Leaderboard

Let me first say that I am sorry this took me so long. Since 2004 this forum has had rules in place that prohibits the discussion of race. I’ve been trying to find a way to make a statement that fits within the boundaries of the rules and still conveys what I think needs to be said. It’s been impossible and so I now will purposely break the forum rules. Some will see me as a hypocrite. Some may say I’ve waited too long and it doesn’t matter what I say. I don’t care. If this makes a difference and helps change one persons mind it was worth it. So I will now add my small voice to say I support the equal treatment and equal justice for everyone regardless of color, creed or sexual orientation. I support the peaceful protests going on to help black lives in America. Everyone needs to work to make a change in any way they can. Protest peacefully. Contact your local representatives in government and make your voice heard. Most importantly…. Vote! Support candidates who will make a difference. Vote in every election. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! If you are over 18 and not registered to vote, do so today! Go to vote.gov for more information. The forum will go offline for 8 hours tomorrow morning as a small sign of support. When the forum returns we will move forward as a community with the same rules and restrictions in place. Our forum’s rules aren’t going to change. We don’t allow political discussion on this forum because it is far too polarizing and will cause conflicts and resentments that will destroy the community. Politics and everything going on in the world is a lot more important than football and what we focus on at FootballsFuture.com, but that doesn’t mean we should discuss these things here. In fact, many members need a politics free zone now more than ever. Most media outlets use political divide to boost ratings. Almost every social media site is nothing but political talk. This site will remain politics free. This statement will remain on the site, but it is not up for discussion. Do not quote me. Do not discuss it in other topics. Feel free to contact me via PM with any comments, questions, or feedback.

Props to @Webmaster wasn’t expecting that.

Props to the site for shutting down for 8hrs for BLM support.

I hope this more impactful as this is a recount of my own personal life experiences that led to my D-Day remembrance. Here goes. I am now 62 years old. As a lad of 10 in the winter of 1967-68, I came to the supper table one night to hear my dad tell me and my 5 brothers "Boys, your mother and I have something to tell you. Later this spring, we are moving to Europe". After we all dropped our spoons in our soup bowls, we collectively said "Whaaat?" Dad went on to explain the plan was Firestone was moving the family to London for a 2 year assignment, then move to Rome for a year's assignment . So in April of 1968, we jetted of to London. It was an experience that I loved. This British people were so welcoming to us. We settled in Richmond (a SW suburb of London). We made very good friends with an elderly widow across the street. One of the vivid memories I still have is the pain on Mrs. Seeley's face when anyone mentioned the Second World War. For the first time in our lives, we were talking with someone who actually lived through those horrible experiences on her home soil. And they were still relatively fresh in her mind, as that war had just ended less than 25 years ago. FF to 1970 - Dad's assignment in England was ending soon, but we were going to take one more vacation to the continent before moving to Italy. So, we drove to Dover (on the shores of the Channel). There we entered onto a new fangled type of transport. We were ready to depart, and we feel the passenger chamber being lifted as a big balloon inflated below us. Yes, it was the Hovercraft. It really was a cool way to cross the Channel. Anyway, we disembarked in France in the mid afternoon. A coworker of Dad's from the Local Firestone facility met us and joined us for lunch at a local cafe. He leaned over during lunch to my dad and said, "Tom - you have six sons. Take advantage of of the opportunity while you are here and visit the Allied cemeteries." So, we did. Even as a not-yet-wet-behind-the-eaars-12-year-old, I sensed something was very different as we walked onto the soil there. I knew we wre walking on sacred ground. It was surreal. The only other time I have felt that was when I visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington 30 years later. But this was the scene I remember on that afternoon in France. No matter which way you looked, plain white crosses buried into the horizon. It hit me then that these weren't just crosses, these were young kids who maybe didn't understand at the time, but gave their lives so we could have a world free from Nazi terrorism. The Greatest Sacrifice from The Greatest Generation.

