Servicing the debt incurred when the Glazers took over Man U costs 60 million pounds a year, or $90 million, give or take. Thus, Man U season ticket prices have gone up 42%, and Buccaneers’ overall player salary bill has gone down about 8% a year every year since 2004- leaving us now in the bizarre position of having one of the league’s five most profitable franchises* spending cap dollars as though we were Buffalo.
*Because of the sweetheart deal the team has on Raymond James Stadium, not because of merchandise sales or anything.
ETA: The Buccaneers won’t get kicked out of the NFL no matter how bad they get. By contrast, Man U could end up in the English First Division (or worse) depending on how bad they get, which is why they haven’t cut player spending at Man U.
Seemed pretty clear to me. The running joke on Guliani was that he had nothing going for him as a candidate except to toss outy “9-11” every thirty seconds to drum up jingoist fervor. The comparison seems to be that a Lions fan has nothing going for him except to keep saying “Barry Sanders” to drum up respect for the franchise, ignoring the fact that having Barry Sanders amounted to basically nothing.
On one hand I’d love to view this as a good thing, there can be little doubt that having Bernie in the building raises the organizational football IQ but something about this just screams out “bad idea.” Randy Lerner has a reputation for being the kind of leader who when facing a major decision, follows the advice of the last person who talked to him. Bernie Kosar is the last good “face of the franchise” this team had (hangs head in shame), he was one of the smartest players (in football terms) that I’ve ever seen. But he has no track record for translating that knoledge into front office success in the NFL and only one year of doing it in the arena league.
But now he’s “another set of eyes” for Randy Lerner. Well it’s not like our head coach is a micro-managing control freak who might resent an unproven voice questioning his decisions to the owner. :smack:
This one really hurts, DQ52 is second only to Shaun Rogers in terms of value to our defense. It’s not too much of a coincidence that after he left the Pittsburgh game the Browns lost much of whatever ability they had to slow down the Steelers.
The only good thing about this is that we did draft a couple of linebackers and for better or for worse we will see the kids in action.
Sucks about Jackson but I saw a team that looked demoralized against the Steelers. In the past the players were fired up for the rivalry games even in bad years. Remember how angrily Reuben Droughns ran with the ball a few times? I didn’t sense any of that from the Browns this last game and the steady slew of injuries can’t be helping.
If your receivers would have held on to the ball they could have dinged the Steelers defense, at least a bit. Anderson’s numbers really don’t reflect how he played. He didn’t make bad, wobbly, mis-timed passes either; they were just dropping them. I think your D will improve immediately if the offense starts converting some third downs and letting them rest a bit longer.
Anderson is getting too many excuses from the drops. Many of those drops would’ve been very difficult catches - some looked catchable because they hit the receivers in the hands, but often the receivers fully stretched out and only got the tips of their fingers on it. He made a lot of bad passes.
He also made a few that hit the receivers in the facemask that were dropped.
The soap opera continues. Rolling Stone magazine writer Matt Taibbi might have come up with the definitive Eric Mangini characterization (or character assassination) in dubbing him the NFL’s Augustus Gloop. I can’t find a link to the article so here’s a link to some commentary.
Oh, and 12 players were excused from practice today due to the flu. Among those mentioned were Jerome Harrison, Alex Mack, Brodney Pool, Shaun Rogers, Robert Royal, Lawrence Vickers, Corey Williams and Kamerion Wimbley. Let’s hope they get lots of rest and plenty of fluids. Oh, and a H1N1 vaccination (this is the Browns after all).
Well the CDC is being pretty hush-hush about any possible co-contamination between the H1N1 virus and MRSA bacteria, but league sources who declined to be quoted on record have privately expressed concern. Preliminary studies, which have yet to be peer reviewed have reported a possible symptomology for the conjectured H1N1-MRSA co-contaminant which include impairment of physical strength and agility, coupled with a loss of what several noted experts have described as “the will to win.”
Now let it be known that the entire Browns 53 man roster is a statistically insufficient population to draw informed medical conclusions from however some anecdotal information has been giving cause for concern. First off if the H1N1 virus has again mutated to the point where it can mix genetic material with the MRSA bacteria it should promise to have a long incubation period. And in the time since the Browns have traded away their two best offensive weapons ( Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow Jr.), neither team who received either of those players has won a regular season NFL game.
So with any intellectual honesty it’s far too soon to conclude that what might go on to be called the “Browns” virus has begun spreading to other franchises, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell might be wise to relax player uniform regulations to allow hazmat suits.
