IT’S CHAOS NOMINATION TIME
First off, if you missed the announcement on Monday, there will be a post every day this week, so if you didn’t check here Tuesday, you missed a comic! Check back tomorrow and Friday too!
CHAOS AWARD NOMINATIONS!
Time to award the stupidest shit from 2025!
Next Monday (before I take a vacation break), will be the annual chaos awards. This is the post where I want to hear from YOU.
Please comment here with your nominees, as well as making a case for them if you so choose. I will be choosing the winners and they will be posted on Monday. So, here are the categories once again, and with a small explanation as to what the criteria is that I’m looking for.
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – What players made a huge impact, both positive and negative, on the field. This player needs to have done some weird, unpredictable shit and generally made the season funnier.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – Which team made no sense? Maybe they were good but never won, or they won but were never good. Maybe they kept having bizarre games with high drama and wild nonsense.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – This is essentially the most chaotic play of the year. A wild gamewinner, or a play that completely turned the tide of a game, that sort of thing. It also doesn’t have to be a single play, it can be a series of quick events in a short time.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Basically the game that went hard. Turnovers, weird playcalls, massive impacts across the league standings.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Which coach always kept us on our toes? Can be a coordinator instead of head coach.
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – This one might be harder to come up with, so I want to emphasize this nomination includes the entire league year, from draft to post-super bowl. Hirings, firings, bonkers trades, you name it. If it was stupid, nominate it.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – This may also include anything from the calendar year’s offseason. Players get in trouble and do dumb stuff all the time. So do executives. So do owners!
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – The injury that changed the trajectory and vibe of a team and season the most.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – The one that let us down the most. Who did we have high expectations for only to watch them fall apart and let us down week after week? Can be a team or a particular individual.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – What team gave you no joy watching. Not hate watching, not funny watching, nothing but apathy and mild disgust. The kind of team that rolls off the eyes and makes you want to go do anything else.
Feel free to nominate more than one instance in each category if you have trouble picking.
ALSO: YOUR PICK FOR CHAOS HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2025! Vote for your pick of the names listed (or name one yourself you think I’ve missed and can put in for next year). The 3 top vote getters will be our new class. In case of any ties, I will be the deciding vote.
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAYER
Deion Sanders, Eli Manning, The Fridge, Fran Tarkenton, Michael Vick, Brett Favre, Marshawn Lynch, Jim Thorpe, Randal Cunningham, Kurt Warner, Patrick Mahomes, Peyton Hillis, Gale Sayers, Joe Namath, Chad OchoCinco, Bernard Pollard, Ryan Fitzpatrick, SEXY REXY, Terrell Owens, Devin Hester
NOMINATIONS FOR GAME
28-3 Patriots Comeback, The Famous Dolphins/Steelers Mud Punt game, Vikings Comeback against the Colts, the Bills Comeback against the Oilers in the playoffs, Jaguars sending Dan Marino into hell 62-7, 13 seconds, The Beastquake, Detroit/Philly Blizzard, The Fog Bowl
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAY
Immaculate Reception, Sea of Hands, Holy Roller, The Gary Anderson Miss, Wide Right, The Helmet Catch, The James Harrison Pick-6, The Malcom Butler Pick, The Music City Miracle, Sean Payton’s SB onside Kick, The Minneapolis Miracle, The Miracle in Miami, Fail Mary, One Yard Short
CURRENT CHAOS HALL INDUCTEES
Barry Sanders, Nick Foles
6-6 Sea/Ari Tie, 18-1
Miracle at the Meadowlands, River City Relay
Most Chaotic Moment: Jalen Hurts throws an interception, Da’Shawn Hand fumbles the ball back to Hurts, then Hurts fumbles the ball back to the Chargers. 3 turnovers on one play; 2 by the same guy.
I feel like this year there’s either going to be a LOT of competition or easy shoe-ins. No in between because football is nuts. I’d also be cool if you went back to your early season predictions to see how much you were on/off the mark.
Chaotic Team: You should’ve just put the Bears here and made us fight for the runner up (honestly Panthers and Falcons are pretty good teams for that spot).
Chaotic Play: You know, I was going to say a few options…but Seahawks 2 point helmet conversion (it might be called The Zackwards Pass, which…mwah). Perfectly summarizes the Seahawks this year; an upper tier under the radar chaotic team that congealed into the team to beat.
Chaotic Game: This and Play both overlap quite a bit and I don’t want to repeat ourselves, so let’s go with Bears/Packers round 3, I think that one hit the edge of nonsense.
Chaotic Injury: There hasn’t been that big of an injury shakeup in the playoffs like Bo Nix’s injury since…maybe RG3 died? That probably does enough to top it, I don’t think any injury can compare.
Disappointment Duck: Packers. The fact that Matt Lefleur got extended instead of making the threat of him being released after next year still is irritating to me. Considering the expectations after the Micah trade there’s no reason they shouldn’t have sniffed at least the divisional. Those implosions against the Bears really does seal it for me (also Miami, have fun with Hafley lmao).
