TXRavensFan

Zrebiec just made a correction...it's a torn bicep, but the same timetable

Apparently this guy does this all the time and part of his act that adds to the joke is that he has poor spelling and grammar

Yep, definitely part of his schtick.

I loved it when Harbaugh was asked if he read the "testimony". He looked at the reporter like, "what?" .. He didn't know what he was talking about.

 

Even if he did - who in their right mind would waste their time reading a 450+ page document filled with legal gibberish? Certainly not the HC of an NFL team who is working 18 hours a day trying to get a team ready for the season. Sometimes, the question that these guys ask are unbelievable. 

LOL I actually read it all. It's really not as bad as it seems, since each page is divided into individually numbered quadrants (4 "pages" for each standard page) and about 30 pages at the end are an index, so it really amounts to about 120 pages (took me a couple of hours). Some really fascinating stuff in there. I posted an exchange where Goodell will have nothing to do with some made up story about ball preparation Brady was making (trying to use the Belichick "ball rubbing" defense) and Kessler basically steps in and essentially says "these facts are too confused so let's just move on" lol.

Released where? Not posted on our site yet.

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/team/depth-chart-offseason.html

Depth chart was just released. Tray Walker is surprisingly the 4th Corner on the depth chart and primary backup to Jimmy Smith, I didn't we that coming.

You mean Melvin? Walker is listed behind Webb, Arrington and Pointer.

So the transcripts of the NFLPA's appeal were released by the NFLPA and they are anti-NFL? Shocker!

 

I think it's clear the NFL is far from squeaky clean in this whole thing. However, the NFLPA and Brady need to focus more on proving their own innocence (I don't buy the twisted science that seems to go back and forth and prove nothing) than they are trying to make the NFL look bad.

Just finished reading the whole thing. It's true that Brady's team was trying to paint this thing as a witch hunt against the Patriots and Brady. To be honest, Troy Vincent's testimony wasn't all that great, but I don't see where the NFL came off looking that bad. Kessler did make a point to question Well's independence, suggesting that since his client was technically the NFL (since he was hired by them) that his duty as a lawyer was to provide evidence favorable to the NFL. However, I think Wells did a good job in explaining the difference between being hired as an impartial investigator and actively representing a client. The testimony also brought out how the instructions to Exponent were to find the truth, no matter what the results were - which was continually questioned by the Patriots and their insufferable fans - and dispells the witch hunt talk:

What we ultimately decided to do was to hire both. We hired Exponent to be the lead expert in terms of doing the tests that needed to be done and advising us on how to look at this data. And we hired Dr. Marlow as our consultant and his job was ton watch Exponent. So we kind of had what I will call belt and suspenders. We have got a firm that we believed had the resources to do the testing, and we thought we would need physicists and engineers and statisticians, but also a lot of equipment that you might not have in an academic setting. And we wanted privacy, okay, we didn't want leaks. We were very conscious. We did not want leaks. So we get Dr. Marlow. Like I said, his job is to really watch. He's supposed to work with Exponent, but he's supposed to -- he's not doing testing. He is listening to their work plan. He's listening to, you know, their ideas. He's running numbers. They are going to run numbers, but he's my eyes and ears so I got to double-check. And one other thing I want to say is that I told them both in the interview before I even hired them, I said what this job involves is similar to being a court-appointed expert.

 

I said you should view us like a judge or a court that's hiring an expert. I said we have no dog in this race. All we want to know is how to look at this data. That's the job. And we have no thesis. It's not like a normal, in the world we live in, Mr. Kessler, where you and I represent a client and we have got a particular position, be it the plaintiff or the defendant, and you got a thesis and you want an expert to know whether or not you can support that. We said we don't care about the outcome at all. We just want objective science, and understand that. So those, we told them those were the terms if they wanted to come on board. And they were both fine with that. So that's a long-winded way of how we got to Exponent.

If anything Kessler looked bad...like one of those sleazy courtroom lawyers that manipulate the truth by asking leading questions and cutting off the answers. Even Goodell had to berate him once (I thought it was funny):

No, and there is a reason, if you will let me explain.

MR. KESSLER: I have no further questions.

COMMISSIONER GOODELL: Let him finish, please.

Q. Explain, explain.

COMMISSIONER GOODELL: There is no reason to be disrespectful to any witness.

Q.  I'm sorry. I apologize for that.

Probably the funniest part was when Goodell called B.S. on Brady. They were trying to argue Belichick's contention that rubbing the balls made the psi seem higher at game time for the balls, even arguing ball preparation was different for that game, but it still didn't add up and the commissioner caught it:

COMMISSIONER GOODELL: You said you told them to continue to rub the ball a little bit. And I'm just, I'm making it up. If they rubbed it for two hours, there still would have been an hour to two hours before the referee saw it, I believe?

