Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Wild Card Weekend

Although the NFL is the only one out of the four major North American sports through which you don't have to suffer through at least 82 games a season, die-hard fanatics like myself still look forward to this time of year.  While teams like the Browns, the Jaguars, the Rams, the 49ers and the Bears were long eliminated from the mix, the hard work of twelve teams  has the potential to pay off as they duke it out for a month in the ultimate "let's separate the men from the boys" tournament.  Unlike the NBA, the NHL or MLB, the beauty of the NFL Playoffs is you only get one shot to win or lose.  However, one of the biggest downsides to NFL Wild Card Weekend is the chance for at least one or two blowouts because unless we're talking the 2005 Steelers or the 2010 Packers, the higher-seeded teams usually handle their business.  Unfortunately, none of the games were competitive for longer than two-and-a-half quarters, but I'm still going to discuss them anyway...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 9

In another superb sports week, everyone else took a back seat to Major League Baseball and perhaps the best Game 7 in a World Series of all time.  Storming back from three games down, the Chicago Cubs broke their 108-yard curse with a thrilling 8-6 win over the Cleveland Indians, who now have the longest championship drought in baseball and the second longest drought in pro sports behind the Chicago/St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals NFL franchise.  Perhaps the next most interesting storyline was the long-awaited matchup between former teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in which KD's new team won convincingly over his old team, 122-96, and the 2014 MVP chipped in 39 points including seven three pointers.  Outside of Bill Belichick shipping Jamie Collins to the now 0-9 Browns, the biggest NFL news was the sudden departure of Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who had to contend with a change in direction of the offense reportedly including Pat Shurmur and Tony Sparano--two former NFL head coaches.  So while pro football wasn't king of the hill this week, the midway point of the 2016 season is  intriguing nonetheless as we'll see contenders and pretenders rise and fall...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 7

As evidenced from last week's edition of "Views from the Nosebleeds", the "meantime in between time" leading into Week 6 had more compelling storylines.  However, coming into Week 7, the most interesting story was Stephen A. Smith's diatribe of Washington's NFL team.  Although the fellow Libra has been on my nerves for the past year or so for a plethora of reasons, I agreed wholeheartedly with him laying into the pride of Landover for being so arrogant in somehow thinking they arrived because they beat the Eagles for a fourth straight time, especially since they had a road trip date to face a quarterback who they've never beaten.  Outside of that, all was quiet on the Western front and I initially had to reach for this week's "Plus/Minus Take of the Week", which was originally about all of the key injuries piling up around the league.  However, once an unexpected development occurred in South Florida yesterday, it completely changed the tide.  Sometimes, you have to be patient and wait for the story, even if it's last minute.  Let's waste no more time, folks...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 5

Whoever scheduled Game 2 of the NLDS matchup between the Dodgers and my hometown  Nationals for a 1:08 p.m. pitch was trying it.  First and foremost, didn't they know it's football season?  Second, and more important, didn't they know the Battle of the Beltway between Washington's NFL team and the Ravens was also kicking off at 1 o'clock?  Third, why would they torture a hardcore football fan like me by forcing me to flip between FOX, NFL RedZone and FS1?!?!  It's bad enough when I have to estimate how long commercials breaks last when I'm flipping back and forth between FOX and NFL RedZone, but throwing a third channel in the mix is overkill.  Thank God the NFL games were all at halftime when catcher Jose Lobaton hit a three-run homer to give the Nats their first lead of the series.  Bottom line, although the sports fan in me loves the smorgasbord, I like my helpings to be more balanced.  Do better, MLB...do better.  Now that my bellyaching is out of the way and after needing a bye week for personal reasons, let's get to my long-awaited takes...