Decoded Blog

  • The Immaculate Reception and the rule that made it a coin flip

    Under 1972 rules, two Steelers could not legally touch the same pass in succession, so the Immaculate Reception only counted if the ball grazed a Raiders defender first. The NFL repealed that rule in 1978.

  • The Super Bowl party has its own game, and it isn’t the football

    Most Super Bowl betting isn’t about the result. Around 28 million Americans play squares or a pool, a luck-based party game anyone can join.

  • How the ‘Holy Roller’ rewrote the NFL rulebook

    In 1978 three Raiders knocked a deliberate fumble into the end zone to beat the Chargers 21-20. The touchdown stood, and the NFL rewrote its fumble rule that spring so it could never happen again.

  • Raiders Week 1 Review: what the 27-13 win actually told us

    The Raiders opened 2026 the easy way, a 27-13 home win over Miami they led start to finish. Kirk Cousins reached 300 career touchdowns, Maxx Crosby hit a franchise sack milestone, and Las Vegas sit 1-0 in a suddenly open AFC West.

  • NFL Week 1 Review: what actually mattered

    The 2026 season opened with the highest-scoring game in opening-week history, an overtime settled by a failed two-point gamble, and two defences that won on their own. Here are the full Week 1 results, plus how the defences graded out, and why each moment is worth knowing.

  • I thought Monday Night Football was just a game that fell on a Monday

    I thought Monday Night Football was just a Monday game. It’s the longest-running primetime show in US TV history: America’s single showcase match each week.

  • The Super Bowl MVP is basically a quarterback award

    A quarterback has won 34 of the 60 Super Bowl MVP awards, and 12 of the last 17. The prize tilts hard to one position, and Kenneth Walker III’s win in February was the first for a running back in 28 years.

  • The NFL’s other MVP is even more of a quarterback award

    American football has two MVP awards, and the season one is an even tighter quarterback lock than the Super Bowl version. A quarterback has won it every year since 2012, and no wide receiver ever has.

  • I thought the NFL power rankings were official. They’re not.

    I found the NFL power rankings on the league’s own site and read them like a league table. They’re nothing of the sort: one writer’s weekly opinion, no formula, no panel, and sometimes not a single game behind them.

  • The season opens with a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl

    Seattle host New England on Wednesday to open the 2026 season, a straight rerun of the Super Bowl they won in February. The champions always get opening night, so here’s why the rematch happened and what else is worth watching on opening weekend.