Spiderweb

Are you another tool of the rich, or are you incredibly wealthy?. De-certifying in inexcusable, but breaking (OK, opting out, same thing) is not? Then in doing so, claiming costs, expenses, etc., that they're unwilling to show, but demand the players accept at face value? Owners greed is what's led to NFL licensed merchandise being ridiculously over priced, the raising of ticket prices, parking increases, PSL's, TV revenues. Remember, the players are (or were) capped at a percentage of the overall revenue, minus a billion of the top. The owners imply want more for themselves. Yeah, Peyton Manning is wealthy, but guess what, I believe most would prefer to watch Manning at QB than Irsay. Yet while Manning is wealthy, Irsay is incredibly rich. Mutli-year contracts will always apply in any business. To say otherwise is incredibly ridiculous premise. I began initially favoring the owners, but the more I've reviewed and understood about all this, it only made logical and moral sense to favor the players. Enjoy watching Irsay take the snaps this year......if there is a year for the NFL.

Right is right, and while it's simply not be comparable with your stores vs. employees, when you have an agreement, and one side decides to opt out and then demand concessions due to cost, expenses, etc., you can't somehow see that some tangible explanation and evidence of those costs is reasonable and logical? I take a simple view of all this, which is in today's climate, it all about working the employees harder, pay them less, reduce their benefits, all while those in power (control or ownership aka "the rich") take more for themselves, and get huge tax breaks besides. The times are not good for 95% of the USA, and far too many are so stuck on ideologies, they don't even realize the ones that they shooting in the foot are themselves. Why we have become so hell bent on making the ridiculously rich people richer is beyond me, and don't start with the myth that they create jobs. They do however, eliminate or export jobs, all in the name of furthering their own nests. Invest? Real investment is in growing a company, not in buying ownership into other companies. It does however increase ownership. The only constant in the last 35 years in the amazing continued rapidly growing concentration of wealth and ownership by the top 1%. The middle class has and continues to lose ground. Those are facts, not myths. Yet somehow we are led by some Pied Piper into believing giving more to those who already are incredibly well off is going to somehow help us? That's an ultimate act of insanity.

Mr. Mr. Mr. Weo....... How the initial basic premise of TV has escaped you. It's free to the viewer, who is inundated by advertisements in the hope of the advertisers that we will buy their products. Truth is, we often do. Those very same advertisers pay huge sums to the NFL for the right to broadcast the game. We all pay, some more, some less, but we all pay. The NFL doesn't print $$$, the TV networks don't print $$$, the manufacturers of the advertised products don't print $$$, but they all get their $$$ from the fans (and non-fans alike) that spend their hard earned $$$ on the products and services related to the advertisement. The little guy ALWAYS pays, in the the price of the products we buy, the tickets we purchase, etc. The little guy ALWAYS pays.

Of course your book is titled, "Dick and Jane". Watt has the size and quickness to play in a 3-4 or a 4-3. Looks to be a very solid player and should not be so easily dismissed.

Kelly is still running.......should finish in a year or two....

Just saw this: Tiki Barber?

Freudian slip? Wishful thinking?

Bangles

Not a bad thought.....

Strange choices for analogy......yikes!

That should end this thread.

I wasn't alone in not being happy he signed with the Vikes. Final nit-pick, the Bills (Donodud) made an offer, but it too little too late. It wasn't a simple "just not re-signed". Donodud thought he was smarter than everyone else and simply lowballed Pat, and then acted surprised that Pat walked.

First, Pat was not CUT. He was an FA and Donodud simply low balled him and he went elsewhere. Secondly, far more folks here wanted him to stay. Nice attempt at revisionist, inaccurate history., not............

Based upon how stout we were up the middle against the run, I'd say lay of the sarcasm. William is a 4-3 tackle...period, if he's to be most effective.

While your assessment seems accurate, Bell was a very raw prospect who has picked up his game considerably this past year. He did this primarily in pass blocking and penalty reductions, but he also was coming off knee surgery and his strength training was acknowledged as almost non-existent over the previous off season due to his rehabbing. This off season much is expected from Bell in improving his strength. Toward the end of the season, Bell seemed a bit out of gas as well as he allowed a few sacks late in the year after having given none thru a good chunk of the year. A healthy, stronger Bell makes our LT issues much less than they have been. I also see Bell as a LT, not a RT. The Bills definitely could use help at RT and I wasn't impressed with Pears, although Gailey seems to have given him favorable reviews. We definitely could use another RT. Depth is also a concern at Tackle. With Urbik and Rinehart, we seemed to have picked up depth and a possible new Guard so inside we appear better off now than when 2010 began.

Johnson was anything BUT sharp in the Music City Homerun Throw Forward game. He did however, make some plays to get us to where Christy's FG had given us the lead with 16 seconds to go. All three of these QB's suffered from a need of having a nine second pocket. All processed information too slowly to ever become a succesful NFL QB. Johnson and Losman had the physical tools. By the end, Edwards had become so pitiful it went beyond sickening.

