Sports this 'n' that

As expected, the New England Patriots defeated the Giants Thursday, 35-14, but that wasn't the story.

Yahoo! reports this morning that there's more controversy over the changes in the rules regarding pass interference. Director of Officiating Alberto Riveron refused to overturn a non-call when it seemed as though the Giants' Golden Tate had been held by a Patriots defender. Giants coach Pat Shurmur wasted a challenge when he should've known Riveron, who has seemingly been in the Patriots' pocket since replacing Dean Blandino, wouldn't do the right thing.

It's not so much the officials themselves, contrary to what the Yahoo! article contends, though. It's Riveron who is being stubbornly resistant to change, despite the fact that there was so much outcry dating back to January, and that Patriots coach Bill Belichick was among those who championed the need for rules changes. Belichick might need to talk to owner Robert Kraft about how much he's bribed Riveron to look the other way. New England doesn't need any more controversy tainting their six Super Bowl titles.

What they do need, though, is to ease Tom Brady's workload. The uberdiva doesn't seem to understand that the run game complements his passing, and he doesn't need to be chucking 40-50 passes per game just so he can pad his stats.

Riveron is scum, and needs to be removed yesterday. If Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners can persuade Blandino to leave Fox for the second half of the season to clean things up, it'd be golden.
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The relentless promotion of Smackdown on Fox continued with Hulk Hogan visiting the NFL pregame show Thursday night. Some of the Fox NFL Sunday crew will be appearing on Smackdown for part 1 of the draft tonight.

Remember when Vince McMahon didn't want to do business with Rupert Murdoch? Well, you know what they say about money & BS.....
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FS1 had the other marquee game of the night, game 5 of the ALDS between Houston & Tampa Bay, won by the Astros, 6-1, setting up a rematch of the 2017 ALCS vs. the Yankees, starting tomorrow. Houston won the regular season series with New York, 4-3, but the Yankees, who finished off Minnesota on Monday, will have had four days of rest before first pitch tomorrow night.

So what will be the difference? Rest or momentum? We'll find out together tomorrow. Full preview coming then.