NFL '09

[cryptique]

Edit: And now the Dolphins look boned as well: ESPN: Sources: Pennington done for season

I think Chad Henne has a chance to be really good. Maybe he'll do that now.

 

He could also turn out to be really disappointing.

[Guest Jules]

The Rams, Buccaneers, Chiefs and Redskins look equally putrid, it's going to be a banner year for really bad teams, I think.

 

--Mike

 

Edit: And now the Dolphins look boned as well: ESPN: Sources: Pennington done for season

Don't forget the Broncos.

[Gobias Industries]

I'm calling it now as a Browns fan: we will be getting the #1 pick in the draft. For real.

[mpolak21]

Don't forget the Broncos.

 

I know they haven't beaten anybody yet, but if they knock off the Cowboys next week, they'll be 4-0, with a game against the Raiders and two games against the Chiefs on their schedule. They always play the Steelers and the Pats well, and I could see them beating the Redskins and maybe even pulling off an upset over the Eagles. They could easily be this year's Dolphins, sort of decent team that takes advantage of an easy schedule and pulls out some lucky wins. They could also easily finish 3-13, you never know. I am almost ready to give up trying to predict what's going to happen in the NFL.

 

--Mike

[KevinG]

I'm calling it now as a Browns fan: we will be getting the #1 pick in the draft. For real.

 

Tim Couch part two

[bjorn_skurj]

I don't want to get on a Dallas-bashing spree, but if you let the punter force you out of bonds, you are a pussy. Straight up.

[Gobias Industries]

Tim Couch part two

 

...something like that.

[Kevan]

...something like that.

 

He meant "part deux"...

 

Tim Couch, part deux.

[bobbob1313]

I'm calling it now as a Browns fan: we will be getting the #1 pick in the draft. For real.

 

The Tampa Bucs are really, really bad.

[MattZ]

from today's nytimes:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/sports/football/30dementia.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

 

September 30, 2009

Dementia Risk Seen in Players in N.F.L. Study

By ALAN SCHWARZ

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

 

The N.F.L. has long denied the existence of reliable data about cognitive decline among its players. These numbers would become the league’s first public affirmation of any connection, though the league pointed to limitations of this study.

 

The findings could ring loud at the youth and college levels, which often take cues from the N.F.L. on safety policies and whose players emulate the pros. Hundreds of on-field concussions are sustained at every level each week, with many going undiagnosed and untreated.

 

A detailed summary of the N.F.L. study, which was conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, was distributed to league officials this month.

 

The study has not been peer-reviewed, but the findings fall into step with several recent independent studies regarding N.F.L. players and the effects of their occupational head injuries.

 

“This is a game-changer — the whole debate, the ball’s now in the N.F.L.’s court,” said Dr. Julian Bailes, the chairman of the department of neurosurgery at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, and a former team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers whose research found similar links four years ago. “They always say, ‘We’re going to do our own studies.’ And now they have.”

 

Sean Morey, an Arizona Cardinals player who has been vocal in supporting research in this area, said: “This is about more than us — it’s about the high school kid in 2011 who might not die on the field because he ignored the risks of concussions.”

 

An N.F.L. spokesman, Greg Aiello, said in an e-mail message that the study did not formally diagnose dementia, that it was subject to shortcomings of telephone surveys and that “there are thousands of retired players who do not have memory problems.”

 

“Memory disorders affect many people who never played football or other sports,” Mr. Aiello said. “We are trying to understand it as it relates to our retired players.”

 

As scrutiny of brain injuries in football players has escalated the past three years, with prominent professionals reporting cognitive problems and academic studies supporting a link more generally, the N.F.L. and its medical committee on concussions have steadfastly denied the existence of reliable data on the issue. The league pledged to pursue its own studies, including the one at the University of Michigan.

 

Dr. Ira Casson, a co-chairman of the concussions committee who has been the league’s primary voice denying any evidence connecting N.F.L. football and dementia, said: “What I take from this report is there’s a need for further studies to see whether or not this finding is going to pan out, if it’s really there or not. I can see that the respondents believe they have been diagnosed. But the next step is to determine whether that is so.”

 

The N.F.L. is conducting its own rigorous study of 120 retired players, with results expected within a few years. All neurological examinations are being conducted by Dr. Casson.

