Just saw on ESPN bottom line. Wow. I have to say, I appreciate that move by the Patriots (I know there's a lot of political thoughts on this but they could have sacrificed their own integrity/conscience to try to keep the player). That certainly hurts their team as well. Greater issue is the tragic death of a human being and Hernandez involvement (to whatever degree) in this. Amazing. Maybe this is not the forum but thought it was significant for Dolphin fans in its impact on the team and the division.
I'm hearing some noise that releasing him means they can't recover any of his signing bonus. That could be as much as $10 million they could have recovered from him. His signing bonus was $12.5 million and about $2.5 million was expensed in 2012. I'm sure the recovery of the bonus would have taken a long time but $10 million is $10 million. They could have put him on a Reserve list while they recovered it. Did they think it was that urgent to get him off the roster?
To this point, the implications have been that he's likely, at the very least, an accessory to whatever happened to the young man that was killed, and while it's still yet to announced exactly what he's being charged with, it's apparent the Pasties and/or the league investigative guys have ascertained that the more serious charge could be hanging over this guy. Too bad that a young guy with lots of upside, who seemed to be sitting pretty...richer beyond his dreams, with a championship caliber team, hob-nobbing with the greats of the game and now this... Just a shame for the kid as much as it is for the family of the young guy that lost his live...
If it weren't for Tom Brady being their QB, I'd be convinced the Pats were about to suffer a huge fall from grace, much in the same way as the Saints last season. That's not to say it won't happen... just saying their QB might be good enough to pull them through this. The Phins winning the East is becoming more and more viable by the day.
I put money on the Dolphins winning the AFCE this morning...good timing for once, as their odds might well come down after this.
NE releasing him tells me he isn't just getting charged with obstruction. We will have a real shot at this division fellas.
There is a big difference in the Headlines: New England Patriots Star Charged with *******" and Former New England Patriots Star Charged with ******** That could be classified as cynical, but it could also be exactly what it going through the collective brain trust in the Pats office.
Got to agree with the Pats ownership here, he had to go. They probably did their own investigation and know a lot more than we or the press do.....and think he's going to jail or at least through a very public trial.
True, but I was half expecting the headline: New England Patriots Star Charged with *******, But Pats FO Keeps Him On In Hopes He Can Murder The Competition.
As long as those two are around the Patriots will be playoff contenders .Their team has experienced the loss of several important players without much drop in performance .Basically a plug-in a player team .
No bail set, usual with murder charges pending. We will see. Source says to "expect the worse" when it comes to the charge. 40mm contract and he ****ed it up. Unreal.
Would have rather won the Division with New England at full strength but the Patriots gotta do what they gotta do. The phins should have a real shot at the division but it kinda sucks that the only time we've had a chance at it in recent memory has been because the patriots aren't at full strength.
As long as BB is around they will be playoff contenders. Brady helps, of course, but BB won 11 games with a crappy QB who hadn't started a game since high school.
Wait. Why are folks giving the Pats credit again? Seems like common sense to disassociate from a potential murderer, especially when he'll most likely be of no use to your organization for the foreseeable future. Is this cynical? Sent from my phone using Fapatalk 2
Because they are the type of team to hold onto the rights of a player while in prison, because they are evil.
I know, I guess money doesn't always change people, you would think that kind of dough would make him look in the mirror - boy did I dodge some bullets, time to tone it down - but I guess in some cases it enhances the ego so much that they just think they are invincible.
Bad week for Boston sports. Doc Rivers traded to the Clippers, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett on deck. Ray Allen hits the buzzer beater to keep the Heat alive so they can win the championship. The Bruins lose the Stanley Cup. Now Aaron Hernandez arrested, presumably on murder chargers.
The one time we've one the division in recent memory, Brady was out. We need to take what we can get then build on that.
What is "full strength"? In the NFL, players jump teams in the offseason, get traded during the year, get injured during the year, miss games... every week you line up, you line up at full strength, or at least as full strength as you can with what 53 you bring. History only remembers the winners, really. The Dolphins just need to win the games they play and let the chips fall where they may. Who really cares in 1993 about a Dolphins 9-7 team that didn't make the playoffs? No one except the most hard-core Dolphins fans. Who really remembers that, in 1993, at the time of the Dan Marino Achilles injury, the Dolphins had come off an 11-5 season, and the prior year they'd played the AFC Championship game in Miami, and suffered an upset loss to the Bills? Does anyone remember that we had already beaten the team that would win the division (the Bills) off to a 3-1 record and what would eventually be 9-2 before the collapse? The only thing people remember about 1993 is that the Buffalo Bills -- a team we had already beat, let me say again, when Marino went down -- went and lost a Super Bowl to the Dallas Cowboys... one in a string of Super Bowls they lost. If the Dolphins win the division in 2013, the Dolphins win the division. Who was available for the other teams means nothing except in the individual games played.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/26/source-on-hernandez-assume-the-worst/ Source close to the situation says "Assume the worst" about what Hernandez will be charged with at his arraignment in an hour. It's good to remember though...this is how it went down with Ray Lewis too. The police actually arrested him and charged with murder as a means of trying to get him to tell the police what really happened. He also was guilty of dumping evidence.
What goes around comes around. Boston has had more than its share of sports glory over the past several years. All the same, the situation with Hernandez could have happened on any team.
Our pal Ben Volin says the Pats were quiet for 9 days while this all was brewing but they had made the decision that they would cut Hernandez the moment he was arrested. He was arrested, and so they cut him. Belichick and Kraft are out of the country right now I believe, but they still gave the OK without coming back to evaluate.
Yes, BB is very good. But that same team went 16-0 the year before and almost won it all and was one of the greatest teams of all time (an impossible Tyree catch away). So going 11-5 is a pretty big step down.
Argo sucked! The Town was good. So was Gone Baby Gone. I tried to like Argo. But couldn't get into it.
One could quite accurately state that we have been playing at something less than full strength for the past decade and a half! Whether the lack of strength came from the top or from within the ranks makes not one iota of difference. That being the case, I hope we sweep the division this year, and the Pats wind up just ahead of the Jets in the race for the cellar!
