The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread

Itssoeasy

Talk on twitter than giants OC Kevin Gilbride is planning to announce his retirement today.

Knex*

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Talk on twitter than giants OC Kevin Gilbride is planning to announce his retirement today.

Probably for the best, his playbook retired a couple of years before him :P

Wish him all the best, but definitely time to move on and get something different in NY.

HigginsJ

Knex. wrote: »

Probably for the best, his playbook retired a couple of years before him :P

Wish him all the best, but definitely time to move on and get something different in NY.

A walk before he was pushed scenario I'd imagine.

Paully D

Good read here from former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe:

"I was an NFL player until I was cut by two cowards (Leslie Frazier and Rick Spielman) and a bigot (Mike Prifer)"

http://deadspin.com/i-was-an-nfl-player-until-i-was-fired-by-two-cowards-an-1493208214

Oat23

Kerry Rhodes has also been blacklisted because there were rumours he was gay. It'll be interesting to see if anyone shows interest this off season.

The NFL doesn't seem to be ready to accept a gay player.

Billy86

There is a scary backwards culture in the NFL when it comes to homosexuality. It's a long read and I've got a job interview tomorrow to get ready for, but I've bookmarked that - always found Kluwe a great character. Basketball and a few other sports have reasonably prominent gay athletes, particularly in individual sports where it's probably less daunting that being surrounded by team-mates all the time, in general sports seems much more accepting of it than it was even 10 years ago (though there's still a good way to go) but a lot of the NFL strikes me as being amongst the most homophobic bunch of people you'd meet in your life.

Realt Dearg Sec

Oat23 wrote: »

Kerry Rhodes has also been blacklisted because there were rumours he was gay. It'll be interesting to see if anyone shows interest this off season.

The NFL doesn't seem to be ready to accept a gay player.

Theres rumours...and that's all they are...that Rodgers may come out as gay. They'll accept a gay player pretty quickly if it's the best player in the league.

Billy86

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Theres rumours...and that's all they are...that Rodgers may come out as gay. They'll accept a gay player pretty quickly if it's the best player in the league.

I forgot the Rodgers one - he nipped that in the bud the other day - http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24393829/packers-qb-aaron-rodgers-addresses-rumor-that-hes-gay .

GoldFour4

Saw a meme about Aaron Rodgers on reddit the other day and investigated further. Apparently some of the big gossip sites had gotten a big scoop about his former PA coming out as ARods gay lover.
Haven't seen any form of reply from Rodgers (he doesn't tweet during the season) Literally just posted after Billy posted ha! but it would send shockwaves through the league. It's on such a higher scale then Jason Collins coming out last year. It was a massive news story and Collins is a free agent who can't find a team. You can't exactly blacklist one of the best players in the league like they did with Kerry Rhodes.

Realt Dearg Sec

Billy86 wrote: »

I forgot the Rodgers one - he nipped that in the bud the other day - http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24393829/packers-qb-aaron-rodgers-addresses-rumor-that-hes-gay

Yeah was just going to edit to say he has refuted the rumors. My point is only that it would require a high profile player (not a punter) to start forcing people to face their prejudices.

raze_them_all_

Oat23 wrote: »

Kerry Rhodes has also been blacklisted because there were rumours he was gay. It'll be interesting to see if anyone shows interest this off season.

The NFL doesn't seem to be ready to accept a gay player.

Isn't it a big question thats asked in interviews to "put players off"

davyjose

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

They'll accept a gay player pretty quickly if it's the best player in the league.

Whats this got to do with Peyton Manning?

Knex*

Billy86 wrote: »

There is a scary backwards culture in the NFL when it comes to homosexuality. It's a long read and I've got a job interview tomorrow to get ready for

Best of luck with it man

Paully D

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Isn't it a big question thats asked in interviews to "put players off"

Along with ''what type of weed do you smoke'' :pac:

UnitedIrishman

Speaking of weed.. this years best headline courtesy of Ricky Williams..



Edit: my bad, it appears this is an old image ; Dunno why I'm seeing it everywhere today.

