5-at-10: NFL ref backlash, NFL picks reviewed, MLB Hall of Fame voting, Rushmore of worst NFL playoff losses

Quarterbacks Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams, left, and Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, right, greet each other after their teams played a regular-season game Nov. 4, 2018, in New Orleans. The Saints won 45-35, and today they face the Rams again with the NFC title and a spot in the Super Bowl on the line.
Quarterbacks Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams, left, and Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, right, greet each other after their teams played a regular-season game Nov. 4, 2018, in New Orleans. The Saints won 45-35, and today they face the Rams again with the NFC title and a spot in the Super Bowl on the line.

More ref backlash

Am I the only one who is not banging the drum for more instant replay? The games are already slowing down and the ref beating feet to put his head under the hood for every turnover and TD limits the enjoyment and momentum for fans. Well at least this one.

Side note: Everyone wants calls to be right. As often as possible. Of course.

Side note, II: Everyone in New Orleans wants the ref who missed the call fired. We get that. Buuuuuuutttttttttttttt, to be fair, the Saints backed - and rightly so - Marcus Williams after the Minneapolis Miracle last year. Was that not every bit the historic - and meaningful - miscue at his job as the ref missing the call? Think about that.

A few more things about the race to put out the hot take of "Make P.I. reviewable" well, let's be careful what we wish for.

Does that mean we are going to give the coaches more challenges. Will every pass - like every turnover and score - be reviewable? If that last one is the case, well, then add an hour to the length of every game. And while we all are for more football, is anyone really for 'More football replays?' Didn't think so.

OK, does that mean that they are going to review every pass in the final two minutes? Again, that's going to slow the game down as well, and think of the edge it will give the offense an even more edge run those late drives. Plus, if you're in the 'final two minutes' camp, well, what happens when the came changing play happens with 3 minutes left instead of the final 90 seconds?

Which leads us here. Why do we have to legislate and regulate a complete overhaul of the rules and the system for one mistake. And that's what this is. One human being made a bad mistake. So now we overhaul the entire system at the expense of the entire process? It's not just the NFL either.

And what call or penalty is next in the spotlight? Will holding become the next call that is in the crosshairs of controversy?

Because here's where we are: As the Saints are bemoaning the missed P.I. call, now Andy Reid is saying the ref didn't warn Dee Ford he was offside. What?!?!?

We're now to the point that refs need to warn players? Did he look over? Nope.

And heck, my 8-year-old daughter does not need to be warned "Don't be offside" to be honest.

So that's where we are, and man, the NFL was a ton of fun this year to watch.

Next year, it feels like it will be a on longer to watch.

Because we like to not just bellyache about problems and other solutions, I'm happy to offer a few ideas myself.

First, the refs need to be younger. Period.

Secondly, I am all for embracing the expansion of technology, but my view is to have the tools and tech do a lot of other things. Ball spotting with computers and lasers. Dude, if we can track every airplane and submarine across the globe, we can put a chip in the ball and grid the field to the point that the chain gang is no longer needed. Same with crossing the goal line.

If you are going to make judgement calls reviewable, then make them all reviewable. (And know this, every replay ever of a 'missed' hold or missed 'P.I.' upon replay review looks like holding or P.I.) But not booth reviewable. Putting the buzzer in booth will add an hour to the game. Give coaches five challenges total. Used anytime as long as you have a timeout.

Now it's on a coach to make sure he has one in his pocket, and if he doesn't, then it's back on the coach. Even if that coach should have run the ball three times into the line, made the Rams used their T.O.s and rolled the dice.

And don't even get me started on the folks wanting to change the overtime rule because the Chiefs couldn't stop the Pats. Period. And this crud about "Pat Mahomes didn't get his hands on the ball." just stop. Stop.

Heck, put me in the camp that the college overtime rules are junk. Junk. It's a carnival that pads stats and is more than a kicking competition than the NFL's version.

Forget the mumbo-jumbo that the coin flip decides it. Gang, there were two overtime games Sunday, and the Rams found a way to get off the field when the Saints won the toss. The Chiefs had three third-and-longs and could not get off the field. Force a field goal and Mahomes gets the ball.

Otherwise, shut it down and make a play.

photo New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates after leading his team to an overtime victory against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game Sunday night.

Powerful review

Let's look back at the NFL Power Poll after week 1, shall we?

Here's the complete list from this vary conversation meeting spot of Sept. 11, 2018.

We'll start with the good.

Pole position, then as is now - your New England Patriots.

No. 3 on the list? The Los Angeles Rams, who will dance with the Brady and dem Boys in Super Bowl LIII.

Also good? The bottom three were Oakland, Arizona and Buffalo, and those three will have picks, 4, 1 and 9. (Yes, the Bills made a late run, winning two of their last three to let a loftier pick slip through their losing fingers.)

As for the bad, well, Minnesota at No. 2 is certainly not good, but that's more on the Vikings than the reactions from their early season showings. Baltimore at 4, also somewhat understandable.

Yeah, as for the rest, well, the New York Jets were list as No. 5 and the Titans and Cowboys were listed in the 28th and 29th spots respectively. No es bueno.

Out individual picks were more in line with "Jets at 5?" than "Yeah, the Pats should always be 1." Here's the list.

Review by category:

MVP - Aaron Rodgers. (Going to be Patty Mahomes.)

Offensive POY - Julio Jones. (Hurley may be the front-runner here.)

Defensive POY - Khalil Mack. (Aaron Donald.)

