NFL

Hi All

Just joined the boards I hope you don't mind me jumping in. As you can see from my screen name I am American, from Chicago.

Re some of the points you raised:

The Dolphins are "tanking" the season. They traded away their best offensive lineman, their best wide receiver and their best defensive player, all in exchange for top draft picks in the 2020 and 2021 college drafts. If they finish in dead last place in the NFL - which seems likely - they will also get the #1 pick in the 2020 draft and choose Tua Tagovailoa - a Quarterback with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The Giants front office and coaching staff felt tremendous fan pressure to sit Eli Manning and replace him with Brown. Eli was good - not great - back in the day but the last few years he's played beyond his sell-by date. Shaquon Barkley is the top running back in the league and even though they lost Odell Beckham Jr to Cleveland, they have some decent receivers including Sterling Sheppard and Evan Engram is a top 5 tight end. Brown represents the future and the future is now in the Meadowlands.

A lot of pro-teams have moved away from Native American names. The Redskins is obviously and insulting name. Chiefs/Braves etc. are not quite as bad and often approved by local tribes officials.

Here in Illinois - where there is a ton of Native American influence - our main state college the University of Illinois - the team name is "The Fighting Illini" (a tribe of Native American).

The mascot for decades was Chief Illiniwek and used to be a very prestigious thing for a student to be awarded. He would dress in full buckskins and headdress and do a ceremonial dance on the pitch at half-time. They university stopped this about 5 or 7 years ago - even though local tribes said they found Chief Illiniwek to be respectful and the dance authentic.

They team also replaced the Indianhead logo in headdress on their helmets with a simple upper case I.

The Florida State university team are the Seminoles. Their mascot still rides out on horseback at the start of every game in full dress and throws a spear into the pitch.

EXACTLY Miranda.

And its not like they cut their season ticket prices in half for their loyal fans.

The Raiders did it (albeit a bit quitter) last season. They traded their best defensive player Kahlil Mack - to the Bears for two first round draft picks, one in 2019 and one 2020. They used the 2019 pick to draft Josh Jacobs who is their new top running back and he is playing quite well.

They also traded away their best wide receiver - Amari Cooper - to the Cowboys for a first round draft pick.

They finished 2018 season 4 wins 12 losses and got another top first round pick.

So the raiders had 3 draft picks in the first 32 players chosen. #4, #24, #27

A lot of teams - especially teams that don't have tons of cash - trade away expensive veterans to draft promising rookies who they lock up for 5 years on much cheaper rookie contracts.

The New England Patriots (who have tons of money after winning so many super bowls) take a different approach. They tend to acquire proven veterans at the tail ends of their career via free agency and re-stock their roster that way. They usually hire veterans who were considered "problem" players elsewhere, either behavior problems, criminal problems, drugs, but who are highly skilled because Belichick generally knows how to handle the cheats and head cases.

The NFL is a bit exasperated at this point. They really wanted 2019 to be a celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the league.

But all the news has been about the Dolphins being so blatantly throwing the season away.

Antonio Brown doing everything he possibly could to get the Raiders to release him (frozen feet, refusal to use a league sanctioned helmet, a public row with the general manager, illegally recorded telephone conversations posted to his social media account).

Finally the Raiders had enough and just released him. He signed within 2 hours with - you guessed it - the Patriots - and immediately was in the news for allegations against him for rape but Belichick keeps him on the team anyway.

Yes he is the very best receiver in the league but still there is something about having some moral fibre as an organization.

Oh I wish! I can't afford it but I would go in a heartbeat! Of course you're a Bears fan, you're from Chicago. Sorry.

I was a bit meh about the new QB as well. But TBH, I got to the point where it was anyone but Cutler and I'm prepared to wait for us to find a good one. Our defence is looking good so I'm not too too worried yet. Ask me in a couple of months!

Oh wow! That is worth hanging on a wall. Shame more teams aren't fan owned. Maybe the Jags would do better if the fans actually cared. I'm sure I read somewhere they get more support in London than they do in Jacksonville!

Yeah.... I'm kind of torn on that one. I can understand why teams do what they do but again it's cheating the fans in a way. Both Packers and Bears improved last weekend. The Packers especially, they must have introduced the O-line to each other during the week!