Fine Blotter: Another $200K for the Giants, and the NFL is now definitely booking itself into a corner.

First, the news:

The NFL ruled that the New York Giants illegally used walkie-talkies during it's 10-7 win over Dallas a couple weeks back (the win that gave them the series sweep for the season).

As a result:

• Team has been fined $150,000.
• Coach Ben McAdoo has been fined $50,000.
• And the fourth-round pick the Giants have will now be the last pick in the fourth round, even below compensatories, unless the Giants have more than 12 picks below them in the fourth round, at which point it will drop 12.

I want this clear:

Between this and the on-field stuff, that's basically half a million dollars in fines for the New York Giants this year.  If you don't think the league is noticing this...

Maybe this is why the Cowboys "got back on track" last week to get a very important win which all but seals homefield for the playoffs.

That said, the NFL is definitely booking itself way into a corner here.

As of right now, 48 hours before we start Week 16 (with the bulk of games on Saturday, by the by), take one look at the three teams which appear to be the Super Bowl frontrunners, and you can see major flaws in marketing any of them as champions:

• New England:  Does the league really want another round of having to explain Spygate, Deflategate, the relationship between the league and Bob Kraft, etc.?

To counter:  New England really appears to be the best case of a team which Donald Trump would be proud to call after a Super Bowl victory as a corporate, White champion (yes, I'll go there with the race card), under which everyone is to know their place.

• Dallas:  The Drug-Boys are back, and between those suspensions and the increasing probability of at least one Ezekiel Elliott cover-up, maybe it's more than the league is willing to accept.

To counter:  If you think Donald Trump would like him some Bob Kraft, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady, he'd LOVE some Jerry Jones.  Not to mention the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on national stages again for President Grab-Her-In-The-Pussy.

• New York Giants:  Before today's fines, they had to be considered a good outsider to wildcard into the playoffs and run the table.  Now, with Odell Beckham Jr. and a half million dollars in fines running around, does the league really want to take that chance?

To counter:  Consider the other two options.  The Giants have come up a bit on the outside the last couple of weeks to get themselves into the discussion, especially with an eerily-similar formula to that which felled the Cheatriots to 18-1.  (Defense being one of the few answers to the Dominant Team -- Dallas in this case.)

So now one has to take a look and ask the question:  If the league eventually rejects all three of these teams, who else is on the docket at about 10-6 ish to make a "miracle run"?

• First on my list would have to be Seattle.  They're already in the playoffs, and, even with four losses and a tie, hold the #2 seed.  If the NFC East winner is dropped in the Divisional round, the 12th Man Cult gets to host the NFC title game again, and that and the refereeing therein would be enough to get the Hags and the 12th Man to Houston.

Advantages:  Legion of Boom Defense and it's dirty hits, just like the other two NFC titles of this current run.  Football over all life, especially with Pedophile State in the Rose Bowl.

Disadvantages:  Bulk of the prominent team is anti-establishment Black.  (And with the protests of Kapernick getting major heat from nationalist fans in the league, is the NFL going to want to push an anti-establishment Black playerbase?)

• Second on my list would be Oakland. The problem the league has with any of the four teams above is that there's no one for the rank and file fan to cheer for. The Raiders are a long-suffering franchise whom the fans across America (especially the extension of the Raider Nation) might get behind.

Advantages: Not unlike the Cubs, the significant national fanbase could be a great benefit to the NFL. It would be a team that is not (to my knowledge) in the league's doghouse, and, hence, might represent a smaller level of hypocrisy than most of the other options. It might finally seal an NFL stadium deal to keep the team in Oakland.

Disadvantages: First, does the NFL really want to keep the team in an Oakland most people accept is falling apart and is too dark of a city to really hallmark anything? Second: Is this an effort to keep the team in Oakland or to increase the team's value for a move, next year, to a Las Vegas which is already willing to accept the Raiders with open arms?

• If the league wanted to go a traditionalist route, there is Kansas City, if they win the AFC West.

Disdvantages: Biggest problem with Kansas City is that there's no real storyline or rigged reason to push them. Arrowhead Stadium, as old as it is, is still one of the hallmark stadiums in the league, and no one is going to confuse Kansas City with a corporate town.

• Another "coming up on the outside" team is Brian Tuohy's discussion of Atlanta, due to their new stadium.

Advantages: I can think of two. The new stadium, and divorcing the legacy of the Falcons once and for all from Michael Vick when he was abusive to animals.

Disadvantages: Is downtown Atlanta too Black for a corporate NFL in the Trump Administration? Keep in mind the Braves ran to Cobb County to bleach it's audience. With the only demographic rising in acceptance of football being White Middle-Class America, would Atlanta, new downtown stadium or no, be a good place for the NFL to market as flagship?

Teams I do not think are on "The List":

• Houston:  And this has little to do with the Super Bowl Host Curse.  If Houston were to win the Super Bowl, it would probably do so without it's one major marketable player (J.J. Watt).  At that point, it would almost be completely against NFL type to push Houston, especially with a better option in-state.
• Green Bay:  Race is right (coach, QB, many of the fans), Wisconsin put Trump over the top...  But the only reason the league tolerates the Green Bay situation is that it's almost iron-clad, given the nature of the real ownership of the team.  Green Bay is about as non-corporate as you get in the NFL of today.  That said, to win the division, they'd need six in a row, and there is a story there:  Off the #6 for one win, final redemption in Seattle for the second, and then you might get to host the Giants if the league abandons the Cowboys in the Divisional round.
• Pittsburgh:  Probably about as "last-resort" as Green Bay, but if the league is having enough of Beckham, Josh Brown is not far behind in the sweepstakes to determine the first player suspended for outright unsportsmanlike conduct on touchdown celebrations.