musichunch

I think I laid out pretty clearly, although very simplistically, my justification for believing it in previous posts. I'd hope nobody on this forum would come to a conclusion just because "well, we don't know it isn't true either".

Are you really going to pretend that the theory is on par with Belichick being an alien from outer space? The OTL story matches up well with it. Kraft helped hire Goodell and is on the committee that pays him. Goodell did him a solid and covered up Spygate. Patriots cheat continuously ever since to the point that no team in the league trusts them. They get caught again and punish them harder by overcompensating for Spygate (I think it was tame considering nobody likes to talk about the effect deflating has on lowering fumble rates). There had to be really strong forces pushing Goodell to go after Kraft. They knew that if they punished Belichick that they would have to ban him for life since that's what they promised in the Spygate penalties. They need a fall guy. Brady is an easy fall guy. You can argue it's circumstantial, but to say that it's a ridiculous theory is being dishonest. Also, in case of religion and psychics, you can play the burden of proof card since it's difficult to prove it's true or not true based on the nature of the claims. In this case, we just need to wait one year, then we'll know.

Well we don't know if it's not true yet. The point is this, the rest of the owners are fed up with the Patriots cheating. If the Patriots play average this year and miss the playoffs, that would be pretty damning.

I was a little irritated yesterday after reading the reports but I've calmed down a lot after reading a couple posts on TBD that had a good perspective of the situation. They were from one poster in particular and I thought I would post them here: What caught my eye was his mention of dummy accounts. I've noticed on Reddit and ESPN the posters that make you "bang your head against the wall" and the fact they kept getting upvoted. That was what inspired my hopeless frustration that led to my anger. Knowing that it's just a PR firm and not a reflection of the overall mood on the NFL fans, makes me feel a lot better. The recent ESPN and SI reports mesh well with his post too, that as you can see was written several weeks ago.

That's assuming the future will be any different than the past. Belichick is still coach. Brady is still QB. Kraft is still owner.

I'm just really angry after these reports came out. Really, really angry. How many close games did we lose to the Pats over the last 10 years? How many times could we have made the playoffs if we just won our Pats games. What are our options as fans? Could we get something going and get the local media involved? Eventually get it to the national level? Thoughts? Ideas?

They quoted Goodell right in the ESPN article: "We need to protect the shield". The shield is billions of dollars. What that meant was we need to keep it in-house in order to protect our profits. Arlen Spector only went after them because he had interests with Comcast, who was in negotiations over the NFL TV deal at the time.

It's just a very hip hop culture, narcissistic thing to do. Richie Incognito went to high school in Arizona and if you read his father's forum posts after the Martin incident, you get a good feel for what kind of family he comes from. Certainly the opposite of Martin's upper-middle class liberal, academic Bay Area/Los Angeles roots. Williams was involved in a drug deal robbery which is not just a "stupid college kid" thing to do. You need to really be involved with the wrong people. And I just get a mischievous feel from him in interviews that I can't explain. So perhaps he doesn't fit the narcissistic profile, but I quickly named him as somebody off the top of my head who would be more likely to do it than Taylor, who is succeeding in a position that requires a very high level of maturity. And the fact that he's overcome a lot of obstacles to get there, it just doesn't seem right for him to do something like this.

Just based off the impression I had during interviews. I like to watch full interviews and press conferences on the Buffalo Bills website, one of my odd interests. Wish I could give you a link or a cite, but just my opinion. Sorry if it offended you.

From watching his press conferences, he just didn't seem like that kind of guy. He seems humble. I could see someone like Karlos Williams doing that. But it would be a weird thing for TMZ to just make up, especially about Tyrod Taylor. What his agent said was also strange "Never talked to a dentist", which is an odd denial. My guess is he was joking about it with some two-faced secret TMZ source and they took it out of context. If you've ever been around gossip-hounds, you know how they'll take the smallest piece of information and spin it in the most negative way possible.

Mr. Vic "my sources tell me Cassel might be the starting QB" Carucci with a couple tweets on Dareus: https://twitter.com/viccarucci/status/640232195542675457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/viccarucci/status/640237133375143936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Since we know Carucci's source on the Bills like to use him as a shill, it's pretty clear these are PR games to put pressure on Dareus. If he doesn't sign a deal they can try to shame him by telling the fans "we cut Freddy for this guy and it's not enough for him".

