DJasper Probincrux III

Let me anticipate what will be said. Questions at QB, new coach, play in division with New England (reverent bow followed by 3 min discussion of how awesome BB is), Jairus Byrd holding out, difficult schedule. 5-11.

Not any more than anyone else is. Morality would suggest they do it. Since he went to the facility after this stuff started I would be shocked if employees weren't interviewed about what he said/did and his demeanor while he was there. I'd sort of assume that the cops would want to search his stuff and watch internal surveillance video to see if he disposed of any evidence while there.

Papi PED suspension coming...

It just seems to be a pretty drastic step to take given the lack of an arrest or publicly leaked information to clearly indicate Hernandez's role specifically. This is going to take a long time to play out and NFL justice will take time as well. If they so chose they could probably stretch this out for the balance of the season and have him playing. If they felt it was a distraction they could have suspended him in the short term for conduct detrimental and kicked the can down the road. They asked him to leave the facility already. They didn't necessarily sit him down and ask him questions but if he was talking informally about the situation with anyone and said something that indicated a really bad situation then that would change the situation. It also wouldn't surprise me in the least if Hoody Central's internal security cameras recorded a conversation between Hernandez and someone else. The cart is a bit before the horse and it begs some questions about what they know. Maybe they're being proactive. But this IS the Patriots we're talking about. -edit- Did not realize he'd been arrested this morning. Interesting to see what he'll be ultimately charged with. They start small and tack on as evidence develops would be my guess.

So, one would assume that the Pats spoke to Hernandez directly and he told them something otherwise they wouldn't take this step. How long until Hoody's subpeona arrives?

Philadelphia prohibits open containers as well. Yet there is plenty of tailgating. I was ignorant to this law having gone to Bills games my whole life. I was drinking a beer in the parking lot and was instructed by a police officer to pour it out. After I'd poured it out he told me to put the next one into a plastic cup. Plastic cups are looked past because they could be anything from a distance. Beer cans are obvious. I sort of suspect that this is where enforcement of this will go. Don't be sloppy, have it in a red plastic cup and you're good to go. Cops have better and more obvious violations to address than to look into every red cup they see but they can spot a beer bottle or a sloppy moron 100 yards away.

You misunderstand my post. I'm not defining what I think is ok. I'm giving examples of what other governing bodies have defined as acceptable. The Atlanta Braves do get protested as do the Cleveland Indians as do many many many other examples. Calling a team Redskins, which has an at least arguably appropriate origin, is far far far less objectionable than dressing people up in the equivalent of black face and having them ride around on a horse with flaming spears. Yet, the latter activity is sanctioned by the previously aggrieved party because a large royalty check is written annually. A school named Indiana University, from Indiana, PA in Indiana County, was forced to change their name from "Indians" even though they did none of the things that FSU do with regard to mascots, logos, pregame displays, in game war chants, etc etc. etc. They didn't want to write a check. Though I do wish that the administration would have changed the name to "Indianans" My overall point is that race and offensiveness is the cover story for this and similar arguments and that's what gets it coverage and attention. At the end of the day it's really about money, on both sides.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish - OK Edinboro Fighting Scots - OK Florida State Seminoles - OK because FSU writes a royalty check Idaho Vandals - OK Indiana University of PA Indians - not OK and forced to change even though they are in the same Conference as Edinboro North Dakota Fighting Sioux - not OK San Diego State Aztecs - OK St. John's Redmen - Not OK Hofstra Flying Dutchmen - not OK Monmouth Fighting Scots - OK USC Trojans - OK There are a million more examples - the general trend is the same, we're OK with having some ethnic groups portrayed in this way and not with others. Often the dividing line seems to be money which makes the entire argument BS. Something tells me that if they named them the Washington Nanticokes and started cutting a royalty check that this would go away. Sort of like how FSU still gets away with dressing up a white kid in war paint and having him throw a flaming spear into the end zone before homegames...yeah...

Halloween 3. Seriously...

They don't milk but your bull stays pretty happy...

And the Rooneys dodge a bullet again. They just cut this guy a check to buy out his share. Now no IRS/FBI people at Steelers HQ.

OJ Simpson Jim Kelly Bruce Smith Bill Polian On a completely different mountain somewhere we'd have to have a monument to the following... Hank Bullough Matt Kofler Billy Joe Hobert Gary Marangi or... Scott Norwood Ronnie Harmon Joe Ferguson's ankle Thurman Thomas' helmet

You could say the same thing about the other 14 teams who bid on his services. Sometimes players are not drafted on principle. Plus nobody ever goes back and criticizes a GM for missing on UDFAs. People on the other hand DO go back and check the percentages of their draft picks that work out.

