News & Notes

*** g r i d l i n e : sun04sep16 ***

Has it been 7 months? Seems like 10. If the players and owners would just cooperate with each other there would be so much added fun for the fans, and so much more moolah for the league. Fix this! Anyway, despite our seemingly endless belly-aching, we're so glad the season is here. There's so much more to life than family and friends and work and responsibilities. There's football!

As always, we want to shout "Congrats" and give a tip'o'th'hat to our newest Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees. They are Brett Farve, Kevin Greene, Marvin Harrison, Orlando Pace, Kenny Stabler, Dick Stanfel, Tony Dungy and Eddie Debartolo. You guy's were all memorable.

How tough was Kenny Stabler? Kenny invented the 'point', where he would interrupt the snap count and point directly to a Safety or a LB who was inching up to the line threatening to blitz louboutin shoes replica. He did it several times a game. You still see some hotshot QBs do it today. It looks a little chintzy, like the QB is reminding the RB to pass protect. A reporter in New Orleans asked a RB if he was a little embarrassed because Kenny was telling him his job. "Oh, man! You got it all wrong.", he said, "When Kenny points he's not telling us to be sure to pick up that guy, he's telling us not to worry about him. If he blitzes, Kenny's got him." That's how tough Kenny Stabler was.

Johnny Manziel needs to learn how to blow out without blowing up.

Self-defense, Cardell Hayes, really, self-defense? Maybe it would hold water if you hadn't chased Will Smith's car down, rammed it with your Hummer, and ran up and fired 10 shots into him and his wife Rolex Cellini replica. If it was prompted by a fender-bender that's overkill, but it's about right if you're seeking retribution for you're own dad being killed years ago by an acqaintence of Smith's, as Hayes' dad was.

We most recently saw the effects of an early start for west coast teams when Seattle fell way behind Carolina in last year's playoffs. Seattle finally woke up but still came up just short in the second half. In 2010 a reporter at a Seattle press conference called out Roger Goodell with regards to unfair start times, "We'll look into it." Here it is 2016, and we're still waiting.

Why is Josh Gordon suspended? The kid can catch more TD's than most receivers with his one free hand even if the other is holding a doobie.

Last month, scientists announced that marijuana alleviates Altzheimers. Those same guys are a hair's breadth away from announcing that marijuana alleviates CTE. With his suspensions for testing positive for marijuana, it's quite possible that Roger Goodell is subjecting the players to a life of anguish. Even more horrific, he may be obstructing the one thing that could save the league.

Our 2016 Churn Chart is up. We can't make confident choices just by looking at last season's stats. There are too many changes to all teams. The Churn Chart gives us a quick view of what we consider the most impactful personnel changes, from ownership to coaches to draft picks. We have to cherry pick the info from several sites to compile this report, and it's the only place you can get a snapshot of each teams evolution. It can be time consuming in the offseason and it's still undergoing modifications, but it's what we have to do to get ready for the season. You can decide for yourself if a particular change is bad or good, but no handicapper should go into the early part of the season without having this information at hand.

After Colin Kaepernick sat for the national anthem, former NFL Center and Green Beret Nate Boyer convinced him to at least take a knee. Geesh, Kaep, we only asked you to stand, you don't have to kneel.

Roger Goodell meant to reduce kick returns even more when he moved touchbacks to the 25-yard line, but the move had the complete opposite effect in preseason as teams kicked short of the endzone to force returns. This comes years after he made return men virtually defenseless when he took their human wedge away. It would be nice if they had someone at the top of the league who had an idea of how the impact of new rules would affect the game.

Carrie Underwood will return this year for a 3rd season doing the intro to Sunday Night Football. This year there will be a change to the intro song, replacing "I've Been Waitin' All Day For Sunday Night" - which is, of course, a takeoff off Joan Jett's rock hit "I Hate Myself For Lovin' You" - with "Oh, Sunday Night" - which is actually a takeoff Carrie's duet with Miranda Lambert,"Something Bad". It should be noted that Joan Jett's tune debuted in 1988 while the Underwood/Lambert colloberation hit the charts in 2014, so we know Ms. Jett's song has stood the test of time. "Something Bad" is a rockin' song, and no one has seen the video yet, but wouldn't it be wild if Miranda made an appearance.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!