$.01--Once again the NFL makes the news for all the wrong reasons. This time around it's the egregious mishandling of admitted wife-beater, and New York Giants kicker, Josh Brown. Inexplicably, the convicted domestic violence assailant remains an NFL employee.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, though you'd never know that from the NFL's pink inundation. If you ever needed proof that Roger Goodell and the owners don't care one iota about anything other than profiting from a cause, this is it. The same league which made a huge stand by unofficially blackballing Ray Rice and suspending Adrian Peterson for almost a year for domestic violence incidents looks the other way on Josh Brown.

This brings up so many questions...

Is it because Brown is a low-profile player, a kicker?

Is it because he's white?

Is it because the Giants themselves tried to sweep the entire thing under the rug?

Those inquisitions will be answered in time, hopefully. The NFL chest thumped rigid stances in cases like Rice (videotaped punching his wife), Peterson (convicted of child abuse), Greg Hardy (convicted of some disturbing domestic violence and intimidation acts) and others. But Brown received a one-game slap on the wrist. The Giants did nothing until a media maelstrom forced them to hastily leave the serial wife-beater behind as they traveled to London for Sunday's game.

Even now he's still on the roster, collecting a paycheck while he resides on the NFL's exempt list. He's a black eye on the league, though that's nothing compared to the black eyes he gave his wife. It's a hypocritical failure for the NFL and Roger Goodell. How about scaling back on the pink accoutrement, fining players for honoring dead parents or celebrating a great play, and make an actual stand that does more than the empty lip service towards domestic violence?

If Josh Brown is still employed by the time you read next week's $.10, you have my permission -- no, my encouragement -- to boycott the NFL and all its sponsors. Show them Americans actually care about wives, mothers, and children more than they care about an extra point in a football game.

$.02--There are no more undefeated teams. The last of the unblemished, the Minnesota Vikings, fell to Philadelphia 21-10 in the Sam Bradford grudge match game.

Bradford, traded from Philly to Minnesota on the eve of the season, flopped in his return trip. He didn't throw a touchdown until Minnesota's final play. There was an early red zone INT under pressure, and that pressure was a recurring theme as the Vikings OL was badly overmatched. Bradford was sacked six times and hit 12 others, per the early box score. In watching the game in fits and spurts, it seemed like more.

As Mercury Morris, Jim Kiick, Paul Warfield and the rest of the 1972 Miami Dolphins pop the champagne as their undefeated season remains the NFL's last, the Vikings must now avoid a big letdown from the 5-0 start. Bradford finally had the game that reminded everyone of why the Rams and Eagles both threw in the towel on the 2010 No. 1 overall pick. Bradford, as he often does, couldn't protect the ball. He fumbled four times, losing two. He threw the one INT but had several other "interceptable throws" in analytic parlance.

Philadelphia got back to winning after falling from 3-0 to 3-2. They returned the favor on the bye week, beating Minnesota coming off its bye just as Detroit had ended Philly's perfect record when the Eagles came off theirs. The Eagles weren't very good either, also turning the ball over four times and sputtering in the red zone. A Josh Huff kick return TD staked them an early lead they never relinquished, and Carson Wentz and his offensive line won more battles than their Minnesota counterparts.

And so we have another season where no team even made it to 6-0. Last year Carolina rolled out to 14-0 before those '72 Dolphins celebrated. The year before nobody even made it to 4-0. It's actually a fairly insignificant harbinger. The 2006 Colts were the last team to suffer the last first loss to go on and win the Super Bowl. Before them it was the '99 Rams. More teams who achieve this feat lose their first playoff game than any other outcome over the last 20 years. Beware, Vikings fans...

$.03--Jacksonville was a trendy playoff pick this summer. I'm guilty of this as well; my forecast of 10-6 and AFC Wild Card sure looks foolish after the Jaguars were declawed 33-16 by the Oakland Raiders.

One of the big reasons for optimism was the anticipated developmental arc of QB Blake Bortles. The big third-year signal caller posted big numbers in 2015, but much of it was garbage time production. Even so, most expected his third season to continue improving with a deep and very talented receiving corps. It hasn't happened.

This one was particularly ugly, especially early on...

