NFL 2019: Preseason / Training Camp

I mean the guy has been so damaged over the last few years he and his family have to be looking at what his future will be like. Brave decision.

karmajay wrote:

I mean the guy has been so damaged over the last few years he and his family have to be looking at what his future will be like. Brave decision.

Yeah I agree. It takes a lot to walk away from big money but then again it's his health and quality of life that money can't get him back if he continues getting injured. I respect his decision.

Good for Andrew Luck for recognizing a football career is going to break you physically and ruin your life long-term and walking away from it, and it's even sweeter than he's leaving a franchise run by a stoned idiot who's never bothered to build a management structure capable of building a team to support him. Luck has gotten the crap kicked out of him, and he's smart enough to recognize he has enough money to live, and living is more important. I have to imagine buttholes are clenching all over the league as players start retiring earlier; Luck, Megatron, Patrick Willis. The league's lip service about player safety and long-term care will hopefully inspire more and more players to take this step.

Also, for your entertainment, the Luck retirement thread on Stampede Blue, their SB Nation site:

So, so good.

Talk of Manning to Colts. Would be interesting for both teams.

Trey Griffey makes me feel so old right now.

whispa wrote:

Talk of Manning to Colts. Would be interesting for both teams.

Interesting, because the Colts might actually pay something for Manning simply to avoid having to talk about Kaep all year?

Whatever, it's gonna be hard to find someone out there better than Brissett, and there aren't that many worthwhile white backup QBs on the market. Lure Charlie Whitehurst out of retirement to back up Kelly?

I wouldn't do anything if I were the Colts. You've got 3 QBs on your roster. Brissett is capable of starting. No one you go get right now is going to get you to the Super Bowl. Play Brissett this year and see if he's developing from what he was in 2017. If he isn't coming along, play $wag. And then get into the QB market in the 2020 draft if nothing on your roster works out.

All a veteran might do is turn you into an 8-8 team that watches other teams draft potential franchise QBs in April.

Top_Shelf wrote:

Money doesn't matter for happiness and if he doesn't want to get smashed each week, good for him... but where was he at on contract status? He would have been on about year 2 of his second contract, right? So he's probably walking from $80mm? ...

I agree with Top Shelf here -- my hat's off to Luck, too, for walking away before he suffered even worse physical trauma -- but I don't view this as walking away from a big payday. Rather, he's walking toward a big payday.

Luck isn't like most pro athletes who come from humble (or worse) circumstances. Luck's dad was an NFL QB who went on to be an AD at a D1 school and was (and is - XFL) a pro sports league commissioner. Oliver Luck has some money, in other words.

Andrew Luck, meanwhile, has a Stanford degree, Stanford and NFL connections and fame. Let's say he works till he's 60 at $2M per (on average). That's $60M right there in pre-tax lifetime earnings. And that's not accounting for any equity he might have in whatever business he might start.

He's a privileged guy who's using his privilege to get out of football while he still have functioning kidneys and all of his limbs. Good for him.

I read that one of the big drivers for Luck's decision was worrying about the toll all of the painkillers and anti-inflammatories would take on his body, so not just the injuries, but in the ways NFL teams use drugs to mask the pain so players can keep abusing their bodies for the NFL's profit margin.

This feels like a watershed moment for the NFL, and I genuinely hope it is and it's all downhill from here.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I read that one of the big drivers for Luck's decision was worrying about the toll all of the painkillers and anti-inflammatories would take on his body, so not just the injuries, but in the ways NFL teams use drugs to mask the pain so players can keep abusing their bodies for the NFL's profit margin.

This feels like a watershed moment for the NFL, and I genuinely hope it is and it's all downhill from here.

I lost a bet with a co-worker that Kyler Murray would opt for baseball instead of football essentially for all the reasons Luck is retiring.

Will be curious to see how many of the Kyler Murray type of players in the future start saying no to football for other sports.

Another article on Deadspin about Luck ; the interesting part here is screencaps of tweets by former journeyman lineman Rich Ohrnberger about the pain he went through. It's genuinely unpleasant to read, and this is coming from somebody whose name I don't even recognize as an NFL player.

Gronk talking about how football was bringing him down. Apropos.

(As an aside, not sure what he was selling when doing this talk, but was probably selling something.)

Edit: He's selling CBD.

Of course he was.

Mostly interesting but way too long: SI tells the 100-year history of the NFL in 100 objects.

The 100 best photos is a little easier on the eyes.

Former Jags WR Cecil Shorts III wrote an article about Justin Blackmon.

Hard Knocks, Episode Four:

* Does anyone not know "You Lost That Loving Feeling" in order to get past Derek Carr's on the spot karaoke sessions for players? You'd have the whole team into it!

* "Knock on wood if you agree" is going to get referenced left and right this season.

* All in favor of nominating Natalie Cabinda for Football Mom of the Year?

* Also, didn't that statue she and her son stopped to take pictures at in Winnipeg look like it had a Ferengi's head?

* I guess if the Raiders now claim Winnipeg, Certis is now a member of Raider Nation.

* Yeah, it was bad as we thought it was trying to figure out what to do with the field.

* Did...did Gruden say "Hey, Peter Man?"

