NFL chat thread

[Aggie87]

and 2 first round picks in the next draft as well.

Not quite. Dallas will trade those two first rounders in order to move up to #5 in the first round from NE. This is the current projection for San Francisco's spot, which was traded to the Pats last year.

If the Cowboys could get Darren McFadden by doing that, I'd be all for it.

[jlhoots]

Sentimentally I still like Green Bay.

I guess I'm the only one.

[JSngry]

Can't rule out Favre, not this year.

And he ain't goinna do that bubbleheaded shit like Romo still hasn't gotten out of his system just yet.

Nah, I ain't tuling out Favre, not at all.

[connoisseur series500]

and 2 first round picks in the next draft as well.

Not quite. Dallas will trade those two first rounders in order to move up to #5 in the first round from NE. This is the current projection for San Francisco's spot, which was traded to the Pats last year.

If the Cowboys could get Darren McFadden by doing that, I'd be all for it.

Pardon me, It's actually the fourth pick.

UPDATED 2008 1st-ROUND DRAFT: SELECTION ORDER

November 6, 2007

(Ed. note: Selection order based on current record and combined W-L record of all opponents.)

#

Team

W-L

Opponents'

W-L %

1 St. Louis

0-8

.496

2 Miami

0-8

.561

3

New York Jets

1-8

.569

4

New England (from San Francisco) 2-6

.426

5

Cincinnati 2-6

.485

6

Atlanta 2-6

.504

7 Oakland 2-6

.527

8

Arizona

3-5

.426

9

Minnesota 3-5 .547

10 Denver 3-5 .550

11

Chicago 3-5

.578

12 Philadelphia 3-5

.592

13

Houston

4-5

.535

14 Seattle 4-4

.372

15 New Orleans 4-4

.450

16 Baltimore 4-4 .462

17

Kansas City 4-4

.477

18

Buffalo 4-4

.500

19 Carolina 4-4

.511

20

San Diego 4-4

.554

21

Tampa Bay 5-4 .481

22 Dallas (from Cleveland) 5-3

.405

23

Jacksonville

5-3 .550

24

Washington 5-3

.557

25 Pittsburgh 6-2

.408

26

Tennessee 6-2

.477

27 New York Giants 6-2

.515

28 Detroit 6-2

.527

29

Green Bay 7-1

.484

30

San Francisco (from Indianapolis) 7-1

.538

31 Dallas 7-1

.500

32

New England (pick forfeited)

9-0

.454

[Aggie87]

I could live with having the 31st pick in the draft!

[Edward]

Sentimentally I still like Green Bay.

I guess I'm the only one.

No, you're not.

It is great to win close games, but I am a bit concerned that six of the seven games that the Pack has won could easily have gone the other way. Still, the Packers' defense is pretty darn good, and now they have some quality depth at the wide receiver position (Driver, Jennings, Jones, and Robinson). I think that people wrote off Bubba Franks a bit too quickly; hopefully he will soon make a full recovery from the injury that he sustained during the Washington game.

Obviously, the Packer's lack of a quality running back is the team's glaring weakness. The two games against Detroit and the game at Dallas should tell quite a lot about this team.

[Aggie87]

Don Shula: Spygate would mar Pats' undefeated season

Don Shula, the coach of the only perfect season in NFL history, believes the Patriots have a legitimate shot at running the table and joining his '72 Dolphins in going undefeated in the regular season and playoffs. But if they can pull it off, Shula insists the NFL needs to place an asterisk next to the Patriots in the record books because Bill Belichick got caught cheating in the Spygate scandal.

Shula is naturally protective of the Dolphins' accomplishment and certainly wants that '72 team to stand alone. Long ago, he said, he learned that "rooting doesn't make anything happen. The Patriots look so good. I think they got a real shot at doing it."

The Dolphins were 14-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the playoffs, including the Super Bowl. If the Patriots don't lose, they will finish 19-0. Shula admires the Patriots' team, but then, without being asked, he said Spygate negatively impacts the way they should be perceived this season.

"The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished. You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it," Shula told the Daily News yesterday. "Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,00 and they lost a first-round draft choice. That tells you the seriousness or significance of what they found.

"I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds' home run record. I guess it will be noted that the Patriots were fined and a No.1 draft choice was taken away during that year of accomplishment. The sad thing is Tom Brady looks so good, it doesn't look like he needs any help."

Told that he might get support in his desire to have an asterisk placed next to New England's potential perfect season, Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history, said, "I don't know how people can't agree with that."

