Meanwhile, over at the hospital... (NFL)

 We are only two weeks into the NFL season, and it seems that the second week has been the most brutal in terms of players getting injured, with some of them suffering season-ending injuries. Most teams came out of the first week relatively unscathed compared to the second week. I was astounded at the injury reports that kept popping up throughout Sunday's action.

Key players now on injured reserved or for the whole season include:

- Jimmy Garoppolo (QB - 49ers), Greg Kittle (TE - 49ers), Saquan Barkley (RB - Giants), Jalen Reagor (WR - Eagles), Tevin Coleman (RB - 49ers), Julio Jones (WR - Falcons), Christian McCaffrey (RB - Panthers), Drew Lock (QB - Broncos), Nick Bosa (DB - 49ers), Raheem Mostert (RB - 49ers), just to name the notable players.

Now, with that being said, some of it could be blamed on the lack of any preseason games, but we really can't go that route. Anyone that has watched football for nay length of time knows that even with preseason games, a lot of good players suffer injuries during the first match up. This is still surprising in this day and age with all the various mini camps and training camps.

Players push themselves and keep training throughout the year to be ready for the season, but this year's crop of injuries has taken the proverbial cake. If you are like me and are also heavily into fantasy football year after year, you know that a rash of injuries this encompassing can easily ruin your fantasy team instantly, and leave you on the outside looking in for the rest of the season. 

One can only hope that we don't see any more significant injuries as we move into Week 3, and that this already trying season doesn't get any worse.

-TTS

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QUICK SLANTS: Takeaways from Week 1 (NFL)

Well, Week 1 of the NFL season is in the books, and there are a few things I've noticed right off the bat that I guess you could call pros and cons, from a certain point of view.

1) No preseason? No problem. There didn't seem to be any rust on the players for the most part, and the teams in the games that I was able to watch over the weekend (and Monday night) seemed to execute well for the most part. The only exception to this was Miami's Ryan Fitzpatrick, who in one game so far has thrown three interceptions.

I think that moving forward, the NFL needs to drastically reduce the number of preseason games. Four weeks of that is way too excessive, and always leads to way too many injuries and issues. I would think that one or two preseason games is sufficient.

2) Atmosphere. One of the biggest issues I have noticed thus far is the empty stadiums and lack of real crowd noise. Canned ambiance is fine, but it pales in comparison to thousands upon thousands of real, loud fans in the stands, and without masks. The crowd of somewhere around 16,000 in Kansas City was nice, but not loud enough. I got a taste of this on Saturday during the two college games I was able to catch. The lack of noise was shocking, to say the least.

3) Lack of penalties. Most opening weeks in the NFL are always littered with penalties and flags being thrown left and right. It was quite refreshing to see a a very small amount of penalty flags for a change, which helped to keep the game moving.

A good football game can be derailed almost instantly by an abundance of penalties being called by referees and officials that won't let the players play. Watch any NFL playoff game ever if you have any doubts. Good on the officials for keeping it to a minimum.

-TTS

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Thoughts on last night's NFL Kickoff. (NFL)

Well folks, the 2020/2021 NFL season has finally gotten underway, and I want to offer my thoughts on the game, and what all the take-aways are from it. Without further adieu, let's get started!

1) The crowd. There was somewhere between 15,000 and 17,000 in attendance for last night's match up at Arrowhead Stadium, which was only around 22% of the 70,000 or so that would normally be there for game day. This was due to the pandemic of course, but seeing tarped off areas and sparse fans kind of took away from the game, as we're all used to camera angles from all over a stadium during the game.

2) Andy Reid, and masked personnel. I have no idea what the hell Chief's coach Andy Reid was wearing around his face, but it was completely ridiculous, as were the masks being worn by personnel on the sidelines who were all OUTSIDE. I can understand wearing masks indoors, inside cramped rooms, but not outside. The cameramen also didn't need to focus on this.

3) Broadcast team. While normally I never have a problem with NBC's broadcast team, I was a little miffed due to how they kept reminded viewers throughout the game how rich Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson are. A lot of us watch football to get away from that kind of thing, but it kept being shoved down our throats last night, and that is unacceptable.

If anything, the amount of money being given to both QBs is beyond ridiculous.

4) Uneven matchup, or done purposely? The game wasn't very good, with the Chiefs seemingly having the answer to almost everything that Houston was doing. Personally, I don't think Kansas City is that good, and with a schedule that puts them against a Texans team that is missing key personnel from last year, it makes you wonder if this match up came about to make the Chiefs look better then they really are.

One thing is for sure: We'll all have a better picture of this new season once all of Sunday's action comes and goes.

-TTS


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The reasons why 'Throwing The Slant' has been inactive.

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts from this blog for quite some time, as there hasn't been anything done since May of this year. Unfortunately, the sports landscape took a bit of a hit this year, and I am going to list the reasons below as to why it has affected this blog, as well as let everyone know what I am going to be doing from here on it.

