$.01--The BREAKING NEWS! over the NFL weekend came late Saturday, when an Al Jazeera report came out alleging Peyton Manning had taken HGH in recovering from his multiple neck surgeries in 2011.

Manning strongly denied the allegation, which emanated from a pharmacist in Indianapolis named Charlie Sly. He also denied his statements despite being recorded on hidden camera.

The national media, loath to turn on its golden boy, came on in forceful support of Manning. There is no more beloved pro athlete in terms of media adoration. Some of this is carefully cultivated by Peyton and the Manning family over the years, as well as Peyton just being a genuinely likeable and accessible guy for a superstar.

I want to believe Peyton. I want him to remain untarnished, an all-time great who did everything the right way. We get too few of those in sports, and life, these days.

But I believed Lance Armstrong once upon a time. And Rafael Palmeiro. And Roger Clemens. I believed Pete Rose at first. Tiger Woods too. Let’s just say I’ll withhold judgment until more of the story comes out.

Many are slamming Al Jazeera. For those who reflexively denounce the news organization with the foreign name, I strongly encourage you to watch their reports, to read their website. They’re as unbiased and non-partisan as any source you can find these days. They are not, contrary to popular American opinion, the official mouthpiece of Al Qaeda or ISIS. You’ll find smart, clear-eyed and objective reporting on everything from the US Presidential election to the Palestine/Israel conflict to the work of Christian missionaries doing great things in Africa.

Be careful to rush to judgment here. It’s okay to give Manning the benefit of the doubt. He’s earned that. But do not summarily discount the allegations here either. Peyton is the perfect candidate to use HGH and get away with it, as nobody would ever think he would do it. That’s how folks get away with things. I’m not saying, I’m just sayin’…

$.02-- New England has some serious problems for a Super Bowl contender. It’s pretty much easier to list who is healthy on offense than isn’t. Tom Brady. That’s it, that’s the list.

The worst possible situation outside of Brady going down or Gronk losing a body part came when left tackle Sebastian Vollmer was carted off the first quarter of Sunday’s overtime loss to the rival Jets.

Already missing several starters, this one was a lethal blow. Vollmer, an above-average left tackle, was replaced by LaAdrian Waddle. “LA” was handily the worst right tackle in football before the Lions mercifully cut him; only two tackles (one of them 2014 #2 overall pick Greg Robinson) had worse Pro Football Focus grades entering this week, but Waddle played less than half the snaps of those below him.

Somehow the Patriots persevered and kept the game close, thanks primarily to a defense which stiffened after falling behind 17-3. A Jamie Collins fumble return TD helped close the gap. Brady found backup-to-the-backup’s backup RB James White with 1:55 left to tie the game.

Then came overtime, and one of the more bizarre exchanges at a coin toss in NFL history. Here’s how it went down, courtesy of the great guys at Sirius NFL Radio…

 

Just when you think you've seen it all in the NFL, something like this comes along, and you just don't know what is...

Posted by SiriusXM NFL Radio on Sunday, December 27, 2015

In short, Matthew Slater got confused by an oddly phrased question and wound up choosing to kick instead of receive. The Jets drove down the field and won when Ryan Fitzpatrick found Eric Decker in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning TD. Of course, after the game the Pats covered for Slater and said it was the right decision, an odd double-down on a ridiculous choice.

The strange ending throws the AFC playoff picture all askew. The Jets moved to 10-5 and seized back a hold on the Wild Card berth they lost last week despite winning. New England lost a chance to wrap up home field advantage. Moreover, yet another injury and a loss to a surging Jets team casts doubt that New England has enough to go on a long playoff run. 

$.03-- Congrats to the Washington Ethnic Slurs on winning the NFC East. Washington blew out the Eagles in Philadelphia on Saturday night 38-24. The win pushed the Skins above .500 at 8-7 and officially eliminated both the Eagles and Giants. It’s the first time since Week 10 that any NFC East team has been above .500.

This division title came totally out of the blue. Trust me, as someone who picked them to make the playoffs in 2014 only to see them make me look asinine with a 4-12 finish, it sure looked like this franchise was at least a year away from sniffing 8-8. In this year’s preview I forecast a 5-11 finish, though one tinged with some optimism. The Vegas win total line was 5.5.

