The 2024 NFL Season - The Fix Is In Style

a.k.a. We're really doing this again?

Week 4

Raise your hand if you had predicted the Steelers, Commanders, Vikings, Seahawks, and Buccaneers would all be in first place in their respective divisions at the end of the first month of the NFL season. Are those five teams really good? Or is there just a lot of bad football being played right now?

The one guy not playing bad football is the Commanders QB Jayden Daniels. Remember what I wrote about the Bears and their new QB Caleb Williams? I still think he has a chance to make the Bears legitimate contenders in an illegitimate league, but Daniels might just upstage him. He looks like he actually has talent, and given the recent woes of the Washington franchise under the Snyder regime, the NFL might not mind propping up the Commanders if Daniels becomes a true commodity in the league.

Would Daniels (or Williams) get Patrick Mahomes level of officiating help? Doubtful, because who else can get as much referee help as the Chiefs currently enjoy? Seriously, the Chiefs could easily be 0-4 as opposed to 4-0 had some 50/50 calls not all gone their way. And if T.Swift isn't going to make an appearance at each and every Chiefs game - and she was M.I.A. on Sunday with the game in LA (due to supposed "security concerns") - the Chiefs chances at a third straight Super Bowl appearance will quickly vanish.

Otherwise, it was a very boring week. Even the primetime games were very "meh"...unless you bet on the Cowboys at -5.5 and then saw this:

Was that kick a little sus? You make the call.

Speaking of calls, the refs were their usual selves again this week, but what's surprising about that?

And that call in the Steelers game upset a former Steelers player enough to tweet:

Week 3

So, I don't watch sports anymore. If anything, I "watch" them as in, I have a game on in the background while I do something more interesting or fulfilling, and lift my head up to see what happened if I hear a rise in the announcer's voice. I sat down to do just that for Sunday Night Football because over the past few years, SNF has become a breeding ground for BS NFL outcomes. While I waited for the game to kickoff, I happned to stumble upon the movie Robocop (the original) and preceeded to watch that until its conclusion because (a) I hadn't watched it in probably 20 years, and (b) it was much more entertaining than anything the NFL could dish out. Plus, I knew that recently the NFL has become like the NBA, and nothing of note occurs until the final two minutes of the game.

Goodness, is Robocop a classic. Ultra-violent, raw, crude, funny, somewhat thought-provoking, and less than two hours long. My wife had never seen it before (which I found hard to believe), and even she wondered out loud, "Why don't they make movies like this anymore?" Good question. Why don't they? Why is today's pop culture so devoid of meaningfulness? I know I'll sound like an old person (becuase I am becoming an old person with each passing day), but nothing pop culture-wise seems memorable. What's a movie or album or anything from the past 10+ years that will be influential on the next 10+ years? Can you name one? I mean, Taylor Swift is probably this generation's biggest star, and she is so average across the board - singing, songwriting, performing - that if kids emulate her, it's just because she's all there is. But I've never heard someone reference her as a real "influence," and no one seems to point to her and say, "I want to sing like Taylor," or "Wow, what an original song from Taylor." It's just more of the same oatmeal. Elvis and the Beatles were influential. Taylor Swift is not. And the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the only thing that seems to get people into theaters today, and their films are two-and-a-half hour cartoons with little substance and nothing of note to say. Is it a wonder, then, why people turn to sports for entertainment?

But then again, if you are a "real" NFL fan, what part of this do you really find entertaining? A real football fan should find this all extremely insulting to one's intelligence:

Tack on to all of that, this little gem:

I guess this is entertaining for sports fans because "the outcome is always in doubt" and the "good guys" don't always win in the NFL, yet it seems that more often than not, the team the NFL wants always does win in the end. Like the Chiefs beating the Falcons on SNF...which wasn't decided until less than two minutes were remaining in the game. Well after Robocop had ended.

One last thing. Magnets?

Week 2

Let's start with this gem:

I wouldn't expect anything else from ESPN's "betting analyst," but did he see the Chiefs v Bengals game? Because the refs seemed to be taking sides in that contest:

Was it P.I.? Was it not P.I.? On 4th and 17 with the game on the line, I've seen a lot worse go uncalled. But what's the excuse on the chokehold block? Or the holding during the P.I. play which went uncalled?

