NFL N/V August: Antonio Cl-(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Football Funhouse > NFL N/V August: Antonio Cl-(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

MLB may shut down as early as Monday.

I used to think the NFL would drat the torpedoes and force at least one or two weeks but there's a whole month left until they open and I can't see the situation getting any better between now and then lol.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2020 16:08

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 06:28

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

FizFashizzle posted:

So many players are coming back loving fat. I can�t wait.

Eddie Lacy retired too soon. He was a decent player when it was just him that was fat. Imagine how loving dominant he would've been if everyone ELSE was also fat.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2020 21:26

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Honestly didn't expect Stafford to be the next QB to go out after Foles

# ¿ Aug 1, 2020 21:39

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

a neat cape posted:

He hasn't opted out

He didn't? Did I miss a news update?

# ¿ Aug 1, 2020 21:48

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Hot Diggity! posted:

The GOAT football gif

Nah it's still "Snap the loving ball Brodie! Do you hear me? Snap the loving ball!"

alternatively, the one where Philip is yelling at Norv to punt the ball and then looks away ultra concerned.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2020 16:59

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I feel like we got good a couple of good Harbaugh gifs from his time in SF.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2020 18:31

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Skipping the next 2 pages.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2020 18:40

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but Stafford tested positive for COVID, it wasn't just that he was in proximity with someone who had it: https://www.si.com/nfl/lions/news/matthew-stafford-tested-positive-covid-19

# ¿ Aug 3, 2020 23:44

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

https://twitter.com/BenStandig/status/1290391096217030658

# ¿ Aug 4, 2020 18:56

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

kalensc posted:

Any chance at all that Del Rio was implying he can't be an NFL coach and publically state "this is insane, cancel the season"?

judge for yourself https://twitter.com/coachdelrio

edit: shouldn't have left this tab open

# ¿ Aug 4, 2020 19:29

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

I'm not very tapped into sports media lately but I feel like no one is really talking about COVID's potential effect on linemen. It's well documented that obesity is a very serious comorbidity for this virus, and while linemen may be extremely athletic many of them are also very fat. I'm surprised we haven't seen more linemen opt out thus far.

The other thing, aside from the virus effect on the heart and lungs, many people who get it undergo rather dramatic weight loss. I can't help but think this would have a bigger effect on linemen who have to eat far above and beyond their normal appetites to maintain weight. Will they be able to do that while sick with the virus?

Just none of the stuff I usually read have brought that up at all, even when they do acknowledge the dangers of opening the season and the likelihood of many players getting it even with the precautions that are being taken.

e: fixed a couple phone typos

SKULL.GIF fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Aug 5, 2020

# ¿ Aug 5, 2020 01:09

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

That was only a year ago? Jesus Christ.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2020 23:34

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Speaking of college football, the Big Ten has ~~canceled~~ postponed this fall's season. Another big domino falls.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2020 20:12

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Always convenient to have a UDFA that you can abruptly cut to show the rest of the team that you Mean Business!!!

Wanna bet they would have cut Jordyn Brooks or Darrell Taylor?

# ¿ Aug 13, 2020 19:37

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

The thing that really stood out to me about Bountygate was some people getting much more upset about Gregg telling players to take out the knees than they were about him saying about Frank Gore after he'd had a concussion, "Crush the head, and the body dies."

# ¿ Aug 14, 2020 17:16

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Clark is low key one of the best tackles in the league. He's also only 24

If that front seven can figure out how to stop the run and if Gary actually pans out it could get into the running for best front seven in the league

# ¿ Aug 15, 2020 16:07

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Shouldn't the team insurance cover the surgery or whatever, unless there's a medical reason they won't do it on him unless it gets bad enough?

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 01:54

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Ches Neckbeard posted:

His aorta is 1/2cm from being eligible for surgery.

Yes, I read the tweet. Is the eligibility criteria an insurance thing ("it's not bad enough yet so we won't pay for the operation") or a medical one?

If it's the latter I'm surprised he can't find a doctor willing to try it out given the whole football thing, there's seemingly plenty of people willing to try experimental stuff for pro athletes

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 02:07

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

indigi posted:

welp now I�m terrified I have a giant aorta

unless you're blacking out regularly you're probably fine

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 05:06

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Eifert Posting posted:

This is just your friendly reminder that Bill loving O'Brian is the most successful Bellichick coaching tree product.

What criteria are we using here?

Vrabel took the Titans to the AFCCG, O'Brien hasn't made it past the divisional round. Vrabel also has the better record (0.562 vs 0.542) and isn't roundly derided by the league for terrible GMing.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2020 03:55

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Nissin Cup Nudist posted:

how the hell does getting jabbed in the collarbone cause your quads to explode

It looks like he tore it when coming out of his stance. The jab is just what knocked him over once his leg was no longer able to contribute to keeping his balance.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2020 14:23

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Hot Diggity! posted:

AJ Dillon's legs are like the size of my waist good lord

Training camp photos of Packers RBs have come a long way...

