The Swamp

https://twitter.com/ironghazi/status/892469749816455168

If he does end up with the Ravens you guys can use this thread as a repository for quotes from yinzer Stiller fans (like the top comment on this Brietbart article which for some reason is one of Google's top new results on Kaep):

As a life-long Steelers fan, I am 100% behind the Ravens picking up Kaepernick. James Harrison and company will permanently plant that piece of garbage into the Heinz field turf. I WANT Kaepernick in a Ravens uniform, because I want the Steelers to have the honor of ending his career. Crush him like a grape under the new Steel Curtain.

The fact that guys like Vick and Lewis are being trotted out to opine on CK -- as if non-violent civil rights activism accompanied by generous charitable giving is analogous to participation in violent felonies -- is pretty fucking offensive. But that's Trump's America for you.

People who hate Kaepernick but revere Ali are the dumbest motherfuckers in the world.

Also, it's shameful that the most high profile white player to speak up for Kaepernick is Chris Long (who, as an aside, was a great community guy here in St. Louis). Plenty of black players have shown support, but the silence from guys like the Mannings, Brady, Rodgers, etc. is very disappointing to me.

Joe K wrote:The fact that guys like Vick and Lewis are being trotted out to opine on CK -- as if non-violent civil rights activism accompanied by generous charitable giving is analogous to participation in violent felonies -- is pretty fucking offensive. But that's Trump's America for you.

I watched Kaepernick's first start (against the Bills) in a bar with the Southern California Bills Backers and honest to God, you'd have thought that he was Osama Bin laden the way people were screaming at him.

Fucking morons.

Joe K wrote:Also, it's shameful that the most high profile white player to speak up for Kaepernick is Chris Long (who, as an aside, was a great community guy here in St. Louis). Plenty of black players have shown support, but the silence from guys like the Mannings, Brady, Rodgers, etc. is very disappointing to me.

Given how quickly and easily the media piled on Kaepernick, it's disappointing, but not surprising. Arguably his biggest white supporter in football is Jim Harbaugh and even he fumbled the first time he made a statement on it.

Pruitt wrote:

Joe K wrote:The fact that guys like Vick and Lewis are being trotted out to opine on CK -- as if non-violent civil rights activism accompanied by generous charitable giving is analogous to participation in violent felonies -- is pretty fucking offensive. But that's Trump's America for you.

I watched Kaepernick's first start (against the Bills) in a bar with the Southern California Bills Backers and honest to God, you'd have thought that he was Obama the way people were screaming at him.

Fucking morons.

FIFY

brian wrote:

Joe K wrote:Also, it's shameful that the most high profile white player to speak up for Kaepernick is Chris Long (who, as an aside, was a great community guy here in St. Louis). Plenty of black players have shown support, but the silence from guys like the Mannings, Brady, Rodgers, etc. is very disappointing to me.

Given how quickly and easily the media piled on Kaepernick, it's disappointing, but not surprising. Arguably his biggest white supporter in football is Jim Harbaugh and even he fumbled the first time he made a statement on it.

I know it's not surprising, but when you have a players' union, you would at least hope that the most prominent and powerful members of that union (i.e., the star white QBs) would realize the importance of this issue to their fellow union members. The contrast between their response to Brady's suspension and to this is pretty stark.

Kaepernick stuck up for Brady during Deflategate too

The fact that people get wrapped up in symbols to this level is unnerving. Kaep hit the nail on the head when it came to how he'd get his point across though. He's doing a good thing, imo. I'm over the patriotic fanaticism turned faux outrage.

Joe K wrote:Also, it's shameful that the most high profile white player to speak up for Kaepernick is Chris Long (who, as an aside, was a great community guy here in St. Louis). Plenty of black players have shown support, but the silence from guys like the Mannings, Brady, Rodgers, etc. is very disappointing to me.

Brady's a Trumpy. I'm certain he's never pontificated upon the dangers of blind nationalism.

mister d wrote:

The forgotten story of this picture is the Australian Peter Norman. While not raising his fist he too wore the Human Rights Badge over his crest. He was criticized by Australian conservatives and not picked to run in the 1972 Olympic despite qualifying. Australia sent no sprinters. He was also not invited to participate in any capacity in the 2000 Sydney Games.