Unwatchable Team: Does anyone actually give a shit about the Cardinals? Everybody else has at least a few more interesting things happen to them, though between them and the Raiders it might actually be the toss up.
Chaos HoF:
Listed players/games/moments:
Owens, 28-3, Helmet Catch (still think holding was the call on the OL)
Runners Up: Ocho, Mud bowl at Heinz, Surprise Onside
Unlisted nominees for Players/games/moments
Player: Antonio Brown, or whoever retired during the game a few years back for the Bills
Game: Manning Broncos- Brady Pats where Pats came back from a huge deficit and then Welker blows the Pieter call on the punt and Pats recover. The 105 point Chiefs-Rams game from about 7 years back was epic; haymakers on offense and defense from both sides. Or Thanksgiving buttfumble game, the Pats were low chaos but the Jets were high chaos that night.
Play: Definitely the 3 turnovers in 1 play from earlier this year, already mentioned above. Or Colts hanging gate special teams snafu… So stupid.
That Chiefs/Rams game I always call the ketchup and mustard game, as one of the first examples of the one-off unis games…
Player – JJ McCarthy. I feel like it just has to be Nine.
Team – Maybe the Colts. Absolute roller coaster of a season that only got crazier as it went on. Falcons were high up there for being so unpredictable. Maybe the 49ers defying expectations week after week, injury after injury.
Moment/Sequence – The two-point conversion in the Rams @ Seahawks TNF game in week 18.
Game – There are a boatload of good options this year, so just to name a few: Ravens/Bills week 1, Bears/Vikings week 1, Giants/Broncos week 7, Falcons/Bucs week 15, any Packers/Bears game, Bills/Broncos divisional round. Maybe the real chaos was Thursday Night being actually kind of good overall this year.
Coach – Not a lot of options here, even Campbell kind of toned down this year. Ben Johnson? I guess?
Front Office Move – A lot of good options here, too. Some might say the Cowboys trading Micah Parsons to the Packers, some might say the Colts signing Philip Rivers. All the post season head coach firings (mainly Harbaugh and McDermott). Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m actually going to go with the Browns trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals while Burrow was hurt. The Colts rolling the dice on Rivers actually made some sense given his familiarity with their offensive system.
Off-field Drama – I’m not sure if it counts as drama, but Mark Sanchez getting stabbed and peppersprayed while intoxicated was pretty wild.
Injury – Probably Bo Nix in the divisional round. He survives through the whole game, even into overtime, then injured at the last minute, helping give the Patriots the easiest path to the Super Bowl I’ve ever seen.
Disappointment Duck – Commies. They went from being one game away from the Super Bowl to 5-12 with the 7th overall draft pick.
Most Unwatchable Team – The Jets were a perfect storm of terrible QB play on offense and no interceptions for the entire season on defense. No other team was close in my opinion.
My hall of fame choices are the same as last year –
Player: Terrell Owens
Game: 28-3
Play: Fail Mary
Most chaotic front office move has to be starting Grandpa rivers off the couch.
Related most chaotic player: believing in Indiana Jones
Most chaotic team: the 49ers deserve some mentions for somehow continuing to win until the Seahawks made their backups look undersized.
HOF only
Player – Fitzpatrick (And Lawrence Taylor would be good to add to the list)
Game – Mud Punt (1979 Bucs-Chiefs Monsoon bowl would be good to add to the list)
Play – Holy Roller (Garo Yepremian Super Bowl pass fail would be good add for next year)
Coach – Bum or Wade Phillips
The only option for Most Chaotic Player is Caleb Williams as the Most Chaotic Team was the Bears.
It was chaos, and it was glorious.
Vote for Chaos HoF:
Player – Marshawn Lynch
Game – The Beastquake
Play – Fail Mary
Nominees:
Play – Beastquake Run (The play is more impressive than the game, but the game is higher chaos)
Play – The Zachwards Pass. High chaos play that pretty much determined the SB winner. Hard to say whether Seattle would have beat the Rams in the playoffs had they not had home field advantage.
Most Chaotic Player: Daniel Jones. No one expected him to be this good and then just as we bought in, it came crashing down horribly.
Most Chaotic Team: Indianapolis Colts (no one expected them to be this good and then just as we bought in, it came crashing down horribly…and then Philip Rivers came back?!?!?)
Most Chaotic Moment/Sequence: Emari Demercado fumbles away a TD. Stupid mistake, sure, but the Cardinals are up 21-6 in the 4th quarter. How bad could it be? Tony Pollard gets a TD, now it’s 21-12. Then Cam Ward gets intercepted. This should end the game, or at least kill the Titans’ momentum. Except the pick is FUMBLED, and Tyler Lockett (remember him?) recovers for the Titans for a TD. 21-19. A field goal later, the Titans complete the comeback!