Day 4: Alright, guys, I'm Harry Potter. Here are the reasons you should believe me. *Malfatron hands the crowd a blank piece of paper.* Alright, this seems legit. So, who should we lynch? Are you ******* kidding me? Alright, who should die today? Someone made me King. Don't worry, I'm sure he's got this! Well, Malfatron is definitely scum, so how about him? Okay, Malfatron. With that single vote, Malfatron was thrown before the crowd and at their mercy. There was no time to be squandered on explanations or silly words. The crowd unleashed a hail of hexes and jinxes that left Malfatron motionless. Malfatron is dead. He was Harry Potter, The Chosen One, Hogwarts-Aligned. Just kidding. He was Marcus Flint, Slytherin-Aligned. It is now Night 4. You have until midnight EST to submit PMs. @Counselor @Dome @HoboRocket @bcb1213 @ET80 @Forge @Tk3 @bigbadbuff @Malfatron

Gr8 b8 m8

@$%? NO! Everybody knows what happened except for you apparently.

Yes, it is hypocritical. I struggled for a long time with it. Sorry you didn't like the message. We're still focused on good football discussion and will not allow any political discussion going forward. Some more info in my original post in TAST.

Man, it's absolutely wild that playing for 9+ years and amassing 10,000 all purpose yards still gets you regarded as a bust....

Porkchops.

I understood the site would be down til like 2 or so but that didn’t stop me from autopilot refreshing the page all morning long out of habit

I wasn't planning on addressing IOL until the teens. Rounds, not picks.

Team Covid selects: DE Melvin Ingram @Reginaldm9

I thought it was a solid troll. But I’m not a Texans fan.

That's too much work for me. I'm lazy. I'd rather just hyperfocus on your one ranking I didn't agree with and roast you for it. lol EDIT: I actually agree with everything besides flip flopping WSH and PHI's RB's and I would put PHI's WR lower. I like the potential of the WR's in Philly but too many old injured and young unproven to have them that high as we sit here today.

Damn it

Your face is a bad troll job.

Wanna look good, Why stay in Seattle than? What could make you look better than playing across from Garrett? Especially when Cleveland’s DC just came from system that allowed the DL to just feast

Done.

Everyone's a statistician 'til Uncle Buck pulls up MS Paint.

Listen, some people need to drink and drink heavily at the end of the week. Ya'll just plan around me.

They turned out GREAT! I used @ET80s recipe, went for North Carolina BBQ with a homemade vinegar sauce!

agreed

So we're getting closer to the robotic helmets that they show on FOX. That's nice.

These hard times are only going to make the future better. WW2 sucked but thank god it happened. Women’s suffrage sucked but thank God. Civil rights march sucked but thank God. These protest and civil rights march 2.0 sucks right now, no doubt. But future generations hopefully benefit from more equality and less militant police. That’s what we are fighting for. I feel hopeful for future generations.

I used to say the same thing about Joe Flacco's Ravens and Eli Manning's Giants, and was proven wrong. With effective weapons around them and a stiff defense, any decent QB stands a chance. (Obviously if they can get hot at the right time, that helps too)

