Ban Youth Tackle for Safety’s Sake—And for Player Development, Too

In order to become best all-time, Brees had to pass Peyton Manning. Here’s something interesting about Peyton Manning—he never played youth tackle. His father wouldn’t let him. Until middle school, he played flag football.

Before Brees could pass Manning, he had to pass Brett Favre. Here’s something interesting about Favre—he believes youth tackle should be banned.

Football at the NFL level is less dangerous than now perceived. Players are adults who are well-paid for an informed assumption of risk, while reductions of helmet-to-helmet contact in games and (more importantly) in practice suggest that when today’s NFL athletes become seniors, they will have better neurological health than those of past generations.

But youth tackle is really, really dangerous. Ten year olds don’t understand the risks they are taking—that’s why we don’t let 10-year-olds smoke. Yet we let them bash each other in the head.

The NFL, ESPN, Gatorade (owned by Pepsi), and other big corporate entities encourage grade-school children to bash each other in the head. Unlike NCAA football players, most of whom receive scholarships—a valuable economic compensation—and unlike NFL players who are well-paid, nearly all youth tackle players will never get anything for the risks they assume. And there are more players in youth tackle than in the NFL and NCAA combined.

Add the decisive argument about banning organized youth tackle: Studies increasingly show that most neurological damage from contact sports occurs prior to age 12. If you bash your head before your brain case finishes forming, you are in for lifelong problems. If you don’t put on a football helmet until high school, neurological risk drops substantially.

Yet American society lets the little kids who aren’t allowed to smoke because smoking is unhealthy put on football helmets and bash each other’s heads. And then we can’t understand why girls, few of whom play tackle football, do better in school than boys.

In 2016, in the New York Times, I detailed the argument against youth tackle. Since then, this significant study has been added. Researchers led by Michael Alosco of Boston University found, “Youth exposure to tackle football may reduce resiliency to late‐life neuropathology.” My 2015 book The Game’s Not Over further looks at the relationship among youth tackle, concussions (lots of “sub-concussive” contact may be worse than one knockout hit), and neurological decline. The book also goes through the data about whether the increase in popularity of youth tackle football that began roughly a generation ago is related to the decline of boys’ academic performance in high school and college admission.

Organized youth tackle leagues should be banned by Congress or by state legislatures. School systems and public parks should not allow their fields to be used for youth tackle leagues. Parents! Do not let your children play youth tackle! Unless you let your 10 year old drive, smoke, or drink.

Now here’s the positive side of the argument. The alternative to youth tackle is flag football. Flag is a wonderful sport, and, as Drew Brees suggests, a good learning experience.

In 2014 in the Atlantic, I argued that the NFL should “stop encouraging little kids to sign up for tackle—good for the league’s fan base and equipment sales, bad for little kids—and only promote flag football, which is a lot of fun.”

Your columnist has coached both flag and middle-school tackle for a large public high school. With tackle, I would not accept players under 13 years of age—that’s the bright line in neurological research, and don’t take my word for it, take Archie Manning’s, as he would not allow Peyton and Eli to play tackle until they turned 13. Comparing the two types of football, flag was every bit as fun, way less risky, and not as expensive or complicated for parents.

Flag football teaches how to be in the right place at the right time in a fast-moving, fluid sport. This is much more important than learning tackling form—you can learn tackling form in high school. And it’s more important than teaching aggression. Boys are naturally aggressive; they do not have to slam into each other to learn this.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but flag football does not cause brain injury! But don’t take it from me—take it from the NFL’s all-time passing leader.

Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

In football tactics news, Kansas City at New England is tied with 51 seconds remaining, the host Flying Elvii at midfield. As the squads line up, something goes wrong with the Chiefs defensive backfield. Rob Gronkowski, among the largest receivers in the sport, splits wide, and across from him is only Josh Shaw, an average-size cornerback—and one just signed by the Chiefs “off the street” after Shaw spent a month unemployed. Kansas City is in Cover 1, a single safety in the middle of the field, which means no one “above” the hapless Shaw. Tom Brady, of course, spots the mismatch and gives Gronkowski a hand signal.

Andy Reid—why didn’t you call time out?

This column often notes that across football, from high school to college to the pros, coaches will spend a time out if the least little thing is wrong on offense. On offense, time outs are used to prevent as little as a five-yard procedure penalty, and five yards rarely matter. Yet when a defensive snap is about to commence with total disaster guaranteed, coaches keep their time outs in their pockets.

