There are times I am happy I have an Expert Bullshit Detector lying around...

My anonymous friend, who also acts as my Expert Bullshit Detector, was talking to me about the refereeing piece and was offended, or seemed such, that my takeaway from the Packer game Thursday night was the Mike McCarthy complaints on offensive pass interference.

There was a reason for this I did not know until I was told.

As most people DO know, this was Brett Favre Night, the night all was forgiven for most, if not all, Packer fans.  One of the highlights of Favre's #4 being retired was an on-the-field moment with Packer legend Bart Starr...

Too bad Starr probably doesn't remember a thing about any of it!

Making the rounds as Starr was preparing to appear at the number retirement (and a story much earlier in appropriate circles on the concept of elder memory loss like this one), Bart Starr revealed he has lost much of the memory of his career.

Yes, he IS 81.  But how many knocks to the head did Starr take to become that Packer legend many of us in Wisconsin effectively revered?

He began sliding in memory about five years ago, and now can't even recognize himself in old media clips and footage.

Yes, he is elderly, but do not excuse the number of headshots he took in his years in football.

NFL Officials: Not Only Rigging Games, But Injuring Players: Fire the Whole Damn Lot!!!

I hope you enjoyed your NFL tripleheader Thursday.

I really do, because none of those games should've taken place.

That the NFL continues to even play at the concept (even on a pro-wrestling level) of legitimate competition after the debacle it threw us in Week 11 is beyond any sense of my personal comprehension.

If there even was the remaining illusion that the NFL even wanted to attempt to make the ignoramuses (ignorami?) of this country believe the games and the league (on balance) are on the up and up, they would've halted all play and fired every NFL referee after last week, especially Monday night.

Let's go back, first, and talk about NFL vice-president of officiating/league mafioso Dean Blandino. On Thursday of Week 10, before play began, Blandino was in the media attempting to cover for the league's asinine call allowing Odell Beckham Jr.'s touchdown catch to be disallowed, or a Golden Tate catch which was initially ruled a Bears interception, but, according to Pro Football Talk:

“Also, he wasn’t going to the ground until after he got two feet on the ground with possession of the ball. By then, the play was over because it was a catch and a touchdown. “

Now wait a cotton-picking second here: Isn't this the exact same as Odell Beckham Jr.? He got the ball, grasped it in his hands, got two feet down and turning, and wasn't going to ground. Touchdown, New York, right, Mr. Blandino???

The ONLY way you could actually say otherwise is to actually make a claim that no player has possession of the football until he brings the ball into his body – of course, that would disallow various other circus catches, including a couple famous Beckham catches and that famous David Tyree Super Bowl catch against his helmet!

Of course, the far more devastating comment that Blandino made in this press situation was this doozy:

“There’s always going to be that subjectivity to it,” Blandino said in his weekly officiating video. “The rule, the way it’s written, is clear, but we are going to have subjective judgments and debates on how long is long enough, was he going to the ground, was he a runner, and that’s just part of the deal.”

By this statement, Dean Blandino just admitted to anyone with an ounce of paying attention that the games are rigged.

The rule used to be simple, and “long enough” used to be very clearly defined: You either needed to get two feet down in bounds, get a body part down in bounds which would indicate you had been downed, or be pushed out of bounds when the referee would feel you would've otherwise fulfilled one of those conditions.

Because if you are going to get especially into the “was he a runner” bullshit, you get exactly to the comment that at least one person put into the comments on that article: That the catch rule, going back to Megatron, has been used to rig close games to ensure certain outcomes for various reasons. Period.

This year, it seems like the egregious number of erroneous referee calls and controversies thereto are designed to do several things, two of which are to pump the Patriots to 19-0 and to make as many other teams relevant for Week 17 as humanly possible.

Want proof? Let's go to Monday night.

Score is 10-10 in the third quarter, and Tom Brady throws a pass near the sideline to Danny Amendola, and the whistle sounds before he catches the ball.

Under the rules, the ball is dead, because of the inadvertent whistle. (Similar to other sports.)

The problem is that the referees ruled that Amendola had caught the ball, when you can hear that there was no way he did!
The ball was clearly in the air when the whistle went, but they gave Amendola the 14 yards – which would only have been correct had Amendola caught the ball and THEN the whistle goes. Rex Ryan being Rex Ryan and an idiot, he was walking in front of another official when the situation was going on and got 15 more on that (correctly).

In this case, at least, it didn't seem like it had anything to do with the outcome, simply because of the fact that the Patriots could not get any further on that drive and a long field-goal was missed.

And then we get to the last play of the game, Patriots up 20-13, Bills with the ball and probably need two plays to get a shot at a tying touchdown. Five seconds left.

Pass to Sammy Watkins at the Buffalo 47, would've been at least close enough to fire a Hail Mary, so, with two Patriots charging in on him, he rolls off the field, untouched.

The head linesman rules a “surrender” move, winds the clock, game over.

Well, that only establishes that one of two things took place: Either the referees rigged the game for the Patriots (by ensuring their victory with an erroneous call – which is what most referee experts said afterward, at least that the call was an error), or Watkins rigged the game by ensuring the result (not unakin to that otherwise-inexplicable playoff play on the last play of Seattle-New Orleans).

And then here's the kicker: The official admitted he erred because he actually applied the COLLEGE RULE (where if you go down, you're down and don't need to be touched). Are you motherfucking kidding me???

If this were simply about on the field stuff, this would be nothing new for anybody. I mean, have we had ONE WEEK this season which has gone without at least one game-changing admitted error by the NFL with respect to it's referees???

But let's take this NFL refereeing situation even one step further and state openly that the supposed “incompetence” of these referees is openly endangering the players.

Week 10: Rams-Ravens Case Keenum goes back to pass, and gets sacked. The sack was OK, but the problem was his head smacked off the turf and led to an apparent concussion which may have aided in a game-changing fumble a couple of plays later.

So where does this come into the officiating? A 2015 new rule, according to CNN, an “independent certified athletic trainer” (you may insert your laugh track here) from the league is supposed to spot players who were concussed and they have the power to stop the game and force people to look at the player.

And then people railed on the Rams (and looked at the possibility of sanctions) about it – WHEN THE LEAGUE SHOULD'VE DONE IT IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE.

It's enough to talk about “being a man” and “rubbing some dirt on it”, but this is not the team this time – it's the league itself, who we know doesn't give a damn about the players, but this is now outright endangerment.

I mean, it's bad enough that “incompetence” affects on the field results, we've now got “incompetence” (and your mileage may wildly vary on that!) which is also affecting the ability of the players to play even as safely as the animals on the sidelines will allow them to.

The league obviously uses officiating errors to justify to the populace that the games are legitimate, when they clearly use these errors to shape the games (scoring, margin, spread, result...), but these errors are also being used to injure these players.

So they really needed just to fire the entire fucking lot, postpone the games, and get some real referees.

But they won't! Why?? Because they need results to go certain ways and a nice narrative to keep the NFL in the news 169 hours a week. And doing so is verifiably physically hurting these players!!

Don't believe me? Ask Mike McCarthy, who wants words with the league over an offensive pass interference call from Thursday night's loss to the Bears – on Brett Favre Night!

