Well, now we can write off the Pats for sure, unless beating the shit out of people (allegedly!) is American Patriot Man...

A SECOND New England Patriot has been arraigned on charges of domestic violence.

Christian Barmore has been arraigned on misdemeanor assault and battery for an incident in August.  An argument with a woman (domestic nature) on food and air conditioning temperature.

Well, it's for sure now, if yesterday's news wasn't enough, this would do it.

If the New England Patriots even remotely SNIFF Super Bowl LX, then you know what happened and who made the decision -- and this one would NOT be Roger Goodell. 

I know he was probably going to get cut after this week anyway, but the optics of this one...

The Dallas Cowboys have cut (and possibly fired) Trevon Diggs, a two-time Pro Bowl cornerback.

Now, there's no secret:  He was gone anyway after the season.  No further guaranteed money, the team was dissatisfied with his rehab, he was dissatisfied with his role on the team and playing time...

So I get it.  He was gone.

So why cut him THIS WEEK?

Unless...  He IS Stefon's brother, after all.

Do the Cowboys believe Trevon was involved in the incident?  I think so! 

2025 Week 17 Political Rankings -- NFC (and a major possible change to the AFC)

First, the AFC:

As of this morning, Denver is now in front of the AFC Politicals.

Stefon Diggs has been charged with felony strangulation regarding an incident on December 2nd in Massachusetts.

Most other years, this would be a definite.  Like the one year that someone got arrested the week of the Super Bowl and that basically decided everything politically (I believe that was Chiefs-49ers if my memory correctly serves.).  Like the Britt Reid incident, etc.

This year, there is the one caveat of the Big Orange Fuck.  That he is the poster child for something like this MIGHT actually make what Diggs is being charged with be a manifestation of REAL MANHOOD (RARGH!).

If Donald Trump is at least partially calling the shots, and I believe he is, that could actually be something that could put the Patriots over the top, because that could be what a Patriotic White American Male Landowner is designed to do.

But I'm going to put Denver in front at this point in time, with that very important (and large) caveat.

With that, the NFC Politicals:

Still, really only the one team to list:

Chicago.  And that's for the reason I stated last week.

Chicago is a cesspool to the Trump regime.  Indiana went for Trump by 20 points.

The fact that the (next?) three best teams in the NFC are all liberal West Coast (and then you have Philadelphia) means that, as far as a political discussion to win the Super Bowl, especially with Bad Bunny Halftime ICE Mania a very real possibility (I wonder if Vegas is going to take bets that the authorities prevent the Super Bowl Halftime Show from completing...), it's either Chicago or hold your nose in the NFC.

The other six NFC playoff teams are:

• Three liberal West Coast situations
• Philadelphia (which see Chicago)
• Green Bay (too crippled to be credible at this point -- they'll probably only be served for the 2-7 with Chicago)
• and an NFC South winner that might well be 8-9 if Tampa Bay wins.

After Sunday's festival, I do think they now have it down to San Francisco and Chicago for the NFC title game for POINTS! and EXCITEMENT!! 

I do still believe that, except for Chicago, they're all jobbing to whoever wins the AFC. 

2025 Week 17 Kayfabe -- NFC

I don't think anything here changes with tonight's result -- game just started.

1) Seattle (13-3, IN)

2) Chicago (11-5, NFC NORTH CHAMPIONS, wins HTH tiebreaker over Philadelphia)

3) Philadelphia (11-5, NFC EAST CHAMPIONS, loses HTH tiebreaker to Chicago)

4) Same convention as with the AFC post:  Carolina-Tampa Bay winner is NFC South champion and the #4, loser is out.

5) San Francisco (12-4, IN)

6) LA Rams (11-4, IN)

Even if the Rams win tonight in Atlanta, they still are behind in division record to San Francisco (4-1 vs. 3-2).

7) Green Bay (9-6-1, POSITION LOCKED) 

Week 18:

Irrelevant:  Vikings/Packers, Cowboys/Giants, Saints/Falcons

Win or Go Home:  Saturday's early game:  Carolina vs. Tampa Bay.  Winner is the NFC South Champion and the #4, loser is done for the year.

