will be played Wednesday, which has necessitated moving two more games with Steelers–Washington (initially scheduled for Sunday) being moved to Monday and Ravens–Cowboys (initially scheduled for this coming Thursday) sliding over to Tuesday. Which means we’ll have three games early next week, including a Monday double-header. And the late game on Monday, Niners–Bills, has been moved to Arizona, because San Francisco can no longer play home games under new Santa Clara County rules on contact sports. Got all that? Oh, and by the way, NFL officials believe this week will be worse than last week from a COVID-19 perspective, with everyone returning to work coming off the Thanksgiving holiday. That explains why the league, for now, has been hesitant to pull the Week 18 lever. Park Avenue very clearly wants to leave the idea of tacking a week on to the end of the season out there as a last resort. The goal, of course, for anyone paying attention, is to deliver all 256 games scheduled to the TV networks ahead of a new set of broadcast deals being negotiated. The thought, as I’ve heard it, is that’ll help with those talks—and if the NFL can score as big as it believes it will, then that’ll help mitigate the cap shortfall looming over the next three years. Which ultimately will help everyone. Fewer teams will be broken up. Fewer players will be cut or traded. More players will get paid. As for the Ravens–Steelers game, specifically, moving it to Wednesday allows for another day of testing, and for the Baltimore players a chance to get together, and get two workouts in, with the hope being that’ll lessen the chance of sprains and strains that can come out of a dormant period.
• It’s been a tumultuous 24 hours for the Ravens. Just after 9 a.m. on Monday, players and coaches were filtering into Baltimore’s indoor practice facility for a 9:30 a.m. session that was going to be basically an accelerated walkthrough. And then the call came from the league office to shut the workout down, and wait until about 5 p.m. ET (when the team’s PCR testing would be processed) for further direction. In between, players were open on their desire not to board a plane for Pittsburgh on Monday night, given an outbreak that had shelved 11 starters (including seven Pro Bowlers, one being reigning MVP Lamar Jackson) that still hadn’t been contained. In the end, the league and union wound up listening, with the game pushed another day. The Ravens’ new plans include a 6:30 p.m. Monday walkthrough/game prep session, and a Tuesday night flight (after Tuesday morning’s tests are processed) to Pittsburgh to play on Wednesday. Clearly, the Baltimore players have been through a lot mentally over the last week. They’ll go into the game, presuming it’s played, severely shorthanded (though they will have J.K. Dobbins and Mark Ingram back, and the number of active-roster guys missing will drop to 12). And when they take the field, they’ll be 12 days removed from their last full football practice. It’ll be interesting to see how they respond—though I know the staff really believes the character of the locker room is such where effort and energy won’t be an issue.
• Owner Arthur Blank was asked, after firing Dan Quinn and elevating Raheem Morris to interim coach, what it would take for Morris to be considered for the full-time job. He joked that if Morris went 11–0, he’d be considered. Now? Morris has put himself on a very real track to being a serious candidate for the job. The Falcons are 4–2 on his watch, and a Todd Gurley brain freeze from being 5–1. And while the playoffs are still unlikely (Atlanta is two games out of the last NFC spot with five games left), the fact that .500 is in sight is pretty remarkable based on where they are. What’s more, the team has responded to some of Morris’s adjustments aimed at getting the group back on track. One was to strip down and simplify the messaging from the coaches to the players; explaining in black-and-white each week what the team needs to win, how it can force its will on the opponent and what each individual’s job will be; while emphasizing turnovers and scoring plays in each phase of the game. Some of that might seem a little cliché. But it’s working. And thus Morris—who many saw as getting close to earning a second shot at being a head coach before the season began—is working his way back into the mix in the 2021 coaching carousel, and into the running to keep the job he’s been doing for the last two months.
• The Giants have plenty of confidence in backup QB Colt McCoy, who’s been in the NFC East forever and has the respect of his teammates. For now, word is that Daniel Jones’s hamstring pull is a two- to three-week injury. And while Jones is going to want to go, for sure, McCoy’s presence gives Joe Judge and Jason Garrett some leeway to manage Jones if need be. Hamstrings, as you probably know, can be tricky.
• Questions about Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s future have run rampant as his Wolverines have tumbled to 2–4 over the truncated Big Ten schedule—and many in the industry believe he’d want his next step, whether he takes it now or later, to be back into the NFL. So where would he go? The place he has the most obvious connection is Chicago, given he was a first-round pick there. But I’d just keep an eye on the Jets. Owner Woody Johnson’s affection for Harbaugh has been no secret to those who’ve worked in Florham Park over the last decade. Of course, Johnson still hasn’t returned from his ambassadorship in the U.K., which will be coming to an end shortly, and his reentry plan to the team is unclear. So there’s still some uncertainty here. That said, Johnson interviewed Harbaugh for his coaching job all the way back in 2009, and has kept tabs on him since, even covertly taking his temperature on interest in the Jets at points over the years. Keep an eye on that one.
• Of course, a big piece of trying to sell a coaching candidate is, and will always be, who that candidate will bring with him. To that end, wherever 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh lands in 2021, I’d think San Francisco run-game coordinator Mike McDaniel would be high on his list to come with him as an offensive coordinator and play-caller. McDaniel’s reputation as a strategist and play-designer is off the charts (there’s a reason why Kyle Shanahan has brought him to every one of his stops), and I’d think his presence on any staff list that Saleh presents a prospective employer would be viewed as a major positive.
• I wouldn’t be stunned if Matt Patricia wound up back in New England in some capacity. He’s maintained a very close relationship with Bill Belichick since leaving Foxboro, and was proficient in developing young guys on defense—New England was flush with homegrown stars like Devin McCourty, Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins and Chandler Jones over Patricia’s time running that side of the ball—which will be an important skill with a roster that badly needs to be turned over. I also believe that Patricia, with family ties to the area, would probably welcome a return. The only question, to me, would be potential awkwardness in slotting Patricia back in, with Belichick’s son Stephen and Jerod Mayo having taken on such prominent roles on the staff in recent years. (What would be more surprising to me, while we’re here, would be Bob Quinn landing back with the Patriots.)
