Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: Wednesday and Thursday Notes

• Well, Roger Goodell didn't change anyone's mind regarding the no-calls in New Orleans almost two weeks ago.
• Goodell claims he has reached out to members of the New Orleans Saints organization, a claim most have denied.
• And he didn't have to -- all lawsuits vis-a-vis the rig-job in New Orleans have been thrown out. 
• Again, you have NO RIGHT to a legal, lawful, or fair sporting contest -- and that goes for any party when a league or other sanctioning body mandates a result.
• And here's a story no surprise to the Super Bowl:  Ketan Shah must turn himself in by Sunday for his role in a fraud scheme for Super Bowl tickets which netted him $750,000.  He even fucked his own mother out of $36,000.  (Deadspin)
• He has disappeared from sight, raising questions as to why he would do this and then disappear -- up to and including an outwardly-clean business record Shah has had which probably is anything but.
• Another bunch of prop bets for Sunday -- these from Yardbarker -- probably offshore, but maybe some of the 440 from the Superbook.

1. Gladys Knight will perform the National Anthem -- the over-under is 1:47 (over -160, under +120).  YB says take the over, so do I.
2.  First offensive play:  Run (-145) or Pass (+115).  Especially given the possibility that this, like at least one other prop bet YB is reporting, is more based on who gets the ball first, I'd say Pass at better than even odds is a good bet here.
3. Which team scores first?  Pats (-125) Rams (-105)  Same drill, especially since this is two of the better scoring offenses in the league!
4. Will Gronkowski score a touchdown?  Yes is even money, no is -130.  I like the Yes bet here because I do think there will be several Patriots touchdowns.
5. Here's a stupid one:  To the satisfaction of the book, what will be the predominant color of Adam Levine's shirt (Maroon 5) to start the halftime show?  Black is -160, Not Black is +120.
6. Adam Gurley's rushing yards:  O/U 72.5 (Over is -105, Under is -125).  I'd say base this bet on who you think is going to win the game -- if you think the Rams are going to win, take the over.  If the Pats, take the under.
7. How many times will Tom Brady's wife be on camera?  More Gisele than 1.5 times is +160, Less is -200.  Oh come the fuck on -- Brazilian supermodel, complete stereotypical White Jock Superiority in toxic masculinity America -- OVER OVER OVER.
8. Will either of the announcers refer to Atlanta by one of their nicknames "Hotlanta"?  Yes is +200, No is -260.  I think it depends on the game.  You get another of those 53-50 rig-jobs (I don't think it's going to get that high), and they will...

As for the current real numbers:

Superbook now has it NE -2.5 with regular juice on both sides.  Over-under is 56.5, also the regular -110 on both sides.

William Hill has actually gone to NE -3 EVEN (Rams +3 -120).

The Wynn, as of about 2 PM Pacific today, has the game NE -2 at regular juice on both sides.

You definitely have potential for the bookie's nightmare:  A Super Bowl "middle".  Where you take the Patriots +1 when it opens and the Rams +3 later, and the Pats win 28-27 or somesuch.

• And a reported sacrifice to football and CTE: "Mr. Falcon", Tommy Nobis (given that nickname for 35 years of service to the Atlanta team, both on and off the field -- most severe form of CTE, reported post-mortem this week.  No one in the family is surprised:  Dementia, outbursts, anger, etc.

Lots of non-football January 29, 2019 updates...

• The hammer has finally come down (somewhat and insufficiently) for the McGregor-Khabib fiasco after Nurmagedov beat the shit out of McGregor at UFC 229.

Khabib banned nine months (can shave three off by doing anti-bullying work in Nevada) by the NSAC, fined half a million dollars.

McGregor banned six months and fined $50,000.

Khabib's manager says his fighter will never fight in Nevada again.

Good, because you should've been banned for what you did.

McGregor didn't jump the fence.  Khabib Nurmagedov did.

Now, the fight never should've taken place anyway -- Conor McGregor should be "Upstate", if you've ever been in the New York jails, like I have.

A cousin and a cornerman for Nurmagedov have been banned a year each and fined $25,000 for their roles in the brawl.

The bans are retroactive to October 6, and there is already discussion of a rematch.  All suspensions will be upheld by the UFC.

• Another touchy subject today from the Nevada State Athletic Commission regarding the UFC:  Jon Jones has, subject to rigorous additional drug testing,  It's only for March 2nd's UFC 235, where Jones is scheduled to main-event and defend his title.

The NSAC sounds like it didn't want to, but enough arms were twisted this time.  Including the NSAC's refusal to license Jones in December, he's been banned three times over drugs.

• To the NHL:   Nashville Predators:  Austin Watson, thrown out of the league until further notice, continuing issues with alcohol abuse.

Was banned the first 18 games of this year for domestic violence, played 34, and now is out of the league entirely until administrators of the abuse program in the NHL clear him to return.

• NBA:  New Orleans Pelicans (for now):  Anthony Davis:  $50,000 fine from the league for self-tampering.  He wants out of New Orleans.
• MLB:  Collusion, collusion, collusion.  What kind of All-Star team could you make with just free agents, right now, three weeks from pitchers and catchers?

Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: Weekend and Monday notes...

• Official Madden simulation in the books -- Rams won that 30-27, late 4th quarter TD won it.
• Sounds like one possible angle is, as of the moment, off the books for LIII(E):  In an ESPN interview, part of which made the site, Tom Brady shot down all rumors of retiring after Super Bowl LIII.
• The NFL has officially responded to the Saints' fans lawsuits, pretty much using Mayer as complete justification for rigging games, according to Brian Tuohy.

Here you go, straight from the horse's mouth: how and why the @NFL can legally fix the outcome of one of its games and fans have ZERO legal recourse to do anything about it. https://t.co/i5COBfocwm

— Brian Tuohy (@TheFixIsInTuohy) January 28, 2019

It doesn't directly use Mayer -- more, the 100 year precedent (to a Jack Tunney-esque level -- this professional wrestling fan remembers the Toronto promoter, the figurehead President of the WWF back in the day, using exactly that precedent -- "The referee's decision is final!" -- on the same absolute scale the NFL is).

That said, it's clear that Mayer does provide the legal backup, as I said last week.   Anyone who knows the truth knows that Dan Moldea revealed in his book Interference that five games of a 1970's Monday Night Football season were known rigged -- to the FBI!!!

Yes, it would be the first time.  But the problem with the argument otherwise is that move and Mayer would mean that the league and the officials have absolute dominion over who wins and loses.

And they're stating it to your faces.

Keep that in mind Sunday, and remember the Rams' new stadium is a $5,000,000,000 investment.

• Word from Vegas Insider says, as of now, the number will appear to be New England -3, to whatever extent they can juice the juice, as it were, to keep it there.  Some books wanted to get it to -2.5, and have done so, at least as of today, everywhere but the William Hill.
• The total is dropping.  From 58.5, it's gone to somewhere 57 to mostly 56.5.
• Money Line is about 125-130 both ways.  (-130 NE, +125 LA)

IMODO, unless they get word that a Shutdown 2.0 would create an untenable situation in Inglewood, which it MIGHT because I don't know what a February 15 shutdown would do for March SNAP payments, I think Vegas is about to make a metric shitton.

• Speaking of the Oompa-Loompa:  Vegas Insider has some interesting prop bets (all from the foreign book DSI -- since it does not involve sports completely, it can't be bet in Vegas), Super Bowl vs. Trump...

Pregame interview (Yes -200, No +150)

Actually attend the game (Yes +800, No -1425 or so)

Tweets during the game, over/under 1 (Over -141, Under Even money)

The traditional post-Super Bowl Presidential congratulation -- note, it does not say the old-school phone call  (He does one -170, he doesn't +130 -- probably on that they think he'll Tweet one).  For the record on that one, I don't think he does if LA wins.