Gronkowski ran an “up” and caught the 39-yard pass that cooked Kansas City’s goose. After he caught the pass, Reid called time out.

In other football news, TMQ thinks the Steelers should trade Le’Veon Bell to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Jimmy Butler. This would solve a problem for both clubs.

Pittsburgh’s Bell situation gets more ridiculous by the day—but don’t blame the player. It was the league’s owners who, during the 1993 negotiations, insisted on creating the excessively complex “exclusive franchise tag” because they could not abide the thought of a star athlete having negotiating leverage over an ownership fat-cat. Today, the franchise tag is obsolete, but owners refuse to let it go—or simply not use it, since there’s no obligation for a team to declare a “tagged” player. The owners see the franchise tag as a way to shaft problematic stars, by preventing them from getting market value for their services.

So don’t blame Le’Veon Bell for figuring out a way to game the “tag” system; it was not the players who demanded this preposterous device. The players wanted straightforward free agency, but the owners insisted on adding this nutty restriction. Now an NFL star is using the nutty restriction against his own team. Owners always take advantage of any quirk of the sport’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Why shouldn’t their players do the same?

Under details of the tag rule, Bell doesn’t have to report to the Steelers till the 11th week of the season. He loses a hefty paycheck each week he doesn’t report, but each week he gets closer to his goal—true free agency. Whether Bell will come out ahead by forcing the issue until he’s a true free agent remains to be seen—his absence is creating a reputation that he’s a head case. But isn’t that his choice to make? Bell is willing to gamble that once he’s a true free agent, teams will weigh his athletic ability against his negative aura and decide he’s worth a Brinks-truck signing bonus. This may or may not work out for Bell. But it’s his choice to make, and he’s making it according to rules dictated by the owners.

Stats of the Week #1. Since Marvin Lewis became head coach of the Bengals, the Steelers are 16-2 in Cincinnati.

Stats of the Week #2. The Cardinals have not won in Minnesota since 1977.

Stats of the Week #3. Chip Kelly and Jon Gruden, the highest-paid new coaches in college football and the NFL, are a combined 2-10.

Stats of the Week #4. Mike Evans, drafted in 2014, already is the Buccaneers all-time leading receiver—which tells you something about Buccaneers receivers.

Stats of the Week #5. The Eagles have won eight of their last nine versus the Giants.

Stats of the Week #6. In the Rutgers at Maryland game, Rutgers quarterbacks delivered more passes to Maryland defenders (five interceptions) than to their own teammates (two completions).

Stats of the Week #7. Bills backup quarterback Nate Peterman, whose pick-six with two minutes remaining allowed the Texans to win a tied game, has delivered one pass to a defender (nine interceptions) for every three passes to a teammate (33 completions) in his career.

Stats of the Week #8. There is no longer any undefeated versus undefeated pairing possible in the NFL season.

Stats of the Week #9. New England is on a 55-3 stretch versus the AFC at home.

Stats of the Week #10. In the Year of the Geezer Quarterback, 39-year-old Drew Brees has 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions.

Sweet ‘n’ Sour Game Kansas City at New England Big Plays. On Kansas City’s disaster snap with 51 seconds remaining, not only is a street free agent across from Rob Gronkowski—the Chiefs rushed three, meaning there were plenty of guys in white and red available to help cover Gronkowski. So where were they? During the down, numerous Kansas City Chiefs simply stood in the intermediate middle of the field, covering no one, doing nothing.

Earlier, when the Patriots had 3rd-and-10 on the Kansas City 17, again the Chiefs rushed three, yet Tom Brady’s favorite wide receiver, Julian Edelman, was single-covered going to the end zone for a touchdown. With a three-man rush, where were the other Chiefs? Standing around in the middle of the field, covering no one, doing nothing.

Late in the fourth quarter, Kansas City trailed 40-33 and took possession on its 25. Speedster Tyreek Hill ran a deep crosser and had only one man to juke on the way to a 75-yard touchdown. The Patriots didn’t blitz on the play, so where were all the Elvii who might have helped on Hill? Standing around in the middle of the field, covering no one, doing nothing.

There were 23 possessions in the contest. Results: nine field goals, eight touchdowns, four turnovers, one deliberate kneel-down, and one punt.