But, ok, if the refs aren't involved then what are the players doing? You've played football your entire life. You are a PROFESSIONAL football player. And you do this:

Or you could be the Colts coaching staff and decide not to bother to stop the run against the Packers who were starting a castoff QB who'd been with the team for less than three weeks. These are supposedly the smartest people in football at work, fans. And you believe this level of incompetence is just par for the course? It's purely accident as oppsed to intentionally done?

We had two more primetime games come down to the final possession: the Falcons win with less than a minute remaining on MNF, and the Bears had a hope in their final drive despite not hiring anyone who could actually block for their "franchise" QB (see above). Thursday night was a dud, but Miami's QB got his 300th concussion and left before any dramatics could be performed. And outside of the primetimers, 10 of 13 games were decided by fewer than 7 points (and one of the three that weren't close involved the Panthers, so it really shouldn't count).

Meanwhile, everything is topsy-turvy in the standings. The Ravens, Bengals and Jaguars are 0-2. The Saints, Buccaneers, Seahawks, Vikings and Steelers are all 2-0. Big whoop. It's Week 2. The 0-2 teams will get better. The 2-0 teams will falter. They'll all be in the mix as the NFL wants it. That's parity in action, folks. More meaningful games later in the season. Get fans watching, Drive up those ratings. Make more money. That's the NFL in 2024.

Week 1

I have been quite absent from my own website, and to my fans and followers, I apologize for that. I've had a lot going on, including a possible project which would've been huge, but has since kind of blow up and twisted into something else which isn't what was originally intended but may still become something special. It's taken a lot of my time and energy,. It's just not amounted to all that much yet. But that's about all I can say about it.

And at the same time, haven't football fans figured this out yet? I mean, last year was all about Taylor Swift - and even to my own surprise - the NFL really ran that storyline all the way through to a Chiefs back-to-back Super Bowl title. Given what's recently happened in the NFL -- Peyton Manning retiring after winning a Super Bowl, the Patriots winning - in their first ever overtime Super Bowl - after being down 27-3, then Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers while breaking the home team "Super Bowl curse" (and playing a home Super Bowl game in the year of covid when we were all forced to stay home) among other shenanigans -- I shouldn't have to do these weekly recaps because people get it. It's fixed. It's a TV creation masquerading as a sport. It's fantasy football, only made real without a fairy godmother.

But, no. Here we are. Again. For about the 18th year (I launched this website in 2006, believe it or not)

So, I'll take another run at another NFL season. Once again, a warning: there may be a week, or weeks, I don't update this page, because some weeks, nothing of note happens (or I'm just busy living life, not caring what happens in the NFL).

Which teams are likely to be the stories this year? Because, let's face it, some teams just don't matter. They are filler. Needed to make this look like a true competition, but in reality, have no reason to really play the games the league forces them to play. Here's my guess:

In the AFC, yes the Chiefs will be a story because they are already talking about "no team has three-peated since....", but it's not happening. The Jets, with the comeback kid, er, old man Aaron Rodgers, will be a story (even though they just were whooped on MNF). Houston, Miami, Bills, and Jaguars all have stars that the NFL can hang its hat on, but I think the Ravens - even though they, too, lost in Week 1 - is who the NFL is greasing the wheels for. They have a thing for Lamar Jackson - why, I don't know - but one of these days, barring injury, he's going to be Super Bowl bound.

In the NFC, maybe the 2.0 version of Tom Brady, SF's Brock Purdy, will be a thing again. Maybe not. Same with the Eagles, they have the tools, but the mojo? Does the nation really care about these teams? The Lions haven't had their Super Bowl berth yet, and it's been how long since the Cowboys have won a playoff game? I think both might just happen in 2024. But look out for the Bears. I know Caleb Williams did nothing in Game 1, but if this kid has real talent, he'll get the "help" because the fans appear more rabid about him than they were with Fields, Trubisky, Grossman, and the rest of the QBs the Bears have trotted out since Jim McMahon. I can see Chicago in the Super Bowl. Maybe not in 2024, but within three years. Caleb may be have an "it" factor not seen in a while.

What we'll track this year is one score games, especially the prime-time affairs. So far, the season opener and the first-ever game in Brazil (why did this happen? Does anyone know?), both literally came down to the final play. The Sunday nighter was a one score game as well which, oh yeah, was decided in overtime. But Monday Night Football - the return of Aaron Rodgers - was surprisingly, to me at least, a lopsided affair which the 49ers just dominated. All told, there were nine games decided by 7 points or less,  three of which, as stated above, were in prime time.

So, until next week (or so), here's some food for thought: