The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread V2

Hazys · 08-09-2015 10:17PM

phatkev wrote: »

Thats not the website I read but it all seems pretty similar, it might not be fully debunking the cases but he does show there alot of biased points in it and a hell of a lot of the claims in it are pure speculation.

Bias, random claims and speculation...hmm where does that sound familiar? Spygate? Deflategate? Lol

Paully D · 08-09-2015 10:29PM

Putin wrote: »

Since we've had a Ravens fan post a bull**** article for reading purposes.
....

Long story short, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Especially rival fans and if they're going to start subtle sniping at other teams.

Firstly, I'll post whatever I want on here unless I'm advised by a moderator to do otherwise.

Those 2 articles were big news in the American football community today. I read them, found them interesting and said I'd post them on here, a forum where I have a large amount of posts covering lots of different topics. I didn't "just run" either as he been alluded to by Vandango. In the SI article I posted, I commented and posed a question. In addition, aside from one post out of courtesy on the Madden forum (an American football video game) I was off Boards for the early part of the night. It may come as a surprise despite having near 20,000 posts that I'm not actually on here 24/7 :pac:

Anyway, to address the points you made re: the Ravens:

1) Ray Lewis: I was quite young when it happened and to be honest, didn't really know what American football was at that time much less follow the sport or support a team. It was only something I learned of at a much later stage. It's probably a (detailed) argument for another thread and there would be people on here who would run rings around me about the case despite me being a Ravens fan, but at the end of the day there was a trial. Maybe the DA should be getting the brunt of your anger for accepting a deal.

2) The fake challenges: Absolutely on the borderline of pushing rules to the limit where there's nothing specifically in place against it, similar to what the author of the SI article alluded to being what the Patriots do, an example being the "illegal" formation against the Ravens. However, it's not something I have an issue with and I never had an issue with that Patriots play at the time or since either. In fact, I praised them for it and criticised the Ravens for not being prepared.

3) Ravens Bountygate - again something that occurred before I even became a fan of the sport and I don't think I've ever commented on Saints bountygate for the simple fact I don't know enough about it.

4) Ravens Deflategate - I'd suggest that's more than Ravens-specific. He said "every team does it, every game". He coincidentally also played for the Saints.

5) Antlergate - From USA Today: "Ross, 45, was asked directly Friday if Lewis, who made a rable recovery to return Jan. 6, asked Ross for deer antler spray, which contains the league's banned substance IGF-1."No," Ross said. He was asked if he had proof that Lewis put the spray his mouth. "I've never seen him put it in his mouth," Ross said. In addition, Ross said that SI had essentially played him like a fiddle - again from USA Today: "I got duped by Sports Illustrated. They catfished me. They dated me for two years and then made me look like a goofball. I'm trying to make right the wrong." The man himself claims he was duped. Lets also not forget how poor Lewis was that year. If he was taking anything I'd have been asking for my money back if I was him :pac:

6) Suggs - I think he's an excellent player but quite clearly a scumbag off the field (and many would argue on it). If he wasn't as good as he is he'd have been out of the league some time ago (as would many others who have done similar to him). You'll find no argument otherwise from me. What can I do about that?.

7) Ray Rice, John Harbaugh etc - My thoughts on how the Ravens handled that situation are well documented on here and to say I felt it wasn't good would be an understatement.

"People in glass houses" you say? If no one on here could comment or post about another team because their own team have a player(s) who has done something wrong or the team themselves has has done something wrong then this forum would have 0 posts.

Anyway, back to the crux of the matter - as far as I'm aware, I doubt the Patriots lads on here would say there's too many occasions when I have been anything but respectful towards them or the team. I've generally always congratulated/commiserated with the Patriots fans in their thread when they have played the Ravens. 3 of the first few posts (2 of which were after tough losses) that come up when you search my post history on their thread for example are 1) (directly after the Ravens lost the playoff game in 2014) - "Well done lads. One heck of a game. An emotional rollercoster that was just impossible to know who was going to come out with the W.", 2) "Well done tonight lads. We were awful, but you got the job done nice and early and we never looked like threatening at all." 3) "Hey lads, just want to saw unlucky today. It was a great game, a real chess match and decided by one turnover. Good luck for the offseason and draft and I look forward to the regular season game next season at M&T."

