[This is a long one, there is a TLDR at the bottom]
(This isn't just a story of revenge. This is a story of how revenge hurts both parties)
To this day, a good revenge story gives me a warm bubbly feeling inside. I believe it comes from this college experience years ago when I got revenge on my cheating girlfriend and it felt GOOD. I know I'm not suppose to enjoy it but I can't deny how satisfying it feels. Its probably one of my favorite feelings in the world even though I'm ashamed to admit it. So I decided to write my first post about this because I don't tell the story often. It is so extensive and honestly just makes me look bad.
I'm going to try my best to not paint a picture where my X looks as bad as possible and me as innocent as possible. I want to write this accurately as I can, even if it makes me look bad.
[Bit of context and back story]
At the time of this story, I played division 1 NCAA basketball at a school so I traveled a lot (weekly in different cities and states) and my entire life revolved around this.
During the events of this story I was in the early stages of a horrible drug and alcohol habit. Years after this story I ended up getting sober and joined a program whos name you can find at the front of almost any phonebook. I am sure many people reading this are also sober and will understand how we addicts/alcoholics can be. This story is an effort to explain a character defect that manifested from the events in this story that lead me down a very dark path, however, I don't mean this story to come off in a "self pity" kind of way.
Lastly, I was always a good kid, I was never "troubled". My upbringing was very difficult but I was able to keep an overall kindness in my spirit to other people and almost always "did the right thing" or "took the high road". When it came to dating, I knew people cheated in relationships but at the time of this story I always chalked it up to other people "not doing things the way I did". I never really thought it would happen to me.. I always thought that because I was a "5 star boyfriend" and my "amazing choice" in women, infidelity would never be a part of my dating journey. I was a naïve. I really thought highly of myself and also had a real arrogance like any guy in his early 20s I guess.
[The Build Up]
I was in my Jr year in University I had been single for about a year after me and my high school gf finally broke up after 3 years. I checked that relationship off as my "learning experience" and I now knew what to look for in my next girlfriend. The next woman I chose to have a relationship with I would most likely marry and start my future with. (I know I was young and dumb and thought I knew everything LOL)
I had my eye on this girl at my school [we will call her Lisa]. I saw Lisa around the collegiate athletic facility (the university teams training grounds, and locker rooms). Lisa ran for the track team and was damn good. The various athletic teams often had parties and I knew that the first one I saw her at I would introduce myself and try to chat her up a bit and see where it led.
Soon enough I see Lisa at one of these parties and we pass each other on the stairs. We make eye contact and she smiled at me. I sparked a conversation with her and after going back and forth a bit we exchange numbers. We begin the classic American style of flirting where we constantly just hint things back and forth indirectly. We slowly progressed the relationship in this manner for weeks. Sending texts back and forth hinting that we were interested in each other but also playing it cool to not let the other person know we had a crush on them.
At the time, she was on a break with her current boyfriend who was a popular player on the football team. She ended up leaving him completely to date me. This shoulda been a red flag obviously but remember, I had severe hubris. At the time her leaving him to date me just gave me a superiority complex. I was playing good in sport and if she was willing to leave this guy for me then she will never leave me for another guy.
Lmao I was a fucking idiot.
I cant express how much I was into Lisa. I was addictively attracted to her and had that weird feeling of "I cant believe my crush is actually into me to". I really was so drowned and blinded by my crush on her I missed so many red flags but our relationship began progressing really fast. Because of this I didn't really do a proper inventory on why I liked her so much.
[Fast forward like 8 months later.]
We are together officially. Lisa has her own athlete's dorm room but I was a couple years older than her and was working during the summers full time and part time during school / season and had my own apartment near campus and Lisa was basically living with me. She even would stay there when I was out of town which was like 3 or 4 days of every week because we were in season and the team was flying all over the country. Me and Lisa were deeply in love regardless.
At the end of the season I had planned two massive back to back parties. One was for my teammate's birthday (Friday night) and then my birthday (Saturday night). They just happened to be one day after the other and luckily landed on a Friday and Saturday night. Me and Lisa got drunk Friday night and had some unprotected sex.
Lisa kept a period-tracking calendar app on her phone. She was asleep and I drunkenly remembered she always marked down in her calendar when we had unprotected sex so she knew if she should be worried if she missed her period. She missed her period often because she was an athlete. My inebriated brain thought she should put it in her calendar now because we would forget the next day since we were so fucked up. So I woke her up and said "can you put in that calendar that we had unprotected sex". At this point it was like 5am and we were that 5am kinda drunk where you're mostly just tired. She unlocked her phone and opened the app and before she could even do it she fell back asleep. So I took the phone while it was still unlocked and proceeded to try and figure out how to put it in her calendar myself.
[side note] Through our entire relationship, Lisa went through my computer and phone constantly. She was very insecure and always had her suspicions. I didn't care that she was doing this all the time. She never found anything because I never did shady shit, ever.
Again, looking back at this its an obvious red flag I missed. Remember I thought this girl would never cheat on me.
So this wasn't one of those stories where I went through her phone looking for something and subsequently finding it. In this case I was innocently trying to navigate this damn period calendar while I was drunk and I was not suspicious at all.
When I looked at the period-calendar app on Lisa's phone, I saw all kinds of little markers on different days of each month. Each marker was a different color so I opened one to see what the color coding meant. I saw that red was obviously symbolling her period and then there was also black markers that showed when she had unprotected sex.
........This is when my heart sank into my stomach......
This fucking calendar was PEPPERED with black markers. It looked like a checker board with only a hand full of red pieces left and ALL the fucking black ones..... There was black markers on dates that I was in a different city playing basketball.... I proceeded to open all of black markers going back for our entire relationship. We did not have unprotected sex very often. MAYBE once or twice a month. She had written the names of the guys she had unprotected sex with in the notes section of the black markers. There was a total of 4 guys through out the entirety of our relationship that she allowed to penetrate her raw. Some months there was almost a dozens of those fucking black markers. Sometimes there was TWO in one day! Looking back on this I wonder if there were more unlisted men that I didn't see because she clearly only kept track of the guys and times she had UNPROTECTED sex.
In almost every story I hear of infidelity, it involves the discovery of text messages, being informed by a friend, or the classic coming home early and catching your partner red handed.
I, on the other hand, discovered a fucking well documented LEDGER of almost every time she cheated and had unprotected sex.
Amongst the 4 guys I discovered, one of them was her X that she originally left to date me. Cheating on me with him was a common occurrence. There was some other unkown guy she was also clearly sleeping with him regularly. The last 2 fellas looked to be just a one time thing but again like I said these markers were just the times she had sex without a condom. So who knows what the true story was there.
I sobered up real quick. I proceeded to look through Lisa's texts and calls and found nothing. However, at the time Android phones had a folder where you can see deleted texts but not the contents of the messages. She had THOUSANDS of deleted texts and calls but I couldn't see what they said but I saw the numbers and did a quick Facebook search and matched one with her X in addition to something like half a dozen other random dudes. The worst part was I found TWO of my teammates... one guy I was actually pretty close with.
I just put the phone down after a few minutes. The evidence was overwhelming. The more it seemed to look at the phone the more my insides began to hurt.
I felt so defeated. I cant fully describe the feeling but I'm sure anyone reading this that caught a significant other cheating knows what I'm talking about. I felt so stupid for trusting her and having no suspicions of her.
I couldn't stop thinking about how I regretted all the times that I had an "opportunity" to cheat and remained faithful to Lisa. I felt like and idiot for not cheating her when I could have. My loyalty felt like a waste. I know it sounds ridiculous and irrelevant to the fact that she was unfaithful. I think I obsessed over that because if I had cheated as well I wouldn't have hurt so much in that moment. All I could think about was about how much I was hurt. I would do anything to not feel the pain and embarrassment anymore.
[Question] Am I the only one who thought this way after catching their partner cheating? I'm curious about this.
I proceeded to leave my apartment and go for a long walk. I had never felt the emotions that were coming up and didn't know how to process them. My ego felt like it was literally dismantled in front of me. I wasn't sure what to do and I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. My sadness quickly turned to anger. I knew I was gunna get my revenge I just didn't know how yet.
I was SEETHING with rage and wanted make sure she never recovered from this.
My roommate/teammate and best friend at the who was sleeping on the couch in my living room [we will call him Bono] (an eastern European kid who stood 7 foot tall and was as Russian in demeanor as it you can imagine. He also had an equally ridiculous RL name hence: Bono) well, Bono called me shortly after I started my walk. I answered and he asked where I was. I asked him to keep this between us, and told him what happened. He stays on the phone and goes into my room and I hear him in his Russian accent yell at her "yo bitch, you cheated on OP?" Then I faintly hear her inaudibly say something in the background and him yelling at her to get out of the apartment. After hearing some scuffling Bono gets back on the line and says "yo! she gone, come back and lets talk"
I head back home and me and Bono go over what had happened. Things don't get sappy because we are both complete alpha males who both come from cultures where "men don't cry" and neither of us really knew what to say or do in this situation. He makes his best attempt to comfort me and says: "tonight is your birthday, we gunna get fucked up and find you some sluts. Fuck her! I never liked her anyway"
.... oh ya, this day was my birthday... forgot about that part ...
Me and Bono go out for breakfast. I am still a little drunk. My phone is blowing up with calls and texts from Lisa. I tell her I saw everything on her phone and I cant stand to speak with her or look at her. She keeps trying to convince me to let her come to my birthday party and I make it clear I don't want her there. She clearly was concerned about exactly what Bono suggested to me earlier when me and him chatted.
Lisa's entire reputation and popularity revolved around the fact that she was dating me. I think most people didn't like her in the first place but put up with her because we were together. She knew that if I acted single at my birthday party and she didn't show up everyone would know something was askew. I think Lisa was more worried about being embarrassed than our relationship.
I don't remember much of what happened that night. But one of my friends sent me a little package for my birthday from California filled with some really good weed, hash, moonrocks, some pills and "the devil's dandruff" and I proceeded to do a glorious swan dive into an intoxicated oblivion.
All I remember is sitting on my chair at the pregame for my party. There was two girls sitting on the arms of the chair and I still have a photo of that moment and I remember it vividly. We were preparing to head out. I had a few tables downtown at a popular nightclub. The booze and drugs were the only thing that made me feel normal. I had my sun glasses on and clearly had that happy loaded grin on my face. The longer you look at the photo of me on that chair, you can tell I'm hiding a huge amount of hurt.
Sitting on that chair, the cocktail of drugs start to take effect. This was the first time I ever used substances not to "party" but to feel better. To make me feel normal.
I remember thinking: "I want to feel this way for the rest of my life. I am never going to hurt like that ever again. With drugs, I have control and no one can hurt me again." Oh how ironic that turns out to be years down the line.
I told my teammates and friends that me and Lisa were done when they asked why she wasn't at the party. I didn't tell them why though. I also didn't show them that I was affected by it in anyway and just played it cool. I tried to focus everyone on the party ahead of us.
[The Revenge]
So this is one of those revenge stories where it was only half planned. I knew I wanted to get revenge on Lisa for hurting me so much. But I kind of just improvised as opportunities came up.
My original kind spirit had died at my birthday on that chair. All my morals went out the window. I never cheated in relationships therefore I believed I would never get cheated on. I realize now how dumb that is but that's what I thought at the time.
I didn't care what collateral damage I caused as long as my mission to hurt Lisa as much as possible was accomplished. So continued every day of my life with this new selfish mindset.
I was sitting at my computer later that next week skimming Facebook when I saw the profile of one of her track teammates on my feed. That's when I had my first vengeful idea. I decided I was going to attempt to get her teammates to bite the bait that I was about to cast out into the water. Though, I didn't have proof she hooked up with my teammates, she was clearly trying to hide conversations between them. So I was going to see how many people who are close to here I could "passionately hug". Luckily I had more options than she had when cheating on me. A women's track team is much larger than a men's basketball team. Also much better looking ;)
Lisa's teammate I originally spotted on my Facebook had a boyfriend but I thought: "clearly everyone cheats, lets see if its true". I proceed to do the little flirty social media dance with her. You know, the one where I like a couple of her photos, she likes a couple of mine back. I shoot her a message and BAM! shes at my house in my bed about a week later. I proceed to do something similar to other teammates of hers. All on her 4x4 relay team coincidentally.
2 of the 3 girls I "passionately hugged" had boyfriends and subsequently cheated on them with me which gave me some real mixed emotions. It stroked my broken ego and also made me bitter and sad. Giving me one of those "women aint shit! none of them are loyal" attitudes.
This is such a typical story of while fighting monsters I became a monster.
This actually became my go-to strategy because it accomplished two things in my fucked up mind. It exposed a cheater but more importantly if they were willing to cheat on their boyfriends they would:
A] be more secretive about it which meant the drama that would ensue when it came out would be elevated and
B] it made me feel better about Lisa cheating because it proved it wasn't me that was the problem. It was women that were the problem. (I know its fucked up but that's what I thought back then.)
I started to collect something from every girl that I hooked up with, like a bra, a pair of panties, or some jewelry etc.. (not for some creepy reason, but this is important later and was a part of my plan) Sometimes I didn't even have to try. One girl left a pair of very distinguishable shoes. I knew Lisa would know who's shoes they were. They belonged to the girl that Lisa's X boyfriend rebounded with after Lisa and him broke up which highly upset her because it was her friend. Now it would upset her more because that same girl slept with both of her X boyfriends. I especially tried to collect items if it was something that I knew Lisa could distinguish like a sweater from the women's track team with her teammates name on it. After some time I had collected a boatload of shit.
After a couple months or so, one of the Lisa's teammate's boyfriends found out about me and his girlfriend and it started a big beautiful dramatic explosion of series of events with her and her teammates. This led to all of them finding out about one another's promiscuity. The drama was MASSIVE. Even their coaches had to get involved it got so bad.
This made me feel so powerful in such and evil yet satisfying way. I fell in love with the destruction I was causing. (The most awesome part about all of it was that same week, the Athletics PR team had put massive posters of me all over campus promoting the next game. They were EVERYWHERE. Some of the posters took up the entire side of buildings) So Lisa and her friends had to see me all over campus every day while this drama was erupting all around them. I felt like a triumphant dictator. It was glorious and pathetic at the same time.
Their coach even proceeded to have a "serious" meeting with the compliance department and my team's coaches. My coaches literally laughed at her saying "this seems like and internal issue, but OP hasn't done anything illegal or broken any school policy so there is nothing we can do". This infuriated the women's track coach. Their team had fallen apart. Their national ranking began to plummet. Then Lisa's coach even got in trouble for being caught tearing down some of the smaller posters of me on campus in raging temper tantrum.
I loved all of it.
I continued to add fuel to the fire. Posting photos of me with girls, smiling, being happy every chance I could on Facebook and Instagram. But under it all, I was bitter. I was so deep into my new mindset I had already forgotten the kind hearted naïve kid I use to be. I hated my old self because I let some girl emasculate me. I was so full of self pity looking back it, its depressing. No one really knew though because I played the cool guy attitude in front of people.
There was even a girl on campus on one of the sports teams who claimed that she was pregnant with my kid after I pretended to like her the same way I did with all of the other girls on Lisa's team and soon as we "passionately hugged" I moved on. Its a long story, but it turned out she wasn't pregnant but the news or "press" that came from that further dug the knife deeper into Lisa's side. I left a trail of women I deceived and relationships I destroyed. I feel bad now but at the time I didn't care because they were equally at fault in my eyes since they were cheating on their boyfriends or sleeping with their friends X.
Quickly, girls became weary of me. Plus I was running out of "potential targets" (Fuck I was an awful human being then the way I was thinking) and I was going after girls that weren't even friends or on the track team with Lisa but were just around her in daily life. For example her classmates and as well as her own family. I even flirted with her sister who was married with a kid and I almost succeeded. She was down but her and Lisa's dad found out about it and stepped in and put a stop it all before we could do anything. Her sister was ostracized as the news spread within the family.
I wanted Lisa to know I was everywhere and constantly remind her how she fucked up. In my eyes this was all her fault and she unleashed this fury of chaos upon herself. She should never have fucked with me like that.
Lisa had to take an extended medical leave because of her depression and mental health issues she was experiencing from the whole situation. She was becoming suicidal. She even had to go on medication and lost TONS of weight. She began to look extremely unhealthy. The whole mess was torturing her and the more she hurt the better I felt. At this point I had already inflicted more damage than she did to me but I had become addicted to the feeling of power... I spent 0 time processing my own emotions or moving on from what happened. All I wanted was more revenge and I couldn't stop.
After weeks of ignoring Lisa's texts and calls she finally gets a hold of me by showing up to my apartment unannounced late at night. She was there to pick up some stuff she left from when she lived there to take home. She was actually a local and her parents lived close by. (She was still on her medical leave and no longer staying on campus but rather with her parents) I told her I would bring her stuff to her parents house that weekend but I couldn't let her in because I had "company". Which I did but it wasn't one of her teammates or friends unfortunately.
I then to take all the items I had collected from all the girls over the weeks. There was probably like 8 or 9 things from different girls including her teammates and threw their belongings in along with Lisa's stuff into big black trash bags. I took the bags to her house and then called Lisa's dad. I told him I left her stuff on his porch and to inform his demon daughter. Me and Lisa's dad actually really got along and he even took my side after Lisa and I broke up. But after all these events transpired he obviously had a negative opinion of me.
15 minutes after I get off the phone with her Lisa's dad, I get a call from Lisa. I answer because I want to hear her reaction to having all these other girls shit mixed in with hers. She was sobbing uncontrollably. It sounded like that half crying half mumbling thing people do when they are hysterical. She wasn't even angry, just desperately begging me to point to stop my tyranny.
I just smiled and baked in the glory of hearing her hurt. I responded "why were their other guys in our relationship? you mixed them into our relationship like I mixed other girls shit into your shit. Its perfect little ironic metaphor". I thought it sounded cool at the time and was real proud of myself. (*facepalm*)
I later found out from one of Lisa's friends (who knew she was cheating on me during our relationship) that Lisa was convinced I WAS THE ONE cheating on her because "I was always out of town." This doesn't make sense since I was out of town because of basketball, a very legit excuse. Not just randomly on my own accord. You could literally see my schedule on the school's website. I kept in contact with her constantly when I was gone but obviously when I had practice or team meetings I couldn't be on my phone. But she didn't have the logic in her brain to figure this out I guess. I assume its just an excuse she made to protect her insecurities about the whole fiasco or to keep face with people who knew she was cheating.
[months go by]
Lisa comes back to school from her medical leave and we bump into each other at the physical therapy center in our athlete facility building. I see this as yet another opportunity. It had been a while since I did something that hurt her and I was still hungry for more vengeance. I proceed to pretend like I want to rekindle things with her. She is cautious at first but eventually bites after about a week. We start to mend our "relationship". We proceed for about a month but I wouldn't call this a relationship. I forbid her to have any male friends nor is she allowed to go out and party with her girlfriends. I also need full access to all her accounts and her location at all times. It was more like a hostage situation. It gave me a sense of control.
Meanwhile I'm not being faithful at all. This was my plan all along. Finally, she finds out about me sleeping with a girl in one of her classes and we have a nasty "breakup". I told her that she literally knows what it felt like to be me when we last dated. Yet again, I felt Triumphant. It was just another chance to hurt her and I did.
[After this we don't speak for YEARS.]
I graduate university and move to Central America. She messages me while I'm there about a year after I moved and about 2 years after we last spoke. At this point my life has become that of a real degenerate. I was doing copious amounts of drugs on a daily basis and about 75% of my life was involved in some sort of illegal or nefarious activities. But I still blame her for me becoming the dark soul that I was and taking no responsibility for bitter immoral nature. I hadn't had another relationship since her and always had trouble because I couldn't trust a women in any capacity anymore. Even after years had passed, I saw this instance of her messaging me as yet another opportunity to hurt her.
We begin to talk as friends and even getting flirty with each other over Facebook messenger. Mind you there is literally many countries, states and an ocean between us at this point. I was planning a trip back to my old university to visit some friends. However I told her was different: I explained to her I was moving back to the city for a new job I was just offered. We decide to meet up when I get back and see if there is anything worth saving between us. I had put on my best acting hat and try to seem like I've put our past behind us. However I'm just as vengeful now as I was years ago. She's finishing up her last year at University and I make the trip back to the USA.
I meet Lisa at a coffee shop when I arrive.. We spend the entire night together. From her point of view it really looks like we had moved past our differences and what happened. We could actually work things out.
However I'm not moving back obviously like I told her. I am only stay 2 nights. She doesn't know this. After hooking up a few times and spending 2 days together, without mentioning anything to her about me leaving, I pack my things and get back on a plane back to Central America.
I blocked her on all my social media and communication outlets. This time I could only fantasize about what happened to her when I disappeared after she thought I had moved back and supposedly was ready to give our relationship another try. This time however it wasn't as satisfying as my previous plots of revenge.
My drug habit and lifestyle only got worse every year. 3 years later I was hospitalized and almost died because of my extended drug use. I was never sober a full 24 hours after that day that went through that fucking period calendar.
[Looking back]
As much pain as I might have caused her with my vengeful life, my new identity that consumed my old one was so tainted with a dark spirit at heart. I think I honestly did more harm to myself with my actions and led me to down the road where I had no morals anymore. Though I spent the entirety of this story telling everyone of how I kept getting revenge at my X for cheating on me, as satisfying as it was, I wish I would have spent an equal amount of energy healing myself from the incident. If anyone reading this is experiencing the pain that comes with cheating, a good revenge story can bring you some satisfaction but I hope you don't make the same mistake I did. Rather spend MORE time healing yourself from the hurt and moving past it. The revenge wont heal you. It will be a separate journey but could distract you from putting yourself back together.
Luckily I got sober and am sober now 4+ years. I even had another girl friend of 2 years cheat on me before I got sober but this time I didn't take revenge. I spent my time healing. I changed and only focused on myself and that was way more satisfying than the revenge I got on Lisa for cheating on me.
Now I'm married almost 2 years to a woman who is sober and man do I have a good life. I have a dream job and a dream marriage. Thank you everyone who read this. Sorry if it wasn't well written I never write like this but I have never told the full story in detail before and I got a lot out of writing it.
Mostly what I hope to get from this is to share my experiences doing horrible things but feeling an immense satisfying feel from it where its almost addictive. And morphing from generally a good person to a relatively dark evil one.. Obviously people have dark moments but I feel like my personality and psyche has never been the same since that experience. I'm looking forward to any responses to the people willing to read this shit.
[written by commenter] TLDR: OP dated a woman a few years younger than him in college, Lisa. Lisa kept a period tracker and kept when she had unprotected sex, while documenting their sex for gf who had fallen asleep, OP saw she had been having unprotected sex with at least 4 dudes since they had been dating. OPs roommate kicked her out. OP decided to get revenge. This started with fucking all 3 of her relay partners (track team) which eventually led to the team crashing. They also had bfs, so OP used this as fuel to say that women are the problem, not him. At this time OP starts going down the rabbit hole with drugs and alcohol. This continued on for a long time, and OP started keeping an item from women that would be identifiable to Lisa for his plan. He would purposely “target” (own words) girls close to Lisa so drama would be worse, and he would have more ammunition to hurt her. Lisa took a mental health break from depression, and came to OPs house asking for her stuff back. He brought it to her parents and put all the items he had been collecting. She called him crying and he reveled in it. Months later, they run into each other at PT and he convinces her to give it another shot, knowing its a game. Knowingly holds her “hostage,” no guy friends, no parties, no going out, all while cheating. They eventually break up. Years later, OP is contacted by Lisa and says hes moving back to their country for a job. (IRL hes going for a 2 day visit) and basically catfishes her into trying to date him again, they meet up and hang out the whole time. He then packs up and leaves without a word to hurt her again. After this OP goes down a bad road with drugs and alcohol, ends up in the hospital, and has another Gf cheat on him. He did not take revenge on her. OP is now married, and has a good job and has (presumably) been clean. He is also aware of how toxic it all is. I think that’s everything

