The Weekend(s) on Tuesday: November 9, 2026
Here are some random thoughts on a Tuesday of what stood out to me over the past two weekends (and pardon the complaining if thatâs how some of these come across).
Enough with all the inflatables. This comes from Halloween weekend and with holiday season upon us, it will, unfortunately, only become more applicable for the remainder of the year. Sure, there were brownstones decorated with inflatable witches, monsters, and pumpkins (as though thereâs a scarcity of real ones). But for Halloween, the inflatables donât stop at the stoop. There seemed to be a precipitous increase this year from last year in the proliferation of inflatable costumes. All over the city, kidsâand even adults on numerous occasionsâhit the sidewalks wrapped in tarps of inflatableâŚdinosaurs? Yes, and there was also the occasional inflatable alien-pretending-to-abduct-a-kid costume, but the majority were inflatable dinosaurs. Not only did every single person look, at best, mildly uncomfortable, theyâre just plain ugly. And we still have all the inflatable Santaâs, candy canes, and deer to deal with for the rest of the year. My proposal to help curb these abominationsâanyone who wants to put up an inflatable decoration on their yard must also live in a bouncy house for the duration of the installment.
Enough with all the out of touch and over the top celebrations. A six yard run up the middle. A pass deflection at the line of scrimmage. A twelve yard gain on a slant route. A hail mary before halftime thatâs caught a yard short of the end zone while down 24 points. What do all these plays, all from different games, have in common? They were all followed up by unnecessarily excessive celebrations. It seems almost every play these days has too big a reaction. Before railing some more on my favorite form of entertainers, I do recognize and understand the the effort and commitment, to say nothing of the risk, required to play professional football. These guys are crazy and they work crazy hard. But six yards and a first down is hardly the kind of exceptional play that merits furious pounding of the chest; itâs routine. How about just getting up and handing the ball to the official on the way back to the huddle? The out of balance celebration is only half the problem of the excessive celebration issue. Some of these guys just appear to forget the game context when they make their play. Floridaâs first TD of the game against Georgia came when they were down 24-0 with less than 7 minutes left in the game, but if you were judging by the reaction of the Gatorsâ player after scoring, youâd think they just took the lead. They wouldnât score again. Celebrate what deserves to be celebrated, according to me.
Enough with the âbreaking newsâ update. Can a player breaking their finger count as breaking news for 3 hours? By hour 3, I think itâs fair to say that news has already been broken. But that was the situation when Lamar Jackson went down on the first play of the game against the Bills. Sure, many have lobbed this criticism at news broadcasts, and deservedly so. Perhaps it all comes down to the definition of ânewsâ and the definition of âbreaking,â or our own definitions of the same. I have a suggestionâif itâs even a question of whether the forthcoming brief qualifies as news or breaking, change the graphic to âmajor update.â Hm, I can already see the complaints nowâŚâThis counts as a âmajorâ update? I guess everything is âmajorâ now. Just forget it. Weâre stuck with breaking news forever, I suppose.
Enough with the injuries. They are the worst part of the weekend. Of course, they arenât going anywhere. And every week we hope they donât include something like the scene in Detroit after Jack Campbell went down and couldnât get up. Or even move. Every week you can read about the backup QBâs starting and every week there seems to be a new one on the list. Last week, Ian OâConnor wrote an article for The Athletic titled âThe downside to loving football is signing off on the physical and mental damage it causes.â It's all too true. My favorite player growing up was Brett Favre, the model of consistency in an age when the NFL wasnât even paying lip service to player safety, who started an NFL record 297 consecutive games and now at age 57 is dealing with his own memory loss he says he isnât sure whether to blame on all the hits and concussions or his age. Not to mention his Parkinsonâs diagnosis. I doubt that record will ever be broken, and I doubt even more whether it should.
The football team in Tennessee is theâŚOilers? Well, no, seeing as it isnât 1997. Or 1998. Yet when I was trying to mentally run down the teams that were on their bye or at least didnât play Sunday, I thought to myself âMinnesota, the VikingsâŚPittsburgh, the SteelersâŚTennessee, the Oilers...â and I didnât realize it for a moment. Do other millennials of a certain age or Gen Xâers or baby boomers ever make the same mistake? I think it has less to do with feeling wistful about the Oilers and more to do with the Titansâthatâs who plays in Tennessee now!âmakeover prior to this season, which was certainly inspired by the uniforms of their Houston forefathers.
Two QBâs started 11/14 passing on Sunday. One had 80 yards after 14 attempts, the other had 219 yards. Those were the stats scrolling across the bottom of my screen during the second quarters of their respective Sunday afternoon games. The name accompanying the first statline? Gardner Minshew, while the second and more impressive statline belonged to Jordan Love. And therein lies the epitome of how Jordan Love has been playing and, no particular disrepect to Minshew, what you can expect from a backup on a talent-deficient team. Love has simply been blowing the top off defenses this year with his WR tandem of Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, averaging 9.5 yards in the air per attempt, good for 7.7 actual yards gained per attempt. And thatâs all while the Packers lead the NFL in drops. For the stat averse (and Iâm not a stathead myself), heâs not afraid to throw the ball downfield and heâs practically growing in encouragement with each attempt. You gotta love his style of play.
Chris Bermanism tracker: Here Iâll share Chris Bermanâs nicknames for NFL players I hear during his âFastest 3 Minutesâ segment on Monday Night Football.
Chad âThis Land is Your Land This Land isâ Ryland
Alvin âCandyâ Kamara
Bayshul âRootinââ Tuten
Puka âShellâ Nacua
Tyler Shough âAn Oysterâ