RedRamage

As much as Patricia was a failure, I don't think his weight was the reason. I think the fact that Campbell is a former player who can still "mix it up" his he players definitely helps him relate better and helps the players bond with him. But being able to work out with your players isn't the only way to bond and certainly not a requirement for success. One need look no further than Andy Reid who's coached his teams to the conference championship 9 times, winning it 3 times and winning a SB once in his 23 years as a coach. If Patricia did that with the Lions no one would care one bit that he was overweight.

I honestly hate that Watson settled with so many of the women. I mean, I know it was the right thing for him to do to get the legal issues out of the way. But it leaves so much uncertainty. I'm not sure what to believe. What we know is that he definitely made advances on the masseuses and some of the cases actions went further. Watson claims any action that happened was consensual. The accusing masseuses say it wasn't. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle, but we just don't know.

I think I could get on board with that. You're right that the local team would have a better insight into what's going on and would be the ones to have to defend their actions more. There are some risks involved in this for the whole league though. Silly example, but let's say a Dolphin player murdered someone but gets off on a technicality (just go with it... I know it's a silly example). The Dolphins say: "He wasn't found guilty by the court, so we're okay with getting him on the team." You could end up with a protest against the league as a whole, not just the Dolphins. Honestly, what might be the smartest thing to do is codify it in the CBA where certain classes of legal issues equal x-number of games automatically suspended, but have that number relatively low. Then (again codified in the CBA) allow the individual teams to punish above and beyond that at their sole discretion. If those are the rules and they are spelled out in the CBA the NFL could at least say something like: "Listen, if it were up to us we'd say blah, blah, blah... but by rule it's a team decision. We can recommend, but we can't force the action."

Yeah, I'd like to know how they are judging that. I'm sure this isn't new information to anyone here but I think football is one of the hardest sports to judge individual or unit performances on. Soooo much of your (or your units) performance relies on how the rest of the team does. An elusive RB makes your OL look better at run blocking... A QB with a quick trigger means sacks and pressures are reduced... A great receiving corps makes the QB able to have a quicker trigger... A great defense that limits opposing scoring means you're not reduced to just a big pass playbook... Makes it hard to just look at simple numbers of draw a conclusion. Presumably ESPN also knows this and is trying to evaluate on more than just raw numbers. But I'd agree that something isn't right with their equation if this is what the results are.

To me it often comes back to a matter of "crimes against the sport" vs. just "normal crimes." And I know that this won't sit well with a number of people, but the NFL's job isn't to police and punish for "normal crimes." If an NFL player goes out and drives drunk he should be held accountable for this crime the same way as if any ordinary joe drove drunk... the criminal justice system should punish that person. Now, "crimes against the sport" are another thing. These things (generally speaking) are completely legal outside of the the sport. Your average Joe and go and bet that his favorite team will lose its upcoming game... that's 100% legal (assuming he's doing it in a legal manner), no problems, no issues, no police, no court, no jail time or fines or anything. If Tom Brady goes to a casino and bets on his team to lose... well, that's a major issue. This is a "crime against the sport" and the league has to punish heavily because they are the only one who will. Watson's accusers had their day(s) in court. The grand jury (where the prosecution lays out their case without the defense being able to say anything) didn't find enough evidence to indict. Many of the civil cases are settled. That's the courts punishing Watson for his "normal crimes" against society. Anything the NFL does on top of that is more window dressing and for PR reasons than anything else.

Define "measurable." I think one could argue that the mere fact that you're taking the time to read/post in a thread about his absence means that it has at least effected your life to some level. Measurable? Probably not, but effected none-the-less.

However that would require ERod talking about it. I know that some people view suicide/mental issues as very taboo. I think it's becoming less so, but there certainly still stigma about mental issues and that stigma is stronger with some people than with others.

And to be fair, if you're in a bad situation you're not always thinking 100% clearly either. Silly case in point, I had a sever kidney stone attack once a few year back. My wife was teaching, I didn't want to disturb her. I couldn't think of anyone else to call except for my dad who was working part time then. I was hoping he wasn't working that day and could take me to the hospital, so I called him and asked: "Are you working today?" He said "Yes." So I said something like: "Okay, will that won't work, sorry." and hung up. What I should have said was: "What time are you working?" because he wasn't working until later in the evening and this was like 10am. But I obviously wasn't thinking 100% clearly at that point.

MY apologies... I guess I didn't read carefully enough. RE: different sports... what was your thinking? Would a University be assigned a tier on the whole or would there be a different tier setup for each sport?

I don't think this would be as easy as you think. I suspect you'd get a LOT of resistance from schools like Michigan who think they are top tier school always and forever (and may not without some merit). They would not want to be up for regulation. There's also the question of rivalries. I know you left one game for rivals, but if MSU, OSU... er, I mean tOSU, and UofM all end up on different tiers, then MSU would miss out on the rivalry game with UofM. Finally there's the whole big-fish, little pond vs. little-fish, big pond issue. I suspect that schools like Alabama or tOSU wouldn't like to have to face the top(ish) 11 schools every year. Then the other issue is which sport(s) are you judging this by? Or do you see a different tier set for each sport?

Maybe... but I hope that having two first round picks might be enough to move up if we need to. It's hard to say right now if any other QBs emerge as legit options. Logically I know it will make more sense to lose games this year to better our shot of a high pick. But in season I have a very hard time rooting for losses.

I found this very interesting... the 25 biggest lakes in the world put side-by-side: It comes from this page here: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-25-largest-lakes/ There's a bit of info about some of the lakes there, and also a few more very interesting pictures where they put the great lakes in other parts of the work to show the relative size: India, Europe, and Australia.

