RedRamage

2 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't understand this rule change;

"Owners on Monday also approved a proposal to allow for the enforcement of a major foul by the offense prior to a change of possession in a situation where there are fouls by both teams."

Yeah, I wasn't sure on that either. The only thing I can think of is a situation where the offense holds a defender, the QB throws an interception, then on the return a defensive player does an illegal block in the back. I think by rule right now the penalties would off set and the ball would go back to the offensive team. This new rule would allow the defense to keep the interception maybe?

4 hours ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

So changing topics a little. With the new kick off, is it even possible to try an On-Side kick? 

Yes, but it has to be declared ahead of time, and at least the original rule (don't know if it was modified before being passed) stated that it could only be in the 4th quarter by a team that was trailing. So no surprise on-sides kicks.

2 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

With how quickly plays happen, and the "penalty" to an injured player of having to sit out the next play, I doubt it would. They'll want to do their celebration for the big play and get ready for the next rather than fake an injury. It's not like the "late" hits out of bounds where they'll go flailing into a bench to make it look like a much bigger hit than it was.

At least I hope.

I guess it depends... I mean I don't see anyone faking an injury, sitting out a play, then going back in to try to cause a defensive player to get a fine. But if a player can fake an injury and get 15 yards consistently, then maybe.

If it's just a fine if it happens in game with no injury but refs call it a penalty if there is an injury then I could potentially see it happening. Heck there's situations where it'd be a no brainer not to TRY if the tackle was even close to a hip-drop... Final seconds of the half or game... I'm running now the sideline within 50ish yards of the end zone and a guy tackles me and my leg is even slightly pinned. The clock says 0:00... I'm waiting on the ground for the trainer. Maybe I get the flag... my team gets 15 yards, that puts us in field goal range for one final play.

15 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

The police in Florida said they suspected he was still in Florida and not in Michigan. When was his car spotted in Florida? Is someone else driving it? Where is he now? Has anyone talked to him since the Lions? Is he still in Michigan? This just gets more bizarre. 

This is just so, as you said, bizarre. I wonder if he just sorta snapped... like:

"Oh ****, oh ****, oh ****... what do I do, what do I do? I f'ed up bad."

And then just sort of went home and hoped it all would just go away and the more he ignored it without police busting down his door the more he thought maybe it would all just blow over and so he just kept ignoring it. I mean, obviously this makes no sense logically, but that assumes he's thinking clearly and logically... and plainly he's not.

To respond to @Hongbit, showing up in Allen Park doesn't make him more guilty, but the fact he left what could have been his best support structure AND hasn't turned himself in sure makes is seem like he's guilty. I mean if you believe your innocent or at least that there were mitigating circumstances, the Lions would be a great friend to have in your corner.

While I was reading some of the responses in the thread about the hip-drop ban, it reminded me of this version of football I heard about many years ago, so I just looked it up again. It's pretty niche football with just like 15-20 colleges that have teams playing it. In short, Spring football is just like regular football but there's a max weight limit (currently 178 pounds) for each player.

This means that receivers, corners and QBs are the same size (more or less) as DLs and OTs and linebackers. There's a bigger emphasis on speed and agility vs. size and strength. And it would seem with all players being nearly equal in size there's a smaller risk of injury.

Now, I really, really, really doubt we'll be seeing any expansion of Sprint Football at the college level, let alone any professional level Sprint Football. But it's an interesting concept and might make for a more entertaining game.

On a purely hypothetical note, it could also co-exist better with the NFL given that the the weight limit. If you're a talented player, but just not large enough to make it in the NFL, a Sprint Football league might be the better alternative for you.

16 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Is Flag Football permitted? The new NFFL Flag Football League

It sure seems like it's getting harder and harder and harder to play defense. I know this is supposed to be in the name of player safety... but if this is actually enforced on the field (and isn't just a "fine after the game" as @MichiganCardinal eluded to) I see this as being the whole "what is a catch" debacle that happened after the Calvin Johnson incident. Refs are doing to look at this differently and flag something and not others. Other refs will flag that thing but not the first. We're going to get a bunch of youtube clips of people saying: "Why is this a penalty but this one isn't?"

