The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread V3

The_Honeybadger

I saw the video. Scary. The NFL won’t need to keep him out of the league, he is doing that all by himself. You’d have to wonder who would take a chance on him now.

It seems he had a fairly long leash in Pittsburgh but I don’t think his behaviour ever escalated to what we are seeing at the moment. He was not a good teammate by all accounts, didn’t stay with the other players during camp, late for everything, rude to staff etc but got away with it due to his phenomenal production. What we are seeing now is a different kettle of fish, it genuinely looks like some sort of mental breakdown. Hope he gets some help before he does harm to himself or others.

jack presley

https://twitter.com/nflofficiating/status/1217564667763200001?s=21

MileHighGuy

boccy23 wrote: »

No shock at all for me. I think he is even a bit late retiring as "he wanted the LB room to be in good hands before he retired". If your brain's health is at risk, then I would be more selfish. Can see this happening more and more. It won't affect the game per say, but losing stars "in their prime" affects the star quality.

Agreed, not in the least bit shocking, and thought he should have done it earlier.

It wouldn't surprise me to see him move to the booth, ESPN or CBS will have a big opening, and he was renowned for being great at reading plays and predicting what was coming next, not unlike a Romo. Think he is a pretty good speaker too from what I remember, but that might not amount to success in the booth.

Delighted he made this decision for his health, similar to Luck and Borland, I have no problem with players making their money and stepping away.

Foxtrol

MileHighGuy wrote: »

Agreed, not in the least bit shocking, and thought he should have done it earlier.

It wouldn't surprise me to see him move to the booth, ESPN or CBS will have a big opening, and he was renowned for being great at reading plays and predicting what was coming next, not unlike a Romo. Think he is a pretty good speaker too from what I remember, but that might not amount to success in the booth.

Delighted he made this decision for his health, similar to Luck and Borland, I have no problem with players making their money and stepping away.

Borland was quite different, he retired after his rookie season. He made very little from the game as 1 season as a 3rd round pick but got to experience the league and left with his health.

Patrick Willis was very similar to this is terms of age, years in the league, and general success prior to retirement, though his was leg rather than concussion issues. Willis is looking like he'll struggle to get into the HOF so it will likely be similar for Kuechly

eagle eye

Foxtrol wrote:

Willis is looking like he'll struggle to get into the HOF so it will likely be similar for Kuechly

Bit of a difference, Kuechly was DPOY his second season.

Foxtrol

eagle eye wrote: »

Bit of a difference, Kuechly was DPOY his second season.

Since when does a single year end award make a huge difference in assessing players? Manning has 5 MVPs, 2 more than anyone else ever, does that make him the GOAT?

If you want to look at awards, that single award is basically the only difference between the two. They were both fantastic players but by the time you're eligible for the HOF only having a short career tends to go against you with the voters. Think they'll both get in but it won't be first ballot (obviously already hasn't been for Willis)

nerd69

I think Willis was an even better player personally he just played on a lot of dog**** teams

boccy23

It will be interesting to see what the HOF does with both of them. They both played 8 seasons. The average NFL career is less than 4 years. But with this trend of "shorter" careers, will this become the new norm.

Also 8 seasons in the NFL is coupled with 3-4 years in college and 4 years of High school football. So the wear and tear does indeed add up. I wouldn't consider 8 years to be "short" anymore, especially for high impact positions.

Foxtrol

nerd69 wrote: »

I think Willis was an even better player personally he just played on a lot of dog**** teams

Willis with the 49ers actually had more highs than Kuechly. They both made it to Super Bowl but Willis made it to 2 conference championships, whereas Kuechly made it to 2 divisional games and 1 wild card game.

Their teams both had a similar number of losing seasons as well. Their careers really match up incredibly closely.

Big thing that could make it easier for Kuechly to get into the HOF quickly is if he enters the media. Really seems like the more you keep up your public presence the quicker you get in.

eagle eye

Kuechly was rookie dpoy his first year, then dpoy his second year. He was in contention for dpoy two of the next three years. The year they made the Superbowl he had two pick sixes in the playoffs. They beat the Seahawks by seven points in one of those games.
Willis was a great one too but Kuechly had the highlights that make him a certain HOF'amer.

adrian522

I'd be amazed if they not both in the HOF to be honest. I was very surprised Willis was not a finalist this year.

cosatron

kuechly was the ultimate linebacker in that he could cover the tightend, drop back into coverage to help the safeties, had the speed to work sideline to sideline, a run stopper at the line of scrimmage and had the intelligence to delay his blitzes. he could do everything and only for cam sh**ting the bed would have a super bowl ring aswell and after von miller was the best player on the pitch, with 10 tackles, 7 solo, 1 sack, 1 tackle for a loss.

Itssoeasy

I see Antonio gates retired yesterday after 16 years with the chargers. With the talk about Kuechly and the announcement of the centenary HOF non modern inductees he has to be a lock for a bust in canton doesn't he ?

Foxtrol

eagle eye wrote: »

Kuechly was rookie dpoy his first year, then dpoy his second year. He was in contention for dpoy two of the next three years. The year they made the Superbowl he had two pick sixes in the playoffs. They beat the Seahawks by seven points in one of those games.
Willis was a great one too but Kuechly had the highlights that make him a certain HOF'amer.

This is what happens after 5 years and players don't seek the limelight, new fans emerge that don't know the player or those who did forget how good they were or the impact they had on their teams. Willis was the heart of the 49ers defense that was their main strength in getting them to a Super Bowl and 2 other conference playoffs over a 3 year period.

