Goodell, NFL Must Prepare For Empty Stadiums

I would love to blame Roger Goodell for being way too intrusive when it comes to enacting punishment upon players in the NFL as it appears these rulings are something he dreams out of the clouds, but this problem has long since risen above the over-inflated head of Goodell, .

Although he behaves like a deity, this problem was never one that Goodell created because he has always been nothing more than a puppet of the owners who listen to fans way more than they need to at times. I realize that the fear of losing customers and revenue is enough to force the hand of most businessmen, but this is bigger than business. This is about morality and wealth, and the collision course of contempt that occurs when rich athletes behave just like the customers or management staff who take credit for their big checks .

Why we scrutinize the behavior of rich people is as confusing and obvious as why the Kardashian family remains "a thing". Unlike the Kardashian's, who record themselves behaving horribly to create greater viewership, athletes are currently under the pressure of behave or we'll boycott you. In reality, NFL staff pay is not directly impacted by a boycott. Only the owner's pay is. Consequently, fearful owners have forced commissioner Goodell to cow tow to public sentiment, sometimes before the public gets a chance to express one.

Ezekiel Elliott is the latest egregious effort of Goodell to clear the name of the NFL before it gets smeared.  Apparently, Goodell's disciplinary team researched Elliott's old and murky detailed domestic violence matter and determined that the potential facts warranted 6 games of suspension.

Elliott is playing while Goodell waits for the courts to review his decision. Meanwhile, a court of public opinion has decided that Colin Kaepernick deserves a chance that he is not getting, so they are currently boycotting the NFL in honor of Kap'. Last year, it was an opposing court of public opinion that boycotted the NFL because Kap' took a knee over injustice in America. Apparently, Kap' gave too much of an expression of free speech for some football fans to want to pay for, leaving many of us to theorize that the owners are currently boycotting Kap' instead of risking the repercussions of signing him. I theorize that fans who threaten to boycott American football may not necessarily be the ones who were most loyal before their boycott.

As viewership falls, the NFL has to wonder if these threats of boycott are to blame, or if some other issue is the cause of less eyeballs watching footballs. I tend to think that the drop is because we all misdiagnosed the original rise of viewership, which was sparked by fantasy football and the old way people watched it (NFL Gameday packages), versus how we watch fantasy now (NFL ticker tapes on our phone).

Will players strike to fix Goodell's unfair ways?

If all these potential boycotts weren't enough, the NFLPA (Players Association) will soon need to threaten their own boycott to help renegotiate their expiring deal with the league.  For the players to continue to allow weed suspensions and Goodell to remain the punishment god would be foolish of them. Hopefully, Goodell himself has the omniscience to see the writing on the wall, let go of his rod and staff, and avoid an impending exodus.


I acknowledge that the NFL owners could be rightfully afraid of fan retribution, and I could be short-sided and wrong about wanting clear standards of operation towards discipline- public opinion be damned. What can't be disputed is the inability for the NFL to have it all. The NFL will anger one side or the other with this Kaepernick thing, just as they will satisfy America's disgust with domestic violence while disgusting and alienating players and their supporters with rulings that the courts are starting to find constitutionally shady.


Whether the boycott of the NFL happens from Kap', concussions, Goodell or it's all a hoax, the NFL must stop getting jerked around by profit threats and just let the chips of fan loyalty fall where they may, because the integrity of a person, or an organization, becomes questionable when their principles are driven exclusively by profit.

In other words, one side or the other must be shunned by the NFL if sanity and order are to reign supreme. If the words NFL owner are to continue to have meaning,  players are not an optional side in all of this. Continually policing the national anthem, domestic violence, child abuse and every other issue that the public forces on the NFL is a formula for future obsolescence because, ultimately, no side of public opinion will remain loyal to a league that flies wherever the winds of profit send it.


Few people willingly relinquish their power, and misused power must be forcefully pried from the unwilling hands of  those who possess it. If Goodell were wise, he would willingly relinquish power and stop handing down punishments that appear harsher than our laws, or get handed down before the law has spoken. If he were truly wise, principled and pragmatic about this problem, Goodell would finally yank back the power to punk him that he's given to all of us when he constantly succumbs to real or imagined boycott threats against players that get out of line.

For Goodell to stop being punk'd by opinionated NFL fans...and for NFL players to stop being punk'd by Goodell, both must be prepared to accept empty stadiums. 

Currently, neither are ready.

For Better Or Worse, The Broncos Are Must See TV

Even with the absence of the legendary Peyton Manning, the narrative would mostly be exactly the same as last year if not for that SB50 victory by my hometown Denver Broncos. and the hindsight view of what Manning did for this team as well as what he demanded of the AFC West opponents who hope to be champions too.....and because of concussions.

The Dallas Cowboy fans would like to remind you how they still dominate apparel sales even though Denver is the team defending the crown.  I'm the kind realist like true Broncos fans who've seen highs and lows, and who understand that Peyton did improve the AFC West, making it harder for this team to beat a bunch of improved teams without him. In reality, the America's Team shows plenty of signs of being better than 4-12, and expecting a healthy version of the richest team in football to continue to stink is a tainted glasses view of things.

In reality, we kind of need the Dallas Cowboys to become truly relevant on the field again just to offset the negative impact of all the concussion conversation that keeps hurting the league.  The future influx of our best athletes into sports other than football will reveal the impact of all this hysteria. What the league could really use right about now is a return of those Boys,  Love them or hate them it matters little.  They have the LeBron effect that draws both sets of eyes to the viewing.  It is an effect that the NBA will sorely miss when LeBron finally calls it quits. It's an effect that the NFL needs back via Dem Boys.

Some of this prediction might be might deep down longing for a league I love, but I am predicting that the richest team in football, the Dallas Cowboys, won't suck forever and the end of forever is now.  I am predicting that they actually bring the rookie running back along slowly enough, and he begins to show his promise near the end of the season, but they will grow terribly enamored by his talent and forget that he is not ready for playoff blocking assignments, causing them to lose in the Superbowl to my Denver Broncos, who will avenge the loss from our very first Superbowl, Superbowl XII.

Among the rest of football punditry the prognostication is mostly the same as last year, adjusted by two words; think and expect. They don't think we'll do quite as we'll or expect that we know how to overcome the challenge of losing key players without getting hungover from the thrill of  a SB50 victory.

I'm here to show them all why that all sounds good, but they are likely to be wrong.

While certain things have changed, nothing about our performance inspiring, championship coaching will be different, and that's why we win.

Actually, it will be somewhat different for our coaches who are returning after instant success while teaching a brand new system. Last seasons success gives the coaches instant street cred that will shorten the learning curve a bunch.  Their willingness to play everybody will give us an early glimpse of our future potential. Whether we realize that potential in the form of another Superbowl should not be a desperate goal of the fans, even if the team desperately intends to shut up the naysayers by repeating.  Loads of low expectation league wide will help them perform, unless loads of unreasonable expectation from Broncos fans cause us to make changes not conducive to our long term development.

Kubiak won't plan to be knee jerk at QB, but Broncos fans_some still salty about losing Brock Osweriler- will be, and that is the one element that concerns me the most.  From an outside perspective, our expectations this year is only distanced from last year by the trophy we bring to each game. Beyond that, we'll struggle to be favored in most of the games, meaning we will upset popular expectation- and Vegas- to do what we intend to do this year.  But don't get mad at Vegas or popular expectation for the respect they are indirectly showing to Peyton Manning the legend while seemingly dissing us.

We won't have Peyton, and nothing is going to help us know the impact of that except playing. With honest analysis, there are just as many signs of potential for better as there are for worse. The challenge of going 3-3 or 4-2 in the AFC West is enough to make things tough given the difficulty of the rest of our non-conference, Superbowl champions schedule. Splitting in the AFC West used to be good enough.  This year, add in the rest of the schedule and that might not be good enough to avoid a Wild Card(better)....or worse.

