NFL Talk - 2008

[Prog]

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Fans heading to the Meadowlands Sports Complex can expect fewer hours for tailgating under new rules regarding alcohol and fan behavior.

Parking lots for Giants Stadium, the Izod Arena and the Meadowlands Racetrack will open five hours before events, instead of seven.

In addition, season ticketholders who are ejected from the stadium or arena will have their tickets revoked, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority announced Tuesday.

If the season tickets are being used by someone other than the owner, the owner will be sent two warnings. A third incident will result in revocation, said Dennis Robinson, authority president and CEO.

"This program is, plain and simple, about respect. Respect for oneself and one another," Robinson said.

Each team can decide whether to issue refunds for revoked tickets, he said.

The New York Giants and New York Jets play at the stadium, and the New Jersey Nets play at the arena. The teams did not immediately return calls seeking comment on their policies. Nearly all football seats are held by season ticketholders.

The authority also took steps to prevent harassment of women. Last season, security at the stadium's Gate D was increased at Jets games because hundreds of men would gather at halftime and demand that women expose their breasts. View-blocking banners will be hung on the spiral staircase to help eliminate the problem, which did not occur during Giants games.

Earlier this month, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell warned that spectators who misbehave would be ejected from stadiums and barred from coming back. The policy is aimed at conduct that the league said "detracts from the gameday experience."

It includes bans on disruptive behavior; signs of drunkenness; foul language and other misbehavior.

State Senate president Richard J. Codey, who demanded a crackdown at Gate D, commended the sports authority for its action.

"Consider this an idiot protection policy for those fans decent and mature enough to enjoy the event without getting trashed," said Codey, D-Essex. "For those that were used to overdoing it, hopefully now they will get home safely without endangering others and come to enjoy waking up the next morning and actually remembering the game."

Unchanged is the halftime cutoff for alcohol sales, said to be the most stringent in the NFL, and the limit of two drinks at each purchase.

The authority is also introducing a text messaging system that will allow fans to notify stadium management of problems.

Copies of the fan "code of conduct" will be posted and distributed. Among other items, it requires fans to sit in their ticketed seats and refrain from "foul or abusive language and obscene gestures and harassment of visiting team fans."

It states that, "Guests who engage in fighting, throwing objects or attempting to enter the field of play will be immediately ejected."

[Securb]

BRAWL BREAKS OUT AT DOLPHINS CAMP

Posted by Michael David Smith on August 14, 2008, 11:44 a.m. EDT
It’s the last day of training camp for the Miami Dolphins, and it appears that tempers have reached a boil.

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reports that a brawl broke out involving several players at this morning’s practice.

The fight started on what looked like a routine play, with cornerback Will Allen covering receiver David Kircus on a deep pass. But it quickly became far from routine, as, Salguero writes, “Allen began punching on Kircus who fell to the turf and basically went into a fetal position as Allen stood over him.”
(It’s surprising that Kircus didn’t fight back. Apparently Kircus only punches people when he’s at the end of their driveways.)

But even though Kircus didn’t want the fight to escalate, other Dolphins did. Once Allen stopped pummeling Kircus, he started to walk back toward the line of scrimmage. That’s when an offensive player decided to go after Allen and began to punch him. Salguero says no one is sure which offensive player went after Allen; depending on which reporter you ask it was either Reagan Mauia, or Anthony Fasano, or Sean Ryan or Boomer Grigsby.

And it still wasn’t over after that unidentified offensive player went after Allen. A bunch of defensive players rushed in to help Allen, and then some offensive players joined in, and a full-fledged rumble was going on, and all the coaches could do was blow their whistles.

The fight eventually broke up, and practice was restored. Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post reports that Kircus wanted no part of Allen, and that Kircus was the last player to leave the practice field.

Initial indications are that no one was injured in the brawl. We’ll see whether Dolphins coach Tony Sparano follows the precedent set by Panthers coach John Fox and hands out any two-game suspensions.

[Prog]

Suspend the guy who balled up like a pussy.

[Securb]

HORN HOPES TO BLOW INTO MIAMI

Posted by Mike Florio on August 19, 2008, 4:07 p.m. EDT
Last week, receiver Joe Horn told Dan Patrick that he’d like to play for a Super Bowl contender, specifically mentioning the Cowboys and the Eagles.

Horn didn’t mention the Miami Dolphins as a potential destination, possibly because he didn’t want to cause Patrick to spray coffee out of his nose.

But now that Horn has gotten his release from the Falcons, he has reached out to the Dolphins.

We don’t see it happening. Saints coach Sean Payton is a Bill Parcells protege, and Payton will surely tell the Tuna that Horn is more trouble than he’s worth.

[Franchise]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sto...ortCat=nfl

click the link to see the picture of Reggie Williams knee, and I thought my knees were scared up!!


"The last time former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Reggie Williams visualized his daring escape, he imagined a black Mercedes, with a beastly driver named Igor, coming to rescue him.

