Mark80

And you are the exact problem. People admittedly making assumption that they have no idea about. I'll do it for you. A report by the US Department of Justice stated that 1.3% of women experienced domestic violence in the general public for a one year time period. On average, of these 1.3% of women, they each encounter 6.9 assaults per year. https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/nij/183781.txt In the NFL, the 5 players in the last year that have been associated with domestic violence (one including a child only) account for only 0.25% of the players and there certainly are no reports of up to 6.9 assaults by any of them. Now, obviously not every incident is reported and anyone who is good with statistics and logic can point some holes in the comparisons I just made, but a reasonable conclusion from these is that it occurs 5 times less often in the NFL than it does in the general public. Apparently, no one cares about women and children in the general public though, only the ones that are beat up by famous people. And there is where my problem with the media lies.

I think you are completely missing the point. The point is, where is all the outrage for Ray Rice not seeing a single day in the slammer after his conviction? This is especially true seeing as it was reported that less than 1% of similar cases in NJ end with just probation. How in the world can Hardy request a trial by judge and then ask for a trial by jury after he is found guilty by the judge? I mean, it's not even an appeal as far as I know, just a separate new trial. Where is the media (professional and social) outrage on this? Yes it's the NFL's job to maintain a positive public image, just as it is any corporation. But the short comings here go way beyond the NFL in my opinion.

Me too man. It used to be CNN as well until that plane disappeared and they covered it non-stop for over a month. A MONTH! With no new news developments the whole time! ESPN news has become the only channel in their family that I can watch anymore. The only one that actually plays highlights of games which is all I really want to see (that and the West Coast late night SportsCenter). Too bad I don't get ESPN news from my cable provider.

Roughly 60 players per team with practice squads, IR guys, etc.. 32 teams. Roughly 2000 active players in the league. They are concentrating on Dwyer, Peterson, McDonald, Hardy, Rice. That's 0.25% of the league's players for this season. I blame the media trying to get ratings and blowing all this crap way out of proportion. To say the NFL has a problem based on the actions of 0.25% of the players is, quite frankly, egregious reporting. It is not the job of the NFL to police its players outside of the game, it's the legal system's job. If people are outraged, they should be contacting their Representatives locally, on the state level, and federally to get them to increase the punishment for such actions. How these guys never (rarely) see jail time should be the focus of the media, not the NFL. But the NFL garners attention and that's how the media spins it. How a journalist can work for a media outlet like ESPN and respect their profession is beyond me. They should be ashamed and embarrassed to be part of it. No one was clamoring for Rice to be suspended indefinitely until the second video came out (although many were saying 2 games was too short, but mostly because the drug suspensions were 4 games and they were comparing the two). No one was saying that Hardy shouldn't be playing for the Panthers week 1 until the Ray Rice thing blew up. Where were these guys before that second video came out? What changed since then except for the ratings covering it? It's such B.S. I can't stand it. The only guy who stood up and has shown in the past he means it, is Herm Edwards. He was on this from the beginning, he cut Larry Johnson immediately when he was a star on his team and he had his issues. Everyone else, just jumping on the bandwagon and saving their arses.

Yeah he's great. He was doing a game last Saturday night (can't remember USC v BC or UCLA v Texas, can't remember was switching between games). Thought to myself, man I love this guy. Most entertaining play by play man in the business right now. When he gets excited there is no one better.

"God damn Garmin"

I moved away for 15 years if you include college. I just moved about a bit over a year ago. It was the best decision I have ever made. Go Bills. This is blatantly false. I lived in 5 different cities and I eat a lot of pizza. When your best option for pizza is Papa Johns then you have a pizza problem in that town. The only places that can claim to have comparable pizza quality are Chicago and NYC. While a lot of places will have one or two places that may be good, to have a whole City have good pizza is a unique thing. And the wings, give me a break man, a lot of places put breading on them as a rule...BREADING!!!!

"Think I'll pack it in and buy a pick up, take it down to LA. Find a place to call my own and try to fix up, start a brand new day." Neil Young - Out on the Weekend. Best Fall album ever, Harvest.

