NFL 2016-2017

[137th Gebirg]

Agreed - Kaeperneck was following in the footsteps as RG III and Michael Vick before him, and with eerily similar stats to the former. High-speed running quarterbacks have an historically short shelf life. When offensive coordinators try to build an entire playbook around a QB's ability to scramble faster than anyone else on the field, the entire team is in for a spectacular, yet highly limited, run of success. Once the QB looses that edge of superior speed, they're done. Period. Instead of adapting quickly, most teams who experience this simply fail. Just ask Philly & Washington how that worked out for them. SF can join the club, and anyone else who signs him, provided he, and they, can't adapt to his now-slower speeds. It's really not about his "politics" any more, but his ability to perform and the ability for the rest of the team to trust he can get the job done.

 

[Timby]

There's a reason that he's been sitting the bench and it happed long before he started his little displays on the sidelines.

I feel this argument fails to hold water in a league in which "Mike the Glennophant Man and Tom Savage, starting quarterbacks" is a thing.

Agreed - Kaeperneck was following in the footsteps as RG III and Michael Vick before him, and with eerily similar stats to the former. High-speed running quarterbacks have an historically short shelf life. When offensive coordinators try to build an entire playbook around a QB's ability to scramble faster than anyone else on the field, the entire team is in for a spectacular, yet highly limited, run of success. Once the QB looses that edge of superior speed, they're done. Period. Instead of adapting quickly, most teams who experience this simply fail. Just ask Philly & Washington how that worked out for them. SF can join the club, and anyone else who signs him, provided he can't adapt to his now-slower speeds.

Vick I'll give you because he never had a lick of accuracy, but RG3 was 1) wrecked by Shanahan's coaching, and 2) derailed by his knee getting completely shredded. He was doomed before he entered the league.

 

[ichab]

Exactly.

He had a precipitous decline in quality before the anthem thing. His last season as a starter he looked terrible.

That said, there are more than a few terrible QB's that still have jobs around the NFL. I'm surprised no one has picked him up on the cheap.

That's a fair point. It wouldn't hurt a team to at least work him out to see if he has anything left. And Kap already said that he wouldn't be taking anymore kneels on the sidelines during the anthem so what really does a team have to lose?

 

[Vanyel]

Just one thing to say about the Cowboys and Eliott. If the NFL has information that makes them think that a case the police dropped calls for such a long suspension, then they are liable for not turning that information over to the police so that the investigation can be reopened. Otherwise, Eliott's suspension should be completely dropped. Put up or shut up NFL. You made a huge mistake when you let that one player who clearly beat up that woman, get away with a slap on the wrist. Being tougher on other players is not going to erase that. The only thing that will send a message is that if you have evidence that can collaborate your tough suspension, you need to turn it over to the police and back the police in their investigation.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I suspect this is another shining example of Goodell's buffoonery he likes to call "leadership". Just another train-wreck in the making, IMO.

 

[Timby]

I suspect this is another shining example of Goodell's buffoonery he likes to call "leadership". Just another train-wreck in the making, IMO.

This is the league playing the long game and gathering ammunition for a lockout in a few years. They'll take advantage of every single case by painting the NFLPA as victim-attacking abuse apologists. They'll take every shot they can for the next three years, lock the players out, then DeMaurice Smith will roll over for the owners, who will take another five percent away from players on top of an 18-game season.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Hmmm... Interesting take. By "the league", I take it you mean the owners pushing Goodell into that direction than of Goodell taking any moves on his own?

 

[Timby]

Hmmm... Interesting take. By "the league", I take it you mean the owners pushing Goodell into that direction than of Goodell taking any moves on his own?

Goodell is the owners' employee (and they fucking love him, despite the PR miscues, because they make money hand over fist because of him, and because he championed their successful effort to break the NFLPA), so, yes.

 

[Vanyel]

I thought the NFL had lower profits this last year and the year before? If that trend continues wouldn't the NFLPA have the power?

 

[Timby]

I thought the NFL had lower profits this last year and the year before? If that trend continues wouldn't the NFLPA have the power?