Here's one a bit closer to some of the 440 official Vegas prop bets:  Which number will be higher?

Trump's approval rating (in percent) from Rasmussen Reports as of the day after the game (+110) or the yardage of the longest field goal in Super Bowl LIII (-140).  (As of now, the Rasmussen number is 44%.)

Will the winner eventually visit the White House (by whatever date the bet pays off):  Yes -833, No +442.  (Bet heavily on the Yes side -- started at -200 for Yes.)  The article finishes by noting that no Super Bowl champion has declined the visit of it's own accord.  Some sort of national emergency or the impeachment of a President have been the only intervening factors.

2018-19 Championship Game Fine Blotter

• Los Angeles Rams:  I told you it was a fine-able hit, and the NFL confirmed it.  Nickell Robey-Coleman was fined $26,739 for both the helmet and a defenseless player on the same play, THAT PLAY.

You still want to believe these games are not rigged???

Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: Government Shutdown Ends Temporarily

And the game just became a lot harder to get a full read on...

After both the IRS and TSA had mass sick-ins today (the latter effectively shut down La Guardia in New York, starting a nationwide ripple effect), the Congress basically rammed the President with a continuing resolution to have the government open three weeks (until Feb. 15).

Of course, this could easily be interpreted (and I am!) as basically ensuring the same doesn't happen in Atlanta next week for the Super Bowl and all associated events.

Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: Since we know the NFL likes to rig things, something to keep in mind...

Potential free food alert! Buffalo Wild Wings to give everyone free wings if Super Bowl goes into overtime https://t.co/lo5u4CUafz pic.twitter.com/eK4lnwAt0E

— FOX 12 Oregon KPTV (@fox12oregon) January 24, 2019

This is not during the game -- FOX 12 in Oregon notes that if the Super Bowl goes into overtime, everyone can pick up a free snack-sized order of wings, boned or boneless, at any participating Buffalo Wild Wings on the 18th between 4 and 7 PM.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: HOW MUCH MORE PROOF DO YOU NEED, FOOTBALL NATION AMERICA??

I haven't even gotten around to working the AFC half of this yet -- the NFC half is still too juicy.

But we now have an additional angle on that controversial fourth-quarter no-call which indicates a conscious decision by the official to overrule the penalty that another official's eyes correctly saw and rig the game.

From Sportsnaut's Twitter account:

Well, this is interesting. Check out the one official motioning to the other official? #Noncallgate

(H/t @TroyFieldsRhino) pic.twitter.com/qLcBkRtS67

— Sportsnaut (@Sportsnaut) January 23, 2019

One Step Closer to the Superteams: The Unthinkable Just Occurred in the Baseball Hall of Fame Voting...

Hank Aaron.

Willie Mays.

Jackie Robinson.

Babe Ruth.

Walter Johnson.

And I could go on and on and on...

What would these players have in common that I might discuss today?

Three things:

• They are indisputably tied to the rich history of Major League Baseball.
• They were indisputable Hall of Famers
• None were elected unanimously.

Mariano Rivera just went in with EVERY VOTE CAST.  He is the first man in the history of the Hall to unanimously go in.

Fucking TRAVESTY -- but, once again, this is basically what happens when you start building any sport around superteams, large markets, and big media machines.

Look, I get it, "Enter Sandman", Hammer of God, all that kind of shit...

But if Ruth, Mays, Aaron, Johnson, Cy Young, Robinson, etc. don't go in unanimous for one reason or another, WHY THIS GUY????

Half. A Fucking. CENTURY.

January 22, 1969.

The moon landing was about six months away.

The infamous rigged Super Bowl III was 10 days old.

We were in the middle of the Vietnam War.

Watergate was just a hotel.

The #1 song in the country was the classic "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye.

And, at about 12 noon at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, MN, a boy was born a month premature.

Me.

I turn 50 years old today.

--

And what a 50 years it has been...

The Immaculate Reception and probable rigging of the start of the Steelers' dynasty came just short of my fourth birthday.

The Reserve Clause of Major League Baseball lasted until I was six.

I remember being a fan of the "Purple People Eaters" and languishing over THEIR four Super Bowl losses as a young child.

The Four-Letter Network didn't start until past my tenth birthday...

I don't recall where I was for the "Miracle On Ice", but remember, 22 years later, being in Salt Lake City while the team lit the torch at the stadium to begin the Games of the Winter Olympiad.

We didn't believe we could fly, just because Nike told us who our sporting gods were.

Graduated #1 in my class in high school in 1987, then it all went to pot as far as schooling was concerned.  One expulsion and banishment and a second near-suspension, and it took nearly seven years to get a (now-invalid) Bachelor's Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Then, I traveled the highways and by-ways, getting more education out of a Greyhound trip to see an Electric Youth than in the classroom -- an education which ended with 7 1/2 months in Riker's Island...

I remember being fooled by the Barry Bonds phenomena in San Francisco.

--

So I'm 50 today.  If you want an idea of what I've seen in that time, just go back and read the archives of this blog. 

I have had a lot of introspection in the last couple weeks.  Coupled with some of what I'm reading of current affairs in the media, I will openly admit there is some question (not any health scare, mind you) that I see #51.  That will be addressed in another post surrounding the Super Bowl.

But I'm still here, dammit.  From jilted boyfriends to those highways and by-ways to the MAGA hats, I've had a lot of threats to my life, and I'm still waiting for one cojone on that side of the equation -- 30+ years of it now!

By all accounts, I should be deceased, at someone's hand -- justified or otherwise.  But until that day comes, I'm trudging on...

Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: The Potential For Unrest (Within the Sport Edition)

Well, it looks like we may be brewing for something in Atlanta next week, on at least one of a couple of different levels.

Someone is going to, however, have to educate two lawyers and a bunch of Saints fans on one of the most abominable decisions in history, the one which legalized league-based game rigging in the United States of America:

Mayer v. Belichick, New England Patriots, and National Football League

The decision even notes that "Simply put, no one in the past has ever brought a legal action quite like this one."

And the decision notes correctly that:  "Reduced to its essence, the current appeal before us is concerned with the alleged existence of a very specific but very different and unusual right: namely, the right of a ticket-holder to see an “honest” game played in compliance with the fundamental rules of the NFL itself (which was then allegedly denied to Mayer and his fellow ticket-holders because of the secret and illicit videotaping program undertaken by the Patriots and Belichick)."

It then cites the failed Indy Grand Prix, and lawsuits fans filed against Formula One on it, and the decision there said:  "Of particular significance here, the appellate court initially stated that any breach of contract claim “arguably should fail because IMS [the race track hosting the event] promised only to admit the plaintiffs to the race grounds on the days of the grand prix.” Id. at 321. It went on to state the following:

While we are unaware of any Indiana case addressing the nature of a contract formed by the sale of an admission ticket, cf. [Skalbania, 443 N.E.2d at 352] (addressing a class certification question in a breach of contract action by season ticket holders against a hockey franchise, but explicitly reserving the merits), most states agree that the seller contracts only to admit the plaintiff to its property at a given time. The plaintiff buys the ticket, of course, in order to see an event that is scheduled to occur on the ticket-seller's grounds, but the seller does not contract to provide the spectacle, only to license the plaintiff to enter and “view whatever event transpire[s].” [Castillo, 701 N.Y.S.2d at 423]."

(Emphases mine.)