Sweet ‘n’ Sour Defenses. Baltimore shut out the Flaming Thumbtacks on their own field. Tennessee has a low-voltage attack, but still! Tennessee gained just 106 yards on offense and suffered 11 sacks. Adjusting for yardage lost on sacks, the Titans averaged just two yards gained per passing play—and you should be able to gain two yards per play just by leaning forward. So far the Ravens have the NFL’s top-rated defense, by yards and by points. In a league with too much roster turmoil—many NFL teams seem to churn their rosters just so the general manager has something to do—Baltimore returned all defensive starters from 2017, and it shows in quality, well-coordinated performances. Sweet.

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Denver, which won the Super Bowl in 2016 with power defense, in its last two outings versus Jersey/B and LA/A has surrendered 593 rushing yards. That’s awful, especially considering the Broncos used the fifth overall selection of the 2018 draft on a defensive lineman. Part of the trouble is that Bradley Chubb, the defensive line rookie, and veteran Broncs defensive line star Von Miller, are sack artists who boast about sacks, get bonuses for sacks, and ignore the run to try for sacks.

In the second half of Rams at Broncos, even when it was an obvious rushing situation for Los Angeles, Miller and Chubb were gambling for sacks while the Broncos had only three, or even only two, defenders in a “down” stance. When defensive linemen are standing at the snap, they have a better chance of getting a sack but are more vulnerable to being blown off the ball by power-rush tactics. Sour.

Sweet ‘n’ Sour Defensive Lines. The seesaw Bears at Dolphins contest reached overtime. Miami had 2nd-and-goal on the Chicago 2. The Bears had not yet possessed the ball, meaning a touchdown would win it for Miami but a field goal would allow Chicago a chance to win the other way with a touchdown.

To that juncture, the Bears had not allowed a rushing touchdown all season. They still haven’t, as the Chicago defensive line stripped the ball from tailback Kenyan Drake and recovered. Sweet for the visitors, sour for the hosts.

Extra sour for the hosts is that the play call was a zone-read run in which the tailback isn’t sure, until after the snap, whether to take the ball from the quarterback. The result was a sloppy zone-read handoff and Drake already bobbling the ball as he approached the line of scrimmage. Zone-read plays can work in the middle of the field, when the defense is spread out. In this instance—on the 2-yard line in overtime—Chicago was in a tight overstack. Miami head coach Adam Gase should have signaled “give,” meaning the defense thinks it’s a zone-read but the tailback knows, before the snap, that he’s going to get the ball.

After Chicago recovered the fumble, the Bears moved to 3rd-and-4 on the Miami 35. Now, because both teams have had a possession, any score wins the game. Reaching the opponents’ 35 means a 52-yard field goal attempt—even a couple more yards would improve the odds. Chicago ran, and the Miami defensive line stuffed the play; the Bears then missed the 52-yarder. Sour for the visitors and sweet for the hosts, whose defensive line held exactly like the other team’s defensive linemen just held. Miami moved in the other direction and launched the winning field goal as time expired.

Sign of the End Times. The Browns were favored against a winning team.

End Times Cancelled. Favored at home, the Browns lost to the Chargers by 24 points.

New York Times Corrections on Fast-Forward. In the past 12 months the Multicolored Lady has, according to its corrections page …