• A lot of eyeballs will be on Eagles rookie Jalen Hurts Monday night. What will it amount to? My understanding is he got a smattering of first-team reps over the last few days—not enough to the point where a casual observer would take notice—so my guess would be that Doug Pederson and his offensive coaches have put together a few packages for him. Hurts, for his part, has gotten a lot better as a passer over the last two years, since leaving Alabama, so it should be interesting to see if that shows up in whatever shot he does get against Seattle.
• Texans WR Will Fuller’s six-game PED suspension isn’t exactly timed out great for the fifth-year burner. With five games left in the season, any team signing the pending free agent will do so knowing he’s out for the 2021 opener and he’s one step away from a year-long suspension. That could really cost him in what will likely be a market saturated with veterans cut as teams work toward compliance with a salary cap expected to drop. And that’s bad news for Fuller, because he’s exactly the kind of receiver that a lot of teams are looking for with the way NFL offenses are going, and he had been well-positioned to cash in as a result. (He might cash in anyway, we’ll see.)
• Finally, one note on the Jaguars’ move to fire GM Dave Caldwell: I’m told that head coach Doug Marrone actually has had final say on the 53-man roster over the last year. He got it when EVP of football operations Tom Coughlin was fired late last year, and that at least adds some context to all the moves the team has made since then.
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announced that contact sports would be temporarily prohibited from Nov. 30 to at least Dec. 21.
San Francisco, among other local teams, was in search of a new stadium to play in following the announcement.
The 49ers reached an agreement with the Cardinals and the NFL to play their final home games at State Farm Stadium in Arizona. San Francisco is scheduled to host the Bills in Week 13 and the Washington Football Team in Week 14.
"The Cardinals organization, State Farm Stadium and League officials have been supportive and accommodating as we work through the many logistical issues involved in relocating NFL games," the 49ers' statement read.
The team added that information regarding their future practice arrangements "will be shared at the appropriate time."
On Saturday, the 49ers said they were "aware" of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department's directive and were working with the NFL on "operational plans."
The country reported 574 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday following a record-setting 760 cases and 239 COVID-19-related hospitalizations on Saturday to mark the highest single-day counts since the beginning of the pandemic.
In terms of NFL totals on Sunday, the ‘under-takers’ had a profitable weekend going 8-4 against the number. Five games once again witnessed 50 or more points, with Tennessee and Indianapolis leading the way tied with 71 combined points.
Later tonight, NFL fans will get treated to the Seattle Seahawks (7-3 SU; 6-4 ATS) traveling to Lincoln Financial Field to take on the Philadelphia Eagles (3-6 SU; 3-7 ATS). The Seahawks are 6.5-point road favorites with a total sitting on the game at 49 at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Seattle Seahawks at Philadelphia Eagles
Moneyline: SEA (-295) | PHI (+250)
Spread: SEA -6.5 (-110) | PHI +6.5 (-110)
Total: 49 Over: (-110) | Under: 49 (-110)
Location: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Game Info: Monday November 30, 2020 8:15pm ET / 5:15pm PT | ESPN
For Seattle, fantasy managers will be inserting QB Russell Wilson, RB Chris Carson and WRs Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf into their starting lineups. Lockett, despite seeing no less than five targets since Week 5, has failed to surpass 67 receiving yards in six of his last seven games. Fantasy owners hope to see a third straight week of a significant target share (nine targets) and see the elusive wideout find the endzone for the second consecutive week. The oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook have set Lockett’s receptions at 5.5 (-118) juiced to the over and his receiving yardage at 72.5 (-112).
The Eagles secondary has been quietly stout against the pass only allowing one opposing wide receiver to top 100 yards receiving all season (Tyler Boyd with 125 in Week 3). Lockett and Metcalf should still post decent yardage numbers but the numbers say the dynamic duo could struggle to find the endzone later tonight as the Eagles defense has not allowed an opposing wideout to score since Week 7 (Cowboys, Giants and Browns). However, the oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook believe those stingy numbers were posted against inferior offenses when compared with Seattle’s; as Metcalf (-139) and Locket (-115) are currently the two biggest favorites to record touchdowns.
For Philadelphia, fantasy owners will be using QB Carson Wentz, RB Miles Sanders, WRs Jalen Reagor, Travis Fulgham as well as TE Dallas Goedert. Sanders has not found the end zone since Week 5 against the Steelers, and could be a solid bet to end the drought against a Seattle defense surrendering 15 rushing touchdowns through 10 games. The oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook have set his ‘anytime touchdown’ market at odds of +110. In addition, the former Penn State standout has the highest projected rushing yards (64.5) of any player on either side of the ball with his total receptions of 2.5 being heavily targeted with strong juice (-148) to the over.
Nearly 79% of the all money to come in on the Monday Night contest has come in support of the Seahawks who have now become 6.5-point favorites after opening as just field goal favorites (-3) last week in Vegas. The total which opened in Vegas at 52 is witnessing ‘reverse steam’ as (58%) of the money is on the over, yet the total has dropped to 3.5-point drop down to 49.
Eagles QB Carson Wentz has had serious issues with ball security this season and the cries from Broad Street are calling for rookie Jalen Hurts. Wentz has thrown at least one interception (14) in eight of 10 games in 2020 and has thrown four in his last three games. As they say "pressure breaks pipes" and I think Pete Carroll will send pressure and Wentz will throw at least one up for grabs. Matt Ryan, Cam Newton, Dak Prescott, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kirk Cousins and Kyler Murray have all thrown at least one interception against Seattle this season.
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VEGAS WHISPERS FREE PLAY: Carson Wentz to throw an interception (-140)
VEGAS WHISPERS NFL YTD: 54-42-1 ATS
Over the entire 2019 NFL postseason, the Vegas Whispers sharps absolutely crushed the sportsbooks going 7-0 ATS and the information is currently 54-42-1 in 2020 on released NFL Plays. On Thursday NFL action, the sharps are an astounding 13-2 ATS (87%) on their plays shared here at Sports Illustrated.
