wv wrote:

I assume the Dems know they cant get a conviction. I mean, they cant.
It wont even be close. So its not about a conviction and never was.

So what are they doing?

Well its ‘politics.’ They want to hurt
the Republicans as much as they can, discredit as many Reps
as they can. Its theater, and hard-ball-partisan-politics.

If they really wanted to hurt them, they would have brought in witnesses. Witnesses would not only say, “Yeah, we have evidence that there were contacts between the WH and the Proud Boys,” they would also end up inevitably talking about what they know about the Capitol police’s complicity, and the tours of the building given by the fascist boys Jordan, Gosar, Gaetz and others the day before. Cruz and Hawley would be dragged into it. The Democrats had the ability in their hands to smack a deadly blow to the GOP. They didn’t. I speculated earlier as to Why, but they could have dragged the entire thing out in the open, and blown the top off the GOP. Instead, they declined to call witnesses, and made it very clear in their arguments that the congress was NOT on trial, only Trump, trying to give them an Out. It IS theatre, and they DO want to deal a blow, but unlike…the police, say…they are only interested in restraining the GOP, not executing it.

wv wrote:

I listened to some of a Trump-Lawyer’s argument while
i was in my car today. It was an excellent argument i thought.
He played an audio of a gazillion Dems saying inflammatory,
pro-violence rhetoric, and then he argued it all should be
protected by the 1st Amendment, and that it was unfortunate
that the rhetoric on both sides has reached this point.

I agree with Billy’s response to this, and will add that the difference is that Trump did this from the beginning. He has sanctioned violence at rallies and in other speeches, minimized the violence of right wing extremists (Charlottesville, etc), refused to condemn the Michigan action, told his violent thugs to “stand back and stand by,” and preposterously incited his base by repeatedly and falsely claiming that the election was stolen. He called for the rally at the Capitol, told them to march on the Capitol, tweeted in advance it was going to be Big and Wild. He has channeled all this anger, and directed it against the government, and it is completely disingenuous to pretend that the Democrats calls to “fight for justice” are equitable.

The first amendment does not protect the right to incite criminal behavior.

zn wrote:

List of #49ers coaches who departed this offseason:

Robert Saleh (HC Jets)
Mike LaFleur (OC Jets)
John Benton (OL Jets)
Aaron Whitecotton (DL Jets)
Tony Oden (CBs Jets)
Mike Rutenberg (LBs Jets)
Shane Day (QB/Pass game Chargers)
Michael Clay (ST Eagles)
Katie Sowers
Stan Kwan

That’s probably because Sean McVay is SUCH a jerk that he even has an impact on divisional coaching staffs.

InvaderRam wrote:

Zooey wrote:

I would have thought he would get there before Calvin Johnson.

in defense of johnson, i’d say he deserves it more than holt. don’t get me wrong. i love holt. they both should have gotten in this year.

but if you were to ask me if i could pick between the two of them to start on my own football team, i’d pick megatron every single time.

for the nickname alone. megatron is a hall of fame worthy nickname. big game not so much. hahahaha! the most physically gifted wide receiver ever. it’s not even close. and i realize a lot of getting into the hall of fame is based on career achievements as well. otherwise alex barron would be a hall of fame offensive tackle. but johnson just had the misfortune of being drafted by the lions.

Yeah, you’re probably right. I pulled up their statistics right before I said that, and they are pretty similar, and because Holt is older, helped when a SB, and had the best statistics of any WR ever over the first – whatever – decade, I think – of his career, I said that. But if one had to choose between Holt and Johnson for my team, I think I would also take Johnson. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, and I kind of ignored that.

Maybe you guys will start listening to me now. I’ve said from the beginning that Aaron Donald is good. What’s it going to take to convince the rest of you?

Good to hear. I hope you don’t have any long term effects.

I got my first vaccination this week.

wv wrote:

I’m excited to see this QB.

w
v

The more I read, the more I like.

I’m looking forward to it, too. When does camp start, anyway? I miss football. It would be great if there was some football to look forward to. I’d be interested in watching almost anybody play right now.

Goff made more downfield throws in that Saints game highlight reel than he made all season, though. And that’s what I still want an explanation for.

