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NFL 2015 Week 8 |OT| - A Fraud Knows What He Likes

D

Dega

Eeny Meenie Penis
People so nosy. Some house got blown down near here and then some trailer houses too that made it on the news. I went to the kolache place near there and they ran out of kolaches cause they said so many people been coming around to gawk at those blown down homes.



I got a cinnamon roll.
 
Goro Majima

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
R

RBH

Member
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Joey Seimas, an air-traffic controller who made the three-hour drive from Fresno, stood at a lectern Thursday night in the elegant and cavernous Paramount Theater. On stage sat four of the NFL's top executives, in their Park Avenue business attire, listening intently to every word.

Seimas wore his Sunday best — the jersey of his beloved Oakland Raiders, his hair and face painted silver, and bulky shoulder pads adorned with upright bullets that served as spikes.

"I'm pleading with you guys and the NFL owners," said Seimas, who goes by the nickname Maniac. "This is our team. We have spent years fixing it. It was messed up. They came back and we repaired the damage, not fully, but everybody loves coming to the Raider games now. We sell out even when we don't win any games."

With the Raiders, the San Diego Chargers and the St. Louis Rams eyeing a relocation to Los Angeles, the NFL took the unprecedented step this week of holding public hearings in those cities to give fans the chance to voice concerns and frustrations, and show support of the teams.

The three-hour meetings, held on consecutive nights in downtown theaters, were more listening sessions for the NFL than back-and-forth exchanges with fans, who registered online for free passes to the events. The league also streamed the hearings online.

"What I got from the crowd was the passion and emotion," said Eric Grubman, the NFL executive vice president who arranged the hearings. "There were a couple of ideas to think about. But this is not the time to negotiate. We weren't trying to negotiate with the crowd. What we were trying to do was give them a voice, and be able to carry that voice back, and that happened pretty effectively.

"For them, I think it was very cathartic, and you heard that in their voices in three cities."

Onstage with Grubman were Cynthia Hogan, senior vice president of public policy; Chris Hardart, vice president of corporate development; and league attorney Jay Bauman.

Attendance numbers are a point of contention because some fans believe those could influence NFL owners. After the second night, the league reported there were 800 attendees in St. Louis and 450 in San Diego, and that no one had been turned away at the door.

The report angered fans in St. Louis who argued there were closer to 1,500 people at the Peabody Opera House for their hearing. Unable to retroactively check the St. Louis number, reporters counted by hand in San Diego and the NFL's estimate checked out. A hand count of the attendance in Oakland was 382, and the league said about 60 more trickled in during the meeting.

How much sway these meetings have with the league's owners is open to debate. They are trying to decide whether to give the green light to move to Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who is pursuing a stadium on the old Hollywood Park site in Inglewood, or the combination of Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis, who are jointly backing a competing concept in Carson.

If all continues on its current track — and little has gone according to plan in this 20-year saga of the NFL's returning to L.A. — the owners will be prepared to cast a vote on a solution by mid-January. It would require a three-quarters majority of 32 votes to pass, but it's expected the league will have quietly negotiated a decision with owners before any vote is taken.

Many of the people who attended the hearings believe they were a mere academic exercise, an exit interview of sorts, while others were hoping a strong showing could tip the scales in favor of a city trying to keep its team.

Grubman said he believes NFL owners were paying attention.

"I've gotten emails from owners, including owners that are on the [L.A.] committee, just reflecting the fact that they watched part of it," he said. "We've had requests for the material to be presented in a way that makes it easy for them to see it. We've had requests from owners for the comments to be summarized. We've had questions from the commissioner on ways that it could be put together. So I have lots of evidence that people are watching."

There were unique aspects to each of the events.

The one in St. Louis felt at times like a courtroom, with several speakers questioning Grubman and looking to pin him down on whether Kroenke had satisfied the relocation guidelines and exhausted all stadium solutions there. The proceeding was orderly but passionate, with attendees shushing the occasional catcalls so they could hear every word.

The NFL wasn't sure what to expect, so security was ramped up for the first hearing — including metal detectors and an explosives-sniffing dog — but it was increasingly relaxed the next two nights.