 

According to a 37-page synopsis of the study furnished to the league, the Michigan researchers conducted a phone survey in late 2008 in which 1,063 retired players — those who participated from an original random list of 1,625 — were asked questions on a variety of health topics. Players had to have played at least three or four seasons to qualify. Questions were derived from the standard National Health Interview Survey so rates could be compared with those previously collected from the general population, the report said.

 

Some health issues were reported by N.F.L. retirees at normal rates (kidney and prostate problems), while others were higher (sleep apnea and elevated cholesterol) and others lower (heart attacks and ulcers), the summary said.

 

The researchers also asked players — or a caregiver for those who could not answer — if they had ever been diagnosed with “dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other memory-related disease.”

 

The Michigan researchers found that 6.1 percent of players age 50 and above reported that they had received a dementia-related diagnosis, five times higher than the cited national average, 1.2 percent. Players ages 30 through 49 showed a rate of 1.9 percent, or 19 times that of the national average, 0.1 percent.

 

The paper itself questioned the reliability of using phone surveys to assess prevalence rates of diagnosed dementia, as did several experts in telephone interviews. For example, some of those affected may not be reachable; then again, N.F.L. players may have greater access to doctors to make the diagnosis. The lead researcher, David R. Weir, said in an interview that proxies might have been handled differently in past studies.

 

“This suggests something suspicious,” said Dr. Amy Borenstein, professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida. “But it’s something that must be looked at with a more rigorous study.”

 

Dr. Daniel P. Perl, the director of neuropathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, agreed with Dr. Borenstein but described the Michigan work as significant. “I think this complements what others have found — there appears to be a problem with cognition in a group of N.F.L. football players at a relatively young age,” he said.

 

All rates appear small. But if they are accurate, they would have arresting real-life effects when applied across a population as large as living N.F.L. retirees. A normal rate of cognitive disease among N.F.L. retirees age 50 and above (of whom there are about 4,000) would result in 48 of them having the condition; the rate in the Michigan study would lead to 244. Among retirees ages 30 through 49 (of whom there are about 3,000), the normal rate cited by the Michigan researchers would yield about 3 men experiencing problems; the rate reported among N.F.L. retirees leads to an estimate of 57.

 

So the Michigan findings suggest that although 50 N.F.L. retirees would be expected to have dementia or memory-related disease, the actual number could be more like 300. This would not prove causation in any individual case, but it would support a connection between pro football careers and heightened prevalence of later-life cognitive decline that the league has long disputed.

 

After the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes published survey-based papers in 2005 through 2007 that found a correlation between N.F.L. football and depression, dementia and other cognitive impairment, a member of the N.F.L. concussion committee called the findings “virtually worthless.”

 

After initiating a fund in 2007 that provides financial assistance to retirees receiving care for dementia, the league insisted that it was doing so only because the disease “affects many elderly people” well beyond N.F.L. players. And a pamphlet that the league gives every player about concussion risks states, “Research is currently under way to determine if there are any long-term effects of concussion in N.F.L. athletes.”

 

“It’s time to edit that brochure,” said Kevin Mawae of the Tennessee Titans, the president of the N.F.L. Players Association. “Now it’s in their words and not just other people’s.”

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Now that I am back...I have some observations on the Cowboy stadium, team and life (after a fashion)

 

Went to the Cowboy game Monday night.

 

Good God Almighty...the new Stadium is OFF THE HOOK. Television cannot convey the overwhelming nature of the place. Big, bold, gaudy...it has no peer in the world.

 

The Scoreboard...bigger and better than you can imagine. And the only way that scoreboard is going to get hit by a punt is if a punter intentionally tries to. In a game situation, it is just not going to happen.

 

HD mega screen projection is not kind to some who are having their image broadcast up there (some of those poor cheerleaders...)

 

Go Go Dancers...yeah...there are fucking go go dancers in the party pit (or whatever they are calling the standing room area)

 

Los Lonely Boys were rocking it out pretty good...don't imagine the fogies in the expensive seats really got into them...

 

The media and fans have managed to leach all of the enjoyment out of the game for Romo. He's really not having fun out there. The guy is a gunslinger...get over it. At times he's a Jedi. At times he's a turnover machine. He has played a grand total of 48 NFL games. He has passed for 11,297 yards, 85 touchdowns and 49 interceptions with no playoff wins. Through his first 48 starts, Peyton Manning was 12287 85 and 58 and no playoff wins. Give the kid a chance.

 

Felix Jones is electric excitement personified and apparently fragile as hell.

