If David Blatt has been telling the Cavs all season to run more, I don’t think you’d have to be much of an “insider” to find that out, given that everyone in the building would presumably know that.

For what it’s worth, if I recall the conversation correctly, Brian Windhorst said on yesterday’s Lowe Post podcast that it was David Blatt’s idea for the Cavs to run more... from before the season! They just hated him (or, at least, disregarded him) so much that they were not doing it.

“I would have been way more negative about the prospect of the DH coming to the National League in my press conference last week [laughs]. I didn’t think I was that positive, so obviously I needed to be more negative.”

The blueprint to beating Tom Brady was a familiar one for anyone who remembers the Giants’ two Super Bowl wins: Get to Brady. Get in his face. Get in his head.

Oh, agreed, Kaep’s definitely the best he’s worked with. And as you said, there’s a lot more to this than just the QB, which is the only position that tends to come up in discussions of Chip Kelly’s effectiveness.

Still, I can’t shake the sense that the single most important factor in the perception of a coach’s skill is whether or not he has a good quarterback. In San Francisco, that too remains to be seen.

Moe’s Southwest Grill is better anyway. And not just because you can eat it and not die from E. coli.

Which is to say, Nocera’s plan is almost explicitly to accelerate the insidious trend of kicking nonperforming players to the curb.

Yes, I know there are bad parents and coaches in every sport. My point is that the notion that your average NFLer can be presumed to have come up through a system of fair-minded role models is laughable.

The game your coaches—from youth ball up to the NFL—have taught you to play fairly.

The $22 “garnish tray” seems a bit outrageous, though I’ll admit I haven’t spent much time in corporate suites and don’t know what’s standard. I’m spending ~$100 on Bloody Mary mix and vodka and you can’t spot me the celery? SMDH...

This SI piece from July is fun to read in retrospect. There’s the ESPN exec preemptively finger-pointing five months in advance:

What were you doing in the grays? You’re delightful!

Please continue to be the guy criticizing people’s word choices in Deadspin comments. You’re using your time wisely and making the world a much better place.

Good point, I’m sure the front office dysfunction played a part in all or many of the free agent/retirement defections. (Except Borland, who seems to have genuinely left out of fear of brain injury, which is not a 49ers-specific problem.) It’s hard to imagine an environment so toxic that NFL players would retire…

Yeah, that’s fair.

I agree it’s unlikely. Just think, of the obvious choices, he’d be better off there than in San Fran.

This is a team that has suffered from a string of poor drafts and deal, has alienated players and chased away coaches, and gone from a championship contender to an aimless afterthought in record time, and almost all of that can be traced to the ongoing battles and power struggles between ownership, management, and…

Ah shit, I forgot Russell Wilson! And my opportunity to choose between a Macklemore joke and a Ciara joke. I suck.

Ooh salty!