He moved his teams from 6-10 to 9-7. Three different head coaches picked him as starter, and another one drafted him in the first round. You yourself said he was a respected leader. In one of his two healthy seasons, he finished second in MVP voting.
Those are all objective facts that seem to indicate that the guy did not suck. The only objective fact you’ve provided to support the idea that he was below-avaerage is that his winning percentage was above average. And* I’m* the one who is part of faith-based cult? :dubious: (And no, “I watched the games and I know in my heart” is not a fact-based argument.)
I ain’t saying he was an immortal; I’m saying he didn’t suck, and a longsuffering fanbase would be happy enough to have a healthier version him for a decade. For Cincinnati, the prospect of averaging 9-7 over next decade probably sounds pretty appealing.
So you’re saying that in fact Pennington did indeed only throw short passes? Cause I’m pretty sure I can go find some clips of him hitting deep receivers on occasion.
I cited a fact, in the context of a larger discussion. If want to argue that that fact is inaccurate or meaningless, that would be productive. If you have some other evidence that suggests that in fact Pennington was wholly incompetent at anything beyond ten yard passes, that would be productive. Rushing in to argue over something that was not said is not especially productive.
Me either. Apparently there’s been a big stink on ESPN radio due to Chris Carter telling one of the shows that he put out a bounty on Romanowski as protection because Mr Spitter yelled to him at the beginning of a game that he was going to “end his career”.
Bill denied this of course. His spotless reputation makes me inclined to believe him!
I was going to post this. I’m happy they’ll be the Minnesota Vikings rather than LA, and I guess I’m glad that the public is “only” on the hook for half the cost. But man, New Vikings Stadium, Target Field, TCF Field, Target Center (seems likely to get renovations), and Exel Energy Center, plus renovations at Williams Arena and Mariucci Arena…that’s a hell of a lot of money spent on sports.
Things I like about it: it’s downtown - I didn’t think Blaine would work at all because that’s a long way from the people in Edina, Eden Prairie, etc, where I’m guessing a lot of ticket holders live…Arden Hills is closer, but it’s that in need of Superfund work?..yes, it will be a dome, but at least that keeps MN a player for the Final Four, Superbowl, and such; and finally, it is apparently going to be soccer-friendly, so MN can get an MLS team and possibly host World Cup matches should the US get the WC again. Still, it’s a lot of money, and I’m sure some people will be voted out because of this.
I don’t have much sympathy for Minnesotans. The stadium situation they’ve created for themselves is utterly idiotic. Why do they have separate arenas for the Wild and T’Wolves? They have the luxury of having a Big Ten school in the same place as their major sports city, something very few FBS schools can claim, and yet they have complete redundancy of facilities. 2 football stadiums, 2 basketball arenas, 2 hockey arenas, 2 baseball fields. WTF?
When they got the Wild why did they build a new arena? When they built the Target Center why did they not make it functional for Hockey? They did have the Frozen 4 and were almost certainly hoping to get a Hockey team back.
I suppose I understand St. Paul and the University wanting to have their own facilities, especially for college basketball and hockey, but they should have compromised somewhere.
They knew the Superdome needed to be rebuilt when all of these stadiums were agreed to, and they knew that keeping the NFL was far more important than getting the NBA and NHL back. They should have pulled the trigger when the built TCF Field and gotten this done, or they should have said no to the Wild and retrofitted the Target Center for Hockey.
The Frozen Four was never held at the Target Center. It was held at the old St. Paul Civic Center, which was replaced by the Xcel.
The reason that the Target Center wasn’t built for hockey is that it wasn’t built with public funds. The original Timberwolves owners built it themselves, then ended up selling it to the city (after the 1994 mess that nearly sent the Wolves to New Orleans).
The Twin Cities have had at least two major indoor arenas dating back to the 1960s. Target Center opened in 1990 as the third non-campus arena. The North Stars were still in town at that point playing at the Met Center, so there was no thought to building a new hockey arena.
The X opened in 2000 after the NHL refused to allow a franchise to go to either the Target Center or to the Civic Center. The area was going to have two arenas regardless because of civic rivalry, so St. Paul tore down the Civic Center and built the Xcel.
When TCF was built, it was originally proposed as a joint Vikings/Gophers venture. It was shortsightedness on the part of the state legislature that prevented it. Essentially, the Vikings lease kept them from even threatening to move, so they were pushed to the back of the line. There was also no love lost for Red McCombs. Zygi Wilf has his detractors, but he’s far more loved as an owner than McCombs ever was.
And the Twin Cities weren’t going to let a chance for the NHL to return to slip away either. The Vikings are the most popular team in town, but Minnesota is a hockey state.
I think the elected representatives putting so much stock in personal grudges and not looking long-term falls under the heading “don’t have much sympathy for Minnesotans”: two taxpayer-funded football stadiums a few miles apart is clusterfuck that should lead to politicians getting fired.
In fairness, though … this is becoming pretty much the norm. I pray for the day Congress takes away pro sports’ monopoly protection.
The point is that the city held it and would be holding it often when the Target Center was built.
Public funds or no, that is an amazing oversight. The T’Wolves owners should have been interested in building an arena that could house the Frozen 4 and be the future home of an NHL team. Having 2 tenants is a windfall for a building owner, look at Reinsdorf and Wirtz in Chicago.
And they could/should have continued to have 2 instead of 5. One for professional sports and one for college sports. Considering the North Stars were still in town, and being considered for a move, it’s baffling that the Target Center wasn’t considered as a destination for the Stars.
Presumably this was because the Target Center wasn’t built as a Hockey Arena.
And now the citizens are paying upwards of a billion dollar for that pettiness. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The Eagles signed LeSean McCoy to a long term deal today. “Five-year, $45 million contract, which goes through the 2017 season, with $20.765 in full guarantees.” according to PFT. McCoy was still under contract for 2012 and this extension falls right in line with what Foster, DeAngelo Williams and Lynch got recently.
This is interesting to me largely because it will obviously impact what happens with Matt Forte. Forte is 26, compared to McCoy’s 23, Foster’s 25 and DeAngelo’s 29, and has similar productivity to these guys. Personally I think Foster and McCoy are slightly better than Forte because of Forte’s issues in the red zone, but Forte is more durable and well rounded. All in all, it’s tough to argue that Forte isn’t worth an almost identical contract.
So, with a little luck, the Bears will, for better or worse, probably be getting a deal done with Forte soon with this rock-solid comp out there in the news. I can stomach a 5-year, $43M contract even if $8M+ per year is a little high for such a replaceable position. Then again, the Bears are going to run the ball a ton this year and we’ll need a horse back there to keep the offense moving and a rookie/free agent wouldn’t be able to protect Cutler on blitzes nearly as well.
I think all this will apply to the Ravens and Ray Rice’s negotiations too.
The Packers signed former 32nd overall pick Phillip Merling today. I remember liking Merlings’ potential coming out but haven’t seen much of him in Miami. This is one of those all upside FA signings. Merling underperformed but is young enough that there could have been mitigating circumstances. In many ways it reminds me of the Bears adding Okoye last year and that turned out to be something of a success. Hopefully Merling ends up being more of the Merriweather-type signing for the Cheeseheads.