 

I don't know if my son (D-man) is going to be able to handle the U2 concert where our seats are located. He has a fear of heights and the tickets are on the upper level...seven stories up.

 

The Stadium oversion of the Cheese Steak (called a Cowboy Cheese Steak) was pretty righteous.

[bobbob1313]

The media and fans have managed to leach all of the enjoyment out of the game for Romo. He's really not having fun out there. The guy is a gunslinger...get over it. At times he's a Jedi. At times he's a turnover machine. He has played a grand total of 48 NFL games. He has passed for 11,297 yards, 85 touchdowns and 49 interceptions with no playoff wins. Through his first 48 starts, Peyton Manning was 12287 85 and 58 and no playoff wins. Give the kid a chance.

 

Come on.

 

Tony Romo is who he is, at this point. He's 29, the window is open now, but there's only a few years left, conceivably. I'm a big fan of Romo's too, but he's not in Peyton's class, and their situations through 48 games are completely different.

 

To compare Peyton Manning starting as a 22 year old rookie and his 22-25 years to Tony Romo from 26-29 is just unfair. Manning didn't have two thousand yard receivers and arguably the best tight end in the league in his first two years in the league.

[bleedorange]

Now that I am back...I have some observations on the Cowboy stadium, team and life (after a fashion)

 

Went to the Cowboy game Monday night.

 

Good God Almighty...the new Stadium is OFF THE HOOK. Television cannot convey the overwhelming nature of the place. Big, bold, gaudy...it has no peer in the world.

 

The Scoreboard...bigger and better than you can imagine. And the only way that scoreboard is going to get hit by a punt is if a punter intentionally tries to. In a game situation, it is just not going to happen.

 

HD mega screen projection is not kind to some who are having their image broadcast up there (some of those poor cheerleaders...)

 

Go Go Dancers...yeah...there are fucking go go dancers in the party pit (or whatever they are calling the standing room area)

 

Los Lonely Boys were rocking it out pretty good...don't imagine the fogies in the expensive seats really got into them...

 

The media and fans have managed to leach all of the enjoyment out of the game for Romo. He's really not having fun out there. The guy is a gunslinger...get over it. At times he's a Jedi. At times he's a turnover machine. He has played a grand total of 48 NFL games. He has passed for 11,297 yards, 85 touchdowns and 49 interceptions with no playoff wins. Through his first 48 starts, Peyton Manning was 12287 85 and 58 and no playoff wins. Give the kid a chance.

 

Felix Jones is electric excitement personified and apparently fragile as hell.

 

I don't know if my son (D-man) is going to be able to handle the U2 concert where our seats are located. He has a fear of heights and the tickets are on the upper level...seven stories up.

 

The Stadium oversion of the Cheese Steak (called a Cowboy Cheese Steak) was pretty righteous.

 

Sounds very cool. Hopefully I can make it out there soon. And I share your sentiments on Tony Romo.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Come on.

 

Tony Romo is who he is, at this point. He's 29, the window is open now, but there's only a few years left, conceivably.

 

To compare Peyton Manning starting as a 22 year old rookie and his 22-25 years to Tony Romo from 26-29 is just unfair. Manning didn't have two thousand yard receivers and arguably the best tight end in the league in his first two years in the league.

 

 

Well...Manning had James and Harrison in 1999 and 2000. And Marshall Faulk and Harrison in 1998. Went 13-3 in 200 and lost to your Dolphins in the first round.

 

Romo wasn't taking the weekly blasting of being a starting QB his first three years in the league. He was carrying a clipboard. He also didn't have Manning's college career with the Div 1A coaching and competition.

 

I understand why people want to dismiss Romo...he the starting quarterback on one of the highest profile teams in professional sports (and one of the most hated as well as beloved franchises). He made a mistake by dating the trainwreck of Jessica Simpson...so now everybody who pays scant attention thinks he's Hollywood Romo.

 

Give the guy his due.

[bobbob1313]

Well...Manning had James and Harrison in 1999 and 2000. And Marshall Faulk and Harrison in 1998. Went 13-3 in 200 and lost to your Dolphins in the first round.

 

Romo wasn't taking the weekly blasting of being a starting QB his first three years in the league. He was carrying a clipboard. He also didn't have Manning's college career with the Div 1A coaching and competition.

 

I understand why people want to dismiss Romo...he the starting quarterback on one of the highest profile teams in professional sports (and one of the most hated as well as beloved franchises). He made a mistake by dating the trainwreck of Jessica Simpson...so now everybody who pays scant attention thinks he's Hollywood Romo.