Was bored so I decided to look at our Scouting department. Sam Seale was the west coast scout for 22 years before finally becoming our National scout. Yet Charles Walls was an area scout for just 3 years and left to become the national scout for Cleveland. Wow, Fast track! He has unearthed some good talent such as Aaron Jones and Elgton Jenkins which added to his growing reputation. He's now the 3rd ex-Packer on the Browns front office joining Glenn Cook and Shaun Herock. Gotta make up for firing Dorsey, Wolf and Highsmith somehow! It took Walls a while to get going as he was a scouting intern for 4 years before he finally got an area scouting gig. Compare that to Goodson he was a scouting intern for just 1 year before becoming an area scout. Brandian Ross took a little longer, first as an intern for one year, then as a scouting assistant before landing an area gig. The rate of progression is all over the place. Goodson's progression is quite unusual when compared to our other scouts. Richmond Williams had to wait 5 years to land an area gig, Benuska and Hueber both took 2 years, Owen took 3 years. Interestingly Charlie Peprah is no longer listed on the Packers website. He was a scouting intern in 2016 then in 2017 he became the NFS. 2 years later it looks like he's no longer employed with us. It appears he's been replaced by Brett Thiesen in June 2019 so Peprah actually hasn't been part of our organisation for the past year! There was no announcement when he left. Very particular, especially since he's a former player. Its rare for us to have a scout that leaves in the middle of their development, they usually work their way up the ladder or they eventually move to a different team. Maybe he decided scouting wasn't for him after all or he was just simply fired. The regions our area scouts cover are (I hope I got the states right!): Luke Benuska [West Coast] - California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska Demetri Goodson [Midlands] - Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming Joe Hueber [Midwest] - Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin Patrick Moore [South East] - Alabama, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee Mike Owen [North East] - , Washington DC, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont Brandian Ross [South West] - Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas Brett Thiesen [National Football Scout] Our upper level management has experience in the following regions: Brian Gutekunst [South East] Milt Hendrickson [Midwest - With Ravens] Jon-Eric Sullivan [Midlands 2008-11] [South East 2012-15] John Wojciechowski [North East - with Cowboys] [South West - Packers] Matt Malaspina [North East & South East - With 49ers & Seattle] Richmond Williams [Midwest] Lee Gissendaner [North East] Sam Seale [West Coast] When I have time I'm going to look at the players we drafted in recent years and see which scout scouted whom. It could be quite eye opening. It is their scouting reports which the management base their decisions on and how they rank the players.

No new COVID-19 cases from Lake of the Ozarks crowds, Missouri health director says https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/state-and-regional/no-new-covid-19-cases-from-lake-of-the-ozarks-crowds-missouri-health-director-says/article_6f36ad32-d125-5382-b78f-74bd0f6510ac.html

Lamar is the Ravens system.

My favorite trope about the Ravens is how Lamar Jackson is soo lucky that he went to the Ravens who would put him in a position to succeed, and not another team where he wouldn't be successful. As if they didn't throw him out there with a 4-5 team with a remedial offense put together over a bye week and he saved everyone's neck by going 6-1. They got all the credit last offseason for putting together a "track team" around Lamar by drafting Hollywood, Boykin and Hill. With Hollywood limited with injury, as a group, they hardly had more impact than a typical rookie class. So, the credit went to the Ravens for putting really good TE's around Lamar so he could throw over the middle of the field. As if those TE's were not drafted for the admitted purpose of winning with Joe Flacco. They say the Ravens have a great running game and that takes pressure off Lamar. Like it's not Lamar who takes pressure of the running game. Gus Edwards with his 5.3 YPC on 270 carries has to be an elite talent? Mark Ingram had a spike in productivity after leaving an elite O-line is because he went to an even more elite O-line? They fire the OC from his 6-1 run, and trade away one of the TE's from the great TE group that carried him, they draft a better RB who proves the others weren't THAT special.... it'll switch to another narrative. It feels like people are trying to too hard to rationalize Lamar's success. My opinion is that he would have been great with any team. You don't need some perfect situation or a genius scheme to make it work with a passing and running talent like him. I was so high on him before the draft because his talent and focus on his craft made it so that it'd be impossible for him not to effective. Lamar is more special than anything else in the Ravens' offensive "system".

At one point, the NFC won an absolutely CRAZY amount of Super Bowls...throw in four dynasties (The 49ers, the Giants, the Redskins, and the Cowboys), the greatest defense of all time (The '85 Bears), and that explains why Marino never won, why Buffalo never won, why Elway got blown out, and even why Steve Young/Brett Favre only won 1 Super Bowl each. You could make the argument for a lot of those years that the 49ers, Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins were essentially playing the "real Super Bowl" in the NFC Playoffs.

He didn't have a bad career by any means. He hung around and was decently effective for awhile. I do agree he ultimately was a bust though for the #2 overall pick. I think it's the classic case of his skillset and athleticism being so superior in college that he just blew everybody out of the water, but among the competition level in the NFL, just wasn't as far ahead of the crowd. He was still good enough to accumulate some really nice, flashy plays, but not enough to just dust everybody the way he did in college.