Most Chaotic Game: The entire Titans-Cardinals game, actually. So much wackiness happened.
Most Chaotic Coach: Ben Johnson. So much positive chaos this year.
Most Chaotic Front Office Move: It’s gotta be the Parsons trade. I still don’t know what the Cowboys were thinking.
Most Chaotic Off Field Drama: Mark Sanchez drunkenly going after a guy behind a restaurant and getting stabbed.
Most Chaotic Injury: Daniel Jones. The miracle run came to an end in truly sad fashion.
Biggest Disappointment Duck Team/Player: JJ McCarthy. Not that anyone expected him to be great, but if Sam Darnold (or who we thought Sam Darnold was, anyway) took the Vikings to 14 wins, surely McCarthy could do something with that defense. Nope.
Most Unwatchable Team: Raiders. For as bed as the Jets were, they had a couple good games. But the Raiders were dull.
Chaos Hall of Fame:
-Eli Manning (he IS The Draw Play; how is he not in yet?)
-The Comeback (Bills/Oilers; just chaos at its finest)
-Helmet Catch (we’re getting Eli in one way or another)
Titans cardinals for most chaos
JIM THORPE, THE **TRUE** GOAT OF ALL GOATS
(This would also be a perfect topic for one of those throwback/history comics that you sometimes do)
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – Philip Rivers coming back from beyond the grave to rescue the Colts was incredible.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – Has to be the Buccaneers. They had that division in the bag, but they managed to lose to their entire division in back-to-back-to-back games.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – Bills/Ravens. Bills score to make it 40-32 but need a miracle to get the ball back. They get one as Derrick Henry fumbles, and the Bills score but miss the 2-point conversion and need a second miracle. The defense holds and old man Matt Prater drills it.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Bills/Bengals. The Benford pick-6 is a nominee for Chaotic Moment itself.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Which coach always kept us on our toes? Can be a coordinator instead of head coach.
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Philip Rivers playing for the Colts, then interviewing for the Bills HC gig.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – Jim Schwartz quitting the Browns after getting passed over for the HC job.
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Mahomes. The Chiefs were already falling apart, but Mahomes going down felt like when Sauron gets blown up in Return of the King.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – Colts. You can’t start white-hot like they did, make a big splash getting Sauce Gardner, and then completely fall apart. Daniel Jones injury aside, we really felt like they could have done something.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – I have zero interest in anything the Raiders did. What a shame.
Oops. Forgot the coach when I copy/pasted Dave’s list.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH: Dan Campbell probably, can’t really think of one this year.
HOF PICKS
PLAYER: Brett Favre (on and off the field), Rex Grossman, Chad OchoCinco.
I’d like to nominate Night Train Lane. The guy not only had one of the coolest names in NFL history, but he hit so hard he’d turn your hair a different color.
GAME: 28-3, The Comeback, 13 Seconds.
PLAY: Sea of Hands, Holy Roller (we got a damn rule change out of this one) and One Yard Short
First few eels mike viable for coach
First few eels mike viable for coach
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – Caleb Williams. Produced some of the most insanely exciting plays this year. Threw seven interceptions during the season, but then threw five interceptions in the post season. He’s just an exciting fun player and I hope the ride continues next season.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – Carolina Panthers. Didn’t expect anything out of this team and the way they played was all over the place. One week, they look like 100% trash, but then they’ll put together an offensive clinic the next week. This team was a roll of the dice all year and I’m all for it.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – The end of the Steelers/Ravens game at the end of the regular season to decide who won the AFC North which ended with an amazing last second drive from the Steelers, Boswell missing his kick, the Ravens making a crazy drive which included converting a 4 and 7 and then Loop missing his kick. That was the sequence that had me yelling in disbelief more than any sequence this year.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Basically the game that went hard. Turnovers, weird playcalls, massive impacts across the league standings.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Nick Siriani. That man runs his team with pure Philadelphia energy and I can’t think of anything more chaotic than that.
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Philip Rivers coming back was ridiculous. I wish he had more success, but that was a moment of insanity.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – Finding out who’s involved with Epstein
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Some might say Mahomes, but the Chiefs were basically already done. I would say that the Daniel Jones Injury occurred amidst more chaos and then caused more chaos.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – The Raiders. People thought they might be okay to good this year and they were the worst team in the NFL.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – The Raiders and the Jets were pretty equally miserable to watch.
ALSO: YOUR PICK FOR CHAOS HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2025!
Sexy Rexy for the sake of Draw Play history or Fitzpatrick.
NOMINATIONS FOR GAME
28-3 Patriots Comeback. As much as I hate the Patriots, that was one of the wildest things I’ve ever seen.
