The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread

davyjose

Stev_o wrote: »

A bit but when you think about sports is the only industry Cleveland has...

Owning a football team is equivalent to owning a state (See the Vikings stadium build fiasco).

Wildly off the mark TBH. A Metro area of 2million+ people with 2 sub-par sports franchises would need a little more in the way of economy. The state of Ohio alone has an economy equivalent to that of Australia.

I live in a large American city with 1 major (sh!tty) sports team, and trust me, it's not what's greasing the wheels here.

Sports franchises have nothing to do with the state of the economy; it's about Billionaires wanting to own a Sports team and little else.

matthew8

Chucky the tree wrote: »

So should there only be a ban on drugs from September-January? Anytime in between then is a free for all?

Well yeah. It's not NFL business if it's not going on in NFL season

UnitedIrishman

matthew8 wrote: »

Well yeah. It's not NFL business if it's not going on in NFL season

That's like saying athletes should be allowed dope the **** outta themslves but stay clean for a couple of months before the olympics?

matthew8

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

That's like saying athletes should be allowed dope the **** outta themslves but stay clean for a couple of months before the olympics?

Well is it really the olympics business what they do in their own free time if it's making no difference to the olympics?

Masked Man

matthew8 wrote: »

Well yeah. It's not NFL business if it's not going on in NFL season

NFL contracts say different.

matthew8

Masked Man wrote: »

NFL contracts say different.

Fair enough. Still think it's too strict.

CoachTO

matthew8 wrote: »

Fair enough. Still think it's too strict.

When a NFL player signs a 1, 2 or 3 year deal he belongs to the NFL 365 days a year for each of those years. That means he follows the terms of their contracts and their rules and by laws including the banned substance list.

Strict or harsh or whatever people want to call it is something those players agree to when they sign said contracts. The NFL have a right to protect their images and enforce their rules on any of those guys if they fook up and this is one thing people seem to forget about the NFL.

eagle eye

CoachTO wrote: »

When a NFL player signs a 1, 2 or 3 year deal he belongs to the NFL 365 days a year for each of those years. That means he follows the terms of their contracts and their rules and by laws including the banned substance list.

Strict or harsh or whatever people want to call it is something those players agree to when they sign said contracts. The NFL have a right to protect their images and enforce their rules on any of those guys if they fook up and this is one thing people seem to forget about the NFL.

Yeah and its not like they are getting paid peanuts either. You give any ordinary guy the opportunity to make the money they get and if he cocks up then nobody has any sympathy for him.

Paully D

70,000 people have turned up at Green Bay for a scrimmage tonight, according to Peter King of Sports Illustrated on Twitter. Wow :eek:

Chucky the tree

matthew8 wrote: »

Well yeah. It's not NFL business if it's not going on in NFL season

matthew8 wrote: »

Well is it really the olympics business what they do in their own free time if it's making no difference to the olympics?

The whole year is nfl season. Of course it's the NFL/Olympics business what they do in there free time because if they spend there free time popping steroids an HGH and then spending their time in the gym then when it comes to competition time they will have a clear advantage over everyone else.

Arawn

Eh you need to hit the gym on that stuff

darklighter

CoachTO wrote: »

When a NFL player signs a 1, 2 or 3 year deal he belongs to the NFL 365 days a year for each of those years. That means he follows the terms of their contracts and their rules and by laws including the banned substance list.

Strict or harsh or whatever people want to call it is something those players agree to when they sign said contracts. The NFL have a right to protect their images and enforce their rules on any of those guys if they fook up and this is one thing people seem to forget about the NFL.

It all boils down to showing a bit of Personal responsibility. All competitive athletes know that there are lists of substances they cant take, so if they get caught, throw the book at them I say. If they cant be bothered to check, they deserve their punishment, such gross stupidity deserves no sympathy IMO.

Paully D

Finally, only one more day until we get to see some football. The Hall of Fame game between the Cardinals and Saints is live on NFL Network at 1am tomorrow night/early Monday morning.

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=402325

The Saints haven't seemed all that far removed from suspended coach Sean Payton.

When they walked into their indoor practice facility last month, they saw a large mural of the coach glaring at them with the message "Do your job" -- his parting words before starting a one-season penalty for the team's bounty scandal.

That's not all.

Payton got the NFL's permission to come to Canton for the induction of former Saints tackle Willie Roaf into the Hall of Fame on Saturday, another reminder that he's still around in a sense.

The first significant change comes Sunday night.

The Saints (No. 9 in the AP Pro32) will play without him for the first time in the Hall of Fame game against the Arizona Cardinals (No. 23). They'll get their orders from assistant coach Joe Vitt, who is running the team for now.

New Orleans gets to start adjusting to its new normal. Payton and linebacker Jonathan Vilma are gone for the season.

"Just to get back to playing football after what's gone on, I think it's a sanctuary for us," linebacker Scott Shanle said.

A sanctuary from an awful off-season. In addition to the penalties for running a program that paid players to hurt opponents, quarterback Drew Brees skipped workouts and minicamp because he was unhappy about getting the team's franchise tag. He eventually got a five-year, $100 million deal, and the Saints started trying to get past their many problems.

A team that won 13 games last season returns most of its offence intact, its best hope of reaching the playoffs for the fourth straight season, one that ends with the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

There's no sense of doom in the Superdome -- not yet, anyway.

