" I’m less convinced about him as a human being. I am always skeptical of people who are totally estranged from their entire family."
I can think of many reasons why someone would be estranged from their family. Who knows. I do respect his decision not to talk about it publicly, something his family hasn’t had the class to do. I wouldn’t hang my hat on comments from a contestant on the Bachelorette.
Yes I knew that. So what? Does that make the content less true? Every transgression by every team on that site is backed up by media links. Yes some of the commentary is a bit snarky. I didn’t even mention the rankings.
The 49ers were fined $300K and their execs fined $600K, and they were docked two draft picks for salary cap violations. A HoF receiver admitted to continuous, long-term equipment violations at least as egregious as slightly under-inflating a football. Steve Walsh admitted to bribing ball boys to keep the balls warm in cold weather. So where’s the outrage, where’s the obsession?
Denver was fined almost $2million and docked 2 draft picks for salary cap violations that let them keep both John Elway and Terrell Davis on the team. They won the Super Bowl in 1997 and 1998. Do you think cheating so that you can keep two future HoF’ers on your team might be significant? Yet no one has a cutesy name like “Cheatriots” for them or obsesses over an asterisk or whatever.
What is a more severe offense - putting a camera in the wrong place, or subverting the salary cap to keep two MVP, pro-bowl caliber players on your roster while winning Super Bowls?
And I get that a lot of this is a product of our times, if social media was a thing back in 1996 when the Broncos were cheating their way to Super Bowl wins, it might be different. And penalties under Sheriff Goodell are far more severe than under past commissioners, who knows what he would have done to the Broncos.
More like, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Actual football talk:
Jacksonville is one of the few teams with the defense to disrupt the Patriots’ offense, which everyone knows how to do but few have the personnel to accomplish - generate a pass rush up the middle with your front four, while checking the receivers at the line to disrupt the timing of their patterns. So I am worried about this game. Jacksonville is completely schizophrenic on offense though - how does the same team that scored only 10 points against the Titans or 10 points against Buffalo (their prior two games) suddenly light up the Steelers for 38? It’s very up in the air IMO, so there’s a good chance all you Patriot haters will see your dreams come true.
I will admit Jaxson de Ville is a much better mascot that Pat Patriot. 
I can’t see any way for the Eagles to get past the Vikings. They just can’t generate enough offense with Nick Foles as qb, and Minnesota’s defense is too good. 15 points is not going to get it done this week.
So we could see Bortles v. Keenum in the Super Bowl… if you predicted that at the beginning of the season, you are smarter than me. 
Yeah, I don’t know why everyone is assuming that the Patriots have their way with the Jaguars this year. Except maybe out of habit. I’m with the folks who think Brady is a great quarterback and not-so-great person, but he has been less a great quarterback when I have watched him this year than ever before. And the patched-together defense the Pats always field hasn’t quite delivered the level of awesome that past groups attained.
Since week 5 or so, the Patriots have had the #1 scoring defense, which is really the only stat that counts. In 13 games since then they’ve only given up more than 20 points twice.
I don’t trust them though. The huge pass they gave up at the end of the Steelers game to give them a chance to win it is the perfect example. Retirements and injuries have really depleted the defense, to the point they are picking up 39-year-old cast-offs and playing him 30+ plays a game.
So I don’t really know what to expect. I keep waiting for someone to blow them up and hang 30-40 on them, but since they got their act together after the first four games no one has been able to.
If you’ve read the court documents on the deflate gate (and I have) it was all about whether the commissioner had the power to inflict any penalties he wanted to under the player’s union contracts with the league. They were long past whether there had to be any evidence or whether the commissioner had to be fair. It was all about the power of the commissioner.
Kraft paid the $1M immediately because he thought it would all go away. Money doesn’t mean much to the teams, they have tons of it. Belichick deals draft picks like poker chips, takes players for1at round picks, picks up good players with 5th rounders.
Ask Jerry Jones how happy he is with giving the commissioner power after Elliott was suspended for 6 games.
Go Jaguars!!!
I’m not relying on comments from the Bachelorette. I have cousins who know the family well.
@nikolateslaxi I know he has experience but he struggled against the Cowboys and the Raiders, and he did not play well in the first half of the game against Atlanta. If he’s playing well, great, but he’s been inconsistent.
We live about 5 miles from the site of the superbowl. In fact, we’re close enough that we’re getting out of dodge for the weekend because it’s going to be difficult to move in our usual areas. All my kids activities are cancelled that weekend just for the Superbowl.
On that note, SKOL VIKES! My parents had season tickets starting in the 70’s. It’s been a long sad road for Vikings fans and it would be amazing to just get them to the superbowl.
This discussion is making me a Jaguars fan, at least for next week.
@MusakParent, you should rent out your house for the weekend! Agree, it is has been a long road for MN fans. Almost as long as for the Lions (my dad’s favorite team).
Cheating is cheating, but why should I be “outraged” or “obsessed” with events that took place two decades ago and the cheaters are retired, ill or dead? Should we reopen the Benghazi Investigation, Kennedy Assassination or 911 Investigations? How far back do you want to go? The 49ers last cheated in 2000, according the 'yourteamcheats." Denver pre-2000. Brady and Belichick are still working, they cheated just recently and I’d bet they’re still likely cheating. If there was an award for cheating, IMO, the Patriots would win the award for “Biggest Cheaters.”
And did those past cheaters come up with moronic excuses like I threw my phone away, “I erase texts,” or the ball boy lost weight so we called him The Deflator? Piss poor excuses that don’t cut it. Even South Park lampoons Brady (and Belichick too), in “Stunning and Brave,” that’s how rich the material is. Bottom line, the Patriots have recently cheated a couple times, and they’re morons for not fessing up and telling the truth.
