I saw some doctor online state that there is “no such thing” as an “aggravated disc.” A specific diagnosis is one of the following:

The Rams are purposely vague.

I’m interested in all the new additions, of course, but particularly interested in seeing Mumpfield and the run defense. And Bennett. To see if he is a future #2.

wv wrote:

Lawrence-McCutcheon-ness.

That’s a good comp.

The Rams won a Super Bowl with Cam Akers who had 13 carries for 21 yards.

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

his back hasn’t recovered. I can’t just close my eyes to this. It’s a concern.

He was throwing in OTAs. That was just 2 months ago.

And according to his wife, the injury Stafford played through at the end of last season was broken ribs. The spell with broken ribs was in the last 4 or 5 regular season games. Then after that, with recently recovered ribs, in 2 playoff games he averaged 22.5 completions out of 35.5 attempts (63.4%), throwing for 266 yards per game, 2 TDs per game, and in those 2 games got an avg. qb rating of 107.4.

Near as I can recall no one mentioned his back as having issues last season.

I don’t know anything about his current back problems, but this is not an injury that continued from last year.

….

I did not mean to imply that it is a lingering injury from the end of the season. I don’t even know if I would call it an “injury.” He has had back “soreness” previously, and he’s played great. But I am concerned that back “soreness” is a Fred Wagner collision short of a back “injury.”

canadaram wrote:

Pretty sure it’s Kevin Dotson.

So you think he wears 3 layers of horns.

I respect that.

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

Yeah, he’s a monster, blah blah, but i totally resonate with folks that talk about how ‘refreshing’ it is to have a monster who just says the fucking THING that the rest of them wont say OUT LOUD.

The dems have exactly nobody like that.

w
v

Enh, disagree a bit. There’s no putting perfume on this. Trump gets elected by lying to a gullible party base about the economic agenda. What he says aloud is the “culture wars” stuff that sucks in the gullible base.

I’m currently reading “The Origins of Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt. She made the observation that the loyal followers of a totalitarian government paradoxically are both gullible and cynical. They believe everything, and believe nothing. When their leader’s lies are revealed, they believe that they were never fooled because they believe anything they ever hear in the media anyway, and just attribute the lies to 3D chess, basically. And that just rings true of right now. The media lies, but not the leader, except when he lies, but then he’s just doing what he has to do because that’s how the game is played. Not his fault he’s a better liar than everyone else.

Beavers, huh? I wouldn’t have guessed.

Once in a while, you come across something and ya go, “Damn. Did not know any of that.”

Today is that day for me.

He posted with us only about a year. On the Rivals board before it went to shit. He ate nothing but raw food, and let his meat spoil a little bit because that’s the way the cavemen did it, so that’s what is best evolutionarily-speaking.

Left a bigger impression on me than on you, obviously.

zn wrote:

Adams says McVay isn’t someone who ridicules his players for making mistakes, which he appreciates.

“He’s got energy, but it’s all legit. It’s real,” he added. “You can feel him. You just love being around his energy. Even when you don’t do things right, you may have messed something up, you don’t feel that, like, ‘Oh, my coach is going to come down on me.’ He’s going to correct you and he’s going to hold you accountable, but it’s just a different feeling in that building right now, for sure.”

This stuff coming from Adams is fascinating. If being happy with an environment is a contributor to success, Adams…is in the right environment.

Ranking all 32 Receiving Corps in the NFL

Aiyuk, Pearsall, and Kittle are better than Nacua, Adams, and Higbee? Yeah, I don’t think so.

The Rams’ continued investment in their offensive line helps his cause.”

Humphries and Shelton?

I guess so.

zn wrote:

Do you remember the time a few years ago when you could sense that many male football fans did not take women reporters or analysts seriously?

As much as anything else, I think that was a by-product of the fact that for many, many years, the only women who broke the glass ceiling into sports reporting were hired because of how they looked in a little black dress, rather than because they had anything to say about football. Male football fans were groomed to not take women reporters seriously because they weren’t serious reporters. Still true of most of the sideline reporters.

Jourdan loves football. And she’s intelligent and articulate. She asks interesting questions and pays attention to the answers. I’m sure the players and coaches appreciate her for that, too. She’s not a “What was going through your head on that last play right before you made the catch?” kind of reporter. She probably understood what Cooper Kupp said to that sideline reporter a few years ago.

And Jim Murray WAS the best Rams reporter prior to Rodrigue, but he was from a different era, and what he did really well was paint pictures with words. Jourdan writes well, but her analysis and ability to explain, to connect dots, to provide deep insight into the deep currents of the team and the game are simply unparalleled.

We all knew she was inevitably going to get promoted to the national stage. It was only a matter of time. If I was managing the staff at The Athletic, I would have made the same move. Jourdan is brilliant.

Welp. We knew this was going to happen. She’s a HOFer. There are only a handful of writers who are that good, and they all leave the local beats eventually.

zn wrote:

The NFL has become appointment viewing for those who wish to understand the intensification of labor—both managerial and manual—that comes with the new spirit of capitalism

WTF?

I hate everything.