2021 Miscellaneous NFL News

[nodakfan17]

Bucs lose 34-24 to the Rams.

 

[sarcasm]It’s not so easy when your defense gives up 30+ points, is it, Tom?[/sarcasm]

[PinaMadness]

Blake Martinez done for the season with an ACL.

[MrTPlush]

Eagles were faced with a 3 and 24 with a little under 2 minutes in the half. McCarthy opted not to use one of his timeouts. When the Eagles predictably didn’t make the first down he, again, just decided not to call a timeout. He let the Eagles just milk the clock.

 

Could have had a solid 90 seconds for a drive and he gets the ball back with 11 seconds.

Edited September 28, 2021 by MrTPlush

[homer]

Eagles were faced with a 3 and 24 with a little under 2 minutes in the half. McCarthy opted not to use one of his timeouts. When the Phillies predictably didn’t make the first down he, again, just decided not to call a timeout. He let the Eagles just milk the clock.

 

Could have had a solid 90 seconds for a drive and he gets the ball back with 11 seconds.

 

the ref even asked him if he wanted one. He said no.

 

[DuWayne Steurer]

The best part is he's going to have an answer for why he didn't want to get more points in his post game presser.

[stoutdude04]

To be fair to MM...the 2nd one that he didnt take he 'may' have thought they might go for it on 4th. Not that it was a good idea, but perhaps that was his thought.

[PinaMadness]

The Bears might be moving out of Soldier Field.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32304556/chicago-bears-sign-purchase-agreement-churchill-downs-inc-326-acre-arlington-park-property

[nate82]

The Bears might be moving out of Soldier Field.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32304556/chicago-bears-sign-purchase-agreement-churchill-downs-inc-326-acre-arlington-park-property

 

The Bears really don't have a deterrent from getting out of that horrible stadium. Hopefully the city doesn't cave in and help them build a new stadium. Or the suburb, I think that is a suburb of Chicago, that they bought the land from doesn't subsidize a new stadium either.

[homer]

They tried this back in the 70s I think and the mayor of Chicago at that time sued to make them change their name to Arlington Heights Bears or whatever suburb it was.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Spent close to 3/4 billion dollars not quite 20 years ago to upgrade/update Soldier Field, and now they want out of it. I know it's used for more than Football, but yikes.

[Sixtofan]

In case anyone hasn’t ever been there - Soldier Field is awful. They really did a “half” job when they remodeled it.

[nate82]

Spent close to 3/4 billion dollars not quite 20 years ago to upgrade/update Soldier Field, and now they want out of it. I know it's used for more than Football, but yikes.

 

That was a waste of 3/4 billion dollars. Even after the renovations that thing is a dump of a stadium. Other than the lake for the TV scenery I can't think of a single thing that is good about that stadium. It has to be one of the worst stadiums to actually watch a sporting event, I would take the Metrodome over Soldier Field any day.

[nodakfan17]

More of a random NFL thought: Russell Wilson has a shot at breaking into the Top 5 in a lot of major career categories (completions, yards, TD passes, etc.) because he has started EVERY game of his NFL career. 147 out 147, including 16 as a rookie.

[MrTPlush]

That location is very Lambeau-like. Houses across the street and neighborhoods surround it. Not far from the Schaumburg mall area. Not sure what exactly they purchased, but the horse track area was not overly big, not sure how parking is going to work at that location. There really are not any nearby parking areas, so whatever parking there is will be on site.

[Fear The Chorizo]

That location is very Lambeau-like. Houses across the street and neighborhoods surround it. Not far from the Schaumburg mall area. Not sure what exactly they purchased, but the horse track area was not overly big, not sure how parking is going to work at that location. There really are not any nearby parking areas, so whatever parking there is will be on site.

 

In addition to the horse track area itself, that facility has a pretty large practice grounds and stables, too. Not to mention a bunch of crummy apartment complexes begging to be bought up and torn down...all in all they could easily pick up 400 plus acres in that area. Edit: article said the purchase would be 325 acres - thats plenty of space .

 

Fwiw, the Lambeau field block is about 50 acres....if they were dead serious its actually a really good spot

[MrTPlush]

That location is very Lambeau-like. Houses across the street and neighborhoods surround it. Not far from the Schaumburg mall area. Not sure what exactly they purchased, but the horse track area was not overly big, not sure how parking is going to work at that location. There really are not any nearby parking areas, so whatever parking there is will be on site.

 

In addition to the horse track area itself, that facility has a pretty large practice grounds and stables, too. Not to mention a bunch of crummy apartment complexes begging to be bought up and torn down...all in all they could easily pick up 400 plus acres in that area. Edit: article said the purchase would be 325 acres - thats plenty of space .

 

Fwiw, the Lambeau field block is about 50 acres....if they were dead serious its actually a really good spot

 

Thanks, I kinda figured they would gobble up the entire area between the highway and main roads. FWIW that is almost exactly 450 acres. I’m surprised it is actually that big of an area. For reference, Miller Park with its preferred parking area plus the general parking across the river to the east is only 130ish acres.

