The Buscher

Chiefs/Ravens AFC Title game to me feels like a fun, close game that the Chiefs narrowly win due to one or two borderline calls and we get the immediate outrage reaction of "The NFL wanted Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl".

Burrow has direct fantasy implications for me in 3 leagues: -In the Dynasty League I'm 4-6, have a 2-game deficit to make up for the playoffs and arguably will be finished if I can't beat Srar this week since she's one of the teams ahead of me. I did bench Burrow in favor of Goff this week and think he's a perfectly viable fantasy starter the rest of the way but my team feels a bit too inconsistent week to week to go on a run. -Another random league I'm in I grabbed Kyler as an emergency stash and, again, have him playing this week with Burrow benched because I hated Burrow vs. the Ravens. Don't feel great about that team's chances but it's slim pickings at QB. -League I've been in for over a decade I don't have Burrow but I do have Joe Mixon and this is probably gonna raise his stock significantly the rest of the way, he'll be treated as a bellcow. More annoying than all of this is I have a handful of Bengals playoff-related bets that looked dead in early October, got my hopes back up and now they're dead again.

The media stuff is probably the most direct reason I can give to Mets fans who still are pining at the idea of signing him why it's very unlikely to happen. It's not the money - I don't necessarily believe the rumors that the Mets will deliberately scale back payroll. I don't think they'll have the same level of "win now" approach to free agency as they did the last two years but they're obviously gonna be interested in any top players who can help them long-term and Ohtani, Yamamoto, Soto etc all certainly qualify. There's little doubt in my mind that Cohen will plop down the most lucrative offer of any team if he really wants him. And despite the shit year last year I think there's plenty of baseball-related stuff they can successfully pitch to Ohtani. A solid core of stars, some exciting young prospects on the team now and a bunch more in the farm from their trade deadline selloff. Ohtani's said to be a big believer in metrics and the new pitching lab + Stearns and Mendoza being analytically-inclined would help. And, of course, an owner willing to spend. But the one thing the Mets can't guarantee Ohtani is that they can shield him from the media. It's literally impossible in this market. Even in LA you can kinda get away with it and the Angels made it possible for him. In New York though, keeping a guy away from the media means every slump you're gonna have arrogant reporters and loudmouth sports talk radio hosts screaming about a lack of accountability. The media here thrives on blowing everything out of proportion and turning everything into a circus. There's plenty of other orgs that can give Ohtani the largest contract ever, set him up with as good of a chance of winning next year if not more, and allow him to mostly hang in the background. If he came to either NY team it would be legitimately stunning.

Earlier this week Passan said something to the effect that probably very little will be known about Ohtani until he makes his decision. Yesterday other reports surfaced that his camp has made it clear to teams that he does not want his free agency visits to be leaked, and will hold it against teams if info gets out. He basically wants the whole process to be as quiet and with as little attention as possible. In a world where the sports media try to get every story as soon as possible - it's wild to think that the biggest free agent signing of all time, a landscape-altering player who will get the largest contract in history, will just randomly have his decision posted on Twitter one day without anyone even knowing who is in the bidding.

So they weren't paying him anymore, but officially any player who either retires under contract or is put on an indefinite suspension under contract is on a team reserve list where your contract is basically frozen. Most players who retire while still contracted to a team just stay on the reserve list indefinitely, teams probably have hundreds of guys like that - just think of all the guys who retire in training camp while still with a team etc. If a player chooses to unretire, their contracted team still owns their rights. Some players just go back to the team. Some teams will try to swing a trade (see: Favre unretiring and the Packers trading him to the Jets vs. just cutting him). But a lot of the time the team will simply cut the player especially if they're no longer in the plans. I wouldn't be shocked if Myles Jack decided to reconsider retirement and the Eagles have no space in their LB room, so they've released him into the open market and he can go anywhere. With all that being said, Bernard Williams feels like it has to be some sort of clerical error. Maybe the guy got suspended and never actually fired any retirement papers or something.

So I always hated when people would complain about the show still being on the air. Most of this criticism really was from people who stopped watching ages ago and seemed to care more about preserving the legacy of the show, as if the peak years of the show would be retroactively ruined. I've definitely missed more episodes than I've seen over the last 20 years but I never understood complaining about the show being on - if you don't want to watch it you don't have to, but clearly enough still are to keep FOX happy. This current season might be the first time I'd actually be happy to see the show end. Has absolutely nothing to do with the jokes - nearly every episode has a few good moments. Has everything to do with how rough some of these voices sound now. Julie Kavner's voice was shot years ago but now Dan Castellaneta and Harry Shearer seem to be right there too. Like they sound in pain. It's kinda upsetting to listen to.

