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Random Shots From Week 9

Joe Bryant's Random Shots From Week 9
By Joe Bryant, November 10, 2021

Random Shots From Week 9
Photo: USA Today Sports

Hi Folks,

We do a ton of insightful, thoughtful, and serious features here at Footballguys with smart people thinking deeply for you.

This is not one of those features.

This is Random Shots and it's a few pages of me downloading my brain that gets stuffed with way too many random items from too many hours watching, reading about, and listening to football every weekend and throughout the week. It's the only way I manage. Here's hoping it has some value for you.

We'll see. Now let's get to it.

J

Operator, I need to report a murder in Columbia, South Carolina.

Poor Florida Gators.

"Gate code is 4017"

(If you don't follow college football, South Carolina stomped Florida Saturday 40 to 17.)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you a Fox on the Field at the Arizona State game. Because that's what we do. Watch this little guy move at the end.

The NBA is back and this is my new favorite referee.

Jamie Collins. You're kind of ridiculous.

Earlier in the week, Bleacher Report reported the NFL was investigating if Aaron Rodgers attended a press conference without a mask.

I hope they put their Ace Investigative Detective on that one. Aren't most press conferences attended by the press? And like, have cameras and video and stuff?

Ok then.

Music Note this week is a fun one from Brother's Osborne. This isn't normally my jam but I'm down with this. Plus the video is sort of a throwback. Enjoy.

Ouch.

Credit to NFLMemes_ig for that one.

If Belichick retires before I do, I'm not sure how I'll be able to do Random Shots each week.

The Browns announced they were releasing Odell Beckham on Saturday. Sunday, Minnesota's WR Justin Jefferson wore a hoodie in warmups that said "Free Odell".

My question was, Free Odell from what exactly?

But I'm not going to lie, Justin Jefferson can do whatever he wants this week after this...

Thanks to @ThatBlitzGuy for that one.

[Narrator Voice]: "It was a bad bet."

I so hope this is real.

Credit to PickSixPod for that one.

The Bills clearly had their trouble Sunday. But I like Stefon Diggs. From pre-game warmups.

Thanks to Footballguy Clayton Gray for that one.

The Jaguars finally made a field goal on U.S. Soil.

So there's that.

Hang in there, Bengals Fans. I think this is the year.

It certainly didn't seem to bring them any good fortune, but I loved the Cowboys helmet honoring our Veterans.

Our game has a rich history.

Minnesota vs Baltimore. That's a lot of purple.

"Josh Allen wants to see Jaguars build on upset of Bills" was not a headline I predicted last week.

Baker Mayfield, at halftime, had a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

Analysts across the country reacted...

Panthers coach Matt Rhule said, "I don’t want to lay things on one person." And then proceeded to lay it on Sam Darnold.

When fullbacks dream...

My buddy Adam Harstad with the shark move for NFL GMs.

The Trifecta:

Thanks to Footballguy Keith Overton for that one.

Pretty much this.

Thanks to Footballguy Matt Carey for that one.

No way I'm going on the Manningcast thing if I'm an NFL player.

Just like we all expected...

Credit to PickSixPod for that one.

Not great seats.

A little digging revealed more to the story.

Apparently, the Packer front office in charge of assigning seats had also seen Jordan Love practice for the last 18 months.

Thanks to Footballguys Dave Kluge and Matt Carey for this one.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video may be worth a million. This tells you all you need to know about Nashville vs Los Angeles. The Rams brought out Michael Buffer for the drawn-out look at me "Let's get ready to rumble" thing that hasn't been interesting in 20 years.

The Titans, on the other hand, were there to play football.

If this had been Kyle Pitts, the internet might have broken.

I don't know anything about MMA fighting. But Chris Barnett at 265 pounds knows how to celebrate a victory.

On a serious note, he seems like a good guy.

Rainn Wilson, the actor who plays Dwight Schrute on "The Office" posted this:

Allen nailed the reply:

Thanks to Footballguy Dave Lundy for that one.

Tyrod Taylor with this week's, "These guys make a lot of money. These guys earn a lot of money."

Urban Meyer with an absolute dumpster fire of a roster has now beaten Sean McDermott and Brian Flores...

Kyle Shanahan and those pesky facts...

If you're interested, The Ringer has a much more detailed look here.

College Basketball is back. To the victor goes the spoils.

God Bless you Lions Fans.

Wrapping with this one. I'm writing this on November 10, the day before Veteran's Day. I said this in the Daily Email Update but I'll say it here too: Thank you, Veterans.

Please take a moment and thank a Veteran today. These Men and Women rock.

Here's an essay I like to share on this day:

What is a Veteran?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking.

They are the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

They are the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

They are the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

They are the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

They are the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

They are the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

They are the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

They are the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

They are the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

They are an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

They are a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases, it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien/USMC

Rock on, Veterans.

Your friends at Footballguys.

Thank you for being with me on this goofy journey.

Love your neighbor and stick together.

Peace and Grace to you.

J

Photos provided by USA TODAY Sports
Tags Fun Timeless Josh Allen Odell Beckham Jr Tom Brady Jamie Collins Sr Sam Darnold Stefon Diggs Mike Gesicki Alec Ingold Justin Jefferson Jordan Love Baker Mayfield Kyle Pitts Aaron Rodgers Tyrod Taylor

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