Official NFL 2007 Thread

[livid]

It'd probably be in his best interest to take this year off, get everything settled and then be reinstated for the next year barring him serving jail time, etc. because like you said, he's going to get booed wherever he goes and if he is indeed part of it like everybody says he is, he deserves it. And I'm a Vick fan, who, at first, was skeptical, but if it's true, he should be suspended, it's a felony in 48 states and crime in all 50, there's no way around it if he's guilty and if he is, then he should be suspended for at least a season because dog fighting is just wrong.

[gunnar hendershow]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2914874

Kitna guarantees the Lions will win 10 plus games this year. While I think it's possible, this is the NFL and stranger things have happened, it's terribly unlikely and really puts him in a bad spot when they eventually win 6 or 7 games (which I think is what will happen in the end).

Edited June 24, 2007 by damshow

[Evil Chase K]

How does it put him in a bad spot? He's the leader of the team, he has to say stuff like that. Is he supposed to be totally realistic and say "Y'know, I think we can 4 this year guys."?

It's not like he pulled a Namath and guaranteed a Super Bowl win. That takes guts.

[livid]

It's not too far out of the question anyways. The team improved a lot in the offseason by dumping somewhat cancers (Bly, as good as he was, was unhappy and Mike Williams who never did anything to help himself in the NFL) and added Calvin Johnson, who if he ends up being 3/4's as good as his potential, he's still a very good WR. Add to the fact that Kitna then now has Johnson, Williams and Furrey (who's best-suited for 3rd option anyways) with a backfield of Jones and Bell, they actually have quite a decent offense.

And if you take into account the division they're in where a Packers team that doesn't seem to want to help the face of their franchise, a Bears team who doesn't have a consistently good QB and have had an offseason full of unwanted activity and a Vikings team who practically doesn't have a QB, it's completely conceivable that they could win the division, although unlikely. So what if they win the division at 9 games instead of 10? Is he a dumbass? No, because they won the division.

And Chase is right, what would you expect the QB of the team to say? It's nothing new in the NFL and he won't be in a bad spot just because he's optimistic and doing what every other QB with a brain would do.

[alldaws1]

And if you take into account the division they're in where a Packers team that doesn't seem to want to help the face of their franchise, a Bears team who doesn't have a consistently good QB and have had an offseason full of unwanted activity and a Vikings team who practically doesn't have a QB, it's completely conceivable that they could win the division, although unlikely. So what if they win the division at 9 games instead of 10? Is he a dumbass? No, because they won the division.

True, but they had that last season as well and that took they still went to the Super Bowl. I think the Lions will be improved but I don't think they'll be winning ten games, six or seven perhaps but I don't think that would be enough to win the division. But in a conference like the NFC, six wins could get you in the playoffs ¬_¬

Edited June 24, 2007 by AD

[VerbalPuke]

Kitna should not have made such a bold proclamation. It's one thing to say "Yeah, I think we've got a really talented team, and I really believe that we can do some damage this year" as opposed to "We will win more then ten games". I respect Kitna's confidence, but he must have forgot that the Lions have not won ten games since 1995. Obviously he's not going to predict another failed season, but this statement could leave him up to some considerable ridicule if the Lions falter yet again.

The offense has improved greatly, but what about the defense? We have no proven DE's, our LB's are questionable at best, and the Secondary is really a scary thought. We're strong up the middle on the defense side of things, but it wont matter how many points we score if we're giving up 30 a game.

[livid]

I'm a firm believer in that I think the Bears are going to miss Briggs more than they think if he doesn't play and I doubt he will, until the last 6 games of the season at the very least. And I'm also thinking that Grossman's going to continue to suck ass and they're going to play "Who's that QB?" for a few weeks or something along those lines. And I also think the loss of Jones is going to hurt them more than they think too, because as good as Benson could be, he's not as versatile as Jones is and Benson hasn't proven he can carry a full load yet.

I'm not saying that Lions are definitely going to win the division or anything like, I'm just saying that 10 wins for a team with that type of offense and a guy like Mike Martz behind said offense can only lead to scary possibilities because remember, he never really had a defense in St. Louis either, but they produced playoff teams and even a Super Bowl team. I'm just saying that it's not as bold as people think it is considering what division and what conference they're in. It'd be different if the Lions were an AFC team, but they're not and the NFC is a lot lower in standards, especially the NFC North, where pretty much any team has some sort of chance to win the division for some reason or another in a given year.