Anybody have one of those “spray charts,” or whatever they are, that show a field with all the dots for passes thrown? I’d like to see one from this year compared to one from previous years.

joemad wrote:

i just find it hard to believe that folks think that Goff is not capable of winning a Super Bowl in LA. He was 2 dropped passes by Brandon Cooks to win it 2018.

He and his 9 fingers pulled within 7 when his number 1 defense turned to Swiss Cheese in Wisconsin. Goff and the Rams beat the shit out of the current NFC Champion (TB) in their backyard. He’s more than capable to win…..

He and his 9 fingers relieved Alfred E Newman (wolford) in Seattle to keep the Rams alive this season. Does any remember Wolford’s scramble prior to the one he got hurt where he slid well before the 1st down marker on 3rd down?… If Goff did that, folks would still be hammering him. Who made the decision to start Wolford over GOff that game?

the question is, …is McVay and his gambler Les Snead GM capable? He’s a fucking choker, curled up in the Super Bowl before the coin was even tossed sucking up to Billichick like a school girl…… He didn’t prepare his team for SF last year and got eliminated.

You can’t pin the last 2 seasons on Goff, but you can pin it on his contract that impacts the roster and draft… who fault is that?

BTW, is anyone concerned of the current coaching exodus???? Why is that happening?

While there are some people around who have voiced hardline dissatisfaction with Goff, I think most of us on this tiny little board sample believe that Goff IS good enough to win a Super Bowl. I do, certainly. I’d say the consensus of people whose opinions I respect is that Stafford is an upgrade over Goff. So that’s just playing percentages. Las Vegas seemed to agree that the trade improved the Rams, too, because the odds on the Rams got shorter after the trade.

As for McVay, I think you make valid criticisms, and express valid skepticism. I think questions about him are starting to circulate, and I think the Rams insiders are going to explore what people think about those questions. McVay is now entering a more scrutinized phase of his tenure, imo. I am certainly keeping an ear out for criticism of him now. I don’t think he gets a free pass going forward.

Footwear News dot Com.

Late stage capitalism can be jaw-dropping.

The experience must be a gut punch to Goff.

He emerges on the scene as the #1 pick in the NFL draft to the newly-minted Los Angeles Rams. Major, major market, complete with a freshly hit Reset button. Nowhere to go but Up, and the shy is the limit.

After 0-7 start, a new start with a wonder boy head coach, and next thing you know, he is starting the Super Bowl.

Moments later, this firefighter’s son signs a contract for $130 million, and is about to helm the team that occupies an astoundingly glamourous stadium in a city and league known for glamour.

Suddenly, fissures appear all around him, and picks up the phone to learn he has been traded. To Detroit.

Detroit, Michigan. Home of the Detroit Lions. In Detroit. It’s like Siberia, but worse. Some Siberian destinations have a bed of flowers. Lovable Losers, like the Cubs were for so long. Cleveland at least had the respectful sympathy of a nation of fans who recognized and honored their losing ways. Detroit got nada. No history, no lovable fan base, nothing. And it’s Detroit.

Goff had been chosen. He was Homecoming King with the most beautiful girl on campus, and they had some fun together, and some good sex, and then…she dumped him for another guy with almost no warning.

So…I feel bad for Goff. He’s gonna be lucky to win 5 or 6 games next year. Forget the playoffs. Forget prime time football games.

He’s a decent guy as far as anyone can tell, and a decent QB, and this has to be tough.

I don’t wish Goff ill, but I don’t wish him great success, either. It would be tough to watch him win it all if the Rams fail to win with Stafford.

Streaky
Hates pre-snap motion
Doesn’t rollout well

Those are not awesome things.

From SI: MMQB: Inside the Trade Negotiations

…The Matthew Stafford sweepstakes lasted, in essence, seven days. And while the Lions certainly had the idea that they wanted it to happen quickly in the back of their minds—to get ahead of quarterbacks potentially flooding the market and bending the supply/demand curve, or Deshaun Watson turning Stafford into a consolation prize—there was no telling how quickly things would materialize.

They got their answer quickly, with interest rising fast in a quarterback that the NFL was resoundingly, if implicitly, endorsing as a star with the way the market for his services exploded.

Detroit, really, had been set up for this for a while. Stafford made his desires known to owner Sheila Ford Hamp and president Rod Wood the day after the season ended, and it was on the mind of the Lions brass as the group went through interviewing GM and coaching candidates. In fact, it was one area in which Holmes, who worked under Snead and helped evaluate Goff in 2016, distinguished himself.