Whew, what a win!
I'm going to review every offensive drive and include a ton of gifs for those who care to go through as many plays as possible. For everyone else, I’ll begin with a summary, and I hope you enjoy clicking through the few plays you’re interested in.
 
Summary
 

• I rolled my eyes when I saw the Arians quote saying, "it's not the script starting out the game, it's the execution of it." Surprisingly, after watching the all-22, I agree with him!
  
• The play calling was very similar across both halves and the execution was clearly the difference. As a fan, it's much easier to accept failure in the instance where players don't execute as opposed to when the coaches just hold the team back
  
• This was easily Leftwich's best game of the year
  
• Lots of play action. I counted 16 attempts. Surprisingly, it was actually fairly unsuccessful. The most frequent explanation for the unsuccessful play action plays was poor pass protection (as in quick protection breakdown, not coverage sacks). The designs and calls were, for the most part, very good. Similarly, the Falcons did bite, and route combinations were mostly smart against the given coverages. This was good process, and I'll live with the results and trust the players to execute better in the future
  
• Excluding the last 2 minutes of each half, 65% of 1st down calls were passes. Before week 16, only 45% of 1st down calls were passes with the same exclusions! Run/Pass EPA per play on 1st downs in this game were -0.05 and 0.28 respectively.
  
• Nice play designs in general. Most plays had answers built in for multiple defensive coverages.
  
• Tons of easy plays that don't require complete perfection to be successful. They took what the defense gave them without forcing the issue or being overly committed to certain ideals
  
• Pass protection needs to be better. It was the biggest reason why the offence didn't put up points in the first half, and the most frequent explanation for any failures throughout
  
• There were still some questionable personnel decisions on 1st down runs that created unfavourable defensive looks. While I want this team to maintain the threat of the run on early downs, and to run well, the current scheme and decision to play heavy sets are making it difficult for the Bucs. The personnel choices can easily be fixed week-to-week, a change in run scheme would require an off-season overhaul and install.
  
• There are certain simple route adjustments that the coaches seemingly don’t want the players to make in game that could be highly beneficial. This has been a head-scratching issue throughout the season
  
• Great game by Evans, Godwin, AB, Gronk, and Brady. Those receivers did a great job creating separation and running sharp routes, and Brady’s reads were consistently on point. When watching QBs on all-22, it’s easy to nitpick every play. With Brady, it’s freaky how often, and how quickly, he makes the right decision given what the defence is playing. His success doesn’t come from making splashy or spectacular plays (though he can), it comes from a relentless ability to make the correct decision play after play.
  
