So not only is the league going to increase the face mask fine, they will also take away draft picks. Whoa. I mean Harbaugh was literally yell spitting in a refs face so I get it but holy shit that has huge implications. Speaking of implications, how are they going to make up postponed games?
Fucking good. Wearing a goddamn mask is literally the least you can do to help protect people around you. The coaches and staff that aren't doing it, or aren't doing it correctly, are just assholes. They are literally endangering the lives and livelihood of people around them. Take their first round picks. Suspend the coaches. Whatever. This is so stupid. If you can't figure out how to put a piece of cloth in front of your face holes, you don't deserve to be standing on the sidelines. Yes, Andy Reid, I see your face shield and it's not sufficient. Wear a mask. It shouldn't have even gotten this far: the NFL should have laid out guidelines on what everyone had to do and escalating penalties for not doing it. None of this, "clubs can implement their own rules" bullshit. I read somewhere that they were talking about possibly doing a MNF double header like they do the first week of the season.
Until I read Binary's response I thought they were taking the 15 yard face mask penalty way too seriously.
I 100% agree. It seems the only way to make them follow the rule is to up the ante. Even then I wonder, for some, if that will work. Take Chucky for example, he stood there post game and laughed when he was asked about it. "I'm trying. It's new but I am trying. I'll pay my fine... blah blah blah." Fuck trying just do. I read this morning that is a possibility and/or a Tuesday night game. I think they are running around in circles right now and don't know WTF they are going to do. 2 more cases for the Titans.
They'll pay attention once the NFL does things that affect the actual game - draft picks, penalties, suspensions. The problem is the people and teams are rich, so it's not that impactful to say, "pay us $100,000." I mean, that's a lot of money even to rich coaches, but it's still only 1% of what Gruden gets paid this year. Start impacting the on-field product and they'll fall in line quickly. It doesn't affect anyone but them when they get fined. They're going to get fired if their team starts losing, though. By and large, I don't think fines are a useful deterrent for most of the league (at least not the way they're structured right now). Suspensions are, though. The players lose both money and playing time, and the teams lose talent on the field.
15 yard penalties for each mask infraction would get their attention real quick IMO. Harbaugh screaming at a ref with his mask down is rank stupidity. Penalize his team and toss him from the game and that crap gets resolved real quick.
Although I agree that would work, do you think that would ever happen? I also agree that he should have been tossed. He clearly had no regard for any of it. I wonder if the ref has the ability to eject for that right now. You know that has to have been discussed with the league by now.
They're talking about penalizing teams by taking draft picks from them so it's possible. The NFL wants a full season and isn't playing around.
Refs basically have discretion to eject coaches for whatever reason. I would have ejected Harbaugh in a second. I'm guessing they can't penalize 15 yards without the blessing of the league, though I've seen that floated a couple places. I really like the idea (can you imagine someone getting backed up to like 3rd and 30 and then getting called for it? I would love to watch Harbaugh have an aneurism over that), the only problem I see with that is it'll turn into a shitshow the first time a ref calls it in a critical moment, because they're just not going to be able to call it every time. So someone's going to get called in the red zone in a close game, and then there will be an explosion of protests with a hundred views of the opposing coach pulling his own mask down.
Who would you say did a better job of completely destroying a promising contender, O'Brien with the Texans or Josh McDaniels with the Broncos? McDaniels was flashier in trading away every major component of what had been a top-3 offense, but it might take the Texans the better part of a decade to crawl out from under the bad decisions that O'Brien made.
watch Gase get fired next and the Jets hire BOB. There were a few good players left on the Texans, surprised they didn't let him trade those guys away first.
The Dolphins have the Texans 1st and 2nd round picks next year. They may win a few with a new coach. That would be the most Jets move ever.
The Texans' next coach needs to move on from JJ Watt, see if they can draft a time machine to get Hopkins back and don't let the HC/GM be one dude. Romeo Crennel is the interim coach, most famous for coaching the Browns to a 24-40 record. ESPN is reporting that Houston has the hardest schedule in the NFL. This will make Houston fans long for the days of Matt Schaub.
Brady is finding out how much having a smart coaching staff matters. I don't know if I've ever seen him scream at his oline before. Also needs to make sure he knows what down it is. Ooops.
I love that both Brady and Arians are employing the Shaggy “it wasn’t me” defense on this. Multiple camera views of Brady asking the refs about the down, but sticking to their story that he knew it was fourth down.
He should have just fessed up. If he knew it was fourth down, he's got more to answer for, because his choice of receiver on that play was shit.
Jesus. Dak's ankle. I feel pretty bad for the guy, because he was essentially in a contract year, and his backup isn't a slouch. Plus, all in all, he seems like a good dude. Between that and UT's heart breaker on Saturday, my Texas friends are on suicide watch.