so...

[Mark]

I stopped attending and watching the NFL last season; so I don't think much about it anymore.

[THE TUBA]

The Panthers seem to have the same issues as last year: weak secondary, no depth at O-Line, predictable conservative play-calling, and a banged up QB that seems to have lost his mojo.

The dominant defense from weeks one and two seemed to evaporate against Drew Brees and a competent passing attack. The struggling offense from weeks one and two failed to recover against the Saints (who entered the game with the 31st-ranked defense). Cam Newton is either still not recovered from shoulder surgery, drastically needs the practice time he missed while recovering, or has the football equivalent of the yips, and I'm not sure which would be better.

The team is still 2-1 and the sky isn't falling, but the weather looks gloomy. Big free-agent acquisition Matt Kalil had a second consecutive poor game. All-Pro TE Greg Olsen is out for another 5-8 weeks with his broken foot. Although it doesn't appear that Kelvin Benjamin's injured knee suffered any structural damage, it is unsure if he will be ready to play next week. Center and anchor of the O-Line Ryan Kalil was out for a second consecutive game with a sore neck and his prognosis is unknown. Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly are still great linebackers, but with a weak secondary behind them, teams can scheme around our linebackers. Perhaps most troubling of all, QB Newton seems no closer to regaining his MVP-caliber performance of 2015 and, if anything, appears to be playing the worst football of his career.

On the bright side Christian McCaffrey appears to be as advertised. Kurt Coleman seems to be thriving in his role as a defensive captain. Julius Peppers still has something left in the tank. Mario Addison is on pace for the best year of his career. There are still 13 games left, so a lot of football yet to be played. A conference loss at home stings, but it isn't a death sentence.

A tough road is ahead with away games at New England and Detroit followed by a Thursday night matchup against a very good Eagles team. If the Panthers do not get it together, they could easily be 2-4 after this stretch and already eyeing a top pick in the 2018 draft. On the other hand, if the team can regroup and sure up some of their problems, 3-3 after six games would be okay and 4-2 would put the team back on track to make it back to the playoffs.

[Donn]

Overpaid steroid freaks but that's every year.

They do get paid a lot, but then how do you balance that against what appears to be a near certainty of brain trauma? I don't mean to imply that there should be a standard scale for that, just that it's a bad waste of money.

[Three Valves]

Never though their poor sportsmanship would be eclipsed by their poor citizenship.

I stand corrected....

[bisontuba]

Or.....the question should be...

If you were playing the SSB at the beginnng of the year/concert in a symphony performance and had fellow musicians ‘take a knee’ while performing, how would you feel?

[Radar]

I watch an occasional Bills game and follow how the team is doing since we're so close to Buffalo. I wouldn't bother going to see a game and paying that kind of money to park and get in. Looks like it might actually be a decent year for Buffalo for a change. As far as the Anthem debacle goes, I understand the point they were trying to make, and they have the right to protest (that's one of the things that make this such a great country to live in, we can criticize the government, and not worry about going to jail for it). I think the protest that is ever expanding has become counter productive. Now the focus is on the form of their protest, and not the message they are trying to convey. They are also alienating a large part of their audience, I would not think that a great business decision. They have the right to protest, we have the right not to go to or watch their games, or buy their merchandise.

[Donn]

The thing I find kind of odd is the notion that if a football team located in my city wins, "we" won. If you see them that way, they aren't just pathetically serious field clowns, they're "our boys", our champions in a struggle against the residents of other cities, and our hopes ride with them.

[Three Valves]

Everyone knows that the source of civic pride should be regional cuisine and potent potables....

With Dogfish Head beer and Scrapple, I can't lose!!

[MN_TimTuba]

I have no use for the over-hyped, stupidly wealthy, average man-child who plays the game, and am sickened by their self-centered, self-important antics; however, I enjoy the idea of the game of football. I only plan to continue watching until the Vikings win a Super Bowl - then I vow that I'll quit!

[Three Valves]

...and Memphis has also begun defaulting on retirement and medical benefit promises.

That will REALLY give them something to protest about!!

[bisontuba]

Memphis ended up with a NBA franchise...at these costs:
- It had to build a THIRD basketball arena to satisfy the (failing, at that time) franchise's tastes.
- Property tax rates skyrocketed, to service that (adjusted for inflation) billion dollars of debt.
- The franchise made the city and county agree that the other two arenas (as well as several other venues) would be shuttered to concerts, and that all concerts (other than symphony/opera/Broadway/etc.) would be funneled into the arena, and the proceeds of the arena rentals would go to that franchise.
- Since that epic property tax increase, many (including bloke) left. Memphis population has DROPPED, and the city is seriously considering DE-annexation of some of the most recently annexed areas, to keep people from (as did bloke) completely leaving the county.
- The city is in dire money trouble. It let go of its school system, thinking the county would be forced to pay the bills of its schools. However, it miscalculated, and all of the suburbs immediately formed their own school systems, and thus - the county school system is still - defacto - the city system, and with (now) significant shares of the county revenue being divided up between all of those new school systems. Also, basic services are failing. Memphis is 500 policemen short of a full load (which, I suppose, is just fine with those guys on that NBA team...??) because there is no money to hire policemen, the "attract" salaries are low anyway, too many policemen in Memphis (opposite of "the narrative") end up hurt, shot, or killed, and Memphis has also begun defaulting on retirement and medical benefit promises.

Is this all due to building that arena?
It would be ridiculous to put the blame there, but that's when the problems it started.
The sports (just as in other cities, the ends of broadcasts) coverage in local news broadcasts is always truncated, as there are too many daily murders and shootings (no time to cover robberies or rapes, either) to cover.
Finally, Memphis already has a basketball team in which it is very interested. It is called the "Tigers". There is far less interest in the "Grizzlies", at least, from my perspective.

So......in what section of the arena are your season tickets?

[alfredr]

There was once a very wise man on a rock-n-roll radio station ( Okay, he was a disc-jockey ) who once said that rooting for one pro sports team over another was akin to rooting for Sears to make more money than Montgomery-Wards. And we all know how that turned out. Maybe these days it would be Equifax over Experian.