TheFunPolice

What a game!

Quinn and Ryan had a 28-3 4th quarter lead on Belichick and Brady in the Super Bowl. Both their careers would look a lot different if they just played Martyball from there

Makes no sense... Patriots MNF was at 7

Man the Falcons stadium looks awful on TV

The Bills will do the punishing, especially since half the Titans won't play (or better not).

If it can be played, maybe the best punishment for the Titans would be having to field a team that's made up of a bunch of their practice squad players and backups with only 2 days practice.

True... I think that's just going to be the reality this season though. The best prep for the Chiefs is score 30 points on offense or be Belichick.

What about Wednesday-Monday-Sunday? Titans/Bills pushed to Wednesday 10/14 Chiefs/Bills pushed to Monday 10/19 Bills/Jets as scheduled 10/25 That's 3 games in 11 days. Chiefs and Titans would be the same rotation as the Bills, so they would be be fine. The only other team affected would the the Texans, who would move from Sun to Mon on the 19th vs the Titans.

Unfortunately it would mean the Bills doing that, but the Chiefs have done it in previous seasons, so it can be done. If it could be done somehow where the non-Titans team had a bye week following it might not be as bad.

Chiefs could be playing 3 games in a 9-10 day span. During the Patriots/Chiefs game they were talking about how the Chiefs had done that before, so it's not unprecedented. I wonder if that option, while not ideal, could work for the Titans to make up games. Once they get the outbreak under control, play a Sunday as usual, stick a Thursday night in as the make-up game, and postpone their following Sunday game to Tuesday. Obviously, some other team is going to get stuck playing 3 in 10 as a result, but it's a way to make up games without adding weeks.

I guess one positive of the game possibly moving to Tuesday and Chiefs to Saturday is 2 night games for the Bills. It just seems strange that there's such a major outbreak on the Titans all at once, when other teams have a player here or there.

OK, that makes sense. Thank you!

The most important thing for the league to do in a situation like this is to avoid overreacting to the "momentum" of these stories. Sometimes it seems like the stories snowball into an avalanche and people overcorrect. The NFL needs to ride this out without doing anything rash. It's one team that is the issue. The Raiders, Patriots and Chiefs had a player here or there, which has already happened to other teams and it's hardly noticed.

I actually said that same thing yesterday but my thread got locked. As crazy as it sounds, the entire league played with replacement players in 1987 for several weeks. An entire NFL filled with guys off the streets for over a month. You never hear about that year's Super Bowl "not counting." Why is it so nuts to do it for a team here and there for a week, in the middle of an unprecedented "global situation" (some of us have to avoid that word). Also, Pat Kirwin on Sirius NFL radio was recently talking about a league-wide practice squad with some ex NFL coaches working them out in practice and keeping them ready to play. Any team could grab as many players as possible from this squad to keep the games going. My version was only a step further, with an entire team. I guess the mods locked my thread because I mentioned what I guess we have to call the non-specific novel respiratory/multi-symptom illness on this board, except when we don't. But the idea of having a league wide practice squad of replacement players for let's say "non-injury related issues" has been floated by many people who cover the league.

Agreed! Same outcome, but none of our players are at risk. It does mess up Josh's stats though.

I agree, but I don't think it will become an issue. If players see the Titans hit with a forfeit you can bet that there's no way in the world they will be "the guy" who costs their team a loss by being stupid. the peer pressure would be incredible.

Here's an idea: Get a retired HC and a full staff. Sign 100 aspiring NFL players to live in the Covid Squad Bubble in North Dakota or Alaska for the rest of the season. The Covid Squad practices every week like a normal team, except it doesn't travel or play games until a team like the Titans can't play. Then it supplies a roster, to be coached and prepared by that team's coaching staff. Once the game is done, the players who were selected quarantine for 14 days before returning to the Covid Squad bubble. Here's how it would work: Early in the week: Team has positive tests and likely cannot play. Regular roster takes a week off, and league invokes the Covid Squad. The GM of the team whose regular squad is sent home can select a gameday roster from this 100 man Covid Squad as subs so that the game can be played. With 48 active players, the Covid Squad could supply 2 complete teams at once if need be. The coaches of that team would have a week to prepare the Covid Squad players for the game. Once the game is over, the 48 Covid Squad players enter quarantine before heading back to Alaska. Or the moon. Wherever. What's in it for the Covid Squad? Opportunity and money. They would receive at least the NFL minimum salary for their positions, with the chance to impress and make a team. Any NFL team could sign a Covid Squad player to a full-time contract in the offseason. Recently retired NFL players and guys who just want a shot in the league would jump at the chance. It's a short term (3-4 month) commitment with a real chance to play meaningful NFL snaps. The novelty of it would be a draw as well. I would also impose a rule that teams can only use the Covid Squad once per season. After that, they forfeit games.

One team (which seemingly broke several protocols) is the major issue here. Hopefully this serves as a wake up call to the rest of the league not to get complacent. It is 100% fair to punish that team with a forfeit. It's one thing to fall victim to something you couldn't control. It's another to apparently engage in reckless conduct that puts the Bills Super Bowl run... I mean the NFL season... in jeopardy. There are 31 other teams with only a couple of minor issues. The Titans are the poster child for what can go wrong when you don't follow the rules, and if it results in losses due to forfeits then so be it.

If the Titans flouted safety protocols then they absolutely deserve to forfeit the game. Teams don't care about fines. Draft picks hurt a bit. But start costing the team games and this behavior will stop. Look at it this way: the Bills were going to win anyway, so this way the Titans are punished and a message is sent, nobody gets injured, and the outcome is the same. And we're all rested for KC.

They just dropped a 6 point FG on us!

Just plan for Tuesday night football games. Televise them and try to make something out of this.

Move the Super Bowl back a week or two and gave a 3 week time period between the AFC and NFC title games and the Super Bowl. It's already 2 weeks, so it's not the end of the world. Both teams go I to the super bowl bubble Monday after the title games and stay all 3 weeks. There must be a super bowl bubble. The NFL better plan for it now. Otherwise the game could be ruined.

This could be a bit of a wake up call for teams as well .. gotta tighten things up

When everything went so well the first month or so I think people relaxed a bit.. it's human nature We can only be on high alert for so long

Were the Patriots decades of AFC East titles tarnished because it was BB and Brady vs guys like Cleo Lemon, trent edwards, and whoever the Jets had?