So the court, using precedence concludes:

"In conclusion, this Court will affirm the dismissal of Mayer's amended complaint. Again, it bears repeating that our reasoning here is limited to the unusual and even unique circumstances presented by this appeal. We do not condone the conduct on the part of the Patriots and the team's head coach, and we likewise refrain from assessing whether the NFL's sanctions (and its alleged destruction of the videotapes themselves) were otherwise appropriate. We further recognize that professional football, like other professional sports, is a multi-billion dollar business. In turn, ticket-holders and other fans may have legitimate issues with the manner in which they are treated. See, e.g., Charpentier, 75 Cal.App. 4th at 314 (“It is common knowledge that professional sports franchisees have a sordid history of arrogant disdain for the consumers of the product.” (footnote omitted)). Significantly, our ruling also does not leave Mayer and other ticket-holders without any recourse. Instead, fans could speak out against the Patriots, their coach, and the NFL itself. In fact, they could even go so far as to refuse to purchase tickets or NFL-related merchandise. See, e.g., Bowers, 489 F.3d at 321 (noting possible effects of bad reputation on future prospects of sport); Seko, 22 F.3d at 774 (stating that, “instead of going to the Cubs game, the fan may head south for Comiskey Park and the White Sox”). However, the one thing they cannot do is bring a legal action in a court of law."

The court did say they did not feel they could become the final arbiters of every bad call...

BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT'S THIS FUCKING OBVIOUS??

Anyway, back to my point...

Two lawsuits have been filed in court in New Orleans to force Roger Goodell to invoke his extraordinary powers to replay the final 1:40 or so of the NFC Championship Game, all but awarding the game to the Saints, because of the circumstances.  (Three kneel-downs/centering and a short field goal, and it's New Orleans playing New England.)

They will fail, because of Mayer making it legal for leagues to rig the contests because the only guarantee precedent of law has given a fan is a seat at the contest -- no guarantee of anything else except, as the Indianapolis decision notes, to "view whatever event transpire[s]".

But you then have the situation regarding Matt Bowers, a Saints fan who has decided to take matters into his own hands and buy billboards in Atlanta saying the Saints were screwed.

What if that sentiment hits the streets of Atlanta and other factors (which will be discussed in another post, outside the sport) boil in and the preparations and/or game of Super Bowl LIII become more than a bit problematic?

Stay tuned.  Turbulence may not only be in the air this time.

Super Bowl LIII(E), The Past vs. The Future: Ratings Appear To Make Patriots Solid Favorites

All ratings numbers via Sports Media Watch.

If the numbers from Sunday indicate where the NFL might go, you might want to start making a ring for the other hand for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

It was no contest between the two championship games.

The late game, the AFC title game, was the second largest-watched AFC title game since 1977.  Only 2011's beat the Patriots-Chiefs' 53.9 million viewers with a 27.5 rating.

The fourth quarter was especially electric for the numbers, with the 9:30-10 PM Eastern half-hour being the best at 32.2 rating and nearly 64 million viewers at that point.

The only AFC title game to beat that full number in over 40 years was Jets-Steelers with almost 55 million for the full number in 2011.

Highest-rated non-Super Bowl NFL game in three years (the Peyton Manning Retirement Tour victory over the Patriots (2016 AFC Championship Game)), and the most-watched in five (NFC Championship Game 49ers/Seahawks (2014)).

Outside of news events and the NFL, SMW says Sunday's AFC title clash was higher-rated than any American television program outside that scope since the 2000 Oscars, and more watched by any American television program outside that scope since the Seinfeld finale in 1998!

In contrast, the NFC game was basically even with last year's (24.5 rating, 44.075 million viewers) and was one of the lower recent conference title games for the NFL.

If ratings turn into part of the booking discussion, start thinking Patriots here.

The Patriots are, as of right now, a 2 1/2 point favorite, getting about 80% of the money, according to VegasInsider.

Will you look who I found through Brian's Twitter today?

Ladies and gentlemen, DAN MOLDEA...

And a prediction he made (and was slammed for by his two fellow guests) on Nightline.

Yeah, took 30 years, but the process is now in motion...

With the wholesale legalization of sports gambling, as decreed by the U.S. Supreme Court, we are beyond the looking glass. In order to preserve the integrity of the game, the NFL and its fans will need to reevaluate everything. https://t.co/clmSLksm1C

— Dan E. Moldea (@DanMoldea) January 21, 2019

Further down his timeline, he debunks a myth he was killed a week after "Interference" was released.  (To my understanding, he was largely blackballed from the investigative journalism field by the NFL for the book, and his father warned him of that.)

He has still, however, written a half a dozen further books on a number of subjects -- including the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the OJ Simpson murder trial, and the dark secrets of Hollywood in general.

This is how you manipulate who plays in the Super Bowl...

(I'm reduxing yesterday's post for a reason.  When I'm done with it, I'm going to e-mail the whole thing to Brian Tuohy.)

Whenever we get a situation like what took place, especially in the 2019 NFC Championship Game, people will tend to laugh at people like me (sports conspiracy theorists) and believe the games they see on the air are legitimate contests.

And I look at them, frankly, as if they grew a horn in the middle of their head like a unicorn.

Because I cannot, for the life of me, understand in any degree of a concept how you can be so blind as to not see it laid out before you like a buffet.

Let's start in the NFC game:

Larry Brown Sports delinates that there were bad calls both ways in the game, defending the game's legitimacy.

The main one that most Rams fans will point to is a clear facemask by AJ Klein on a scrambling Jared Goff with 6:49 to go in the game.

They're right.  Los Angeles should've gotten 4 shots from about the 1.

There's one problem with their argument, and it's what LA eventually did with 5:03 to go.

Down 20-17, 4th and goal from a foot out.  After enough deliberation that they took a delay of game penalty eventually, they decide to take the tying field goal.

Many analysts would say this made sense, to take the points to tie the game.  There are two problems with this argument:

1. How many more things can go wrong on a field goal (of any length) than can go wrong with a quarterback sneak of the proverbial "get in behind the center and guard and keep pushing and pushing until they put six points up on the board" like John Madden used to say?  Remembering they only needed about a foot...
2. Regardless of the situation, Los Angeles was going to need a stop on the next drive anyway.

I immediately picked up on this as a scripting device.  The league was setting up a last-play situation and probable overtime.

So the Saints get the ball, and their strategy is apparently clear to a certain extent -- they are probably, at least for a time, playing to be the last team with the ball.  With the Rams offense, this would make sense.

And it appeared to have succeeded.  A long pass at the two-minute warning from Drew Brees to AJ Ginn put the ball on the Rams 13 with 1:58 to go and the Rams with only two timeouts.

But then the trouble starts...

First down:  Brees attempts to throw a screen pass, but throws low to Michael Thomas, effectively giving the Rams a free timeout.

Second down:  Alvin Kamara gains nothing.  At least the Rams are forced to take one of their two timeouts.

But then the call that many believed rigged the Super Bowl:

Third down:  Drew Brees throws a pass to the right at Tommylee Lewis...  (Thank you, Brian for the correction.)


Nickell Robey-Coleman commits a fine-able offense on this play.  He clearly knocks down Lewis with an unnecessary shot to Lewis' helmet, whether or not it was actually pass interference, based on the position of the ball.  It is clear he has committed some sort of penalty.  It's also clear that Robey-Coleman is looking for the well-earned flag which never came.

This would've given the Saints the ball with the ability to largely (if not completely) run out the clock on the Rams, and win the game on a short field goal.

Instead, they are forced to kick a 31 yard field goal to give the Rams the ball with one timeout and 1:40 left, down 23-20.

--

The Rams get the ball and a quick first down.

But FOX all but tells you the game is going to overtime.

The Rams have one of the most potent offenses in NFL history again.  There is no reason not to believe, until what FOX then shows, that the Rams could score a winning touchdown in the time remaining.

But, at least twice, the FOX broadcast cuts to Greg Zeurlein on the sidelines.  It is clear to anyone paying attention what is about to happen.  The drive eventually stalls with about 20 seconds to go, forcing Zeurlein to come in and attempt a 48 yard field goal.

One of the major theories Brian has had this year has been that the goalposts are magnetized with strong magnets to manipulate the flight of the ball.  Tuohy has pointed out at least one last-second field goal for the Baltimore kicker which was missed in such a manner.

Watch this tying field-goal and tell me you don't think the ball's flight was changed:

We're heading to OVERTIME.