[Maxx]

Lions 2007 schedule

1. @ Raiders

2. Vikings

3. @ Eagles

4. Bears

5. @ Redskins

6. Buccaneers

7. @ Bears

8. Broncos

9. @ Cardinals

10. Giants

11. Packers

12. @ Vikings

13. Cowboys

14. @ Chargers

15. Chiefs

16. @ Packers

Well at best, I see at least 8 losses there. They aren't beating the Bears either time, they're going to lose to the Chargers, Eagles and Broncos. I'll be suprised to see them beat the Cowboys and the Chiefs and I'm favoring the Cardinals to beat them too.

I actually expect they'll split games with the Vikings, and the Redskins game is a toss up.

I give them the edge against the Giants and a slight one n both games against the Packers. They should be able to beat the Bucs, and they should definately beat the Raiders.

so 6-10 to 7-9 and if they're really lucky, 8-8

[Cactus Drags]

I'm a firm believer in that I think the Bears are going to miss Briggs more than they think if he doesn't play and I doubt he will, until the last 6 games of the season at the very least. And I'm also thinking that Grossman's going to continue to suck ass and they're going to play "Who's that QB?" for a few weeks or something along those lines. And I also think the loss of Jones is going to hurt them more than they think too, because as good as Benson could be, he's not as versatile as Jones is and Benson hasn't proven he can carry a full load yet.

[gunnar hendershow]

How does it put him in a bad spot? He's the leader of the team, he has to say stuff like that. Is he supposed to be totally realistic and say "Y'know, I think we can 4 this year guys."?

It's not like he pulled a Namath and guaranteed a Super Bowl win. That takes guts.

It's not bad to say they can win 10 games. It's bad when you put Calvin Johnson on the spot and say he'll have a Bush-like impact. You're better just keeping your mouth shut as a whole in terms of guarantees, but when you do leave an unproven rookie out of it.

VerbalPuke sums up what I want to say as well.

[ACCBiggz]

Bears waive Tank Johnson.

[Vendetta]

Really they should be waving Grossman.

[Cactus Drags]

Ugh, enough. They have confidence in him, for whatever reason, they're not going to be waving him. Last season was his first full season as a starter, and he did show promise at times. Sure, he's got a lot of work to do, but there's worse out there.

And at least Grossman has the good sense not to be done for DUI after being suspended for getting arrested and shit.

[JStarr]

Bill Walsh dies at 75; led 49ers to three Super Bowl titles

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75.

Walsh died at his Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle with leukemia.

"This is just a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay Area because of what he meant to the 49ers," said Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, the player most closely linked to Walsh's tenure with the team. "For me personally, outside of my dad he was probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him."

Walsh didn't become an NFL head coach until 47, and he spent just 10 seasons on the San Francisco sideline. But he left an indelible mark on the United States' most popular sport, building the once-woebegone 49ers into the most successful team of the 1980s with his innovative offensive strategies and teaching techniques.

The soft-spoken native Californian also produced a legion of coaching disciples that's still growing today. Many of his former assistants went on to lead their own teams, handing down Walsh's methods and schemes to dozens more coaches in a tree with innumerable branches.

"The essence of Bill Walsh was that he was an extraordinary teacher," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "If you gave him a blackboard and a piece of chalk, he would become a whirlwind of wisdom. He taught all of us not only about football but also about life and how it takes teamwork for any of us to succeed as individuals."

Walsh went 102-63-1 with the 49ers, winning 10 of his 14 postseason games along with six division titles. He was named the NFL's coach of the year in 1981 and 1984.

Few men did more to shape the look of football into the 21st century. His cerebral nature and often-brilliant stratagems earned him the nickname "The Genius" well before his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

Walsh twice served as the 49ers' general manager, and George Seifert led San Francisco to two more Super Bowl titles after Walsh left the sideline. Walsh also coached Stanford during two terms over five seasons.

Even a short list of Walsh's adherents is stunning. Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Dennis Green, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes and Bruce Coslet all became NFL head coaches after serving on Walsh's San Francisco staffs, and Tony Dungy played for him. Most of his former assistants passed on Walsh's structures and strategies to a new generation of coaches, including Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick, Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Gary Kubiak, Steve Mariucci and Jeff Fisher.

Walsh created the Minority Coaching Fellowship program in 1987, helping minority coaches to get a foothold in a previously lily-white profession. Marvin Lewis and Tyrone Willingham are among the coaches who went through the program, later adopted as a league-wide initiative.

Walsh was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 and underwent months of treatment and blood transfusions. He publicly disclosed his illness in November 2006.

Fellow Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy, who hired Walsh to his first college coaching job, last spoke to him about six weeks ago on the telephone.

"I asked him how he was doing, and he said he had come off a certain type of a treatment and he felt much more energy," Levy said. "But he told me then, he said, 'Marv, I don't have long.' He said it honestly. He was vibrant. Understood it. And yet, I was sad to hear it."

