BBTV

Yeah. The Eagles obviously wanted to go first, since at least Burrow is going to get more. Had Burrow gone first and demolished the ceiling, that would have made things a lot more difficult for everyone. Now Burrow, who I think many would consider the 2nd-best QB, has more clarity into what the market is. Funny thing is that if Hurts was a 1st-round pick, this wouldn't even be a thing till next year. While he had an unusual path to getting PAID, it really benefited him to not be a top pick. I'm struggling to think of a parallel (but there's certainly some.) Benched in college, projected a 3rd or 4th round project pick, picked in 2nd by Eagles who had just signed Wentz to a huge deal, so the pick was ridiculed by fans and media and he probably hated it because (at the time) there was no path to him being anything other than a gadget guy, and now he's a top guy in the league - and at least for the moment - the highest paid.

Sounds like it doesn't kick till after this year, so they still have plenty of money to sign guys that get cut at the last minute like James Bradbury and CJGJ last year. He's arguably the 3rd (and mayyyyyyyybe in the discussion for 2nd, but probably not) best QB right now, and the local reception to the deal (so far) is overwhelmingly positive, except for the no-trade. Usually a team gets something in return for granting a no-trade, and I'm not sure what the Eagles got here. They didn't get any phony extra years, and a 70% guarantee sounds about normal. Unless his camp went in demanding full guarantee and this was the negotiation? Biggest risk is that he is such a big part of their offensive from a running perspective that he's at risk of being injured or burning out, and they'll have to figure out a way to choose their spots with him a little more.

It's likely that they're in stores (but in boxes) and the team realized that some employee is going to open a box and post a pic early, so they're getting out in front of that. I forget which other ones, but there's been at least two over the past couple of years that were spoiled and caused the team to release pics early. Was it Jags (after the airport leaks?) or maybe Falcons? There was definitely more than one.

Hurts gets 5/$255M, with $179M guaranteed. Knew it’d be big, but wow. Edit: full no trade. Surprised they didn’t tack on extra years for cap purposes.

so basically they feel there’s a high probability that they’re going to leak, so the team is just going to do it themselves.

The black pants don’t bug me at all. I think there’s a few teams that could go with dark pants with their light tops. It seems a little soft ballish at first, but i think that’ll fade pretty quickly. the flying panther logo is pretty nice, and it’s cool that they combined multiple logos to make it. It’s probably the best part of this set.

My initial thought was “why are they using a Chinese character for a logo?”

Not sure I understand why they don't have white-paneled caps to go with the helmets, since they obviously thought it looked good enough.

Bryce Harper is officially converting to 1B in an effort to return before the all-star break. He supposedly pitched the idea to Dave Dombrowski since their 1B (and apparently, team captain) tore his ACL and is out for the year, and then his backup promptly tore a thumb ligament and is out for half the year. They've been moving guys from 3rd to 1st, platooning losers that shouldn't even be on the team, and have generally been a mess. They made it sound like he went to Dombrowski with a PPT and a team of doctors and attorneys, swearing that if they let him play 1B, he won't throw hard, and won't slide on his elbow or face-first. He's way ahead of schedule when it comes to hitting, but that wasn't the biggest concern. He could potentially be cleared to DH by mid May, then take over 1B sometime in June. Apparently he was a catcher when he was drafted, so it shouldn't be too hard to learn 1B. EDIT: Since Rhys Hoskins (starting 1B) was in the last year of his deal and now has an ACL, it's possible he won't be back at all. Harper also said that while he wants Hoskins back, if he can't, then he'll move to 1B permanently if it allows them to spend tons on a FA outfielder or DH in the offseason.

Re: Andy Reid - can you believe he was only 40 in these photos? He certainly didn't abuse his body with cigarettes or alcohol, so it's just the extra weight and mustache that make him look so much older... at least to me. At the time, he was the second youngest HC behind Jon Gruden, and everyone (especially here) thought it was crazy to have 1) such a young guy as head coach, and 2) a guy that had never even been a coordinator.

yeah I've finally hit the point in my life where it's the norm for people 5 years younger than me to be head coaches... and successful ones at that. Growing up, you had to "pay your dues" for like 30 years before being considered for a HC job. Glad that's changed, but it's still a little shocking to see these guys. Re: Jonathan Gannon - I don't think I could ever take my boss seriously if he made those noises and did that dance. Good luck getting Murray to listen when you tell him to put the video games down, Jon.

This is their new head coach. So yeah...

Oh that's cool. Not for the Cardinals, but (may just be the lighting, but) it kinda looks like cinder block, so maybe for a team with more of an industrial theme to it. I find some of these finishes to be incredible. Probably a nightmare to maintain, but still super cool. I don't want to see too much of it in the NFL, as I prefer more simple looks, but I can still appreciate the tech and creativeness of some of these.