📺: #LARvsNO on FOX pic.twitter.com/J7P87mt9NL

— NFL (@NFL) January 20, 2019

That ball is veering wide right until a fairly-sudden turn to the left.

--

Overtime, and the home team wins the toss.

Second down, and a blatant hold and throw-down pass interference on the Rams is called, except with one problem.

The final part of the foul, where the receiver was rendered completely unable to catch the pass, was on the New Orleans 45.

The ball is spotted on the New Orleans 40.

Then, Alvin Kamara is stuffed on the next first-down play.  However, after the Rams defender, who believes forward progress was stopped, and (correctly for player safety) ends the play, pushes Kamara away, Kamara, not hearing a whistle, attempts to continue the play, and the loss is six yards instead of two.

Second and 16, and here's the one I point to.  A lot of people talk about the Thomas call, and they're right.

This one, a blatant pass interference by John Johnson of the Rams, may have been even WORSE!!

The @RamsNFL defense forces the INTERCEPTION!

Huge turnover in OT. #LARams #NFLPlayoffs

📺: #LARvsNO on FOX pic.twitter.com/Bn54AaPEBR

— NFL (@NFL) January 20, 2019

The pass is overthrown, but not blatantly.  The reason I say that is that Johnson has to not only knock over Michael Thomas (AGAIN!), but also then push off of the falling Thomas to get to the overthrown ball for the pick.

One first down later, and the Rams are in the Super Bowl with a 57 yard field goal by Zeurlein.

It is so obvious that something happened that Michael Thomas may, in fact, be endangering his NFL career today...

Rule 17 Section 2 Article 3 @NFL 💔⚜️

— Michael Thomas (@Cantguardmike) January 21, 2019

Hey Roger pick up the phone.

— Michael Thomas (@Cantguardmike) January 21, 2019

For those who don't get the reference, Rule 17 Section 2 Article 3 of the NFL Rulebook is a statement that the Commissioner has the ability to remedy "Unfair Acts".

When a call of this nature (which the head of NFL Officiating is already reported to tell the Saints' coach Greg Payton was in error) is made in soccer, the sanctioning body often orders a replay of the game to some extent.

When the umpires erroneously called George Brett out in the Pine Tar Game, it led to a replay of the bottom of the ninth inning.  (Which Billy Martin immediately led to farce.)

Michael Thomas, and rightly, believes the NFL should reverse the result of the contest.

They won't.

This was not a mistake.  The NFL rigged this game for the Los Angeles Experiment and the probable creation of the New LA Showtime.

That's what building a multi-billion dollar palace to the NFL will get you: a gifted Super Bowl berth.

— Brian Tuohy (@TheFixIsInTuohy) January 20, 2019

I'll do the AFC game later.

And we probably have USOC Scandal #6, and it just cost a probable perp his life...

The moment I picked up the story a few days ago about the suicide of John Coughlin, I pretty much could've written the entire story out.

Coughlin was a prominent pairs skater who became a coach in the sport by the time he turned 30.

However, in the last several weeks, three complaints to the clearinghouse SafeSport surfaced of sexual misconduct (making figure skating the sixth prominent Olympic sport in this country to be hit with the #MeToo revelations). 

The first one caused a Restriction label to be put on Coughlin's coaching career -- that one was from a party that was of the age of consent.

The next two were (as most of these USOC scandals have been) from underage girls.  Once those were received, he was formally banned -- and, within 24 hours, he had taken his life.

Someone has to ban the United States from the Olympic movement.  Are we literally going to have to get scandals like this in every Olympic sport to make it clear that there is a state (or at least committee)-sponsored culture of sexual harassment and misconduct, used as a screening device for female athletes in this country?

Super Bowl LIII(E): The Past vs. The Future: At least the AFC title game wasn't so obvious...

Same formula...

And, though it didn't get bad calls late, THIS was apparently called Roughing the Passer against the Chiefs...

Your honor. I present exhibit B after the exhibit A from the @saints game. This is proof the NFL wants a Boston/LA Super Bowl. How is this “ruffing the passer” unless there is collusion? #COLLUSION pic.twitter.com/8GtmZhKZZt

— Sean Montgomery (@gomery) January 21, 2019

The NFL couldn't get so blatant, but they get Kansas City out, which means Tom Brady and Bill Belichick (and I don't know how many others on the Pats) get to their NINTH Super Bowl.

I have a number of angles on this game, and, as a result of at least one of them, cannot hope to make a call at this time.

There was an apparent NFL Shop ad which actually was hawking New England AFC Championship apparel after the end of the first quarter, though...

Hey @OfficialNFLShop - just a question: why, at the end of the first quarter, are you airing a commercial, saying the @Patriots are the AFC champs? The game has 3 quarters to go. @TheFixIsInTuohy pic.twitter.com/HA2rgBd2Wk

— Panic at the Citgo (@XanderRich) January 21, 2019

But, unlike the NFC game earlier today, they didn't have to get so blatant about it on the field.

Game was immediately bet to a pick when the line opened in Vegas, total right now is around 58.  Within 20 minutes, what opened as the Rams a point and a half favorites has swung to New England being 1 1/2-2 point favorites.

This year, the trial balloon WAS a call.

Super Bowl LIII(E): Todd Gurley, YOU DIDN'T!!!

This is on his Instagram, verified as Gurley with the blue checkmark...

View this post on Instagram

💀💀💀😂😂😂😂

A post shared by Todd Gurley (@tg4hunnid) on Jan 20, 2019 at 4:52pm PST

This is how you rig a cliffhanger... (2019 NFC Championship Game)

Five minutes to go, down 3, 4th and goal inside the 1.

The Rams TAKE THE THREE...

There's no conceivable reason, unless you're engineering having the ball last to win it at the gun, to do that.

And now, long pass for the Saints, we're in Cliffhanger territory, and now the Saints can't seem to get out of their own way.

Does anyone understand a game situation, or is it all just storyline?  (I think we all know the answer, but one of the criteria I always use in pro wrestling is that you have to make it look good.)

--

Two incomplete passes and a timeout, and it looks like the Rams will have about a minute and 40 seconds and a timeout, down three.

No situational awareness what-so-ever -- on either side.  So are we angling for overtime???

--

And FOX (from reading it on social media) putting up the field goal line after one first down and still over a minute left!

--

And at least two shots of Todd Zeurlein...  What about a game-winning touchdown, or is it too soon for that??

--

At least one blatant facemask on New Orleans and a cheap shot on LA missed late...

--

And, sure enough, Zeurlein from 48 for overtime...

Obligatory icing timeout.

And someone might want to get a look at that kick...

That kick was going wide right until about 15 yards before the goalposts, then mysteriously curves left.

We're heading to OVERTIME.

📺: #LARvsNO on FOX pic.twitter.com/J7P87mt9NL

— NFL (@NFL) January 20, 2019

Is this a Brian Tuohy (who has proposed magnets in the goalposts) Special???

--

So Overtime and Saints win the toss...

And they are getting FUCKED WITHOUT LUBE...

First, on an interference call (correct), they're screwed 5 yards on the spot.  Should've been, from the replay I saw on social media, first down at the 45, not at the 40.

First down on the next play, Kamara's forward progress is stopped for a loss of 2, looks like the Rams' guy lets go, no whistle apparently, and the loss is eventually 6!

And then a BLATANT Rams push-off/interference almost defense screen-play on the INT!!!!

The @RamsNFL defense forces the INTERCEPTION!

Huge turnover in OT. #LARams #NFLPlayoffs

📺: #LARvsNO on FOX pic.twitter.com/Bn54AaPEBR

— NFL (@NFL) January 20, 2019

How is that not somehow interference????

Sets up Zeurlein from 57 to win it....

Another obligatory icing timeout...

Straight down the pipe, and the Los Angeles Experiment gets the Rams to the Super Bowl.

