Mango

I’ll post it again because it’s relevant. Guilty for you, me, and our neighbors is much different than NFL stars. Adrian Peterson has never faced a guilty verdict in his life. He literally beat his 4 year old son’s balls bloody. We have pictures. He got physical with his wife on a commercial flight in front of strangers, forced an emergency landing, and was taken out in hand cuffs. And has no official conviction. Super starts play by different rules than the rest of the world. Ray Lewis, AP, Von Miller. They aren’t normal people in the courts.

WTF are you doing on an internet message board if not to discuss the decision making and execution by everybody from the players, coaches, scouts, and general managers of an NFL team. All of us are infinitely less qualified than just about everybody in every single professional sports league. But they get stuff wrong a lot. And discussing it is part of the fandom. This is always the absolute weakest stance to take on every single topic about every single sports team.

First it was “If you would move on from Von you clearly don’t understand elite athletics.” Somebody chimes in who does have a background in elite athletics and it’s “clout chasing.” I would love to know what clout I was chasing in a sport with next to zero funding or corporate dollars and zero prize money for world or national championships. We’re not even having a discussion in good faith at this point. I’ve benched really talented athletes with off field and/or locker room issues in a sport with no social media presence. That’s not why you make those decisions. You do some things because somethings are more important than the sport. And other times you have to protect the roster from itself.

2 things: 1. This should be merged with the other Von thread. 2. I think we need to stop making assumptions about criminal charges (or lack there of)/settlements out of court as some sort of name clearing action. Adrian Peterson has never been found guilty of a crime. Ever. Think about that. We have pictures of what he did to his kid. He was escorted off a plane after an emergency landing for being abusive on a commercial flight with his partner, and never officially found guilty of a crime. Von via text wished terrible things on the mother of his child/his fiance. He has 2 physical DV incidents. Maybe he doesn't need to be in a jail cell. But the lack of charges for an NFL Super Star, set to be a first ballot HOF'er, most certainly do not equate to a "misunderstanding" either.

It isn't arrogance. It is an internet sports message board. The entire purpose of this place is to question the "professionals'. Also we have all worked with, known somebody, or knew somebody who knew somebody who pulled the wool over the eyes of everybody around them only to someday show their true character. Nobody anywhere, in any role, is infallible in talent/character identification. For reference here is a quote from Rick Spiellman after knowing Adrian Peterson for 8 years, after seeing pictures of what he did to his 4 year old boy with a stick. 6 years later AP was so abusive to his wife on an airplane they had to land it early and escort him off in handcuffs. He was charged with yet another felony. https://www.startribune.com/spielman-defends-petersons-character-wants-his-return-but-cant-guarantee-it/288575771/ Just to be clear, Adrian Peterson is a reprehensible, no good, terrible human being who deserves absolutely nothing. He should have been banished for eterinity after what he did to his kid. But hey...Rick said he was a good guy and he knew him for how long? Technically he was never actually found "guilty" of anything since he pleaded no contest. Amirite?

I have done both at a very high level and I would bench Von and not lose any sleep over it.

The best thing that could have happened to the Bills was Rodgers going to the Jets. He demands so much control and is such a crappy leader. He is destroying that team. We really dodged a bullet because with anybody even a little less self serving (and healthy), they could have been dangerous. Just take a look at everybody he brought with him, he backed Wilson/Saleh, grabbed his WRs, OC, and QB3, and it has destroyed them. WR Allen Lazard WR Randall Cobb S Adrian Amos OT Billy Turner QB Tim Boyle WR Malik Taylor OT Adam Pankey OC Nathaniel Hackett Rooting for Jordan Love in GB!

I saw that from Skurski and Florio. My take is that there might be somethings conflated with a suspension/the exempt list, and that guaranteed money not being counted for those weeks. Maybe you are right, and maybe Bean is playing chess to the leagues checkers and he wants them to suspend him so they can get out of this contract. But my initial thought is Florio is wrong.

This is a good reminder that Adrian Peterson has no guilty verdict for beating his 4 year old with a switch or for getting physical with his wife on an airplane, forcing it to land early and escorted off in handcuffs. He pleaded no contest to both. When these things happen to the women and children of the NFL and people say "they are just accusations" I think of AP all the time. This is how big the NFL and their franchises are. Adrian Peterson should 100% have served jail time. Instead he received a relative slap on the wrist and kept playing football.

There have been a million gangbangers, murderers, wife beaters, etc. But lets not pretend Von was on some special list that required special protections. He wasn't. The only voidable contract we know if in NFL history is Deshaun Watson, and it is both the only massive fully guaranteed as well as dumbest contract in league history. And even if these provisions exist for some of the leagues worst humans, not one has yet been able to pull the trigger. Sure I guess its possible in that none of us have actually seen the contract, but it is about as close to zero percent as you can be.

I get the sense that Bean and McD aren't exactly aligned on this. Paraphrasing McD: "I am just the coach preparing for a football game. You already spoke to Brandon. But also this is bad." Paraphrasing Bean: "The league will run its course. I have known Von for 1.5 years and this seems out of character. If the league says he can go we say he can go". It was telling to me that one said that this was serious and the other said that this wasn't the person he knows. Now, part of that may be so Miller does not dress on Sunday. If McD is only making football decisions and not addressing the off field stuff, then not dressing has nothing to do with any of this.

