2019 NFL Off-Season Thread

[BBTV]

He won’t see 1/10 the money he was making in the NFL (he made 10m last year according to some site) and even that is only if he’s a legit draw, and it’d be really hard for him to make that jump without spending time either in developmental or in the training center and working  years worth of dark matches. 

 

Even with the Fox deal, wwe salaries aren’t going that high. 

[Red Comet]

7 hours ago, pmoehrin said:

My guess is Gronk ends up in the WWE.

 

In terms of athleticism, personality, look, and attitude, Gronk has everything you would want in a pro wrestler.

 

From WWE's perspective, I can't think of a better cross over the figure to bring in. With their Fox deal, they will have the money to match what he was making in the NFL. Plus he's still young enough to where he can have a 10-15 year career if he chooses to.

 

We'll see what happens going forward, but I see a guy that still wants to be involved in sports. I think he's just tired of middle linebackers trying to take his head off while cornerbacks and safeties go for his knees.

 

I like the ring of the Incredible Gronk in the ring.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

9 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

He won’t see 1/10 the money he was making in the NFL (he made 10m last year according to some site) and even that is only if he’s a legit draw, and it’d be really hard for him to make that jump without spending time either in developmental or in the training center and working  years worth of dark matches. 

 

Even with the Fox deal, wwe salaries aren’t going that high. 

 

Yeah, but what former player does make the money they did as athletes? Peyton Manning, maybe, if he ends up on Monday Night Football? Movie star OJ Simpson? The list is pretty short.

 

I don't really need post-football Gronk in my life, so I don't really care what he does. There's probably a tag match with Mojo that happens at some point, which seems fine.

[pmoehrin]

9 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

He won’t see 1/10 the money he was making in the NFL (he made 10m last year according to some site) and even that is only if he’s a legit draw, and it’d be really hard for him to make that jump without spending time either in developmental or in the training center and working  years worth of dark matches. 

 

Even with the Fox deal, wwe salaries aren’t going that high. 

 

The WWE was/is willing to give Dean Ambrose seven figures a year. If they're willing to do that for a borderline main-eventer, I don't think money will be an issue for Gronk because he will get way more than Ambrose.

 

You are right in that the toughest thing for him is going to be starting. The first few months of his wrestling career are likely going to be spent inside an empty warehouse. You are going to have to hide him for at least the first six months until he is ready for his PPV debut match. That's the level he needs to come in at.

 

He's never going to be Shawn Michaels in the ring, but he doesn't have to be either. As long as he's passable, the marketing machine behind him and his personality will take care of the rest. Whether or not he could get to that point remains to be seen, but he would not be the first former NFL player to start late in wrestling and make it. He will just have more pressure on him to succeed than anyone since Bronco Nagurski laced up a pair of boots.

 

All of this is speculation, but I'm curious to see what's going to happen going forward.

[dfwabel]

10 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

He won’t see 1/10 the money he was making in the NFL (he made 10m last year according to some site) and even that is only if he’s a legit draw, and it’d be really hard for him to make that jump without spending time either in developmental or in the training center and working  years worth of dark matches. 

 

Even with the Fox deal, wwe salaries aren’t going that high. 

 

33 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

Yeah, but what former player does make the money they did as athletes? Peyton Manning, maybe, if he ends up on Monday Night Football? Movie star OJ Simpson? The list is pretty short.

 

I don't really need post-football Gronk in my life, so I don't really care what he does. There's probably a tag match with Mojo that happens at some point, which seems fine.

But for years, the story has been reported that Gronk has basically "pulled a Jay Leno" in that he banks his football salary and lives off his endorsement money.

He had endorsements with Oberto beef jerky, Tide, Dunkin' and Monster Energy. Before Monster, he was an endorser of Body Armor sports drink, but left them for Monster in 2015.  He was with Body Armor from 2012-15, but he kept his shares in the company after going to Monster, so he had equity before they were boosted by Coca-Cola's investment last year. Kobe invested $6M in Body Armor in 2014, which is now worth over $200M and is their the fourth largest investor. 

 

Now, Gronk's injury history with his arms, back and knees doesn't really make WWE a wise idea.

 

[buzzcut]

22 hours ago, Wings said:

As many predicted, it will be Packers@Bears on Thursday night to open the season. Pats will host the opening Sunday night game (Browns or Chiefs?). Also, looks like 49ers-Rams might open the 2020 season in China. 49ers would lose a home game. 

