Sports

[Spurt]

Here's a good question from GMF---Who is the most LIKABLE player in NFL history?  .....(even the opponent's fans like them).......

Jane Slater who replaced Kay is such a Cowboy homer, Dak YUCCK!!! and 😖🤮 Michael Irvin (Redskin fans HATE HIM! so do many NFL Network fans)🙄

I agreed with a couple of the crew's selections---

Walter Peyton

Peyton Manning

Michael Strahan

And one of my own favorites----Joe Montana.....also JJ Watt and Larry Fitzgerald

[gardenman]

The most likable player is an interesting question. Darren Sproles should be on the list somewhere. Walter Peyton was special. Sam Mills? The little middle linebacker? WRs and CBs tend to be too cocky and arrogant to be overly likable. Joe Namath? I don't know. 

[Spurt]

@gardenman 

I think all those commercials for Medicare did Namath in 😄

[gardenman]

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@Spurt wrote:

@gardenman @teganslaw 

The predictions are IN----

Fletcher Cox predicts 11-6

Santana Moss 10-7

Logan Paulsen 10-7

And Lucy the dog---homer---predicts 17-0--- I dont think the Dolphins have much to worry about with Washington matching that perfect season---I think they need to find an unbiased cat to make predictions 😼

This was a bit curious from Troy Boy Aikman said this is Carson Wentz's last chance in the NFL---SHEESH!!!  Come on Carson isnt Tony Romo.....🙄

Im so glad that I haven't seen OBNOXIOUS Fred "The Viking Love Boat" Smoot around....and instead am seeing more of THE CLASSY Santana Moss in the Washington media mix.....

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Games I would expect the Commanders to win would be the Jags (might be trickier than expected though), Lions, Bears, Texans, Giants (2), and Falcons. That's seven wins there. Games I'd expect the Commanders to lose are the Packers, Titans, Browns, and maybe the Niners. That would be four losses. Figure a split with the Eagles and Cowboys, so two more wins and two more losses. That's got them at 9-6. That leaves the Colts and Vikings up for grabs. Split them and come in at 10-7?  Now, teams will lose games they should win and win games they should lose, but that's got the right feel about it to me. Looking at the schedule, a 10-7 or 11-6 season feels right for the Commanders.

[teganslaw]

Tarik Glenn will be inducted into the Colts Ring of Honor October 30. 

The Colts are working on a new contract for Quenton Nelson which is reported to "break the bank." It could possibly be as high as 20 million annually. They will show details when everything is done.

As far as the most likeable NFL player of all time: I can't say, as it's too general. If we're listing likeable players right now, I would say Larry Fitzgerald, JJ Watt and TY Hilton. Even if Hilton were with a different team, I would list him. 

Maybe Dak Prescott is a likeable person;  I don't think that he should be automatically dismissed because he's a Cowboy. 

[gardenman]

The Giants will be an interesting team to watch this year. They're betting that Daniel Jones will be a bad QB. You tend not to see that with teams. Teams tend to go the other way and bet their guy will be good. They had the fifth-year option available for him that would have paid him $22.4 million in 2023, not a bad number for a QB, but they opted not to use it.

With the salaries for good QBs hitting the $30-$40 million mark, and the salaries for great QBs hitting the $40-$50 million mark, not being willing to commit $22.4 million to Jones sends a pretty clear message that they don't think he'll be a good QB and they're really betting he won't be a great QB.

The players in the locker room see it too and know what's happening. They know the team leaders don't believe in Jones. The kid's in a bad spot. The GM is saying, "Yeah, he's not the guy" and the players see it and know it. They may even agree with that, but it's not good for the headspace of a team.

With the exclusive rights franchise tag price for a QB expected to be somewhere in the $45+ million range in 2023, they won't tag Jones no matter how well he plays. So, if they don't pick up his fifth-year option and they won't tag him, then he's likely a goner in 2023. 

Could they be hoping to resign him on the cheap after a so-so year? Maybe. Not every QB got a good deal in 2022. Jameis Winston lingered on the market forever and ended up signing for two years at $28 million. At $14 million a year, he's a very low-cost investment. Marcus Mariota signed a two-year deal for $18.75 million. Trubisky signed a two-year $14.285 million deal.  I don't think anyone expects any of those three QBs to move the needle for those teams. (Well, some are saying the Saints will be great this year, but I'm not so sure of that.)

