2019 NFL: News & Transactions

RG33

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Nov 28, 2005
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I have posted in here before about it, but the 18 game schedule and the President’s Day Weekend Superbowl “event” were what Jonathan Kraft told my colleagues and I at a work dinner with the Patriots 9 years ago was the focus of ownership. This has been in the works for awhile and I would think is likely happening.
 

Gunfighter 09

wants to be caribou ken
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Jul 31, 2005
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Serious question, since you mentioned getting the schedule a week later was a key consideration, was it 18 games per team or 18 weeks of games that they were committed to bringing into the league?
 
Apr 24, 2019
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I used to write a column for patriots.com and one idea I liked enough and wrote about is, if a 17-game schedule is inevitable, each team plays 8 home games, 8 away games, and one neutral site game. No idea how it would work in terms of schedule and travel, but I think the idea of games in London, Mexico City, Madrid, Havana, etc... in the spirit of growing the game in an even more expansive way than they’re currently attempting, then choosing non-NFL American cities and pumping $$$ into their local economies, could be an interesting angle to consider. (Even if that would necessarily result in periodically playing pro football games in shit-ass stadiums.)

Obviously there’d be perhaps insurmountable and complicated logistics, Pandora’s Boxes left and right, so there’s zero chance 345 Park Ave. wouldn’t screw it up. I think the best idea involves keeping the status quo, but that doesn’t seem to be the way the wind is blowing.
 

Boston Brawler

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Per Bleacher Report, Tyreek Hill will not be fined or suspended by the NFL in the wake of the child abuse investigation.
 

Mystic Merlin

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It’s all about the BOMBS and SHOWTIME MAHOMES.

If he takes a banned substance, however, he’s FUCKED. And I’d be derelict in my duties if I forgot about EQUIPMENT TAMPERING and RESISTING THE EQUIVALENT OF AN NFL SUBPOENA FOR PRIVATE EFFECTS.
 

koufax32

He'll cry if he wants to...
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Dec 8, 2006
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I don’t understand how that is possible or justifiable.

This is more evidence that RG literally uses a makeshift Wheel O’ Justice in his office.
 

ehaz

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Sep 30, 2007
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I thought he would receive a customary 4 game slap on the wrist to significant media/fan backlash, but wow... this is a new low for the league. Can't wait until news breaks that he signed a new $100M extension.

I don't care if wishing injury on a player is always in bad taste - I hope Hill tears an achilles.
 

Greg29fan

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So I guess this confirms the Zeke Elliott suspension a couple years ago was nothing more than the NFL and the Maras/Rooneys executing a vendetta against Jerry Jones.
 

Cotillion

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I was expecting some sort of lenient sentence, but I was not expecting the full blown nothing sentence.

Guess they haven’t learned from the Giants punter lesson.
 

ehaz

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Sep 30, 2007
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Well, good for Alexander Acosta to land back on his feet so quickly as an NFL investigator.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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Nov 17, 2010
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This is fucking disgusting.

Not just does this guy acknowledge - or at best, not deny - breaking his fucking toddlers arm, but he also threatened his girlfriend...both captured on audio tape. That says nothing about the other ACTUAL domestic and child abuse charges.

This really is a new low for the league, and its fucking disgusting. I tend to dislike using sports as a pedestal for social discussion, but I hope every Chiefs game has protesters, every away game has Hill peppered with beer, food, and fucking batteries, and the dude suffers a career ending injury in the most painful way possible for both him and the team. No, I don't care how that sounds. I'm all for second chances. In case anyone forgets, this isn't the first time he's been involved with shit like this. I've never rooted for an injury, let alone one that would end a career. There's a first time for everything.

The league is disgusting and the player is vile. Enough terrible things couldn't happen to the players involved here.

Edit: At a bare minimum, I'd love to hear this fucking jackass give a public explanation of how his son broke his arm. It would be high comedy, except the kids life is probably a living nightmare.
 
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cornwalls@6

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Apr 23, 2010
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This is fucking disgusting.

Not just does this guy acknowledge - or at best, not deny - breaking his fucking three year olds arm, but he also threatened his girlfriend...both captured on audio tape. That says nothing about the other ACTUAL domestic and child abuse charges.

This really is a new low for the league, and its fucking disgusting. I tend to dislike using sports as a pedestal for social discussion, but I hope every Chiefs game has protesters, every away game has Hill peppered with beer, food, and fucking batteries, and the dude suffers a career ending injury in the most painful way possible for both him and the team. No, I don't care how that sounds. I'm all for second chances. In case anyone forgets, this isn't the first time he's been involved with shit like this. I've never rooted for an injury, let alone one that would end a career. There's a first time for everything.

