NFL: Peyton retiring and RGIII being released

[Jay]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000641561/article/broncos-quarterback-peyton-manning-to-retire

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000641782/article/redskins-inform-robert-griffin-iii-of-release

Never liked Peyton. Dude never played to his true value in the post season but he is definitely one of the best if not THE best regular season QB of all time.

RGIII, wow, what a huge bust. NFL backup or is he doneso? I think he's had ACL and MCL surgery already so that might spell the end...

[Lyion]

RG3 in Cleveland. Over/Under for when he ends up on IR?

[Lyion]

RG3 is now a brown and Training Camp opened!

NFL time... huzzah.

[Arlos]

The 49ers moronic ownership killed almost all of my interest in football. They are Don Stirling-level bad. I had been a fan for more than 35 years, and they killed my fandom. I haven't read one football story in the past 2 months. It wasn't until your post here that I even knew training camps had started up. I'd consider trying to be more a fan of the Raiders, but a) I don't know about switching allegiances like that, and b) they're fucking leaving for Vegas next year.

So yeah, to hell with football until such time as the Yorks finally give up and sell the 49ers to someone with an IQ larger than their shoe size.

[Lyion]

Living near Cleveland, I'd say the ownership history here is far worse.

Growing up in San Diego, I'd vote the Spanos family for worst owners of any franchise in any major league. Plus, they'll probably move to L.A..

[Arlos]

Living near Cleveland, I'd say the ownership history here is far worse.

Growing up in San Diego, I'd vote the Spanos family for worst owners of any franchise in any major league. Plus, they'll probably move to L.A..

The Yorks are as bad or worse. They are incredibly insecure, and have an apparent pathological need to be the ones getting the credit. They also love to do all sorts of backstabbing office politics machinations on top of that. Oh, and they lie all the time, including incredibly stupid ones that are easy to verify that they're inaccurate. The senior York used to complain about the cost of players drinking bottled water instead of from a tap, as one example of how these people operate. They have hired exactly 1 competent coach in their entire tenure, Harbaugh, and only got HIM because he was already at Stanford, and wanted to go to the 49ers. The team gets good based on the acquisitions of the previous GM, McCloughan (who got ousted) plus Harbaugh. The Yorks then leveraged that success to get a new stadium bill passed.

As soon as they got their stadium passed, they immediately started a whisper campaign of leaks to reporters they had in their pockets in order to undermine Harbaugh, to give them reason to get rid of him. They were upset that Harbaugh was getting the credit for the team being good, instead of ownership. Predictably, it ended up splitting the locker room, and they went 8-8 the year after they barely lost in the Super Bowl. Then, as soon as the season was over, they kicked Harbaugh to the curb, and told the media it was "A mutual parting of ways". Harbaugh himself said that was complete bullshit, and sports reporters that weren't puppets of the Yorks all reported the same thing.

Once they got rid of Harbaugh, who do they hire? The biggest yes-man in the entire organization, Tomsula, who had never even held a top coordinator's job at any level of football, except for a brief stint as the coach of a NFL Europe team. They then proceeded to pat themselves on the back for being absolute geniuses to find this amazing coaching hire already in the organization. They got Kaepernick to sign a VERY team friendly extension by promising to use the money to retain the team's free agents. They did nothing of the sort, and actually ended up just pocketing it. So, all the FA's left, and a bunch of players retired at the same time rather than come back to DysfunctionLand.

In any case, the season was a complete disaster from start to finish. It was obvious game 1 that Tomsula was completely in over his head, and that the season would be a disaster. By midway through the season, the team was awful, and the fans started getting more and more pissed. So, since obviously geniuses of their magnitude couldn't possibly have picked the wrong coach, they decided to blame everything on Kaepernick. They started up the leak/whisper/rumor campaign against him, just like they had done to Harbaugh. This time a mistake was made though, and a new reporter actually gave the name of the person they got that leak from: one of the top-2 executives in the entire organization, right below the GM.

The fan revolts actually got pretty amusing during all this. People were literally hiring sky banner advertisements (those huge banners towed behind planes) to fly over the stadium with messages trolling Jed York (the son of the main owner). As soon as the season ended, they had no choice but to fire Tomsula, but even then they dithered about it.By that point there were some rumblings growing of a season ticket holder revolt, where people would just give up their PSL's and walk away. Given that some of these PSL's cost up to $100,000 each, that had the potential to seriously hit the Yorks in their pocket books. That's why they made that desperation hire of Kelly, because they needed some kind of big name coach to quell the uprising. They WANTED Hue Jackson, but after meeting with the Yorks, he told them to piss off and took the Cleveland job. Yes, the Cleveland Browns head coaching job was a more attractive position than the head coach of the 49ers. Entirely because of the Yorks.

What makes the whole thing so incredibly sad is that the previous owner, Eddie DeBartolo, is in the NFL Hall of Fame as an owner. He got in legal trouble for not reporting a request for a bribe over some riverboat gambling licenses in Louisiana, and had to sell the team to his sister, Denise York.

TL;DR:Yes, the Yorks are easily as bad as any Cleveland ownership of any period in history, and are as bad or worse than the Spanos'. They are quite literally the worst owners in the NFL right now. And that includes Dan Snyder.

[Jay]

The Raiders are looking better this year so you're considering jumping off the 9ers ship and on to the Raiders bandwagon? Jesus man. You're the worst sports fan ever lol.

[Arlos]

The Raiders are looking better this year so you're considering jumping off the 9ers ship and on to the Raiders bandwagon? Jesus man. You're the worst sports fan ever lol.

No, I am considering jumping to the Raiders because I was pushed. Like I said, I have been a fan of the 49ers since 1980. Through the great times, the bad times, all of it. If the ownership group was even average, I'd still be a fan. But I have a limit, and this ownership group reached it. If the ownership changes, I will go right back to being a devoted 49ers fan. But I cannot be a fan of a team with ownership like the Yorks. I just can't. The Raiders in this are the equivalent of a chick you have a 1 night stand with while you've temporarily broken up with your real girlfriend.

[Jay]

Converting from 9ers to Raiders in any capacity is treason. Its a slap in the face to every Raiders fan who stood by their team post Gannon and the fallout of Jemarcus Russell. You're there to reap the benefits of their finally decent roster but you didnt support them during their last past decade of awful.

[Arlos]

Converting from 9ers to Raiders in any capacity is treason. Its a slap in the face to every Raiders fan who stood by their team post Gannon and the fallout of Jemarcus Russell. You're there to reap the benefits of their finally decent roster but you didnt support them during their last past decade of awful.

Except it has nothing really to do with the fact they're now good. I wouldn't switch because of that, just like I didn't switch to them when they were in the Super Bowl, or all those years the 49ers were terrible before they got Harbaugh. I rooted for them in that Superbowl, because they are a local team, but that's it. I was still firmly a 49ers fan. But my team abandoned me, so I am now a fan without a team to be a fan of. The 49ers could be superbowl contenders this year, and I still wouldn't watch them. I didn't even watch more than 2 or 3 games last year either. Like I said, the ownership killed my ability to be a fan.

[leah]

I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR FOOTBALL SEASON TO STAAAAAAARRRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!