Fans of the National Football League.

Owners Meeting, Rule Changes

• Thigh and knee pads are being made mandatory, staring in 2013. The player's union is grumbling about this. I would like to see one of the players explain why without sounding like a dumbass.


• The trade deadline is being moved from Week 6 to Week 8.


• The Injured Reserve rules are being... tweaked. Teams will be allowed to designate one IR player to bring back, after Week 8.

Also: An arbitrator has denied Dallas and Washington's appeals of their salcap penalties. From what I've read, the reason seems to be that since the owners and players' union both signed off on the rules, Trader Jerry and Snyder didn't really have a case for appealing getting busted, no actual rules in place or no.

Of course, I thought they appealed in actual court, not to an arbitrator.

Signs point to "yes."



Holding off on the enthusiasm until things are more concrete. But I always thought the USFL could've run for years if they hadn't let Trump bully the other owners into trying to go head-to-head with the NFL. Hope this really gets rolling - especially in light of the UFL's uncertain future.

From Deadspin: Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan shows off his vehicle of choice.

This is certainly plausible, in one sense.

All I can think is that NFL players live longer, like I'd expect most athletes, in general, to live longer. Active lifestyles with regular fitness tend to keep a body running well beyond the average life span.

The timing of this news is suspect. Are there NFL friends in the CDC? This information, regardless of veracity, does not absolve the NFL from providing better care for their retirees, in my opinion.

For example, how does this help the players who get deemed uninsurable by insurance companies, or have countless pre-existing conditions as riders? Until the US fully overhauls its health care laws, it doesn't help new retirees. Also, those NFL players that went without health care, it doesn't make that period of their lives better.

( Behind the cut, the linked article, in full. )

So, does this sway you toward the NFL being a Lesley Gore paradise, or are you still worried about the players' safety?

Until Junior's death hit the media, the NFL was patting itself on the back for slaying an ugly dragon, some more.

Junior Seau's death overruled that news. His death, in particular, surprised me. I didn't think he'd be a guy who would die young. I especially did not expect Junior to be a possible suicide. According to TMZ via Deadspin, Junior sent "love you" messages to people he cared about recently, as if it was a final goodbye, in retrospect. There's no suicide note, but unless this is one hell of a staged scene and a murder, it's looking more and more like Junior really did kill himself.

Much was made about the shot to the chest. We don't know why Junior did that, or even if he really did do that to himself, but I'll assume for the moment that Junior shot himself in the chest so his brain could be studied by scientists. Dave Duerson wrote that he wanted as such, under similar circumstance. However, if it's true that Junior's death was a suicide, and he had reasons similar to Duerson's as to why he chose to shoot himself in the chest, then this is a rather ugly pattern.

It can be said that Junior had not taken retirement very well. Reports that he was a real moody guy are currently flying around the media sites. Take how you feel about Junior's life as you will. At worst, you felt he was a scumbag who didn't treat women right. At best, you may remember the Junior Seau that was still alive, more human than human, roaming the gridiron.

"That's Junior Seau's footprint, man!"

The last link I used is my first memory of Seau. It was a 1990s Nike ad campaign, made by David Fincher, where an eccentric superfan of the NFL, played by Dennis Hopper, gets caught up in the emotion of football. Stanley, the referee-clad superfan, runs into and pines after the legends of the gridiron, as he saw them. Dennis's character worshiped many of the players in that era. There were many many many, commercials, just like Junior's. Nike had a hit campaign here until they decided to pull it in wake of complaints from mental illness groups. I still think those ads are appropriate, but it is what it is.

Junior was a force of nature for many years with the Chargers and later, he played for the Dolphins and Patriots. He may not have been the best LB ever, but in my opinion, Junior ranks up there with all-time legends.

I decided to write something about Junior after watching Junior Seau's mother reacting to his death.

At first, I laughed because, well, she probably shouldn't have been put in front of cameras. Here's an elderly lady who doesn't speak English well who is upset by the death of her son. Because my mind is weird, immediately, I envisioned this is what it would be like to see Mario lament Luigi's death.

