The Show Will Go On. But How?

The NFL will figure it out. The league knows what it's doing, whether it's logistics or printing money

The NFL is the Masters tournament of sports leagues.

You might not like how it operates. You might narrow your eyes at The League’s motives for doing just about anything. I do, especially when it comes to dealing with the health and safety of its players. Don’t tell me how concerned you are with player safety while adding a 17th game, retaining that unhealthy abomination known as Thursday Night Football and continuing to schedule three exhibition games.

That said, I have no doubt the NFL will come up with the best plan for untangling the scheduling mess created by Monday’s postponement.

It’s an impossible task and regardless of what is decided, not everyone will be satisfied. But it will be the best way to proceed. Just because it’s the NFL.

The Masters comparison is apt. Augusta National runs the best event in sports, every year, all the time, because the people who run it have been at it awhile and they know what they’re doing.

You’d have to have attended the Masters and the Super Bowl to fully appreciate the well-oiled machines these two entities have become. I’ve been to the Masters 24 times and to 15 or so Super Bowls. Every time I go, I marvel at the sheer, blunt-force efficiency of each.

I’ve never gone to Augusta and said, “Man, what a mess. If only they knew what they were doing.’’ I’ve never been to a Super Bowl and wanted for anything, be it reams of information from press conferences or the armada of buses reliably getting me to and from everywhere, gameday included.

I have no idea what the NFL is going to do.

Cancel Bengals-Bills altogether? Maybe, but that wouldn’t do justice to the two teams who’ve fought all year to put themselves in that spot.

Resume the game from where it stopped? When? A week from Sunday? That would mean pushing back a week the start of the playoffs. It’s hard enough to expect the Bills to be mentally engaged. How does the league try to ensure that the Bills and Bengals don’t face a physical mountain, too?

That’s not fair, but at this juncture what would be?

That choice would mean only a week between the conference title games and the Super Bowl. Do-able, but a big logistical problem. The vastness of the Bowl requires every second of the two-week interlude, to prepare for the global onslaught of fans, media, dignitaries etc.

Might the NFL give each a pass and cancel the game altogether? Their postseason slots (if not their seeds) are assured. Nobody would argue that the Bengals and Bills are not two of the three best teams in the AFC. Play out Week 18 as scheduled. Bengals-Ravens. Bills-Patriots, both in their home stadiums. If Bud Selig can cancel the World Series, Roger Goodell can cancel one regular-season football game.

That’s highly imperfect, sure. The Chiefs would love it. Does anyone have a better plan?

Then there’s this, via Pro Football Talk:

The Chiefs get the bye, but if the Bills and the Chiefs qualify for the AFC Championship, the game is played at a neutral site.

The Chiefs would have to offer it, and the league would have to approve it. Possible neutral sides include Detroit, Minnesota, and Indianapolis, if the goal is to avoid the elements. Places like Green Bay, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh become an option, if the teams and the league want weather to be a potential factor.

I have complete faith the NFL will figure this out with the same smooth efficiency it applies to perfuming its public image and minting money.

Now, then. . .

ON REFLECTION. . . I messed up. In Tuesday’s post, I chastised the league for waiting more than an hour to call the game. In retrospect, my timing was inappropriate. Twelve hours after the incident, I was still caught up in the emotion.

While I believe the opinion was/is valid, I should have waited a few days at least to express it. Apologies for my error in judgment.

And no, no one from the NFL has contacted me. I’d be amazed (and flattered) if they did.

JOEY VOTTO says he isn’t sure he’ll be ready for spring training. He had surgery last August for a torn left rotator cuff. Estimates then were he’d need six months of rehab.

“It’s going to take time, I’m realizing now,” Votto told WLW. “I’m hitting off an arm and I just started hitting off a machine a little bit, but it’s not quite there. I’ve been told by people that I’m doing very well in my rehab, but there is a difference between doing well and being ready for a Major League game if that makes sense.”

A view from the cheap seats is that Votto should retire now and thus save the Reds the $25 mil he is owed in ‘23, the last year of his 10-year contract. There is an option for ‘24, but you’d have to squint really hard to see that being exercised.

A few things:

• It’s not Votto’s problem that The Club decided to pay him the moon and the sun for a decade.

• There is no way anyone would walk away from $25 mil.

• Players are paid for performance, not potential. Votto has largely lived up to his end of the bargain.

• No love for one of the Top-5 hitters in franchise history? If you were ranking Reds batsmen, where would you put Votto? Pete, Frank, Tony and. . .

• The Reds are Nowhere this year. It would take a whole lot more than $25 mil to get them Somewhere. Would you rather watch Votto’s swan song or a couple middling, $10 million starting pitchers?

All that said, let’s hope David Bell doesn’t run Joey out there just because he’s Joey. There is room for Tyler Stephenson at 1B, even if only occasionally. Some of us would like the injury-bugged, thrice-concussed catcher to move to 1st altogether, but that’s not going to happen.

Thrice, Doc?

Three times. The Reds are risking the health of their best young player by keeping him behind the plate. With each concussion, the chance of another increases. Catcher is not a position to play if you’ve had head issues.

But we digress.

Votto has earned the right to play out his contract. Especially for a team that likely won’t give you a lot to be happy about this summer.

STICK TO SPORTS. . . Six times in two days, right-wing Republicans shot down Kevin McCarthy’s bid to be House Speaker. You can find McCarthy’s pride in the lost and found this morning. His hands and knees are shot, from all that groveling. That’s not important.

What is, is the Republicans look like abject clowns. The far-Right doesn’t want democracy, just chaos. The House can’t operate without a Speaker. Apparently, that’s just fine with them. That is, seemingly, their point. These people talk about undoing Biden’s actions. They couldn’t undo the laces of my shoes.

Grow up, stand up, realize what you’re doing to your country and your party. You are silly beyond measure.

And finally. . . Took down the fake Christmas tree today, reluctantly. If I were king of the forest, there’d be a law requiring folks to have their trees up by Thanksgiving and not removed until Valentine’s Day. I mean, what’s the rush? If I lived alone, I’d probably leave the tree up all year, with just the (tasteful) white lights shining.

The wife, on the other hand, wants all evidence of Christmas removed by Jan. 1.

Who’s right here? Besides me, I mean.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . The “Navigation System’’ in my Mazda 3 is busted after 70K miles. That means the Sirius-XM doesn’t work. The only station I have is the last station I had on, pre-busting.

Needless to say, Johnny Thinwallet is a little distraught about having to pay someone to fix a damned radio. I mean, really. I’m thin enough to consider skipping it. The alternative is podcasts, and playlists from my iTunes library.

What think, Mobsters? Pay or not?

Meantime, a relatively recent gem from the Beach Boys. (Recent being a relative term.) Wait for the gorgeous harmonies near the end. No band did singing better than Brian, Carl, Dennis and Mike.

.