Leaderboard

If you're expecting me to feel sorry for a player who for a 3 year career even under a new system will probably make close to $1 million you're going to have to try harder. It takes the average American 20 years to make that. These guys knew what they were getting into. There are plenty of career paths available that don't involved getting hit by freight trains for a living but of course most of them don't pay you close to $400K for only working part of the year. This page has quotes from a few players talking about the players knowing the risks they take. The NFLPA does a horrible job of taking care of its former players. Heck they only formed their whole "NFL Player Care" initiative in 2007. There are still clowns in the NFLPA who oppose the extra padding but yes, lets go blame the NFL. Go read this ESPN article on guys who've worn padded helmets in the past and how players turn down that helmet because it doesn't look good. Go read this article on Mark Kelso and how he was mocked by fellow players for wearing a padded helmet post concussion. Hunter Hillenmeyer is quoted here saying players would get mocked by other players for sitting out because of a concussion. The NFL owners are no saints but the players are far from victims. I like your sudden concern for the well being of NFL players. Agreed. It's hard to feel sorry for him though since he's one of the most obnoxious players in the league. Is there any data to suggest that NFL TV ratings/attendance drops significantly for weeks 16 and 17? I haven't seen anything that suggests that. The NFL is popular in part because the games are on once a week and has a big time gambling culture (fantasy football included) around it. That won't change with a potential 18 game schedule. It is the same thing for the NCAA tournament. People will still watch if the tournament expands to 96 teams or heck, even 128. That is a chart from the link HTTK posted earlier. For whatever reason injuries actually go down later in the season. Whether it is players just being in better game shape or something else no one knows. Teams rest guys in weeks 16 and 17 right now.....how is that any different from teams resting guys in weeks 18 and 19 (or 19 and 20 if an extra bye weeks is added). Like previously mentioned, the players know what they are getting into. Yeah, taking one year versus eight where some parts of the injury data supports your point view is supposed to be taken as painting something? The only part of that research that stands out is the increase in brain injuries later in the season. Would have liked to see the research expand more on those injuries. Were they as a result of more reps or is the play on the field more physical down the stretch as we are in divisional play with playoff spots on the line? The rest of it doesn't prove anything. It says in 2010 there were 3.7 injuries per team per week vs 3.2 over the previous years. Ok, but that means in multiple seasons out of the previous 8 years it was under 3.2 and probably even under 3. On average in 2010 players missed 4.7 weeks as opposed to 4.3 in the previous 8 years? Ok, what about the years in those previous 8 where guys missed under 3 weeks? 30% of players missed playing time versus 29% over the previous 8 years? Ok, but what about the years that number was closer to 20%? Taking one year out of a 9 year stretch to try and prove a point is pretty stupid. That article makes a big deal out of the number of guys who went on IR in 2010 but makes no mention of the graph in the study they linked to that shows that # of guys on IR declined the previous two seasons. From that same article. That is hardly a big climb. Given the number of guys who played through concussions in the 90s it might even be a decline from the actual number from 1996-2001. Now I'm not saying that no concussions were diagnosed back in the day but trying to act though the league and the players both knew the seriousness of the issue is pretty silly. This article on Trent Dilfer mentions that he stayed in the game after a concussion in 1995 and returned to practice just 3 days after another in 2001. Go read this article that mentions former Bears WR Tom Wadell being hospitalized after a playoff game with concussion symptoms but was most likely not diagnosed properly. And