16 hours ago, KnoxP said:

The other thing I look forward to is the offensive player jumping in up and throwing his imaginary flag at each and every opportunity.

Oh yes... PLEASE more of that! It's literally the only thing that makes football watchable these days!

17 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

I’m guessing teams have to develop marketing proposals and pledge a certain amount of money to brand building in that foreign market. 

I guess that makes some sense. I suppose the NFL wants some oversite as well... like being able to say: No, you're plan sucks so we're not approving it. OR: No, you're already stretched too thin because you already have X, Y, and Z areas and we don't think you can do justice to yet another area.

Still seems weird though how they're talking about "awarding" a team GMP "rights" to a country. Makes it seem like they were competing against other team and they won exclusive rights to market to that area.

I totally do not understand the Global Markets Program. I don't get why teams need to make a "bid" for certain countries given that there doesn't seem to be a limit on how many teams can get awarded a given country.

https://theathletic.com/5367020/2024/03/25/nfl-hip-drop-tackle-ban/

Quote

If a player grabs a runner with both hands/arms while attempting to make a tackle and “unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee,” then it is a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down, according to the NFL press release.

The NFLPA was against it.

So my problems with this:
1. How easy is it going to be to determine if the hips "swiveled" or not? I guess we'll see how it plays out, but this seems like it could be very subjective and if a player gets flagged for it a few things will refs start watching that player in particular more closely?

2. I don't like that it's conditional on landing on and trapping a runner's legs. So if a defender does a hip drop trying to avoid the legs and the runner spins at the last second to try to get out of it and hey... look at that, a leg is trapped. 15 yard penalty because the runner did something the defender had no control over.

1 hour ago, RandyMarsh said:

Why would you tell everybody you reached out to him then say it's none of your business when asked if you talked to him? 

Do we have the exact question/answer? Seems like a lot of paraphrasing going on... 

On 3/23/2024 at 7:54 PM, MichiganCardinal said:

I don't think he's dead. If those absolutely closest to him - his parents, siblings, and close friends that see him or talk to him frequently - were concerned, it would be out by now. There'd be a missing persons report, or a press release from his agent. The reason nothing has come out from his "camp" is very likely because there is nothing sympathetic to report.

Yeah, I'm sorta starting to think the same thing. If he was dead I would expect that someone would have found his body at this point. I don't think suicidal people generally try to hide their impending death... like he's not going to travel to the middle of some swamp and kill himself there. And even if he did I would expect his family/friends/etc. to be saying: "We don't know where he is, we're worried about him, etc." like you're saying.

I'm starting to wonder if he fled the country. What he allegedly did may not be something you flee the country for, but he also may not have been of sound mind when he did it. If he panicked at the time... maybe he thought he'd killed her? Maybe he just wasn't thinking straight?... if he ran then, now it's kinda hard to come back three weeks later.

8 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

There's the Commissioner's Exempt List, which kind of works in this way. It effectively serves as paid administrative leave.

It's the paid part that I have an issue with. It's a public black eye. Sure, you're not using him on your team (if this happens during the season) but you're still paying millions of dollars to an accused woman beater. And the team is penalized to an extent cause they may want to give the player the benefit of the doubt and a chance to defend himself, but if they keep him on they lose the money and if he ends up guilty they would have been better off cutting him early.

I still think the NFL needs a way that teams can put players in a "limbo" state where they're not paid, but also not cut. With how things have played out this would NOT apply to Sutton's situation, but in a hypothetical situation... let's say Sutton turned himself in, cooperated with police, and claimed he didn't do the things he was accused of. What would the Lions do then? Do you keep the player on the team? Did you suspend him, but keep paying him (if the legal issues extend into the season)? Do you cut him and risk losing him to another team it turns out the accessor lied?

From a PR perspective the NFL should have a way to distance themselves from the player, without paying him, until the case is resolved. Once it's cleared up the Team has "retroactively" cut him and recoup the money in escrow, or keep the player and he gets his back pay.

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

I'm glad the Lions were decisive with cutting Sutton. Dan Campbell likes to preach accountability. Running and evading police is not accountability. 

