NFL chat thread

[connoisseur series500]

Interesting insider stuff on the Patriots's pick of Jerrod Mayo on the 10th pick:

Mayo was the player targeted from day one. He blew us away in the on-site inerview. This kid is super smart, tough, flexible, and loves the game and a very high charater kid. His football smarts are off the chart as are his intangibles and leadership. This kid NEVER takes a play off and during the interview process actually made suggestions and observations on sets we run that raised Bill's eyebrows.

The trade with New Orleans at #7 was worked out on Friday.

[Aggie87]

Not sure what to think about Felix Jones. Some project him as a third down speedster, but these guys can be valuable. Kevin Faulk is important to the Pats in that role (though he is not particularly fast.)

I think Rashard Mendenhall is a better overall back than Felix Jones, and Dallas could have had him with #22 as well. But it looks like the Cowboys think Jones will be a better platoon back alongside Marion Barber. Felix Jones ran for almost 3,000 yards in three year as a backup to McFadden! I think the Cowboys will alternate series like Barber and Julius Jones did last year, or they'll ride the hot hand in any particular game.

I don't think they wanted a single stud back - or they would have tried harder to package their two #1's (and something else) to move up to get Darren McFadden, and maybe shipped Barber off to Miami for another pick in the process.

Edited April 27, 2008 by Aggie87

[Aggie87]

Cowboys needed a young WR to start grooming, and could have had Mario Manningham, Early Doucet, or Andre Caldwell with their 2nd round pick (#61), all of whom could have easily been selected in the 2nd.

So what do they do? They pick TE Martellus Bennett. Despite the fact that he's an Aggie, I think it was a bad choice. They traded backup TE Anthony Fasano (a Parcells guy) to Miami a day or two ago for a 4th round pick. And then spend a 2nd on his replacement, who I don't think will be any better. Strange logic.

They STILL need a WR, and hopefully one falls to them at pick #92 or #100.

[Soulstation1]

Pacman says he won't go to any strip clubs for 3 years LOL

[Tim McG]

OK.

Niners draft DT Kentwan Balmer.

I'm sorry...but what the hell kind of name is Kent-wan?

Am I the only one who sees these made-up pretend names as just plain stupid?

GoodSpeak-wan; aka, Tim-wan.

Sorry, if I have offended.

GEEZ-fucking-wan.

Edited April 28, 2008 by GoodSpeak

[Shawn]

GEEZ-fucking-wan.

[Tim McG]

GEEZ-fucking-wan.

Thank you...I'm here all week-wan.

[Free For All]

(with apologies for thread drift)

[Tim McG]

My bad.

[GA Russell]

Here's an explanation of the finanances involved with the Bills playing their games in Toronto:

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Bills to be paid $78-million for Toronto games

Associated Press

April 29, 2008 at 6:39 PM EDT

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills will receive $78 million — more than double their calculated 2006 operating income — to play eight games in Toronto over the next five years.

The payment to the Bills was disclosed for the first time in Rogers Communications' 2008 first quarter report released Tuesday. Rogers is part of a consortium that negotiated a deal with the Bills to have them play five regular-season and three pre-season games starting this year at the Rogers Centre.

In becoming the NFL's first team to play annual games outside the United States, the Bills are scheduled to host Pittsburgh in a pre-season game at Toronto on Aug. 14, followed by a regular-season game against Miami on Dec. 7.

Rogers spokeswoman Jan Innes would not comment beyond the one-paragraph statement included in the company report, except to say that the $78-million figure was in Canadian currency. The Canadian dollar hovered around par to the U.S. greenback during the first quarter this year.

Innes declined to say whether any portion of the payment has been made to the Bills.

Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold also declined comment, citing a policy that the team does not discuss financial details of its business relationships.

The deal, announced in February, was reached with a group headed by Rogers CEO and founder, Ted Rogers, and Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. Rogers also owns the Blue Jays as well as the Rogers Centre.

As part of the agreement, the Toronto group is effectively leasing the home games from the Bills. Buffalo will provide the team, the NFL provides an opponent, while the Toronto organizers will be responsible for selling tickets, concessions and promoting the event.

The Toronto group is using use the eight-game series to show the city can support its own NFL franchise. The Bills sought out the agreement as a way to generate additional revenues by expanding their market to Canada's largest city and financial capital, located a 90-minute drive from Buffalo.

The $78-million payment eclipses what Forbes calculated the Bills made in 2006, in the magazine's latest annual financial breakdown of NFL franchises. Forbes calculated the Bills had an operating income of US$31.2 million after bringing in $176 million in revenues that year.

Broken down, the Bills will make nearly $9.75 million per game in Toronto, something they'd be unable to make at Orchard Park, where the small-market team has perennially had the lowest ticket prices in the NFL. The Bills' average ticket price for this season is about $51 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, which has a 72,000 seating capacity.

Ticket prices for the games in Toronto have not yet been released, but are expected to average more than $100 at a facility with a 54,000 seating capacity for football.

