The Dallas Cowboys Memorial (2015 Off-Season) Thread

Greyform_sl said:

can you explain the theory behind this? How is the team that just won the last Super Bowl getting dragged through the mud "Great for the NFL"?

Click to expand...

Cognitive dissonance.

The NFL wants to be a major news story in some way shape or form all offseason long. Its good for the brand if they can constantly be covered by sports news. That's the entire, not at all secret, reason the draft was moved. Greater spread of offseason NFL events. Same thing with trying way to hard to turn the draft and combine into some sort of TV/primetime draw. There's no such thing as bad publicity. This scandal has made the league into the biggest sports news story of the summer, that's absolutely desirable to them. Maybe not desirable for the Pats but for the league its money. Stuff like Ray Rice and Hernandez on the other hand, was probably not as welcome a form of publicity.

Except through all of this, the news of Brady's appeal being denied came right as most training camps were gearing up into full swing. This past weekend was the last weekend this year without NFL football. So again. How was this good for the NFL? Especially now. They already dominate the sports scene.

And it's been talked about through the off season, fans of the other 31 teams are happy, layman see it as the nfl acting strong after ignoring rice beating his wife until it leaked and once the appeal happens pats fans get theirs.

Everyone gets something. The butt hurt people talk about asterisks, the butt hurt fans argue with the trolls, people that don't give a shit about last year have a new season starting up and in ten years people aren't going to fucking care.

Everyone loves a good Benghazi or blowjobgate. Deflategate is completely retarded, a non issue and non factor.

I'm a fan of the MN Vikings other than watching a few Bostonian heads explode I couldn't give a shit one way or the other. If anything I would say I lean on the side of "tired of this shit let's move on" I was actually more pissed that Goodell didn't reduce the suspension by two games like everyone thought he would just so it could be over, than I would have been if he would have just removed it entirely.

There is something going on, and I find it hard to believe that that something is "hey lets get people to talk about the NFL even though people are already doing that.." And "Hey lets do it right before the season kicks off because not enough people are paying attention to us"

This off season I did what 90% of the other NFL fans did. I read scouting reports of guys my team was likely to draft. I looked up the guys my team drafted, went to youtube and checked out highlights. I would read some of the deflategate crap just to see where it was going but I sure as hell wasn't hung up on it. It's not what me and my buddies were talking about. We were planning which away game we were going to go to (Oakland if ya care). There is nothing about deflategate that drew me in. Is there someone here saying "Yeah I was bored this offseason deflategate is the only thing that held my interest"?

The whole thing is for the drama mongers? That's your take? Considering what it's going to cost both sides (and now the taxpayers) I am pretty sure they could have come up with a better way to promote their sport.

Edit: No one out there went "oh deflategate happened now I'm a fan of the NFL"... GTFO with that bullshit take. A billion dollar industry run by billionaires doesn't spend the millions this is going to cost just so ESPN can get a few clicks and a few drama queens can troll each other on the internet while returning $0 on the investment.

As more details emerge about the Russell Wilson deal, it is looking more like the Kaepernick deal.

Russell Wilson contract guarantee shows problem with NFL deals - Business Insider

To put it another way. While most in the media reported this as a four-year, $87.6 million contract, here is how we would report it in just about any other sport: Russell Wilson's new deal is really a ONE-YEAR, $31.7 MILLION CONTRACT WITH FOUR YEARS OF TEAM OPTIONS.

Click to expand...

opiate82_sl said:

As more details emerge about the Russell Wilson deal, it is looking more like the Kaepernick deal.

Russell Wilson contract guarantee shows problem with NFL deals - Business Insider

Click to expand...

I am actually good with that, it puts the onus on the player to perform and there are injury guarantees. So if he's hurt he gets paid, if he performs he gets paid. He sucks he gets cut. I wish more deals were like that. AP pretty signed a similar agreement when he renegotiated. The money is huge, and they protected against injury. I don't think teams (and fans) should get stuck with players who sign big contracts and then suck up a huge chunk of a cap while underperforming.

It's not just for drama, it's that the drama isn't a big deal. These days everything is dramatized.

Greyform_sl said:

Except through all of this, the news of Brady's appeal being denied came right as most training camps were gearing up into full swing. This past weekend was the last weekend this year without NFL football. So again. How was this good for the NFL? Especially now. They already dominate the sports scene.

Click to expand...

The NFL isn't without its incompetence which is why this has blown too far out of proportion and they're playing a dick-swinging game at this point when actual football is starting. It got out of hand, as everything seems to under Goodell, but it was a great idea to bitch slap the golden boy to prove they're fair and just and to get all the off-season pub and looking like they just really care about the league in more ways than punishing black athletes. It was on track for a big win. Only problem is Goodell turned what was a good PR stunt for the NFL into him trying to prove he's Boss Hog.

Had this gone the way Kraft expected it to and was allowing the NFL to go, where he takes the punishment and promises to do better, and then Brady gets mostly off the hook, it would have been a win for the NFL. They'd be able to lament the fact they just didn't have proper methods in place to protect the game in this regard because they didn't think someone would be so willing to cheat, which is a small consolation to what we're getting now. They'd let Brady off the hook, mostly, with that excuse, parade out new measures to control the ball, make some bullshit argument about how it's what they always wanted but the players were lobbying to have control themselves which obviously leads to cheating so now they have to step in to be the heroes. They'd have a great talking point: "We let them pick their own PSI for the good of the game so the fans could enjoy great offense, and this is the thanks we get; cheaters!" Everyone would get to bullshit about how the Patriots are cheats and that's the only reason their own team sucks, how the NFL is doing what it can to protect the league, how they really wanted to drop the hammer on a white superstar so obviously aren't racist. Brady would maybe lose a game, but get to mostly save face. The NFL would look like it has a few issues they're working to fix, but mostly save face. It would be business as usual in the NFL.