That's not hyperbole on the Oakland defense, either. The Raiders entered the game surrendering 8.8 yards per pass, which would indeed be an NFL record. Bortles once again packed up garbage time production to keep the fantasy gurus happy, but the reality of Bortles at QB is no happy fantasy for Jaguars fans. I'm not sure the 2014 No. 3 overall pick has regressed, but he certainly had not progressed enough to engender long-term job security. At least not for himself, nor anyone above him on the Jacksonville org. chart.

Jacksonville is now 2-4 and the Raiders are 5-2. They were the other hot AFC playoff playoff crasher this offseason, and they are the legit one. While Gus Bradley's Jaguars spin their wheels at QB and watch several other prominent draft picks underperform, the Raiders have indeed risen under ex-Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio.

Derek Carr went one round later than Bortles in the 2014 NFL Draft but is miles ahead in both accomplishment and poise, if not overall physical talent. Carr didn't have a great game Sunday, but he continues to make smart decisions. The Raiders seldom ask him to go out and win the game on his own, though he has shown the ability to rally his team from behind. Yet calling him a game manager doesn't do Carr justice either. His completion percentage continues to ascend, while Bortles' remains flat. These two franchises have other distinct divergences, including the disgusting loss of poise by Malik Jackson and Jalen Ramsey late in this loss. Yet none is more important than the quarterbacks moving in opposite directions.

$.04--Thursday Night Football brought us yet another poor excuse of entertainment, for a variety of reasons. Foremost was the Chicago Bears involvement, as they fell to 1-6 in losing 26-10 in Green Bay.

The Packers weren't any better than the lowly Bears for the first 40 minutes, as the Bears carried a 10-6 lead late into the third quarter. Rookie linebacker Leonard Floyd, a rare bright spot for Chicago, picked up a strip sack in the end zone.

At that point, even the clueless Phil Simms was starting to throw shade on Aaron Rodgers. Once again the Packers offense, now without injured RB Eddie Lacy, struggled to do much of anything. Apparently it took falling behind third-stringer Matt Barkley and the hated Bears to finally shake Rodgers out of his year-long doldrums.

Rodgers suddenly looked like the No. 12 everyone fondly remembers. Davante Adams looked like Jerry Rice, though that was more a function of Chicago starting two undrafted rookies at cornerback. And that's why it's hard to get too excited about Green Bay rallying for its best quarter of football all season.

The Bears are an injury-ravaged disaster. Backup QB Brian Hoyer was one of the latest to go down, departing this game with a broken left arm. With Jay Cutler already out, it was Matt Barkley time. The former USC golden boy actually exceeded my expectations by completing 6-of-15 for 81 yards, with two INTs on tipped balls for good measure. Standout guard Kyle Long left this game too. The 2016 Chicago Bears, Cliff Notes edition: If you've heard of a player other than Alshon Jeffery or Jerrell Freeman, he's hurt. There is a very real chance they don't win again this season, and unless something as freaky as Gary Johnson winning the presidency happens, the Bears are a 3-13 team at best.

For the Packers, they avoided humiliation. And for a little more than a quarter, they resembled the team many expected in Green Bay -- a legit NFC contender. Perhaps that's the reminder Mike McCarthy and his troops need, even if it came against the lowly Bears.

$.05--I slept in on Sunday long enough that when I arose, the NFL was just kicking off in London. I say it every time there's a London game, but I could really get used to this.

The sequence of these cents is not coincidental.

The Thursday Night game needs to go away. Four days is just not long enough to prepare, or rest from the prior week's maladies. Sunday morning games are my preferred option, though that's a slap in the face to those west of Central Time. Los Angeles fans had to get up at 6:30 AM to make opening kickoff for their team's "home" game. Those Rams lost to the Giants 17-10 when Case Keenum threw one of the worst-looking INTs ever completed thanks to a miscommunication with his wideout. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie could have called for a fair catch waiting for the meek Keenum mistake.

This was not a great game by any means. New York's offensive line struggled, and as a consequence so did the slow-firing Eli Manning. New York scored early on a Landon Collins pick-six where he roamed like the Griswold family on European Vacation (look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!) but couldn't get anything sustainable going. Fortunately for them Keenum was even worse, throwing four INTs. The Englishmen and women in attendance did not get America's best.

