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.