1. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’m not a fan of NFL rules analysts. I don’t think they bring anything to a telecast and are nothing more than an intrusion. If the rules analysts were there strictly to interpret a rule that viewers may not know or understand, I could see how they might be valuable.

 But the majority of time, the rules analyst is just there to tell us what we just saw.

Last night was a perfect example of this. Everyone with functioning eyesight saw that Baltimore’s Nnamdi Madubuike walloped Joe Burrow's face mask on a two-point conversion at the end of regulation. There was absolutely no need for the rules analyst to be brought in. Zero. None.

Yet, Kirk Herbstreit had to do the, “Terry, what do you see here,” thing and brought in Amazon’s rules analyst, Terry McAuley.

HE SAW THE SAME THING THAT WE ALL SAW! Every single person watching the game knew that a 15-yard penalty should’ve been called on Madubuike. I don’t understand why we needed to hear from McAuley there.

McAuley had no choice but to say that the refs blew it, but he even couched that.

“That does look like forceful contact to the head of the quarterback.”

No. It didn’t “look like” forceful contact. It WAS forceful contact. There was literally no doubt.

I just want one person to explain to me what McAuley brought to the table here. Tell me one thing he added.

Thank goodness Al Michaels was there to unload on the refs after McAuley’s useless appearance.

“Too many games end this way,” said Michaels. “They just do. You miss calls. The whole thing. So frustrating for the fans. So frustrating."

2. I had a financial interest in last Saturday’s Oregon-Michigan game where I needed the Ducks to cover a 14.5-point spread.

With the game in hand at 31–17 with 25 seconds left, Oregon decided not to run out the clock and scored a touchdown for a 38–17 win, which allowed me to cash my ticket. Oregon coach Dan Lanning even called a timeout on second-and-goal with 1:11 left in the game instead of just running out the clock.

When this happened, I immediately thought of my interview with ESPN’s Paul Finebaum last month on the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast. During the conversation, I asked Finebaum if college football coaches cover spreads for boosters.

“Yes," he said. "Every coach knows the spread and every coach tells you they don’t, but they do because they use it as motivation. They all know what the number is. That is the fastest way a coach can get in trouble with his boosters is to lose the spread. Yes, you need to win games, but if you’re at least covering, they’re not as upset as they are when you don’t cover because most fans like to bet on their own team.”

It turns out, the unnecessary timeout that Lanning called wasn’t about setting up an offensive play. Instead, Lanning called the timeout so he could call over his Oregon players and huddle around while they watched Michigan fans pour out of The Big House.

“Be ready to bring everybody up on me,” Lanning said on his headset while calling the timeout. “I’m gonna call timeout and we’re gonna remind them.”

What Lanning wanted to remind his Ducks players of was what he told them a few days earlier. During a team meeting, Lanning played a video of a speech former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski gave his players:

“When you’re on the road, one of the best feelings is to silence the crowd. And by the way, your fans are leaving at the three-minute mark. Remember those timeouts where you said, ‘What do you want coach?’ I just wanted you to look in the stands. These [blanks] are leaving.”

After Lanning played the Krzyzewski clip, he told his Ducks players, “I want you guys to know in this game, I’m gonna come up to you at some point. I’m gonna ask you to take a peek. I’m gonna ask you to look around. I wanna see them leaving that place because we did our job.”

Very cool move by Lanning. Even cooler that he covered the spread.

3. This was well done last night from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who generated tons of headlines last week after supposedly using an illegal streaming service to watch Thursday Night Football on Amazon.

4. This is a very well done commercial, which pays homage to various classic Christmas movies, for Dick’s Sporting Goods and starring the Watt brothers.

5. If you're a WWE fan, you have to watch this clip of Cody Rhodes eating British foods and snacks and comparing them to what we have in America.

6. A brand-new SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast dropped Thursday, and this week’s guest is SiriusXM’s Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

The radio Hall of Famer gives us the full story behind MLB Network canceling his daily show, High Heat, and what his future is with the MLB Network.

Russo also shares his thoughts on Pat McAfee turning down interviews with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the Yankees hurting Fox and MLB by losing in five games, the current health of Major League Baseball as a sport, the NFL's prime-time schedule, whether he really took a gummy before doing a recent episode of First Take, and his thoughts on becoming known for being the guy who loves gummies.

WFAN’s Sal Licata, who normally joins me each week for our Traina Thoughts segment on the podcast, co-hosted this episode, which led to the show starting with Russo calling out Sal for owing money from betting losses.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 58th birthday to one of my favorite TV personalities, Gordon Ramsay.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Networks, Please Stop Shoving NFL Rules Analysts Down Our Throats.

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