NFL News

[Futureshock]

Former 49ers tight end Greg Clark dies at 49

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 10, 2021, 5:39 AM EDT
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Greg Clark, who played tight end for the 49ers for five seasons, has died at the age of 49.

Clark’s cause of death has not been reported. His family released a statement indicating that they would participate in brain research to determine whether he had CTE.

Recruited to Stanford by Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, Clark was an impressive blocker in college who proved to be a better receiver and athlete than NFL teams expected with his performances in the Shrine Game and at pre-draft workouts. The 49ers traded up in the third round to take Clark in the 1997 NFL draft.

Known for his toughness, Clark played through injuries including broken ribs, and in one game in Minnesota he played even though a member of the 49ers’ medical staff punctured his lung while injecting his ribs with a painkiller before the game. Clark recalled last year how he was rushed to the hospital immediately after the game.

“It was like an ER show you see on TV,” Clark told Matt Maiocco of NBCSportsBayArea.com. “You have 12 people around. Everyone is chaotic. They’re cutting off your jersey and everything. There’s not time for an anesthetic, so they’re getting out the scalpel and cutting. You have a bunch of people on one side of you holding you while another guy has a big ol’ pair of pliers and is trying to bust it through the side of your ribs through the cartilage and all that muscle. And he couldn’t get through. He was just shaking. You know how you can see a guy’s eyes and know that he’s panicked? I’m screaming. I was swearing like a sailor. It hurt so bad.”

In retirement Clark worked in the real estate business.

[Futureshock]

Report: Mark Sanchez to call games for FOX

Posted by Josh Alper on July 12, 2021, 1:23 PM EDT

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Mark Sanchez is reportedly set to be part of FOX’s NFL coverage this fall.

Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reports that Sanchez is making the move from ESPN to be a game analyst during the 2021 season. Sanchez is reportedly going to work with play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and will also make appearances on FS1 as part of his new deal.

Marchand reported in June that Sanchez was in the mix for the opening on the FOX roster created by Chris Spielman’s move from the broadcasting booth to a football operations job with the Lions.

Sanchez was a Jets first-round pick in 2009 and started in the AFC Championship Game in each of his first two seasons with the team, but things went south from there due to interceptions, injuries and one memorable butt fumble. He remained with the team through the 2013 season and then played for Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington before announcing his retirement in 2019.

Greg Olsen is also taking on a full-time role at FOX this season and Marchand reports that Aqib Talib may also work games after debuting as an analyst last season.

[Futureshock]

NFL suffers setback in Rams relocation litigation

Posted by Mike Florio on July 12, 2021, 6:06 PM EDT

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The massive lawsuit filed by St. Louis against the NFL over the relocation of the Rams will (barring a settlement) culminate with a full-blown trial, which is due to begin just as the Rams prepare to host a Super Bowl in their new stadium. Along the way, the two sides will engage in many battles. Today, St. Louis scored a major victory in one of them.

Via Randy Karraker of 101 ESPN, a judge has ruled that the plaintiffs in the litigation shall have access to information regarding the financial worth of Commissioner Roger Goodell and five NFL owners: Rams owner Stan Kroenke, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Giants owner John Mara, and former Panthers owner Jerry Richardson.

The outcome has significance in large part because really rich people never want to be forced to disclose details about what they have. For a judge to tell six of the wealthiest men in America that they must turn over that information represents the kind of slap in the face that folks holding that kind of power and money rarely if ever experience.

The reason for the conclusion has significance as well. The judge, who made the ruling from the bench (which means the evidence pointing to it was clear), concluded that clear and convincing proof exists to support a finding that those individuals operated in a fraudulent manner. As to the rest of the owners, St. Louis has 10 days to present evidence supporting that they should be forced to surrender their financial information as well.

The financial information has relevance as to the question of punitive damages. If a jury ultimately decides that the NFL and one or more owners operated in a way that justifies an award over and above the money actually lost by the St. Louis plaintiffs because of the move, the financial worth of the defendant becomes critical to determining proper punishment. The more money someone has, the greater the award needed to punish those individuals for engaging in bad behavior and deterring others in the future from conducting themselves in a similar manner.

So, in other words, the judge is satisfied that enough evidence exists as to the individuals listed above for a reasonable jury to conclude that an award of punitive damages should be entered against them. That conclusion alone suggests that plenty of evidence exists to support that someone from the NFL and/or one of its teams said or did something that he shouldn’t have said or done in connection with the relocation of the Rams.

Part of the evidence includes a phone call from 2013 between Kroenke, Goodell, Mara, and Steelers owner Art Rooney (it’s unclear based on Karraker’s tweets whether Rooney is required to surrender his financial information at this point). During the conversation, Kroenke said, “I’m going to buy two parcels of land and build a stadium in L.A.,” and that he’s trying very hard to stay under the radar screen and keep it hidden. Goodell said, “We will respect your confidentiality.”