In Holmes’s first interview with Detroit, he explained the process of picking Goff, and how the Rams had decided to take him over Carson Wentz five years ago. Back for a second interview, after being apprised of the situation with Stafford, rather that recoil, his excitement reverberated—not to move the team off Stafford, but for how he’d handle such a big-ticket situation, from getting value for the quarterback to finding his replacement.

Little did he know how soon all of it would come into play.

News of Stafford’s availability emerged two Saturdays ago, which is part of why the Lions figured dispatching Disner and Holmes to Mobile for the Senior Bowl—where they could meet with other teams—would be smart. The two came back late in the week with multiple teams willing to throw a first-round pick in the ring.

Word was that Stafford’s preferred destinations were, in order, the Rams, Niners and Colts. And while the Lions were always going to do what was best for the Lions (and Stafford didn’t have a no-trade clause to commandeer the process), they were also cognizant of what their former No. 1 pick wanted.

By the time things started to come to a boiling point, the Lions had an initial offer from the Rams (their 2022 first-rounder, Goff, and an additional pick) that wasn’t going to cut it. But it was that interest from the Rams—and that it became public on Friday night, via a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler—that prompted a frenzy to land Stafford. By Saturday, the market had crystallized.

• Both Washington and Carolina had offered their first-round picks and then some. The Panthers’ first-rounder is eighth (that wound up being the highest pick offered) and their proposal came with a later pick. Washington packaged a third-round pick with the 19th pick.

• The Colts discussed packages of picks and players, but never actually wound up offering their first-rounder, the 21st pick.

• The Niners talked to the Lions in Mobile, but at the time were a little lukewarm and never made an official offer. They’d planned to circle back with Detroit after the weekend, but when things escalated Saturday and the Lions called back, the price had gone beyond what they were willing to offer (in part because they’re fine going forward with Jimmy Garoppolo). My sense is the 12th pick was never going to be offered.

• The Broncos discussed a pick swap with the Lions that would have equated to a late first-round pick, but it wound up becoming clear to Denver that they weren’t playing in the neighborhood where this was going.

• The Patriots and Bears both checked in. New England was willing to package a second-rounder with a player to get Stafford, which, when added to the Patriots’ absence on a list of preferred destinations (something my buddy Tom Curran reported on Sunday) quickly eliminated Bill Belichick & Co. from the chase.

• And finally, late Friday, the Jets checked in. The Lions circled back with New York on Saturday, but talks didn’t go very far.

That gave the Lions more than a quarter of the NFL in on the Stafford Derby—again, indicating just what the NFL thinks of No. 9. It also gave Hamp, Wood and Disner the knowledge that they’d accomplish a goal of theirs by giving Holmes the ammo to do what’s at the heart of what got him into that GM chair, and that’s evaluating college players, maximizing draft picks and, ultimately, building a strong, younger roster as a result.

Anyway, by midday on Saturday, Washington and Carolina had emerged as the favorites to land Stafford, and the Lions came to the realization that a deal could be in the offing. But if they’d guessed at that point where Stafford was going, they’d have probably been wrong.

It’s been two weeks since the Rams were eliminated from the NFC playoffs in the divisional round, and the way the season ended left plenty for interpretation. Goff was injured in Week 16, missed the team’s Week 17 game, then came off the bench after John Wolford started in his place in the wild-card round. Snead and McVay declining to commit to Goff as their 2021 starter turned heads, for sure, and provided a clue.

While the Rams were fine going forward with Goff and Wolford as their quarterbacks, just two years after signing Goff to a four-year, $134 million extension, the team was also very open to taking advantage of the expected unprecedented quarterback movement to come.

This, really, is who the Rams have become since returning to L.A. five years ago. For better or worse, there’s been absolutely no fear to flip draft capital for established stars, a trend that actually started right after the team flipped a group of picks to move up in the draft and land Goff himself. And with uncertainty over whether Watson or others would be available later in the winter, the Rams homed in on Stafford.

But talking about it was always going to be a lot easier than pulling it off. The Rams’ deal with Goff was, for the most part, ironclad for the next two years—$43 million of the $54.3 million he’s due is fully guaranteed with no offset language (meaning his signing with another team offered no relief)—making what was necessary in getting Stafford (shedding Goff) complicated. In essence, absent finding a taker for the deal, cutting Goff before paying him the $54.3 million over the next two years would have meant paying out the $43 million.

