Hapless Bills Fan

Indeed.

@JGMcD2, have you met @jeremy2020? @jeremy2020, may I present @JGMcD2? I believe you gents have a lot in common.

Can someone who's played college ball tell me if it's actually true they have minimal practice? Because my understanding is that the colleges play "Spring Football", 6 or 7 games that are against other teams in their conference (mostly) and that kind of serve the function of pre-season games as the Seniors and others who declared for the draft are out, while the redshirt Freshmen get their first game action. In DI volleyball, my friend's kid was expected to report for "player led" workouts just after the 4th of July, then coach-led workouts in August. I thought college football did a similar schedule. The Seniors and other team captains led the workouts using plans given to them by the coaches but it was a PITA because they weren't given official housing or meals so the arrangements were sort of haphazard. It seems to me that colleges do just fine with the equivalent of pre-season games (in the form of spring football) and quite a large amount of practice. The question in the NFL isn't hitting in pads or two a day workouts, because that hasn't been on the table for a long time; OTAs are very defined as far as gradual ramp-up of conditioning first, then walk throughs, then very restricted practices. Ever wonder what those "workout bonuses" in the contracts on Spotrac and Overthecap are? Those are payment for OTAs. Players also get three meals a day and snacks at the team facility and a stipend for living expenses. If you have a look, you'll see that most of the top-51 paid players have workout bonuses, so they in fact do get paid for OTAs (exceptions are the first round draft picks on rookie contracts, Allen Edmunds and Oliver). But it's the guys at the bottom of the roster, who are fighting to make the team, who most want OTAs even though they DON'T get paid. It gives them more time to learn the playbook. It gives them more time in the coaches' eyes and more film (OTAs are filmed). But for the guys who are bouncing around the league, it also gives them access to top-notch facilities, trainers and medical staff, and S&C staff that they are otherwise paying for out of their own pocket (not to mention food and lodging). If they aren't paying big $$ for training and S&C AND someone else is feeding and housing them, it's probably pretty helpful to the guys who are just kicking around the league trying to make their money last until they can make a team and get a paycheck.

Yeah, that's a grim but good question https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31223923/brain-phillip-adams-former-nfl-player-killed-five-examined-cte

Right on and well put. I believe someone did a study that even at the top of the 1st round (1st 10 picks say) it was 50/50 if you get a guy who can be a long term solid starter - not a league-leading disruptive force, just a solid starter. After that it drops to 30%-ish through the top picks of the 2nd round, then 20%, by the 5th round it's like 10%. We need more from Oliver, no doubt, but he's not an Aaron Donald. I guess we'll find out of TJ Watt can be as disruptive without Bud Dupree as his bookend.

We're not helping your honest efforts to sort this very well, are we?

I think the NFLPA is OK with training camp, but they want the rest of the normal offseason (OTAs, June mini-camp) to be virtual I could be wrong though I think there's an underlying issue beyond Covid. The NFLPA has been pushing for less and less OTAs before training camp - they used to be mandatory, now they're voluntary. The players don't like them because it's more chance to get hurt, at a point where getting hurt could screw their chance to make any team. The coaches want them because it's a chance to introduce the playbook and start getting a look at the new guys, and they feel the additional reps are valuable. I could be 100% wrong but I tend to think that the majority of these guys aren't too worried about covid and it's an excuse for the NFLPA to froth their membership up about not attending the "voluntary" workouts.

Still a fair point that none of us do.

Um, I think the problem was he didn't (find one that's down with...)?

Why? Greg Hardy did it (that I know of). He was actually convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend in a bench trial (largely based upon her testimony), sentenced, and suspended for 10 games. He then appealed his conviction and requested a jury trial, something NC law allows. While awaiting the jury trial, he apparently reached a confidential settlement with the victim, who disappeared and failed to appear to testify in the jury trial. The charges were dismissed, and the conviction was expunged from his record. The 10 game suspension was reduced to 4 upon arbitration. I'm sure others have settled. The NFL is only partly concerned with "protecting the brand" they're also concerned with the quality of the product.

