RedRamage

Not in the Apollo capsule, no. It was... worse.

My ever so humble take on OT: I want it to be as much like "real" football as possible, but I also understand that FG is a hard sport that take a toil on players and longer games risk more injuries so I'm okay with shortening the period if there's a way to do it without radically changing how the game is played. So here's my plan: OT is a 15 minute period. At the end of the period whoever is ahead wins, or if the teams are still tied the game ends in a tie. However, if any team gains a 4 point lead that ends the OT in the team with the lead wins. This means a team may lose without ever getting the ball, yes... but that's only if the opposing teams scores a TD. A team can't win on a "cheap" FG. Furthermore, the other team can't win on a "cheap" FG, even if the first team doesn't score. You need a TD or at least two "cheap" FGs.

I think there's part of the rule that says if you cross the 50-yard line you're "locked in." If you lose yards later that pushes you back past the 50 you still can't kick. I would assume if this is true they could do a similar thing with FG. If you ever get close enough that a TD would be inside the 60, then you're "locked in" to 3 pts, even if you later get pushed back so the FG is outside the 60. Having said that there's more nuance there with how far back does the snap go? I guess they could just say: Teams on average snap the ball 7 yards, so a kick from 50 yard line (+10 yard endzone) = 60 yards... therefore if the line of scrimmage is ever inside the 43 yard line the team is locked into 3+ FG.

Possibly, because here we're talking about what you're getting paid for. A player is getting paid to play the game. An owner is getting "paid" to put an entertaining product out there for fans. Even if the team is bad the owner may have created enough loyalty (sometimes by accident more than because of shrewd moves) that it's still entertaining enough that fans will spend money.

Sure, Baez is a great example of the dangers of signing a player to a big contract, but in baseball the playing field is level. What Baez started hitting like Judge while playing okay defense at SS. Suddenly his contract is a steal for the Tigers. So it's even. If Baez does poorly, as expected, or fantastic he's paid the same. If the Tigers can't reduce what they're paying if Baez sucks, then Baez shouldn't be allowed to hold out if he out performs. If the Tigers CAN reduce what they're paying Baez then I'd advocate for Baez to be allowed to hold out for more if he excels. Now this differs from what a lot of we're used to in our jobs, but sports jobs are different from what a lot of us are used to as well. Most of us aren't in a situation where we can't quit from our job and then have our previous employer prevent us from being able to get hired by a similar company in a different part of the country. Yes, there are non-compete clauses in some people's contracts, but those are rarer and not nearly of the same level of exclusive as NFL where it's basically: Here are the best 32 employers out there where you can make big money, or you can go to anyone from 33-whatever and make maybe 1/50th of what you'd make with the top 32.

The issue I have with NFL contracts is that the team really holds the majority of the cards. Super simplistically: If a player performs WELL below expectations of his contract, the team has ways to recoup large parts of the contract and pay the player less than agreed upon. If a player performs below expectations of his contract, the team has ways to recoup parts of the contract and pay the player less than agreed upon. If a player performs to the expectations of his contract, the team and player both get what they expected. If a player performs above expectations of his contract, the player has no way to increase his contract. If a player performs WELL above expectations of his contract, the player has no way to largely increase his contract. I understand that there are part of contracts that are guaranteed and parts that aren't. I also understand that players and agents know this and they go in with eyes open. I just feel that teams has a built-in, by default, method of reduce liability if if the player under performs while the player has no method to increase his income if he over performs. The "hold out" because his only option.

Yes, because Decker was released. Ragnow, of course retired, which means they can get some of the signing bonus back. And it makes some sense why Signing Bonuses aren't guaranteed... it was more of an off the cuff comment that NFL players are not always well protected in the contract side of things. I don't totally blame the Lions for trying to get some of the bonus back because it does end up effecting the salary cap and in a cut throat environment where every edge is needed that might end up being important. I think it's just one more example of the issues players face. I'd like the league to change it's rules to allow for some level of a team to be able to still pay out the signing bonus without it effecting the cap on a retired player. Obviously there's going to have to be some rules with that otherwise teams are going to just offer much higher bonuses with much lower base pay extended out many years because then a you can massively over pay your roster letting them retire and not have it effect your cap.