The information straight from Frankie Taddeo, Sports Illustrated’s Gambling Vegas Insider, finished the 2020 Major League Baseball (MLB) at 79-60-0 +16.66 units and is currently 20-17 ATS on NCAA College Football for all SI PRO members.
Be sure to check back all week long for the BEST Sharp Betting information shared here only at SI Gambling! You can follow Frankie on Twitter @Frankie_Fantasyand subscribe to SI Fantasy PRO to subscribe to his "Vegas Whispers" betting information.
As I just finished writing that Baker should be applauded for pointing this out, I saw this is actually a Park and Rec reference.
So now I'll just thank Baker for bringing this take to light for those of us who didn't watch Parks and Rec.
2. The NFL announced Monday the flex scheduling games for Saturday, Dec. 26.
NFL Network will air Bucs at Lions at 1 p.m. ET and Dolphins at Raiders at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Because the league hates its fans, Cardinals-49ers will air at 4:30 p.m. ET ONLY on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch. No regular TV except in the Arizona and San Francisco home markets.
I'm old. I want to watch the game on my TV. I don't want to stream, I don't want to use an Amazon Fire Stick, I don't want to cast it to my TV. I just want to put it on my television, hit the "4" button on my remote and get the game. I want to be able to flip channels during the game, I want to change the channel during commercials, and I want to be able to hit the 10-second rewind button on my remote to watch a replay.
I know, I know. Get off my lawn, you're a boomer, this is the future, yadda, yadda, yadda.
But guess what? I still want to watch the game on regular television instead of streaming it and when I can't, I'm going to complain about it.
3. Since I'm complaining about the NFL, allow me to get one more thing off my chest. CBS—locally here in New York, and in other parts of the country as well—missed the first few minutes of the Chiefs-Bucs game because it was busy showing the end of the Titans-Colts game, which was a game that was 45–26 and featured a bunch of kneel downs. CBS stuck with that game, which was over, and then showed a slew of commercials before finally getting to K.C.-T.B. When the network finally decided to show us the best game of the day, the Chiefs were already inside the Bucs' 10-yard line, but we had no idea how they got there.
Just a brutal job by CBS.
4. Still trying to figure out who had worse clock management this weekend: the Chargers at the end of their loss to the Bills on Sunday or Syracuse against N.C. State on Saturday.
The Chargers' offensive line went into pass protection, while quarterback Justin Herbert was trying to run a QB sneak.
Meanwhile, the Orange quarterback spiked the ball on fourth down, which sealed Syracuse's loss to N.C. State.
5. If you missed any recent SI Media Podcasts, make sure you catch up and subscribe. Last week's show featured an interview with New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand about the latest news from the world of sports media.
Other guests over the past few weeks include the Undertaker, Jim Nantz and Kirk Herbstreit.
6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Vin Scully turned 93 years old Sunday. His 1990 appearance on Late Night With David Letterman is a good watch.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: Thirty-three years ago today, Bo Jackson had one of the greatest touchdown runs that we've ever seen on Monday Night Football.
The 26-year-old Sanchez said his doctors told him they believe they've caught the tumor before it spread throughout his body.
“It’s always God’s plan, and it will always be bigger than my plans,” Sanchez wrote on Instagram. “I know that it will not be an easy bump in the road, but I know I have my amazing wife supporting me, along with family, coaches and friends reaching out.”
Sanchez is in his fourth season with the Colts. He signed with the franchise after going undrafted in 2017. He has played in 59 career games, including most recently punting five times in Indianapolis' 45-26 loss on Sunday to the Titans.
"No plans or preparation would have gotten me ready for this kind of adversity, but like I told my wife, we can't flinch. Keep striving to come back stronger than ever," Sanchez wrote in his statement. "Makes me sick that I'll have to miss some time playing beside my brothers, but I know they will hold it down...I will be watching. Love y'all."
Mahomes completed 37-of-49 passes for 462 yards and three touchdowns. That’s the second most passing yards of his career behind the 478 yards he posted during Week 11 of the 2018 season. The Chiefs moved to 10-1 with a 27-24 win over Tampa Bay.
Bettors looking to wager on Mahomes, as the NFL MVP, should move quickly as his moneyline has shrunk to (-278) at DraftKings. When we looked at the odds, prior to Week 10, Mahomes (+200) was trailing MVP favorite Russell Wilson (+125). Aaron Rodgers is now second chalk with (+400) odds.
Deshaun Watson – Torches Detroit on Thanksgiving Thursday
Continuing a torrid pace, Watson posted a season high 36.30 fantasy points during the Texans 41-25 blowout win over the Lions. He completed 17-of-25 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns. Watson has posted at least 27 fantasy points in six of his last seven starts and hasn’t thrown an INT since Week 5.
While he remains a must start, Watson faces tough tests over the next three weeks. The Texans play the Colts at home, the Bears on the road and the Colts again in Indianapolis. During the final week of the fantasy playoffs, Houston hosts Cincinnati who have allowed 22 touchdown passes this season.
Aaron Rodgers – Surpasses 50,000 Career Passing Yards
Rebounding from a tough Week 11 loss to the Colts, Green Bay crushed Chicago 41-25 during the SNF prime time game. Rodgers completed 21-of-29 passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns. His fourth score of the game, a 36-yard TD pass to TE Robert Tonyan, put him over 50,000 career passing yards.
Rodgers now has 50,046 passing yards and trails John Elway who sits 10th with 51,475 yards. Green Bay (8-3) is battling New Orleans (9-2) for the top seed in NFC and they host Philadelphia in Week 13. Once fantasy playoffs begin, Rodgers has prime matchups against Detroit, Carolina and Tennessee.
Josh Allen – Disappointing Results in Anticipated Shootout
In what was forecast as a shootout, Buffalo defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 27-17 at home on Sunday. Allen completed 18-of-24 pass attempts for 157 yards with one touchdown; one interception and one fumble lost. He added 32 rushing yards and one score to finish with 20.50 fantasy points.