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAY
Immaculate Reception. Miracle play, wins the game, still has some mystery and controversy around it, and it launched a dynasty. What more could you want?
i can’t say too much for any of the other ones but the injury HAS to go to daniel jones. right. like sure, bo nix killed the chances of the broncos in the playoffs, sure mahomes going down is bad too. but god, shit was FINALLY looking like it was turning around and then. snap. tbqh there were *two* injuries, they had danny playing on a broken fibula bc there was nobody else. lmfao richardson getting an eye injury. lmfao leonard also getting hurt. lmfao this shitty team deadass signed phil rivers in the year of our lord 2025 because we had no other QBs. the colts make me sad. why do i keep following this team. i only started paying attention after general luck retired. misery, misery, misery.
i’d also nominate the colts for the chaotic team of the year – you trade two firsts for sauce gardner, going all in! and then end up starting rivers less than a month later. like. come ON. 8-2 at the bye week. everyone was like “the colts are good finally!”, did not win a SINGLE game after the bye and did the shedeur slide to 8-9. we had a better season with fucking gardner minshew. i miss gardner minshew.
disappointment duck, i mean, take your pick – chiefs and ravens – “super bowl contenders” who couldn’t even make the playoffs. the eagles were lowkey disappointing too. (and to bring this back to indianapolis – idk if you can make an argument for them here. disappointment duck is for teams we thought would be good and then weren’t – indy was never expected to be good, they overachieved and then hit the ground hard.)
28-3 has to be the HOF game, right?
and to echo some stuff – the mark sanchez thing was crazy for off-field drama. the jets were putrid and unwatchable. daaaaa bears deserve a shout somewhere.
also i need to call back to last year’s chaos awards and “Sam Darnold, this was a season unlike any other. I hope you do some weird shit next year too.”
I want to acknowledge my bias as a Bears fan upfront.
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – Caleb Williams. Dude will make the most insane throw you’ve ever seen in your life after slipping away from a DT like he’s lubed in baby oil. Next play he sails a throw to a guy wide open in the flat.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – Chicago Bears. I don’t know if I need to explain this one. See: Raiders game, Cincy game, Giants game, Packers Game #2, Packers Game #3, Kmet TD against Rams in the Divisional.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – The Pick to Fumble to Recovery for a TD by the offense in Week 6, Titans v Cardinals. Nothingburger game but this sequence deserves highlighting because wtf.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – As much as I want to say either iteration of Packers v Bears Games 2 or 3, I think it’s the Seahawks vs Rams in Week 16. Insane 4th quarter comeback and the most improbable 2-pt conversion ever seen. It also had huge consequences for seeding in an intra-divisional game between two Super Bowl favorites.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Nick Sirianni. Whatever is going on in the Eagles locker room, seems to be stemming from this jabroni’s decision-making. He seems to have cut down on the podium tirades or maybe I haven’t been paying attention.
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Parsons trade. So asinine and an unforced error by Jerruh. The Cowboys D then being one of the worst units in the league only reinforces how monumentally stupid this was especially with the year Dak had. (Also eff you Jerruh for sending Parsons to my hated rival)
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – I am going to leave off anything to do with files or SA because this is supposed to be a fun distraction.
Lot of candidates here so I’m just going to rapid fire: NFLPA fiasco, Brandon Aiyuk pulling the ol’ holdout into losing his mind, Puka Nacua revealing he has one brain cell, Bill Belichick HoF drama, Mark Sanchez getting STABBED in a fight he started, Shedeur Sanders draft fall and the Mel Kiper meltdown.
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Parsons ACL tear. For it to happen in the game it did when they were so close to beating the Broncos to then losing the game and Parsons for the year and then never winning another game all season.
Daniel Jones is a close second. I don’t know how much noise they would have made in the playoffs but I think they at least make it if he was healthy.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – The Raiders. I really thought they were cooking with bringing in the Pete Carroll-Geno Smith package. They were indeed cooking but nothing that was edible.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – Packers. jk probably the Jets, especially once they benched Fields. He is ass but at least he can make an insane run every once in awhile… although by the time he was benched I think he had stopped doing even that. Just a tough watch all around. I guess Breece Hall is good but other than him they’ve got no one exciting to watch.
Feel free to nominate more than one instance in each category if you have trouble picking.
PICKS FOR CHAOS HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2025:
PLAYERS: Eli Manning, Michael Vick, Devin Hester
GAME: 28-3 Patriots Comeback, the Bills Comeback against the Oilers in the playoffs, The Fog Bowl
PLAY: The Helmet Catch, Sean Payton’s SB onside Kick, The Minneapolis Miracle
Most chaotic game: I’m going to nominate Cardinals-Titans, just because it has not one but two different plays that could be nominees for chaotic moment of the year, the first being the Demercardo touchback, and then the Cam Ward interception that was then fumbled into a Titans touchdown. Absolutely wild.
Most chaotic moments: see above.
Most chaotic front office move: Firing Sean McDermott and everything surrounding that. My god.
Most Chaotic Player: Caleb Williams. His highlight and blooper reels for the year are the same length.