Am I going to post articles that may be negative about them? If I find the article interesting, sure but same goes for every team, even my own. Obviously things get said in the heat of the moment and I'm far from a saint on Boards, but if you're wanting to pin being a Patriot-hater on someone then you've got the wrong guy here.

UnitedIrishman · 08-09-2015 10:32PM

Vandango wrote: »

If a Ravens fan wants to dump an article and run. Then a Saints fan is perfectly entitled to respond imo.

Does everyone think that everything posted here comes with an agenda or something?

The reason Paully posted it, I'd imagine, is because it's a fairly big article that blew up all over Twitter and social media today. It's an interesting read.

With all that said, as someone who has written articles and read some búll in the red tops in my time I find a lot of it hard to believe and accept a lot of it mainly due to words like 'a source close to Belichick revealed' or 'a former Pats employee said'. If you're going to write a hard hitting article then get someone on record to say it. Don't pander to the likes of the Sun readers with vague mentions of people that may or may not exist to suit a viewpoint. And therein lies the problem with a lot of what is in that article - fans outside the Pats will say 'well there it is, they cheated since 2000' or whatever without actually reading between the lines.

One line in particular shows the complete bias of it from a writing point of view:

Then the Patriots' coach, Bill Belichick, the cheating program's mastermind,

There's a chance that it happened but it's 8 years ago, nobody cares any more. The league would be as well suited to make sure future law breaking doesn't happen rather than revisit old stuff.

BailOutABanker · 08-09-2015 10:53PM

helimachoptor wrote: »

Secondly, Paully is a pretty solid poster.

As a former active member of this forum, I will say he has a habit of cleverly & subtle sniping at the Pats. Every now and again he posts something that has the potential to stir it up. I don't buy the veil he hides behind.

tripperman · 08-09-2015 11:06PM

BailOutABanker wrote: »

As a former active member of this forum, I will say he has a habit of cleverly & subtle sniping at the Pats. Every now and again he posts something that has the potential to stir it up. I don't buy the veil he hides behind.

I actually would think paully is one of the more informative posters on the forum, I found the articles interesting to read as an nfl fan, I also belive he put them up with good intentions as they are big news in America, I haven't seen any attempts by him to stir up any ill feeling with fans of any other franchise on purpose,

UnitedIrishman · 08-09-2015 11:43PM

BailOutABanker wrote: »

As a former active member of this forum ... I don't buy the veil he hides behind.

Irony eh? :rolleyes:

Hazys · 09-09-2015 01:52AM

The author of the OTL report, Don Van Natta in December:

ballen.jpg?a69fa3

Don Van Natta today:

goodelllllkiik.jpg?a69fa3

Basically making it up as he goes along to suit his narrative no matter how much it contradicts his beliefs a couple of months ago. In December, the owners order the destruction of the tapes. Today, Goodell and his two BFFs Kraft and Belichick ordered the destruction of the tapes.

What infuriates me as a Pats fan is that ESPN was blowing up Deflategate as a massive cheating story for the last 6 months. Today, Deflategate is not really a big deal, its was just drummed up by the owners to get the Patriots after how much they cheated before.

Its not like this information is new. Its basically ESPN making up the stories to keep the news cycle going. The timing of this report is blatantly obvious. If Brady had lost in the courts last week, i'm sure ESPN would have gone with Don Van Natta's original narrative.

Anybody who takes ESPN at face value at this point is a moron.

j8wk2feszrnpao · 09-09-2015 07:20AM

The story does fit the bill of Weird and Wacky quite well.
An opinion piece missing any facts or evidence.
It just highlights the obsession people have with the Pats.