That offensive line seems better, more stout, more depth and eager to set league rushing records behind a guy who closed out games with amazing skill and style in CJ Anderson. For those who watch practice, they see CJ barking out protections to Mark Sanchez, who is seasoned enough to understand what the back is telling him. CJ says the barking is worse, or less useful with the younger QB's get more confused with such guidance, an early sign of which QB is getting the internal nod to lead this team this year.

Anderson stands poised to prove himself our new offensive team leader while proving his coaches game plan championship worthy, and not just something we accidentally won with. He also must prove himself able to stay healthy enough to help out his mighty might backup Ronnie Hilman, who is better...when used in small guy moderation- worse when overworked.

The entire stable of backs will be enlisted like back in the days of the original No Limit Soldiers and the Mile High Salute. I would expect that we carry an extra back with the return of the fullback too. The goal appears to be to make the team into a run whether you're expecting it or not team; a commitment that will demand chemistry they can't yet have with their rebuilt line, and health they've not shown in recent years at the offensive line or among the injury prone running backs.

Which is why we'll need depth and chemistry, the most challenging holy grail of any Superbowl pursuit.

Keep in mind that the run or bust approach (clock control with minimal turnovers) will also be forced to work  despite a league of coaches not fooled by media skepticism or punditry. Opposing coaches will bring defending champion preparation against the Broncos, mindful of the film, the ring we just earned, the Superbowl MVP we just signed and the thunder our boys brought to bear while earning it last year. Until further notice, that is the vision of us that they all see on film. Which means that the media skeptics are either counting on mostly championship efforts from each of our potential opponents, or certain decline from us.

They are mostly predicting decline Broncos nation, even though there truly are as many reasons to be excited as there are to be worried.

Linebackers are in place and ready to wreak havoc.....assuming Demarcus Ware can bring as much to the field as he brings to the locker room. They will likely need both to win it all.....although Shaq Barrett and Shane Ray are potential stars that might be ready to fill a void if Ware can't overcome those dreaded back issues he's plagued with. It might be better, or a blessing in disguise if the young players get the lion share of the reps and all that much needed development while Ware slowly heals himself for another title. It will be worse if we get stuck with players who are not our guaranteed Hall of Fame end rusher and foolish to ask young players to perform like a legend.

Once again, it's all a coin flip either way. Just like the secondary.

The secondary should be better and the most reliable group with so many returning players, but worse without Aqib Talib whose future makes that an unanswered question while we wait to see if he'll face punishment from the league.  I'm excited to let Bradley Roby get starter reps because I would love to see how he handles it- meaning even I really have no way to know until he gets the chance.

Unanswered question? Coin flip on the results.

Receivers are better with lots of depth from fresh talent in the fold....but they might appear worse because they must relent lots of pass opportunities to an uncertain, developing tight end core, a position vital in a Kubiak offense. Way too little tight end production last year lead to way too many turnovers and a less than stellar Superbowl jaunt, though winning it all is always better than losng, even when it's worse than you intended for it to look.

I would like to claim that learning how to win close games last year might actually be a sign of something better..... if it didn't feel worse because all of that good fortune seemed to come from Peyton's presence and prowess, and was used up on the successful pursuit of SB50..

After coming up short in recent years, scratching and clawing seemed a better approach last year......yet, expecting more of that again seems worse, maybe a little more desperate than confident now that we are defending our title and not chasing after one necessarily.

The Broncos really aren't claiming any cool rally cry, just an expectation for improvement of a team that most recently won it all. That shares no information about what improvement looks like or what other teams are doing to better themselves. Which means, getting better is always relative. If too many teams outpace your improvement, you're going to look worse and probably not repeat the same success as you had before.

 Fans mostly react out of emotion, not reality. Until further notice, champions are suppose to be respected. Just because you doubt the champions chances doesn't instantly give you room to dismiss them until they've dismissed themselves. Those who actually compete understand this, so a few smart pundits who played are watching the practices, getting out of their emotions from last year and recognizing the potential for better, not worse, while the rest of you just want to be right about this team being worse than they were when they proved way better than you expected.

2016 kicks off in less than two weeks for the defending champions, and we are all eager to know if the Broncos can get better, or if last season was a pure anomaly and the results will be dramatically worse. The signs are so unclear thus far, they demand WE watch closely. searching for signals that point either way.

In other words, until further notice- until we prove unworthy- my Denver Broncos are MUST SEE TV and the rest of your teams are optional viewing.

If you aren't planning to watch the Broncos preseason opener
you aren't really a fan of the NFL. Just saying.

My Brother Troy Brewer: The Only Real Broncos Fan

I tried really hard to write some cool post about the upcoming season and the prospects for a team that is fresh off of winning a Superbowl, but much like last year, nobody has Denver coming out on top again except my brother Troy.

That's right.  Unless your name is Troy E. Brewer (aka., TC from the MOB), you did not expect this team to win Superbowl 50 until 20 minutes after it was over and the truth was no longer refutable.  Those of you who think ANY Superbowl champ is just lucky are still in a state of shock over it all, and the new season is just around the corner.


Only my brother Troy had the Broncos winning it all, but truth be told, he has Denver going undefeated almost every year, which usually has him sounding like that boy who cried wolf.

Like that boy, eventually Troy was right too. While we never got the rest of the story about that wolf crying boy, if my brother Troy is an accurate example, I would imagine that many of the villagers went back to being skeptical about the boys claims. No, they didn't alter the wolf sighting system one bit as the boy continued in his unique role of being the ONLY ONE WATCHING out for wolves. Skepticism, however, does not die so easily.

When wolves or wild Broncos ransack the village, they briefly grab attention but can't hold it captive for some reason.  Maybe it's the pompous skepticism of once great men, like those 49'ers or Cowboys who think they control things they haven't even touched in the modern era of civilization or sports. These Broncos have seen the mountain top and understand the climb. They've built a team perfectly capable of finishing this expedition again. Yet, even in the face of strong reasons to believe, people form opinions that they would rather not stand down from until they have little choice.

Because the Broncos have lost more Bowl's than they've won, we all have choice and opinions about them.  Maybe America prefers 4-12 or 8-8 and a playoff loss? Denver may never be America's new team, but can we acknowledge the recent history of success of the Broncos organization, or must we excuse their full throttled control of national news every year since Tim Tebow played, as luck or something else?

Not that any team would choose to willingly let go of a moniker so bodacious as America's Team. Disregard, if you can, that large parts of America never watched America's Team win for America since their last championship predates the Internet. Nonetheless, Dem Boys insist themselves to be "America's Team" even while most of America is Google searching pictures of when Dallas was a perennial winner instead of a putting any real championship hope in a scrambling Tony Romo who is one injury away from being the excuse for 4-12 again.

As Dallas fans insist that America could care less about those destructive Broncos because they are waiting on Dem Boys to return to championship form, keep in mind that few teams in the NFL have won as many games, division and conference titles- or championships- as the Broncos have since America's Team last won a title. New England has reason to stake a claim over the NFL since they've won 4 titles (1 more than Denver) after 1995 (the last Cowboy championship).

That's right.  You 20 year olds who play Madden football video games don't really know John Madden or the days when Dallas actually won championships.

Maybe even the Steelers should drape their curtain over Dallas with 2 championship wins in this century and the most of all time. Both Steelers and Cheaters fans are among the skeptics unwilling to acknowledge that a wild bucking Bronco could crash the village again, running away with the valuables as they've done on 3 out of 4 attempts post '96.

3 Superbowl victories don't outweigh the distrust that friends and foe alike have developed from the Denver Broncos 5 losses, forgetting that 8 times now Troy was right- the wolf was truly at the gate of the village. One more appearance will establish Denver as the wolf to fear the most giving the Broncos the record for most times having stormed the village.