@UKTexans did.

dates updated and thread title updated. starting portfolio must be in tuesday 8pm est which is corresponding to the start of trading here at 10am australian wednesday the 10th

Did you mean Monday here and Tuesday down under for the starting portfolio? I'm lost on these dates lol

I have email notifications turned on when I get tagged, I'm always ready unless I'm sleepin. Hopefully @Deadpulse can pop on before the 8 hour offline period.

The past has to do with current events.

Super happy for you man. Try not to make to many more kids during the vacay lol FTFY

Webby outside WAYTA: Webby in WAYTA:

Me looking for a single word of criticism from a Broncos fan for John Elway who had a 45% completion percentage and a 2 to 6 TD:INT ratio and averaged 13 points per game in those Super Bowls...

Coming into a thread at page 494 be like:

While I do not follow wrestling at all, I was cheering for a Fox cross promotion where Gronk catches a TD and as he's doing his Gronk spike, a "fan" jumps out and gets the pin. Only the fan is John Cena* *Or literally any other wrestler

FIFY

I'm interested in seeing Gronk's corpse running on nothing but Natty Lights

I know franchise isn't the best, but I love 20s gameplay. For once you can actually play defense, the movement is really smooth except for the few animations that are bs and throwing feels so nice. I feel like each player is unique. Aaron Donald feels like Aaron Donald and some no name scrub feels like a no name scrub.

They loved Tommy Maddox and remember the Kent Graham fandom and the defenders of him for throwing 7 picks in 2 games? Imagine if Kordell did anything near that?

Pettine talked about his role a bit during the recent presser - noted that the Smith's played too many snaps last year, Gary should take some of those in 2020. Mike also talked about Rashan's ability to set the edge in the run game, so he should get more looks on early downs. Pettine also noted he will kick Gary inside on passing downs, same as with Z.

I remember when EA was hyping connected careers as some new evolution version of franchise mode lmao all they really did was change the name and made it more basic

A lot of people rush into buying their first home right after marriage or graduation without really understanding what they want or need in a home. You're not alone. That's why most people move a few years later and the cycle starts over with the next sucker. My wife and I rented for 4 years after we got married. We still bought a house that wasn't quite right for us long term, and finally moved into our version of a dream home just this last year (11 years in). Mostly because it took that long to save up enough dough to put down a huge down payment and make the payments palatable. Real talk time: if you're concerned about having enough cash for the down payment and closing costs, you may be not be ready to buy. IMO you should be able to pay closing costs and afford to plop down 20% before really considering to buy. The reason is twofold: 1) you'll be paying PMI if you have less than 20% equity in a house and 2) you're taking a bloodbath on interest payments. Finding a place to rent that allows pets is difficult, but they're out there. I'd encourage you to keep renting, and save like a madman for 2-3 years. It will make the buying process more smooth because you won't be stressed out, and you'll be a stronger buyer (sellers are informed how much you're putting down, and will sometimes go with a slightly lesser offer in favor of a buyer that's putting more down because that buyer is less likely to back out due to financial issues). All that said, if you're determined to go through with this, i'd get with 4-5 lenders and make them vie for your business. You're in charge here - make them work for it. Tell them you're shopping around and that you want their best offer. When you get the offers back, let the "losers" know what the current winning offer is and ask them to beat it. You'll want to evaluate not just the interest rate, but also the closing costs. You can shop around for a title company, but some of the closing costs are fixed by the lender. I didn't shop around the first time i bought, and i probably paid too much. The last time we bought i had 2 of the "losers" try to match the winning offer during the 11th hour. I ultimately went with the company that had the best combination of terms, closing costs, and service. And i'd do the same with a realtor. Don't just hire the guy your friend recommended. They might be great, but not the right fit for you. Interview a few of them, and let them know you're interviewing them. The wrong realtor can wreck your home buying experience. There are things you want to know like their commission rate, and their process for helping you find a home, price the home, and help you negotiate the price. Their personality and how it meshes with yours is important too. You'll be spending some time with this person, after all. That's enough for now...