BBTV

At least they have some (ancient) history in the colors. I’m half expecting it to be yellow with blue headspoon and random patches of Ben Franklin, a cheesesteak, the liberty bell, Rocky, a heroin needle, and someone running with stolen sneakers.

This was my first introduction to alts in college sports back when I watched. I know they had been doing it for decades, but the '91 Sugar Bowl was my first sight of it on live TV. I also recall seeing lots of old photos of Joe Montana in them, which made little-Vet wonder how it was allowed to have a totally different uniform to wear only some times (oh, how the world has changed:)

Nah. Disliking comments is just saying "I disagree" without wasting a post that people have to scroll through. Preferably a disagreement would come with some reason as to why, but not everything is a big enough deal to debate. Responding to "I disagree" with more evidence supporting your point is fine. If nobody thought enough to argue past the thumbs down, then it's probably not worth it to expound, but I don't see the issue there. (expecting thumbs downs for this... for which I won't follow-up).

Just call it "QBoTY". Speaking of who won't win QBoTY, Russell Wilson has been benched. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39192081/broncos-bench-russell-wilson-week-17-game-sources-say

They match well enough in those pics:

When I think of how much it had to suck for Carson Wentz to be on the float with Nick Foles - and Wentz never recovered from that mental torture - it'd be nice for Watson to experience the same. Granted, Wentz played at an MVP level and got them to 13-1 so he could claim that he was a big part of that season, whereas Watson... not so much. But that makes it better (unless he has incentives in his contracts tied to SB wins and ends up being paid even more, in which case I hope they lose.) Knowing Watson, just to be a dick and give a huge middle finger to the world, he'd have his own parade float that's tricked out with massage tables and strippers in little massage outfits holding bottles of oil. I'd hope the fans pelt him with unopened cans or bottles of beer.

They were the one team for whom side panels worked, since the pants didn't have stripes that needed to line up. The blue ones were better without them, but weren't bad either way. The white jerseys may have looked better with them, but again, fine either way.

While I like the Vanderbilt colors (and it looks like Nike can at least make them match), I'm in favor of a darker brass shade for the Saints. If they could pull off something like this for a helmet (which isn't too far off from the numbers on their throwback), we'd be good. The throwback pants are really bad, so they'd have to find some way to match them better.

Would it be disrespectful to compare him to BJ Armstrong or Steve Kerr? At least those guys won something and showed they could help enable legit superstar players. I remember Andre miller being here and people saying how great he was, but he had nobody to work with (young Iguodala, Lou Williams, Thad Young) and got shipped off (which after checking Basketball Reference, happened around 8 times.) No disrespect to Miller, but I think Purdy is in a higher tier. Or maybe he's not.

That's one of those "statistical anomalies" more than anything. It's incredibly hard to even believe, but doesn't mean anything other than he and the Ravens are usually pretty good.

That's one name I don't need to ever hear again in any discussion of top QBs. I'm not sure if he'll even be a starter anywhere after this season. Hasn't shown that he can rise to the occasion, only seems to excel when it doesn't matter, and doesn't have the type of skillset that works well even as a backup, since it requires an offense to be kinda tailored to it. The team always sucks, but we've seen how truly great QBs can either carry a lousy team, or at least show that beyond a shadow of a doubt, they're not the problem. But you can't do the "put him on another team" thing with him (and it's dangerous to do it with almost anyone.) Put him on the Eagles or Ravens and they're nowhere near as good. Not because Purdy is bad (because he's obviously not), it's because their offences are built around the very specific talents of their respective QBs, and would need to be revamped with Purdy there. SFs offense is built around the talents of the guys around him rather than the qb, but he still has to make the reads and deliver an accurate ball. There's more guys that can be put into a system like that and do well than there are that could replace Lamar, Mahomes, or Hurts, but none of that discounts what he's done. He may be the literal definition of a "system QB", but I've argued before that the "system" and "system QB" have to be the right fit, otherwise it implies that anyone can copy that "system" and have success with their jabroni QB, which as we've seen by everyone that's hired a Patriots or Chiefs OC as their coach, isn't the case. TL;DR - Purdy as MVP is and has always been a joke, but that doesn't mean that he's not a very good QB and doesn't mean that he's an interchangeable part. The true test will be if the guys that the offense is built around (McCaffrey, Samuel, Kittle, etc) go down and the offense has to be tailored to Purdy, what will happen? My guess is that he can't carry a team, but people up until around 2006 said that about Tom Brady too, and those people look like idiots now. It does, but I don't understand why that's the case. I think it's funny when the MVP is a QB, but then the OPOY is a WR or RB. I get that technically there's a difference between "most valuable" and "POY", but it still shows that the award is kind of a farce. If every team had a nominee, CMC should be (and should always have been) SF's guy over Purdy. Purdy is kinda like a solid-but-not-flashy point guard on a team with star forwards, shooting guard, and center. Not like a Magic Johnson point guard.