# ¿ Aug 18, 2020 17:14

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

So, I'm curious, Pats fans: are you more excited about seeing whether the team could actually be any good this season (assuming an actual season) than you were about seeing if the team could get a 7th ring for Brady last year?

I have to figure the novelty factor is doing a lot of work here.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2020 15:42

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

If you haven't heard, the Packers decided to throttle media coverage of their training camp and practices. Here's an article reacting to that that I thought made a bunch of good points, and on top of that revealed certain things about how teams actually engage with sports journalism despite pretty much every single front office openly scoffing at the idea.

https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2020/8/20/21378012/packers-gm-brian-gutekunst-defends-reporting-restrictions-as-practical

quote:

No one is being oppressed or having their freedoms overridden because poor old beat reporters can�t breathlessly tweet out precious practice information. In fact, the actionable information NFL teams might actually find valuable � who is playing well and who is struggling � will still show up in Twitter timelines, columns, and stories. But when Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst defended new restrictions on media reporting as practical on Thursday, he missed the crucial reason it�s so troubling.

If media reports of who is playing on the first team or who is playing multiple positions are suddenly state secrets, then nearly all reporting falls into this category and becomes open to restriction by NFL teams.

Using a global pandemic to restrict access under the guise of competitive advantage doesn�t just feel opportunistic, it reveals a broader intent. Teams like Green Bay would love to restrict information more than they already do, but they can�t because there are explicit rules forbidding it. Instead, they capriciously dole out credentials and more often reject those requests, even from established digital brands or Hall of Fame beat writers like Bob McGinn trying to make it independently.

Gutekunst admitted that as part of normal due diligence, scouts will read local reporting from beat writers to get additional information related to player development. In a non-COVID season, that functions as supplemental information to more tangible tape study. But without preseason games, the team would be left to make decisions based almost entirely on the say-so of cargo-shorts wearing typewriter jockeys like us.

This admission reveals that teams already rely on the very information they seek to limit from their own shop, and that�s precisely the point. What they don�t realize is if they�re doing it because other teams are doing it, the rest of the league will no doubt follow suit. Competitive advantage neutralized. Now no one will get anything and they�ll have to like it.

Take that face, how do you like it without a nose?

And this is where the NFL, in conjunction with its media stakeholders and even the NFLPA, need to step in. Consulting with the Pro Football Writers Association, whose Green Bay chapter decried this decision but can offer little in practical pushback, would be a reasonable start. If one team does this, others will follow. Why would the Browns continue to stream their practices for fans if the Packers won�t even allow reporters to say who is running with the starters as opposed to rotating in with the No. 2s?

Gutekunst referenced this domino effect directly in his Thursday Zoom call.

�As we got into the first three days (of practice), and seen the landscape of what other teams were doing, and just the information we were gathering,� Gutekunst explained, �Without 8,000 people at practice and four preseason games, I thought we were at a disadvantage, and I wanted to equal the playing field.�

In short, why would we help other teams if they aren�t helping us? On its face that�s exactly right. But they do regularly hold practice in front of thousands of fans, practices that non-credentialed media, bloggers, and maybe even a curious NFL scout or two could attend. The Browns do stream practices. The same competitive disadvantages would theoretically apply, but this time the difference is preseason games?

The answer is they limit the information because they can.

There�s little stopping them from creating an NFL Cold War environment where every team is so paranoid about releasing information that no one allows anything to come out. How long before non-team site reporters only get to watch warm ups and stretches? And for what? A marginal advantage that goes out the window once everyone else does the same thing, one teams didn�t seem to care about before as more and more franchises realized how much fan engagement could be lucrative.

But given a little power to do a thing that teams � at least on the football side � likely already wanted to do? Crush those nerds and their spreadsheets.

Boo hoo, poor fake news reporters right? They�ll just have to come up with unscrupulous click-hungry narratives some other way. Here�s the problem: that�s right. The less information reporters can share, the more clickbait columns get written because that�s suddenly the only other thing that can be printed. Suddenly the proverbial blocking and tackling reports from practice turn into body language doctoring of Aaron Rodgers helping out Jordan Love during a drill. Imagine what Colin Cowherd�s programming would look like with literally no actual reporting from practice.

That�s bad for fans and for the teams. No one wants that.

Engagement from coverage drives attention. Fans crave this stuff. A commentary about a 1-on-1 rep gets hundreds of retweets. A.J. Dillon goes viral for wearing practice shorts from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. A Patrick Mahomes absurd throw becomes 8 minutes of a Fox Sports 1 talking head show. This is what incites the kind of attention that puts money in the pockets of the league.

If it�s not a big deal to hold public practices in front of thousands of fans wearing green and gold, then it�s hardly going to change the outcomes of the 53-man roster if some blogger reports which guy is playing right tackle and right guard. If teams believe the balance of their seasons are truly that tenuous, it�s not showing very much faith in their own process � not to mention they�re only encouraging other teams to follow suit, which actively hurts their own scouting of other teams, because now they�re also relying on the word of a guy typing from his mom�s basement. He might even *gasp* care about analytics. Then what would teams do? How would they live?

