The week 14 NFL thread (seriously there was no thread yet?)

[molson]

Originally Posted by TroyF

1) In this case, there were not one, but two guys who intentionally tried to take out the gunner, not just stand passively. (again, watch the third guy's shoulder) That combined with Ryan watching the entire thing makes it fairly obvious the goal of this wasn't only to stand around, it was to knock the player off his feet.

That's not a 15 yard penalty. That is severe fines and draft picks to the organization.

2) Assuming they were the first team who ever did this and the guy doesn't stick his knee out? I don't even think it's a fine. It's a memo from the NFL saying get the hell back and if we ever catch any of you doing it again, you'll be very sorry.

3) Assuming every team does some form of it now? It's the same memo as above.

However, #1 is the biggest thing here. I don't think this was a random act by a guy who let his emotions get carried away. This was premeditated and if he hadn't kneed him the other guy would have thrown his shoulder into him. And Rex watched it all the way through. If I'm the commish, I give the Jets a call and say something like this:

I have enough video evidence to know there is more to this than what you are telling me. I'm starting at a 7th round pick right now and will be moving that up a round every thirty minutes I don't have the full story. If you want to lose a first round pick to save some suspensions, be my guest. Talk to you later, good bye.

So you think Rex Ryan told the strength and conditioning coach to trip any Dolphins running down the sideline? (Is that the "full story" you suspect?) And you think you have enough evidence of that to start taking away draft picks?

This is the problem with conspiracy theories, they look at how people react and assume that every action, everything everyone says must be 100% perfectly tailored to some goal. "Why did they say this, why did they do this?" People and organizations (espeically the Jets and Rex Ryan) are just not that precise.

What is the "right" way for the Jets to have responded to this if, let's assume, Rex Ryan didn't actually order a "hit"? There's no perfect answer to that. And yet if they deviate from your specific expectations of how everyone should act - they they must be guilty of some far-flung conspiracy. To trip a player. On TV. And think nobody will notice. Whatever.

[miked]

From the other threads, Troy obviously has awesome insider knowledge because he always knows the thoughts, motivations, and inner workings of everything in the NFL. He's a seer of sorts.

They are idiots for the cover up...that's it. Everyone is doing it so just take the blame. Clearly there is no need to lose picks for something so minor. Clearly there are guys pulling nuts and poking eyes at the bottom of the piles trying to injure, are you going to fine teams for that?

[molson]

And not a lot of other people are talking about this "proof" of the other coach looking to maliciously take out the player if the trip didn't work, because that isn't at all clear on video. Again, that's the conpiracy theorist error of "why he turn his waist in THAT way - what does it MEAN??" How about nothing - it happened in .01 seconds - it kind of looks like he's making a half-hearted effort to turn away from the player.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by molson

So let's say the Jets are the first team in the history of the NFL to intentionally have players stand close to the sideline for the purpose of screwing up the rhythm of the gunner. So what? Shouldn't that have been, at most, a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (if the refs wanted to enforce that rule for the first time in NFL history?)

Edit: The Jets are very clumsily manuvering through the PR aspects of all this. I don't see that as proof of some grand, sophisticated cover-up. They're just a bad company.

No - because they're inactive players and non-playing employees.

If I'm the gunner I'm considering filing assault charges actually.