Rigged both for storyline AND result.

AND to finish 15 minutes before New England at Kansas City is supposed to start.

UFC puts fucking shithead in co-main in his debut. Said fucking shithead got DQed.

Greg Motherfucking Hardy.

Give it to the Brooklyn crowd -- they gave him the business, and his opponent, newcomer in only his second UFC fight, Allen Crowder, was able to withstand the opening barrage and gas him out.

Crowder's also going to be medically suspended, as Hardy, true to his nature, kneed him illegally in the head with a knee clearly down, disqualified and probably at least a Grade 2 concussion for Crowder.

Hey, ESPN, THAT WHAT YOU FUCKING WANTED WITH YOUR UFC CONTRACT???

Divisional Round Fine Blotter: More than a couple this time around

• New England Patriots:  Trey Flowers:  $20,054 for Roughing the Passer
• New England Patriots:  Trent Brown:  $20,054 for Unnecessary Roughness
• Indianapolis Colts:  JJ Wilcox:  $20,054 for a Horse Collar tackle.
• Indianapolis Colts:  Denico Autry:  $13,369 for an illegal celebration on a sack.
• And those last two fines of the season for the Indianapolis Colts put them into dollar-for-dollar territory.  $25,000 for Level 2.  And an additional $16,691 for dollar-for-dollar penalties.
• Philadelphia Eagles:  Tim Jernigan:  $10,026 for Taunting
• Los Angeles Rams:  Marcus Peters:  $10,026 for a Late Hit.  And that's THREE-TIME LOSER for him.

The four teams left:

New England (Ranked #8, $190,513 on the number + $50,000 = $240,513) at Kansas City (#17, $140,372 -- rounding error to Level 1)

Los Angeles Rams (#13, $163,769 + $50,000 = $213,769) at New Orleans (#7, $196,679 + $50,000 = $246,679)

Last year:

Jacksonville (#9, $156,735 + $50,000 = $206,735) at New England (#27, $68,230 -- $50,000 of that was the Gronk suspension for his People's Elbow)

Philadelphia (#20, $100,309) at Minnesota (#4, $211.039 + $128,529 = $339,568)

The Government Supporting Corrupt Soccer/Futbol: Part 2. Hungary...

Deadspin does it again. 

Two days, two stories where the government appears to be saying The (Rigged) Beautiful Game is above all else and should be given deity status, especially in countries where the game is hopelessly corrupt.

Dateline:  Hungary.

The head of a hacker website which has specialized in bringing down institutionalized corruption in European soccer has been arrested in Hungary.  He, as a result, is calling his efforts being a whistle-blower.

Rui Pinto, now 27, was part of the website "Football Leaks", which has found out, among it's catches:

• Blowing the cover on a rape case involving Cristiano Ronaldo
• Blowing the cover on tax evasion situations against Jose Mourinho
• and blowing the cover on the plans for the major money European clubs to create a continental "Super League" to permanently freeze out even their own national leagues from the money they make.

And, apparently for this, Pinto was arrested by Portuguese officials -- probably meaning this has to do with the Cristiano Ronaldo situation, if I had to make a guess...

The charges are extortion and violation of secrecy, and he can get a decade in prison once he's extradited to Portugal.

There is one major problem, however:  It does appear the extortion charge may have merit, and nullify his call for whistle-blower status.  There was a 2016 report from a Spanish newspaper that his lawyer did, in fact, seek hush money from several Portuguese sides.

Stay tuned...

Super Bowl LIII(E): Trial Balloon or Tell?

MSN reports that CBS execs (CBS has the rights to Super Bowl LIII(E)) have been less-than-privately preferring a big-market matchup between New England and the LA Rams for the game in two weeks.

Now that the Chargers have been Clippered and the only alternative to New England bringing the prospect of domestic-violence PR for two weeks into the Super Bowl discussion, it would appear this is the #1 matchup.

Brian Tuohy also made references to the "bro-hug" the ref gave Tom Brady before last week's game, and, with political tensions left-right escalating in this country, the right-wing NFL bringing back Brady and jamming him down our throats for Ring #6 Trump-style is now some degree of discussion.

(Also with some degree of discussion is a disruption of the Super Bowl, should the Federal shutdown go more than 2 more weeks, with the TSA already up in arms.)

But I would have to think New England vs. Los Angeles appears to be the CURRENT line of thinking -- but the NFL had best be careful something doesn't come out in the two weeks like at least two or three of the other New England Super Bowls have had...

The Difference Between A Person Considered a Wacko and A Person Who Is Known To Tell The Truth

I sit here, alive, posting this to my blog.

A reporter in Ghana is not so fortunate.  (Deadspin with the report.)

Ahmed Hussein-Suale was killed by two hidden armed gunmen in Ghana.

Hussein-Suale was part of the undercover project Number 12, exposing corruption throughout the national soccer federation.

And readers of this blog should not be completely unfamiliar with the situation in Ghana with respect to international match-fixing:

• A critical 2014 World Cup match almost did not take place until cars with cash for Ghanian team were sped through the streets of Brazil.  The players eventually posed with some of the cash, and then probably threw their match to ensure Germany and the United States went through.  (Here's that post.)
• And several other things (unfortunately, three YouTube videos I posted to show the Ghana farce with Portugal that day have been removed, so you'd need to find a highlight reel of the Ghana-Portugal game which featured an own goal by Ghana, and the match-winner being a ball deliberately double-fisted in the penalty area...  right at the feet of Cristiano Ronaldo.
• A 2013 U-20 World Cup controversy between Ghana and Chile, this one rigged FOR Ghana, as two Chilean defenders took a dive to ensure Ghana would score an extra-time winner in their knockout match just seconds from a shootout.  (It also had a video that got yanked.)
• Read this, from a pre-2014 World Cup expose from Declan Hill, which includes this from the then-President of the Ghanian soccer federation...

"“In every competition you find gamblers around,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association. “Yes, every competition. Every competition, they are there. It is done all the time in major competitions. In all the major tournaments, World Cup, Cup of Nations.”"

• And then this note, from the same article:

"In fact, a 2007 match was believed fixed when the Singaporeans were seen around the Ghanian goalkeeping coach.  It turns out that he had been working with them for a decade!"

And most of this was just 2013-2014...

It can easily make one understand why "certain people" (Dan Tan, Football 4 U, and operatives of both within the country of Ghana) would want to silence people like Hussein-Suale.

It is the difference between someone, like myself, viewed a wacko for sports conspiracy theory -- and someone for whom they know it's the truth, he speaks it, gets the information out there...

... and is killed because of it.

And then, word that the murder was actually encouraged (and probably ordered) by a member of Ghanian Parliament!  

Sad news, but we shall not be silenced. Rest in peace, Ahmed. #JournalismIsNotACrime #SayNoToCorruption pic.twitter.com/Gk2Jdgo6Sn

— Anas Aremeyaw Anas (@anasglobal) January 17, 2019

The man in the video is Kennedy Agyapong, who doxxed Hussein-Suale on Ghanian national television, all but ordering his execution.

Rest in peace, Ahmed Hussein-Suale -- and in power.

Divisional Day Two Thoughts, or "You don't speak bad of your master..."

That was not only a change of plans with New England going over today, that was a discreditation that has to start leading to some real questions as to the viability of the Chargers franchise, in LA or anywhere else.

I can't think, at this point, that we'd be looking at the Chargers going over NEXT YEAR and the stadium opens to the Chargers, instead of what is beginning to become a narrative of the "New LA Showtime"...

But now the NFL is stuck.

Kansas City wins on Sunday, and it's two weeks of domestic violence murmurs with Kareem Hunt.

New England wins, and who knows when or what we might find out in the two weeks leading to the game.  (Spygate one year, Belichick's opposing TB12/Guerrero last year...)

One interesting stat:  Only about two in five of Brian Tuohy's contest entrants still have a chance to win after today.

