MattM

Socialist? Huh? How so? As noted below, I think it chips away quite vividly at the integrity of the game when you have the guy who used to be head of officiating for the league now deciding he wants to be paid to help teams manage his former employees, some of whom he promoted no doubt and who probably look up to him as a mentor. Officiating needs to stay as independent as possible in my opinion. The dislike of Pereira comes from stupid ideas like this one he's displayed over the course of his career and is, in my opinion, well-deserved. Have you ever seen him interviewed? Call me crazy or old-fashioned, but I want my officials to look and act like the PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors you see get trotted out to announce the Oscar tabulations and not like Las Vegas lounge lizards, which is the vibe Pereira has always thrown off, between the hairdo, the jewelry and the Frank DeFord mustache. I don't know the man, and could be wrong about him, but I've never gotten a positive feeling about him from the times I've seen him interviewed, usually describing how his officials screwed up yet again (usually in a game involving a Pats*' victory on some fluke call or no call).....

What I'm worried about is fairly simple. Guys who use to work for him (and who he may have brought in/promoted) may most certainly show favoritism to teams he works for in the future--those who think otherwise are the ones being naive. If he starts doing this, this can most certainly become a "gravy train" for other so-inclined officials. If so, integrity goes right out the window, as such similarly inclined officials who want a similar gig themselves will almost certainly show deference to teams employing such retired officials (deserving or, more likely, not), if only to keep the market up for their services in the future and presto, chango, integrity goes further out the window than it's been and you effectively have refereeing for sale. The NFL needs to tell this greedy joker to stay retired.....

Did anyone else catch the announcement last week by former head of officiating Mike Pereira that he would like to "get into coaching"? He would like to start coaching teams on "how to cut down on penalties". What a joke--the guy is basically trying to make money off of his prior career as head of officiating. Talk about generating potential conflicts of interest, allowing refs to retire and then start coaching the teams they were just sitting in judgment of, or, in Pereira's case, getting paid to coach a team on how to avoid penalties from his former subordinates. What a slippery slope that is--it reminds me of high-ranking govt officials leaving office to take jobs in the private sector where they can "work" their former govt contacts to the tune of huge bucks. No one ever sees anything wrong with that, right? Give me a break. I always thought that Pereira looked and acted like the kind of guy who you wouldn't trust with the Lord's Supper, but this just confirms it in my book. If he's this greedy and sees no potential conflict here, who knows what he did do while he was officiating head. Just my two cents. I was actually pretty shocked that journalists didn't immediately shoot this down as just a stinking, rotten idea from head to toe..... http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/...ching/#comments

That's why my father told me at age 18 that if I ever got a motorcycle and brought it into his driveway he'd take it apart with a baseball bat (he had an old HS friend get into a bad wreck on one some many years ago.) I know motorcyclists love their bikes, but reading the stats on injuries/fatalities on them is downright scary. I have another friend who was involved in an accident with one and the driver of the bike was killed (he skidded out and hit the rear end of her car). All that said, I, too, wish him nothing but the best as he goes forward.....

Another reason the Pats* sign aging vets much more often than other teams may also have to do with their supersecret "Rodney "HGH" Harrison training program". Just sayin'......

Not lately they ain't. They ain' t been the Patriots* for at least 5 years now and that don't look to stop next season. 8-8 here they come.....

Interesting thoughts from one of my personal favorite up and coming football writers: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writ...lbag/index.html "Did you enjoy your time in Buffalo and is playing for them as bad as the perception is around the league? --@Shaunta53 via Twitter My wife and I loved Buffalo; it was our favorite team and best experience out of the five I played for (Redskins, Cowboys, Browns, Patriots). I guess it depends on what the individual is looking for, but it was really a family atmosphere in which everyone was welcomed with open arms and everybody hung out with one another socially. Other teams were not always like that." Maybe the team's rep with the players isn't quite as bad as some would make it out to be?

Too bad....so sad.....

I noticed the same statement in King's column and it also stuck in my craw, not for racism reasons, but because it shows how entitled athletes are in this society. "If Big Ben is at fault, then he needs to grow up." Uhh, no, Peter, if Big Ben did what he's accused of, Big Ben needs to go to jail.....

Plus one. I don't mind at all seeing players get worked up or emotional--it shows they care, which is more than you can say for a lot of them it seems.....

Taking a page from the Pats*' playbook, eh? (Not quite sure if the apostrophe goes before or after the asterisk--any Pats* fans want to enlighten me on that rule of spelling?)

Actually, the increases they're talking about are well above the general CPI inflation levels. This is just trying to get more cash--I don't mind if they spend it on the team, I do mind if it just goes into Ralph's pocket, but that's just me.....

Plus 1....

Don't get me wrong, I've been one of his biggest fans in the past, but (a) isn't he getting up there in age and more importantly considering which team we're talking about here (b) he's going to want a huge contract. I don't see this happening.....

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner......

My strong suspicion is that you watch a lot of Fox News--nothing wrong with that, but ever notice how there's a commercial seemingly every 20 minutes on that channel touting "free" Medicare paid for automatic wheelchairs/carts for the aged and infirm? They literally say that Medicare will buy you one of these and, if not, the company will give it to you for free. Anyone else appreciate the irony of that considering the channel it's airing on and the "let's shrink govt down to nothing (oh, yeah, except for my piece--don't touch that)" demographic the channel appeals to. Must work, otherwise that company wouldn't be advertising there. Sometimes this level of hypocrisy amazes even cynical old me....

Maybe it's just me, but not enough time has gone by for me to see this tragedy of a team/organization as a comedy.....

Anyone else find it interesting that the first three posters in this "rah, rah" thread all joined in the last few months--two of whom joined in the last few weeks, including the thread's author? Just sayin'......

Folks here don't realize that the current FO plans to spend little or nothing on FA's, so keep dreaming. Anyone else notice Ralph's reference to Nix building "via the draft" in the recent "thank you" card we received. There's your message. If you think we'll be big players in FA, prepare to be disappointed. What's frustrating about all of this is that if they were run as a normal company you'd expect them to have a budget and use that to play with. For ex., there were numerous reports that we were willing to offer Cowher $10 million/year to come here--in a normal case that $7 million savings (Gailey's making $3m) would then be available to pay players. Same with the Jason Peters $9-10m/year that was supposedly on the table to him before he was traded last year. That money seemed to evaporate once the trade was announced--for ex., it could have been used to sign other FA's on the market at the time, as there were still several potential upgrades to be had, like Pinoisamoa and Levi--making me personally wonder how serious they ever were to begin with. Lots of smoke and mirrors to keep us rubes hopeful. My, I've gotten cynical, havent' I?

Gosselin is actually a very good and knowledgeable writer, FWIW (and I'm not talking about this article in particular).

Are you f-ing kidding me? I come home to read this? I hope to God that I'm wrong, but what an awful pick. Are we that far gone that the best we can do are retreads like this? Pathetic......

I just hope he brings that flugelhorn with him when he comes--that would be awesome (although we'll probably hear it a lot less than the Vikes fans at the dome did today, since there needs to be a good play before they blow on it).....

Let's see, the guy is considered a great HC candidate by one of the best coaches/football minds in the game and somehow that's a negative to you? Take off the racist blinders (your last sentence is quite telling--Frazier's never said anything of the kind), please. After watching today's game against the Cowboys, where his D basically destroyed what had been considered a top 2 or 3 O in the League, please tell me you still have reservations about this guy being our coach?

Good move for the G-Men--many thanks and best of luck,Perry.....

My favorite line--"Yeah, I know, man, I thought he looked like a "Carlos", too".....