that is the 1990s. Ted Johnson played for the Patriots in early 2000s and said his condition worsened when Belichick made him return to practice too early. Mike Ditka has done a lot of work on things like this too. If it wasn't 4 AM already I'd Google more guys from the 90s who's concussions weren't diagnosed properly at the time. I'm sorry, I must have missed it your pro career or even a high level college career. A large part of why we watch football is the physical nature of the sport. We know what it is does to these guys longterm but we choose to watch and cheer. These guys know what it does to their bodies long term but THEY CHOOSE to play and are compensated fairly well for it. Nowhere did I say that the pads are good enough. They can only go with what is available out there. I agree completely with this Baltimore Sun article that the NFLPA doesn't do nearly enough for former players . They are making an effort to address the issue though. I agree that they took far too long to do it but the players were in no hurry to do it either. Enforcing the helmet to helmet hits was a great decision despite how much some players and fans whined about it. Them asking the players to wear more padding is another step in the right direction no matter how much the players oppose it. Read this Washington Post article that talks about the equipment being worked on to better monitor concussions. The guaranteed contracts is a CBA issue. like I mentioned earlier the players don't have enough unity to stand together and get that. The players will give in just like they always do. The NFLPA does these guys no favors. They have no idea how to handle their money. The players are too busy blowing away their money and being bankrupt for them to actually sit down and think what is best for them longterm. The owners know this. They will get a deal done without having to give up guaranteed contracts Who said anything about the owners risking anything? This is how it works in collective bargaining in all lines of work. The NFLPA will roll over for them. Lose the "I played High School" bullshit. No one forced you into playing football. You brought up some fair points and certainly didn't go to the ridiculous extremes that naiwf and ECK have but I think you are pinning too much of this on the owners. In his State of the League address during Super Bowl weekend it didn't sound like LA was a viable option anytime soon. Perhaps DMN or someone else from that region can chime in on this. Where can a new stadium be built in the LA area? While watching NCIS:LA last week I was shocked to see that The Forum is still standing. Is tearing that down and building something there an option or is there other stuff in the surrounding area that would have to be torn down? No health care for players? Welcome to the plight of American workers in pretty much every industry. With the number of retired NFL players out there there is no way the NFL would ever be able to get health insurance for all of its alumni. The NFL and the NFLPA should be doing more to educate current players on managing their finances though so they don't end up in situations like so many of their predecessors. You can call the hard hits crackdown a pr stunt (why does it not surprise me that you being the Steelers homer that you are would take that stance) but the NFL had to do something. That was the weekend LeGrand from Rutgers got hurt and if I'm not mistaken that was the week James Harrison laid out Massaquoi. Look at those #s that HTTK linked to above. Concussion numbers haven't risen much since the mid 90s and that is without even factoring in how many concussions that might have been misdiagnosed. You've said a lot of stupid NFL related stuff but this one is right up there. Me wanting a 18 game season somehow means I am not a football fan? One thing I would like to see the NFL do is revamp the IR system. Go to a system similar to that of MLB. IR shouldn't just take a guy off the roster for the remainder of the season. Maybe give teams options that let them IR a guy for 4 or 8 weeks too. If a guy gets hurt early in the year but there is a chance he could be back later in the season there is no need to penalize the teems. Let them put the guy on IR for 8 weeks and get a replacement player for the time being. Nope.