Our skeptical Broncos fans enjoyed winning a title.  Sort of.  What they don't enjoy is being the laughing stock of Superbowl losing appearances, or the anxiety of it happening again.  Elway removed some of that stigma when he could play, but Manning brought it back in spades while falling short in every season as a Bronco including last year's Superbowl victory in which he barely did enough to not hurt the defense or shame his family name. In an odd way, it felt like Elway had done it again for this team, especially to the anxiety filled whose emotional instability proves their level of confidence and their true opinions about the potential outcome.

People don't enjoy being wrong in their opinions even when their opinion spells doom to their own team. Essentially, that amounts to most people being happy to never or rarely play for a title instead of being the Buffalo Bills or the Minnesota Vikings, or the Denver Broncos, whose losses have become fodder for ridicule and humorous memes.

Actually, Cowboys fans seem perfectly fine with being wrong because they keep creating those memes to discredit winning teams while longing for the day they get to meme their first playoff win since they haven't had one during the era of meme's.

I expressed my own opinions of doom against the air force Broncos, not the ground control team that won the Superbowl. I also proudly boasted when my opinions bore fruit. Actually, the Manning air force refused to simply die and go away while that ground control team never remained around long enough for anyone to know if they would show up when it mattered the most. So, even I had to wonder which team would be there in the end. In hindsight, uncertainty might have been a major key to our Superbowl victory.

In hindsight, Troy wasn't selling wolf tickets about the Broncos. He always expected his team would show up when it mattered. To believe his team could win every game has never meant that they couldn't be challenged, it only meant that they were perfectly capable of meeting every challenge, be that injury or free agency.

 Most of us knew Brandon Marshall has been taking over for Danny Trevathan for a couple of seasons, starting right at the point of Trevathan's knee injury two years ago, and is actually the leader of the defense that made Trevathan and his rebuilt knee expendable. Troy, on the other hand, probably watched and remembers Marshall from college or earlier, and likely expected him to become the player he is now. He probably even told us so, but no one really listened to him before. Like many fans, Troy occasionally over estimates the efficacy of his own draftees, but he was Mel Kuyper before Mel knew we needed him. His love for this team and the acquired talent exists because he knows and follows the players much closer than most. Always has.

When Troy got a new football helmet as a toddler, I recall him jumping out of our brother's bathtub to go try out his Floyd Little moves in the front lawn.

No, he did not put his clothes on first.  Just the helmet.

Has he been picking the Broncos to go undefeated since Floyd Little ran on our fields inspiring a streaking football fanatic toddler?  Why yes he has.  At least in his heart.

The rest of us Broncos fans need to acknowledge that John Elway, and his cast of characters wearing Orange and Blue, shocked everyone but Troy.

Fully loaded teams rarely repeat, so the history doesn't point to any new reason for the Broncos to win with Butt Fumble Sanchez or some first year dude as their new quarterback. Although most skeptics will tell you that they are not picking the Superbowl 50 winners to do a darn thing this year either- since Superbowl winners don't usually lose a quarterback or two en route to a repeat- most peoples expectations are exactly the same as they were last year, mainly because we all hated being so wrong about Elway, Coach Gary Kubiak and the Broncos before.


NOBODY BELIEVES IN THE DENVER BRONCOS....... 
                                                                 
                                                      ..........QUITE LIKE TROY

This is my bro Troy.  Don't disrespect his big head.  Maybe
that's where all of the football knowledge is stored. #DB4L

They proved EVERYONE but Troy to be either totally wrong or thoroughly skeptical. We ALL doubted everything he told us the Broncos could do up until the final buzzer proved us wrong and him right. We could relent and acknowledge that we had no clue, while Elway and Troy did, but who does that?

I will.

I will stand down from my measured mediocrity predictions of this year and last, because it is only rooted in my lingering doubt of a team that shocked us and defied our expectations to begin with. They couldn't even finish the last game with anything predictable except defense. Yet they won, and they continue to chisel and form this defense under the watchful hands of a coaching staff that's only had one year to put it's fingerprint on things, but still molded this team to the top of the heap.

For this team to take a big step backwards means the coaching staff had no clue and didn't pull off
miracles by marrying two opposing offensive concepts into one. Stepping back means they'll have a harder time without Manning forcing the entire offense to learn said two concepts. The evidence says otherwise. The evidence says that Denver will be cleaning up their offensive approach and clarify everyone's role more than they did en route to winning it all.

So Today I join Troy, the driver of the real Broncos bandwagon. Not with that annual undefeated wolf crying prediction, but with the full fledged, genuine endorsement of this team and its championship belief of themselves. Given the history and the results, my Denver Broncos are as likely as a Patriot, and much more likely than Dem Boys to steal another one from the Steelers and come out on top again.

If the Cowboys fans can actually justify their optimism after 4-12 and a failed offensive line that they hope can keep Romo upright and make lanes for a rookie runner, why should Broncos fans be more worried?.

Pulling off the impossible with minimal expectation removes the need not worry, because you've already completed the impossible. To the average NFL fan, the only thing more implausible than last season will be Denver's even more unexpected repeat. When you hop on the proper bandwagon, you don't worry either because you discover that to true champions, the unexpected suddenly becomes beyond plausible. It's expected. This team won because they couldn't imagine losing, kinda like Troy, the Real Broncos Fan.

So drive on big bro.  Until further notice, you and Elway are the only people who seem to understand this football business, and you both have me and this team convinced of our prospects for the season ahead.

Concussions Are Not Only Killing Football Players And Their Careers, They're Killing Our NFL Buzz

For a while I was torn over this conversation about concussions. Now I am as clear headed as I've ever been on the matter.  Maybe it took some time of rest and repair to my cognitive skills for it to become so clear how crazy all of this is.

The information we've learned over the past decade has come in like a tsunami.  Maybe there was a period of delay in which we had to wait for definitive data from the medical findings, but in retrospect, even that delay seems like the delay from legal wranglings of disclosure so that accountability could be clarified and a settlement could be negotiated. If you fully trust the details of that movie "Concussion" starring, Will Smith- who does a spectacular job as African doctor Bennet Omalu, the person credited for uncovering the impact of concussions on the human brain- the NFL has known about his findings for a very long time.

Now that we finally know more, we might be moving closer to progress on head trauma. Actually, we aren't really moving closer to anything relative to a remedy for concussions, just closer to accepting that people who get them and keep playing are somewhat crazed, before, during and after their trauma.

Let me explain that a little more clearly since we DO know for certain that the impact of so much head trauma are several potential forms of psychosis or psychotic issues including hallucinations, rage and more.  What we don't know or haven't even discussed, is how might the trauma of concussions effect people who were predisposed to mental illness already?  Is there any connection between this common childhood brain trauma (most all of us recall playing on after head hurting collisions) and the growth in recreational drug usage or mental illnesses like Alzheimer's?  Maybe we'll discover a connection one day, but most likely we'll persist to insist on implementing and improving our concussion protocols that move on a sliding scale impacted heavily by the importance of the moment, or the player.

Even this "protocol" line of thinking only addresses the impact of trauma, not the craziness that likely causes concussion worthy collisions to begin with. As we speak, the unreasonably hefty contract of the former Bronco great Ryan Clady, has been absorbed by the New York Jets who unceremoniously lost their all time great offensive lineman, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, to sudden retirement. Aside from one trick play, Ferguson is a player who never missed a play during a span of 10 years. Since Ferguson is too young to have played against Deacon Jones, did he have the blessed benefit of never getting his bell rung while playing in the NFL, or was he and his streak simply too valuable for anyone to care about his rung bells when they got rung?

Was he thriving on an immense killer instinct or forced into a crazy corner of limited options? Ferguson's decision to rest his brain forever from the NFL speaks to the latter. He might have wished for a couple of breaks while playing long before watching the movie that clarified the impact of never resting the bell. Now he knows it was crazy to ignore the ringing, no matter how cool it and the streak appeared at the time. In reality, ironman streaks and smash mouth recognition should be the most frowned upon aspect of the game of football knowing what we know about concussions. The truth is that they are the reason we like football.