I'm NOT one of them.

A Permanent NFL Bitch...

Russell Okung, your NFL career is over.

Unless we are about to witness the most insane comeback in the history of the league, your mouth just finished the Los Angeles Chargers as a going concern.

We'll see about the Rams (I can't see them not winning next year, but that would probably force two in a row.), but does this mean Title #6 in the face of TB12, or does this mean two weeks of questions for the league regarding Kareem Hunt?

In any event, you DO NOT question the Commissioner as an NFL player and not get a beatdown like this...

One which probably has doomed your team.

Divisional Day One Thoughts and 2018-19 NFL Wild Card Fine Blotter

Starting with the Fine Blotter -- and, for those keeping track, these do count against the number:

• Chicago Bears:  Adrian Amos:  $26,739 for defenseless player
• Philadelphia Eagles:  Michael Bennett:  $10,026 for a punch.  TWO-TIME LOSER

Now for my comment about Saturday in the playoffs:

Has there been one meaningful surprise YET?

Andrew Luck puts out Baltimore, only to then get the order to lay down to Kansas City (which makes sense for a reason...)

... while Russell Okung is right -- the NFL doesn't want a home playoff game for the Chargers.

But think, Russell:  In this day and age, would the league WANT to play the 2018-19 AFC Championship Game in a 27,000 seat soccer stadium?

You're right.

Now the Rams are in the NFC Championship Game (game just completed during my post here), and probably await the Saints.

Oh, and ESPN's second sub-line for the game tonight?  LeBron and other stars showing up in LA for the Rams.  The New Showtime, people -- but they'll need that for the new stadium opening in two years.

The one big bugaboo for some people would be New England going down, but...  TB12 anyone?

I will say this:  New England wins, and the NFC Champion will win the Super Bowl.  I'm just not sure if the Charger reality in LA doesn't need that jolt to become viable.

More Trouble in Tennis

Well, couple of articles in the last week indicating the match-fixing at low levels in professional tennis is (too) alive and well...

• Spain:  15 arrested and nearly 70 more looked at with respect to match-fixing, leading from an Armenian-based gang.  (Deadspin)
• Another report indicates the number of arrests is, in fact, 83 -- with over 20 professional tennis players involved and at least one who played in the US Open implied involved.  (David Payne Purdum, through Brian Tuohy)

It's the same as the professional video-game match-throwing problem.  If you are low enough on the totem pole in tennis, you aren't making enough money playing the sport to play it fairly.

Especially because you have to jet around the world, qualifier to qualifier, hoping to win your way into a main draw with a lucky draw to win a match or two...

The fact is that a lot of these players are getting offered more money to dive in a match than they could feasibly hope to win in the match.

At some point, they're just going to have to flush this entire model at the lower levels and start over.

Couple of baseball people with some REAL QUESTIONS to answer...

Kinda lulling a bit past the holidays and that one period of a little catch-up there...

But a couple stories have come up with two baseball players who need to answer some very real questions, or, frankly, be suspended or worse...

• Yasmani Grandal  Charge:  Possible collusion with, during the NLCS, and tampering with, during and in the offseason, vis-a-vis his new team, the Milwaukee Brewers.

The actions during the NLCS were suspicious enough, when Yasmani Grandal, then of the Dodgers, appeared to forget basic fundamental functions of being a catcher.

He became a restricted free agent, and refused the Dodgers' 1 year/$17.9 million qualifying tender.  To many Dodger fans, this was good riddance to bad rubbish.

It's what's happened afterward that has people really wondering.

He then got a 4 year/$60 million offer from the only team stupid enough to do it under these circumstances, the LOLMets.

He turned them down.

So what does he do?  He accepts a 1 year/$18.25 million offer to play for...

... the team he may well have attempted to aid to the World Series, the Milwaukee Brewers.

You turn down the best offer you could ever hope to logistically see, given your age, position, and performance in the last postseason -- to sign for only $350,000 more than the Dodger qualifying offer to the team that many who watched you barf and vomit through the NLCS wondered if you were rigging it for...

Yasmani...  Answers, now.

And speaking of "Answers, now...":

• You could be Trevor Bauer of the Cleveland Indians:  Charges:  Harassment, possibly sexual.  Cyberstalking.  Violation of inclusion requirements of players in Major League Baseball.

This guy could, very well, in fact be arrested.

It all started a week ago, when the moron decided to take a flier at Houston's Alex Bregman.  This caught the ire of Twitter user "nikki", with whom he decided to get in a Twitter war and sick his fans on, especially after nikki told Bauer that he was Tweeting like a 16 year-old girl on her period.

So a professional athlete decides to start going through and making nikki's Twitter life Hell for...  basically nothing.  Who hasn't told someone off on Twitter to that extent?

(Well, I haven't, for about 15 months now -- account is softlocked and effectively banned for telling Republican women that they are so stupid to support Trump that they should please paint bullseyes on their pussies so their Republican betters can know where to grab...)

 He starts going through her Twitter history and bringing shit up.

Then he pulls what should get him suspended on inclusion grounds ON TOP OF THE HARASSMENT:  He attempts to "identify as a 12 year old".

And Manfred, you're good on this because...  MAGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another example of why e-sports is a fraud...

• Ellie was a fraud, as I kind of expected.

It appears that we have our answer on the Overwatch story, and it is about what I figured.  The female player "Ellie" was actually Punisher, a player apparently tied to Ellie.

There's only one real punishment:  Throw the team out, perma-ban Punisher.

And it's yet another example of two real problems which should put an end to e-sports, if anyone ever really desires to pay attention.

First, the rampant amount of fraud and illegal deceit which goes on in e-sports is becoming, more and more, part of the process.

Second, I'll start with a comment from Liz Richardson, managing editor of Overwatchscore, an e-sports site on the Overwatch League and other things Overwatch (through the Kotaku article on the subject):

“I am seven goddamn thousand levels of livid about this Ellie situation,” said Liz Richardson, managing editor at Overwatch esports site Overwatchscore. “People involved aside, this ‘stunt’ will have lasting ramifications for ANY woman/[non-binary] person trying to get into Contenders. They will ALL now be subject to ‘lol are you real??’ harassment.” 

I'll take you a step further, and it's one of the reasons I don't care if (as Blizzard now points out) "Ellie" was never an official member of the Second Wind team...

That's the exact intent of the situation.  I believe the intent of this incident was to ensure that no female player could ever ascend to even the second tier of professional Overwatch, and that this was DESIGNED to use that harassment Liz Richardson talks about to ensure that not only does no female/non-binary player get into professional Overwatch, no such player even THINKS of getting into professional Overwatch.

Toxic masculinity, and, for that, Second Wind and Punisher should be immediately permabanned.

But watch:  Since this is the Overwatch League -- and, if you've been following the disciplinary reports from sites like Kotaku, you know of a lot of this -- it'll probably get them a benefit toward promotion to the top professional league.

Oh Christ, and I thought the first Bama loss to Clemson was a lay-down...

What I am watching here is a thrown game.

My suspicions on this game didn't start with actually thinking Clemson was going to win, much less blow out Alabama...

There's a rather infamous "fan" on rec.sport.football.college named "mia", or Michael Anderson.

Now there's a lot of thought that he's a bandwagoner for Alabama, but he has talked a rather inordinate amount of shit about Alabama the last several seasons.

He's also infamous for posting bets he makes to FiveDimes, a foreign (I think) online sportsbook.  He loses most of them, often embarrassingly.

So imagine my shock this morning when I see his play for tonight's game...

Picking Clemson to win at +200...

At this point, I spend most of my day (not at the front of my mind, mind you, but I do think about it as part of catharsis) thinking whether this guy is either trolling the group or money-laundering for somebody.