It's a bicycle kick winner in the Manchester derby, Eddie. What more do you fucking need, man!?

Guys stop it. We live in a world where the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't champions. Let's celebrate that fact. As for what I want Baltimore to add. I want a new pass rusher to complement Suggs first and foremost. Obviously a shutdown CB would be a dream scenario, but those are so few and far between. On the offensive side I like a lot of the pieces we have, but I desperately want a Mike Wallace clone. Someone who is so fast they just open up defenses and make it easier for a guy like Anquan Boldin to get open. A big problem this year was the routes our receivers were running got them open, but it took that extra second for Flacco to feel comfortable throwing it to them. Admit this is a problem and make it a lot easier for him to read the defense by opening it up. We'll probably need a new FB, but that shouldn't be a draft day priority. Finally, depth and speed at MLB and Safety. Ed Reed and Ray Lewis will be around next year so we don't need to take an early rounder on a guy like this unless a gem falls into our laps.

Can we just close this thread and try again when the draft rolls around? This shit it ridiculous. People are trying to read and contribute to the thread, but they get confronted with gigantic walls of text because you guys just cannot let discussions die. HTTK and Sahyder, you guys should seriously just keep it to PMs, because no one wants to read your ridiculously large argument that at this point, only you two care about.

Yeah I'm sorry that in the CFL they don't highly publicize the practice squad and don't regularly thrust squad players into the limelight, I'll get on that. I'm also sorry that since I didn't play at a D-1 Top 25 college football program that I apparently don't count as a college football player. Didn't know that, I apologize. I'm sorry that my HS wasn't in the Rivals.com 100 national rankings so clearly there wasn't any real football being played there. Yeah, my bad on all of that. You're right, having been on the field at every level of the game (but clearly not at any that would warrant a qualified opinion on what actually happened on the field and in the locker room and training room because you didn't see it on fucking ESPN) doesn't give me any type of qualyfing aspect over someone that hasn't stepped foot on the field ever, in terms of being able to say what the fuck actually went on. But I guess none of those guys in the NFL you've never heard of should say anything and should just probably drop their shit to yeah ? I mean if you missed their career then clearly it doesn't count. Ignorance and claiming ignorance isn't a defense. Not for you, and not for the NFL. "We didn't know what it was" is the biggest load of covering our ass bullshit ever muttered. But wait wait wait ... the players know the risks, so that makes it all knull and void though ! Yeah, Cops know the risk too ... as do coal miners, people in the military, deep sea fisherman, firefighters, steel workers, pilots, and loggers. I guess they should all shut the fuck up and stick their grievences up their ass because THEY KNOW THE RISK ! Nobody forced them to do those jobs ! How's about you lose the Holier than thou bullshit ? That'd be great. Your smarmy little cunt comment up there really paints you like a fucking jackass. You're actually speaking with someone that has sat there and watched team doctors/physicians tell the "box upstairs" that a player is loopy as all fuck, that something is wrong with their head/faculties only to be told to send him back in. Yes, it wasn't until 2001 or so that the clearly outlined the definition that we go by today, for a concussion. That doesn't mean they didn't know that it was happening before that. They began describing and trying to define MTBI since the 70's. The ICD-10 (World Health Organization's classifications, 10th edition) was back in '92 and in it there were consistent definitions prescribed for MTBI. Yes Sahyder, they knew what was going on, they just didn't know what to call it. Also Sahyder, one side giving up nothing, risking nothing, and gaining everything while the other side risks everything and gets essentially nothing is not any type of bargaining at all. It's called ass rape.

It's rocksta. I've come to expect nothing less from him in the past couple of months despite having next to interaction with him here prior to hat. As for the CBA, the players are already publicly fighting each other. They'll fold ridiculously fast if this keeps up. I have to give the owners credit for keeping their infighting relatively quiet so far. Read an interesting report on PFT (I think) about the potential for some owners to block a CBA agreement. I think only 8 or 9 owners need to vote against an agreement in order for there to be no deal while the players on need a simple majority. Owners like Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder want to keep more of their own revenue. I'd be interested to see if one of them publicly says something about revenue sharing with other owners before the league has an agreement with the players. I don't post much. I like EWB though. I don't watch wrestling. The topics I do frequently read you frequent and you literally smother them in stupid shit, a million links and in general stuff that makes me irritated. I love EWB the community here even if I don't post a shit load but I just really hate you, Matzat and Chase.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Seriously, people need to see that movie.

Hi, i have been a long time player of ewr and decided to make a new scenario. the scenario is about a world where there was no wwe and wcw. the is new top companys, but the same wrestlers. to get the rosters i just let the owners(or board of directors) pick the roster and i made champions and stables from that. What i need is some backgrounds for each company. if anybody would like to help me out so i can get this scenario ready to download, please let me know and then i will post roster and stables and champions. companys (and real life likness) are below with any notes. Companys-GCW(wwe): the top company. there main players are HHH(champ), Bret hart(co-comissioner) and stephanie mcmahon(co-comissioner) EWW(WCW):The second best company, wich fell in ratings thanks to the gcw. main players are: Chris jerico, Joanir laurer(gm),Bob backlund(gm) PW-S(TNA): The national senstaion. Main players are john cena, AJ Styles(the champ) and kaz(the future) PW-H(ECW):The Hardcore alternate. main players are Perry saturn,cw anderson and sabu AW-N(none): The national company that happend to pop up. Main stars: Goldust(champ),Raven, low ki ECWF(Roh):Apart of a two company Banner. stars:Low-Ki(champ),samoa joe,chris daniels WCWF(roh):apart of a two company banner. stars: chris danials(champ),bryan danielson,spike dudley Cpw(Canadian fed):Regional Canadian fed. Stars:Doug williams, mike rutondo,Jay brisco CWE(Hardcore canadian):Same as above. Stars: Jinsei shinzaki,Samoa joe MWS(Mexican fed): Mexican wrestling. Star: Adam Pearce LLP(LLUSA):Mexican fed.Star: Mikey Henderson MBW(Michigan Backyard): Backyard fed. Star: Gabrial Knight That all the feds. any help will be apreciated, let me know if you want to do abackstory and i will get you the rest

Mike Miller has the prettiest jumper I have ever seen in my life. I'm not saying he's the best shooter ever or anything and he's been inconsistent as fuck this year but strictly talking about form, it's gorgeous. I would give Miller that shot too.

