“starting to wear on [Gronk] mentally and physically, the atmosphere in Foxboro”

This occurs way more often than the 4 instances mentioned in the article. Those are just the most high profile examples that stick in peoples heads, but it probably happens once a week across all games (if not more often)

Yep. Not sure how to create a rule that makes Dez’s play a catch without making Jesse James’s play one (or any play where a player catches the ball, gets two feet down and then drops the ball when he hits the ground)

No body checking in women’s hockey

Sure there is a difference between the two sets of circumstances. But those differences don’t mask the fact that neither set of competitors deserved to be at the Olympics based on their ability in their respective sports. (The skiers qualified by finishing in the bottom 5 of numerous minor competitions)

Here is German Madrazo’s list of competitions with his results. He pretty much came in the bottom 5 of every race (some of which had less than 10 competitors). So his qualification was basically the result of him showing up enough times to earn the points he needed, not because he did well in those competitions.

Interesting. Thanks. Makes sense that they addressed what would be a huge loophole.

Or what if the pitcher walks over to the second baseman? Is that still a “mound visit”?

There is no limitation to how much cap space they can roll over from year to year. I think you are thinking of the 4 year window for minimum cash spending that runs from 2017-2020, but because that is cash spent and not cap space there is no difference between a signing bonus and roster bonus.

The future dollars don’t matter since Jimmy G is getting the money now and the contract will count the same number of dollars against the salary cap regardless of how much counts each year.

While it is true that having a ton of cap space allowed them to give Jimmy G a huge roster bonus rather than a signing bonus that would be prorated over 5 years, there is actually no benefit to doing this due to teams’ ability to roll over free cap space from one year to the next. So there is no real difference…

“Maybe the kid just thought, ‘I’ll get along with it, it’ll be over with,’” Blonigen said.

Yeah, IMO, the late March to early June timeframe would be ideal. It gives a bit of a break from football after the Super Bowl while also taking advantage of football returning to the sports news due to the start of free agency and the draft (and also avoiding the start of March Madness). That seems like the time when…

Disagree. League averages show that about 20% of onside kicks succeed while about 22% of all drives result in a three and out. You could argue that the Jags were running all over Pitt so that number should be lower, but it also doesn’t account for drives with 1 first down that would still be short enough for…

I am not pretending they would have gotten the same result. Someone else pointed out that the Steelers D got a stop at the end. You said that did not happen and I disagreed with that, since the facts show that they did in fact make a stop. Had your initial comment been that you can’t apply that stop to a different…

I still don’t understand. They needed a three and out or the game was over and then they got it. The only reason the Jags scored points was because of the starting field position due to the failed onside kick. Had Pittsburgh kicked it deep and gotten the same result on the next three plays, Jacksonville would have…

Are you arguing that the Steelers defense didn’t stop the Jags because the Jags couldn’t get a first down and had to kick? Isn’t that pretty much the definition of stopping an offense?

I could not find numbers for the percentage of scoring drives after a kickoff to the 25, but the league average for defenses preventing a score tends to be between 64 and 67% (which is also right where Jacksonville’s opponents were this season). In this game, Jacksonville had 9 possessions before that onside kick…

On the flip side, after 30 or so hours it is probably easier to be re-running the same route over and over instead of having to actively scan new terrain. And they do get to switch directions at some point so there is some variety :)

At this year’s race they busted him on laps 11, 14 and 17. So it sounds like his “strategy” was to run two and rest one. Given how spread out the field gets at this type of event with runners going at very varied paces along with choosing their own schedules for breaks, I can see how other participants might not…