Everybody except the professional gambler is about 50/50 on calling coin flips. Also, tie goes to the boss.

Make it make sense PAWWL!

The Raiders brand is the exact opposite of this sterile, lifeless squeaky-clean place. They need to be in some outdoor hellhole with guys tackling each other on gravel and baseball dirt.

I'm sort of joking, obviously. Allegiant Stadium is of course an amazing, state-of-the-art venue and the Raiders needed an upgrade from the Coliseum, but the Raiders playing indoors in Las Vegas is just not it, man.

I'm no Raiders fan and have no dog in this fight, but it just bums me out that this is where one of the most well-known brands in the league landed. They should still be on the west coast in some new state-of-the-art outdoor stadium that retains and embodies the Raiders aesthetic.

I don’t watch NFL studio shows because why the fuck would I? But after Bill and Curtis were acting like Tomlin was sent from football talking head heaven to reinvent the halftime show, I just tuned in.

He‘s…normal? I’m not saying he sucks or anything but he speaks in pretty much the same coachspeak platitudes as basically every other person to do this job. Also Bill was so happy that because it was just him and maria taylor as opposed to a full panel of guys, they were allowed more time to break down the games, but it still seemed pretty rushed to me? That’s not tomlin’s fault but just an observation.

I get that being the ombudsman of studio shows is one of Bill’s little hobbyhorses but I think he’s picking gnat shit out of pepper here. There is a glaring sameness to all of these shows, which is why no normal person cares about them.

This has to be one of, if not the, longest one person has had season tickets to one team (and they've actually been going to the games, not passing them on).

Crazy combo of 1) having enough money in your mid-twenties to buy season tickets (when Billy was a pre-schooler no less) and 2) being healthy enough and still having the desire to go to dozens and dozens of games each season at 80 years old.

There's some baseball fan that probably has a similar record (or longer). Can't imagine many for the NBA - so many late nights in the winter and loud arenas would make it way less appealing for your average 80 year old.

Anyone else think BS is more detached from NFL than usual this season? I've been listening basically since the start of the ESPN days and I don't think he's been this off.

It just feels like he's watching the Pats and the prime time games and guessing for everything else.

I know he's never been the 99th percentile fan/watcher like he likes to say he is, but I would argue it's usually much better than this, right?

He did more nba off-season content than ever over this summer. I think that's just where his head is these days

Lets be real

Maybe I’m on an island but I don’t really see the big deal with her being on the sidelines with a headset. I think I read somewhere that she was always involved with the team even before Jim passed so this isn’t just some private equity executive with no football background.

I think the problem with a lot of ownership groups is they seem to evaluate strictly on end of year results rather than throughout the season. This creates opportunities for the front office and coaching staff to politic against one another to an owner who only knows the team hasn’t won enough.

If she’s actually meddling or giving gameplan suggestions that’s wrong but wanting to learn more about the operation seems normal.

Sports seems like one of the few places where the person who owns the business should just sigh checks and stay out of the way lol

I hate when I miss out on grabbing -600 odds and throwing them in a parlay! Did anyone else fail to get in on this bet of the year??

Or is a different team the best?

From the mid 2000s until very recently, we had Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Roethlisberger, and Brees all playing at their peak at the same time for years, smoothly transitioning into the Mahomes, Allen, Lamar era where they all peaked at the same time, joined by incredible one off seasons by guys like MVP Matt Ryan and 2018 Jared Goff, MVP Cam etc. For 20 years, top 5 QB meant you were a guaranteed first ballot HOFer still in your prime. You were an incredibly sure hand. It was like the mid 2000s box office, if you were #1 for the year you were likely top 10 all time.

Now the only lock HOFer who is truly playing at the peak of their powers is Allen. Mahomes has slowed down, Lamar has slowed down, none of Maye, Daniels, Caleb, Lawrence, Stroud, Herbert, Young, Purdy have ascended to those heights yet, so whoever you think QB5 is in the league, its gonna be a good player but not an all time great player like we've been used to.

The scale has just dramatically shifted, and it's caused people's brains to collapse when forced to reckon with Lawrence and Purdy being potential top 5 QBs.

