Thought it’s about time for a new thread about the next phase of the NFL season.
Browns camp this year features much more physical contact. A beat reporter said there was more contact on the first day than you’d see at a Crennel camp in a week. Which is good - I’ll trade the chance of a preseason injury against having the whole team show up in September acting like they don’t know how to hit a guy.
Chris Wells seems to be the first major injury of the preseason, being carted off for an ankle injury.
I’m glad to see the NFL network will be reairing all the preseason games this year - it sucks being out of the local market. Although it also sucks showing up at a sports bar at 1am on a sunday one week, and then 9am on tuesday the next, at least you can see the games. Sometimes you can find the game through alternative sources too.
By the time preseason rolls around, I’m so starved for football that if I can get my own copy of a game I end up watching every play in the preseason games 5+ times. But it does make me pretty knowledgable about the roster, top to bottom, on my team.
I’m stoked. I think Mike Zimmer is building a very good defensive unit for the Bengals…and it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that.
Also, Palmer appears to be healthy, the wide receiver group looks to be exciting again, Benson is fighting with defenseman for running “too hard”, the oline appears to be gelling…
I’m here running my carwash by myself today (saving precious labor dollars), and these two guys pull up, both wearing Packers t-shirts, they have Green Bay stuff on their car, etc, so I’m thinking these are a couple hardcore fans, right?
So I ring up the driver’s sale and as I’m giving him his change, an inspired bit of lame jokiness comes over me and I blurted out “I was just reading on ESPN.com that Brett Farve just signed with the Packers, and Aaron Rodgers committed suicide!”
The guys just stared at me blankly for an awkward moment, and the passenger goes “Again?”
Reairing the exhibition season is good? Why? The teams have the audacity to strongarm their season ticket holders to pay full cost for pre season . It is shameful. They don’t play their first line until a couple games are gone. Then they play them a quarter at most. The serious players beg off and don’t play 100 percent. But you have to pay like they are.
The last couple pre season games can give a little info on how well the team can play. The rest are a waste.
The purpose of the preseason games is to evaluate players in game situations. Practice is good, but you need to see some live fire time, too. I’m not sure we really need 4 preseason games, but they give the rookies and walk ons a chance to earn a spot on the roster.
As for the Saints, they’re staying at home for camp this year, rather than having camp at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS as they’ve been doing. New defensive coordinator this year, hopefully installing a new attitude. Still haven’t signed our first round pick. Shockey is in camp and healthy, apparently put in some time working with Brees over the summer.
Well, you know, cause I like football. And I’m interested in my team.
The ticket price issue does suck, but it doesn’t trigger my OH MY GOD I MUST BOYCOTT EVERYTHING THE RICH MAN IS RIPPING ME IN THE ANUS instinct.
By the time august rolls around, I’m desperate for any kind of football. And I like to know a lot about my team and the game of football. So I’m glued to preseason games. I want to see which D-lineman has the quickest first step. I want to see if the QB has worked on some nagging flaw. I want to see which O-linemen can’t get proper hip positioning and which linebackers overpersue when the other team runs misdirection in the running game. I want to see what the differences in technique are for the guy who can’t make the roster vs the best pro on the team.
People underrate the preaseason. They think that because the win/loss total doesn’t matter, then the whole thing doesn’t matter. But it does. If your QB can’t hit the broad side of the barn in preseason, or your defense can’t make a decent tackle, or your running back dances in the backfield, chances are that’s how it’s gonna be in the regular season.
Associated Press
BEREA, Ohio (AP) - Browns Pro Bowl nose tackle Shaun Rogers was limited during practice on Sunday with an unspecified injury.
NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
God I hope it’s minor. Last year I had to sit through the perpetual kick in the balls that was the '08 Browns season and the only thing I really found enjoyable was watching Shaun Rogers beat the shit out of everyone who dared get within 5 yards of him. He is brutal ass kicking in its most pure form.
If I were a Detroit fan last year, and I had to deal with historic sucking AND the knowledge that I’d traded away the only player on the team worth watching, I surely would’ve dove off a building.
Welcome to the pain of the Buckeye fan, buddy. Dude is the master of the stiffarm and the broad jump, but he’ll miss a few weeks for a sprained labia here and there, and without him your team WILL suffer.
I’m a Bills fan, so I await the TO meltdown. When we signed him I wanted to cry. There’s no way this ends well. He either does well and Ralph won’t pay him what he wants next year so he goes to some other higher-profile team, or he does horribly and takes the whole team down with him. As long as he takes Jauron and some of our management, I’m cool with it. Just keep Bobby April, for the love of God. Remember what happened the last time we fired a good special teams coach? I do, and I’ll be reliving it OVER AND OVER AGAIN before the Hall of Fame game.
Eagles camp is in full swing, with full contact. I’m trying not to get too excited about LeSean McCoy because then he’ll for sure be a bust. Reports have been good so far.
Already there have been injuries on the OLine, and that of Shawn Andrews is particularly scary. Hopefully it’s nothing. The OLine will be where this season is won or lost. Nothing else is as important.
It astounds me that Dick Jauron has been coaching in this league going on 10 years. The man is 57-76 and has only fielded one winning team – the 2001 Bears team which I consider the flukiest 13-win team I’ve ever seen, who were rightfully blown out in their only playoff game.
My first Lion season tickets were when they were playing at Tiger Stadium. It cost me 35 bucks a season. Then they started playing more games. When they added the exhibition games to the ticket package I got pissed because you could not give the damn things away. Yet I had to pay full price. I put up with it ,then they moved to the Silverdome. When the dome first opened , they had a leaking problem . The dome gathered water in a couple spots and leaked onto some seats. Mine was one of them. I had to pay full price for a seat I could not use.
The LIons were 4 and 0 in exhibition last year. What did that tell you about their season.
I just got back from my surprise 40th birthday party (my actual bday is on the 6th, but we had it today at my parent’s house because they are going out of town tomorrow), and man, I got some cool stuff.
My SIL is a pastry chef/diva at the Palace restaurant/hotel, which is one of the ritzier places to eat in Cincinnati. She recently worked the “Taste Of The NFL” event we had here, with various Bengals luminaries present…she got me an authentic #40 jersey with my name on the back, signed by MArvin Lewis, Andrew Whitworth, Shayne Graham (whom wrote under his signature “Your sister in law kicks ass”), Chris Henry, and several other players.
I got a few other random knicknacks, but the coolest thing was my cake my SIL made by hand. Bottom layer is an edible-confetti stuffed vanilla cake, middle layer is a raspberry-infused chocolate cake, and the top layer was an awesome carrot cake.
All the decoration was hand cut by her with an exacto knife. Check it out!
Yeah, is she trying to make up for something? Did she get caught cheating on your brother? Because that’s really going above and beyond what’s expected of a sister in law.
Start thinking about what to get for her next birthday today.
LOL, no. Her and my brother have the best relationship. SO much so that I envy it. They both work 60-70 hours a week at their respective chef jobs, so the time they have together they spend together.
That’s what made the cake such a nice gesture. She spent all day on her day off yesterday making it for me.
And yeah, the wife and I are getting her something really cool for her birthday next year. She’s one of a kind!
