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Takes

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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

James Harrison was right to take away his son's participation trophy

He made some news last month when he rightfully stole his six-year-old son's participation trophy because he didn't feel that his son had earned it. And while Harrison was without a doubt correct in doing this, he didn't have to throw it all over the news to get a pat on the back from the national media just for doing the right thing that he's supposed to do.

Harrison actually did this in August 2015 and it was widely debated. Whether he was right is a matter of opinion.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

The Steelers are a team that conducts business the right way

Overall, the Steelers are their team that conducts business the right way. In fact, I think it was team owner Art Rooney that pulled Harrison aside and really backed him up back in 2008 when Harrison got arrested for domestic assault. Of course, I'm not here to condone domestic assault, but you have to look at the facts and wait for all the facts to come out.

Heavy sarcasm. Praising the Steelers' culture while referencing Harrison's 2008 domestic assault arrest to satirize the 'they do things the right way' narrative.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Baptism is the ultimate participation trophy

When you think about it, isn't baptizing a child the ultimate participation trophy? They haven't earned shit yet. They're just a little kid. And you're trying to get them into the kingdom of heaven? I'm sorry, maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but that's some bullshit. You have to go out there and you have to earn eternal salvation. All of a sudden, we're giving this kid the keys to the kingdom just for showing up? That doesn't sound like the God I know. My God doesn't like moochers.

Satirical comparison between sports culture and theology. Pure comedy bit that became an early PFT classic.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Cam Newton hasn't earned the right to get calls from refs

Last weekend he was complaining to the ref, he was whining about beating the New Orleans Saints because Ed Hochuli didn't give him a call. And Ed Hochuli told them, you haven't earned the right to get that call yet. You haven't been in the league long enough to get that call. It's more entitlement.

OpinionFootballHotSarcastic
Newton won the 2015 NFL MVP that same season, going 15-1 and leading the Panthers to the Super Bowl. He very much earned those calls.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Two sprained ankles is better than one because at least you're symmetrical

We got Jason Witten. Two sprained ankles. You know the old saying in the NFL, if you've got two sprained ankles, you don't have one. And I'd rather have both my feet hurt than just one because now at least you're symmetrical. Jason Witten, he's hurt, not injured.

OpinionFootballHotSarcastic
Two sprained ankles is not better than one. Symmetry does not mitigate the severity of two injuries.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Jason Pierre-Paul is injured because the game is literally called football, not handball

He's been sitting out the past couple of weeks with a blown up hand, really milking it. And the name of the game is literally football. How important is your hand? This isn't pinch ball or smoke a cigarette ball. And again, it makes sense that a guy who lost both his thumb and forefinger is out there missing snaps. So I'll give this one to him. I'm not happy about it. JPP is injured.

PFT grudgingly concedes JPP, who lost fingers in a July 2015 fireworks accident, is legitimately injured. The literal verdict 'JPP is injured' is accurate.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Aaron Rodgers has about 40 wins left in his body before he starts to suck

Quarterback wins are kind of like a woman's eggs. Because most people don't realize it but a woman, she's only born with a finite number of eggs. So with quarterbacks, it's the exact same thing because they've only got a certain amount of wins that are in their system. If they don't space them out, then they start to regress early. I think he's got about 40 wins left in his body before he starts to suck.

Rodgers won well over 50 more regular season games after this, including back-to-back MVPs in 2020 and 2021, before declining with the Jets in 2023-2024.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Playing on more dangerous surfaces makes football safer

We're making the game less safe by no longer playing it on concrete. And now we're adding like a new bar to the face mask every week. And it's counterintuitive, but if you look at it from a macro point of view, which I am, if you want players to care about their safety a little bit more, then you need to force them to play on more dangerous surfaces.

Harder playing surfaces lead to more severe injuries, not fewer, regardless of player caution.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Joe Flacco is so elite that his lightning-fast offense literally blew out the Superdome scoreboard in Super Bowl XLVII

My subsequent investigation determined that the 21-point first-half beatdown that Baltimore hung all over the 49ers was the highest first-half point total in the Dome that year... The scoreboard simply couldn't handle all the electricity needed to keep up with Flacco's lightning, quick-release and high-voltage offense. Quite simply, he blew the scoreboard out. That sounds pretty damn elite to me.

Fact ClaimFootballHotSarcastic
The power outage in Super Bowl XLVII was caused by a faulty relay in the Superdome's power supply, not Joe Flacco's performance.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Nick Saban was right to pass on Drew Brees so the Dolphins could afford 'impact players' like Mike Wallace and Ndamukong Suh

Nick Saban gets a bum rap for bailing out on the Dolphins... but in reality, Drew Brees' shoulder... it was the sword of Damocles, and it was hanging by a labrum. And now, oh, now he's looking like a big hero because he didn't sign him... if Saban had brought Brees to Miami, then the entire franchise would be hamstrung by that big contract, and they wouldn't be able to go out and afford impact players like you've got your Mike Wallaces and you've got your Ndamukong Suhs that they're bringing to town.

