NFL

...I can't stand hearing that fucking 'Travis Kelci's agent' bit again.

It's made only more painful by the fact that Howard thinks he's hilarious while doing it.

Only thing I can understand is if the college they went to is good it can be fun. I go to A&M and they are trash and haven't been good since Myles Garrett left. It's so boring to watch as a neutral even though I can have so much fun watching NFL games as a neutral.

There is no parity because some prestigious colleges get all the good prospects and most teams are just useless. The production, playing quality is all just so superior in the NFL also. Also it feels as if most teams don't have anything to play for since only 4 teams make the playoffs. I don't get the appeal at all.

If the NFL does instruct refs to throw flags in order to get their preferred storylines and ratings, then the Lions are in good shape.

Let's face it, 49 million people tuned in for at least some part of the Lions game last Sunday. People want to see Detroit make the Super Bowl. (Except Dallas apparently.)

We are going to see how rigged the NFL is now. Because the big money is going to come with the Kansas City Swifts playing Detroit in the Super Bowl. That's what they want to see. The former champion with the most popular woman in music on the sidelines up against the biggest underdog in the history of sports.

There's no doubt in my mind it would be the biggest ratings in a generation or more. So we finally get to see how bad the officiating can get to force the best outcome. Baltimore and San Francisco are favored. Will both lose via the yellow flag?

Right now, I am hoping all those poor calls in favor of Dallas are turned around and we get to go and prove we beat KC legitimately the first time.

Zebras and Lions working together. Mass hysteria!!

Was just watching Good Morning Football and Kyle Brandt just told Lions fans to skip the trip to San Francisco and to save our money for Vegas. He just made his pick for this weekend. LFG!!!

ptdotme's NFL Elo Power Rankings After Divisional Round

(By popular demand, see the rankings without the influence of last year's season-ending ratings in my comment below, or .)

This is OC. I’ve written code to calculate NFL team Elo ratings¹ on a week to week basis. The goal is to use simple Elo ratings to create power rankings without the influence of human bias and emotion. The ratings are based on each team's rating from the previous week, with a "parity reset" applied every offseason. The model has been tested for accuracy against game outcomes since week 1 of the 2012² season. The ratings are derived only from each game's score, venue, and date. There are a number of variables/weights in my secret sauce but otherwise they're fairly conservative, basic, Elo ratings.

This is all a work in progress and feedback is appreciated! See more stats and info on my .

Note: You may feel teams are ranked too high or low based on recent games, and you may be right. However, the model has been tested and is more accurate when it doesn't overreact to individual games. The goal is model accuracy, not rankings that "look right." ²  

¹See . Elo ratings are numeric and assigned to each contestant. The ratings are used to estimate performance. After each game, the difference between a contestant's estimated and actual performance is used to update their rating. For the NFL, this can all be summarized as "Who did you beat/lose to and by how much? And who have they beaten/lost to and by how much? And who have they beaten/lost to ...

²Moving backward through the years, each preceding season has a much smaller impact on the current ratings. Team ratings from 2010 have zero impact on today's ratings. Ratings from only a couple years ago, say 2021, have almost no effect on today's ratings. Seasons going back to 2010 are only used by the model to ensure its accuracy over thousands of NFL games.