 

Give the guy his due.

 

Harrison wasn't much before Manning. Wasn't anything before he turned 27, then the light clicked for Peyton and he took Marvin on the ride with him.

 

It's not like the Dallas offense was nothing before him. Bledsoe had a pretty good year in 05 and Romo had the benefit of passing to some really really good players.

 

I would say Peyton brought those players and that team along with him, Romo was kind of brought along for the ride. Yeah, Romo's a good QB, but I just have a problem with comparing the two of them.

 

The real thing to think about is where Romo stands amongst NFL QB's. Top 10? Probably not, to be honest. Colin Cowherd (Who I despise) was making this point the other day, and although his reasoning sucked ("Oh, he didn't go to a big name school and nobody but Parcells wanted him" Shut up, Colin), I had to begrudgingly accept that he was probably right.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Harrison wasn't much before Manning. Wasn't anything before he turned 27, then the light clicked for Peyton and he took Marvin on the ride with him.

 

It's not like the Dallas offense was nothing before him. Bledsoe had a pretty good year in 05 and Romo had the benefit of passing to some really really good players.

 

I would say Peyton brought those players and that team along with him, Romo was kind of brought along for the ride. Yeah, Romo's a good QB, but I just have a problem with comparing the two of them.

 

The real thing to think about is where Romo stands amongst NFL QB's. Top 10? Probably not, to be honest. Colin Cowherd (Who I despise) was making this point the other day, and although his reasoning sucked ("Oh, he didn't go to a big name school and nobody but Parcells wanted him" Shut up, Colin), I had to begrudgingly accept that he was probably right.

 

Lord knows the Cowboys were zinging right along with Bledsoe at QB. (That would be sarcasm). The problems in Dallas the last three years have not revolved around the quarterback. The defense fails at key moments. The Cowboys started clicking in 2006 when Romo became the starter. And if Terry Glenn didn't go brain dead and if the ball wasn't as slick as a shaved Rooster, the outcome in Seattle might have been different. If the defense didnt' phone it in and give up the touchdown to New York right before the half, might have been a different story. But...people remember Romo fumbling the field goal snap with that miserably wet ball and remember his girlfriend acting the fool in the private box.

 

You think he would look good in a Dolphin's jersey right about now? If you would prefer Pennington (before he got hurt, of course), then you probably haven't really been paying attention to anything else but the silly media shit.

[bjorn_skurj]

Say what you want about Pennington, but he does have the best completion percentage in NFL history. If his shoulder was just a little more durable ...

[bobbob1313]

I haven't said anything that you are replying to. I haven't said anything about Jessica Simpson, get off that. Are you reading anything I'm saying? Enough with the strawman arguments.

 

Yeah, he's better than Pennington. What the hell that has to do with anything, I have no clue.

 

He's a pretty good, not great NFL quarterback. He's also 29 and somewhat careless with the ball, limiting his ceiling. You want to blame the messed up snap on a wet ball, fine. But don't forget to ignore his 32 fumbles over 39 career starts.

 

Is he better than Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlesberger, Jay Cutler, Kurt Warner, or Aaron Rodgers? I don't see any way that can be said, so at best, he's the 12th best QB in the league. Better than most, not great though.

 

My problem with what you said comes down to comparing a 22 year old rookie quarterback on a 3-13 team to a 26 year old quarterback on a pretty good team. The quarterback position is one that generally takes a few years to master, and involves both physical maturity (a player hits his physical peak between 24-30) and mental maturity. Romo stepped into a good situation in the middle of his physical and mental prime (presuming, of course he follows a generally standard progression for NFL quarterbacks), and has for the most part, excelled. This doesn't mean you can ignore his flaws. I'm not bringing up the stupid bullshit you keep referring to.

 

Does he get more flak than he deserves? Of course he does, he's the quarterback of the Dallas Fucking Cowboys. You have to be perfect for people to think you are even good. He is decidedly not perfect. He's very good, and I may even be underrating him some, admittedly, but I still maintain that your original comparison means absolutely nothing.

 

Say what you want about Pennington, but he does have the best completion percentage in NFL history. If his shoulder was just a little more durable ...

 

The problem is he severely limits what you can do with an offense. It's hard to score in the red zone when the defense only has to guard 6 yard in routes because he can't hit an out or throw the fade or corner.