(Said because usually, when something like that happens, the home team usually gets the gift win... Pro Football Talk seems to indicate it was a good call on a “pick play”, but how many times do players get away with that these days?)

And how about a nice slice of blood with your Thanksgiving football?

It's official:  Frank Gifford had CTE.

Revealed Wednesday.  As my friend said:  How many of you will be moved by this sacrifice to football?

(My answer:  Only those moved to the refrigerator.)

Just before Thanksgiving, here's the Score Update...

Before a week of NFL games which, now, should not exist at all (and I'll get to that in an extensive article sometime Thursday), here's the score update as things presently stand.

• Week 11 average for the 14 games:  42.07 PPG  (Down about where last week's was.  Last year was 37.57)
• All teams have now played 10 games, so the season average for 160 games is 46.068 PPG.  (Last year:  45.888  Two years ago:  46.707)
• Still haven't checked on the disastrous Week 10 for home teams.  Week 11, the home team was 8-6, for 89-68 (.567) for the year.  (8-6 last year and 97-60-1 (.617) through the first eleven weeks of last year.)
• Over was 5-9 for the week, 76 overs and anywhere from 76 unders and 8 pushes to 81 unders and 3 pushes for the year.  One thing is for certain, betting the over is now only winning FOR Vegas.  (Last year:  4-10 for the week, 80-78-1 for the year, about the same.)
• Very interesting week for favorite-watching.  Three games ended up pushes basically up and down the line.  Baltimore was a 3 point favorite over St. Louis (16-13) Denver -2 with Chicago (17-15), and New England's ridiculous rigged Monday night referee fiasco, they were 7-point favorites.  (20-13)  But we also had one game that depended on where you got it and no favorite could be determined:  Green Bay-Minnesota was basically anywhere from Green Bay -1 to Minnesota -1, depending on where you looked.  So I'll call that a toss-out pick and favorites were 5-5-4 for the week, 63-83-14 for the year.
• Penalties basically even this week from last, 187 penalties this week in the 14 games.
• Three Cliffhangers this week (Arizona, Baltimore, and Indianapolis, the last creating a rather embarrassing Twitter for an Atlanta newspaper).
• Five more games decided within one score, two more within one score at some point in the fourth quarter, four non-competitive contests by the time 15 minutes remained.
• Cliffhangers for the season:  39/160 (24.375%)  (Last year:  17.39%, as no Cliffhangers occurred in Week 11 (or in Week 9) last year.)
• Games decided by eight points or less:  89/160 (55.625%)  (Last year:  40.37%)
• Games within or at eight point margins at some point in the fourth quarter:  111/160 (69.375%)  (Last year:  62.73%)
• Interesting footnote:  Chicago, this week, committed ZERO accepted penalties in their game.  They become the first team in almost two years to go an entire NFL game without an accepted penalty.

One of my darkest 2015 NFL predictions almost came true tonight...

(Disclaimer:  Except we are not sure at this point the motive or reasoning behind the incident.  Another incident in Florida, so, especially there, gangs or almost anything could be a factor and the fact the man shot was an NFL player may have nothing to do with it.)

I said at the beginning of the year that I felt an NFL player might be killed off the field and football be the cause.

The disclaimer above applies, but suspended St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey, suspended four games for a substance abuse violation, is in a hospital in Florida tonight with two gunshot wounds, one to the head and one to the hip.

Unbelievably, the wounds do not appear to be life-threatening.

The same cannot be said for the driver of his car, who shielded two young relatives of Bailey.  He has many gunshot wounds, and his prognosis is grim.

Obviously, in 2015, we cannot rule out that this would be some crazed fan/fantasy football player.  That said, that is only one of a myriad of possibilities.

There is one very disturbing thing about this.  It is clear that Bailey's car was riddled with many, many bullets, between the two shots Bailey himself took and the more than a few the driver did.

So it's almost clear there was some degree of targeting here.  Just why?  We don't know yet.

Buckeyes Lose, Player Throws Fit And Declares For Pros

I'm shocked to see that Michigan State has beaten Ohio State and now holds the keys to the Big Ten championship in their pocket.

That said, I am not surprised to find Ezekiel Elliot throwing a fit afterward on social media:  He not only slams the coaching for not getting him the damn ball more, he also announces he is turning pro.

Sounds like Cardale Jones is as well, as things are not as they seem at THE Ohio State University.

Stay classy, Badger Fan...

God, has Wisconsin gone to shit in the almost 20 years since I left on that bus to get arrested...

It's bad enough they've elected Scott Walker at least three times to be Governor, but yesterday's loss to Northwestern indicates Badger Fan has as much Football Syndrome as anyone else, it seems.

Never mind that Wisconsin is the most overrated FBS-I program in the country, but no one wants to admit that.

Yesterday's fan-led atrocities can be attributed to snow, and lots of it.  Comes almost at the perfect time for deer-hunting season...

Too bad a bunch of the fans at the Badger-Northwestern game yesterday turned it into either Badger Cheerleader hunting season or Referee hunting season.

The Badger cheerleading squad had to be led up the tunnel for a part of yesterday's game when the student section turned on them and made them a shooting gallery of snowballs!

A later report added to the original Deadspin report indicates the referees were also not immune, especially after the referees overturned three apparent Wisconsin touchdowns in the 13-7 loss.

More Dodged Bullets on the Blood Fields This Week

Just a small listing of what I could find:

• Luke Falk, quarterback for a Washington State team doing better than they have for years, had to be carted off after a hit caused his head to ricochet off the turf -- concussion.
• Justin Forsett, broken arm.
• Joe Flacco, ACL.
• Case Keenum, a few plays later, replacing Flacco, suffered a concussion, but nobody made any moves to remove him from the game... a game which the key play was a fumble he committed a couple plays after that.

That's just a cursory listing from Deadspin over the last couple days.  I don't know about you, but is this basically what you are willing to accept in your "sport"?

(Especiallyonethatsalie...)

I thought hitting a referee was Game Over...

I really did!  I really thought that making physical contact with the official in such a manner to fight the ref was a forfeiture offense, but we seem to be getting a lot of that in today's football.

Yesterday's perpetrator:  Virginia Tech's Dadi Nicholas, who bumped the outstretched arm of Ron Cherry while he was announcing a penalty against Nicholas, and that drew Nicholas 15 more yards.

It's this kind of intimidation that just feeds upon officials skewing calls.  For even those situations some are skeptical of actual game-rigging, I do get told of situations that the referees, instead, are making calls to simply get out of there alive.

I can see that, but the amount of players getting abusive with the officiating has definitely taken an apparent upturn this year.

(Daily Fantasy) New Documents Indicate Scope And Rigging of Daily Fantasy

This is the cost of getting rammed into court -- your dirty laundry becomes public record.

Deadspin reports a couple of interesting finds today in the current legal action to shut down Daily Fantasy in New York (and probably elsewhere!) once and for all...

First was a report that FanDuel employees could go and play on other sites...  "just don't win too much"...

That's usually the equivalent of saying one of you is the right hand and the other of you is the left.  It basically shows that it appears all of the companies are effectively one and the same at some level, and that the game is rigged.  Period.

Second was some of the numbers involved...

