sullim4

Again, the referee is only responsible for the quarterback, kicker, game administration, and replay. They will occasionally call holding, but that's it. The umpire and the deep wing officials are a lot more interesting as those officials primarily call holding, illegal contact, and pass interference. These are the calls that typically impact the game the most. For Sunday's game, the following officials have been scheduled: Carl Johnson is the old NFL head of officiating (he was replaced by Riveron who was replaced by Walt Anderson). Mark Hittner and Rick Patterson have been around forever and are widely considered some of the best at their position. This is a very good crew that has a lot of experience.

Yeah I figured that would be the recommendation - thanks for confirming!

I'm gonna be in Poipu during the AFC championship weekend... any suggestions on Kauai? For Oahu I'd avoid the chains along Kalakaua/Waikiki and try to find some place a bit more local closer to the Ala Moana area. The King's Pub suggestion looks pretty decent.

Very likely going to get the late Sunday slot but it'll be Nantz and Romo. NBC will probably get the Saturday night slot (SF/GB).

Man the games this weekend have been lopsided outside of the Bengals and Raiders. Hoping Pittsburgh shows up and we get a halfway decent game.

The ***** is back!

Agreed. I don't like this at all and I say that as someone who enjoys putting money down on the games while in Vegas. There's a saying, don't eat where you poop... gambling is ok in small doses but having it inside the stadium itself feels like it's a step too far.

It is important to note that, other than Allen, none of the officials were on his regular season crew. There is a lot of the Blakeman and Rogers crew being represented:

"We might not even need the punter!" Dear God I hope Talley is right.

I get it... but BB in the playoffs doesn't seem like a dream matchup. I'd rather send the team that plays in a dome in Los Angeles to Buffalo.

So... if the Chargers win we get them, and if the Raiders win, we get NE*?

I see "Aaron" and totally forget about Schobel. My mind immediately went to Maybin lol...

They have to keep Haack to hold for FGs... but I would bring in a punter for the playoffs. A retired Moorman could do a better job than this.

14-0 Fish... if the cheats lose and the Raiders win... Belichick and friends come to Buffalo. Can't believe I'm saying this but I want BB to win this one.

The way Flores handled the Fitz/Tua situation last year is enough imo to show him the door. Tua is no franchise quarterback, but I think the flip flopping there killed any confidence he had.

Could just be me, but I have a real hard time flying out of Buffalo on Sunday nights after games. There's a couple 7pm flights but I'm very conservative when it comes to assuming that I will get stuck in traffic, etc. I always fly out on Monday, which yeah kind of sucks that it requires a day off, but it allows for a 4:25 or SNF flex later in the season, and it means no mad rush to the airport in case of traffic or overtime.

Agreed. He'd come cheap in that scenario, knows McD's defense, and would be good insurance in case covid decimates the defensive line in the playoffs. He is not a starter, but we could do much worse for a backup on the defensive line.

A former performer who eats crayons and has an unhealthy obsession with gerbils?

Bump. I see our friend Jimmy hasn't made an appearance yet this week. Youse worried about your pretty boy quarterback's pinnacle achievement being the MVP of the Boca Raton bowl?

I think a lot of Bears fans will react that way. It's the same reaction a number of us had when Rex was hired - we all thought he was a dope, seeing his schtick 2x a year and it turned out we were right. I think Frazier has grown considerably since the Vikings job and would be an excellent hire. I know nothing about Riddick's ability and past experiences in the front office. I think the biggest problem with this proposal is Dungy. I view him like a Bill Cowher - how relevant is he in the NFL today? He hasn't held a position with a team since 2008. I get that he's been able to build and maintain a network of people in the NFL as an NBC guy but damn, that is a lot of time to pass.

Thankfully Robert Kraft hasn't gotten control of the Bills marketing department just yet...

I am not so sure about this. For emails that call out sponsors, I see... - A Labatt's email from December about repping your favorite athlete (so this has some relation to football) - Get a Micah Hyde Football, sponsored by Northtown Automtive (again, football related) - An ad about a new Buffalo Bills Perry's Ice Cream flavor - A bunch of team merchandise ads and ticket ads. - A Pepsi call-out to Bills Mafia. This one probably has the least connection to the team, but at least it kinda has a connection. This is the first one that has near-zero relation to the team, its merchandise, players, etc. I could definitely be wrong, but it stood out to me. I signed up for marketing emails about the team. Not a lasik company 2500 miles away. I'm fine with marketing emails as long as it's what I signed up for - this was not. I also said it wasn't a big deal... just thought it was worth observing.

Who said I was offended? I thought it was an interesting shift in the team's usage of their email blasts. Personally I think it'll backfire on them, but if they see it as a potential new stream of revenue, so be it.

So this is a first for me - the Bills are sending non-football related ads to our inboxes? I skimmed the last year or so worth of emails, and each at least related to the team in some way - whether it be something like signed merchandise, a promotion at the team store, ticket sales, etc. This is just a straight up ad for a sponsor. It's not a huge deal, but it's enough to get me to unsubscribe from the team's marketing emails. I'm sure our fearless leader has some opinions on the sponsor...

These Saturday Week 18 ESPN games always puzzled me because the NFL's very limited in what they can put in these slots. They can't put anything on Saturday that makes a Sunday game meaningless, and they aren't likely to want to put a clunker game here between two eliminated teams. So the games that make the most sense are any win-and-in games, any games for seeding, or games that are otherwise good on paper. NE*/MIA fits two of those categories and so I think it's got a decent shot for a Saturday slot. The Colts game as well as the Tampa games are also decent candidates. Raiders/Chargers is a lock for the Sunday night slot. Any "win and in" game that isn't dependent on outside results always gets this slot. Although other teams can win and get in, the results of other games might mean they've already gotten in by SNF if someone else loses earlier in the day. The Raiders/Chargers is guaranteed to be win/in and so it's going on SNF. It also helps that the Raiders draw well.