football

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NEEDING THIS MEANINGLESS PUNISHMENT

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/05/12
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 7 Comments

deflatriots

EVERYBODY knew the week before the Super Bowl that the Patriots had cheated in the AFC Championship game against the Colts. The NFL was “investigating it”, but the world already knew that game balls which had been inspected by NFL officials, were tampered with after that inspection. That part was clear, so everyone KNEW there was tampering. Still the Patriots were allowed to play in the Super Bowl. Now, four months after the Super Bowl confetti has been swept up, we find out the price for cheating in a playoff game is one player suspended for four games, plus a first and fourth round draft pick (not even in the same Draft year). It’s a meaningless punishment.

It would have been better if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell just looked into the camera, said “Fuck you” to the fans, then went back to loudly slurping Bob Kraft (the Patriots team owner). It would at least have been more honest. It’s what most of us felt was happening anyway, when the Patriots weren’t disqualified or ordered to play game over at least. So much for teaching kids about sportsmanship Roger! Good job!

The set-up to this joke of a penalty is that it’s being appealed. Not just the 4 game suspension, but the loss of draft picks too. Despite the sweetheart deal Goodell handed these chumps, Tom Brady and Kraft are whining that the punishment is too much. You could impregnate all of China with balls that big!

The punchline to this joke of a penalty is that the NFL needs it to be upheld. Some would argue that reducing meaningless punishments is no big deal, since they started out without merit anyway. Here’s why that’s the wrong way to look at it. Everyone (not wearing a Patriots jersey) can plainly see that these were high crimes in the world of sports, and that some high price had to be paid for it. So it was bad enough that such meaningless punishments were handed down to begin with. However if they get further reduced just because the perpetrators of the crime don’t like the sentence, then it brings into question everything regarding player discipline in the NFL.

Using Performance Enhancing Drugs (Lane Johnson) or blowing herb (Josh Gordon) can get you suspended for four games (or more). Beating your son (Adrian Peterson) can cost you a season. So can a bounty scandal (Sean Payton). Beating your wife (Ray Rice) can get you just about blackballed. Yet all of these things occurred off the field. If the NFL loses the ability to discipline NFL employees for on the field issues, they lose the leverage and moral high-ground for doing so with off the field issues. There are far reaching issues at stake here.

The meaningless punishment (bullshit as it is), has to be upheld now or the whole damned thing starts to come apart on the day those sentences get commuted.

AN EAGLES FAN’S FULL ATTENTION

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/05/10
Posted in: Defense, Fans, NFL, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

tony romo

I’M sick of Cowboys fans whining every time a rival fan mentions their team that we’re “closet fans” or, “talking more about their team than our own”. Since my website here overwhelmingly disproves those statements, I felt comfortable taking a day to indulge our rivals. So they can know what it REALLY MEANS to have an Eagles fan’s full attention focused on their team.

They can’t win the division again this season, because they simply don’t have the tools.

Last year they leaned heavily on Philadelphia Eagles RB DeMarco Murray to carry their team and keep their QB upright. They don’t have him this year. Delusional fans have convinced themselves that replacement Darren McFadden can pick up where Murray left off. I won’t even argue too hard against that one, since I’m going around collecting screenshots of Cowboys fans who are piking McFadden up as being able to do what Murray just did.

Last year Tony Romo had the best year of his career while our RB set their franchise rushing record, and STILL while maxing out like that, they only won the division by a SINGLE game. Just one.

True, the Cowboys were 12-4 to the Eagles 10-6. Had we won that second game, we’re both 11-5 and the Eagles hold the tie-breaker. Since we lost that game, it was a moot point. Fact is however, the entire season turned on that ONE GAME. Just one. We did 10-6 with a plethora of injuries, and they maxed out to get to 12-4 on the swing of one game. Hardly the cream of the crop.

Last year on defense they couldn’t get within a $50 cab ride of a QB, so they went out and added some firepower. Only question is, will it ever see the field? One guy has become synonymous with domestic abuse and likes making 9/11 jokes as he appeals his 10 game suspension; and another guy can’t handle the rigors of May heat in shorts and no pads. The killer DT they were depending on, has all but retired. That front seven is a mess, and anyone who disagrees is probably the sort of fan that Cowboys defensive coaches hate. (That tweet has been since taken down.)

They picked up some O-line help, but from what I keep reading, the Cowboys line was already perfect last year, so I guess this will make them…“perfecter”?

While Cowboys fans like to talk smack about Sam Bradford‘s injury history, at least our back-up is Mark Sanchez. Meanwhile the Cowboys are still just one good hit away from starting this guy at QB:

 brandon weeden

Speaking of which, just how good are the current RB’s at blitz pick-up?

OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/05/09
Posted in: Crazy Talk, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , . 4 Comments

sam bradford

THE Dallas Cowboys have given me reason to be optimistic about the Eagles 2015 season. Not be because I expect the Cowboys to be bad, but because they make it safe to assume that the Eagles will be good. Again, let me say that I am in no way bad mouthing the Cowboys, just being optimistic about the Eagles, and getting behind guys like Sam Bradford, Ryan Mathews, Kiko Alonso, Walter Thurmond, and rookie Jordan Hicks.