This is a game which, had Alabama won (or wanted to win!), they would probably have this year's team (who was odds-on at most Vegas casinos to win the national title a month before the season even started! -- 7/10 at the Tropicana during my August Vegas trip!) declared Greatest of All-Time.

Between that and what happened during this game:

• Two embarrassingly bad first-half interceptions by Tua, the first returned directly for six and the second returned 40 yards and led to another six.
• A complete lack of discipline on the field
• A complete lack of playcalling and awareness of game situations -- the culmination being a fake field goal that there were literally seven year-olds watching the game knowing was coming (and was stuffed!).
• A complete lack of any urgency on either side of the ball, especially as the game snowballed.

Etc.

And to top it off...  The only reason Clemson didn't score on a game-ending 99-yard drive was that there were 10 minutes to go and not 12.

Everybody's going to say Clemson was That Damn Good...  And they played quite well.

But if you watch the game, you realize they had a lot of help -- and NOT from the referees.

The Alabama Crimson Tide (and for the second time in the CFP title game against Clemson) took a goddamn dive on the field.

Why?  I can come up with one theory right now...

Anyone who's been following ESPN for any length of recent time knows they have been hemorrhaging money for quite some time, largely due to decreasing subscriber bases and their prices being too high.

So have we gotten to the point where ESPN, with the Superteam Model in full effect in college football (this has been three of the last four title games, with the two teams meeting in the semifinal last year), had to order Alabama to lose so that the sport itself might not regionalize and no longer justify the money ESPN is putting into it, given current economic reality?

It's the only explanation I can give for this performance.  And it does need an investigation...

Week 17 2018 NFL Fine Blotter

Apologies...  This got lost in the tracks over the weekend.  Since it's this far down the line, I am going to assume that Spotrac has it right here -- with some help from ESPN.

• Chicago Bears:  Roquan Smith:  $20,054 for Roughing the Passer
• Making the Bears the fourteenth team to reach Level 1.  $50,000 fine for the team.
• Chicago Bears:  Deon Bush:  $10,026 for a face mask.
• Chicago Bears:  Pat O'Donnell:  The team's punter, O'Donnell got too close to the side judge and tripped him, the league deeming it worthy of a $15,000 fine.
• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Ramon Foster:  $10,026 for unsportsmanlike conduct
• Indianapolis Colts:  George Odum:  Appears to be repeat offender unsportsmanlike conduct, $20,054.  TWO-TIME LOSER, probably from his Week 11 fine getting the double here.
• San Francisco 49ers:  Antone Exum, THREE-TIME LOSER, AGAIN $53,482 for defenseless receiver, HIS THIRD FINE OF THE SAME TYPE!  His first was reduced to $5,000 from Week 3, but that's still almost $117,000, ALMOST THREE FULL GAME CHECKS.
• Hello, Roger Goodell, Suspension?  
• Kansas City Chiefs:  Fellow wide receivers Tyreek Hill
• Kanass City Chiefs:  and Demarcus Robinson:  Both $10,026 for taunting.
• Hill received a similar fine in Week 11, but apparently won his appeal, since this was not doubled.  Because of this, Hill and Robinson's fines leave Kansas City within rounding error of Level 1.
• New Orleans Saints:  Marcus Davenport:  $20,054 for Roughing the Passer  A similar fine two weeks ago has been appealed off -- same supposition as Hill.
• Miami Dolphins:  Minkah Fitzpatrick:  $10,026 for unsportsmanlike conduct.
• Miami Dolphins:  Kiko Alonso:  $10,026 for a QB free shot ejection, which led to...
• Miami Dolphins:  Robert Quinn ($10,026) and
• Buffalo Bills:  Jordan Mills ($13,369) for ejection level fighting/unsportsmanlike conduct
• And Mills' fine proves costly:  The Bills become the fifteenth team to reach Level 1.  $50,000 team fine.
• Dallas Cowboys:  Antwaun Woods:  $10,026 for taunting.
• Los Angeles Rams:  Samson Ebukam:  $26,739 for the helmet rule.
• And that means, once again, half the league has now hit the Level 1 threshold, including 3 teams in the final week.  $50,000 fine for the Rams.
• Cincinnati Bengals:  Alex Redmond:  $26,739 for probably defenseless player rule.

You want a good idea what happened to the scoring?

Just in the last six weeks of the season, players accumulated $1.8 MILLION in fines.

Team penalties for accumulated on-field fines this year, leading into the playoffs (which still count, all the way through the Super Bowl) exceeded a million dollars this year.

Total reported league take from dirty play on the field:  $5,433,164.  Three teams reached dollar-for-dollar, but 16 reached the Level 1 penalty.

That already exceeds last year, including the playoffs, plus the 5% increase.  Last year stopped just short of $5 million ($4,969,557)  Six teams reached dollar for dollar, a total of 14 reached Level 1.

Two years ago, $3,526,034, and only one team went dollar for dollar and only 11 even reached Level 1.

As of the start of the playoffs, the top five fined teams were:

1.  The Jets (who probably damn near had to cut a million-dollar check to the league with the drug suspensions as well):  $301,724 in fines, another $166,137 in team penalties under the on-field, for an on-field total of $467,861.

2.  Atlanta:  $243,990 for their number, another $106,803 for team penalties, $350,793 total.

3.  Jacksonville:  $230,478 on the number, another $94,981 for team penalties, $325,369

4.  Vontaze Burfict.  Well, Cincinnati as a team, but Burfict is most of it.  $193,584 on their number, another $12,000 for Burfict's $112,000 fine in Week 6 (two weeks after he came back from his THIRD CONSECUTIVE SEASON-OPENING SUSPENSION), and a $50,000 team penalty, for $255,584, for which Burfict is personally responsible for $189,639 of it (the $112,000 from Week 6, another $26,739 from Week 12, and the $50,000 team fine.)  If Burfict had been thrown off the Bengals, the Bengals would've ranked...  well, you'll find out.

5.  New Orleans, the only playoff team in the top 5 this year.  They picked up fines in eight of the last ten weeks to total a number of $196,679, plus the $50,000 for Level 1 for a total of $246,679.

In contrast, only nine teams were fined less than $100,000 by the league this year.

The bottom 5:

28.  Tennessee, which was only fined three times for a total of $46,791:  An illegal TD celebration in Week 9, a helmet to helmet in Week 13, and an unsportsmanlike conduct in Week 16.  Except for the final one, Josh Norman actually behaved this year!

29.  Tampa Bay, only fined twice for a total of $36,765:  A chop block in Week 3, a helmet to helmet in Week 7.

30.  Arizona, only fined twice for $30,080:  An unnecessary roughness in Week 8, and Jadaevon Clowney roughing the passer in Week 15.

31.  Washington, only fined twice for $20,052:  A chop block in Week 8, and a taunting call in Week 16.

But the honors this year (and it's the only honors this lowly team will get for this season) for the cleanest fine slate of the year...

The DETROIT LIONS, whose lone fine for the entire year was an ejection foul for LaGarette Blount for shoving San Francisco's Elijah Lee on the sidelines:  $10,026.

Again, this is all from information I have.

Wild Card Thoughts

• Really looking Chargers-Saints now.  Knew that when Luck's run continued over Houston, Chicago was going to follow them out.
• NFL really working it out, other than the Andrew Luck continuance -- all three other games within one score, one a single point and one for two.
• Last Chance Miss for Seattle in Dallas.  Don't completely count out Dallas -- the one team which the ratings held because of a lot of the "America's Team" and Jones talking pro-Trump.
• 25 fourth-quarter points in Baltimore.  And another Last Chance Miss.
• And a Cliffhanger and a Last Chance Miss in Philly's win over Chicago.

So, with the division champions and home teams going 1-3, we have:

AFC:

Kansas City vs. Indianapolis

It'd be a heck of a way to put KC out if they are going to be Kareem Hunt-ed, but I think the better draw is KC-Chargers.

New England vs. LA Chargers

This shouldn't even remotely be close for a New England win.  I think Goodell has other ideas.