Most Chaotic Team: Bengals. Incapable of playing a normal football game
Most Chaotic Moment: Seahawks 2 point conversion. You know the one.
Most Chaotic Game: Bears vs Bengals
Most Chaotic Coach: Mike McDaniel
Most Chaotic Front Office Move: Colts mortgaging their future for Sauce Gardner, then going 1-7 with him
Most Chaotic Off-Field Drama: Multiple team owners in the Epstein Files
Most Chaotic Injury: Danny Dimes’ leg fracture/Achilles, which caused Old Man Rivers to come back
Biggest Disappointment Duck: Chieves
Most Unwatchable Team: Jets
Chaos Hall of Fame: Eli Manning, Fog Bowl, Malcolm Butler Pick
Most Chaotic Player: Cam Scattebo – man looks like he head butts brick walls for fun
Most Chaotic Team: Lions – Had no idea what they were doing week to week
Most Chaotic Moment: Tie – Titans having a turnover and turning it into a touchdown / Lawrence slipping into the end zone
Most Chaotic Game: Week 1 Bills vs Ravens
Most Chaotic Coach: Dan Campbell lives and dies on the 4th down
Most Chaotic Front Office Move: Bills firing McDermott but promoting Beane
Most Chaotic Off-field drama: Owners buddy buddy with Epstein
Most Chaotic Injury: Mahomes, the reverberations on that remain to be seen
Most Disappointing of Ducks: Team: Raiders (too many pieces to be that bad) Player: AJ Brown was all diva but no talent this season
Most unwatchable team: Titans
Chaos hall of fame:
Player: Steve Smith
Game: Panthers / Rams Double Overtime NFC championship game
Play: Music City Miracle
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY: This has gotta be Bo Nix. If he doesn’t go down we have a different Super Bowl. Different outcome? Doubtful, but man this took the playoffs in a totally different direction.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME: Seahawks comeback vs. the Rams has gotta be up there, especially considering it’s implications down the road for the 1 Seed in the NFC.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM: I think this goes to the Bears. Just wild, skin-of-thee-teeth wins and comebacks. Beautifully chaotic
Most unwatchable Team: Jets. Just put them out of their misery.
Most Chaotic Player: Philip Rivers! He shouldn’t be here, but he sure was
Team: Minnesota Vikings. Somehow won 9 games with amazing defense and a miserable quarterback carousel.
Moment: Seahawks-Rams-Zach Charbonnet goal line pass/fumble/recover/score. Absolutely bizarre sequence with major impact on the game, and ultimately, the season
Game: Bills Ravens week 1 was a lot of fun.
Coach: Ben Johnson, he’s a madman. Made the bears fun to watch
Front Office Move: Both Harbaugh and Tomlin leaving their teams after 20 years. IDK if it fits here, but it’s pretty insane the way that it went down.
Off Field: Owners on the Epstein list.
Injury: Bo Nix winning the divisional game and breaking his leg on the last play, ending his season off-camera for the championship game
Disappointment Duck: KC Chiefs. Bad Superbowl hangover, lost lots of close games, lost Mahomes.
Unwatchable Team: Jets
HOF Chaos picks:
Player: Antonio Brown. He’s a wild man.
Game: 28-3 game Falcons-Patriots Superbowl. Huge collective memory of this game, insane comeback, legendary.
Play: The Colts fake punt against the Patriots. You say so yourself in your comic “it belongs in a museum.” YOUR OWN MUSEUM. The absolute dumbest football play I had the joy to watch live.
Player: Bryce Young. We still have no idea if he’s good or not. Simply a falcons/rams merchant?
Team: Can only be the Chicago Bears
Sequence: Jalen Hurts turning the ball over twice on the same play vs. Chargers
Game: Bills-Broncos divisional round, the game that broke two teams at the same time
Coach: Ben Johnson by default. Not a whole lot of chaotic coaching this year but he at least gave us a memorable locker room moment
Front Office Move: Colts sign Philip Rivers… and it somehow almost works?
Off-field Drama: The San Francisco power plant conspiracy. Got so widespread that they’re actually investigating it
Injury: Bo Nix, injured at the last possible second
Disappointment Duck: Tampa Bay Bucs. Their collapse got ignored because the Colts’ was higher profile, but they were arguably more embarrassing in how they went out. How do you lose the NFC south when it’s gift-wrapped to you?
Unwatchable team: Las Vegas Raiders. Why are we giving Chip Kelly NFL jobs in 2025.
Chaos HOF Nominees: Fail Mary, 28-3, and Eli Manning
Most Chaotic Injury – The Joe Burrow injury because of the absolute chaos that followed it. Joe Burrow going down resulted in Joe Flacco being traded from the Browns to the Bengals. With Joe Flacco gone, the Browns eventually went to Shadeur Sanders. Joe Flacco meanwhile put up a number of fun chaotic performances during his brief tenure as a starter. Then, Joe Burrow returns, beats the Ravens in his first week back, and puts up decent performances the rest of the year (except the second time he played the Ravens). However, the real result of the smoldering chaos of that injury was revealed when Flacco, Shadeur, and Burrow all were named to the Pro Bowl. That 100% does not happen without Burrow’s injury.