You mean THREE safeties named Williams. Duke never gets any love.

That's great. I would dominate him.

It's gonna be a blood bath, but still cool that they are coming.

When I was a kid and my pops would listen to this, I always thought they said "The Dukes of Hazard in the classroom." To this day, this is how I always say it still!

Nice! Yes. Great one. A few of mine: "It's been a long time since I rock and rolled" - Led - Rock and Roll. Just the way it starts out the whole album with that great rockin tune. Awesome. "I seem to recognize your face, haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it" - Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman...

Absolutely. He is / was considered the most recognizable current athlete in their country. It is their "crime of the century" trial. At least it's nice to know that fame and money can buy you freedom in South Africa just like it can in the US! What a joke.

Please take a moment in your day to thank a firefighter or police officer today. Drop off some baked goods to your fire station, honk your horn and give a thumbs up to a police officer on the road, just say "thanks" to someone that you know. These men and women risk their lives and their families well-being on a daily basis to help total strangers in their greatest times of need for way too little in return. Thanks.

They are so annoying that a lot of fans don't want to deal with them anymore! Plus, you get quite the premium on selling those from what I've heard. We keep ours every time though! My best game I ever went to was the 1999 Conference Finals when we beat them in game 4 to go up 3-1 in the series. Unfortunately my brother got the ticket with pops for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, even though we lost, it would have been great to see someone raise the cup.

What could you possibly be booing?

Good luck Marquise! You certainly have some great motivation to work for. Awesome piece.

It has to be hard for Rookie QB to come in and be a leader from day one. It takes some time to earn respect, show your work ethic, have some sort of performance on the field to back your words up. Year 2 though, that's a different story. You're right, hopefully we see more of it going forward because it makes a big difference on the field when you have a guy like that leading your offense.

The Players Association doesn't have a choice in the matter. If there is ground to stand on in challenging the new suspension, then they are legally bound to do so. Unions are under a legal obligation to protect and defend every single one of their members under the agreed upon terms of the CBA. It is known as the "Right of fair Representation." If a union does not do so, they will be held accountable by the National Labor Relations Board. Accordingly, if there is a "double jeopardy" protection in the CBA and Smith isn't doing anything about this Rice can file a claim with the NLRB and the Union (and Smith) would be held accountable. That's why I don't think there is anything they can do, no ground to protest it (unless it's happening behind the scenes) otherwise, they would be required to do so. Labor Law is a bit rusty from my Undergrad and Law School days, but that's how I remember it.

On EJ. I hated the pick for about 10 minutes. I actually said right before we picked him..."any QB but Manuel." We picked him and I hit the web. After watching a highlight video I found this one and felt like "hell, yeah", I'm on board. We don't have film of his speech from Saturday, but if it was anything like this one, I can see how it motivated guys. Leadership, confidence, charisma, intelligence cannot be learned, they are inherent traits in people. He has all of them. Once he tunes in his accuracy he will be a force in the league IMO. Go Bills.

Not entirely sure on the legality issues here, but I would assume that, as a private entity, the NFL can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't violate Federal / State laws or the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Now, there is certainly no law protecting an employee from being terminated or suspended numerous times for the same incident (as there is in criminal law - double jeopardy) especially if it is shown that they lied about the incident (as rumored here when they apparently played down the incident in interviews and even hinted that she was the instigator) and further evidence emerges at a later point. However, there could be something in the CBA regarding punishments and a sort of Double Jeopardy Clause (or possibly even in Rice's personal contract). If there is and Smith is not doing anything then he should be terminated as the Union Head. Regardless of how it looks, what they did, the PR of it all, whatever, the job of the union head is to protect his members and their negotiated rights. I feel that there is nothing in there to cover Ray Rice in this case though and that's why Smith is silent and not backing his union member.

Dude, Bill Cowher is never coaching again. I just don't understand why people insist on bringing his name up over and over and over again. He's done, he's happy, he ain't coaching again. And honestly, who even really wants him? He's been out of the game for almost 10 years now, it took him 14 years to win a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh when he had extremely talented teams (especially D and running games) every single season.

Sorry, Mr. Wilson comes first.