Yes, but only they guaranteed portion, if there is a guaranteed portion. Not all NFL contracts have that and even those that do are rarely all guaranteed. I used to think that signing bonuses were guaranteed, but even that's not the case apparently.

I disagree in the NFL where most contacts are not guaranteed. Decker being an obvious example here. The Lions seem to have wanted him to take a pay cut. They were "refusing" to pay the play under the contract. When he didn't agree to that the team cut him, "breaking" the contract. Teams in the NFL are allowed to do this, and they do it all the time. The players don't have the same luxury. They can't go to a team and say: "Hey, I think I've out performed my contract so I think you need to pay me more, and if you're unwilling to do that, I'm going to void the contract and go sign with a different team." Holding out is really their only leverage.

There's apparently a "bathroom" in the Orion capsule. Granted the Orion bathroom makes airplane bathrooms look positively luxurious... but still an actual bathroom is quite the upgrade over the Apollo capsule. If you're squeamish about this stuff, I'd recommend not looking up how the Apollo crews handled this.

Part of me would be so incredibly hyped to be in a mission like this... then another part of me says: Could you really spend 10 days in a small room with 3 other people? The introvert in me panics at that thought.

Anyone else excited about this? I mean obviously this isn't the same as the Apollo missions, but I'm still excited to see that we're going back to the moon. I was technically alive for some of the Apollo missions, but let's just say that the astronauts and I were both using the same type of bathroom facilities then. It'll be pretty cool to watch people walking on the moon live. Granted, that's the Artemis III mission, but they have to do this mission first so this will be one step closer. Just over 9 hours when I'm posting this until launch.

That's pretty much my feeling as well. I'm obviously not in an NFL front office or coaching staff so I dunno how communication like this is handled. I don't know if Campbell or anyone calling him would be perceived wrong or what... I think they probably should have, but I also don't know if it was not done to avoid giving any sort of split messaging. Like if Dan calls then Decker thinks or publicly says: "Yeah, Dan called and said he would have liked to keep me [we're assuming Dan actually said this], but obvious the sticking point is the guy who makes the contracts and Holmes didn't want to pay me. [this part is obviously Decker's possible conjecture]"

Kaline.

Agreed... rate the umps based on it... and honestly, why not ABS instead of umps?

I dunno Nate... but they are giving away pitches, that's for sure! This ump ain't great.

Flat picture mounted on a 3D model base? Yes, kinda... the figure is mostly flat. Are the pictures 3D printed too? Yes! HueForge lets you take a picture and then, more or less, assign colors for different layers. Because the layers are very thin you get "bleed through" of the colors to give different shading. Did you use HueForge for the base? No. I just whipped up the base in OnShape, a free online CAD software. Is HueForge the 3D Modeler? Yes. After you do the necessary work preparing your image and then setting it up in HueForge, it spits out an STL. You import this into your slicer, setup various things like the layer height, infill (100%), and at which layers it changes filament. (If you have a machine with multiple filament inputs you can just swap it, otherwise you'd have to pause printing, and change filament manually.)

What OS are you running on your NAS?

Honestly I think both sides are being pretty good about it. I don't think either are trying to really air out a bunch of dirty laundry. Of course I don't know everything that Decker said to Reisman, so maybe there's more complaining there. But just reacting to the quote there: He may have made it clear to the Lions he wasn't interested in a pay cut, but that doesn't mean the Lions necessarily agreed to no pay cut. It may have been as simple as: Lions: We want you back. Decker: Okay, but I don't want to take a pay cut. Lions: Alright, we'll see what we can do. Just let us know when you've made your decision. Decker thinks: Okay, they see I don't want a pay cut. We're all set. Lions think: We'll see what his decision is and then where we sit financial and figure out what could work.

Yes, you are correct. Kaline is in the back. I'm iffy on Magglio. Not sure if he was a Tiger long enough. Gibson's probably a good one to consider too.