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2009-09-29-tv-analysts-coaches_N.htm

 

Not that the Colin Cowherd hosted show doesn't already piss you off, but apparently ESPN is going to make it completely unwatchable for a day. The afternoon show will be going for the Guinness World record, for the most mentions of the name....Brett Favre. Seriously....

ESPN hopes to hype records for its Green Bay-Minnesota game Monday night. Literally. ESPN, says spokesman Mike Soltys, will announce that on next Monday's broadcast of its ESPN2 SportsNation (5 p.m. ET), it will try to set a record for the most mentions of Brett Favre on a TV show — with Guinness World Records now looking for the current record. Some records should never be broken.

 

First of all, you don't really even need to hype the game. It's basically guaranteed to become the most watched cable program of the year, by a long shot. Second....really? REALLY ESPN?!?! I understand that you think you're being cute, but this is just a terrible, terrible idea.

 

Oh, fuck you, ESPN. Sportsnation might be the worst fucking show in the world (Fucking Colin Cowherd blows), but that's just... God damnit...

[bjorn_skurj]

It would be nice if there was some kind of MacNeil-Lehrer Report of sports. Well, maybe not that restrained, but something for grownups, with better music.

[mpolak21]

I am not sure I've ever met anyone who actually likes Colin Cowherd, is he just really hated in diehard sports fan and internet circles? There have to be people out there that like him right? Maybe? ESPN Radio going from the old Kornheiser Show (which was wonderful) to The Herd might be the biggest downgrade in media history.

 

I am not ready to throw Romo under the bus quite yet. Right now, he certainly a knack for making bad plays in clutch situations, I remember last year when the Cowboys played the Steelers at Hines Field as soon as the Steelers tied that game at 13 with about two minutes left, I had almost no doubt it was either going overtime or they'd get the ball back and win it regulation. Two player after the Cowboys got it on the kick it off Romo threw the inevitable pick six.

 

Still that's not something that's going stick with a guy forever. Sometimes a quarterback just has to take his lumps. Favre couldn't get past the Cowboys in the mid 90's, Eli Manning wasn't exactly Mr. Popular before the 2007 playoff run. Roethlisberger played awful in his first two playoff games in 2004. Elway lost his first three Super Bowl appearances. But I am not quite sure Romo has that potential, I am not really seeing it out him yet. I don't know, it's too early to tell right now, he could be the next Peyton Manning, he could be the next Matt Hasselbeck.

 

It doesn't help that Wade Phillips is the coach of his team, and dealing with two major chemistry killer guys T.O and Roy Williams can't help his confidence. I mean have you seen this stunt Williams has been pulling. If he gets open on a play and Romo doesn't throw it to him, he'll stand at the spot where he was open, after the play is over and saunter back to the huddle. There aren't many coaches in the league who'd let that happen, but Phillips just doesn't seem to have control of those guys.

 

So I think it's going to take sometime for Romo to hit that next level, and the Cowboys could help him out by sorting out some of their chemistry issues, and getting a head coach with a pulse.

 

--Mike

[bobbob1313]

So I think it's going to take sometime for Romo to hit that next level, and the Cowboys could help him out by sorting out some of their chemistry issues, and getting a head coach with a pulse.

 

--Mike

 

He's 29, though. That's the problem, in my opinion.

[bleedorange]

He's 29, though. That's the problem, in my opinion.

 

Not necessarily. He's a quarterback, not a running back. Kurt Warner was 28 in his first year with the Rams.

[bobbob1313]

Not necessarily. He's a quarterback, not a running back. Kurt Warner was 28 in his first year with the Rams.

 

Not everyone is Kurt Warner.

 

Specifically, Tony Romo is not Kurt Warner. He moves around a lot more than Warner. That puts him at a disadvantage for longevity.

 

I feel like I'm hating on Romo a lot more than I want. I like watching him, and I think he's good.

[cryptique]

It would be nice if there was some kind of MacNeil-Lehrer Report of sports. Well, maybe not that restrained, but something for grownups, with better music.

Perhaps not quite to the MacNeil-Lehrer standard, but ESPN's "Outside the Lines" with Bob Ley is often outstanding.

[mpolak21]

Perhaps not quite to the MacNeil-Lehrer standard, but ESPN's "Outside the Lines" with Bob Ley is often outstanding.

 

. I also still make it a point to catch PTI (when I know both Wilbon and Kornheiser are going to be on it) and The Sports Reporters can be pretty good sometimes too.

 

--Mike