NFL 2012 [American Football Content]

[R_of_G]

Heard a report this morning that the cost to each of the 32 teams to settle this dispute is slightly over $100,000. Given the approximate value of each franchise at $1 billion, it shows how petty the NFL owners and their errand boy Goodell can be.

Could Goodell have been more disingenuous about the pension request than suggesting that he doesn't have a pension so why should the refs? How about because the refs don't make $20 million/year like Goodell does?

For that kind of greed and arrogance we got three weeks of shoddily officiated football where the outcomes of games were affected.

Bravo Goodell. Every day he narrows the gap between himself and Gary Bettman for worst commissioner ever.

[marnold***]

Bravo Goodell. Every day he narrows the gap between himself and Gary Bettman for worst commissioner ever.

Gary's lapped him several times. If, for no other reason, that he was never a hockey guy before becoming commish. Goodell doesn't get booed lustily by everyone in the stadium every time he hands off the Lombardi trophy.

Having said that, let's not kid ourselves. Those guys are in place because the owners want them in place. Period. They work for the owners. They do what the owners want them to do. In that way, the NFL is worse than the NHL because the NFL is drowning in money. The problem with the NHL is that too many owners are brutally incompetent, don't care, or are jerks (yes, I'm looking in Boston's general direction, as well as the late "Dollar" Bill Wirtz). I fear that the NHL labor struggle will not be solved this calendar year and perhaps not this season. That, however, is a story for another thread.

[piebaldpython***]

OK......how to say this????........the refs need pre-season too......in terms of getting their physical conditioning back, especially their "wind"....with the obvious exception of Ed "Two Guns" Hochuli.

I just hope that the injury report tonite and Sunday doesn't also include refs having twisted knees/ankles or worse yet, heart attacks.

Did Goodell really say the refs don't need a pension increase because he doesn't get a pension? What an arrogant SOB. Hey, I would glady give up a pension to get the "golden parachute" Goodell will get when he leaves the NFL....in addition to the ridiculous salary he must draw.

[R_of_G]

Gary's lapped him several times. If, for no other reason, that he was never a hockey guy before becoming commish. Goodell doesn't get booed lustily by everyone in the stadium every time he hands off the Lombardi trophy.

Having said that, let's not kid ourselves. Those guys are in place because the owners want them in place. Period. They work for the owners. They do what the owners want them to do. In that way, the NFL is worse than the NHL because the NFL is drowning in money. The problem with the NHL is that too many owners are brutally incompetent, don't care, or are jerks (yes, I'm looking in Boston's general direction, as well as the late "Dollar" Bill Wirtz). I fear that the NHL labor struggle will not be solved this calendar year and perhaps not this season. That, however, is a story for another thread.

I tend to pro-rate Goodell's failures because the league is so financially successful. You're absolutely right that the commissioners are nothing more than the errand boys of ownership, but at some point he has to stand up to them if for no other reason than to remind them not to kill the golden goose.

Did Goodell really say the refs don't need a pension increase because he doesn't get a pension? What an arrogant SOB. Hey, I would glady give up a pension to get the "golden parachute" Goodell will get when he leaves the NFL....in addition to the ridiculous salary he must draw.

He did indeed.

"From the owners' standpoint, right now they're funding a pension program that is a defined benefit program," said Goodell, who was in Washington on Wednesday attending a luncheon hosted by Politico's Playbook. "About ten percent of the country has that. Yours truly doesn't have that. It's something that doesn’t really exist anymore and that I think is going away steadily." - SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1879049.html

[R_of_G]

Any more question about why I decided this spring to leave Jets' fandom in my past?

What they did today was exactly what I expected out of this team. Any fans surprised by today's performance are the kind that wear the gear and talk the trash but don't actually watch the games, because nothing about the way they played today should surprise anyone who watched even a single game last season.

There's no waiting for Mark Sanchez to develop. This is what he is. Terrible. Instead of facing that fact and either bringing in a veteran back-up, drafting a rookie, or letting McElroy challenge Sanchez in camp, they decided to go the circus sideshow route and bring in Tebow.

Anybody see the pass Tebow threw today? Sure, he completed it, but his signature inaccuracy caused his receiver to get injured on the ensuing hit.

I still don't know what the deal was with the Santonio Holmes reception/injury/fumble. Obviously he seriously hurt his knee on the play but I've yet to figure out how that translates to him just tossing the ball to an opposing player before the play is ruled dead. I feel badly that he's injured, but that's simply dumb play.

It's Rex Ryan's No Ring Circus.

Some of my twitter Jets friends have scolded me that they're still 2-2, tied for the division lead. When the wins are against Buffalo and Miami, and the losses are against Pittsburgh and San Francisco, it says quite a bit about that 2-2.

PS. I find it all absolutely hilarious. I hope the trainwreck continues unabated. Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan deserve to be humiliated by this team they've assembled.

PPS. The Jets cannot stop the run. If you have Arian Foster on your fantasy team, play him next week because he'll put up 200 yards against those clowns.

[Tig***]

That game didn't air here, but ouch! Looks like they'll be 2-3 next Monday night unless the Texans' plane crashes.


'We got our *** kicked'

[R_of_G]

Rex Ryan's fiery speech about the recipe for getting their a**es kicked was cute and got a lot of headlines, but he has only himself and Mike Tannenbaum to blame. They bought the ingredients. There's no excuse at this point for not knowing Sanchez is this bad.

[piebaldpython***]

Iggles pull out another one in the last few minutes.....again. 3 wins by a total of 4 pts. I thought Reid calling that last second time out when the field goal wound up being missed was gonna cost us.....lucky for him it didn't. The officiating was OK and it seemed to even itself out over the course of the game.

