Sports

[teganslaw]

Ross was fined 1.5 million, suspended until Oct. 17, removed from committees and banned from NFL league meetings. Some think that this is too harsh, comparing it to how other teams were treated. There must have been plenty of evidence for them to issue such a punishment. 

Tyrann Mathieu hasn't been at Saints' training camp. He has been dealing with personal issues, but no details were given. No timetable as to when he'll return. Maybe Mathieu will return by opening season, otherwise his absence will hurt the team.

[sunshine45]

i am sooooooooo happy that it is august and football is coming soon! already gathering up all of my purple clothing and accessories!

baltimore has had a good summer though with our O's doing better than they have in YEARS. its good to be a baltimore sports fan in 2022. 

#arewereadyforsomefootball 

[teganslaw]

@sunshine45 , will you be watching the HOF game Thursday? 8:00 EST on NBC.  Preseason games start next week. 

Some people wonder why the NFL didn't punish Tom Brady. They said that Ross had "impermissable communications" with Brady when he was with NE and Tampa. It sounds like Brady wasn't completely innocent, so I don't know why he got nothing. Maybe there was more evidence on Miami's side? There were also communications with Sean Payton or at least his agent. Payton isn't with the NFL now, so maybe that's why he was unaffected. 

[gardenman]

@teganslaw 

Brady and Payton didn't get punished as they didn't initiate the contact. They both likely cooperated with the investigation and may have even initiated the investigation by going to the league and telling them of the contact.

There are smart ways to tamper, that most teams use by relaying word of interest through other players and agents. If a GM has player A who's represented by Agent X and you're interested in Player Z who's also represented by Agent X, you just let player A know that you really like Player Z and wonder if he'd ever be interested in joining your team. Player A then tells Agent X who then talks to his client Player Z. Player Z tells Agent X, "Yes, I'd like to play for them at say $40 million per year for four years." Agent X tells Player A, that it's doable at the right price and Player A relays that to the GM. "Tampering? What tampering?"  This is the normal way to tamper in the NFL. This goes on pretty much every day in the NFL. Player to player chats. Player to agent to player chats. Those are the way to legally tamper without leaving fingerprints behind.

When a team reaches out directly to a player or coach under contract with another team, that's just stupid stuff. You use the backdoor way of chatting them up and don't just pick up the phone and call them. Lots and lots of communication can go on behind the scenes and not be tampering. That's how guys sign free agent contracts five minutes into free agency. Everything's been done behind the scenes even before the "legal" tampering" period starts.

[gardenman]

Things should stay quiet with the Eagles today. Just a walkthrough practice with no media.

Jessie Bates continues to hold out in Cincy. Will the Bengals move him or try to wait him out? He's offered to coach up the kid they drafted to replace him. I'm guessing he wants to kid to look good enough that the Bengals decide they can move on from him and trade him. It's kind of an interesting approach for a guy to take while sitting out. 

Jerry Jones sees no need to go out and get another receiver. Uh, okay. I'm not sure Mike McCarthy or Dak Prescott would agree with that, but whatever. Let's see now, they've lost last year's number one, two, and four receivers. The guy they signed to replace one of them is now done. Yep, no need to do anything rash like bring in someone to replace all of the missing guys. It'll be fine. Who needs receivers anyway? 

ESPN is talking about Dak doing a contract extension already. That's smart for the Cowboys if they do it. (They probably won't.) His cap number in 2023 is $49.13 million and in 2024 it goes up to $52.13 million. In 2025 he'll be a free agent and the Cowboys will have a dead cap hit of at least $21.8 million due to restructurings and void years. With free agency looming in 2025, locking up Dak through 2030 would make sense for the Cowboys now. It doesn't make sense for Dak though, so it probably won't happen. Dak has shown no hesitancy to hold a gun to the Cowboys' heads for a new deal when the time is right. The Cowboys can't tag him in 2025, so all of the power is now in Dak's hands. He could very well be a $60+ million a year QB come 2025. 

That four-year deal with Dak was a bad contract for the Cowboys. They should have signed him way sooner than they did. They now have to open the vaults for him in 2025 or replace him. Neither of which is fun for JJ. I would expect the Cowboys to invest in a kid QB each of the next two drafts in the hope of getting lucky and being able to let Dak wander off without a major drop-off. 

The three-year deals some of the receivers got this year put those teams into the renegotiation window already next year. Short contracts are great for players, bad for teams.

[Spurt]

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@teganslaw wrote:

Ross was fined 1.5 million, suspended until Oct. 17, removed from committees and banned from NFL league meetings. Some think that this is too harsh, comparing it to how other teams were treated. There must have been plenty of evidence for them to issue such a punishment. 

Tyrann Mathieu hasn't been at Saints' training camp. He has been dealing with personal issues, but no details were given. No timetable as to when he'll return. Maybe Mathieu will return by opening season, otherwise his absence will hurt the team.

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@teganslaw @gardenman 

The Colts announced the addition of a wide receiver to their 90-man roster on Wednesday.

The team has signed D.J. Montgomery. The Colts placed wide receiver John Hurst on injured reserve Tuesday and Montgomery claims his spot on the roster.

Frank Reich said Reggie Wayne is making an unbelivable impact as the WR coach!

Compared to the NFL's other punishments what they've levied against the Dolphin's it does seem a bit harsh .......(Patriots only got 1.1 mill fine and lost a 4rd round pick, and for deflate gate they were fined 1 mill and lost a 1st and 4th draft pick, Danny Boy and Washington were fined 10 mill and all execs were required to go through special training, and Danny was banned for several months.)

That concerns me about Mathieu's "personal issues"....he had been one of the "bad boys" but he did aturnaround and cleaned up his act, ....I hope he hasn't taken a step backwards and its nothing determental regarding his character......

As far as the Cowboy's moves or lack of them....I JUST LOVE GM JERRY! 😘🧡

[Spurt]

@gardenman 

More problems for the Cowboys....Rookie Jonathan Garibay and Lirim Hajrullahu are the two kickers currently on the Cowboy's roster and neither one of them has been impressive. Hajrullahu was 3-of-8 on field goals during a special teams period Tuesday while Garibay went 6-of-8 on his tries. Garibay missed all three of his tries during a drill simulating long-range game-winners, however. Hajrullahu was 1-of-3 during that drill.  Mike McCarthy said that someone needs to step up and take hold of the job---(yep, that's right----or McCarthy will need to find a solution or he wont have a job if neither can make a FG and it costs the Cowboys some games.)

[Spurt]

Wentz did throw some interceptions the first half of practice (first day in pads), but he looked sharp in the second half ....completing passes to Terry, Dotson, and 3 RBs...

Ron Rivera complimented LB Jamin Davis on the growth he's seen in his 2nd camp......Montez Sweat is looking very good....

[teganslaw]

ESPN asked 50 reporters and analysts to name the NFL greatest players of all time in each position. 

Adam Vinatieri was named the GOAT in the kicker/punter position. Justin Tucker was a close second; Vinatieri beat him by one point. 

Guess who was the GOAT quarterback? Tom Brady, which was no surprise.

The other GOATs can be found on ESPN website. There were some surprises (to me) on the list. 

[sunshine45]

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@teganslaw wrote:

ESPN asked 50 reporters and analysts to name the NFL greatest players of all time in each position. 

Adam Vinatieri was named the GOAT in the kicker/punter position. Justin Tucker was a close second; Vinatieri beat him by one point. 

Guess who was the GOAT quarterback? Tom Brady, which was no surprise.

The other GOATs can be found on ESPN website. There were some surprises (to me) on the list. 

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@teganslaw 

i have no doubt that JTUCK is going to surpass him......