TheBrownBear

I have no doubt about that. I knew some athletes that were dumb as rocks. But then again, I took a freshman writing/literature class and I was horrified by how many of my fellow non-athlete classmates couldn't form a single coherent thought in their writing. It was shocking. Multiple 18 year olds who couldn't write as well as my 7 year old son.

Yikes! Sounds like he really tied one on the last couple of days.

Clearly! Look at that chain around his neck and his defiant glare in his mugshot!!!

Sounds like he'd fit in with Mac Jones. Pats should sign him.

Athletes get perks, yes. And the way bigtime college athletics is set up is a joke to begin with. For the majority of schools, they'll take anyone who can write their name and then stick them in a bunch of bogus classes to keep them eligible (e.g., North Carolina). But playing football is essentially a full-time job for them. It ain't easy, physically or mentally, busting your butt the way these guys do at top college football programs, and then trying to play the role of full-time student as well. Having said that, Stanford does have much higher academic standards for incoming athletes than the rest of Division I. I too attended a top-25 school with high-major Division I athletic programs (football, basketball, baseball, etc.). It was well known that the "true student athletes" first choice was almost always Stanford. There were many football and basketball recruits where we had to sit and hope that they wouldn't clear Stanford admissions, so we could get them at our prestigious university. As I said, Stanford pretty thoroughly vets their incoming athletes. If Sherman got into Stanford with a 1080 SAT (not sure if this is true, but it's been quoted in this thread), you can be sure there were plenty of other non-athletic (academic, leadership, community involvement) factors that led to him receiving a Stanford offer (like being a salutatorian and having a 4.2 GPA). The guy clearly isn't intellectually stupid (I'll reserve judgment on Sherman's decision-making until the facts of this case come to light). Also, as an aside, there's plenty of shady behavior and systematic cheating among the general student population at top schools. Heck, in my fraternity we had a huge test bank and term paper library that we could use if needed (I didn't, but it was certainly available to me). It's not exclusive to athletes.

AP classes are weighted higher, so you can actually come close to having a 5.0 GPA on the 4.0 scale. I think my graduating high school GPA was something like 4.34.

Probably, one of these videos on the Players Tribune. Comes across very thuggish and violent. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/videos/theyre-gonna-use-us-up-by-richard-sherman https://www.theplayerstribune.com/videos/eat-well-play-well-richard-sherman-kelley-ohara-charity-morgan

I don't know about the SAT (I didn't do any prep), but for the LSAT (which, btw, Mensa accepts for admission), test prep makes a huge difference. I've witnessed a lot of folks go from mid-150s (slightly above average) to 168-172 because of intensive test prep. That's the difference between going to Duke vs. Georgia State School of Law.

He also was his school's salutatorian, was voted most likely to succeed and graduated with a 4.2 GPA. He's no dummy.

You're right in that he's no genius, but an 1100+ SAT on the old scale is above average. It's not as if he's an idiot from a pure intelligence perspective (not decision making obviously). But yes, nowhere close to normal admit scores for Stanford (any Ivy or any other top 25 university).

I have a James Hardy jersey. Got it right before his rookie season.

Regarding Herbert, I just watched his entire 2020 highlight video and he's like a clone of Josh. Huge, accurate arm, extends plays with his legs, tough to bring down, etc. I think Josh is the better runner, but Herbert is very close to Josh in overall athleticism. Dang, there are some great young QBs in the AFC.

I like how Josh's only "con" is that he's sometimes too competitive and tries to make the best play. That's like the answer you give in an interview to "what is your biggest weakness?" Lol.

I say 13-14 wins and another AFC Championship Game appearance, but obviously hoping for more and honestly believe we have what it takes to win it all this year. It's just that there's still some really strong teams in the AFC and anything can happen in the postseason. At a minimum, I want to see us repeat as division champs and win all of our home playoff games.

