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NFL Random Thought of the Day

The NFL has just announced that there will be no supplemental draft. There were no supplemental drafts in 2020, 2021 or 2022 and neither of the two players eligible for last year’s draft were selected...................just not enough rejects applying..................
 
Nothing happens withouot a positive for the NFL. Got to have something to do with their agreeing to all the out of country games.

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Jaguars don’t expect much resistance from NFL over 50-50 split on stadium renovations
By Mike Florio
Published June 26, 2024 02:27 PM

The approval of the Jaguars stadium deal doesn’t conclude the situation. Until Club Oligarch gives the arrangement the OK, it’s not official.

So why would the other owners not approve? Apparently, they might not be thrilled with the precedent that a 50-50 split between Jacksonville and the Jaguars creates for their efforts to get free money for their own venues.

Via Mark Long of the Associated Press, the Jaguars nevertheless “don’t anticipate much pushback from the league” despite using a division of public and private money that has a lower percentage of free money than usual.

“There’s a lot of questions, but we’re satisfied that we will be able to effectively answer those questions and look forward to getting this finalized in mid-October,” Jaguars president Mark Lamping said, per Long..

The mere possibility that other owners would do anything other than say, “Do whatever you want to do” underscores the collusion and (frankly) antitrust violations that have been baked into the Big Shield cake.

Really, what business is it of 31 other business owners to tell Jaguars owner Shad Khan how to run his business?

Besides, what do the other owners expect? As franchise values continue to mushroom, it will be harder to get taxpayer dollars. Voters will never approach such measures. Eventually, elected politician might realize it’s bad politics to do what their constituents wouldn’t.

From Jacksonville’s perspective, any effort by the league to send Khan back for more should be met with five words: “Take it or leave it.”

And if Jacksonville City Council is feeling particularly bold, they should tell the league the offer decreases by $1 million per day, every day until the offer is accepted.
 
2017 memo shows NFL explored putting out-of-market games on cable, if it dumped Sunday Ticket

Closing arguments are underway in the Sunday Ticket trial. And the plaintiffs have shown to the jury an interesting document.

Via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press, the lawyers have displayed “a 2017 memo from the NFL showing the league was exploring putting out of market games on cable if they decided to get rid of Sunday Ticket.”

This shows that, when it comes to the league’s supposed desire to give fans choices, the league has plenty of options. It doesn’t have to sell out-of-market games as one all-or-nothing package, with no ability to get the out-of-market games one team at a time, one weekend at a time, or even one game at a time.

Regardless of whether the NFL wins or loses the current case, consumers and media are waking up to the fact that they don’t have broader flexibility when it comes to out-of-market games, because the NFL doesn’t want them to have it. Will that knowledge and the discussion flowing from it be enough to get the NFL to change its ways?

It’ll be far more likely to happen if Big Shield loses big. It could still happen even if the league wins.
 
Sunday Ticket jury finishes for the day
By Mike Florio
Published June 26, 2024 08:05 PM

The jury in the Sunday Ticket trial has concluded its first day of deliberations.

Via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press, the jury has gone home for the night. They’re scheduled to resume on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. PT.

In civil cases, a quick verdict is good news for the defense. The longer a jury is out, the more likely a win for the plaintiff becomes.

Unlike criminal trials, it’s not simply a question of up-or-down innocence or guilt. The jury first must find that the defendant committed a violation of one or more legal standards. Then, if so, damages must be calculated. It simply takes more time to find for the plaintiff in a civl action..

The jury didn’t do much deliberating today, given that Wednesday included jury instructions and closing arguments from both sides. Thursday is the first full day of talks. Then, possibly, Friday.

And remember this — the judge could still enter judgment for the NFL even if the plaintiffs secure a massive verdict.

The class action, encompassing more than 2.4 million consumers, attacks the NFL’s pricing methodology for Sunday Ticket as an antitrust violation. The plaintiffs claim the league requires its Sunday Ticket partner to overcharge for the package (and to not make a single-team option available) in order to get more consumers to watch the games available on CBS and/or Fox in their local markets.

However it plays out, the information that has come to light in the trial could force the league to consider making more options available to consumers. That would be a win for all consumers.
 
