NFL Week 12 thread -- As sweet as a Kolber kiss

I do wonder if they are going to have to shut it down soon. The problem is, they might have to do it again after Christmas and New Year's. Do they lop four weeks off the schedule? Maybe cancel Week 13 and the two weekends after Christmas and New Year's Day (which both fall on Fridays), plus one more week to be safe, then go into bubbles for the playoffs.

 

If they can somehow make it to the playoffs they can create 2 bubbles for the month.

 

I am not going to criticize the NFL for the current chaos because back in the summer I never thought they'd get to Game One. They tried. All things considered, they have done better than society at large (granted, they have more resources).

 

Eric Bienemy may be a good coach or he may not be - but nobody said "Andy Reid runs that offense" when the Bears hired Nagy who was OC at the time. Or Doug Pedersen in Philadelphia, or Brad Childress in Minnesota. Just saying.

 

And looking at the disaster that is college, the fact they've only just now started really running into trouble but (so far) haven't cancelled anything it really is remarkable.

 

They said Frank Reich runs that offense when Doug Pederson was in Philadelphia

 

Have they though? They're a multi-billion dollar league, and I don't really get the sense that they've handled this well. Their "plan" seemed to be lots of testing and not allowing fans early on, but I figured they were in for trouble once that outbreak happened earlier in the year among the Titans, and the NFL investigated and determined nobody did anything wrong. I don't know what exactly they should have done - allow teams to double their roster size and essentially have a AAA team? create mini-bubbles? - but I don't get the feeling that they expended a ton of effort.

 

To some degree this resembles an argument I made when MLB had its problems in July.

"(The NFL's) plan doesn't work because any plan within the parameters the league has had to work within is fundamentally flawed. Like it or not, the coronavirus has laid siege to every corner of American culture. (The NFL) is one of countless numbers of institutions that steadfastly believes it has a plan to wander outside the castle walls and operate safely, but that's not how a siege works."

Outside of a full NBA-style bubble, which is probably not feasible for 32 teams of 60-some players and equal numbers of staff serving them, there is no solution. In an even partially open system, there are too many people having too many daily interactions with the general public for there possibly to avoid exposure to and contraction of the virus.

 

Mike Shula’s the QB coach. According to Wikipedia, he played a little with the ‘87 Bucs (unclear if it was a scab game or not). Maybe he can suit up like some goaltending coaches do when NHL teams are down a goalie?

 

Does Doug Pederson get no credit for winning a Super Bowl with the Eagles?

 

Not quite doubling the roster size, but they did expand the practice squad to 17 players and loosened the rules on it to the point that it's now essentially a minor league team. Teams can call up and send down practice squad players twice before they have to sign them to the full roster, and they are allowed to have a couple of veterans on there.

 

One thing I never understood about the plan was not requiring masks for everybody on the sideline all the time.