Billy Claude

The NFLPA is supposed to get the best deal that they can get for the players. It is not the purpose of the NFLPA to protect the owners from themselves. NFL players get 48% of football related income. NBA players get 51% and NHL players get 50%. The average NBA salary is about $12M, the average NHL salary is $3.5M and the average NFL salary is $3.2M. NBA and NHL contracts are mostly guaranteed while most NFL contracts are not even though NFL players have shorter careers and are more likely to have serious injuries. Increasing the fraction to the players to 50% will drive zero teams out of business nor will it affect ticket prices, how many streaming platforms games appear on nor how many international games there are. No matter how you look at it, the NFL players have the worse CBA is any major sport.

The players do have a problem with the NFLPA leadership. They ousted the previous president of the NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith for giving away too much to the NFL during the last contract negotiations in 2023 and they don't seem to be too happy with the new one also. I would not be surprise if he is also ousted when his contract runs out. Like I said before, they should have gotten a lot more for agreeing to go to a 17th game.

It is would have been something that players don't like and would have been incredibly easy to get given how much the NFL wanted the 17th game, something akin to getting floor mats when you buy a car.

What surprised me was that the union was so weak they couldn't have at least gotten rid of the franchise and transition tag in exchange for adding game 17. They left so much on the table in the last negotiations that it wouldn't be shocking to me if someone at the top of the NFLPA was on the take.

Don't want to be too cynical, but it reads like it was written by his agent. However, if he really was able to stay off social media for 6 months, it is already a sign he has matured.

I don't want to butt in on the pleasant back and forth but I really don't remember much criticism of the trade when it happened. I am sure someone can dig up something critical but l think that 99% of reviews of the trade that it was a understable move for the Bills and that it was a reasonable risk to take for the Chiefs. As for teams passing up on Mahomes, at half of them desperately needed a QB immediately (Browns, Bears, 49ers, Jets) and others teams could have done what the Chiefs did and red-shirted Mahomes a behind a declining starter (Chargers, Panthers, Bengals). The Browns and Panthers could be excused for picking Garrett and McCafferty but otherwise those other teams did much worse than the Bills. The other two teams also needed QBs but were not ready to give up on recent high draft choices (Titans, Jaguars). The trade by the Bills turned out to be a bad move in hindsight but in no way was it regarded as a ridiculous move at the time.

The NFL treats retirement as a pause in the contract status and Waller had three years left on his contract with the Giants so they still held his rights. Brady had signed a three year contract in 2019 that was essentially voidable by either side after each year. Supposedly Brady was asked to take a pay cut which the Patriots knew he would not accept. So Brady voided the contract and was an unrestricted free agent when he signed with the Bucanneers.

Johntay Porter was a bench player for the Toronto Raptors. In the spring of 2024 he removed himself from two games claiming injury in which there was an unusual amount of money betted against him making his average points, rebounds and assists numbers. This was flagged by one of the sports betting firms and he eventually pled guilty and was banned for life from the NBA. Terry Rozier did something similar while he was on the Carolina Hornets in 2023. He was their big free agent signing at the time so a much more well-known than Johntay Porter. The NBA investigated and cleared him at the time but now Rozier is under federal investigation. Probably it didn't make as much news as it might because, first the NBA tried to keep it as quiet as possible, especially with respect to Rozier and second, both the Raptors and Hornets were very bad teams that had zero chance to make the playoffs.

The recent Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier scandals didn't have much effect on the NBA.

On the evidence part. this is what I found -- it is a small study of 500 Australian gamblers split into groups of those who gamble in game and those that don't. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7644858/#:~:text=Those who bet in-play,betting%2C holding other variables constant. They found those that bet in-played had more problem gambling issues. The study is certainly not definitive since their two groups were not from the same socio-economic background though they tried to account for those factors. Note also that in-game betting is not allowed in Australia so you have to do it via off-shore websites.

It won't ruin the NFL or sports but it will ruin many people and their families. There should be some control: 1. Ban advertising for gambling the same way it is banned for cigarettes. This has the added advantage of not having to see Kevin Hart every 10 minutes. 2. Ban the use of credit cards for gambling. This is already true in the UK and many states. 3. Ban gambling in any event that already started. If you can't enjoy a game without placing a bet on whether a team will score on the next drive, you are definitely an addict. This means when an addict loses a prop bet they at least have to switch to another game to get their fix.

My guess is this is just about a rehash of Brown's widely reported Chapter 11 filing last year rewritten to make it sound like it is new or, quite possibly based on MLFootball's reporting standards, they didn't even know or care whether it is new or not.

Willie Totten -- started two games at QB during the 1987 strike. Set numerous college records as Jerry Rice's QB at Mississippi State. IK Enemkpali -- broke Geno Smith's jaw because Smith laughed at him when he asked for his promised reimbursement for plane tickets to a Smith charity event. Marlin Briscoe -- first black starting QB in the NFL. Started 5 games in his rookie year with 14 TDs for Denver in 1968 before being traded to Buffalo after he found out Denver wanted to convert him to CB.