The league is disgusting and the player is vile. Enough terrible things couldn't happen to the players involved here.

Edit: At a bare minimum, I'd love to hear this fucking jackass give a public explanation of how his son broke his arm. It would be high comedy, except the kids life is probably a living nightmare.
QFT. I feel dirtier and dirtier continuing to pay attention to this league. And while Goodell is the designated sock puppet, whose job it is to catch the slings and arrows of these horrendous decisions, this is on the owners. Everyone of them, Kraft included. They could fire him, and name a new commissioner, in a heartbeat. Or they could give the sock puppet better marching orders on how to dispense discipline. They have no interest in doing either. Because they know that while they may endure some short term public outrage, the vast majority of their customers, myself shamefully included, will come groveling back for more every fall. As far as Hill specifically goes, as you and others mentioned, for the first time in my life I'm doing something I've always had utter contempt for: actively rooting for player to suffer an catastrophic, career ending injury. Or, it would be nice to think that the Chiefs would cut him, and no one else would sign him on principle. But that's fantasy island, I know. And I don't believe all offenses warrant a second chance. This disgusting POS punched a pregnant woman in the stomach, IIRC. And has now very likely broken the arm of that child, in a fit of violent rage. And essentially threatened to kill the mother. Fuck him forever.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
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I'd love to know if *other* players (the ones who dont beat children) ever seek to administer any "on the field justice" to the Hills of the league.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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Nov 17, 2010
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Yeah. RG doesn't want any competition for discipline czar.
I dont mean "Longest Yard" stuff. More like, "do you try to make the hit "extra hard" against guys like that."
I doubt it. these guys are usually always going 100 MPH.

Seriously, some no name corner or safety wants to become an instant fan favorite? Beat this shit out of this guy in training camp and let the media know why you did it.
 

RG33

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I'm not sure why there is such harsh reaction in this thread about the Tyreek Hill news.

Clearly, the NFL and Commissioner Goodell could not show that Tyreek was more probably than not generally aware how his 4 year old son's arm was broken.
 

mwonow

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Sep 4, 2005
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Richie Incognito, known POS, credible threats of violence around father's funeral: 2 games.
Tyreek Hill, known POS, broke child's arm: nothing to see here.
More or less everyone who follows the game: Wait - WHAT? Nothing to see here?!?!?!?
Goodell: Families, huh? Whatcha' going to do?
 

steveluck7

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May 10, 2007
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Are the Domestic Violence victim advocacy organizations large enough and mobilized enough to make this a big deal? I wonder if they can / do that creates such bad PR for the league that we’ll learn that “new evidence was presented to the league” as a pretext for them backtracking and suspending Hill
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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man, I want a job as an NFL investigator. Less pressure and accountability than the people staffing nuclear missile silos post-Cold War.

This is fucking disgusting.

Not just does this guy acknowledge - or at best, not deny - breaking his fucking toddlers arm, but he also threatened his girlfriend...both captured on audio tape. That says nothing about the other ACTUAL domestic and child abuse charges.

This really is a new low for the league, and its fucking disgusting. I tend to dislike using sports as a pedestal for social discussion, but I hope every Chiefs game has protesters, every away game has Hill peppered with beer, food, and fucking batteries, and the dude suffers a career ending injury in the most painful way possible for both him and the team. No, I don't care how that sounds. I'm all for second chances. In case anyone forgets, this isn't the first time he's been involved with shit like this. I've never rooted for an injury, let alone one that would end a career. There's a first time for everything.

The league is disgusting and the player is vile. Enough terrible things couldn't happen to the players involved here.

Edit: At a bare minimum, I'd love to hear this fucking jackass give a public explanation of how his son broke his arm. It would be high comedy, except the kids life is probably a living nightmare.
This is really an argument for why sports leagues shouldn't be in the justice business for off-the-field conduct - because they fuck it up, and will always fuck it up. We all (collectively) already pay people to do this shit for us. They do a very good job, well-publicized exceptions aside. I say suspend the players when they're unavailable because they're serving jail time, but not before or after. I'm really not sure why they should pay any more dearly (or sooner, or with less chance for due process) than anyone else similarly accused.

Also, the NFL's players do much better than average for people of their socioeconomic backgrounds, in terms of avoiding scrapes with the law and domestic violence incidents. If you grow up poor, black, from a broken family - a very typical NFL player background - then across the ~1700 rostered players you'd expect to see something like 3-5x the Tyreek Hills that we already do. Going after these specific people because they happen to be prominent seems to me to be a missed opportunity to focus instead on the root causes that generate a million other acts of malfeasance that are all under the radar because, well, the perps and the victims are both mostly poor and black/brown and invisible.
 

azsoxpatsfan

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May 23, 2014
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man, I want a job as an NFL investigator. Less pressure and accountability than the people staffing nuclear missile silos post-Cold War.