MR. BRADY: Yeah. I'm not sure what happened.

MR. KESSLER: You know what? The facts are too confused here. I'm just going to drop this subject. I don't think it's significant to the overall analysis. I have no further questions.

LOL, too funny

It doesn't sound like this is a one time thing though.  It sounds like Brown is consistently working behind everyone else and not doing well either.

Weren't we hearing reports not too long ago about how well he was doing, and was singled out for praise by Pees in a press conference? You may be ultimately correct, but many on these boards seem to overreact to a single practice session.

Looks like Arian Foster suffered a serious groin injury last night - will probably require surgery, but he isn't expected to miss the whole season.

Baltimore Sports and Life's camp report noted that not only was Arthur Brown stuck on the 3rd team, but Steven Means got ILB reps on the second team as well.  That's Smith, Mosley, Orr, McClellan, Bose, and Means that all garnered more reps on higher teams...

I have a love/hate relationship with the 24/7 coverage that everything gets these days. While it is nice to get minute by minute updates, we have to remember that this is still just training camp, where players are getting evaluated. Too muc stock can't be placed on just one practice.

I understand Brown has not lived up to expectations so far, but if the coaches wanted to get a closer look at Means, that necessarily means that he'll be playing more with the ones and twos and will naturally be taking snaps from Brown on those teams. I now it's not quite the same, but if the coaches wanted to get a better look at Myers during one of the practices, would we be really be questioning Urschel if he ran with the threes that day?

Nah they used to do it where dline man and linebackers ran an obstacle course for time, WRs had competitions on the JUGGs, QBs would hit moving targets for points, etc...

They had a wide range of competitions for different position groups.

EDIT: sorry I see I'm late to the party... And didn't even bring any fancy YouTube videos.

Speaking of videos, just did some googling - looks like they had it up until 2007 at the pro bowl. I thought it was fun to watch those "competitions" like best hands, strongest man, fastest man, etc. It was actually more fun than watching the pro bowl itself.

If it were his coach saying that I'd definitely agree. I just think it's funny that it's his mother saying it (and she's allowed to and all), especially when getting to the NFL itself is a huge achievement.

Let alone a first round draft pick...

Injuries suck but at the end of the day, you can't be great if you are on the sideline. I'm hoping Jimmy can come back strong this year and earn the recognition of being a shutdown guy. We all know he has the potential. PS: I want to get a new jersey this year and I'm looking for a younger but proven guy who will be with this team for a long time. Any suggestions?

Jernigan, Williams, or Mosley seem like good bets.

not that bad buddy take a look around the league. Were doing fine.

 Exactly. For comparison, just take a look at the injuries the Steelers have had so far this TC:

Senquez Golson: shoulder

Mike Mitchell: ankle

Shamarko Thomas : shoulder

Martavis Bryant : elbow infection

Maurkice Pouncey: leg

Ryan Shazier: shoulder

Gerod Holliman : leg

Ross Ventrone: ankle

Cortez Allen: shoulder

Jarvis Jones: biceps

Bruce Gradkowski : back

Josh Harris: shoulder

Steve Mclendon : shoulder

Deangelo Williams: shoulder

Mike Adams : back

When you are calculating the variance, what are you calculating then? 

Variance is a measure of the dispersion of a group of measurements about the mean (average) - it can tell you how tightly grouped the measurements are. In this case, if you start with a group of footballs all inflated to the same psi (if you assume the Patriot ball boys did their job correctly), if the Ideal Gas Law was the only deflating force acting upon the balls, one would expect the measurements at halftime to be close to the same psi (tightly grouped around the mean psi rating). The fact that the variance was relatively large, and significantly larger than the variance of the Colts' balls, suggests that some other force may have been acting on the Patriots' balls to cause the wider range of measurements.

The formula is:

Stole this from another site, but here's what PFF had to say about Jimmy just before he was injured last year:

"Ok football fans, time to take notice of Jimmy Smith. A strong argument could be made for him being the best cornerback in football this season. He has been nothing short of dominant this season against great competition. The Bengals, Steelers, Panthers, Colts and Falcons all had no success while targeting him. He didn’t allow more than 28 yards against any of those teams. He hasn’t allowed a touchdown against anyone and quarterbacks have a rating of 51.5 while targeting him. He’s long, rangy and strong and can compete against whoever he lines up against. He has a similar style to Richard Sherman and he needs to be getting more praise than he is."

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but I seem to recall that in the Hard Knocks episode, they made the rookies sing their Alma Mater...

But if they wanted to make it a quasi-hazing experience for the rookies, make them sing something like "Dancing Queen" by ABBA - that would be hilarious.

Are you thinking of the QB Challenge?