If you really think about it, there are some really crazy coaches and parents that breed the crazed killer instinct that is vital for most positions on a football field. Kids do head smashing drills in practice just to get used to the feeling of seeing stars and pressing on nonetheless.  The idea that any football player would be asked to do anything less head smashing once game time begins is laughable.

What is also laughable is how blood thirsty we are for smash mouth football, even at 6 years old or younger.  Since really small kids learn how to get up from the ground no matter what put them there, is it even a reasonable expectation that the National Football League can reduce the type of collisions that takes a lifetime to teach, and is exactly what makes us watch the game in the first place?  What the NFL is actually hoping to accomplish is only a reduction of the type of smashing hits that destroy the human brain, a water encased soft muscle that NEVER was designed for the type of collisions that are normal at every level of football.

If you've seen the movie, you recall a scene where Dr. Omalu repeatedly describes animals- big horn sheep, woodpeckers, etc- that were made for head trauma with a God given, anatomical design that helps to minimize the impact of repeated collisions.

For humans, the only remedy for an existing concussion is a rest from the trauma, and everything else that might overwork the damaged brain.  Without a short term break, a traumatized brain experiences long term damage, including the potential for death. Death directly from the injury at times, but indirectly for some, as a result of going crazy from too many years of playing on with severe head trauma.

For all that is good about the discovery of Dr. Omalu, there is a significant area of bad that remains. The impact of his discovery, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), can only be confirmed on the brain of a dead person.  The only thing we know for the sake of the living is that rest can reduce the trauma to the brain, reducing the key symptoms  as well. No one really understands brain scarring of this sort or what amount of trauma will send you over the edge of no return. How many people today unwittingly live with a short fuse towards friends and family alike as a direct result of doing exactly what adults asked of them- display that intense, concussion causing passion we all were asked to display during every high school sports other than swimming? By the way, this is the same passion that we just so happen to be infusing into the next generation of athletes of every sport too.

Like lead in the blood stream of Flint, Michigan children, there may be no real cure or remedy from the impact of even one concussion, much less repeated ones, especially given our blood thirst for brain crushing hits. Whether it is coaches and parents that don't care more about our kids to pull them during injury to the head, or the player that doesn't care about themselves more than they crave competition or keeping their jobs, so they lie, we have proven that this problem runs much much deeper than just a league who knew more details about concussions than they revealed.

The legal accountability stuff should be the most important part of this conversation because knowledge is power, and without the knowledge of concussions, injured brains worldwide had no power to make a wise decision. However fortunate (or not), the NFL had this information before any of us, and to that they owe- something. Based upon better information, we've seen several rich football players call their careers quits because they don't wish to risk further head trauma to a game that virtually insures they'll get it.

Yet, none of this is going to be enough bad publicity to impact the future of the league.  This will only lessen the pool of gladiators to draw blood from. In the end, we won't care how big the overall pool really is that much. Youth football involvement is down sharply across the land, but even that won't change the nature of the game we love so much. If a third less kids are starting football, they'll only impact the 98% of college football players who never become pro's in the first place. Will it hurt the quality of play?  When smashing and not tackling are the reason we watch, the quality of the game concern is already lost.

As a parent, I've imagined whether or not I would be comfortable allowing my son to play football if I were not fortunate enough to only have daughters who never imagined asking me to play. I personally longed to play football myself way back when my mother realized that it was too dangerous and I was much more suited for basketball with my skinny frame. I also have the type of temperament that concussions loved dearly.  No way in heck was a severe headache going to stop me from competing in any sport, nor did it. Thanks to my mom's anti-football foresight, I probably have the ability to write about concussions today instead of losing that skill from having one too many of them and still playing on.

I know for certain that I could catch the ball better than Wes Welker, but again,  I also have his same bell ringing nature that ended his career early. The truth of the matter is that every really great player who tells you the honest truth about their decision to play with head trauma will almost universally admit that they would do it again for the chance to compete.

We are so competition crazed that I,...... I mean, some men will beat little kids in a game of memory because competition made them do it.  Even when we are lucky enough to find balance in our passion to compete versus our need to heal, coaches lose their sense of clarity when deciding whether or not to sit stars seeing stars. Some because their jobs are on the line, and others because they themselves were stars who played with stars.

What this comes down to is a need for each of us to really look inside of ourselves and say, do we really care about rich people's headaches's or any of their true problems? Don't we really consider their paycheck  and the opportunity to earn it ourselves, all the justification for the risk?  Would we keep tuning in to watch the, not as good, second and third string backups without even knowing their names at all?

When nearly every former great player guarantees us all that they would do it over and over again for the chance to compete in a game that we came to see them get hurt while doing, why do we worry or really care about this issue?  If the NFL has to hire WWE wrestler's to fake the hits and fill the stands, they will do it.

Because the owners and the players, all of these rich guys are crazy, taking over Sunday's no less so that they can exploit blood thirsty American's who've darn near traded Jesus for football.  God help us. 

(When does preseason start again?  #DB4L :  )

I Miss The Days Of Just Being A Denver Broncos Fan

I wish I could go back to being just another Denver  Broncos fan, born and raised in the Denver Metro area.

Now I am a black American male Denver Broncos fan- born and raised in the Denver Metro area.  I never really wanted to become black, but I wasn't really given much of a choice.

I might have known that I was black long before I was forced into accepting it, but I didn't really appreciate the separation of me and my multi-cultural friends who all rooted for the Broncos the same way as kids.  We lost our ever loving, multi-racial minds when Lyle Alzado and Jon Keyworth and them boys went out and made those miracles happen. Even when they lost, Denver Broncos fans remained united with pride and appreciation for our team.

My particular North Denver neighborhood in the 70's made me an unaware minority among the posse of kids my age that included two Mexicans, one white kid and one mixed race kid whose black dad we seldom saw. Moving 10 up the road to North Aurora offered me and my siblings more of the same racial integration'ary ignorance, until those days that we played against the South Aurora white kids in sporting events and started to understand that poverty created a race of people that many whites attempted (and still do) to avoid like the plague.

It would be years before I discovered that "The Jones's" were also middle class white families that hated the white trash label and would live with the same empty refrigerator poverty and hunger that poor folks endure except for the sake of social segregation and stature.  It would also be years before I discovered that  I was no longer just a young man who loved the Denver Broncos like most born and raised Denver kids do, but I was a black man who had grown too tall too fast to remain non-threatening to the public at large.

Mike Brown Jr. had no real control over the body that he was
born into, and the fear that it would invokes in other people.
Neither does Cam Newton. 

Apparently, my really smart black friend who grew faster, stronger and quicker than I did, evoked similar responses when walking in his own neighborhood that just so happened to be a little too South Aurora for two dark skinned, North Aurora looking boys.  I am not sure if my mother warned me about the challenge of dating one of those white girls that kept calling the house before or after that time we got pulled over by the cops for walking the street while black around the corner from my homey's way too nice house, but each occurance shook my identity and innocence. I was forever altered from that time- from that mirror that I never had a reason or a desire to see in that way before.

The image of me that made people afraid probably had me running to the comforts of an Historically Black College.  And yes- it was comforting to go an entire week without seeing any white people except that one white guy on campus who loved him some black foke.

But it wasn't reality.

In reality, I wanted to go back to my Mexican and white people, my white snow, and to being just a Denver Broncos fan and not a black male Denver Broncos fan.  I wanted to hate the hell out of being in college in super black Atlanta, GA when my Broncos lost to that first black quarterback, Doug Williams; but he killed my team, and it was undeniably easy to feel happy for the opportunity that he was creating for so many young black men that play football, but just want to be MEN.

Was Russell Wilson more accepted  than Cam because he is not
 so black looking or because he isn't so brash......or both?