• $25.6 million in New York in 2014 in entry fees, second in states only to the $34.3 here in California, bet on DraftKings.
• At least $286 million nationwide in 2014 -- probably far more this year.
• Draft Kings rakes about 10%.

I'm shocked these websites have made it to pro Week 11.  But that shows you how big they are, in that they would've failed and been jailed weeks ago if they hadn't been already.

(High School FB) We knew it was coming...

(Deadspin)

And no real surprise it came out of Florida...

Florida playoff game in Miami was halted after gunshots rang out.

Miami Central was leading Carol City 36-8 with about three minutes to go when gunshots rang out in the stadium.

Multiple gunmen were in the stadium (an initial report had them near the Carol City bench!!!), several taken into custody.

My God, I can only imagine what went down here, but I guess it had to come to it, didn't it, Football Nation America???

European Terrorism: Germany-Netherlands Match Targetted For Apparent ISIS/Copycat Attack

One or the other, but it appears as if a terrorist attack was thwarted yesterday when the Germany-Netherlands match was cancelled, because, according to German broadcaster DW Sports (through Deadspin):

BREAKING: Hanover chief of police: "There was a device intended to be detonated inside the stadium." #GERNED

— DW Sports (@dw_sports) November 17, 2015

Week 10 Score Report: One of the wildest weeks in history...

Three MAJOR storylines played through this week other than the two openly rigged end results.  We'll get to those in a bit.

• Lowest week of the year at 41.64 points per game.  (45.38 last year)
• Per-game average for the 10 weeks down to 46.452.  (46.680 last year)
• 186 penalties in the 14 games this week (a little more than 13 a game, and it's coming down)
• Cliffhangers:  3 (the two openly rigged ones in the post below (NE and Jacksonville) and Tampa with a touchdown late by...  Jameis Winston.
• 5 more decided by one score, and 2 more than that were within one score at some point in the fourth quarter.
• For the season:  Cliffhangers:  36/146 (24.66%)  (Last year:  19.05%)
• Decided by one score:  81/146 (55.48%)  (Last year:  39.46%)
• Within one score at some point in the fourth quarter:  101/146 (69.18%)  (Last year:  62.59%)

Now, for the three big stories of the week, and I do have to think any one of these could be historic, but all three???

• Only THREE home teams won in a fourteen-game schedule.  It's probably going to take some research to find out, and no one is saying -- but I would be shocked if that's not a record for a 14-game schedule that the home team only goes 3-11!  That puts the home team season record to 81-62 (.566).  (Last year:  .6215)
• Only TWO favorites covered:  Pittsburgh covered a touchdown against Cleveland.  Carolina was gifted one, only favored 3.5 over Tennessee.  That 2-12 record may be the best week ever for Vegas against favorites (and one possible reason for it, if you are inclined to believe like I sometimes am, is books recovering money from people betting Holly Holm at 10-1 vs. Ronda Rousey when the former KTFO'd the latter).  This means favorites, now, are running 20 games under .500 against the spread:  58-78-10.  That means, if you bet 1 unit on every favorite this season, you'd be -25 1/4 units at this point, or about an average of 2.5 units lost every week.
• Similarly, betting the over was also costly this week:  Only THREE games went over (Chicago-St. Louis, Washington-New Orleans, and Arizona-Seattle on Sunday night).  Two or three more pushed, depending on where you could get them, and they were all late games.  Minnesota-Oakland and Kansas City-Denver both pushed directly.  New England-New York Giants was under at a good number of places and pushed at the rest.  That 3-8-3 or 3-9-2 pushes the season to somewhere between 71-67-8 to 71-72-3 for the over, depending on where you shopped.

Two rigged NFL games decided on late mis-calls...

And SURPRISE, SURPRISE, one of them was New England's comeback win over the Giants on Sunday for 9-0!!

Odell Beckham got a bad call late in the Giants' loss when it appeared he scored a touchdown on this play...

(And this is the ACTUAL NFL YouTube account, so it's not coming down! But the NFL will NOT allow me to embed it into my blog!)

(Play is at 2:12.)

24-23 Patriots, just before the two-minute warning...  Manning throws the fade route to the far side, Beckham catches it in the end zone, two feet down, is turning, so he's made the football move before the defender gets hands in and strips the ball.  He's not in contact with the defender, so going to ground with possession of the ball is not the issue.

Ruled on the field a touchdown, reversed upstairs...  why?

Are we going to get to rugby here, where you actually have to catch it and "touch down" in the end zone?  Because the way this rule is openly used to rig games is just fucking maddening.

That led to a field goal, which was responded with Ye Royal Cliffhanger At The Gun, and the Patriots steal one in New York.

That one, the NFL did not admit to.  Another one, they did.

The other game which was altered by referee *cough*"error" was Jacksonville-Baltimore.

On the last play of timed play, Baltimore was called for a facemask, and, under the new rules, the 15 yards gave Jacksonville a field-goal try for Ye Royal Cliffhanger After The Gun.

Mike Greenberg of ESPN said on Sunday:

Is there any way #Jaguars got that snap off and were lined up legally?

— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) November 15, 2015

That play never should've happened, the NFL now admits. Jacksonville didn't get set.

The left tackle was not set.  Under the rules, the requisite 10-second runoff would've elapsed the game, Baltimore wins.

But, Baltimore is 2-6, and Jacksonville might actually still be relevant in a shitty AFC South. It's all about keeping as many teams relevant in Week 17.

It's all going down in Europe now...

Two bad soccer stories in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks indicate soccer in Europe may be in serious danger going forward:

• The explosion heard on that video was a suicide bomber at the Paris stadium.  That he was denied entry may have saved hundreds or thousands of lives, but one of the attackers blew his vest when he was denied entry into the France-Germany match...
• ... and the following German friendly match with the Netherlands was cancelled today after a bomb scare!  (And the two are related, the German head of state was planning to attend this match.)  France did play their next friendly, in England, with numerous statements of solidarity before and during the match.

Something tells me, given the rather rambunctious nature of European soccer on a normal basis, this is FAR from over.

Suspension Blotter: Still Not Enough

• Oakland Raiders (the only team stupid enough to sign him on the day of the incident which gets this):  Aldon Smith:  Banned from the league for at least one year for another substance abuse incident.

This was for arrest #5 since 2012.  August 6, 2015:  Hit and run, vandalism, etc.  He has pled not guilty in the incident which was the final straw for the 49ers.

Minnesota Championship Game Marred By Eye Gouge

(Deadspin)  (Video at the link)

Oh, you had to know it was coming when Aqib Talib did it so blatantly, but the Minnesota State High School League wants words with Antwan Cobble of Minneapolis North, who decided to use a late-game tackle to use three fingers to try to take out the eye of Minneota's Isaac Hennen.

The coach said he doesn't teach that stuff, and he's probably right:  THE NFL DOES!!!

If we had real laws in this country, that'd be enough to send Cobble to jail, for a long time.  We have a crime called "mayhem" here in California where, if you try to take somebody's eye out, that's pretty much it for you.

But in a year that's completely out of control for high-school football, you had to know that a championship game (and that was that division's state title game, part of the day-long Prep Bowl of seven such contests) would bring out the worst in Football Man.