As a kid a remember the skills challenge (I think it was called) during pro-bowl week. I know it was more than QBs, and they even did an NFL's fastest man race...last one I remember seeing, Darrell Green won.

And they still have Kam Chancellor and (I think?) Bobby Wagner as well...

Chancellor is in the middle of his extension, but wants more money...officially a holdout at camp now.

Only real surprise I saw was that Campanaro was running with the 3rds and 4ths and didn't see any time (that I saw at least) with the 1st and 2nds. 

 

With Webb out, Pointer saw a lot of action with the top units (ahead of Asa and Tray Walker) and seemed to hold his own pretty well, especially considering he's someone we know - and have heard - very little about.

 

On another note, Waller is huge.  I know we all knew that, but when he see him out there standing with the WRs, it's really startling.  He's not a natural catcher with his hands, but I didn't see many drops from him. 

Thanks for the update, especially the DBs. Heard a lot about Melvin getting reps in place of Webb, so it's definitely interesting to hear about Pointer too.

All those reports on how Hill and Elam were battling for the SS position is a joke. If you think Elam stands a chance vs. Hill you are mistaken.

I'd bet dollars to donuts if that was Hill out there, Perriman would have torched him too. Any safety in one on one coverage vs. Perriman on that route is a total mismatch.

Does sound lame doesn't it!

Not in the least. If you watch the presser or read the transcripts, you'll note that in college, Perriman didn't think the stance was really important because he didn't see a lot of press man coverage, so he was able to get a free release from the line of scrimmage. However, since being drafted he's been seeing it in practice all the time, so he has to work on his release. Having a balanced stance means that he can get more power off the line to fight through the initial jam of the db. If the receiver is unbalanced, the db can jam him hard and re-route him much more easily. It's one of those little things that fans don't put much thought into, but can have a big effect on the field.

I want to make this my signature.

Go for it! Glad people found it funny

 

 

I find it hilarious and too ironic that after all this time in light of how Brady thinks he has been vilified in the national media, ripped for text, email and cell phone usage and he resorts to "Facebook" to finally speak out?   I can't stop laughing!!!

 

Let's see: cries when he's about to be tackled, wears uggs, sends 10,000 texts in a couple of months, uses facebook to make an important statement. Yep, Brady is a 15 year old girl.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-tom-brady-and-the-patriots-walked-into-roger-goodell-s-trap-is-baffling-161339870.html

 

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

If the league basically did hand Brady the gun and ammo to shoot himself in the foot, well then yes Brady and Kraft really are that dumb.  However, I don't know that the league would have wanted to do that in the first place because Brady and the Patriots are basically their golden boys of "See, the NFL is great and wonderful and we have great teams that never do anything wrong!"

Yeah, I'm not sure there was this great conspiracy by the NFL. Sure, they wanted to get on top of Pr game, because that's really all that matters today (thanks to the non-stop coverage sports gets - thanks, ESPN and all that followed). However, just because the Patriots came off looking like fools - this guy comes off as upset the Patriots played the PR game so poorly - doesn't mean the NFL was setting up some sort of web to catch them. They were offering settlement to the end, and didn't learn of the destroyed phone until just before arbitration.

If anything, Brady handed his own behind to Goodell on a silver platter.

I agree... that's exactly what it is.

 

But again, based on what I've heard every legal analyst say today, the judicial system simply doesn't care about any of that. He's not going to court to get a judge to say "yeah Tom, you didn't do this, let me set you free". There won't be any admission of guilt or non-guilt by a judge in this case, because that's not even close to what the lawsuit will be seeking. That's not a case a judge would even take on.

 

From Tom's perspective, he thinks he provided whatever records the Wells team requested, and then he destroyed his phone for whatever reason he wants to justify, right or wrong. Its absolutely too "convenient" for everyone's liking, mine included, and I think he did it for the exact same reasons as everyone else.

 

BUT... my point is the same as every other analyst I've heard today... the whole "destroying of the phone" aspect of this case is primarily just fodder for the public. A legal system likely won't care, and the only real "value" it adds to the process was a reaffirmation of Goodell upholding the suspension (likely to occur anyway) and the public saying "ah ha... GUILTY" when they get more suspicious evidence.

 

This is way past the part of the investigation where we are still trying to figure out who done it and why they did it. We're at the stages of the process where the question remaining is "how in the World did the NFL come to this conclusion on this punishment".

However, one of the arguments in the PA lawsuit is that the punishment is unreasonable (this is why Peterson's suspension was reduced, and you've been arguing on the fringes of this). The destruction of evidence is certainly relevant to the fact that Brady's actions were beyond simple "failure to cooperate" and whether or not the egregiousness of spoliation of evidence (again, an action without precedence) justifies upholding the 4 game suspension.