The Crystal Ball 2014 Week 1

Jimmy Clausen is the primary back up to Jay Cutler in Chicago.

The Dolphins pulled Brady Quinn off the trash heap to back up Ryan Tannehill.

The Bills released 3 quarterbacks during the preseason, brought one back, stuck him on the practice squad and signed a 4^th, Kyle Orton, to back up a suddenly shaky looking E.J. Manual.

Houston got rid of Matt Schaub, brought in Ryan Fitzpatrick, and was so underwhelmed by Fitzpatrick’s preseason; they got rid of his young backup and made a trade with New England for the untested Ryan Mallett, because he played in Bill O’Brien’s offense previously.

Carson Palmer, Bruce Arians’ reclamation project, is being backed up by Drew Stanton, who never had a heyday to begin with, so calling him a new reclamation would be erroneous.

The Buccaneers are starting uber journeyman Josh McCown, (I swear I didn’t even realize he was still in the league), over last year’s lukewarm rookie Mike Glennon.

Rex Ryan feels his best choices for field general are the untested Geno Smith, and the rapidly aging Michael Vick.

St. Louis will roll into the season at quarterback with Shaun Hill, super journeyman, after Sam Bradford blew out his surgically repaired ACL. Right now, the thought of Mark Sanchez is making Rams fans swoon.

So when you ask why the Bengals are laying down potential fat cash for Andy Dalton, or why Tony Romo makes more than Tom Brady, it’s because franchise quarterbacks are almost impossible to find, and even finding a serviceable average to above average quarterback relies a bit on the luck of the draw.

When teams are lucky enough to nab a franchise quarterback, they over pay them and let them play forever. It’s why they overpay average quarterbacks and let them play for years. The alternative, well….

The Oakland Raiders paid Matt Schaub several million dollars this off season to join their team and play quarterback. Schaub has turned out to be such an unwise investment, to the surprise of no one outside of Oakland, the Raiders are going to start the season at quarterback with rookie Derek Carr, brother of former number 1 overall draft pick and Houston quarterback David Carr, who was supplanted by Schaub and never panned out in the NFL.

It’s tough finding a good quarterback.

Opening Kickoff

Who wants to bet defensive tackle Ray McDonald, recently arrested for domestic violence right after Goodell’s “tough” new policy on the matter, not only doesn’t serve a full 6 game suspension, but also won’t serve a game until NaVorro Bowman returns from injury? No one? We all see through the sham? Excellent.

The Way It Was

Not much to report here, since all the action we’ve had is Seattle beating down the Green Bay Packers as though they were the Denver Broncos. Tell me again how this team is not going to repeat? I know the sample size is small, but damn.

The Steel Pit

Former linebacker James Harrison, author of one of the most exciting and iconic plays in Super Bowl history officially retired from the NFL on Friday. Harrison personified the Steelers defense for over half a decade, and became a role model for any player who was told they weren’t enough of something to make the NFL. Harrison, undrafted when he came out of college, was cut 4 times, three by Pittsburgh, before sticking with the team. He is still the only undrafted player to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year, which he won in his epic 2008 season when he won his second Super Bowl with the Steelers.

While I cannot and will not condone his own issues with domestic violence, I will applaud him for his battles with Roger Goodell and work to expose Goodell’s arbitrary punishment standards and the hypocrisy of the NFL in general. Well, and of course this epic body slam of a rather foolish Browns fan.

Remember a few years ago I said Lawrence Timmons would become for the Steelers what Troy Polamalu once was? Yeah, we’re there now. And he’s now the new leader of the defense. Just watch.

This is a great story about linebacker Sean Spence. Two seasons ago, Spence had his knee blown up in a preseason game. After two seasons on injured reserve, rehabbing, working, gaining strength, Spence is now back on the field. I hope he does well; it would make the perfect happy ending for this story.

Only In Faux NFL Reality…

Well, we have yet to see them in action yet this season, and those wacky Manning brothers are at it again, this time with a rap video. I’m not even sure how to respond.

In order to avoid paying an established veteran what he’s worth, Bill Belichick traded guard Logan Mankins away for next to nothing and put an untested rookie in his place. Tom Brady is reportedly pissed off at this transaction. I’m sure he’s regretting taking a hometown discount the last time he signed a contract. I wonder now if he realizes what an evil presence Bill Belichick truly is.

