Sunday NFL Thoughts: Expansion, Incompetence, and Rex Ryan

1. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers were founded in 1995 and are both about to kick off their 21st seasons as NFL teams. Both teams miraculously reached their Conference Championships in their second years of existence, which is a stunning showing for a new team. Of course, the Patriots knocked the Jaguars out of the playoffs in that 1996 season, and New England defeated the Panthers in the 2003 Super Bowl. It's led to some tears. Both most interesting in their conception is the Patriots nemesis that were in place at their origination. Current New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin led the Jaguars to their early success (and would be a key point in my argument that Coughlin should be a Hall of Fame lock), while old friend Bill Polian was in charge of the Panthers. Old grudges die hard.

2. Speaking of expansion teams, the Houston Texans are the newest team in the league, starting in the 2002 season. They have 122 losses, including the playoffs. You would have to start counting in the 1993 season- 10 years before the Texans- if you counted the Patriots last 122 losses. That's how good the Patriots have been for so long. Coincidentally, that's the year before Robert Kraft purchased the team.

3. Washington was trying to finagle more money out of their ticket holders by charging a $50 envelope to hold game tickets at Will Call. Of course, like Robert Griffin III's "I think I'm the best quarterback in the league" comments (Griffin was merely saying that he believed in himself and wanted to show the world his ability), it was blown totally out of proportion. The fee is mostly for people who are reselling tickets and the team's "we're not responsible for missing tickets" remark was to cover their behinds if the ticket sellers short changed the buyers. But the fact that so much fire is conjured from such little smoke speaks to the status of Washington and how they're a team that no one takes seriously. Sorry Jay.

4. Speaking of incompetence, the league is now looking to improve and increase regulations surrounding the gloves that wide receivers wear. This image shows the issue that leads to Odell Beckham Jr. circus catches. Now I understand the issue both ways: the gloves make the game more exciting because impossible catches happen every week, but they also seem to be a legal form of Stickum. Now an appropriate response by the league would be to run tests on these gloves and monitor the impact of their usage before determining a set protocol and punishment for violation. That is what a reasonable league leader would do. I'll let this one hang.

5. And continuing the stretch of incompetence, the Buffalo Bills sent away long time fan favorite running back Fred Jackson and general manager Doug Whaley was considered to have "gone rogue" without the approval of the rest of the staff (which he denies). Jackson said, "There's only one person in that organization that I haven't gotten honesty from, and that was [Whaley]." Rex Ryan is signing literal bullies to his roster, the team is unsettled at quarterback, and half of the offense is injured. This is looking to be a standard Rex season.