It finally happened...The Detroit Lions will be the NFL team featured on HBO's Hard Knocks3/28/2022 www.detroitlions.com/news/hbo-sports-nfl-films-and-the-lions-join-forces-for-hard-knocks-training-camp-wit
I am actually looking forward this, because of one thing: It means the rest of the country will have a chance to get to know Head Coach Dan Campbell like those of us in Michigan kind of have had a glimpse of already. There is a reason why despite going 3-13-1, most Detroit Lions fans absolutely love the coach, and now everyone else will get a chance to find out why.
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Ok, as the free agent period keeps going, and we march closer to the NFL draft, we have more news:
- First, we gotta start with Deshaun Watson. He's now a Cleveland Brown, and has himself a $230 million dollar contract. But, what you might not have known, is that his first year in that contract, he will only be paid $1 million...IE, the Cleveland Browns expect he is going to be suspended all year during the 2022 season, and deliberately designed his contract to minimize the amount of money the NFL can collect. Personally, I think this is an absolutely despicable tactic on the part of the Browns. They should absolutely be ashamed of themselves for this move, and Browns fans should seriously look to backing a new team. The Browns are totally trying to game the system here. Basically, what we have is a 1 year contract for $1 million dollars, and then a 4 year contract for $229 million after...What the NFL should do? Slow down their investigation...find a way to hold off suspending Watson until the 2023 season, when instead of losing $1 million, Watson would lose about $57.25 million...This isn't even really about whether Deshaun Watson is guilty or not (personally, I highly doubt 22 women sharing the same story are all lying), but rather how the Browns, as an organization, deliberately tried to screw with the league by setting up Watson's contract that way... Plus, let's be honest...what has DeShaun Watson done to justify that contract? Is ANY player worth the cash the Browns are forking over? The NFL Salary Cap is 208 million...for 53 players. The Browns are basically paying 1 of those players 1/4 of their entire Salary Cap. Ridiculous. Now, I used to be a fan of DeShaun Watson. When he came out of Clemson, I was rooting for the guy...but damn...What he is accused of doing to multiple masseuses is just not okay...and for it be a pattern of behavior, rather than isolated incidents? This guy has some major issues. - It was one and done for Von Miller and the Los Angeles Rams, as he leaves California for a 6 year deal with the Buffalo Bills. This will have him under contract until he is 38, so Buffalo may very well be the last home town of Von Miller's career.
- I kinda feel bad for Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan. The Falcons have pretty much made it known that if Houston agrees to send them Deshaun Watson, Ryan is gone...except, they don't HAVE Watson yet. So, they have a veteran QB, who had a pretty decent season last year, who already knows they are doing their best to get rid of him. Hey...if the Falcons let Matt Ryan go, I'd take him in Detroit, he's a clear upgrade over Goff... - As you all probably know already, Russell Wilson is now a Denver Bronco...which begs the question...how long before Pete Carroll is out in Seattle? The Seahawks without Wilson, aren't a good football team. Is Carroll planning on retiring soon? - The Lions have been resigning pretty much every key FA they had, and signed FA WR DJ Chark from Jacksonville. which tells me one thing: The fact these players are willing to resign with Detroit, is probably because of Dan Campbell. They want to play for him. Seeing players wanting to come to Detroit to play is a new experience for us Lions fans...AND, former Bears WR Allen Robinson has indicated that the Lions are his preferred team to sign with...if that happens, with the growth of Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Lions WR corps could be a major strength next season. - Tom Brady says he unretired because he had unfinished business...UMMM...HUH? What hell could Tom Brady still feel he had left unaccomplished in his NFL career? If he had just said "I really just felt like I wanted to keep playing", fine...understandable. But, Tom...dude...there is literally nothing left for you to do in the NFL, that you haven't already done... - If you blink, you might miss Carson Wentz being traded again, lol. - JD McKissic is now a Bill...oh wait, no he isn't. After agreeing to terms with the Bills, for some reason I will never understand, he decided to re-up with the Commanders instead... - And Randy Gregory just did the exact opposite thing to the Cowboys...agreeing to terms to be resigned, only to change his mind and decide to go to Denver instead. - Colin Kaepernick is still trying to pitch NFL teams to sign him...after being out of the NFL for 5 years, and suing the league, and every team...I am sure they will be chomping at the bit to get him. - ESPN