BBTV

But that assumes a "static" budget. The Marlins still make money, and should be able to pay for contracts without the owner dipping into his own personal checking account. It's not like they have a static $500M (Bruce Sherman's estimated net worth according to Google) that will be drained by the end of someone's big contract. Sports teams are separate legal entities anyway, and any "donations" owners make have to be accounted for (not that they can't, I just don't think it happens much - if at all.) A team like the Dodgers absolutely brings in more money than the Marlins. Part of that is simply being in the 2nd-largest market (which the Marlins obviously can't do anything about), but part of that is also due to winning and marketing, and the Marlins can match that if they wanted to, even if it meant taking some huge risks. I think the biggest difference between the Dodgers/Yankees and Marlins/Pirates is that the Dodgers/Yankees can afford to take risks and be wrong, whereas the Marlins/Pirates have to be near perfect, because they can't simply go "oh well" and sign another $50M/year guy if the one they signed last year blows. But they don't even try. They don't even take the risk. You can't fail if you don't play, but the irony is that you always fail if you don't play.

Can't wait for the Dodgers to get knocked out by an 87-win Phillies team. What sucks for fans of the Pirates and Royals isn't that the Dodgers spend money, it's that their owners won't. Until teams open their books and show that they're not making any money (which they won't, because they do make money despite what they claim) it's hard to pity those clubs. I feel for their fans, but not the ownership. Obviously a team like LA is going to generate a ton more revenue than a team in Pittsburgh, even if the Pirates were perennial contenders. But let's not pretend that they couldn't sign some star players if they decided to make an effort to be anything other than an event to attend when there's absolutely nothing else to do, and even then, giving your dog a bath might be more entertaining.

That's how I felt at my first game at Wrigley and the Cubs were wearing their dumb-ass blue tops. Fortunately they wore their proper jerseys the next couple of times I visited Chicago.

They've worn all black against the Giants every year since something like 2014. You can set your clock to it... ....and it sucks.

Speaking of Tony Mamaluke, his agent stiffed a pizza joint, trying to double his appearance fee "or else". His agent looks exactly as you would expect him to: (that's seriously him:) All we need is for Big Dom to jump sides and roll with these cats instead of being relegated to guarding players coming into town for visits at the airport: Speaking of Big Dom, why wasn't this guy tossed? Clearly not an important coach or staffer - probably one of those "stay behind the line" guys: Last one: it's not uncommon for Eagles fans to "greet" the team at their facility before practices (I see them when I go for my PT there), but usually it's just to hold up dumb signs saying "RUN THE BALL". This guy took it to the next level, with Fire Desai, and trashcans representing No Play Slay and Bradberry. Nick Sirianni had coffee delivered to him

wrong thread, kinda

I can't remember the last time they didn't wear the stupid all black against the Giants. Even more stupid is that they play Tommy Mamaluke twice in three weeks. Who writes these stupid schedules?

Sugary-beverage names are sweet*. It'd be cool if Chris Cooley was nicknamed Ecto Cooley (and for purposes of this conversation, black.) *totally intentional.

Nah, it's gotta be something where it's [nickname] [lastname]. Something like Pimp Slap Malloy.

Sure, why not call a 60 yard pass to a 5th string receiver in the end zone when you need to take time off the clock. Screw this guy. I get getting caught up in the game, but maybe not everyone's cut out to be a play caller. Seattle, after losing 4 straight, is going to beat 10-3 "lol championship lol contender" who is in a must-win game. At this point, I hate Siriani for not having the fortitude to make a replacement. Even if it was a blatantly not-called PI. But can't expect the referees to make calls on either side. They're complete trash.

Yeah - and with Watson out, I'm the biggest Joe Flacco fan in the world!

The 1992 Bills started 9-2 and it really looked like they were finally great enough to make it over the top after ripping their fans hearts out in two Super Bowl losses. Had they gone in the tank, would Bills fans have said "oh well, 9-2 was fun while it lasted." Context matters, and they were in the middle of a nearly-unprecedented window of success, and should have one that first SB. 9-2 when expectations are SB or bust is different than 9-2 when the team finished 4-13 the previous season. EDIT: It's sports. It's not like I'm complaining about "only" getting a $50k bonus on my $300k salary in a venue where there's people living paycheck to paycheck. (numbers for example only .... I ain't makin' that kind of dough.)