Same. "We have full trust in Dan and expect him to snap out of this as soon as possible". Then handle it behind closed doors. Now it's become a THING, and all eyes will be on him and any missed kick in the first 3-4 weeks will become a talking point. Just no need to get fans riled up over negative things and that can be over as quick as they began.

Different philosophies, I guess.

Anybody else a little annoyed about how Rex handled the Carpenter situation last night? I just don't think you should be talking about an established veteran like that to the media. He's earned the right to hear it in private.

Imagine how awkward the marketing would be, considering the alleged rape happened around here.

This wasn't just about Brady. This was specific NFL owners vs Bob Kraft. As big a loss for the Colts and Ravens as it is for Goodell. I've noticed that whenever there is a major story out that smears a large organization, there is usually in-fighting at the top level. Snowden, Trump, etc. Factions of executives trying to humiliate another faction. ESPN has been beating this story to death all off-season. If the NFL could get Bill Simmons fired and Bill Polian to change his interview stance in real-time, they can get the Worldwide Leader to cut down on the coverage. Somebody in an important position liked this story.

That's the biggest problem. It went from a negative to a positive for Brady. It turned into some sort of victory against injustice.

Ughh. Never go against someone like Bob Kraft. Gigantic blow to Goodell's reputation. So what does this mean for all the other suspensions the NFL hands out? Nearly all of them are half-assed.

Everything just feels like an overreaction. F-Jax cut, then the Graham scoop, then the Rex/Whaley/Tyrod thing, then all of a sudden there's concerns McCoy can't go week 1. Feels like somebody is trying to preventatively cover their butt. There's clearly nerves before the opener. Can't pin down why.

PR fallout. Didn't something similar happen last year or the year before? Way to turn good vibes into bad vibes to start the year. Geez.

Wawrow said Cassel might be the starter just the other day. I'm confident he has the same source as Carucci. If they blew smoke up his ass about that, they'll blow whatever now.

All true. Many of us are still upset about Fred leaving. I stand by what I said earlier. Whaley seems to be doing a great job, but I don't know about him as a person yet.

Had some time to think it over. I've always had one eyebrow raised towards Doug Whaley. At first it was his public persona. I always got the sense that he was too stiff and trying too hard to look like a high powered businessman with the sunglasses and all that. But I just attributed it to him overcompensating for being young. But regardless, even now, I still can't get a clean read on him. Then the Marrone thing. Unlike 99.99% of the fanbase, I still support Marrone. I believed in him to get us to a winning record and he did, although he did it in strange ways. Well, it's been reported enough times that him and Whaley clashed big time. I just got the sense that Marrone left with 100% of the bad reputation and Whaley stayed clean, which is never the truth. It takes two to tango. Knowing that Whaley is a product of the Steelers organization, I compare him to another high ranking man there who's of a similar age named Mike Tomlin, who I find to be an appalling person https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbf_NtYoE1c It's possible the organization is ruthless in the kind of person they expect them to be, moreso than we realize. I saw how dirty Tomlin was willing to play in that Steelers down year. So I know this isn't a comprehensive list nor have I met the man in person, but I always believed that if you connect enough dots things will start to look clearer. I don't think Whaley is a really bad guy, but he's just always set off some sort of radar I have. What does it have to do with the Fred move? Can't say for sure. But when one guy of unquestionably tremendous character calls out only one person, and that person has, at least to me, questionable character, I'm going to go with the first guy. Another thing, if Fred says Whaley is shady, despite how the fans defend Whaley with "he's the GM blah blah", the players in the locker room will take note. Especially the veterans like Wood and Kyle Williams. It could affect things in the future, like negotiations. I think this is Whaley's first serious mistake as GM. If he blows the Dareus negotiations, the tide will turn against him big time.

Two weeks ago you crapped on him for allegedly throwing a ball near a tent during a practice. Now it's the "Let's be cautious" card. You're never wrong. Just admit it.

Sorry buddy. EJ's not as bad as you want us to believe. They don't know what they're talking about. We've been looking for a QB for 20 years and now that we have two good ones, they want to trade one for a 4th rounder or whatever.