Rams COO Kevin Demoff later gave Goodell talking points regarding the land purchase for his pre-Super Bowl press conference in 2014. Here’s part of what he said, at a time when Goodell already knew that Kroenke intended to build a stadium on the land he had purchased:“Stan is a very successful developer. He has billions of dollars of projects that are going on around the country in real estate development. So I think instead of overreacting, we should make sure we do what’s necessary to continue to support the team locally as the fans have done in St. Louis. And make sure we do whatever we can to make sure that team is successful in the St. Louis market. . . . There are no plans to my knowledge of a stadium development.” (Emphasis added.)

Also, Jones admitted during his deposition in the case that he urged Kroenke to move the Rams. One day after the vote approving the move happened, the Rams signed a contract with Legends Hospitality (partially owned by Jones) to sell PSLs and luxury suites.

Karraker’s tweets have one other fascinating tidbit, in light of prior claims made by the NFL in the litigation. But since it’s sort of slow and because I’d like to keep these blurbs short, I’ll do a separate item on it a little later.

[Futureshock]

Commissioner’s testimony on NFL relocation policy creates another problem for NFL in Rams case

Posted by Mike Florio on July 12, 2021, 8:57 PM EDT

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Earlier, we pointed out Commissioner Roger Goodell and several owners must surrender their personal financial information as part of the lawsuit regarding the relocation of the Rams. That decision, and the reasons for it, are not good for the NFL.

Also not good for the NFL is the fact that, at a time when the league hopes to get the case thrown out of court based on the argument that its relocation policy is voluntary, the plaintiffs in the relocation litigation introduced testimony from Goodell that clearly and directly contradicts the league’s position.

Last month, the league filed a motion for summary judgment based in part on the argument that the relocation policy represents a voluntary set of guidelines. On Monday (via Randy Karraker of 101 ESPN), the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit pointed out that Commissioner Roger Goodell has testified otherwise.

Via Karraker, the lawyers representing the plaintiffs asked Goodell if the relocation policy is “mandatory.” Goodell said in response, “Counselor, it says right here” that they are.

From the perspective of a corporate defendant, civil cases routinely get over-lawyered. The firm charging by the hour for the efforts of the entire team of lawyers assigned to the case have no incentive to be brief or incisive. Also, the fact that they’ll receive a passive-aggressive “did you argue this?” and “did you argue that?” grilling from colleagues at their law firms provides another reason to argue anything and everything that can be argued.

That said, it’s important that the arguments made find some plausible support in the facts. If the NFL claims the relocation policy is voluntary and the Commissioner of the NFL has admitted under oath that it’s not, that’s a problem. A big problem. The kind of problem that undermines the credibility of every claim the NFL is making in the case.

Indeed, if the league can’t be taken at its word on such a basic and clear question, what if anything that it says in that case can be believed?

[Futureshock]

Pre-1982 sack stats still unofficial, but now widely available

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2021, 5:01 PM EDT

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When Michael Strahan recorded his final sack of 2001 for a record-setting 22.5 sacks on the season, it was a controversial moment in NFL history because Brett Favre took a dive to give Strahan the record. But it should have been controversial for another reason: If the NFL had practiced better statistical record keeping, Strahan’s record wouldn’t have been a record at all.

The NFL has only counted sacks as an individual statistic for defensive players since 1982, meaning many of the great pass rushers of NFL history don’t have their achievements in the official record books. But unofficially, those achievements are now being recognized and are widely available to football fans.

Several football researchers have been compiling sack statistics from before 1982, using game books, play-by-play logs and other sources, and the statistical website Pro-Football-Reference.com has now collected them all in one place. Pro Football Reference now estimates it has 99 percent of the sacks from the 1970 AFL-NFL merger through the 1981 season accounted for, as well as about 95 percent of sacks in both the AFL and NFL from 1966 to 1969, and about 80 percent of sacks from 1961 to 1965. (For 1960 and earlier, it’s harder to track sacks reliably.)

This represents a watershed moment for the kinds of football fans and researchers who obsess over statistics and want to know how many sacks Deacon Jones had (173.5), or who led the league in sacks in 1979 (Jack Youngblood). And it turns out that Strahan, when he recorded 22.5 sacks in 2001, fell just short of the record. The actual record was set by Lions rookie Al “Bubba” Baker in 1978, when he recorded 23 sacks.

Baker should be glad that pre-1982 sacks are now easily available. And so should every football fan.

[Futureshock]

Rest In Heaven Mr. Wonderful...


Paul Orndorff, Saints draft pick turned wrestling star, dies at 71

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2021, 3:28 PM EDT

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Paul Orndorff, a running back who had a short career in the NFL and a much longer career in professional wrestling, has died at the age of 71.

