NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Personally, I think Urban got what he desearved... he brought this on himself in a very unsaintly way, lol. And besides, the product on the field sucks too, not just Urban. I used to support him with the Buckeyes to an extent... I also think he took more shots than were desearving on some occasions. I wanted to have his back in the NFL with the Jags, but he blew that up almost immediately.

So... sooooo loooong Urban !

 

I’m gonna give Shad some credit for going against his normal patient approach and kicking Meyer out the door while the screen door was still closed.

 

A large outbreak of positive COVID-19 tests around the league has led to changes in protocols for Week 15 as the NFL and NFL Players Association continue to discuss further modifications.

In a memo sent to all 32 teams, the league said that in-person meetings will not be allowed unless they are held outside or in practice bubbles large enough to allow for distancing between participants. All players, whether they are vaccinated or not, must wear masks when indoors at team facilities and food service in team facilities will shift to a grab-and-go model with no groups of players or staff allowed to dine together.


The new protocols also call for players on road trips to remain in the team hotel and they are no longer able to entertain visitors on the road. Gatherings of three or more members of an organization outside the team facilities while at home have also been prohibited and there are other limitations on what players can do socially.

Those protocols are similar to the ones used during the 2020 season, but the league has also announced a change to how vaccinated players and staff can return to the team before a 10-day isolation period is up. Two negative tests taken 24 hours apart was the standard in such cases, but the new protocols allow for asymptomatic individuals toa take two PCR tests, two Mesa tests, or one PCR and one Mesa test concurrently and return to work if they are negative.

PFT

 

He's back!



Cornerback Joe Haden was back on the practice field with the Steelers on Thursday.

Haden has missed the last five games with a foot injury and he didn’t practice on Wednesday, but he was able to work on a limited basis on Thursday. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said earlier this week that he thought Haden has a chance of playing against the Titans and Friday will shed more light on how good a chance there is of his return to the lineup.


Tomlin said the same of linebacker T.J. Watt, who has a groin injury, and he looks to be on track to play after moving up to a full practice Thursday. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (pectoral/right shoulder) also got an upgrade to limited participation after sitting out on Wednesday.

Tight end Kevin Rader (hip), defensive end Isaiah Buggs (ankle), and tackle Zach Banner (knee) were the only players who didn’t practice for the Steelers.

PFT

 

Agreed. I didn't think he'd bite the bullet this soon, personally. He's probably hating himself for all the money he's got to pay Urban to go away, but I guess going away is worth it, at this point. Shad's gotta ask himself why he makes horrible decisions like this in the first place, though, because this one was easy to see coming...

 

I appreciate someone who can take new information on board and change their mind accordingly. Personally, I think Urban showed exactly who he was pretty blatantly before he ever even got to Ohio State, and then just continued to be that horrible person through Ohio State and the NFL. Difference is, he doesn't run the entire town in the NFL, so he couldn't get away with it. You've gotta be amazed by how arrogant someone is when they know the NFL world is entirely different, and yet they decide to just take it on without the least bit of introspection (to realize they're can't get away with their s***) or change (to not keep doing their normal s***).

The only thing that surprised me about the whole Urban fiasco is that he was fired before his first season even ended. There has been years of evidence pointing to all of this unfolding exactly as it did, and lo and behold...

Shame. I was really enjoying seeing him get his ass handed to him on a weekly basis - and lately, daily! I hate seeing that entertainment go away. At least he didn't have to fake a heart condition, this time, or lie about spending more time with his family.

 

Great recruiting coaches in college don’t always make good NFL coaches.

 

Especially when your recruiting pitch is, "Hey, you can do whatever you want on campus", and you throw parties for recruits with underage drinking and underage girls, etc. You're correct that recruiting can mask coaching deficiencies, especially in Urban's case. It's something that's really easy to see, and well documented. Jags made a bad call in the first place.

 

Thursday Night Football: Travis Kelce OT TD lifts Chiefs over Chargers



A 34-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Travis Kelce through the defense of the Los Angeles Chargers gave the Kansas City Chiefs a 34-28 overtime victory on Thursday night.

Kelce caught the eventual game-winning pass over the middle of the field only about five yards from the line of scrimmage. Kelce threw on the brakes, cut back, and then sliced through the defense into the end zone to hand the Chargers another heartbreaking home loss. Kansas CIty beat the Chargers in Los Angeles in overtime last year as well, 23-20, on a 58-yard Harrison Butker field goal.


