JasonM

It worked for Götze, and Ajax are in shambles enough to try him out.

Finished Ya Boi Kongming! today, and for a show with such a dumb premise it really did manage to hit all the right notes to deliver a wholesome story from start to finish. Final episode actually gave me some goosebumps, too Hope there'll be a second season, because there's definitely still room to explore the story.

Human/athlete nature never works like that. Bringing sticky stuff back will only mean they'll be throwing as hard as they already are, except with sticky stuff. It won't make athletes police their own velocity, because in the end every single advantage is one you want to have against the batter, or just generally to make it in the majors. Honestly there's no real solution to the issue, other than maybe looking at the actual mechanics and starting to limit certain pitching motions. But even if you'd limit pitchers to only throwing underhand like in softball, they'd find a way to fuck up their elbows by finding the absolute physical limits there. In the end it's all self-destructive, and no pitcher is going to jeopardise their careers by holding back, no team is going to jeopardise their winning by telling pitchers to tone it down. Only way you can ultimately fix the issue is if the league(s) finds ways to outlaw certain things so that they can't physically do them. At the same time it starts in the youth, there's a lot of toxic parents who are telling their 14yo kid to throw curveballs to get an advantage even with proof that teaching breaking balls shouldn't be done until they reach physical maturity, but nobody wants to wait because it'll just create a disadvantage vs. the people that go against the wisdom to do it anyways. Sadly, there's no real solution for these issues, in the end it's just (self-)destructive human nature working against us

Why would Logan Sargeant do such a thing!

I hate this news, Dorna isn't perfect by even the loosest of definitions but I would rather not Liberty get their grubby mitts on another sport because I have zero faith things would be the same after a Liberty takeover, let alone better. MotoGP is in a great place sportingly, and knowing Liberty they will probably fuck it up by kicking out all the exciting privateers (who can actually thrive in MotoGP, unlike barely survive or be stonewalled trying to get into F1) and trying to instead make it a purely constructor filled wankfest that goes to Miami, Vegas, Saudi Arabia, and so on for financial wankfests that add zero to the actual sport.

I love this thread concept. I have been on/off playing a save of Front Office Football 8 with the Seahawks, starting in the 2020 season. Decided to stick with Russ in the beginning, believing he still had something left in the tank. 2020: Ended 7-9, in fact it made Carroll so sad he retired. Brian Schottenheimer got promoted from OC to Head Coach. The season was lost in the beginning, so I put forward my backup QB (Conner Butler) to play half the season because he has the right mentalities and I wanted someone as a future mentor/glue guy. 2021: 6-10 in the first season of Schott, Russ only made it through 12 games before getting injured. 2022: 7-9, again Russ only made it 12 weeks before getting hurt. And he had a terrible season before that. 2023: With Daniel Jones (somehow playing good football for NYG!) a free agent, I decide to take the risk and release Russ whilst giving Dan a good contract. In his first season with us he immediately get a 89 QB and 3300yards, leading the team to a 12-3-1 and our first playoffs and all the way to the NFC finals before falling to the Colts (who came off a 2200+ yard rushing season from Jonathan Taylor!!) They somehow lose against the Bears in the superbowl. 2024: A worse season for Dan, struggling with injuries, the honeymoon ends. But a stud defense and ace RB gets us to 11-5 and another playoff run, where we lose in the divisional round, because the backup can't make it happen with Dan out. 2025: Dan has a healthy but super underwhelming season, but again defense + rushing gets us to 11-5 and another loss in the Divisional off a horrendous playoff performance. 2026: The honeymoon is fully over, we end 8-8 and not getting into the playoffs, Jones just wasn't working out, but I was fully committed. I somehow have a knack for drafting defenders, but like the mid 00s Ravens the offense isn't picking up the slack. 2027: 9-7, no playoffs. I continue to blindly believe in Daniel Jones, but at least I pick up a decent looking QB in the 5th round called Alexis Brandon who totally won't become relevant later. 2028: Almost confoundingly, Daniel Jones goes crazy and throws for almost 4000 yards, and with that same great defense he hauls us to a 11-5 season and our first superbowl appearance, sadly in an ugly slogfest the Broncos win 17-16. But maybe Dan Jones can make it happen (surely!) 2029: Except he regresses right back to the mean, and we end up missing out on playoffs despite a 10-6 record. And thus ends the Daniel Jones era, we need a change, and Alexis Brandon deserves a chance after three years of bench riding learning from Daniel and Butler (yeah, he's there too!) 2030: Alexis and Butler spend the season sharing starts, but Alexis shows flashes of being better than Jones was, with 2500 yards in 13 starts and a tidy 87QBR. We make it back in the playoffs with a 10-6, but Alexis struggles to ball out and we lose in the divisional. 2031: The weirdest season. Alexis starts off on fire and is even on early MVP watch, except after week 8 he has a season ending bout of depression (no joke, that was the injury), Butler takes over and somehow does better at a 119QBR across three games before he blows his knee out, the third stringer shows up, and he also gets injured (lol). We end up having to sign a guy cut by the Rams, and he shakily hauls us to a 12-4 finish (most wins were Alexis/Butler). To make things worse, we didn't even get the bye! I expect the worst, but the kid (Cory Barnes, 6th rounder) suddenly starts balling out, and before we know it we're in the Super bowl where we face off against the Chargers... And completely annihilate them 37-7 and win our first super bowl! Cory Barnes does the Nick Foles and carries a stricken team with a dubious offense to our first ring, and Butler of course takes the ring and retires. 2032: I am believing again, revived by the ring, it's time to run it all back. Barnes gets a contract to backup Alexis, and we finally draft a few decent looking receivers. Having gotten therapy, Alexis comes back swinging and gets a fantastic 3000 yard season on a 100QBR, ending in the top 3 in rating and TDs (24, we are a rushing team) despite only 12 starts, he could have become MVP if he had been healthy. And with another 12-4 I feel confident for another bowl run and we almost get it, only getting sent home in the NFC final against eventual winner Green Bay. And that is the current state of affairs. After 13 seasons we are going strong, the winningest team in the NFL in terms of regular season success. Despite that, we missed the playoffs six times because the 49ers/Rams are always dangerous (and I guess the Cards are also there with 2 playoff appearances, lol). When I dropped Daniel Jones I expected nothing from Alexis, because his abilities looked 'meh' at best, and I had plenty of meh with Daniel Jones. But that's what I love about FOF8 because he proved me wrong and was a big part in getting our first ring and following up with another NFC final the year after (which he actually made happen instead of the emergency backup). As a self rule I have never and will never tank, so I have been forced to work with late 1st round picks at best, so that's added a fun challenge. As well as mainly signing players that fit in the chemistry profile (which takes away a lot of good picks that *might* not work out). For some reason, I have always had a good defense going after the first seasons, but the offense has always been messy other than one stud RB who had 5 1000+ seasons until 2028, before falling off physically and becoming a backup (only 1 sub-500 season, even after the dropoff) until our title run (retired afterwards, good on him). Anyways, I might post future updates here. I have been thinking of posting a diary, but since I am already 12 years in it feels weird, and the past seasons are foggy. I'll post a few more stat dump pictures for the freaks among you who like that stuff! Fun fact, Kyler Murray is the leading yardage QB... The Cardinals have only made the playoffs despite that, clearly yardage isn't everything Team fact: In 13 seasons we have never lost against - The Browns (3-0), Steelers (3-0), Bengals (3-0), and Patriots (4-0) Seahawks history - League History - Bowl Results Career NFL Passing Leaders - Rushing Leaders - Receiving Leaders Tackling Leaders - Interceptions - Sacks League MVPs - Coach of the Year's Super Bowl winning box score

