Bobref

74%

Does anyone think it’s odd that the season’s most valuable player is decided before the season’s most important games are played?

Congratulations to Notre Dame alum Bryant Young on his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His election gives ND 14 players in the Hall, breaking a tie with USC for most by any university.

And, we’re off …

As far as the title of this thread goes, Harbaugh is just so quirky. I wouldn’t describe him as a “natural fit” anywhere … except maybe modeling this season’s flex-fit khakis in a Land’s End catalogue.

“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s heaven for?” — Robert Browning

Wonder why Mr. Rodgers and the Packers’ brass are playing so nice these days? I suppose it could be because both sides have generally made positive strides in seeing the other’s point of view and the value of working together for a common goal. 😂🤣😅 The real reason is that part of the arrangement last off season when Rodgers and the Packers agreed they’d trade him this off season if he requested it, was that they’d work together to pump up his trade value. The more they can get for him, the more likely it is that they move him. Everybody wins, sort of. When they say all this stuff that seems to point in the direction of him staying in Green Bay, the message they are communicating to the trade market is that it’s going to cost a ton to pry him out of there. Just my theory.

I believe @temptationand Pat Narduzzi, the Pitt coach, are actually the same person. You never see the two of them at the same time! Cover blown! https://www.onefootdown.com/2022/2/6/22921067/pitts-pat-narduzzi-remains-notre-dame-footballs-greatest-hater-panthers-irish-kenny-pickett-nd-news Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi remains Notre Dame Football’s greatest hater Give this man an invitation to the playa hata’s ball By Joshua Vowles@TheSubwayDomer Feb 6, 2022, 8:48pm EST Last week Pat Narduzzi, mouth-breather extraordinaire and head football coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers, went on Sirius XM Radio and did what Pat Narduzzi does best — hatin’ on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Narduzzi is well known for keeping Notre Dame in his mouth while bitching about things. His disdain for Notre Dame’s ACC deal is only slightly less than certain circles of the older Notre Dame alumni/fanbase. Pat’s not an administrator, so what Notre Dame brings to the ACC in terms of fat bags of cash and butts in seats is mostly lost on him. Pat just doesn’t like Notre Dame — which is perfectly fine when you’re the head coach of Pitt. What’s funny is how he dropped this gem: “I just found this out — ya know — I’ll throw it out there. I guess people reached out to Kenny Pickett to go to Notre Dame a year ago. I had no idea. He didn’t say anything to me — which obviously didn’t get that serious. Notre Dame recruited him through the back channels. It’s not Brian Kelly, but someone’s telling these guys, whoever they are, to come to Notre Dame — right?” Back channels. Allow me to lol my way off of the internet. As much as some of us wish Notre Dame would walk that line of recruiting, they just don’t. So what Pat’s telling us here is that he heard from some person that heard something from another person that someone was telling Pickett to transfer to Notre Dame. At this point, it might be wise to remember that Pickett was a huge Notre Dame fan growing up as was well documented during the NBC broadcast of the 2018 Notre Dame/Pitt game. Usually, that means while growing up — you might have a few Notre Dame fans as friends and family members — or as Pat Narduzzi might put it, PEOPLE TELLING HIM TO TRANSFER TO NOTRE DAME. Because they love him and want the best for him. People... just some random people. The best part of the entire quote was Narduzzi trying to get some type of affirmation from the host with his “someone’s telling these guys, whoever they are, to come to Notre Dame — right?” question at the end. Pat’s full of shit and he knows it, and goddammit, I love him for it. College football according to Narduzzi is being destroyed by the transfer portal and NIL, but I think his type public hate for a non-rival is fantastic for the sport. That’s where the fun is. Narduzzi is 0-3 at Pitt when facing Notre Dame despite worshipping at the alter of the Pitt Spirit Box/Urn (it’s a real thing). That has to be a tough pill to swallow after a 3-4 record against the Irish as the defensive coordinator of a real Notre Dame rival — the Michigan State Spartans. It’s just a shame Notre Dame won’t play Pitt again until the 2023 and 2025 seasons. Of course... maybe that’s the real reason he’s all hot and bothered.

My favorite is the expression on Schembechler’s face.

@temptationis just a “glass half full” kind of guy. Can’t blame him for that.

If you’re really looking for a program in disarray, how about the one whose head coach was interviewing for another job (which he botched) on National Signing Day? Or how about the program whose offensive coordinator was the national asst. coach of the year … and leaves to take the same job at Miami, with a poison pen tweet to the players about Michigan in his wake? Oh wait, they’re the same program. That’s what I call disarray.

