I guess the solution for deflategate was more oversight.
This conversation reminds me of that article about how the Giants prepared the footballs for Eli Manning. I assume everyone does something similar. Certainly nobody uses brand new balls voluntarily.
According to this ESPN article, although the Falcons are publicly stating that they have not yet determined if they are going to cut Kirk Cousins at some point after the end of this season, management at other NFL teams are widely expecting that the Falcons will, in fact, do so at some point prior to March 17th, when he is due a $10 million roster bonus.
It’s also generally thought that there is no love lost between Cousins and the Falcons’ front office, dating back to the draft, and the team selecting Michael Penix Jr. in the first round. Due to this, it’s believed that Cousins would be unwilling to work with the team on a contract restructuring or a trade.
4pm ET starts are usually games which are being played on the West Coast (Pacific time zone), which are starting at 1pm local time. They are typically only carried regionally by the networks.
4:25 ET starts are the “doubleheader” game (a.k.a. the “Game of the Week”), which is shown more-or-less nationally. While they can be games that are being played on the West Coast, they could be played anywhere – today’s doubleheader game is in Buffalo. Fox and CBS take turns on which of the two of them get a doubleheader game, and in most markets, the network shows the doubleheader game after showing an early (1pm ET) game.
Once upon a time, those games started at 4pm ET, but as games regularly run longer than 3 hours now, they moved the start time to its current 4:25, to ensure that, in most cases, the early games are done by the time the doubleheader game starts.
Wild finish to the Eagles-Commanders game, followed Cardinals going down to the Panthers in OT.
I THINK this makes it very likely Washington goes through, though the Falcons will have the Commanders next week in what could be the huge game in deciding the final wild card slot.
Sorry if this was asked upthread, but is this year’s NFC North the best division in NFL history? I can’t recall any other season where you had a 13-2, 12-2, and 10-4 team in the same division at the same time.