The Ditch

Bob, USA 1 Canada 0, lol, I have to see if I could get RW and kinik to get along, then we could challenge your side of a ditch to a pond hockey game in the ditch.

Rob Scuderi, the prototypical 8 year career, in a couple of years his name will be rob who?

Bob, USA 1 Canada 0, lol, I have to see if I could get RW and kinik to get along, then we could challenge your side of a ditch to a pond hockey game in the ditch.

lol, I'll ref after 1 period.

I think you're the ace skinny.    We'll do ditch golf this summer when we're bit##### about Pit getting the number 1 overall pick. 

Rob Scuderi, the prototypical 8 year career, in a couple of years his name will be rob who?

I'm not reading to much into his comments until he has more following suit, but it seems like a comment I would kind of expect from your average veteran types that have been through this once already.   I don't have a full context for that quote so I'm not presuming to know where he stands on anything...yet.

Miracle is on AMC right now, anyone looking for a good hockey fix.

What? How does pit get the #1 overall lol.

Not only will Uncle Gary rig the draft (again) to favor the Penguins but he will also change the rules to allow the Penguins to draft 15year old Connor McDavid 2 years before he is draft eligible. We love Bettman here in Pittsburgh, but we boo him like everyone else just to try an keep it on the down low.

to allow the Penguins to draft 15year old Connor McDavid 2 years before he is draft eligible.

lol, kid just got a reebok deal.

If only that happened and the somehow Sid, Mario, and Burkle were the designated "heroes" saving the season.

Well here's my brand new solution to this lockout stuff.  Of course I probably have much better odds of winning a lottery for 50 or 60 million dollars then this happening but here it is anyway. 

1) Get rid of the salary cap.

2) Significantly increase revenue sharing. Double it, triple it, whatever it takes to help the small markets.

3) Rookie entry level contracts 3 years.

4) Player arbitration after 3 years.

5) RFA status after 5 years.

6) UFA status after 7 years.

7) Implement something like baseball does for compensation for teams that lose UFA's.  Make it a 1st, 2nd or 3rd round pick depending on the quality and value of the player.

8) player contract buyouts at 50 percent regardless of seniority paid over twice remaining length of the term.   If you suck or are hurt you don't deserve 100 percent of anything.   Player can insure himself against injury... not against sucking.

9) if a player is waived and his contract isn't picked up he plays for half his salary in the minors or agrees to waive what's owed and becomes and UFA.

There !!!!!  Big market teams do as they please and try to conquer the world again.  Small market teams get more revenue sharing and the option to hold onto their own players for 7 years and are compensated if they leave.  If a player isn't performing and is a burden on the team he can lose half his remaining pay for sucking so small market teams aren't stuck with bad contracts. 

No plan works long term without a couple years of mental rehabilitation for the players and the removal of Jacobs and his minions.

No plan works long term without a couple years of mental rehabilitation for the players and the removal of Jacobs and his minions.

Hummmm. I don't know.  I think I'm gonna send it to Donny and little Gary for approval.   :)

Scottie Upshaw chiming in:

Who's Scottie Upshaw?      What team does he play for?  Gotta look him up !!!!!

 Upshall, the ditch water's a little dirty today lol.

to help fill the idle hours during the lockout, i'd like to see nhl.com post a video tribute to the best glove throwing moments through the years.

The best glove toss - http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ptnM8KZwleg Selanne scorer and shots his glove

Some stick throwing moments would be fun to. Love it when the coach in a heated moment clears the equipment rack onto the ice.

The worst glove toss- Scott Hartnell throws his glove at Ryan Malone while he was on a breakaway. The game was 3-3 with under 20 seconds to go giving Malone a penalty shot. Sadly Malone missed the extra chance. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m3EwTo9LFrw

[http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=hockey+songs&view=detail&mid=75CDE9198E5953DBE7FC75CDE91
98E5953DBE7FC&first=21]

Song for hockey depressed fan. 

Who's Scottie Upshaw?      What team does he play for?  Gotta look him up !!!!!

Yeah, that guy

Probably my favorite glove toss in recent memory

Go to the 2 min mark.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XDVSgpoYr0
He's not that good at hockey, but he's hilarious. 

Sportscentre just reported talks to resume Wednesday.  Undisclosed locations.  More details to come.

Ahhhh the NFL.

Nothing like Stallworth having a big night after an NFL player killed a teammate driving drunk...good for the image.

Loved Berman's "human spirit" narative to describe football.   Shut it up and let me watch Watt smash Brady and then watch Brady make some magic happen.

