West Ham Online

"Free agency started last night and was pretty crazy some huge money being spent. Osweiler getting £18m a year for the Texans, leaving the Broncos without a QB, Giants have spent a fortune on good but not great players, Oliver Vernon has more guaranteed money than JJ Watt. lots more deals but cant be bothered to list them all."

"He then takes offence to the linebacker nailing him in supposed light-contact training, and a fight breaks out. Was it Mark Gastineau?* Yeah I know he was a lineman*"

"Usually what happens is QB1 is injured. QB2 turns up late for training, often while QB3 is having to be shown basic ""walk through"" plays while his potential receivers stand laughing. Then they spend an hour mis-calling the playbook, while either QB2 (if he's turned up by then) or a confused looking QB3 takes a mis-snap and hands off to a running back just recovered from injury. He then takes offence to the linebacker nailing him in supposed light-contact training, and a fight breaks out. Repeat, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... You can change the coaches. You can change the players. But you can't change the Jets."

"Yeah, it sounds like the NFL want it to be the Jets - but, understandably, the Jets are pushing back on the idea and don't want the hassle while they try to integrate Rodgers etc. The last time we were on Hard Knocks, under Rex Ryan, the world saw what a shitshow it was in East Rutherford! This can only end badly! Surely the NFL wants to promote an image of the league that is professional, rigorous, athletic and aspiring. Have they even been to see the Jets train?!"

Rumour has it that it will be Aaron Rodgers and the Jets as the featured team on hard knocks this year. Should be good.

"Now you only get the tickets if I see a pic of you in a cowboys top""¶..*spits cowboy style* How'd you like that fish boy""¶.??"

Spirit of WHO right there!

"God bless you Norf, even if it comes to nothing. Ahem, How Bout Dem Boys? *Spits*"

Isaac if you don't get any whomail me your number I may be able to get some. No guarantee as I've got to get quite a lot for the bills game as me and quite a few of my pals want to take the kids

"Thought that may be the case! 1.6 million though. Fuuuck. Bet they wish they'd picked a bigger stadium now! If money isn't an object you might be able to snag some expensive/hospitality tickets, or some with hotel attached maybe with any luck there will be some not too outrageous resale tickets closer to the time?"

"Its as you suspected Scorchy - Would travel for the Fins, but very little interest in any of the others. Thanks anyway for the tip."

"Do you specifically want to go to one of the Germany games? (Guessing it's team specific and you do) but if not I think there are tickets readily available for the London games, still."

"Having jumped through the administrative hoops of having to pre-register with NFL Europe and with Ticketmaster Deutschland, I logged in to the sale this morning with high expectations that I would be able to snare myself a pair of the 48,500 tickets on offer. *Ticketmaster website fires up* People currently ahead of you in the queue:- One Point Six Fucking Million!"

"yes, trent williams (silverback) was like that for us at LT. lightening quick, but you also couldn't move him. sadly now in san francisco"

"I am sure there are plenty of teams who could use a reliable 1,000 yards a season pro-bowler (The Dolphins for starters). The old astroturf pitches were horrible - Just ask Deon Sanders who recently had to have two toes removed after they were mangled playing.. As was said it is the atheticism across the entire squad that has changed. You now have 20st D line players who can sprint espeically on the edge so the collisons are ridiculous."

"That Theissman break was terrible, even Laurence Taylor was horrified."

"the worst two injuries I've seen (theismann & alex smith) were both on a turf pitch, so it's hard to blame any particular surface. the weirdest thing were the similarities between the two incidents https://www.deseret.com/sports/2020/5/5/21247893/almost-eery-similarities-alex-smith-joe-theismann-injury-situations"

I think it's harder to be a back now as although the game was much more violent in the likes of Barry sanders I do think the rest of the players have got a lot faster and fitter so even a slight drop in pace like we've seen from Zeke seriously limits their ability to hit home runs if half the other teams defence is quicker than the back. Pollard was a home run machine last season but did tore his ligament in the playoff game against the niners. If his pace drops by even a couple of percent he'll just become pretty useless. Sanders would have been miles quicker than 90% of the players on any defence so any small drop would have not made a massive difference. Pollard for instance although very quick probably isn't as quick as Parsons before his surgery Can't see teams giving long contracts out for backs going forward when you can get a fresh one from the draft and save cap space with the likes of bosa looking at 30mill+ a season and QB's getting 50mill+ WR getting 25mill something has to give

In the NFL 16 teams play on Grass surfaces and 14 teams play on Artificial surfaces.

"There was a lot of synthetic 'grass' back in the day, I know Minnesota had it and Detroit and Dallas also, there were others I'm sure? Synthetic is unforgiving so when a player tries to brake himself it can rupture tendons etc I don't know what they use now, is the grass the same as used over here in football?"

There's been a big debate in the NFL in recent years about the pros and cons of using synthetic over Grass. I read an article that said Sportsman are 58 percent more likely to sustain an injury on synthetic surfaces than they would on grass.

have a great time üëç

Anyone going to the baseball at the LS today? I'm at the bat & ball having a pre match pint

"Not really sure Mike, maybe they aren't as good as the old days RBs are."

"cough, what do you think is limiting RBs lifespan these days? It can't be the tackling as I thought the game was much more violent years ago, maybe it's these synthetic pitches they play on? who knows"

"If you're good RB you get a nickname, Diesel and Sweetness"