musichunch

Did you not post this at the beginning of the thread:

Says the person who posted this:

Sensitive or not, I don't believe in attempting to silence and police people's opinions and thoughts.

I feel like there's an attempt to silence people giving hypotheticals. Or at least silence anybody who's not saying 1. "We must not make any comments until the facts come out" 2. Completely side with the accuser What is wrong with people pointing out that sometimes there are false accusations? What is wrong with people painting common scenarios that could lead to a rape accusation? Why are we being thought policed right now?

To push back against the wave of "guilty until proven innocent" that is prevalent on every form of media on the planet.

From watching Rex's presser, the impression I get on the QB situation is this: 1. Rex is rooting for Tyrod 2. EJ is Whaley's guy 3. Cassel is the floor in case both guys fail. Maybe this is common knowledge, but the video sort of cemented it for me. The way Rex starts off talking up Tyrod. The way he drops his head when asked about EJ, then throwing in how Tyrod had 2 straight good days. I'm a big believer in reading between the lines in press conferences and interviews to get the real story and this was as clear to me as anything else. EJ has a lot to overcome.

Traci Lords, I believe.

Again, it's hard to judge because celebrity/athlete hook-ups have different dynamics. Kane could be drunk and is so used to hooking up with randoms that he barely pays any attention to her. He might not have talked to her at the bar at all and she's invited back by his entourage. Again celebrity encounters have weird dynamics. Plus I'm sure he's used to regular girls of all ages acting clumsy around him due to this status. I can play devil's advocate all day until more information comes out.

Could be the parents. Could be her temperament. Nature/Nurture argument in my opinion. I've seen plenty of families where one sister is always monogamous and the other sleeps around. Again, teenagers do what they want.

It's tough to say. Remember these are teenagers, and teenagers do what they want. Let's do a thought experiment. Let's say she's 17 and she's very attractive (there's a good chance this is the case). That's around the age girls start realizing the power they have over men of all ages. I know from my high school and college days that that's when they start ignoring guys their age and go after college/20-something guys. They start meeting bouncers and bartenders and getting into 21+ places. If you're a regular, who's going to ask questions about your age? She just tells her parents she's sleeping over at her friend's house on the weekends. She might be used to harmless flirting with older guys but can walk away before anything happens or have her friends pull her away. She might think she can handle any guy. But now let's say somebody like Patrick Kane is there and he's showing interest. She might be excited and thinking about how she'll brag about it to her friends tomorrow. But now he's inviting her back to his place and she doesn't have the courage to say no. Maybe she thinks they'll just make out or something. But then he aggressively has sex with her and she's afraid to speak up for whatever reason. Now I'm drawing a lot of inferences there but I believe the scenario I described is very common. This is arguably what happened to Mark Sanchez although that was more consensual. And legal, oddly. Something to think about. So is it the parent's fault?

I'll add Dante Cunningham to the pile of false accusations. Nearly ruined his career: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11750556/former-minnesota-timberwolves-forward-dante-cunningham-struggles-clear-name The information released so far really doesn't tell me anything yet other than that there is an accusation and the girl may have been underage. I think the biggest mistakes people make in these kinds of cases is assuming the dynamics are the same for celebrities/athletes as they are for regular people. "Money/Infamy/Desire to Destory" is a factor that must always be considered in these cases, just like anything else, even if there is a <10% chance. But I agree with a previous poster who said it takes a special type of crazy to do something like that. You're bringing a lot on yourself in exchange for money. I touched on this subject in the McCoy discussion in the Bills thread but to summarize, the sex life of a rich athlete/celebrity is far different than anything a normal man is used to. Getting laid is not only easy but expected pretty much every night they go out. They rarely do any approaching since the girls approach them. If they like a girl, they'll ask someone in their entourage to bring them over and they usually agree to come. Bringing them back home is just as easy. A 17 year old that looks 21 can easily sneak through, especially if you met her at a 21+ establishment. It's just not something you think about. I would never judge someone on that unless they suspected it or knew about it. There is a flip side to this however that should also be considered. Since these athletes/celebrities are so used to getting sex without trying, once they have them in private, they are usually very aggressive and skip the whole seduction thing. I'm talking immediate making out, pulling down underwear, etc. I know this from speaking with girls and friends of girls who have been in these situations (I live in Miami). Many girls are probably surprised by it but go along since that's the reason they came. Others might not want to but don't have the courage to say no to a person of status. Or it's a total rape situation. I believe most of these celebrity rape cases are from my 2nd example: "Others might not want to but don't have the courage to say no to a person of status." Then they file complaints afterwards once they are out of their grasp or convinced by their friends or family. From the athlete's point of view, it may be a total surprise. A true gray area case. But again, this is just my general opinions about these kinds of situations. I don't have enough information to make judgement on Pat Kane. All I know is he is a well known douche, so who knows.

