Roughing the passer or recording a sack?

On Monday in Kansas City, it was a great opportunity for everyone to see the league. It was also an example of how the league's refs are pretty much making it up, even if you put aside the defiant and ignorant Chiefs fans doing the chop on Indigenous People's Day.

The roughing the passer call, which didn't matter as the Chiefs won, will be the main talking point after the game. Chris Jones of the Chiefs was given the "body weight" clause despite it being a reasonable football play. The refs had a chance to decide if it was a sack or a fight over a fumbled ball. That isn't what they're conditioned to do

The coddling of quarterbacks in the National Football League is going to be a topic in every coach's press conference during the week. There is no sport that has focused more on one position than football to the quarterback. The goal of every rule change is to allow quarterbacks to throw more yards and score more points. It is what the league wants, it is what the TV execs want, and it is what the fans want.

The owners tell you the union caps on practice time don't allow backups to really get any reps in-season, so a team's season is going to be a complete balls-up if their quarterback goes down. Some teams might be. Any contender would be angry if they lost their quarterback for a long time. This is the deal for everyone now that Rodgers has been hurt this way.

There is only one position in sports that is comparable and that is a goalie in the NHL. The calculations have been made by the league about what you will be more upset about, the occasional roughing the passer penalty or the quarterback missing up to a year with a collarbone injury.

Is it fair? Nope, that's right. It feels like it is impossible to play defense now. The National Football League doesn't care. Next Sunday night's game is the highest-rated program of the week and fans don't care at all.

The Raiders cost themselves the game by holding and trying to block a field goal. Is that possible? The refs are told to only call holding if it affects the play. Holding on the other side of the field isn't a good idea. Holding the ball doesn't draw laundry. What effect did this have on what was happening? Isn't this just looking for an object? Why would you think it was a makeup call?

Josh McDaniels went for two, even though he was down one with four minutes left. If the Raiders could keep the Chiefs from running out the clock, they could get the ball back. If the game was tied and the defense did their job, you would have the safety net of overtime where Davante Adams is always a threat. If he went up by one, what was he going to do to stop the team? Why not get the ball back down one or up one if you trust your defense?

The goal is always to generate debate in the football league. There are daily shows on the internet. Now they will have it.