Sports myths

[cern]

Unless you are Tom Brady and your wife makes more $$$ than you.
Plus the team funnels money to you in other ways, like contracting your company for services to circumvent the cap.

can you give one provable example of that last sentence? that is something the league office would watch like a hawk.

 

[thunderpimp91]

Unless you are Tom Brady and your wife makes more $$$ than you.
Plus the team funnels money to you in other ways, like contracting your company for services to circumvent the cap.

Agree 100%, but from a fan perspective the only discount i really care about is in relation to the cap. I could care less how much jerry has to spend overall, he has plenty of cash to spend.

 

[thunderpimp91]

True about the fans, but that will not convince me, GB and Pittsburgh get favored in calls and Dallas does not. You seen it.
Though I was very surprised Pittsburgh did not get any cals on that last drive Monday night.

Haha well i wont argue too bad. I've certainly been frustrated at times and gone down that conspiracy tunnel myself...Dez caught it!

 

[StuckMojo]

I would look exclusively for quarterbacks who are married to supermodels who make more than them.

Then maybe they would take less salary and win all the time.

That's a big part of the "genius" up there in NE.

That's what Jerry figured he could coax Dak into lol.

Wasn’t Dak offered like $110 million guaranteed?

 

[jazzcat22]

can you give one provable example of that last sentence? that is something the league office would watch like a hawk.

The proof is right in front of you. NE been getting away with crap for years. Slap on the wrist for all the did get caught doing.

 

[jazzcat22]

Agree 100%, but from a fan perspective the only discount i really care about is in relation to the cap. I could care less how much jerry has to spend overall, he has plenty of cash to spend.

Exactly. Not my money, so not concerned.
Fans get too wrapped up in...well can't afford this player or that player. That itself is a myth.

So the next MYTH
Teams can't afford surrounding talent of a high paid QB and other players.
The cap works itself out, teams, if managed well, can find ways and can overcome this. Which is also where coaching comes in.
Fans act as if it is hurting their own bank account.

 

[thunderpimp91]

can you give one provable example of that last sentence? that is something the league office would watch like a hawk.

Jaylon Smith has promoted his eye wear company on DC.com multiple times, and gets multiple plugs that way. Thats a pretty minor example, but youll see teams switch sponsors or vendors often after a player signs a huge endorsement deal. For example several years ago when Andy Dalton signed his extension with the Bengals they actually switched from selling coke to pepsi in the stadium. Any coincidence that Andy had a deal with Pepsi at the time?

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

@Bobhaze.

Romo was a coordinator on the field, so Garrett let him in on game planning. Which means he has experience, IMO.

 

[CouchCoach]

The greatest sports broadcast myth is just because they were a player makes them an expert on the game. They were trained in one specific area of the sport. And most of those that are not ex players are not experts. People like Bayless, Smith and Cowerd are there to create controversy and water cooler talk.

I see these videos posted either supporting a poster's claim or pissing them off and wonder why in the hell does anyone, including family members, watch this crap?

And in our little world of critiquing we seem to boil everything down to one little thing, this coach or that player. It's never one little thing. We need to fill that pot back up with all the little things, all of the dominoes that can fall for a sports team.

Bullet, I will say this, the whining about the calls and refs is nothing new. I've been around these fans for many many years and there's is nothing harder for some Cowboys fans to admit that the other team was just better. With the Steelers SB wins, I still get "that was on Swann, not Barnes" or "Jackie Smith cost us that game" and what some have done is boil the pot down to one play and the game only works like that if that is the last play of the game.

 

[Bobhaze]

Because you know the name, XX free agent could make our team better....it’s incredible every year how many bad fas are taalked about here mostly because people know the name....

Big names in FA do not always equate to team help. They do occasionally of course. But I read an article a couple years back that said something like only about 25% of high priced FAs ever really work out for the teams that sign them.

 

[cern]

The proof is right in front of you. NE been getting away with crap for years. Slap on the wrist for all the did get caught doing.

brady did promote himself and his cook book and personal training while a patriot. but belichick brought an end to it. that started tom's desire to leave the team.

 

[CouchCoach]

The proof is right in front of you. NE been getting away with crap for years. Slap on the wrist for all the did get caught doing.

He was fined a hell of a lot of money and forfeited draft picks, it wasn't a slap on the wrist.

 

[Bobhaze]

The greatest sports broadcast myth is just because they were a player makes them an expert on the game. They were trained in one specific area of the sport. And most of those that are not ex players are not experts. People like Bayless, Smith and Cowerd are there to create controversy and water cooler talk.

I see these videos posted either supporting a poster's claim or pissing them off and wonder why in the hell does anyone, including family members, watch this crap?

And in our little world of critiquing we seem to boil everything down to one little thing, this coach or that player. It's never one little thing. We need to fill that pot back up with all the little things, all of the dominoes that can fall for a sports team.

Bullet, I will say this, the whining about the calls and refs is nothing new. I've been around these fans for many many years and there's is nothing harder for some Cowboys fans to admit that the other team was just better. With the Steelers SB wins, I still get "that was on Swann, not Barnes" or "Jackie Smith cost us that game" and what some have done is boil the pot down to one play and the game only works like that if that is the last play of the game.

Coach, I still have nightmares about the Benny Barnes call in SB XIII. Some of us will never forget the name of one Fred Sweargingen, who called PI on Barnes despite being 15 yards further away than the back judge who was right on the play and called incomplete.

Like you, I can neither understand nor stomach Skip Useless or most of the other sports opinion jockeys who 90%of the time don’t even believe what they’re saying. I would rather watch a bowling tournament than listen to Skip wax on about topics he knows nothing about. I would pay cash money to see Troy Aikman get Skip in a boxing ring for 30 seconds. Skip is the lowest of the sports low.

