NFL News & Notes

[Toddfather]

5 hours ago, Old Guy said:

What a disaster this kid turned out to be. 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2804453-david-diehl-raiders-gave-jamarcus-russell-blank-tapes-to-see-if-qb-watched-film

"The Oakland Raiders took some extreme measures to prove that JaMarcus Russell wasn't doing everything in his power to be a good NFL player. 

Appearing on New York's WFAN (h/t Andrew Marchand of the New York Post), former offensive lineman David Diehl said Raiders coaches used to give Russell blank tapes to determine if he was studying film. 

Diehl noted Russell would come into the Raiders' facilities the day after receiving the tapes saying that he watched the blitz packages. 

Who would have known that Russell wasn't fully dedicated to being an NFL quarterback? His 52.1 completion percentage, 18 touchdowns and 23 interceptions in 31 games turned him into one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history. "

 

I still find this hilarious all these years later..

 

 

[Old Guy]

30 minutes ago, Toddfather said:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2804453-david-diehl-raiders-gave-jamarcus-russell-blank-tapes-to-see-if-qb-watched-film

"The Oakland Raiders took some extreme measures to prove that JaMarcus Russell wasn't doing everything in his power to be a good NFL player. 

Appearing on New York's WFAN (h/t Andrew Marchand of the New York Post), former offensive lineman David Diehl said Raiders coaches used to give Russell blank tapes to determine if he was studying film. 

Diehl noted Russell would come into the Raiders' facilities the day after receiving the tapes saying that he watched the blitz packages. 

Who would have known that Russell wasn't fully dedicated to being an NFL quarterback? His 52.1 completion percentage, 18 touchdowns and 23 interceptions in 31 games turned him into one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history. "

 

I still find this hilarious all these years later..

 

 

If memory serves me correctly, he came in with a big arm and a whole lot of questions about his desire. 

That pick is so like the Raiders. He was the quintessential Al Davis pick. Al was Al to the end. 

[TheGreatZepp]

I believe there is no realistic economical path of sustainable expansion, it’s a lot bigger than a qb problem, participation levels in organized team sports have declined massively in the last 20 years and the US is currently has the lowest birth rate in over 40 years. The US market very well be at its saturation level with the best growth potential being overseas. 
 

We’ve seen it in MLB for decades already and the NBA the last decade where international talent is an ever increasing percentage of the talent pipeline.

[TheGreatZepp]

On 6/29/2024 at 2:37 PM, PossibleCabbage said:

I thought the "massively expand the NFL" thought experiment was a fun one, but it didn't tackle the basic problem with the idea- diluting the talent pool.  One of the reasons international soccer can support a massive number of elite teams is that basically the entire world plays futbol and you can find talent anywhere.  While the NFL is better at finding like "big athletic guys from Africa and Oceania" than it was 20-30 years ago, it doesn't have the same untapped pool of talent.

One thing is the number of players on the team.  Like there are 15 players on an NBA team, 25 players on an EPL team, but 53 players on an NFL team.

But like it wouldn't be weird to see the NFL go to 40 teams, 2 conferences with 20 and then either 4 divisions with 5 teams or 5 divisions with 4 teams.  I think that could work.

I don’t think international futbol has nearly the massive amount of elite teams most stateside envision. There’s only a dozen elite teams with a payroll discrepancy to match.

For example, in Ligue 1, PSG one of the biggest and most famous clubs in the world has a payroll that is approximately 40% of the total league payroll, there’s 18 teams… there’s only one elite team, the other 17 teams just beat up on each other.

How about La Liga? Sure this league has more top talent with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletico Madrid all fielding competitive teams(with again a financial imbalance) In this 20 club league those 3 clubs have combined to win EVERY title for the past 20 years…

 

Edited Sunday at 08:40 PM by TheGreatZepp
Misspelling

[ThatJerkDave]

3 hours ago, Old Guy said:

If memory serves me correctly, he came in with a big arm and a whole lot of questions about his desire. 

That pick is so like the Raiders. He was the quintessential Al Davis pick. Al was Al to the end. 

Ron Wolf, and Ted Thompson are Al Davis disciples.  Just food for thought. 

[Old Guy]

11 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

Ron Wolf, and Ted Thompson are Al Davis disciples.  Just food for thought. 

