NFL notes:

• Due to Unsportsmanlike Conduct calls being up 220% this year over last (HAIL BLEERGH!),  the League is going to provide teams and officials with “clarification” of what the rule means. Hopefully, this leads to Jeff Triplette trying to describe the “Hingle McCringleberry”.
  • According to Dean Blandino, NFL VP of officiating,

[t]he key is if it’s a gesture that either mimics a violent act — that’s something with a firearm or a bow and arrow — or a sexually suggestive act, those are unsportsmanlike conduct. That’s … something that officials will flag.

• Injury report:
  • Carson Palmer has been ruled out for Thursday’s game. That means it’s the Drew Stanton show!
  • Cam Newton didn’t practice Wednesday morning.
  • Devon Still has been placed on IR by the Texans. He had been a starter all year.
    • BTW, Leah Still is still in remission. Yay!
  • Dez Bryant is still not practicing.
• Dallas police have determined that Aqib Talib shot himself in the leg. In other news: water is wet.
• This week’s Crimebeat! will no doubt include Todd Marinovich, who has been charged with trespassing, public nudity, and possessing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

This can’t be good.

Aggravating aggregator Bleacher Report has a story about how Trump is somehow having a pernicious influence inside some NFL locker rooms.

Not helping matters is people like Rex Ryan publicly coming out in support of Trump and players seething about it. The anthem protests appear to be the canary in the coalmine of locker room dissension.

Segments like this below probably don’t help, and is also noteworthy because he was the only white player willing to have his name used in the article:

Ryan declined to comment, but at least one white Buffalo player—Richie Incognito, the offensive lineman notorious for a bullying scandal that included racial slurs and who has now become a force in the Bills clubhouse—insists that Trump’s winning message has resonated with NFL players like him.

That’s how you build team chemistry, folks.

Finally, GRONK! has had it “up to here” with complaints about your fantasy league team. He’s even getting hit up by former players:

That's ridiculous. Can't believe some people. (But seriously Gronk, I need you to pick it up a bit. Getting killed here.) https://t.co/q7QvCGqGXj

— Drew Bledsoe (@DrewBledsoe) October 5, 2016

Let’s ask his owner

Oh. Never mind.

I have absolute confidence in the depravity of modern Blue Jays Bro-fans. These are your typical bandwagoneers, much like Seahawks fans that can only name players from 2012 forward, but with a Capital City sense of entitlement. Imagine if the Yankees were the lead story on every major sports, news and entertainment channel in every major US city. That’s what it’s like watching Canadian TV when a Toronto team does well. If the minor league team I work for wasn’t affiliated with them, I’d have no interest in the Blue Jays. But at least I can name the ones who started their careers in Vancouver, way-down the minor league roster.

God fucking help us if the Leafs ever become good.

Deadspin reports allegations of racial slurs being used. Me personally, I don’t think it was racist racial slurs, but the acknowledged screams of “Go back to your country!” in Toronto-speak means “Yankee Go Home!” They weren’t yelling it at a Korean kid but a player in an American city’s uniform. Reminder: the Blue Jays are advertised as “Canada’s Team”, yet (at most) three players on the active roster are from The Home and Native Land.

Admittedly, I’m not much of one to talk – my city rioted after losing the 2011 Stanley Cup. That multicultural affair occurred not in the impoverished part of the city where it should have, due to the economic inequality, but the downtown core where all the not-poor people were hanging out. I was at that game, and left in the direction of the Downtown East Side, because I knew there’d be less trouble (and, also, open bars to wile away my time). Much like last night in Toronto, that wasn’t social upheaval but simply assholes thinking they have a free pass.

Tonight’s sports:

• MLB Playoff: Giants at Mets – 8:00 PM | ESPN/Sportsnet
• College Football: Georgia Southern at Arkansas State – 8:00 PM | ESPN2/TSN3
• NBA Preseason: Raptors at Clippers – 10:30 PM | TSN

If I can just get through tomorrow, I’ve got the Thursday night game, all-day MLB playoffs Friday, and then a three-day weekend due to Canadian Thanksgiving. I REGRET NOTHING!