Is a concise version of this gonna be on your blog Sahyder?

Or you could you know, answer the question in the very first post of this thread. What is it that you want your team to add? Or ....just stay out of the thread until April? You don't fucking get it do you? You're the reason people are annoyed. I could talk a lot about what the Cowboys should add, but if someone responded to what I posted, odds are I'd have to scroll through one of your fucking novels to read it, because I know you and HTTK aren't done going at each other. Stop acting like it's something that can be just easily ignored, because it can't. You want people to have discussions? Check your ego and stop getting into long winded, thread dominating arguments with everyone. You can go throw a fit and leave like you usually do (when you're not actually the one going back and forth with Chase or someone else for multiple pages). Either add to the discussion like other people (damshow, VerbalPuke, Meacon) have tried to do or just stay out of the thread. It's really not that hard. You have as big an ego as anyone else here but always feel the need to moan and groan about others. Will do. (Y)

Or you could you know, answer the question in the very first post of this thread. What is it that you want your team to add? Or ....just stay out of the thread until April? You don't fucking get it do you? You're the reason people are annoyed. I could talk a lot about what the Cowboys should add, but if someone responded to what I posted, odds are I'd have to scroll through one of your fucking novels to read it, because I know you and HTTK aren't done going at each other. Stop acting like it's something that can be just easily ignored, because it can't. You want people to have discussions? Check your ego and stop getting into long winded, thread dominating arguments with everyone. You do it to the point that people have to say something, then act like they're the ones at fault when they do.

Jokes about American sports on EWB are so 2003.

That'd make sense...if they had a two week break for the Olympics every year before this one.

Why do all these people still want to see Fedor/Overeem? Overeem would crush him at this point.

I'm sorry but there's no point arguing with that. I'm not gonna read his thousand links in this thread or any of the others he bombarded. Like come the fuck on. Does anyone actually click those? I find his opinion hard to fathom to anyone who enjoys watching the game but maybe I'm missing some important details in the millions of other people he linked too.

lol wrong

America: Big Scores, Crap Sports.

If he were not Wayne Rooney and instead, say, Maxi Rodriguez, people would not be going GOAL OF THE SEASON GOAL OF THE SEASON GOAL OF THE SEASON like they are. It's just the reality of the England-centric and/or Manchester United-centric media.

Having the audacity to attempt a shot like that after all the stick he(deservedly) has gotten in such a critical match not just for the city but for the title race is amazing let alone the fact that he scored.

I don't think dropping down to 205 is the answer here. Fedor doesn't have to prove anything, he's already done it all (except, you know, UFC), he's already the Greatest Heavyweight MMA Fighter of All-Time. I think it's time to hang it up. I'd still love to see Fedor/Overeem/Werdum, though.

I'd rather have Tebow than either.

No shit. Accidents happen, but now we shouldn't drive and not raise a stink when automakers aren't making cars up to standard ? Pro football is behind every one of those industries except for boxing in terms of current care of performers. After care ? They all suck relative to what the participants endure during their career. Actively though ? Yeah, only boxing is worse than football. The rest of that paragraph is barely worth a Go look at the research that I provided for you ... it paints a completely different picture. But yes, let's ignore the facts because your opinion doesn't line up with them. I made mention of the fact that it took a while for the league to properly classify things. However, the publically available injury reports are in plain black and white. We all form our opinions/outlook based on experience. The way you've spoken on this topic made it very clear that you have no actual experience on the field. That has everything to do with how you view the situation. It explains why you seem to think that the pads are good enough when they aren't. It explains why you're so blase on a very serious issue that you want to compound simply because you "want to see more football." Case in point: No, the best they can do is actually sit down and properly address the issue. The best they can do is properly compensate players and not run the league like a meat market. The best they can do is actually get the players guaranteed money and set up the proper post-career care. The best they can do is not try to rape the players further by not taking even more money from them. The best they can do is not compound the issues they aren't taking care of now, by adding games to the schedule. Now, since you've not answered any of the earlier questions I'm just going to say that you don't have an answer for them that is logical or makes any sense at all. I'll ask you this though. What do the owners risk by adding two games to the schedule ? Where is there any negative, at all for the owners ? What do they put on the line ? It's easy to push for it when you've got absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. Oh, that bit also goes back to the point I made about you not having played the game, ever. Having been physically invested in the game for half of my life I'm not "playing with other people's money" which is exactly what your attitude/opinion on this matter reflects. It's what the injuries are as the season goes on. The Brain related injuries go up from around week 10 and on. They actually spike pretty dramatically in the playoffs. Add 2 more games into that and then playoffs ? Not good. I do think NAIWF went to the other extreme to illustrate a point, but his overall point has some merit. The "overall" injuries go down over the course of the season due to a wide variety of things. However, the severity of the injuries go up. You also get into the issue that already happens with 16 games. Things like the Colts/Cardinals essentially taking games off in the last couple of years. People of course will counter with the added excitement due to there possibly being more teams alive longer now because of more games with a chance to catch up. Well, that isn't going to help the injury issue if we have two more weeks of "up tempo" bouts of teams trying to fight for the playoffs.

