I should preface this by saying that I have a bias against Jim Harbaugh for being a known cheater and running a dirty program at Michigan, so the events of yesterday’s game are not that surprising to me.

After the very first play, when the Chargers defender went for the dirty hit on the Chiefs right tackle, I just assumed that the game strategy was to lay dirty hits at every possible opportunity, and that assumption was borne out as the game went on, eventually resulting in an expulsion. (And the totally not dirty player flipped off the crowd on the way out.) I call it the ‘Legion of Boom’ strategy, as that old LoB defense would offend on every play and dare the refs to call them all.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Harbaugh was paying out bounties, given the volume of dirty play on the part of the Chargers.

That said, I think this is overall a good outcome.

If the Chiefs lose out (which I hope they do now that all the games are meaningless) it means higher draft picks, an extra few weeks of rest, on top of the six weeks they’ll get missing the playoffs, for a roster that hasn’t gotten a full off-season in ten years, and it’ll make it easier to cut bait on some of the players who clearly don’t fit in this scheme anymore. (Looking at Brown and Pacheco the most.)

And, since Patrick’s injury is a torn ACL, that it happened now puts him on a timetable where it’s feasible for him to return before next season, but we’ll see on that. At least he’ll get the absolute best health care possible.