And that's fine. Anyone who isn't connected with Junior's family should understand that weird thoughts happen, and while we know that feeling, we aren't as connected to Junior as she is.

I know that feeling that Junior's mom is expressing, however. Some of us have had people in our lives who have committed suicide. If not that, we have had people in our lives that we cared about who are gone. So even if we don't feel it like Junior's mom is feeling it, then we've been there at some point.

Something is wrong with Junior dying, like this, at this time. No matter how we feel about Junior, whether you feel good about him like I do, or whether you feel indifferently, or you feel he was a son of a bitch, it is likely going to come out that Junior had complications from playing football. If this is true, then Junior will be one of a growing number.

If it's not suicide, it's dying early from heart trouble. In some cases, it's the death of someone else, likely caused by a former player. The NFL isn't the only sport that's having more than a few problems with their players' long-term health and well-being. Hockey has suffered a rash of early deaths, some from players who were still active in the sport.

And yet the NFL seems to be content with the current level of health care for its former players. The NFL players' association also seems to feel content. When the lockout was happening, older players were suing the NFL separate from the NFLPA. Neither the NFL nor the NFLPA, in their opinions, were really serving their interests, and as I figured at the time, it would be shoved aside when the new collective bargaining agreement was made.

While the NFL does provide some help, it clearly does not acknowledge its greater responsibility for the trauma from head injuries and other issues related to the health and well-being of its past players. In fact, the league appears to be defending itself against that notion. You see new court proceedings like this one, going on at a time where guys like Duerson are dying, and players are calling for more help in dealing with their post-career ills. There is a clear issue in particular with head trauma and lingering illness from such trauma that doctors are calling to greater attention. It's not just NFL either ... There's no more dangerous gridiron than a real battlefield.

At the end of this ongoing issue, I really do not think that the NFL and other sporting institutions will escape responsibility for their former employees, as they deal with work-related injuries. However, knowing how rotten people can be, my skeptical self sometimes believes the NFL will be absolved with enough money thrown at the right people. I really hope, at the very least, that this does not happen.

It is true that the players willingly sign up for a contact sport, and within that sport, it is hard to argue against the idea that the players are well-enough informed of the toll it takes on their bodies. Also adding to the case against doing more for players is their compensation. While older players were not compensated as much as the ones today, ultimately they did not play for free. These ideas, in my opinion, do not mean that the players are solely responsible for their own long-term health.

I don't think that most people greatly consider, or even so much as worry, about long-term anything, and I think that if players do sign up, they're going to be looking at the money, and the attention, and everything that comes with being a professional at the top of one's profession. If you asked Luck and Griffin if they would change their plans about their careers, after you showed them examples of hobbled and crippled former players, well, I doubt you'd get them to express a change of heart. They're in it because they love to play, they're really good at what they do, and the league is organized to reward them as well as profit from them.

Not all players' deaths hit me like this, and you don't have to care about Junior Seau's death. But I do care about it.

I'm tired of seeing the guys I frequently watched die horribly and fail miserably off the field. I'm tired of the institutions that employed them wiping their hands of added responsibility. I want them to get the extra help they need, much like I want all of us to have access to as much health care as necessary. We live in an era where guys are blowing ACLs and suffering spinal cord injuries, and they're still able to play professionally. We're headed to a possible era that may get even better with treating injury. For some of us, like Junior, it will come too late, but that's no reason for me to fail to care.

To what extent can we improve the life for people like Junior, and ultimately, for ourselves? In a general sense, I do think the NFL is doing everything it can to limit injury. They are legislating the nastiest collisions out of the game, with more focus on head-to-head contact than in the past. Gear suppliers have made equipment better at protecting the players than ever previously achieved. And yet, they're still getting killed out there. Players are simply bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. And short of legislating the game out of the game, I don't know if there's anything more they can do to make the game any more safe. How I feel about New Orleans, Roger Goodell, and how they're handling that situation aside, without any emotion, just considering the issue with the Saints and the bounties discovered, the league simply cannot ignore the Saints headhunting information. If someone gets seriously injured, paralyzed, or dead because of a headhunting order, in this day and age, should the NFL simply ignore that info, it'll cost the NFL damages well beyond their short-term ability to recoup.

