kungfoodude

I have been to the current stadium. It is very nice.

There is a difference between serious AAU and just teams that are made up of any Tom, Dick or Harry that will pay. At the younger levels, it's pay to play but in serious programs that starts to split off once they get towards being teenaged. By 14U to 16U(depends on the program) there are no more payments from parents for each event, it's all shoe sponsorship money that covers most of the expenses. Obviously the serious programs are dwarfed by the run of the mill programs but almost all of the best talent will end up on a serious, sponsored team. That's really the only way to build yourself as a serious scholarship level athlete.

I would disagree in general. It isn't any worse than it was before. Also you definitely see a marked increase in focusing on the academic side because so many of those careers were hampered due to that kind of thing back in the day. I am telling you this from actual personal experience, BTW. I have been involved with and around AAU basketball for almost 25 years.

That's something that was true in the 90's and early 2000's. AAU isn't rife with that anymore. It exists but a smaller percentage. TBH, AAU ball is much better prep for college than high school basketball. HS basketball is just about useless for most kids. A lot of that comes from former(and current) college and pro athletes having big AAU programs. They know what it takes to make successful athletes. Far more so than a lot of the shady characters that were around the AAU(and HS) scene back in the day.

Is this poll about memes???

Well I think that technically has to happen in Game 1 first.....

He's got a little head coach in him. Says a lot without saying anything.

100%. All time low in the market is possible.

He gotta get that second contract before I invest in a jersey.

As a Panthers fan I am gonna be skeptical at the moment. It's the prudent choice. But I will say this is about as excited as I have been in a few years.

I think if we haven't made a signing yet among the available group we probably will stand pat until camp cuts roll around. Maybe not even then. Depends on TC.

If we get above .500, I am good. That is a big success for where we are in this transition. If we finish a game or two under .500, not a big deal. Now 10+ wins? Look out.

It's a mild slight but if he does it this season I think that changes quite a bit.

Yeah I would be quite happy with 9-8.

He has always been a backup caliber player. His biggest problem is that he isn't good at much other than running the ball and he's really average at that. It's hard to be a one trick pony RB in the modern NFL.

I am not aware of any player that "quietly" becomes better than a HOF DE that is currently sitting fourth all-time in NFL history in sacks.

You'll have that on these big jobs.

Hey, maybe we will look good and surprise a couple of folks before they forget about us in a couple of weeks when their brains get flooded with "big brand" football teams.

The key there being "some." It's just as pointless a discussion as "this area is better than that area."

Aaron Fraudgers keeps making me chuckle. Nice one @TheSpecialJuan

Since we are basically past the bulk of the offseason portion, these are a very fun read.

Well we will be front and center on ESPN for that week. It will mainly be a side note from their circle jerk about Aaron Rodgers but still.....

So could distance to his favorite club or some other non-football reason. We don't know any of that poo so why even speculate? Unless a player is publicly putting their personal reasons out there, this is a completely nonsense subject.

These arguments get old. Same as the "X area is better than Y area!" We don't know what the personal motivations for most od these guys are. It might be family, taxes, area, who fuging knows? We can guess the football reasons but speculation on people's personal motivations seems very useless.

There aren't any reports of nutbag behavior like TO or Brown. Hopkins is just expensive and not 100% of the time worth the price tag. Given his contract, I can understand the Cardinals cutting him. Not tradeable and detrimental to the cap long term.