I agree, it's fantastic, I also really like the Draft. All that stuff is simply unthinkable in soccer though for a variety of reasons. I'm not necessarily saying one is better than the other, it's just interesting in comparison to how people in Europe vs the USA view their respective political/economic culture.
I'm all in favor of a league where the Pats have a 1 in 4 chance of winning it all every year Mushroom.
Well, the Pats have had a 1 in 3 chance of winning the AFC for the past decade- isn't that close enough?
I think they will win the division again this year despite the glaring holes in the running game, D-line, and secondary. Buffalo really improved their D but they aren't a contender yet. Free agents avoided Miami like the plague for some reason. And the Jets are a complete circus. They're a team with a window starting to close however.
Supposedly, the reason is the general manager, Jeff Ireland, who many believe is running the organization into the ground. To think, the Dolphins were an absolute pain in the ass a few years back... -Jamman
It's by design. There is a reason that over the past several years, the NFL has completely eclipsed MLB, NBA, and NHL (not to mention MLS) as the premier professional sport in the United States. They're making money hand-over-fist. As much as we Americans love our Capitalism, we love our competitive sports. And by making it a socialist setup, we've allowed parity to take over and allow any team to win on Any Given Sunday. It's no surprise that MLB and NBA are suffering due to the ability of teams in major cities to sign away the good players. When you have fans all across the country, its best to try to split those fans evenly among the teams, which helps the sport overall.
Word is that the NFLPA has advised all Saints players implicated in the bounty scandal that they may be facing criminal charges, and the union has retained counsel to represent them if charges are filed. It's unlikely that such charges will come about (while it's pretty easy to prove intent at this point, it's equally difficult to prove which hit caused which injury), but the union is clearly spooked.
Pretty shocking to hear it like that... [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnn9kbqQUA&list=UUXDLOcVvl9UEx_Ai_S7cCoA&index=1&feature=plcp[/yt]
Williams is going to be banned for life after that. He's one step away from calling for execution. You get respect in the league from beating a guy's head at the bottom of a pile? Total bullshit.
And yet there are still people who think shit like this goes down in every NFL locker room and that the Saints/Williams are paying because they got caught.
It's like speeding. Everyone does it, sometimes it's your turn to get caught. I disagree with the bounty system, but I'm sure the other 31 teams are no saints (bad pun intended) either.
There may not be large-scale bounty programs everywhere, but talk like this definitely goes on. You can't tell me there aren't players who say, "God, if we could just get Player X out of the game, our lives would be so much easier." Hell, look at the Giants in the playoffs- they flatout told the media after the 49ers game, "We knew about Williams' history of concussions and we wanted to smack him around and see how badly he wanted to hold onto the ball." With the stories of what goes on at the bottoms of those piles, you have to know that there are players out there that want to screw the other guys up. They may not be going for career-ending stuff, but there is some level of intent to injure for some of those guys.
It's not like speeding, no, especially when the Saints had received a memo from the NFL stating that the league had learned of the team's bounty system, and the team was ordered to stop it immediately, and Loomis, Payton and Williams did nothing to stop it. It's more like getting put on probation and being told to abstain from alcohol and drug use, and then continuing to go to bars and buying coke. I'm sure a lot of defensive coaches encourage their players to be hard on their opponents. But to say that "I'm sure the other 31 teams are no saints" is disingenuous at best. The gap between "be physical and hit hard" and "I will give you cash to hit this dude on the chin, and hit this guy so his ACL gets hurt," is so wide you can fit an aircraft carrier through it.
No, I'm still with Smoothie on this one. It is like speeding. It's like everyone on the road speeding, and you getting singled out and pulled over for speeding by the cops. They write you a warning and say stop it, but you say "fuck you" and speed anyway (you know you do). Later on down the road, you get pulled over by another cop who looks up your record, sees you've gotten warnings, and decides you're getting a ticket this time. Nearly everyone speeds. Its disingenuous to say otherwise. Likewise, I'm willing to bet that many of the other teams in the league have had coaches say the same shit that Williams said. Right now, they're looking all shifty-eyed saying "Whew, thank god we didn't get caught, because this shit is definitely going on in our locker rooms."
In terms of seriousness of the offense, yes. In terms of crafting an effective analogy of the events, I would say it fits the bill. Speeding is something people get away with. Can you point out a different crime that most Americans get away with on a routine basis that is more severe than speeding? If so, I'll adjust my analogy. My main thesis is that I believe all 32 teams are guilty of telling their players to hurt other players.
It's not that the coach was encouraging his players to go out and hurt -- it's that they were getting paid bonuses to do it, and after the league found out and told the team to put an end to it, Loomis, Payton and Williams said, "Yeah, no."
Per ESPN.com... On one hand, that's awesome! On the other hand, let's see how they get dick punched by the Giants in the last minute of the Super Bowl yet again.