Quote of the Day (Geoffrey Norman, on the NFL’s Stop-Gap Solutions to Long-Term Crisis)

“Maybe the NFL calculates that the game's own violence will drive it to extinction sooner rather than later. And before that happens, they intend to take advantage of every last commercial minute and each and every untapped venue. The seasons will get longer, games will be played in more and more exotic locations, the number of timeouts will increase, and Viagra sales will be maximized—all before those life insurance policies pay out.”— Geoffrey Norman, “The NFL in Crisis,” The Weekly Standard, Oct. 31, 2016

Commenting on skiing, the late Erma Bombeck wrote that she distrusted any sport that required an ambulance at the bottom of the hill. One wonders what she would have thought of football these days, particularly in light of the growing list of concussion cases (referred to in "those life insurance policies" above).

So now here it is, the home stretch just before the playoffs begin, and those teams lucky enough to earn a spot are making wild guesses about how to maintain momentum while surviving in one piece. The fate of quarterback David Carr—lost for the rest of the season after leading the Oakland Raiders to their first playoff appearance since 2002—is surely on other teams’ minds. Could a catastrophic injury also befall Eli Manning? Dak Prescott? Tom Brady? 

More than a few fans will be saying their prayers in the next week or so over their fates and those of other stars.