• Inadvertently awarded a Nobel Prize.
• Misidentified “the love interest of Captain America.” (“Steve, WTF? You’ve been seeing Betty???”)
• Clarified that a renowned Yale academic did not, in fact, grow up under a rock.
• Mistook a blenny for a goby.
• Confused up with down.
• Admitted a broad range of errors involving “coming-of-age issues, illness, accidents, family discord, suicidal thoughts, bullying, acting out, crises in faith, sibling rivalry, death, betrayals or difficulties in friendship,” but made clear there was no error on what contemporary Manhattan considers the single most important issue in all of human history—“sexual orientation.”
• Admitted errors in “an essay on truffle oil” and regarding “German urban garden gnomes.”
• In an article that “referred incorrectly to the craftsmen who performed a crackle finish,” said rooms in a Louisiana mansion had square footage that worked out to the footprint of an airliner lavatory. Twenty times that amount was correct. Of course, in Manhattan real estate, airliner lavatories seem huge.
• Declared that a strand of human hair is 100 nanometers in diameter, which would mean hair cannot be seen without an electron microscope. The error occurred in an article about “spider ballooning.”
• Admitted a Times article was full of confusion regarding state income tax rates. Subject of the article? Confusion about state income tax rates.
• Admitted that a prominently played article asserting the Trump tax bill would cause middle-class couples to face gigantic increases in federal taxes actually should have said their tax bills would decline. The Times blamed the error on Turbo Tax.
• Admitted that an article should not have called the U.S. economic conditions that began in 2007 “the Time of Shedding and Cold Rocks.” The error was blamed on “a satirical text-swapping web browser extension.” Whatever you do, don’t add a satirical text-swapping extension to Turbo Tax.
• Drastically overstated the degree of recent Chinese naval buildup. Drastically overstating Chinese naval buildup has become a national sport for the MSM; correcting the overstatement caused the entire premise of the article to go “poof.”
• Repeating a belief ingrained in New York City culture since the 1957 Broadway premiere of West Side Story, declared that people born in Puerto Rico are foreigners.
• Issued a hard-to-understand correction that worked out to 2.6 percent of high school seniors regularly vaping, rather than 24 percent as the original, prominently played article had claimed. Once the numerical error is corrected the Page One headline assertion of a shocking “explosion” of high school vaping—the Times’s headline word—goes up in, well, nope, not finishing that joke.
• Ridiculed the daughter of Scott Pruitt, saying she used her father’s position in the Trump administration to gain admission to the prestigious University of Virginia law school and citing as evidence a letter of recommendation written by someone presented as a toady seeking favor with the Oval Office. Later the Times corrected that the letter was written before Trump was elected. Note one: regarding #MeToo, the Times advises readers to believe the woman. Yet the paper felt it was fine to ridicule a young female conservative for pursuing a professional career. Note two: The article claiming abuse of office was prominent on Page One; the retraction was inside a tiny box on page A17.
• Acknowledged Times photo editors had trouble telling “lighter-skinned men” from “lighter-skinned women.” Subject of the article? Outrage that facial recognition software has trouble with race and gender.
• Inadvertently declared that gambling in the state of Massachusetts is controlled by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
• Admitted it was off by a factor of 100 and again by a factor of 100.
• Admitted it was off by a factor of a million. The error works out to enough missing plutonium to make roughly 400 times as many nuclear bombs as actually exist.
• For the twelve consecutive year that TMQ has done this item, confused a million with a billion.
• Confused a million with a billion in a way that the original statement works out to a single English old-age home borrowing more money that the entire FY2017 U.S. defense budget.
• Miscalculated by $391.5 billion, which is the amount of the entire defense budget in FY2004.
• Mistook a million for a billion in a way that caused a single bail bonds agency to have a larger annual budget than the Pentagon.
• Overstated by $51 billion—about double the current budget of the United States Marines Corps—annual sales of Christian Dior men’s wear.
• Been off by $1.598 trillion, which is more than the national budget of France.
• Said universal single-payer health care for everyone in California would cost $9 per person annually. Correct was $9,000.
• For the 12th consecutive year that TMQ has done this item, mistook a woman for a man.
• Thought the First Lady of France is married to a woman.
• Mistook an imaginary man for an imaginary woman.
• Admitted error regarding “maps of Wakanda,” a place that does not exist.
• Run multiple same-day corrections regarding Canada. Subject of the article that contained the errors? Mockery of those who lack knowledge of Canada.
• For the third time since TMQ has done this item, had a correction that “went astray.” When corrections go astray they are out to all hours with the wrong kind of crowd.
• For the fourth time since TMQ has done this item, became confused about the distinction between a descendant and an ancestor.
• Failed to give proper attribution to the Boom Boom Room.
• Inadvertently located a resort in the middle of a creek and located Singapore in North Korea.
• Mistook ridiculous fun for ridiculous nonsense.
• Confused Baghdad with Washington, D.C.
• Confused military power with “stunningly elegant British travel posters.”
• Corrected an error on the “cultural importance of Neapolitan pizza.”
• On the same day, mistook the Navy for the Army, New Jersey for New York, and Sweden for Australia.
• Gotten confused about who’s on second.

And in the New York Times Correction of the Year, the paper performed the seemingly impossible feat of having an inaccurate blank space.

Serious Points About Corrections. TMQ’s New York Times Corrections on Fast-Forward item is looking for laughs. I automatically skip corrections concerned with life-or-death matters or with routine bloopers such as dates and years.

Then there is the gray area of corrections that suggest serious points. Here are three:

1). On the same day the Times admitted a minor error in a piece about how New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio denounces others for causing greenhouse emissions, a separate Times article casually reported de Blasio takes many personal trips in a taxpayer subsidized SUV caravan that spews carbon pollutants. The Times long has held a double standard about greenhouse emissions: Emissions are terrible when associated with industry or political conservatism but fine when associated with liberal politicians and Hollywood celebs.

