No @LloydChristmas, it's not nearly as much of a jump to conclusions. If his friend is to be believed, he had a substance abuse problem. He also claims to think there were concussion related things, but I'm not sure how it would have just happened this week when Belcher didn't play last week. And I don't really trust his friend's ability to judge a neurological condition. Plus, the issues between these two seem to have clearly predated any of this supposed memory loss. But most importantly, I just tend to think it's safest to think of horses instead of zebras when you hear hoofbeats. That's not jumping to a conclusion. That's using Occam's Razor.
What an insane ending to the SF/STL game.... Akers misses a kick but the STL rookie makes a 54 yd one? They were 26 second away from the second tie this season between these two teams. Arg. This definitely isn't good.
That 49ers-Rams game almost ended in a tie...AGAIN. And yes, @solojones, it is. There is a very real possibility that the physical effects of the NFL contributed to his actions-- especially in combination with substance abuse, etc. His friend said memory loss and such was appearing after he took several head shots playing against the Bengals, but regardless the medical data I read while housing a burrito says this could've built up over time anyway. This is not to defend his actions in any way, but ruling out brain trauma outright during a time when this conversation is dominating the future of the NFL doesn't seem cool.
But nor is automatically pointing the finger at it, which could be just as detrimental to the sport. Remember, lots of people instantly jumped to the conclusion that it was concussion related right off the bat, without looking at his record, without talking to anyone he knew or played with. I'm sure the NFL will want to look into it, as it's in their interest not to have their sport turning people psychotic. But still, the alacrity with which people all seem ready to blame concussions belies a pop medical standpoint and not an actual one. I'm not saying concussions weren't involved. I'm saying we have no evidence yet that they were, so we should look at all the factors first. If anything, I would like to see the NFL consider better mental health counseling for players, particularly in the area of substance abuse, as we all know that this is a problem with a number of players and that it's led to some tragedies and such in the past all ready. If it turns out there's evidence of a concussion link, fine. But it's irresponsible to immediately scream that from the rooftops as many have already done.
Are you saying that when I read a magazine on a whim while eating delicious authentic Mexican food that I'm feeding into a "pop medical standpoint"? THAT'S BORDERLINE LIBELOUS SOLOJONES Touchdown Gresham! Are the Bengals really about to almost maybe make the playoffs again?!
Good win for KC, Quinn was very solid. Cool that I got to see a full game in my market too, playing Carolina. I don't want to lose that #1 pick either, but I'm not sure that the right move isn't to trade out of it, assuming Smith, Murray, Tyler Wilson, and Barkley will be mid to late first round picks. Just as long as we don't draft another d-lineman.
...as Andy throws a pick-six. Oh Ohio, how I love you. At least the Browns are handing it to Palmer again?
given that he coaches/ed a different team, i don't see how that comparison really makes any sense. peyton on the other hand...
Sanchez was yanked, Russell Wilson beat the Bears on the road, Mason Crosby got back on track . . . today was a pretty good day.
Yeah, well we'll likely never know truly what lead Belcher to do what he did, be it head trauma, drugs, or whatever, because he shot himself in the fricking head and thus nothing will ever truly be able to ever be ruled out because the brain can't be scanned/dissected. Because he shot himself in the fricking head. And now we have a copy cat Edit: Good on the Chiefs to use their moment of silence to honor victims of domestic violence rather than Belcher. Also kudos to ESPN's NFL Countdown crew (and Tom Jackson in particular) for calling Belcher what he is: A murder who left his child without parents.
Yeah buddy! The black and gold pull it out in the end. wow 6 posts for the price of one, if a mod sees this can you clean it up? DMC Edit - Got it.
Glad that they won. I definitely wasn't expecting that. Batch looked much better than he did last weekend.
Ah I was wondering if they would do a moment of silence in that vein. Good job Chiefs. As to the Browns employee... not a copycat. It happened at virtually the same time. Just an eerie coincidence. But more sad than anything. I mean, as far as I know that guy wasn't a murderer, so I feel sorry for him. Quite honestly, do we have anything to suggest that Belcher's suicide had anything to do with depression? We're not talking a normal suicide. We're talking about something that was brought on by the realization that he'd done an incredibly awful thing.
Costas advocates gun control after KC tragedy. Look, I'm all for tightening gun control/closing existing loopholes we have in our gun laws. But I'm not totally convinced tighter gun control laws would have completely averted this tragedy.
You should get over Geno Smith. There are not any Peyton Mannings, Aaron Rodgers or even Elis or Rivers in this draft. There are a host of average college QBs who may or may not become serviceable pros (Smith/Barkley/Wilson/Murray/Jones etc).
I think they'd take anything over Cassel and Quinn at this point. At least they can pretend they're trying to build something around a new quarterback, even if he ends up being like Ponder, Locker, or Gabbert.
Yeah, I'm sorry Marcus, I know none of the guys in this draft are knock outs... but have you actually seen who the Chiefs QBs have been since Trent Green? Damon Huard, Tyler Thigpen, Tyler Palko, Matt Cassel, Brady Quinn.... dear God. I'm not at all expecting to get even Luck or RG3. Not at all. But the Chiefs haven't even tried to draft a QB in the first round since the early 90s, and that was Todd Blackledge, and he wound up sucking. So sure, we could get Smith and he could suck. But goddamit, I just want to see that our team understands you have to have a franchise QB in this league now and look like they are at least trying to get one. Personally, I wanted to suck for Luck last year (or RG3, as I was partial to him). But we had to go and screw it up by putting Orton in. And of course, when he played much better than Cassel we got rid of him.