Only the cameras caught it -- the refs missed it completely.  As I said, the state sanctioning body wants to talk to Cobble, but no word yet on any further punishment.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part Four: Russia expelled from track and field!

Just four days after the World Anti-Doping Association stated that the successor to the KGB used intimidation and bribes to cover up and state-sponsor doping by Russian athletes (you can read the actual WADA report here), the International Amateur Athletics Federation -- the overseer of Olympic-level track and field -- has disqualified Russia from all IAAF-sanctioned track and field events until WADA declares otherwise.

This means no Olympic track athletes for Russia.  In fact, one of the authors proposed outright across-the-board Olympic disqualification for Russia until they comply with WADA anti-doping guidelines.

Now, my first impression was to the threats of similar penalties to the United States a number of years back, which got as high as threatened about one step away from throwing the United States out in a similar manner.  It appears the only difference here is there appears to be actual governmental interference involved and proven.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part Three: Paris Terrorist Attack Rattles Soccer Match

At least 40 dead (ESPN's report on what I am about to tell you about puts the minimum at 150!), and probably more than 100 once it all gets totalled, in a series of Muslim-led terror attacks across Paris, in retaliation for European cooperation in anti-ISIS efforts in Syria.

One of the scarier scenes was at a friendly soccer match, France vs. Germany, when, in the twentieth minute, this was heard:

The stadium was a target, also because the President of France was at the game.  The match was allowed to complete, even so!  The pitch, soon afterward, was flooded with spectators, as certain exits were forbidden and the fans were only let out in small groups.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part Two: Pinkel resigns at Missouri.

There's more to this Missouri football situation than meets the eye.

It really appeared the entire program (and, in fact, the entire athletic department) was behind the prepared strike by the Black football players which has led to the resignations of the school president and chancellor.

Now add the head football coach to that growing list.

For the record, it appears, at least at first glance, that Gary Pinkel is resigning because of concerns over the return of his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma he's been suffering from, but I can't think the timing is going to help matters at that embattled school.

Today Was Not A Good Day, Part One: Pedophile Pension

Somebody is going to have to make good on any prison threats to Jerry Sandusky - and, if so, they're probably going to have to do it soon.

The Penn State "football over everything" culture is, now, about three or four steps from the complete whitewashing of their football program, a major charity, and much of life in Happy Valley being a front for pedophile ex-coach who raped kids because he could.

Today, that piece of shit Jerry Sandusky got his pension back, with interest, in a court act of state-sponsored sports terrorism.

And that's what it is.  If Jerry Sandusky was not an assistant coach at the only thing that matters in that part of Pennsylvania, the prisoners would only need one chance to execute him before trial.  (And take it from someone who's been on the inside:  They don't wait.  There is no presumption of innocence in the joint.  You even get ACCUSED of fucking a kid, and your life is in imminent danger at any time!)

Yes, his actions were as a part of Second Mile, but if you think that had nothing to do with his time at PSU, you're a bigger fool than you believe I am.

So when's the piece of shit getting out?

When are PSU supporters simply going to hunt down the victims and finish the job?

Because football over everything, right, Pedophile State?

Asian Match Fixing and the US Courts: But the biggest part of this story might be buried...

Today on ESPN, ESPN the Magazine had an article about the arrest and prosecution of the "world's biggest bookie" at the 2014 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

For anyone who's been following the work of Declan Hill, it is hard not to draw the conclusion that Borneo's Paul Phua was a major player in the fixing of numerous sports as part of his role in the huge underground betting syndicates of East Asia.

Phua basically acted as a mega-bookie for top-end bettors, many of whom could not bet on events to the extent they so wished legally -- if they could actually legally bet at all!

Phua, it is alleged, had over $400,000,000 of bets on this year's World Cup, and was operating out of a villa at Caesar's Palace when he was raided and arrested four days before the Final.  Ironically, his arrest would come one day after what I believe to be the largest-scaled fixed sporting event in the history of the world:  The Brazilians falling 7-1 to Germany on home soil in the World Cup semifinal.

And, if you follow Hill's work, it would be hard to believe that Phua is not a major player in the fixing of sporting events, as I said before.

Click the link above and read of the work of this story, interviewing over 80 people in trying to bring together the case against Phua, and the people he hung with.

And it's that I want to bring to fore here.  In giving a biography of Phua, ESPN reveals that controversial poker player/believed and accused casino card cheat Phil Ivey sprang for $2.5 million of the $50 million bail set for Phua, due to his flight risk.

The ramifications of such a prominent player in the poker ranks being involved (especially because many of these players bet on other events (either themselves if they are allowed or through "beards" (proxies) if they are not!), legally and illegally) in the United States are mind-boggling.  One of the things Brian Tuohy always tries to state, often in his Twitter account, is that "it can happen here".  In my own personal opinion, it would be impossible for such a huge-scaled match-fixer like Phua to operate with prominent ties in the United States without many of the other tentacles of East Asian match-fixing coming with him.

In fact, in his biography, one of the first steps into the betting syndicates was learning how to set the lines of soccer matches -- often, the bread and butter of the match-fixing for the East Asians.

Phua became involved in an 1997 English match-fixing incident called the Floodlights Affair, where three men were arrested (two of them Malaysian, all paid by Phua) to knock out the lights at a pair of Premier League matches to fix the results with respect to Phua's growing betting empire.  Unlike in England, once a match reached halftime, the house rules where Phua was operating forced the result to be paid as it stood if a match were abandoned.  It is believed Phua was bankrupt at the time.

(Blogger's note:  Think of that in the context of the Baltimore-San Francisco Super Bowl in New Orleans, as just one example!!!)

He would use the money he won from that fix to take his empire to an unheard-of level, expanding into many fixed horse races with a prominent race-fixer from Hong Kong. 

Officials believe that Phua's company, IBCBet, has a $60,000,000,000 handle in the betting underworld of East Asia, of which the company gets 1% of that rake.  Phua owning 70% of the company means Phua himself is worth over $400,000,000!

He was busted by police on the day of the Euro 2004 final, but simply fined about the price of a cheeseburger to him ($8,000) and sent to the airport.

By this time, Phua had ties to the exploding casino scene in Macau (again, read the story for the extent of it!), and had no problems showing it!  You would think drawing this type of attention as a known match-fixer and crook would be dangerous to him, but Phua had several bodyguards and probably an army's worth of chips to cash in if he needed them!

Then, the story moves to Phua's (and others') ties to players like Phil Ivey, starting in 2010.  After the shutdown of all the poker sites on Black Friday, most of the world's professionals looking for high stakes cash games went to Phua.

Phua's associate got good enough that, by 2012, he made the final table at poker's first $1,000,000 buy-in tournament:  the World Series' charity event, The Big One for One Drop.  Phua himself would win a $1,600,000 prize in London on 100,000 pounds bought in.

It was now clear that the resurgence of poker, after Black Friday, was due to a massive infusion of cash from (and eventually back to!) a large-scale sports match-fixer!

In fact, in the early portion of this decade, it appears that a significant portion of table game handle was being made in Las Vegas on baccarat, and much of that illegal money.

