OldSchoolSnapper

I don't disagree. They are way overvalued. The number of times an immediate impact player gets traded for a 3rd round pick makes no sense to me.

Not a chance anyone trades two first round picks for a 30-year-old DL. This isn't the NBA. NFL draft picks are very highly valued.

The problem is being on the court. It's a huge problem.

Middleton was useless. He'll go down as a big piece of Bucks lore, but whatever. They got nothing back really, albeit a guy that should at least suit up more. I am not busted up over it. The window was closed already. I don't know what the Bucks are doing. I don't think the Bucks know what they are doing, and there is not much that they can do. There has been a lot of talk about windows and the Bucks not getting more titles. The tricky thing is, the Bucks won their title closer to the end of their window than the beginning and that has thrown people off. Realistically the window shut the season after the championship where they lost the EC semi to Boston. That was still a quality team. Then the years before winning, the bubble and the loss to Toronto. That was the window. They've been an aging team in decline with cap hell and no picks for the last few years. That's the lifecycle in the NBA.

I will go against the grain, sort of. I actually get trading Luka. If you are concerned about his fitness level, which I would be. He is not a workout warrior or a LeBron that does anything and everything for an edge. He's just extremely skilled. I get their trepidation with the supermax on the horizon. I don't think they were going to do it, so they got in front of it. AD is where it stops making sense though. He's 31, and injured himself. They could have dished Luka for an absolute haul of picks. There were ways for this to make sense if they really didn't believe in Luka. And they didn't seem to advertise he was available. There would have been a bidding war.

Poor Buccos. This offer was very likely to be declined by anyone, especially people not local to Pittsburgh, and now they get to be the butt of jokes about anyone wanting to watch them for 30 years.

I guess I think it's weird that a guy who is going to become the highest-paid pitcher in baseball wants a card of himself.

The fan base here in particular has adapted the risk-averse model of the ownership group. I am not smart enough to say who is right or wrong. But there is a sizeable risk with Yelich-type moves. You are seeing it play out right now. His contract sucks, though it could be far worse. It is a big risk to take, that in no way ensures better results. Plunging hard into 1 or 2 seasons also is far less likely to work than it was in the past, IMO, due to the simple fact that the contracts are drastically more out of control than they were when the Marlins and DBacks tried similar strategies. There are two groups of fans. Ones who are strict develop-in-house people, and ones who at least think they are willing to take a huge risk to add MLB talent to the roster immediately. Of course if those risks don't pan out, the fans then immediately blame the team for losing and stop coming to games. As a random guy who doesn't suffer any of the consequences of losing, I would also like to see something big happen, but realistically I know it isn't going to, it's just not what this team does.

I would decline. The tickets would get old pretty fast. I question the retail value of those tickets too; it would fluctuate a lot, there are fees associated with selling, and selling is also just a pain in the butt. You can't really get the most out of doing that when you have to keep selling in fairly small chunks over a long period of time. The rest of the stuff in there is just random, for me anyway. Why do the Bucs even want it?

They also offered a date with Livvy Dunne. They should wait until the kid is 13 and try that one again.

I will not deny that while dramatized, you have a point here. You're a fan so I am not sure what action you are expecting any fan to take. However I would agree there is a tendency to shut down any criticism here as being disloyal, not a real fan, whatever, etc., and we should always just be happy with whatever result we get as long as they finish above .500. Seems like it's blasphemy to suggest maybe trying something different to get over the last hurdle, rather we should just be thankful for what we have 100% of the time.

I totally get the frustration from Brewers fans about feeling stuck where they are in the progression of things. That is a totally valid feeling to have. But one look at what these marquee players are getting and it's obvious that is just never going to be the approach. One of these contracts going bad is utterly crippling for Milwaukee. Yelich's kind of sucks as it is, and it could be so much worse. IMO - the league is dumb and broken beyond repair, but blaming Milwaukee is just venting spleen. You can't blame the league because it isn't going to change, so you blame what is in your purview, the owner, because it's feasible (not really) that someone else could do it better. It is pretty hopeless to me as far as thinking the Brewers will ever win a championship, but if they are always in the mix at the end you keep alive that one random year where the Dodgers are hit hard by injuries or something and the window cracks open for you. I have adjusted my reality personally. I just hope that there are more good days than bad and that there's a team to follow in August. That is really all you can ask.

It is the choice that is a bit unsettling. I can accept that nobody here really knows what Bisaccia's role really is, but he hasn't exactly wowed anyone with that ST unit. I am not going to blame him for NFL kickers missing chipshots and Nixon fumbling kickoffs, but they get called for holding on touchbacks and fair catches and then we had that snafu in Week 18. Those things are on coaching. A game management coordinator seems like it would be suited to someone younger and well versed in analytics who hasn't grown up in the game under the old regimes and isn't swayed by conventional wisdom. I will echo other thoughts that I don't think MLF is a bad coach, but I think he is going to be fired in the next 3 years. After the 2026 season is the first time I could realistically see it happening. I don't think he makes great decisions in games and they are routinely flat with their opening sequences in marquee games. He has a lot in common with Mike McCarthy, honestly.