Offensive ROY - Wow, this one hurts. Verbatim: "Royce Freeman, Denver. Meet this year's Kareem Hunt. We think Freeman will outrush Saquon Barkley this year, adding even more fuel to the Mel Kiper Jr. adage of "Why draft a RB early" in the draft." Ouch-standing. Heck, Freeman was not even the best rookie running back in Denver. (Which still gives the voice to Kiper Jr.'s adage.) The winner should be Quenton Nelson, the Colts guard, who was a first-team All-Pro. It may go to Baker Mayfield thought because he's a QB.

Defensive ROY - Roquan Smith. Smith had a very good year and will be a great NFL player. He had only the third best season of the rookie LBs, however, behind Leighton Vander Esch of Dallas and slam-dunk winner, Colts stud Darius Leonard, who was first-team All-Pro after leading the NFL in tackles.

Team picks were somewhat better, even if we way over valued the Falcons. (Warning: Falcons' love - personally - and an avalanche of injuries are legal parts of temporary insanity defenses in 12 of the 50 U.S. States, including Tennessee and Georgia.)

AFC winners were pretty excellent: Five of our six made the playoffs. (We missed the Colts, because, who knew they landed the Saints' draft of 2017 last spring?) We had division winners New England, K.C., Baltimore and Houston. We had wildcards of Jags and Chargers. Our playoff path prediction was Texans over Jags and Chargers over Ravens. Chiefs over Texans and Patriots over Chargers. Patriots over Chiefs." That's pretty good.

NFC winners were Eagles, Rams, Bears and Falcons with Saints and Packers as the wildcards. Playoff path: "We'll take Falcons over Saints and Packers over Bears in the wildcard round with Falcons beating Rams and Packers beating Eagles. We've got the Falcons edging the Packers in a classic NFC title game." Lots of holes.

So there you go. Reviewing the previewing. Thoughts?

Hall pass

Sometime later today the next class of MLB Hall of Famers will be announced.

This time of year is fun. And frustrating.

It's fun because the projections and conversation about whether this dude is a Hall of Famer or that dude is not has always been intriguing to me.

Couple of clarifiers: First, this is not the Hall of Very Good, and it's not even the Hall of Great.

It's the Hall of Fame.

Next, we hate, Hate, HATE the fact that fast too many voters put personal issues ahead of all-time greatness. Just because a player turned down an interview or you thought so-and-so 'played the game' the wrong way, that's the ultimate insult to the game and a baseball writer's profession, if you ask me. Who died and elected you Grand Marshall of manners and playing the game the right way? (And if you have been elected, does Brian McCann know because that's been his job for years?)

But the worst of this is the double and triple standards that are there. Period. In fact, we think the ballots should be reviewed and a year-to-year privilege that can be reviewed, extended or revoked.

For instance, if you vote for Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds, but not both, then you should be dismissed.

(Side note: I would vote for both to be honest, and that means I likely would vote for Sammy Sosa too. Here's my take on the PEDs deal: If you were never suspended or admitted to using, then you would be eligible.)

I would not vote for Roy Halladay or Mike Mussina or Edgar Martinez.

I think Fred McGriff and Andruw Jones have been criminally underrated for years.

If I had a ballot, mine would be Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Mariano Rivera, Omar Vizquel and if I was going to add one more it would be Larry Walker.

And talking about hypocrisy, well how could we say no to Vizquel and think that Ozzie Smith was a no-doubt first ballot entry.

This and that

- You know we likely need a regular feature on great headlines around the interweb/new world. This is more about irony or headlines well-crafted. (We're skittish about calling people out for mistakes because when you point a finger at someone else, you actually are pointing three back at yourself.) So we'll offer two today. The first is with a visor tip to the New Orleans Times Picayune. "RIFFING UNBELIEVABLE" after Sunday's missed call. (The perfect photo made it really pop.) The other comes from the "You think so, doctor." "Woman known as the 'Bikini Climber' freezes to death.' It's sad and tragic and prayers to her family, and she fell before getting hypothermia. But you just can't make up some of these, right?

- Kudos Rick Barnes, who has his team to No. 1 in the AP poll.

- Opposite of kudos to Holly Warlick, who has the Lady Vols next-to-last in the SEC standings at 1-and-bleepin'-5 in the league. Ouch-standing.

- While we are here on NFL officiating, man, there were more missed delay of game calls than any other.

- Klay Thompson hit his first 10 3s Monday night as the Warriors smoked the LeBron-less Lakers.

- The Senior Bowl is this week, and for my money, the dude there that can make the most money is Drew Lock, the Missouri QB. Dude is all over draft boards, from right there at or near the top, to falling out of the top five. Think about the next month to six weeks for Lock, with the Senior Bowl and then the combine. A good six weeks could mean a first-round spot. A bad six weeks could mean a late third- or early fourth-round spot. There are, what, no more than five teams in serious need for a QB in this draft, and that's counting whichever team will roll with Nick Foles. So if you fall to fifth at QB, that may be day three of there draft. For comparison, Lamar Jackson was the last pick of round 1 and he has a contract worth $9.4 million. The Giants took Kyle Lauretta in round four, and his contract is worth $3.1 million.

- We got the Oscar nominations.

Today's questions

True or false. True.

True or false, pass interference should be reviewable.

True or false, the NFL overtime rule should be changed.

True or false, Bonds and Clemens should be in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Quickly, let's do a Rushmore of most painful NFL playoff losses, non-Super Bowl division. Does the Saints' loss Sunday make it?

Go.

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