atomicfront

It's called wanting 15 minutes of fame. When you're trying to go into business with somebody like that, you make up a bunch of professional athletes to make yourself seem important.

Then, once you find out that the public will find out about the athletes you lied about, you back pedal as quickly as possible, because you know it's not true and you know you can't support the claims.

If the claims were valid, there'd be no risk in outing everybody.

He would go to jail.

Here you go:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/sports/baseball/al-jazeera-peyton-manning-derek-jeter-charles-sly.html

Is it just me or do we have fake charges like this come up every few years?  Someone claims they were sending banned substances to NFL players, then end up taking back their story because it starts to fall apart under scrutiny.  Remember we had our own controversy in 2012 with that guy claiming that he sold HGH via "Deer Antler Spray" to Ray Lewis, then he backed off his story during the SB media week.

 

As much as I dislike Manning, he doesn't strike me as the kind who would cheat like that.

Actually the story isn't falling apart it is getting stronger.  Really almost every steroid rumor, story, claim has turned out to be true. 

Whether Pees stays or goes should be Harbaughs decision.  If the team is terrible again next season Harbaugh will be fired and a new coach will pick his defensive coordinator. 

Full excerpt:

hen wide receiver Steve Smith Sr.took a question Monday about fellow leader Terrell Suggs (both are rehabbing from Achilles injuries), his answer raised ESPN’s Jamison Hensley’s eyebrows.

Smith was asked if he’s spoken with Suggs about the rehab, and he gave this “cryptic” response:

"Suggs is a little vulnerable right now," Smith said. "So, I'm not going to talk to Suggs about it. He's not a ray of sunshine like he usually is."

One can only guess what Smith meant by that comment, but Hensley pointed out that Smith is already out of his walking boot while Suggs was still wearing his a week ago. Suggs injured his Achilles almost two months before Smith.

When reporters asked Elvis Dumervilabout Suggs’ future, Dumervil simply said, "You can ask Terrell Suggs that question."

“Suggs was among the few injured players who didn't come into the locker room after attending the Ravens' season-ending team meeting,” wrote Hensley. “He hasn't spoken to reporters since he suffered the season-ending injury in the opener in Denver.”

Sounds like he's in the verge of retiring.

I don't see that is the case.  If Suggs is going through a lot of pain rehabbing that would explain Steve Smith's statement.  Why would Elvis answer about Suggs future.  That would be like Suggs answering whether Elvis would be back next year.   People read to much into everything.  If Suggs had decided to retire why would he not be a ray of sunshine.

I am sure Suggs wants to come back.  Whether he can come back at the Hall of Fame quality player he was before the injury is the real question.

According to this we have $7,903,687 in cap space, that can't be right, can it?

The Cap is supposed to go up 10 million next year to 153 million next year.  We have 146 million in current contracts.  So I don't get how they come up with 7.9 million.  The Cap has not been set.  Also as we will be drafting higher are draft picks will get more money.  

I didn't even add the guys we'll even want to add because lets be honest, the draft won't fill every need we have. 

That is right and the team is not going to be very good next season.  Even when we drafted Ogden and Ray Lewis in 1996 we finished 4-12.  Whomever we get will be rookies and this team has more issues than a couple of rookies are going to solve. 

This is out of Joe's control. He can't control what the Ravens want to do. Realize Joe is getting paid no matter what happens. The team is going to want to do a extension not a restructure. Basically extend the contract for 3 years and make the first year's salary very low and give him a big signing bonus.

It is not Joe's fault the team wanted to have small cap hits the first 3 years of the deal and then have them balloon up. Even with the extension Joe is going to have big cap hits at the end of the deal. This is just giving Ozzie a few years to keep his job until the problem comes up again.

Just to clarify, should read discussions before you jump to conclusions. I've not seen anyone blame this particular loss on Pees. We were talking overall against the Bengals pre-Pees and since Pees.

I am talking about posts in the fire pees thread.  Pees is the whipping boy.  Never mind none of the players on defense are that good. 

It's remarkable to me that some people would blame the loss on Pees, rather than Mallett, who really cost us the game. It's even more remarkable to me that people would blame Pees rather than concede that the Bengals are actually a good football team.

People blamed Pees for giving up so many points due to Schaub throwing pick sixes.   They are looking for a scapegoat.  

Its all water under the bridge now.

 

While McKinnie was still on the team, I made a study of the two inspired by my own observations. McKinnie was neck and neck, a slightly better pass blocker than Monroe at a fraction of the salary. 

 

It turned out to be McKinnie's last year and the thought had to be Monroe could be our Left Tackle of the future.  Monroe was available for two 4th round picks is my recollection. They were picks poorly spent, which has been our recent history.

 

A Front Office makes its own evaluations, but when the Jaguars decided to draft another Left Tackle in the first round and let Monroe walk you had to have your antenna go up.

Wasn't he a free agent after that season?  Perhaps that is why Jacksonville trade him as they knew they would lose him anyway and only end up with a single fourth round pick for him.  

Also talking about tackles.  Oher is starting for the 15-1 Panthers and leads all tackles in games played the year Monroe/Oher were drafted.  

