Vince Willfork retires. Very dominant player at his position. Great career.
Didn't want this to go unnoticed Powerslave! But I'm biased as I have the guy's jersey. Underrated due to his position too, even if he was more of a 4-3 DT at the end due to a decline. His retirement was interesting, I heard it called the first sponsored retirement!
Yeah, I'm with Barto on this one. Owners are by and large such pampered lazy fucks that "could"/"couldn't" is seldom what makes the difference in how their performance should be judged and "would"/"wouldn't" is. The majority of owners treat their teams solely as a business asset and merely posture to whatever extent is necessary to keep the majority of the fan base from jumping ship.
I always felt that. I do feel differently about Kraft. He's done great things for us N.E. fans (New stadium mostly on his dime, no PSL's, keeping the team in N.E.)
I'm with you Kings. As much as I have a certain political leaning, I am mostly against public money for professional stadiums. Kraft from what I remember financed Gillette all privately? The tax-payers should have put in an interstate bypass at least though. My gosh that traffic- I think it was easier for me to leave downtown Cincy after a game!
Going further on a tangent about owners, my running theory is that the owner often has a huge impact on how the team does. Financially of course, but winning wise. Being a spoiled NE fan, I have watched the thing turn under Kraft. He made mistakes- Parcells and Carroll and the people around them. Parcells is a putz though, so he would have left a team that won every year probably. But Kraft admittedly wanted to be a part of the transactions, and was too involved/controlling at first. But he got better, while finding the right person he can fully trust (Belichick). PIT has been successfully run since being founded basically, and I would extend further to NYG. And both teams have stable owners and administrations IMO. I would go with Denver as well.
Meanwhile, my hometown team has sucked since I started caring (Detroit). One playoff win in the SB era, one. All sorts of stupid draft picks, stupid contracts. And old man Clay Ford was heavily rumored to meddle in many drafts when he was alive. Dan Snyder is on par, if not lower or higher. WAS has done nothing but sucked pretty much, make bad drafts/signings, and be at the forefront of nickel-and-diming people. Throw in CLE and CIN. Cincy, there is an owner who in Mike Brown just barely beats out the Fords in my book, if only for the two SB appearances. Take those away and geez.
And I'll finish on Jerry Jones. Since he forced Jimmy Johnson out because he wanted full meddle powers, what has that team done since the big three retired/left? I didn't average in last year yet, but they literally averaged about 8-8 since 1996 I believe. But hey, America's team! Worth big money! Too bad the team goes no where, and I don't think it will with that man at the helm.