This is really an argument for why sports leagues shouldn't be in the justice business for off-the-field conduct - because they fuck it up, and will always fuck it up. We all (collectively) already pay people to do this shit for us. They do a very good job, well-publicized exceptions aside. I say suspend the players when they're unavailable because they're serving jail time, but not before or after. I'm really not sure why they should pay any more dearly (or sooner, or with less chance for due process) than anyone else similarly accused.

Also, the NFL's players do much better than average for people of their socioeconomic backgrounds, in terms of avoiding scrapes with the law and domestic violence incidents. If you grow up poor, black, from a broken family - a very typical NFL player background - then across the ~1700 rostered players you'd expect to see something like 3-5x the Tyreek Hills that we already do. Going after these specific people because they happen to be prominent seems to me to be a missed opportunity to focus instead on the root causes that generate a million other acts of malfeasance that are all under the radar because, well, the perps and the victims are both mostly poor and black/brown and invisible.
There should be a higher standard of conduct required to play in the NFL than to stay out of jail. If the NFL didn’t investigate this case and left it to authorities, the result (no suspension because no jail time) would have been the same. Sports leagues need their own investigators because there are plenty of cases of players that deserve to be suspended even if they never go to prison. And of course the root cause should be addressed, but that’s a much larger, societal problem. Individual cases of prominent people can’t be ignored just because the focus should be more on the underlying cause than each individual case.
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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There should be a higher standard of conduct required to play in the NFL than to stay out of jail. If the NFL didn’t investigate this case and left it to authorities, the result (no suspension because no jail time) would have been the same. Sports leagues need their own investigators because there are plenty of cases of players that deserve to be suspended even if they never go to prison. And of course the root cause should be addressed, but that’s a much larger, societal problem. Individual cases of prominent people can’t be ignored just because the focus should be more on the underlying cause than each individual case.
Leaving aside workplace misconduct - why?

I mean, I know the reason the NFL has the personal conduct policy, and it's because of a PR need to deflect the bad press that occurs when a player (being a public figure) does something that embarrasses, by extension, the team and/or the league. But doing so out of a PR-driven desire to avoid criticism is different than "deserve to be suspended [from their job]". "deserve" is basically a moral argument.

It's also a long distance from having any articulable standard of proof that a company should use, or rules of evidence, or impartiality, or appeals, or any of the other trappings. I realize this is all collectively bargained - the league wanted it, the union was willing to agree if they got other things they wanted, they negotiated and signed it. But I find that the bloodthirsty attitude people often adopt towards wanting someone punished twice (and more harshly, given the fines involved), and punished fast, and that accomplished by throwing any semblance of the legal system's due process out the window, to be itself a strong argument in favor of not being in that business at all. Give the devil benefit of law, as goes a common V&N reference.

in other words, we clearly didn't learn the right lessons from the Ballghazi saga. The devil turned round on us, and the last law was down, and we had nowhere to turn. Therefore the lesson is, apparently, let's just suck it up for the time being, and then the next time we can sic the devil on someone else!
 

azsoxpatsfan

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May 23, 2014
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Leaving aside workplace misconduct - why?

I mean, I know the reason the NFL has the personal conduct policy, and it's because of a PR need to deflect the bad press that occurs when a player (being a public figure) does something that embarrasses, by extension, the team and/or the league. But doing so out of a PR-driven desire to avoid criticism is different than "deserve to be suspended [from their job]". "deserve" is basically a moral argument.

It's also a long distance from having any articulable standard of proof that a company should use, or rules of evidence, or impartiality, or appeals, or any of the other trappings. I realize this is all collectively bargained - the league wanted it, the union was willing to agree if they got other things they wanted, they negotiated and signed it. But I find that the bloodthirsty attitude people often adopt towards wanting someone punished twice (and more harshly, given the fines involved), and punished fast, and that accomplished by throwing any semblance of the legal system's due process out the window, to be itself a strong argument in favor of not being in that business at all. Give the devil benefit of law, as goes a common V&N reference.

in other words, we clearly didn't learn the right lessons from the Ballghazi saga. The devil turned round on us, and the last law was down, and we had nowhere to turn. Therefore the lesson is, apparently, let's just suck it up for the time being, and then the next time we can sic the devil on someone else!
I can agree that in cases where a player goes to prison he shouldn’t be punished again by the league. But wrt your main point, I probably shouldn’t have said there are cases where a player “deserves” to be punished even when they don’t go to prison, because it is a moral argument that I of course can’t prove and many people might disagree. But my view is that sometimes people like Hill or Greg Hardy etc. should face some sort of discipline even if they don’t get convicted of a crime, because their actions are terrible and they shouldn’t face zero consequences. Plenty of employers would fire an employee that was in Hill’s position. You’re right that there’s no way to prove this position. It appeals to intuition and people don’t intuit the same things in all cases but it’s just what I believe
 

Tyrone Biggums

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Aug 15, 2006
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Kaepernick still unjustly blackballed. Hill beats his kid and gets no penalty. I wonder if a suspension gets thrown down if the Chiefs didn't have the best shot to beat the Pats.
 