So a lot to unpack in just four games:

Seattle is the #1 if they beat San Francisco.  The #5 if they do not and the Rams also lose.  If the Rams win, divisional record gives the Rams the #5.

San Francisco is the #1 if they beat Seattle, because even with a three-way tie, 3-1 against the Rams and Seattle is better than Seattle or the Rams can do (HTH record).

The Rams can't win the NFC West because, even if they beat the Cardinals and San Francisco beats Seattle, San Fran would have a 5-1 division record to break the tie in their favor.  However, there are still seeding implications:  A win means they are the #5, otherwise, they are the #6 regardless.

Chicago is the #2 if they beat Detroit OR Philadelphia loses to Washington.  Philadelphia must beat Washington and have Chicago lose to take the #2.  The other is the #3. 

2025 Week 17 Kayfabe and Political -- AFC

Game tonight is all NFC.  Only one playoff spot remains in the AFC.

So we'll start with the Politicals first.

1) New England

2) Denver

Still think the "Patriot" angle, especially with Fatfuck and Bad Bunny, is not only a neck in front for the AFC, but more than that ahead of anything the NFC has to offer politically.  And, as I've said before, if you thought 2025 was Trump politicizing everything badly, I don't think that has anything to offer with 2026, the 250 year anniversary, the World Cup, the Winter Transphobe Games, etc.

3) Buffalo

I do think they could well be in the league's back pocket.  If there was a year to pay off the Bills Mafia and Josh Allen, this could well be the one.  I just think there's a far more intensive political angle with at least the #1 above.  And the reason they're #3 behind Denver is, more, kayfabe -- Buffalo is a wildcard team.

The other three teams all in the playoffs now have two major flaws:  Yes, I do think The Race Card at quarterback is a very important thing, especially with Orange Fatfuck getting his tiny hands into the equation.  And LA, either way (Chargers or Rams) is a flat no as things presently stand.

The only reason I'm not rating Pittsburgh #4 at this point (because of COVIDIOT-8 and very little else!) is because they have to beat Baltimore next week to even get in.

Kayfabe:

1) Denver (13-3, won AFC West, wins common game tiebreaker over the Patriots

Common:  Raiders (NE 0-1, DEN 2-0), Titans (both won), Bengals (both won), Giants (both won), Jets (NE 2-0, DEN 1-0)

2) New England (13-3, won AFC East, loses common game tiebreaker with the Patriots.

3) Jacksonville (12-4, IN)

4) This one, I'll save time and just say the Pittsburgh-Baltimore Week 18 winner.

5) Houston (11-5, IN, wins HTH sweep over LAC and BUF AND conference record tiebreaker (9-2) over both the Chargers and Buffalo (both 8-3)) 

6) Los Angeles Chargers (11-5, IN, wins common game tiebreaker over the Bills)

7) Buffalo (11-5, IN, loses common game tiebreaker with the Chargers)

Common:  Chiefs (LAC 2-0, BUF 1-0), Steelers (both won), Eagles (LAC won, BUF lost), Dolphins (LAC won, BUF lost)

Week 18 in the AFC:

Plenty to unpack here.

Irrelevant:  Raiders/Chiefs, Cleveland/Cincinnati.

Win or Go Home:  Sunday nighter:  Baltimore at Pittsburgh, winner is the #4, loser is out.

Denver is the #1 seed if they defeat the Chargers, or if Denver does no worse than both Jacksonville and New England.

New England is the #1 seed if they defeat Miami AND Denver loses.  Jacksonville has a better conference record than both New England and Denver, so a New England loss means they are out for the #1.  New England can be no worse than the #3 to begin with, nor no less than the #2 if they win.

Jacksonville is the #1 seed if they defeat Indianapolis AND both New England and Denver lose (conference record, 10-2 vs. 8-4 each).

Houston wins the AFC South and snags the #3 if they beat Indianapolis and somehow Jacksonville loses to Tennessee.  Houston is the #5 if they and Jacksonville both win, or if all three of Houston, the Chargers, and Buffalo all lose.

LAC is the #5 with a win and a Houston loss.  LAC is #6 with a win.

Buffalo, to improve their position, must win and have at least one of the Chargers and Houston lose.