I am not proud of those days when I celebrated OJ's guilty ass getting found not guilty.  By that time, I was made fully aware of my blackness and the retributive fear associated with being black, and at the time, it felt like the triumph of the underdog. With this upcoming football game, there is a similar guilt that this 47 year old black male, Denver native, Broncos fan can't actually lose this upcoming Superbowl because I am  fully represented by the underdogs I'm supporting on both sides of the field.


I am not at all proud that a really small part of me (I was a Broncos fan long before I became black) is rooting for a win by virtue of a loss. But it's real and it's true.

From the day we first met him, Cam Newton has remained the same unabashedly proud black man who just so happens to love the game of football, but refuses to conform himself to the comforts of critics.  Cam has done Cam since the very beginning.  Most of his critics said that he needed to win like Gronk and Brady before he behaved like Gronk and Brady. Now they just don't like him.

I appreciate the example that Cam gives all of us to be unashamedly YOU.  The fact that he happens to be black is something that he and I wish didn't matter so much for NFL quarterbacks, coaches or American presidents. On his team, they refer to him as Obama.  Is he similarly paving the way for a generation of hopeful black men?

What Cam is doing might revive Tim Tebow's career as well as making my young black daughter feel a little more comfortably with being an unashamedly young black woman- even at work.  Life is too short and too full of critics to allow racial, or any criticism, to limit or define you. Cam is not only teaching the world how an athletic quarterback- who might also be black- can succeed in the role, he is showing the masses how to stay true to yourself in whatever you're doing.

Regardless of the games outcome, there is simply no way for this black male Denver  Broncos fan to hate on Cam, or lose this game.

Good Officials And Boston Being Flattened By Deflate-Gate Inaction

It would be nice to think that every result of professional sports competitions would remain exclusive to the arena of competition, but I am here to further my theory that God is a serious football fan, and HE, much like the rest of us, must be wondering why the NFL has not given an official response to the matter of Deflate-Gate. Whether the footballs were deflated on purpose or not should be secondary to the necessity of punishing someone for allowing it to happen.


What is a good official?

The problem is that nothing has been properly officiated in this matter, whether on the field or off.  Why not establish a penalty that happens during the game for infractions that are discovered during the game- even deflations?  This problem began with bad officiating and continues for the same reason.  No punishment will fit the crime now, it will only tarnish the image of all of those involved, especially those responsible for officiating things like this.

Now the matter is out of the hands of the game officials (Roger Goodell included) and has been elevated to an ethereal realm of retribution.  Karmic gods impact every game, but most of the time their balancing act occurs before the final buzzer sounds.  The league of manufactured story lines tried its darn'dest to quiet the Patriot infraction that it discovered and fixed at halftime (were New York game officials also informed), but  to date they continue to delay punishment until they can clear as much dust as possible.

Officials failed us all, and now, even the reputation of good officials are being tainted by this unchallenged infraction. Good leaders realize that what must be done eventually is best done immediately.  Good officials understand this frame of thought too and use it to succeed in their inexact role of game officiating. A good official will also unashamedly give make-up calls because they realize that it free's them from tilting the sports karma unfairly against one team or another.  The more you coach or officiate games, you eventually are forced to accept that there really are angels in the outfield- so to speak, and sports karma is both real and exacting. From top to bottom, deflate-gate has been so poorly officiated that it can never be properly penalized, so it needed  karmic elevation to well above the NFL commissioner's pay grade. From on high if you will.

Every sport has karmic god's and good officials establish a goal of consistent calls, not perfect ones, since perfection is a concept that comes from on high as well.  A good official rarely has a problem discussing calls with coaches because they realize that they can only control call consistency, not the game outcome.  Karma will eventually balance out official ineptitude and crown the victory to the rightful champ. Karmic gods are dispatched to balance out human ineptitude, but even these ethereal officials don't get to pick winners or losers since GOD is a fan of the competition, not of Tim Tebow or any of the teams involved.

Congratulations remain in order for the New England Patriots who walked off of the stage with the crown this season.  Deflate-Gate karma appeared to be against them as the game neared its end, but intelligent fans think Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll sealed his teams fate by tempting fate with a goal line pass.  That play was the best hope for the Patriots who needed a pass play more than anything for a last chance at victory. NFL Superbowl karma should never be challenged so blatantly, and Carroll's arrogance quickly became the Patriots blessing. In essence, running stupid goal line plays in the Superbowl is a bigger karmic infraction than letting a little air out of the football during a bad weather AFC title game.

Nonetheless, somebody let the air out of those footballs, and somebody needed to pay for it.

Wouldn't want to be Boston right now.

Is it just me. or does it seem like Boston is getting flattened with snow for what happened to those footballs? Though most of us do hate the Patriots, only HE controls weather patterns, and boy has HE focused a great deal of post Superbowl attention (see; snow) on the championship city of Boston.

By the time Boston gets to move around to celebrate the thrill of victory, the thrill will be gone. For certain there's nothing that the NFL can do that will be worse than the punishment New England is receiving right now.

Patriots Use Squishy Balls. Have They Tainted Life In America?

If Belichick approved of cheating, has Brady
been a complicit or innocent participant?

What we know right now is that the New England Patriots were proven to have used 11 out of 12 game balls in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts that were under inflated.  What we also know is that Tom Brady prefers a ball that is a little squishy, "so to speak", especially when throwing in the cold weather. What we don't know is who deflated these balls, and more importantly, who knew that it happened.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the Patriots are the most successful NFL franchise for the entirety of Tom Brady's stellar career that is quickly concluding its second decade.  The love or hate of this team is partially connected to its Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick, but Belichick remains just another good coach absent the discovery of Brady as his Hall of Fame quarterback. Together, they are the kind of guys that only a mother or a New England Patriot fan can love. They not only beat you...a lot- they rub your face in it with touchdown spikes from the quarterback and pompous interviews from the coach.  As much as haters like myself would love to consider this team just another bunch of cheaters, we all know better.

That being said, these guys might be a bunch of cheaters.

Going into the AFC semi-final, there was a key controversy over the Patriots distorted use of a "fair" substitution rule in which they un-declare a lineman and then set him out wide to confuse the defense and disrupt the substitution response.  The move is entirely legal but it might be changed as a result of the way the Patriots have used it.  This is the team famous for Spygate and for the worse interpretation of the Tuck Rule in recent memory, so bending the lines on linemen substitutions while softening the balls in an AFC Championship game are typical and mind boggling infractions for a team that seems not to need the extra advantage.

On one level, there is an obvious understanding that every fierce competitor has towards Belichickian behaviors.  We created the saying- "if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'"- for reasons that even champions understands clearly.  I too have coached my own basketball players to test rules under the guise that it is only illegal if the referee calls it.

Whether you only pull jerseys or you actually pinch private parts in pile-ups, cheating comes in lots of forms, but most of them are expected- and thus regulated. Cheating that bends the lines or occurs outside of them is like first degree murder of cheating and deserves the kind of punishment that we reserve for premeditated abusers of the public trust- especially when you have done things of the sort in the past, and particularly when you have forced a league of fans to question your righteous placement in the most important game in America.

Stephen A. Smith of ESPN FirstTake fame has declared it, and I will repeat it.  If Belichick has cheated the fans of America from an opportunity to love or hate the Patriots purely for their football brilliance, then he deserves to be suspended for a season just like Sean Payton received for his part in the New Orleans Saints BountyGate scandal that Payton was only found guilty of obstructing the investigation.

When the 9-11 massacre took our beloved twin towers away, we healed ourselves with football.  We heal ourselves every week with football and the Superbowl has become the biggest worldwide fellowship day outside of Easter Sunday- with no guilt or getting dressed up required. Tim Tebow, and now 5'11" Russell Wilson, have forced legitimate arguments over whether or not God cares about football too. Most people seem to answer MAYBE!