2). The Times admitted error in an article about “France’s decision to designate an original manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom as a “national treasure.” If it sounds cool that France would confer “national treasure” status on an erotic novel—The 120 Days of Sodom is not erotica, it’s filth.

The de Sade book often is spoken of in the same breath with Story of O, which is indeed literature. Story of O is a fantasy in the same sense that Lord of the Rings is a fantasy: Both invent mythological situations that never happened and never will. In Story of O, everything is consensual and most characters are happy. By contrast The 120 Days of Sodom celebrates ritual sexual murder, including of children. That France reveres de Sade’s filth does not reflect well on the Fifth Republic, and spare me the lit-crit gibberish. (“An allegory of powerlessness,” blah blah.)

France aside, why is the world’s most important newspaper content to describe the glorification of sexual murder as a “national treasure?” Search the Times for “120 Days of Sodom” and you’ll find respectful coverage of the comings and goings of the manuscript, as well as favorable references to de Sade as a “libertine,” a positive term, rather than as depraved.

3). The Times said the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear reactor malfunction killed 16,000 people. The 16,000 deaths were caused by the earthquake and tsunami. The World Health Organization found the radiation release did not kill anyone directly, though some elderly people who were evacuated from the area died sooner than they otherwise probably would have, probably from the stress of evacuation.

Everything about Fukushima—earthquake, tidal wave, reactor failure—was dreadful. But the error shows New York Times reporters and editors are so ill-informed about nuclear power that to them 16,000 deaths from a reactor malfunction sounded plausible. Except at Chernobyl, nuclear power has shown itself the safest way to generate electricity—much safer than mining and burning coal—while reactors release almost no carbon to the atmosphere. (There is slight carbon release associated with uranium mining.)

Climate change won’t be prevented unless the MSM stop printing science-illiterate scare stories about fission. Related example: a Times editorial lauded electricity sources that “don’t produce carbon emissions,” listing them as wind, solar, and hydro. Nuclear was omitted. Later the Times corrected the error, but the implication is the same—the minds of writers and editors at the world’s most important newspaper are closed against nuclear reactors.

Want to prevent climate change? Near-zero-emission nuclear power would be essential. Your columnist commends the upcoming book A Bright Future, by Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist, which explores the safety and environmental aspects of nuclear power as a climate change corrective.

Not-Serious Point About Corrections. Whilst breakfasting in Exeter, England, in July, yours truly encountered this in the Daily Mail: “An allegation by a business rival that Paul Singer wore Native American headdress and performed Singing in the Rain in 2006 in a public foundation is untrue.” That correction only took 12 years!

Year of the Geezer Quarterback. (New Running Item.) Everyone’s aware of the all-time record just set by Drew Brees and the all-time postseason records held by Tom Brady. But they are hardly the only geezer quarterbacks doing well. Check the all-time passing yards standings—five of the NFL’s top eight quarterbacks ever are under center right now, and all are over 35 years of age. (Geezers by the standards of professional football.)

Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Don’t overlook number eight, Phillip Rivers of LA/B. His 15 touchdown passes versus three interceptions so far is among the classy stats of the young season. Barring injury, Rivers is likely to supplant Dan Marino in the all-time standings. Rivers has never played in a Super Bowl, has a 4-5 playoff record as a starter, and projects a California surfer dude persona. But he’s among the most effective passers ever in the sport, playing well right now—and getting little ink.

Harmonic Convergence of TMQ Bétes Noires. Game tied in the third quarter, Cincinnati faced 4th-and-1 in Pittsburgh territory—and Marvin Lewis sent in the punter. It took four snaps for the Steelers to pass the point where Pittsburgh would have been, had Cincinnati gone for it and failed. Buck-Buck-Brawckkkkkkk!

Cincinnati leading 21-20 with 15 seconds remaining, Pittsburgh had the ball on the Bengals 31. That’s a 48-yard field goal attempt to win—no automatic kick outdoors in high humidity, and Pittsburgh placekicker Chris Boswell has missed all his attempts from 40 yards or more so far this season. Cincinnati has two coaches who do nothing all year but special teams—didn’t either of them know their opponent’s placekicker is struggling?

A sack would knock Pittsburgh out of range, but since the Steelers hold two time outs, most important is not to allow a completion followed by a time out and a closer kick. Instead it’s a blitz! The infamous Cover Zero “house” blitz, seven guys including both safeties, leaving the center of the field unguarded, touchdown to Antonio Brown. Stop Me Before I Blitz Again!

