An Open Letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

You bet I am...bro...

Dear Mr. Goodell:

I am writing to you today to express my extreme displeasure with the NFL’s new penalty focus. As a former defensive player, it feels as if you’re taking the football out of football. From what I can tell, it’s like the League would rather have teams that score 45, 50, 55 points in a game where defenders have to play pattycake when they tackle the other team. It seems like the League believes all of those points would energize the fan base and bring more money into the team’s pockets.

Au contraire…

All you are doing is pissing off the true fan. All you are doing is making students of the game pissed off with your unbalanced penalties. Sure, protect the quarterback, but all of these defenseless player crazy calls are turning football into woosball.

All because you’re afraid of a little hard contact? 

THIS IS FOOTBALL. These players are getting paid millions of dollars and they KNOW WHAT’S AT STAKE when they signed their contracts.

You are tying the hands of defensive backs all around the League. When Hall of Famers like Ronnie Lott and Warren Sapp have gone on record saying how offensively lopsided the League has become, shouldn’t you listen? Future HOFer Ray Lewis vents about it every single week.

At what time do you decide the penalties are too much? At what time should you MAN UP and let the defense play defense? Defenders are taught to drive through a defender in a LEGAL way, and you're not giving them a chance.

If these shenanigans continue, I will no longer be a fan of the League. I don’t like shootouts. I prefer slugfests where it actually take skill and cunning to make the right defensive play to stop the other team. Being a lifelong NFC East fan, three yards and a cloud of dust is MUCH better than teams running for 842 yards. 

Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Or so they used to say…I guess not so much in today's NFL.

Please reconsider the balance in penalty calling, and protect the defense just as much as your precious offense.

Sincerely yours,

Brother JDub

MeAngelo Is At It Again

((HT: NFL on FOX))

Or, at least, "was" at it again yesterday...

DeAngelo Hall got into an episode of SmackDown with Emmanuel Sanders of the Steelers yesterday in the Redskins-Steelers game...

The HQ thinks that if he won the bout, he wouldn't have gotten into the finger-pointing fest with an official that he did... but since he lost on points to Sanders, he felt compelled to jaw-jack with someone you shouldn't...

A zebra...


The HQ is also waiting for the amount of money that the league will extract from Hall's paycheck and whether or not he'll be taking a week or so off...

Thinking that'll happen...

A Musical Remeberence of Replacement Refs

((ht: cbssports.com))

Let us pause for a moment and remember our fallen replacement refs. Those who will no longer be with us. As overnight, the NFL stopped embarrassing themselves and gave the professional refs a few extra dollars in an attempt to restore credibility to their Billion Dollar generating game.

We in the world of Sports Blogging, Sports Talk Radio and TV Sports analyzation all bow our heads as we will have to find new things to complain/whine/talk about.

With that in mind, a creative YouTube user sums up our thoughts as appropriately as anyone can:

NFL Ref lockout COULD be over and Bill Belichick out $50K

You know, possibly the only "Lockout" that may be stupider than this is the NHL. Though the NHL wouldn't be drawing this kind of publicity.

According to reports all over the Interwebs, the NFL and the NFLRA are on the cusp of an agreement that would put the professional refs back out on the field with the professional players. The only question is when.

Depending on which expert you believe, they could be back by Sunday's games. That may not help Cleveland and Baltimore, but hey, somebody has to take one for the team...right?

Reports say there are still some disagreements about money and some resentment over the league's insistence that there be a Ref "Taxi Squad" available for use. And yeah, we get the premise that the staff guys don't want to change their potential replacements.

Though the NFL doesn't seem to care, they've been ABUSED in the court of public opinion. The mistakes, the coaches attacking the replacement refs and the complaints from the players have all made it look like the league is sacrificing the game for a couple of bucks. Bucks the multi-billion dollar league can easily afford.

Oh....and for what it's worth, the league fined Bill Belichick for his grabbing of the ref in last Sunday's game too. That fine...$50,000.