The only issue there that is a football problem is quitting on routes that aren't to him and frankly Randy Moss did a ton of that when he was young. This guy's reality is that he has been by far the best player on every team he's ever been on and has gotten preferential treatment from Day 1 of his football life. He's far from unique in that way. Yelling at teachers and coaches? Why not? There's been no repercussions for it ever that mattered to him. Getting booted from Tennessee? So what, I'm sure in his eyes they were crap anyway and he was going to the NFL. Not getting drafted might take him down a half a peg, maybe. We haven't had a true "diva" WR in top form before. We had a very toned down version of TO and Andre Reed was at worst slightly petulant. If this guy makes the roster he WILL be that guy. He wants the ball - period. In his mind any ball not to him is a wasted ball because he's better than anyone else you can throw it to. Being on our roster isn't going to change that. That's not necessarily a bad thing - you just need a strong leader at coach and QB who won't get run over by it. Chad Johnson was always "open" and constantly chirping at the QB about getting the ball. You have to know how to tune it out and run the offense. If you're going to look to run a guy out on a rain this guy will give you lots of reasons to. Personally, I'll take a shot at having the next young TO even if he's occasionally "out of pocket". Between this guy and having a black QB for the first time in a long time this board and sports radio in Buffalo will be pretty interesting.

Mark it down now, Hard Knocks is going to Philly. Splashy new head coach, interesting QB situation including a highly publicized rookie with something to prove, the 2nd year guy out to stake his claim AND the grizzled vet trying to keep his job and big fat check. Well known player trying to come back from serious injury (Jason Peters). Top 5 draft pick at a key position who is expected to play right away. Interesting UDFA situation at RB behind Lesean McCoy with several candidates to win the job. On top of all of that you have the Eagles coming out of the Andy Reid regime which was one of the least media friendly in the league. Reid's stonewalling intransigence is/was epic. He recorded one interview in 1999 - memorized it - and repeated it for 14 years. He repeatedly chastized the media for asking questions that he didn't want to answer (even if they were appropriate questions). He called the top afternoon drive time sports radio guy "Bold" to his face after he asked a question about Reid's brutal goalline playcalling which had been brutal for years. Jeff Lurie (the owner) is a Hollywood guy. Chip Kelly is the flavor of the month and is MUCH more engaging with the media than Reid ever was. Look for the Eagles to push the doors open a little further and get some quality exposure.

How do they pronounce his name? da-RICK or DAR-ick or DARE-ick

Anyone who comes in 10th in the Olympics in anything has insane work ethic so if he's capable of being taught, he'll do the work.

Terrell Buckley would disagree. But, but, he was a bust wasn't he? He had 50INTs which would make him the Bills All-Time leader by 10 and he got a ring with hoodie. I'll take some of that.

No, for the same reason you don't take your wife there.

McKelvin or not I think it's fair to say that Williams as #2 is off the table, as it well should be.

I think the operative word here is tell rather than ask. They clearly made a public play to bring Leodis back as a nominal starter, Gilmore is entrenched on the other side. Williams isn't a 3rd corner type and frankly he stunk at CB anyway. Meet your new strong safety. He will meet with Pettine, get the new PB and start working on learning the coverage calls.

Refuse what your enemy offers you. If you don't think for a second that BB would hoard a QB he thought had potential AT LEAST until the end of his team controlled time you're crazy.

If we cut Fred Jackson he will be a Patriot before the end of that day. He does absolutely everything a RB can do. Spiller should be the showpiece but you can do a lot worse for a #2 RB than Fred. I'm hoping we see lots of plays with both backs on the field - why they couldn't figure out how to have both guys on the field at the same time boggles my mind, particularly with the dearth of WRs we've had.

Legislation like this does seem a bit heavy handed and unnecessary. However, giving the mandatory concussion testing that interscholastic programs now use more parents will choose to not have their children participate in football at the middle and high school level. When you, I and the rest of this board were growing up concussions were still "getting your bell rung". Now there is objective observable data regarding the impact of a concussion on a kid and it's honestly pretty scary when you see a kid who used to be able to perform at X level on an evaluation before he was injured struggle mightily to return to that level afterward. The kid swears up and down that they are fine, and they may FEEL fine (no headaches, dizziness, etc) but they cannot perform the same mental tasks that they could before sometimes for weeks. The treatment involves limiting stimulus which is very difficult for a student, no car, no bus, no music, no loud rooms, no bright lights, no TV, no video games, sometimes no school because they're not supposed to read. Basically sit in the dark and be quiet. Now that parents have this data shoved in their face it's harder to ignore and it's going to cause kids to fall out of the game earlier and at a greater rate than the past. In my opinion, the head injury issue is going to make football like boxing in the next 20 years. In my father's time there used to be a healthy youth boxing system in this country - boxing is still legal and it's still legal for kids to learn. It's just that now there are many many fewer kids who do it and I firmly believe that when parents started seeing dopey old boxers speak on TV that was the beginning of the end. Now parents are getting concrete evidence of the brain damage that's happening to their kids (and that what it is, when you bruise your brain, you have damaged your brain) and football has hit it's zenith in this country. People will still play and kids will still get involved but it will gradually shrink into the socio-economic areas that need it as an out more than as a fun activity for the masses - like boxing has.

Ellerbe's very interesting, average size but runs very well. Former UDFA from Georgia. His speed and experience in the Ravens D will make him versatile for us, He is an ILB for them but they blitz and move guys around a lot so he's blitzed, played coverage, inside, outside, in the middle. He could be a 3 down LB for us. Tough guy too, playing with a broken arm, made a key INT off Brady with a cast on.