Al Davis was the man in his heyday. No doubt about it. The problem is, he hung on way too long. Like Jerry Jones is doing in Dallas. Although Jerry Jones was never the man, he just liked to take credit for it. 

[Mazrimiv]

On 6/30/2024 at 4:39 PM, TheGreatZepp said:

I don’t think international futbol has nearly the massive amount of elite teams most stateside envision. There’s only a dozen elite teams with a payroll discrepancy to match.

For example, in Ligue 1, PSG one of the biggest and most famous clubs in the world has a payroll that is approximately 40% of the total league payroll, there’s 18 teams… there’s only one elite team, the other 17 teams just beat up on each other.

How about La Liga? Sure this league has more top talent with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletico Madrid all fielding competitive teams(with again a financial imbalance) In this 20 club league those 3 clubs have combined to win EVERY title for the past 20 years…

 

Yep, international soccer is massively top heavy in pretty much every country.  A breakthrough by a lesser club will happen occasionally, but it's a temporary thing that soon reverts back to the big clubs winning every year. 

[Old Guy]

55 minutes ago, Mazrimiv said:

Yep, international soccer is massively top heavy in pretty much every country.  A breakthrough by a lesser club will happen occasionally, but it's a temporary thing that soon reverts back to the big clubs winning every year. 

The problem with soccer is it is corrupt. If you watched USA play last night, it was pretty easy to see the fix was in against us. I'm not sure they would have won anyway, but they had no chance. 

When they go to a video review and two guys are clearly offsides, including the guy who scored and they call it good, you know you're ****ed. The announcers, trying to temper the suspicion, say, 'we don't know for sure if the line on your screen is straight!' 

 

[Brat&Beer]

On 6/30/2024 at 1:30 PM, Old Guy said:

If memory serves me correctly, he came in with a big arm and a whole lot of questions about his desire. 

That pick is so like the Raiders. He was the quintessential Al Davis pick. Al was Al to the end. 

Russell showed up at the combine looking disinterested and out of shape. But there were reports he could throw a football 70 yards whole kneeling so Al Davis drafted him. Russell also had an addiction to the same stuff that ruined Johhny Jolly's career.

[Old Guy]

3 minutes ago, Brat&Beer said:

Russell showed up at the combine looking disinterested and out of shape. But there were reports he could throw a football 70 yards whole kneeling so Al Davis drafted him. Russell also had an addiction to the same stuff that ruined Johhny Jolly's career.

I did not know about Russell's addiction. 

[Mazrimiv]

1 hour ago, Old Guy said:

The problem with soccer is it is corrupt. If you watched USA play last night, it was pretty easy to see the fix was in against us. I'm not sure they would have won anyway, but they had no chance. 

When they go to a video review and two guys are clearly offsides, including the guy who scored and they call it good, you know you're ****ed. The announcers, trying to temper the suspicion, say, 'we don't know for sure if the line on your screen is straight!' 

The US is hosting the tournament, and you think the fix was in for the US team to crash out in the group stage?  That makes no sense, and there was no need to fix games vs the US team anyway.  The US has a reasonably talented team, but they are not a good team.  But go ahead and continue using lame excuses like the games being fixed to explain away the failures.

VAR Review: Why Uruguay's goal vs. United States was onside

The USMNT is a team that obviously needs a change in coaching.  The larger issues with US soccer go well beyond coaching, and aren't likely to be fixed anytime soon.

[Brat&Beer]

14 minutes ago, Mazrimiv said:

The US is hosting the tournament, and you think the fix was in for the US team to crash out in the group stage?  That makes no sense, and there was no need to fix games vs the US team anyway.  The US has a reasonably talented team, but they are not a good team.  But go ahead and continue using lame excuses like the games being fixed to explain away the failures.

VAR Review: Why Uruguay's goal vs. United States was onside

The USMNT is a team that obviously needs a change in coaching.  The larger issues with US soccer go well beyond coaching, and aren't likely to be fixed anytime soon.

I agree there was no fix in here. The organizers had everything to gain from the United States and Mexico making the quarterfinals. Instead they got Ecuador and Panama. The referee was bad, but even if that goal was disallowed it wouldn't have mattered because the U.S. Didn't score. The reality is the US has a coach who couldn't win the MLS trying to win on the world stage.