2012 NFL Season

[Meacon Keaton]

I will save my predictions for after players start dropping with injuries.

[gunnar hendershow]

Yeah after a couple guys go down for the year in preseason I'll supply some predictions too.

[Lineker]

TAMPA, Fla. — O.J. Murdock was still recovering from an injury that sidelined him all of last season, so the Tennessee Titans weren’t overly concerned when the receiver said he’d be a couple of days late reporting for training camp.

“I talked to him and just assumed it was a personal issue,” teammate Damian Williams said, recalling the last conversation he had with Murdock, who died Monday in an apparent suicide carried out in a car in front of his old high school in Tampa.

"It’s tough. He was always a happy guy who played around a lot and always had a smile on his face,” Williams added. “I definitely didn’t see it coming.”

Neither did one of Murdock’s former college coaches at Fort Hays State. Nor did Titans coach Mike Munchak or general manager Ruston Webster.

Police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said officers found the athlete about 8:30 a.m. inside his car with what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The vehicle was parked in front of Middleton High School, where Murdock made a name for himself as a dynamic football player and state champion sprinter in track and field.

Al McCray, assistant head coach/receivers at Fort Hays State, said he received a gracious yet puzzling text message from Murdock a few hours before police discovered the body.

McCray said the 25-year-old, who he had known since Murdock was in middle school, thanked him for everything he had done for the player and his family. The middle-of-the-night text concluded with an apology that confused the coach, who didn’t read the message until after he woke up at his home in Hays, Kan..

“I spoke to him a week ago, and he was so excited about getting ready to go (to training camp). He was real happy about being able to help his mother out,” McCray said. “You always like to hear kids who talk about that. It brings a smile to your face to hear a young man talk about ‘Hey, I’m glad I’m able to help my mother out.’”

McCray was an assistant coach at Middleton when Murdock was there and later helped the player resume his college career after he was kicked off the team at South Carolina, where he was part of Steve Spurrier’s first recruiting class.

“The hardest part about this is I got a text at 3:30 in the morning, where he said: ‘Coach, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me and my family. It’s greatly appreciated,’” McCray said. “At the end, he goes: ‘I apologize.’ And I don’t know what he’s talking about. I woke up, and I’m thinking he’s apologizing because he texted me so early. ... I wish he had called instead.”

Murdock, who signed with the Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2011 and spent all of last season on injured reserve, was taken to Tampa General, where he died.

When the speedy receiver didn’t report to training camp as scheduled, the Titans said at the time it was because of personal reasons. He last was with the team in June for minicamp.

“We were concerned initially when O.J. didn’t report on the 27th. But we were able to make contact with him and he assured us everything was OK and he would be in here on Sunday. He didn’t make it on Sunday,” Webster said.

[Maxx]

The Browns have been sold for north of 1 billion dollars.

So how much would a good team go for then?

[gunnar hendershow]

Honestly not much more, the way the NFL financial structure is set most franchises are worth just around the same amount. Granted, by "just around" I mean in the range of half a billion. It's not like baseball where the Yankees are worth over a billion and then other franchsies barely crack a third of that.

[naiwf]

http://www.therichest.org/sports/most-valuable-nfl-teams/

Cowgirls are # 1 at $1.85 billion. Jags are last at "only" $725 million. They had the Browns (#20) at $977 million. As damshow said $500 million separates # 32 from # 5, and $300 million separates 1 and 2 so they're all pretty close in value outside of Dallas.

[gunnar hendershow]

I'm stunned the Raiders are at number 31. Were they that mismanaged in the final years with Al Davis as owner?

[Toe]

It has to be because of the arena there. If they moved to LA the value would skyrocket.

[Meacon Keaton]

I was going to say it may have something to do with the Oakland Colisseum. I may be wrong but I think the county owns it, not the Raiders.

The Athletics play there too, but I don't think they own it either.

[Your Mom]

1.09 billion! Go Bears!

[DMN in the House]

I was going to say it may have something to do with the Oakland Colisseum. I may be wrong but I think the county owns it, not the Raiders.

The Athletics play there too, but I don't think they own it either.

That and mismanagement. Oakland just got a GM. IT'S 2012. It's amazing we won any games.

As fire the predictions posted, Oakland isn't going 3-13. Too much talent. Palmer was a top 15 qb during the time he played last year. The offense can be explosive, and the division is weak.

[gunnar hendershow]

I see everyone in that division finishing within 3-4 wins of one another. It's pretty tight, Denver's the best team but they have New England and Houston on the schedule on top of the three playoff teams from the AFC North last year.

[Dan]

As a non-American and fairly new to the NFL, I see a lot of stuff about a team in LA, but didn't it happen twice before?

What makes them think it would be third time lucky? or did it work last time?

[gunnar hendershow]

It worked for awhile last time, but they dragged their feet at building a new stadium in the early 90's. The Rams played out in Anaheim at Angel Stadium and the Raiders played at the Coliseum which is a great college stadium but not something that in the 90's was going to serve an NFL team longterm. So the Raiders, who had a huge fanbase already established in Oakland, moved back there where they belong. But the situation with the Rams was them playing out in Anaheim, the ownership wanting a new stadium, and St. Louis (who was not awarded an expansion team) rolling out the red carpet. The way the NFL is set up, it's not a gigantic handicap to be in a small market. In no other sport would a team have bolted LA the way the Rams did. In the end, football belongs in LA and will be going back there sooner rather than later. It's a question of who, and ticket sales this season will probably hold the answer. I won't get into discussing who will move, and it might be two teams that have to fight over getting the right.

What happened with the Rams is similar to what happened with the Ravens, but the NFL didn't elect to award a new team to LA because they still could not get a stadium plan in place.

[Maxx]

It's going to be effective this time because they'll have a new stadium and the NFL is more popular than it ever has been before.

[Red Devil-Taker316]

I was going to say it may have something to do with the Oakland Colisseum. I may be wrong but I think the county owns it, not the Raiders.

The Athletics play there too, but I don't think they own it either.

That and mismanagement. Oakland just got a GM. IT'S 2012. It's amazing we won any games.

As fire the predictions posted, Oakland isn't going 3-13. Too much talent. Palmer was a top 15 qb during the time he played last year. The offense can be explosive, and the division is weak.

Carson Palmer was not a top 15 QB for his 10 games.

[DMN in the House]

Numbers wise, yes he was. He the too many interceptions, but compared to the rest of the league during that same span, he was top 15.

[JStarr]

Numbers wise, yes he was. He the too many interceptions, but compared to the rest of the league during that same span, he was top 15.

Matthew Berry verified that on ESPN. If Palmer's fantasy numbers were prorated out to a 16-game season, he would have ended up 10th. For once, this isn't DMN's Raider homerism talking out his ass for him.

(Y)

[Meacon Keaton]

It's just pre-season, but damn I love having football back on my tv.

[Maxx]

And I hate no longer having the NFL network