Not a chance! You think I'm gonna risk fate by adding him to be collection of star Tigers? Fate'll take on look at that go: Nope! Too soon my friend, and then he'll have a career ending injury. You think I want that on my head? No way. 5 years from now? Sure... but not now. I used to collect Bobbleheads for Lions and Tigers... but I started running into two problems: First, they didn't always make bobbleheads of the players I wanted, especially old star players. Second, and more importantly: They started getting SUPER expensive! Like $40-$60 for some of them. It just got hard to mentally justify dropping that on something that just sits on my shelf, ya know? So I really had to think about what I wanted to do going forward. Around this time I'd also gotten a 3D printer so I was sorta thinking about whether there was something I could do with that... maybe print little plastic jerseys or something... but I just couldn't find anything that I thought would be cool looking or interesting, and I certainly wasn't good enough to digitally sculpt anything, so I sort dismissed this. I honestly was in a bit of a funk thinking about what I was going to do. I mean, I know it's stupid to get depressed about something like sports "statues" and it's not like I was majorly depressed, but I was a little bummed Literally two days after coming to the decision that I was going to have to give up bobbleheads and being bummed about it, I was scrolling through youtube and saw a video on a piece of software called HueForge... and it all clicked together. So now once or twice a year I add a new "statue" by finding a good picture, cutting it out in inkscape, manipulate it a bit, create a 3D model with HueForge and make my own memorabilia. Much cheaper, and as long as I can find a decent picture I can do it of whatever player I want.

I need help guys... I'm trying to decide to who add next? I think thinking maybe Jack Morris? Or maybe Lolich? I don't feel like there's any current Tigers who are super star level, at least right now. Well, other than Skubal but I already have him.

It's kinda too bad there isn't anything like employer-employee privilege so that the Lions can plan accordingly. Not saying TA is guilty of anything here of course but it'd be nice from a team's perspective to have a player able to be completely and totally honest about any legal issue so the team can figure if they should work to replace him without the player having to worry about that information being compelled in court. Of course, from a player's perspective they probably wouldn't want to do that anyway. They're not going to want to give the team any reason to think about cutting them early if they are guilty of something.

I think the biggest problem is here is that Holmes did so good in his first few years with players who were star level almost right from the get go that anything else looks bad by comparison.

I dunno if we'll ever know the extent of involvement TA had in these events. I can totally see a situation where these people "went rogue" and TA knew nothing about it but they were using his name with some of the "little people" in the plot to lend legitimacy to the effort. I can also see a situation where TA planned, or helped plan, the events but intentionally kept some distance so he could have plausible deniability. This honestly doesn't seem that likely to me just because that seems to involve a certain high level of thoughtfulness and planning, but then communicating by a easily tracible method of texting from their main phones, dropping TA's name repeated in the conversation, and the apparent amateur effort of the events feels very unthoughtful and unplanned. If I was forced to guess? I'd say TA probably was hanging out with some of these people and they were lamenting about the stolen items. As young men are prone to do they probably started bs-ing about what they'd do if they caught the people they figured did the robbery. Maybe even made some off the cuff plans on how to carry it out. I suspect there wasn't any real intention here, just young guys talking **** and that's all it ever would have been. But then someone (or someones) from the group decided to act on the "plans." In this imagined possible senario I'm gonna assume that Hilton (the guy alleged to be the leader of the actual incident) was in that bs session and decided to make it happen for real. The questions then are: Did TA encourage or authorize Hilton to make it happen? Did Hilton think TA authorized it, even though TA didn't? Did Hilton take the initiative on his own and he (and/or his co-conspirators) use TA's name to try to lend legitimacy to the actions for the lower level players? Obviously if it's #1, that's bad. Whether there's evidence of it remains to be seen but it's still bad if TA actively was involved in anyway. If it's #2 then it's potentially bad. If Hilton legitimately thought TA authorized it (but TA didn't), he may accuse TA of doing it and maybe law enforcement believes him and maybe they go after TA. In this situation TA is innocent, but still have to deal with court cases to clear his name. If it's #3 then it's just bad PR. TA needs to get better friends but it's just a a bad look having his 'friends' be criminals.