• Offensively, the positives in this game FAR outweigh the negatives. As mentioned in a previous post, the coaches don’t need to be perfect for this team to be great. Offensively, what the coaches did is enough, in my opinion, for this team to be a real contender
  

 
1st Possession
 
1st & 10: good start with an easy play taking advantage of off coverage. Nice block by Godwin, too
2nd & 4: Falcons come out in cover 3 and Bucs counter perfectly with a flood concept. Nice separation from Brate againt a LB.
1st & 10: Falcons are playing cover 1 robber with tight coverage. Brady reads the HOSS concept, which is just a hitch/seam combination, on the left. In what has been a theme in this offence, Godwin doesn't adjust his route to an outside release. Against single high man coverage, ideally Godwin would have released outside and pushed up the sideline to create separation from the middle safety. I think these issues come from how these concepts are taught/coached, not because players aren't reading things right. Brady reads the fade then throws it away. He could've potentially tossed it up to Evans, but the coverage is there and the risk reward is terrible on this play (i.e. throwing a jump ball where you either gain 5 yards or get picked). I also have no idea what the Bucs pre snap check system is like, but it would be nice if they could get to a rub combination against this man look where both corners are lined up on the same level.
2nd & 10: it's confusing how poorly the Bucs have done on these HB screens throughout the season. The DB reads this perfectly and blows up the play. This is the play that killed the drive, despite strong execution before this.
3rd & 18: 3 man rush with all coverage players at the sticks. Easy screen pass to improve field position.
 
2nd Possession
 
1st & 10: Bucs come out with six offensive linemen and one tight end creating a loaded box. Why create this look to run on 1st down? Why play this personnel package? I'd understand it on 2nd & short where you only need a short gain and can run or use play action. But, why not play 11 personnel and spread it out to create lighter boxes, where you can run, pass, play fake, whatever? Unsurprisingly, the run up the gut gains just 1 yard.
2nd & 9: Falcons show a single high look pre snap that rotates into a 2 high zone (middle field open) post snap. Brady reads this well and knows that the inside player on the snag route will be open. This spacing concept has been a staple in this Bucs offence.
3rd & 1: outside pitch for 2 yards
1st & 10: 1 yard run up the middle. There's nothing there.
2nd & 9: same spacing concept again. Falcons play a single high zone this time (middle field closed), and consequently, Brady attacks outside. It only gained 2 yards, but it's not a bad idea to give Scotty an opportunity in space outside to make a play.
3rd & 7: Falcons play a single high man blitz. Nice pass protection and good pick up by McCoy. AB was the best option on this vs this look, but the coverage was great so Brady throws it low and away. Either AB makes a play or no one gets it. Give credit to the Falcons for this one.
 
3rd Possession
 
1st & 10: 6 offensive linemen again. Bus call play action against this zone blitz, which should be a favourable situation. However, Josh Wells gets destroyed on the offensive line and gives the offence no chance on this play. Credit to Fournette for a good block.
2nd & 10: A simple but effective play from the Bucs that they use a lot where they have double slants on one side and a slant/flat combination on the other. In general, the plan here is to use the double slants vs 2 high looks and to use the slant/flat combo against 1 high looks. The Falcons show single high pre before rotating into a cover 2 man post, so Brady attacks inside. Great catch and separation by Evans.
3rd & 3: terrible pass protection against a 4 man rush.
 
4th Possession
 
1st & 10: Run for 3 yards. Tight formation, loaded box. Again, why create this look?
2nd & 7: single high zone blitz from the Falcons. Great hot route execution here between Brady and Gronk. Gronk gets his head around quick on the flat route for an easy gain of 7.
1st & 10: 11 personnel and play action? Oh my! Excellent design and call. This play not working is solely on Brady. This is an easy throw.
2nd & 10: Bucs have been using this 3x1 a lot lately to isolate either Evans or Gronk. I asked Jon Ledyard about this during Sunday’s Pewter Report podcast, and he said this was frequently used last season but had been reduced this year as Evans played more snaps from the slot. With AB and Godwin being better inside receivers, I like the idea of these formations. Brady throws a beautiful pass and puts it right on Evans’ face on this out route. This is a much more difficult throw than the previous play, and you can't make this throw without a strong arm.
1st & 10: Another play action pass where the offensive line gives them no chance. Pass pro HAS to be better, but I'm liking the play calling. This is a nit pick, but we see a few of these "soft" fakes throughout the game. I'd rather Brady/the play design create a harder fake, but, I'm happy to take it.
2nd & 10: I'm normally not a fan of runs on 2nd and long, but I like what Leftwich did here. They spread it out with 11 personnel to create a light box and then call a draw play. There's a hole here, and the situation created is relatively favourable (this is what I want them to do more on 1st down runs!). Vaughn just falls down from light contact, and that's not on the play callers.
3rd & 9: the blitz pick up is just terrible here. Falcons show man pre snap before rotating to a zone coverage. Brady could've gotten the ball to Evans for a 1st down if the pass protection didn't give a literal free path for the rusher to the QB.
 
5th Possession
 
Kneel down
 
End of 1st Half
 
6th Possession
 
1st & 10: beautiful play action design against the Falcons cover 1 robber. The LB bites on the play fake which creates a huge opening over the middle for an easy pass to AB for 20 yards. Great stuff.
1st & 10: another play action! Nice design. Brady throws off a poor platform, and the throw was mediocre, but Evans needs to complete this catch.
2nd & 10: Falcons again playing cover 1 robber. The LB brackets Gronk which creates a window for a pass to Brate. Solid execution all around.
1st & 10: this is obviously a good result for a 9 yard gain, but I question the process. There's not a great opportunity/gap here, and you can't expect a huge push like this every time. By no means am I saying never run on 1st down, but I don't think the rush frequency needs to be anywhere near as high as coaches think it does in order for defences to respect the run and for play action to work. What's the right frequency? No one knows right now.
2nd & 1: solid run up the middle in a short yardage situation to pick up the first.
1st & 10: play action with a double post concept against 2 high man coverage, which is a great schematic matchup for the Bucs. This is one of the few coverages against which play action does nothing, but I like keeping the fake because you don't know for sure that it's not a disguised zone, or even cover 1 man (against which you can make the LB bite). Awesome throw and catch. Nice pass protection from Fournette, too.
1st & Goal: easy TD on the run
 
7th Possession
 
1st & 10: 3 man route concept off of play action against the Falcons zone. Simply need better pass protection here. Brady senses pressure and throws the ball away at Gronk's feet. With better protection, he might've been able to work his read over to Godwin.
2nd & 10: the Bucs, again, call the double slant and slant/flat combination. This time the Falcons are playing single high man, so Brady works the slant/flat. Again, a simple, easy play with answers built-in. Fournette continues to protect well.
3rd & 5: Falcons bring a 3 man rush and play single high man with two buzz defenders. The Bucs dial up the mesh concept. The press coverage on Evans had the potential to disrupt this play, but he does an excellent job of getting into his route anyway. This particular situation is one where at-the-snap motion can be helpful in creating a free release.
1st & 10: another play action call, and again against zone. Nice design with answers built-in for a variety of looks. Fournette has a ton of space, so I like Brady's decision to take the easy play. Fournette turns a solid play into a very good play with his play after the catch. It's often a good idea to simply give your players a chance in space where the risk is low but the reward can be high, especially on early downs. Think back to the Miller play early in the game that only went for 2 yards. Good process will have good results over the long run.
1st & 10: 7 man box against 6 blockers. How do you expect this run to go?
2nd & 10: the Bucs seem to use this exact WR screen play every game, and the Falcons were prepared. However, Brady and Evans make an off-script play. Great job by Evans breaking off his route to create a huge opening for Brady. Maybe this is a sign of the chemistry and communication improving?
1st & Goal: this looks like zone on the strong side and man on the weak side? Either way, the Falcons cover well. Brady throws it low and away against tight coverage.
2nd & Goal: beautiful RPO design against this defensive look where one DB is playing off. The only thing I would consider changing is having Evans stem vertically so that the inside corner can't possibly make a play on the ball.
 
8th Possession
 
1st & 10: play action into HB screen. This can be a nice play, but the blocking execution must improve! Yes, you're meant to let rushers pass you as an offensive lineman, but you have to give them a bump.
2nd & 10: we see 3x1 once again to isolate Gronk. The Falcons play cover 2 man, so Brady works the 1 on 1. Here's another situation, where likely by design, Godwin doesn't adjust his route in a way that would be favourable against the given coverage. Godwin sits, which would be great against zone, but the play would be more effective if he kept running horizontally, instead, against man. This is an improvement opportunity for this staff; I'd wager Godwin is simply executing this play the way he's been told to. What’s confusing is that these are super standard route adjustments, and its weird to watch an NFL team not make them.
1st & 10: solid play action design. The FS sits for a moment, and that's why Brady decides to attack deep on the post route. However, Johnson just can't separate enough. I don't understand why he's even out there, as this is the exact type of play where Miller excels! Fournette was also wide open on this play. But, given what the coverage dictated, Brady made the right play. You can't expect him to continue to a later read if the earlier read dictated a pass target.
2nd & 10: the Bucs dial up a post wheel out combination on the strong side against the Falcons' single high zone defence. This is a great situation that created a three-attackers-against-two-defenders situation.
1st & 10: nice outcome with Evans on a comeback route against tight man coverage. This play drew two flags for a big gain.
1st & 10: another easy play in space to Fournette against cover 1 man. If the RBs can be consistent with their catching ability, that'd be a huge plus for this team as these plays are there for the taking when the coverage is right.
1st & 10: easy quick out against off coverage. Continuing to take what the defence is giving.
1st & Goal: good play fake. Defender had to grab Gronk to stop him, and this drew a flag.
1st & Goal: solid run to finish the drive
 
9th Possession
 
1st & 10: very weird play on this 3 man route play action. The ball should've probably been caught, but the throw wasn't great, either.
2nd & 10: another solid play call where Brady has answers against various coverages. The throw to McCoy was the correct decision against this cover 3 zone. I'd much rather see McCoy take whatever yards he can up the sideline instead of trying to move east/west.
3rd & 5: this WR screen call might have been iffy against this tight pre snap look. However, the Falcons send a corner blitz which ended up working perfectly for the Bucs on this play call.
1st & 10: Falcons show cover 3 pre snap but rotate into cover 2 post. Good read by Brady to see this and find the inside sit route to Brate that wouldn't have been open against cover 3.
2nd & 1: same play as the one that opened the game. It's riskier here as there's a corner at the LOS who could potentially make a play. I'd rather just see a run or a play action for an easy play, instead. I don’t love the risk/reward of this play against this defensive look.
1st & 10: Gronk was Brady's 3rd read on this play. It looks like Brady just throws it away high. This was the play after which Brady was visibly frustrated and slamming his hands against his helmet. My guess is this wasn't because he missed the throw (the throwaway looks intentional), but because he realized he had Fournette wide open as the check down.
2nd & 10: decent play against very soft man coverage. Another low risk but high potential reward play if Miller can make a man miss. I’m a fan of this approach philosophically in the pass game.
3rd & 6: looks like there's a concept to beat 2 high on the left, and a concept to beat 1 high on the right. I'm surprised Brady stayed on the left so long. Either way, he got to Gronk in time on the right. However, Gronk fell at the top of his route. Oh well. Nice play call, though.
 
10th Possession
 
1st & 10: the Falcons disguise coverage here beautifully. Before the gif began, the Bucs motioned Fournette, too, who had a linebacker follow him. The Falcons follow two motions and show cover 1 man pre and rotate into a cover 2 zone post. Brady reads it well, anyway, and finds Brate. This type of high-level quarterbacking is easily missed when watching the TV broadcast. It seems like a routine play for a medium gain, but the recognition and processing by Brady is fantastic. These disguises at the NFL level are incredibly difficult to deal with. Another solid play design, too, that gives Brady multiple answers depending on the coverage. If it were cover 1 man, Brady likely would have worked the right side of the field.
1st & 10: unsuccessful run
2nd & 9: once again punishing soft coverage.
1st & 10: solid design against this defence with verticals outside, and (likely) an option route for Godwin in the post. Against single high, like this, he runs a dig route. Against two high he would've run a post. The safety bites down on the dig and leaves AB wide open against his one on one matchup. There was a miscommunication between the DBs at the snap that actually left Godwin wide open. It's possible that this was because the Bucs motioned Godwin from out wide into the slot (forcing last second defensive communication). Brady had two great options, and he happened to pick the touchdown.
 
11th Possession:
1st & 10: run for 2 yards
2nd & 8: good play action design that got AB open, but the protection was terrible.
3rd & 16: screen pass to McCoy against off coverage to improve field position
 
12th Possession:
 
Runs for 1st down + kneel down
 
I saw some, but not too many, people complaining about Brady starting slow. The tape really doesn't back that up. He had the one miss to Godwin early that ended up being inconsequential given the absolute strike to Evans on the next play. I don't believe there's any sort of Brady issue early in the games, though he has had a couple of slow starts. I think that's seeing a small sample of results, which happen to form what looks like a pattern, and then assigning a narrative without understanding the why (which has to be analyzed on a play-by-play basis; it's never as simple as "Brady starts slow... just because"). This type of thinking persists everywhere, including in other aspects of the game and outside of football entirely, but I digress.
This was the most New England-like this offence has looked. This has nothing to do with some "secret New England plays", and everything to do with philosophically committing to play action and taking easy plays that the defensive coverage gives you. I don't think there was a single new play called. The difference was early down passing and not forcing plays against unfavourable looks. I really hope this what the team continues to look like going forward, minus the pass protection. There's a chance that the quick pass heavy game plan was a function of the Falcons having a terrible pass defence, RoJo being out, and playing from a deficit. If that's not the case, and if this is the trend moving forward, there's a lot to be optimistic about on offence.