Kirk Cousins deserves a great deal of the credit. The quarterback has been outstanding in the last few weeks, throwing 19 TDs to just 3 INTs over the last nine games. In this win he became the first WAS quarterback ever to throw for 300+ yards and 4+ TDs in consecutive games. It was his 7th 300+ yard passing effort on the season, another team record. Moreover, he’s become the clear leader of a franchise which desperately needed one.

It led me to this conclusion…

 

Granted they have not beaten a good team all year and benefit mightily from the laughable division competition, but belittling what Cousins and the Skins have done is disingenuous. This is a team capable of putting up points in bunches. An opportunistic defense and an improved Cousins, who has a better set of weapons than you might think, gives them a chance to win that first playoff game. 

$.04-- The flip side of Washington’s victory coin is Philadelphia, where this has to rank as one of the biggest busts in a pretty lengthy Eagles history of disappointment.

Chip Kelly’s grand experiment has failed. His quixotic quest to try and win solely with his system instead of proven, name-brand players blew up in his face. Dumping, in no particular order, Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Lesean McCoy, Todd Herremans, Evan Mathis and even Nick Foles has proven to rob the offense of any real discernible talent. Sam Bradford, the booty for Foles, has been sporadically decent but largely a wash. None of the other replacements hand-picked by Kelly have been even close to as good as what the more prominent Eagles who preceded them were.

This one got so bad that the most notable player left in the Philly offense, left tackle Jason Peters, tapped out rather than risk another injury.

 

Of course Peters will be gone in the next wave of purging. He’s a shell of his former All Pro self, getting beaten badly by rookie Preston Smith for a sack even while being (very) guilty of a hold. Will that purging include the head coach?

The prevailing wisdom from Eagles writers and national talk show hosts is that Chip the coach is doing just fine but Chip the GM needs to be fired yesterday. I can’t see Eagles owner Jeff Lurie canning Kelly completely, but adding someone to help him make personnel decisions does seem like a prudent prerequisite for the headstrong Kelly to keep his job. 

$.05--Any Given Sunday, Week 16 Edition: the Atlanta Falcons knocked off the previously unbeaten Carolina Panthers 20-13. The Falcons had lost 7 of 9 and were underdogs by over a touchdown. Carolina won the first meeting two short weeks ago 38-0.

None of that mattered on Sunday in Atlanta. Matt Ryan found a leaping Julio Jones for a spectacular catch-and-run over double coverage for a touchdown to give the Falcons a lead they would not relinquish.

Carolina had chances but couldn’t execute. Greg Olsen had a bad drop, and two late Panthers possessions came up empty. The game was over when Cam Newton got strip-sacked with just under a minute to go.

In his postgame press conference, Panthers Head Coach Ron Rivera summed up the game nicely. He credited Atlanta for wanting the game more, for playing and coaching better than his team.

There will be debate now over whether the loss is actually a blessing in disguise. Some will argue the weight of perfection is now lifted and the Panthers no longer have to worry about the ethereal pressure. It will sharpen the focus and help the coaches reinforce that all is not well even with the lofty record.

Others will say that it shows real vulnerabilities that opponents can exploit, as well as rattling the confidence of a team which leans heavily upon it. It will embolden opponents to know the juggernaut isn’t insurmountable.

I lean towards the latter side of that argument. A loss is never a good thing, not in a season where there are just 16 chances to win. Facing a team which nearly choked away a huge lead to the Giants a week ago and now loss to a team everyone had written off shows perspective playoff opponents the Panthers are indeed beatable. If they were undefeated, that sentiment wouldn’t be so strident. 

$.06--Any Given Sunday, Week 16 Edition Part II

Two of the three biggest favorites heading into games this week were Seattle and Pittsburgh, who went off as 11.5 and 13.5-point favorites, respectively. Both lost.

Seattle losing at home to the St. Louis Rams is a surprise, but not an unfathomable upset. Jeff Fisher’s Rams are built specifically to beat fellow NFC West teams, notably the reigning champ Seahawks. The visitors turned the game into a sloppy affair befitting the rain-soaked setting.