Even so, it was still preferable to another sloppy, slow Thursday Night slog. Maybe not having the intolerably unprofessional Phil Simms helped, though Dan Fouts showed some jetlag in his color commentary too. I love the idea of having one early Sunday morning game every week except Weeks 1 and 17. The games in London draw huge crowds and are growing the game in markets where there isn't quite the concern over all that ails the NFL. Keep two or three games there but also have a game or two in Barcelona, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Munich. Kickoff at 10 AM Eastern Time and go with the Euro soccer version of having ads run concurrently on the screen within the game itself. That gets the game over by 12:40 PM and gives those of us back across the pond enough time to grab a quick bite before devouring the rest of the football day.

$.06--If you like punting, poor kicking and bad offensive line play, the Sunday Night game in Arizona was a veritable jackpot. Neither team deserved to win, and neither did; Seattle and Arizona tied 6-6. It was a thrilling game for such an offensive mess.

To call Seattle's offense anemic is an understatement akin to calling the Grand Canyon a divot. The Seahawks didn't top 100 total yards of offense until well into the fourth quarter. They had just 3 third downs in the first three quarters, at one point converting just 1-of-11 on third down. Their offensive tackles were turnstiles against Arizona's tenacious defense, never giving Russell Wilson a chance on most pass plays. On some plays there were multiple Cardinal defenders in the backfield before Wilson even caught the shotgun snap. They had consecutive drives with 3rd and 25 or more and then ended regulation with 2nd and 30.

The Seahawks have tried going el cheapo on the OL, and to a point it has worked. That point has passed. In prior incarnations the Seattle OL could at least run block adeptly, but not this sorry group. Wilson has already been injured once this year, and it's a matter of when, not if, it happens again. Between Gary Gilliam, Bradley Sowell and George Fant at tackle, Seattle might have one worthy of being on an NFL practice squad. First-round pick Germain Ifedi moved inside from being a decent tackle prospect at Texas A&M but is completely lost at guard.

Of course the Cardinals offense had the same problem. They moved the ball more effectively but couldn't block Cliff Avril or Frank Clark, the speedy Seattle defensive ends. Carson Palmer was pressured far more often than not. David Johnson provided some spark with over 100 yards rushing (97 in regulation) but he too got hit in the backfield a lot.  

Bruce Arians made a curious decision at the end of regulation, opting to let the clock run out instead of calling timeouts to get the ball back with Seattle's offense back on its heels, and with the Achilles tendon darn near severed on those heels. I understand his decision to just play for overtime at home, but I would have gone for the throat. All it would take was a pass interference play or Johnson slipping a tackle. Then again Seattle doesn't get called for obvious defensive penalties late in games, so I see Arians' point.

The teams traded field goals in overtime, but Seattle's defense once again came up huge in holding Arizona to a FG attempt from 1st and goal from inside the 5. That Chandler Catanzaro kick hit the left upright as squarely as a ball can hit a cylinder. That was a lot closer than Steven Hauschka's effort at the other end, which missed wide left by more yards than the attempt was long.

$.07--This was a fairly momentous weekend in college football, one which made the chase for the College Football Playoff quite a bit clearer.

No. 1 Alabama eased past No. 6 Texas A&M after a close first half, showing sheer dominance on both sides of the ball in rolling to a 33-14 lead. The Aggies once led 14-13 before Alabama smothered them with a relentless defensive intensity rarely seen these days. That win all but guarantees Alabama one of the four playoff berths. They can even lose one game and still make it, though unless Auburn pulls off another miracle I highly doubt the Crimson Tide need that qualifier.

No. 2 Ohio State lost at Penn State in a stunner Saturday night. The Nittany Lions returned a blocked field goal for a late TD and then snuffed out J.T. Barrett and Ohio State's last gasp. Penn State's whiteout worked, and the Buckeyes unexpectedly plummet to 6th in the latest rankings. They still have a chance to get back to the playoff, but the road isn't so clear.

No. 3 Michigan continues to annihilate everything in its path, fitting for a team with a Wolverine for a mascot. They rolled Illinois 41-8 after cruising to a 31-0 halftime lead. They're now No. 2 and will remain there until they visit Ohio State in November. The winner of that game, like Alabama, is all but guaranteed a berth in the playoff, though the Buckeyes would also probably have to win the Big Ten Championship game (likely against Nebraska) the following week. Win in Columbus and Michigan could lose by 25 to the Badgers and still make it.