No. Criminal convictions have never voided a contract. Atlanta, Minnesota, nor New England had cap relief for Vick, Peterson, or Hernandez.

Here is an example of how it should have gone. He should have drilled it into himself over the last week that this would be the response to everything and anything. Any comment on Millers character (and especially in support of) regardless of what the question was, was going to be bad news bears. BB: "This whole thing stinks. We take allegations like this very seriously. We are letting the process run its course" Reporter: "Do you think Von Miller is Hitler". BB: " "This whole thing stinks. We take allegations like this very seriously. We are letting the process run its course" Reporter: Are you shocked by these allegations? BB: "This whole thing stinks. We take allegations like this very seriously. We are letting the process run its course" Reporter: How will you manager the salary cap going forward. BB: "This whole thing stinks. We take allegations like this very seriously. We are letting the process run its course"

I am in camp "Eff Von Miller" so lets get that one out of the way. I don't want him on the team any longer. More so than a Nike or Apple, stuff I purchase and use, I don't cheer for my phone. I cheer for my favorite sports team and I would like them to have some sense of right and wrong because of it. I can tolerate the "We are letting the league run its course". To which I would hope is sort of kicking the can down the road to sort the cap situation out. And even if it is not, it is enough for me to pretend it is on Sundays. What I am really struggling with is the "This is out of character". Because it isn't.

Totally. But I think the one caveat is that it is not any of your business until you find out about it. And if your lead salesmen, engineer, attorney, shows up in the Niagara Falls police blotter or the Buffalo News, now you know.

As somebody who grew up in an abusive household that isn't shocking to me. "Look at you. Crying on the floor. You are so sad and weak. You stupid (insert bad word)" is a pretty common phrasing from abusers in the moment. Other victims (women/children) I have met over the years have said something similar. Part of being an abuser is that those people think their partner is somehow deserving of it. So it isn't a huge leap to me that in almost 2024, somebody who is physically abusive would also record it. Because ultimately they view it as justified anyways.

At the risk of reading too deeply into the tea leaves.... I think the way McD is handling the Von situation vs Bean is interesting. Bean explicitly said "These allegations are out of character". McD has danced around it and said "You spoke to Brandon. These are very serious allegations that I take very seriously".

My tinfoil hat says the litmus test will be if the recording from the incident sees the light of day. The red herring for me was when Bean said "I think this will stay open for a long time". As long as the case is open that recording is no longer subject to FOIL. If/When this gets tossed that likely means they likely found a way to not release it/make it disappear.

There also seems to be some confusion of what is required of the general public vs the legal system. My employer is not a court of law. My neighbor is not the legal system. If I make the Buffalo News for assaulting my wife, my neighbor has no moral or legal obligation to invite me over for their 4th of July BBQ. And my employer isn't required to wait for a jury to let out to keep me employed. Asking people on a message board to wait for due process is not how the world works today, yesterday, or the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. Von is not in jail. Von will continue to get paid. People are forming all sorts of their own public opinions. Everything is working as designed.

I think providing a loophole for teams to get out of contracts for players with DV is tough, I am torn. On one hand, we should make it easy to remove these guys from the league. On the other hand, if players with DV charges are easy to move on from there is something advantageous about keeping them around. If an issue arises they have an easy exit.

Re: Araiza, McBean sat at the podium and said they were finding out about this live with the rest of the public and told everybody that Araiza didn't tell the team about the investigation. For that reason alone cutting Araiza is A-OK in my book. This is Von's 3rd incident regarding DV. They have text messages, with Von's words about the mother of his child in writing. To say this is out of character of the person they know isn't true. This is where I have the issue.

To put my tinfoil hat on, their wording about whether the Bills or the League are reaching out to officials in Dallas was wonky. I believe it was something like "we have people, but we rely on the league". Similar wording around if anybody has spoken to the woman. If the recording never gets released via FOIL I am coming back to this statement, that both the league and an NFL franchise were in contact with local officials. I always find this wonky. I have worked at a few mulit-billion dollar global corporations, if these charges came to me or anybody above me in the C-Suite, there is no way my local offices in the NE or Global HQ would be able to have conversations with the police about an ongoing investigation for DV. Also, interesting wording around "I think this case will be open for a while". Which gives the team and the league some protection against FOIL's before they close or move forward.

I am a little taken aback by the "this isn't the Von we have known for the last 1.5 years" and "this is clearly out of character". They have those terrible texts to the same woman. This isn't his first DV charge. I feel a bit dirty about the teams response in this presser. Edit: There is "We are taking the lead from the NFL and following league procedure" and then there is standing behind Von's character and taking a side.

Getting under and managing the cap well are two different things. New Orleans is projected to be $87M over the cap for 2024. They’re continuously kicking the can down the road and they still suck. They’ve been in this loop of trying to keep the party going with old players and expensive contracts forever. For me NO is a great case study on what not to do. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/2024/

Restructuring Diggs is a really bad idea. What are we gonna do, pay him $40M at 34 years old? That’s bonkers. I also don’t love restructuring Allen again right now. He’s $48M against the cap for 2024. I’d actually extend him out 2-3 years before I restructure. Neither of those restructures are no brainers by any means. The Bills need to start shuffling out the old guard over the next year or two. You don’t do that by kicking the can down the road with bad restructures. The cap isn’t real…until it is. Having an owner with deep pockets is an advantage. But the bill always comes do.