There were eight fumbles, five by the Seahawks. The Rams managed just 208 yards, the second-fewest any winning team has posted this year. Russell Wilson was Seattle’s leading rusher with 39 of the team’s 60 yards. The longest pass play from either team went just 28 yards. Seattle was guilty of 10 penalties while Wilson just wasn’t sharp until a late rally fell just short. The Rams are 7-8 but swept Seattle and won at Arizona.

Pittsburgh losing to Baltimore is a stunner. The Ravens started their fourth QB in six weeks in Ryan Mallett, a rallying point as unlikely as Donald Trump promoting Obamacare. With basically every skill position player 98% of fans have ever heard of all out, it sure seemed like the Steelers would keep rolling towards the playoffs.

Instead, Mike Tomlin’s team came out flat. Big Ben Roethlisberger was uncharacteristically off target. Mallett kept it simple and leaned heavily on the run game with backups Buck Allen and Terrance West. The Ravens kept the chains moving, converting more third downs (9) than the Steelers attempted (8).

Now the Steelers are on the outside of the playoff window and lost control of their own destiny. That it came to a dilapidated rival is nothing short of shocking.

In case you were wondering, the third team that was a double-digit favorite was Kansas City, which barely held on for a 4-point win over Cleveland when the Browns simply ran out of time while driving deep in Chiefs territory. That narrow escape clinched an AFC playoff berth for the Chiefs, who started 1-5 but haven’t lost since.

$.07--Shall we play a game? Guess who these are (no cheating!)…

Quarterback A: 12-for-32, 136 yards, 1 INT, QB Rating of 40.6

Quarterback B: 13-for-31, 186 yards, 1 INT, QB Rating of 48.6

Quarterback A was a first-round pick. Quarterback B was an undrafted free agent. Both started for teams which lost on Sunday and will pick in the top five of the next draft.

A is Johnny Manziel of the Browns. B is Kellen Moore of the Cowboys. They couldn’t be more opposite, other than both being short and skinny. Manziel is full of sizzle, a flashy, improvisational artful dodger with a notoriously wild off-field party life and a live arm. Moore is quiet, unassuming, coolly methodical in processing and reading the defense and keeping plays on schedule. He has below-average athleticism and the weakest arm ever seen for an NFL quarterback.

Moore has a legion of sycophants dating back to his days at Boise State that rivals the feverish devotion Tim Tebow brings out in his disciples. When Moore was the third-stringer in Detroit, I got daily barrages from fans boldly declaring him better than Matthew Stafford. Never mind his throws are laughably lacking zip even after considerable improvement from his Boise days.

Manziel too has his legion of fans, though most of them tend to answer to “brah” and wear too much Axe to the club. His off-field antics are legend, overshadowing some real improvement he has made on the field in fits and starts. To his credit, he did run for 108 yards in Cleveland’s loss to Kansas City. Moore could start every game for the next 10 years and not get 108 yards on the ground.

Quarterback C is Brandon Weeden, who lost his job to both guys within the last two years. Weeden picked up his first career win as a starter in leading Houston to a 34-6 shellacking of hopeless Tennessee, all but clinching the AFC South title. Weeden notched a QB Rating of 116.7 and threw two TDs without a turnover.

He who laughs last laughs best. Enjoy your chuckle, Mr. Weeden, you deserve it. 

$.08--NFL Quickies

--New Orleans set a rather dubious record when Blake Bortles found Allen Hurns on Jacksonville’s first possession of the second half. That made 41 TD passes allowed, breaking a tie with the 1983 Denver Broncos. Somehow the Saints still punked the reeling Jaguars 38-27 thanks to Drew Brees being awesome.

--On Brees: he played this game with a torn plantar fascia, a more severe form of the same injury that has sidelined Peyton Manning for weeks. It’s the same injury that turned Matt Schaub into a pick-six machine even two years after the fact. It’s probably not the most prudent decision for Brees, 36, but surely it was a treat for the New Orleans fans in the home finale. The Saints improve to 6-9 in an otherwise disappointing season that will likely cause major coaching shakeups.

--Very quietly, the Detroit Lions are one of the better teams in the league over the second half of the season. They whipped visiting San Francisco 32-19 to improve to 6-9, which isn’t bad considering they started 1-7. Factor in they got hosed by the officials in Seattle and lost to Green Bay only because Head Coach Jim Caldwell didn’t expect a Hail Mary, and it’s easy to see Detroit being 8-7. Matthew Stafford has been outstanding even with Calvin Johnson not providing much lately. Firing most of the offensive staff after the loss in London worked. Unfortunately it was too little, too late to salvage the season.

