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Ten Thoughts on the NFL: Chicago Bears and beyond

Check out my NFL Thoughts this week and be sure to add a few of your own in the comment section!

By Lester A. Wiltfong Jr.
Mike McGinnis/Getty Images

1) Do you remember the final offensive play by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX?

They decided to pass the ball on 2nd and 1 instead of handing the ball off to Marshawn Lynch. The ball was intercepted and it was game over.

I only bring that play up to put the following Twitter exchange in perspective. The latest edition of EA Sports' Madden game comes out soon and their player ratings are starting to trickle out. Lynch didn't get the max of a 99 rating in the Trucking category, which perplexed the Seahawks.

Which prompted EA Sports to fire back something that most NFL fans have thought since the waning seconds of the Super Bowl.

EA Sports for the Win!

2) Did you hear about LeSean McCoy's "Ladies Only" party that was scheduled for last night?

It's a private party at a private location and he only invited women. But not just any women, because any females that RSVP'ed to his shindig have to be at least 21 years old, provide a picture, hand over all social media info, plus sign a confidentiality agreement.

My first thought was some of McCoy's boys needed an assist picking up women and McCoy was just being a good friend in stacking the odds in his friends' favor.

EDIT: McCoy had a change of heart and decided to invite everybody to his party after-all.

3) After missing most of 2014 to a suspension, 30 year old Adrian Peterson has decided to make some goals.

He's sticking to the same lofty goal he has every offseason, and that is rushing for 2,500 yards. As out-there as that goal seems, Peterson may have the desire, health and motivation to achieve it. A year away may have done his body good and he'll be playing with a chip on his shoulder this season. He's always been a player in fantastic shape and with a competent, albeit young, quarterback under center, Peterson could flirt with the 2,105 yard record and beyond.

4) Do you remember that Dez Bryant catch that wasn't a catch?

The NFL decided to re-word the rule and it's so much less confusing now.

A player is considered to be going to the ground if he does not remain upright long enough to demonstrate that he is clearly a runner. If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball until after his initial contact with the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regain control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.

Yep. No more confusion there.

5) In another much talked about rule change, the NFL is altering the way they handle their balls.

It's a pretty lengthy explanation, so here it is in a nutshell.

Each team will hand over 24 balls for inspection and 2 refs will personally inspect each team's balls. The refs will number 12 of the balls (1-12) for use, with the other 12 held as backup balls. Each ball will be measured and a record of the measurement of the ball will kept. Any ball within the 12.5 to 13.5 PSI range will be allowed, but if a ball is too hard or too soft, the ball will be immediately put at 13.0 PSI.

There's some more mumbo-jumbo in regards to the kicking balls and how they are handled and something about random ball testing, yada yada yada...

At halftime all the balls are collected, checked and charted, and I hope I never feel the need to discuss balls again.

6) How long can an NFL player survive in a hot car?

The Arizona Cardinals' Tyrann Mathieu and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wanted to find out.

Eight minutes was all he could take.

7) Last week the New Orleans Saints dumped linebacker Junior Galette after he was identified in an old YouTube video hitting a woman.

Gallette went hard after his old teammates and coaches via his girlfriends Twitter account, which has since been deleted. But our sister site that covers the Saints -- Canal Street Chronicles -- has plenty of screen grabs from the account of you want to find out what a jackass Gallette is.

8) Speaking of the Saints...

Remember the bounty scandal from a few years ago? Former N.O. defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, recently spoke about his part in the controversy.

"One of the things was it was on my watch, but there was nothing that hasn't been done in the last 50 years in the sport and there was nothing done to try to hurt somebody," Williams continued. "There was never done with anybody trying to injure somebody. I've said this before, I take a look at all these high school programs, little league programs, college programs and you see the decals on the side of the helmet and you wonder, you get those decals because you shake hands and kiss after the game or you get those decals because you rushed for 100 and you threw 17 touchdown passes and you knocked the stuffing out of somebody?

"I remember over at Excelsior Springs when I'm 16 years old I had a big hit in a ballgame and all of a sudden I got a movie certificate and it wasn't because I helped the guy up, it's because I knocked the guy down. It's just one of those things that we're always trying to find little bitty advantages in sport and it was unfairly and uncharacteristically portrayed the wrong way."

Well...

It is one side to the argument, and with us a few years removed from the scandal, I'm sure some fans hear that and tend to agree with his comments. But if you remember correctly, Williams did instruct his players to hurt somebody and he even got specific.

Before his final game as Saints defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams offered cash to the man who struck 49ers QB Alex Smith in the head during the 2011 NFC playoffs.

Already the subject of an NFL investigation into bounties, Williams defied the league one last time in a pregame pep talk, instructing players to target Frank Gore and Kyle Williams' heads, Michael Crabtree's ACL and Vernon Davis' ankles, according to audio released by a documentary filmmaker who was on hand.

9) Sports Illustrated has a "Most Hated" in the NFL list and neither Jay Cutler nor the Chicago Bears were anywhere to be found!

The most hated player in the locker room was Percy Harvin and most hated player by fans was Johnny Manziel. Don't look now, but Everybody Loves Jay!

Soldier Field, widely panned by Bears fans because it looks like a spaceship landed on the old field and universally criticized for having consistent turf issues, not to mention having the smallest capacity in the NFL, wasn't named most hated stadium. That dubious honor went to Oakland's O.co Coliseum. Which begs the question; What the hell is O.co?

10) Saturday would have been Walter Payton's 61st birthday. You can check out ChicagoBears.com for a slideshow of photos of the greatest football player of all time.

And in case you missed it, watching Payton run the ball is what solidified my Bears' fandom.

We'll have some actual on the field football stuff to discuss next week!

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