[This is a long one, there is a TLDR at the bottom]
(This isn't just a story of revenge. This is a story of how revenge hurts both parties)
To this day, a good revenge story gives me a warm bubbly feeling inside. I believe it comes from this college experience years ago when I got revenge on my cheating girlfriend and it felt GOOD. I know I'm not suppose to enjoy it but I can't deny how satisfying it feels. Its probably one of my favorite feelings in the world even though I'm ashamed to admit it. So I decided to write my first post about this because I don't tell the story often. It is so extensive and honestly just makes me look bad.
I'm going to try my best to not paint a picture where my X looks as bad as possible and me as innocent as possible. I want to write this accurately as I can, even if it makes me look bad.
[Bit of context and back story]
At the time of this story, I played division 1 NCAA basketball at a school so I traveled a lot (weekly in different cities and states) and my entire life revolved around this.
During the events of this story I was in the early stages of a horrible drug and alcohol habit. Years after this story I ended up getting sober and joined a program whos name you can find at the front of almost any phonebook. I am sure many people reading this are also sober and will understand how we addicts/alcoholics can be. This story is an effort to explain a character defect that manifested from the events in this story that lead me down a very dark path, however, I don't mean this story to come off in a "self pity" kind of way.
Lastly, I was always a good kid, I was never "troubled". My upbringing was very difficult but I was able to keep an overall kindness in my spirit to other people and almost always "did the right thing" or "took the high road". When it came to dating, I knew people cheated in relationships but at the time of this story I always chalked it up to other people "not doing things the way I did". I never really thought it would happen to me.. I always thought that because I was a "5 star boyfriend" and my "amazing choice" in women, infidelity would never be a part of my dating journey. I was a naïve. I really thought highly of myself and also had a real arrogance like any guy in his early 20s I guess.
[The Build Up]
I was in my Jr year in University I had been single for about a year after me and my high school gf finally broke up after 3 years. I checked that relationship off as my "learning experience" and I now knew what to look for in my next girlfriend. The next woman I chose to have a relationship with I would most likely marry and start my future with. (I know I was young and dumb and thought I knew everything LOL)
I had my eye on this girl at my school [we will call her Lisa]. I saw Lisa around the collegiate athletic facility (the university teams training grounds, and locker rooms). Lisa ran for the track team and was damn good. The various athletic teams often had parties and I knew that the first one I saw her at I would introduce myself and try to chat her up a bit and see where it led.
Soon enough I see Lisa at one of these parties and we pass each other on the stairs. We make eye contact and she smiled at me. I sparked a conversation with her and after going back and forth a bit we exchange numbers. We begin the classic American style of flirting where we constantly just hint things back and forth indirectly. We slowly progressed the relationship in this manner for weeks. Sending texts back and forth hinting that we were interested in each other but also playing it cool to not let the other person know we had a crush on them.
At the time, she was on a break with her current boyfriend who was a popular player on the football team. She ended up leaving him completely to date me. This shoulda been a red flag obviously but remember, I had severe hubris. At the time her leaving him to date me just gave me a superiority complex. I was playing good in sport and if she was willing to leave this guy for me then she will never leave me for another guy.
Lmao I was a fucking idiot.
I cant express how much I was into Lisa. I was addictively attracted to her and had that weird feeling of "I cant believe my crush is actually into me to". I really was so drowned and blinded by my crush on her I missed so many red flags but our relationship began progressing really fast. Because of this I didn't really do a proper inventory on why I liked her so much.
[Fast forward like 8 months later.]
We are together officially. Lisa has her own athlete's dorm room but I was a couple years older than her and was working during the summers full time and part time during school / season and had my own apartment near campus and Lisa was basically living with me. She even would stay there when I was out of town which was like 3 or 4 days of every week because we were in season and the team was flying all over the country. Me and Lisa were deeply in love regardless.
At the end of the season I had planned two massive back to back parties. One was for my teammate's birthday (Friday night) and then my birthday (Saturday night). They just happened to be one day after the other and luckily landed on a Friday and Saturday night. Me and Lisa got drunk Friday night and had some unprotected sex.
Lisa kept a period-tracking calendar app on her phone. She was asleep and I drunkenly remembered she always marked down in her calendar when we had unprotected sex so she knew if she should be worried if she missed her period. She missed her period often because she was an athlete. My inebriated brain thought she should put it in her calendar now because we would forget the next day since we were so fucked up. So I woke her up and said "can you put in that calendar that we had unprotected sex". At this point it was like 5am and we were that 5am kinda drunk where you're mostly just tired. She unlocked her phone and opened the app and before she could even do it she fell back asleep. So I took the phone while it was still unlocked and proceeded to try and figure out how to put it in her calendar myself.
[side note] Through our entire relationship, Lisa went through my computer and phone constantly. She was very insecure and always had her suspicions. I didn't care that she was doing this all the time. She never found anything because I never did shady shit, ever.
Again, looking back at this its an obvious red flag I missed. Remember I thought this girl would never cheat on me.
So this wasn't one of those stories where I went through her phone looking for something and subsequently finding it. In this case I was innocently trying to navigate this damn period calendar while I was drunk and I was not suspicious at all.
When I looked at the period-calendar app on Lisa's phone, I saw all kinds of little markers on different days of each month. Each marker was a different color so I opened one to see what the color coding meant. I saw that red was obviously symbolling her period and then there was also black markers that showed when she had unprotected sex.
........This is when my heart sank into my stomach......
This fucking calendar was PEPPERED with black markers. It looked like a checker board with only a hand full of red pieces left and ALL the fucking black ones..... There was black markers on dates that I was in a different city playing basketball.... I proceeded to open all of black markers going back for our entire relationship. We did not have unprotected sex very often. MAYBE once or twice a month. She had written the names of the guys she had unprotected sex with in the notes section of the black markers. There was a total of 4 guys through out the entirety of our relationship that she allowed to penetrate her raw. Some months there was almost a dozens of those fucking black markers. Sometimes there was TWO in one day! Looking back on this I wonder if there were more unlisted men that I didn't see because she clearly only kept track of the guys and times she had UNPROTECTED sex.
In almost every story I hear of infidelity, it involves the discovery of text messages, being informed by a friend, or the classic coming home early and catching your partner red handed.
I, on the other hand, discovered a fucking well documented LEDGER of almost every time she cheated and had unprotected sex.
Amongst the 4 guys I discovered, one of them was her X that she originally left to date me. Cheating on me with him was a common occurrence. There was some other unkown guy she was also clearly sleeping with him regularly. The last 2 fellas looked to be just a one time thing but again like I said these markers were just the times she had sex without a condom. So who knows what the true story was there.
I sobered up real quick. I proceeded to look through Lisa's texts and calls and found nothing. However, at the time Android phones had a folder where you can see deleted texts but not the contents of the messages. She had THOUSANDS of deleted texts and calls but I couldn't see what they said but I saw the numbers and did a quick Facebook search and matched one with her X in addition to something like half a dozen other random dudes. The worst part was I found TWO of my teammates... one guy I was actually pretty close with.
I just put the phone down after a few minutes. The evidence was overwhelming. The more it seemed to look at the phone the more my insides began to hurt.
I felt so defeated. I cant fully describe the feeling but I'm sure anyone reading this that caught a significant other cheating knows what I'm talking about. I felt so stupid for trusting her and having no suspicions of her.
I couldn't stop thinking about how I regretted all the times that I had an "opportunity" to cheat and remained faithful to Lisa. I felt like and idiot for not cheating her when I could have. My loyalty felt like a waste. I know it sounds ridiculous and irrelevant to the fact that she was unfaithful. I think I obsessed over that because if I had cheated as well I wouldn't have hurt so much in that moment. All I could think about was about how much I was hurt. I would do anything to not feel the pain and embarrassment anymore.
[Question] Am I the only one who thought this way after catching their partner cheating? I'm curious about this.
I proceeded to leave my apartment and go for a long walk. I had never felt the emotions that were coming up and didn't know how to process them. My ego felt like it was literally dismantled in front of me. I wasn't sure what to do and I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. My sadness quickly turned to anger. I knew I was gunna get my revenge I just didn't know how yet.
I was SEETHING with rage and wanted make sure she never recovered from this.
My roommate/teammate and best friend at the who was sleeping on the couch in my living room [we will call him Bono] (an eastern European kid who stood 7 foot tall and was as Russian in demeanor as it you can imagine. He also had an equally ridiculous RL name hence: Bono) well, Bono called me shortly after I started my walk. I answered and he asked where I was. I asked him to keep this between us, and told him what happened. He stays on the phone and goes into my room and I hear him in his Russian accent yell at her "yo bitch, you cheated on OP?" Then I faintly hear her inaudibly say something in the background and him yelling at her to get out of the apartment. After hearing some scuffling Bono gets back on the line and says "yo! she gone, come back and lets talk"
I head back home and me and Bono go over what had happened. Things don't get sappy because we are both complete alpha males who both come from cultures where "men don't cry" and neither of us really knew what to say or do in this situation. He makes his best attempt to comfort me and says: "tonight is your birthday, we gunna get fucked up and find you some sluts. Fuck her! I never liked her anyway"
.... oh ya, this day was my birthday... forgot about that part ...
Me and Bono go out for breakfast. I am still a little drunk. My phone is blowing up with calls and texts from Lisa. I tell her I saw everything on her phone and I cant stand to speak with her or look at her. She keeps trying to convince me to let her come to my birthday party and I make it clear I don't want her there. She clearly was concerned about exactly what Bono suggested to me earlier when me and him chatted.
Lisa's entire reputation and popularity revolved around the fact that she was dating me. I think most people didn't like her in the first place but put up with her because we were together. She knew that if I acted single at my birthday party and she didn't show up everyone would know something was askew. I think Lisa was more worried about being embarrassed than our relationship.
I don't remember much of what happened that night. But one of my friends sent me a little package for my birthday from California filled with some really good weed, hash, moonrocks, some pills and "the devil's dandruff" and I proceeded to do a glorious swan dive into an intoxicated oblivion.
All I remember is sitting on my chair at the pregame for my party. There was two girls sitting on the arms of the chair and I still have a photo of that moment and I remember it vividly. We were preparing to head out. I had a few tables downtown at a popular nightclub. The booze and drugs were the only thing that made me feel normal. I had my sun glasses on and clearly had that happy loaded grin on my face. The longer you look at the photo of me on that chair, you can tell I'm hiding a huge amount of hurt.
Sitting on that chair, the cocktail of drugs start to take effect. This was the first time I ever used substances not to "party" but to feel better. To make me feel normal.
I remember thinking: "I want to feel this way for the rest of my life. I am never going to hurt like that ever again. With drugs, I have control and no one can hurt me again." Oh how ironic that turns out to be years down the line.
I told my teammates and friends that me and Lisa were done when they asked why she wasn't at the party. I didn't tell them why though. I also didn't show them that I was affected by it in anyway and just played it cool. I tried to focus everyone on the party ahead of us.
[The Revenge]
So this is one of those revenge stories where it was only half planned. I knew I wanted to get revenge on Lisa for hurting me so much. But I kind of just improvised as opportunities came up.
My original kind spirit had died at my birthday on that chair. All my morals went out the window. I never cheated in relationships therefore I believed I would never get cheated on. I realize now how dumb that is but that's what I thought at the time.
I didn't care what collateral damage I caused as long as my mission to hurt Lisa as much as possible was accomplished. So continued every day of my life with this new selfish mindset.
I was sitting at my computer later that next week skimming Facebook when I saw the profile of one of her track teammates on my feed. That's when I had my first vengeful idea. I decided I was going to attempt to get her teammates to bite the bait that I was about to cast out into the water. Though, I didn't have proof she hooked up with my teammates, she was clearly trying to hide conversations between them. So I was going to see how many people who are close to here I could "passionately hug". Luckily I had more options than she had when cheating on me. A women's track team is much larger than a men's basketball team. Also much better looking ;)
Lisa's teammate I originally spotted on my Facebook had a boyfriend but I thought: "clearly everyone cheats, lets see if its true". I proceed to do the little flirty social media dance with her. You know, the one where I like a couple of her photos, she likes a couple of mine back. I shoot her a message and BAM! shes at my house in my bed about a week later. I proceed to do something similar to other teammates of hers. All on her 4x4 relay team coincidentally.
2 of the 3 girls I "passionately hugged" had boyfriends and subsequently cheated on them with me which gave me some real mixed emotions. It stroked my broken ego and also made me bitter and sad. Giving me one of those "women aint shit! none of them are loyal" attitudes.
This is such a typical story of while fighting monsters I became a monster.
This actually became my go-to strategy because it accomplished two things in my fucked up mind. It exposed a cheater but more importantly if they were willing to cheat on their boyfriends they would:
A] be more secretive about it which meant the drama that would ensue when it came out would be elevated and
B] it made me feel better about Lisa cheating because it proved it wasn't me that was the problem. It was women that were the problem. (I know its fucked up but that's what I thought back then.)
I started to collect something from every girl that I hooked up with, like a bra, a pair of panties, or some jewelry etc.. (not for some creepy reason, but this is important later and was a part of my plan) Sometimes I didn't even have to try. One girl left a pair of very distinguishable shoes. I knew Lisa would know who's shoes they were. They belonged to the girl that Lisa's X boyfriend rebounded with after Lisa and him broke up which highly upset her because it was her friend. Now it would upset her more because that same girl slept with both of her X boyfriends. I especially tried to collect items if it was something that I knew Lisa could distinguish like a sweater from the women's track team with her teammates name on it. After some time I had collected a boatload of shit.
After a couple months or so, one of the Lisa's teammate's boyfriends found out about me and his girlfriend and it started a big beautiful dramatic explosion of series of events with her and her teammates. This led to all of them finding out about one another's promiscuity. The drama was MASSIVE. Even their coaches had to get involved it got so bad.
This made me feel so powerful in such and evil yet satisfying way. I fell in love with the destruction I was causing. (The most awesome part about all of it was that same week, the Athletics PR team had put massive posters of me all over campus promoting the next game. They were EVERYWHERE. Some of the posters took up the entire side of buildings) So Lisa and her friends had to see me all over campus every day while this drama was erupting all around them. I felt like a triumphant dictator. It was glorious and pathetic at the same time.
Their coach even proceeded to have a "serious" meeting with the compliance department and my team's coaches. My coaches literally laughed at her saying "this seems like and internal issue, but OP hasn't done anything illegal or broken any school policy so there is nothing we can do". This infuriated the women's track coach. Their team had fallen apart. Their national ranking began to plummet. Then Lisa's coach even got in trouble for being caught tearing down some of the smaller posters of me on campus in raging temper tantrum.
I loved all of it.
I continued to add fuel to the fire. Posting photos of me with girls, smiling, being happy every chance I could on Facebook and Instagram. But under it all, I was bitter. I was so deep into my new mindset I had already forgotten the kind hearted naïve kid I use to be. I hated my old self because I let some girl emasculate me. I was so full of self pity looking back it, its depressing. No one really knew though because I played the cool guy attitude in front of people.
There was even a girl on campus on one of the sports teams who claimed that she was pregnant with my kid after I pretended to like her the same way I did with all of the other girls on Lisa's team and soon as we "passionately hugged" I moved on. Its a long story, but it turned out she wasn't pregnant but the news or "press" that came from that further dug the knife deeper into Lisa's side. I left a trail of women I deceived and relationships I destroyed. I feel bad now but at the time I didn't care because they were equally at fault in my eyes since they were cheating on their boyfriends or sleeping with their friends X.
Quickly, girls became weary of me. Plus I was running out of "potential targets" (Fuck I was an awful human being then the way I was thinking) and I was going after girls that weren't even friends or on the track team with Lisa but were just around her in daily life. For example her classmates and as well as her own family. I even flirted with her sister who was married with a kid and I almost succeeded. She was down but her and Lisa's dad found out about it and stepped in and put a stop it all before we could do anything. Her sister was ostracized as the news spread within the family.
I wanted Lisa to know I was everywhere and constantly remind her how she fucked up. In my eyes this was all her fault and she unleashed this fury of chaos upon herself. She should never have fucked with me like that.
Lisa had to take an extended medical leave because of her depression and mental health issues she was experiencing from the whole situation. She was becoming suicidal. She even had to go on medication and lost TONS of weight. She began to look extremely unhealthy. The whole mess was torturing her and the more she hurt the better I felt. At this point I had already inflicted more damage than she did to me but I had become addicted to the feeling of power... I spent 0 time processing my own emotions or moving on from what happened. All I wanted was more revenge and I couldn't stop.
After weeks of ignoring Lisa's texts and calls she finally gets a hold of me by showing up to my apartment unannounced late at night. She was there to pick up some stuff she left from when she lived there to take home. She was actually a local and her parents lived close by. (She was still on her medical leave and no longer staying on campus but rather with her parents) I told her I would bring her stuff to her parents house that weekend but I couldn't let her in because I had "company". Which I did but it wasn't one of her teammates or friends unfortunately.
I then to take all the items I had collected from all the girls over the weeks. There was probably like 8 or 9 things from different girls including her teammates and threw their belongings in along with Lisa's stuff into big black trash bags. I took the bags to her house and then called Lisa's dad. I told him I left her stuff on his porch and to inform his demon daughter. Me and Lisa's dad actually really got along and he even took my side after Lisa and I broke up. But after all these events transpired he obviously had a negative opinion of me.
15 minutes after I get off the phone with her Lisa's dad, I get a call from Lisa. I answer because I want to hear her reaction to having all these other girls shit mixed in with hers. She was sobbing uncontrollably. It sounded like that half crying half mumbling thing people do when they are hysterical. She wasn't even angry, just desperately begging me to point to stop my tyranny.
I just smiled and baked in the glory of hearing her hurt. I responded "why were their other guys in our relationship? you mixed them into our relationship like I mixed other girls shit into your shit. Its perfect little ironic metaphor". I thought it sounded cool at the time and was real proud of myself. (*facepalm*)
I later found out from one of Lisa's friends (who knew she was cheating on me during our relationship) that Lisa was convinced I WAS THE ONE cheating on her because "I was always out of town." This doesn't make sense since I was out of town because of basketball, a very legit excuse. Not just randomly on my own accord. You could literally see my schedule on the school's website. I kept in contact with her constantly when I was gone but obviously when I had practice or team meetings I couldn't be on my phone. But she didn't have the logic in her brain to figure this out I guess. I assume its just an excuse she made to protect her insecurities about the whole fiasco or to keep face with people who knew she was cheating.
[months go by]
Lisa comes back to school from her medical leave and we bump into each other at the physical therapy center in our athlete facility building. I see this as yet another opportunity. It had been a while since I did something that hurt her and I was still hungry for more vengeance. I proceed to pretend like I want to rekindle things with her. She is cautious at first but eventually bites after about a week. We start to mend our "relationship". We proceed for about a month but I wouldn't call this a relationship. I forbid her to have any male friends nor is she allowed to go out and party with her girlfriends. I also need full access to all her accounts and her location at all times. It was more like a hostage situation. It gave me a sense of control.
Meanwhile I'm not being faithful at all. This was my plan all along. Finally, she finds out about me sleeping with a girl in one of her classes and we have a nasty "breakup". I told her that she literally knows what it felt like to be me when we last dated. Yet again, I felt Triumphant. It was just another chance to hurt her and I did.
[After this we don't speak for YEARS.]
I graduate university and move to Central America. She messages me while I'm there about a year after I moved and about 2 years after we last spoke. At this point my life has become that of a real degenerate. I was doing copious amounts of drugs on a daily basis and about 75% of my life was involved in some sort of illegal or nefarious activities. But I still blame her for me becoming the dark soul that I was and taking no responsibility for bitter immoral nature. I hadn't had another relationship since her and always had trouble because I couldn't trust a women in any capacity anymore. Even after years had passed, I saw this instance of her messaging me as yet another opportunity to hurt her.
We begin to talk as friends and even getting flirty with each other over Facebook messenger. Mind you there is literally many countries, states and an ocean between us at this point. I was planning a trip back to my old university to visit some friends. However I told her was different: I explained to her I was moving back to the city for a new job I was just offered. We decide to meet up when I get back and see if there is anything worth saving between us. I had put on my best acting hat and try to seem like I've put our past behind us. However I'm just as vengeful now as I was years ago. She's finishing up her last year at University and I make the trip back to the USA.
I meet Lisa at a coffee shop when I arrive.. We spend the entire night together. From her point of view it really looks like we had moved past our differences and what happened. We could actually work things out.
However I'm not moving back obviously like I told her. I am only stay 2 nights. She doesn't know this. After hooking up a few times and spending 2 days together, without mentioning anything to her about me leaving, I pack my things and get back on a plane back to Central America.
I blocked her on all my social media and communication outlets. This time I could only fantasize about what happened to her when I disappeared after she thought I had moved back and supposedly was ready to give our relationship another try. This time however it wasn't as satisfying as my previous plots of revenge.
My drug habit and lifestyle only got worse every year. 3 years later I was hospitalized and almost died because of my extended drug use. I was never sober a full 24 hours after that day that went through that fucking period calendar.
[Looking back]
As much pain as I might have caused her with my vengeful life, my new identity that consumed my old one was so tainted with a dark spirit at heart. I think I honestly did more harm to myself with my actions and led me to down the road where I had no morals anymore. Though I spent the entirety of this story telling everyone of how I kept getting revenge at my X for cheating on me, as satisfying as it was, I wish I would have spent an equal amount of energy healing myself from the incident. If anyone reading this is experiencing the pain that comes with cheating, a good revenge story can bring you some satisfaction but I hope you don't make the same mistake I did. Rather spend MORE time healing yourself from the hurt and moving past it. The revenge wont heal you. It will be a separate journey but could distract you from putting yourself back together.
Luckily I got sober and am sober now 4+ years. I even had another girl friend of 2 years cheat on me before I got sober but this time I didn't take revenge. I spent my time healing. I changed and only focused on myself and that was way more satisfying than the revenge I got on Lisa for cheating on me.
Now I'm married almost 2 years to a woman who is sober and man do I have a good life. I have a dream job and a dream marriage. Thank you everyone who read this. Sorry if it wasn't well written I never write like this but I have never told the full story in detail before and I got a lot out of writing it.
Mostly what I hope to get from this is to share my experiences doing horrible things but feeling an immense satisfying feel from it where its almost addictive. And morphing from generally a good person to a relatively dark evil one.. Obviously people have dark moments but I feel like my personality and psyche has never been the same since that experience. I'm looking forward to any responses to the people willing to read this shit.
[written by commenter] TLDR: OP dated a woman a few years younger than him in college, Lisa. Lisa kept a period tracker and kept when she had unprotected sex, while documenting their sex for gf who had fallen asleep, OP saw she had been having unprotected sex with at least 4 dudes since they had been dating. OPs roommate kicked her out. OP decided to get revenge. This started with fucking all 3 of her relay partners (track team) which eventually led to the team crashing. They also had bfs, so OP used this as fuel to say that women are the problem, not him. At this time OP starts going down the rabbit hole with drugs and alcohol. This continued on for a long time, and OP started keeping an item from women that would be identifiable to Lisa for his plan. He would purposely “target” (own words) girls close to Lisa so drama would be worse, and he would have more ammunition to hurt her. Lisa took a mental health break from depression, and came to OPs house asking for her stuff back. He brought it to her parents and put all the items he had been collecting. She called him crying and he reveled in it. Months later, they run into each other at PT and he convinces her to give it another shot, knowing its a game. Knowingly holds her “hostage,” no guy friends, no parties, no going out, all while cheating. They eventually break up. Years later, OP is contacted by Lisa and says hes moving back to their country for a job. (IRL hes going for a 2 day visit) and basically catfishes her into trying to date him again, they meet up and hang out the whole time. He then packs up and leaves without a word to hurt her again. After this OP goes down a bad road with drugs and alcohol, ends up in the hospital, and has another Gf cheat on him. He did not take revenge on her. OP is now married, and has a good job and has (presumably) been clean. He is also aware of how toxic it all is. I think that’s everything