It’s a disappointing total after Allen posted 40.15 and 32.20 points prior to the Bills’ Week 11 bye. Buffalo is on the road in Week 13 against San Francisco who held LA Rams QB Jared Goff to 198/0/2 line on Sunday. The venue is still to be determined due a ban on contact sports in Santa Clara.
Mitchell Trubisky – Struggles in Return as the Bears Starter
Benched since Week 3, Trubisky replaced Nick Foles who was inactive due to a hip injury. He completed 26-of-46 pass attempts for 242 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Green Bay scored after both picks and he also lost a fumble that the Packers returned for a 14-yard score.
Since a 5-1 start to the season, Chicago (5-6) has lost five straight and trail Arizona by one game for the final NFC Wild Card berth. Despite a temping Week 13 matchup, against the Lions porous pass defense, Trubisky should not be considered as a viable starting option in any fantasy format.
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Derrick Henry – Destroys Tough Indianapolis Run Defense
Indianapolis has allowed three running backs to gain 100 plus yards over the last 46 games. Henry has done the damage each time. Virtually unstoppable, Henry racked up 178 yards and three scores during the Titans 45-26 thrashing of the Colts. He now has 414 rushing yards over his last three games.
Tennessee (8-4) took a one-game lead on Indianapolis (7-3) in AFC South playoff race. The Titans host Cleveland in Week 13. The Browns allowed Jaguars RB James Robinson 128 yards and one score on Sunday. That’s followed by favorable matchups in Jacksonville and at home against Detroit.
Antonio Gibson – Enjoys Thanksgiving Feast in Dallas
Firmly entrenched as the lead running back in Washington, Gibson posted 115 rushing yards and three touchdowns during a 41-16 romp over Dallas. He added five catches for 21 yards and finished with a season-high 36.60 fantasy points. His previous high was 22.80 points in Week 4 against Baltimore.
With the playoffs approaching, fantasy owners should temper their expectations as Gibson has a tough road ahead. Washington is on the road for their next two games, against Pittsburgh and San Francisco, before returning home to face Seattle. Those three teams are all ranked as top ten rushing defenses.
Nick Chubb – Posts Season High Fantasy Points
Chubb had 19 carries for 144 yards and one touchdown in the Browns 27-25 Week 12 win on the road in Jacksonville. He added three receptions for 32 yards and finished with a season high 26.60 fantasy points. Cleveland (8-3) currently holds the first Wild Card playoff berth in the AFC.
Posting a third straight 100-yard rushing game, this contest was different for Chubb. In the two previous games, Chubb needed runs of 54 and 59 yards to eclipse the century mark. Against the Jaguars his longest run was 29 yards. Chubb is a mid-range RB1 going forward and he gets the Jets in Week 16.
Latavius Murray – Breaks Out to Lead Saints Backfield
During an all-around strange game in Denver, Murray led the Saints with 19 rushing attempts for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Murray is the first running back to exceed 120 rushing yards against the Broncos this season. He scored on a 36-yard run in the third quarter and an 8-yard run in the fourth frame.
Murray posted a season high 25.60 fantasy points and now has 173 rushing yards over two games since Taysom Hill took over for Drew Brees. Alvin Kamara took a backseat for a second straight week as he posted 54 yards and no scores on 11 carries. Hill also scored two rushing touchdowns for New Orleans.
Posting career high numbers across the board, Hill caught 13-of-15 targets for 269 yards and three touchdowns in the Chiefs' victory over the Buccaneers. That includes 203 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter. It was a happy Thanksgiving for fantasy owners as Hill finished with 57.90 points.
Seven other Kansas City players hauled in 24 receptions for just 193 combined yards. With 699 yards and six touchdowns over his last three games - Hill now leads the NFL with 1,021 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. Chiefs TE Travis Kelce is second overall with 978 receiving yards.
Will Fuller V – Lights up the Lions on Thanksgiving Day
Fantasy players, who stacked Fuller and Watson in DraftKings DFS contests, were strong out of the gate on Thursday. Fuller hauled in a season high 171 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He now has career-highs in receiving yards (879) and touchdowns (8) with five games still to be played.
Jarvis Landry – Records Season High Fantasy Points
Players posting season-high fantasy numbers was a theme in Week 12. Landry got in on the action has he caught 8-of-11 passes for 143 yards and one TD. He finished with 28.30 fantasy points and has a favorable matchup in Week 13 when Cleveland visits Tennessee in what should be a high-scoring game.
Justin Jefferson – Leads Minnesota With Thielen Sidelined
With Adam Thielen sidelined, due to COVID-19 protocol, Jefferson caught 7-of-13 targets for 70 yards and two scores. He is the Vikings leading receiver with total 918 yards. Despite playing in the run-heavy Minnesota offense, Jefferson is making a strong case for Rookie of the Year consideration.
A.J. Brown – Scores Onside Kick Return Touchdown
Posting 25.80 fantasy points, Brown caught four passes for 98 yards and one receiving touchdown. He capped his day with 42-yard score when Indianapolis attempted an onside kick late in the game. Brown’s explosive playmaking ability makes him a high end WR2 in Week 13 against Cleveland.
Deebo Samuel – Strong in Return for San Francisco
Sidelined since Week 8, Samuel returned to action and caught 11-of-13 pass targets for 133 yards. He was the primary focus of QB Nick Mullens as seven other receivers had 22 combined targets and 119 yards. Samuel should be a big part of the 49ers offense when San Francisco plays Buffalo in Week 13.
Evan Engram – Leads All New York Giants Receivers
Posting a season high 18.90 fantasy points, Engram caught 6-of-9 targets for 129 yards during the Giants 19-17 win against Cincinnati. He now has at least nine targets in four of the last five games The Giants visit Seattle in Week 13 but Engram may lose value if QB Daniel Jones sits out with a hamstring injury.
Robert Tonyan – Second Straight Game With Double Digit Points
A breakout season continues for Tonyan as he caught all five of his targets for 67 yards and one TD against Chicago. Somewhat surprising, he led all Green Bay receivers as Davante Adams was second with 61 yards and one score. He should be considered as a low-end TE1 over the Packers next four games.