Lower television ratings, but that doesn't matter because the annual rights fees are contractual, and all the networks and ESPN are locked in until 2022. (Goodell was smart to strong-arm everyone into signing an eight-year deal three years ago, knowing that the TV sports rights bubble was going to implode -- as it is currently doing; ESPN in particular would do anything to get out of the Monday Night Football deal.) So despite lower viewership, the league and its teams set new records in revenues and profits every single year -- overall they made about $13.4 billion last year, projections are for $14 billion this year. For comparison's sake, the league made $8 billion in 2010.

 

[gblews]

Yep, NFLPA appears to gearing up for a protracted work stoppage in 2021. The Elliott skirmish does look like a proxy war between players and owners. This one is shaping up to be at least as bad as the one in the 80's and likely worse.

https://sports.yahoo.com/anger-ezek...n-spoiling-labor-fight-200141535.html?src=rss

The players sound like they're pissed off at the owner's for not only the last 30 years or so of CBA's that have kept their earnings firmly in check, but throw on top of that the head injury situation and cover up, and now what they see as a smear campaign, and it's easy to see why the players are so mad. Frankly, I don't blame them.

They look around at their NBA counterparts who don't have to worry about the free agency killing "franchise tag" (something NBA owners have pined for), fully guaranteed contracts for their stars with much higher minimum salaries for the lesser talent, and the NFL'ers must be livid. The fact that brain injuries leading to destructive behavioral changes and death is virtually non-existent for the NBA players is also relatively minimal by comparison.

The problem for the players though is the same as back in the 80's; they probably can't sustain a strike long enough to get what they want.

 

[Timby]

The problem for the players though is the same as back in the 80's; they probably can't sustain a strike long enough to get what they want.

It depends on how forward-thinking DeMaurice Smith and the rest of the NFLPA leadership is. With his background as a litigator, Smith is largely ineffective as a labor leader (something that unions across the sports leagues have been lacking for ages is a genuine trade unionist at their helms; the only reason Don Fehr, who's also a lawyer by trade, has been so effective at the head of first the MLBPA and now the NHLPA is that he spent more than a decade working closely alongside, and learning from, Marvin Miller) but in advance of the 2011 lockout, he was smart enough to get the players to agree to increase their union dues by 50 percent in order to build a war chest for operations during a lockout, and he also took out an insurance policy that would have paid every single player something like $200,000 in the event games were canceled due to a lockout (revealing that was the hammer strike that finally got Goodell and Co. to begin negotiating instead of posturing). If he's smart, he's squirreling away as much money as he can to build another war chest, just to avoid the very situation you describe.

Smith took a lot of heat from his constituents after the 2011 CBA was ratified, because players won essentially nothing outside of some token changes to practice rules and a nominal increase in minimum salaries. Their only real victories were what wasn't imposed upon them -- a massive hit in their share of league revenue, an 18-game season, major changes to free agency, etc. -- and they still took some massive hits, like losing arbitration, teams getting salary floor credit for money spent on their stadiums, changes in the franchise tag system. If I'm recalling correctly, he faced a significant challenge for re-election as executive director two years ago, so his term will be up after this coming season ... which means all of what he's saying now could be moot if he's not even around when the CBA re-opens.

 

[Timby]

Speaking of the owners loving Roger Goodell, he's about to be given a five-year extension on his current contract, which runs to 2019. This would have him in the commissioner's office until 2024.

 

[Scout101]

 

[Timby]

Look at it this way: Every time he smacks the Patriots around, they turn and hate-fuck the rest of the league. You should be happy about this.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Mixed feelings...very VERY mixed feelings...

 

[Scout101]

^ oh yea, thrilled...

Must be nice to have the kind of job where the more you screw up obvious things, the more they pay you, though! Wonder what will come out of the arbitrary punishment bag (tm) next?

 

[Timby]

Must be nice to have the kind of job where the more you screw up obvious things, the more they pay you, though!

Well, when you increase your bosses' earnings by $6 billion, they tend to like you...

 

[Scout101]

I'm pretty sure a stone statue painted to look like him would have returned equal revenue. Plus whatever suing Brady cost the owners

 

[137th Gebirg]

I'm pretty sure a stone statue painted to look like him would have returned equal revenue.

...And would have had the added benefit of being an equally effective leader.