Bartimaeus

...at least it wasn't the Vikings, who probably still have the best chance of challenging for the division (with Bradford, anyways). What a shame that this game is also, first and foremost, a business.

Josh Sitton signs 3 year deal with Bears.

He is still one of the top 5, maybe top 3 guards in football...I hope he goes to an AFC team, or at least a non-NFCN team.

packers releasing 3x (second team) all-pro guard josh sitton today RIP 2016 packers season

The Chiefs did ruin our 16-0 season in 2011...I think the Packers should be able to handle the Jaguars alright.

ok, technically, it's not totally "officially" over for everybody, but it's over for me, and what a stinker of an ending it was,

THE PRE-SEASON IS OFFICIALLY OVER HERE WE GO FOR REAL (in exactly 7 days)

What about skippable end credits that have a hidden cutscene in the middle/near the end? That would infuriate me even more!

Try Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link when you finish that for a...different experience*.

it looks like a torture device

...a useless, uncomfortable chair at that, too.

Hello, Volourn.

These guys put their bodies through pretty extreme duress - even simply how large (height, weight, build) seems to play an effect. Their bodies are trained to take it, but sometimes, crap just breaks.

Yeah, I prefer to get rescue animals that are of at least middling age. They're generally already trained to some degree, and really deserve just as much love as their younger brethren, too. Particularly if they didn't receive much earlier in life... ...My only regret is that they leave you sooner.

In other news, Teddy Bridgewater is out for the season with a dislocated knee (torn ACL, structural damage, no arterial or nerve damage). Awful news...but not as bad it could've been given the circumstances - there were legitimate fears there would be nerve and perhaps arterial damage, which would likely be a career ender.

Packers had a punter competition all pre-season long...and decided just now to cut both of them (including long-time punter Masthay) and sign somebody totally new that was so bad he couldn't even make it on the Buccaneers (who, no, did not have good punting last season). How very odd.

"it isn't quite lying by omission" also, in the post before last, I did separate the way I was referring to the media - the people who initially questioned him, and the people trashing him

Accurate, but incomplete. It isn't quite lying by omission - because yes, Keapernick was stupid enough to only give that initial answer - but the more trash talking I hear about Kaepernick as a result of this story, the more it begins to feel like it, particularly when the media seems to have no interest in trying to help set the record a little more straight. If the media's only duty is to make money and be at least technically honest (avoiding breaking any laws and also thus not having any qualms about not bothering to follow up a story that affects the general perception of a person), then I'll be trying my best to avoid giving the media any clicks or views... ...But I already try to do that anyways.

Dakk's level of play is certainly encouraging, at the very least. We'll see what happens in the regular season, though: pre-season play is noted for lacking the normal game plan scheming that makes offense and defense most effective.

If the story was worth reporting to begin with, follow up on that report, particularly if that wasn't all there was to the story, which, by all accounts, it wasn't. Instead, they got one juicy bit that they ("they" being a combination of people, the organization who initially questioned him about it and then all these idiot talking heads going on and on about it) are using to drag his name through the mud for views and clicks, and they don't care about anything else he had to say on the matter. If it's SUCH a big deal, you'd think they'd want to know more about it and report about it. Instead...nothing: let the public drubbing continue.

And that's fair, but...if you're gonna cover him one of those things, please cover him on the other stuff, too... There are also the vague, totally unsubstantiated reports of him converting to Islam... All of it just really makes me hate the media so very much.

Kaepernick also had other complaints, including about mental health and (poor) treatment of veterans(?*) and the complete jokes that are our presidential nominees...that lead to his shenanigans, but those were never reported by the media. They only reported the stuff that would make him look as bad as possible to the majority of other NFL players and fans: the contentious BLM stuff. As should be obvious by now, I have total contempt for the NFL as an organization and NFL media in general, but they somehow managed to make me feel even more after learning just a little more about the situation and noticing the complete lack of coverage of his side of the story, coverage that might have softened people's views toward him at least just a little. *O.K., I admit, even I sorta skimmed all that he was talking about...the overall point still stands, though, that it wasn't some stupid, single-note complaint leading to such silly grandstanding.

am assuming you read, but you observing lack o' detail seems to miss the point. the article notes that that there ain't a whole lotta substantive money issues to be argued over 'tween player and a team precise 'cause o' the cba. but yeah, unless you were in the room with bosa's folks and the chargers, the only details 'bout the signing bonus you is gonna have is the the ones the chargers released regarding the deal they claim bosa rejected... so... is not all that complicated, and delayed signing bonuses is kinda ordinary 'cross industries. yes, the cba makes bosa options different than those available to an accountant or attorney or engineer, but that is 'cause the nfl rookie pay is resulting from a C. B. A. that the freaking players agreed to. wanna discuss anti-trust with enoch? be our guest. HA! Good Fun! Sorry, I may not have made this very clear from the previous post, but I've tried to keep very up to date on the situation, and so all the "there isn't much to argue about in the first place thanks to the CBA" was very old info to me, hence why I didn't really get much out of it being repeated in the WaPo article. In regards to the negotiation, the NFL is a complete and utter joke for keeping things secret...but it's also a joke for reporting things accurately - see early claims from the media originating from "anonymous NFL sources" that ended up being complete baloney. From what I remember being reported and talked about in the early days of the situation, though, the Chargers were initially offering extremely poor signing bonus percentages (I think it was right about half of the maximum, either a little higher or a little lower), and did not offer the expected offset language going with such a poor signing bonus - that's all Bosa was asking for, one or the other, as would be absolutely typical for where he was drafted. Then they refused to talk or negotiate with Bosa at all for about two weeks straight...and then finally came up with that "take it or we'll take it back" offer, which still did not offer as much of a signing bonus percentage (I think it was then 85%) combined with, again, not having any of offset stuff, causing Bosa to (at least somewhat rightfully) reject it. That final offer was much closer to what should've been normal, but still just not quite there...but what was absolutely asinine was them cutting off negotiations entirely for so stinking long after rejecting their absurd initial offers - which in themselves were insulting enough - and then the "we take it back" crap for that final offer. So, ultimately, I just have zero sympathy whatsoever for the Chargers organization - all of my sympathy rests entirely with Bosa and Chargers fans. Yeah, of that stuff reported might have been nonsense...but given the contract that ultimately got done (as well as what we knew about the "take it or we'll take it back" offer), it seems to more or less fit.

It sounds like Teddy Bridgewater has suffered some sort of serious leg injury and may be out for the season. They called an ambulance to cart him off the field...