[NFL] American Football Offseason #4 OTA's & Minicamps

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One might see where this is headed already. For three consecutive Super Bowls, the team with the best record in the league the previous season has gone on to win it all the next year (New England won Super Bowl XXXIX after finishing 14-2 in 2003). So if the trend holds up, that means the owner of last season's best record will win Super Bowl XLII this year.

That team happens to be the San Diego Chargers.

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Op zaterdag 26 mei 2007 15:34 schreef Terreros85 het volgende:

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Zulke feitjes geven de burger moed

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Op zaterdag 26 mei 2007 15:34 schreef Terreros85 het volgende:

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Zulke feitjes geven de burger moed

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Op zaterdag 26 mei 2007 16:57 schreef Guard het volgende:

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Juist nu Schottenheimer weg is is de kans op play-off succes veel groter geworden in SD

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Op zaterdag 26 mei 2007 16:57 schreef Guard het volgende:

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Juist nu Schottenheimer weg is is de kans op play-off succes veel groter geworden in SD

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Op zaterdag 26 mei 2007 18:49 schreef Bendoverp het volgende:

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Goed punt .

Dat was idd Don Banks, SF. Maar dan zouden er meerdere SB kampioenen zijn.

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Op zaterdag 26 mei 2007 19:22 schreef ScienceFriction het volgende:

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Ik snap echt nog steeds niet dat de Chargers in de divisional wedstrijd tegen de Pats niet gewoon doorbleven gaan met LT... echt ON-GE-LO-VE-LIJK!!!. Patriots hadden niet echt een antwoord op hem en de aanval van de Chargers was gewoon tijdrovend en effectief. Tweede helft totaal een ander plan van Schotzy...

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Op maandag 28 mei 2007 16:37 schreef Bendoverp het volgende:
Hopelijk komt het nog goed.

http://www.patsfans.com/n(...)owthread.php?t=56159

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No life jacket + can't swim well + fast jetski = nothing good
+ 300 lb. man + riding in the night = nothing good at all

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Op maandag 28 mei 2007 22:41 schreef LeChiffre04 het volgende:
Patriots DE Marquise Hill, 24, found dead

The body of Patriots DE Marquise Hill was found in Lousiania's Lake Pontchartrain after he fell off a jet ski Sunday night.
His body was recovered at 2:15PM by a drag net. Hill is believed to have saved the life of a woman he was accompanied by before getting caught in the lake's current and drifting away. The 6-6/300-pound lineman was only 24. May. 28 - 4:12 pm et
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune

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DOES THE NFLPA EVEN EXIST ANYMORE?

We're really starting to wonder whether there even is a National Football League Players Association. Sure, there's a group that goes by that name. They collect dues, and they negotiate a labor contract once every few years. But the NFLPA has, in our view, all but disappeared when it comes to the day-in, day-out maintenance of a fair balance between the things that the teams want to do and the overall and individual rights and interests of the players.

In the offseason, contact is forbidden in Organized Training Activities and minicamps; the union has negotiated this right for the players. Yet contact is prevalent. There are photos of it. There are quotes from players. And the union only comes out of its shell when the evidence is overwhelming, as it was two years ago when the Redskins posted video of impermissible one-on-one contact drills on the team's web site.

Then there's the whole issue of whether the voluntary offseason workouts are truly voluntary. It's one of the biggest jokes in the sport, right up there next to the notion that teams don't tamper with players who are soon to become free agents.

The difference, though, is that the evidence of tampering is rarely available. As to the issue of the involuntary voluntary workouts, there's a constant stream of proof.

The latest example? LenWhale White's absence from Tennessee OTAs on Tuesday. Coach Jeff Fisher called White out for his unexcused absence from sessions that he's not required to attend. Now that Fisher has learned that White was delayed in returning from Denver, where he was spending time with an ailing family member, Fisher is offering up a surreal exercise in semantics, acknowledging in one breath that these sessions are optional but then creating the clear impression that they aren't.

"Organized team activities are voluntary, they are not mandatory. However, we have had perfect attendance with very few exceptions," Fisher said. "When there is someone who is not in attendance, they typically have been excused. In order to excuse a player there has to be some kind of communication involved, and in this particular case there was a misunderstanding in communication."

Maybe the dye from Fisher's hair and/or moustache are seeping into his brain. Or maybe he knows that he's dealing with an impotent-to-the-point-of-invisible union that won't risk making waves (or is just too lazy to take on the work) by standing up to Fisher (or any other coach) and saying that he is in clear violation of the CBA.

Per Article XXXV, Section 5(a), "No Club official shall indicate to a player that the Club's off-season workout program or classroom instruction is not voluntary."

It's not good enough, in our view, for a coach to say, "It's voluntary, but if you're not going to be here, you'd better have an excuse. And, if you don't have an excuse, I'm going to make you look bad to your teammates by calling you out in the media."

Are we crazy? Are we stoopid? Or are teams like the Titans taking unfair advantage of their players while the union is doing nothing?

We know that we'll get plenty of e-mails in response to this item reminding us that we're talking about football players and that they shouldn't be pussies and we shouldn't we care about any of this anyway. We care about it because it's wrong. The union has sacrificed other player rights at the bargaining table in order to secure contact-free offseasons and truly optional practices. If the union isn't going to enforce these standards, why did they even bother to ask for these terms? They could have gotten something else for the players -- something that was real and meaningful.

Finally, we also think that there's an obligation on the part of the league to police itself in these matters. At a time when the Commissioner is cracking down (and we fully support him) when it comes to reeling in off-field misconduct, we think that the league office should be proactive if/when teams are engaged in actions that could create the impression of a real double standard.

Put simply, if players will suffer penalties for the failure to follow the rules of society, teams should be subject to discipline for failing to following the rules of the league

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Op vrijdag 1 juni 2007 15:49 schreef Guard het volgende:

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Gasten wel, zolang ze maar niet met spelers in aanraking komen, of op plaatsen komen waar ook spelers komen ( flesje bier in de stortbak van de plee in de kleedkamer verstoppen )

Beetje zielig is het allemaal wel....

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Op vrijdag 1 juni 2007 16:07 schreef Guard het volgende:

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nou ja niet direct zo, maar meer dat gasten die zich in dezelfde ruimte als de spelers bevinden niet ontzettend staan te zuipen en de spelers niets krijgen, dat gaat problematisch worden...

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Op zondag 3 juni 2007 21:26 schreef ScienceFriction het volgende:
Volgens mij zijn Engeland en Duitsland de beste twee landen om te beginnen. Italianen zijn volgens mij totaal niet geïnteresseerd in Am,erican Football.

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Pats CB Asante Samuel, restricted by the franchise tag, says he won't show up until Week Ten of the regular season.

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(June 4, 2007) -- Tank Johnson of the Chicago Bears was suspended by the NFL for the first eight games of the 2007 regular season for violating the league's new personal conduct policy.

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Op dinsdag 5 juni 2007 21:57 schreef Bendoverp het volgende:
Hmm. Dan laat hij $ 7.8 M liggen.