ACC

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Boston College Boston College	Kansas 48, Boston College 24	Jayhawks break 48-game road skid vs. Power 5	For the first time in CFB history, Kansas has won a road game against a P5 opponent.
Clemson Clemson	Clemson 35, Alabama 31	Clemson dethrones Bama, ends title drought	With Alabama and Clemson both scoring, 77 college football teams out of the 78 total teams have now scored in the bowl season. Congrats on another exciting college football season, everyone!
Duke Duke	Duke 38, Notre Dame 35	Reeds kicks game-winning field goal as Duke beats Notre Dame	I've got to give it to that Fighting Irish team. They fought til the very end and did not cave in. Once push came to shove, however, their inexperience and lack of poise became clear as crystal. Brian Kelly is building something special up there in South Bend. He's in his 8th season and will need a bit more to get his system in place. They're probably not bowling this season, but look for them to be a solid 9-3 team in two or three seasons.
Florida State Florida State	Boise State 36, Florida State 31	Boise St. rallies past Florida St. 36-31 behind Freshman QB	Florida State got outscored 25-0 in the final 19 minutes, at home, by a freshman qb. EVERYBODY GET IN HERE
Georgia Tech Georgia Tech	The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24	FCS's The Citadel knocks off Georgia Tech in OT	This is God’s way of punishing Georgia Tech for abandoning the Triple Option
Louisville Louisville	Houston 36, Louisville 10	Houston spoils Louisville's playoff hopes with 36-10 win	Houston D vs Louisville O-line tonight
Miami Miami	Pittsburgh 24, Miami 14	Freshman Pickett leads Pitt to 24-14 upset over No. 2 Miami	Pitt just played the land grab version of taking your ball and going home.
NC State NC State	NC State 27, Florida State 21	Finley leads NC State to 27-21 upset of No. 12 Florida State	I'm not 100% on the rules here, but since FSU has only played two games this season I'm pretty sure they can stop playing and just consider this their redshirt season.
North Carolina North Carolina	Clemson 21, North Carolina 20	No. 1 Clemson stuffs 2-point try to escape UNC	This game was like hitting yourself with a banana peel in Mario kart an inch before the finish line
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh 24, Miami 14	See Miami
Syracuse Syracuse	Syracuse 27, Clemson 24	Dungey has 3 TD passes, Syracuse stuns No. 2 Clemson 27-24	No ranked matchups this week. Hold on to your butts, gentlemen...
Virginia Virginia	Virginia 39, Virginia Tech 30	Perkins, late FG lift Virginia past No. 23 Hokies, 39-30	Words never spoken on reddit before: Virginia has beaten Virginia Tech in football.
Virginia Tech Virginia Tech	Old Dominion 49, Virginia Tech 35	ODU shocks No. 13 Virginia Tech with backup QB	Old Dominion just needs to kneel the clock out to win. Proceeds to run it into the endzone for a TD
Wake Forest Wake Forest	Wake Forest 55, Texas A&M 52	Wolford throws 4 TD passes, Wake Forest tops Texas A&M 55-52	Belk Bowl = Best Bowl