More fines that don't make sense coming Monday.   By drawing all this attention to the danger of the sport (every player already damn well knew about) they are giving every intelligent and concerned parent more legitimate reasons to keep their kids out of the sport.   The NFL is killing their own sport with how they've handled injuries, IR rules, concussions, fines, etc.     It's worse than letting all of MLB juice or hang out in AAA.

Goodell's spazzy reactions to hits in the NFL make Gary's work seem almost completely insignificant when it comes to changing the game.    Football is great because we enjoy watching people smash other people as an integral part of the game, every fine just highlights the real dangers we prefer to ignore.    Bad juju for football.    Goodelll doing bad things to the sport because he's farther removed from the field than Selig or Bettman imo. 

Anyway, as much as the broadcast has improved,  MNF on ESPN makes my stomach turnover a bit, I should have hit mute, too lazy to hunt down the remote until I had to leak.    Texans doing great on the big stage, two giant stinkers. 

How the hell does Selig look like the best commissioner of the 4 horseman?

I missed the games this weekend.  Did the oompah (costas) tell us that cars and trucks should be banned?  Alcohol and strip clubs taken away?  They are doing a nice job with the free taxi ride gig though.  At least 50+ drunken football players used the system last month.  Wow.  I really despise that Gruden guy, what a suck-up.  Could some team please hire Gruden and Pierre.

Did the oompah (costas) tell us that cars and trucks should be banned?

Although banning all regular people from owning guns and removing that right from the constitution is probably going way too far, I think 90 percent of people took what Costas said the wrong way.  In my opinion it wouldn't be too far fetched to believe that if Belcher wouldn't have had a gun MAYBE his girlfriend isn't dead.  And/or MAYBE he doesn't kill himself after he killed her.   In my opinion there is a chance a person who goes into a rage is more likely to kill somebody on the spot then somebody who doesn't have a gun.  Sure a person can still choke another or grab a knife and stab them but nothing kills somebody as quickly and easily as a gun.  It usually takes less effort with a gun of any type as opposed to a different weapon.

As a Canadian I have two serious questions though. Aside from the constitution allowing all Americans to have guns and aside from people who use them for work or people who hunt on a regular basis, why do so many other people insist they need them for "protection"?  I know people a lot of people in Canada and the U.S as well as a couple countries overseas.  Aside from a couple of hunters I don't think almost any of them have a gun and none I've ever heard of ever needed one.   As a matter of fact I'd bet money none of the people I know of even know or are close to anybody that needed a gun to protect themselves. 

My second and final question is why the obsession with guns in the U.S? I don't mean to be rude or out of line so anybody ready to smash me don't waste your time because I won't respond to you.  But I find every time there is a story revolving around guns Americans on websites everywhere go berzerk !!!  People are so passionate about it my head hurts trying to figure out why. 

Goodell's spazzy reactions to hits in the NFL make Gary's work seem almost completely insignificant when it comes to changing the game.    Football is great because we enjoy watching people smash other people as an integral part of the game, every fine just highlights the real dangers we prefer to ignore.    Bad juju for football.    Goodelll doing bad things to the sport because he's farther removed from the field than Selig or Bettman imo. 

You'll probably get 9 out of 10 people to agree with your statement but I will respectfully disagree.   In my opinion Goodell's job is 10 times tougher then Bettman's job or any other commissioner in sports.  Also just my opinion but I think the NFLPA is a lot stronger and tougher to deal with when compared to other sports unions and even the owners in the NFL have so much more to lose and have some pretty tough personalities Goodell has to find a way to please and control at the same time.

The reactions to hits you mentioned and the fines certainly are inconsistent though, I can't disagree with that.  But with the retirees lawsuit, the threat of future lawsuits and the pressure sponsors are putting on the NFL to clean things up I think once again Goodell is in a very tough position.  

That all said and done he's also compensated very nicely.  His new extension with 6 or 7 years left I think goes for around 20 million dollars per season so even though I think he has a much tougher job and more pressure then a guy like Bettman or even Selig I won't be shedding any tears for him anytime soon.

You'll probably get 9 out of 10 people to agree with your statement but I will respectfully disagree.   In my opinion Goodell's job is 10 times tougher then Bettman's job or any other commissioner in sports.  Also just my opinion but I think the NFLPA is a lot stronger and tougher to deal with when compared to other sports unions and even the owners in the NFL have so much more to lose and have some pretty tough personalities Goodell has to find a way to please and control at the same time.