You always hear about an NFL lineman weighing "a good healthy weight of..........." NFL linemen never carry a healthy weight. Their playing weights are anything but healthy. Too much stress on their joints. Too much stress on their metabolism. Too much stress on their heart and blood vessels. When they do eventually retire, those who are wise will try to bring their bodies into normal shape................something that has proven difficult or many times impossible to attain for someone whose body for so long has been "trained" to maintain a very abnormal normal. NFL linemen players have been shown to have a comparatively shorter lifespan compared to similar American men and football players who played in other positions.

Good for Kelce for setting his post NFL goals! But as the article reports, Kelce at 6'3", has found it difficult to bring his weight below his present 277 with his goal being 250-260...............something he says is hard to imagine him being able to reach. A healthy ideal weight for a 6'3" male has been found by formal studies to be ~176 - 216 lbs...............a far cry from his stated attainable goal.

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Jason Kelce says he’s losing weight and getting healthier in retirement
By Michael David Smith
Published June 27, 2024 05:22 AM

Playing offensive line in the NFL isn’t exactly the healthiest lifestyle, and Jason Kelce says now that he’s retired, he’s building a body that’s designed more for a long life with his wife and kids than for battling with 300-pound opponents.
Kelce, who retired this offseason after 13 seasons playing center for the Eagles, said that like most players who played as long as he did, he has plenty of ailments — but for the most part he left the NFL in reasonably good health.

“Everybody exits the league with some type of impediment,” Kelce told GQ.com. “I’ve had a twice-reconstructed right knee, a surgery on my hand, my groin. I’ve broken toes. I’ve had my share of things that have gone wrong, not to mention just the wear and tear of playing 13 years in the NFL. So I’m leaving the game with those scars, but for all intents and purposes, I can play with my kids. I am still able to fully enjoy life, which I consider a blessing whether you played in the NFL or not.”

At just under 300 pounds, Kelce was small by the standards of an NFL offensive lineman, but he is slimming down in retirement and wants to lose more weight.

“As far as the weight is concerned, I weighed 295 for the majority of my NFL career, and I look forward to losing some of those pounds,” Kelce said. “I don’t want to get too small. I think a lot of guys, especially offensive linemen, they lose too much weight, and then they look like bobbleheads because their neck gets so small, but their head stays the same size. So for me, I feel like for some reason, 250 to 260 feels like I’ll be still big and be happy with the way I look without having a six-pack. But I’ll still be able to have that stature a little bit. Right now, I’m about 277. I’m almost 20 pounds down right now. It’s hard to imagine another nearly 20 pounds coming off, being honest with you. But my back already feels better. My knees already feel better. So another 20 pounds hopefully will make that much more adept at playing with my children.”

At age 36, Kelce is beginning a second career in broadcasting, and looking forward to many years of that, in good health.
 
Yes, Sunday Ticket judgment can be entered for the NFL even if the jury finds against the league
By Mike Florio
Published June 27, 2024 09:34 AM

Last week, the judge presiding over the Sunday Ticket class action threatened to dismiss the case while venting at the plaintiffs’ lawyers regarding the way they’ve conducted the trial. Currently, the judge is holding off on ruling on the league’s motion for judgment as a matter of law until after the jury enters a verdict.

Several of you have asked these questions, or some version of them: How can the judge in the Sunday Ticket trial overrule the jury? If the judge does that, why have it go to the jury in the first place?

During the life cycle of a civil action, the judge has various ways to find in favor of one side or the other, with or without a jury verdict. The Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss challenges right out of the gates whether there’s any legal basis for the claims being made, even if all of the facts in the complaint are accepted as true. The Rule 56 motion for summary judgment asks the court to find that there’s no reason for a jury to resolve the facts because the undisputed evidence developed during the discovery process show that the defendant should prevail.

During the trial, Rule 50 gives the judge the ability to enter judgment as a matter of law — at any time.

The question under Rule 50, in this specific case, hinges on whether the evidence permits a reasonable jury to find in the plaintiffs’ favor. In many cases, the evidence permits reasonable minds to differ on what happened. If, in this case, the judge decides that, as to the key factual questions, there’s no basis for a reasonable jury to find for the plaintiffs, the judge can enter judgment as a matter of law for the NFL — even after the verdict.

So how can a jury find against the NFL if no reasonable jury (in the judgment of the judge) should come to that conclusion? It doesn’t mean the jury is unreasonable. It means the jury got confused by issues unrelated to the strict legal requirements of the case.

Big companies hate jury trials due in large part to the fact that jury decisions often are made based on visceral notions of what is and isn’t fair and just. In this case, it would be very easy for the jury to find (based on evidence that has come to light through media reports) that the NFL has unfairly restricted consumer options by requiring Sunday Ticket to be priced high enough to get a large percentage of them to not buy it and watch local CBS and/or Fox affiliates instead.