Clemson and Washington are both undefeated and now ranked 3rd and 4th. They have the same missive -- win out and they're in. Washington's road is easier in the PAC-12, though the next game is the toughest as the Huskies travel to No. 17 Utah. Clemson has already played the hardest part of its schedule, though they do travel to Tallahassee and No. 12 Florida State this coming weekend.

If either Clemson or Washington slips up, Louisville is the primary beneficiary. The fifth-ranked Cardinals lost by 6 at Clemson but have gone juggernaut status over the rest of the schedule and feature the imminent Heisman Trophy winner in Lamar Jackson. In college football logic, that loss to Clemson more than gets offset by the massive win margins over NC State and Florida State, plus it came early in the year.

For anyone else to get in, chaos needs to happen. Fortunately for fans of West Virginia, Baylor and Nebraska -- the other undefeated teams with a legit chance -- chaos has a strong history in college football. Baylor plays at West Virginia on Dec. 3rd and if both are still undefeated heading into that one, the winner will have the best argument to usurp a one-loss Michigan/Ohio State winner. They could rocket ahead of Washington as the PAC-12 is quite down this year. Nebraska needs to win out and beat an undefeated Michigan team in the B1G Championship, but it doesn't help their case that two of the teams they've beaten thus far (Purdue and Fresno State) have already fired their coaches. Still, the Cornhuskers have road games at No. 12 Wisconsin and Ohio State the next two weeks. They get a chance to engineer their own chaos.

Nobody else has any shot. Boise stands a good chance of running the table but the Mountain West just isn't strong enough this year. Western Michigan is also undefeated but has nary a prayer, nor should they in coming out of the MAC (more on the Broncos below). Texas A&M had to make more of a game against Alabama to prove they deserve another shot. No. 14 Florida could make the miracle jump if they win out and beat Alabama in the SEC Championship, but that's an awful lot of ground for the Gators to make up.

$.08--NFL Quickies

--I watched 60 Minutes Sunday night. I tuned it to watch them talk politics in Ohio in the city next to where I grew up, Lorain, and also to talk to folks in Portage County, where I lived for most of the 1990s. I stuck around for Armen Keteyan's excellent piece on how Fred Taylor, Vernon Davis and several other NFL players lost $43 million in a shady investment. Jeff Rubin was a financial advisor who led them astray in investing in illegal bingo machines.

The piece titled into how the NFLPA never did anything to protect the players from Rubin or his ilk. They still don't. The NFLPA refused comment on the story, which makes sense because current NFLPA president Eric Winston is one of the players who lost money to Rubin. There are a lot of very ethical, smart and honest agents and financial advisors out there, but the bad ones are crooked white-collar criminals. That the NFLPA doesn't do a better job vetting, or protecting and promoting the good ones to protect their clients from the known bad ones, is yet another reason why it's hard to take them seriously.

--Longtime Detroit media agitator Drew Sharp passed away this week. He was just 56. Sharp was a lower-key provocateur in the ilk of $tephen A. $mith or $kip Bayle$$, but his intentions were more to make folks think than to draw attention to himself. Behind the scenes he was incredibly well-liked and respected, even by those athletes he often negatively portrayed for effect. Everyone who knew him genuinely liked Drew Sharp. Rest in peace, good sir...

--Some don't believe in the media jinx. They are wrong:

Just for good measure, Flacco threw picks on his next two passes after getting the record and the graphics jinx. Baltimore lost to the Jets 24-15 in a game Flacco was not supposed to even play in. Perhaps he should have sat it out.

--Pittsburgh stayed a lot closer to New England than most expected without Big Ben at the helm. Landry Jones was okay in his stead, and the Steelers defense played reasonably well. New England won 27-16 thanks to LeGarrette Blount's 124 rushing yards and one great throw from Tom Brady to Gronk. One oddity from this game -- it was the first all season where neither team recorded a sack.

--Props to Jay Ajayi in leading the Miami Dolphins to their second win in a row. Ajayi topped 200 yards rushing in both games, just the fourth RB in history to accomplish such a feat. The others? O.J. Simpson (twice), Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams. Ajayi had 9 runs of more than 10 yards as the Dolphins darted past the Bills 28-25 to further muddy the middle class of the AFC.