pretty much gave everyone a reason to watch the Manning Brothers version of Monday Night Football over the main broadcast, by signing the two WORST football commentators Fox had, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck...IN other news, the Fox football broadcasting team just got better, via addition by subtraction. - So...the Steelers are replacing Big Ben Roethlisberger with...Mitch Trubisky. Sure, why not? What's the worst that can happen? /s - Somehow, I can't help but think that Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers are in an abusive relationship with each other, but neither of them really want to break it off. www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33446869/nfl-suspends-atlanta-falcons-wr-calvin-ridley-least-2022-season-betting-games
The NFL has suspended Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley for the at least the 2022 season for betting on NFL games during the 2021 season. The league said Ridley's betting took place during a five-day period in November 2021 when he was not with the team while on the non-football illness list. The NFL said its investigation uncovered no evidence that Ridley used inside information or "that any game was compromised in any way." There also was no evidence that any of the Falcons coaches, staff or Ridley's teammates were aware of his betting activity. "There is nothing more fundamental to the NFL's success -- and to the reputation of everyone associated with our league -- than upholding the integrity of the game," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to Ridley notifying him of his suspension. "This is the responsibility of every player, coach, owner, game official, and anyone else employed in the league. Your actions put the integrity of the game at risk, threatened to damage public confidence in professional football, and potentially undermined the reputations of your fellow players throughout the NFL. "For decades, gambling on NFL games has been considered among the most significant violations of league policy warranting the most substantial sanction. In your case, I acknowledge and commend you for your promptly reporting for an interview, and for admitting your actions." The earliest Ridley can apply for reinstatement is Feb. 15, 2023, the NFL said. He also can appeal the suspension by filing notice within three days, per the collective bargaining agreement. It is not known if he has appealed the punishment. "We were first made aware of the league's investigation on Feb. 9. We have cooperated fully with the investigation since receiving notice and support the league's findings and actions," the Falcons said in a statement. "We are moving forward in the 2022 season with the decision that was made. With the decision that was made by the NFL, any further questions on the investigation should be directed to the league office." www.yahoo.com/entertainment/usfl-original-owners-sue-fox-043059760.html
Realistically, this lawsuit has little chance of succeeding. Brian Woods, who was formerly the CEO of the Spring League, and is the one spearheading the revival of the USFL, is listed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office as the owner of every USFL trademark. Legally, The new USFL has every legal right to call itself the USFL, and use USFL team names. Brian Woods owns the USFL, as an intellectual property, not whatever this "Real USFL" is, so I fully expect this case to get thrown out of court. I get it, the OG USFL execs and a few of the players want to try to protect the legacy of the original USFL...It was their baby, and they don't want to see its reputation get diminished...but, they sold their rights to the league and to the team names...they cannot win this. www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33341262/xfl-petri-dish-football-innovation-prospect-development-part-partnership-agreement-nfl
Ok, to summarize all of this: - The NFL and XFL have a partnership. - Partnership includes the XFL being an experimental league to try out new rules. - Partnership does NOT include player sharing for developing, but DOES include potentially developing referees and coaches for NFL. I do have to question Dany Garcia on one point though: Asked whether the XFL could one day evolve into a position to use allocated NFL players or construct another kind of sharing agreement, as occurred in NFL Europe, Garcia said: "That's a no. We are a spring league. We will play at the highest level in the spring. There is not the anticipation of any player sharing that changes the dynamic. That's not how we're executing our vision." Yeah. Bullshit. If the thought of eventually developing a more stable partnership/affiliation with the NFL wasn't included in your vision of what the XFL 3.0 would hope to be, then what is the point? The more the XFL and NFL share, the deeper the ties between the two leagues, the more MONEY the NFL spends to support the league. C'mon...There is no reason you can't be a spring league AND have some kind of player sharing arrangements...When it comes to practice squad players