Let’s go from evil to good. The Bengals cut offensive lineman Devon Still, and signed him to their practice squad so Still could spend more time with his young daughter who is fighting cancer, but still keep his benefits, thus allowing him to financially cover his daughter’s care. That is one of the most outstanding things I’ve ever heard from a team. And a major kudos to Cincinnati for doing the right thing.

The NFL and DirecTV have inked a new deal for NFL Sunday Ticket, and it is just for obscene money. I don’t even subscribe to Sunday Ticket, but I see my bill getting bigger in the future.

The Dallas Cowboys included playoff tickets when they sent out their season ticket packages to season ticket holders this year. I’m not sure if this is the most overly optimistic thing I’ve ever heard, the framework for the sequel story to Man of La Mancha, or the most delusional thing I’ve ever heard.

This overly dedicated fan wants to get a tattoo of the signature of every starter on the Washington Snyders. Well, I’ll ask, why? Perhaps he can accentuate them sartorially with Dan Snyder’s latest poorly thought through public relations scheme, Save the Name t-shirts! Do you ever get the feeling that Snyder’s stubborn antics surrounding his team’s moniker could easily turned into a wacky sitcom? Oh John Ritter, we miss you right now.

Former NFL quarterback Scott Mitchell will be featured on this season of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Mitchell should fit right in, he did play for Detroit.

Des Hague, CEO of Centerplate a sports catering company that works with a multitude of teams, was caught on video abusing a 1 year old Doberman Pinscher puppy. As the laws and punishment for animal abuse are notoriously soft, remember Michael Vick went to prison for the gambling not the dog fighting, I say hit this guy where it hurts. Boycott his company, boycott their services, and let teams know that utilize Centerplate you won’t financially support the teams as long as Centerplate is run by Hague. Legal sanctions may not be good enough in animal abuse cases, but monetary sanctions and dwindling profits are always effective.

NFL players agree with President Barack Obama, marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol. LaGarrette Blount and Le’Veon Bell voraciously agreed.

Upon Further Review

Once you move past 5 or 6 quarterbacks in this league, it becomes a crap shoot regarding who’s good, bad, who to keep, who to jettison, and when the next big thing falls into someone’s lap. And short of those 5 or 6 teams lucky enough to have an unquestioned franchise quarterback, just about every team manages to bungle their quarterback situation in some way.

This dawned on me during the preseason as I looked over the landscape of the AFC North, and realized, this division exemplifies the wide spectrum of mistakes you can make at your quarterback position.

Mistake #1: The classic over reaction – Joe Flacco, in a contract year, managed to string together a half dozen great games that culminated in an improbable, and looking increasingly lucky, Super Bowl victory. Flacco had yet to show that level of command, control and leadership before in his average career, and there were no guarantees he would again. What did Baltimore do? They backed up the Brinks truck and wildly overpaid for Flacco’s future services.

As a Steeler fan, I could not have been happier, as this guaranteed Baltimore would have average to mediocre quarterback play for years to come, and now with the addition of a hamstrung salary cap. Yes, as I mentioned earlier you overpay for a good or even average quarterback. But Baltimore wildly overpaid. And if this season looks like last season, that deal will look worse and worse.

Mistake #2: The classic under reaction – Ben Roethlisberger is without a doubt a franchise quarterback, one of the most successful in the NFL over the last decade and the best quarterback Pittsburgh has had since Terry Bradshaw, by far. He has delivered 3 Super Bowl appearances, two Super Bowl wins, one of the best records in the NFL during this time period. And he’s done all this often with a subpar offensive line, subpar running backs and wide receivers, lately a subpar defense, and with a coaching staff and ownership group that inexplicably treats him as though he were nothing more than an over rated Bubby Brister.

While they did grant Roethlisberger a large, franchise quarterback commiserate contract in the past, that contract is approaching its conclusion. With two years to go, Pittsburgh often likes to renegotiate with players they want to keep. But this year, they decided to wait until the next off season to take care of Ben’s contract, and instead worked on deals for other, lesser players.

Apparently, the Steelers are content to keep pissing off Roethlisberger by treating him as an afterthought and minimizing his true contributions and worth to the team, much like previous regimes did to Terry Bradshaw, and have forgotten the lessons learned in the lean years of Stoudt, Malone, Brister, O’Donnell and Graham. Hopefully, someone in their front office reads a history book before Big Ben decides to pull a LeBron and return to Ohio.