Not to brag, but I'd like to use this post to present to you a side project I'm doing for another forum, It's my own NFL schedule matrix. I got the idea from one that appeared on Reddit's NFL forum. Feel free to look at it.

[GDAWG]

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said a month ago that it was more likely Gronk goes Hollywood than WWE.  That is where I see Gronk going next: Hollywood.

[tp49]

39 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said a month ago that it was more likely Gronk goes Hollywood than WWE.  That is where I see Gronk going next: Hollywood.

So he's going to become the next Brian Bosworth?  Oh, I can hardly wait.

[dfwabel]

41 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said a month ago that it was more likely Gronk goes Hollywood than WWE.  That is where I see Gronk going next: Hollywood.

Rapoport getting something correct is pretty rare.  Remember, this month he got Antonio Brown to the Bills wrong, very wrong. 

[GDAWG]

Gronk's had his share of injuries and it will only get worse if he makes the jump to WWE.

[Red Comet]

:censored: you, Spanos

[Cosmic]

1 hour ago, Red Comet said:

:censored: you, Spanos

Don't be so hard on the guy; he's going to be providing a more affordable option for families who want to experience NFL football in LA! 

[dfwabel]

Pass Interference now reviewable.

 

Quote

The NFL owners voted on Tuesday evening to approve a rule proposal that allows for offensive and defensive pass interference, including non-calls, to be subject to review.

Coaches can challenge those calls in the first 28 minutes of each half. In the final two minutes of each half, those calls will be subject to a booth review.

 

This rule change is only for the 2019 season.

 

Owners passed the provision, 31-1, at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix on Tuesday night. The Cincinnati Bengals were the lone team to vote against pass interference replay reviews, sources told NFL Network's Mike Garafolo.

 

Coaches will still have only two challenge flags.

 

 

[BBTV]

The only issue I see is that it could lead to more ticky-tack calls since the technical definition of PI happens all the time, and it’s (correctly, IMO) not called. Now with replay, they’ll be obligated to call even the slightest infraction. 

 

Overall im in favor - bad PI changes games and seasons. 

 

Now they need need to add personal fouls to the list of reviewable plays. 

[OnWis97]

My gut reaction to the pass interference being reviewable was negative. There something more "judgement" about it than there is with determining whether someone fumbled.  With a fumble, it either was or was not a fumble...not always easy to determine, but if you can see what happened the line is pretty clear.  With PI, it's going to be difficult to determine where that line is drawn between minor contact and something blatant.  What's next, holding?

 

That said, pass interference is so impactful...as much as you don't like to see a missed call like in that NFC title game, I hate a 50-yard pass interference being called incorrect even worse.  Just letting a QB loft the ball and awarding half the length of the field on a bad call really bugs me.  So from that standpoint, I like it.  It'll be very interesting to see how willing they are to change calls or even to change them to offensive PI.  Bad calls are part of the game but they seem to be setting themselves for accusations of bad overturns, something that I don't think has been a big problem in the replay era (Outside of "what is a catch?").  And will there be inconsistency?  For example "they didn't overturn that?  He barely touched him. The call they did overturn in that Detroit/Cincy game was was much closer to true PI."

[Sport]

Classic NFL to overreact to something with a solution that invites a whole slew of other problems, makes the games longer and more complicated and doesn’t really fix the problem (because officials will still botch the replay calls. We know this). I really hate the idea that we’re going to spend next season watching slow motion replays of pass plays trying to decide if it was pass interference. Especially bad because everything looks like pass interference in slow motion.

 

 

 

The correct pass interference solution is really simple and doesn’t involve replay challenges. It’s a two part plan:

 

1. Two Different Kinds of Pass Interference – Regular, which is a 15 yard penalty, auto first down. Most pass interference would fall under this. A guy has his arm around another guy, a guy isn’t looking for the ball, that sort of thing. Second kind is Flagrant, which would be spot of the foul. This would mostly be used to prevent DBs who’ve gotten beat on long bombs from dragging a guy down to prevent a touchdown. There needs to be a penalty in that case that’s more severe than 15 years. It’s the best of both worlds. “BUT THAT JUST INTRODUCES MORE JUDGMENT FOR THE OFFICIALS TO MESS UP”, one of you goobers will shout. First of all, the entire penalty is judgment, which is why I’m trying to mitigate the amount of damage they can inflict with calling the penalty. Second of all, yes, it’s more judgement for the officials, but consider this - ultimately they’ll get it right more often than wrong which means there will be fewer Tom Brady, Joe Flacco type passes that are only thrown in the hopes of getting awarded a 50 yard pass interference call. I think we all agree that that exploitation of the rules isn’t in the spirit of the original intent of PI, and is both lame and sucks.  