Most Chaotic Front Office Move: Philip Rivers coming out of retirement to usher the Colts’ late season collapse.
Most Chaotic Game: Titans-Cardinals.
Most Chaotic Off-Field Drama: the operative word here being DRAMA – all of the Bill Belicheck/Robert Kraft drama. You have Bill Belicheck shitting all over his legacy at UNC (not sure if this qualifies as “off-field” but it’s definitely off an NFL field). You have Belicheck getting snubbed for HOF, with some suspicion that Kraft played a role. You have Jordon Hudson taking pot shots at Robert Kraft’s inclination towards happy endings. And then to top it off, you have Kraft getting into the Epstein files (but if we are all honest with ourselves, this should not be a surprise). Y’all this is some soap opera shit.
Disappointment Duck Player: So many to choose from. I’m going Josh Allen, not because of his season, but because this was his chance. The stars aligned. He was in the playoffs and his boogeyman was out. He was the consensus best QB in the AFC playoffs. And he blew it.
Disappointment Duck Team: The Chiefs. 6-11 for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Most Unwatchable Team: Raiders. They were such trash. I was excited to see Ashton Jeanty in the NFL, but the Raiders drug him down to the depths of unwatchableness for most weeks. I enjoy watching Brock Bowers, but he too was dragged down to the depths of unwatchableness (albeit mostly due to injuries). They won their first game, when nobody was paying attention. Then they beat the Titans, who were bad, but played in the most high chaos game of the season. Then they beat the Chiefs in Week 18 when all the starters were benched or already injured.
Most Chaotic Coach: tough for me to decide between Good Chaos (Ben Johnson) and Bad Chaos (Mike McDaniel, still another day closer to death). I think I go Mike McDaniel
Most Chaotic Player: Sauce Gardner. Hear me out. He is without question one of the best corners in the NFL. Yet somehow, he finished the season with a worse record than the RAIDERS. Only chaos can cause that.
Most Chaotic Team: I’m going with the Bears. They were terrible in every game, until the 4th quarter. So much fun to watch them.
Also, I would love to see a nomination for Most Chaotic Division. NFC South… Come on down!
Just realized I forgot the HOF
Player – Ryan Fitzpatrick. His career should be the subject of research papers.
Game – Detroit-Philly Blizzard Game.
Play – Fail Mary. So much chaos even the (replacement) refs didn’t know what to do.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – What is it with Falcon’s and making headlines on the eve of the Superbowl… I hate it here
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – Phillip Rivers unretired and played above anyone’s expectations
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – da Bears, just hail mary, holy pope vibes all year
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – Koo kicking the ground instead of the ball was inconsequential but that I have never seen that before ever
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Bears Packers wk16
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Raheem “My teams are only competitive in primetime or once we are eliminated from the playoffs” Morris
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Bill’s canning McDermott because of locker room vibes in a playoff loss. Then bickering in a press conference afterwards about a player they picked and preaching about a culture change being needed only to promote from within
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – This may also include anything from the calendar year’s offseason. Players get in trouble and do dumb stuff all the time. So do executives. So do owners!
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – 49’ers electrical substation?
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – Chiefs, though most enjoyed the fall seeing all the chaos go the other way this year was a highlight
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – Raiders
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAYER
SEXY REXY – Unleash the dragon and let the defense deal with the results. Jeff George’s protege and Jay Cutler’s role model.
NOMINATIONS FOR GAME
The Beastquake – Not only for it being against the ‘aints. This was also the first year I remember a big noise about losing record division winners hosting only for the upset to happen. I also think this play helped build Marshawn’s reputation and post playing career. Not in terms of talent, just sheer “let em hang” personality on display in such a physical play/game
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAY
The Helmet Catch – Since this play happened have we seen a single play appear in clips or highlights? Not only the catch but the crazy almost sack that lead to it.
Antonio Brown getting Belichick for the Chaos HOF is beautiful.
If there was a chaos season this is a contender. We got a SB of 2 14 win teams…who combined for that many last year.
Chaos Hall of Fame Player: Fran Tarkenton.
When I was a kid in the 70s, the NFL films weekly highlights seemed always to have clips of Tarkenton scrambling around in the snow and cold, trying not to get smushed, and then somehow either getting the first down and immediately being hammered, or finding a receiver who made a fingertips catch.
Indelible images of my youth.
Coach – Sirianni. From hiring his best friend as OC, to refusing to acknowledge that the Eagles’ offense was in trouble, to blaming *JEFF STOUTLAND* (widely considered to be one of the best position coaches in the NFL) for the offensive woes (rather than, you know, Patullo), to resting his guys for Week 18 instead of trying to get the 2nd seed for the playoffs against a Washington team that didn’t even have a QB…
Off-Field: AJ Brown constantly was saying cryptic things on various platforms that drove everyone up a wall
Team: Da Bears. There is no other answer.