American

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Cincinnati Cincinnati	Cincinnati 27, UCF 24	Cincinnati ends UCF's AAC winning streak at 19	UC Twitter coming in with the heat
ECU East Carolina	UCF 32, East Carolina 30	UCF converts Hail Mary to burn East Carolina	CARDIAC MOTHERFUCKING KNIGHTS UPVOTE PARTY!!! AAC (co)CHAMPS! HOLLLLY SHIT!
Houston Houston	Army 70, Houston 14	Army ties bowl blowout record in 56-point rout	1991 Iraq put up more of a fight against Army than Houston just did
Memphis Memphis	UCF 56, Memphis 41	Mack shines, No. 7 UCF beats Memphis 56-41 for AAC title	How do you blow two 31-14 games in one season to the same team?
Navy Navy	Army 21, Navy 17	Army ends 14-year losing streak against Navy	Don't let Army breaking the streak distract you from the fact that the CBS broadcast missed the final 3rd-and-1 play.
SMU SMU	Memphis 54, SMU 48	White, Gibson help Memphis hand SMU first loss	Most of this game felt more like a highlight reel than a live game. What an entertaining matchup.
Temple Temple	Temple 20, Maryland 17	Temple's goal-line stands clutch in win over No. 21 Maryland	Again. Temple: 2-0. Miami: 0-2. Manny Diaz: A bitch
Tulane Tulane	Tulane 38, Houston 31	McCleskey's TD with 3 seconds left seals Tulane's win	Congratulations! You've completed an ESPN Instant Classic!
Tulsa Tulsa	Tulsa 34, UCF 31	Rainey FG, 4th-down stop lift Tulsa over UCF 34-31	Losing on an illegal substitution after calling a timeout. YIKES.
UCF UCF	UCF 34, Auburn 27	Milton powers No. 12 UCF to 34-27 Peach Bowl win over Auburn	UCF stands for U: Fuck - C: The - F: Committee
USF USF	UCF 49, USF 42	No. 12 UCF caps perfect regular season with win over USF	GAME OF THE YEAR

Big 12

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Baylor Baylor	Oklahoma 34, Baylor 31	Sooners rally from 28-3 to give Baylor 1st loss	BAYLOR BLEW A 28-3 LEAD
Iowa State Iowa State	Iowa State 38, Oklahoma 31	Cyclones rally from 24-10 hole, stun No. 3 OU	LOL @ THAT IOWA STATE PLAYER WHO COULD BE HEARD YELLING 'WHO'S YOU'RE DADDY?' AFTER THAT TURNOVER ON DOWNS TO SEAL THE WIN.
Kansas Kansas	Kansas 48, Boston College 24	See Boston College
Kansas State Kansas State	Kansas State 48, Oklahoma 41	QB runs for 4 TDs as K-State trips No. 5 Sooners	Hurts kept looking around wondering where that Bama defense was.
Oklahoma Oklahoma	Georgia 54, Oklahoma 48	Georgia beats Oklahoma 54-48 in Rose Bowl	You have just completed an instant classic. Thank you for watching.
Oklahoma State Oklahoma State	Central Michigan 30, Oklahoma State 27	CMU shocks Oklahoma St. on Hail-and-lateral	wew lad
TCU TCU	Iowa State 14, TCU 7	No. 25 Iowa State upsets No. 4 TCU 14-7	Iowa State is officially the God of Chaos this season.
Texas Texas	Maryland 51, Texas 41	Maryland tops Texas to spoil Herman's debut	don’t want to overreact but Maryland is a football school now, we’re going to win the championship, DJ Moore for Heisman
Texas Tech Texas Tech	Kansas 37, Texas Tech 34	Late field goal propels Kansas to victory over Texas Tech	Did we just see a dumber way to lose a football game than “WOAH”?
West Virginia West Virginia	Iowa State 30, West Virginia 14	Iowa State throttles No. 6 West Virginia 30-14	top 10 team goes to Ames and gets upset by an unranked ISU at night. Welcome to the club, WVU. & no the nightmares don’t go away.

Big Ten

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Illinois Illinois	Illinois 24, Wisconsin 23	Champaign's poppin: Illini shock No. 6 Badgers	I think it’s time we all have a talk with Illinois. Rutgers accepts their beatings every week with no push back. I mean first a close game against Michigan last week, now UPSETTING Wisconsin, it’s gone too far.
Indiana Indiana	Tennessee 23, Indiana 22	Tennessee scores twice late to stun Indiana 23-22 in Gator	"fuck /cfb" -Tennessee
Iowa Iowa	Iowa 55, Ohio State 24	Stanley, Hawkeyes throttle No. 3 Ohio State 55-24	Urban walks into postgame press conference and leans somberly into the microphone. “I choose to live my life as a gay man.”
Maryland Maryland	Maryland 51, Texas 41	See Texas
Michigan Michigan	Ohio State 30, Michigan 27	Samuel's TD lifts Buckeyes over Michigan in 2OT	Well this shouldn't be controversial.
Michigan State Michigan State	Michigan State 14, Michigan 10	Michigan St beats No. 7 Michigan 14-10 for 8th time in 10 games	Now Michigan, I know you are mad, but don’t take it out on your old buddy Indiana.
Minnesota Minnesota	Minnesota 31, Penn State 26	No. 17 Minnesota hands No. 4 Penn St. 1st loss	MINNESOTA IS A FUCKING WAGON
Nebraska Nebraska	Colorado 34, Nebraska 31	Colorado comes back to beat No. 25 Nebraska 34-31 in OT	UNRANK NEBRASKA, YOU COWARDS
Northwestern Northwestern	Ohio State 52, Northwestern 3	Fields leads No. 4 Ohio State past Northwestern 52-3	Post game announcer “hey Justin, what’s the difference between the team this year and the osu teams of the past 2 years” like Justin wasn’t on Georgia and could somehow answer that question
Ohio State Ohio State	Purdue 49, Ohio State 20	No. 2 Ohio State stumbles at Purdue, gets blown out 49-20	Really cool of Purdue to beat cancer in front of Tyler
Penn State Penn State	Minnesota 31, Penn State 26	See Minnesota
Purdue Purdue	Purdue 49, Ohio State 20	See Ohio State
Rutgers Rutgers	Kansas 55, Rutgers 14	Takeaways, run game lead Kansas to 55-14 blowout of Rutgers	Rutgers may have gotten blown the fuck out by the Kansas fucking Jayhawks, but at least the B1G captured that lucrative New York cable market.
Wisconsin Wisconsin	Illinois 24, Wisconsin 23	See Illinois

Conference USA

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Charlotte Charlotte	Buffalo 31, Charlotte 9	Buffalo tops Charlotte 31-9 in Bahamas Bowl	Buffalo has now won their first bowl game ever!
FIU FIU	FIU 30, Miami 24	FIU shocks Miami as 'homecoming' goes bad	That sound you hear is the hordes of FIU students and alumni taking off their UM apparel in disgust.
FAU Florida Atlantic	FAU 50, Akron 3	Lane Train: Kiffin and FAU leave no doubt, beat Akron 50-3	Don’t fool yourselves, this was not a football game. This was purely a recruiting event for FAU.
Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech	Louisiana Tech 14, Miami 0	Louisiana Tech beats Miami 14-0 in Independence Bowl	First off, full disclosure - I am not a Miami person. Second off - after watching this frankly mortifying Miami vs. LA Tech adaptation of Shreveport, LA’s Independence Bowl, I’m not altogether sure I am a football person anymore either.
Marshall Marshall	UCF 48, Marshall 25	UCF gets 10th by beating Marshall 48-25 in Gasparilla Bowl	Commentating: trash. Player civility: non existent. First half offense: trash. Second half defense: trash. Overall a very fun game to watch. Good job UCF
Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee	UAB 27, Middle Tennessee 25	UAB wins C-USA title 4 years after cutting sport	From literally being nonexistent in 2016 to winning their first ever conference championships in 2018, UAB has the best story
North Texas North Texas	North Texas 44, Arkansas 17	North Texas stuns Arkansas in 44-17 rout	Arkansas: "We Ar Kansas now"
Old Dominion Old Dominion	Old Dominion 49, Virginia Tech 35	See Virginia Tech
Rice Rice	Army 14, Rice 7	Army holds off Rice 14-7	That final Army scoring drive: 18 plays, 96 yards, 9:21. God bless America.
Southern Miss Southern Miss	Florida State 42, Southern Miss 13	Florida State beats Southern Miss 42-13 in Independence	How many of you people disrespecting my bowl eligibility have ever been 6-6 or spent a significant amount of time being 6-6? I grew up in a bowl streak and it's my streak; the way that people disrespect the streak every year around /CFB is absurd. Do yourself a favor and go 6-6 before throwing your stones. Consider how you would feel if your streak that you love was constantly being shit on by people who have no idea how many scholarships Delaware State has. It's rude, disrespectful. Just stop.
UAB UAB	UAB 37, Northern Illinois 13	UAB's Johnston, Ubosi torch N. Illinois in Boca Raton Bowl	First time 11 win season, first bowl victory, first conference championship. This is the golden age of UAB Football. This will be a good offseason
UTEP UTEP	UTEP 34, Rice 26	UTEP ends 20-game skid with 34-26 win over Rice	You do NOT want to play UTEP after they lose 20 straight games!
UTSA UTSA	UTSA 17, Baylor 10	UTSA gets 1st win over Power 5 with 17-10 win at Baylor	1st win against a P5 team in program history HYPE
WKU Western Kentucky	WKU 45, Arkansas 19	Storey leads Western Kentucky past former team Arkansas	Arkansas just lost to a 5-4 CUSA team. At home. By 26.

Independents

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Army Army	Army 70, Houston 14	See Houston
BYU BYU	BYU 29, Tennessee 26	BYU rallies to beat Tennessee 29-26 in OT	At least your rival Georgia State almost lost
Liberty Liberty	Liberty 48, Baylor 45	Liberty shocks Baylor 48-45 in Rhule's debut for Bears	Texas: We are the worst team in the Big 12. Baylor: Not so fast my friend!
New Mexico State New Mexico State	New Mexico State 26, Utah State 20	New Mexico State beats Utah State 26-20 in Arizona Bowl	I couldn't have less of a stake in this game, but I dont think I will be happier for a team to win a bowl game this year.
Notre Dame Notre Dame	Texas 50, Notre Dame 47	Texas edges No. 10 Notre Dame in 2OT thriller	That block was the most "buffalo wild wings" moment I've ever seen.
Connecticut UConn	Missouri 9, Connecticut 6	No. 22 Missouri has tough time holding off UConn	A 9-6 game with no FGs. Unreal.
UMass	Tennessee 17, UMass 13	Pass rush helps sluggish Tennessee outlast UMass 17-13	I don't wanna say "UMass would have won if their starting QB hadn't gotten hurt" but...

MAC

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Akron Akron	FAU 50, Akron 3	See Florida Atlantic
Ball State Ball State	Miami (OH) 21, Ball State 20	Miami (OH) edges Ball State 21-20, becomes bowl eligible	Holy fucking shit, they actually did it
Bowling Green Bowling Green	Ohio State 77, Bowling Green 10	No. 6 Ohio St posts record romp over Bowling Green 77-10	Michigan wins by 60, Ohio State wins by 67. We struggle with Furman. That does not do much for my confidence about our title chances.
Buffalo Buffalo	Western Michigan 71, Buffalo 68	Western Michigan slips past Buffalo 71-68 in 7 OTs	Was anyone else just cheering for the game to go on for as long as possible?
Central Michigan Central Michigan	Central Michigan 30, Oklahoma State 27	See Oklahoma State
Eastern Michigan Eastern Michigan	Eastern Michigan 20, Purdue 19	Eagles beat Boilermakers 20-19 on last-second field goal	At this point we just need to rename the west to the Wisconsin and friends division.
Kent State Kent State	Kent State 51, Utah State 41	Kent State beats Utah State for 1st bowl victory	We finally won one!
Miami (OH) Miami (OH)	Ohio State 76, Miami (OH) 5	Fields shines as No. 6 Ohio State trounces Miami (Ohio) 76-5	Miami blew a 5-0 lead
Northern Illinois Northern Illinois	Northern Illinois 21, Nebraska 17	MAC attack: N. Illinois shocks host Huskers	Fire Mike Riley. Bulldoze Memorial stadium. End football
Ohio Ohio	Western Michigan 29, Ohio 23	No. 13 WMU holds on, beats Ohio 29-23 in MAC title game	╭( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)╯╲_____ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️️⛵️️⛵️️⛵️️⛵️️⛵️️⛵️️Oh, don't mind me, just rowing the boat the Cotton Bowl
Toledo Toledo	Toledo 16, Arkansas 12	Ex-Bama QB leads Toledo in upset of Arkansas	Maybe Bielema shouldn’t have been looking past an unranked team, while looking at all their ranked opponents. Great game Toledo!
Western Michigan Western Michigan	Western Michigan 71, Buffalo 68	See Buffalo

Mountain West

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Air Force Air Force	Air Force 31, Washington State 21	Air Force tops Washington State 31-21 at Cheez-It Bowl	I thought the US military didn’t torture innocents.
Boise State Boise State	Boise State 36, Florida State 31	See Florida State
Colorado State Colorado State	Idaho 61, Colorado State 50	Idaho outscores Colorado State 61-50 in Potato Bowl	Don't let this game distract you from the fact that Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt.
Fresno State Fresno State	Fresno State 19, Boise State 16	No. 24 Fresno State outlasts No. 19 Boise State in snow	It's fitting that we lost to Fresno for the first time on the blue was because it was covered in white. GG Fresno
Hawai'i Hawaii	Hawaii 45, Arizona 38	Byrd's 4 TD night leads Hawaii past Arizona 45-38	A bunch of touchdowns scored? Check. A bunch of touchdowns allowed? Check. A shit ton of turnovers? Check. A shit ton of plays that were almost turnovers? Check. A receiver going off for 200+ yards and a crapload of touchdowns? Check. A cocaine binge-esque atmosphere from start to finish? Check. Hawaii blowing a double digit lead and finding a way to win anyway? Check. Lads, this was peak Week Zero Hawaii football.
Nevada Nevada	Nevada 34, Purdue 31	Nevada stuns on 56-yard FG; K gets scholarship	That was straight up fuckin peak Purdue football
New Mexico New Mexico	Notre Dame 66, New Mexico 14	Book throws for 5 TDs as No. 7 Notre Dame routs New Mexico	ND was playing with just random students at the end
San Diego State San Diego State	San Diego State 20, Stanford 17	Lights out! After darkness delay, SDSU edges No. 19 Stanford	FUCK THE CHARGERS SAN DIEGO HAS THE AZTECS.
San José State San Jose State	San Jose State 31, Arkansas 24	San Jose State upsets Arkansas with late score	A team that entered the day with a 4-23 record in their last 27 games, was a 19.5-point underdog, and had lost 25 straight games against Power 5 teams since 2006. That's who Arkansas lost to tonight, at home.
UNLV UNLV	Howard 43, UNLV 40	Howard ignores spread, dumps UNLV 43-40 as 45-point underdog	HAHA, THEY LOST TO AN FCS TEAM! WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS!
Utah State Utah State	Michigan State 38, Utah State 31	Heyward helps No. 11 Michigan State beat Utah State 38-31	Utah State: "Let's go out for dinner." Girlfriend: "What are my options?" Utah State: "What's an option?"
Wyoming Wyoming	Wyoming 37, Missouri 31	Wyoming upsets Missouri 37-31 behind Chambers, Valladay	lol what SEC team would lose to a double digit G5 underdog?