Sounds great in theory. But how many people have the skill set to be both GM and Head Coach?

I wonder if the players (75% of whom are black) realize that they have an unbelievable opportunity here. They could absolutely use this issue to change the balance of power in the NFL to more like the NBA.

That’s a really good question. But keep in mind that my analysis of the difficulty in proceeding as a class action doesn’t mean that Flores’ claim is without merit. He could always succeed in his individual employment discrimination claim, if he can prove it. Possible remedies include reinstatement, back pay, front pay.

First of all, everyone should get it straight: I’m not advocating one viewpoint over another. Just adding to the discussion by making sure diverse viewpoints are represented. As for tanking and race, I believe the theory goes something like this: The team is bad Decision is made to “tank,” i.e., trade lack of competitiveness now for a rebuild that will pay off big down the line. Hire the black coach to absorb the losses that come with a rebuild. Lure him to an admittedly bad team with a promise that a bad W/L record won’t hurt him financially, because his performance will be judged by other metrics. When the rebuild is complete, fire the black coach because of his W/L record and hire a white coach you really want.

The reason his shortcomings were hidden at ND most of the time has already been explained. At ND they pay more than just lip service to the idea that the University runs the football program … not the other way around. He acted out his first few years and they sat him down and told him that it doesn’t matter how many games he won. If he didn’t represent the University appropriately, he would be gone. So, he shaped up … until he no longer had to answer to the ND administration. He’s got a much longer leash at LSU. But if he doesn’t win, it’ll get a lot shorter pretty quickly.

The Jaguars double down, hiring an old, white retread (Doug Peterson) in the current climate. More than a little surprising with Byron Leftwich still in the mix.

Can’t believe it took this long to do that.

Yes, but his inference was unwarranted. More significantly, I take exception to something everyone else is glossing over: the idea that winning every game should be the highest priority for a team, i.e., anything else is “tanking.” I can conceive of several scenarios where other things might legitimately be higher priorities.

I don’t have a dog in this fight. But I was referring to the statements of both Flores and Hue Jackson that their owners/management incentivized other things besides winning games. If winning is not your top priority, then you’re not really concerned about whether your coach is good enough to get you to the Super Bowl.

Actually, they don’t. Like anyone else, their employment practices are constrained by law. And some recent evidence, if believed, would tend to suggest that the ability to lead a team to the Super Bowl is not the only factor that goes into some coaching decisions.

This is fun. Look at this stat: Playoff wins: 37 — Patriots 36 — Steelers 36 — Packers 35 — Cowboys 35 — Tom Brady Tom Brady has more playoff wins than 28 franchises.

Does anyone think he would be doing this sort of thing if he were still at Notre Dame?

I’m good with that.

From a strictly legal standpoint, there are some real problems with bringing this case as a class action. Just filing it as a class action is not enough. Before it can go forward, the judge has to certify it as appropriate for class treatment under all the very complex procedural requirements that are quite different than “normal” civil litigation. To be certified, the judge has to find that the class is defined in a way that “common questions of law and fact predominate” in the claim of each putative class member. The second issue I see is proof. In large employment race discrimination class actions, statistical proof is often key. Because there are large numbers of employees and large numbers of employment-related decisions, statistical analysis can be brought to bear to show a systematic bias, despite the fact that employment decisions are done on an individualized basis. NFL coaching decisions are not nearly so numerous, which would leave any statistical analysis open to serious attack on any purported conclusions. That leaves the proof to rely on individualized scenarios, with a lot of “he said, she said” type situations. The fact that such decisions are so individualized not only presents proof problems, but argues against class certification. Also, I wonder where the EEOC is in all this. Civil claims by an employee or applicant for employment based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects against racial discrimination in the workplace, must normally be first presented to the EEOC, which investigates and can take action against the employer itself. Once the EEOC investigation is over, they issue the employee a “right to sue” letter, which you normally have to get before you can file a case in court. Haven’t heard any mention of it here. On the other side side of the coin, it’s highly unlikely the NFL allows this to go anywhere for very long. They run from any sort of publicity that might turn off the money printing machine they are operating. They’ll settle this with some sort of an agreement that is a stronger version of the Rooney Rule. The owners will sign some sort of pledge. Maybe the League will even create a position specifically to monitor compliance. Flores may get some money. His lawyers certainly will. I’m very interested to hear what the NFLPA has to say about this. Crickets, so far.