Mistake #3: Paper Champions – Cincinnati falls into this trap, and it’s thanks to Andy Dalton. Even casual fans can see Dalton is not a franchise quarterback. He is a good player, and does pretty well in the regular season. But his playoff performances show a quarterback that may never find post season success, or at least highlight a coaching staff that does not know how to successfully coach their quarterback and team to post season wins. But Dalton wins regular season games well enough, which keeps fans hopeful and involved, which leads to ticket and merchandise sales. And as long as money rolls in, Mike Brown is happy to continue the con. With Dalton, the team will always look good on paper in preseason, which means income throughout the fall and into winter.

Mistake #4: Desperation – Cleveland hasn’t had a franchise quarterback since Bernie Kosar. Heck, Bernie never made it past the AFC Championship game. It could be argued they haven’t had one since Otto Graham. Since returning to the league in 1999, the Browns have tried repeatedly to find a franchise quarterback, and the results have not been pretty. Since 1999, the Browns have started at quarterback 20 different men. 20. They have been, shall we say, unsettled at the position. And so each year, they perennially seem to be searching for their own franchise guy.

This year has been no different, and in their attempt to find The One, the Browns grabbed the ultra-exciting college sensation Johnny Manziel. The only problem, Manziel seems more interested in being Johnny Football and has no idea the level of work and commitment you must do at the NFL level to be successful. And neither does anyone on the Browns staff.

There are other mistakes you can make, but other errors are less, or derivatives of these mistakes. The AFC North, however, has you covered across the spectrum of the quarterback universe.

The Super Bust

Welcome one and all to The Crystal Ball’s annual Super Bust Picks!

One of my favorite parts of the season is determining who will play in the still theoretical Super Bust. For the uninitiated to our all-star game, the Super Bust was born out of annoyance and frustration with media outlets attempting to prognosticate Super Bowl participants and glean an NFL champion without a single down of meaningful football played. I’ve maintained it’s a ridiculous exercise in futility, and continue to enjoy pointing out the stupidity of choosing winners without any consequential data.

As longtime readers of The Crystal Ball are aware, The Super Bust would pit the two consensus pre-season favorites to play in the Super Bowl, yet failed to get there, against each other. The creation of this game would fill the void in the week between the championship games and the Super Bowl, and provide the participating teams, fans, support businesses and the NFL at large with untold benefits.

Now when this concept was first introduced, the Pro Bowl was still played at its traditional time during the week after the Super Bowl. Since then, Goodell and the NFL saw fit to move the Pro Bowl between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, filling that football free void. So for the Super Bust to actually work, the Pro Bowl needs to return to its proper time, after the Super Bowl. This would benefit the fans, because they would be able to see players from all 32 teams, not 30 minus the Super Bowl participants. And it would benefit the Super Bowl winning team, as their players could be feted by their colleagues fittingly.

I can guarantee The Super Bust would provide exciting football. The two chosen teams would be so bitter about not playing in the Super Bowl, despite being favorites to appear in the big game at the beginning of the season, and forced to play in a sideshow exhibition game they would take out their frustrations on each other. And with only the off season looming next week, all caution would be thrown to the wind. You want hard hitting slobber knocking football? The Super Bust would fit that bill. The game is that simple, and that genius. Plus, it would be fun to gather all the media talking heads together during the pregame show to discuss the participating teams, knowing these clubs were their choices to play for the Lombardi Trophy. Hello awkward conversation!

I’m sure you’re wondering if this would work. Would the pre-season favorites actually be available for the Super Bust, or would they defy my prediction and actually advance to the Super Bowl. To answer this question, let’s compare the 2007 through 2013 season’s preseason favorites to the teams that actually participated in the Super Bowl.

2013 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC – Seattle Seahawks

AFC – Denver Broncos

2013 Actual Super Bowl Participants

NFC – Seattle Seahawks

AFC – Denver Broncos

2012 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC – Green Bay Packers

AFC – New England Patriots

2012 Actual Super Bowl Participants (Both teams were 2012 Super Bust Alternates)

NFC – San Francisco 49ers

AFC – Baltimore Ravens

2011 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC – Green Bay Packers

AFC – New England Patriots

2011 Actual Super Bowl Participants

NFC – New York Giants

AFC – New England Patriots

2009 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC - New York Giants

AFC – New England Patriots

2009 Actual Super Bowl Participants

NFC – New Orleans Saints

AFC – Indianapolis Colts

2008 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC – Dallas Cowboys

AFC – New England Patriots

2008 Actual Super Bowl Participants

NFC – Arizona Cardinals

AFC – Pittsburgh Steelers

2007 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC – New Orleans Saints

AFC – New England Patriots

2007 Actual Super Bowl Participants

NFC – New York Giants

AFC – New England Patriots

A few items of note here. One, I did not do this prediction in 2010, my bad. Like most sports writers, I too get lazy, or burnt out, or just too busy with this pesky real job thing. Regardless, we do not have data for that year. Moving on.