I think we have our NFC Championship Game...

They usually do trial runs in this, and I think San Francisco's win over Chicago tonight probably was a trial run for an NFC Championship Game.

And then we have Week 18.

I guess I was wrong about them sloughing off Raiders-Chiefs.  They'll let it go at 4:25 Eastern Sunday, even though the game means nothing. 

I actually disagree with most of the people about the decision for the Sunday nighter.  COVIDIOT-8?  A possible Lamar Jackson?  Figure it out.  It's Steelers-Ravens.

The other win or go home is the Saturday early game.  The NFC West showdown (Seattle-San Francisco) is late Saturday.

The other four completely irrelevant games, as is usual custom for the last week, go early.

The two other early games on Sunday are the AFC South, so New England and Denver, who play late, will kick off knowing what they have to do. 

Yeah, he stepped in, didn't he?

Both other playoff spots which could've been clinched today weren't, and are set for head-to-head Week 18 matchups.

• Shedeur Sanders could only lead the Browns to 13 points -- but when your defense gives up only six...  Tree, if Shedeur sucks that bad, what does that make COVIDIOT-8?  Just asking for a friend...  Welcome to Days of Our Steelers...
• That means Week 18, Steelers-Ravens in Pittsburgh for all the marbles.
• And hoo boy, that NFC South... The Buccaneers lost 20-17 to Miami, and that should've slammed the door there and gotten Carolina the situation, but Seattle slammed Carolina instead, 27-10.
• And that means Carolina goes to Tampa next week for the NFC South -- and if Tampa wins it, 8-9 wins the division!

So now we have the following as of 3:30 PM PST Sunday.

NFC:

1. Seattle clinches the #1 seed if Chicago loses to San Francisco tonight.
2. Seattle can do no worse than the #2 seed.
3. Either Chicago or Philadelphia goes in this spot.  Chicago clinches no worse than the #3 if they win tonight.
4. The Carolina-Tampa winner is the #4.
5. The two 11-4 NFC wildcards that are the #5 and #6 play prime-time this week.
6. So nothing is determined here at all, including that at least one of them can win the division, but they must win out and Seattle must lose to San Francisco next week.
7. Green Bay is the #7. 

AFC:

1. Denver has the edge on New England if they both go 14-3 due to common games record, so Denver wins the #1 with a win over the Chargers next week.  If Denver loses and New England wins over Miami, then New England gets the #1.  If Jacksonville (who needs a win or a Houston loss to Indianapolis to clinch the AFC South) wins over Tennessee and both Denver and New England lose, Jacksonville gets the #1 on the basis of a 10-2 conference record vs. 8-4 for the other two.
2. A win by New England means they can do no worse than the #2.  A loss by Denver and a win by Jacksonville means Jacksonville can do no worse than the #2 because Jacksonville beat Denver (or see above if it ends a three-way tie at 13-4).
3. Denver, Jacksonville, Houston, or New England, depending on who's the low division winner on the totem pole after next Sunday.
4. The Pittsburgh-Baltimore winner is the #4.
5. Unless Buffalo comes back, all three wild-card teams will be 11-5.
6. So nothing will be determined for these three spots.
7. Houston has a one-game advantage in conference record over Buffalo and the Chargers, so a win, at minimum, gets them the #5 (it could win them the division and perhaps throw the tiebreaker into a strength of victory/schedule scenario).

Still no official announcement.

Here are the known irrelevant games as of this moment for Week 18:

• Saints-Falcons
• Browns-Bengals
• Chiefs-Raiders
• Packers-Vikings
• Cowboys-Giants

So that means those games will probably get sloughed off into the early block.  Chiefs-Raiders could even get moved early Saturday because it's in Las Vegas and they don't usually like to do 10 AM Pacific starts out there.  The other four games will almost certainly be 1 Eastern starts. 

So if we had to guess right now:  Chiefs-Raiders and one of the two win and in games Saturday.  The four irrelevant games 1 Eastern Sunday.  You could well have an inverted Sunday schedule:  Four early games, the rest late.  The other win and in Sunday night, probably Steelers-Ravens.  They probably won't do a full inversion, but, at the very least, probably Bears-Lions and the two NFC West games late.