And the one who gave the garbage spot had an indisputably worse look at the ball and overruled the other official who had already signaled 1st down.

Well, for one, I wouldn't call that defensive holding marginal. That was a mugging. It was, I believe, somebody trying to cover Kelce across the middle of the field and they were going to get run over. I actually saw the hold live and thought it did not get called and couldn't believe it. Offensive holding not getting called is like a 50% chance of happening on every play. Not kidding to say that I see a run to the outside or a QB getting protected where holding looks so clear on TV go uncalled like 50% of the time I see it. These dynasty teams have always gotten a lot of breaks from the officials. I guess no, it's not fair, but you have to clear your margin for error wide of the officials if you are playing QBs like Mahomes and Brady. Buffalo didn't really seem to play that way to me. They tried to squeak by and got really pensive in the 4th.

I mean I thought the challenge sucked, because I thought and still thought it did get caught by Worthy, and it was anything close to the indisputable threshold they need to get it overturned. I really don't get those last-ditch type of challenges that coaches seem to love. I've basically never seen one of them work.

Yes - but there was a defensive hold, so automatic first down and 5 yards. I am not really convinced that was any kind of needle-moving call for either team. Obviously, it's a huge call if the review is for possession of the ball and there is no penalty called.

That Worthy pass wasn't picked off. And there was a defensive hold. It wasn't going to be Buffalo's ball no matter the call. At best, it was 1st down + 5 yards for KC. To be honest, none of the calls were egregious. I thought Allen had it, and the official who had the best view made that call, but it was close. And Buffalo called a tight game offensively. I didn't think they took enough shots with the coverage KC was playing. I see other teams line up on 3rd down for the tush push and throw 40 yard passes. Or KC throwing twice on that final possession. Buffalo was really conservative.

The Bills are going to be like the 80s Bucks. A great team that can't get out of its conference because an all-time dynasty is stuck in their path. The Chiefs are pretty similar to most of those Patriots teams in that they don't knock your socks off watching them for the most part, but they just make it look easy. Mahomes is spectacular and does have that ability, but the last couple iterations of that team have been awfully bland.

Bhaktiari appeared in a single game in '21, this narrative reads like they were expecting him to be available, and Jenkins missed over half the season yet they still won 13 games. Including...wait for it...the prior game against SF in which both were inactive! IIRC, Jenkins slid over to replace Bhaktiari, which is significant, but he had been out for 2 months by this game. It's not like he got hurt that week. Let's be serious, the Packers were accustomed to playing without him by then out of necessity. He was useless. The games they did lose were suspect too. A week one fluke against the Saints, the finale they treated like a bye and a game Jordan Love started. Then the premise of the argument is that the 49ers division was so incredible, yet it was a division the Packers swept that season (without the same 2 guys against Donald and the Rams) and the team they crushed the worst was the team that won the Super Bowl. So which is it? Amazing division or the entire NFL was soft that year? Oh, they beat the AFC champion too. Then there's the absurdity that they lost the game without SF scoring an offensive TD. That should never happen when your QB is league MVP - I am a big AR fan, but that is pathetic and nobody makes that excuse for any QB of his stature. If these are the excuses people make for the Packers, I dunno what to say. No loss will ever be considered bad. The one thing you could claim, is that the Packers ST were horrible all year and it ended up killing them. It's the playoffs. You can make a case for almost any team "having a chance." The Packers had pretty much the ideal set-up that year. HFA, Rodgers playing like a superstar, and really no standout opponent. As I said, it was the ONLY year under MLF where the Packers played - and beat - the contending teams. I wish the Packers would give us something to talk about besides old playoff chokes though. It's about all we've got for the last decade and a half. I might find this argument a tad less ridiculous if it wasn't made every single year.

Seems kinda open to interpretation, since he was playing for a different team. Point is still pretty valid either way...teams overcome injuries every year. Much more significant ones than your guard, who had already missed a bunch of time that season (and the prior game against SF). They had 2 months to prepare a fill in. Pretty lame excuse for them dropping a home playoff game.

Quoting me saying I thought the Packers would win isn't a trump card? The Packers were -6. Nor is finding a random poster saying the 49ers could win. I'm pretty sure you could do that for every single Packers game that's ever been played. By the way, that supposed weak schedule the Packers played included wins over both Super Bowl teams, the 49ers, and the entire NFC West. "You might want to know your facts a little better."

He's referring to Deandre Hopkins...at least I thought he was

You don't? Might wanna look harder.

No offense. But it feels like you are grasping at straws and looking up obscure stats to explain away a terrible choke loss on behalf of the Packers. They were a superior team, a favorite, at home, had the best player in the league, had beaten them previously, beaten both conference champions already...they shouldn't have lost the game.