2020-21 NFL thread

Schefter suggests NJ lab -- which also tests NBA -- was sabotaged on NFL tests.

 

Someone bought budget tests.

 

Have watched the first two episodes of Hard Knocks, and everything is just so damn weird. I suspect the first couple of weeks of games are going to super, super sloppy but really high energy.

 

Could things get worse for the Washington Football Team?

Yes.

In “Beauties on the Beach,” the official video chronicling the making of the Washington NFL team’s 2008 cheerleader swimsuit calendar, the women frolic in the sand, rave about their custom bikinis and praise a photographer for putting them at ease in settings where sometimes only a strategically placed prop or tightly framed shot shielded otherwise bare breasts.

What the cheerleaders didn’t know was that another video, intended strictly for private use, would be produced using footage from that same shoot. Set to classic rock, the 10-minute unofficial video featured moments when nipples were inadvertently exposed as the women shifted positions or adjusted props.

The lewd outtakes were what Larry Michael, then the team’s lead broadcaster and a senior vice president, referred to as “the good bits” or “the good parts,” according to Brad Baker, a former member of Michael’s staff. Baker said in an interview that he was present when Michael told staffers to make the video for team owner Daniel Snyder. …

“Larry said something to the effect of, ‘We have a special project that we need to get done for the owner today: He needs us to get the good bits of the behind-the-scenes video from the cheerleader shoot onto a DVD for him,’” said Baker, who was a producer in the team’s broadcast department from 2007 to 2009.

The Washington Post obtained a copy of the 2008 video from another former employee, along with a similar outtakes video from the squad’s swimsuit calendar shoot in the Dominican Republic in 2010 that included a close-up of one cheerleader’s pubic area, obscured only by gold body paint.

In addition, a former broadcasting producer for the team told The Post that Michael ordered that the 2010 video be burned to a DVD titled “For Executive Meeting.” The former producer did not recall Michael mentioning Snyder. Both former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation. Michael denied knowledge of any such videos. …

In response to a Post report last month detailing allegations of widespread sexual harassment in his team’s front office, including by Michael, Snyder publicly stated that such behavior “has no place in our franchise” and hired a law firm to “set new employee standards for the future.”

But interviews with more than 100 current and former employees and a review of internal company documents and other records show that, in his 21 years of ownership, Snyder has presided over an organization in which women say they have been marginalized, discriminated against and exploited. The employees also described an atmosphere in which bullying and demeaning behavior by management created a climate of fear that allowed abusive behavior to continue unchecked.

Twenty-five women — most of them speaking on the condition of anonymity because of nondisclosure agreements or fear of reprisal — told The Post that they experienced sexual harassment while working for the team. They described male bosses, colleagues and players commenting on their bodies and clothing, incorporating sexual innuendos into workplace conversation and making unwanted advances in person or via emails, text messages and social media. Many said they were motivated to speak out because they were angered by Snyder’s comments after The Post report last month that detailed allegations from another 17 women, which they read as an attempt to distance himself from the workplace culture described.

One of the women interviewed for this story accused Snyder of directly humiliating her, the first such claim made to The Post. Former cheerleader Tiffany Bacon Scourby said Snyder approached her at a 2004 charity event at which the cheerleaders were performing and suggested she join his close friend in a hotel room so they “could get to know each other better.” Scourby’s account was supported by three friends she spoke to shortly afterward about the alleged incident, including the team’s former cheerleader director.​

Lewd cheerleader videos, sexist rules: Ex-employees decry Washington’s NFL team workplace — The Washington Post

 

More outtakes from the above article, regarding the NFL’s worst owner:

Shortly after reporting for their first day of work at team headquarters in Ashburn, dozens of employees said, they learned several unwritten rules: Always call the owner “Mr. Snyder” or “Sir,” never “Dan.” Never look him in the eyes. And if he comes walking your way, turn around and head in the other direction.

“The fear is instilled in employees from Day One,” said Imbert, who worked for the team from 2008 until 2011. “The organization is led by fear.”

Susan Miller, a retired former president of a Virginia employee referral agency, said she stopped sending people to work for the team in the early 2000s after growing appalled by how Snyder treated his employees.

“He denigrated people. He treated women like servants,” Miller said. One time, in 2000 or 2001, Miller recalled, she got a phone call from Snyder’s executive assistant informing her Snyder had fired a woman Miller had referred there because he thought she looked “frumpy” or “dowdy.”

“He’d just passed her in the hall once … and then just said, ‘Get rid of her,’ ” Miller said. The executive assistant did not respond to requests for comment.

Former executive assistants to Snyder described a high-pressure job with high turnover that requires two or three staffers to ensure, among many other duties, that his bar has an ample supply of Crown Royal XR and that the end of the toilet paper in his private bathroom is folded in a hotel-style point.

Those who work directly for Snyder heed a long list of protocols, according to three former executive assistants: Don’t speak too loudly; never eat in front of him; don’t go to the bathroom unless another assistant is available to cover the phones; don’t take a lunch break, but if you must eat at your desk, make sure the food doesn’t smell; clean the owner’s desk each morning, ensuring that his calendar and daily kitchen menu are in the proper locations and that his paper clips all face the same direction.​

 

There was a person being interviewed on the Steve Czaban show out of DC once. This person said that he and Snyder had kids the same age, and there was a play date set up.

The guy went to pick up his kid at Snyder's mansion, and called him "Dan". Snyder told him to call him "Mr. Snyder".

 

Donald Sterling was forced to sell, but Cuban, Snyder and other cavemen don't get even a slap on the wrist. John Lennon was right: Woman is the N-word of the world.

 

The Jaguars, after being unable to find a trade partner, have released Leonard Fournette.

Da fuq?

Jacksonville Jaguars release running back Leonard Fournette — USA TODAY

 

Running backs have almost zero trade value, and especially since the league knew that the Jags' management did not care for him and were going to cut him. He had a productive year in 2019, so I imagine he'll have quite a few suitors as a free agent, even if there are questions about his health and work ethic. (Then again, on the latter, Coughlin regimes seem to bring the worst out of plenty of players.)

 

Cleveland Browns of the south.

RBs might not be important to some, but put him in Pittsburgh and tell me that RBs are not important.

 

Titans were in the AFC CG due to a RB.

 

Nobody says they aren’t important what they say is you don’t invest high picks or long term money in them. It’s the easiest
position to replace in football.