NFL Thread

[xaxat]

Washington just can't get that dumpster fire under control. Independent neurologist resigns after RG3 fiasco. 

[ganesh]

Tebow isn't worth a third string spot. No one is saying, 'well we'd sign him, but oh, that circus.' 

 

The league is filled with gun charges, domestic violence, guys with 20 kids by 17 different women. But the Tebow circus is what keeps him out of a roster spot. MIchael Vick has a roster spot. Sure. Those guys are on lineups because they can play. GM don't care about circuses.

[DrSpaceman]

New reports are Wayne just didn't like the New England work environment, states it wasn't a fun team to play on.

Say and read what you want into that, good or bad for either him or the Pats, but thats all we are getting. All I will say is he is a 13 year veteran known for an impeccable attitude and work ethic, spent most of his career with one of the most driven, demanding, complex, innovative and prolific QBs, and offenses, of his era, even if many say that QB and team has not been as good as Brady/the Pats.

I doubt its Wayne's work ethic , his lack of understanding of the offense or his lack of desire to win that made him quit.

[benteen]

If Tebow wants to keeping on being a football player, he should go to Canada like Doug Fluttie.  Or take up another position.

[ganesh]

Or Warren Moon. No one in the nfl wants Tebow. If he can play in the CFL, go ahead. 

[xaxat]

I can understand why Tebow stuck with trying to play QB in the NFL. He's not fast enough to be a running back. The fullback is virtually extinct. No one (including perhaps himself) knows if he can run routes and catch passes and his low completion percentages would be a killer in the three down CFL.

 

He's just not good enough a QB to make it and not good enough an athlete (unlike a Terrell Pryor) to switch.

[mojoween]

I can't even stand it. They are doing extended SEGMENTS giving career advice to a third string QB who got cut. Are they doing that for any other fucking players who were cut? No, no they are not.

Even my newspaper (Syracuse NY) did articles about Tebow TWO DAYS IN A ROW. And they didn't even have one article about the Giants and a cursory article about the Jets, because it starred Tebow.

Go away, Tebow. Go the fuck away.

[DrSpaceman]

I AM beyond sick of tebow and deflategate. I wish no ne would metion either ever again

[Snowprince]

4 different teams have concluded Tebow isn't good enough to make their final 53. Time to head north or go back to the SEC Network. You've had more shots than you deserve.

[AimingforYoko]

I AM beyond sick of tebow and deflategate. I wish no ne would metion either ever again

How do you feel about rehashing SpyGate? (And maybe a little bit about DeflateGate)

[xaxat]

Goodell finally determines that the coast is clear, decides to give an interview and ESPN hits him with a preemptive strike. 

 

Will we ever hear from him again?

Edited September 8, 2015 by xaxat

[FuriousStyles]

So wait, now the Pats are saying they never videotaped their opponents practice? Are they fucking serious?

[hendersonrocks]

I don't think this has been posted already - mea culpa if so - but this is pretty cute. 

 

[Fukui San]

So wait, now the Pats are saying they never videotaped their opponents practice? Are they fucking serious?

They've been saying that all along. The original story was retracted in 2008 by The Boaton Herald for being erroneous. But it did its job of distracting the Pats preparation for the Super Bowl and being a "fact" in people's minds, so job well done.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3398828

Edited September 8, 2015 by Fukui San

[xaxat]

I guess the bombshell for me in the story isn't the video stuff, but that former Patriots officials admitted that it was routine to physically steal game plan related shit from other teams. 

[Fukui San]

After all the lies that ESPN and the NFL have fed you that burned away like morning mist in the hot sun when judge Berman forced open the records, you are willing to take things in this report at face value? If so I have an antivax report to sell you.

The league had months and unprecedented access into the Pats inner workings to dig up dirt. And all they could come up with was a eight month old funny knickname, and that Brady gives autographs to low level employees.

The league responded to getting its ass kicked in court with a petulant smear job full of allegations that will be disproven like all the others were, not that it will do the Patriots any good. Pathetic.

[xaxat]

I do take that report seriously. That allegation didn't come from "league sources" it was directly attributed to Patriots officials. Could the reporters be lying about that? Sure, whatever. But I think there is a big difference between the league lying to reporters (Mort, the Wells Report) and alleging reporters are lying about their sources. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by xaxat

[DrSpaceman73]

All this just proves what I have believed from the beginning (as DrSpaceman, re-registered as DrSpaceman73), which is this is a whole big pissing match and split between Goodell and Kraft. The sequence is pretty clear and starts with Spygate.