Player: Caleb Williams (4Q only)
Unwatchable: Did anyone actually *watch* Raiders games for the Raiders?
Moment or Sequence: I’m going to agree with “Jalen Hurts manages 2 turnovers in one play”
Front office move: The Bills firing McDermott, saying they “need to go in a new direction”, then promoting from within that coaching staff anyway, then trashing their own player publicly, all while refusing to fire the GM (whom they promoted)
Injury: The Colts were for real. And then Daniel Jones went down.
Disappointment Duck: The Ravens
*HOF*
Player: I will continue to push for Randall Cunningham. For anyone who didn’t see him in his prime, try to find some highlight clips. The man was the definition of “How The F did that happen?” From dodging Bruce Smith in the end zone and then launching a strike 60 yards downfield, to numerous scrambles that only Vick could replicate, to *punting a ball* perfectly, he was chaos in cleats.
Game: The Fog Bowl. It wasn’t just *foggy*, or hard to see, it was stumble-around-blind. Literally, the 2nd half of the game was played in horror-movie-like conditions. Almost no one – the broadcasters, the cameras, the crowd, the coaches on the sideline, half the players – had any idea what was happening.
Play: One Yard Short. There’s a reason that everyone remembers the ending to that Superbowl.
*HOF Noms for next year*
Play: Leon Lett and the blocked kick/fumble
Game: Pats-Jets on Thanksgiving – the “ButtFumble” was simply the *middle* part of a sequence of disasters for the Jets
Most Chaotic Moment: It has to be at the end of the Jaguars/Chiefs game where Trevor Lawrence stumbled and rolled his way into the end zone.
HOF List for now.
Player: Fitzmagic/Fitztragic. The definition of chaos.
Game: Vikings Comeback against the Colts
Moment: Anderson wide right (I’m pissed at Paul Allen, so fuck the Minneapolis Miracle)
I’d also like to nominate “Wrong way run” by Jim Marshall for the next year HoF vote. If that isn’t chaos, I don’t know what is.
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – Daniel Jones. Is he good? Is he bad? We still have no idea.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – I still have no idea how the Niners made it that far with that many injuries. Holy crap.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – Week 18 Ravens vs Steelers. The fourth quarter was insane, but the last minute was unreal. I knew that as soon as Boswell missed the extra point, somehow the Ravens would be able to get into field goal range and then shank the kick that would send them to the playoffs.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – I really enjoyed the Packers v Bears sequence this year. NFC North rivalries rule.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Zac Taylor being the only one to hold his job in the AFC North is wild.
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Ringless Rivers rides again.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – Shedeur Sanders’ fall on draft day. Manufactured chaos is still chaos.
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Bo Nix’s ankle. That cost the Broncos a trip to the Superbowl.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – Oh god Nine. Seriously, Nine.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – I literally forgot the Cardinals existed this year.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – Might be a stretch based on the category, but any Cincinnati Bengals game where they have a lead in the 4th Quarter. You don’t know how its going to happen, but odds was the defense was going to collapse, it was going to defy all logic, and it was going to be hilarious.
It was like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER – Baker Mayfield. That play where he went down, looked like he was gonna be injured, then remembered that his medicine is shit talking, got up and yelled at an opposing player and was fine again really stuck out to me. Runner up is fellow NFCS QB, lil Bryce.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – The Chicago Bears, who the hell thought they’d turn it around so quickly on such wild swings? Second is the Colts for how quickly they fell.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – Jalen Hurts fumbling twice on the same play lol
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Rams / Seahawks TNF game, ending with a 2pt conversion win in OT
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Nick Sirianni, just because he will be hated by his fans no matter how successful he is. Also, the locker room bunny lol
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – The Micah Parsons trade, because that was Jerry doing something to stick to his guns no matter how stupid he is. Runner up is the Dolphins firing their GM but not their HC, and somehow getting better after it. Third is the Colts pulling Rivers out of retirement.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – Nothing more chaotic than Mark Sanchez drunk stabbing a guy.
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Daniel Jones, who completely turned the Colts from the #1 seed to missing the playoffs.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK TEAM OR PLAYER – Ashton Jeanty, you see the flashes of amazing play, but he’s stuck in Raiders hellworld.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – Atlanta Falcons. Sadly, Penix was hurt a lot, and it meant we were stuck watching the most boring QB, Kirk Cousins, most of the time.
HOF:
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAYER
Eli Manning
NOMINATIONS FOR GAME
The Beastquake
NOMINATIONS FOR PLAY
The Music City Miracle – but, I want to add in The Buttfumble. How is that not listed??