I dunno... I don't think he's an football idiot. Obviously he failed here in Detroit, no way to sugar coat that. But I wonder if he'd be decent enough as a coordinator. He obviously seemed to have enough success at it original in NE. And there's lots of guys who are good-to-great coordinators who fail as HC. Just looking at Detroit's history: 'Weg went on to coach in the NFL for 14 years after getting fired by the Lions in various roles from QB coach to OC to Assistant HC. Marinelli is still in the league and served 9 of the years after he was fire as a DC. Schwartz had 6 years as a DC. I think it's entirely possible to be a great coordinator, yet fail as a HC. HC is a different animal and some people just don't have the chops to be a the man in charge of it all. It's one reason why I think it's not always smart to assume the next great HC is someone's current great coordinator. Now having defending Patricia, I do find it very odd that he's being put in as the offensive coordinator. It almost feels like he's being groomed for Belichick's replacement, which would be odd. But again I don't think Patricia is a football idiot. With the right mentoring, maybe he could step into the role of HC again. However, I do question how good Belichick is as an HC mentor given the many notable failures in his "coaching tree."

And while I have the USFL thread open here... what's the deal with the times these games are being played?? This weeks Panther's game is on Saturday at 9:00pm. Why? The opponent is New Orleans so it's not like it's a west coast team. Why start so stinkin' late at night? Last week's game was really late too. I actually watched part of it but didn't stay up until it ended. To be fair they had a 30 minute weather delay which pushed the game back even further, but why play soooo late?

The NO Breakers picked up Patterson. Not that I think all the issues the Panthers have were because of Patterson, but I do think Lynch played better when he was in there as QB. I'm guessing that Lynch is the starter now... other QBs on the roster are Josh Love and Eric Barriere out of Eastern Washington.

Is it time to rethink how Replay works? I mean on the replay it seems pretty clear that Hill was save. I think you probably could make the argument that the evidence isn't 100% conclusive, only like 90% conclusive. And (I think) the rule or guideline being that it has to be clear evidence that the call is wrong to overturn it... then it's probably the right call to say that the evidence is at least semi-questionable so stay with the call on the field. But here's the problem: Who has a better view of the call? Multiple camera angles that can be zoomed in and slowed down? Or one umpire who's got one view at real time while being tripped up by the runner? I think the idea that we assume the call on the field is correct unless we have iron clad proof that it's not is the wrong direction to take these days. We have better and better cameras, we have multiple angle, we have access to quick replay. I think it's time to say that if a call is challenged that the replay reviewers assume nothing. They judge the play purely on what they see. In the unlikely event that the replay people really can't decide THEN go with the call on the field. But when the point of replay is to get the call right, let's get it right. Right now replay review feels like a criminal case: there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt to overturn. I say it needs to be a civil case: Whatever the preponderance of evidence supports is the call that should be made.

I've been sorta thinking about getting a 3D printer for a while now. I know just enough about them to be dangerous though... I clearly don't know enough to be an expert on it so looking for some recommendations if anyone has one or has extensive experience I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Mostly I'd be getting it to make various odds and ends... like phone mounts for me car or headphone hook or what-have-you. I don't have a lot of requirements other than I'd something relatively easy in terms of setup so I'm not going massive calibration as I expect I'll be printing semi-infrequently. Ideally something that isn't extremely loud (maybe an enclosed machine?) as it'll be in my home office. I think that filament would be better than resin as different filament types would provide more flexibility, but I'm not necessarily opposed to resin if that makes the most sense. So... any input? Good experiences? Bad experiences? Recommendations for or against any brand/type/whatever? EDIT TO ADD: Price isn't a huge deal... I mean, I don't want to pay $5K for something. I'm not opposed to paying a bit more for a better machine but probably looking to spend less than $1K if possible.

Honestly, I'm happy they don't have a primetime game. Purely from a selfish fan-experience perspective but I enjoy the regularity of 1:00pm games. I remember a few years back when they have a number of "non-standard" game times and I didn't like it as all.

Yup, always seem to end up there in the cold. Kinda sucks.

100% agreed. The questions of course is how to measure "performs well."

1. Maybe? How much of not being able to throw deep was not having targets who could get open deep? 2. Maybe? We've obviously been trying to build up the rest of the team, especially the defense. 3. Let's walk before we run... let's just worry about getting to the playoffs first before we target a SB victory. (More on this later) 4. This is a valid question, though it's worth pointing out at Goff improved under Campbell's play calling, so there's a legit reason to think that he will be more like second half Goff rather than first half. 5. I think most people aren't expecting improvement. Now, imho #3 is the biggie here. Can we expect Goff to be a guy who can lead us to the playoffs regularly, win some of those game, get us (eventually) to a SB and (assuming Hell freezes over) win a SB? Not next year, no. I would lay just about any amount of money on the Lions NOT winning the SB in the 2022 season. But (and this is key) right now we're only looking at using Goff for the 2022 season. Not taking a QB in the draft or trade for one or signing a free agent now does NOT mean the Lions are locked into Goff beyond 2022... heck, we're not even locked in for 2022. If he stinks up the place so bad it's scary we don't HAVE to play him. Unless I'm very much mistaken people are aren't saying we should commit to Goff and only Goff for the next 4-5 years. I believe people are saying: "We could be competitive this year maybe... and hey if Goff shows massive improvement maybe we stick with him long term. If he doesn't, we look at addressing QB next off season." One could argue that that's what the Lions were doing with Stafford. We know how that worked out. The front offices couldn't build a good enough team around him.

Yeah, marks everyone has C or above, but also gives the Lions of their lowest grades. Weird.

I agree. Most HCs these days are coming from the offensive side of the ball.

I was going to make some comment on this during the draft... but I forgot the name of the poster on the old site who made some comments about (I think it was) the Piston coach's daughters, who were minors at the time.