You'd think the New York teams could have their pick of talent - or at least have a huge local pool to choose from. Yet they each end up with subpar broadcasts (though I've only heard the Mets team a couple of times, so I could be off there.) Kay struggles just to pronounce names - and the interesting is that he butchers them in such non-obvious ways. My biggest pet-peeve is dopes that don't know the "ll" digraph, and pronounce names like Castellanos "Cast-ell-anos", and can't get it right no matter how many times it's explained. I find it unhealthily triggering. It's one thing if you're reading something for the first time, but once you hear someone's name, just say it right. It's not hard. But Kay got that part right, but then butchered the stress. "Cast-AY-yanos". How the hell does that happen? Not to be pedantic, but that's not really analytics. I think that when it comes to sports, people often confuse individual bits of information, or basic statistics, as analytics. IMO, analytics is the output of complex processing of information, not the input. To go a step further, you could say it's the implementation of some strategy based on the output of complex processing. Maybe in sports language it's different though - I could be wrong. But FWIW, I also don't care about exit velo or launch angle. Exit velo is kinda interesting when comparing two hits - just to let you know who hit it harder - if there's some baseline to measure against (like an amazing hit earlier in that game, or the hardest hit of that player's career.) Launch angle doesn't mean anything to me. I can see with my eyes if it's a low line-drive HR, or a towering fly ball that the wind carried out. Maybe launch angle helps paint a picture on a radio broadcast, but even then, a good broadcaster doesn't need it.

I have Phillies season tickets. Even when they blow. If they didn't exist and we had only a minor-league team, I would probably go to a game or two just for fun, but they wouldn't be the "event" that a major-league game is. I cannot hold it against people that they don't want to spend their time at minor-league games. That's not to say that there aren't reasons that would carry over to a ML team - but sometimes it's just that people want major-league sports and not minor league. I know neither Portland nor it's situation with the Beavers (assuming that's it's MiLB team still) - but I have a hard time equating minor-league support to major-league support.

I've always thought that minor-league success or failure has no bearing on a market's viability as a home for a major-league team, in the same way that exhibitions at neutral sites are in no way a "test" for that market. Like if Skydome doesn't sell out for a neutral site NFL game, that absolutely cannot be held against Toronto. If nobody goes to Portland Beavers games, while it's worth looking into, it's not necessarily indicative of how a major-league team would be received. Even past major-league failures need to be fully dissected before being held against any market, as the reasons for failure may be completely independent of the actual location. (by "major league", I mean "top tier", like MLB, NFL, NBA).

Why should he sell for less? If I sell my house for market value, am I a prick for not lowering the price?

Philadelphia native Adam Aron (current CEO of AMC, former CEO of one of the cruise lines) was his CEO and partial owner when he bought the Sixers. Was actually a great guy - you could tweet him your seat and he'd come hang out with you. But that's literally his MO. He claims he's local, brings in a true local guy, then gets rid of that local guy, and goes back to running his hedge fund or building arenas or whatever. Claiming there's any true "hometown" incentive in any of his ventures is foolish.

He also went to Penn and said that he was a "Philly guy going back to his days at Wharton". EDIT: and I'm pretty sure his company is based in NYC, which I'm sure he used to sell himself as a local to Devils fans.

I hope nobody is sleeping on Dr. Pimple Popper. Dr. Lee is my TV crush. When she squeezes gross goo out of a lipoma...

To have a non-local ownership group that sees the team as nothing more than an investment and an avenue into other business ventures? These guys are hedge-fund managers, and treat their teams as nothing other than tools. If he hires a smart football guy and let's him spend without interference, then it'll probably be a good deal for the fans. But if he swoops in and then isn't seen again for years (and rotates who is the president/ceo every year, like he did with the Sixers), then the team will still have lots of disfunction - even if not the scummy and illegal kind.

Any talk of SLC is just silly. I'll change my forum name to "I_am_a_flaming_d-bag" if they're even a finalist for expansion... which itself won't even be seriously discussed seriously till 2028. Expansion talk is extremely premature (though I understand it can be fun) and SLC is absurd.

There's some reports (not sure how credible) that he's 1B in debt (not sure if him personally, or the team). Being in debt isn't rare for super wealthy people who's main assets aren't liquid, but even if he is that far in the hole, and has normal operating debt from the team, he's still stuffing billions in his pockets on his way out the door. I wonder what this does to the values of the other league teams. Are the Giants and Eagles now worth $8B?

Since the reveal is soon and last few pages have been 99% Cardinals, is it appropriate for a specific thread yet?

The whole helmet is an egg, with effects that make it looked cracked, and a baby cardinal is being born from it. Two, actually - one on each side. It's so obvious, I'm not sure how we didn't figure it out sooner.