His run of 20.06 seconds in that race is still an Australian record.

The Australian parliament posthumously issued an apology in 2012, 6 years after his death.

degenerasian wrote:The forgotten story of this picture is the Australian Peter Norman. While not raising his fist he too wore the Human Rights Badge over his crest. He was criticized by Australian conservatives and not picked to run in the 1972 Olympic despite qualifying. Australia sent no sprinters. He was also not invited to participate in any capacity in the 2000 Sydney Games.

His run of 20.06 seconds in that race is still an Australian record.

The Australian parliament posthumously issued an apology in 2012, 6 years after his death.

Thanks for pointing out the accomplishments of the white guy, Trump Jr.

Yeah, that didn't seem like it was going to go over well...


And Norman wasn't forgotten by the Swamp the last time that photo was brought up in the context of Kaepernick (sorry Syb).

ha!

rass wrote:Here’s What Happens When You Repeatedly Pick Colin Kaepernick First Overall In Fantasy Football

I guess those responses to his trolling were not that funny?

It is Fantasy Football Mock Drafts...even better. I just assumed most people only did that to get their badge for Yahoo.

I would've called it something else, but ok.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXi2eKgF6jz/

What does one 25 year old (Happy birthday, Tomi!) makeup-less "pundit" feel about this? Fear not! Here's some Final Thoughts from the driver's seat of her car.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... %2As%2As-R

(She needs a new title for her show. Snowflakes in Cars getting Internet Outraged.)

Her new gig includes a luxe studio!

Shaun King and others urging a boycott. I stopped watching the NFL about 5 years ago, so this was pretty easily done for me.

Any of you guys feel a little gross watching the league at this point?

Nonlinear FC wrote:Shaun King and others urging a boycott. I stopped watching the NFL about 5 years ago, so this was pretty easily done for me.

Any of you guys feel a little gross watching the league at this point?

Until the games kick off, yeah. During the games themselves don't think about it as much until a guy gets a brain injury from a massive hit. I don't watch as many non-Lions games as I used to. Pretty much only an occasional Sunday night game and the playoffs.

Ratings were down significantly in Week 1, but a lot of that was (I think accurately, appropriately) pegged to Hurricane Irma and possibly Harvey, as well.

I'll be interested to see how the league does this week.

In general, I would really like the league to eat some shit for a bit. Anytime someone (correctly) criticizes anything, mouthbreathing sportscasters, radio dudes, columnists fire back with "it's still the biggest sport in America, and it's not even close" as if that absolves them of everything.

Very similar to, "yeah but America is still the greatest country in the world!" whenever people point out the US's flaws. These days, you have a lot more people saying, "is it? Is it really, now?"

I've been out for a few years now, and I don't feel like I'm missing a thing. Still watching NCAAFB, so I've got a whole other set of issues to try and ignore.

govmentchedda wrote:I've been out for a few years now, and I don't feel like I'm missing a thing. Still watching NCAAFB, so I've got a whole other set of issues to try and ignore.

Agreed, I'm in the same boat.

Intellectually, I feel it. So many issues trouble me about football. But, I'm addicted, at least to a degree. And, I'm putting the wife on a plane Saturday morning, so I will likely mainline football into my veins all weekend.

I have no desire to watch any football. Last year I only watched, maybe 8 quarters of games and then the Super Bowl. This year, I haven't even watched a single play of either NFL or college. Haven't missed it. My wife actually questioned why I wasn't watching anymore, and just told her I just didn't have any interest anymore.

Nonlinear FC wrote:In general, I would really like the league to eat some shit for a bit. Anytime someone (correctly) criticizes anything, mouthbreathing sportscasters, radio dudes, columnists fire back with "it's still the biggest sport in America, and it's not even close" as if that absolves them of everything.

Very similar to, "yeah but America is still the greatest country in the world!" whenever people point out the US's flaws. These days, you have a lot more people saying, "is it? Is it really, now?"

I agree with this sentiment, and I actually have a financial stake in the league's success in the sense that some of my projects are with the NFL. The changes around the Kickoff event this year (the event being during the day and not televised) cost me six weeks of work, but Super Bowl is the biggest annual project I have (and have had for over a decade), so the well-being of my kids kind of depends on the success of the league (as well as many other things).