This blog has been inactive until now because:

- The Canadian Football League season for 2020 has been cancelled outright, and there is little point trying to drum up stories for it at the moment
- Throwing The Slant will not report on anything that has to do with politics, the pandemic, or anything that is detrimental to football coverage. This blog was meant to report on actual football news, not nonsense
- The NCAA season is still in doubt as well, and I'm not sure what is happening there

How TTS will be moving forward from here on in:

- Posts will be less frequent, due to the lack of football available right now
- I will still focus on core football news and notes, even if it's not as often
- There will be absolutely no references to activism, politics (unless it's football politics), and the pandemic. I see no reason to include things that have nothing to do with football whatsoever

I hope that I've cleared everything up, and look forward to getting back to blogging about everything football around here.

-TTS


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Quarterback soup. (NFL)

It seems there is no end to the quarterback carousel going on in the National Footbal League as of late. In the last couple of days, we've seen more moves at that position by teams, and again there is confusion as to why this all went down.

Let's dive in!

1) Andy Dalton. The recently released Cincinnati Bengals QB has signed a one-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys to join that franchise, most likely to back up starting QB Dak Prescott. This move is a little confusing, seeing as how Dalton always under performed in Cincinnati. That being said however, the Cowboys' offensive line is much better, and can provide Dalton (should he need to come into a game) with something he didn't have with the Bengals - adequate protection.

Regardless, it should be interesting to see how Dalton is used in conjunction with the Cowboys' offence, and whether or not he could alternate with Prescott.

2) Mitch Trubisky. The Chicago Bears have declined this year's option on Trubisky's contract, which will pretty much assure that his tenure in the Windy City will come to an end. The Bears traded up in the 2017 Draft to select him over Mahomes and Watson, and while some see his performance as a failure, some of us in the world of football think that his coach is the bigger problem.

With the team bringing in Nick Foles during this off season, and with an impatient head coach such as Matt Nagy still holding the reins, the writing is on the wall for Trubisky. It's unfortunate, as I personally think he has the tools needed to succeed in the NFL, but needs a proper coach that an mold him into a great quarterback.

Only time will tell how this will play out, and TTS will be paying close attention.

-TTS


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Reasons why the CFL should get the $150 million. (CFL)

Commissioner Randy Ambrosie of the Canadian Football League has begun to lobby the federal government for a sum of $150 million dollars to get the league through the issues caused by the current pandemic. While there are a lot of people out there (including some talk radio hosts as of late) that argue against this, TTS will provide some of the following reasons as to why the CFL should get said payment.

1) League economics. Unlike the bigger professional sports leagues (NHL, NBA, and the NFL), the CFL doesn't have billions of dollars and massive advertising revenues to draw on when the going gets tough. The larger leagues also have a ridiculous amount of revenue that comes in from overall merchandise sales, eclipsing anything the CFL can up with.

People also seem to forget that the CFL caters to a smaller, more blue collar fan base than the teams in the larger leagues, that bring in a huge percentage of corporate revenue on top of everything.

2) Dollars. The average CFL team normally breaks even, or makes a small profit in the hundreds of thousands to a million, not counting the annual Grey Cup event and festival. The exception being the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who made over $2.1 million last year due to winning the Grey Cup. Compare with any NFL team that rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars (if not more) per year, and you can see the disparity quite easily.

3) Wages. Unlike NFL players and staff that make in the millions, CFL players make an average of $45,000 a year and have full-time jobs away from the football field. The most elite player in the CFL can make $400,000 a year, which pales in comparison to an elite player in the NFL who would make $30 million a year.

4) Canadiana. The CFL is an integral part to the Canadian identity, and should be preserved no matter what. Canadian football started it all on this continent back in the late 1800's, and the history and tradition of it all needs to be respected, and celebrated. We can ill afford to lose such an important piece of Canadian identity, now more than ever.

Considering that PM Trudeau gave $9 billion to students out of nowhere, $150 million is chump change compared to that, and there should be no question of giving it to the CFL.

-TTS


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Interesting NFL moves as of late. (NFL)

There have been a few moves in the NFL over the last couple of days that has definitely raised some eyebrows among us pundits, mainly because they are slightly confusing, to say the least.

1) Jalen Hurts.

The Oklahoma quarterback was expected to go to a team (via the draft) that actually needed a quarterback for the upcoming season. Instead, he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles. This is a very odd move to make for a team that has a franchise quarterback (or so they keep telling everyone) in Carson Wentz, and two backups.

Could this mean that the Eagles' brain trust is slowly starting to lose faith in the often-injured Wentz and see Hurts as a successor? There is no doubt that Hurts has the talent and tools necessary to become successful, but even he should wonder about this one.

2) Jameis Winston.

This is by far the biggest head-scratcher out there right now, and there are questions marks that probably won't be resolved until the start of the season. The Saints already a have the immortal Drew Brees as their top pivot, and a proven backup in Taysom Hill as well. For a team as savvy (usually) as the Saints to bring in the biggest interception machine of his generation, it's quite perplexing.

Winston has shown in his time with the Buccaneers that he is unable to play at the NFL level, his issues going all the way back to his college career. With a terrible decision making process, and prone to throwing into heavy coverage, it's no wonder he puts up the amount of interceptions that he does, and I'm surprised he hasn't thrown more of them.

Sean Payton will more than likely comment on this at some point, and I can't wait to see how this signing of Winston is explained by the long time head coach.

3) Gronk.

All I'm going to say on this matter is the following: He came out of retirement to join his buddy in Tampa, and will watch as they both hit rock bottom. Hard. 'Nuff said.

-TTS

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