BizzyC · 09-09-2015 08:19AM

ESPN are a joke.

They told stories about the tape room etc back in 2007 for which the source was disproved and they issued a formal retraction.
Now 8 years later here they are using the same source to kick stuff up again just as deflategate is being put behind us... that's some quality reporting.

SantryRed · 09-09-2015 08:36AM

Honestly, I'm just gonna come out and say this.

Has anyone else got the feeling that there are posters set up on this board claiming to be fans of other teams but with a leaning to the Patriots? It's seriously weird and there's at least two in the last few pages of this thread.

It's like these accounts have been set up to give some sort of weird balance

BizzyC · 09-09-2015 08:43AM

SantryRed wrote: »

Honestly, I'm just gonna come out and say this.

Has anyone else got the feeling that there are posters set up on this board claiming to be fans of other teams but with a leaning to the Patriots? It's seriously weird and there's at least two in the last few pages of this thread.

It's like these accounts have been set up to give some sort of weird balance

Non-Pats fans sick of the ridiculous media reporting? It must be some sort of Pats fan conspiracy!

baby and crumble · 09-09-2015 09:19AM

So, completely off-topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoG6cv6i_c

Benimar · 09-09-2015 10:09AM

I read that ESPN piece yesterday from start to finish and I have to say its a pile of s*ite. I have no issue with it being posted by Paully as it is big news in the US, but its a complete hatchet job (typical of ESPN) devoid of many hard facts.

I lost track of the amount of 'a source claimed' 'a source believed' etc contained in it. Even those mentioned by name just claim that 'we knew something must be up'. Even some of the claims made are contradicted by the same person (see Hazys post above)

What really highlighted the piece for what it is was the mention of the totally unfounded rumour that the Pats taped the Rams walk through before SB36. The article makes reference to rumours surfacing but takes a number of paragraphs before pointing out that the rumour was utter nonsense. It would have been so easy to say 'There were even unfounded rumours...' but the report didn't even bother to make the pretense of being balanced.

And just to be absolutely clear. I'm a Dolphins fan as can be seen by my posting history, which didn't start yesterday or today. I'm as far from a Patriots apologist as there is, but that article (and Deflategate) was utter garbage in true ESPN fashion.

adrian522 · 09-09-2015 10:23AM

I thought it was a good article to be honest, a lot of work obviously went into it and a lot of people were spoken to about it and there are a lot of sources mentioned.

It's not surprising that a lot of people on here don't like what it has to say but I think i raises some good questions. I find it amazing that Godell is still in a job to be honest, he goes from one mess to another.

I think it is completely out of order for people to be registering new accounts to be having a go a Paully D for posting it, it's completely relevant and on topic, the team he is a fan if is irrelevant and if he hadn't posted it I probably would have.

j8wk2feszrnpao · 09-09-2015 10:57AM

adrian522 wrote: »

I think it is completely out of order for people to be registering new accounts to be having a go a Paully D for posting it, it's completely relevant and on topic, the team he is a fan if is irrelevant and if he hadn't posted it I probably would have.

I saw one new account. Where are the multiple accounts that had a go at Paully?

ScummyMan · 09-09-2015 11:00AM

Moving on.......

I see BBC secured the rights to the Wembley games for the next two years, as well as SB50.

helimachoptor · 09-09-2015 11:03AM

Right enough chat about articles/suspicious new posters

Further posts will be deleted and multiple infractions will result in a forum holiday

PIORUN · 09-09-2015 02:33PM

baby and crumble wrote: »

So, completely off-topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoG6cv6i_c

Dez really come across bad...dump or creepy, maybe both. Luck is a class act

Knex* · 09-09-2015 02:37PM

PIORUN wrote: »

Dez really come across bad...dump or creepy, maybe both. Luck is a class act

Ah man, I don't know about that. He laughed his way through it, I thought.