Of all the picks, the 2007 and 2011 Patriots were the only pre-season favorites to actually advance to the Super Bowl until last year, when both the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks advanced. While being able to make it to the Super Bowl after a full season being a prohibitive favorite is a tremendous achievement, New England lost both games, including their chance at immortality and a 19-0 record in 2007, to the eventual champion New York Giants. Boy that is still fun to say. Denver also lost, but Seattle actually won it all. Seattle became the first team since we began tracking to actually win the Super Bowl. Either the prognosticators are getting better, or this is the exception that proves the rule. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.

Of all actual Super Bowl participants, none made the big game again the next season. Maybe that’s the first real evidence that shows Seattle may have trouble with their title defense.

So what about the 2014 season? Already the nonsense is beginning. Sports Illustrated is already predicting Peyton Manning as MVP, despite there being 1695 other players in the league and we haven’t played a down of football yet. And of quarterbacks who have thrown over 45 touchdowns in a season (Manning threw 55 last year) their next season is notoriously pedestrian. Add in Manning’s age, and he has no Eric Decker, no Wes Welker and he does have Emmanuel Sanders, yeah, I don’t see that happening, but what do I know. However, I digress.

After searching high and low and comparing picks from various media outlets, I have determined the consensus choices from the AFC and the NFC to represent their respective conferences in the Super Bowl. Those teams are….

2014 Preseason Consensus Super Bowl Favorites

NFC – New Orleans Saints

AFC – New England Patriots

Oh shocking, yet again the media shills picked the Patriots to make the Super Bowl. Good gravy I’m so sick of that song. You’d think by now they’d learn.

Alternates: Each conference also has an alternate choice, a team favored to make the Super Bowl, but not as highly as the overall choice. And since the inception of the Super Bust, there have actually been three preseason favorites that did meet expectations, so it’s good to keep an alternate choice in reserve for each conference. Because we still need the revenue from this imaginary game or the NFL will go broke.

NFC – Green Bay Packers

AFC – Denver Broncos

One other note, I was stunned at how little respect the defending champion Seahawks got across the board in these predictions. If I were Seattle, I’d put this up on my bulletin board next to a picture of the Super Bowl trophy as a reminder every day of the goal, and how few believe in a team that already did it, and has destroyed the last two teams they played.

So there you go, ladies and gentlemen, you’re choices for the 2013 Super Bust. Keep an eye on these teams throughout the season. Whilst others think they will go to and/or win the Super Bowl, I know they will only be in line for a Bust.

He Said He Said

“They are cheaters. I give them all the credit in the world, but one fact remains: They haven’t won a Super Bowl since they got caught.” - Eagles cornerback Cary Williams

Well said!

“The decision to suspend Mr. Rice for a mere two games sends the inescapable message that the NFL does not take domestic or intimate-partner violence with the seriousness they deserve. Mr. Rice’s suspension reflects a disturbingly lenient, even cavalier attitude towards violence against women.” - A letter from senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin) to the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL

Of course they don’t. Even with their new “tougher” policy the NFL doesn’t care. It doesn’t even care about the wellbeing of its own employees. Interesting that no senator or congressperson from Maryland signed the letter.

“That night I just replay over and over in my head. My actions were inexcusable, and that’s something I have to live with for the rest of my life.” – Ravens running back Ray Rice

Well, Ray Ray learned to live with murder charges, so I’m sure ‘lil Ray Ray Rice will get along just fine.

“The best person to get us out of the rut is me.” – Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to ESPN the Magazine

Just for one day, I want to be this out of touch with reality, and to have the power, clout and money to have no one tell me differently. Just to see what it’s like.

“I never said Ben wasn't a leader... I just said Peyton is a better one. I have nothing but respect for Ben as a man and as a player.” – Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, on Twitter in response to his comments that Peyton Manning is a far better leader than Ben Roethlisberger

Yeah, all those Super Bowl rings Peyton has to lug around show how good of a leader he is, especially in big games.