I have a feeling the next time they're caught, it'll be handled internally. No reason for the NFL to make it public and hurt their product even more.

There has always been a different vibe with the Patriots compared to say, the Spurs. As Deflategate came out, a sports betting sharp came out with a very detailed article showing how the Patriots have had FAR less fumbles over the last 5 years compared to every other team in the league. Immediately after that article was written came a giant smear campaign against it. Deadspin jumped in on it (and with Gawker's shady funders, any agenda they push is suspicious) and wrote what I thought was a pretty low quality rebuttal. I still believe that article. Deflating footballs game after game may have saved them 20-30 fumbles over the last 5 years. One of possibly many shady tactics they use to gain an edge. Of course if you remember, right after Deflategate, the meme became "It doesn't matter because they were blowing out the Colts anyway". The mind hive at Reddit would downvote any other opinion and would shove that idea down your throat with an authoritative tone (Reddit's founder tried to sell user information to a CIA-connected company a few years ago, just throwing it out there). ESPN has defended Brady far more than they were against him in my opinion. But it's not like ESPN has a conflict of interest with the NFL or anything. I guess what I'm saying is that the NFL and the sports media (who are mostly paid shills) haven't allowed discussion and investigation to go beyond the effect of deflating footballs. I do agree that the Patriots are now on Goodell's sh*tlist, but not because they care about cheating at all, but because the other NFL owner's are sick of the Patriot's successful run (cheating or not).

I think what's REALLY going on here is that Goodell had to choose between one of the main cronies (Kraft) and the other owners. By cutting the suspension in half, it opens the door for the Patriots and paid shills media to come out and say "See, the NFL can barely prove it, that's why they cut the suspension in half". By upholding it, the NFL is saying "you did it and we're standing by it". It's a PR blow for the Pats, their Super Bowl, Brady's future marketing dollars legacy, and Kraft's power in the owner's room. In a perfect world, Goodell would just sweep it under the rug, but with pressure from the other pissed off owners, Goodell was placed in a tough position and he sided with the majority. As for "did he do it?", do you think for a second the NFL would suspend Brady and anger one of the two most powerful owners in football if there was even a 1% doubt that he did?

Bucky's source could be right. We don't know what's going on in the Sabres organization. Professional sports teams are like icebergs, we only see the top 10%. There could be lots of internal problems, missing deadlines, politics, etc. Also, I'm seeing here that Brandon could have too much on his plate. From what I've seen, when you get promoted and are given "higher" job responsibilities, the less you actually do. He'll have more people doing the dirty work and he'll be making the "larger" decisions. Imagine we had two presidents in the USA, each with their own responsibilities and one day it was announced that there would only be one. We would probably say he'll have too much on his plate, but the truth is he'll just have more subordinates doing the work he was doing previously.

I've seen everything I said with my own eyes. I have no clue what you strongly disagree with. Sounds like how it's always been done by the rich and famous since the beginning of time.

You're projecting really bad. Many of the women attending these events are "pros". They've slept around a lot and know what's up. Will a couple 18 year olds sneak in? Maybe. But many of them have already been with 10+ guys. You want to talk about power imbalance? What about the power a really beautiful woman has over a rich, powerful man? It goes both ways.

I'm not anyone wealthy or famous, but there's been a couple times in my life where I've crossed paths with men like that. I would usually see women do things I've never seen them do with regular guys. Have threesomes without a "hello" or "nice to meet you", falling over themselves to get introduced. I live in Miami and have heard many other stories. My girlfriend has a friend in her 20's who has no job, just travels around the world on rich men's dime and parties with them. Hooks up with them if she wants, but has enough social skills for that to be up to her to decide (and still get the things she wants). Plenty of girls like that around here. They're trained by the older women who are past their prime. Not all of them do it, but lots do. When McCoy posts a party that's "Females Only", the only victims are the regular guys like us who aren't invited. We're missing out on a hell of party. As for the "predator" stuff. I appreciate your idealism, but reality and idealism are two different things, otherwise we'd all be communists. My eyes and ears have seen some crazy stuff.