British Regulators File Complaint Against NFL for Dumping Inferior Products. Seahawks “at” Raiders was the 23rd NFL regular season contest played in London—and there still has not been a London game that paired two teams with winning records at kickoff.

Trailing 27-0 in the fourth quarter, Gruden the Elder sent in his field goal kicker, just so he wouldn’t have to listen to, “We got shut out in London.” The crowd booed and rightly so—the crowd should have gotten a refund! If I were a London bookie, I’d be posting odds on Gruden even finishing out the season.

Best 99-Yard Drive. This TMQ running item doesn’t appear much, owing to the paucity of 99-yard drives. Versus Nebraska, Northwestern took over on its own 1 yard line with 1:59 remaining in regulation and drove for the last-second touchdown that forced the overtime in which the Wildcats won.

Virginia Tech nearly made this item by staging a 98-yard drive for its last-second winning touchdown versus North Carolina. Wait, I guess the Hokies did make this item.

In 21st Century Football, Even at the Goal Line, Defenses Expect a Pass. Trailing Washington (“UDub”) by a field goal in overtime, Oregon faced 3rd-and-goal on the Huskies’ 6. The Ducks came out in a five-wide passing look; Washington responded with a dime defense, no middle linebacker, and only two defensive linemen. That is, Washington felt certain the play would be a pass.

Oregon coach Mario Cristobal, who had indeed signaled a pass, called time to change the play. (Most college programs do not allow the quarterback to audible out of a call from the sideline.) Again the Ducks lined up, this time with a tailback. UDub showed the same defense—dime, no middle linebacker, only two defensive linemen. Run straight up the middle! Which Oregon did, for the winning touchdown.

Dateline: Somewhere, in the Swamps of Jersey. The NFL pretends New York City is located in New Jersey and that San Francisco is located in Santa Clara, nearly an hour’s drive away. Part of this pretense entails the league and its house men—the announcers on networks that are contractual business partners with the NFL—never, ever mentioning the actual location of Giants, Jets, and 49ers contests. Thus last Thursday night when Joe Buck, play-by-play guy on Fox and NFL Network, described Giants-Eagles action as “a rainy night in Jersey,” he was violating all kinds of protocol. Good for him!

For several seasons, under offensive coordinator and then head coach Ben McAdoo, the Giants regularly went haywire at the opponents’ goal line, throwing passes that were intercepted rather than simply running, or throwing incompletions that stopped the clock and kept opponents’ comebacks alive, rather than use clock-drilling tactics. McAdoo is now ODD—Out Da Door. But the tradition continues.

Versus the defending champion Eagles, when the Giants reached the red zone, new head coach Pat Shurmur did not hand the ball to Saquon Barkley; much of the time, he was not even on the field. Barkley—that’s the guy who ran for 130 yards on 13 carries. Better avoid him in the red zone! Jersey/A red zone calls versus Philadelphia:

First red zone possession: Run by Wayne Gallman, pass incomplete to Sterling Shepard, pass incomplete to Shepard, field goal.

Second red zone possession: Run by Barkley, pass incomplete to Shepard, pass incomplete to Scott Simonson, field goal.

Third red zone possession: Pass incomplete to Barkley, pass complete to Barkley for six yards, pass incomplete to Odell Beckham Jr., pass incomplete to Beckham.

Discounting for field goal attempts, Jersey/A snapped 10 times in the Philadelphia red zone and Barkley—the guy who was averaging 10 yards per carry—ran once. That’s all the information you need to know who won the game.

Needless to say the G-Persons have many problems, including making Odell Beckham Jr. the highest-paid wide receiver in NFL annals only to have their star return the favor by giving an interview to ESPN in which he castigated the Giants for insufficient worship of one Odell Beckham Jr.

Meanwhile last week the canny Jersey/A front office declared it would waive recent high first-round draft choice Ereck Flowers unless another team made a trade offer. You will be stunned, shocked, startled, and amazed that after the Giants said they would make Flowers available for free unless someone paid handsomely plus assumed his contract guarantees, no one offered to pay handsomely!

The 500 Club. Visiting Atlanta, the Buccaneers gained 512 yards and lost. City of Tampa also made 30 first downs, a stat that should correspond with dominant victory—this season, NFL teams are averaging 21 first downs.

Unified Field Theory of Creep. Christmas television ads, for Disney, began airing on October 14—not only before Halloween, before United Nations Day.

Next Week. Clear the decks, prepare to dive—Hallmark Channel Christmas specials are about to begin.