And What is and isn’t Surprising About the Firing of Urban Meyer

As Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange would say upon greeting his Droogs, “Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly well” here we are in Week 15 of the NFL.

You know the NFL, that multi-billion-dollar business that intentionally leaks e-mails to ruin people’s careers, while they let the real criminals and their cronies get a pass (I’m looking at you Daniel Snyder, Woody Johnson and of course Roger Goodell).

And now this week, the business that continues to say one thing and does another.

Even with over 100 NFL players on the reserve/COVID-19 list the NFL said they would not postpone games. And why should they?

Last year the Denver Broncos didn’t get any extra time against the Saints when all three of their QB’s were out due to Covid. They had to resort to having Kendall Hinton, a practice squad receiver who played some QB in college at Wake Forest as their starter. He didn’t make his first completion until the third quarter and that would turn out to be his only completion of the game. Well, if you don’t count the two completions he made to the other team. They lost 31-3.

The Raiders also didn’t get any breaks when they were missing their starting offensive line and other key players and had to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as scheduled. They lost 45-20.

Speaking of the Raiders

Understandably, the Raiders were not happy when their game against the Browns, originally scheduled for Saturday was pushed to Monday night. They followed the protocols, their players didn’t get Covid, they were ready to board a plane and fly to Cleveland.

But even though the NFL said they wouldn’t postpone games, just before the Raiders were set to board a plane for Cleveland, they were told the game was being POSTPONED until Monday. Wait I thought the NFL wasn’t postponing games.

Basically, if I’m understanding this correctly, the Raiders are getting totally hosed. I mean granted I’m no genius multi-millionaire like Roger Goodell, but that seems to be the case. Same goes for the Philadelphia Eagles who were all set to play on Sunday as well as the Seattle Seahawks.

But the NFL who said multiple times, going all the way back to July, that they would not postpone games, is now postponing games.

So, the Raiders, Eagles & Seahawks who were set and ready to go for games on Saturday & Sunday are being penalized by the NFL by moving their games to Monday & Tuesday. Not only does the postponement – you know the thing the NFL said they weren’t going to do – give their opponents the chance to get their starters back, which is a clear disadvantage, they also have less time to prepare for their Week 16 opponents.

But hey what does the NFL care? They do what they want, when they want and how they want because they’re the well you know the NFL.

Well, that didn’t keep some of the Raiders players from airing their disappointment with the decisions.

Casey Hayward – Straight bullshit!!! @NFL why didn’t you change it for the broncos or the raiders last year?

I’m sure the @NFLPA president playing for the Browns didn’t have any effect on these negotiations…

KJ Wright – We agreed that there wouldn’t be any postponed game this season, right?

I pay my player dues just to get lied to and the rules bent! @NFL @NFLPA If it was the other way around, I swear we would be playing tomorrow.

Kendal Vickers – Hypocrites smh

That last one really nails it. The NFL and Roger Goodell are the ultimate hypocrites. When something works in their favor its fine, against not so fine. The bottom line is it’s all about money.

And speaking of money, let’s take a look at the craziness this week of Covid has brought upon three games – Raiders v Browns, Eagles v WFT and Seahawks v Rams.

Las Vegas Raiders at Cleveland Browns

The Browns were going into Saturday’s matchup with half their starters and a total of 21 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list and third string QB Nick Mullens as the starter.

This game opened with Cleveland as a -6.5-point favorite against the visiting Las Vegas Raiders and as news broke that some Browns players wouldn’t be available for the game it continued to move down and down and down and finally the Raiders had moved to -5.5-point favorites.

The NFLPA pushed for the game to be postponed, but the league said a postponement wouldn’t happen. We covered this above, but I thought it was worth mentioning again.

But then it did happen on Friday afternoon when the NFL postponed the game until 5pm on Monday. What did that mean for the line? Well, it went from Raiders -5.5 favorites to the Browns becoming a -1-point favorite. By Saturday the Browns were a -2.5-point favorite.

Talk about a chance to middle a game on several occasions. I mean you could have taken Raiders +6.5, then Browns +5.5.

The total in this game also had a crazy history with a drop from 43.5 to 35.5 when news broke of the Browns Covid issues. When the game was postponed to Monday the total jumped up to 40.5

WTF?!!

Washington Football Team at Philadelphia Eagles

Speaking of WTF, how about the WFT game against the Eagles?

This is another matchup that’s gone Covid crazy with 21 WFT players on the reserve/Covid-19 list including Quarterback Taylor Heinicke. His backup Kyle Allen was also placed on the reserve list on Wednesday and Washington may need to start Garrett Gilbert who they just signed from the New England Patriots Practice Squad.

