RedRamage

That's a valid point. I wasn't really thinking about fitting on the roster.

Grossman in particular seems like a Harris fit. Not sure what if there is any bad blood between Hinch/Tigers and Grossman after the trade though.

I dunno... one thing I think we have to give MLB credit for it understanding that online content is a potential revenue stream. I think MLB was in front of a number of other leagues in terms of making money from online subscription stuff. The potential profit here might be enough to drive them into doing this. The two issue that might prevent this though are: 1.) Not having an easy, non-online method for viewing. I don't know what the average age of baseball fan is, but if the only way to watch games is online you might be alienating some significant percentage of the audience. 2.) Does MLB have the ability to produce the games themselves? Do they have the infrastructure to run it?

Okay... I think, if I'm following your logic... Ex-officials getting major media contracts could lead to officials trying to make sure they are more visible while officiating so that they have a better shot at that lucrative deal after they "retire" from officiating. Is that right? I mean, it's not an argument without merit. To run the risk of bringing up politics here, isn't that part of the problem with politicians and lobbyists? Kind of a conflict of interest? That said, I don't see it as a major issue myself. I don't follow a lot of sports other than the Lions and Tigers so I don't know if this is coming up a lot more but there's just not that many "rules expert" positions, are there? I don't think Fox or CBS or NBC or ESPN are regularly reviewing games to find officials who might make good rules experts. I don't think officials are regularly letting thoughts of the potential big media contract effecting how they call a game.

Okay, as someone who doesn't gamble... what do these numbers mean? I mean I get that the lower number means that FanDuel thinks its more likely that that team will win, but what does this amount to in terms of payouts? Like if I put down $100 on the Chiefs, and they won, what do I win? If I put $100 down on the Cardinals and they won, what do I win?

On the other hand if he's the assistant HC here he might have a legit shot of becoming the OC here in Detroit when Johnson leaves? Obviously lots and lots of variables... Will the Lions be just as good offensively next year so that Johnson gets HC interest again? Will Johnson leave this time? Is there anyone else inline between me and the OC job if Johnson leaves? Will Tampa get a decent QB? Even if the offensive isn't good in Tampa next year, does having a year of OC on my resume look better? What's Tampa offering payment-wise for OC vs. Detroit for RB coach/Assistant HC? Is the physical location of Tampa more attractive to him vs. Detroit? (Weather, family, etc) So, to answer @RandyMarsh's question a bit... I don't think it has to be a bad vibe he had here in Detroit. There are lots and lots of reasons why he might consider going or staying.

I guess I'm struggling to know exactly what you are upset with. You acknowledge the crew chief didn't throw the flag so he wasn't personally trying to get into the spot light from it. You seem to acknowledge that the call was at least technically correct if maybe you feel that it was minor enough it shouldn't have been called. You acknowledge that the reporters probably sought him out rather than him trying to get his name out there by seeking them for a story. You seem to be putting the "sins" of Blandino on this guy, which isn't terribly fair in my humble opinion. Leaving aside, for the moment, whether a flag should have been thrown or not, did the crew chief do anything wrong?

Not that I would ever condone such a thing, but when you make something not only quite expensive, but also make it very cumbersome and buggy... well, people will find ways around it. If I'm going to be paying a decent chunk of change each month to be able to access something, it better work reasonably well.

Ah, okay. I see what you're saying. Imho this would fall under the 'technical issues' you cited earlier and should not have been allowed. Again, ideally we always get the right answer but not at the cost of an unwatchable product. Again, just my opinion but I think the times actual technical issues come into play are so low that I prefer the "anonymity" (and therefore hopefully less danger of bias) that central reviewing provides. I would like to see it codified that technical issues can not override the next snap, but I'd also like to see that coaches be allowed to challenge in the final two minutes. I'm fine with officials being able to review in the final two minutes, but I dislike that coaches can't.

Was that the one where the receiver ran "behind the bench" after the catch?