It's not a puzzle why the Jets are doing this and it is not because they will make money selling the tickets on the secondary market. The odds of them making money is the same as the odds of the Jets having a realistic shot at the playoffs this December. It has to be the Jets are having trouble getting people to renew their season tickets (not surprisingly) and they are offering an enticement that not only encourages the renewal of seasons for the 2025 season but also for the 2026 season.

I don't think the comparison in the original article is very useful. First, 2002 was before the passing game explosion so receiving numbers back then would be lower. Secondly, why compare someone's rookie season to career averages? Third medians are more useful than averages since averages will be more affected by complete busts and injuries. There were 16 WR drafted from #28 to #38 since 2014. 6 of the picks were last year. Coleman was 11th out of 16 in receptions and 7th out of 11th in 16 in yards. That pretty much put him as an average late first/early second rookie WR. The issue is that the Bills could have picked two of the players who did much better statistically than him including McConkey who had the best rookie WR season in a long time. Here are the rankings: By receptions 1. Ladd McConkey 2024 82 2. Kelvin Benjamin 2014 73 3. Tee Higgins 2020 67 4. Xavier Worthy 2024 59 5. Deebo Samuel 2019 57 6. Xavier Legette 2024 49 7. Elijah Moore 2021 43 8. Christian Watson 2022 41 9. Michael Pittman 2020 13 10. Rickey Pearsall 2024 31 11. Keon Coleman 2024 29 12. Zay Jones 2017 27 13. Phillip Dorsett 2015 18 14. N'Keal Harry 2018 12 15. Ja'Lynn Polk 2024 12 16. Devin Smith 2015 9 By yards 1. Ladd McConkey 2024 1149 2. Kelvin Benjamin 2014 1008 3. Tee Higgins 2020 908 4. Deebo Samuel 2019 802 5. Xavier Worthy 2024 638 6. Christian Watson 2022 611 7. Keon Coleman 2024 556 8. Elijah Moore 2021 538 9. Michael Pittman 2020 503 10. Xavier Legette 2024 497 11. Rickey Pearsall 2024 400 12. Zay Jones 2017 316 13. Phillip Dorsett 2015 225 14. Devin Smith 2015 115 15. N'Keal Harry 2018 105 16. Ja'Lynn Polk 2024 87 The good thing is that the pre 2024 receivers had an average of 6 more receivers and 75 more yards in their second seasons.

That was the game in which one of the 49ers said they knew exactly what the Bills were doing but they couldn't do anything to stop the Bills. That's probably the goal of every OC in the NFL.

How is the bond for attempted murder charges only $10,000? That seems crazy low.

This lends credance to the rumors that he was just waiting to sign so he didn't have to answer questions about why he didn't show up to OTAs.

Is this true? Not whether Allen does or does not have supreme world ethic but whether that Allen is known around the NFL as an incredibly hard worker. Outside of the lock-down year when he was 24/7 with Palmer, I don't remember a large number of stories from the national media about how hard he works. I do remember stories about how competitive he is but that is not necessarily the same as working hard at it. The only stories that I recall (post-lockdown) are the ones where he said he doesn't watch too much film and some talking head comments that he relies too much on his talent and not enough in preparation. Again, I am not questioning whether he works and prepares hard but whether that is his image around the NFL.

FWIW, there were a lot of whispers (though denied by Pickett) that he did not behave professionally when he was benched by the Steelers: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/steelers/2024/01/02/steelers-kenny-pickett-blasts-rumors-he-refused-to-dress-as-backup/72085492007/

Yeah, I can't believe I missed out on my shot with Hailee either.

The Browns clearly thought Gabriel was going to go early in the 4th round, otherwise they wouldn't have picked him at the end of the third. I doubt they would be willing to risk losing their investment so quickly unless he looks absolutely awful in training camp.

I don't think that they will risk trying to sneak a third round draft choice through waivers. Unless they have a fortuitous IR situation I think they will trade one of the QBs before cutdown for whatever they can get, most likely Pickett. If they lose Gabriel to a waiver claim the Amari Cooper for Dillon Gabriel would be the most lose/lose trade since Sammy Watkins for Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel.

What about Dillon Gabriel? The Browns used the 3rd round pick they got from the Bills for him. My guess is that they will try to trade Pickett for whatever they could get for him and go with Flacco, Gabriel, and Sanders. They won't risk putting Gabriel and Sanders through waivers where chances are pretty good someone will pick them up.

There seems to be a disconnect between great hands in college and the NFL. Josh Reed and Zay Jones were also suppose to have great hands coming out of the college but neither displayed that in the pros. I don't remember any great catches by Kincaid either.