That last fact, the one about the NFL's responsibility to make the league justifiably safe enough to conduct business, gnaws at me. It bothers me because there's an inconsistency to the league's sense of responsibility. When it comes to the cases about players' long-term health, well, insert excuse here. Why is it that guys like Vilma can get a year's ban for evidence of headhunting, but the league often does everything it can to get out of lawsuits filed by former players, over long-term complications from playing football in the league? Why does the safety of the current players seem to be the league's only concern? They should figure out a way to provide the extra care their retirees need, with as much zeal and fanfare that they put forth when they deal with cracking down on guys like Sean Payton, Gregg Williams, and Jonathan Vilma.

I care because the application of the league's interest in the well being of the players seems very inconsistent. I don't want more guys like Seau dying in order to keep this issue at the top of the public's concern. I don't want this issue to keep getting swept under the rug, only to return to ESPN, Fox, and NFL Network for more rounds of 'NFL's greatest hits,' where we sit around ooh-ing and aah-ing at a bunch of the most violent collisions. That's fine and well, I like violence, but I think I'm going to do without watching those glorified highlight reels, at least until the league gets its act together with regard to helping their retirees deal with life after football.

Thanks for the good times, Junior Seau. I'm sorry to see things end that way for you.

The Browns continue to be in my opinion the poorest drafting organization in the NFL. In a league where the average player is worn out by the game by 32 as a good average they take a RB 3rd when the value in early choice RB's has plummeted due to the fact that "Superstar" RB's wear themselves out in College and then as a bonus they take a quarterback in the first round that I could have played High School football with and I am in my 30's.

Unless this Weeden is the second coming of Otto Graham and never throws an interception, his selection in the first round of the draft by a team with only a smattering of talent on either side of the ball is idiotic. They have been trying to find second round talent to play on the O-Line for the last 4 years and they have exactly NO starters from that. Then they cut a free agent guard who was hurt last year in favour of some players best referred to as Pylons and then again take skill position players they cannot protect leading them to get the shit kicked out of them year after year regardless of how good they are. Colt McCoy had flashes but when most of every game is you running from your O-Line as it basically acts like a gate and takes as long to get thru QB is NOT your problem nor is it something your should Draft in the first round.

I almost had a Brown jersey bonfire Thursday night.
I am in Canada and the idea of driving the 16 hours to Cleveland and standing outside the stadium with a sign saying Holmgren is an idiot also occurred.
Bone head decisions I can at least understand but this shit had dialed up to ASININE. Why not sign a loaf of bread to play MLB or maybe a dead guy to play corner. Same as this shit as far as I am concerned. Even if he is good Weeden has to his mid thirties to play if he is lucky, no time to develop and unless he is Peyton Manning right now (He is not) he will be too old to play when he finally is in his groove.

SUCH STUPIDITY.

For all you junkies out there, here's the part where you share what you saw/heard/learned/felt/nosewiped/banana. And we get to respond. Here's my sharing time.

1) Detroit selected Ryan Broyles out of Oklahoma, and I'm really torn up about that. Guy was purported by all to be a 1st round caliber WR, but average combines with average vert and what I really care about, a torn ACL that may be symptomatic of being a bit too fragile (he's a 24 year old NFL rookie, so that means he's somewhat of a late bloomer, be it injuries or whatever that kept him from turning pro earlier). I'm sure on their board he was hugely value-based (they are all about best available on the Lions, starting with Mayhew). I would have preferred the Vandy corner, Casey Heyward (his tape looked really nice).

