Weekly Takeaways

Ah yes, it’s that time of the week again where I give you my thoughts on a week of sports whether you asked for them or not. So buckle down and keep reading cause you definitely care about what I have to say about a wild weekend of sports.

Football is great. It’s frustrating, maddening, stressful, ruined by Roger Goodell and great. Football is run by monsters, whether it’s Roger Goodell fining and suspending players he doesn’t like or the NCAA trying their very hardest to control the lives of student athletes. So if you can look past the parade of penalties, the nonsense rules, the drama queen players and Roger Goodell you find sports at its purest of forms. Football.

So with that being said here are my weekly takeaways from a fun weekend of sports.

1. Roger Goodell is a no good monster who shouldn’t even be allowed to say the word football let alone run an entire league. Just kidding, that goes without saying. The real first takeaway is that “They are who we thought they were.” The first three weeks of the NFL season were, to say the least, surprising. The Eagles looked like a Super Bowl contender, the Chiefs looked like the best team in the league, the Bills defense looked like a number-one defense in the league, the Rams looked like the best team in the NFC West, the the Giants looked awful and Los Angeles looked like a city that does not want the Chargers. Turns out every single one of those theories was correct. We are officially one-fourth of the way through the NFL regular season and it’s now officially fair to make assumptions about teams and players because we finally have a good sample size. The Eagles are first in their division and have found ways to win close games. Super Bowl contender. The Chiefs are undefeated and have beaten New England, Philadelphia and Washington. Best team in the NFL. The Bills defense forced three turnovers and scored one defensive touchdown against the high-powered Atlanta offense. Top defense in the league. The Rams have the best offense in the NFL and just beat Dallas, a Super Bowl favorite, in Dallas. Best team in NFC West. Giants are 0-4. Awful. The Chargers play away games at home. LA does not want the Chargers.

2. We are in store for Alabama vs Clemson part 3. The past two years Clemson and Alabama have met in the National Championship and they have given us arguably the best two National Championships in recent memory. So far nothing has given us any reason to think a different team will be in the Championship come January. Clemson has played three top 15 teams in the first five weeks of the season, two of which were on the road, and won all three games by an average of 16. Alabama, meanwhile, has been steamrolling opposing SEC schools! In the past two weeks the Crimson Tide have outscored Vanderbilt and Ole Miss 125-3. I know you’re saying “But Hunter! Penn State and Oklahoma look unstoppable!” Yea yea yea… they seem that way now but just wait until they face some good competition. Penn State QB Trace McSorley isn’t going to be “hitting home runs” when he faces Alabama’s defense. Baker Mayfield won’t be running his mouth against Clemson’s defensive line. Were six weeks into the season and NO ONE looks as good as Clemson or Alabama.

3. New England’s defense is terrible. Ok, so this isn’t the most groundbreaking claim or the hottest take. But it’s the truest statement you can make after four weeks of NFL football. The Patriot’s defense is the worst defense in the NFL, and I don’t say that as a personal opinion. That’s statistically. New England’s defense ranks last in the NFL in yards allowed, allowing 457 yards per game (61 more yards than the next worse team.) They also rank 31st in points allowed, allowing 32 points per game. Trust me, I had New England’s defense in Fantasy Football. They Stink. (This is the guy you're paying $65 million, really?) And unless something drastic happens in the next couple of months, the Pat’s defense will cost Tom Brady his sixth Super Bowl ring.

4. Los Angeles hates the Chargers. Add it to the list of tremendous accomplishments for Roger Goodell. LA was getting two teams and the choices were between the Raiders, Rams and Chargers. The Rams were an easy choice. LA is a much larger and healthier market than St Louis and the Rams played in LA in the past. The Raiders should have been an easy choice as well. LA is a Raider’s town. Los Angeles LOVES the Raiders and had the NFL chosen to move the Raiders to LA they’d be selling out the Colosseum. Every. Single. Game. But bravo Roger, the NFL chose to take the Chargers and move them 90 minutes north. Oh and by the way, the Chargers are the long time rival of… you guessed it, the Raiders. Not only did the NFL move the Chargers to a city which roots for their biggest rival, they have them playing in a soccer stadium which seats 27,000 (which they can’t even sell out). Not only can the Chargers not sell out a soccer stadium, they can’t even fill it with fans of their own team. Two weeks ago the Chargers wouldn’t even have player introductions for fear the players would be booed by the overwhelming number of Chiefs fans. And Sunday’s game was practically a home game for Philadelphia, with chants of “Lets Go Eagles” echoing throughout the stadium for the majority of the game. With that being said, the Chargers will not be moving back to San Diego. The franchise is worth twice as much in LA than they were worth in San Diego, and that’s without filling their stadium. There is one glimmer of hope for the Chargers, however. If the Chargers lose enough games this year they just might luck into drafting Sam Darnold, a Southern California kid and LA native who just so happens to play down the road at USC. If the Chargers can somehow get their hands on Sam Darnold, that just might be enough incentive for LA fans to come to Chargers games just to see the hometown kid play.

5. Football is great. It is! Just watch. (you suck Roger Goodell)