That forced the Rams to be flexible with the Lions, who had the aforementioned strong offers, but really did like the idea of getting a legitimate starting quarterback for Dan Campbell out of the deal. Making it even tougher was the fact the Rams didn’t have a first-round pick, their 2021 slot gone as the last piece of the Jalen Ramsey trade, which only gave the Lions impetus to ask for more.

Two things worked to buoy the Rams’ interest, and the first was McVay’s personal drive to get the deal done.

Along those lines, McVay was the one who called Rams owner Stan Kroenke on Saturday to sign off on the team going the extra mile to get it done, spurred by some extra tape work he and Snead did. That work only cemented what McVay loved about Stafford already—how quickly he processes, his pocket movement, his play urgency, his ability to throw off platform or in rhythm and his tough, fearless style—which pushed Snead into the mode where he was going into the afternoon with the intention of getting a deal done.

The second thing was that everyone the Rams asked loved and believed in Stafford. And that wound up including McVay himself, who happened to have a casual friendship with him. McVay is buddies with Bills receivers coach Chad Hall, from the days when the two were star high school quarterbacks in the Atlanta area (McVay at Marist, Hall at Wesleyan), and Hall’s sister happens to be … Kelly Hall Stafford.

Before this week, the Stafford-McVay relationship wasn’t a whole lot more than saying hello and maybe hanging out a little before games and at events. But it was enough for the Rams to match what they were hearing on Stafford with McVay’s own experience.

So, really, as afternoon turned to night on Saturday in Detroit, the Lions’ brass stayed in the office, and kept Hamp fully abreast of the situation—a deal most certainly could happen.

On paper, the return looks a little wild. But the Rams’ perspective on the deal was a little different than most.

First, as they saw it, if the first-round picks wind up being in the 20s (or later), then they’d have given up about what, on a points basis, Carolina was offering with the eighth overall pick. The old Jimmy Johnson draft value chart puts the eighth pick at 1,400 points, making it equal to two 26th overall picks (700 each). And getting a clean break on Goff, and offloading his deal, rather than having to smoke out suitors under duress was a big benefit.

The third-rounder they’re giving up this year, interestingly enough, they’ll essentially get back as a comp pick for the Lions’ hire of Holmes.

And Snead’s department has found a way to dig out guys like Cam Akers, Van Jefferson, Cooper Kupp, John Johnson, Taylor Rapp, Samson Ebukam, Gerald Everett, Jordan Fuller, Darious Williams, and Sebastian Joseph-Day outside the first round over the last few years. Of course, with a top-heavy salary structure, and no first-rounders the next three years, it’s going to be more essential to do it now than ever. But the Rams have shown they can.

With all this in mind, the Rams’ front office moved forward, knowing that, at the very least, it had to beat a current-year top-10 pick to get Stafford. As the group worked on it, a couple things came up. One was that Brees and Aaron Rodgers had only been to one Super Bowl apiece, Russell Wilson hadn’t been back to the NFC title game in five years and Ben Roethlisberger had only gone that far once since his last Super Bowl, 10 years ago. Another was a stat that a member of the brass saw on social media.

Lions QB Matthew Stafford, in 166 starts, has only had a 100-yard rusher 11 times.

Both things reinforced, to everyone in the room, how hard it is to win in the NFL, and how important it is, when you have a team you think is capable of making to the top, to give it every chance—even if that means walking away from a quarterback who’s second in wins to Tom Brady over the last four years (Goff is, with 42).

And in the weird circumstances of 2020, it meant Snead, Demoff, and Pastoors getting the deal done over FaceTime, out of the office and in different spots outside of L.A., with McVay hunting down his new quarterback to celebrate in Mexico in the aftermath.

So Stafford’s a Ram, under contract for the next two years at a relative bargain price of $43 million, and set to turn 33 on Super Bowl Sunday, and the message this sends to all of his soon-to-be-teammates couldn’t be clearer: The brain trust believes the team is ready to win very big and win very big right now.

Maybe it’ll work, and Stafford will be holding a trophy a year from now. Maybe it won’t, and the roster will be in ruins a couple years down the line, cap-strapped and bereft of young talent.

Either way, this mic-dropping moment for the Rams will echo for years to come.