Davis is ascending. Good size, great hands, good route runner and hard worker. Also, after all the praise we've heard about Hodgins, I wouldn't be quick to dismiss him either. Excited about the kid from Houston too as a slot/burner type. The three of them could be our future receiving corps (along with Diggs) as early as 2022.

I will say it is interesting how quickly the Falcons released Mingo. Sex crime allegations against NFL and college players in the past (Big Ben, Travis Henry, Jameis, etc.) didn't lead to immediate releases. Would Mingo still be on their roster if this was a teenage girl?

True to an extent, but if you're a good player and playing the correct tees for your age, you should still be able to shoot a respectable score. My Dad is 67 and still regularly scores in the 70s and shot 72 last year in a tournament. Still beats me a good amount when we play, but he plays the whites and I play the tips. My grandfather was still occasionally breaking 80 in his late 70s. The point is, a good golfer isn't shooting back to back rounds of 104/105, even at age 77, unless they are injured or have a terrible case of the shanks or something. He's saying Al Michaels sucks...lol.

"Tim and Eric Awesome Show. Great Job!" is probably one of my 5 favorite shows of all time (sort of a send up of low budget public access television). A must watch for fans of absurdist/bizarre humor.

I remember watching this game and feeling as if we were never really in it despite being down by just a few points for the majority of the game. Felt like Cincinnati was clearly the better team and could put their foot down on our throat whenever they needed too. Also didn't help that there were 20+mph winds during the game.

I agree with Simms. Not really high on either guy, but I've made exactly $0 in my long career as an NFL Scout from my couch.

I agree. I don't see it at all. He's physically mediocre, at best. He's small and fairly accurate, so everyone thinks he's the next Brees. Maybe, but I'll believe it when I see it.

No. Not sure on the numbers for this season, but his level of play and overall impact on the game will just continue to improve Barring injury, he will go down as one of the top 10 quarterbacks in NFL history.

Racism absolutely exists - among every country, culture and race. Some of the most blatantly racist people I have ever met were Black or Asian or other minorities or historically oppressed groups (LGBT). Of course, I've met plenty of racist whites too. The issue as it pertains to the United States is that white Europeans imported black African slaves for centuries, which obviously greatly influenced the power dynamic between American whites and blacks for generations. We have absolutely made great strides in the past 150 years to address the institutionalized racism that contributed to the disparity in QOL between the average American white and American black. But just looking at income, employment, incarceration, and average lifespan rates between whites and blacks indicates that we still have more work to do. So in that respect, like it or not, yes, America still has a "race issue". Now, I personally do have an issue with the public dressing down (and sometimes absolute destruction) of any individual who expresses the slightest bit of ignorance when it comes to racial or cultural sensitivity. These attacks on so called "microaggressions" or cultural appropriations serve no real purpose in progressing racial harmony. They are strictly about the dopamine hit awarded to the accuser. And unfortunately, mostly due to the Internet/social media, this seems like the path that we've chosen to tread down for the foreseeable future. This will do nothing but create new fissures between racial/ethnic groups and a more generalized stratification across society. As for the George Floyd stuff, I don't doubt that there are dirty/racist cops, but I'm of the opinion that it's more of a class and policing practices issue. Full disclosure - I'm a mixed race, straight man, raised in WNY who has lived all over this country.

Knox missed 4 games last year to injury/COVID, so it's not really fair to say he regressed. In fact, I thought he really started to flash down the stretch in the regular season last year. Hands seemed more reliable and he was being targeted more and more by Josh. Only 1 drop in his last 8 games (including playoffs) and he had 25 catches for 242 yards and 4 TDs during that stretch. Not a world beater by any stretch, but promising numbers for a 2nd year project tight end. Having said that, I'm still an advocate of grabbing Ertz in a reasonable trade. You can't have too many weapons and Ertz is a proven top-5 tight end when healthy.

Ertz would be a huge addition to this roster. Guy has one down year and most of that can be tied to Wentz sucking. He would be the best receiving tight end in team history.