I don't personally care for the Patriots or the Dallas Cowboys who are supposedly closer to being America's Team than are my Denver Broncos, but when Detroit Lion Ndamukong Suh stepped on Aaron Rogers' ankle to try and injure him recently, I sensed that karma, or God, or whatever you want to call it, would come against the Lions because they allowed Suh to play in the playoffs despite his unsportsmanlike behavior and initial suspension. If you saw how Dallas beat Detroit, you probably think karma had some impact on the Lions just as it later impacted the Cowboys who beat Detroit in a questionable fashion themselves.

Has cheaters karma been the reason that a really excellent organization has not reached the highest peak of the mountain over the course of an entire decade?  Will it be the reason that Russell Wilson gets to do a Tim Tebow like interview at the end of another Superbowl? I'm praying against the Patriots, but I know that great teams can overcome stupid coaches and sometimes players hit freethrows even when nobody fouled them. In other words, the ball does lie. Are these freethrow shooters making good on previous missed calls, thus they are pure in karmic energy? Maybe, because the more I involve myself in sports on any level, the more it seems that forces greater than ourselves are regulating the thing called luck.  Luck has always leaned towards the team that is working the hardest, but is that just a human way of hoping that pushing yourself so hard provides some added benefit?  Does a losing team have just as many, or more lucky opportunities but discounts them due to the loss?

New England probably cheated and probably will still win the Superbowl, but the asterisk will live on Wikipedia until the end of time right along with Spygate, the Tuck Rule, the Substitution Rule (coming soon) and whatever else comes to the light when speaking of an organization that has now made this a part of their legacy.  If they lose, karma will get the credit and Belichick will get a reduced punishment like lost draft picks since losing the game will be part of his reward.

Goodell must remind the Patriots how important the NFL is to all of us. Even if Belichick loses a year of duty as opposed to just a couple of draft picks, he will not be able to take away the stink he's created of our beloved game.  We'll watch the game and the Patriot fans might even enjoy it as if the squishy ball scandal never happened.  Everybody else will watch it- or not- and hope the Patriots get what they deserve from taking away the purity of our favorite day of the year. The Colts don't deserve to be in the game, but the Patriots don't deserve to win it either. Hopefully God, or karma or Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks will restore the balance of integrity that makes the NFL a reason life in America is so good.

NFL: National Football Lie? Is American Football Chasing Story Lines?

Trust me Detroit Lion fans.  I understand how it feels.

Its not because of my team, the Denver Broncos, who experienced years of pain at the hand of underachievement and the unspoken "bad luck' of having underwhelming box office appeal.  Denver finally won a couple of Superbowls, and even our recent absence from the top of the mountain doesn't discount Pat Bowlen's drive to stick our flag atop the heap.  We may have withdrawals from missing our crown, but it doesn't make us Detroit, or Cleveland who has to consider the success of the Baltimore Ravens with either envious joy or  envious pain. Denver is no longer another Buffalo team where the Bills came excruciatingly close to winning but failed 4 times during their key championship runs.

Denver is not hapless or hopeless.  The Broncos have won and can certainly win again...maybe even soon.  The Detroit Lions are loaded with talent and can finally consider themselves a legitimate championship caliber team as well, but what Denver, Detroit and every other team in the NFL has no hope of ever being is America's most beloved team. The Dallas Cowboys own that title and that title dictated that the pass interference flag had to be picked up lest the selection of Tony Romo for NFL MVP be soiled along with that soiled flag that got usurped by the powers that be.

Denver is not Detroit, the sad victim of this sad story, and we are certainly not the Minnesota Vikings.

My stepfather (RIP) was a HUGE Viking fan- the same Vikings who are the victims behind the story of the Hail Mary pass itself. Prior to this mysterious officiating foible, the Hail Mary was called the Alley Oop pass.  On this fateful day, Roger Staubach (a Catholic) admitted to throwing the pass to teammate Drew Pearson and then praying "Hail Mary" after it left his hand.  Mary didn't cure any blind men, but she might have created a few out of the officials who did not call a rather obvious push-off by Pearson that allowed him to make the key touchdown. As Pearson raced to the end zone, stories say an orange was thrown from the Minnesota stands that flashed past national television cameras giving Viking fans- like my stepfather- the false impression that a flag had been thrown- and then mysteriously picked up for some un-American reason that, once again favored America's Team.

When dad discovered that their was no flag on the play, his anger had him attempting to make a call to the national offices of the NFL to voice his displeasure. Since this was the mid-70's, mom found the approach- and the yellow pages that he used to find Pete Rozell- to be a bit excessive. We kids joined her more reasonable bandwagon.  Besides,  my dad was the only Viking fan in the house and this was hardly the Broncos that were falling victim to the corporate compulsion towards America's Team, so what did we care?  In hindsight, dear old dad might have been on to something.

Why did they ever decide to create a national headquarter for officiating "support" if not to take away some of the power that allows on-field officiating crews to screw up the story line.

Did the officials officially hand Dallas the victory over Detroit?  NO! But they did do their best to keep the story line intact even when an obvious call threatened to curtail it.  My hunch, once again, was that this has everything to do with the up and coming MVP announcement that has  all flags pointing in the direction of Romo.

NFL officials, to the chagrin of many, are part time employees who do other really important things for a career which could impact their ability to obey the company instruction to remain "fair and balanced" like FOX news (wink, wink).  The general fan should hope that these guys maintain the integrity of the job by never letting it become their career, yet politics even exist in little league sports so the NFL is highly vulnerable to it. Good ol' boy referee's get the good ol' boy jobs while guys with integrity ref little league for life.  Even if you would like to call the game like you see it, today's NFL referee knows that New York video officials (the bosses) are watching and insist on changing the call as needed.  NFL fans who would like to see full time officiating should see that we've got it already in the form of New York city big bosses.  What might have been called an effort to speed up the game is now an entity of responsibility.  Who is chosen to officiate the game must be driven by the New York big bosses since now, the final call reflects more on the process than the people.  Integrity's wish is that such administrative leanings would never bend unfairly towards the money, but sensibility knows better.

Did New York snatch a flag from the field for the sake of Romo's MVP story, America's Team. and a huge money making story line?

New York better be glad that dad passed away because his beef with them goes way back and Google is a stronger search engine than those Yellow Page books.

Tony Romo For MVP? The Notion Alone Might Secure Dallas A Crown

For the love of Peyton, I actually started to think of my own team, the Denver Broncos, as Americas new team.  And then the Tony Romo for MVP conversation brought me out of my Mile High cloud.

Make no mistake.  The Dallas Cowboys are, and may forever be Americas team.  The roots of sports fandom run so deep that they create upshoots that appear throughout the world.  Michael Jordan is much more than an American sports hero and the Bulls are the NBA equivalent of the NFL's Cowboys as a result.  Cowboy fans may have quieted themselves over the past decade of mediocrity, but their silence was that of a malignant tumor waiting for any positive sign of the greatness of old.  Winning as the Cowboys have won in the past is a hard elixir to ignore once its sweetness has caressed your palate.

Jerry Jones probably have squeezed the hope out of every chance his team has had to return to the pinnacle of greatness by managing his organization with an iron fist that seldom yields the nectar of champions.  Whether or not his iron fist has finally squeezed out a running game of consequence and a defense that will complement shall unfold in the coming weeks.  Demarco Murray has performed so well that Tony Romo even thinks he is just better at football now. His team clearly didn't trust their MVP quarterback to let him go without the broken hand on Murray who played in yesterdays game with an injury.

So does the emergence of the C.J. Anderson run game in Denver mean Peyton Manning is worse or better as a quarterback because his team is winning without his typical exploits too?  Are we really of the notion that Tony Romo can read defenses better than he used to, and that run game thing is only fortunate to be along for the ride?  Romo has never been a horrible quarterback, and the Dallas Cowboys have never been a horrible team,  They have been consistently projected for greatness because the 8-8 mediocrity simply didn't fit the talent on paper.  The emergence of the Cowboys during this season comes when most of the analyst had given up on the notion of them being anything better than average.