Earlier this offseason when it seemed you needed a season ending injury on your resume to make the Eagles roster, I was worried. Injuries have a way of being cumulative. Overcompensation during rehab for X injury often leads to Y injury. Notice how some guys always seem hurt and some guys never do? Over time injuries mount and they sap a player’s effectiveness.

Enter the Dallas Cowboys. QB Tony Romo’s back is a ticking time bomb. RB Darren McFadden has almost as many missed starts (49) as actual starts (63), due to injury. The guy I thought would be McFadden’s back-up (Joesph Randle) seems to have gotten an unspoken demotion  in favor of former Cardinal Ryan Williams. Williams has a torn patellar tendon in his past. (Here is his career.) 

What gives me so much hope for my team is despite the ICU that is the Dallas backfield, the national media just can’t stop dick-eating the Cowboys. I guess that means that we’re playing 2015 with injuries turned off, in which case we have a pretty good team. I mean most of my worry about the Eagles centered around who we could and couldn’t keep on the field; but if the Cowboys are injury-proof then why aren’t we? Shit, we’re the ones with the smoothies, right?

Of course reality could set in, and both teams could end up with a lot of fucked up key athletes. (Which would probably be what we both deserve.) But hey, if it ain’t broke (at the moment) then I have plenty of reason to be optimistic. Right?

DRINKIN’ MY HATERADE.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/07/18
Posted in: Crazy Talk, Players. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

 

gatorade

GREATNESS. I can see putting Peyton Manning on your cover, and using the word “greatness” on your cover in conjunction with him. I can even see using Eli Manning.

But Gatorade using BobG3, Cam Newton, and J.J. Watt?! You know what, I’ll backdown off of Newton and Watt. While neither has won anything, at least they’ve been consistent high level contributors for years now. But what about Bob? What has he done?

Being too dumb to know when to sit out a game? Mortgaging both his and his team’s long term success by playing on one knee? Those somehow seem like the opposite of great. Not helping his case was when he followed it up with his team being the dead last in the division, along with his failure to act like a leader and rally his team, DESPITE the fact that the Head Coach whom he’d been at odds with being on the way out… I mean the biggest thing Griffin has done since getting his team into a playoff game (that everyone knew they couldn’t win), was go clubbing with DeSean Jackson and the rest of the Redskins gang. (I didn’t just go there, I built my home there.)

I’m not saying an Eagles player should have made it (though Shady has been a BEAST under 2 different coaches in 2 different systems), but there is NO WAY that you and me should have to look at the word “great” being applied to any Redskin since Darrell Green. That my friends, is some bullshit.

UM, ER, UH, YOU’RE FULL OF SHIT BRO!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/21
Posted in: Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Picard-Bird

HAD to turn my TV off. I was watching the NFL Network and− You know at first, I was just  going to name a couple names, but then I figured to be fair, I should name ALL the names. Then it occurred to me that I’d be sitting here typing for at least a week straight if I went that route. So instead, I’m going to make it a general reference, which you’ll see applies to all of them.

“I don’t care about the stats.”

“I don’t read the paper.”

“All I care about is winning.”

Allow me to call “Bullshit!” on that.

 

If an athlete pays no attention to stats and stuff, then why is it that they always seem to know how much their peers are pulling down?

“I just want to be paid like one of the top performers at my position.”

“I just think I out-performed my contract.”

This is all hard stuff to know if you don’t pay attention to the numbers. I mean if you ran for 1,500 yards how do you know if you did better or worse than others, without looking at the stats? And not just your stats, the entire league’s stats. You can’t. In order to know your worth, you have to be up to date on what is going on in relation to you.

I suppose we’re to believe that every contract hold-out is the agent’s idea. Or every time a guy talks about wanting a new deal, that it was his entourage that got the ball rolling. Yeah. Right.

 

And what does “out-performing their contract” mean anyway? When athletes sign, aren’t they essentially saying they’re going to do their best? Isn’t that what the clichés are all about??

“I just wanted to leave it all out on the field.”

“You know, um, give 110%, and, um, er, uhhhh…give thanks to the coaching staff, my teammates and uhhhh, oh yeah, God.”

Instead of crying for more money just because they had a good year like they were supposed to do, they should honor their contract.

By that same token teams shouldn’t go asking players to take a pay cut. They too should honor the contract.

If both parties think an extension is in order; or the player is willing to give up some years for more up-front money, that’s one thing. That’s an indication of both parties not just honoring the contract, but also honoring their commitment to each other’s wellbeing.

 

Instead we got guys who “don’t know what’s going on”, willing to hamstring the same teammates they praised for helping them get to a position to (hurt them) hold-out for more money. And no one is calling “Bullshit!”

Until now.