"I know he told some other guys, 'You know I love Ben. I didn't mean it like that.' I wish he would have reached out to me and just say that, and I would have been fine with it." – Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in response to Sanders

Well, that’s nice of Big Ben, taking the high road and all. Especially when he stuck up for Sanders, lobbied the team to keep him and then Sanders repaid him by dropping crucial ball after crucial ball last season.

"If I said it, I meant it.” - Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders

Hey, good luck with that guy Peyton.

"I'm going to pray for him. It's going to be a long night, man. We've got to just take advantage of it." – Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin, on Packers rookie center Corey Linsley in the run up to Thursday’s season opening game in Seattle.

He should have prayed for the Packers defense more. Yeesh.

“Some people are humble and humble people lose a lot of the time.” – Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman

If that’s true, how do you explain Jerry Jones and the Cowboys, or Dan Snyder and the Washington Snyders?

"If you're the Steelers' defense, you want No. 2 to walk out on that field. You want him on that field. He has no business being on the field right now." – ESPN’s Merril Hoge on Johnny Manziel

Wait, there’s more.

"When I was doing the draft and I was going through and studying him, I actually got done and it was the first time other than Tim Tebow came out and I was like, 'God, there is nothing, nothing that he does, that transitions to the National Football League.' There's not one skill set that he had that you're like, 'Gosh, he's a first-rounder.' Really, nothing." – Hoge

It gets better.

"When he texted the Browns and said 'Let's wreck this league,' that didn't just burn players; it infuriates coaches. It told you, too, that he's a juvenile punk. He was like that, and he's still like that.” – Hoge

Just one more.

"This will be the saddest, quickest ending we have seen in quite some time. It'll be like a Tim Tebow."

Someone please take Johnny Football to the burn unit, he just got scorched! Holy cow does Hoge dislike him some Johnny Football. I hope Hoge is right. Not because I dislike the kid. I just find it funny that Cleveland would screw up again.

Idiot of the Offseason

Oh it’s now time to bestow one of the most hallowed, honored and sought after awards in all of sports, the fabled Idiot of the Offseason.

With this award, we honor one person who stood up amongst a sea of stupidity and said look at me. This person managed to overshadow other acts of idiocy to such a degree; others look up to them in awe and wonder. This person decided that, no, cannot be an idiot for just one week, I need to be an idiot for many weeks.

Our nominees are.

The Harbaugh brothers – They’re terrible leaders, terrible at enforcing actual punishment on their troublemaking players, players on their teams are increasingly out of control, I mean is anyone surprised they both had high profile players involved in domestic abuse? They are highly overrated and out of control and out of touch. Heck, Jim’s own team management doesn’t seem to like him. What does that say about him? But while they are detestable people and arrogant asses, that does not make them idiots.

Tony Dungy – His obvious dislike for homosexuality is sad, ignorant and misguided. But he is intelligent and smart, and anyone who is can learn and grow, hopefully. Not an idiot, although if he continues he may move up the ladder.

Ray Rice – I would not soil the award off Idiot with this jackass. He’s not an idiot, he’s a macho ass.

Jerry Jones- Ok, so Jones parties with women that could be his granddaughter, sends party busses out for the NFL head of officiating, mails playoff tickets to his season ticket holders, and then blames the Seattle defense for the increased emphasis on defensive infractions and penalties.

He was so close to winning, and then he goes and signs Michael Sam to his practice squad. Dang, when I have to look to Jerry Jones as the one who does the right, and enlightened, thing, the world has gone mad.

Wes Welker – Not retiring from concussions aside, what is going on with him right now? Did he use performance enhancing drugs? Did he use illegal drugs? Was he high at the Kentucky Derby handing out money? Was his drink spiked? Who the hell knows! I keep waiting for him to say it was the cream and the clear. He may be an idiot, I’m not sure. Until he can get his story straight, he’ll have to stay at moron for now.

Rex Ryan – well, he still doesn’t have a viable quarterback, who knows what his receiving corps looks like, and I’m questioning his defense. But that hasn’t stopped ol’ Rexy from just outright boasting about his team, his own defense, and telling his players to boast themselves silly. It was entertaining, then laughable when his teams never did anything of consequence. Now it’s just tired. I can’t even call him an idiot, because he’d love the attention too much.

All worthy nominees, but only one surpassed them all.

Roger Goodell.