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – Colts. Came out swinging in the first half of the season with the redemption of Daniel Jones, fought well with other good teams and was crushing bad teams like a good team should. By midseason they were 8-2 and had great odds to make the playoffs; they basically just had to not lose out. Started flagging a bit in November, then Indiana Jones’s Achilles tore and it all went to hell. Daggum PHILLIP RIVERS came out of retirement to try to save the season and he couldn’t do it. Finished out the season 0-7 and missed the playoffs entirely. A journey from beginning to end.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT OR SEQUENCE – Trevor Lawrence gets his foot stepped on by his center, falls backwards, then somehow manages to scramble in for the game-winning TD against the Chiefs. Afterwards he said he was feeling “sheer panic” as it all happened. ( https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/1o045tt/highlight_trevor_lawrence_on_falling_during )
Even if this moment doesn’t win (there’s a lot of good ones from this season) I still wanted to recognize it.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Packers-Cowboys tie in Week 4. The supposed Micah Parsons revenge game turned into stupid overtime hilarity that ended with a field goal to get 40-40 Scorigami. The tie ended up being super important in the NFC North and NFC Wildcard standings too!
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Bringing Phillip Rivers back, seriously. I’m not sure how it could be anything else.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – Shedeur draft sliding all the way to the 5th round needs to get its flowers. Even if the signs were definitely there, I don’t think anyone predicted he’d slide THAT far. People were actually watching Day 3 of the draft and laughing along.
I dunno if it counts as Off-Field drama since it’s still very much football related, or if it counts as a Front Office Move (because EVERY front office was technically part of it), but it deserves an award of some kind.
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Might be Joe Burrow? I don’t remember how much hope the Bengals had before he went down, but they definitely didn’t have any afterwards. Other top picks are Daniel Jones and Cam Skattebo, but really Skatt’s injury didn’t change much about how well the Giants were actually going to do this season, just the vibes surrounding the team.
MOST UNWATCHABLE TEAM – Cardinals. Most of the other bad teams this year at least did something, anything, that was interesting. Titans? Cam Ward kept it a buck. Giants? The Dart and Skattebo show. Jets? Zero interceptions. Raiders? Had a couple close games and defeated the disgraced Chiefs at the end. NFC South teams? At least they all kept it close in the division standings. The Cards actually did nothing.
CHAOS HOF VOTES: Brett Favre (including off-field chaos in a bad way), Mud Punt Game, The Helmet Catch
Might reply to this with some more nominations if I get any good ideas.
HOF votes:
Player: Kurt Warner
Has to be the wackiest QB of all time. Story, playstyle, personality, the guy ate slept and breathed chaos.
Game: Beastquake
Nobody expected Seattle to win that game. To not only pull an upset but to do it with the most iconic run of all time is what the Chaos Hall of Fame is all about. Do it for Lynch’s junk-grab if for nothing else.
Play: Fail Mary
The most memorable consequence of the Ref Strike, and what likely brought it to an end. A chaotic time in football, immortalized by one monumentally stupid play.
MOST CHAOTIC PLAYER -Caleb Williams. It pains to say me as a dirty Packers fan, but man he was fun to see on the field. Love vs Williams is going to be fun for some time to come.
MOST CHAOTIC TEAM – Colts. Bears, Bills, and Giants (sorry Dave) from their unique Fourth Quarter performances, but everything about the Colts was chaotic this year.
MOST CHAOTIC MOMENT – Jalen Hurts Fumble Recovery and Pick on the same play.
MOST CHAOTIC GAME – Titans-Cards. The Titans finally win a game, and the Cardinals fell apart.
MOST CHAOTIC COACH – Ben Johnson. Really no other choice.
MOST CHAOTIC FRONT OFFICE MOVE – Daniel Jones being named the Colts’ starter. Underrated choice, but it changed the course of the season.
MOST CHAOTIC OFF-FIELD DRAMA – The Spitting controversies from this year.
MOST CHAOTIC INJURY – Parsons ACL. Mahomes came when the Chiefs were teetering on the edge, same with Daniel Jones. Bo Nix all but eliminated the Broncos from contention, but if you want an injury that changed how the team was going forward? Well it’s gotta be Parsons. The Packers were already in the muck because of a variety of reasons, but Parsons was the tipping point.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT DUCK PLAYER/TEAM – Jalen Hurts? Saquon? The whole Eagles offensive line? Once teams figured out their defense, the Eagles really were beatable by anyone, especially by offense heavy teams that had to rely on the run game because of injuries, isn’t that right, Packers?
MOST UNWATCHEABLE TEAM – Jets, Raiders, Titans. The dregs of the league were extra bad this year.
CHAOS HALL OF FAME, 2025 CLASS
Chaos Hall of Fame Player: Eli Manning.
Chaos Hall of Fame Game: Vikings Comeback against the Colts
Chaos Hall of Fame Play: The Gary Anderson Miss
I don’t know if it’s the most chaotic sequence of the year, but Famous Jameis catching that TD needs to be honored somewhere.