(Blogger's Note:  As a person who occasionally dabbles in Las Vegas at extremely low stakes in comparison, I can at least give a nod to the descendence of table games there.  If you want stakes at my level, you're effectively playing a "video game" table instead.)

Which all leads to his arrest in Las Vegas in 2014.  By this time, there was a belief that Phua was making ten figures at every World Cup.  They loaded up their villas with every manner of technology to make a mint right out from under Caesar's Palace.

The arrest in Las Vegas would not be Phua's first in that World Cup:  He was arrested in Macau on June 18 and perp-walked after a similar illegal book had already taken in so much money, the president of China had taken notice and wanted him stopped!!!  As a result of this arrest, he is no longer welcome in Macau.

The American arrest came as a result of Caesar's Palace officials getting a look at the villas at which Phua and his associates were staying -- something which should've been obvious, realizing that there could be $10,000,000 of furnishings in the villas, and Caesar's would take periodic inspections at times which would not be intrusive to the guests!

After a failed attempt to start a similar room in London, the FBI moved in...

Phua used his US poker connections to get a high-profile attorney who argued cases before the Supreme Court!  By December, Phua's associates and the hopelessly corrupt frameworks of southeast Asia were working full-tilt to free Phua, questioning ties to the organized crime syndicates with no less than the minster of home affairs in Malaysia's government.

The next major players to defend Phua are even more shocking, and might explain much of the frustration Declan Hill has had in trying to make headway against match fixing:  The former secretary general and general counsel of Interpol!

The Asian match-fixers have penetrated the highest levels of Interpol, making any such policing of their actions basically impossible!!!

And Phua won, being freed when the Federal courts declared the search warrant unconstitutional.

Anyone with any idea of the scope Phua's operation --  the money involved, the match-fixing, the amount of influence curried, etc. -- would know this is the ultimate "Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Jail" moment.

I've said a number of times that I no longer believe international soccer exists anymore in most countries without these books.  And, considering the number of American influences in the situation, it's clear it's here.  The question then becomes whether some of these underground books (remember the big Floyd Mayweather bet on Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals (Miami-Indiana) that one year and the reverberations that had around Vegas?) are in league with the power-brokers of sports, if not the leagues themselves!!!

Week 9 Score Report as we begin Week 10

Almost let this go all the way through...

Anyway...

• The 13 games of Week 9 averaged 50.30 points per game.  (Last year:  48.23 PPG)
• The 132 games through 9 weeks have averaged 46.96 PPG.  (Last year:  46.806)
• Home team was 9-4 for the week, 78-51 (.605) for the year.  (Last year:  8-5, 82-49-1 (.625))
• Over was 8-5 for the week, 68 overs for the year, 59-63 unders, depending on circumstances.  (Last year:  7-4-1 and 69-62-1/63-61-9)
• Favorites were 6-7 for the week, 56-66-10 for the year.  A one-unit bet on every favorite would now be -15 units on the year.
• 172 penalties in the 13 games.  One of the lowest averages of the year at 13 1/4 per game.
• 4 Cliffhangers for the week (Tennessee and Philadelphia with overtime TDs, Minnesota with an overtime FG, and Pittsburgh with a field goal at 2 seconds)
• 5 other games within one score at the end, and 2 more within one score at some point in the 4th quarter.  Only 2 non-competitive games for the week!
• Cliffhangers:  33/132 (25%)  (Last year:  29/134 (19.4%))
• Within one score:  73/132 (55.3%)  (Last year:  40.3%)
• Competitive at some point in the 4th quarter:  91/132 (68.9%)  (Last year:  62.69%)

Only a matter of time, it appears...

... until the entire University of Missouri becomes Ground Zero for a race riot.

The resignation of the school president has done nothing to quell racial tensions at the university, and now it appears that it may be WHEN, not IF, the school literally starts burning.

Several death threats have permeated social media, with at least one person arrested for threatening African-American students at the school.  And, of course, the "threats are free speech" people are out to defend him, it appears.

As I've said before on the subject:  The entire damn state of Missouri is a racial tempest and has been for years.  The state's population is going to become the centerpiece for what is about to happen.  The University of Missouri is teetering on a "unable to proceed" moment, a term used by colleges to determine serious dangers (usually individual) by stating that if the danger were to be allowed to remain on the campus, the school would be unable to grant a safe education to the other students.

At least one professor demanded his students attend classes anyway, even with the threats on the table -- he has since offered his resignation.

And Gerald Green wants to get in on the "knock somebody the fuck out" phenomenon in sports...

• Miami Heat:  Gerald Green, suspended two games by the team for "conduct detrimental to the team".

Basically, he got in a fight, punched somebody in the eye, got combative when he needed medical help, and police had to be called, according to Deadspin!

So he basically got most of the checklist in one fell shot. The guy punched won't press charges, and no word on whether the police will for what forced their involvement.

Something tells me there's far more to this than we are letting on. He was dehydrated the day before, and was scratched from the game that night. Something tells me we have a far more serious situation -- smelling at least of a long drug binge, if nothing else!

Deadspin Greg Hardy Mic Drop Part Deux

A transcript of the reinstatement hearing for Greg Hardy was obtained by Deadspin.

The NFL allowed Hardy's version of events to go largely unchallenged (as should be expected, as beating the shit out of a woman makes you a Real Man in this country, as long as you are powerful enough not to be beat the shit out of yourself for the aforementioned -- not to mention violence's necessity for the animal nature of football!).

This piece of motherfucking shit actually got his employer to believe she tripped.  Hell, why not go the distance, you fucking fraud, and say she should be prosecuted for assaulting you by running her face into your fist?

They actually got Goodell to believe she ran from the cops because she was guilty of something.  Oh, yeah -- "guilty", maybe, of knowing that if Greg Hardy was arrested and got out on bail, she was dead.  We all know the next woman who becomes a centerpiece for domestic violence by an NFL pig is going to be because she was killed by the player involved.

And, yes, you can check off the "she's a slut, so she deserves it" mark on your Greg Hardy Bingo cards -- well-represented in this pablum.

Someone is just going to have to cripple him, live on national television for all of us to see.

(Daily Fantasy) Draft Kings and Fan Duel shut down in New York.

Add New York to the growing number of states believing Daily Fantasy to be gambling and shutting it down.

The New York Attorney General just C&D'd Draft Kings and Fan Duel, putting them out of business in the state, for the obvious:  It's fucking gambling, and everybody knows it.

The two websites are fighting the order, but the fact is that they've made it through Week 9 is utterly shocking.  They're done -- it's that simple.  It's gambling and probably an inside scam to bilk sports fans as well.

I fully expect most of the people on top of those companies to be in handcuffs before the end of the year.  Any attempt to "regulate" Daily Fantasy ends up with all of these sites declared insider shams.

And if it isn't the football players, it's their fans...

Eagle Fan gotta Eagle Fan, but in DALLAS of all places?

Deadspin and Yahoo!'s Shutdown Corner blog on this one.

Three brothers walked in to AT&T Stadium for the Eagle-Cowboy game.

None walked out.  All three were arrested.

Except all three brothers were Eagle fans.

The guy doing the punch-out got misdemeanor assault.  The guy knocked out spit blood on an officer and faces felony assault.  The third brother resisted the officers and assaulted the second as well, so he's got charges as well.