In San Diego, the hearing felt more like sitting in the stands for a game. Fans cheered, chanted "No way L-A!" and almost booed Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani off the stage when he made his welcoming comments.

Oakland was unique in that Mark Davis attended, the only owner to do so, and received a standing ovation when he greeted the crowd to kick off the event. He later stood at the lectern and said he was doing everything he could to keep the team in the market, and stuck around afterward for photos with many of the fans.

In each of the cities, the speakers were variously angry, nostalgic and sometimes even tearful. Most were applauded and supported by the crowd.

"Standing here feels like speaking for an innocent defendant in the sentencing segment of a trial," a woman at the St. Louis hearing told the league representatives. "The St. Louis Rams fans are the defendant, and we've done nothing to have this death threat hanging over our heads since January."

The NFL executives were bleary-eyed after nine hours of hearings in three nights.

"To hear from these people how much these teams mean to them is pretty unbelievable," Hogan said. "And it's pretty moving. From our perspective that's great, that's what we're trying to create. But obviously if you're a fan who thinks your team could move, that threat of loss is palpable."

Even with that ominous possibility in the air, there was humor. That was unquestionably the case with one dedicated Raiders fan who was mindful of the long line of speakers behind him at the lectern.

"I'll try to keep things quick; I know a lot of people want to talk," he said. "Plus, my wife's been waiting outside in the car for two and a half hours."
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http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-nfl-la-town-meetings-20151031-story.html
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Dega said:
Coffee not worth it man.
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I blame McDonald's. That was in the parking lot. I got some awkward 14 year old girl first job type not be able to tell me they switched to lunch. Instead her fat as fuck manager was behind me in line yelling at her to change the board in front of me because he can't ring out that 11am Double Quarter Pounder himself.
 
R

RBH

Member
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On Thursday, Reddit user "BardSTL" put up a post about how they mysteriously received Rams-Lions tickets in the mail. It wasn't two or three tickets, it was a whole stack's worth of tickets.

This is what they wrote:

"Rams season ticket holder here. I have 3 tickets in the top bowl for the St Louis Rams. As I checked my mail today I noticed a large priority mail envelope addressed to me from the Rams front office. When I opened it there were about $25,000 in tickets to one game later this season. A few hundred of them. Good seats. There was no letter of explanation or receipt, only my name on the address line and my account number on the ticket... really weird right?"
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http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/10/29/9637618/nfl-reddit-rams-25000-dollars-tickets-mystery
 
D

Dragon

Banned
CrocMother said:
I kind of get your reputation now. That is crazy I've never heard of that before.
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Hey they're in different conferences now no biggie!

Squicken is a fan of the game of football. More so than most here besides probably LJ and Future. We give him shit because we like him!
 
S

squicken

Member
CrocMother said:
I kind of get your reputation now. That is crazy I've never heard of that before.
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My rep is just for the NFL. I've never wavered from the Rockets and boreball I've always just been casual. For CFB, I grew up a Sooners fan and went to A&M. Nothing too scandalous there
 
C

CrocMother

Banned
squicken said:
My rep is just for the NFL. I've never wavered from the Rockets and boreball I've always just been casual. For CFB, I grew up a Sooners fan and went to A&M. Nothing too scandalous there
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That makes sense. It just is hard for me to swallow initially because I grew up around a lot of UT fans that had such an intense hatred for both. The idea of someone being able to like two different schools from the old Big 12 never occurred to me.
 
S

squicken

Member
CrocMother said:
That makes sense. It just is hard for me to swallow initially because I grew up around a lot of UT fans that had such an intense hatred for both. The idea of someone being able to like two different schools from the old Big 12 never occurred to me.
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It does if you are old enough to remember Oklahoma as a Big 8 team and A&M and a SWC team!

Condolences on growing up around Longhorns fans btw
 
C

CrocMother

Banned
squicken said:
It does if you are old enough to remember Oklahoma as a Big 8 team and A&M and a SWC team!

Condolences on growing up around Longhorns fans btw
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I am not that old. UT fans are unavoidable in Texas, my family were actually all TCU though.

My, how the tables have turned.
 
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