Maybe he's matured since then, but I still remember him saying in the 2021 season that he's changing his number from 8 to 1 after he wins the Super Bowl that year so that the Ravens will have to retire both in his honor since his future SBs will be in the new number. The contract thing - at least his desires - never bothered me - at least not what he was trying to get (and threatening holdouts/demanding trades) - it just seemed like by not having an agent, it dragged on much longer than necessary, created unnecessary animosity, and from the reports, he had rejected deals that were as good (if not better) as what he eventually settled on. Up until this year, I always viewed him as a guy who's athleticism made up for poor decision making and lack of recognition, but he's so much more complete now. For the first time, I could see him winning it (then we'll see if he still wants to change his #.) Flacco vs the Ravens in the AFCCG would be great. And I hope the playoffs work out such that Mahomes loses in Baltimore.

I think I'm on Team Baker now, as long as they bring back those commercials where he lives in the stadium. Assuming the Eagles continue their downwards spiral towards hell, I'm pulling for Flacco over Baker, though the reverse wouldn't bother me.

Time to implement the CCSLC drug-testing policy. Please send your urine sample to OldSchoolVikings and get ready for your Wellness Policy-Violation suspension.

the silver looks too light, from the top down. Not sure if anything has actually changed over the years, but there seems to be less contrast against white than ever. The numbers were a little hard to make out. I like the idea of the uniform, I just think there needs to be a little darker shade of silver, almost like a nickel.

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I'm happy as hell for Lions fans, just wish they could have done it in a year where they weren't competing with the Eagles for seeding. Also willing to admit I was wrong about the knee-biting coach. I don't get what he really does, but can't argue with the results. Also not sure how Goff got so much better since moving on from LA - maybe not having the pressure of being the #1 overall pick anymore? Either way, I'll take the L when I deserve it.

Was rooting hard for the Vikings today - remind me not to do that again. What a lame duck by Nick Mullens. Now I see why the Eagles cut him in favor of not having anyone.

Given that these distributions are tied in at least some way to revenue, you'd think that the teams would have to review and agree to each other's accounting, otherwise someone who's not getting money could accuse another team of cooking their books so that it looks like they're poor, when the suspicion is that they're not. Or maybe MLB hires PWC or some other firm to audit each team's revenues and the teams agree to go with whatever they say? My point is, tons of people must see these numbers. Each team (presumably) gets to see each other's, plus there's the accountants and team lackies that review the findings, etc. How have these things not leaked? If the Pirates are legitimately poor, let's see the proof. My suspicion is that if the truth came out, the fans would rebel because they probably can compete - maybe not with the spending of the Dodgers, but at a much higher level than they are currently at.

Then they can make up for letting them down by giving each $10k after they sign their contract. I get it. If you're a competitor, it's hard to choose not to compete, and it's obviously a personal decision, and I assume they're aware of and accept the risks. Can't blame a guy for wanting to finish what he started. As a regular guy and not their teammate, I just also can't blame anyone for quitting even before the end of the regular season. That's all I'm sayin.

I'd suggest that the revenue generated off the play of a top-pick-caliber player far outweighs the value of a scholarship that their practice, travel schedules, and other factors" make it tough to take advantage of anyway (and when you break it down, the cost of that scholarship to the school is negligible.) A good number of them are majoring in football, to prepare them for that career. Not trying to get into the "do they deserve to be paid" argument, I just don't feel like the scholarship means much to the tippity-top guys. True, I imagine those bragging rights do mean a lot to those guys. I'd imagine that their agents (they're allowed to officially have them now, right?) might dissuade them, but at the very least, I think they can take out insurance policies against lost earnings due to injury (and with their NIL* and/or agencies, they can actually pay for those now.) *I read that Arch Manning made $3.2M in NIL this year. Granted a lot of that was due to his last name, but if some of these guys are making close to that, maybe that reduces the risk somewhat of playing the full season.

I think the playoff status of a team is irrelevant. The player owes the school nothing.

I have to question why more players don't quit sooner. Once you've solidified yourself as a top pick, even if it's by Nov 1, why not walk away then? Why wait till the bowl game? I wouldn't risk anything once I got myself in position to be a top pick.

Teams paid a total of $210M in luxury tax this year, of which "The first $3.5 million of tax money is used to fund player benefits and 50% of the remainder will be used to fund player Individual Retirement Accounts. The other 50% of what's left goes to a supplemental commissioner's discretionary fund intended to be given to teams receiving revenue-sharing money that have grown their non-media local revenue over several years." And LOL Mets for paying $101M of it. One hundred one million. JFC. I don't understand the bolded part. It reads like it's an incentive for teams to work on boosting their revenue by rewarding them with more money for doing so. So it sounds like it's more free money for owners that aren't going to spend it, and an incentive to never spend it. Also, LOL at "funding IRAs". That's a lot of money for player IRAs (and since the tax is variable, how's that even work?) and while younger / fringe guys could use it, does Mike Trout really need some retirement fund? I hope every full-time team employee has a 401(k) or IRA with some kind of employer contribution before guys making 8 figures get one. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39173255/mets-hit-record-101m-luxury-tax-last-place-finish

Why wouldn't they just declare for the draft and hope to join the NFC South?