Instead, something happened and I don't honestly think it was a preponderance of evidence that led the NFL to basically say 'fuck you, Brady, we'll give you a slap on the wrist but only if you admit you're a dirty fucking cheater!' Of course Brady wasn't going to do that (and that's contradictory as fuck anyhow the the NFL wanted him to admit to the cheating as justification of lowering the suspension?). For some reason this became personal and both sides want to bury the other, like Tanya Harding would say, in the ground. It's no longer about business, because at this point it's becoming really bad for business all around. Now the only thing to do is go down in a blaze of glory and pretend there's any way at all to 'win' and come out the hero, which I don't think is possible for either side at this point.

The thing that is dumb of the NFL is this has a much greater chance to cost Goodell his job than it does Brady his legacy. If they had any hard evidence Brady was actively cheating, we'd have had it leaked by now and both side would be trying to minimize the fallout. Instead it becomes a personal smear job where Goodell looks as incompetent and personally-crusading as ever, and I don't think that helps his stock as the Comish even in the eyes of owners who short-term want to see that Pats get fucked.

That Wilson contract seems well done.

Greyform_sl said:

I am actually good with that, it puts the onus on the player to perform and there are injury guarantees. So if he's hurt he gets paid, if he performs he gets paid. He sucks he gets cut. I wish more deals were like that. AP pretty signed a similar agreement when he renegotiated. The money is huge, and they protected against injury. I don't think teams (and fans) should get stuck with players who sign big contracts and then suck up a huge chunk of a cap while underperforming.

Click to expand...

Oh no, if I were a fan of the Seahawks I'd be stoked about the deal structure. More of what I'm saying is that the reporting of these deals, their "guaranteed money" and salary cap implications is very often misleading and we need to start waiting for the details to come out.

zzeris_sl said:

I completely disagree that Goodell even had the option of slapping the Patriots AGAIN on the wrist for cheating.

Click to expand...

Maybe you've seen the actual proof that the Patriots and Brady were cheating, instead of the "proof" that the rest of us have seen? I'd love a link, if so. I also find it hilarious that you (and all the other haters in this thread) don't think any team other than the Patriots tries to get a competitive edge in any manner that they can and that's the only reason most of them are garbage teams.

You don't even watch football. You show up in this thread every time the Pats* cheat. Or win the Super Bowl. They typically happen in the same season.

Wait, so Brady deflated the footballs because the Pats owned up to illegally taping defensive signals from the sideline instead of the stands like everyone else that season after the rule had changed from the prior year when everyone was taping signals from the sidelines? It's a good thing busting the Pats for that terrible cheating fixed the problem and the NFL didn't admit it was still widespread and just agreed to give the defense headsets too.

Fucking fuck, you fuckers have me defending the Patriots, which hurts me since they fucked over my Raiders with shady shit several times (that sadly wasn't illegal when it should have been, just shady, so I don't call it cheating, just fucking shady).

No, Pop, here's the problem. If the head coach of the Browns had said:

He conceded he should have contacted Ray Anderson, the NFL's vice president for football operations, after a memo from Anderson in 2006 that laid down the specifications for intelligence gathering.

"What I should have done ... I should have called the league and asked for a clarification," he said. "That was my mistake."

Click to expand...

Everyone would have nodded along in acknowledgement of the Brown's incompetence in not understanding the rules. But this isn't the Browns. Robert Kraft and Bill Bellicheat know the rules inside and out, backwards and forwards. And for them to insult everyone's intelligence by claiming "I just didn't know" is fucking insane. They knew and they CHOSE to ignore the rules. So everyone who isn't a blind Boston homer CHOOSES to call them what they are... cheaters.

So what you're saying is the NFL has secretly supported the Pats cheating and Goodell destroyed a ton of evidence and now thinks the best thing to do is cover his tracks by bringing the hammer down as harsh as possible despite no hard evidence on the one team that could sink him for his role in helping their conspiracy to cheat.

Spygate was generally pretty dumb and overblown too. Teams routinely video taped signals from the sideline. The NFL said stop. Nobody did. The NFL changed the rules so you couldn't tape from the sidelines. So, teams just taped from the stands or non-team boxes. The NFL said stop. Nobody did. So they finally just gave defensive players headsets. Meanwhile, for whatever dumb fucking reason, the Pats either had an assistant do the same thing he'd done the year before or they were being shady and got caught doing something they weren't even really trying to hide that they were doing (it's pretty hard to hide video taping the other team). They admitted they done goofed, and started taping from the stands/boxes like everyone else. Fucking cheaters, all of them.

Edit, so it's only bad because it was the Pats and they're so good, so crafty (pun) and so thorough they can't plead ignorance, while every other team can? And I'm bias for disliking the Pats and thinking they're shady as fuck and resenting them for ruining my Raiders, but not thinking the NFL has anything on them. Note I didn't say the Pats are innocent, just not guilty, and until there's a smoking gun I think it's pretty ignorant to call a team cheaters just because they've been accused of something that other teams would apparently be allowed to plead ignorance but not the Patriots? I dunno, it all seems pretty bias to me.