[homer]

The Metra train drops you off pretty much right at the front door too. They should have never renovated Solider in the first place. They had other options in the city that would have worked much better.

[nodakfan17]

Does anyone read ‘Ask Vic?’ It’s an NFL Q&A column by a retired Packers’ media employee who also worked for the Jaguars and covered the Steelers earlier in his career. He predicts the Packers will eventually go to a domed stadium because the year-round entertainment potential outside of 10-12 football games is too important for a team / city to pass up:

 

https://www.askvic.us/

[adambr2]

Does anyone read ‘Ask Vic?’ It’s an NFL Q&A column by a retired Packers’ media employee who also worked for the Jaguars and covered the Steelers earlier in his career. He predicts the Packers will eventually go to a domed stadium because the year-round entertainment potential outside of 10-12 football games is too important for a team / city to pass up:

 

https://www.askvic.us/

 

I forgot about that guy. He makes Tom Haudricourt look personable.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Does anyone read ‘Ask Vic?’ It’s an NFL Q&A column by a retired Packers’ media employee who also worked for the Jaguars and covered the Steelers earlier in his career. He predicts the Packers will eventually go to a domed stadium because the year-round entertainment potential outside of 10-12 football games is too important for a team / city to pass up:

 

https://www.askvic.us/

 

Not a chance. The Packers have built a whole brand around the "Frozen Tundra". There is no way they sacrifice that. Zero chance of building a dome in Green Bay.

[MrTPlush]

Does anyone read ‘Ask Vic?’ It’s an NFL Q&A column by a retired Packers’ media employee who also worked for the Jaguars and covered the Steelers earlier in his career. He predicts the Packers will eventually go to a domed stadium because the year-round entertainment potential outside of 10-12 football games is too important for a team / city to pass up:

 

https://www.askvic.us/

 

Yah, I don't agree with him. Comparing what other teams do to the Packers is misleading. Green Bay is tiny with a tiny metro. The Final Four would never be hosted here or any other massive event like that. Chicago/Bears can probably pull major events like that. What exactly is a football stadium sized event that is going to host it in Green Bay, WI instead of Minneapolis/Milwaukee/Chicago? Literally the most attractive thing about Green Bay and the Packers is their historical stadium.

 

Will Lambeau be replaced someday? I mean, it would not shock me. I am sure any replacement would be a dome, but that is because the trash weather. Especially that weather during games isn't a great thing to attract talent. I am sure they would think of the potential for some use outside of Packers football...but the potential just isn't that great due to the small metro area. I really doubt they are drooling over the thought of events unrelated to the Packers. The biggest thing I can even imagine is like a monster truck thing or something. Also isn't like the capacity is terrible like Soldier Field. Lambeau is within a few thousand of #1 in the league.

 

The lose of tourism etc. from Lambeau Field has got to outpace whatever minor events a domed stadium would bring. People literally drive hundreds to thousands of miles to see Lambeau in the offseason.

[Fear The Chorizo]

The Metra train drops you off pretty much right at the front door too. They should have never renovated Solider in the first place. They had other options in the city that would have worked much better.

 

I always enjoyed going to Arlington Park when I lived in the north burbs of Chicago....The Arlington Million was a fun horseracing day without having to drive far at all, and the track was a great part of my bachelor party - if the Bears go through with this, it'll be a shame that property gets turned into something that presents an unwatchable product for me, lol.

 

There would need to be alot of infrastructure upgrades to properly develop that area - might be the reason to force the full 4 lane extension of highway 53 there...right now it just kind of abruptly dead ends a bit to the north. My guess is the team and the City of Chicago find a way to screw up what would be a great longterm opportunity, because that's what they do.

[MrTPlush]

What have been the plans Chicago has even brought up? I suppose they could just bulldoze Soldier Field and build on top of it...but then you have to play elsewhere for quite a few years.

[Fear The Chorizo]

What have been the plans Chicago has even brought up? I suppose they could just bulldoze Soldier Field and build on top of it...but then you have to play elsewhere for quite a few years.

 

The Bears played in Wrigley quite awhile until the 1970s when they moved into soldier field....and there was already discussion about renovations starting in the late 1970s that involved threats to move to the burbs or temporarily playing at Notre Dame. When they were exploring soldier field renovations in the 1990s, I think they had kicked the tires on a large development site in Gary, IN and there were other plans laid out to the Park District to build a new stadium somewhere else along the lakefront/Northerly Island that would have given them more room to build a larger capacity stadium - that all got shot down and they opted to stick a spaceship inside the existing footprint of the soldier field structure, which drastically limited the stadium capacity and overall creature comforts inside it. That renovation was panned by basically everyone even before it was completed.

 

Most of the time it was the Bears bringing up options to Chicago/Park District about relocating to a different part of the lakefront, and Chicago's response has consistently been "we have soldier field for you already in place"

[nodakfan17]

I forgot about that guy. He makes Tom Haudricourt look personable.

Vic can be a little salty, but I like his honest, concise writing style. I’ve been reading his column since 2013. First on Packers.com and now on his own domain.