Think they all came across quite well in it.

Realt Dearg Sec · 09-09-2015 02:49PM

PIORUN wrote: »

Dez really come across bad...dump or creepy, maybe both. Luck is a class act

Harsh. He seemed to be having the craic.

Chardee MacDennis · 09-09-2015 03:13PM

PIORUN wrote: »

Dez really come across bad...dump or creepy, maybe both.

seriously?

i thought everyone came across well.

baby and crumble · 09-09-2015 03:21PM

I thought it was pretty cool. I particularly liked the shade the kid gave Murray after saying "We beat the Eagles!"

Also, she's right. Bacon is awesome.

Paully D · 09-09-2015 07:02PM

One last time for Corvus before the season kicks off!

Son Of A Vidic · 09-09-2015 11:33PM

Paully D wrote: »

One last time for Corvus before the season kicks off!

At first when I read Paully's post I was like....

but then I realised it's only 1 day to go....

Hazys · 10-09-2015 01:42PM

ESPN edited Mike Reiss' rebuttal of the OTL report: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/09/espn-gives-tighter-edit-to-column-criticizing-espns-patriots-opus/

Pretty much tells you how much ESPN care about a fair story.

Also not to flog a dead horse but the OTL report came out on Tuesday with a shock headlines and dominated US sports media for the day but it had completed lost its heat in the media by Wednesday after people got a chance to see it for what it was, no new information, massive assumptions, all story's were from unnamed sources' rumors, complete garbage with no substance basically.

adrian522 · 10-09-2015 01:52PM

I certainly wouldn't call "complete garbage with no substance".

That to me is a huge leap. There is a key difference between unnamed sources and rumors too. Comes down to if you believe all this stuff is made up or comes down to jealousy or whatever. I guess you can choose to beleive that if you wish but to me there is a fiar amount of substance there.

Hazys · 10-09-2015 02:02PM

adrian522 wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't call "complete garbage with no substance".

That to me is a huge leap. There is a key difference between unnamed sources and rumors too. Comes down to if you believe all this stuff is made up or comes down to jealousy or whatever. I guess you can choose to beleive that if you wish but to me there is a fiar amount of substance there.

ESPN's unnamed sources said that 11 of the 12 footballs used by the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game were under-inflated by two pounds of pressure per square inch.

We know that to be a complete lie and has never been corrected by ESPN. ESPN's unnamed sources are not trustworthy at all.

Jealously? Don't know where you're getting that line from.

Anyway i digress, the story is basically dead right now and we're not going to agree so why drag it out further here. Time to move onto Football.

Realt Dearg Sec · 10-09-2015 03:21PM

Google have a Doodle today for the start of the NFL season.

BaronVon · 10-09-2015 03:35PM

From the ESPN article....

(Ernie) Adams' title was football research director, the only known person with that title in the NFL. He had made a fortune in the stock market in the 1980s, and the joke was that the only person in the building richer than Adams was Kraft.

So, you can imagine my surprise when watching Hard Knocks last night.....

Realt Dearg Sec · 10-09-2015 03:45PM

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2525119-andrew-luck-the-casual-confident-comfortable-new-face-of-the-nfl

Interesting article about Andrew Luck, his upbringing in Europe watching Kurt Warner in the NFLE, and the strange connections between the Luck and Manning families over two generations:

"Archie [Manning] would head to the football facility, while Oliver [Luck, his back-up at the Houston Oilers] chaperoned Cooper and Peyton Manning around town, stuffing them into his Mazda RX-7 and taking them to get ice cream, grab a hamburger or play miniature golf. The car was only a two-seater, so it was usually the younger Manning—six-year-old Peyton—who crouched in the hatchback.

Oliver, the father of the 2015 preseason MVP favorite, never could have fathomed he was toting around the child who would one day become the Colts' starting quarterback—and the man his own unborn son would replace as the starter in 2012."

The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread V2

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