"That may be the way that people like to frame it," said Brees, who is expected to play only a series or two on Sunday. "But that is not the way that we look at it. You can say that it just adds a little extra motivation. It just puts another chip on our shoulder, but we already had a chip on our shoulder.

"It seems to be the hot topic for us, but it is just business as usual. You deal with it. Whatever comes your way, you deal with it."

The Saints will get their look at how their new defence performs. They fired co-ordinator Gregg Williams before his leading role in the bounty program was uncovered, replacing him with Steve Spagnuolo. New Orleans is expected to blitz less and play more zone coverage in the new scheme.

Mostly, it's a chance to get a feel for how things will be without Payton calling the shots. The players missed him a little when a 9-foot-tall statue of Steve Gleason's 2006 punt block was unveiled outside the Superdome last month.

"It's tough when we do things like this," Shanle said. "The first big thing was the unveiling of the statue for Steve Gleason. It's something that popped into my mind that it was a shame that coach Payton couldn't be there.

"But I'm sure coach Payton read about it somewhere. We just kind of have to deal with the hand we've been dealt."

For the Cardinals, it's the start of a long journey that will help determine their quarterback. They finished 8-8 last season after a slow start. Coach Ken Whisenhunt is letting Kevin Kolb and John Skelton compete for the starting quarterback job during camp.

The Hall of Fame game provides one extra chance to make an impression.

"We're trying to make our mark every single day," said Kolb, who will get the opening series on Sunday. "Every single practice counts. Obviously the games are a little bit more important, but if you start pressing, getting yourself in those kind of modes, I think we know what happens there."

After the Hall of Fame game, the Cardinals will fly to Kansas City and practice there for the next preseason game against the Chiefs.

They packed well.

"We're going to be all over the place," Whisenhunt said. "We're going into Canton and we're staying outside of Cleveland, staying there for a day then going to Missouri Western for training camp and then down into Kansas City."

Both teams will get to see the Hall of Fame before playing in a game that has special meaning for the town. The NFL's lockout prompted the league to call off the game last year, costing the hall and the northern Ohio city.

There's more labour trouble as the game resumes, however. The league has locked out the officials as part of a labour dispute and will use replacements for the game on Sunday night.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Saturday that the league and the officials are still talking.

"We had some discussions earlier this week," he said. "I don't think anything's scheduled again. We'd like to get there. We have great respect for our officials, but we have to be prepared to play the season.

"So we've been working with the replacement officials for a couple of months. They're in training camps. They'll be prepared to go if we need to do it."

JaMarcus Hustle

I don't think it's a coincidence that Monday just happens to be a bank holiday.

Clearly, God is sick of the offseason and misses his football too

Paully D

Jim Leonhard signs for the Broncos.

spiralism

Paully D wrote: »

Jim Leonhard signs for the Broncos.

Great move imo, Mike Adams and Jim Leonhard in the backfield is a decent upgrade on last year. Carter has potential too. Team continuing to move in the right direction. 41,000 at an open scrimmage at mile high today, nearly doubling the previous record

Chucky the tree

Jim Leonhard is terrible, delighted with that signing.

nerd69

spiralism wrote: »

Great move imo, Mike Adams and Jim Leonhard in the backfield is a decent upgrade on last year. Carter has potential too. Team continuing to move in the right direction. 41,000 at an open scrimmage at mile high today, nearly doubling the previous record

ye lost dawk thats a loss from an ability standpoint although he lost a few steps over the years but from a leadership standpoint thats a huge loss i think the broncos have limited the drop off but i wouldnt say they improved personally

JaMarcus Hustle

Poor Greg Childs is done for the season. Tore both of the patella tendons in his knee - for the second time (to illustrate how bad that is, the infamous injury Ronaldo suffered at Inter Milan all those years ago was tearing one patella injury). Such a shame, was one of my favourite rookie wide receivers and expected him to have a huge impact in Minnesota.

Stev_o

Football seems to be the only sport i can think of where season ending injuries seem to occur during off season training. Mean it's ridiculous the injury rate.

Paully D

Eagles coach Andy Reid's son found dead this morning in his bed at age 29. Jesus

JaMarcus Hustle

Sad news. Both of Reid's sons were heavy into drugs though, so I'm chalking this one down to an inevitable overdose.

Itssoeasy

Statement from the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Philadelphia Eagles are sad to announce that Garrett Reid, the oldest son of head coach Andy Reid, has died. Garrett Reid, 29, had been attending Eagles training camp with his father and was found in his room this morning. Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo oversaw the team’s walk-through this morning, and will oversee the team until Reid’s return.

“This news is heartbreaking for everyone in the Eagles family. Our hearts go out to Andy, his wife, Tammy, and their children,” said Eagles Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie.

Son Of A Vidic

I see Andy specifically requested that training camp continued before he took a leave of absence. Poor guy, what a cross to carry just when the season is about to start.

Stev_o

What time does the HoF game start at GMT?

JaMarcus Hustle

Stev_o wrote: »

What time does the HoF game start at GMT?

1am, give or take 15 minutes. Most likely give.

Chardee MacDennis

1am i think (although thats IST and not GMT :P )

CoachTO

Im being lazy but is anyone showing it or do we have to stream it

mikemac1

HOF game, that reminds me

Filing this under the awesome category

CoachTO, I expect you have this in your playbook? :cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7xksmk0ghc

Yeah it's old but posting it again

JaMarcus Hustle

CoachTO wrote: »

Im being lazy but is anyone showing it or do we have to stream it

Only on NFL Network I think.