NFL Week 12 thread -- As sweet as a Kolber kiss

I’m sure the league will do whatever it can to help, favor and encourage the Pittsburgh Steelers. The enlightened team of quintessential sportsmen with a history of gentlemen athletes that adhere to both the letter and spirit of the laws and rules.

 

They had a pretty damn good receiving group, too.

 

It would be nice if any of you could actually do this without whacking down straw men. None of you seem to be capable of such a thing.

Goodell warned teams that they could be forced to forfeit if a failure to follow protocols led a disruption for other teams. So do they blow up the schedule, force the Steelers to play Week 18 while the rest of the league is off, or force the Ravens to forfeit?

The fair option, if there are no more positive tests, is to make the Ravens either show up to play Sunday or forfeit. That won't happen because the league won't surrender the revenue.

 

That happened as recently as 2014.
These things are cyclical. There's always one bad division. Remember the Seahawks winning the NFC West at 7-9, or the Broncos and Chargers both winning the AFC West at 8-8?
The NFC East is pretty bad right now, but it will get better. That's the great thing about the NFL. For the most part, it's not hard to improve in a hurry if you string a few good decisions together.

 

Their offense in 1995 was pretty ridiculous. First team to ever have two 100-plus catch receivers, plus Barry Sanders going for 1,500 yards. Maybe one of the funnest Madden teams of all-time. Then they rolled into Philadelphia and got wiped out with one horrendous second quarter in the wild card game.
The 1990s Lions never really had a championship window like some of the other great "coulda been" teams in NFL history. But they were fun to watch for a few years.

 

Steeler players don’t want a forfeit. You think the players want to surrender the revenue?

 

Put an asterisk on their undefeated season!

 

They want their game cheques.

 

What kind of odds would you have gotten if you bet $10 that all three games played today - NFL and USU-NM would have the winning team scoring exactly 41 points. Hell, just three winning teams being over 40 would have been a big time bet.

 

I am sure you are correct about that. I am also certain that isn't the issue keeping the league from forcing the Ravens to forfeit.

 

You don’t think the PA will be involved?

 

I don't think it will get that far, because the league isn't going to lose the money from that game. The league will continue to talk about its COVID protocols, but they have no teeth. This is no different from its concussion protocols. Fines and sixth-round picks won't get it done. One forfeit will get the point across. Barring that, they could strip them of a high draft pick and award it to the team that is damaged by the situation, but the league office won't do that, either.