What's Up With NFL Officiating?

Don't think I have ever seen such a rash of poor officiating in the National Football League that we have as of late. The guys and gals in the zebra shirts seem to have gotten worse at their jobs, week after week.

What's up with that?

Yes, there's holding on pretty much every play in the offensive line. But come on...when a uniform is pulled away from a defender in the middle of the field, is that or is that not holding? Or the blatant tackle of a New England wide receiver that does NOT result in pass interference. Could go on and on, but you get the drift.

Maybe the officials are hesitant, hoping the replay people in New York will get it right. But to do that, a flag's gotta be thrown in the first place. THEN we can all wait breathlessly while viewing said play from every angle possible.

The NFL just has to address this in the off-season.

The Kansas City Chiefs join the list of teams pushing for new stadiums. Team announced yesterday they will leave Arrowhead stadium, where weather has always been a home field advantage, and cross the border from Missouri to Kansas. It's said a brand-new, shiny DOMED stadium will be ready 2031.

Forgive my skepticism, but the whole thing seems like a ploy. No different from Da Bears saying they will leave for Gary, Indiana -- despite the fact the team bought the old Arlington Park race track in Arlington Heights with an eye on building a stadium.

Think Da Bears are just using the Gary, Indiana thing as leverage to get better concessions in Arlington. Using that site is perfect, as it is right on the metro line, making it easy for fans to come and go.

Am so tired of East Coast media and loud mouths like Colin Cowherd bitching that our Greek freak, Giannis, has got to leave our small market Milwaukee Bucks for the bright lights of, well, New York City and the Knicks.

Big trades seldom happen in the NBA these days, and the Knicks probably don't have enough capital to swing a deal. And if they did send some quality players and draft picks to the Bucks, would Giannis still have enough talent around him to win?

Bucks are struggling, yes. Giannis is out with an injury and the team just can't get the train back on the rails.

But the NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint. Many feel the real season doesn't start until Christmas.

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf had a very expensive temper tantrum Sunday. Being taunted by a fan behind the Steelers' bench (the n-word and the c-word may or may not have been used; he-said, he-said applies), Metcalf confronted the fan, took a swing and found himself with a two-game suspension from the NFL.

Not only does he lose game day salaries (around $500,000), he forfeits his guaranteed money of $40 million. He doesn't lose it, mind you, it's just no longer guaranteed. He'll have to earn it back.

Packer M*A*S*H Unit Has Tough Road ahead

 A common phrase in sports is "next man up!" Men's or women's sports, doesn't matter. Injuries come, sometimes in bunches, and the stand-in becomes the focal point.

That's the case for the Green Bay Packers, hit with a multitude of injuries of late, like losing wide receiver Christian Watson, edge rusher Micha Parsons and tackle Zach Tom in last week's loss in Denver. The wounded join a long list of players out of action or playing through various hurts.

And lined up to face Green Bay down the stretch are the Chicago Bears, the Baltimore Ravens and the Minnesota Vikings. The games with the Bears (road) and Ravens (home) have both been flexed to Saturday night starts. Now word yet on the Vikings road game.

The rest of the NFL won't shed tears for the Pack, though. Look around the league and a LOT of stars are out. Top quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, lost to an ACL (knee) injury for the rest of the year in Kansas City, comes to mind. According to the NFLPA, 309 players have been placed on the Injured reserve through 15 weeks of regular-season action, slightly down from 319 in 2024 but higher than the 274 through the same point in 2023.

Some 59 players have been shelved with knee injuries, another 11 by a popped Achilles tendon.

These totals make it hard to justify the 18-game schedule that the NFL is pushing. If worried about player health, then stay at 17 if you must but get rid of the Thursday game!  Give players enough time to at least come close to healing.

Speaking the ACL and knee injuries, let's talk about Parsons. He went down on a non-contact knee injury. One can argue he's the heart and soul of the Packer defense, the engine that pulls the train. It's not necessarily reflected in his stats each game, but his impact is huge.