The Patriots were caught on the sidelines videotaping the Jets' defensive signals in the first half of the opening game of this season. They were forced to turn over tapes of all their previous spying to two league senior vice presidents in Foxborough in September. After they were viewed, commissioner Roger Goodell surprisingly ordered the tapes destroyed.

"You have to acknowledge what they accomplished, but I don't know how you disregard Spygate," Shula said. "It's there. It happened. You don't know what was on those tapes and how much it helped. I think the commissioner just wanted it to go away."

The Patriots are 9-0 after their 24-20 victory over the previously undefeated Colts in Indianapolis on Sunday. They overcame a 10-point deficit with less than 10 minutes remaining, which may have been their biggest challenge to making it through the regular season undefeated. If they didn't lose Sunday in a hostile environment against the defending Super Bowl champions after not playing well until the fourth quarter, then just who is going to beat them?

There have been serious runs made at a perfect regular season in the 35 years since the Dolphins did it. The '85 Bears started 12-0, then lost on a Monday night to Shula and the Dolphins. Shula invited many of the players from the '72 team to stand on the sidelines for that game. The '91 Redskins were 11-0, the '98 Broncos and '05 Colts started 13-0 and the '06 Colts opened 9-0.

When the Chargers beat the Colts two years ago, Dick Anderson, a safety on the '72 Dolphins, paid for a case of Dom Perignon champagne to be delivered to the Chargers.

Anderson and Nick Buoniconti, the former Dolphins linebacker, live on the same street in the Miami area and share a tradition of meeting in one of their driveways to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne when the last undefeated team goes down.

"They are too cheap to invite the rest of us to the party," Shula said.

The perception has been that the '72 Dolphins are sitting around ready to drink up if the Patriots lose. "I think the champagne celebrations have been blown out of proportion," Shula said.

In fact, Jim Mandich, a tight end on that Dolphins team and now an analyst on their radio broadcasts, resents how that team has been portrayed.

"You guys put forth the myth that we are pathetic losers down here clicking champagne glasses and clinging desperately to a record set 35 years ago," Mandich said yesterday. "Somehow we've been portrayed as being evil. We don't ever blow our own horn. It's a great record, but the record doesn't get beaten. The Patriots have assembled a powerhouse of a team. They are a classy bunch of guys and play ball the right way. If they want to join the unbeaten club, come on aboard."

Anderson admits that if the record stands, "We would not be unhappy. We're not trying to be obnoxious about it, but we're proud we have a record nobody else does. If New England does it this year, we will sit and raise a glass of champagne to them."

Shula might not take a sip, unless the glass has an asterisk imprinted on it.

[Noj]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[Dan Gould]

Shula and every member of that team has acted like a bunch of conceited assholes when it comes to their "record" and it is a total bunch of bullshit to assert that there must be an "asterisk" because of "spygate".

Were the Pats going to lose to the Jets in that game regardless? And more importantly, any "spying" ended with that game. An asterisk would be appropriate if it had been discovered later in the year.

Regardless, I am enjoying the fact that the Pats are taking a "F-You" approach to the season, running up scores and destroying opponents. You want to bitch about "spygate" go ahead. They are going to run the table, in an era when going undefeated is a helluva lot harder than it was in 1972.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Regardless, I am enjoying the fact that the Pats are taking a "F-You" approach to the season,...

kinda like these guys.

[connoisseur series500]

Total sour grapes by Shula.

It's doubtful that any of the spygate activities helped the Patriots in any real way. It certainly didn't help them this season. Again, it's the American way to topple down those who have overachieved.

[connoisseur series500]

Regardless, I am enjoying the fact that the Pats are taking a "F-You" approach to the season,...

kinda like these guys.

Patriots' linebackers:

[connoisseur series500]

http://www.nbcsports.com/portal/site...tcurrchannel=1

Officiating questions abound following Colts-Pats game

By Tom Curran

NBCSports.com Updated: Nov06, 2007, 01:18 PM EST

The NFL needs to realize it’s on a slippery slope.

The three hot button topics emerging from the biggest regular season game ever played have been…

1) The one-sidedness of the officiating

2) Allegations of pumped-in crowd noise

3) Jammed radio frequencies

Suddenly, there’s an air of doubt among casual and even more rabid fans about the legitimacy of the product. And there’s rampant skepticism that everything is always on the up-and-up.

It all has its roots in the Patriots Week 1 sin at the Meadowlands where they got busted for using a video camera on the sidelines against the Jets.

[Edward]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

I agree.

