The NFL is now halfway through its 2020 season, playing without fans in the stands, and it has been an interesting season.  The old “the show must go on” prevailed through calls to shut down the NFL, along with all major sports that called for large crowds of people getting together in a somewhat confined space and scream to the tops of their lungs for their teams to win the games.

It just sounded too risky to try, but they did it anyway.  As the second half of the NFL season begins, Week 10 is going to help football fans get a feel for what the playoff picture might look like, and also help sports gamblers start to make their moves for the postseason and Super Bowl action.

Week 10 Has Arrived

If most NFL fans were asked to pick one team they thought would get better in the second half of this season, many would likely pick the New England Patriots.  Anyone who has watched Bill Belichick on the sidelines, or seen his Subway commercials, has got to believe that he is going to come up with a way to light a fire under the Patriots and win some more football games before this season is over.

Belichick’s new quarterback, Cam Newton, formally of the Carolina Panthers, has not been helping the situation very much.  He was intercepted five times in the last two games, resulting in a loss for New England and further aggravation for their head coach.

However, in the come from behind victory over the New York Jets on Monday Night Football, Cam looked a bit like the Cam of old and gave Pats fans a reason to hope one again.  When asked after the game what happened to make him play so well in the Jets game, Newton gave a typical Cam answer, “I’m tired of sucking.”  Too bad he didn’t get tired of sucking earlier in the season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost kicker Josh Lambo to a season ending hip injury this week.  As luck would have it, they found themselves a new one the very next day.  The Jags have signed second year kicker Chase McLaughlin to their active roster off of the Minnesota Vikings practice squad.  Big break for McLaughlin, let’s see how it works out for Jacksonville.

The Griddy Dance Enters The NFL

One of the high points for any LSU fans watching the Vikings game last week was seeing their old hero Justin Jefferson, who played on last year’s national championship team at LSU, doing his little end zone dance he calls the “Griddy.”  Even though the game ended in a disappointing one-point loss for the Minnesota team, Jefferson had beaten the Titans secondary all game long and came down with seven catches for 175 yards.  The rookie wide receiver had to be feeling pretty good about life in general, and himself in particular, so, for the first time in his young NFL career, he broke out his little signature end zone celebration dance.

Dak Prescott is hurt and out for the season and watching his Cowboys go down to some of the most mournful defeats ever encountered by the Dallas football team.  Although he could well be pretty bummed out about the situation he is in, Dak got a huge vote of confidence when, in a post-game interview with radio station 105.3, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about the possibility of the Cowboys seeking to draft a quarterback in the first round of the next NFL Draft.  Jones, who can be pretty direct when he is mad, just looked at the guy and responded, “You know, Dak is our quarterback.” End of conversation.

Let us hope that one day soon we get through this COVID-19 pandemic and the US, and the World, can return to feeling free and easy about attending a professional or college sporting event without fear and once again enjoy with abandon America’s favorite contact sport, just like we always have.