Kraft is the one who helped get goodell elected Commissioner.

Shortly after (a year or so), spygate happens. Kraft basically tells him sweep it under the rug, minimize it, otherwise I will back some other puppet commissioner. He obeys, despite a ton of complaints over five years by many NFL teams, not just the Colts and ravens, that a strongeer message has to be sent to the Pats. Slap on the wrist, BB "apoligizes" in his boldfaced lying manner, everyone moves on

Continued complaints for years about the Pats continuing to cheat. Finally the owners gets sick of it, Deflategate comes up and they see their chance to put a real punishment on the Pats. The other owners make it clear to Goodell, you make a real penalty on the Pats or we can find someone else to do your job

This all came to a head at the owners meeting. There was a well reported story I heard on ESPN that at a bigwig NFL party during the owners meeting after the Wells report and the suspensions came out, Goodell and Kraft were seen talking a LONG time during the party. I imagine the conversation went something like this, paraphrasing of course :

Kraft : You can't do this, if you try, I will go to the other owners, I will have your job

Goodell : you don't understand.......the other owners are the REASON for this, not me. I can't help you on this on and a big punishment has to occur

Kraft : You have to squash this again like Spygate

Goodell : Its not happening this time

etc.....

From then on it just escalated. So no, this was never about deflated footballs and no, if it was another team, that didn't repeatedly cheat, this would not have happened. This was Al Capone being caught for tax fraud. The deflategate is an excuse to punish the pats and send a message the other owners are sick of them cheating. And by now with ALL these reports coming out, if you STILL cannot believe any of it is true, despite NINETY people that work for the NFL including FORMER PATS EMPLOYEES in this new report surrounding spygate, plus Mike Martz publically speaking about it, well, I can't help you with your delusion anymore. You are basically on a vaccine autism link or 911 denier now in my view if you still deny this is all made up and they never did anything wrong, the ENTIRE league is all lying and making this all up.

Yes the Pats have been a successful franchise for the past 15 years, but its not like they are winning titles every single year. The Colts, Saints, Steelers x 2, Buccaneers, Sehawks (almost twice), Ravens twice, Giants twice have all also won titles since the Pats first win. ANd you know what they all have in common? No one is claiming they did anyways close to the type of stuff the Pats are accused of over the past 15 years. Yes, bountygate, but bountygate is not cheating. A bounty is a safety precaution, its not cheating to help you win

This is not Goodell punishing the Pats. If he had his way my guess is this again would have been a swept under the rug wrist slap, fire the two employees and a $25K fine or so. This is the owners drawing a line in the sand, their version of Captain Picard in Star Trek screaming "We must draw the line here" to stop the advance of the Borg.

This is the other owners vs Kraft, has been from the beginning, not Goodell vs. Kraft

So now Goodell and Kraft are split, they appear to be willing to do anything to destroy the other

ANd I don't care about either of them, so just let them do it.

[Minneapple]

Everyone in this is a steaming pile of crap. I honestly would not be surprised if Goodell fed ESPN this latest story to remind everyone, PARTICULARLY ROBERT KRAFT, that the Patriots are a bunch of lying scumbags. You're telling me that the same network that employs Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith is the one that backed a well-investigated piece of journalism that trashes the Patriots? AND WHAT A COINCIDENCE that it comes out just days after Goodell was humiliated in court.

 

The Patriots cheated. Goodell is a liar and a douche. The owners will never fire Goodell because he will be their fall guy for everything including the concussion issue. The NFL has turned into a soap opera and the off the field drama is crazier than the actual games. I think. I can't remember because this offseason has been the longest ever.

 

Just play the goddamn games. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by Minneapple

[DrSpaceman73]

Oh I would not doubt at all that Goodell or the NFL fed this story to ESPN for that purpose. Still doesn't make it untrue

In fact I would go so far as to say they likely told the Pats this when they were "negotiating" with Brady and Kraft over the 4 games. You admit what you did, this story dies. You don't, ESPN has an exclusive.

You are right, they are all scum.

If I had my choice, and if the other owners were smart, you hold two votes over this to end it :

Fire Goodell

Kick Kraft out and make him sell the team.

The end. They can do both those things with enough votes. They did it in the NBA.

[merylinkid]

Yea then spygate stuff is not good for Goodell either.    Mike Martz -- who has no dog in this fight -- was surprised that his statement about how he felt about the punishment was changed.    The statement he made at the request of Goodell to sweep the taping under the rug.   It sure as hell wasn't the Pats who changed that statement.   They never had possession of it.