1. In regards to Dumervil, no, that's not accurate. The actual amount of cap savings you receive from cutting him is $2.625M in 2016. You don't all of the sudden then gain more cap space in 2017 because you cut him a year earlier... that's not how cap space works. You will take a dead money cap hit of $4.75M in 2016. 

 

2. While I certainly don't think the team will be a SB contender, they are far from needing to gut the team in order to be in contention. Besides, if the objective would be to gut the team, it would take a LOT longer than just one offseason of cuts and draft picks to get better. You wouldn't be any good in 2017 either. If there's one thing we know for sure looking across the board in the NFL, its that having a bunch of cap space doesn't even remotely come close to making you a better football team in the short term or in the long term. Just because you have it doesn't mean you're going to go out and buy a whole bunch of players and all of the sudden become good.

 

The only sustainable way to make the team better in the long term is through the draft, in which case draft picks don't require much cap space in order to keep them for at least 4 years. So there's really no point in cutting a whole bunch of players to create cap space that you don't really need.

Of course you gain cap space if you cut him a year earlier.  All the remaining signing bonus money hits on 2016 instead of being spread over 2016 and 2017.  Yes if we had free cap money we could sign some guys who could actually be productive.  We can't even keep most of the guys we draft past 4 years.  As our money is all tied up in a few high paid guys who are aging and most of whom won't be productive in a couple of years. 

Except then you'd literally have no pass rush and his cap savings isn't enough to buy you one. Makes more sense to cut him in 2017, when you free up $6M in cap space. At least you can actually replace him at that price.

 

Fans need to stop thinking so much about dead money. Its largely meaningless. 

If you cut him in 2016 you have 8.4 million of savings in 2017 instead of 6 million.  You are thinking short-term. The team is going to be bad next year no matter what.  There is no money to sign anyone and we will actually lose Osemle and Upshaw while adding rookies.  And everyone will be getting older.  Time for a re-build.  

If you cut everyone in 2016 you will have a ton of cap space in 2017 and you will have another year of picking at the top.  We are in a mess from all the bad contracts Ozzie has given out.  Cutting Pitta post June 2nd is another mistake that will just add to our 2017 cap woes.  Get out of this mess now. 

When I talk about cutting players, I tend to focus on two phases: before the draft and after the draft. 

 

Guy's I'd expect to get cut/retire before the draft and the cap savings from doing so:

 

Dennis Pitta (Post June-1 designation) - $5M

Daryl Smith - $2.63M

Chris Canty - $2.15M

Kyle Arrington - $1.43M

Kendrick Lewis - $933K

 

POTENTIAL guys that get cut after the draft, depending on how FA/draft shakes out:

 

Eugene Monroe - $2.1M

Justin Forsett - $2.3M

 

You're looking at creating about $12.1M in cap space by cutting the top five guys before the draft, and can create another $4.4M after the draft, depending on how the draft/FA shakes out.

 

I don't have Webb on this list. Some people think he's getting cut, some don't. By all indications, he realizes his future in this league is at FS, and I think the Ravens have every intention of moving him there permanently in 2016. 

 

Monroe will be the interesting case. We will likely know his fate before the draft... if we resign KO, we cut him 30 seconds later. If we don't, he stays. Even if we draft a LT at #6, I don't think we cut Monroe until after 2016. 

 

Forsett is an interesting discussion. I personally don't think Buck Allen is a #1 type RB, but if we took a guy in the 2nd or 3rd round, it wouldn't surprise me one bit. And if we do... I don't see why on Earth you'd pay Forsett $3M at a position where guys can easily come right into the league and start.

 

Plus, everybody knows that 2016 would be his final season on this team regardless, just like we know Steve Smith won't be here beyond 2016. So if the Ravens address the position this offseason, there's really not a ton of value to keep him on when you know he won't be here beyond that season.

 

As for Pitta, I see no possible scenario where he remains on this team in 2016. To my knowledge, he hasn't even been cleared to play by Ravens team doctors. That could change, but if I'm management, there's a 0% chance I pay him $5M this season, which is what hes scheduled to make. If he were to somehow agree to play for $1-2M, then I'm all for it. But you can't pay a guy $5M not even knowing if he will get cleared to play or if his hip just gives out midseason or before again.

 

If he doesn't retire, I think we outright cut him.

You could cut Elvis as well and save 2.6 million.  I see 2016 as a re-build year.  Might as well bight the bullet and get rid of all the dead money in one year.  And then come back strong for 2017.  

Because despite the fact that the person who made these claims admitted to making the whole thing up, people still try to spin the theory as credible. That's why you hire a PR person.

We are in an Era of sports where factual evidence is 100% meaningless... all you have to do is cry wolf and people will believe anything because they are that gullible.

I ultimately wouldn't care if I were him, mostly because the public could care less whether NFL players use PEDs or not.

Heck the majority of the general public thinks the long time face of our franchise used PEDs and is also a murderer. I know we fans don't put much credence into that, so I certainly then can't put credence to a report that was denied by the person who made the claims.