2) In the end, Detroit got an interesting corner in the 3rd, Dwight Bentley, from Louisiana Lafayette. His tape was a guy who caught everything he saw. He was WR-good at catching the ball. He probably needs work on understanding pro-level talent and combating such next-level routes and players. I'll take good odds on Bentley, since Detroit has some lousy secondary. If he's any good at all, he'll get PT this year. /FakeLionsFan

3) Now that you don't care anymore, I'll share that my TV was moving between NFL Network and ESPN, and ESPN delivered possibly unscripted gold. I was lucky enough to catch the brouhaha on ESPN over their favorite lil' QB who could, Russell Wilson. It started when Kiper and McShay started talking about Wilson's shortcomings, literally, that he's a short QB (5'10 5/8, and that's being generous). For some reason, Jon Gruden got really fucking upset, starting in on McShay. He basically told him he didn't know a fucking thing about football, citing Mike Vick (ugh) and Drew Brees and other short QBs (forgetting about Flutie, who used to be an ESPN love child if I remember correctly). The panic and hilarity came in Jon's agitation ... he finger-wagged quite a bit, right in McShay's personal space. Jon topped it off with some paraphrased comment about how him and Kiper were really making him irritated.

McShay? Was blindsided. He did not take it well. Who would? What do you say to a loud pro football coach who has won a Super Bowl, who doesn't like that you're ripping into his pet favorite QB? You'd like to say the same thing to him, but that would be a disaster. McShay was left without an out, and he was visibly sweating as this thing played.

But that wasn't the surreal part. While this was going on, ESPN had a camera in Russell Wilson's DC home. Sitting next to him on his right was his GF, and various family members off-camera to his left. It seemed like they were watching ESPN, talking and fighting over him, as it was happening. Which was weird because I'm sure ESPN has a delay, and they're watching ESPN with the delay, and their camera also has a delay, so there's like a ten second delay, and I caught onto it when they were reacting funny to things said like ten seconds or so after everyone on ESPN said something that peaked in a mountain range of bad vibes.

The best part was when Jon went to Bill Polian to back him up on Russell Wilson. Jon claimed that Russell was totes gonna make it no matter how shorter he grew, and yada. Over the whole night, Bill ended up being Jon's oft-used rhetoric mate. So whenever Jon Gruden talked up or down or sideways about something, he'd lean out to the other booth. And ESPN would cut to wherever Polian was, and in a booth with him, there was Zombie Mortensen looking totally out of it, and Adam Schefter was trying to contain their collective enthusiasm.

Anyway, Jon at the end of the argument (this was right before he got drafted by the Seabags, this blow-up), Jon goes to Polian, looking for brofist on how Wilson was gonna shock the world. Polian proceeds to say in many words that Wilson has everything you want in a QB. On the tail end of it, Polian adds that it's everything you want, minus height and starting ability. Pwned.

4) I don't know what the Seahawks are doing anymore. This draft of theirs is really weird. I literally think they selected poor Russell Wilson out of watching the ESPN feathers flying, and after a particularly strong moment of 'clarity,' Pete decided he wanted to try some wildcat. That's all I think Wilson would have the time for, considering they have like 13 QBs on the roster already.

And now for you/yours.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-suspending-pro-bowl-option-191615197--spt.html

If they want to keep the event, then do the following: 1) move the game to Week 9, giving everyone a bye week; 2) end the freebie to Hawaii by rotating the Pro Bowl among each team's stadiums; 3) make the regular season 18 weeks long--ergo, an extra bye week; and 4) eliminate the bye week between the championship and the Super Bowl (this has not happened since the Bucs won)

Due to the wafting stench from this league's office regarding odoriferous emanations coming from New Orleans, we've not really focused much on what usually is the highlight of NFL's dormant time.

We all know Andrew Luck has been announced by Colts brass as the 1st pick in the draft. Robert Griffin III should follow, if not 2nd, then within the top 5.

Let's hear about your personal favorites, your least-liked prospects, and reasons and emotions and whatnot.

The NFL Draft's opening night starts at 8 PM EST (5 PM PST), on ESPN and NFL Network.

Despite our best efforts, SeeBass didn't make it out of the first round of voting.

The results have been announced, with the final voting coming down to Cam Newton vs. Calvin Johnson. And the winner is...

( Oooh, suspense! )