Location for next year's draft down to either Chicago or LA after New York got removed as a possible spot.

<font color=goldenrod>Chris Snee expected to announce his retirement when Giants camp opens tomorrow.

Not surprising...but still, fuck. :( Sad to know that the last of the best Giants line I've watched has hung 'em up.

Diehl-Seubert-O'Hare-Snee-McKenzie 4 life.</font>

Ugh

<font color=goldenrod>If Snee were determined to play this year, I'm pretty positive he'd have started on the PUP list and would have missed at least 6 weeks. He couldn't even get through OTAs without his elbow flaring up. Just couldn't see a scenario in which he made the 53-man roster to start the year.

It's time. Saves Coughlin the awkwardness of cutting his son and law, at least.</font>

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11...layton-mailbag

<font color=goldenrod>Word came out of the officials' camp in Dallas on Friday that the league is going to put an emphasis on calling more penalties in pass coverage. Former vice president of officiating Mike Pereira tweeted Friday that officials are being asked to call more interference, holding and illegal contact penalties... The idea is to create more offense. Scoring is already at an all-time high, but the NFL doesn't want scoring and offensive production to drop off. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl with their "Legion of Boom" defense. While it was fun to see defense back on the podium, the NFL doesn't want to see the sport go the way of baseball, which is dominated by pitching and low-scoring games.

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Yep, let's further neuter defenses to may way for more offense. Clearly that's what the NFL needs.</font>

Rematch Seattle lets do this.

Pretty soon they'll flag the defense for hitting with their shoulders when tackling.

David Wilson, GOOD TO GO

Only cross body blocks allowed from this point forward.

I now want to see Navorro Bowman do the Bray Wyatt cross body into someone

Gonna need it to be Marshawn Lynch so I have that little bit of extra insurance for my rematch.

<font color=goldenrod>Not sure why I bothered checking social media for the latest Giants' training camp news. All it really amounts to is a billion posts of "OMG PLAYERS ARE ALREADY DROPPING LIKE FLIES!" because loads of guys cramped up, got dehydrated, came up lame, are sore, etc. it's like that the first day of practice for every NFL team.

I swear people read "so and so got carted off" and immediately think cart = season ending injury</font>

fixed

That's an arena football rule.

http://deadspin.com/this-is-a-browns-fan-pissing-on-art-modells-grave

wonder why an Ed Reed jersey..

also, wonder where Irsay is buried, I'm sure someone from Baltimore has packed up his tombstone in a mayflower truck and moved it somewhere..oh wait..that's not happened

Pat Bowlen stepping down as Broncos owner to deal with Alzheimer's. :'(

30 years as an owner, 6 Super Bowl appearances, 2 titles. Great owner and a great man.

<font color=goldenrod>Sidney Rice retires at age 27.

Makes sense really. Seattle had Baldwin, Harvin, and Kearse ahead of him on the depth chart plus they drafted two WRs (Paul Richardson and Kevin Norwood) who would have figured to be locks for the team. That would have left Rice fighting for a possible 6th WR spot that probably would have been better served going to somebody who could contribute on special teams, like Ricardo Lockette.

He still made a good amount of money in his career and got a ring. His body keeps betraying him so probably best to hang 'em up now.</font>

He will be back on another team.

Better to go out on your own terms than get forced out. NFL's had their fair share of senile old bastards still running teams and making bad decisions/driving people crazy.

God bless Pat Bowlen. Broncos are in good hands.

Question about Rice. How does "retiring" affect things like free agent status, contract commitment etc? I know it's come up tons of times before (Favre being a recent example) but I forget how it all played out. If a player "retires" then say, in Rice's case, his body cooperates and 2 years later tries to break back into the league, are they just a UFA at that point? Would Seattle get any compensation? What's to stop players from retiring willy-nilly to get out of contracts? (legitimate question, I do not actually know how any of it works)

Ray Rice gets a 2 game suspension.

When Carson Palmer "retired" rather than keep playing for Cincy they kept the rights to him and were able to trade him when they got a deal worked out.

People on my Facebook are losing their shit over this (that it's only two games).

Of course, I am poking fun at them by saying it's because Ray "learned and grew" from the experience.

It's baffling that Rice gets 2 games and Josh Gordon gets 16 for weed.