At the University of Tampa, Orndorff scored 21 career touchdowns and gained more than 2,000 all-purpose yards. Although Tampa no longer has a football program, it was a hotbed of talent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and several of Orndorff’s teammates were drafted. Orndorff himself went to the Saints in the 12th round of the 1973 NFL draft.

But Orndorff never got on the field with the Saints, or with the Chiefs, who also gave him a brief shot in the NFL. He briefly played in the World Football League, but his pro football career never really took off.

After trading the gridiron for the squared circle, however, Orndorff thrived. He had success in the 1970s and early 1980s with Mid-South Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance, and in 1983 he signed with the World Wrestling Federation.

In the WWF, Orndorff got the nickname “Mr. Wonderful” and often shared the ring with Hulk Hogan, both as his tag team partner and, after a storyline that saw Orndorff betray Hogan, as his opponent for the WWF heavyweight championship. The first WrestleMania saw Orndorff in the main event, teaming with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper against Hogan and Mr. T. A later steel cage match between Orndorff and Hogan would become one of the WWF’s most-watched matches on television.

Although his football career was short, millions of fans will remember Orndorff for his post-football career.

[Futureshock]

DANIEL SNYDERO, WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM
Washington Football Team President Jason Wright ruled out the 'Warriors' as an option for a new nickname and logo.


"We made it a priority to run an inclusive process to listen to all voices," Wright wrote in a briefing via the team's website. "This engagement demonstrated to us a consensus that moving forward with no ties to Native American imagery is the right path. Feedback from across communities we engaged clearly revealed deep-seated discomfort around Warriors, with the clear acknowledgment that it too closely aligns with Native American themes. To that end, we will choose an identity that unequivocally departs from any use of or approximate linkage to Native American imagery." Nonetheless, the organization is reportedly "down to a short list of final names" that will eventually be revealed once a single moniker is settled on.

... See More
SOURCE: John Keim on Twitter
Jul 12, 2021, 4:37 PM

[Futureshock]

CALEB FARLEYDB, TENNESSEE TITANS


Titans.com's Jim Wyatt reports that it is "unclear" when first-round CB Caleb Farley (back) will return to the field.


"When will he be out there?" Wyatt writes. "Right now, it's unclear. I don't expect him to be out there for Day One of training camp. I do expect him to be out there at some point in camp, however. It just depends on how his rehab continues to go. I hear he's making good progress." Farley, the No. 22 overall pick this year, opted out of the 2020 season for Virginia Tech and missed the school's pro day following back surgery; neither which deterred Tennessee from selecting the lengthy 22-year-old (6'2/207) in the mid-first round. If healthy for Week 1, Farley is projected to start across from Janoris Jenkins in base defense.

SOURCE: Titans.com
Jul 12, 2021, 2:56 PM

[Forsh]

Rest In Heaven Mr. Wonderful...


Paul Orndorff, Saints draft pick turned wrestling star, dies at 71

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2021, 3:28 PM EDT

Getty Images

Paul Orndorff, a running back who had a short career in the NFL and a much longer career in professional wrestling, has died at the age of 71.

At the University of Tampa, Orndorff scored 21 career touchdowns and gained more than 2,000 all-purpose yards. Although Tampa no longer has a football program, it was a hotbed of talent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and several of Orndorff’s teammates were drafted. Orndorff himself went to the Saints in the 12th round of the 1973 NFL draft.

But Orndorff never got on the field with the Saints, or with the Chiefs, who also gave him a brief shot in the NFL. He briefly played in the World Football League, but his pro football career never really took off.

After trading the gridiron for the squared circle, however, Orndorff thrived. He had success in the 1970s and early 1980s with Mid-South Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance, and in 1983 he signed with the World Wrestling Federation.

In the WWF, Orndorff got the nickname “Mr. Wonderful” and often shared the ring with Hulk Hogan, both as his tag team partner and, after a storyline that saw Orndorff betray Hogan, as his opponent for the WWF heavyweight championship. The first WrestleMania saw Orndorff in the main event, teaming with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper against Hogan and Mr. T. A later steel cage match between Orndorff and Hogan would become one of the WWF’s most-watched matches on television.

Although his football career was short, millions of fans will remember Orndorff for his post-football career.

One of my favorites when I first started watching wrestling. Later on, in the 90's, the best thing he would do was his exaggerated acting elbow drop. RIP

[Forsh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWrZol9bk8g

Skip to 4:45 ... classic

[Futureshock]

[froot loops]

Disco must have been on the juice back then.

[Forsh]

Disco must have been on the juice back then.

Oh for sure

[JGSpartan]

Lol, 10/10 on the sell.

[Dan V]

Aqib coming back for more announcing? Futuresock that was the single funnest moment of 2020 for me, listening to him call the skins lions game last year. Know what I’m saying’ man?