So glad to see the Jets get schneidered. I guess Tebow will come in......they'll run some version of a wishbone and they'll run 95% of the time. aha

That QB for the Texans seems like the real deal.

[R_of_G]

Iggles pull out another one in the last few minutes.....again. 3 wins by a total of 4 pts. I thought Reid calling that last second time out when the field goal wound up being missed was gonna cost us.....lucky for him it didn't. The officiating was OK and it seemed to even itself out over the course of the game.

When Reid called the timeout, I was convinced the Giants would make the second attempt and I thought "Man, is PBP gonna be fired up about this!"

So glad to see the Jets get schneidered. I guess Tebow will come in......they'll run some version of a wishbone and they'll run 95% of the time.

If they had any sense, they'd skip straight to McElroy. The Jets lack the personnel to run the spread option full time. They also lack the defense to keep things close enough to hope for some fourth quarter Tebow miracle. What good would his fourth quarter heroics do a team down 34-0 in the fourth? Of course, I predicated this by saying "if they had any sense." They do not. The circus will continue.

[piebaldpython***]

When Reid called the timeout, I was convinced the Giants would make the second attempt and I thought "Man, is PBP gonna be fired up about this!".

hahaha I saw the missed field goal.......and then the "late" time-out by Reid and I threw a s**t-fit at the TV. I texted my daughter and she was freaking out too. UGH!!!! lol

These close last-minute wins are a double-edged sword.......first, it gives you confidence that you can win close games and if you are in one that you feel calm that you can pull-through and win in the end.........BUT......it can make you complacent and that can show up by not stomping on a team's throat and putting them away early if the opportunity presents itself.

Steeler's next week after they had a bye this week. Our D is driving us crazy here in Philly. Sometimes they look good and focused and.....other times.......they resemble the Keystone Kops.....clueless almost. Weird.

[NWBasser]

It appears to me that with the "background noise" of the replacement refs out of the way of the flow of the game, I finally got to see that the Seahawks are not as good as I hoped.

They got handled pretty well by the Rams. Wilson had three interceptions although it was apparent that a couple weren't really on him. Baldwin let one pass slip through his hands and into the defender's for instance.

That said, Wilson doesn't look anywhere near the QB he did in the preseason and I'm having some serious doubts about his abilities. He has a lot of tipped balls, and I can't help but think his lack of height is working against him.

We've had such a mediocre team for so long, I wonder if Carroll is up to the task of winning games.

Congrats to PBP for the win last night. It was a very fun game to watch at least.

[sunvalleylaw]

Hey, the Seahawks won on the road, and apparently played some pretty ok defense! And though the QB arguing is likely not over, Wilson had a pretty decent game despite a couple interceptions. Cool!

[R_of_G]

Congratulations to Drew Brees for throwing a TD in his 48th consecutive game, surpassing Johnny Unitas for the record. It's quite an accomplishment.

[NWBasser]

Hey, the Seahawks won on the road, and apparently played some pretty ok defense! And though the QB arguing is likely not over, Wilson had a pretty decent game despite a couple interceptions. Cool!

Yep, the defense was pretty well on fire! They dominated the game.

Wilson did have some good plays, but he's still repeating some of the same mistakes that he's been making. He threw to the short yard receiver several times on third downs when there was an open receiver farther down field. He can't get it done on third and long situations which will lose games when they play better teams.

Maybe Wilson will improve. Or, maybe Flynn's the better choice at this point.

[sunvalleylaw]

I was not able to watch. Thanks for the more full report. Time will tell on Wilson, Flynn, or whomever I suppose. The Tacoma News Tribune sportswriter had some interesting thoughts on the QB/receiver subject, that places a bit more blame on the receiving crew: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/1...-a-target.html

Doesn't answer the question of what QB is better for now, but points out some other problems.

[NWBasser]

Yeah Steve, even a superstar QB couldn't keep Baldwin from letting the ball slip through his hands and into the defender's.

Or McCoy from tripping over his own feet...

It's really frustrating because we have a supreme defense, but an offense that won't be able to win games.

Sort of like the Mariners with their great pitchers, but no run support whatsoever.

[piebaldpython***]

Iggles lost a tough one to the Steelers. Still......Vick loses another fumble (on the goal line too) and Andy Reid wastes more time-outs that he needs at the end of the game. AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!

Jets did better than I thought they would last nite. Can't anyone shut Jon Gruden up.......? He has to show everybody that he knows every convoluted name of every play.......like who cares? Just tell us what the play is designed to do and why or why not it didn't work.

[R_of_G]

Jets did better than I thought they would last nite.

It would appear that way at first, but take out the McKnight kickoff return for a TD and you have an offense that only scored 10 points in another game of Sanchez completing less than 50% of his passes and throwing more INTs than TDs. Another game where the run was not effective. Sparano clearly has no game plan for Tebow. The fans calling for him better watch what they wish for because he contributes nothing except getting way too psyched up for pretty meaningless plays.

Can't anyone shut Jon Gruden up.......? He has to show everybody that he knows every convoluted name of every play.......like who cares? Just tell us what the play is designed to do and why or why not it didn't work.

And there's the key difference between Gruden and Jaworski or Mayock. Gruden can tell you what every team through history has called a specific play, but he can't explain it to anyone that doesn't already understand the jargon (and he uses too many superlatives.)

[sunvalleylaw]

Can't anyone shut Jon Gruden up.......?

Though I had to agree there were some bad calls in that Seahawks/Packers game, and that the last call stunk, I could not stand how he approached and discussed the topic. I found him to be obnoxious, and did not enjoy his commentary at all. Using all that jargon makes the commentary more about him and how cool he is rather than helping the viewer understand and enjoy the play of the game.