Rob Gronkowski – Leads All Tampa Bay Receivers
Hauling in 6-of-7 targets, Gronkowski had 106 receiving yards and 16.60 fantasy points in the Buccaneers loss to the Chiefs. The seven targets matched a season high and a 48-yard reception accounted for the bulk of his receiving yards. Tampa Bay hosts Minnesota for what is a must-win game in Week 13.
Travis Kelce – Numbers Dip Slightly Versus Tampa Bay
Following three weeks with at least 24.90 fantasy points, Kelce caught all eight of his targets for 82 yards and finished with 16.20 points. Despite catching just three passes, for a season low 31 yards against Denver in Week 7, Kelce remains as the top TE in Week 13 when Kansas City hosts Denver
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told reporters after the game. It sounds mostly like an unnecessarily complicated game of telephone, but it also allows Gase to call his own play when he wants. He said that he reserved the right to veto Loggains’s calls and send in his own play when he felt like Loggains didn’t pick the right one.
Before Sunday’s game against the Dolphins, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that Gase was expected to take over as the primary play caller again. But Gase denied it, telling reporters after the game, “I didn’t take over. We’ve done the same thing the last four games.”
The New York press corps wasn’t buying it.
“We were watching Dowell for the whole game,” an incredulous reporter told Gase. “He wasn’t doing anything. He was just standing there.”
“It’s not hard. This is not hard,” Gase responded. “We go through it the drive before. ‘Hey, these are the three plays.’ I do the third downs.”
Then, a second reporter chimed in to say they could see Loggains talking with offensive line coach Frank Pollack during the third quarter while Gase was calling the plays.
“Yeah, when we got down then I was trying to do some of the two-minute stuff,” Gase admitted somewhat sheepishly.
So did Gase get caught in a lie? It sure seems like it. Just look at how his demeanor changes over the course of that clip. He goes from defiantly denying that he was calling the plays to looking like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Any reasonable head coach, when asked whether they had taken over the play-calling, would have said, “Dowell called the plays at the beginning, but I took over later when we were trying to dig ourselves out of a hole.” To quote Gase, it’s not hard.
As Mortensen said when reporting that Gase was back in the driver’s seat, he and Darnold “have their futures tied together down [the] stretch.” If New York’s franchise quarterback finds his stride under Gase’s direction in these last few games, maybe the Jets can pick up a few wins and take themselves out of the race for Trevor Lawrence, thus keeping Darnold in New York and perhaps saving Gase’s job, too.
Shy wouldn’t Gase just cop to having been calling the plays? Maybe because of how poorly the offense played. After scoring 55 points in the previous two weeks, with Loggains (at least allegedly) running the offense and Joe Flacco under center as Darnold nursed a shoulder injury, the Jets managed just three points (an opening-drive field goal after they stalled in the red zone) in their loss to the Dolphins. Darnold managed just 197 passing yards and threw two picks.
It’s absolutely baffling that Gase hasn’t been fired yet. The results speak for themselves, but it’s even more unbelievable when you consider what a jerk he’s been. He doesn’t seem like a pleasant guy to work for or to employ. By refusing to take responsibility for the play-calling, Gase tried to shift the blame for the dismal offensive performance onto Loggains. It was a desperate attempt to save his own skin, and probably just delaying the inevitable. He’d be lucky to survive through the end of the season.
fleeting Football Twitter fame in 2014 when cameras caught her mouthing another four-letter expletive after an officiating mixup caused the first-down markers to move too soon. But the pair had never, in 60 combined seasons on Washington’s chain crew, encountered a broken chain.
Now it was a two-minute drill in the most literal sense, the ad break ticking away and no chance to kill the clock. Ingrao first checked to see if the link was fixable—it very much was not. So he did the only thing he could: He ran.
Dumping his stick on the grass, the 62-year-old sprinted through the bench area. He cut through coaches and juked around players until he reached the spot near midfield where the crew kept a backup set of down markers it had never needed, until now.
Spare equipment on his shoulders, Ingrao huffed back to Hein at the Washington 25, the new line of scrimmage. There they set about untangling the chain, stretching out the sticks and, ultimately, triumphantly, scrambling into their positions, 10 yards apart, just as play resumed.
Aside from a bemused on-field official who later complimented Hein and Ingrao for making it back for the snap—Great job, guys! I’ve never seen anybody do that in two minutes!—nobody within eyeshot appeared to catch their heroics. Not that they minded. “For us chain crew geeks,” Hein says, “it was a cool moment.”
Such is the life of football’s ficus plants, those forgettable ornaments of sideline feng shui, forever lurking in the corner of your screen whenever the camera cuts to a coach. (See also: ballboys, photographers, backup quarterbacks.) “Half the time, people [on the field] are so into the game, they don’t even know we’re there,” Hein says. “Unless they trip on the chain.”
Together, though, Hein and her ilk are far more famous than the rest of the supporting cast that keeps the NFL machine humming. What fan wouldn’t recognize the chain gang? They are the cartoon figures hup-hup-huping on stadium JumboTrons after big gains by the home team, encouraged by a crowd chanting, “MOVE! THOSE! CHAINS!” They star in a Progressive ad campaign about two crewmates who never drop the sticks and therefore never leave each other’s side, including in the bathroom. They are those average Joes and Janes who get to jog onto the field and participate in the timeless custom of measuring a first down with two tall poles and 10 yards of metal. “We’re part of the NFL tradition,” Ingrao says.
Above all, to claim a precious place on one of the league’s 32 chain crews is to exist in a singular football family. The pay, predictably, is low. The fear of messing up on live TV is constant. The threats to their livelihood—whether posed by tackles spilling past the sideline or new technology—are all too real. But their shared experiences are singular.
“Not everybody can do it,” says Jim Heutter, who spent four decades on the Bills’ crew and now operates the play clock upstairs. “Some people say to me, ‘That looks like fun, I’d love to be down there.’ Well, it is, but there’s a lot of pressure. I wouldn’t call it fun. I would call it more of a … unique experience.”
