NFL - Random Opinions

Exactly. The reports Ive read from Hopkins himself is that he is picking and choosing from a top couple SB obvious contenders. He hinted at the Bills and Chiefs. Fowler, even mentioned the Browns as a sleeper, but Cleveland has roughly $7M in cap space and 'divas' want more than that. In my opinion, Hopkins will want too much, because he thinks he's all that and will probably self-destruct himself... one can only hope. The Jets will sign anybody if and when Rodgers says so.

 

What the hell is going on at ESPN? Are they trying to make themselves irrelevant?? What happened to the days when we could watch in the morning, get the scores and highlights, and go on about our day? This is a bad joke. Someone please come up with a competing network!! For years we only had CNN. Then along came Fox News. You may not agree with one or another of those networks, but you have a choice. We desperately need that now.

 

Too many companies are conglomerated together and when one goes there is a domino effect. Disney is the parent company to ESPN and the are taking a revenue beating and are currently cutting away $5B in payouts by laying off 7000 employees, so with ESPN having issues and the parent company sinking, its the ol' domino effect.

By the way, the count of lay-offs (firings for most) is up to 20 personalities at the Equestrian Sports Network

In my opinion, back in the day ESPN rocked, they were great in and of themselves, but when these big-shot corporations decided to get greedy and make themselves even bigger than life, things went to hell and are currently in full-blown crash & burn mode... and I doubt they recover.

 

I remember seeing ESPN in 1980 I think and it was one great network. Everyone thought that they were bigger than what they were reporting after a good number of years and made a mockery out of sports reporting. For a while we didn’t have much choice but to put up with their crap. Now they have competition and I don’t watch them except when they have NFL games or a NCAA game that I like. I can’t remember the last time I watched them other than football games.

 

I watched their new Quarterbacks show last night. Oh, wait, that was Netflix. Ah, but I did see their CONCACAAF coverage. Oops, that was Fox Soccer Plus. Well, at least I watched.... what the hell did I watch? The draft? No, I stuck with NFL-N for that.

Ah! College football bowl games! Yes, that's it. I watched some of those bowl games on ESPN last December and early January. Wow, it's so worthwhile to have that big Disney Plus package with the extra ESPN+ coverage!

 

I just spent the last half hour talking Buffalo Bills with a Formula 3 driver in Belgium. He's apparently a huge fan and owns tons of swag. He was on Big Brother Netherlands or Belgium too. He's going to New York this fall so he might catch a Bills game in Jersey or Buffalo while he's there. I might even see him again if he goes to a game in Buffalo. As most here already know, they are essentially my 2nd team after the Eagles as the "Local" team.

 

In Canada their TSN affiliate is essentially the same thing now. Rogers Sportsnet gets more sports now.

 

That's cool. Hope it happens. I love the Netherlands and Belgium. Antwerp is one of my favorite cities.

 

I've got a flight to Rome in a week and from there I'm renting a car to take me through Naples to Sicily. I'm gonna spend the rest of my vacation there, driving back up for the return flight on the 22nd am and then I'm home just 2 days after.

 

If the owners and players dont take a step back and get these contracts under some sort of compromised control, the NFL is in trouble.

 

Once the viewers decide not to spend their cash on their product anymore due to the exorbitant costs which allow for those crazy contracts etc, only then might you see change.

 

They's be up a creek with no paddles if the fans quit paying, but thats never going to happen. Which reminds me of the major broadcast networks putting the scab games on back in the day and people still tuned in, lol.

 

Jim Irsay sure has a lot of illsay spewing from his mouth and lately he is ruining the relationship with Taylor and the Colts and that must really suck if your Anthony Richardson. Here's an up-and-coming top draft pick trying to learn the system and obviously already feeling the pressure of earning the QB1 job and he might land up missing the RB1 in Taylor that would have relieved a lot of pressure on Richardson and the offense. If Taylor isnt there, that adds more pressure on Richardson, something he clearly doesnt need.

Taylor, in no defense to Irsay, seems to be a bit cocky himself. The whole situation is not helping and is actually a huge distraction for Richardson and the Colts. Not a good start to the Colts Camp so far... thats my 'Random Opinion'.

 

The whole RB situation is out of control. The teams don’t value them and the RBs want more money. If they were valued we wouldn’t be seeing a growing list of really good ones as unwanted FAs.

 

I read that the Washington Commanders' new owner has come out and said that (yet) another re-naming of the team may be in the works. If true . . .

May I suggest they go back to their true roots and name the team the Washington Braves. They entered the NFL in 1932 as the Boston Braves. ​

 

They could name them the dirty politicians.

 

Might as well go with just 2 preseason games. Most, not all the starters dont play game 1 and how much PT does the rookie/hopefuls need to make the team? It also seems that most of the rosters are nearly set in the back of GM's and coaches heads before they even play the first game, so just play 2, start all the prospects that have a chance to make the 53 and Im thinking 2 full games should be enough to make a decision. Injuries in a meaningless game are just a complete waist. I also think most evaluations can be made in Camp and having an extra week could play a positive factor in a 17 game season.

 

Go to 18 regular season games. We have to have our football.

 

The catch is that starting with the 2011 CBA, the ability to do full scrimmages is gone and the total number of practices and number of sessions with contact during training camp are also reduced. So the fourth preseason game had value for the prospects trying to make the cut, and taking away the third game would reduce their opportunities to get game film out there even more.

Personally, I still think we should go back to the 16-game regular season but add a second bye week. That way there's an extra week of televised games but the players get another rest / recovery week rather than an extra game.

 

Spreading it out doesn’t change the number of games for advertising. 16 games x 32 teams is all your are getting. You would get (3) more prime time games, but you would also add the expense of paying league employees and extra week out of that “prime” time advertising money. They get a lot more out of the 17th week than they would out of 16 games with two bye weeks. Now that the genies out of the bottle, it isn’t going back in.

If anything, with the success if 17 games, if there is no evidence of it causing more injuries, you would more likely see an 18 game, 2 pre-season.

At the end of the day, the starters would not take their courtesy reps and the ones that are most likely not even on the bubble would watch the others play the games. Let’s face it, there is at least ten guys per teams that prove they are not worthy in practice. You can easily trim that fat out of the preseason games and get plenty of real time game film on the other ten that truly matter. Out of a 53 man roster, plus practice squad, plus a 3rd QB spot.. there are in reality only about 5-6 roster spots that are really up for grabs unless your team is so shitty it doesn’t matter because you are kicking for the order of the first 5 picks in the next draft.