 

So who did it?   Pash who "wordsmithed" the Wells report?   Most likely.   

 

So I would be very leery of any reports coming out 8 years later about the Pats actually taking playsheets from opposing teams.   That is a LOT worse than taping signals, when observing signals, but not taping, was legal.   Stealing play sheets was always illegal.   Not to mention the allegations about entering hotel rooms.   A little B & E and not one single team reported it?     

 

This was Goodell's shot back at the Pats through his favorite media outlet, ESPN and it is backfiring on him big time.

 

Man, last year it was Ray Rice.   This year it's a pissing matching between Goodell and the Pats.   Can we just start the season talking about actual football?

[stealinghome]

After all the lies that ESPN and the NFL have fed you that burned away like morning mist in the hot sun when judge Berman forced open the records, you are willing to take things in this report at face value? If so I have an antivax report to sell you.

So much this. This is so obviously, transparently an attempt to sway public opinion back against the Patriots because the league is pissed it got its ass handed to it, it's actually kind of sad. (And ESPN is most definitely complicit because they sold out to the NFL and were sucking its dick all through Deflategate.)

 

Based on timing alone I'm very skeptical. Doesn't anyone remember the fabricated report about the Pats taping the Rams walkthrough that...totally didn't happen and everyone has since admitted was BS? That had "Patriots sources" and "former Patriots employees" behind it, too, until everyone had to admit it was 110% fabricated. Though it still took ESPN years--YEARS--to retract and issue an apology. That they ran at 12:30 AM.

 

Honestly, if the reports from today are true, whoever authorized their leak right now should be handed their ass tomorrow, because releasing them now just makes NFL/ESPN look like whiny losers who can't admit that they went on a witch hunt and got called out for it. I'd have taken them a lot more seriously if they were released at any other time. If it's payback, Goodell can't even do revenge right!!!

 

Stealing play sheets was always illegal.   Not to mention the allegations about entering hotel rooms.   A little B & E and not one single team reported it?

Also, this. Come on, it's completely and utterly unbelievable that something like this would have happened and would never have been reported. The Patriots aren't freaking Jedi! They can't make other teams think "that's not the hotel room you're looking for"!

Edited September 9, 2015 by stealinghome

[Minneapple]

Oh I would not doubt at all that Goodell or the NFL fed this story to ESPN for that purpose. Still doesn't make it untrue

 

I completely agree. I just think the timing of the story is very suspicious.

 

Anyway, I hate both Goodell and Kraft. So. Whatever.

[Rick Kitchen]

Apparently the NFL released a collage of all of their top quarterbacks and managed to leave Brady off.  When it was commented on, they retracted the picture.

 

But now I can't find the news article that reported this.

[Fukui San]

This is not Goodell punishing the Pats. If he had his way my guess is this again would have been a swept under the rug wrist slap, fire the two employees and a $25K fine or so. This is the owners drawing a line in the sand, their version of Captain Picard in Star Trek screaming "We must draw the line here" to stop the advance of the Borg.

This reading ignores Goodell's pathological thirst to overpunish any possible infraction, to the point that he circumvents the CBA and tramples over due process and rights with not even a fig leaf of legality to the point where he's now 0 for five in having his rulings upheld by arbitration or the courts (Hardy, Rice, Peterson, Bountygate, Brady). There's a nasty plantation owner mentality to Goodell, where he has to see himself presented as this all powerful moral force keeping chaos at bay.  In all honesty I'm beginning to question his sanity.

 

And please, the Ravens and Steelers are the last goddamn teams anyone should be presenting as morally superior to anyone.  The best three players of the Ravens' last championship team were two domestic abusers and an accessory to a double murder who miraculously were the only three black men to get the benefit of a doubt by the Baltimore legal system.  The Steelers employed an active police officer as an alleged team fixer to keep their players in criminal trouble one step ahead of the law, allegedly actively interfering in investigations. That might be useful for events like, I don't know, having their QB accused of rape maybe?

 

Apparently the NFL released a collage of all of their top quarterbacks and managed to leave Brady off.  When it was commented on, they retracted the picture.

 

But now I can't find the news article that reported this.

Here it is.  The picture managed to have Carson Palmer on the "Who will go to the Super Bowl?" picture and leave out Brady, Eli Manning, and Joe Flacco.

