In one 24-hour period between Sunday and Monday, we watched the NFL’s answer to the Soviet Union unravel into an inescapable end.
In Las Vegas, Raiders players were lighting cigars and celebrating a 30-6 win over the New York Giants on an Instagram Live session, jovially puffing smoke into a camera lens, as if the Berlin Wall had just collapsed directly onto ousted head coach Josh McDaniels. Across the country, the New England Patriots had already suffered a home loss to the Washington Commanders earlier in the day, and head coach Bill Belichick was nearing a Monday media conference that would be anchored by questions about his job security.