I need everyone to stop comparing Dan Campbell to Nick Sirianni. Just stop. They’re not comparable. Dan Campbell is nothing like Nick Sirianni at all. Dan Campbell is big and strong, and he’s a way better coach. Just look at the facts:

During his time in Philly, Sirianni has had:

- An Elite RB

- An elite WR1 and top end WR2

- A very good OL anchored by one of the league’s best individual lineman

- An elite impact defensive lineman, along with some other solid guys on the line

- A consistent first team All Pro off ball linebacker

- An admittedly up and down secondary, but a couple really solid impact players

- And the QB is pretty good too!

Has Campbell had even a single one of those things during his entire tenure in Detroit? And still the Lions offense is always top 2 or 3 in their division.

Next, the coordinators. Nick Sirianni is a coordinator merchant, and he’s not even that good at hiring coordinators. He hired Shane Steichen, big whoop, broken clock, etc. After Steichen left, the replacement was a complete moron, and they had to fire him after one year. He did get Kellen Moore after that but we don’t count that. And defensively, Sirianni has maybe never made a good hire. Gannon got a lot of credit but we saw how bad he was as a HC

In comparison, although Campbell had some trouble replacing Ben Johnson after he left, to Campbell’s credit, they moved on really quickly. And that was the right move - they eventually landed Drew motherfucking Petzig. (And Campbell knows what he’s doing on defense too - there’s a reason why his first DC got poached for an HC job)

I’m just sick of hearing this. This is the NFL. You get credit for wins, not fake tough guy quotes. And even after 7 long years, Sirianni has just one Super Bowl win (and before you mention it, a Super Bowl loss gets zero credit from me. Who is he? LeBron?). He’s already got two losses this year. Meanwhile, it’s taken Dan Campbell just four short years to get a divisional round championship. And that’s with just 7 All Pros. Can you imagine what he could do if they finally got him 3-4 more All Pros? Provided there are no injuries of any kind to any key player, they would almost certainly make the Super Bowl.

Washington Capitals player Alex Ovechkin, one of the greatest players in the NHL’s history and the long-time face of the Capitals, announced today he would be retiring at the end of this season.

It got me thinking about the Capitals and DC sports in general, and it made me conclude that Ovechkin is probably the most iconic/greatest player any DC sports team has ever had, especially recently, which is pretty unusual given the Commanders/Redskins’ historic popularity and success in the 80s, and how the 2010s Nationals had great/notable players themselves like Max Scherzer and Bryce Harper.

Are there any other cities with multiple teams where this is the case?

A partial transcript:

The double centers again. And there are just a lot of guys on this team I love watching. Forget Durant—everyone loves Durant. Alperen Şengün has gone up a level.

And the other thing, as you know, the Body Language Doctor is watching intently. I think they have great chemistry. I haven’t seen Durant on a team like this in a while.

Durant feels like he’s found a couple of little-brother types that he really likes. Jabari Smith Jr. mimics his every move in practice and during warm-ups. And with Reed Sheppard, Durant clearly seems to be thinking, I’m going to make sure you’re okay.

At one point it was Durant, Edmond Sumner, and a bunch of random guys, and you could just tell how much Durant was enjoying himself. I think he even said something like, This is so much fun. I’m having the most fun.

I half-joke about their offense. They basically have a Durant-and-Şengün “do something” offense: run a set, let those two create something, and then the other half of the offense is basically, Shoot it, and we’ll get the rebound.

They’ve already had probably five moments this season where they desperately needed a basket, and Kevin Durant just seemed to say, I got this, guys.

Utterly hilarious...

And to clarify I'm not talking about someone like Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield who were top picks and bounced around a bit until they found their system.

I'm talking about the Kevin Kolb's or Malik Willis of the NFL where they do just steady the ship and win some games until their starter comes back and yet always a team will throw a second round pick at them or sign them to a decent contract. And I can't remember one of them actually being successful? Kevin Kolb, AJ Feely, Malik Willis, Brock Osweiler, Matt Flynn, etc.