* * *
On March 31, 1906, at a posh New York City hotel with gryphon statues flanking the lobby’s marble staircase, a relatively nascent group of pigskin power brokers known as the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee met. Under the leadership of Harvard coach William T. Reid and Yale coach Walter Camp, the group made what one national newspaper described as “numerous and radical changes” to the rules of the sport.
Many of these new guidelines were geared toward curbing on-field violence, an issue that had resulted in dozens of deaths since the turn of the century. Thus, the unnecessary roughness penalty, the restricted forward pass and the fair catch. Also notable: Teams now needed to gain 10 yards for a first down, up from five.
The job of marking this progress fell to the linesman, one of then four on-field officials (along with a referee, umpire and field judge). To assist in this task the linesman would be “provided with two assistants … who shall use in measuring distance two light poles or rods about 6 feet in length, connected at their lower end by a stout cord or chain 10 yards in length,” according to Spalding’s early 20th-century Official Foot Ball Guide.
Today’s measuring sticks are taller (eight feet or so), protected by padded banners, and topped with fluorescent bull’s-eyes that wouldn’t look out of place on a carnival dunk tank. The chain itself is now finished in smooth orange coating. “Years ago, it was just a chain,” Ingrao says. “You could get your hand cut pretty easily.” A dreidel-looking wooden block, speared on a metal skewer with a number written on each face, once indicated the down, but then television ushered in the flip-over numbers that later begat the Dial-A-Down box.
Otherwise, the system has remained the same for more than a century. “It’s an inexpensive way for players to know where things are,” says David Haring, a Jets crew member since 1985. “People criticize us, like, ‘How can they have these old guys holding chains for a billion-dollar corporation?’ Well, nice window dressing. Plus we don’t make that much money.”
At $150 per game Haring and the Jets are on the high end of the spectrum, with most crews earning $75 to $100 and asked to arrive at least 90 minutes before kickoff to dress, check the chain for kinks, ensure the backup sticks are in place and meet with the down judge (formerly head linesman). But most everyone has a regular day job: Ingrao is a trade association executive. Hein, 47, owns an IT firm. Teachers and firemen populate the Arizona Cardinals gang. Plus the perks compensate plenty—namely parking, pregame meals and more league-branded gear than a closet can hold. “How many NFL blue raincoats do you really need?” Haring says.
As the Washington chain crew chief, Hein even gets compensated with a pair of season tickets. Her title here is an unofficial one, at least as far as the commissioner’s office is concerned, but it’s important nonetheless; the NFL doesn’t oversee chain crews, delegating responsibility to individual teams who, in turn, tend to leave it to the crews to hire who they want, hand out assignments how they choose and form their own internal chain of command.
Most crews had eight or more members before the 2020 season, not including at least one alternate on hand for emergencies. There was the “box man” and the “auxiliary box man,” dressed in red smocks and stationed on opposite sidelines to display the down. (Terms are taken from a two-page document provided by an NFL spokesperson outlining the responsibilities of each crew member.) Two “chain men” carried the sticks on the official side, while the “line-to-gain pole” showed the first-down spot on the auxiliary side. The “clip man” oversees a marker that attaches to the chain at the nearest yard line that’s a multiple of five—that way, if the crew takes the field for a measurement, or bails out to avoid getting hit, the clip allows them to line back up properly. The “data person” tracks the down, distance and ball spot as a backup for the officials and the scoreboard operator. The “penalty card person” recorded the specifics of every flag.
But when the NFL made broader cuts to sideline personnel because of the COVID-19 pandemic, these crews took a hit. Gone, for example, is Hein’s old role on the penalty card. (A press box official does that now.) Now only five workers remain: two chain men, one down-box operator on each sideline and one holding a yard-to-gain pole on the auxiliary sideline.
The clip—which helps the crew to re-establish their spot in the event they have to bail out of the way or go out to the field for a measurement—is a crucial piece of equipment.
The asks aren’t exactly strenuous. “Eighty percent of the job is showing up,” Haring says. But there are tricks of the trade. Al Nastasi III and the crew in New Orleans put pieces of tape on the Superdome turf whenever the ball moves behind the first-down line of scrimmage, just in case the down box man loses his spot and the zebras forget. “We have a lot of backup systems,” Nastasi, 46, says. “We hopefully don’t make too many mistakes.”
Unless that happens, anonymity is the norm. In 1988, having spent the past 12 years as the box man on the Giants’ chain crew, Jim Quirk attended the league’s annual refereeing clinic, at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Marriott, as a rookie official. “All these guys looked at me strangely, asking, ‘Where do I know you from?’” says Quirk, who went on to become executive director of the NFL Referees Association and a well-known umpire, if only for his penchant for diving into player scrums. “They didn’t remember my name, but they recognized my face.”
But there are exceptions. A decade ago, longtime Ravens crewmate Bob Wobbeking summoned the courage to pipe up and correct a referee who was wrongly marking off penalty yardage from the back end of the sticks, instead of from the down box. “He appreciated it,” Wobbeking, 72, says. “He came into our locker room afterward and gave me a game ball.”
* * *
Like small-town diners, or the mob, NFL chain gangs are family businesses.
In Washington, Ingrao’s father and Hein’s grandfather made up half the crew’s original “four families” when the team started at Griffith Stadium during the Great Depression. The current Washington crew has a father-son team, Joe and Frank Beddick, as do the Saints and the Cardinals, among others. Lions crew chief Chuck Darany shares a sideline with daughter Olivia in Detroit. Until he passed away in November, Tom Quinn led the Giants crew for nearly four decades, just like his father, Ed. He is succeeded on the current gang by three cousins.
Haring similarly followed in his dad’s footsteps, starting as an alternate after college before replacing Henry Haring on the Jets crew in 1984—after the final game at Shea Stadium, Dad moved upstairs to work the play clock. In ’98, when his father passed away on a Saturday, David honored this legacy by showing up at the Meadowlands that Sunday.
