Now they have a 36 yr old quarterback clearly in decline coming off multiple neck surgeries yay.
I can’t believe Alex Smith has options.
Hard to believe that decent NFL QB’s like Jason Campbell and Orton didn’t try to get starting jobs in places like Seattle or Miami.
I guess the details will come out at some point, but why Denver over San Fran? I just don’t get it.
^ The AFC has an easier path to the Super Bowl this season. Passing over GB, NO and NYG would be almost impossible.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the New York football Giants miss the playoffs. That team is like a high maintenance chick: the highs are great but the lows are brutal.
I would not consider the Giants to be a SB contender this coming season, and I am a fan. In the interest of full disclosure though, I didn’t consider them a contender last year either and picked them to lose in every playoff round.
I shoulda traded on this and went denver at 70-1 to win the Super Bowl for $500. Down to 10-1 now…
Tebow to the Jets. Sean Payton suspended for the whole season. What a crazy off-season.
Another religious zealot leading Jets to disaster into New York city.
Holy Ish! coach Payton has just been ass_rap’d.
He got off easy. Michael Vick got 3 years? And those were just dogs.
I love how one of the primary reasons people like football is because of the violence but the NFL constantly tries to put on the appearance of trying to mitigate the hitting. Many defensive players are paid contract money to lay serious hits on people. The only thing that is different in the Saints situation is that they violated the salary cap, imo. Same with the rules to protect the quarterback, helmet to helmet hitting, etc. People watch it for the violence but the NFL has a PR campaign against violence in football. Watch soccer, hypocrites.
Disagree brain wash. People don’t watch it for the “violence”, they watch it for the physicallity. I like a clean hard hit as much as the next guy, but I don’t like helmet to helmet hitting or purposefully dangerous plays (helmet to knee comes to mind) whether I’m watching them or taking part in them back when I played. I think most true fans would strongly disagree with your statement. And the players for sure do not want to build a profession in a league that encourages unsafe practices that will shorten their career beyond it’s reasonable span. Both my brothers played college football and I played college ice hockey. As a hockey player especially, there is a lot of respect for guys delivering big hits (you can weather those surprisingly well) and a huge amount of disrespect for players that drop cheap hits (cross checking, boarding, elbows, etc) both by the fans and the players.If people want a pure blood sport, they can watch the greasy guys in tights aka UFC, but if they want a team sport built on athleticism outside of violent actions and if they want franchise players, then they’ll watch football and hockey. Last I checked based on total receipts, football and hockey were murdering the UFC fanbase. Nobody who really appreciates football wants to see a franchise talent like say Brady, Brees or Eli Manning have a career ended 10 years early by some pointless cheap hit.
Everytime I hear someone saying “people only watch racing for wrecks” it’s always some dork that doesn’t follow or appreciate racing and everytime someone says “people only watch football for violence” it’s usually the same.
The difference in the Saints situation is that the coaching staff knew of, and encouraged, the bounty pool. A large number of former players from around the league have indicated that bounty pools are not uncommon, but the coaching staff is kept out of the loop. Kind of like that scene from Independence Day when the President finds out that Area 51 actually does have alien bodies and artifacts and the CIA or military guy tells him he was kept in the dark to maintain plausible deniability.
Agree to disagree. Drawing from your last statement, I would say that most casual football fans like it more than, say, basketball because of the hitting. I also played hitting sports (hockey, some lacrosse) at a pretty decent level, although I have no idea how that qualifies me to say whether or not the NFL are hypocrites. What does qualify is attention to the facts. The NFL was fine with helmet to helmet well after it became apparent that (gasp) multiple concussions could lead to long term damage.
I’m from Philadelphia originally, so I remeber that helmet to helmet hit on DeSean Jackson by Dunta “nice spelling, brah” Robinson in 2010 and there were no repercussions for that. Why didn’t they ban helmet to helmet hitting earlier? Because people like the violence, period. Now that they perceive a PR issue as well as a potential legal issue down the line they are trying to figure out where the line is between violence and PR acceptability.
I don’t want to see Brady or any other player sidelined because somebody rolls into their knee. I’m just that the NFL is hypocritical.
Dunta Robinson was fined $50,000 for that hit. BTW, the no helmet-to-helment rule has been in place since the mid-90s and Goodell gave referees the power to eject players for a helmet-to-helmet hit in his 1st or 2nd year as commissioner.
Watching football because of the big hits doesn’t make any sense. It’s like watching three hours of baseball because someone likes homers.
Good call, pretty heft fine. I guess I was thinking of suspensions…which I don’t think we’ve seen yet. Basically that one weekend in 2010 when there were a bunch of egregious hits the NFL decided to begin enforcing the below rule, which Higg referred to. I guess who cares as long as players are protected, I just think it’s a little disingenuous to say its because of player safety when it was clearly about public image.
IEV, it makes sense for the casual fan. I like baseball and a complete game shutout is very exciting to me. But the casual fan wants to see 'em hit dingers. Why do you think MLB ignored Sosa and McGwire’s steroid use until AFTER baseball had already experienced a renaissance?
“Using any part of a player’s helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/hairline parts) or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily; although such violent or unnecessary use of the helmet is impermissible against any opponent, game officials will give special attention in administering this rule to protect those players who are in virtually defenseless postures.”
Keep in mind, there’s basically no outrage from the fans over the bounties. It’s the NFL that’s throwing a fit over it. They’re so paranoid about their perception they felt they had to make an example of the Saints coaches.
People do watch football for the violence. Think of how the fans react to steroid use in the NFL. No one cares. We just want to see bigger, faster dudes knock the crap out of each other.
The NFL is just being careful this doesn’t all blow up one day and go the way of baseball.