This isn�t the first time the league and its member teams had to walk back media restrictions. At one point during a recent, misguided attempt to limit video in training camp, beat reporters resorting to sarcastically tweeting crudely executed photos seemingly made in Microsoft Paint. Local Packers writers have taken similarly sarcastic approaches to their Twitter activity, sending out purposefully nebulous messages. It�s ridiculous.

When fans return next year, assuming that happens, what�s to stop non-credentialed people from doing this? Plenty of members of the blogosphere, podcasters, and other established media creators aren�t credentialed. CheeseheadTV and Acme Packing Company have done it for years. Some of those people even became credentialed media (and then got un-credentialed before getting re-credentialed). Why have a policy that would be moot under normal circumstances? The benefit now is only marginally greater than it was before.

There�s no actual advantage once this becomes a trend. It hurts fan engagement and creates a media environment that must rely more on clickbait and engenders antipathy from those covering the team itself. It�s a no-win decision cloaked in pragmatism.

That�s why this move looks either blatantly punitive, or obviously short-sighted ... or as is often the case in the NFL, both.

Are there any other teams taking similar actions? From this article, I know the Browns aren't :v:

# ¿ Aug 22, 2020 16:11

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Eifert Posting posted:

I've seen a few teams try and switch des to te, what's up with that?

It's rare to find the right combination of strength, size, and speed to make a Gronk or a Kittle, and DEs are the position group that typically comes closest to the measurables you're looking for. If you have some DEs languishing on the bottom of the roster and you're hurting for TE help, you might as well try to convert them and see if they can also catch/block along with being big, tall, and fast.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2020 23:16

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Catfish Noodlin posted:

I don't know why the NFL doesn't go back to playing more with four true wide receivers anymore and just don't loving worry about the extra gap. A 4th CB is probably a pretty good target for a mismatch, and it worked pretty well in the 80's and 90's in the NFL.

Pre-snap scheming. A TE can block or catch, a 4th WR can't really. If you have 4 WRs on the field, the defense knows pretty much what's coming and can adjust for it.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2020 00:52

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

It's very common for opposing position groups to fight (or opposite teams in joint practices) but I'm having trouble of thinking of a time where two players on the same unit got into it with each other.

For the Packers the only time I can think of for that was maybe Ahmad Carroll and Joey Thomas from over a decade ago.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2020 22:07

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Aaaaaaarrrrrggggg posted:

Wait, Wilson isn't in his prime? Seriously? That's a statement they're going to make?

Favre/Peyton/Brady/Brees and now Rivers and Rodgers playing well so late into their 30s has kinda skewed people's views of QB aging.

Most QBs drop off around age 35 or so. Wilson is 31. What happens when age starts catching up to his legs?

# ¿ Aug 24, 2020 03:14

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Is Earl Thomas bad now? He's apparently not good for locker room chemistry anymore but I was still under the impression he's a good player. Is that really "playing" Jerry to bring in a good player?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2020 14:51

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

AndrewP posted:

I have somehow never heard of this player.

This is the first time I've heard of him since that article in 2017 about draftees with funny names. Whatever happened to Corn Elder?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2020 15:24

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

This is going to be really good. :munch:

# ¿ Aug 25, 2020 18:14

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

In the 00s the Packers had a player, Ahmad Carroll, who was infamous for getting several holding penalties each game. It got to the point that the team had him practice while wearing boxing gloves.

It didn't work.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2020 11:06

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

It's hard to believe the season starts, like, next week. There's been so little buzz even with people extra deprived of sports this year.

I wonder what TV ratings will be like.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2020 02:05

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Ches Neckbeard posted:

The Double Doink has utterly destroyed Matt Nagy. To think there was that season he looked like a good coach.

https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1298706487758524417?s=20

# ¿ Aug 28, 2020 03:16

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Xpost NFC North

https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1299847429102202883?s=19

Edit: full transcript

https://twitter.com/mattschneidman/status/1299851698702290946?s=19

SKULL.GIF fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Aug 30, 2020

# ¿ Aug 30, 2020 01:19

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

So Fournette becomes the latest example of why you don't draft a RB high, won't he?

# ¿ Aug 31, 2020 13:32

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Gonz posted:

Minshew gonna have to put the whole offense on his drat back.

So the Jags are tanking the season huh?

I hope Minshew goes to a decent team when he's released after they draft Trevor or whoever

# ¿ Aug 31, 2020 13:48

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Myles Jack is the only Jaguar making more than $10 million this season lol

# ¿ Aug 31, 2020 13:52

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

I don't understand at all how a team that went to the AFFCG needed a total teardown and rebuild. Were there any other post-realignment conference championship teams that fell apart that quickly?

# ¿ Aug 31, 2020 14:13

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 06:28

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

https://twitter.com/jimirsay/status/1300461209347665926?s=21

# ¿ Sep 1, 2020 03:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Football Funhouse > NFL N/V August: Antonio Cl-(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)