AFCN

“We’ll know for the first time If we’re evil or divine We’re the last in line.” – Dio After five weeks, the Steelers are still last in line and soul-searching. Given the season-ending injury to WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, in a locker room that’s losing quality starters every week, one wonders if the Steelers have it…

“So you’re back…where ya started…here we go ’round again.” – the Kinks Two weeks into the 2021 NFL season, and the AFC North has made zero headway in establishing itself.  All four teams stand at a statistical tie at 1-1, and all four teams have shown almost equal parts brilliance and abject failure, depending on…

Well, that was interesting. Regardless of your affiliations, Week 1 presented us with some entertaining football.  Without the benefit of a specific viewing package or app, I managed to see three of the four AFC North teams play, and all three were decided late; either in overtime or the waning minutes of the fourth quarter. …

“At last… My love has come along My lonely days are over And life is like a song.” – Etta James And just like that, the 2021 offseason is mercifully over.  Other than a few lingering details, like T. J. Watt’s contract negotiations, the AFC North is ready to go, with rosters having been more…

The information age, annoying as it can be, is still useful for some things. News of Saturday’s NFL preseason contest between the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Football Team was barely under way when the reports surfaced:  Ravens starting RB J.K. Dobbins taken off field with apparent knee injury.  Naturally, Ravens fans held their collective…

It’s that speculative time of year. Fans of every NFL stripe are following their teams’ training camp follies with great interest.  Every injury is catastrophic.  Every dropped pass is a killer.  And every success is magnified far beyond typical measure.  This sort of hyperbolic reaction to everything, and I’m guilty of this like everyone else,…

Camps have opened, and we couldn’t be happier. Your team has had a few practices by now.  The odds are you’ve been reading coverage of them, and they’re disturbingly filled with injuries and no-shows.  This seems to be the case in every training camp as veterans and rookies alike begin to expand their workouts and…

Just a week or two now, folks. With NFL training camps preparing to open amid lingering COVID-19-and-variants dominating the headlines, particularly for the pending Olympics, camps haven’t received quite as much press.  I’m not talking about the Packers, of course, whose deteriorating relation with star QB Aaron Rodgers has been the focal point of NFL…

Yeah, this again. We’re at the antsy stage of the NFL offseason, where typical non-football sports begin to lose their appeal in anticipation of training camps opening.  While the currently-happening NBA Finals hold some appeal in the absence of annually “anointed” teams like the Lakers, football fans know there’s little substitute for the full contact…

Every time I write an NFL piece during the offseason, I tend to preface it with something like, “There’s no NFL news right now, but…” Just wanted to point that out. Anyway, there’s been some activity in the AFC North this week.  OTAs have been conducted, with moderate attendance.  A few position battles are starting…