Demand is already high after more than 100,000 single-ticket reservations were made for the eight-game series through a website established by the Toronto group. Tickets will be distributed via a lottery starting next month.

[Aggie87]

Not good for the Pats, but also not the "smoking gun" video of the Rams' Superbowl practices.

Ex-Patriots Assistant Sends the N.F.L. Eight Tapes

By GREG BISHOP

Published: May 8, 2008

A former New England Patriots employee has sent the N.F.L. eight videotapes showing the team recorded play-calling signals by coaches of five opponents in six games between the 2000 and 2002 seasons, in violation of league rules.

But the group of tapes does not include video of the St. Louis Rams’ walk-through practice the day before the 2002 Super Bowl. The employee, Matt Walsh, had been linked to such a tape by news media speculation.

Walsh emerged as a pivotal figure in the spying controversy that enveloped the Patriots last season after they were caught taping Jets defensive signals in the season opener.

Walsh, who worked for the Patriots from 1997 to 2003, agreed to turn over the tapes and other evidence by Thursday under an agreement reached last month between lawyers for the N.F.L. and Walsh. The agreement indemnifies Walsh from all future legal fees.

Walsh’s tapes show that the Patriots recorded the signals of offensive and defensive coaches in regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins, the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns and the San Diego Chargers and against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2002 American Football Conference championship game. In that game, the tape has been edited to show Steelers coaches signaling plays, followed by two different camera angles of the actual plays that were called.

The New York Times obtained a list of the Walsh videotapes. The information was later confirmed by Walsh’s lawyer, Michael Levy, from the Washington offices of McKee Nelson.

The N.F.L. declined to comment Wednesday night because it did not have the tapes in its possession.

The Boston Herald reported the day before this year’s Super Bowl that a tape of the Rams existed, citing an anonymous source.

Walsh does not possess such a tape, Levy said.

“Mr. Walsh has never claimed to have a tape of the walk-through,” Levy said in a telephone interview. “Mr. Walsh has never been the source of any of the media speculation about such a tape. Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article.”

On Tuesday, Walsh is scheduled to speak with Commissioner Roger Goodell and Senator Arlen Specter in separate meetings. Walsh could provide additional information at that time, including how the taping worked, how extensive it was, which Patriots employees were involved and the significance of the evidence he handed over.

The first tape is dated Sept. 25, 2000, from a game the previous day. The last is from Sept. 29 two years later.

All the tapes are scheduled to arrive at N.F.L. offices Thursday morning.

Levy would not say whether Walsh was behind the camera on each tape, but confirmed that Walsh obtained the first seven tapes during his time in the Patriots’ video department, which ended after the 2002 Super Bowl.

The last tape, in September 2002 against the Chargers, was shot by someone else after Walsh left the video department for a job in the scouting department that ended in early 2003.

The Chargers tape shows raw footage, Levy said, of the San Diego coaches from the Patriots’ sideline, followed by a shot of the scoreboard showing time, down and distance. The tape contains no footage of actual plays during the game, only the sequence, which the Patriots could match to play tape.

The other seven tapes are more sophisticated. They show shots of the opposing coaches’ signals, followed immediately by a shot of the play, usually from the end zone camera, Levy said.

The tape from the A.F.C. championship game is the most extensive, showing two angles of each play.

Goodell has left open the possibility that additional evidence will lead to additional penalties against Coach Bill Belichick and the Patriots.

After the Jets game, Goodell levied a total of $750,000 in fines and docked the Patriots a first-round draft pick.

After this year’s Super Bowl, Goodell met with Specter and revealed for the first time that Belichick’s illegal signal filming dated to the beginning of his tenure with the Patriots, in 2000. Some accounts said Belichick admitted to taping defensive signals, others just signals in general.

At the Super Bowl, Goodell said of the Patriots’ practice of taping, “I don’t think it taints their accomplishments.”

Under Belichick, the Patriots rose from one of the league’s middling teams to its best, winning three Super Bowls in four seasons. Last season, they went undefeated until losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl.

Based on a win-loss tally from games after the ones on tapes provided by Walsh, the Patriots went 9-6 against the Dolphins after the first taping. They also went 12-1 against the Bills, 3-0 against the Browns, 4-1 against the Steelers and 3-1 against the Chargers. This included three victories and no defeats in the playoffs.

“We consider the tapes of our coaching staff during our games against the New England Patriots to be a nonissue,” the Steelers chairman, Dan Rooney, said in a statement released in February.

Telephone messages to the five teams left Wednesday night were not answered.

Since Belichick’s first season in New England, when the Patriots finished 5-11, they have gone 86-26 in the regular season, a .768 winning percentage. It remains unclear whether the league will make the tapes public. During the initial investigation into the Patriots, the league accepted seven tapes gathered by the team, dating to 2006, while collecting a written promise that it possessed no more. The N.F.L. destroyed the tapes that the Patriots turned over.