The Eagles opened as favorites of -2.5-points and by Friday morning that number had jumped to -12. Factor in the Birds are rested coming off the bye and the Football Team’s defense hasn’t been great against mobile QB’s and this one could get ugly fast with the answer to What’s Eating Garrett Gilbert Grape being the Philadelphia Eagles defense.

But hang onto your hats. On Friday afternoon this game was postponed to Tuesday at 7pm and the line quickly dropped four whole points with the Eagles favorites of just -8. By Saturday, the line had dropped to Eagles -6.

This was another opportunity to win on both sides when you could have taken the Eagles -2.5 and then taken the Football Team at +12.

Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams were another team with a Covid outbreak with up to 26 players on the list including Jalen Ramsey, Von Miller and Darrell Henderson. Their Covid conundrum was announced on Tuesday morning and one of my more cynical friends who I love dearly insists the Rams knew about this on Monday night when they played the Cardinals and didn’t let on because, well they wanted to win the game.

My friend is still lobbying to get a credit on his Cardinals bet.

The Rams opened as a -6.5-point home favorites against the Seahawks, but on news of the Covid outbreak that number dropped to -3.5. When news of the game’s postponement broke the line moved back to Rams -6.5.

So Where Do We Go from Here?

What will happen before these Monday & Tuesday games is anyone’s bet and depending on who becomes available to play, from Baker Mayfield to Taylor Heinicke, these lines could continue to go up and down.

I mean what’s going to happen before Sunday’s games is anyone’s guess. If Aaron Rodgers gets Covid does that game get moved to Wednesday? If Dak Prescott gets Covid does that game get moved to Thursday? If Tom Brady gets Covid does that game get moved to whenever he wants to play it?

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Shad Khan Finally Does Something Right

He Fired that No Good Fraud Urban Meyer.

Reading through all the reports on the firing, one quote stood out for me. It was from a column on the four-letter network’s website that described Meyer thusly – “he stands at a small black lectern deep in the bowels of TIAA Bank Field.”

If there’s anything I think of when I think of Urban Meyer, it’s bowels. He’s a disgusting POS who was finally flushed. He’ll never get another job in the NFL. He may never even get another job in college football. Wait, strike that. College football will take anyone back if they win.

Lane Kiffin offered a 13-year-old a scholarship and took away a walk-on linebacker’s scholarship when the guy who was the previous starter was released from jail.  He also told Alshon Jefferey that if he chose to attend South Carolina he’d wind up “pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who’d gone to South Carolina.”

Nick Saban famously told the media “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach” shortly before becoming the Alabama coach.

Mike Leach locked a player in a dark room for hours because he’d suffered a concussion and couldn’t practice.

Bobby Petrino had an affair with someone half his age and was only found out because he was in a motorcycle accident with her and tried to cover it up. He also resigned as Head Coach of the Atlanta Falcons who were 3-10 at the time, after personally promising Falcons owner Arthur Blank less than 24 hours earlier that he was staying in Atlanta. Guess where he went? The University of Arkansas.

So, Meyer will most likely get another college job if he wants it. But the funny thing is that his actions have not changed since he started coaching. He was a jerk at Bowling Green. He was a jerk at Utah. He was a jerk at Florida. He was a jerk at Ohio State. He was a jerk at Jacksonville.

And he would still be a jerk at Jacksonville except for one thing. He didn’t win. If he had won, guaran-fucking-teed Shad Kahn would have looked the other way on all the shit Meyer has done this year and he’d still be Head Coach. That’s just the way it works and if you don’t think so you’re dumber than Urban Meyer. Thankfully Meyer didn’t win and that d’bag is moving on to open Urban’s Lap Dance Emporium in Columbus, Ohio.

I mean look at the Nets decision to bring back Kyrie. Sports are about wins and these owners will bow down to these players and coaches no matter what happens. Unless of course they’re not winning and then they become casualties.

So, Meyer if you weren’t such a jerk and loser, you’d probably still have a job. Tough luck dickhead.

Grumpy’s Pick(s) of the Week

Last week the books got crushed with the favorites going 10-2 ATS. This week, who the f knows what’s going to happen. Between Covid and all the huge lines it’s kind of a crapshoot.

One thing I do know is that if the Jacksonville Jaguars have any respect for themselves, they will beat the crap out of the Houston Texans now that they’re free of Urban Meyer. The sharp money jumped on the Jags once Meyer was let go and the line moved from -3.5 to -4. It’s now up to Jags -4.5 and I’ll take the Jags to cover.

I’ll also take another team that got screwed last week due to the lack of Covid rules that have all the sudden sprung up this week and go with the Detroit Lions +12.5 versus the Arizona Cardinals.

If you’d like to check out the game, total and props lines head over to the NFL Pro Football league page on The Props Network.

Enjoy week 15. I hope you are fortunate.