Pac-12

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Arizona Arizona	Purdue 38, Arizona 35	Purdue caps Brohm's 1st year with 38-35 bowl win vs. Arizona	Michigan now has a win over a team with a winning record.
Arizona State Arizona State	Arizona State 31, Oregon 28	Arizona State holds on to sun No. 6 Oregon	The state of Arizona. Where Pac-12 playoff hopes go to die
California California	California 37, Washington State 3	Pick 5: Golden Bears shock Falk, No. 8 Wazzou	Damn, 3 HUGE upsets today. Cuse over Clemson. Cal over Wazzu. UNC over the NCAA Infractions Committee
Colorado Colorado	Colorado 34, Nebraska 31	See Nebraska
Oregon Oregon	Arizona State 31, Oregon 28	See Arizona State
Oregon State Oregon State	Stanford 15, Oregon State 14	No. 20 Stanford comes back for 15-14 win over Oregon State	you ever wonder how a game with 53 strangers going against 53 different strangers playing fancy catch with a dead inflated pig’s hide can make you pick up the bottle
Stanford Stanford	Washington 44 ,Stanford 6	Purple Haze: No. 10 Washington rolls No. 7 Stanford 44-6	So, uh, guys, I think Washington might be the real deal
UCLA UCLA	UCLA 45, Texas A&M 44	UCLA storms back from 34 down to stun Aggies	Very impressive by A&M, aready in mid-season form on week 1
USC USC	USC 52, Penn State 49	USC hits FG at gun, beats Penn State 52-49 in epic Rose Bowl	this game was so exciting that it nearly made me forget that ohio state scored zero points and lost by 31 points to clemson in the fiesta bowl
Utah Utah	Oregon 37, Utah 15	No. 13 Oregon ends No. 5 Utah's playoff hopes with 37-15 win	UTAH IS OFFICIALLY ELIMINATED FROM PLAYOFF CONTENTION. CONFERENCE. OF. CANNIBALS.
Washington Washington	Arizona State 13, Washington 7	Sun Devils use strong defense to stun No. 5 Huskies 13-7	Final Tally of Chaos: 2 Clemson, 5 Washington, 8 Washington State, 10 Auburn, 19 San Diego State, 24 Texas Tech, 25 Navy. It has been a successful weekend for Team Chaos boys.
Washington State Washington State	UCLA 67, Washington State 63	UCLA, down 32 in 3rd, rallies to stun No. 19 WSU	Imagine 9 Touchdown Passes not being enough to win a college football game

SEC

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Alabama Alabama	Auburn 48, Alabama 45	Bama's CFP hopes end on Iron Bowl missed FG	EVERYBODY GET IN HERE, BUT NOT TOO MANY OF YOU, WE DON'T WANT A FLAG
Arkansas Arkansas	Virginia Tech 35, Arkansas 24	No. 18 Va. Tech stages epic comeback, tops Arkansas 35-24	YOU PUT YOUR OFFENSE IN, AND THEY GET SHUT OUT! YOU PUT YOUR DEFENSE IN, AND IN THE FIRST HALF THEY'RE BLOWN OUT! YOU DO THE HOKIE POKEY AND THE NEXT HALF THEY WIN OUT! THAT'S WHAT THIS BOWL'S ABOUT!
Auburn Auburn	Auburn 48, Alabama 45	See Alabama
Florida Florida	Kentucky 27, Florida 16	Kentucky ends 31-game losing streak to Florida	FREE AT LAST!!! FREE AT LAST!!! THANK GOD ALMIGHTY IM FREE AT LAST!!!!!!
Georgia Georgia	South Carolina 20, Georgia 17	No. 3 UGA falls to S. Carolina on FG miss in 2OT	There’s a very good chance someone in attendance at today’s Georgia game also attended Wednesday’s Braves game. If this is you, please don’t hesitate to seek help.
Kentucky Kentucky	Kentucky 27, Florida 16	See Florida
LSU LSU	LSU 46, Alabama 41	Burrow leads LSU over Bama, eyes 'bigger goals'	LSU defeats Alabama on the road in a shootout thanks to their likely Heisman winning QB. Yep, we're living in a simulation
Mississippi State Mississippi State	Mississippi State 21, Ole Miss 20	Ole Miss falls after WR's urinating dog celebration	Ole Miss just lost because they celebrated a TD by pretending to be a dog pissing on the field. You can't make this shit up
Missouri Missouri	Wyoming 37, Missouri 31	See Wyoming
Ole Miss Ole Miss	Mississippi State 21, Ole Miss 20	See Mississippi State
South Carolina South Carolina	South Carolina 20, Georgia 17	See Georgia
Tennessee Tennessee	BYU 29, Tennessee 26	See BYU
Texas A&M Texas A&M	Texas A&M 74, LSU 72	Mond helps aggies over No. 8 LSU 74-72 in 7 OTs	LSU Fans: Our offense is always awful, just once in my life i'd love us to score 70. monkey's paw curls
Vanderbilt Vanderbilt	Vanderbilt 17, Georgia 16	Stunner between the hedges: Vandy upsets Georgia 17-16	Mark Richt died for this.

Sun Belt

Team	Game Result	Headline	Top Comment
Appalachian State Appalachian State	Georgia Southern 24, Appalachian State 21	Georgia Southern stuns No. 20 Appalachian State again	AP Ranked Sun Belt Teams are now 0-3 all time when playing on Thursday Nights. Sun Belt ThursdAP 25 Night Curse lives on!!!
Arkansas State Arkansas State	Appalachian State 35, Arkansas State 9	Appalachian State beats Arkansas State 35-9	Say it with me, everyone: RANK APP STATE.
Coastal Carolina Coastal Carolina	Coastal Carolina 12, Kansas 7	Coastal Carolina overpowers Kansas 12-7	At least we’re not Tennessee.
Georgia Southern Georgia Southern	Georgia Southern 24, Appalachian State 21	See Appalachian State
Georgia State Georgia State	Georgia State 38, Tennessee 30	Tennessee stunned as Georgia St. rallies for win	The great thing about returning so many starters is we really picked up right where we left off last year.
Louisiana Louisiana	Appalachian State 17, Louisiana 7	App State tops ULL 17-7 in rematch of Sun Belt title game	Alright so Sun Belt Rankings: 1. App State, 2. ULL, 3. What the fuck
ULM Louisiana-Monroe	ULM 34, Arkansas 31	Louisiana-Monroe stuns No. 8 Arkansas in OT	SEC-SEC-SEC-SEC-SEC-SEC-SEC!!!!!!!!...wait
South Alabama South Alabama	South Alabama 21, Mississippi State 20	South Alabama stuns Mississippi State 21-20 after missed FG	pulls out football schedule goes to Miss St game erases the "L" I had penciled in
Texas State Texas State	Houston 64, Texas State 3	No .6 Houston routs Texas State 64-3 to remain unbeaten	Damn, we almost had it there
Troy Troy	Troy 24, LSU 21	Tiger takedown: Troy gets road upset over LSU	Do you think LSU will fire Head Football Coach Ed Orgeron and replace him with professional Interim Head Coach Ed Orgeron?

On the offhand chance some of you developers actually read this subreddit (doubt it), check this out. Refer to this when you're wondering how to please the fan base. If you do these things, you won't be trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons. In fact, you may end up trending for the right reasons.
First off, let me start off with what we don't want:
No:

• The Yard, FOTF, Long Shot, Superstar KO, whatever you'll add in next year, etc. etc.
  
• Pointless additions that don't affect gameplay. Big play celebrations? Who cares?
  

That basically covers everything. You only have a year between games to add new content and I understand that. I understand that you won't be able to add everything players want in a single year, but when there's a growing list of concerns that are answered by some half-assed effort like FOTF, we begin to wonder where the priorities truly lie. Stop making us wonder, and start addressing some of the aging aspects of your game. Stop working on new things when there are old things to take care of first. It's like slapping a fart exhaust on a 2000s Honda Civic when you can just use that money more wisely elsewhere. Trust us: nobody will be upset if there are no FOTF-like modes next year and the game simply dropped with Play Now, Franchise, MUT, and H2H as long as you put the effort you would've used on FOTF into core game modes.
Here are some things you could work on.
Gameplay:

• Get rid of the animation system that has been a staple of EA Sports football games for generations now. I'm still seeing the same tackles and catch animations that I saw in last generation games. That shouldn't happen. Backbreaker gave us a brilliant glimpse at what a true physics-based engine is capable of. Yes, the gameplay was rough and the engine needed work (it was a little too rag-dolly at times), but the groundwork was there and a very, very small studio that isn't even wholly focused on gaming brought that effort to the table. Can the animations. Tackles, catches, blocking, etc. should all be done dynamically.
  
• Improve AI logic. Running backs shouldn't force their way into the A-gap that I just stuffed two linebackers into; they should bounce out instead. Quarterbacks shouldn't merely throw at receivers as determined by their priority, but as part of a checkdown system. Why do defenses insist on running a nickel set at the goal line when I'm in the shotgun? When I call hot routes and audibles, I should see a linebacker on the other team directing players as well. Defenses need to adjust as the game goes on a play-calling pattern basis and also plan for my offense as the season goes. If I run mostly on 1st downs, they should aim to stop that. If I typically take shots downfield between the 40 yard lines, they should aim to stop that. If I have a weaker CB, I should see teams look to exploit that. If I have Tyreek Hill on my team and you press cover on 2nd and 3 on my own 40, there's a problem.
  
• More realism. The game still plays funny, even after all these years. Fuck "fairness", go with reality. Reality isn't fair. Don't penalize me for scrambling with Lamar Jackson with some bullshit fatigue hit or an increased likelihood to fumble. If your gameplay worked properly and the defenses adjusted accordingly, you wouldn't have to install those handicaps. Better yet, if there's a question about fairness, here's a thought: Allow players the freedom to turn things like scrambling punishments on or off. Give us the freedom to do that. Do that on a lot of cheese-related topics. For example, a setting that disallows players from running the same play more than 5 times ina game? Moving on... Quarterbacks as a whole are way too accurate and wide receivers catch way too many tough passes. Running backs still feel slow off right off of a handoff, as opposed to how quickly players like Adrian Peterson would hit the gaps. Blocking is still absolutely horrendous; I see blockers routinely let unblocked players fly right by them while they just sit there or run past them. Pass blocking is also atrocious. I'm glad the pass rush is beefed up, but the blocking in general is unrealistic and ugly. If ratings were done properly and players actually played with respect to their abilities, X-Factors wouldn't have to be a thing. The highly rated players would already feel like superstars on their own. Spreading out the ratings over the last few years was a step in the right direction, but it's still not enough in my opinion. I need to see a drastic, drastic difference between a player like Bobby Wagner and Nick Vigil, and it shouldn't be because Bobby Wagner has X-Factor abilities.
  

In respect to gameplay, those three are pretty big categories with lots of room for improvement, so I'll leave it at that. A physics based engine, an AI that actually includes the "intelligence" part of the equation, and a realistic simulation football game are all we want.
Franchise:

• NCAA 14 had Teambuilder. Madden has... nothing. Self explanatory.
  
• Proper, fully unlocked depth chart/formation subs. Why can't I have a shotgun formation where I slap Tyreek Hill at QB? Because Madden says so? I don't see it in the NFL rules, so why can't I do it?. Again, fuck your fairness. The only reason it's unfair is because your game fails to react, so fix your game instead of limiting what I can do. Furthermore, why are we still using antiquated, broad terms like MLB, FS, SS, etc.? If I run a base 4-2-5, what the fuck sense does it make for me to slap an OLB on a roster? Why is there no position for that 5th DB? If I run a Shotgun, why do I even have a slot for a FB on the depth chart? I should be able to tinker with these settings.
  
• Force trade for connected and offline franchises. No reason why this isn't in the game. Also, commissioners should be able to deny/reverse trades that are unfair or unrealistic.
  
• Improve the trade logic. The numerous examples posted here daily should suffice for reasoning. Also, why are there only 3 slots and two teams? Can we not orchestrate something bigger than that?
  
• We should have coaching trees and a proper carousel. NCAA 14 did it, why can't Madden?
  
• Create-A-Play/Create-A-Formation should absolutely exist. Once again, fuck your fairness. Add a setting to disable them if you don't want them in your connected franchise. If not, don't punish the ones who want it. This wouldn't be hard to add into the game at all. If I'm playing the background story of a rising college coach who is bringing his collegiate offense to the NFL, I should be able to walk into week 1 with a three quarterback formation or some shit.
  
• Relocation teams have been the same for like, 8 years now.
  