Heir Goodell showed with three different actions in the off season not only how out of touch with the regular NFL fan and the players he is, but how out of touch he is with reality and common human decency. Goodell does not care about the fans, the players, or even your average person. He cares only about the 32 owners and maximizing profits.

The first involved the future ownership change that will come for the Buffalo Bills. The team is currently without ownership after the passing of owner Ralph Wilson. There are numerous ownership groups currently vying to purchase the team. And as with any team transaction, new ownership must be approved by the NFL.

Now, Buffalo fans are concerned, and with cause, that any new ownership may attempt to move the team to Toronto. As the team has been playing games in the great white north for a few years now, this concern is not unwarranted. Goodell has stated publicly that any new ownership group must have a priority of keeping the Bills in Buffalo. And that sounds like a great on paper.

However, Goodell also stated that the Bills will need a new stadium if they are to stay in western New York, seemingly contradicting his other statement. On the surface this seems like just another attempt by the NFL to extort a local community into publicly funding a multi-million dollar stadium for a billion dollar franchise which is part of a multi-billion dollar business. But this extortion demand by Goodell looks even dumber when you take into account the Bills have spent in recent years $130 Million in tax payer money on improvements and upgrades to Ralph Wilson stadium. While I'm sure the stadium is not on par with the technological monstrosity that is the 49ers Levi's Stadium, it certainly is no longer an outdated dump.

So if the good fans of Buffalo want to keep their beloved Bills, they better be ready to foot an even bigger bill for a new stadium, of which all the profits will go into the pocket of the as yet unnamed owner. That’s his screw you to the fans.

Now, Goodell’s next two gaffes both involve his famous dictate of “discipline.” First, just this week he quietly punished Colts owner Jim Irsay for his drug fueled, drunken driving incident. For illegal drug use, drunken driving, and tarnishing the shield, Irsay has been suspended for 6 games, and fined $500,000.

First, that fine is a drop in the bucket. That’s like 5 bucks to most people. Second, what kind of a punishment is a 6 game suspension? So Irsay has to not work, and watch games from his multi-million dollar home rather than in his luxury box? How is this punishment? A real punishment would be to take away draft picks, or suspend the head coach, or any of the things the league did to the Saints. Rather, they did a light wrist slap. And I’m not the only one to notice. Even the players around the NFL are calling bull on Goodell’s punishment. Because they know if it were them, the boom would be lowered. That’s his latest screw you to the players.

However, the worst by far was his bungling of the Ray Rice situation. Goodell could not have been more off base in how he handled Rice’s punishment unless he did absolutely nothing. His pathetic suspension shows just how out of touch he is reality and how little he has his pulse on normal people. He should have known people would react badly to a star battering women, then getting a slap on the wrist, especially when law enforcement did nothing. It doesn’t help the league’s image to appear they allow their players can get away with anything.

Goodell worsened the situation by his comments over Hall of Fame weekend, saying,

"We can't just make up the discipline. It has to be consistent with other cases, and it was in this matter."

YES YOU CAN MAKE UP DISCIPLINE! You’re the commissioner of the most powerful sports league in America, and you’ve already established that you can punish the players however you see fit, for whatever you see fit, and have done so in the past! What difference is this situation from any previous disciplinary situations? NONE.

And THEN there was this nugget from a source within the league,

"We need to have stricter penalties. I think you will see that. I believe the commissioner and others would like to see stricter penalties. We need to be more vigilant."

Wait, the commissioner would like to see stricter penalties. HE’S THE COMMISSIONER! If he wants them, all he has to do is say, no, for this we’ll punish more severely. DONE!

Well, I guess Goodell finally overruled all those softies that forced him to leniently punish Ray Rice, because the NFL did enact a now supposedly tougher domestic violence policy.

Look, I’ll give Goodell this much, he apologized for screwing up the first time. We live in a world now where everyone must be right all the time. And even when proven wrong without a shadow of a doubt, too often people will refuse to admit fault or failing, and continue to blindly hold onto their opinion or stance. So for actually admitting failure, kudos to Goodell.

But I’m not giving kudos for this policy, because it was only enacted after seeing the high volume negative public reaction. Goodell shouldn’t have needed to read the public tea leaves to know people would want stricter punishment, or react badly to another seemingly entitled NFL player getting away with an atrocious crime. His own conscience should have told him stricter punishment was needed, no matter how nice a guy Ray Rice supposedly is, well other than knocking out his wife and dragging her unconscious body around by the hair.