Even for those who aren’t related by blood, the chains are enough to make them kin. Which means they stick up for one another, like when Ingrao and Hein’s predecessor, George Richardson, prevailed in a fight against then-Washington owner George Preston Marshall to revoke the firing of a fellow crew member who had booed Marshall at a local football banquet. They take care of one another, whether it’s Ronnie Kornick baking a king cake for every New Orleans home game, Arizona’s Jim Foster serving up his secret salsa recipe around the holidays or Wobbeking meeting the Ravens gang for their end-of-season crab feasts.
They also watch out for each other from afar. “When I’m looking at a game on TV, I’m looking at the chain gang guys,” Kornick says, and he is far from the only one. "What tickles me: I’ve seen some of the chain crews working without hats, working in shorts,” says Larry Yocum, who like Wobbeking started with the Ravens for the team’s inaugural season, in 1996. “My chain crew is completely professional. They dress like it, they wear the right uniform." With everyone being local, friendships spanning multiple crews aren’t common … although Hein and others report making connections through a private Facebook group of NFL-only members called Back on the Chain Gang.
When it comes to the hiring process, the NFL does basic screening, including background checks and a yearly signed pledge that crewmates won’t bet on games or bring their cell phones onto the field. Nepotism doesn’t reign on every sideline—“We’ve never had anybody’s son,” says Yocum—but positions are predominantly filled by word of mouth, and references go a long way. Like when Hein took over for her father in ’98. “He’d been doing this for almost 30 years, and he didn’t seem to be enjoying it as much anymore” she says. “So he was like, ‘I’m done, you’ve got to do this.’”
Indeed, vacancies on the chain crews are about as frequent as those on the Supreme Court. In his old role as the NFL’s vice president of officiating, Mike Pereira would receive some 50 yearly emails from fans inquiring about getting on their local chain crews. “And I’m like, ‘I’d like to be optimistic, but forget about it. Most of these positions have been handed down from one generation to another in the same family.” Or, as Kornick puts it, “Somebody’s gotta die, or get an injury where they can’t see or walk anymore for somebody to move on.”
Which brings us to perhaps the most important skill needed to survive on the crew. “When the runner comes your way,” says Quirk, “get the hell out of the way.”
* * *
Overhearing the television, Nastasi felt his stomach sink. It was Oct. 24, 2010. The Saints were hosting the Browns, and the broadcast had just announced that an official had gone down. “I just had this ominous feeling,” Nastasi recalls. “My wife said, ‘That can’t be your dad. He’s not part of the officiating crew.’ I said, ‘No, we are part of the officiating crew.’”
Before the broadcast could break the news, an NFL representative called Nastasi’s mother at home, confirming his fear. Midway through the third quarter, racing out of bounds along the sideline in punt coverage, Saints gunner Courtney Roby had slammed into chain man Al Nastasi Jr., sending the area high school track coach to the ICU with a subdural brain bleed.
Nastasi Jr. spent the next two weeks at the hospital, “in and out of it,” he says. (Miraculously he appeared to suffer no long-term effects, even returning behind the sticks later that season: “It wasn’t even a second thought. I was going to persevere.”) Roby was among his earliest visitors in the ICU, and the Saints later gave him an autographed football. But there were no hard feelings to smooth over. “I took my eyes off the gunner,” Nastasi Jr. says. “It was my mistake.”
Nastasi Jr. blamed himself for the collision that led to his subdural brain bleed.
Of all the possible sins to commit while working a job that alternates between standing still and walking short distances, the worst boil down to not paying attention. Mostly these result in gaffes that bring shame upon the crew. “If you have the wrong number on the down marker, that’s embarrassing,” Kornick says. But there are more serious risks too. That’s why Yocum and the Ravens crew keep each other on high alert by hollering “Punt time!” on fourth-and-long, lest anyone get trampled by a gunner, the kicking team’s outermost players who often get pushed across the sideline while sprinting downfield. “You’ve got to watch out,” Yocum says.
In addition to watching they also get the pleasure of listening—to the roars of the crowd, to the hilarious snippets of player trash talk, to the beet-red coaches turning their anger on the ficus plants. (Once, after replying to Andy Reid’s question about whether a first down had been reached with a noncommittal, “I think so,” the then-Eagles boss shot back, “You think so? You should know!”) But most of all, crew members can still feel the pain if they have ever been hit.
In Arizona, Jim Foster took a wayward Troy Aikman pass to the gut, leaving the stadium with a bruise shaped like the nose of a football. After a multiplayer tackle spilled out of bounds and Colts chain man Steve Taylor was tripped up in the fray, he got a call that night from his mother who first asked, “Are you O.K.?” before saying, sweetly, “Son. That was so funny.” Hein narrowly avoided disaster when star safety Sean Taylor, barreling toward the sidelines to make a tackle, eased up at the last moment, scooped Hein in his arms and carried her to safety. “I was shaking for the next 10 minutes,” Hein says.
Some go down in a heap, others go down in infamy. Like Tampa Bay’s Bobby Lastra, sued by the late defensive end Bubba Smith for negligence in a 1972 preseason game after a collision involving the sticks mangled Smith’s knee. (The jury deliberated for two hours and awarded Smith nothing.)
But such a case is rare. Aside from the occasional small-town newspaper profile, the vast majority of crew members—happily—never earn any notoriety. But that doesn’t mean they don’t also enjoy those few seconds in the spotlight whenever they’re needed on the field.
***
You know the scene. Fourth down, football spotted oh-so-close to a first. Players crowd around, each team tomahawking their hands in opposite directions. Out come the chains. Hup-hup-hup. Out stretch the sticks. The officials gather. One kneels and inspects. The cameras zoom in. “That’s definitely your TV time,” Nastasi Jr. says.
It’s the most common question crew members get: What’s it like to go out there? One answer is that it can make them feel self-conscious as all get-up—not the least of which is because of their getup. “Have you seen those outfits?” Kornick says. “How do you look cool in a black and yellow vest?” Another is that it makes everything worthwhile. "You get your little three seconds of fame," Kornick says.