 

[cern]

Jaylon Smith has promoted his eye wear company on DC.com multiple times, and gets multiple plugs that way. Thats a pretty minor example, but youll see teams switch sponsors or vendors often after a player signs a huge endorsement deal. For example several years ago when Andy Dalton signed his extension with the Bengals they actually switched from selling coke to pepsi in the stadium. Any coincidence that Andy had a deal with Pepsi at the time?

but does he pay for the advertising or is it given to him gratis. i suspect he pays for it. jerry made pepsi the official drink of the dallas cowboys after buying the team even though the league backed coke as the official drink of the nfl. ergo, i'd say it was coincidence.

 

[Bobhaze]

@Bobhaze.

Romo was a coordinator on the field, so Garrett let him in on game planning. Which means he has experience, IMO.

Fair point Ozzy, but the underrated part about being a coordinator is the organization required in working effectively with other coaches and the actual grueling work that goes into game prep. I’m not saying Romo couldn’t be a good OC, I just don’t think he’s ready for it yet.

 

[tyke1doe]

One of the definitions of a myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. We fans are all at least occasionally guilty of believing in sports myths- things that are based more on hope than reality for things we deeply want to believe. Sports myths often blind us as fans to sports reality.

Here are some commonly held fan sports myths we often see:

• Popular former players with no coaching experience can immediately become an offensive or defensive coordinator or even head coach. Example: Tony Romo’s good work as a TV analyst doesn’t mean he is immediately qualified to be an offensive coordinator with zero coaching experience. Being an effective coordinator in the NFL is much harder than it looks. It’s requires at least some prior coaching experience.

• “Team friendly” contracts for players we want to see stay in Dallas for less money than they could get on the market. Examples: Dak Prescott should forego what the market says a QB is worth and settle for less money to help the team. Or any other Cowboys veteran who is about to need a new contract. Thinking a player should sacrifice their market value to stay with the home team is unfair to the players whose ability to make top sports dollars is extremely brief.

• Great players can mentor or teach younger players how to be like them. Athletic greatness is very difficult to teach at this level. And great players rarely make great coaches. Many great coaches on the other hand were often not themselves among the greatest players. Probably because they had to work harder at being successful on the field, they are better at teaching that than those whose greatness was easier.

• The refs and the rest of the NFL are out to get us every week as a part of a grand conspiracy- I will just leave it at that. It still amazes me how many people believe this. Sure we get bad calls. But bad calls are pretty much “equal opportunity” in the NFL.

What are some other sports myths commonly held?

I like your points three and four. Being a baseball umpire on the little league level, I have great respect for referees. The game moves so fast, you don't have time to entertain bias.

 

[CouchCoach]

Big names in FA do not always equate to team help. They do occasionally of course. But I read an article a couple years back that said something like only about 25% of high priced FAs ever really work out for the teams that sign them.

When FA first came into being in the NFL, most thought that could fix a bad draft and would make the draft less important and it had the exact reverse effect of that.

Teams get seduced by names without taking into consideration what kind of team they are playing on and will they fit their team. The Dream Team ended up being a nightmare for the coaching staff. Alvin Harper gets signed as a WR1 and never was, Larry Brown parlays 2 SB picks into a huge deal and he didn't even have that good a season. But he had a name.

I think part of this is perception. If you were an Eagles fan when they pulled the Dream Team deal, happy or sad? The fact that it blew up doesn't change the fact that their team tried. These name players get the fans jazzed and give them hope and cuts management some slack for while. I think these FO's all play the risk game better than we think. They don't share with us what they really think, they just know they need to do something to keep the fanbase. And they know they have to spend that money on someone and that doesn't get as much attention as it should. The value of a player is directly proportionate to the amount of cap space the team needs to use up to stay within the CBA guidelines.

Now, none of that applies to the Cowboys because this fanbase will stand for anything. There's a set of rules for the other 31 teams and then there are the Cowboys Rules and there are no others like them in any sport. The Cowboys will draw the most attention and make the most money regardless of what they do on the field and while that flexed game made me giddy, I realize that was a one off.

 

[tyke1doe]

Good post OP!

One I might also add is popular or HOF players making being a good pregame analyst. Two examples that stand out are Joe Montana and Emmitt Smith.

BTW: Notice how rare great player and coach are used in the same sentence.

Emmitt Smith was laughably awful.

Can a leopard change its stripes.

He'll never live that one down.

 

[CouchCoach]

Fair point Ozzy, but the underrated part about being a coordinator is the organization required in working effectively with other coaches and the actual grueling work that goes into game prep. I’m not saying Romo couldn’t be a good OC, I just don’t think he’s ready for it yet.

17M a year to sit up there in the booth with Mr. Boring assures Romo that he will never work the other booth or sideline.

Do his admirers realize he is privy to the sets the teams use prior to doing the games? And if they've noticed, he doesn't try and call all the plays ahead of time like he first did because they told him he wouldn't be welcome at practice.

I think he's good at what he does except that he has a crummy broadcaster's voice and the best thing about no fans is that he doesn't get buried in the ambient noise. But then he's getting 17M a year to do that, so what do I know? Hell, half the time I turn them off and have music as a background. Anything that needs that much talk isn't worth listening to and I am tired of guy #1 says something and guy #2 has to repeat it and MNF is flat out unlistenable.

 

[CouchCoach]

Emmitt Smith was laughably awful.

Can a leopard change its stripes.

He'll never live that one down.

Yep, that was really bad. The net actually got letters from school teachers asking them to teach him proper grammar and this was after he want back to FL to get his degree. His major was obviously not in English.