Either somebody wanted to get arrested or someone wanted to raise some serious Hell.

And, apparently, there were also two other fights at the game between family members as well!

Friends of mine sometimes believe the very real possibility exists of messaging to bring out the violence and bloodlust in football's audience - and this idiocy indicates that theory may not be far off!

FIFA '15: Germany admits they bought the hosting of World Cup 2006...

They won't say it as such, but...

Wolfgang Niersbach has resigned as the head of the German football federation over the allegations that Germany bought the hosting rights to World Cup 2006, reported by Deadspin today.

It's the classic "fall on sword" motif, that he'll go down to keep the status quo intact, but the fact is the resignation effectively admits that Germany bribed it's way to hosting the 2006 World Cup.  That simple.

Suspension and Resignation Blotter: Let's see if any of this holds muster...

• Denver Broncos:  Aqib Talib, suspended one game for the eye gouge by the league.

Should've been 6-12 MONTHS, which is what a more civilized sport like rugby would've done.  And I expect it will be reversed on appeal.

• University of Missouri:   President Tim Wolfe resigned today.

Two things disturb me about this.

1) "Football Uber Alles" wins again -- it takes the football team getting involved and possibly disrupting the bloodsport to get Wolfe out.

2) What's it really going to change?  The entire state of Missouri is a racial tinderbox, and has been for quite some time!!!

Two More Criminal Hits, As The Nation Cheers For More...

My anonymous friend pointed out ONE of these, but these two fucktards reported on Deadspin tonight need to be disgraced.

Lamarcus Joyner for the St. Louis Rams cheapshotted Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater...  with an ELBOW STRIKE???

There's no "wondering why", FOX announcer.  That was clear targeting to the head, full KO shot, Grade 3 Concussion.

And that may not have been the worst one of the week!

My friend pointed out what might've been.  A straight up EYE GOUGE by Aqib Talib to Dwayne Allen.  A clear two-fingers-to-the-eyes job.

In more civilized sports, that's six months to a year right there, you motherfucking piece of shit!

And you had to jump in the middle of a situation you had no place in in the first damned place!

Just wait til the games REALLY start counting...

PS:  Both were penalized 15 yards, NEITHER WAS EJECTED!

High School Team Forfeits Playoff Spot Due To Massive Criminal Investigation

(Deadspin)

I've seen some fucked up situations before, and this one cannot completely be attributable to football.

But half the football team and over 100 students at a Colorado high school are under criminal investigation for sexting.  Since most of the students are underage, felonies are most certainly on the table.

One Deadspin commenter apparently quoted the local news saying that nude pictures were being traded like trading cards.

As a result, Canon City High School has been forced to forfeit it's last football game and a playoff spot it might've earned had it won it.

According to latest I could find, the school has 1,056 students.  This means that at least one-tenth of the entire student population at the campus is involved.

One has to wonder, at this juncture, whether education can feasibly proceed at this school, given the amount of alleged misconduct.  This is going to be a story worth watching.

College Football is Fucked: MUCH BIGGER Week 10 Off The Field Edition

The biggest story in college football this week did not occur on the field -- nope, not the losses of LSU, Michigan State, and TCU...

Nope.

We have a serious race problem at the University of Missouri, and the African-American football players have called a strike until the University president is fired.

Anyone with a brain knows Missouri has a bunch of KKK-Cracker level white racist fucktards.

Anyone with a brain also knows that it's a powderkeg which has blown on a couple of occasions.

Tonight, the organization of African-American students at the University of Missouri, the Legion of Black Collegians, announced the strike after months of racist incidents at the university, the biggest being someone smeared human shit in the pattern of a swastika at a university residence hall.

According to the Timothy Burke piece in Deadspin that I am sourcing, one African-American player took to Twitter tonight to say the coaches, including the Caucasian ones, are with the action.

(And, apparently, so is the athletic department, according to spokesman Chad Moller.)

College Football is Fucked: Week 10 On The Field Edition

Do we just skip the rest of the season and have Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma play for the title?

Because not only is that the message from the committee on the first rankings (money talks, bullshit walks), but we've got another possible huge bad call that's going to change seasons.

It ended Michigan State's undefeated run...

Brandon Reilly of Nebraska was credited with a touchdown after going out of bounds and coming back in on his own.

As the long-range replay appears to show Reilly going out of bounds on his own, he's ruled forced out, touchdown and ball game to Nebraska.

Not to mention Reilly pushes off to get back in!

But it's OK, we got Ohio State!!

I just have to do this one...

(Deadspin's Screamer site.)

Chinese soccer commentator, telling us exactly what he was thinking of a Champion's League match at 5 AM his time...

Video is now on the Screamer site only -- the YouTube video posted here before was made private.

The announcer was fired.

What is it about soccer referees these days?

The FA has suspended Jose Mourinho of Chelsea for one match and fined him 40,000 pounds for being sent off (in a coach's case, like Mourinho's, it's been sent from the touchline -- coaches cannot be given the red card) last week.

Mourinho, incensed with a number of calls in the first half, went after the officials at halftime and confronted them in their dressing room.

According to Deadspin and The Guardian, this is how head referee Jon Moss reported it to the FA:

“When myself and my colleagues left the field of play at half-time, as we entered the tunnel area to get to our dressing room, Mr Mourinho the Chelsea manager was waiting for us clearly agitated and began aggressively asking about first half decisions. Rather than publicly speak to him I asked him to step into the entrance of my dressing room escorted by Simon Sutton, the West Ham United Security Manager.

“Mr Mourinho asked me about a tackle, an offside and a goal-line clearance. I gave him brief answers to his questions. After this I asked him to leave the dressing room area. He refused. I asked him again. After he refused again I asked Mr Sutton to escort him from the room. At this point Mr Mourinho became very aggressive and animated. He shouted that you fucking referees are weak... [Arsène] Wenger is right about you... you are fucking weak. I advised Mr Mourinho not to take his position in the technical area for the second half due to his actions.”

There is a very real chance Mourinho may have coached his last game with Chelsea.   It was thought, before the suspension, Chelsea may be biding their time to fire him.  Last year, they won the Premier League by miles.  This year, with this weekend's games representing the one-third point in the season, Chelsea stand four points from relegation, fifteenth in the twenty-team league.

But what the fuck is it with people and their soccer referees?  At least it appears Clint Dempsey might be paying somewhat of a price for his transgression:  He has been left off the lineup.  Jermaine Jones, just a couple weeks off his second attack on top US referee Geiger, is in the lineup for the US team's first two qualifers of six in the semifinal phase.

Deadspin just mic-dropped on Greg Hardy.

Seemed like it was going to be a slow week, until Deadspin just unloaded the entire documentation (or at least as much as it could get it's hands on) in the Greg Hardy case.

Police report, case progression, the interview with the victim, Hardy's (and friends') attempts to cover it up, court documents, all here.

Basically, Deadspin just thermonuked Greg Hardy and the NFL, to the extent possible.

The question is:  To what extent is this possible?  Football is our National Religion, NFL is it's Mass, and Roger Goodell might as well be the fucking Pope at this point.

