Various Odds and Sods, October 6

• As can probably be expected, the referees' union has appealed the suspensions from Sunday.
• There have been 963 accepted penalties in the first 64 games of the NFL season.  That's an average of 15.05 penalties per game.
• It is also a recorded record for the NFL -- records for that situation go back to about 1978.
• UEFA may want another crack at Man City after the Premier League's process is done.  There is RUMOR the sanctions could come out next week, but no confirmation on that end.  The first round of appeals will probably go until March.

An ESPN study into tanking, taken for the new draft rules going into effect this year, has come out:

• Four of the last five seasons have broken records for games with margin of victory over 20 points.
• 22% of all games last year in the NBA were decided by more than 20 points.
• From the All-Star break on forward, teams identified as tanking teams were getting blown out 20 or more at a rate well over 30%.
• By the April part of the regular season, it was over FORTY PERCENT -- of all games those teams played.

There's plenty to say about it, and I'll get to that if I have the want to.

2026 NFL Week 4 Score Report

The big news of the week:

Penalties.

Lots of them.

Try 271 of them -- almost 17 a game.  Most penalties in a week since Week 2 of 2015, where it blasted past 18 a game for one week.

And there have been studies made which state some very disturbing things so far of the NFL season:

• Most offensive penalties per game first 4 weeks since 2003
• It's clear that offensive penalties of all kinds, including holding and pre-snap, were more a silent Point of Emphasis this year (most holding calls in six years, most pre-snap penalties since before the turn of the millenium)
• Most offensive penalties in the red zone on record
• Most offensive penalties on fourth down on record
• 17 touchdowns in four weeks (just 64 games) have been removed through indiscipline -- and from what I see on the Fine Blotter, that number should be HIGHER.  (Last year had 5, two weeks ago had 4.)

Face it, it's a discipline problem -- not one necessarily with fines, suspensions, what have you...  But it is a discipline problem.

So, on to the numbers for the week:

• 764 points for the week, average 47.75
• 2958 points for the 64 games, 46.22
• Home teams 8-7 for the week, 36-25 for the season.
• Five of the sixteen games finished outside one score.
• Only the Jets and Saints couldn't make the games competitive.
• 39 of the 64 games have finished within one score, 23 in the last 32.
• 5 Cliffhangers in 4 games  21 Cliffhangers in 13 games in the season
• 6 Last Chance Misses in 5 games.  28 of the 39 games within one score have a Last Chance Miss
• Multiples:
• Pittsburgh tying TD at 1:42, Cleveland winning field goal at :10.
• Dallas winning TD :45, Houston ball in the air at the gun
• Las Vegas with a double LCM:  Onside miss at 1:46, interception at midfield at :10

• 
  

NFL Suspension Blotter, but NOT the usual!

There are a lot of people who want the officials held more accountable.

Most times they do it, however, they don't understand that a league has the legal right to rig their games.

But the referees have limits, and, Sunday, two of them exceeded them, as I showed you in videos and X posts during my Gold Medal of the Dud of the Week on the Political Rankings posts.

And, today, as is usual for suspensions, they were announced -- just not the ones that you usually see announced.  According to Ari Meirov:

• Jeff Seeman, for his viral FUCK YOU at a Arizona Cardinals player, will be sitting out the next two weeks.
• And Adrian Hill sits one week for his viral rant at a Minnesota Vikings player who accidentally ran him over and then tried to help him up.

Various Odds and Sods, October 5

• According to coach Shane Beamer, Dylan Stewart has apologized, but, as of today, he remains suspended and off the South Carolina football team.  He's all but played his last down there.   
• He had a back injury and sat two games.  He's had one tackle this season.  He may have apologized, but, at this point, if I'm the South Carolina NIL collective, I want that entire $2 million back.  NOW.  And I don't think it's going to matter for his draft stock at this point.  
• Keanu Carter has been fired from WWE for allegedly stalking a female member of the NXT roster.  And there's word there might be at least a second.   
• Much like the Trevor Lawrence incident in Week 3, Fanatics is refunding (in credit) all of the TJ Hockenson Anytime TD bets for his slide at the 1.
• They also (even though Miami would've had two minutes to at least re-cover the spread) are similarly credit-refunding all bets on the Minnesota spread for the game.
• And, unlike some degenerate gamblers, they came out and said Hockenson did the right thing in their announcement.   

A follow-up from an earlier Week 4 post...

On Friday, I posted a tweet from John Ewing at Bet MGM, who gave 10 teams who, to that point, had more than or equal to 60% of the money on the spread in their games.

Bills -3 78% -- LOST OUTRIGHT

Saints -3 78% -- Monday night

Lions -3.5 76% -- LOST OUTRIGHT

Rams -3.5 71% -- That one covered, by half a point.

Bengals -2.5 70% -- LOST OUTRIGHT

Bears -3.5 69% -- Covered easily.

Texans -3 65% -- LOST OUTRIGHT

Indianapolis -4 64% -- Covered easily, probably due to the injury of the Washington quarterback.

Miami +10.5 61% -- Covered by one yard.

Arizona -2.5 60% -- LOST OUTRIGHT

4-5, one to be determined.  Two barely covered.

The House Always Wins.

2026 NFL Week 4 Political Rankings

With Atlanta and New Orleans tomorrow night, I think it's pretty safe for me to do this...

And, for the first time this year, since we're finally four weeks in, we're going to do rankings on these.  Again, these are of the moment and can change rapidly.

I see it's going to be a busy week too.  Lots and lots of penalties.

NFC:

The Vikings and the 49ers are the last two undefeated teams left.