The NFLPA is much stronger than the NHLPA without a doubt.  I've had little problem with how he handled the labor issues with the PA.

The refs, now that was a joke even Gary laughed at.   He's lucky Greenbay will be handed the division or else there would be hell to pay in the postseason.

My real issues are the nickle and dime type things like trying to put logos on photographers on the sidelines.    He's been late to the party on injuries and it's going to bite him in the rear end.      Can't preach safety and protecting players when you have Thursday night football and push for an 18 game schedule.  

Spygate, Bountygate, player arrests, none really a big deal imo, they'll be forgotten as long as the games are good. 
The whole "pink" thing (where money goes to promotion awareness events involving league players and barely 3% of the money raised goes towards any research or treatment) and their version of "supporting the troops" makes me sick but that won't catch up to him either.  

It's the hiding behind "player safety" thing when they've done nothing to make the game safer on his watch that will catch up with the league imo.    When the vets eating jello drooling on themselves start showing up on something other than the sports page of papers and websites, the game is going to take a hit because he wasn't out in front of it.      No reason to expand to TNF and push for 18 games with that mess going on.

The other issue that he's sat on his rear end about has been dwindling attendance.   He had a great opportunity to do more in this CBA to address some concerns league-wide to get more cheeks in the seats.    As he lets the networks do more to make the game better on tv, he's pushing down attendance.      It's been dropping every year since 2007.     Revenue is still solid, but as he keeps focusing on the current bottom line he's been skipping the big issues sitting right in front of him 5 years out. 

Okay, this rant is bad because I need to include dozens of more specifics but I'm not going to type that long.

Give me my damn hockey so I don't have to worry about the NFL, they'll be fine for a decade or two anyway. 

I loved the Costas thing for trainwreck appeal.

The gun conversations are fun, mostly because almost every argument for or against is extremely subjective. 

I wish I had landmines for the ditch.     I'm not huge enough to build Dutch's predator trap. 

20 years ago today the NHL announced the hiring of Gary Bettman. Happy 20th anniversary/3rd lockout.

It's the hiding behind "player safety" thing when they've done nothing to make the game safer on his watch that will catch up with the league imo.    When the vets eating jello drooling on themselves start showing up on something other than the sports page of papers and websites, the game is going to take a hit because he wasn't out in front of it.      No reason to expand to TNF and push for 18 games with that mess going on.

Now that's one Goodell negative I can't disagree with.  I don't understand the Thursday night football thing.  Three games in 2 weeks is way too much for the players to handle because football is just too violent and way too damaging on the body to play 3 games in a couple weeks.  That said because football is such a brutal game on the body  I'm not sure removing Thursday night games will do a thing to solve the NFL's problems but either way if that ever comes up in a court of law good luck to Goodell and the owners defending their position on that subject.  If I want to defend Goodell a little bit though on the TNF thing I have to ask two questions.  One, why aren't the owners smart enough to make TNF disappear.  And two, why did the union not make that a deal breaker in their last negotiations?

As strong as the NFLPA is, they do make me laugh out loud quite a bit though.  I'm a firm believer if the NFL in exchange for an 18 game season agreed to increase the players paychecks by 15 percent I'd almost bet my house they'd sign on the dotted line in 2 seconds and we would have an 18 game season.  I also think had the NFLPA told the NFL there would be no CBA as long as there was going to be NFL football and cited player safety as the reason the NFL would have been forced to eliminate those games.  The problem is the NFLPA couldn't give a rat's ass about player safety either....  eventually I think you'll be right and the NFL is going to get in a lot of trouble.  Thank God for the profits and the fact it's the number 1 sport in American.  They better hope that continues because the lawsuits will eventually pile up and the awards by the courts will be some record breaking and crazy numbers.

One, why aren't the owners smart enough to make TNF disappear.

Short term revenue, the same as any owner in any major sport.   That would be my guess.

It's that giant class action suit in the background that I think makes it a little more sensitive.    If they weren't in so much trouble of having something really bad happening because of withholding info about injuries, I don't think it would be that much of an issue for at least a few seasons.

The problem is the NFLPA couldn't give a rat's ass about player safety either....  eventually I think you'll be right and the NFL is going to get in a lot of trouble.

I think they do a bit, they're around too many injuries too often not to be.    I don't think they worry about their melons any more than their backs or knees though.    I think the NFLPA will start pushing back on the schedule pretty soon.    Too many players missing games or aggravating injuries with the shortened weeks.