Did you not read my post? Why would someone denying that they were selling illegal drugs have any meaning to you?  They are of course going to say they made it up.  Just like every drug dealer would in the same situation.  I mean isn't this why Jamal Lewis had to serve time?  He was caught on tape saying he was going to sell drugs to undercover cops.  Denied that he was ever going to sell drugs once he found out they were police. 

I think Forsett is a lot better than West.  Allen has shown to be a good receiver which help his cause.  I say go to camp and  let them battle it out. The team could save some money by cutting Forsett but it isn't very much.  

Maybe I didnt explain very well. Ill try and rephrase. Were not actually trying to lose. BUT we shouldnt play the guys we already know their fate for next year, be it here or being cut. Play Elam and Brooks and ABrown and get Urban out there for most snaps, etc.... Now those guys aren't going to win, no matter how hard they try. So it's not purposely losing, you're asking those guys to audition for next year, sorta like a preseason game. IF by some miracle they win than Ok. BUT Id rather gain a couple draft spots and get some gamespeed tape on guys to see if were gonna keep them or cut them. Hence treating this like 2016 Preseason game 1.

Elam is on injured reserve.  Has been all season.  He is ineligible to play.   

We are going to do our best.  The coaches are coaching to keep their jobs.  The players will be playing to keep theirs.  I don't know why people think a team would not try to win in a game like this.  If the team just gives up it looks bad on the coaches.  Also if the get blown out it looks bad on Ozzie.  Everyone will be trying to win on both sides.  A win by the team means more than a few places higher in the draft.  A win means we are not that far away from being a good team.  A blow-out means we have a long way to go and is more than a few draft picks away from competing. 

How dumb is it going to look if he gets the first and they score? With an offense like that, they didn't really have reason to believe they couldn't get one yard

Bigger risk of driving all the way down the field and having nothing to show for it.  Big boost for the other team when you do things like that.  

Yes I know that. But Flacco has not been doing his job since winning that suoerbowl. I think the money has something do with it. I say Biscotti gives him half than he's worth. If Flacco's agent dent like that he can take his show else where.

That is not how it works.  Flacco has a contract.  If the team cuts him I think they would have something like 31 million in dead money that would count against next years cap.  He is not going to be cut.  He will be the starting QB if healthy.  If Mallet plays well again next week it means we don't have to draft a back-up QB.  He is not going to be starting QB if Flacco can play. The only reason Flacco would re-negoiate is to get more cash.  So the Ravens would have to give him a big signing bonus and add years to the contract.  

The team would have to commit more money to get him to re-do the contract.  So if they don't commit more money they could cut him in 2017.  That is why he would re-negotiate not because they would cut him in 2016.  

I'm particularly mad at him for giving up two 14 point leads in New England

So he played defense??? 

He missed the plane to an away game? That was the final straw and the team cut him.

He must have been out partying all the time and that is why he was late for practices and travel.  From the article it seems like he had off field issues leading to these.  I assume it was probably going out to bars.  But I am just guessing.  

Mallet in his presser this afternoon to a question about how he would combat a Bengals defense because they've troubled Joe consistently was "My name is not Joe". Now take it like you want, but I personally didn't like that response from a character perspective. Now, I'm frankly fearful about how good a team mate he'll be in the QB room. Just saying what I think right now. Some people could say that was a very confident reply and apt response, but somehow it didn't sit well with me.

Seems like the right response to me. If someone says Joe Flacco had issues with the Bengals and only had a 70 QB rating against them how else would you respond?  He isn't Joe Flacco so he can't answer why he had trouble with the Bengals.  If you want that answer ask Joe.  Stupid question.  

From USA Today:

Manning, three Green Bay Packers (Mike Neal, Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews) and Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison were all named in the Al Jazeera report, along with Major League Baseball players Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals.

The NFL and its players agreed to test for HGH in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, though testing procedures were not implemented until 2014.

Charlie Sly, a former employee of the Guyer Institute, an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic, was secretly filmed making the allegations. He later recanted his statements, both to Al Jazeera and later to ESPN.

I don't think recanting is the proper words for what happened.  He sold illegal drugs to a guy and mentioned clients he sold them to.  Taylor Teargarden comes in and does some illegal drugs and talks about beating the tests.  He is filmed secretly and did not think he was talking to a reporter instead he thought he was selling drugs to an athelete who wanted to cheat the system.

He finds out it is all a set-up and he is being filmed so of course he denies.  No different than if a heroin dealer was caught on tape selling heroin to someone he would deny doing it if he found out a reporter was filming it.

He didn't even say he sold Peyton Manning drugs.  He said he worked at a place where Peyton and his wife would come and do HGH drugs.  As Peyton admits going there and the guy worked there and said that Peyton had drugs shipped to his house in his wife's name and Peyton doesn't deny his wife got sent drugs I am pretty sure Peyton was using HGH/  He could have made up Harriston's name but I doubt that is the case with Peyton. 

lol

 Meant Kyle not Lavar.

Hearing Ryan Mallett may start on Sunday, ugh.

Why couldn't we just go sign Tim Tebow or something.

The team should secretly sign Kyle Boller and have him start the game.