And why is Belichick bumping refs? The model coach in my mind is Steve Kerr of the Warriors. He may get a T every once in while, but he knows how to actually talk to the media like their human beings doing a job and he’s not trying to intimidate referees.
For the record, it’s Bill Walsh, a Hall of Famer. Not Steve Walsh.
And for the “yourteamcheats” website, other readers here may want to know that the information posted there is tainted with Patriots bias. And it’s obviously not been updated with “Deflategate” interestingly enough.
“Real Football Talk” :)) Jags win it. because they have the best combination of QB and defense, though the 49ers did spank them 44-33 with Jimmy G at QB.
I’m not saying you should be, but you seem pretty outraged about the Patriots’ cheating. Yet if you objectively look at the Patriots’ “crimes”, the punishment is either wildly overblown for the offense (Spygate) or there’s no actual evidence that they committed the infraction.
Spygate was over 10 years ago, when are you going to let it go?
Sorry, I meant Steve Young.
The same Bortles who put up 10 points against the Bills and 10 points against the Titans?[
If that Bortles shows up, it doesn’t matter how good Jacksonville’s defense is.
Let it go? Never. I’m kidding. I really don’t care, but someone pages ago asked what bothers “you” (us) about the Patriots and Brady. And folks answered. No one stays up at night inserting needles into their Patriots dolls. :))
Also, instead of just saying, “Hey, my team cheated, that’s not OK,” Patriots fans will fervently, even voilently, attack anyone who even dares to challenge their team’s legacy. Cheating is bad, the cover up is typically worse.
Peyton Manning was just plain awful, could barely throw the ball 10 yards in the air, in Denver’s SB win in 2016 and they won with what I believe was the best D in the NFL, or one of the best D’s. Some really bad QB’s have won the Super Bowl over the years, but the D better be top notch. What worries me about the Jags is that Jimmy G shredded the Jags D and the blueprint for attacking the Jags D is on “film.” Ravens won the SB with D too.
In fact, in two of their last four games, the Jaguar defense has given up over 40 points. Against decent competition (Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals) they gave up 27, 27, and 30 points. And they played a last-place schedule this year, too.
So their D may be somewhat overrated. I hope so, anyway. [-O<
The spread is Patriots -9 or -10, and bookies are no dummies. So it looks like the Pats in the SB. ^#(^
Nah, the spread isn’t about who the bookies expect to win, it’s set to get the wagering to be split equally on both sides.
The Patriots were 14 point favorites against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. How’d that work out for them?
That’ll swing the spread a little here or there, but generally, the spread is a reasonable representation of what the experts and their computations expect for an outcome.
At gametime, the Seahwaks-Patriots SB was a pick’em and the game did come down to one moronic pass play at the goal line at the end of the game, which was intercepted by Malcolm Butler. There was one instance where I was actually rooting for the Patriots, because I hate the Seahawks, the dumb 12th man and their piped in crowd noise more than I hate the Patriots. =))
So much hate. B-)
I hate the Seahawks too, although not as much as the Jets. and maybe the Ravens. I was very happy that none of them made the playoffs this year. Most of my family are Ravens fans, so that was entertaining.
It’s a little hard and not that much fun to hate the Jets lately, because of their long-term suckitude. Schadenfreude only goes so long. And they did make the Brady Era possible.
Can’t stand the Seahawks either. Glad they didn’t make the playoffs :). I’m sure I am going to get some backlash from this post but I tell it as it is.
– Minnesota had a clear franchise quarterback: Teddy Bridgewater.
– Case Keenum and Nick Foles had been involved in a quarterback controversy playing for the Rams, with Keenum essentially besting Foles. Foles had come to the Rams from the Eagles, where he had been ensconced as the starter after many others had failed to thrive in the role, but was traded for Sam Bradford when then-wunderkind coach Chip Kelly was given control over personnel issues. Keenum had originally been signed by the Texans as an undrafted free agent and had chiseled out a career as a journeyman backup.
– Sam Bradford (as of now the Vikes’ backup) was the established starter for the Eagles. He had previously been the quarterback of the future with the Rams, but had seen his career stall out due to injury and to some extent mediocrity.
– Pat Shurmur, the Vikings offensive coordinator, was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and interim head coach, having replaced Chip Kelly after Kelly was fired before the end of the season.
The quality of the magic with the Eagles is special right now, very bittersweet, like nothing I have experienced before. As with any team having a great season – certainly including the Vikings – they have overcome all kinds of adversity, including the loss or extended absence of a dozen players thought to be key to the team’s success when the season began. By midseason, the Eagles could do no wrong. Every game involved multiple plays on offense that went off without a hitch, and multiple other plays in which certain loss was unaccountably transformed into great gains or touchdowns. The defense looked among the best ever.
But at this point, all of that is just a memory. Carson Wentz was not replaceable by Nick Foles, and the drip-drip of major and minor injuries has caught up with everyone. There is little or no beauty or magic left to the Eagles, but they keep on playing because they haven’t lost yet. If they win, it will likely be by surviving trench warfare a tiny bit better than their opponent, by scratching out an extra field goal, somehow only missing tackles on the opponent’s side of the field, staying just this side of interference as the clock ticks down. If they win, it will likely be a prosaic tribute to the beautiful team that dominated games in October and November. They don’t have the choice to be beautiful like that anymore, and for that reason they’ll probably lose this weekend or the game after that. But until that happens, they’re playing to keep the connection to the real magic that was alive another week.