who never see game time, etc, there is no reason why they couldn't spend the NFL season on an NFL team's practice squad, and then in the spring, get a chance to actually play in meaningful games, in the hopes of developing enough to get off the practice squad... The only reason to fund a spring football league, is because you hope to broker a deal with the NFL to become an official minor league...because that's where the money is... I’m gonna talk about it on the podcast but the HOF bar is incredibly low now. Like a participation trophy. No all decade team. No All pro. No MVP. 1 Pro bowl. Not even MVP of the SB. Never considered the best in any year he played. At least M. Ryan has an MVP Those were the words of DB Richard Sherman, on whether or not he thinks Los Angeles Rams/Former Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford is a Hall of Fame worthy player. Then, we get this, from Julian Edelman: 50k pass yards, Super Bowl first year with a capable team. Give this man his flowers he's a HOF'er...Arm talent is some of the best we've seen. This seems to be the current focus of a lot of Twitter debate right now, ever since Stafford won the Super Bowl. Now, I know I can't really come at this from a completely unbiased viewpoint. I fully recognize that my #9 fandom absolutely comes to play in my opinion on this...yet, you might be surprised. I don't think either player is completely wrong...but, I don't think either is completely right either. The truth, when it comes to Matt Stafford, very much probably lies in the middle somewhere. Richard Sherman is correct to point out the lack of individual accolades. It is indisputable that when it comes to All-Pro selections, Pro Bowl selections, etc, Stafford is lacking. But what Sherman doesn't want to mention, is that Matt Stafford happens to play in a league, in a conference, at the same time as some of the greatest QBs who ever lived. Maybe you don't buy that excuse, and that's fine. But, I would argue that Stafford gets overlooked because of the "bigger" names. Sherman also ignores the NFL records: Fastest to 20k passing yards? Matt Stafford. Fastest to 30k passing yards? Matt Stafford. Fastest to 40k passing yards? Matt Stafford. Fastest to 50k passing yards? (will be Matt Stafford, early in game 1 next season) Most Game Winning Drives in a single season (8) in 2016 Only one of 9 NFL QBs to ever throw for 5,000 yards in a season Stafford was also Comeback POY. But...that doesn't mean Julian Edelman is right either. Right now, if Matt Stafford were to retire tomorrow, and never play another down in the NFL, I am not convinced he'd be inducted into the Hall of Fame either. But...here is what Richard Sherman doesn't understand. When people ask "Is Matt Stafford a HOFer", they aren't really asking if he is literally a HOF player, right now, at this very second. The question people are really asking is this: "Will Matt Stafford be a HOFer, if he stays healthy and continues to play at the same level for x amount of years?" That additional qualifier is built into the question, even if that part isn't spoken out loud, or written down. So...what will his stats look like, IF he stays healthy for say, another 5 years? Here are his career stats (182 games), followed by what they should approximately look like if we pro-rate stats to show another 5 seasons (85 more games, 267 games total) at his career pace: Current Career stats: 49,995 yards, 323 TDs, 161 INTs Pro-Rated to age 38: 73,344 yards, 473 TDs, 236 INTs You throw for 70k+ yards and over 450 TDs, you are a Hall of Famer, period. The answer to the question "WILL MATT STAFFORD BE A HOFer?", is unquestionably, YES. If Matt Stafford stays healthy, and keeps playing at the same level for even 5 more years (until he is 38), his HOF resume will be undeniable. It is absolutely debatable whether or not Matt Stafford has already done enough to merit a HOF induction...Even as a diehard Lions fan/Stafford fan, I am not 100% convinced that through age 33, he merits it...But 5 years from now, when he is top 5 in passing yards, top 5 in TDs, top 5 in Game Winning Drives, top 5 in 4th Q Comebacks, when he is the fastest player to reach 50k, 60k and probably 70k passing yards in addition to already being the fastest to 20k, 30k and 40k, I think it will be next to impossible to argue against his induction... Is Matt Stafford currently a HOFer? Maybe, maybe not. Will Matt Stafford be a HOFer someday? Yes. Yes he will. - Where to even start? Well, first off, congratulations to #9, Matt Stafford. The Lions fandom was torn, about whether to be loyal to their former QB or if they had to root against him to get a slightly better draft pick...But you guys all know me...I was 100% behind the Rams, for Stafford's sake. I want Stafford to eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and this was a major resume boost to achieve that goal. It might be different if Matt and Kelly Stafford had left Detroit on bad terms, but both of them has been nothing but gracious about their time in Detroit, have had nothing but praise for Lions fans.