I don't think it's fair to throw those players out the window because of "stats deflation". Let me filter out everyone except the unquestionable greats from the list above. Now how many players today compare to them: Wayne Gretzky Mario Lemieux Brett Hull Martin Brodeur Sergei Fedorov Dominik Hasek Raymond Bourque Brendan Shanahan Joe Sakic Scott Stevens Mike Modano Steve Yzerman Ed Belfour Mark Messier Jari Kurri Jaromir Jagr Patrick Roy Nick Lidstrom Bryan Trottier Paul Coffey Teemu Selanne Al MacInnis Pat LaFontaine Chris Chelios Chris Pronger Pavel Bure Eric Lindros Mats Sundin Jeremy Roenick Mark Recchi Rob Blake Adam Oates Many of those players played well into today's era at the end of their careers and held up fine. A few lit it up far above the pack (Jagr, Lemieux). Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Stamkos, Toews, Kane, Keith, Doughty, Price, Lundqvist, Thornton How many of those guys would fit into Tier 1? 5? It seems to me that most of today's best players fit into the 2nd tier.

Perhaps it's the other way around. Maybe there is less high-end talent in the league today. Here are all the HOFers, soon to be HOFers, and borderline HOFers from the 1993-1994 season. Compare them to the future HOFers today. Wayne Gretzky Mario Lemieux Brett Hull Cam Neely Brian Leetch Martin Brodeur Doug Gilmour Sergei Fedorov Dominik Hasek Grant Fuhr Raymond Bourque Brendan Shanahan Joe Sakic Scott Stevens Mike Modano Steve Yzerman Slava Fetisov Luc Robitaille Ed Belfour Mark Messier Mike Gartner Glenn Anderson Jari Kurri Jaromir Jagr Ron Francis Patrick Roy Nick Lidstrom Bryan Trottier Dale Hawerchuk Denis Savard Paul Coffey Igor Larionov Teemu Selanne Dino Ciccarelli Al MacInnis Larry Murphy Michel Goulet Pat LaFontaine Chris Chelios Joe Niewendyk Mark Howe Joe Mullen Chris Pronger Pavel Bure Eric Lindros Mats Sundin Dave Andreychuk Jeremy Roenick Mark Recchi Rob Blake Claude Lemieux Adam Oates Sergei Makarov Tom Barraso Mike Vernon The Beezer Alexander Mogilny Vincent Damphousse Phil Housley Sergei Zubov Theoren Fleury

That's the whole point. Gretzky was not a great hockey player because he played in the 80's. He's a great hockey player because he could think and react faster than anybody else. He may not have the same spaces and angles he had back then, but he would most likely discover spaces and angles in 2015 that nobody else is using. Heck, even back then his contemporaries couldn't do what he did.

Laugh all you want. I stand by it.

You are generally correct, but Gretzky is not solely the result of a high scoring era or long-standing meme. I don't know what else to say but to take a couple hours out of your day, and find a couple FULL Oilers games on Youtube and watch the whole thing. I suggest watching a game where there is a good goalie playing like Hextall or Billy Smith. You'll see that despite not having today's positioning, they were pretty darn good at what they did. Also, there were still some very good skaters and tough guys back then. They might not be as bulky, but they were no chumps. You'll also see that every time Gretzky was on the ice, something happened. He would do something that normal players just don't normally do. It's hard to explain but it's pure entertainment. An unusual pass, strange timed shot, weird positioning that just happened to end up in a scoring chance. I think Gretzky would not score 200 in this era, but 150 would probably be his average.

McDavid is obviously a better talent than Eichel, but it is a little over the top. There's been some incredible skaters in the NHL over the last 100 years. Savard, Coffey, Bure, Hull, Perreault, Lafleur, etc.

Being in the same draft as McDavid may be the best thing that could have happened for the Sabres. He's always going to have that motivation/chip on the shoulder as long as McDavid is around. Jordan was a maniac and a-hole who lived for the chance to beat someone who was smack talking him. I'm not sure Eichel is like that, but so far everything is looking great. Reminds me of how Sammy Watkins cruised through training camp last year. Excited for him this year without injuries. Same with Eichel.