That Aud Smell

(Shared from a satirical account - but it’s factual that Swift is the face of the NFL brand today.)

A 3-panel collage of Taylor is featured in the NFL’s social media (Twitter) banner (cover?) image. This is a work.

I hear you. I maintain that there are huge market shares that each brand would want to tap into by leveraging the other brand's goodwill. The "Taylor Swift put Travis Kelce on the map" viral prank is hinting at what I'm saying.

I. Had. The. Exact. Same. Experience. Ugh. But I'll do better next time!

Fair. I'm going off my personal experience. The Swifties whom I know don't (really) give a damn about the NFL. Likewise, the people I know who plan their lives around NFL Sundays (and related wagering) are all dudes and they don't give (much of) a damn about Taylor Swift. I reckon the "casuals" in both fan bases could have significant overlap. It is an all-timer. Hooo boy. It was loud. I got lightheaded and woozy as we were cheering for Diggs 55-yarder. It is possibly the best sports interview ever. I only posted it to give the Jets some poetic justice for their season gone awry.

Aww. Poor Jets fans. Poetic justice, imo.

Jets D held both Mahomes and Allen to QB Rating scores of ~63. This seems like helpful context. The Jets D - when motivated and executing - are probably the best D in the league. Both games were in prime time spots, fwiw.

This one makes me a little queasy. But it would be worth a try. There's not a lot of downside there, I think, because Krebs is becoming a solid defensive forward. But I wonder how much push they'd get.

Hat tip, sir. Their apparent lack of urgency was weird. But I think it's a function of how that offense works -- and it requires a lot of pre-snap input from McDaniel. Ha! I am 50/50 on this relationship being a scheme cooked up by -- or at least facilitated and encouraged by -- the people who are respectively responsible for promoting the NFL and Taylor Swift. Each brand would covet the opportunity to make inroads with the other brand's fan base. And the Venn diagram of those two fan bases would not show a ton of overlap prior to this supposed love connection. Having said that, Travis Kelce is a good lookin' guy. Don't let the cheezy 'stache fool you. It is totally plausible that he and Swift could hook up for a romance. Which is what would make this cross-promotion so lucrative. I've said it before and will keep saying it: Unscripted pro sports still has so much to learn from pro wrestling (and principally Vince McMahon). What the pro wrestling promoters have understood far better and far longer than their unscripted counterparts is that the large majority of fans (viewers) enjoy high-level athletic exploits and competitive events, sure, but, as much or even more than that, they love stories. So give the people what they want, Roger. Also, God bless Tre White. His season-ending injury really took the sail out of my wind at the stadium, even as the squishing continued unabated.

What about this LaPorta kid? A rookie too? He looked pretty good last night. It stinks that Poyer's nicked up. I saw the play where he got hurt - I am sure he is still hurting. I saw an All-22 Twitter person post content indicating that Poyer's not been great so far (that he's been okay, but that he may have permanently lost a step). It does not.

i think that overstates things. i like the player a lot and he's ours for a few years at least. it's the OC i'm not sure about.

fair deuce. i am saying that this is of particular concern for younger players. they often cannot keep weight on.

Imo, hockey players' weight is consistently over-stated. Benson might have weighed 170# at some point in time. But he'd definitely be in the 160# range once a season got rolling and would probably struggle to stay at or above 160# as a season wore on. For a period of several years, I would periodically have to walk through/around a visiting NHL team as they were preparing to board their local bus (coach) (~5 times a season). It always amazed me how skin and bones those guys are. This is the way.

I'm willing to have some patience with Dorsey's ability to feature Kincaid in ways that play to the young player's strengths and allow him to get on the field regularly as a young player. Some patience. I heard over and over in the preseason that TE's have a unique challenge as rookies -- they need to learn two distinct areas of pro play -- receiving and O-line -- and that the learning curve is therefore steep. The solution, I heard, was to ask Kincaid to do less than everything. Have him line up in the slot. Don't ask him to do the in-line stuff. So far, I've been underwhelmed by Dorsey's plan for the player. *Sigh* But there's still time. I am confident that they have a terrific and unusual talent. I am concerned that Dorsey's fahking it up.

It’s starting to seem that way with 9.

Because history teaches that 18 year olds tend not to hold up well in a modern NHL regular season? That’d be the thinking anyway.

Maaaaaan, @dudacek. I trusted you on that Clayton Keller thing. I TRUSTED YOU.

😁 🤔

I'd like to be encouraged by this news. However, I recall hearing/reading that the injured shoulder is the same one that he had injured a while back. This has the feel of a situation where the player's trying to stave off surgery in order to make the team. Colour me concerned.

i just caught the team's PR video about the young man. worth a watch. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxqzMT5OqnA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== and it's starting to dawn on me: they have given him #9. it is clearly his. none of that nascar number b.s. from ripper, eh, @PASabreFan? and you hear the story about his very adaptable, hard scrabble upbringing. dude was a carny, basically. have we discussed that here? it rings a bell now that i type it. it seems like something might be afoot here.

Oy - sorry to hear that Edwards isn't well. I know he was popular to hate because of his over the top homerist approach. But I quite enjoyed him when he was at the peak of his powers. Yikes.

My point is that the team will not - cannot - just look at how Benson's performed during camp and, based solely on that data, decide whether to make him part of the team's plan for the entire season. His age, strength, and such have to play a huge part in the decision. This is why I like the idea of penciling him in for 50 games or something. Watching that 3-minute compilation of his play last night (against a lot of AHL guys, sure), I get the sense that Benson might be "built different" as the kids (used to) say. This is to @LGR4GM's original point. This guy may be special.

I take @...'s point: He's uncomfortable with posters here clamoring for Benson to be rostered to the Sabres for the entire season without any (or at least more) regard for whether and to what extent it could unduly risk the player's health (physical, mental, emotional). It's a fair point. And it's getting sort of caught up in the wash.

The greatest on-ice post-game interview of a Sabre that I ever saw was when a HNIC guy (I can picture him - don't recall his name (glasses, straight shooter, nice voice)) got Pominville after the series OT clincher against Ottawa, and brought up the fact that he'd effectively been waived earlier that year. And Pominville just reeled back in a sort of elated joy before answering.

The reasoning here seems a bit bizarre. I think people advocating for Benson to get a hard look as a rostered player this season are doing so because they think that gives the team the best chance to win. Which would be entertaining. And I don't think people are discounting concerns for the player's well-being either. I don't think those leagues are development tools at all. If anything, they inhibit development. That's why NHL teams want those players in the A, if possible. That's why NHL teams will tell a prized prospect to go back to juniors, and concentrate on strength and conditioning even to the detriment of their on-ice numbers.