Besides, the policy itself is flawed at best or at worst downright toothless in the hands of the right lawyer. As it’s written there are plenty of potential loopholes to exploit, so there’s a chance even if someone abuses a woman, their lawyers can find a way to get around it and skirt NFL authority. We’ll see how well this policy works based upon the Ray McDonald case. Color me skeptical.

No lead up needed for this one. Roger Goodell, you are an idiot.

On Tap This Week

Oh, how I love the pristine cleanliness of Week 1 of the season. No losses, no wins, just a record as pure as freshly driven snow.

Last week: 0-0

Thursday: 1-0

Season to Date: 1-0

Stupid Thursday night game, ruining my vibe. And for future reference, I will be mostly avoiding the Thursday night specials this season. Sure, Thanksgiving will definitely have an offering, and probably next week when Pittsburgh takes on the wife beaters in Baltimore, but nothing will be forthcoming as a regular happenstance. That’s the price you pay for free entertainment.

And now, Week 1……

Sunday

New Orleans (0-0) at Atlanta (0-0)

Falcon fans are hoping their team gets off to a strong start this year, to alleviate their woes and fears that last year was just an anomaly and not the beginning of a trend. Today will not help those fears.

Saints over Falcons

Cincinnati (0-0) at Baltimore (0-0)

Considering my faith in the current Baltimore line up, I can easily see Cincinnati coming in and stealing a home opening victory. But it’s Week 1 and I tend to give home teams a bit of extra gravitas this week. Next week, not so much.

Ravens over Bengals

Buffalo (0-0) at Chicago (0-0)

Chicago has a crappy defense. Buffalo has a crappy offense it balances out.

Bears over Bills

Washington (0-0) at Houston (0-0)

I really want to take Washington, but Houston has more talent, is at home, and I just don’t know what to think of Jay Gruden yet. I’m going conservative and going home team.

Texans over Redskins

Tennessee (0-0) at Kansas City (0-0)

I do believe last year was more of a fluke than anything. But I believe Andy Reid will keep the good times rolling, at least through today.

Chiefs over Titans

New England (0-0) at Miami (0-0)

Please, even without Logan Mankins this should not be that difficult of a pick.

Patriots over Dolphins

Oakland (0-0) at New York Jets (0-0)

Please New York, be dumb and start Michael Vick, it’s not like he’ll get hurt or fade out during the season, thus leaving the job up to a now emasculated and confidence shattered Geno Smith. Eh, at least for today, it won’t matter who plays quarterback

Jets over Raiders

Jacksonville (0-0) at Philadelphia (0-0)

Chip Kelly is going to think he’s back in college, and they scheduled a lower division cupcake team to start the season.

Eagles over Jaguars

Cleveland (0-0) at Pittsburgh (0-0)

Browns offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is running the same offense in Cleveland as he did in Washington. However, Johnny Manziel is no RGIII, and Brian Hoyer is not dynamic at all. We all saw how Pittsburgh shut that offense down last season. This should be fun. In other news, keep an eye out for 1^st year Steelers linebackers assistant Joey Porter. I bet he’s as fun to watch coaching as he was playing.

Steelers over Browns

Minnesota (0-0) at St. Louis (0-0)

Not that I have any confidence in Minnesota, but really, Shaun Hill?

Vikings over Rams

San Francisco (0-0) at Dallas (0-0)

I think San Francisco is going to have a down year. But my goodness, Dallas’ defense has the chance to be epically bad.

49ers over Cowboys

Carolina (0-0) at Tampa Bay (0-0)

I don’t like Cam Newton with injured ribs, and Lovie Smith creating positive vibes in Tampa Bay. This has the making of an upset.

Buccaneers over Panthers

Indianapolis (0-0) at Denver (0-0)

Who wants to bet Peyton Manning has a statement game to show the world he’s still super awesome? It’s a shame he can only do them in September, and not January or February.

Broncos over Colts

Monday

New York Giants (0-0) at Detroit (0-0)

This is not going to make Eli Manning fans feel any better about themselves, or Eli.

Lions over Giants

San Diego (0-0) at Arizona (0-0)

Ahhhh, the second game of the Week 1 Monday Night double header. Like anyone outside of Phoenix cares. And yes, I include San Diego in that list. Have you ever been there? Yeesh it’s like paradise on earth. The last thing people there think about is a Week 1 away game against the Cardinals.

Chargers over Cardinals