* And was I the only one who noticed the one kid in the De La Salle crowd wearing a Chief Wahoo ballcap?

* Bad enough your positions coach calls you out on trying to sneak candy on TV, but to also get caught sneaking candy on TV while wearing a World Food Programme sweatshirt.

* Also, why the hell were they all wearing sweatshirts in Napa during a heatwave?

*Legion* wrote:

Former Jags WR Cecil Shorts III wrote an article about Justin Blackmon.

Man thats freaking sad. From wikipedia:

2015–2018
On May 10, 2015, Blackmon was reportedly denied reinstatement by the NFL, effectively ending his 2015 season.[27]

In August 2015, Jaguars general manager David Caldwell said that the Jaguars don't expect Blackmon to ever play for them again. Caldwell said that the team had not heard from Blackmon for some time, and believed that given his two-and-a-half year absence made it unlikely that he would ever return to the NFL.[28]

On September 1, 2015, it was revealed that Blackmon was added to the Toronto Argonauts' "confidential" negotiating list in August. However, because of his suspension, the NFL stepped in and disallowed it.

On December 19, 2015, Blackmon was arrested for DUI in his hometown of Ardmore, Oklahoma.[29] He pleaded guilty to DUI, and in August 2016 was sentenced to one year in jail, which was suspended pending the completion of one year of probation. He was also fined $1,000 and ordered to undergo 100 hours of community service. If he ever decided to play again, he would have to go through a two-month vetting process after applying for reinstatement. Despite this, Caldwell said at the time of Blackmon's arrest that the Jaguars had no intention of cutting him, notwithstanding Caldwell's own view that it was unlikely Blackmon would ever play another down in the NFL again.[30]

Blackmon reportedly completed the terms of his probation in August 2017.[31] However, he was not reinstated by the league before the 2017 season. As of the Jaguars' 2018 season, he remains on the team roster, on the reserve list.

Doesn't look like its been updated since 2018.

Isn't it kind of petty to keep him on the team's reserve list?

*Legion* wrote:

Former Jags WR Cecil Shorts III wrote an article about Justin Blackmon.

Damn. That's depressing as hell.

garion333 wrote:

Isn't it kind of petty to keep him on the team's reserve list?

No. That is what happens to a player who exits the league while still under contract. Teams have to put them on the reserve-retired list (or reserve-suspended or reserve-did not report, depending on circumstances) in order to get the cap relief, and they stay there.

Former 49ers RB Glen Coffee tried to make an NFL comeback after 7 years away. Since he retired under contract, he was on the 49ers reserve-retired list. Filing for reinstatement made him active again, and so the team waived him.

Blackmon is on the Jags' reserve-suspended list, and to my understanding, he will basically remain there forever unless he files for reinstatement (and gets it).

The NFL reserve lists are never super clearly explained to the public. I am unaware of any statute of limitations on being a name on those lists. I'm pretty sure they're big clerical lists with lots of accumulated names over time. The Glen Coffee example kind of demonstrates that.

Good stuff

Oh, bullet point I forgot:

* Jon Gruden in a Twitch jacket felt...okay, sure, whatever. Now let's watch his son punch some dudes.

It's Cuts Day! Which means it's almost time to close up shop on this particular thread.

Oh, and speaking of cuts, Carolina dumped QB Taylor (Tyler, Timmy, Bill, who cares) Heinicke (sp?) and CB Corn Elder, a 2017 draft pick who was never quite good enough.

Heinecke (sp?) is reportedly on his way to Indy. I hear they're short a QB.

Methinks Legion should apply for the GM job in Houston.

TheGameguru wrote:

Methinks Legion should apply for the GM job in Houston.

Clowney for a 3rd, Barkevious Mingo, and some other scrub?

Yeah their no-GM thing looking even dumber than before.

As a Jags fan, this is great.

As a Niners fan... super pissed they just gifted him to the goddamn Seahawks.

The Texans just traded for Carlos Hyde, who was absolutely getting cut.

Indy should inquire about Watson. Apparently he could be had for mid round draft pick and the kicker who lost the roster battle.

Jets cut 3rd round pick Jachai Polite.

Polite went into the draft process with a mid-1st round grade, right up there with the Brian Burns and Clelin Ferrell class of edge rushers, the guys a tier below Bosa and Josh Allen (at least until Gruden and Mayock came along and took Ferrell at #4).

Then Polite showed up overweight and ran (and jumped) poorly at the Combine. Then he badly blew his Combine interviews, got completely rattled by "negativity" in interviews and complained about it afterward.

He slid to round 3.

Then the GM that picked him got fired. And apparently he has been a slug in camp.

What a fall.

Tunsil and Stills to the Texans for draft picks. Usually when you hear Miami's having a fire sale, it's the Marlins, not the Dolphins.

So I'm guessing the 3rd they got for Clowney is part of that package.

That makes it only slightly less bad. But they screwed up by not moving Clowney early in the offseason, when there would have been more buyers. KC got a 2nd from the Niners for Dee Ford, and even that felt like a pretty buyer-friendly price. Nobody would have expected the price for Clowney to be a 3rd plus some roster bubble throw-ins if he was on offer in March.