[HalcyonDays]

Hey guys. Just wanted to drop in and leave a little reminder to respect the diifferent opinons, theories and analysis of the whole Deflategate/Patriots scandal. It's a crazy situation with lots of potential for all of us to get into polarizing arguments that I am starting to see hints of. And we know how passionate people are about NFL football. Get (rightfully) pissy with Goodell and the Evil!Pats, not each other. Thanks.

[Constantinople]

If I had my choice, and if the other owners were smart, you hold two votes over this to end it :

Fire Goodell

Kick Kraft out and make him sell the team.

The end. They can do both those things with enough votes. They did it in the NBA.

The NBA didn't sell the Clippers. The trust that owns the Clippers did. Sterling's wife had him removed as trustee of the trust on the grounds that he wasn't competent to manage his affairs. Sterling sued to try to block the sale, but the judge ruled against him.

That's quite different than the NFL trying to force the sale of a franchise based on anonymous sources in an ESPN report containing allegations that don't make sense (unreported B&Es? Whatever).

That wouldn't generate a huge lawsuit.

[xaxat]

Remember when Bob Kraft only had to worry about one billionaire trying to get him?

 

[HalcyonDays]

I agree with the Kick Goodell out part for sure. Hire someone who isn't in Kraft's (or any other owner's) pocket or won't be bought off by the rich owners (hard to find, I know). The NFL needs a commissioner like this who actually has integrity.

 

It really makes you wonder about the Patriots and their so-called dynasty, about how much of their victories and SuperBowl wins were all due to their rampant cheating. And then teams like Seattle - who I assume didn't cheat - now appear so much more talented at having won their own Superbowls.

[merylinkid]

Oh the Seahawks cheated.   They lost OTA days because of having contact practices when it was not allowed.    Why?   Competitive advantage.

 

And Pete Carroll is the biggest cheater of them all.   He skipped out of college coaching one step ahead of the NCAA sanctions that were coming down for all his various violatons of the rules.   Then tried to claim he had no idea about the sanctions coming.   Because apparently, the NCAA just walks in and hands down sanctions with even less of an investigation than Goodell does.

 

Speaking of Goodell, I read that he is own closest advisor.   That is soooooo not good.   That means he is not listening to anything anyone tells him.   He was made Commish to clean up the League's image and by gum and by golly he is going to do it.   His way dammit.   No one better dare tell him otherwise.

 

This long ago stopped being about soft balls and became all about Roger being Right.

[Rick Kitchen]

Former Giant Tyler Sash has died at the age of 27, no reason has been given.

[merylinkid]

Correction:   Mike Mart's statement is identical to the one that was published at the time he issued it in 2008.   Either it was changed then and he didn't say anything, or he just forgot what he wrote back then.    I'm going with the latter.

 

So if ESPN left that misleading impression -- without you know, fact checking Martz's assertion it was changed -- what else is misleading in that story?

[DrSpaceman73]

My general impression from all this, and what I think most fans will be left with as a lasting impression, is this :

 

Goodell is power hungry and makes his decisions based on many things, including public perceptions, who is behind the scenes pushing him, the image he WANTS the league to project even if that image is false, many other factors beyond just the case and the facts at hand.  I don't really trust him to make sensible decisions on these cases.

 

Kraft, BB and the Pats in general cheat every way and every chance they get and will lie and deny it to the very end, then twist and manipulate there way out of things in whatever way necessary.  This report did honestly change my view of Spygate.  I readily admit I am one of the biggest Patriots haters, if you want to call it that. However I was never that impressed with SPygate or what we knew was true out of it all.  This, however, confirmed many rumors that have been around the league for years that I never really believed.  Before I just dismissed most of it as that, rumors.  I don't think you can deny much of it though after this report.  And yes, all teams cheat to some degree.  There is cutting the corners and bending rules, though, and then there is just blatantly and obviously disregarding the rules you don't like and just daring the league to stop you and do something about it.  The latter is what the Pats do, the league finally is calling their dare with deflategate. 

 

I don't trust either one of them.  I don't assume anything either one of them says has an ounce of truth.  My level of distrust of Goodell has reached the level it reached with Stern in the NBA after Tim Donaghy was found to be betting one games (one rogue ref, yeah, sure) and The Brawl, a complete spin job by the league to blame it all on the Pacers.  With Tim Donaghy it was kind of the same way as Spyagte.  Rumors for years of refs manipulating games one way or another, whether by the league pushing them or of their own doing.  I never truly believed it, or at least most of it, it was just a rumor, suspicion.  Then you hear he was ACTUALLY betting on games himself, plus I believe he wrote a book and you learn much of that was not just rumors, some of those things really did happen.  DId it affect the outcome of any major series?  Who knows, but it gives legitimacy to the questions.   

