Pride_of_the_Clyde

On the eve of the season, we've probably already had it's highlight as Jim Kelly announces he is cancer free. What a terrific piece of news.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/08/03/aaron-rodgers-refs-will-boost-passing-offenses-this-year/ Agh! You already can't watch a Packers game without them using PI as a fucking form of offense. Get on with the bloody game.

With the HoF Game coming up and Andre Reed, Jim Kelly and Marv Levy all going to featured heavily, I watched America's Game The Missing Rings: Buffalo Bills again. I know I've lauded it like one hundred time on this thread, but if you're not even a little bit moved during that show, you've a heart of stone! Allegiances aside, there are few sets of circumstances that show why we love sport and this game so much. It's shows the how the finest of margins that can determine our fate and the virtue of resiliency in the face of repeated heartbreaks and it's all captured so well by NFL films and Levy, Kelly and Daryll Talley who lived through that era with Buffalo. Tremendous viewing.

I think there's something quite admirable about the Jaguars handling Blackmon. I think they'll be as realistic as anyone and realise that it's unlikely that he's going to play in the league again and yet they keep him in their employment as I think they genuinely are determined to help the guy. That could be rubbish but it's the impression I get anyway.

Nice signing for the Jets. If their offense can just even be functional this season, they could have a very good record.

Training camps open for the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens tomorrow, albeit for rookies. With other clubs to begin their camps in drips and drabs, can we call tomorrow the beginning of the new season?

Not too tread too far off topic but it looks like a big step up in class IMO but the trainer has had a lot of success when raiding the UK so what do I know. Aye, he was interviewed on C4 Racing earlier. Actually came across really well.

Wes Welker runs 'Undrafted' in the July Cup at Newmarket today. Can be had at 40/1.

Thanks, that's a shame. At least he'll be able walk away from the game. Yes, that's true, actually. Nick Collins and Jermichael Finley both had bad neck injuries and both were great players. Did Finley get a team yet?

What happened to him?

Woo! Come home tonight and checked my emails as habit and found I've managed to procure a Jim Kelly throwback jersey signed by the great man himself. Thrilling!

I think as a repeat offender he's now at the point were he'd face a year-long suspension (or that may actually be strictly indefinite but enforced as or assumed to be a year in the case of Justin Blackmon). Marshawn Lynch is another who is one failed test away from a long ban. In honesty, I'm not au fait with the legalese of it and if the league haa powers of discretion when dealing with each case but my point is that banning players for so long for testing positive for a largely - arguably completely - harmless drug is ludicrous given that it can be used legally in two states of the country both of which have NFL franchises. This is particularly daft when you consider the oftentimes meek punishments handed out to players who are involved in far more serious situations. Let's just see what ban Gordon gets compared to Ray Rice or Greg Hardy, (if the latter two indeed get anything) and see how misplaced the NFL has it's priorities. Anyway, thanks to the OP for posting the article as it is a really interesting subject.

Rightly so. I don't really endorse pro athletes - or anyone really - using drugs but when you see the nature of some of the charges and allegations brought against players and compare the suspension for these - if any - they receive, it's the height of lunacy. If they're smoking away, they're generally not hurting anyone. I do think the league should still be testing in order that it can help identify players who may have an addiction to substances in order that they can help them find some treatment but the likely year long suspension for Josh Gordon is mental in relation to the offense he's committed.

I won't predict how it'll work out for Buffalo but giving up next year's first and fourth round picks to move up five places because you're that desperate for a receiver to help your young quarterback and then trading away your best pass catcher already on the roster to simply recoup that fourth rounder is just awful bungling.

That schedule works out temptingly well for me. I'll be in SoCal early September when the Chargers are playing the champs. Flights are also cheap as from LA to Phoenix. Cardinals are playing the Niners around that time too. Both could be doable.

I watched Wrestlemania the other night and it was okay - it was great to see Steve Austin and the Rock looking pretty decent in comparison to a lot of the other, granted older, stars of the past. One thing though, I know Daniel Bryan is very popular with the fans and all and that's fine but if I were up against him I'd be telling him that finishing move with the knee has to go. You can't really control a knee the way you can with most of these other moves. He'll break cheekbones or eyesockets with it. It's very reckless.

Philadelphia release DeSean Jackson over alleged gang connections. Given that they were so blatant about their willingness to move him, there was clearly some sort of serious off-field issue they had become aware of as he can be a potent weapon. If you were speculating what he might have been involved in then this kind of thing would have been towards the top of the list given his clear knobheaddery. Depending on the evidence against him and the league's stance towards him I'm sure he'll be picked up to add a jolt to an offense but I think that, given the league are so, so desperate to avoid this sort of negative press that it is extremely unfair when a team does the right thing and cuts a player in these circumstances only to carry a cap penalty. Yes, they drafted him but eventually every other NFL team would have too where they saw the value and moreover, the league's own security department so no issue serious enough with him to warn off their franchises from allowing him into the league. I expect given this episode and the events surrounding Aaron Hernandez last summer that the NFL will be far more stringent in who they allow into their league and the clubs will be well warned.

Black day for the league yesterday as Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson has passed away at the age of ninety-five. A big loss for the league and a dreadful one for that franchise in particular.

I would bite your hand off to be involved in the relegation battle since all we've managed to this point is to be embarrassingly uncompetitive.

So with the league year now a couple of days old, here is a quick run down of the biggest transactions so far: Darrelle Revis released by Tampa Bay. Demarcus Ware signs with Denver. Eric Decker signs with NY Jets. Aqib Talib signs with Denver. Jairus Byrd signs with New Orleans. Branden Albert signs with Miami. Golden Tate signs with Detroit Jared Veldheer signs with Arizona. Josh McCown signs with Tampa Bay. That's just off the top of my head. Anything caught your eye?

I wasn't taken at all by the new Buccaneers jerseys but I didn't comment because it doesn't really matter. However, I read that Nike are redesigning the Browns uniforms which will launch for the 2015 season. Now, I'm not particularly wild about their current jerseys but they're smart, clean and a big part of that clubs tradition. Obviously it wouldn't be fair for me to criticise Nike for changing these without seeing the new version but the idea really bugs me. Redesign non-descript colour schemes such as Seattle and Tampa if you like but I hate the thought of these mid-twenties, design graduates getting their hands on a bona fide piece of history in the Cleveland Browns jerseys and doing a number on them with marker pens and bells and whistles.

Cheers mate!

Is that date confirmed, mate?

You got any idea when the regular season fixtures will be out, mate? It's looking like I'll be in the US when the season is on next year; may head along somewhere.

Spot on in a lot that you say. Sadly it doesn't extend to much of the Morton support. The chairman has helped two managers bring in players above and beyond the budget they had set in the summer as well as paying off others to leave the club. On top of that we're running at a loss of around £300,000 per annum. Despite all of this, many of the fans have lobbed really despicable insults at the Rae in recent months. I appreciate that it's easier for a fan of another club to provide a dispassionate and therefore more balanced assessment of Morton and that the fans I mention above may be too close and emotionally involved with the club to do that at times. However, one of the duties of a fan is to support and be fair and that hasn't been the case this season. Indeed the biggest criticism of Rae may be that he's been too loyal. The loyalty he's showed to Alan Moore and to the club and Inverclyde in his investment in both. This year has been as frustrating as it has surprising which is a combustible mix but we'd be far worse off without the chairman. And we may well see that sooner rather than later and then these fans will know what a bad time really is.