Short of an outside party either crippling or eliminating Greg Hardy (who we know is a piece of shit and admits to being such!), how much more can really be done?  The NFL has already "acted" (any second act will get reversed, by either them or the Cowboys)

Anyone who pays attention knows that Greg Hardy (and Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, etc. and so forth and so on) is a poster child to the inhuman monster that is supposed to be American Man and Football Man.  You remove the death and destruction they give and take, you remove football.  There is no football without rape, murder, assault (sexual and otherwise), and every other form of criminality.

Greg Hardy, girlfriend-beater, is a hero to many American men - and I believe this to be true both on the field and because he beat the unholy shit out of his girlfriend.  As a result, how any woman be a fan of the NFL and not be seen as a self-loathing hypocrite is beyond anything I can understand.

(Diana Moskovitz has an excellent piece on the conflict she had about being an NFL fan in Pittsburgh in the Roethlesberger situation.)

Two More Sacrifices Tuesday to the Altar of Football

Head injuries claimed a former NFL player and a current high school football player in sacrifices to the bloodsport of this country.

Fred McNeill passed away from dementia and ALS at age 63 today.  McNeill, a linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings for 12 years, was sacrificed to football through a career with the "Purple People Eaters" of the 1970s and 1980s.

Wednesday night, a Kansas high-school player joined him in a playoff game played Tuesday night.  Brain trauma, though no one actually saw it, caused him to collapse on the sideline after scoring a conversion.

You really have to wonder how much more blood is going to "water" the "tree" of football before someone finally takes a violent act against the sport itself.

Two more lives, right where most football fealty-swearers believe they belong -- over!

Brady Quinn wants to die, if what he said about the NFL is any indication...

Roger Goodell does not like the truth, so he's really going to love Brady Quinn right now.

Brady Quinn was on a CBS podcast yesterday, according to Deadspin, and, well, IMODO, let the cat out of the bag...

“I’m not going to be a whistleblower and I’m not accusing anyone of anything. There’s got to be something these guys are taking. That’s what I think at least."

Only problem is that Quinn puts PED use in the league about 40-50%.  (*guffaw* Try double that.)

He also reveals that the only way you can get caught for using HGH is using it in the 48 hours previous to the test.

You simply can't make this shit up anymore.  And, in today's NFL, Brady Quinn just committed a mortal sin -- telling the truth...

(Or, as my friend likes to put it, is it simply a league full of dirty hits, cheap shots, and zero fines for the matter?)

What a shock!! NASCAR's next Golden Boy, Joey Logano, Ladies and Gentlemen!

And they STILL get it wrong:

Danica Patrick fined $50,000, docked 25 points, probation to year end.  (Separate incident.)

Matt Kenseth has been banned for two races for taking out Joey Logano.  Six months probation afterward.

Fuck that, NASCAR.  First off, that's the end of "Have at it, boys!" You just gave the Chase drivers protected status, not only in not being taken out, but to take out other drivers, like Logano did Kenseth several weeks ago.

Second, if you're going to ban Kenseth, do it all the way to before the Daytona 500 and be done with it!

Score Special Report: Attack of the Cliffhangers

Anyone who follows the Score Reports (and, like them, this will focus only on on-field material) has seen a quite disturbing trend this mid-season:  Roger Goodell has effectively ordered every game possible, it seems, to be decided as a Cliffhanger.

What I started here as the Cliffhanger Index was taken from Brian Tuohy a couple years back, when he desired to study the number of games in which the deciding score of the game would take place in the last two minutes of the game or in overtime.

So, in a summary but to expand on it, here are my rules on what constitutes a Cliffhanger:

• The lead must change hands (or the game become tied) at least once within the last two minutes of regulation time or in overtime.
• The two-minute warning is not necessary in this regard.  If the final play before the two-minute warning comes exactly at 2:00 or below, and results in a lead-changing or tying score, it is a Cliffhanger.
• There are games that could easily be Cliffhangers, but not qualify.  Hail Mary attempts to win, last-second failed field-goals which would've won the game, needing two scores and failing the onside kick after getting one, etc. and so forth.  See the first rule.
• A Cliffhanger only counts once, but it can happen multiple times.  The Monday nighter just completed had a Cliffhanger four times over (a tying field-goal to send it to overtime, and the new overtime rules allowed two trading field goals before Carolina won it with another field goal).

Let's take a look at the last five weeks:

• Week 4:  7, including 3 overtime games, 2 of them in national prime-time.
• Week 5:   6, including 3 overtime games, a field goal at the gun, and 2 Cliffhangers in national prime-time.
• Week 6:  3, 2 in overtime.
• Week 7:  1
• Week 8:  6, four field goals at the regulation gun, two games going overtime, and three involving multiple Cliffhanger scores.

So this means out of the last 71 NFL games played, 23 have ended in Cliffhangers, about one-third of the NFL games played in the last five weeks.  Three of the five weeks have come within one Cliffhanger of having half or more (Week 4 had 15 contests) of the games end in such a manner.

Let's take a look at some of the national games:

Thursday night Cliffhangers:  Week 2, Week 4
Sunday night Cliffhangers:  Week 1, Week 4, Week 5
Monday night Cliffhangers:  Week 5, Week 8

One other thing I'd like to look at is Cliffhangers for and against teams:

Denver:  3 for
Atlanta:  3 for, 1 against
New Orleans:  2 for
Carolina:  2 for
Washington:  2 for, 1 against
Chicago:  2 for, 2 against
Baltimore:  2 for, 2 against
Cincinnati:  1 for
St. Louis:  1 for
Indianapolis:  1 for, 1 against
Jacksonville:  1 for, 1 against
Oakland:  1 for, 1 against
Minnesota:  1 for, 1 against
Pittsburgh:  1 for, 1 against
Tampa Bay:  1 for, 1 against
NY Giants:  1 for, 2 against
San Diego:  1 for, 2 against
Cleveland:  1 for, 2 against
Seattle:  1 for, 3 against
Detroit:  1 against
Miami: 1 against
San Francisco:  1 against
Dallas:  2 against
Kansas City:  2 against
Philadelphia:  2 against

• 25 NFL teams have been involved in one or more Cliffhangers.
• The 7 who are not:  New England Patriots (7-0), New York Jets (4-3), Buffalo Bills (3-4), Houston Texans (3-5, and tied for the lead in the AFC South -- 6-10 is the pace to win this division!), Tennessee Titans (1-6, #2 Draft Pick right now), Green Bay Packers (6-1), and Arizona Cardinals (6-2).
• Four of those seven teams lead their divisions, at least in a tie.  Division leaders are 9-3.
• Divisional records:  AFC East 0-1.  AFC North:  4-5  AFC South:  2-2  AFC West:  5-5  NFC East:  3-7  NFC North:  3-4  NFC South:  7-2  NFC West:  2-4
• So every other division in the league except the NFC South has a losing or .500 record in this type of game.
• The four undefeated teams left have been in only six Cliffhangers in their 28 wins.  There is only one NFL team with only one loss, and it hasn't been in any!
• Most Cliffhangers won:  Denver (7-0), Atlanta (6-2):  3 each, Atlanta losing one.
• Most Cliffhangers lost:  Seattle (4-4), which has lost 3.
• Most Cliffhangers involved in:  Seattle (4-4), Atlanta (6-2), Baltimore (2-6), Chicago (2-6):  4
• The two Cliffhanger wins for both Chicago AND Baltimore are their only two of the season!