McBride11

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Jul 15, 2005
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Peterson got 6 games for using a switch on his kid, also 4yo. While horrible, and seemingly out of a place of ignorance, he didn't break a bone. Hill breaks an arm, along with a slew of other DV charges and gets nothing??
Kareem Hunt, from the same goddamn team, gets caught hitting and dragging a woman and gets cut and suspended 8 games. Now his former teammate breaks his own kid's arm and nothing.
Brady may have deflated footballs in a game, 4 games.

The mind fucking reels
 

axx

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Jul 16, 2005
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Peterson got 6 games for using a switch on his kid, also 4yo. While horrible, and seemingly out of a place of ignorance, he didn't break a bone. Hill breaks an arm, along with a slew of other DV charges and gets nothing??
Kareem Hunt, from the same goddamn team, gets caught hitting and dragging a woman and gets cut and suspended 8 games. Now his former teammate breaks his own kid's arm and nothing.
The media is too obsessed with all things Trump to care right now.
 

Van Everyman

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According to PFT:

Per the police report, Reed allegedly assaulted his then-girlfriend at his Bellevue residence. Police had already been called to the residence earlier in the night due to noise complaints against the party Reed was throwing at his house. The victim said she and Reed had been dating for a month and he had paid to fly her into Seattle from Atlanta. The victim got into an argument with another woman, characterized in the report as “a stripper,” that said she had been in a relationship with Reed.

Reed then “grabbed (her) by the throat and pulled her into the connected bedroom” where he told her to leave. He then “grabbed (her) by the right wrist and started dragging her across the bedroom floor to the staircase (going downstairs to the main floor)” before she managed to get free and run to a bathroom where she locked herself in and called 911. Reed then allegedly broke down the door before a friend corralled Reed and convinced him to leave the house. Police noted the broken bathroom door in the police report and Reed was not present when officers arrived.

The victim had sustained injuries to her right wrist and left elbow and had complained of pain in her knees as well that had subsided by the time she spoke with officers. The report noted Reed was advised by his lawyers “not to give a statement to anyone.”
 

Cotillion

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loshjott

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I have posted in here before about it, but the 18 game schedule and the President’s Day Weekend Superbowl “event” were what Jonathan Kraft told my colleagues and I at a work dinner with the Patriots 9 years ago was the focus of ownership. This has been in the works for awhile and I would think is likely happening.
Another aspect to this is that NASCAR traditionally has held their premier event, the Daytona 500, on the Sunday of President's Day weekend. It was that way until 2011, when they moved it, and I'm convinced it was part of secret negotiations with the NFL about moving the Super Bowl. Starting in 2018, however, NASCAR moved the 500 back to the holiday weekend. NASCAR must have gotten sick of waiting on the NFL.

No way NFL will move the Super Bowl until that conflict is worked out....again.
 

scott bankheadcase

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Nov 1, 2006
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Another aspect to this is that NASCAR traditionally has held their premier event, the Daytona 500, on the Sunday of President's Day weekend. It was that way until 2011, when they moved it, and I'm convinced it was part of secret negotiations with the NFL about moving the Super Bowl. Starting in 2018, however, NASCAR moved the 500 back to the holiday weekend. NASCAR must have gotten sick of waiting on the NFL.

No way NFL will move the Super Bowl until that conflict is worked out....again.
I don't think the NFL cares at all about the Daytona 500. The NBA's All-Star Weekend on the other hand....
 

johnmd20

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Another aspect to this is that NASCAR traditionally has held their premier event, the Daytona 500, on the Sunday of President's Day weekend. It was that way until 2011, when they moved it, and I'm convinced it was part of secret negotiations with the NFL about moving the Super Bowl. Starting in 2018, however, NASCAR moved the 500 back to the holiday weekend. NASCAR must have gotten sick of waiting on the NFL.

No way NFL will move the Super Bowl until that conflict is worked out....again.
The Super Bowl starts at around 6:30pm. There is PLENTY of room for the Bowl and the Daytona 500.