Could we see the Giants try to go cheap with Jones again next year and sign him for that $7 million-$14 million range? It looks like that might be their plan. To do that though, they need him to look okay this year, but not good enough for another team to poach him. Will they try to hold him back? Maybe. The kid's in a bad spot.

Another kid QB in a bad spot is Justin Fields of the Bears.  They drafted the kid then flipped systems on him after one year with a new head coach and OC. Then they don't get him a lot of help and have him playing behind a so-so (at best) o-line and so-so (at best) receivers. If you were to write a book on how to destroy a kid QB, that would be the plan.

The Eagles got the change system part wrong with Jalen Hurts, flipping from Doug Pederson after Hurts' first season, but they've done right by him in every other way. They've built him a great o-line and given him arguably the best receiver corps in the NFC East. And the receivers aren't just good players, but they're also friends of Hurts. They won't be looking to backstab him. We'll find out this year how high the ceiling is for Hurts. He should show marked improvement from last year.

[teganslaw]

Danile Jones said that he understands it was a business decision not to pick up his fifth year option. He seems to have taken it all in stride. Of course, he could be upset and just not saying it. 

I'm waiting on the results of the NFL's talk with Deshaun Watson. I'm not guessing on how many games he will be suspended, though I think it will happen. 

[gardenman]

The Deshaun Watson suspension will be interesting. Everyone's largely assumed it'll be six games. If he said or did the wrong thing in the interview, it could be more. Roethlisberger got six games and then had it reduced to four, so something similar could happen here.

The NFL is very PR focused. Given the accusations, they pretty much have to do something. Even if they feel that many/most of the accusations are exaggerated, it would be bad PR to not suspend him at all.

The lack of any indictments by two grand juries gives the NFL some leeway in letting him avoid a suspension. It's hard not to get an indictment against someone. The old joke is you can indict a ham sandwich. Only the prosecution makes their case before a grand jury and the grand jury doesn't have to say the person did or didn't do the thing they're accused of, just that it's more likely than not that a criminal act occurred, and it only takes a majority of the grand jury, it doesn't have to be unanimous. No indictment before two grand juries gives the NFL some leeway if they want Watson on the field.

It would be bad PR though. Whatever they do will be bad PR to some extent. If they suspend him for six games people will say it's not enough. If they don't suspend him and he loses the civil cases they'll really look bad.

He's a bit of a knucklehead, but if you suspend every knucklehead in the NFL, you'll need much larger rosters. I think it's fifty-some massage therapists who have come forward in total that he hired from Instagram posts with more than half saying he was a perfect gentleman, and the 22 saying something different. Who hires 50+ massage therapists based on little more than their photo on Instagram? And they're just the ones who have come forward. How many others were there who didn't come forward? 

This is when you're happy you're not the league commissioner and having to make that decision. It's a no-win decision no matter what you do. The easy option is to follow the Roethlisberger precedent. A six-game suspension that gets reduced to four in September if Watson doesn't do anything stupid in the meantime.

[Spurt]

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@teganslaw wrote:

As far as the most likeable NFL player of all time: I can't say, as it's too general. If we're listing likeable players right now, I would say Larry Fitzgerald, JJ Watt and TY Hilton. Even if Hilton were with a different team, I would list him. 

Maybe Dak Prescott is a likeable person;  I don't think that he should be automatically dismissed because he's a Cowboy. 

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@teganslaw 

But the reason Dak shouldn't be there are the rules for this segment were that even opposing fans had to like the player....and there's not a heck of a lot of Washington fans that like Dak, especially when he ran up the score and celebrated on our injury and covid Washington team filled with mostly 3rd stringers and practice squad players for that game........Not liked by me and the Washington fans (those that haven't deserted the team totally anyway)....And the Cowboys are one of the most hated teams in the NFL ..along with the Patriots ...

This is from popculture.com and bleacherreport.com

"Even when the Cowboys are losing, NFL fans love to hate on them due to the fact they are called "America's Team." One fan said tht every time he hears Dallas called "America's Team" he wants to punch something....The current Dallas Cowboys team is particularly hateable, but it’s hard to get over the Jimmy Johnson teams of the 1990s. Between Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders they were perhaps the most insufferably arrogant and abrasive team in NFL history."

And this is from a Twitter study 10/21/21---

Dallas Cowboys most-hated NFL team Oct 21,2021 

Here's something else that's interesting--the most hated fan bases for 2021---@Teganslaw, looks like people like the Colts.....

@gardenman 

Sorry GARDENMAN the Eagles are near the top too....