:thumbsup:

Buddy Nix is 71 years old, and maybe to Ralph he's still a kid, but give me a break. Nix will listen as Ralph is his employer, but give nix a bit more credit and respect. He's old enough that pressure from his boss is no where near as effective as it would be if he was younger. Nix hasn't anything left to prove to anyone except to himself. Hopefully, that's to rebuild the Bills into a playoff quality team capable of winning it all.

I really like Williams blue collar work ethic, but heck keep in mind that he has been a integral member of the leagues worst run defenses in the league for multiple years now. I thought after 2009, we could not get any worse against the run so why not try a 3-4. We were worse. Williams is not a run stuffer, but more of a penetrator and as penetrators go, he's light years less effective than say Sapp, or Randle, or even Sam Adams was. It almost sounds like I don't like Williams, I do, but I can't help from remembering many a run between him and Edwards, and him and Schobel the year before. Our LBs didn't help much, but I'd like to see him not getting pushed out of a hole a sight more often.

A rather poor attempt at spinning the issue. Reasonably well run companies do make profits year in and year out. Sure, they're are some exceptions from time to time, but profitable years far exceed non-profitable years. I could have cited others, but I began with Exxon and GE both as as having not paid any income taxes, while being very profitable, and even worse, GE claimed 1.1 Billion in credits. Yes I have issue with this. I also have issue with "trickle down" economics, often spoke of in years past as Voodoo Economics, Regan-nomics, those very same policies championed by our own Jack Kemp (may he rest in peace). Promises of greater profit to a company, leading to or because of greater productivity, resulting in better wages for the employees simply has never materialized. Those dollars were totally absorbed by the top 1-3% of the income earners. The middle class over the past thirty five years or so has lost more than a hundred dollars a week in inflation adjusted wages. It's long past overdue to put this myth to rest. I would also submit it's long overdue to put another myth to rest, which is that the top 1% are the job creators and we must ensure they get tax breaks to spur employment growth (thru investments of the top %). That as well as not worked. We do however have many jobs in both manufacturing. software, and services that have been shipped overseas eliminating jobs for USA citizens. Again, the only profiteers of this has been the top 1% or thereabouts. When a nation's top employer is Wal Mart, low wages, very limited benefits to no benefits, it is not signaling good times for the huge majority of citizens.

It's a matter of balance. Their rates should be lower as the small businesses, unlike the GE's and Exxon's cannot write off what they do or structure themselves off shore (taking jobs away from the USA by the way), end up paying considerably higher percentages. Lower the rates, even considerably, but everyone has to pay. Everyone wants a strong Defense, roads, bridges, police, fire depts, most want schools, reasonable health care, etc., etc., etc. It all costs money. As a note, profits haven't correlated in more jobs in a long long time. Where there is a direct connection is with the personal incomes of the top 1% of individual incomes. From making 8% of the total income in the USA 35 years or so ago, the top 1% now makes 23 % of the total annual income and that's growing (exceeding inflation), whereas the middle class has lost approximately a bit over $100.00 a week in incomes (inflation adjusted) during the same 35 year approximate period. Jobs? Our business moguls have exported more jobs overseas and those taking their place are from the likes of Wal Mart, our number one employer. That's sad.

Yet another misinformed. While I agree wholeheartedly that the NFL should not receive one time of taxpayer money, you really might wish to consider what others pay in taxes around the world. The USA is actually on the low end individually. Where we have higher rates is in corporate rates, yet this isn't very meaningful when companies like Exxon and GE (and a host of others) paid nothing, zero, nada in 2009. In fact while GE paid zero, they also gained 1.1 Billion in credits. Our corporate rates should be lowered, but to pay ZERO? Tax rates

I would have to debate that Joe Ferguson's rookie year was of any redeeming value, even for a rookie. He had a 44% completion rate, less than 12 passes attempted per game, 4 tds against 10 interceptions, and a QB rating of 45.8. Yes, he was reasonably proficient in handing off to OJ and Braxton though.

A bit shortsighted, or maybe you are a cruel person. I would ask then how would this type of arrangement effect those already retired from the game, with their physical well being already in serious jeopardy? Let not forget their contributions to building the game into what we see today, and their lack of having been recipients of a pay scale system today that might be to afford your premise, without getting into additional flaws in your premise. I must admit a bias against a system that's a throw back to a day when no one cared about anyone else but themselves. That's a dangerous system bound to fail as we are seeing around the world today, and throughout the history of mankind.

Whether the NFL is or isn't similar in operation as would be a socialist society didn't need to be interjected into this discussion, unless you feel so inclined to take every opportunity, cheap or not, to make your political statements. To say the idea proposed by the OP is wonderful (and here's why) or it is preposterous (and here's why) would have been far more contributory and civil. Personally it seems more than a bit misguided.