I get it, multiple offenses etc. But still.

if he hit her with weed his career would be over

the best part of a 2 game suspension is the Ravens play their first two games on Sunday/Thursday so they pretty much get it out of the way in a hurry. Plus with the Thursday night game its not like he would have been 100% anyway. It is 2 division games early but its 2 games they wouldn't have used him much anyway.

:roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:

it is a big benefit, he'll be able to get back to practicing with the team a couple days earlier than if the 2nd game was on a Sunday.

Yeah Thursday games fucking suck anyway, he lucked out by not having to play that shit

Man. I remember when Flacco signed his contract I thought they way overpaid, but this is ridiculous.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/joe-flacco/

That 2016 cap hit... yikes. They can get rid of him after that and "only" have a cap hit of 15.3M in dead money, or pay him..... $31M.

Like, Christ. I know he had arguably the best playoffs ever in 2012, but that seems a bit absurd to me.

Droford, how do you feel about paying Flacco $28.5M in two years. That's gotta be worse than Stafford's or Bradford's contracts.

Insane considering some of that could have helped other positions. Unless Flacco would have heeled it up and demanded the raise and stuff. Doesn't "seem" like he'd do that, though.

Semi-related, I miss Boldin :(

It seems like teams are to desperate to hold on to a decent/good quarterback they will pay the guy an absurd amount of money every time. Can't wait to see how much Andy Dalton gets paid after this year.

If Andy Dalton gets a massive contract, I...well I don't know what I'll do but he stinks.

<font color=goldenrod>Yeah Flacco's deal is ridiculous. I feel like he would have agreed to a long-term extension with a really good pay increase, but they still seemed to give him way more than they had to. When 2016 rolls around and Flacco's cap hit goes up big time, they will likely be able to free up room by getting him to restructure via converting some of his base salary into a restructuring bonus for future years, but that means it'll be even more money that he's guaranteed later on when he's already set to make a ridiculous amount.

Restructuring catches up with you though after a while. Eli restructured his deal each year from like 2011-2013 and it's at the point where they just can't do it any more, he gets like $9 million a year just in restructuring bonuses now.</font>

one thing no one mentions is that the salary cap is going up. 2014 went up $10 million over 2013 to $133 million. if the cap is $140+, his salary won't be as much of an albatross as everyone says, and no doubt they'll restructure it to a more manageable figure anyway. Flacco's deal being worse than Stafford and Bradford's is ridiculous since neither of them have won a playoff game, much less a Super Bowl. Same thing will go for Andy Dalton when he gets a huge contract. Befuddles me why teams want to pay big money to QBs who can put stats up all day but either can't win games or they do but choke late season/playoffs.

Also on the Ravens front, Aaron Ross tore his Achilles already and is done for the year. They signed another former Giant Will Hill but he's out 6 games for a drug suspension but should be a solid option to have in the 2nd half.

<font color=goldenrod>In Colts camp, Vick Ballard went down with another injury, torn Achilles. Now would be a good time for Trent Richardson to try and revive his career.

And now Kendall Hunter tore his ACL. Guess this is why the 49ers draft RBs by the bushel.</font>

I'm calling this shit right here. Right now. The Colts are winning the Superbowl this year. Andrew Luck wIll be MVP and Trent Richardson will rush for 1300 yards and 13 td's.

<font color=goldenrod>I've done some "preliminary" predictions but I keep winding up with the same championship games as last year. I really don't want to see Peyton/Brady part 5 million but I'd be willing to bet at least one of them does get their team to the AFC Title game if not both. And a Seattle/San Fran NFC title game rematch is going to be predicted by pretty much everybody.

Gotta wait til at least the 3rd week of preseason to see how many game-changing players go down with major injuries before I make my "official" predictions.</font>

Richie Incognito hurts a guys feelings and essentially loses his career. Ray Rice goes Mortal Combat on a woman and gets two games.

It's totally ridiculous and makes no sense, but I am going to play devils advocate... Kind of

I would say because there wasn't proof that he hit her. I feel like he could argue something like she passed out and he caught her? I don't think that tape would hold up in a court of law. I don't think you could get a conviction with that footage.


On the flip side... Roger Goodell has suspended people for far less crimes with even less proof.

So yeah again it's really dumb and stupid that Ray Rice only got 2 games.