In Exile

Dan Levy on Bleacher Report has a good take on the letter.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1908911-chris-kluwe-calling-out-vikings-staff-is-eye-opening-admirable-and-puzzling

If it is all true, it will be really interesting to see what the Vikings do about Mike Priefer. Surely Zygi Wilf won't keep him around for too long if he was that proud of Kluwe's media work

nerd69

Paully D wrote: »

Along with ''what type of weed do you smoke'' :pac:

"Is your mother a prostitute" is another

kennyb3

Paully D wrote: »

I think teams like the Browns have proved there's no point having cap space without a capable QB.

For every team like the Browns there is a team with a Wilson, Luck, Kapernick, Foles, Dalton. Even if you don't rate Dalton it's allowed them to build a better all round team. Also there are value QB's like Alex Smith ($9m per year I think).All 6 of the teams with those QB's are in the playoffs - along with the proper elite QB's - Manning, Rodgers, Brees & Brady.

Surprise, surprise there is no playoff team with a Cutler, Romo, Stafford etc.

I say all this as a Bears fan. This whole what's the alternative doesn't wash. There are a number with the obvious being letting McCown have another shot at it and building an elite all round team around him - restocking our pass rush with Michael Johnson and Michael Bennett with the cap space and then drafting a QB early for the following year.

The other is taking a shot high (trading up if necessary) in the draft at a rookie QB - it's been done before and it can be done again. It's a good QB class. Last years was weak and maybe that's why everyone is afraid and will be pointing to that.

And finally the most obvious is paying Cutler a lower amount due by playing hardball - say off you go to Tampa if you think you can win a superbowl there. They obviously had a deal done prior to the end of the season - why? Where was this supposed home town discount? And value contract so it would help the team? The bears won't win a superbowl anytime soon imho because the defence is decimated and our extra defensive free agency signing is now tied up in an overpaid QB. We'll have to have a stellar draft defensively next year and some very astute signings to improve enough defensively.

Rodgers gets $20.83m per year for his first 3 years and Cutler gets $18m per year - Cutler is nowhere near as good as Rodgers, not even close (way too many interceptions, lack of playoffs, lack of big game wins etc etc). Rodgers had never really had an injury when signing, cutler miss a stretch of the season pretty much evry year (for the last 3 years anyway). I honestly think we've handicapped our defence by overpaying our QB.

helimachoptor

the Titans beat writer for ESPN has tweeted me a few times over the last while (he thinks an Irish guy following the Titans is pretty odd), seems like a decent chap even though he keeps shooting down my tweets :pac:

taidghbaby

helimachoptor wrote: »

the Titans beat writer for ESPN has tweeted me a few times over the last while (he thinks an Irish guy following the Titans is pretty odd), seems like a decent chap even though he keeps shooting down my tweets :pac:

Is that Paul Khukarsky?

helimachoptor

taidghbaby wrote: »

Is that Paul Khukarsky?

Yep thats him, he's been giving Britt a very hard time over the last few weeks and that has been fun to watch!

Billy86

Knex. wrote: »

Best of luck with it man

Cheers! Think it went decent, but I hate interviews this late in the week... won't have a clue until at least Monday, probably a few days after!

raze_them_all_

Manning took all 50 of the pro team votes today,

Billy86

Got offered the job less than an hour after the interview finished!

UnitedIrishman

Billy86 wrote: »

Got offered the job less than an hour after the interview finished!

Congrats buck! Good to hear.

rockonollie

Bengals game is finally sold out......that makes all games this weekend, avoiding NFL embarrassment.

Although the Colts, Bengals and Packers all needed local corporations to step in an buy the majority of the leftover tickets. Kroger, a supermarket chain in Cincinnati, bought over 5000 tickets this morning (Bengals had 7000 left) and they are giving them away to military in their stores tomorrow morning.

Knex*

Billy86 wrote: »

Got offered the job less than an hour after the interview finished!

Awesome

Now head out for some celebratory pints my man!

Pudsy33

Ravens running backs coach has been let go

davyjose

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Manning took all 50 of the pro team votes today,

Rob Mathis took 49.

adrian522

rockonollie wrote: »

Bengals game is finally sold out......that makes all games this weekend, avoiding NFL embarrassment.

Although the Colts, Bengals and Packers all needed local corporations to step in an buy the majority of the leftover tickets. Kroger, a supermarket chain in Cincinnati, bought over 5000 tickets this morning (Bengals had 7000 left) and they are giving them away to military in their stores tomorrow morning.

Makes a joke of the blackout restrictions, sooner they get rid of that the better.