One week ago, the Cowboys were actually on the fence between winning the division or being left out of the playoffs altogether.  That fate fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, but not until last night when the Cowboys trounced the Indianapolis Colts and the Washington Redskins pulled of an upset victory over a conference rival in the Eagles.  Not a moment before that unexpected occurrence has anyone mentioned Tony Romo as a potential MVP and suddenly he is leading the conversation?

The real reason for this debate is the reason Romo and the Cowboys are likely to be one and done in the playoffs.  The true MVP's of the league; Manning, Watt, Gronkowski, Brady, are either playing defense or playing on teams with an exceptional defense backing them.  Seattle titled the axis of power in the league and every team with a great quarterback has had to adjust to the demand of winning from the defensive side of the ball as a result.  Doing this demands an efficient run attack in order to win the TIME OF POSSESSION war that insures great defenses remain great on every play.  Overworking any defense will expose them, which is why the likely odds for a Superbowl matchup will be a Superbowl rematch including the two teams with the best defenses and the best run game/quarterback play to support said run games. (Sorry New England, but Gronkowski can't run the ball too....can he?)

Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch will be assigned to insure that the Legion of Boom remains sonic while Peyton Manning and C.J. Anderson will be responsible for unveiling their defense to a national audience hopeful that the John Elway influence will make this game more entertaining than the last.  I expect Manning to be unleashed in the second half of this years Superbowl game since he will essentially have been under wrap for nearly half of the season, but Wilson is always waiting to unwrap his talents.  If Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray make it through, it will be only because Romo shocked the world and outfoxed the defending champion Hawks, which I consider highly unlikely. If the lack of D in Dallas forces Romo to open up again and take the kind of chances that typically produced Cowboy mediocrity, the Legion of Boom (or some other playoff team) will spell his doom.

Foreshadowing the NFL.  Romo wins MVP while Broncos
and Seahawks repeat last years matchup.

Denver has the D to win it all, but Denver's defense will need to be other worldly because the wheels and skills of Wilson are slowly elevating themselves to a realm that we may have never witnessed in one player.  Elway had great mobility and an arm to boot, but even he couldn't make people miss so eloquently as does Wilson.  The end game ability of Wilson is a direct by-product of his willingness to win ugly or win off of the exploits of his run game and his defense, if need be.

Absent any lasting injuries to either teams key players, this match up is virtually etched in stone to my eyes.  Even the offensive barrage that I see happening in the second half of this epic Superbowl rematch lives in my imagination like a foreshadowed prophecy.  I fear the Seahawks quarterback more than I trust my own, but thanks to the Denver  D, the Broncos will avenge their loss by winning the Superbowl, but one day prior, Tony Romo will be named MVP of the league even though he won't make it to the Superbowl along the way(voting happens at the end of the regular season).

Barring an exceptional final game performance from one of the other top five MVP alternatives to Romo, Romo will win MVP because America's team won't be home for post-Christmas revelry this year. Romo will win it because every other candidate will have reasons why they haven't outshined an opportunity to recognize America's team again.  The Cowboys and Tony Romo will truly be lucky to even win one playoff game with the weaknesses in their defense, but Romo might still be handed an MVP trophy; not because he deserves it, but America's team does.  



POSTSCRIPT:

While listening to Dan Patrick talk about the belligerence of Marshawn Lynch, who chose to answer every  post-game question from reporters, with the words "thanks for asking that question", and nothing more, Patrick declared that Lynch should be suspended.  I wonder if DanPatrick thinks Bill Belichick or Greg Popovich or even Phil Jackson during his zen moments should be fired for being belligerent towards the media?

I think not.


ONE MORE THING!

Can't wait to watch the (6-9)Atlanta Falcons and the (6-9)Carolina Panthers fight for the division crown next week.   #dontchangeAthing

Broncos Star QB Must Recognize Denver's Defense As The MVP

What's up with Peyton's fourth quarter production.

Every attempt that we keep making to answer the question about Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos seems to leave us more clarified about the competition and not the home team or its leader.

Much like the first two weeks, Manning has finished a really close game with no reason for anyone to believe that he is the game closer that will be necessary for the final climb to the top.  This Superbowl rematch started out eerily similar to the original game.  Much like the Superbowl, Denver's improved defense gave Peyton time to decide if he wanted to show up or not.  Another fumble on our opening offensive play shut down Denver's confidence in Montee' Ball and running the ball with Ball.  In a wild stroke of luck, Ronnie Hilman actually resurfaced early in the game, even though he was inserted to give Peyton another passing weapon (screen out of the backfield) and not a reliable running attack.

By games end, the Broncos had settled on 20 running plays versus the 47 running plays that San Diego used a week prior to upset the Superbowl champs.  Granted, the Chargers were lucky enough to do it on home turf, but their blueprint was never designed to yield humongous yards on the ground.  No self respecting defense would ever give up too many yards on the ground anyway.  The commitment to running is like making slow love.  It may take a while to yield the benefits, but its well worth the patience shown.  Three years and three weeks into the Manning experiment, and the Broncos are still full of quick triggered, youthful exuberance, but lack the wisdom of experience.  Their defensive effort in last nights game was similar to that of the Superbowl, but failed offensive series after failed offensive series is likely to run any defense into the ground, even an improved one.

Three weeks into the season and John Fox is also continuing to use the same 'tired' excuse as an explanation for shoddy play down the stretch.  Fox has yet to explain the lack of offensive execution late in games that has made the first three games such an adventure, or assign his QB's fourth quarter departures as the reason for the dilapidated defense in Denver that he  does keep referring to.  Its likely that Fox is just another well paid talking head who understands football, gains the love and respect of his players with a jovial, laid back personality, but can not hold the leader of his team to the highest level of expectation- which Manning is so apt to do when other players fail to execute.  Is there no one in the Bronco organization to tell the quarterback to step your end game production up?

At the conclusion of last nights defeat in Seattle, Denver cornerback Chris Harris Jr. tweeted a comment that Russell Wilson is better than Luck, referring to Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts.  If Harris Jr. had the courage to tweet such a comment about two up and coming QB's in the league, what do you think he feels about the old guy he has on own team?  Both Luck and Wilson show late game execution that Manning lacks since so many defenses are certain that he will ONLY sit in the pocket and pass when the game is on the line.  Harris Jr. might be right about his evaluation of Wilson, but he might also be admitting what is starting to become clear about Manning.

The Broncos would love to win it all on the backs of their best player, but they simply have overestimated how good he actually is.  Manning will always be knowledgeable enough of the game to make average teams pay dearly, but against the best of the best, Manning becomes mortal.  In fact, he is pretty average. If you can remember the last time he ran for a first down against pocket pressure you might have witnessed the first time as well.  In some ways, it is remarkable how well the Broncos perform on offense given the fact that they can be forced into predictability so easily. .

Harris Jr. wasn't out of bounds with his comment.  Wilson is special, and capable of winning it all once again.  It is not as though he has skills that are beyond that of most QB's in the league (although his ball fakes are legendary).  In fact, his lack of physical stature actually leaves him at a disadvantage compared to the average NFL QB.  Wilson makes up for every shortcoming in his game, and in his team, by squeezing the life out of his own potential.  When you watch Wilson make plays, it makes you wonder why he doesn't do more of the same throughout the course of the game.  Why doesn't he ignore the run game and Marshawn Lynch?  Lynch performed well last night, but was held below his normal production by a stingy Broncos run defense. Lynch finished the game with only 88 yards on 26 carries, or 3.38 yards per carry, but scored the game clinching touchdown in overtime.

Wilson only passed for 255 yards on 35 attempts, yet the formula for a Seahawk's victory will rarely include 300+ passing yards when balance and patience are their agenda.  Denver did acquit themselves better in the final scoring, but they did not show themselves truly competitive throughout the game, except on defense. If  Wilson is better than Luck then he probably is more capable than Manning too at this point in each players career.  No matter how you size up these players in a head to head comparison, Wilson is not the MVP of the Seahawks team, just as Manning isn't that for Denver.