I thought it was relatively well done, until I saw the fine print at the bottom: Coming Late 2024

But it was an "all-star" crew... it wasn't all his crew. I also didn't feel like there were a lot of penalties during the game. Just looked it up. I counted 10 penalties, two of which were declined. That doesn't seem terribly high. Edit to add: According to this site, team in 2022 averages between 4 (Falcons) and 6.94 (Cardinals) penalties per game, so 10 penalties in a 10 seems very average. (In case you're curious, Lions had 5.29 per game.)

I think having it in a central location is at least supposed to limit the danger of having ties to either team as well as not wanting to make referee friends look bad, so I don't mind having it reviewed in a central location. I also don't agree with the "human element" idea of officiating a game. The human element that I want to see is the players, not the enforcement of the rules. I don't want the enforcement to be subjective. I don't want a game to go to a situation where people think a potentially questionable holding call (ya know... just grabbing a random example) decided a game. I would be 100% on board with using whatever tech we have to ensure that calls get made correctly 100% of the time... ...as long as it doesn't interfere with the game too much. And of course that's the key. We can't run a play, then take 10 minutes to analyze each and every action to see if a rule was broken. The game can't have long breaks like that so we need to do the best we can in limited time. All of this said, I agree with the 90 second idea.

Was Cheffers even the one who threw the flag? Based on the QA with him later it sounded like a different ref threw it.

Yep. The catch/fumble vs. non-catch was a very hard one. I would say that that call is as close as you can get to possession vs. non-possession. I honest would have been fine with them calling it either way I guess it was so close. Personally I think I would have leaned towards it being a catch and fumble vs. incomplete but I'm not really upset that they went the other way. The same with the "double catch" along the sidelines. In this case I think I'd lean sorta towards it being a catch, but it was so close that I would have been fine with them calling it incomplete. It's worth noting that both of these two plays when in favor of Philly just for anyone out there thinking the refs were trying to push for a Chiefs win.

Here's my thoughts... fwiw... I don't think it was the most egregious of fouls, but I do think it was a foul. I do think that gets called 9 times out of 10 if it's seen by the refs. I don't know how much that did or didn't effect that play, but I do think it was a foul. I think any other game or any other point in this game it isn't talked about. It's just a normal call. I feel really bad that the game (more or less) ended on this call just because we watched two teams really have great games over all and stinks that a call is overshadowing the game. But I still believe that this was a foul and was legitimately flagged. On a side note: I'm always fully aware that if this was for or against the Lions I'm sure my opinion would be very different.

Granted, we're only seeing the highlights... but what I did like in that video was Porter was often looking back at the QB while running with a receiver.

I wonder if Denise had any input on the hiring of Jones.

My problem with this pick is that his first name is O'Cyrus... I'd be totally on board with this if his name was Osiris.

I would agree... looked him up on Wiki and he's got experience at many levels/positions. WR coach in both college and NFL, OC and "associate head coach" at Duke, Head Coach for two year at East Carolina (though not with good results), and RB for 2 years with the Colts.

I'll save this for future reference.

Bah... he wasn't fired. “Dre and [UNC] mutually agreed to part ways so that he could explore other opportunities in the coaching profession." Clearly Bly knew he was ready for the next step so... On a side note Quinn has no coaching experience from what I can tell. Has he expressed any interest in coaching? I've listened to his podcast a few times and he seems knowledgeable. Obviously that doesn't mean he would make a good coach, but if he expressed interested I'd be all for bringing him in at a lower level to see how he did.

Not really... we're just saying you made your point wrong. You should have said something more along the lines of: Goff's numbers in Detroit this year are better than any QB's numbers from Chicago ever. On a side note, given how much the league has changed, I wonder how modern records would stack up against previous years. I almost wish we had a converter like we do with the value of a dollar.... like a salary of $10,000 in 1950 would be the equivalent to over $123K in today's money. Given the changes in rules and strategies I don't think anyone questions that there is more passing today than in years past... not to mention that there are more games now too. Maybe if I'm bored sometime I'll put together a spreadsheet of total passing yards per year divided by the number of teams and then get a ratio of year to year. Obviously it would be very imperfect but might be a way to at least sorta compare different eras.

Yeah I couldn't quite believe it myself, but sure enough... one win at home, week 7. They had one stretch with 3 home games in a row (with a bye mixed in) and lost all three times. That could really demoralize a fan base!