Some crew members say they are taught to back away from the ball after handing off the chains, lest they block the camera. But there are subtle ways to be seen. Before he moved to the booth Huetter would remove his hat and run a hand through his hair as a signal to friends watching the Bills game. David Haring still sometimes gives a low, brief wave.
“That’s our big moment,” he says of the measurements, “which they’ve pretty much eliminated now.”
According to the NFL, in-game measurements have hovered steadily between 0.3 and 0.5 per game since 2014, the earliest for which it has such data. Old-timers recall when the rate was much higher, but they also understand the main reasons for cutting back: With officials now seemingly defaulting to exact yard lines when spotting the ball on first down, the yard-to-gain is easier to eyeball. And with the safety net of replay, why slow the game more unless absolutely necessary?
Other than the 2019 elimination of “the X,” a person who did nothing more than stand in the spot where the current drive started, crews hadn’t experienced much drastic change until this pandemic season. Now everything is different. Two days before home games, they get mandatory COVID-19 tests. Upon arrival at the stadium before kickoff, they receive a temperature check and a digital contract tracer to be worn until they leave. Just as jarring, Kornick stopped baking his king cakes.
On the field, with their ranks sliced to five, their margin for error is thinner than ever. For instance, someone on every crew now has to pull double duty by managing the clip, which was previously a job unto itself. “People were a little bit concerned about especially losing the clip guy,” Hein says. “But after the first couple games, everyone was like, ‘You know what, we can do it.’”
All of which makes crew members wonder if more cuts could be coming. “I don’t think it’s going to get down to less than what we have now,” Wobbeking says. “Four would be impossible.” It is something that comes up a lot, whether in locker room chats or Facebook threads: What is the future of a human relic in a sport increasingly infiltrated by technology?
“We always say to ourselves, ‘Will we ever be obsolete?’” Ingrao says.
* * *
Alan Amron had a bright idea.
Granted, this is a common occurrence for the New York City-based inventor, whose 40 U.S. utility patents range from a “dual umbrella” that shields two people from rain to several intricate water guns. But he was feeling especially optimistic about this latest brainchild, born when he attended a Giants game and found himself wondering why the yellow first-down line from television didn’t also appear on the field.
And so, in March 2003, Amron filed a patent application for a “system for operating one or more lasers to project a visible line onto a grass covered surface.” The gadget was described as general-use, suitable for sporting and entertainment venues of all sorts. But an early section of its description makes clear what—or, rather, who—it specifically intended to replace.
“In numerous occasions throughout an average football game, the officials of the game must resort to sideline markers to establish whether the offense has advanced the ball by the required distance,” Amron wrote. “Although the game of football has become a relatively complex sport, involving literally hundreds of millions of invested dollars, this time consuming system has remained relatively the same since the conception of the sport.”
Not that Amron was treading new turf here. As long as humans have measured downs with sticks and chains, others have schemed ways to get them to stop. There have been patents for pulley systems on sideline tracks, aluminum pipes with peep sights and an EDM festival’s worth of laser beams. In the 1950s gym teacher Lou Peresenyi released the Pere-Scope, a four-power rifle scope mounted atop the lead down marker, earning a glowing endorsement from none other than Amos Alonzo Stagg: “It’s the finest thing to happen to football since the forward pass.” Two decades later engineer George Dicker whipped out his unfortunately named Dicker Rod, a single 8-foot pole needing just one crewmate to operate instead of three. Inventor Makes Chain Gang Obsolete, gushed the headline of one Los Angeles Times story.
Dicker’s instrument made slight headway toward this goal, appearing in 174 high school games during the ‘71 season, but never found its way onto an NFL sideline. Amron came closer thanks to an early business partnership that he forged with Pat Summerall, the placekicker turned broadcaster who helped arrange pitch meetings with league power brokers, including Pereira and then league COO Roger Goodell. Amron says plans were even made to test the First Down Laser System, which projects a lime-green strip of light across the field, giving ball-carriers and viewers alike a visual for the first down, in NFL Europe, the league’s overseas offshoot.
Even after NFL Europe folded in ‘07, Amron wasn’t deterred, continuing to make semi-regular overtures through 2013 to the league’s competition committee, which would ultimately decide whether any new technology would replace, or supplement, the chain crew. (Committee head Rich McKay declined an interview request.) Like his predecessors, though, Amron was rebuffed. The reasons included both cold-hard cash—the NFL wanted his lasers tested at a lower level yet none could afford the equipment—and good-ol’ nostalgia. As Amron says of the chains, “We don’t need them, but there are so many people who want to keep them for old time’s sake.”
In general, arguments for a new method are based on practical factors, such as speeding up on-field measurements and reducing the safety risk for crew members. The competing camp has sentimentality on its side. “Obviously, it’s not an exact science,” Hein says. “We do the best we can to line up with the ball on the field. But if you get rid of it, you take away that element of suspense. You’d be missing out on the theatrics, the fabric of the whole experience.” After all, ridiculous as it was, who didn’t love seeing NFL ref Gene Steratore produce a folded index card from his pocket to assist with a key first-down ruling during a Cowboys-Raiders game in 2017? “You can present me all the lasers that you want,” Pereira says. “Three old guys running onto the field and stretching a 10-yard chain to see if it’s a first down? That’s beautiful in my mind.”
Until that day of reckoning comes, Hein plans to soak up every bit of her time on the chain gang. Like when one of her sons, Conor, worked his first game upon turning 18 last season, making that four generations of family to do so. Hein had cautioned him against geeking out too much that afternoon, especially because Washington was hosting the Patriots and Conor is a big Bill Belichick fan. “I don’t want to catch you trying to see what plays they’ll run,” she said. But a little sense of starstruck was unavoidable: After jogging onto the field for his first measurement, Conor returned to the sidelines with his eyes wide: “Omigosh,” he said. “That was so cool.”
Ever the protective mother, though, Hein was careful not to throw Conor into the deep end too soon. That’s why she assigned him to carry the back pole of the chain set. Every crew member knows that the front side gets more action. “And I didn’t need him getting hit,” Hein says.