For both of these Superbowl contenders, the collective defense is the MVP of each team, and it will be the team that relies on its defense the most that will win the next match up, which most expect to be for all the marbles.  When the game mattered most, Wilson grabbed the reigns and kept his defense from being needed,  however, it was his reliance on them throughout the game that made it possible.  Denver was an overtime away from a 3-0 start to a season in which their star quarterback has yet to outplay his competition.  Scoring is down in Denver, offensive production is sporadic, and the Broncos still appear to be the team most likely to take on Seattle in the end.

WHY?

If the current signs are legitimate, Denver has fielded the most impressive defense in its storied history and very few people are talking about them as the real hope that the Broncos have to capture the crown.  Manning has to see how impressive his defense has performed, but, thus far, seems to be the most unaware Bronco in the stable. The defense might be growing weary late in games, but to these tired eyes, it is totally on Manning whose style of play says that he still thinks of himself as the primary key to victory.

Fantasy Football: NFL Eases Drug Testing To Distract From Ray Rice?

http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/09/11/new-nfl-drug-policy-vote-nflpa

With major controversy surrounding the NFL, Roger Goodell and the recently terminated Ray Rice, the NFL is moving like lightning to ease up on weed.

WHY?

Not why are they easing up, but Why Now?.  The NFL drug policy has always been some convoluted, use in the off-season only, mixed message that is harshly used against weed abusers while front office alcoholics and oxy users engage in attempted homicide, choosing to drive while impaired.  If that wasn't enough disciplinary confusion, the Ray Rice domestic violence incident encouraged an instant revision to the domestic violence standards, but it may have just forced the NFL to ease up on weed too?

Why would Goodell, the famously tough commissioner, give in so much on something he just recently punished so harshly for?  An NFLPA (Players Association) vote is schedule for today (9-12-2014) and, if approved, is expected to be retroactive to players that are currently doing time for trace levels of recreational drugs (Browns receiver Josh Gordon tops that list of players).  Players might be voting today, but collective bargaining typically only occurs when contracts have expired and work stoppage is pending.

If the NFL has given ground on this issue days after Goodell promised he didn't see the video, Goodell is essentially slapping his own hand from recent recreational drug punishments at the same time that  he must get tougher on domestic violence, .  Is this just a way to take the attention off of the other failed decisions that Goodell has made recently?  More importantly, is it the right thing to do anyway?

Former NFL kicker and current NFLPA player representative, Jay Feeley, had his moment at the ESPN First Take desk today and his words made a lot of sense.  Feeley explained how he personally couldn't relate to addicted players who continue to risk their livelihood for the sake of illegal drugs like marijuana, until the Jim Irsay situation shined a light on the matter for him.  When Irsay, Indianapolis Colts owner, had to accept some form of punishment (what a joke) from his employee Roger Goodell, he was given 6 games of suspension from whatever owners who mix oxy and alcohol, do.  I'm still wondering how exactly the Colts team was punished for the actions of its owner, but I am not confused about what the official statement was on the matter.

I'm not saying that Irsay has always looked
like an abuser, but....okay, yes I am.

"He is seeking help and he's done that voluntarily," Goodell said in March, a week after Irsay's arrest. "Obviously any policies or laws that are broken, whether they are commissioner, player or coach, those are subject to discipline."  (cbssports.com)

Was Irsay disciplined?  Sort of!

In actuality whether it was Irsay or each ruling against Rice, Goodell is walking a slippery slope that is so very slick, he can't keep from falling. Easing up on drugs right now is another slip by Goodell mostly because it is not driven by the correct motivations.

Reactionary governing is how America ended up with the welfare state.

Easing up on off season abuse, which is what raising drug testing levels will do, is not a great formula for encouraging players to voluntarily get help as Irsay was said to have done.  Weaker testing policies will only benefit the current player practice of quitting just before the season begins and hoping that your detox plan will slip through testing.  Now, only the guys who just can't quit for a few weeks before the test, will get caught up into this web, and even they are being given a test beating compromise that should keep many players currently in the league drug program, below the new allowable levels.

Addicted people can be detrimental to themselves and their teams, but that applies to people who are addicted to food, drugs, sex or themselves.  What separates illegal recreational drugs from the rest of the addictive items I've listed is one word.  Illegal.

The standard that we place upon people who get paid a lot of money for whatever they do in life has always been a bit skewed.  The standard that we place upon athletes, especially NFL players, is moving into the realm of constitutionally illegal.  Weed is typically seen as a poor man's drug, so the prevalence of it in the black community and among black athletes makes it an easy target for public disdain and distorted punishment.  Alcohol, on the other hand, is socially accepted to the degree that we are much more comfortable with  potentially murderous front office executives only losing 6 games for drunk driving convictions.

Did recreational drug users who play football actually need domestic violence to gain some slack?

Basically.

What that says about righteous discipline is that you had better quit playing football if you expect to get treated like an American citizen  again.  Thanks to Goodell and the NFL, constitutional law might soon get a few new case studies for consideration.  Can a league legally flex their employment policy to meet whatever they consider to be public opinion?  Ray Rice was punished already for his actions. Granted, he was never given the correct punishment, but he was punished.  Even if the league decided to give him the result of the new policy, a policy that his wife beating helped to create; that new policy only called for 6 games on the first domestic violence offense, not an indefinite ban from the league. How can the NFL legally justify ignoring a rule that had been implemented less than a week prior?

Will Ray Rice force the NFLPA to stand up in his defense, and what will they say?  Wife beating is not a collective bargaining agreement like drug testing. The domestic violence policy is one of those 'Goodell is god' things that he can place under the umbrella of "detrimental to the league".  Detrimental behavior has suddenly become way too subjective to determine how Goodell might respond.  Carolina Panther superstar player, Greg Hardy, is playing as we speak despite a domestic violence conviction that he is currently appealing.  Apparently, the potential of winning an appeal is enough to keep you out on the field, so future offenders need to be preparing their appeal before they even commit the crimes.

Rice, who plea bargained his charges, falling on the mercy of the legal system, was forced to go get the help that he will need to correct the problem, while  Hardy is functionally innocent in the eyes of the NFL until his appeal says otherwise.  The Hardy story has only recently come to light so the question of whether public sentiment comes to bear on this issue, as it did on Rice, will be worth watching. If Hardy offends again while waiting on his appeal, then what?  Is he still considered a first time offender?

Either Goodell is working on losing his job or instigating a big lawsuit between a player and the league.  Nothing, except public disgust, is impacting the reason that Ray Rice has been banned from the league.  If he is coordinating with the NFL to take a year away and help Goodell and the Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti absorb the decision that (I believe) they all made to hide the worst of that video, than I do not expect Rice to sue either of his employers. Wait and see if Rice is not reinstated at the end of the season, and playing for the Ravens when he returns. Lawyers will line up to challenge the NFL treatment of Rice, while that same league turned a blind eye towards Hardy and many other players with domestic violence charges that are pending.  

These changes to the drug testing policy were inevitable because they are in tune with our changing world. but the timing only diminishes the statement made by this noteworthy act of contrition. If changes are made to the manner in which players receive help for addiction problems as Feeley claims, than the NFL will complete the circle started by this initial action today.

Change is painful, and the NFL is struggling so badly with change that they keep creating their own set of work place laws that are totally different than most employers must adhere to.  Up until now, we have allowed millionaire employee's to suffer at the hands of their billionaire employers because working for less than six figures a year doesn't naturally develop millionaire sympathy.  When seemingly unfair NFL discipline felt like the right thing to do for the players themselves and the children who look up to them, we allowed it to happen.

Suddenly everything has changed.

Roger Goodell has quickly confirmed that the NFL is only concerned with its bottom line, and that America is so football obsessed the we will allow the NFL to be the only corporation in America that can randomly re-write employment policy (even retroactively) whenever their bottom line demands it?

Fantasy football has a totally new meaning.