 

2. GET A DAMN BOOTH OFFICIAL – I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t been a thing for the last 50 damn :censored:ing years. Put a guy in the :censored:ing skybox watching the game from above and the TV broadcast like the rest of us. If something happens that’s egregiously bad, such as the call that was botched in the NFCCG. If that happens the guy in the booth radios the head official and says “yall are idiots. I can’t believe I even have to talk to you about this. You missed the guy launching his dome at the other guy’s dome without even looking at the ball. You’re gonna feel really stupid later for missing it. Throw a flag and give the saints the ball first and goal on the one.” The biggest thing this guy would do would be to correct their often crappy spots, which officials mess up at an astonishing rate for something that is so simple.

 

 

 

None of that prevents football’s biggest problem right now – anticlimacticity. Is that a word? We can never ever ever trust a play will stand up to replay or whatever until 30 seconds after the play has ended. You’re not rooting for the action, you’re rooting for a flag graphic to not appear on the screen. I watch football and I hope a sack gets to be a sack. I hope a touchdown gets to stay a touchdown. If something bad happens I hope it gets overturned. Nothing in football is enjoyable in the present moment as it’s happening. Example: I was at the Bengals-Colts game this year, which the Bengals won on an 80 yard fumble return. I couldn’t allow myself to be excited during the play because I knew we’d have minutes of reviews afterwards and I was 100% sure the guy was down. I don’t know how you fix this. I don’t think you can.  

[MEANS]

18 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

None of that prevents football’s biggest problem right now – anticlimacticity. Is that a word? We can never ever ever trust a play will stand up to replay or whatever until 30 seconds after the play has ended. You’re not rooting for the action, you’re rooting for a flag graphic to not appear on the screen. I watch football and I hope a sack gets to be a sack. I hope a touchdown gets to stay a touchdown. If something bad happens I hope it gets overturned. Nothing in football is enjoyable in the present moment as it’s happening. Example: I was at the Bengals-Colts game this year, which the Bengals won on an 80 yard fumble return. I couldn’t allow myself to be excited during the play because I knew we’d have minutes of reviews afterwards and I was 100% sure the guy was down. I don’t know how you fix this. I don’t think you can.  

This above is why I really don't take this league seriously anymore...you can never enjoy the moment, it's always in the back of your head that a flag can/could be thrown, a play can be reviewed....etc. It's getting closer and closer to professional wrestling...if you can watch games any not take it seriously (like professional wrestling) then the NFL isn't too bad. 

[The_Admiral]

25 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

2. GET A DAMN BOOTH OFFICIAL – I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t been a thing for the last 50 damn :censored:ing years. Put a guy in the :censored:ing skybox watching the game from above and the TV broadcast like the rest of us. If something happens that’s egregiously bad, such as the call that was botched in the NFCCG. If that happens the guy in the booth radios the head official and says “yall are idiots. I can’t believe I even have to talk to you about this. You missed the guy launching his dome at the other guy’s dome without even looking at the ball. You’re gonna feel really stupid later for missing it. Throw a flag and give the saints the ball first and goal on the one.” The biggest thing this guy would do would be to correct their often crappy spots, which officials mess up at an astonishing rate for something that is so simple.

 

The NHL should do this first, not only because they need it, but because whenever that league falls ass-over-applecart into an actual good idea, everyone else rips it off (war room, playground all-star game).

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Soccer has the best officiating flow of any sport -- the official makes calls in the moment, he defers to line judges on offsides calls, and VAR can be used sparingly.

 

That level of Independence is also reflected in hockey, and I don't know that it's suitable to football. It sure would be nice, though, if the football rulebook were dramatically shortened.

 

Soccer is an elegant sport and American football is very much not. However the latter could certainly learn from the former with regard to pace of play.

[TBGKon]

On 3/26/2019 at 12:09 AM, BringBackTheVet said:

He won’t see 1/10 the money he was making in the NFL (he made 10m last year according to some site) and even that is only if he’s a legit draw, and it’d be really hard for him to make that jump without spending time either in developmental or in the training center and working  years worth of dark matches. 

 

Even with the Fox deal, wwe salaries aren’t going that high. 

I dont think money in WWE will matter for Gronk.  I remember hearing in the last year or so that he's been banking his game checks and living off of his endorsement money while in the NFL.

 

Essentially he is set for life.