 

I don't seriously think anything will happen to either one of these as a result of this, though, other than them sniping and beating up on each other more.  And I think the other owners are satisfied for the most part to sit back and let that happen.  I think they (other owners) will be satisfied that if anything this has accomplished one thing :  a huge rift bewteen Goodell and Kraft. 

 

SI did a cover a few years back of the most powerful people in sports and Goodell was on the cover sitting on the Iron Throne from the Game of Thrones.  At the time I just thought it was just a symbolic picture based on a pop culture reference, appropriate but nothing more than a passing symbol of his power.  Now, looking back at Deflategate and what this whole case has shed on the behind the scenes workings of the NFL front office, just based on what we DO know, let alone what we can imagine what else must be happening that we DON'T know, that cover seems much more apropo than it did when it first came out.  Its not just that the Iron Throne is a symbol of power.  It seems the show truly could be an allegory of what goes on with Goodell and the league owners. 

[DrSpaceman73]

Oh the Seahawks cheated.   They lost OTA days because of having contact practices when it was not allowed.    Why?   Competitive advantage.

 

And Pete Carroll is the biggest cheater of them all.   He skipped out of college coaching one step ahead of the NCAA sanctions that were coming down for all his various violatons of the rules.   Then tried to claim he had no idea about the sanctions coming.   Because apparently, the NCAA just walks in and hands down sanctions with even less of an investigation than Goodell does.

 

Speaking of Goodell, I read that he is own closest advisor.   That is soooooo not good.   That means he is not listening to anything anyone tells him.   He was made Commish to clean up the League's image and by gum and by golly he is going to do it.   His way dammit.   No one better dare tell him otherwise.

 

This long ago stopped being about soft balls and became all about Roger being Right.

 

 

I am not a big fan of Caroll either for that reason. 

 

NCAA violations and NFL violations I think are very different though.  The NCAA rules just border on ridiculous at times.  Some may think its picky but there is at least good reason the balls should be within a certain pressure during a game, or at least before a game.  Plus Brady can't complain much about the rules about the balls when he and Manning were two of the main QBs who pushed for the rules for the footballs in the first place.  There is far more legitimacy to that rule than saying giving a recruit cream cheese on their bagel during a recruiting trip is an NCAA violation (thats an actual rule)

 

But I agree, this LONG ago became about much more than just the pressure in footballs.  The case is the culmination of a mutlilayered league power struggle that Goodell is at the very head of, front and center, and that he does not want to lose. 

[ganesh]

I'm sure everyone cheats. I don't think anyone would deny that. The Pats were just so egregious about it that it ruined the cheat-scape for everyone else. One could get into a circular argument that they were just better at it and out cheated the others.

 

My pov is that beating your wife, obstructing murder investigations, raping women is worse than cheating. Players arrested for major crimes like this should not play until due process plays out and if they are found guilty, then they should be kicked out of the league. That's not the same class as taping hand signals, I know, but it seems really hypocritical to me. Like, the focus was on deflated footballs for 7 months. I think the priorities are off. 

 

The Pats are as much of a brand now though as the Packers, Giants, Cowboys, Colts, Broncos, just off the top of my head. Meaning, they drive national tv numbers. I doubt anyone is going to try force out Kraft. 

[HalcyonDays]

The Pats are as much of a brand now though as the Packers, Giants, Cowboys, Colts, Broncos, just off the top of my head. Meaning, they drive national tv numbers. I doubt anyone is going to try force out Kraft.

 

Absolutely. Everything in all of this boils down to one thing - Money. It's the reason why Goodell let back those high profile players who were beating their wives or whatever other crimes they committed. Hell, deflategate is similar to those over the top reality shows. To not let them back = loss of revenue. People adore a good train wreak. For all we know, Goodell hoped to milk it for all it's worth, if only to increase viewship.

 

Goodell made decisions to ensure his own power, and also a healthy and rising revenue stream. He would make an excellent CEO - he's got the self-serving, cheating, lack of morals, money-only focus most of them seem to have. It's sad really but not unexpected in today's world.

[mojoween]

I'm so stoked to get back to football on the field! Season starts tomorrow wooooo....

Oh. It's the Pats. And they'll be celebrating their Super Bowl win. And slurping all over Tom Brady. And I'll be forced to root for the Steelers which is never appreciated.

Well at least I can watch tennis and baseball and Big Brother tomorrow night.