Kelce caught 10 passes for a career-high 191 yards and two touchdowns to carry the Chiefs to the win. Patrick Mahomes threw for 410 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. All three of Mahomes’ touchdowns came in the fourth quarter or overtime.

The Chiefs jumped out to a 10-0 lead over Los Angeles before trailing at halftime.

Fullback Michael Burton scored on a 7-yard touchdown run and Butker delivered a 30-yard field goal to build the Kansas City lead.

Justin Herbert ran for a 1-yard touchdown, and Jalen Guyton caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Herbert to give Los Angeles a 14-10 lead. The Chargers would twice have drives turned away inside the 5-yard line during the half with a pair of failed fourth down tries left points on the board.

Following a 33-yard Butker field goal made it 14-13, Los Angeles would turn it over on downs again on the first drive of the third quarter as a fourth-and-2 throw for Jared Cook came up empty.

After a Mahomes interception set up a quick touchdown from the Los Angeles Chargers to extend their lead, the Kansas City Chiefs struck back quickly with a touchdown from Tyreek Hill to tie the game at 21-21 with eight minutes left to play.

After turning the ball over three times — twice on downs and once on a fumble — inside the Chiefs’ 5-yard line, Austin Ekeler scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to push the Chargers lead to eight with over nine minutes left to play.

A fumble by Joshua Kelley at the goal line on L.A.’s prior possession thwarted another scoring chance for the Chargers before Uchenna Nwosu tipped a pass from Patrick Mahomes to himself for an interception to give the Chargers the ball back inside the 5. It took just the one play from Ekeler to crack the end zone.

Despite going for fourth down conversions five times on the night, the Chargers elected against going for a two-point conversion try to make it a two-score game. Dustin Hopkins extra point made it a 21-13 game.

A 69-yard completion from Mahomes to Travis Kelce on third-and-10 sparked a quick response from the Chiefs. The play moved Kansas City to the Chargers’ 1-yard line. Tyreek Hill caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes two plays later with a successful two-point connection from Mahomes to Clyde Edwards-Helaire to tie the game at 21-21 with just under eight minutes remaining.

The Chargers responded with an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive to retake the lead with 2:19 left to play. A stellar 15-yard catch from Josh Palmer was the highlight of the drive before a laser throw from Herbert to Keenan Allen for an 8-yard touchdown put the Chargers back on top.

The big-play Chiefs offense fired back. A 20-yard completion from Mahomes to Hill on third-and-10 got the drive moving before Mahomes scrambled untouched for 32 yards to the Chargers’ 7-yard line. Mahomes and Kelce hooked up for the tying score to make it 28-28 with 1:16 left to play.

Both teams would come up empty on their final possessions of regulation before the Chiefs won on the opening drive of the extra frame.

Herbert threw for 236 yards with two touchdowns and an interception for the Chargers. Los Angeles rushed for a season-high 192 yards behind 86 yards from Justin Jackson and 59 yards and a touchdown from Ekeler.

Hill caught 12 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown for Kansas City.

PFT

 

I dont know as much about Meyer as you guys clearly do. But given all thats happened wasnt it shocking then that he got a NFL HC gig in the first place? Khan reportedly was a big fan and wanted this move to happen, he didnt hear any of the stories that apparently you guys knew about?

Then there's the media. I really dont remember Meyer's hiring being this big controversial move. I dont recall any analysts being up in arms about this hire. If the guy is the same at the Jags as he was in college then he was a bully and a tyrant. How does that behavior not generate some real pushback when the Jags hire him?

Maybe it did and i didnt notice. Not saying thats impossible but i do keep up with news from across the NFL pretty constantly so it seems a little unlikely *shrugs*

 

It could be just wishful thinking on the Jags part. Urban had a long rap-sheet, but the jags were hoping he'd come in, behave himself and just win, because we all know winning is all that matters at the pro level, lol.

I also think with the reoccurences of misbehavior and a terrible showing on the field, it became an easier call to can him.

Just a hunch.

 

So, let's separate the Jags and the media (and the public at large):

Jags - Khan has never made good decisions for his football team. He needed a coach, and like many teams, he looked to the college level. Waiting there was a coach with a long history of winning. So, he hires that guy. It's as simple as that. Were there a ton of red flags that made it a questionable decision in the first place? Absolutely. But if the Jags were a .500 team right now, even with all this nonsense around Urban, I think he'd still be employed. So Khan had those lofty expectations in mind, and ignored the other stuff. It's really how Urban has lived his entire life - a total scumbag, but because his teams have a winning record, he keeps getting jobs.