I don't think any fan would say "golly shucks, well we clearly can't win, but at least we have 10 hollow wins." Eras of goodness come and go (some are lucky to have more than others), but eras of greatness don't come around too often, and you want to see your team capitalize when they do. Last year was the moment, but it didn't work out. Now these two doofuses* are wasting a key year in what may be a very short window, and as a fan, I think it's perfectly reasonable to be upset. We went from Super Bowl champs to 4 wins. These windows close fast (the reality was we weren't even in one of those windows, but we didn't know it because we didn't expect Wentz to become a complete dumpster fire.) *offense is all Brian Johnson's fault. Defense is part Howie's fault, but also an idiot (but he has a PhD!) running things. **this drive is the first one in about 4 weeks that looks like a well-orchestrated drive. ***WTF - how can that false start be called against Kelce? They're really trying to eliminate the shove without eliminating the shove. That's awful. EDIT: good explanation on that one. Good call, Kelce should be more careful.

"hopefully just has covid" is out of context. I said that because the reports were that it was really bad, so I was hoping that it was something that could be recovered from in just a few days, rather than something much more serious. I was not in any way saying that I hope that an otherwise healthy person has covid. And that first drive was not as pretty as the stats would indicate. Passes backwards, an option to the TE near the sideline, guys running into each other, even the TD was more of a fire-drill type thing than a well-designed play.

Brian Johnson can eat my whole ass. These plays don't even have a chance to work even if they're executed perfectly. Now total confusion, and a 1st Q time-out. Dude is in so over his head. They should have at least had an interview process.

Why not say "NBA Cup" champions? IST sounds ridiculous, even if that's what it was called.

Hearing that it's more and more likely that Jalen Hurts isn't going to play tonight. Really sick, but it's "not a cold, not the flu". In isolation from the team, so maybe it's Covid, but it's apparently pretty bad, because he's as tough as it gets, and I'd expect that Covid would fear him more than the other way around. Hoping that it's "just" Covid and he's back in another week. I'm just afraid that if it was Covid, they would just say it rather than keep it a mystery, so maybe it's something more serious (not that Covid isn't serious for some people.) If he does play, IDK what's going to happen, because he hasn't been practicing and presumably hasn't been in the game planning sessions (not that their poo-brained coach even has a game plan.)

If we care about divisions then play each team thrice, for 9 of your 17 games. You still have enough to play one other division in each conference, you just lose the handicap that the division winners currently have.

Both them and the Eagles missed the playoff at 10-6. That was when the Eagles had arguably the best single-season defense in NFL history, but Cunningham got hurt in game 1 (f-ing Bryce Paup!) and they had Jim McMahon and Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest the rest of the way.

Same point. One thing that college gets right is in counting conference / division games for conference / division titles. You obviously can't render non-conference/division games meaningless in the NFL, but I think a weighting system is fair. Within conference, 3 for conference wins, 2 for non-conference wins (so as to only weight conference games 33% more than interconference ones. For division, 3 for division, 2 for everything else. Standings would look ugly, but IDGAF. It'd be more within the spirit of having divisions and conference wild cards.

That's good to know. I suppose for a division title that makes sense. For a conference wildcard berth I think conference record should trump everything besides h2h. It's kinda silly that with this 17 game schedule, your division games make up less than 1/3 of your games. There should be some system that makes them count more, like points. For division titles, division games count for 3 points, and non-conference games 2. For wild card, it should be conference games count as 3, while interconference games only 2. It's downright silly that a team can go 11-6, with all 6 being division losses, and win the division. In what universe does that make sense?

They could still get a couple of home games. By my math, if the Eagles lose tomorrow night (and now they may not even have Hurts), it'd be a conference loss, which would even them in the first two tiebreakers. Not sure what comes after that, but I doubt that the Eagles would still control their own destiny like they can today. TL;DR - at least they're getting beat by an AFC team. Interconference losses don't hurt as much as conference ones.

Eagles fans loved Shane Steichen, mostly because they were something like 2-5 in 2021 with Siriani calling plays, then as soon as he handed off the duties to Steichen, they ended up becoming dramatically better and made the playoffs, then the Super Bowl, and now here we are. I honestly can't remember any fans questioning the Eagles playcalling when he was calling the shots, with the exception of the feeling that he was putting Hurts in harms way too much (which did result in an injury last year). He was lauded by fans that first season, with some calling for him to replace Siriani if that's what it took to keep him.

Regarding the Eagles trash coordinators: According to a local article, they're trying to "force Desai's resignation." I don't think it'll matter much because they have zero depth in their defensive backfield and are signing LBs off of their couches, but it at least shows they still want to try and salvage this season. My money says the demotion came from Howie and not Sirianni. Unfortunately, Hurts' relationship with OC Brian Johnson is going to keep him on the staff until he gets a HC job, and he's certainly going to get interviews, whether deserving or not.