This will definitely punish teams that value kick coverage and do it well. Instead of banging every kick into the end zone, they could strategically kick balls inside the 5 and limit the return to before the 25. Now there's zero incentive to do it because the other team just takes a fair catch and get it at the 25. There's no point to even having kickoffs any more. Just put the ball at the 25 after the extra point.
I'm old enough to remember when he said he would retire in 2024.
This is absolutely true. And I will concede that they can’t go too far in disregarding/not caring about the in person fans, because a full house is, IMO, integral to having the best tv product as well. I thought the Covid games were a rough watch. Just don’t think flexing games is going to make a meaningful difference to most fans who go to games, and most tv/streaming viewers would always prefer to have the best national game possible
To be fair, that article said the NFL spokesman said it would be his last contract, but Goodell himself was more circumspect. May have been wishful thinking by Jerry Jones.
Goodell makes 70 million dollars a year. Why would he leave this job unless he was literally pushed out the door?
I don’t think Kraft really cares about Goodell’s ‘gates at this point. During Deflategate? Sure, he was angry and defensive, but that was almost 8.5 years ago.
He's also the guy who didn't punish him for getting arrested on a solicitation charge so...
Are we still doing this?
Pats were one of a few teams to vote against this rule and I imagine BB is already deciding if it's worth trying to abuse this rule.
I think this is exactly right. Kraft only cares that Goodell has grown league revenue, made him a ton of money, and increased the value of his investment. Fans are the only ones who still even think about Deflategate, never mind the videotaping stuff which is now 16 years old. I doubt Kraft ever thinks about it, particularly since they won three fucking Super Bowls since the deflated ball bullshit.
I would argue that only Patriots fans still think about Deflategate. Attention spans and what not.
Coupled with reports that the NFL is investigating a second wave of gambling violations and sounds like the league and PA may not have not done the best job of communicating these rules and what they cover.
Here's what I don't understand: the easiest way to ensure compliance is for the teams to block access to the gambling sites. Obviously easy to work around, but would at least take care of ostensible mistakes.
How is that the "easiest" way? How do you propose one blocks access to specific sites in this day and age of smart phones?
Which would absolutely have to be turned off on game days (I would hope the players aren't making bets at half time). I've been to 20 something Celtics games this weekend and it's crazy to me how many people are on draftkings or whatever, monitoring their bets all game and hoping that Mobley gets 12 rebounds. I think that if you take away the ability of the degenerates to hedge during the game it would be received poorly.
The practice facilities, not the stadia. I'm assuming the players are joining the WiFi network - are paranoid coaches allowing cellular signals in their buildings?
If guys are using the in building WiFi for their phones it's very easy to block specific sites/IP addresses. Using cellphone data for the apps doesn't solve this problem, but WiFi is really easy to control this, which as a parent of teenagers, is great.
Why wouldn’t you want to take the full cap hit in a year where you know your team will suck? I’d rather do that and have more flexibility for 2024. Next year, they’ll have their own pick and Houston’s pick. They could be staring at 2 top 5 picks along with more cap space in 2024.
It doesn't change the cap space they have next year. It's six of one and half a dozen of the other. It's an illusion. Cap space carries over. If they have an extra $11.5 million in cap space this year, it carries over to next year and offsets the $11.5 million next year.