Fingers crossed Deshaun Watson's injuries are career ending and Snoop can become the star I want him to be.

Apparently the Pickett situation had been brewing since late last season where he allegedly refused to dress as the emergency backup. It sucks for him, but honestly he hasn't shown remotely the level of skill befitting a starter in the NFL, let alone one be a negative personality in the locker room. It's the harsh reality of sports in general, but if you find yourself on the push down all you can do to guarantee a career is to put your head down and keep working behind the scenes in the hope of getting the next chance. And he could've used being behind Russell as a way to improve himself away from the pressure, to learn tricks from a guy who has massive amounts of experience both with success and frustration. Instead he threw a fit, and finds himself on the bus to Philly where he will also be a backup. I hope he gets the hint, else I don't see him in the NFL beyond his rookie deal.

So is he lining up at Left Cheek or Right Cheek in the formation?

"We have Buddh at home"

Godfather Pt. 3

I actually finished it two weeks ago. It was great fun, and managed to hold my attention all the way through. It can become slightly tedious at times, but it just worked for me and being able to fight and hang out with some of my favorite Marvel characters is a blast. The balancing is quite well done, and all the characters have their own way of playing, too. Some are obviously better than others (late game Magik and Ghost Rider are obscene), but you rarely feel required to run certain parties to get through it. The friendship system feels a bit Fire Emblem-y, but once i realised that it only sold me further.

Somehwat connected, finally picked Secret Invasion back up and finished it this weekend. And I felt that on its own it's a perfectly fine, albeit generic popcorn romp of staving off WW3 by stopping aliens. But the issue with that, and a lot of the newer stuff, is that when you sit down and think of the overarching implications of all the things that did, put it in context of past established lore, it quickly falls apart and becomes a mess. Also, not related with the discussion, but maaaan did the whole "We gotta be nice to Russia" bit suck even when it came out? Obviously Disney never expected Russia to invade Ukraine, but honestly if I had been them, I would've reshot all the Russia specific beats and set it in Vague-y-stan, because it's just... very poor taste in general. Also, like with Marvels, SI was way too eager to completely nullify most of the things that happened in the grand scheme of things. Lots of things happening that are likely to be nothing more than a one-line reference in the big name films. Their no-depth policy really doesn't help make it all feel connected, and makes watching all the films and series feel less satisfying (when the whole inter-connected nature of things was one of the main selling points in earlier phases)

To add some context. Alyson Court refused to voice Jubilee again, instead advocating for them to cast an asian actress for the role.

Fair fucking beans to the Chiefs for clutching it again. They are a phenomenally ran team with clutch players. But I hope next year we can get a non chiefs Bowl.