Lombardi's_kid_brother

Nothing better sums up college sports than the most talented college player in years nearly ending his career because the shoes he was forced to wear so that his coach can make millions of dollars exploded on him while he was acting as unpaid labor for said coach. Seriously, what the hell are we doing?

No one really ever discusses the real fatal flaw with the XLF, and it's clear that the AAF learned from this. Vince McMahon's hype machine promised great, exciting football along with all the razmataz from wrestling. The razmataz was there. The football was dreadful. For about the first month of the XFL, the quality of the on-field product was basically prison league level. It looked like everyone had one days worth of practice. And ultimately people aren't going to watch bad football, especially when they are promised football reinvented. AAF under-promised and over-delivered on the quality. It seems like anyone who watched it thought, "This looks pretty good." They also over-delivered on the razmataz too, which - again - can only help. It's also pretty obvious that the NFL is a silent partner here, right? I assumed this was going to be a mess, but they really looked like football teams.

How long did these teams have to practice? I didn't watch a full game, but from what I saw, it looked like real football. The thing that killed the XFL when it debuted originally was that there was all kinds of pomp and circumstance, but the players looked liked they had never actually played with each other before. By the end of the year, XFL games were actually of decent quality, but by that point, everyone bailed. The first three weeks or so of the XFL was just awful as an on-filed product. This looked, well, like football. I think this is the fatal flaw of any pro league. NFL teams more less have 140 quarterbacks under contract. And only about 20 of them are any damn good. So any pro league outside of the NFL is going to have guys in that 140-160 range. And that means you get Christian Hackenberg.

I think it's pretty obvious that the AAF is backed in some way by the NFL. I mean, CBS Sports and ESPN - the NFL's partners - are treating this like a real sport worthy of respect. So, if there are now something like 40 teams with NFL quality talent on them, I don't know where that leaves the XFL in terms of talent. The XFL will basically be offering you the 160th best QB in America when you tune in. We are probably five years away from that, but I'm stunned at the backing that apparently is behind this. I thought CBS was going to treat it like absolute filler, but it's giving it the full platform treatment. If it grows into a legit minor league, which I'm beginning to think is really possible, I think it will eventually have it's Howard Schnellenberger moment. But I think it won't be an SEC coach. It will be a Neal Brown type. Going from a non-power conference immediately to a pro job.

Spurrier is the best.

National Signing Day is a televised event akin to the NFL draft. Clemson has three offensive assistants making $1 million a year. Student-Athletes are amateurs. One of these kids is doing his own thing. One of these kids just isn't the same. Which one of the kids is doing his own thing? Now, it's time to play our game. It's time to play our game.

Soul Man was pretty damn questionable even at the time. Roger Ebert gave it a terrible rating, though he was more on board with the concept that a lot of critics. I hate this idea that everyone was really dumb and then we all woke up at Lollapalooza in 1993. People knew that Soul Man was a dangerous idea that was executed badly. They knew that Amos and Andy should be buried and forgotten. This is not to say that every 'black face" moment is bad. That Trading Places scene is largely saved by the fact that the movie had become a total cartoon at that point. The better version of that joke is Gene Wilder in.....****.....whatever that movie was, because again, he knew how stupid the idea was but is encouraged by Richard Pryor. So, yes, in general, you can sometimes do blackface as comedy if prime Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor is standing next to you and you acknowledge how insane this concept is. But if you're going to a college Halloween party in blackface, you're a racist. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.00.

I for one cannot wait to see Kerrigan ten yards up field trying to get a sack on a third and 2 lead to Zeke Elliott.

Come. on. That's funny. Because John Wall has never showed up for a workout looking like he just three days on a yacht with four strippers. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/07/john-wall-team-usa-photo-twitter-reaction-wizards-basketball-nba

I imagine John Wall on an exercise bike just sweating really expensive Vodka that I've never heard of.

Is the plan really that AD will come to DC and be so impressed by the professionalism of John Wall and will enjoy playing with Dwight Howard so much, that he'll agree to sign a long-term deal? That's what you are selling? "Look, AD, John is working really hard to get back to the team. He's been sober during 80 percent of his rehab work. It's inspiring. And, seriously, the ninth time Dwight puts a whoopie cushion under you during an interview is when it really starts to get funny." They always zig when everyone else zags. It doesn't always work, but if 30 teams are looking for stretch 4s and 5s in order to play Warriors ball, it should stand to reason that there would be glut of guys with mid-range games. A super efficient mid-range game is not necessarily a bad thing. You can still win with a prime Wade-type player. It's a prime-Iverson type that really doesn't work in this era.

Thanks for the info. That was helpful.

I love the fact that only rebuild strategy anyone ever has is to copy the Cowboys under Jimmy Johnson even though that happened 30 years ago in an uncapped league. I think the problem with "tanking" in the NFL is that you turn over around 1/4 to 1/3 of the roster every year just in a matter of course. Suddenly filling the roster with guys who are there to be cut the next year, pushes you to 1/2 or even 3/4 roster turnover which really throws you into a cycle of chaos that will probably take 3 or 4 years to get out of - at which point all those #1s, #2s, and #3s you drafted in those heavily stockpiled drafts suddenly need their second contracts. The idea that you can grab, say, 30 guys in two years and keep them together for 5 or 6 years is simply not possible in the modern NFL. So, all you really are doing by stockpiling picks to one draft is condensing a three year plan to a one year plan and training your team to get the **** kicked out of it every week, because you are going to be horrifically bad in this plan.

I need one question answered: who is taking care of Ser Pounce?

I wanted to roll up Trevor Ariza in a carpet and throw him off a boat. But you live by the statistical certainty, and you die by the statistical anomaly. So, if I hadn't been cheering for them, I would have liked the universe conspiring there.