The NFL Thread

I like Cooks too, but with the emergence of Mike Thomas last year, he could easily take over and become the WR1 next year. Brees is so good too he could basically make a player out of any WR, much like Brady. The signing of Tedd Ginn to replace the deep threat of Cooks, pretty much says to me that he is on his way. I just hope we get what he is worth, 1st round pick or a top CB.

 

This investigation into the use of painkillers and anti inflammatory drugs looks as if it's going to blow up, it is way to easy for the teams medical staff to dope up players who are injured, this should be treated the same as banned substance abuse for me.

 

The NFL is suffering so much right now - they've been * off pretty much everybody. It's poetic justice that it happens so much under Goodell's watch, the guy that puts some abstract notion of "the shield" over fans and player safety.

 

Pats trade for Ealy and Cooks, sign Lawrence guy, still got the cap room for Butler and Hightower and will get a 1st if they don't keep Butler. Would say things are looking good but teams who "win" the off season tend to do * in the real season (cough Ravens/Giants)

 

Donta Hightower agrees 4 year, $43 million deal with New England.

Hightower had visited a few teams including Steelers and Jets.

 

Lawrence Guy signing is a sore one. Anyone but New England.

 

Happy with the signing for Brandon Carr.

 

Report: Raiders considering acquiring Marshawn Lynch

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/fractu...t-in-bone-chilling-court-scene-012208774.html

Chilling. Aaron Hernandez must be the most evil * ever to grace the NFL.

 

It was a good read that going through everything that happened.

There are some terrible bastatds in the world

 

Anyone going to the NFL live event in Edinburgh in April?

Steve Smith is going to be there so bought a couple of tickets.

 

Raiders moving to Las Vegas *.

 

The NFL has turned into a racket that extorts cities for public money with the sole interest of increasing the wealth of the owner who owns the team. If you actively support a team, you're supporting brain damage and the slashing of public services to make a billionaire more wealthy. It's the most heinous league in the world. They're really a disgusting collection of human beings.

 

Don't think Baltimore comes under that umbrella. But yeh, the league is corrupt as *. Sending a well supported team to Las * Vegas is madness.

 

Sorry man, but Baltimore are the ones who invented the playbook on how to play two cities against each other in order to get as much money in public subsidies. The Browns were loved--they're probably the most loved franchise actually--the fact that they got their team back a few years later doesn't change the fact that the modern Ravens left town for public money.

 

I meant as a city, Baltimore is a bit of a shithole. The things they've done for that city has been really amazing.

 

The city of Baltimore built them a stadium that was completely taxpayer-funded to the tune of over 200 million dollars. In today's money it would be over 300 million dollars. The Ravens do a lot of public events to keep them in the city's hearts and minds, but what do they do for child poverty or health on that kind of scale? Every franchise except for the Packers comes out ahead when it comes to dealings with the city.

 

This is a strange argument. I'm not sure what an NFL team can do for child poverty and health, maybe more events focused on raising money for that? But I'm not going to call them out for not doing it, when they do enough for their city. That's an NFL issue, not an individual team issue.

 

So for two years, the fans in Oakland have to "support" a team who won't be there.

Heard some individuals saying that the NFL wanted them to stay in Oakland. However they wanted the Raiders to improve their facilities(similar to San Diego). Apparently Mark Davis wasn't keen on footing the bill and neither were the local governing authorities.

So like the San Diego Chargers, Raiders will be uprooted.

 

The NFL as a league is a bit of a paradox. At the highest level it is a disgusting example of pure capitalism. Taxpayers pay for stadiums that the billionaire owners could easily afford to build themselves. But the sport itself is actually run on a very egalitarian basis with the salary cap etc ensuring that every team in the league has a chance of success.

I do strongly dislike the way franchises can just be uprooted and moved to another city, it goes against our whole sporting culture on this side of the Atlantic, but I don't think it will ever ruin my love for watching the NFL. I'm more likely to be turned off by rule changes to the game itself.