But it’s one thing for the situation to seem unfair and another thing for it to be a violation of the federal antitrust laws. If the plaintiffs failed to introduce sufficient evidence to support a jury verdict on any of the key building-block elements that lead to an antitrust violation, it doesn’t matter if the NFL’s pricing strategy seems unfair, unjust, or wrong.

Still, even if the judge gives the NFL a legal Hail Mary after a jury verdict against it, the NFL would be well advised to take the jury’s decision to heart. Because it will mean that a group of average American citizens determined that the NFL’s pricing habits for Sunday Ticket are unfair, unjust, and/or wrong.

Think of it this way. There’s no law against being an asshole. Under certain circumstances, the manifestations of assholish tendencies can get you sued. If the jury thinks the defendant is an asshole, the jury can become more inclined to check whatever boxes need to be checked in order to find against the defendant — not because it believes the evidence introduced at trial satisfies the technical legal requirements of the case it’s considering but because the jury thinks the defendant is an asshole.

So if, in any civil case, the jury finds against the defendant and if the judge enters judgment for the defendant notwithstanding the verdict, the defendant needs to look in the mirror and ask himself a very important question.

Am I an asshole?

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Xopher said:
You do not have to have a YouTubeTV package to get Sunday Ticket. You can buy it standalone for 4 payments of 112.25 or 449 a season. At least that is one benefit over DirectTV. Everyone can buy it now instead if just DirectTV customers.
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and if you get it early its $100 off.....
 

Judge will hear post-trial motions in Sunday Ticket case on July 31​

By Mike Florio
Published June 27, 2024 05:38 PM


The jury has spoken. Next, the judge will.

Post-trial motions in the Sunday Ticket class action are set for July 31. That’s when the NFL will renew its motion for judgment as a matter of law before Judge Philip Gutierrez.

While it’s standard practice for the losing party in a civil case to seek post-trial relief from the judge, there’s a difference here. Judge Gutierrez threatened to throw out the case last week, criticizing the plaintiffs’ lawyers for overcomplicating it. This week, he decided not to rule on the NFL’s motion for judgment as a matter of law until after the verdict.

Here’s an important question. Will the sheer magnitude of the verdict make him view the case differently? Whatever the plaintiffs’ lawyers did, they did enough to get the jury to return an exorbitant verdict against the NFL — a verdict far larger than anything the NFL has ever faced.

He’ll enter a written ruling at some point after July 31. Then, the losing party will have the ability to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
 
Final payment, if any, in Sunday Ticket case will be spread equally among the 32 teams
By Mike Florio
Published June 27, 2024 08:34 PM

The initial reports from the courtroom pegged the Sunday Ticket verdict at $4.096 billion. Others have it as high as $4.8 billion. Given the requirement under antitrust law that the verdict be tripled, the final number (exclusive of interest) is anywhere from $12.288 billion to $14.4 billion.

Whatever the final amount (and it still could be zero), it will be split equally among the 32 teams.
On the low side, that’s $384 million. On the high end, it’s $450 million per team.

It won’t cause anyone to go out of business. It will hurt to write the check, but the oligarchs have the cash to pay for it. Especially since it probably counts as a write off of some sort. (If only I knew what a write off is.)

The NFL’s goal remains to win the case. That will both avoid writing 32 big checks — and it will allow the league to keep doing business as to Sunday Ticket the way that it has for the last 30 years.
 
NFL has ongoing legal exposure to Sunday Ticket antitrust violations
By Mike Florio
Published June 28, 2024 09:05 AM

When the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Alston case in June 2021, the NCAA scrambled to limit potential liability arising from the longstanding ban on athletes making money from the names, images, and likenesses by opening the NIL floodgates only 10 days later. It was smart, because the Alston case (and particularly Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion) made it clear that many of the NCAA’s rules violate the antitrust laws.

The NFL might need to make similar decisions, in the aftermath of Thursday’s verdict in the Sunday Ticket case.

The class action doesn’t cover the 2023 season (on YouTube TV), the 2024 season, or any future seasons. Already, there’s a fresh class action hiding in plain sight over the pricing of Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV in 2023. It also will apply to 2024, absent a dramatic change to the current pricing.

For the NFL, an important decision must be made, right away. Will the league change Sunday Ticket in response to the verdict, or will the league let it ride through the appeal process — knowing that an eventual loss will result in several more years of potential liability?