- Can we talk about the job the referees did a sec? I am still trying to fathom how they missed that blatant facemask that directly led to the Bengals TD right after halftime. The refs gave the Bengals a gift TD, there is no way around it. But, that wasn't the only bad call. They also missed what could have/should have been a targeting call against the Bengals for a helmet-to-helmet shot on Stafford, I saw a shot of Aaron Donald slightly offsides that was no-called, and up until the final 2 minutes, almost no defensive holding or PI was being called against either team, despite it happening. A lot. This was not the finest officiated game. - Cris Collinsworth is still an idiot. At the end of the game, he made a comment about how we will see Burrow here again...Hey dumbass, we all thought the same after Dan Marino lost the Super Bowl too...Thing is, you never know. (Ok, admittedly, I might still be annoyed by Collinsworth's ridiculous claim that Stafford's side arm throws were "Mahomsian"... - Was it hard to hear the halftime show? It just didn't seemed like it was mixed very well, everyone seemed very quiet. I am not going to comment on the performances themselves, other than it's just not my style of music...but, it did seem like there was something off with the production of the show itself, not necessarily the performers. Things that sucked during the Super Bowl: - Most of the commercials - The refs - The Rams running game - Rams WRs not named Cooper Kupp or Odell Beckham Jr (before the injury) - The refs - the mixing of the halftime show - The fact NBC only showed the sign language interpreter for like two seconds total (what's the point?) If you haven't seen one of the numerous articles about this that came out yesterday, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, essentially, Patriots fans were right all this time. The NFL actually did screw Tom Brady over royally over Deflategate.
According to Florio's allegations: We now know that the person who told Chris Mortensen about the 12 underinflated footballs that ended up being a lie, was NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent...The same Troy Vincent who was the one who issued the 4-game punishment for Brady. So...Troy Vincent told Chris Mortensen information he knew wasn't true, and then when Mortensen reported it and it became public, he then suspends Brady for 4 games, based on that lie. And then, do you remember how the NFL was going to measure the PSI of all of the footballs used in the 2015 season at halftimes, to better understand the relationship between temperature/humidity and PSI levels? Well...wouldn't you know...turns out, the NFL deliberately destroyed all of the data they gathered that year...Why would they do that though? Remember...Tom Brady fought this to the end, taking his appeal to the United States Court of Appeals...in the Spring of 2016. IE, AFTER the NFL season in which the NFL took the measurements. Simply put, the NFL destroyed the data they gathered, so it couldn't be used against them in Court...because wouldn't you know it...EVERY SINGLE UNDERINFLATED FOOTBALL the Patriots had that day in Indianapolis, the PSI levels dropped to a range that was well within expectations of the Ideal Gas Law. If the data the NFL gathered had been known before Brady's appeal went to Court, the NFL's entire case would have completely vanished. The NFL's own investigation essentially vindicated Tom Brady and the Patriots...so they destroyed the evidence, and allowed Brady to serve a 4 game suspension, KNOWING they had railroaded him. - The principles behind the Ideal Gas Law exonerated Tom Brady. - The NFL's own gathered evidence confirmed that the Ideal Gas Law exonerated Tom Brady. - The NFL made their gathered evidence go away so Brady's defense team couldn't use it against them. If these damning allegations from Mike Florio are true, then the owners need to fire Roger Goodell and Troy Vincent immediately. www.cnn.com/2022/02/06/sport/alvin-kamara-arrested-running-back-spt/index.html
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara was arrested Sunday by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and charged with "battery resulting in substantial bodily harm," a news release from the department said. I am gonna leave reading about the rest of the details up to you, but it appears that Saturday evening, Alvin Kamara got into a fight or something at a nightclub, seriously messed up the other guy, then played in the Pro Bowl on Sunday, and was arrested shortly after...We do not know yet what caused the assault/battery. The part that really stands out for me, is the "substantial bodily harm" bit. That means Kamara really did a lot of damage, to the point the victim probably got hospitalized. I fully expect that as more information comes out about this, Alvin Kamara is going to be called into NFL HQ, and will likely be heavily fined in addition to being suspended for multiple games at the start of next season. This is early in the news cycle, but right now, Kamara is in some serious trouble. |
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