--The Miami Dolphins should be fined by the league for not even trying. For the second week in a row they completely mailed in an ugly loss, this one at home to a Sun Life Stadium that was maybe at 40% capacity by halftime.

--I’m copying this from ESPN’s Ben Goessling from halftime of Sunday night’s game between the Vikings and Giants:

In 7 ½ career games against the Vikings, Eli Manning has thrown more touchdowns to Vikings defenders (five) than he has to his own team (four). Harrison Smith brought back the fifth Manning pick for a touchdown on Sunday night, following Darren Sharper’s pick-six in 2005 and the 2007 game where the Vikings had three interception returns for TDs against Manning.

$.09--College/Draft quickies

Tis the season for underclassmen to declare for the draft. Here are a handful of names who have opted to move on from college and my thoughts on their decision…

--Maliek Collins, DT, Nebraska. The burly Cornhusker has his moments and real athletic potential, but too often he is Just A Guy. He did literally nothing in two of the four games I watched, but against Illinois he looked like Gerald McCoy. He killed it in the Foster Farms Bowl, a game vs. UCLA I did not see yet, and he’s hoping the momentum builds off that. I suspect he’ll be a top 50 pick. I won’t rate him quite that high but he’s a boom/bust prospect.

--Hassan Ridgeway, DT, Texas. When he’s been healthy Ridgeway is a very disruptive interior presence. He was quite good for the Longhorns in 2015, even better in 2014 when he had more help (namely Patriots 1st rounder Malcolm Brown) helping him. At 6’4” and 320 he sure looks like a power player, but he too often tries to win with quickness. He could be a very good Day Two pick for a well-coached defense. I’d take him over Collins, all things being equal.

--Cayleb Jones, WR, Arizona. The Texas transfer looks the part at 6’3” and 215, and he’s great with the ball in the air. He was unstoppable against Utah and lit up New Mexico in their bowl game, but in other games he disappeared. How well he runs will be the key to his draft stock. Jones, an Austin native, left Texas after an assault charge so his background will be a focus as well.

--Scooby Wright, LB, Arizona. Wright is going to be one of those great collegians who just doesn’t do much at the next level. He has athletic limitations that will keep him from being so omnipresent, and he missed more than his fair share of tackles in college too. Remember him as a fantastic college player, one of the best in the country in 2014 before injuries ruined his final season at Arizona. He’s a 5th round pick at best in my opinion.

--Steve Longa, LB, Rutgers. I saw Rutgers in person at Michigan this year, and I swear the PA announcer said “Steve Longa with the tackle” on half the plays. He got credited with 11 officially. Slacker. He bagged 19 against Ohio State and 16 versus Indiana. The issue moving forward is, well, moving forward; he’s a second-level cleanup tackler, not a guy who instigates tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage. At 6’ and maybe 225 pounds with a maxed-out frame, it’s not likely that will develop much at the next level. He strikes me as a backup who makes an NFL living on special teams. 

$.10--Another Christmas in the books and recorded for posterity on the camera, another year just about in the books.

This Christmas marked what I’m sure will be the last my oldest child (Layne, 10) believes in Santa Claus. He’s kind of figuring it out already, but the youthful naïveté held on for another year. We’re trying to bridge it to help. This year Santa only provided one of his (far too many) gifts, as was true with his little sister (Lizzie, 7).

It’s a tough situation. We don’t want the magic to die too early for our little girl, who is very much a dreamer. But we also don’t want our growing son to be left behind by his more savvy peers, or for someone else to ruin it for him.

There’s an easy solution, a preemptive act we now wish we would have taken and strongly advise folks who are future parents to embrace: don’t buy into the Santa mythos.

I don’t mean to coldly deny Santa exists to wide-eyed little children. There is real value in what Santa represents, the spirit of giving and of being rewarded for being a good person and for dreaming of things they really, really want. But explain to them it’s a great story, a fun fantasy like a Pixar movie (except Inside Out, which was depressing and terrible) or their favorite Dr. Seuss book. Even though you know it’s not real, it’s still a great experience that warms the heart.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my son lost a molar today and I have to go play Tooth Fairy…