Yeah, I can understand that with the pile up. It's a delicate balance between not wanting any subjectivity from the officials and not going too far in the other direction on the definition of a catch. I'm reminded of the MLB issues when they increased replay to include normal plays and had the problem for the first month with clear catches not being ruled catches on strict enforcement of the technical definition of a catch (I think it involved transition?). Loved that MLB went ahead and used common sense and changed it in the middle of the season and now it's been great for the most part.

As for last night, I wouldn't be too upset or feel too bad one way or another. I certainly didn't know that rule.

I knew the rule and thought about it the moment that he did it and wondered why it wasn't called, so I'm a bit surprised at how much of a sentiment there is about most people not knowing that rule, but I did officiate earlier in life so I'm liable to have some esoteric and mostly worthless officiating trivia knocking around in my head.

Excellent news Jim!

The Miami Herald reports the Dolphins "reached out" to ex-Lions coach and Bills DC Jim Schwartz.

I'll never in my life understand the multiple opportunities coaches receive in sports despite being shown to be ****ing terrible in their first go.

WELL HE HAS EXPERIENCE AND WE WANT AN EXPERIENCED GUY TO LEAD OUR GROUP OF EXPERIENCED MEN IN THE EXPERIENCE OF FOOTBAW

But like, there's literally hundreds of potential coaches and 900 of them have not been proven to have few functioning brain cells, so shouldn't you try them out next? No? Jim Caldwell and Schwartz and John Fox then? Alright.

To be fair, as awful as his in-game decisions are, John Fox went to one Super Bowl with Steve Beuerlein (nearly winning it) and another NFC Title Game with Jake Delhomme. That probably puts him in a higher category than some of these other horrible coaches.

Perhaps the worst thing that Bill Belichick has done is convince the world that if you just give a second chance to a guy who failed miserably once, he might turn into the GOAT.

Baseball playoffs are the worst, because not only is my team never in them, but they are always packed full of a bunch of teams that I won't cheer for.

There are basically varying reasons that I won't cheer for almost anyone in the American League. But then that's the only league that I have even functional knowledge of; I only know the very biggest stars in the NL. So the AL playoffs are a bunch of teams I don't like playing each other and the NL playoffs are a bunch of teams I don't know playing each other, and then the World Series ends up being a team I hate playing against a generic team that I only have a passing familiarity with.

I have a hard time getting motivated to even tune in.

Pirates/Yankees World Series confirmed.

I suppose I would take the Yankees over the Astros, just because "never ever ever under any circumstances root for a division rival against a non-division team in the playoffs of any sport" is too firm of a rule to get away from.

The lack of belief in that rule among sports fans is disturbing to me.

I was so baffled for years watching SEC teams fans celebrate Alabama wins chanting SEC.

Rasmus just hit the **** out of that ball

As for a quick rundown of an NL set up for you:

- Cards fanbase is essentially







and should be cheered against with vigor

- Dodgers are basically the packers. Best in the world at the most important position tries to overcome a dumbass as a manager. Who wins? The people that get to watch.

- Mets have a likable team of young guys, cast offs, and David Wright so long as you ignore their pitcher that is requesting to pitch as little as possible in the playoffs so he can cash in on his contract coming with Boras and just not even giving a **** about attending team functions and ****. An otherwise easy to root for team has been knocked down to "I hope Harvey gets shelled, costs them the playoffs, and gets run out of town" because that's what he deserves.

- Pirates are your stereotypical "was bad forever, now are close to being over the hump but can't quite get there yet" team. Would have no problems with them doing well and wouldn't lose sleep if they didn't.

- Cubs are the Cubs. Some want them to do well, some want them to fail miserably, regardless they'll bring entertainment to the postseason.

Does that rule really extend to the Astros though? I know they're AL West, but they only showed up there like 3 years ago. Seems too short a time to develop any real rivalry. If you're talking Oakland/Anaheim/Texas I understand, but AL West Astros sounds too new and artificial at the current time.

So people root for them but shouldn't? Duly noted.

When it comes to the NL I usually just apply city stereotypes and go off of that when picking between teams. So,

Cards: Meh I don't know, I don't hate the city of St. Louis even though they host an NFC West rival (for now). Kind of dug the city when I visited it, and was frustrated with how cool that I thought that the Rams fans I met were since I wanted to just hate them.

Pirates: I have an impulse to group them with the Steelers, but I'm aware of the disparate levels of success and I can't really hate on them.

Mets: I get nervous twitches when I think of how many fans in NY probably root for both the Yankees and Mets. I realize that many also choose a side and stick with it, but still. Sort of like Pittsburgh, no major hate here even though part of me wants to.

Cubs: I don't root for Chicago teams if I can help it.

Dodgers: I don't root for California teams if I can help it.

Basically,


But I guess Pirates/Mets/Cards are all sort of fine enough.

I'd certainly root for the Astros over any of the other three, and yes to some extent I'm forcing it here, but needless to say that I'm annoyed that they managed to go from historically inept to playoffs while the Mariners continued to sputter like a bunch of ****ing losers.

It's sort of a similar position to the Cardinals-Steelers Super Bowl. I can't stand the Steelers, and our history in the NFC West with the Cards at that point only went back for like seven years at that point, but I would have worn a Steelers jersey during that game if you handed it to me; I wasn't conflicted at all. I was NOT okay with that group of clowns - who, if given a competitive division that year, would never have even made the playoffs - somehow shipping their first championship before us. Thankfully they didn't.

I don't hate the Astros like I hate the Angels, A's, and to a lesser extent the Rangers, but I'll root against them just the same. It's the principle of the thing.

...all of that said, I can hardly be upset with the Yankees getting booed off the field at home to close out their season.

In college, you need the teams you play to be good to make yourself look better. Otherwise you become Fresno State or Boise State.

I was hoping that Notre Dame would beat Clemson so they would be in the top 5-ish instead of ranked 15th for their game against Navy this weekend. As a fan of Navy, and thinking they'll give ND hell this year, I'm thinking of placing what I think would be my largest sports bet ever on Navy covering.

If they were to pull off the upset, Navy could run the table (Memphis and Houston suddenly look like harder opponents though). obviously no shot of making the playoffs, but them getting national attention outside of the Army-Navy rivalry and Keenan Reynolds getting Heisman hype would sort of be the dream for a long time Navy football fan like myself.

UW just upset USC.

LKJ?

I don't know what you're asking me.

Are you at all enraged by UW's win?

Not particularly. Obviously in a perfect world every moment of every UW fan's life is filled with illness, sadness, and emptiness, but they're going to win occasionally.

Did you do this? Couldn't have asked for a better start.

Oregon is kind of a mess this season. Good thing they'll be getting Chip Kelly back soon.

I hope not. I hope they get coached by a rotating series of clowns and slowly spiral down to absolute rock bottom, even having to endure an 0-12 season. 20 years from today, I hope that they're a mediocre program delusionally insisting that they're relevant because they were elite almost 25 years ago. It's a favorite college football villain trajectory of mine.

It would be a shame if Chip headed back and bailed them out.