Political:

1) 49ers

In normal NFL parlance, when the owner gets a six-game suspension and docked $500,000, that is USUALLY the end of it.  That, however, said, with what's going on in the AFC, one cannot completely rule out the most absurd Super Bowl (at least in every parlance other than President Rapist Pigfucker) the NFL will ever have put on:  The Prostitution Owner vs. The Rapist Quarterback.

And, right now, if they're seriously considering the DeRapist Rapist Redemption Tour, then the general rules are off the table and that has to be considered a possibility.  As things presently stand, that takes a 49ers team I otherwise would not consider politically and make them #1 for the NFC.

2) NY Giants

Well, the Knicks came from semi-nowhere with their MAGA owner, Nolan, to an NBA championship.  I'm not clear on the Giants' ownership and their political leanings, but if they are MAGA, it would certainly explain the 3-1 start and the lead in the NFC East.

3) Chicago

Kind of a carryover from last year and moving the team to Indiana.

4) Seattle

4A) Minnesota

The only reason I can't go flat "no" on these is that they gave Seattle a title for increasing the market value of the team.  But neither of these locations have the political pull for a title.

DUD OF THE WEEK:

NFC Nominees:

Tampa Bay.  Had a real chance today against what is now one of the worst 2-2 teams in history.  How much longer this is going to be tolerated is a real question.

Etroit.  As in where did that defense go?

The LA Rams coaching staff.  For seriously tempting fate in Philadelphia.  When the winning score over the Eagles was put in, they started flipping off the fans below -- and you don't want to do that in Philadelphia.

AFC:

1) Kansas City, the lone undefeated team.

Could definitely see the angle here.  Kelce almost retired in the offseason before the wedding.  This could be one more for the sunset for him and perhaps Reid as well.  It did look like Las Vegas did get some calls, but, end of the day, KC got the W, as usual.

2) Cleveland, and the DeRapist Rapist Redemption Tour.

Anyone who doesn't think that performance Thursday night from the Amazon broadcasters was not, at minimum, league-ordered needs to check themselves.  How much longer this goes will decide Flash in the Pan, Comeback Player of the Year, Playoffs, or The Unthinkable.

3) Las Vegas

When you actually get a number of calls vs. Kansas City these days, people stand up and take notice.

Baltimore isn't considered right now, with Lamar in a walking boot after an injury today.

New England?  I'm gonna need a couple more wins.

DUD OF THE WEEK AFC Nominees:

Buffalo:  That one's gonna hurt.  Had the chance to put the stake in the AFC champs season and didn't get it done.

Miami:  Good news, you didn't lose by double digits.  Bad news, you would've if the Minnesota runner hadn't gone down at the 1, much to the chagrin of gamblers everywhere.

Houston and Tennessee:  Ouch.  Look on the bright side.  One of you almost has to win next week.  You play each other.

The Loser A Chargers:  Good.  God.  Fuck you, Spanos!

DUD OF THE WEEK Winners:

BRONZE MEDAL:  The discipline of NFL teams in Week 4.

Not necessarily the Fine Blotter material (though I expect there will be more than a bit of that too).

But entering the Monday nighter, there have been 255 penalties in the first 15 games of the week.  That's 17 a game.  Including 12 teams with double-digit penalties.

Interesting stat:  The least-penalized team in the NFL so far this year is the last one you would expect:  The Las Vegas Raiders.

The most-penalized -- and not close??  The Green Bay Packers.

SILVER MEDAL:  We return to college for another ball-rubbing piece of shit.

Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell, after scoring a touchdown in a victory this weekend, decided HE wanted to rub his balls in the end zone.

As I said in the post over the weekend, he's worth $2,000,000 of NIL.  Hopefully the FCC will take the fine ABC should get (yes, that game too was on ABC) out of his NIL money.

GOLD MEDAL, AND NOT CLOSE:  The NFL officiating department, and two incidents that better get the attention of the league damn good and proper.

As much as the shithead for Alabama disgusts me, the fact is there are two incidents this weekend that need to be addressed by the league in a few hours Monday morning.

Yeah, that seems like a pretty significant thing the NFL should address but will sweep under the carpet.

— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) October 4, 2026

NFL referee Adrian Hill flipped out at #Vikings LB Eric Wilson for an unintentional collision. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Watch closely and you can even see Wilson trying to help Hill up after he lost his footing. https://t.co/SaWuhQpCtP

— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) October 4, 2026

Mr. Hill, if you believe that collision merited that reaction, I got swampland to sell you near Minneapolis.

And Jeff Seeman probably has a one-way trip to New York this week.  He's under investigation for that FUCK YOU-fest.  Anyone who watches baseball knows that the umpires aren't afraid to drop the F-bomb.  But if you've got that degree of a problem with a player, you don't do it with expletives.  You do it with your flag and report.

The NFL is investigating at least Seeman already, and almost certainly Hill as well.

After Further Review: I get the complaints, I do. BUT...

The Washington-Indianapolis game in London this morning basically blew out when Marcus Mariota got injured.

But that's not what has social media up in arms.

This is.  And JJ Watt (12 years in the league as a defensive end) had to get on to try to explain the distinction between this and two body-weight Roughing the Passer calls from last week:

Picture Perfect. Teach Tape. Not late, helmet to the side, hit him in the chest, brace the fall with arms so you don’t get the dreaded “body weight” flag. Perfection.

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) October 4, 2026

I get the complaints.  I actually do.  More than a few people, with some cause, might actually want to ask what the distinction is.

The NFL provides this in the form of a video.  The hit is not declared "punishing" because of all the things Watt speaks of in his crediting of the hit.

When I try to talk about the rigging of the game, THIS is why I ask for video.  It's close.  It's DAMN close.  But it's not a foul.