Both players won rookie dpoy of the year and played 8 seasons - in those seasons they were both selected for the pro bowl 7 times (Willis missing out on his last injury impacted season while Luke missed out his first year, when Willis was selected instead of him). Both were selected 1st team all pro 5 times, both were in contention for DPOY on multiple occasions, and both led the league in tackles twice.

If you want to hang your hat here on a single year-end award win then fire ahead, from experience you don't tend to do that when assessing players in other positions.

Also, if you want highlights Willis has plenty:

Foxtrol

adrian522 wrote: »

I'd be amazed if they not both in the HOF to be honest. I was very surprised Willis was not a finalist this year.

Though I hate boiling things down to year end awards, given how questionable those selections can be, but despite their relatively short careers, both players have more pro bowls than most LBs in Canton and of those with more the two guys in question have more all pros than a lot of them. It is an easy way to show how they've both condensed very successful careers into smaller windows.

For Willis it might help his case if the 49ers continue their success and their history gets some additional spotlight, like what tends to happen around Super Bowls. The media doesn't tend to really do that with teams regularly selecting early in the drafts.

kmart6

Arrest warrnat issued for OBJ for the below

https://twitter.com/ComplexSports/status/1217488651283849216?s=20

D9Male

It's a long time since OBJ was at the top of his game.

Realt Dearg Sec

He's the absolute stereotype of the diva wide receiver. Never happy unless there's attention on him. If things are going wrong, any adversity, he's looking for the way out, clearly on the hunt for somewhere he can take credit for glory and no good to any team when they are going through harder times, too busy throwing everyone other than himself under the bus.

You wouldn't mind if he wasn't living on past glory to such an extent. And now this crap (is it also true he was handing out money to LSU players in the lockerroom?). I'd be annoyed to hear he was coming to my team. A clown is bad enough, but this one comes with the whole circus.

StringerBell

He's gonna end up in New England isn't he

Christy42

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

He's the absolute stereotype of the diva wide receiver. Never happy unless there's attention on him. If things are going wrong, any adversity, he's looking for the way out, clearly on the hunt for somewhere he can take credit for glory and no good to any team when they are going through harder times, too busy throwing everyone other than himself under the bus.

You wouldn't mind if he wasn't living on past glory to such an extent. And now this crap (is it also true he was handing out money to LSU players in the lockerroom?). I'd be annoyed to hear he was coming to my team. A clown is bad enough, but this one comes with the whole circus.

It is a weird world we live in that giving someone money and expecting none in return is seen as a character flaw. In any situation.

I mean slapping the police officers rear is not cool but the issue with the money is 100% on the NCAA.

@Stringer: I am sure he can jump on cars with Edelman in NE.

Realt Dearg Sec

Christy42 wrote: »

It is a weird world we live in that giving someone money and expecting none in return is seen as a character flaw. In any situation.

I mean slapping the police officers rear is not cool but the issue with the money is 100% on the NCAA.

@Stringer: I am sure he can jump on cars with Edelman in NE.

I am entirely in agreement that the NCAA and their stupid hypocritical rules can go f**k themselves, but it's not OBJ who has to face the consequences. Players to whom he gave money could lose the remainder of their eligibility to play (this seems pretty likely in some cases). In the (more unlikely by far) event of LSU itself being held to have known he was doing this, they could be in serious trouble as a program. In that sense, yeah, it's a character flaw, and shows a serious lack of judgment on his part.

That being said it is really weird that his arrest is getting such vast attention and opprobrium, while Edelman's arrest is just cause for laughter, if people hear about it at all.

StringerBell

Slapping a cop on the ass in the locker room of the college champs is more newsworthy than JE jumping on a car tbf, full of hooch with Dola.

j8wk2feszrnpao

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

That being said it is really weird that his arrest is getting such vast attention and opprobrium, while Edelman's arrest is just cause for laughter, if people hear about it at all.

OBJ courts attention, that's why he's getting more heat, and he did it in front of the camera.
If Edelman was filmed and we saw something like him kicking the car and maybe swearing at the driver etc before just jumping on the bonnet, he'd get more heat.

kmart6

Just odd behaviour all around from him on Monday....

https://twitter.com/LSUJesus/status/1217963941097361408?s=19

Knex*

He looked coked off his brainbox tbh.

Eire-Dearg

Knex. wrote: »

He looked coked off his brainbox tbh.

Seemed just drunk to me and acting the gowl.

Foxtrol

I've defended OBJ a lot as he gets so much more crap for stuff many players get away with. He kicks a net or calls out the performance of his team he's a 'diva' but when other players question team mates they are showing leadership by holding their team accountable or when they shout or slam their helmets or tablets on the sidelines they're showing that they are a true competitor.

This situation however was just stupid from him though and likely alcohol/drug driven. The 'cop' (not a real cop) was clearly on a power trip, threatening to arrest a kid for smoking a celebratory cigar but slapping him on the ass wasn't the way to deal with it. Notice how Burrow was smoking like a chimney and no cop had any issue with him.

The most ridiculous part is that the cop originally tried to get OBJ arrested for sexual battery but a judge laughed them out of court. Seems like they were trying to embarrass OBJ.

OBJ's trade to the Browns has been a disaster for him. He needed a team that would provide him some structure but so far they've done the complete opposite.

D9Male

I think it is more of a disaster for the Browns to be honest, but I get what you are saying.

Jolly Red Giant

Interesting that Garrett has been appointed OC with the Giants - opens up the likelihood of Mike Shula ending up in Denver as QB coach.

Any place in Dublin open for the two championship games?