To this point, I don't feel the need to not watch (both college and NFL), but I am happy that there is more and more knowledge about what the effects of the sport are and that people are choosing to step aside when they are young (Chris Borland, John Urschel, Su'a Cravens) continue to bring the issues into the light.

A related hope that I have with this is that people will start to see the "meathead" responses to these decisions from football people (coaches, front office people, fans) and realize that those people do not truly care about the well-being of these people and their decisions. I understand a coach gets upset that a starting lineman retires, making his job harder and potentially jeopardizing that job, but this is likely a guy who says, "I love my team", then just turns around and doesn't care as soon as a guy is gone.

I've been kicking around starting a thread called "The End of Football", but I have a lot of thoughts to get down and organized before doing that.

govmentchedda wrote:I've been out for a few years now, and I don't feel like I'm missing a thing. Still watching NCAAFB, so I've got a whole other set of issues to try and ignore.

I'm trying to cut myself off cold turkey this year, from both college and the NFL. So far so good...but its tough when friends invite us over to watch the game. I've given myself a pass on those, saying "Its being social!", and then not really watching.

For me, it boils down to that I really don't want to be watching when someone dies on the field, which I think is going to happen one of these days. All of the other issues don't help any either.

And then have to add in that the GF just isn't a football fan, and its tough to justify being parked in front of the TV for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

DSafetyGuy wrote:I've been kicking around starting a thread called "The End of Football", but I have a lot of thoughts to get down and organized before doing that.

I'm pretty positive we either have one or we've hijacked a thread with that topic. I have a now-semi-longstanding argument with a friend that its coming a lot sooner than anyone thinks because it'll get unplayable/uninsurable at the lower levels.

I haven't watched any yet this year. The juxtaposition of Kaepernick's treatment with the open support for Trump from team owners and execs has been too much for me to stomach.

I toyed with starting a thread, but I think it's kind of... unfair? for me to do so, when I've truly checked out and it is very specific reasoning that doesn't have a lot to do with what's going on currently, to be honest.

I've always been a MI fan, with varying degrees of giving a shit about the Lions (Billy Simms, Barry Sanders, slight relevance). Then I moved out of Ann Arbor to DC. The Skins were in the middle of the Gibbs era and it was fun to be around.

The minute Snyder took over, I was immediately turned off. I know ppl that went to high school with him, no one liked him. And he started off being an asshole to employees and making dumb decisions and it was pretty easy to start tuning it all out.

I continued to play fantasy and enjoy the league for a bit, but, eventually that, too got pretty old for me. What am I even doing anymore, watching horrible games on the off chance my second WR catches a few passes? I have nothing better to do?

I'd pop in for some playoff games of note, and of course the SB.

Last year was the first year I really didn't watch the game at all. Life goes on.

I could definitely see missing it if I were still young and went out with friends on Sundays because it would be fucking up a ritual, but at this point I couldn't care less about games being on.



(I exempt staying in my college fantasy league because (1) we're on year 16 and haven't lost a team and (2) I'm just as much of a hypocrite as everyone else.)

DaveInSeattle wrote:And then have to add in that the GF just isn't a football fan, and its tough to justify being parked in front of the TV for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

OH, this! So much, this.

Even with MI, I routinely "tape" the game and don't start watching until the real-time hits the 3rd or 4th Q. Football is so consistently "play-pause for 30 seconds-snap the ball-pause for 30 seconds" that you can speed watch the game like no other sport.

The only game I watched fully live last year was OSU.

Saves about 2.5 hours of your Saturday, which my wife really appreciates.

mister d wrote:

DSafetyGuy wrote:I've been kicking around starting a thread called "The End of Football", but I have a lot of thoughts to get down and organized before doing that.

I'm pretty positive we either have one or we've hijacked a thread with that topic. I have a now-semi-longstanding argument with a friend that its coming a lot sooner than anyone thinks because it'll get unplayable/uninsurable at the lower levels.

A big part of my idea is that I don't think the end is coming that soon. Like I said, lot of thoughts to get down and organized.

It would be funny for you to write out a long post where you conclusion is the NFL is done the year your kids are out of college.

rass wrote:NFL meltdown thread: the slow two-minute drill to disaster

He's not the Swamp's official archivist/librarian for nothing, folks.