Yeah. As much as I preached "wait and see" when this first all came out, I don't think it's possible to defend Sutton at this point. There's really no reasonable way that he could NOT know that he's wanted at this point and evading, while not in anyway shape or form a proof of guilt, it looks very, very bad. And I'm sure the Lions have attempted to communicate with Sutton and I'm also pretty sure he has not reached out to them, which is more evidence for the employer that something is very off.

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Guilty until proven innocent?

As much as I was pleading for waiting until we have all the evidence, there's enough evidence now that something ain't quite right. Should we throw him in jail because of that? Heck no! But is there enough here for the NFL to takes steps? Heck yeah!

32 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I know it was always unlikely to happen for whatever reason, but, does this Cam Sutton situation make Brad Holmes reconsider trading for L'Jarius Sneed in any way, shape, or form?

It really, really doesn't seem like Holmes MO is to go after the big name FA/Trade acquisitions. This was easy enough to explain away early in that the team was crap and needed overhauls all over the place and spending big money on one or two big names was a bad use of resources.

But the Lions right now are very much in that situation of "one key player away" if you buy into that mentality. They were 30 minutes away from the SB and really didn't lose any major pieces outside of Jonah Jackson. This would absolutely be the time that you go "all in" if you were going to do it. But Holmes hasn't and there's no evidence that he plans to or tried to but couldn't get the big name he wanted.

So I don't think Sneed was a real option ever for the Lions. I think the Chiefs would be asking for more than Holmes was willing to give up. Holmes is sorta like the Anti-Dombrowski in that regard. 

9 hours ago, GoBlue23 said:

To find Sutton, find CeeDee Lamb and look 2 yards behind him.   

Why? Is Lamb carrying someone on his back?

14 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

There was no point in OJ fleeing like that since he "didn't do it" anyways.

But IF he had done it, then he would have fled in that manner. But only IF.

15 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

I find it hard to believe an NFL player is hard to get a hold of unless he is intentionally hiding or dead. By now everyone is aware of his warrant. His agent can't get a hold of him? The Lions? Family? On his Instagram he has multiple small children. I assume the mother of those kids is the one he choked, if not, can she find him? What's the end game here? He thinks he can show up at Allen Park for training camp and no one would notice? 

Yeah, any pretense of benefit of the doubt that I would have given him yesterday is out the window now. There's no way he doesn't know that the police are looking for him... well, unless he's not alive anymore, which would make a very bad, sad, awful situation even worse.

15 hours ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Football players though are mentally conditioned to be physical and abusive from a young age. It amazes me how many NFL players end up in hot water with the law..... Same for college football players. In College I had classes with some college football players and I was astonished they were even in college....... Now, I'm not saying it's all of them. I'm just saying football players in general that have careers. Heck watch Last Chance U. Three fourths of those players admitted to getting in trouble with the law.... crazy.  

I'd be interested to see percentages compared to the normal population. I do expect football players to be higher... between the "big man on campus" to young people getting millions of dollars to bring conditioned to be physically violent for their job... yeah, I expect those things to cause a higher percentage to be getting into trouble with the law.

But, I also expect that there's a higher percentage of normal people who've gotten into trouble with the law. Between brothers and brothers-in-law I've got 5. One had an arrest warrant out for him because of reckless driving (ended up that he just got a ticket so wasn't a huge deal), and another spent a few months in jail. I suspect another was arrested for a DUI, but I don't know that for sure. So you could say that 50% of my brothers has trouble with the law and you'd never know it based on who they are now. Now if they'd been football stars in their youth when these things happened, you probably would have heard about it.

1 hour ago, MichiganCardinal said:

 

 

Looks like the tweet has been deleted.

13 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Reports are the girlfriend had injuries so I'm guessing strangulation marks on her neck. He may very well of played his last game in the NFL. He's not good enough for a team to take on this baggage. 

Yeah, assuming it's true this is a bad crime and a bad, bad look for any team that would take him on. In theory he could rehabilitate himself over a few years and maybe make a comeback, but given he was never a star player and is already 29 I don't see that being likely.