$.09--College/Draft quickies

--San Diego State RB Donnel Pumphrey ran into the record books Friday night. He took over the school record for touchdowns and rushing yards from someone you've probably hear of ... none other than Marshall Faulk. Pumphrey is short at 5'8" but doesn't lack lower body bulk, or speed, or agility. The common NFL comparison is Darren Sproles, and I see that. He's one of three Aztecs who should wind up in the Senior Bowl, along with powerful left guard Nico Siragusa and kinetic CB Damontae Kazee.

--I spent Saturday afternoon in Kalamazoo, taking in Western Michigan's 45-31 win over Eastern Michigan. P.J. Fleck's undefeated Broncos keep on rowing the boat in a magical season in the MAC West. Corey Davis proved to me he should be the first wide receiver off the board in the 2017 NFL Draft too. Davis had a quiet (for him) day receiving, but he did snag a contested TD pass over a defender while getting both feet down. He also demonstrated his upgraded blocking, the one bigger knock on the 6'2", 215-pound receiver.

My primary scouting mission in the game was WMU right tackle Taylor Moton, whom the national draft media just discovered. Moton is better than last year's left tackle, fourth-round flop Willie Beavers, though he's quite different too. Beavers was an athlete. Moton is pretty technically adept but his athletic prowess is more like the Rams' Rob Havenstein. He played guard -- quite well -- last year and I see that as his optimal NFL future. But the Broncos do have a legit NFL tackle prospect on the left side in junior Chukwuma Okorafor, a 6'6" Botswana native who didn't play football until 2010. He needs some technical development but the combination of long arms, powerful shoulders and core, and quick, strong feet (he was a soccer player and a HS kicker) are WOW-worthy. If Okorafor can learn to keep his weight and pads down in pass protection, he'll be a very good NFL starting tackle. At this point no scouts I've talked with, nor anyone at Western, thinks he's coming out early.

--Utah RB Joe Williams came out of retirement to run for over 300 yards against UCLA. You read that right. Williams retired a few weeks back, apparently tired of the football grind. In his first game back in a month, he torched the hapless Bruins for 332 yards and four TDs. Utah won 52-45 as UCLA threw the ball 70 times.

--Those 70 pass attempts by UCLA are chump change. Check out Texas Tech's Patrick Mahomes and his line against Oklahoma...

52-of-88, 734 yards, 5 touchdowns.

The 734 passing yards are an NCAA record. So are his 819 total yards of offense, as Mahomes ran for 85 yards and 2 TDs. The Red Raiders lost to Oklahoma 66-59. Sooners QB Baker Mayfield also has quite a night, netting 545 passing yards on just 36 attempts. Joe Mixon ran for 263 yards on 31 carries for Oklahoma too. No word on if either side actually fielded a defense.

$.10--Frequent readers know I'm a Cleveland native still living in bliss from my Cavaliers winning the NBA title on Father's Day. I'm writing this wearing a commemorative championship t-shirt and some wine & gold shorts with a wide smile on my face just thinking about LeBron, Kyrie, et al.

Now the Indians are back in the World Series for the first time since 1997. That particular team is the most painful of Cleveland's myriad of sports failures because that was the best offensive baseball team I've ever seen, and because that core group brought the revitalization of Cleveland to such a harmonious and positive crescendo. It was a great time to live in greater Cleveland, but Jose Mesa is still a curse word in Northeast Ohio.

The Tribe haven't won a World Series since 1948. That's before my mother was born, and I'm now 44. They have a very good chance to beat the Cubs thanks to pitching and the clutch play of Francisco Lindor, but it won't be easy.

It's a different sentiment, too. The Cavs just won. The Chicago Cubs haven't won since before my grandparents -- now all deceased -- were born. It's hard to find a more sympathetic loser of a franchise than the Cleveland Indians, but the Cubs fit the bill. My own waned interest in baseball doesn't help either. I'm excited and you'd better believe I'll be wearing my Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel gear as I cheer on the Tribe, but a loss here won't kill me like the 95 or 97 teams. I never thought I would be able to say this, but I'm spoiled as a Cleveland fan.

Go Indians!