What the hell is happening, people? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scoring is down across the league from a season ago, overall passing is down, and Justin Herbert just broke a 26-game streak where he passed for at least one touchdown. The Jets and Giants have the same record as the Chiefs and Bills, respectively. What one pundit calls parity<\/em>, others see\u2026 differently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI watch a lot of bad football. Poor quality of football. That\u2019s what I see.\u201d <\/p>Tom Brady<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a double-edged sword and one we\u2019re all familiar with: no matter how terrible the performance, how lacking in star power, or how dreadful the officiating, any NFL game will still draw more eyeballs than anything else in our current cultural landscape. What motivation exists to improve the product will be offset by this inevitability, so change is glacial at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, one of this week\u2019s most absurd narratives explores a possible root cause of what we\u2019ll call \u201cThe Bad Football Problem.\u201d The others, well, we\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, I have to relish in this because as a Rams fan I suffered through a decade of Russell Wilson: <\/p>\n\n\n\n