The media - here's the problem. Meyer has been a scumbag for a LONG time. And it's documented. It's just not well PUBLISHED. Sports media had the opportunity to talk about his misgivings every single week, but chose not to. And they did it for the reasons you'd expect - money and relationships. The NCAA is filled with ethics violations, so Urban isn't unique. I'd argue that he's been the most consistent and outstanding offender over the last two decades, but he hasn't been alone. If the crew at Fox's college broadcast called him out, they'd be opening up a can of worms. Better to just focus on that winning record and move on, huh? Plus, they didn't want to upset the guy who runs one of their needed programs, whether that was UF or Ohio St. In fact, Urban Meyer went on to join Fox's broadcast team after he "retired" last time. This was a guy who, weeks before, had to leave a program in disgrace again because of his personal failings. But Fox hired him and ignored it all. Again, just how Urban gets through life.

Then there's the public. Lots of people don't know the extent to which Urban Meyer's offenses go, and that's because they haven't looked into it. And that's fair - if gameday college sports media isn't telling people what a scumbag this guy is, most aren't going to go looking for the articles, documentaries, testimonies, etc. that point to all the s*** he's done over the years. So ignorance plays a role. But lots of people AREN'T ignorant, and genuinely defend Urban even now. You can probably guess, most of them are Ohio St fans. He won while he was there, and again, that's all that matters. When he "retired" after it came out that his hand-chosen assistant and friend had been stalking and sexually harassing his ex-wife (if I recall correctly), and Urban had been helping him and keeping a lid on it for him, there were people protesting outside Ohio St's campus demanding that he not be fired. Pretty sure there were some posters on this board out there...

That's not to say that everyone feels that way. I haven't encountered any UF fans that like the guy - they saw him leave their program in shambles and "retire" to "spend more time with his family" (that's twice he's shown us how little he actually cares for his family, by the way)... Plenty of sports journalists who don't have TV gigs have called him out in print. I've got some friends in Jacksonville who have been season ticket holders for five years, and they promptly cancelled them when the Urban hiring got announced (granted, they're both reporters, so they're not part of the "just win" crowd).

F***, I just typed a lot to say what we all probably know, anyway. Urban Meyer got away with stuff because of his record, no one called him out because of money / shared interests, and then he gets exposed at the NFL level. And the NFL level is different because he doesn't just run the entire town and everyone in it, like colleges allow at the NCAA level. But that's a whole different can of worms.

 

I did literally 30 seconds searching on Twitter and found these two bits that I think lend themselves well to explaining things.

The first - she hits the nail on the head, except for the fact that she's on a network that COULD have called Urban out beforehand, but didn't. Mina Kimes is doing her best, but the network isn't. But otherwise, she's right.



In this one, from two years ago, Pat McAfee says the important parts - Urban is a scummer who gets away with s*** in college because he's in control, before eventually leaving amidst a scandal. The important part of this video? How everyone else at the table is SO QUICK to change the subject. "Where will he go?", not "Should he go?". Fucking garbage.

 

He was the Bobby Knight of college football, two decades after it became politically incorrect...But, still got away with it.

 

I think that's because he knew who to be on camera. We all remember Bobby Knight from his blow-ups in public, and on record. Urban did his stuff out of the public eye whenever possible - he also had control over what that eye saw, having complete control over whatever city he was coaching in at the time. Urban has always shown that he's well aware of his control within the organization - we heard him say so with the "if anyone is leaking in this organization they'll be unemployed" line last week.

And it's that arrogance that got him in trouble at the NFL level, because there isn't an entire city willing to cover up his s*** and turn a blind eye to his antics whenever needed. So the stuff he did in private - not on team plane, feeling up a girl at a bar - turns into stuff he does in public - defending it by blaming it on his grandkids, etc.

I'm gonna miss him in the NFL, honestly. Was so glad for everyone to start seeing what I've been saying. Like a church welcoming in a new congregation.

 

Let me know when your "I was right - everyone else was wrong" crusade is over.

 

Raiders at Browns now will be played Monday night at 5 pm ET.
Seahawks vs Rams and Washington vs Philadelphia could be moved to Tuesday.

 

I don't know Lym... This is almost as entertaining, lol

 

I thought the NFL said," We're not moving games! If you can't put a team on the field? You forfeit!" Gimme a break!!

 

Eagles are especially pissed with the short week. They didn't need the rest before this game either with the bye week.