Hot TakeFootballFireSarcastic
Passing on Drew Brees is widely considered the biggest mistake in Dolphins history, as Brees became an All-Pro and Super Bowl champion while Wallace and Suh were overpaid disappointments for Miami.
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Lauren JoffeLauren Joffe

Adolf Hitler would have been a Seattle Seahawks fan

Hitler, who do you think his team would be? I say it's the Seahawks, and let me tell you why. Because A, we know that his team is going to be easily swayed with things like candy, right? Marshawn Lynch loves Skittles.

Purely hypothetical and satirical comparison.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Hitler canceling football seasons is an underrated bad thing he did

If you really like football, he probably wouldn't have started World War II, which de facto canceled the 1942 through 1944 NFL seasons. It wasn't called the NFL, but he canceled football. So in the first place, that's kind of fucked up. And nobody really talks about that when they're talking about all the bad stuff Hitler did. So I'd like to kind of raise a little bit of awareness there.

The NFL did not cancel seasons during WWII. It continued play from 1942-1945, though many players served in the military.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Hitler would have been a Redskins fan because he'd see eye-to-eye with Dan Snyder, or a Cowboys fan because Jerry Jones puts stars on uniforms

I think without a doubt, he would have been a Redskins fan. He was so small that, ironically, he probably would have seen eye-to-eye with Dan Snyder... Maybe he might have pulled for the Cowboys, too. The Cowboys got an insane old guy running the team that likes to put stars on the side of their players' uniforms, so that seems like he'd be right up his alley.

The take is a dark satirical comparison based on superficial traits and cannot be factually evaluated.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Concussions aren't real

Concussions aren't real. Well, I probably had my brain nicked up a couple times, but if you can pee straighter than you can see after having sex, then that just means you're doing it wrong.

Concussions are well-documented medical conditions. Satirizing the old-school football mentality of denying brain injuries.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Terry Bradshaw was the first NFL player to thank God, making all pre-1972 players blasphemers

My understanding is that the honor belongs to Terry Bradshaw. It was after the Immaculate Reception. And if you look at it from the other way, you can honestly say that every player that played in the NFL before 1972 is probably burning in hell for blasphemy.

Fact ClaimFootballHotSarcastic
There is no evidence Bradshaw was the first player to thank God. The logical leap that all pre-1972 players are in hell for blasphemy is absurdist comedy.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Mike Ditka would have beaten Obama in a debate by pulling out a Super Bowl ring

To be a fly on the wall at those debates would have been all time. There's no way that Ditka loses. No chance at all. Obama starts talking about mumbo jumbo about how vouchers destroy inner city schools. And Ditka just pulls out a Super Bowl ring and sticks it in his face and lights a cigar. And maybe Mike Ditka would be president of the United States now.

Hypothetical political debate. Ditka was considered as a Republican Senate candidate against Obama in 2004 and later said not running was his biggest regret.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Ditka's would-be supporters went on to root for Donald Trump

Instead, I guess he's got all of his supporters that would go on to root for Donald Trump after they had a stroke or something.

October 2015, months before Trump won the GOP primary. Connecting Ditka's hypothetical conservative base to Trump supporters was prescient about the populist overlap.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Sammy Baugh led the league in interceptions while also being a punter and quarterback

A lot of people forget that Sammy Baugh was a punter and also a quarterback and also led the league in interceptions. You don't see that too much because players are pussies nowadays.

In 1943, Sammy Baugh led the NFL in passing, punting, AND interceptions (as a defensive back). One of the most remarkable seasons in NFL history.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

John Fox saying you need more than zero points to win is a stats lie

Bears coach John Fox said, 'We need to generate more than zero points to win games.' I fact checked it and went to the archives. Big shout out to the guys at Pro Football Focus. In 1921, the Rochester Jeffersons forfeited to the Washington Senators because the field was unplayable. So Washington literally scored no points and walked away with a huge road win. You've got to be smarter than this if you're a head coach like John Fox.

Fact ClaimFootballHotSarcastic
Technical forfeits have occurred in NFL history (like the 1921 Rochester Jeffersons), but in any completed modern game, you need to score points to win.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Danny Woodhead is not deceptively athletic, he's undeceptively athletic

Some people say that you're deceptively athletic, but I just think that you're undeceptively athletic, and it should be plain to anybody watching you.

Satirizing the way white NFL players are described as 'deceptively fast/athletic,' a coded racial trope PFT frequently lampooned. This became a recurring PMT bit.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Danny Woodhead not getting a penalty shouldn't be celebrated — I don't get an award for completing probation

I respect the fact that you have never been penalized in the NFL. I think it's impressive, but isn't it a little bit silly that people are celebrating you for not breaking the law? Like, it's sad that it's come to the point where you've got literally only one player in the league who plays by the rules. It's like I don't get an award if I complete my probation without breaking back into the pet store.

Woodhead's zero-penalty streak was real and written about. PFT reframes following the rules as baseline behavior rather than an achievement.
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PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Grit Coins are my own electronic currency and are legal tender in many states

Grit coins... That's my currency that I made my own electronic currency. Well, somebody actually, someone else designed it for me, but yeah, those are actually legal tender in many states.

Fact ClaimBusinessHotSarcastic
Grit Coins were a fictional recurring joke on PFT's blog and never functioned as legal tender in any US state.

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