NFC:

New Orleans vs. Philadelphia

LA Rams vs. Dallas

A "POINTS!!!" championship weekend with KC/Chargers and Rams/New Orleans???

Gee, and almost as if it was timing (it wasn't!), a video game story to the same effect!!

I swear, stack of Bibles, I did not see this story from Kotaku before I made the Super Fraud of the Year post.

Because we now have an e-sports toxic masculinity (we think!) post here!

A new Overwatch pro at the official minor-league level has withdrawn from her team due to toxic masculinity and complaints.

There is more to this story, though, that should merit some degree of investigation of the team involved:  Second Wind.

A female player nicknamed "Ellie" was reported to have gotten on the team about two weeks ago.  Ever since, Ellie has been the subject of a mass harassment campaign which would be indicative of the incel masculine toxicity rampant in video games.

There is one thing which should be investigated:  No real-life name (unlike all other players in the Contenders series) was given for Ellie.  Given that Ellie was quite lowly-ranked for even a minor-league professional Overwatch player and had only very recently gotten onto the competitive ladder at all, there was, I believe, legitimate question to ask who this person was!

Between that and the toxic masculinity, Ellie quit the team yesterday.

However, I still have a number of theories which would actually state legitimate questions should be at least asked by Blizzard of Second Wind...

• Banned (male) player trying to use the guise of a female player to play the game at a professionial level.

Ironically, at least one actually banned male player WAS asking for doxxing of Ellie to get this all figured out.

• Publicity stunt by Second Wind, owing to the minute number of female top-flight e-sports players.
• Perhaps no player actually existed, for one reason or another...

Team owner Justin Hughes:  "Between needing a player to live up to huge expectations and having to question their own safety, it seems that the OW community isn’t ready to just view a player as just a player. We wanted a player, but it seemed like the public wanted something else.”

You're right.  Many people within the e-sports community (not just players, but fans, streamers, etc.) are little more than incel unemployable men who try to rewrite the concepts of "work", "job", and "athlete" for their liking.

I think I, over the course of watching various e-sports, have seen maybe one female of legitimate skill, etc. (a Street Fighter pro) to survive in this toxic masculinity of a "sport".  If men don't get a handle on themselves soon, one of the things I openly forecast in 2019 is a collapse in both e-sports and video-game streaming, as various governmental and other bodies will just finally have had enough of the incel unemployable gamer.

2018 Super Fraud of the Year: Alpha Male Americanism and Sports' Reliance On It

Was remiss to do this post before the year turned, but it gave me a couple extra days to consider the possibilities.

There was an NFL which openly embraced rigged calls as part of it's playoff storyline, then rewrote the game to effectively outlaw defense to the point many defenders have resorted to cheap shots openly and said "Damn the fines..."

There was MAGA League Baseball, which screwed the Dodgers again -- but, on more disturbing fronts than that, saw it's Black population of players drop to historically low levels, while the actual corporation of MLB is openly endorsing racist and bigoted parties.

There was college football, which has been solidifying itself as a regional sport for a very few relevant teams, taking the Superteam model and ratcheting it up to massive proportions.

But my winner for Super Fraud of the Year 2018 probably could've won any number of years previous, but the winner is the necessity of American sport to be married to Trump-ian Alpha Male Americanism and toxic masculinity.

A sports world where #BelieveAllWomen has become a catchphrase is no secret -- girls and women are left laid to waste in the name of conquering male athletes, with everyone covering up for them to ensure they're on the field Friday night/Saturday/Sunday...

But this year, I'd like to "highlight" three major manifestations of it which have left black marks all over the American sports landscape.

The Kareem Hunt video

The only reason that the Kansas City Chiefs may not win Super Bowl LIII(e) is the video which was made evident November 30 of Kareem Hunt being the shit out of and kicking a woman -- showing Hunt had lied to all three of police, NFL, and Kansas City Chief investigators.

Hunt was quickly fired, but, right about at that moment, the "POINTS!!" mantra which the NFL had spread over the league with new anti-defense rules, etc. nearly completely evaporated!  Once again, a major offensive superstar had been shown to be nothing short of a Trumpian bastion of toxic masculinity.

The entire existence of the Big Ten Conference

Sandusky and associated coverup at Penn State
Bullying at Rutgers going back years
joined this year by
Several sexual harassment complaints surrounding the Ohio State sports program (both NCAA and intramural)
The murder and coverup of same of a "lesser" football player at the University of Maryland
A rape allegation for a star receiver at the University of Wisconsin
and let's not forget...

The entire existence of a United States Olympic Team in the face of what may amount to a state-sponsored female-dehumanization campaign for athlete selection and to increase performance

Larry Nassar at Michigan State -- and that's just part of it!

The fact is that I now count at least FIVE US Olympic organizing bodies which will either cease to exist (USA Gymnastics) or be severely changed (swimming, diving, equestrian, taekwondo) due to sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment, and choosing of athletes/grooming athletes on the basis of accepting these dehumanizing tactics -- many of whom underage!

One has to wonder if the reinstatement of the Russian Olympic Committee at the end of the Pyeongchang Games was done with the reality that, had the suspension correctly remained in place, the IOC would have no option but to expel the United States as well, for a systematic campaign of assault, abuse, rape, dehumanization, and harassment/choice of female athletes throughout the Olympic spectrum which appears to indicate that a female athlete who aspires gold must first win gold in her male coach's bed.

And here's the comparatives I was talking about...

First, a good one for the NFL, but I don't think good enough to justify a remaking of the game for the offense:

Ratings were up 5% this year.  I know points bring ratings, but the fact is I don't think the kind of redefinition we got in the first 12 weeks merits only that kind of an increase, but it is a substantial reversal of the bleeding of the last two years.

• Points per game.

2018:  46.727 (new NFL record)

2017:  43.4375

2016:  44.933

2015:  45.625

2014:  45.1875

2013:  46.707

The reversal of the last five years toward the defenses was definitely evident to be reversed this year, but the last six weeks does leave a very real question as to whether even the league thinks it has gone too far.  With definite storm clouds hanging over New England (TB12) and Kansas City (backlash on Kareem Hunt), it would appear the Super Bowl COULD head toward a defensive showdown between Chicago and Houston.  

Or it could be a rematch of the 100+ Point Festival (Kansas City vs. the Rams).

I still think Chargers, to build them, over the Saints.

By the way, the record of 47.2 was when there were only 10 teams in the NFL, in 1948!  (Pro Football Reference)

• Home field advantage

2018:  .602

2017:  .566

2016:  .585

2015:  .545

2014:  .589

Checked around to see if that .602 is a record for a season -- it's certainly better than anything the last four or five...

• Over-under vs. Vegas at $100 per unit  (Basically, bet $100 on every over and this is how you would last the year)

2018:  -2700

2017:  -3100

2016:  -400

2015:  -2700

The House Always Wins.  I mean, I thought it too:  There was a Twitter poster right as some of the new rules were being announced that posted that betting the Over was like a red carpet to the bank.

We must all be reminded (even me, with my trips to Vegas from time to time) who pays for the lights...

In that vein:

• Favorites against the number, same methodology

2018:  -3300

One of the greatest cases for the thought that this year could represent a real changing of the guard in the NFL is the fact that the average NFL week this year was 7-9 against the number -- a full 33 games under .500).

2017 would've actually made you about +$700 on it.

2016: -300

2015:  -2500

• Cliffhangers

2018:  56

2017:  49

2016:  50

2015:  57

2014:  40

2013:  56

So trending back toward the high end as the league wants there to be more dramatic action for ratings.

• Percentage of competitive games, games where it was within 8 points in the 4th quarter

2018:  67.58

2017:  66.02

2016:  71.1

2015:  67.57

2014:  62.89

2013:  68

Thought this might be a little lower than usual this year - it wasn't.