Born William Ernest Walsh on Nov. 30, 1931 in Los Angeles, he was a self-described "average" end and a sometime boxer at San Jose State in 1952-53.

Walsh, whose family moved to the Bay Area when he was a teenager, married his college sweetheart, Geri Nardini, in 1954 and started his coaching career at Washington High School in Fremont, leading the football and swim teams.

Walsh was coaching in Fremont when he interviewed for an assistant coaching position with Levy, who had just been hired as the head coach at California.

"I was very impressed, individually, by his knowledge, by his intelligence, by his personality and hired him," Levy said.

After Cal, he did a stint at Stanford before beginning his pro coaching career as an assistant with the AFL's Oakland Raiders in 1966, forging a friendship with Al Davis that endured through decades of rivalry. Walsh joined the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968 to work for legendary coach Paul Brown, who gradually gave complete control of the Bengals' offense to his assistant.

Walsh built a scheme based on the teachings of Davis, Brown and Sid Gillman -- and Walsh's own innovations, which included everything from short dropbacks and novel receiving routes to constant repetition of every play in practice.

Though it originated in Cincinnati, it became known many years later as the West Coast offense -- a name Walsh never liked or repeated, but which eventually grew to encompass his offensive philosophy and the many tweaks added by Holmgren, Shanahan and other coaches.

Much of the NFL eventually ran a version of the West Coast in the 1990s, with its fundamental belief that the passing game can set up an effective running attack, rather than the opposite conventional wisdom.

Walsh also is widely credited with inventing or popularizing many of the modern basics of coaching, from the laminated sheets of plays held by coaches on almost every sideline, to the practice of scripting the first 15 offensive plays of a game.

After a bitter falling-out with Brown in 1976, Walsh left for stints with the San Diego Chargers and Stanford before the 49ers chose him to rebuild the franchise in 1979.

The long-suffering 49ers went 2-14 before Walsh's arrival. They repeated the record in his first season. Walsh doubted his abilities to turn around such a miserable situation -- but earlier in 1979, the 49ers drafted quarterback Joe Montana from Notre Dame.

Walsh turned over the starting job to Montana in 1980, when the 49ers improved to 6-10 -- and improbably, San Francisco won its first championship in 1981, just two years after winning two games.

Championships followed in the postseasons of 1984 and 1988 as Walsh built a consistent winner and became an icon with his inventive offense and thinking-man's approach to the game. He also showed considerable acumen in personnel, adding Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley, Roger Craig and Rice to his rosters after he was named the 49ers' general manager in 1982 and the president in 1985.

Walsh left the 49ers with a profound case of burnout after his third Super Bowl victory in January 1989, though he later regretted not coaching longer.

He spent three years as a broadcaster with NBC before returning to Stanford for three seasons. He then took charge of the 49ers' front office in 1999, helping to rebuild the roster over three seasons. But Walsh gradually cut ties with the 49ers after his hand-picked successor as GM, Terry Donahue, took over in 2001.

He is survived by his wife, Geri, and two children, Craig and Elizabeth.

Walsh's son, Steve, an ABC News reporter, died of leukemia at age 46 in 2002.

There's no way Bill Walsh doesn't get props as one of the two or three best talent-finders in football history, and he should be in anyone's top 5 or 10 coaches, regardless of whether or not they despise the 49ers.

And another story that might have gotten some play in the Ring, but I was rather surprised to see ESPN running with it:

Jul 30

News: Jones has been contacted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling "to particpate in their line of entertainment," the Tennessean reports.

Spin: Worrick Robinson, who represents Jones, said his client has been approached by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, but that he "won't be wrestling" and he won't be playing the part of a villain as some might expect. This is just the latest twist in the soap opera that is Jones and makes you wonder how important being reinstated in the NFL really is to him.

:lmao: At least he's trying to keep busy.

[Cactus Drags]

RIP Bill Walsh. Condolences to his family. It's so strange, I never relaly knew much about him, but the last few days I've been watching the America's Game series, and it's so clear he was one of the greatest coaches ever. Seemed a genuine nice, funny guy too, no matter his reputation for being ruthless.

[ROC]

RIP to Bill Walsh. If anything, I remember him for being on the cover for Bill Walsh College Football on the SNES, but it is obvious that he was so much more to coaching.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I hope they bury the West Coast Offense with him

[ACCBiggz]

Just as I hope someone kicks you in the groin.

[Cactus Drags]

Wasn't the West Coast offense actually in San Diego in the 60s? I read somewhere Walsh called his the Cincinnati Offense, but just went with it when the West Coast moniker stuck.

[JStarr]

San Diego's offense in the Dan Fouts era was more the "heave it downfield and let Winslow, Alworth, and Joiner run under it" offense, I think.