Kinda of, I mean it is all diffrent companys and its not under one banner. actually never thought of that when i was making this. and it was, i had this going for a little while now.

Click the link

Perhaps it is a little premature I think within a few weeks it should be made clearer probebly by the time the March stats update is up!

Are all of Spurs midfield injured? Good comeback for West Ham, I want them to stay up, nice to see Wigan nick a point from Liverpool too, hopefully this crushs King Kennys revolution and we can go back to mocking Liverpool each week ¬.¬

I know its a daft name but it not just Fortune there are a few other members in it! But "They" arent a stable. Fortune is Styles,Beer Money and Kaz. Angle,Steiner, Anderson and Crimson are just united against Bischoff and Immortal. Until they refer to themselves on the show as a stable called "They", I dont think it should be added. All that was said is "THEY are FORTUNE." All it was was a way of saying someone will be coming. There's no "THEY" shirts, ya feel me playa?

HALF-TIME: West Brom 3-0 West Ham Michael Da Silva HT snapshot ''What a first half! Roy Hodgson must be wishing he had escaped Liverpool sooner. The new boss couldn't ask for much more his side, who have been brilliant at times. Graham Dorrans and Jerome Thomas have combined to devastating effect to give the Baggies a surely unassailable 3-0 lead. West Ham have hit the woodwork twice but, on the whole, they have been woeful.'' Haha, Woy being praised already - he isn't even in fucking charge today, is he?!

Summerbee was all ''more possession, created better situations'' - when Sky showed the stats, he said that he doesn't look at them, and that they don't matter. The only time City looked a real threat was in the first 15-20 minutes when it was very open. I really like Dzeko, though. He brings what Adebayor does to the table, except he's more mobile and can 'play' with it without looking like he's ice-skating for the first time.

3 people that went into this game with lots of doubt hanging over them were O'Shea for being poor this season, Smalling due to his youth and Rooney due to everything thats happened in his life and all 3 delivered. Smalling was incredibly mature and the tackle he put in during the dying minutes was pure FEELINGS~!. O'Shea passed the ball very well from the back and that goal was absolutely stunning, chuffed to bits and I hope we carry this on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLA03VGNmU Fuck me sideways, what a finish. I thought Berbatov's overhead kick against Liverpool was brilliance but this may have beaten it. City were stronger, had better possession, but Tevez was far too isolated. I wouldn't say United played well, but Giggs, and Nani to a lesser extent, bossed the wings and both centre halves had an excellent game. Abosolutely ecstatic right now.

Can Giggs play into his 40s? I really hope so, when he retires it will feel reeeeeally weird seeing as he's been playing for Man Utd since I was a kid and really paying attention to football.

Goal of the season surely?

Fuck me thats nice. Bonus since I'm the only one in our Dream Team minileague with Nani and Rooney...

Wow. That was fucking incredible.

Rooneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! He's played shit but who cares XD

Dazed and Confused! I watched that a couple of months ago and it was awesome. Jumped straight into my favourite movies list. And Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a vastly underrated romcom. There's more, I'll probably post again later.

De Goey Petrescu - Leboeuf - Desailly - Babayaro Poyet - Di Matteo - Wise - Le Saux Zola - Flo

I don't think "THEY" should actually be a stable. Fortune face turns, and remove them from Immortal, sure, but "THEY" can't in reality be a stable.

Excellent! Another chance to post this:

I'm sure virtually all of EWB stands united in this. GO PACK GO!!!

I'm trying to prove a point to Plubby. +1 this post if you liked the Hartford Whalers.

I edited Primo down to high 40's, because that bastard just kept winning the US title.

Undertaker's RTWM: The Match