Week 8 Score Report: Over The Edge, Off The Cliff, and TILT!!!

Let's start with the 600-pound gorilla in the room.  New York Giants vs. New Orleans Saints.

• The 101 total points in the game represent only the 3rd NFL game (there was 1 AAFC century-game and 1 AFL contest) since 1940 (Pro Football Reference - be careful for required surveys!), the 2nd since 1966, and the first since 2004 that a professional football contest broke the 100-point barrier.  The NFL and pro football record is a 72-41 win by Washington over the Giants on November 27, 1966, for a total of 113.

So that skews the numbers a bit, and here they are:

• Weekly per game average:  46.57 PPG, of which an entire touchdown of that was the 101 point game.  There were three games which didn't break 30, and two more didn't make 40.  (49 1/3 PPG for Week 8 last year.)
• 8 week per game average:  46.597 PPG (Last year:  46.653)
• Home teams 8-5 for the week, 69-47 for the season.  (.595)  (Last year:  9-5 and 74-44-1 (.627))
• Over was 7-7 for the week, 60-54-5 to 60-58-1 for the year.  (7-8 and about the same range of percentage (62-58-1 to 56-57-8) last year)
• Favorites started the week 4-1...  and then cratered.  Green Bay's exposition as frauds helped favorites fall to 6-6-2 (one game went a pick, one pushed) for the week.   Vegas is loving chalk bettors this year:  50-59-10.  (A one-unit bettor on every one of the favorites of the 119 games played would now be -13 1/2 units!)
• Penalties for the week:   194, about the same number as the last two weeks.
• Cliffhangers...  Cliffhangers...  WOW...  Try six of them, and three of them had multiples.  Overtime field-goal for Tampa to win, field goal for Seattle to win at 1:06.
• There were FOUR games this week that had field goals at the regulation gun!  Baltimore beat San Diego with it.
• And three of the four had multiple scores in the last two minutes or overtime.  The 52-49 win for New Orleans had New Orleans score 10 points in the last 36 seconds (aided by a three and out, two Giant timeouts, and a 15 yard face-mask on the punt return to set the field goal at the gun -- that wasn't rigged...  NAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  Minnesota scored 10 in the last 1:49 including a winning field goal at the gun.  And the Monday nighter was a QUADRUPLE CLIFFHANGER:  Field goal at the gun to send the game to overtime for Indianapolis, and then the maximum three field goals in overtime to get Carolina to the spot of NFC favorite and 7-0.  $Cam Newton Lives!
• It's gotten so ridiculous with the Cliffhangers, I'm giving them a Special Report.
• Only two other games were competitive in the 4th quarter and only one of those was decided by one score.
• So this means Cliffhangers are now 29/119 (24.37%)  (Last year also had six cliffhangers for the week, 26/121 for the year (21.49%))
• Games decided by one score:  62/119 (52.1%)  (Last year 41.32%)
• Games within one score at some point in the 4th quarter:  80/119 (67.22%, getting close to the 68% average from two years ago)  (Last year 63.64%)

Another Close Call in the NFL...

We're going to lose somebody, and I do believe it will be this year, in the National Football League, on the field.

Today's scariest near-sacrifice to the altar of St. Roger is Ricardo Lockette, hit during punt coverage and laid motionless in Dallas.

Appears to be a third-degree concussion that Pete Carroll promptly exploited to motivate his team.

Scumbag bitch.

Sounds to me like that Notre Dame football announcer got his way!

(Deadspin, with a story more fitting for The Onion if it weren't true!)

A female athletic coach has been fired at Notre Dame, according to the New York Daily News.

If the lawsuit attached to this firing has any merit at all, this is going to be the next great NCAA sports scandal.

The coach, not named in the article, forced a number of football and basketball players to have sex with her daughter.

The daughter is White; the players involved are Black.  The racial make-up of the sexual affairs was part of demeaning the players involved.

There is also apparent conspiracy within the counseling department of the University in this as well.

Stay tuned.  This could get real bumpy, real fast.

So NOW it's inconvenient to "Have At It, Boys"?

Matt Kenseth was thrown out of the Goody's 500 today for an intentional wreck of Joey Logano.

This was in response to Logano wrecking Kenseth to win a race in the previous round of the Chase for the Championship.

Kenseth, already eliminated from the Chase, fairly blatantly retaliated today to wreck Logano and force him to win one of the next two races or be eliminated from the Championship Race in Miami in three weeks.

As a result, Kenseth was parked by NASCAR officials and faces a possible suspension, as NASCAR officials won't rule out parking Kenseth for further races.

So NOW it's inconvenient for the boys to "have at it"?

Are we serious here, Mr. France?
Oh, and, by the way, Jeff Gordon won the race and, as a result of his season standing and that win, will be one of the four drivers for the championship in the Championship Race.

I really want to know how anyone believes any of this can be legitimate after this one!

(On the field content only.)

Wow.

If you need a rank explanation of evidence as to how completely sports in this country are rigged, I present to you a game that went wildly under the radar.

Duke University had a top-25 football program going into this week's game with the University of Miami, who had finally fired their head coach after their worst loss in the history of the program.

Duke had just scored to go ahead with six seconds to go.

The announcers for the game even had said that one option would've been for the kicker to take the penalty for kicking the ball out of bounds and give Miami the ball at their own 35 with the 6 seconds left.

He, instead, chooses to squib it -- and THIS ensues:

(Courtesy ACC Digital Network, so it'll stay up. The full video is the official ACC highlights of the game, so start the video at 1 minute and 7 seconds, just after Duke scores to go up 27-24.)

Ball is squibbed to the Miami 25.  Picked up, ran forward five yards, lateral #1 to the far side of the field to the 21.

Gets to the 33, time runs out, backtracks to the 27, lateral #2.

One bounce (legal because it's a lateral) to the 23.  Backtracks four yards, gets the four yards back, lateral #3.

Now they're at the 15, and you think this is just going to end quickly. 

Now this is the first time I think bullshit happened, at about 1:27-1:30.  #1 for Miami now has the ball and attempts to advance it.  After evading one tackler, he is wrapped up by #21 of Duke and I was able to get this snapshot from the video.

He's down at the Miami 26 before he cedes possession.

Right there, the game should be over.

OK...  So it continues...  Lateral #4.  Fumbled by #4 of Miami, quick lateral #5.  They're now in full rugby mode at his point with lateral #6 to the Miami 10.

Miami player backtracks to the 7, and does a long lateral to the near sideline at the Miami 3.

And here's where things open up for Miami.

#25 (after a near-targeting shot that probably was barely legal, but I'd need several more looks), the ball is lateraled back to the far side of the field, where four Miami players await.

One block on #21 of Duke later, they're off to the races...

Two more, and you can see the end result.

BUT...

Who's that idiot with his helmet off in the upper left corner?

Guy's on the field from the bench, ball is NOT dead (the runner is at about the 3), with a referee looking RIGHT AT HIM!!!!

Play is reviewed -- FOR A LONG TIME...

TOUCHDOWN MIAMI, Miami wins!

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???