Ideally, the league will realize that, regardless of whether the approach to Sunday Ticket violates antitrust laws, it disrespects consumers by forcing them to pay too much for the games they want to watch. Even if the NFL never has to pay a dime after Thursday’s verdict, the league has been exposed for its greed, its manipulation, its refusal to let fans affordably see any game they want to see.

They can claim they’re committed to choice. The truth is that they’ve historically made choice so expensive that they knew many fans would choose to settle for the games available on their local CBS or Fox affiliates, even if they’d rather watch another game.

All fans should hope the league regards yesterday’s verdict as a wake-up call, one that makes the league decide to make all games available to all fans, without attaching a markup aimed at getting most of them to settle for whatever they can get instead of what they truly want.
 
Levis had L ankle and R turf toe problems prior to the 2023 season. He dealt with the ankle problem throughout 2023. Jan 2024 he suffered a turf toe re-injury (only identified by the team as a foot injury) for which there was debate as to if he should undergo surgery. This is the reason that his HC felt "something was off with his throwing mechanics and that he wants to be “more stationary” when delivering passes." A right turf toe is a long-standing concern especially when pushing off when trying to run or in a right-handed QB pushing off his plant foot.............................the latter especially (in addition to affecting mobility) requiring a change in arm mechanics.

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Will Levis refining mechanics ahead of second NFL season
By Josh Alper
Published June 28, 2024 08:52 AM

Titans quarterback Will Levis isn’t getting totally away from football during the break leading into training camp.

Levis told head coach Brian Callahan during OTAs that he felt something was off with his throwing mechanics and that he wants to be “more stationary” when delivering passes. The team worked with him on that through the end of the offseason program and Levis will work on it with his personal quarterbacks coach on the way toward camp.

“Quarterbacks are weirdos,” Levis said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN.com. “We’re always tweaking something, feeling like something might be off. The ball wasn’t coming out the way that I would’ve liked it to, and I just started looking at what could potentially be the cause of it.”

The Titans have a lot riding on Levis’s continued development as a quarterback, so any work that can be done inthe coming weeks to enhance his chances of success will be time well spent.
 
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The question is how will the NFL make up for their losses. If you have any doubts, just look in the mirror.

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NFL will face other expenses in Sunday Ticket case, from attorneys’ fees to interest
By Mike Florio
Published June 28, 2024 07:46 AM

The biggest expense for the NFL arising from Thursday’s verdict will be the $14.088 billion ($4.696 billion, times three) for antitrust violations arising from the Sunday Ticket class action.

There will be other expenses.

The antitrust laws allow for the recovery of reasonable attorneys’ fees. Given that the case goes back nine years, the final bill submitted by the lawyers representing the class will be a big one, probably somewhere between $50 million and $100 million.

Then there’s interest — prejudgment and postjudgment. Nine years of interest on the front end, and who knows how many years of interest on the back end?

Even if the NFL ultimately wins (and it still could), the league surely has paid many millions to its own lawyers since the case was filed.

That’s what big law firms do. They all want what they call “cost-insensitive clients,” who have big money and big problems and who pay big monthly invoices without batting an eye.

Whatever happens, the NFL isn’t going out of business. But the NFL might eventually have to dig very deep into the couch cushions to come up with the cash. If the final number is indeed $14.088 billion, there will be a lot more on top of that.

But, hey, when $14 billion is already sailing away and never coming back, what’s another billion or so?
 

Jags owner Khan calls 2023 collapse an ‘organizational failure’ and says it can’t happen again​



He praised the long-term contracts for quarterback Trevor Lawrence and pass rusher Josh Allen. He talked about playing in London and maybe Northern Ireland. He offered some insight into how Amit Patel, a former Jaguars financial manager, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $22 million from the NFL franchise through its virtual credit card program.
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CloakNNNdagger said:
The NFL has just announced that there will be no supplemental draft. There were no supplemental drafts in 2020, 2021 or 2022 and neither of the two players eligible for last year’s draft were selected...................just not enough rejects applying..................
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CloakNNNdagger said:
Sad story about a Chiefs hero.

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41 years ago today, Joe Delaney gave his life to help three drowning children
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Awesome act of heroism and Delaney should definitely have a monument for his actions.
But wow hard to believe it's been some 40 years, so time really does fly.And as I recall that kid was a helluva running back. What a tragedy all the way around !
 
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