Owners unanimously approved the Athletics' move to Las Vegas. The new stadium won't be ready until the 2028 season, but their lease with the Coliseum expires after 2024 and it feels unlikely they'll work out an extension given the contentious nature of how this all went down. So it's essentially RIP to pro sports in Oakland in 10.5 months from now. So the A's will have three years playing in their Vegas AAA stadium, loaning Oracle Park from the Giants when they're out of town, and probably getting some games in Mexico or other locations.

I don't want that asshole winning a ring and don't think Cleveland should get anything good for bringing him in but at least if their amazing defense leads to a surprise January run I'll be less mad than I would've been seeing scumbag Watson out there.

Brewers stay in-house with their managerial hire, promoting bench coach Pat Murphy to the position. Had he not gotten the job there's a thought he would've left to join Counsell in Chicago. This leaves the Padres as the lone managerial vacancy remaining.

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cleveland Browns (3) Los Angeles Chargers vs Green Bay Packers (5) New York Jets vs Buffalo Bills (2) Minnesota Vikings vs Denver Broncos (1) Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs (2)

Padres owner Peter Seidler has passed away at 63. Wow. He did seem to spend with a "can't take it with you" approach, which I commend even if it did lead to what might be a firesale this winter.

Much as the Bills deserved that loss, it must also be said that the underthrown DPI call might be ruining football more than any other single call or play. On a lot of underthrown passes it’s nearly impossible for the defender to not go crashing into the receiver for the flag. It’s pretty grotesque that it’s gotten to the point where “let’s just throw this and trust the refs to bail us out” is an actual strategy.

Broncos did everything in their power to blow the game and the Bills didn’t want it. Terrible special teams all around.

I believe this is working out pretty much exactly how Rodgers wanted it to from the very start. He might be a quack with medical stuff but he knows football, there's no way this guy watched Zach Wilson play all during training camp and thinks the guy actually brings anything to the table. So it was easy for him to sit there in week 2 and talk about a possible return this year knowing full well Wilson might play so poorly it becomes moot. Now in December he can claim it as a win for himself, and say that he COULD have returned and was ready to but it was the team's decision not to.

I mean Marvin Jr is a great consolation prize if they miss out on the top QBs but he’s largely gonna be useless for a year. It’s so stupid that I’m not only sitting here watching Cardinals/Falcons on RedZone instead of Giants/Cowboys but I’m far more invested in the former game rooting for the Cardinals as if it were a Giants game.

I certainly didn’t expect the Giants game to go any differently. But I will say I’m starting to get late 2021 Joe Judge vibes. The word at that time was “the front office knows Judge can’t win with this roster, it would take an unmitigated disaster for him to be fired” and then the Giants played football for 2 months that was so unwatchable it felt like the team quit, and moreover, it was clear from the playcalling that Judge wasn’t even attempting to win and as much as we talk about tanking, it’s a horrible look when a coaching staff isn’t even attempting to call competitive plays. Daboll will be given a pass this year because of the playoff berth/COTY last year. Because really, how can you keep firing coaches every two years and expect anything? But assuming the Giants get Daboll his QB in the draft, he’s absolutely on the hot seat entering 2024. The team has to just look like it’s headed in the right direction. Because right now it’s back to looking like a rudderless ship.

Horrific Bengals loss. Blew up up my weekly parlay.

I was wrong for doubting Josh Dobbs in pick ‘em. He might lead this Vikings team to a playoff spot.

The Panthers are so bad. I know NFL media is super reactionary to small sample sizes and all that but it’s feeling kinda hard not be that way about Bryce Young. There are plenty of examples in recent NFL history of the team drafting the new QB and seeing instant results. Maybe not a playoff contender, but clear as day that the QB makes everyone around him better and that he’s the right guy for the future. And when you take a QB at #1, let alone give up all you did to move up to get him, that’s what you’re expecting. And I can’t said it’s an unfair expectation given how often it’s happened, and how the NFL structures all its rules to allow QBs to exceed. Nothing more important than that position. The jokes about Young’s size have been plentiful but like, really, he does have multiple throws a game that are so wildly inaccurate you wonder if he just couldn’t see where he was even throwing. There are very few positive signs at all. And he’s got tons of pressure on him because of the trade, if he busts it’s basically gonna go down as one of the worst moves in history. I hope the guy figures it out but I can see why Panthers fans would be despondent.

New Orleans Saints vs Minnesota Vikings (2) Tennessee Titans vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5) San Francisco 49ers vs Jacksonville Jaguars (3) Detroit Lions vs Los Angeles Chargers (4) New York Jets vs Las Vegas Raiders (1)

Angels hire Ron Washington as manager

He covered the entire Sing the Sorrow album which was one of my favorite albums in high school, but this was my favorite song off of it.

Eh, I can't say I care right now because the game is presumably still a ways off. But once it actually gets closer and we get a lot of meaningful details and featured I'll probably get hyped.