• Fix draft and free agency logic. In Madden 21, I'm still seeing the Seahawks pick up 85+ overall veteran FA quarterbacks with a 90+ Russell Wilson on the team. Why?
  
• We should be able to see future draft classes, and scout accordingly. We all know a guy like Rondale Moore was bound for the league since he started his first game at Purdue, so why is it suddenly a shocker to see him on the season before? I should know about Rondale Moore when he's a freshman. This way I can plan accordingly in my drafting.
  
• AI cap management is still awful. Way too many teams in the negative after 2 or 3 seasons.
  
• Progression is AWFUL. Fuck the mentality that players must "build their way up". We have rookie running backs in the league putting up top 5 rusher numbers, so why aren't the rare one or two rated accordingly right out of the draft? For some positions (QB, CB, etc.) I can understand this, but on a position that relies largely on physique and foot/handwork such as RB, OL, DL, etc... why? Also, the current system is a "if you play good, you get more experience to be better". It should be a "You get more experience to be better, so you will play good". That has to change. Most of a player's ability in real life comes through the offseason, not the actual season. Let's reflect that in franchise.
  
• NCAA 14 had an okay media presence, but we can take it further. If a player or team is exceeding expectations, they should be the talk of the town. If they're under-performing, they should likewise be the talk of all sports media. Morale, awareness, etc. should be affected by these in regards to a head coach's attributes (more on that later) and individual players' attributes and personality.
  
• If my QB has like, 25 touchdowns by week 6, I should hear commentary during the game about how insane the season is. If I've got a wide receiver who breaks the record for receiving yards in a game, I better hear some damn excitement from the commentary and see his name on the jumbotron. I should also see these in the news during the week, and my player's personality attribute should determine what effects, if any, he has from his up or down performances.
  
• More on personality. It should be a significant impact. If I've got an Aaron Rodgers type of guy and I draft a QB in the first round, I better hear him bitching about it. Shit, if it goes far enough, he ought to outright hold out and refuse to play/demand a trade. If I've got a Cam Newton type of dude, he should be a rollercoaster. As long as he's playing good and making good things happen, he should play better. If he throws a pick, his ratings need to take a temporary hit in-game.
  
• Realistic injuries. There should be more injuries, but less severe injuries. At one point in M20, I was playing a wide receiver at running back because I had THREE halfbacks go out with multiple-week injuries in a single game.
  
• Wanna cruise to an undefeated season? Not today, you aren't. The better your team is, the better an opposing team should play you. They should throw out plays you weren't gameplanning for, and plays that may not even traditionally be in their team's book. They should come into the game fired up and ready to rock and roll. Are you 2-10? Well, maybe the 12-0 Patriots sleep a little bit through the first half or so of the game and you end up ahead by a touchdown or two.
  
• Coaches need to matter. If you give Mike Tomlin the keys to Cincinnati last year, I guarantee that team wins 6 or 7 games. After all, most of their losses were by a touchdown or less.
  
• Coaching in general needs to be hugely overhauled. In NCAA 14, coaches had skill trees, but I think that concept can be expanded upon further. Perhaps a "coaching background" (defensive coach, offensive coach, up-and-comer, veteran coach, etc.) that gives a coach a passive boost that only coaches of that background will have. After that, you pour your experience earned into separate skill trees. Want your QBs to have access to additional hot routes? Unlock the "Omaha" skill in the Air Raid tree. Want your QBs to have a slight fatigue and injury boost? Unlock the "Bubblewrap" skill from the Dual Threat tree. Or, drop some points into the "Demoralize" skill on your offensive coordinator's "Offensive Wizard" tree, which automatically drops the opposing team to "cold" status if you receive the ball and score within 2 minutes of gameplay. Basically, there's a whole RPG element that could be tapped into here to really help you forge your own storyline.
  
• Historical stats. No comment needed. Also, playoff stats would be nice.
  
• More contract freedom. In particular, why can't we rework contracts? How about a contract incentive? Back or front loaded contracts? About player personalities, maybe they can influence how willing they are to accept a certain offer?
  
• Where are the compensatory draft picks?
  
• Sim stats are terrible. I simmed a season of Madden 21 (you know, the one with Lamar Jackson on the cover?) and he had like, 300 yards rushing. Why?
  
• Seriously, we're still using the same generic faces for players now for like, 8 years. Would it be that hard to drop a "Be in Madden!" event at a couple of high schools or something and run the football teams through a face scanner?
  
• The presentation is horrible. The Super Bowl celebration is the same. For an example on what you SHOULD do, take a look at a 2K game and follow their lead. This includes pre-game, halftime, post-game, special occasions (BCA/Salute to Service), the NFL Draft, and more.
  
• Why is there no combine?
  
• Can we get some more commentators in? I'm tired of hearing Gaudin and Davis. Why are there only two? Can we not do four, or even six? And why am I still hearing lines from Madden 17? The commentary in Madden is even worse than the NCAA commentary from 7 years ago.
  
• A long, long time ago, players in NCAA used to act up and you could choose whether to suspend them or not. Understandably, and similar to concussions being axed, that was removed in an effort to preserve the image of the NCAA. I understand if this cannot be included, but it'd be really cool to have some draftable players be flagged for character issues that may or may not manifest itself at the worst times.
  
• We need more freedom with our commissioner abilities. Instead of you doing it for us, we should be able to turn things like a QB fatigue/fumble punishment for scrambling on or off. We should be able to allow/disallow players to run the same play more than 5 times in a game. We should be able to allow/disallow unfair position changes. Shit, let's take it further: We should be able to override a player's retirement. We should be able to override a coach's firing. We should be able to change who wins the MVP. This is our franchise.
  

The list goes on, y'all. I'm not asking for all of this next year, but I am asking for a simple commitment to pursue a better GAME and better CORE modes, not a commitment to add some garbage ass story-driven mode in that gets abandoned/recycled year after year. 2K has been able to accomplish a lot of these things. EA, there is no excuse anymore. I rode your sinking ship for the longest time while everyone else jumped off, but even I can't back the product you released last week. This has to improve.

"We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows and count the cows and just move." - Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), saying he wants a big stimulus bill? Somehow?

More Than Bifartisanship

As the Biden administration and Senate Democrats move to pass a substantive coronavirus-relief bill with or without Republican support, a small GOP coalition has come forward with an interesting counteroffer: “What if we hacked this thing into tiny, useless pieces and called it unity?”

• Ten Senate Republicans led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-CONCERN) met with President Biden on Monday to pitch their $618 billion alternative coronavirus plan, which is less than one third the size of the Biden administration proposal that Democrats have already begun setting up to pass through budget reconciliation. The GOP Relief Lite bill leaves out any money for state and local governments, and shrinks down both stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits, but if Biden’s genuinely committed to bipartisanship and unity, he’s gotta let 10 Republicans unilaterally gut the coronavirus relief plan, right? What does bipartisanship even mean, if not “Republicans stay in control no matter what?”
  
• Thankfully, neither Biden nor Democratic leaders seem vulnerable to falling into that trap. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki emphasized that the meeting presented Biden an opportunity to hear Republicans out, not to negotiate: “The risk is not that it is too big, this package. The risk is that it is too small. That remains his view.” Biden himself called on Congress to pass his proposed plan immediately, albeit in a tweet completely devoid of caps-lock or typos—not very presidential of him. On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear that he’s done trying to kick this particular football: “We cannot do the mistake of 2009 where they whittled down the program so that the amount of relief was so small that the recession lasted 4 or 5 years. And then on the ACA, when they spent a year, a year and a half negotiating and then didn't come to any agreement.” Sing it, Chuck.
  
• Democrats have plenty of good reasons to gently but firmly shove Susan Collins & Co. into the reflecting pool if it means getting big agenda items passed quickly, and most of those reasons are “Republicans.” For one thing, Republicans are already openly bragging about their plans to gerrymander their way back into control of the House in 2022. At the same time, GOP state legislators around the country have already filed 106 bills to make voting less accessible. Those efforts could very well strip Democrats of their majority in two years, shutting down whatever’s left undone on Biden’s agenda. Even if they fail, the ramped-up antidemocratic maneuvers fully expose Republicans’ pleas for “bipartisan cooperation” to be a sick little joke.
  

On the coronavirus package in particular, Democrats’ list of reasons for not wasting time on bad-faith negotiations must also include “coronavirus.”

• With contagious new coronavirus variants spreading in the U.S. and creating the need for a much faster vaccine rollout, the Biden administration is still untangling the unbelievable mess it inherited. The overall pace of vaccine distribution is slowly picking up, but supplies are limited, and not just by manufacturing constraints: Biden’s coronavirus team is trying to locate 20 million vaccine doses that the federal government bought and distributed to states, which aren’t yet recorded as having been administered. Under the Trump administration’s “system,” responsibility for tracking the vaccines was left entirely up to the states once they were shipped, leaving the administration blind to the locations of languishing unused doses. Take a look in the back of your freezer, who knows what you’ll find in there!
  
• A cohesive national response can’t come quickly enough; we’re now a year into the pandemic, and things are getting weird(er) out there. In New York, at least nine top health officials have resigned in recent months as Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) increasingly sidelines his own state health department, shelving its vaccine distribution plan in favor of a rigid rollout that relies on large hospital systems. (Good thing Cuomo got his triumphant book finished early?) In Los Angeles, a group of anti-vaxxers temporarily shut down one of the country’s largest vaccination sites over the weekend, adding “deranged extremists with embarrassing signs” to the litany of potential vaccination challenges.
  

There are enough genuine obstacles to getting Americans vaccinated and onto more secure financial footing before new coronavirus strains have a chance to wipe out any gains; Democrats rightly see no reason to waste time trying to appease a radicalized Republican Party along the way. Now just to apply that same attitude to every other crisis the country faces.

Look No Further Than The Crooked Media

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Got questions or concerns about Medicare-for-All? This book answers them, introducing those concepts in simple, conversational language and going beyond the talking points. Got a parent who doesn't understand why you support M4A? This is the book you can buy them to explain it. Order Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide now, through your favorite indie bookseller →

Under The Radar

Thiamine deficiency is the hot new disorder sweeping the world’s marine ecosystems, and nobody knows exactly why. Early in 2020, salmon hatcheries across Northern California started reporting unusually high mortality rates among their fish, a problem that biologists found they could reverse by bathing the fish in thiamine, or vitamin B. That didn’t solve the underlying problem, though, and salmon aren’t the only victims: A lack of vitamin B has been causing illness and death in birds, fish, invertebrates, and possibly mammals all over the world. In 2016, a group of researchers published a paper hypothesizing that thiamine deficiency might be a cause of long-term wildlife population declines, and scientists are now pretty confident that humans are behind it all. The mechanism is still unknown—whether warmer oceans are affecting the microorganisms that produce thiamine, for example, or causing species of fish with a thiamine-destroying enzyme to dominate the food chain—but it’s becoming clear that decreased levels of a simple vitamin could be the start of an ecological emergency.

What Else?

House Democrats have introduced a resolution to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Q) of her committee assignments, as part of an ultimatum to Republican leaders to take care of this mess on their own.
Disgraced former president Donald Trump has hired two new impeachment lawyers after his ENTIRE DEFENSE TEAM QUIT OVER THE WEEKEND, because Trump wanted them to lie about imaginary voter fraud on the Senate floor. Anyway, meet Trump’s new elite strike force team: The guy who decided not to charge Bill Cosby with sexual assault, and a friend of Jeffrey Epstein who maintains that Epstein was murdered.
Rochester, NY, police officers handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a terrified nine-year-old girl per body-cam footage the police department released on Sunday, and have been suspended. Reason cops shouldn’t be the people responding to mental health crises #58572645.
A New Mexico county commissioner who was arrested for storming the Capitol had met with Trump twice during his term.
The Trump campaign spent just a fraction of its post-election fundraising on the actual legal effort to overturn the election—about a tenth of what it spent on advertising and fundraising.
Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver has been accused of online harassment by 21 men. Weaver allegedly sent unsolicited sexual solicitations to young men for years, sometimes offering professional or personal favors in exchange for sex.
Actor Evan Rachel Wood and four other women have accused Marilyn Manson of abuse.
A new study found that college football players sustained far more concussions in practices than in games, and asserted that the NCAA’s “recommendations” to combat concussions risks haven’t done much to help.
BREAKING: The president is a fun sock guy.

What In The World?

Myanmar’s military has seized control of the government in a coup, detaining senior politicians including the country’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. After five decades of military rule, Myanmar had been a quasi-democracy since 2011, when the military implemented parliamentary elections. This week, the new parliament was scheduled to hold its first session since the November 8 election, in which Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party won 83 percent of the open seats—results that the military refused to accept. (Some subtly familiar themes here!) Suu Kyi had cooperated with the military so thoroughly as to actively and repeatedly defend the country’s ethnic cleansing of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, but that evidently wasn’t enough to hold off a coup when her party started gaining strength. The military has announced it will stay in power for one year, the Biden administration has threatened sanctions, and because we live in a broken simulation, this lady continued filming her aerobics class while a coup went down behind her.

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Light At The End Of The Email

The Biden administration has reached a $230 million deal to boost availability of the first approved at-home, over-the-counter coronavirus test, which has been shown to be 96 percent accurate.
Oregon has become the first state to officially decriminalize the possession and personal use of all drugs.
Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have issued a joint statement pledging to advance comprehensive cannabis reform legislation.
Deborah Archer, a clinical law professor at NYU, has been elected the first Black president of the ACLU.

Enjoy

WUSA9 on Twitter: "The Giant Pandas at the @NationalZoo are enjoying DC's snow storm. The video shows slides, somersaults and pure panda joy from Mei Xiang and Tian Tian!"