Igor's mission: Neutralize anyone who threatened to keep the former NFL linebacker hospitalized another day, and then whisking Williams away. Show no mercy.

Reggie Williams played through pain for 14 NFL seasons. And now he's paying the price.
When a man's been cooped up in a hospital for four months, unable to walk or use the bathroom on his own, he's bound to get a little loopy.

Fantasizing about imaginary escapes as he lay in New York's Hospital for Special Surgery was just a way for Williams to pass the time. At least for those few moments, the former NFL linebacker was thinking of something other than the indescribable pain in his mangled right knee.

"Put it like this," Williams said, "I know what it feels like to be tortured."

Like most football players, Williams believed that playing through pain was a NFL rite of passage. He starred at Dartmouth and then played 14 seasons in the NFL -- all on a bad right knee.

Williams never thought a day would come when his mind would write a check that his knee couldn't cash. Fourteen right-knee surgeries later -- including seven since April -- it's safe to say Williams' knee is bouncing checks left and right.

"I thought I knew what pain was when I retired," the 53-year-old Williams said.

A few days ago, Pro Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman made the controversial decision to put off reconstructive knee surgery and play for the San Diego Chargers this season. Since then, Merriman has been called everything from stupid to crazy.

Three decades ago, as a sophomore in college, Williams had the same ligament tears in his knee as Merriman, and he made the exact same decision. He ignored the doctors and played on.

And on. And on. And on.

"The doctors told me the consequences," Williams said, "and I was very cavalier about dealing with whatever medical calamity came in the future."

Multiple doctors have presented Merriman with worst-case possibilities. Williams has lived them.

Today, his right knee looks like something dreamt up by Stephen King and butchered by Freddy Krueger. Four of the surgeries he's had since April were to prevent amputation. He is on his third prosthetic knee.

Here's Reggie Williams' right knee. If this doesn't scare Shawne Merriman, what will?
"My right leg is a quasi-pogo stick," Williams said.

He is not presumptuous enough to tell Merriman what to do, but he can tell him what to expect.

"He needs to know the scalpel is coming," Williams said.

Williams played 11 of his pro 14 seasons only having minor clean-up procedures on his right knee, before the team doctor told him the cartilage in his knee was gone and he needed microfracture surgery (which was called something different back then). The doctor said he'd be lucky if he lasted another season. And oh, by the way, he'd probably need a new knee at some point.

Williams, who earned an academic scholarship to Dartmouth despite a hearing impediment, lasted three more NFL seasons.

How those sacrifices might cost him down the line was never a consideration. At the time, the only line that mattered to Williams was the offensive line he wanted to smash every Sunday.

Sometimes, Williams doesn't sound too sure he did the right thing.

"I don't think there's any amount of money that I could have imagined as a viable trade for the pain that I've endured to keep my leg," Williams said.

But, had he not done it, would Williams' impact outside of football have been as great?

He was the NFL's Man of the Year in 1986 and Sports Illustrated's Co-Sportsman of the Year in 1987 for his courageous work in helping to end apartheid in South Africa. As a Cincinnati city councilman, he was a key figure in getting the city to divest the stock in its pension fund from all companies that did business in South Africa -- which Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised as crucial in the fight against apartheid. In 2007, Williams became the first living African-American from an Ivy League school to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

"I had an opportunity while playing to do other things that impacted in a positive way the communities I lived in," he said. "I never would have had a chance to do that otherwise."

When Williams was a player, he thrived on the pain in his knee. He ran two miles from his house to practice every day just so his knees would get used to the pounding.

"It's the art of amnesia," he said. "You forget your pain."


Jemele Hill can be reached at jemeleespn@gmail.com"

[Hooch]

Tom Brady out with ACL tear

[Securb]

Tom Brady out with ACL tear

So who are you thinking will be slinging the ball. Rattay, Sims maybe Dante? He has history with Moss. I think Cullpepper gives you your best chance to win.

[EaglesSuck]

I'd like to here about the mood in the Securb house when the new about Brady was heard for the first time?

I think they'll stick with Cassell until things get ugly. I bet they go with Simms down the road.

So let's get this straight.

Pats lose Brady for the year
Colts lose at home to the Bears in their new stadium
Panthers shock the Chargers at home
Jags lose to the Titans

looks like the top AFC teams from last year aren't so tough anymore. Steelers, Bills & Jets are probably licking their chops.

I know it's week 1 but I might rethink the NFC being the "kid brother" of the AFC statement again Hooch. AFC might be stronger overall but the best division in football is the NFC east. The gap has closed.

[Ragdoll]

I swore like a trooper and totally melted down. Was surprised as hell that Mat actually stepped up and got the job done - considering I wasn't digging that they kept him after his performance during the pre-games. :mad:

So...suffice it to say say, Securb walked around all day with that stupid smirk of his and of course wouldn't let me fall alseep before busting them all over again. Ought to be an intersting outing at the Dolphins game. I can't beleive I don't get to see Brady play. I don't even want to go anymore....well almost. :confused:

[Securb]

The Pats have been playing dirty for years