Through 15 weeks, according to NFL Pro, Parsons was tied in sacks with 12.5, first in total quarterback pressures (83) and first in pressure percentage (20.7). 

What's amazing are those numbers come despite being double-teamed 56.68 percent of the time and TRIPLE teamed 12. 09 percent, a higher rate than any other edge rusher in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.

Seems like the rest of the defense, guys like Rashan Gary, Quay Walker, Lukas Van Ness, Isiah McDuffie and....and....well, pretty much everybody, will need to take their play up a notch.

The All-American teams were announced, and the Big Ten had 9 players on the first team, 8 on the second. That's 17 from the 18-team conference, a pretty solid showing. But will that carry over to a national championship? We'll see. 

Curious about the how much of a big business college athletics has become? In addition to the ridiculous salaries being doled out to head coaches, how about the money spent by football teams in this year's playoff, topped by Alabama's $112.2 million, compared to a revenue of $138.7 million.

'Bama's spending was $30 million better than Texas A&M, $33.6 million above Ohio State. Of the dozen CFP teams, looks like poor little Tulane is dead last, putting $13 million into the Green Wave.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Housecleaning, Rambling & Packer Observations

Have a good friend dating back to our high school days. We've managed to stay in touch over the years, even as he followed up his Navy career with another, heading the IT department with a Florida university. He's maintained his Green Bay Packer loyalty, and we text during games.

He emailed after the Packers tamed the Chicago Bears, commenting how gassed the defense looked in the second half (they were) and wondered how the elevation at Denver's Mile High Stadium would factor in.

While the Broncos are a respectable team, let's consider that during this 10 game winning streak (nine won in comeback fashion ). Let's also consider WHO they played -- Cincinnati (4-9), Jets (3-10), Giants (2-11), Las Vegas (2-11), Washington (3-10) and Las Vegas again. Teams that are combined 15-51.  Hardly a murderer's row. The other wins were against a struggling Philly team, a Jekyll-Hyde Dallas team, Houston, and a Kansas City Chiefs squad that is REALLY struggling after four straight Super Bowl appearances, sitting at 6-7.

Denver lacks the strong running game the Bears brought in. Think if Green Bay can limit the stupid mistakes and penalties (looking at you here, Keisean Nixon) and control the ball, the Packers could be in good shape. And is it asking too much of the men and women in stripes to call a game that gives Micha Parsons the respect he deserves?

Was skimming through the paper -- online, as we let our high-cost physical subscription lapse -- and saw a reference to the Super Bowl. Seems there are those who want the NFL to move the game to the weekend before the President's Day federal holiday, thus giving more people a day off to recover.

Wouldn't it be just as simple to move the game from Sunday to Saturday? Or has that idea escaped all of those deep thinkers?

Happy for Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy for winning well-deserved back-to-back NL Manager of The Year awards -- the first to do so since Bobby Cox of the Atlanta Braves in 2004 and 2005.

The Indianapolis Colts, decimated at quarterback, have turned to 44-year old father of 10 (and grandfather of one) Philip Rivers. He's what, five years removed from the NFL? What, was Slingin' Sammy Baugh not available?

Lived down on the Louisiana bayous for a couple a couple of years, and still follow the fortunes of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (I knew them as the University of Southwest Louisiana, USL), Southern, Grambling and, of course, the LSU Tigers.

Is there a better soap opera than the one playing in Baton Rouge? The Tigers fire Brian Kelly as football coach -- at the behest of the governor, who got mad that the school had to Kelly $54 million to go away. THEN they go over to playoff-bound Ole Miss and hire away Lane Kiffin for seven years at $98 million (with a buyout said to be 80%).

And Kiffin has effectively been run out of town from pretty much every pro and college job he's held -- including being dismissed as Alabama's offensive coordinator just on the cusp of the 2017 title game because he had taken the Ole Miss job.

Oh, and not only did he say adios to Ole Miss, he asked if he couldn't please stay on and coach the team in the post season. That takes balls...

As they say, WTF!!??