[AnalyzeAndCritique]

If Kraft is targeted to be forced out of the NFL before half a dozen other owners the fans of the NFL are as gullible and brainwashed as Tedy Bruschi fears.

[Ohwell]

Former Giant Tyler Sash has died at the age of 27, no reason has been given.

So sad about him.  Sounds like he couldn't get his life together after he left the Giants.

[Crs97]

When you completely screw things up so badly that the public is complaining loudly and you need to stop the bleeding, whom do you turn to for damage control?

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55e99177e4b093be51bb2674

The pictures are adorable!

[benteen]

I do remember Tyler Sash from the Giants and I probably saw some games when he played for Iowa.  Sad.

 

Oh, God, yeah...Pete Carroll is definitely a cut corners cheater.  Pete just has a more likeable personality than BB.  Otherwise, there are a lot of similarities between the two as far as the way they go about their business.

[Popples]

I just noticed today's Google Doodle is celebrating the first day of football.

[caracas1914]

Goodness knows the Pats aren't saints, but to think that as "cheaters" is the primary reason for their success is laughable, once you get on the field it's pretty much boils down to who executes best on third down with the game on the line.

Having said that, I think the Steelers have their number tonight.

[ganesh]

I said the same thing. Ok, knowing ahead of time if the Rams were going to corner blitz, stunt the DT, etc., sure, it's helpful and it gives you an edge, but Brady had 1 minute and no time outs to get into field goal range. He still had to throw the ball right and they still had to catch it, get out of bounds, etc. The line still had to block well enough so he had the time to throw. 

 

Even the GM of the Pathers said that he didn't think they lost to the Pats for cheating; there were about 5 plays that made the difference. 

 

I said many times, teams are more mad that the Pats are just so arrogant and egregious about it because it makes it harder for them to cut corners. 

[Minneapple]

Pete Carroll is not the first nor the last coach to ditch a college team that's about to be sanctioned. Chip Kelly, Rick Neuheisel, John Calipari, the SMU coach who ditched the program right before the death penalty. That's not to say Carroll isn't sleazy or unlikeable (because he totally is those things). Just that he's not alone.

 

Despite all the drama and all the stupid (AND BOY, WAS THERE A LOT OF STUPID THIS OFFSEASON OR WHAT), like 30 million people will watch tonight's game. That my friends is...well, I don't know what it is. BUT IT'S SOMETHING.

[mojoween]

Dan LeBatard said today that the Patriots are acting like they are persecuted and it's unseemly. Watching this vomit-inducing pregame show illustrates that fact.

I just want to get the action on the field. I thought turning it on at eight and I would be safe but nope.

[xaxat]

I don't do pre-game shows for the most part. Did Goodell show up on NBC tonight?

 

He's clearly been ducking the press for a long time now. Which is pathetic for a man being paid forty million dollars a year.

[MargeGunderson]

Dan LeBatard said today that the Patriots are acting like they are persecuted and it's unseemly. Watching this vomit-inducing pregame show illustrates that fact.

I just want to get the action on the field. I thought turning it on at eight and I would be safe but nope.

I'm a Patriots fan (20 years) and I'm sick of it too. Between this and no more Vince Wilfork I have mixed feelings about the season.

[ganesh]

*Every* team plays the 'disrespect' or 'underdog' card whenever possible. That's professional sports. "Unseemly", really? It's unseemly that a man who literally knocked his wife out in the elevator or another that ran a multistate crime ring are still allowed to play in this league. Or someone who drove drunk and killed a person. And the other one that did that. 

 

Hate on the Pats all you want, LeBatard. They cheated. A lot. Then they got caught. They paid fines and lost draft picks. Is it enough? I don't know. Will people root against them for that? Sure. Go ahead. Knock yourselves out. But give me a break. Get some perspective. 

 

It's unseemly to me that the popularity of this sport is predicated on billions of dollars in gambling. Or that a dad needs to spend nearly a month's pay to take his family to watch a game. 

[Bastet]

Goddamn, Steelers.  Thanks to Ben, I no longer like you (much to the consternation of my best friend, who considers you her favorite team), but I'll still root for you over the Patriots.  (Hell, I'll root for anyone - except maybe the Cowboys depending on consequences for the NFC East - over the Patriots.)  I nonetheless picked the Pats to win, but you really need not have made that outcome such a given.  If not for several ill-timed major mistakes, this could have been a different game.  Shitty performance.

 

I got some bad news about my cat's health today, and was hoping the Steelers could at least somewhat distract me on this normally sacred day as I wait for definitive results tomorrow.  Assholes.