Spotrac had Sanders Void Year incorrectly captured for a long time while OTC had it right. I like to compare OTC and Spotrac because sometimes one is faster than the other to gather the information and sometimes one or the other just has a mistake (OTC was incorrect about Quinton Jefferson's dead money)

On the one hand, if the NFL is telling them "get vaccinated in tier, we won't jump the line", a lot of them are not yet or have only just become eligible to be vaccinated. So travel and etc. does in theory present a higher risk of infection to them until 5-6 weeks past the first jab. On the other hand...at the risk of sounding like a crazed stalker, I follow a lot of these guys on Instagram. They don't appear particularly concerned about infection, including Mr. "I isolate and wear a mask" Allen (*ahem*). I see photos of various guys attending large unmasked weddings, a crowded outdoor concert/ crayfish boil, serving BBQ to the general public, working out with various trainers outdoors and indoors, trips to Hawaii, to Vegas, to Punta Cana, to Puerto Rico, to Palm Springs. I'm not saying this to criticize these guys for their choices! If I were a young "immortal" with plenty o' moolah who's to say I'd do different? I'd like to be in Punta Cana or Hawaii myself right now! But if you're not worried about infection when you're flying off to Hawaii or PR or DR or Vegas and bar hopping, or attending a big unmasked wedding, or working out with other guys at various S. Florida facilities, it seems kind of lame to argue you can't return to your NFL facility, get tested, and participate in OTAs at the team facility because it's too risky.

Florio points out that the other aspect of a settlement is agreement to not discuss the matter with anyone else. This is apparently standard provision of a settlement. Not only would that preclude talking further to police, it would preclude testifying in trial and preclude talking to NFL investigators. Poof, legal case goes away; NFL case goes away. They could still suspend Watson I suppose, but without testimony it would be easier to challenge and reduce. So everything would more or less go away.

Well, per the ProFootballTalk article linked upthread, Hardin did pretty much accuse the first woman of just that thing, right? Now he's broadened to all 22: "Hardin described the entire situation as a “new model for extortion" Entire situation would involve all 22 women. "Extortion" would generally be interpreted as "ill motive"

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/04/09/rusty-hardin-admits-that-deshaun-watsons-massages-sometimes-resulted-in-consensual-sex/ from the above: It's worth listening to Mike Florio who (as some of us learned through this, practiced law for 14 years). His opinion is that Watson could pivot away from fighting, make restitution, and move on. But if he's still fighting this, it could drag on for years. (my paraphrase)

I mean it's like a lot of football players eat 5 or 6 professionally prepared dinners a week during the preseason and season. The math on that is 100-120 meals from August until January, but they probably don't have 40 or 50 chefs preparing them; they find 1 or 2 who cook to their taste and then pay for those chefs to keep them as regular clients. I think that applies to how most athletes interact with massage therapists. They may be getting 2-3 massages a week, but they're primarily going to be sports massages with trained sports massage therapists, and the athletes are going to find therapists who get to know what they need in the way of attention to different muscle groups and who do the best work for them, personally.

WTF? Did he really say that?

I actually think he used the first filing to recruit the others - he asked in his Instagram (or wherever it was) for other women to come talk to him.

I'm glad you asked. Cantaloupe is a variety of muskmelon. (there are actually two varieties of cantaloupe, European and American) Muskmelon includes other varieties of melon, including honeydew melon.

In addition, players being asked to take a cut are usually given something in exchange. For example, per Overthecap: "Morse agreed to a $2 million pay cut in 2021. As part of the new contract he received a $2.85 million guarantee on his 2021 salary." They report Addison as just agreeing to a $2M pay cut in exchange for having 2022 voided, but he also is shown as having $2.75M of guaranteed salary that wasn't there before AFAIK. So it appears that Addison, too, was given more guaranteed money in exchange for the cut. He was also due a $1.5M roster bonus which has been paid. He would now cost the Bills $6.75M in dead money to cut, and only save $1.45M. Would NOT make sense. Incorrect, see above

This is hysterical!

Isn't it a speedy deep threat that we need? Sanders took #10. Was his number for 6 years in Denver, only had 17 for 2 years in SF and NO. New number for Fromm. Haven't seen what it'll be yet

I can see I better edit my post

What's puzzling a bit is that they didn't bring one in last season, if indeed there is so much 1TDT talent out there Perhaps they felt Butler would work

He played well against the Colts, Miami, and NE as well IMO. Which, coincidentally, are the games where he returned to 40-50% of the 1TDT snaps vs the 23-33% he got as he worked his way back into the lineup from being a healthy scratch. The questions are: 1) will a full healthy off-season help him? and 2) can he stay healthy?