Under the indemnity agreement, Walsh’s lawyer can keep one copy of each tape, but he cannot release it without the league’s consent.

[connoisseur series500]

*yawn*

Belichick had already reported to Goodell that he had been taping signals since 2000, but that the tapes had never been used for the game. They had been used to compile a library of signals to be used in future games. Most teams change their signals, so the value of these efforts are in doubt. These actions are typical of Bill Belichick's throroughness as far as preparing for games. We don't know how much help they proved to be. Anyway, the first round draft choice was docked and the fine levied when BB admitted such taping since 2000.

Walsh has nothing new to add.

[connoisseur series500]

NFL statement:

"this is consistent with what the patriots had admitted they have been doing, consistent with what we already knew"nfl spokeman Greg Aiello told the associated press. loo,ks like this is over a non story

[Shawn]

Now that one defensive player will be allowed headset communication with the coordinator (same as the quarterback) it makes the whole signal stealing thing pretty much moot.

I don't blame the Pats for trying to find every competitive advantage available to them, it's a sport yes, but it's also a business and sometimes you have to be cutthroat to get ahead.

I'm tired of this whole business.

Question: Regarding the Bills playing in Toronto. I wonder if this is a sign that the Bills might be considering relocating to a different area? I understand that they've always been one of the poorest teams.

[Aggie87]

We don't know how much help they proved to be.

I agree, and think that's the problem. Maybe they added nothing, maybe they added a little, or maybe they added alot. Who can say? That's why it's still an issue, and puts a cloud over the Pat's success, to some undeterminable degree (at least to non Pats fans).

That's why the rules (whatever they are) have to be clear and enforced, and teams have to respect them.

Is Belichick a great coach? Without doubt. Are the Pats a great team? Yep. Do I think Belichick knew the rules and chose to bend them anyway? Yes.

I also agree with Shawn in that I'm tired of all this, and think allowing the defensive players to communicate through headsets like the offensive ones will help resolve this for the future.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Aggie87

[connoisseur series500]

Question: Regarding the Bills playing in Toronto. I wonder if this is a sign that the Bills might be considering relocating to a different area? I understand that they've always been one of the poorest teams.

There's been talk about Buffalo moving the franchise, and the owner always bitches about the disadvantages of operating out of a small city such as Buffalo.

It's funny: I know several people who live in Toronto, and they are all Buffalo Bills fans!

[Aggie87]

Tony needs to stick to playing football!

Romo sings Take Me Out to the Ballgame

[Dan Gould]

We don't know how much help they proved to be.

I agree, and think that's the problem. Maybe they added nothing, maybe they added a little, or maybe they added alot. Who can say? That's why it's still an issue, and puts a cloud over the Pat's success, to some undeterminable degree (at least to non Pats fans).

That's why the rules (whatever they are) have to be clear and enforced, and teams have to respect them.

Is Belichick a great coach? Without doubt. Are the Pats a great team? Yep. Do I think Belichick knew the rules and chose to bend them anyway? Yes.

I also agree with Shawn in that I'm tired of all this, and think allowing the defensive players to communicate through headsets like the offensive ones will help resolve this for the future.

I think Erik sums it up rather well and I just have to say that I find Spector's bloviating to be really ridiculous. Does anyone doubt that he is motivated in equal parts by trying to excuse the Eagles SB failure while at the same time carrying Comcast's water in their battle with the NFL Network?

Bottom line is that this is an internal issue for a private organization to handle. If a "Mitchell Report" is necessary, than go all the way and investigate every single team. Fact is that while there is a tenuous connection between baseball players using PEDs and the health and well-being of young athletes, there can be no legitimate reason why Congress needs to get involved in the matter.

That is, unless Spector is concerned about the integrity and accuracy of Vegas betting lines on NFL games.

[Chalupa]

R.I.P. Dwight White

[Soulstation1]

no talk about favre returning..........

he wants out of gb

[Shawn]

no talk about favre returning..........

he wants out of gb

This will be interesting...he's most likely to end up in the same division if GB lets him loose (all the teams in that division need a quarterback).

[Soulstation1]

Wtf

Packers tell favre if he comes back to GB it will be as a backup

[Shawn]

Wtf

Packers tell favre if he comes back to GB it will be as a backup

I think they're just giving him crap since he "retired" and then changed his mind almost immediately. But in this case the Packers are being stupid...if he DOES come back, off one of his best seasons...he's liable to be playing at Lambeau AGAINST the Packers. He'd look interesting in Vikings purple...

[GA Russell]

Here's a breakdown of what the NY Giants will be charging their fans when they move into their new stadium.

I guess that so many New Yorkers are rich that it won't matter. In addition, you have all of the corporations who will pay whatever the price is.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

[connoisseur series500]

Give us the news of your team in training camp.

Rookie LB Jerrod Meyo is raising eyebrows at Pats camp. Who will be the two starters at ILB out of the trio of Bruschi, Victor Hobson, and Meyo? I say Hobson and Bru starts while Meyo starts to make an impact by mid season.