The Boris Diaw Time Show (9/28)

Welcome back, refs that are sucky but not nearly as sucky
as the replacement refs!

The "real" refs return and Baltimore holds off Cleveland, plus Week 4 picks.


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The Boris Diaw Time Show (9/27)

I would pay $50 for this shirt, no problem.

The NFL and NFLRA "reportedly" near a deal, Joe McKnight goes through a career change, and Beanie Wells does what he does best, plus Bold Predictions.


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The Matt Barkley Sweepstakes: Week 3 Update

Is E. J. Manuel trying to crash Matt
Barkley's party?

Another week, another shaky outing for Matt Barkley. This Sweepstakes was never going to be as profitable or as stable as last year’s Andrew Luck Sweepstakes, but who could’ve guess it would this volatile? We’re just four short games into the college season and three into the NFL season, and already we’ve seen two near name changes to the Sweepstakes and three different frontrunners for the Grand Prize.

Despite the obvious volatility, though, the big picture is starting to come into focus. On the college side, there have been two QB’s specifically who’ve stepped forward and staked their claim in this contest, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Barkley was unable to hold them off. And on the NFL side…well, OK, that’s still as confusing as ever. What else would you expect from the most random league in the entire world? That having been said, let’s take a look at where things stand after Week 3:

The Boris Diaw Time Show (9/26)

Not particularly, Roger.

The NFL issues a statement, plus Week 3 Power Rankings.


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NFL Week 3 Rundown: Replacement Ref-pocalypse

Clear enough?

Lock it down; Week 3 of the 2012 NFL season is now closed and the league has pretty much collapsed in on itself like a dying star. Here’s a rundown of what I think may have happened, starting with the Big Story:

Big Story – Replacement refs…so, so bad

You know that nightmare everyone has? The one where you’re on a bridge or a really tall building and you’re about to fall? And just before you go splat on the surface, you shoot up out your sleep, sweaty and completely out of breath. Well the past two weeks of the NFL has been that nightmare, and last night was the moment when your body hits the ground, except, instead of waking up to a league with real referees, you just went splat. Now you, the league’s credibility, and the Packers, are dead.

What happened to the Green Bay Packers last night was, quite possibly, one of the most egregious screw jobs in NFL history. From the horrendous roughing the passer call that wiped out the ‘would-be’ game-ending INT, to the mind-numbingly awful 31 yard pass interference penalty on Sam Shields, it was all too clear what was going to happen to Green Bay in the end. Even then, nothing could have prepared me for that last play. You had a clear push off by Golden Tate, you had a clear catch by M.D. Jennings, you had two officials signaling different things, and, in the end, you had a Monday Night contest that should serve as a gigantic wake-up call to Roger Goodell and the league’s owners.