about it says to me that it is lacking electricity. He is about to kiss the bridge of her nose, and she appears to be holding her head in such a way as to avoid making facial contact. They are in public, there’s lots of photos, and in some they are kissing. I could be all wet here, they could be hot and sweaty lovers. But with her showing up at all of his home games, and cameras flipping to her in the booth every time he does something good on the field, there seems to be an element of staging. (Just to stifle rumors otherwise, her long extended wrist and fingers say she is a woman, and not a tranny. She has a male-like face, but no Adam’s Apple.)

Continue reading “NFL: The National Fixedball League” →

Above is a press conference by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s in the wake of the team’s last-second loss to the Houston Texans last Sunday.

I wanted to watch that game, as Burrows is one of the better QBs in the league and Texan Quarterback C.J. Stroud is coming off an amazing 500-yard five-touchdown game the prior week. I have NFL Sunday Ticket, so that any time there is an out-of-market game I want to see, it is a sure thing that NFLST will black it out. They did. Of course they did.

Continue reading “Avoid watching this video” →

I have a client of sorts, someone for whom I perform useful tasks. Since I am retired I don’t bill him, but every now and then he will send me a check. Recently he sent me $350, and I regarded it as found, or mad money. What to do with it?

We do not have cable and so do not have access to most professional football games. That’s OK by me as I stopped being a football fan back in the early 1990s. I was appointed “commissioner”  of a fantasy league and so had to keep track of the stats. I could have just downloaded them off the infant Internet, but doing that meant that I had to abide by rules I did not like. Our league had its own rules, such as a waiver wire and bonuses for things like a 300 yard passing game etc.

Continue reading “Speaking of never learning …” →

We all saw the above call last night. I am told there was a similar “soft” holding call in last year’s Superbowl, which I did not watch. As the announcer said at the time of this call, it was a “game changer”. Otherwise, the game was spectacular, with Philadelphia making some amazing passes and catches. But as the game closed out, the referee gave it to the Chiefs. Did he receive a message via his headset to “call something!”?

Continue reading “Football odd plays and and referee calls repeated again” →

I was only half-paying attention to last night’s game, and I noticed a crowd of players on the field. I then learned that Damar Hamlin had been seriously injured in a clean-contact play. He got up and fell backward on the ground. Players immediately summoned medical assistance.

I learned later that Hamlin had suffered cardiac arrest. Players were shocked, and when asked to resume play after a five-minute referee timeout, they refused. Buffalo Bills Coach Sean McDermott and Cincinnati Bengals Coach Zac Taylor met and decided to pull the players off the field. Later it was announced that the game would be postponed. The crowd left the stadium.

Hamlin remains in critical condition at this moment. There is no word on resuming the game. I think they should just call it a tie and let the cards fall, but I would not be surprised if they finish it up on Monday, January 9th, un-televised. After all, the NCAA national Championship game is that night, and the NFL and NCAA have turf agreements. Maybe they play on Tuesday, but the NFL playoffs start four days after that. That is not a lot of time for both teams to prepare, as both are in the playoffs this year. Come to think of it, both teams play on Sunday the 8th, so Monday is probably out. Again, call it a tie.

Continue reading “Damar Hamlin and musings about professional sports” →