Prior to the start of this NFL season, it was impossible to ignore the coronation of King Rodgers by the fawning self-righteous clowns who masquerade as objective announcers. It was nauseating. It used to be that only Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were capable of waxing ineloquently to the point where the only rational option was to watch the game without sound. Now there appear to be several other announcers too self-absorbed by their own narcissism to bother paying attention to what is beyond obvious to anyone watching the game. The result is continuous self-congratulatory and increasingly absurd instant analysis.

While it is always sad to see someone suffer the kind of injury experienced by Rodgers during the game between the Bills and the Jet’s, it was perhaps Karma to see what happens when a team, the NFL, and the entire NFL announcing society, became totally enthralled by King Rodgers, only to have that person exit stage right about five minutes into the 2023 season.

The ability of the TV camera crews to broadcast NFL games is truly astonishing, but one of the side effects is exposing the obvious bias by NFL referees. It is increasingly apparent that certain teams are favored by everyone, including the announcers and the NFL. The recent game between Kansas City and the New York Jets, who don’t actually play in New York, was a classic example. I really didn’t care who won, I was rooting for a scoreless tie. But to my surprise, the Jets put on a much better show than expected. Unfortunately, once again, the referees got involved in the outcome. On the last Kansas City drive, the referees appeared to be incapable of recognizing holding, when done by the Chiefs, tried to end the game with a ridiculous holding call on the Jets, then sealed the deal by again ignoring blatant holding by the Chiefs on the Patrick Mahomes “scramble”. This was obvious to me, and I suspect a cast of thousands, who literally were not rooting for either team. I was, however, rooting for a fair outcome, not determined by either the announcers or the referees.

This was second only to the blatant love affair between the NFL and the “alleged” love affair between Travis Kelsie and Taylor Swift. The pictures of Taylor Swift celebrating the Chiefs in a luxury sweet (pun intended) was a marriage made in heaven for the NFL marketing gurus. I personally have zero interest in the temporary passions of two narcissistic self-absorbed people like this. My only prediction is that sooner, rather than later, one or both will choose to move on, again. But this is guaranteed to raise ratings for the next Chief’s game and nothing else matters to those more focused on selling the NFL brand than running legitimate sporting contests.

Then I realized that this NFL game was a metaphor for what has gone wrong with America. We see a mainstream media increasingly incapable of honest reporting on any subject. They don’t even pretend to be objective anymore. If someone disagrees with the “narrative” the MSM pounces to attack. They arrogantly dismiss anyone who dares even hint that there is any possibility of systemic fraud during the 2020 election, even though the evidence is overwhelming. They are refusing to cover the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden, instead desperately pretending that what is obviously true and well documented is just an illusion created out of whole cloth by radical right ring conspiracy theorists. They are even more arrogant and dismissive of anyone who refuses to accept the “science” regarding climate change (“global warming”). The latest absurd theory was that climate change made the recent storm that drenched New York City, “wetter”. One is instantly humbled by the brilliance of that scientific observation.

I enjoy watching NFL games. But I absolutely cannot understand how anyone can tolerate the pre-game theatrical performances which have the potential to make Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) look good in comparison. In fact, I would suggest trying that. Just replace the current ground of celebrity know it all talking heads, with AI generated images likely to resemble a real human being more closely.

There is one bright side to all this. The “alternative” broadcast by Peyton and Eli Manning is hysterical. They both bait each other with sibling rivalry and observe things oblivious to the rest of us. During one play Monday night they noticed the brilliant performance by one wide receiver, who gave up on a play and just stood there while his quarterback was scrambling for his life. The defense player assigned to him gave up too, creating the opportunity for this guy to take one step, after a ball was thrown to him in desperation, to get an easy touchdown because the defensive player had given up on him being a potential target.

They are not perfect, often forgetting to watch the actual game, but at least they are different. Anything is better than a three-hour sentence of listening to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

In honor of this I have renamed the NFL production to “Celebrity Chiefs”.

TDM