I also couldn't care less about the propriety of "running up the score". However, I do think that any psychological advantage that is gained against future opponents by obtaining such blow-outs is outweighed by the concern for injuries. If Brady or Moss gets injured during the fourth quarter of a game that is well in hand, Belichick is going to look like an idiot - the Patriots suddenly become very beatable. Moreover, wouldn't it be beneficial to try to gain valuable experience for the Patriots' backups during the fourth quarter of these games?

As far as the Patriots winning the remaining seven games on their schedule, three of these games look very easy (at home against the Eagles, Jets, and Dolphins), two look moderately challenging (at the Bills and Ravens), and two look fairly tough (at home against the Steelers and at the Giants in the regular season finale). I think that the Giants game will pose the biggest hurdle as the Patriots will probably have home-field advantage wrapped up at that point, and the Giants may be in a heated battle with the Cowboys to win the NFC East (but probably only if they beat the Cowboys at home this weekend).

[connoisseur series500]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

I also couldn't care less about the propriety of "running up the score". However, I do think that any psychological advantage that is gained against future opponents by obtaining such blow-outs is outweighed by the concern for injuries. If Brady or Moss gets injured during the fourth quarter of a game that is well in hand, Belichick is going to look like an idiot - the Patriots suddenly become very beatable. Moreover, wouldn't it be beneficial to try to gain valuable experience for the Patriots' backups during the fourth quarter of these games?

Excellent point. I believe Rodney Harrison got hurt last season during a game where some starters could have been rested. Belichick tends to play his starters in meaningless games, presumably so they don't get stale for the playoffs. Dungy, on the other hand, tends to rest his players. He was criticized the year that Pittsburgh upset the Colts for resting his starters and they appeared stale.

[Van Basten II]

Regarding Shula's comments, just look how the 72 Dolphins behaves when a team threatens their record. Never saw that kind of open unsportsmanlike conduct from people who are seeing their record on the verge of getting broken.

I know among other things they have the tradition of breaking out champagne when the last team undefeated in the NFL goes down.

I rooted for the Colts to beat the record a few years ago and i'll root for the Patriots so i can see those geezers suffer the agony of not being so special anymore.

[connoisseur series500]

Change of subject for a second here:

Don't you HATE the idea of teams playing in throwback jerseys? I couldn't identify the Pittsburgh Steelers in last night's games with that circus outfit they were wearing.

Will the NFL please trash the throwback jersey idea? It's stupid.

[Van Basten II]

Change of subject for a second here:

Don't you HATE the idea of teams playing in throwback jerseys? I couldn't identify the Pittsburgh Steelers in last night's games with that circus outfit they were wearing.

Will the NFL please trash the throwback jersey idea? It's stupid.

Forget it, there's too much money involved from the sales of those outfits. But i agree with you that i miss the old days when all sports team had at worse two uniforms, one for home game and one for away games.

[alocispepraluger102]

betting this article has really fired up Conny:shula coming off as bitter old man:

http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/wilbur/s...?p1=MEWell_Pos2

Edited November 8, 2007 by alocispepraluger102

[alocispepraluger102]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7426438

great pr for vikings!

[Noj]

Wow, sad year for that Vikings player, and not much sympathy (or class) from the organization.

[Shawn]

Change of subject for a second here:

Don't you HATE the idea of teams playing in throwback jerseys? I couldn't identify the Pittsburgh Steelers in last night's games with that circus outfit they were wearing.

Will the NFL please trash the throwback jersey idea? It's stupid.

I don't know, I kind of like it (depending on the uniform). The Chargers in the powder blues...the Bills with the buffalo (not the 70's looking one, earlier) on the helmet...the Cowboys throwback blue & white uniforms, it can be cool when they pick the right ones.

[Van Basten II]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7426438

great pr for vikings!

Why the hell should he care more for a team that could very well cut him at the end of the year and leave him without pay than his own family.

Maybe i'm a dinosaur but i'm still appalled that it is ok for teams to behave this way and treating their players like shit but when a player thinks about him before his team he gets accused of lacking loyalty.

[GARussell]

...a team that could very well cut him at the end of the year and leave him without pay...

Van, the thing about guaranteed contracts is that you wind up with this year's budget paying last year's players. Wouldn't you rather have this year's budget going to this year's players?

[Van Basten II]

I know that, i'm talking about the POV of the players. They get told to sacrifice everything for the good of the team and then they get rewarded by getting the shaft or being penalized for dumb laws like the one instigated by the Vikings.

I can understand that business wise it makes sense for the teams but they have to realize that what comes around goes around. If it's a business for the team it sure is for the individuals especially that more often than not there is not going to be a next year for them.