1 minute ago, bpac55 said:

Did we ever get an explanation of what that mess of words meant?

Not yet, but I can give it a shot real quick.  Stay tuned!  

16 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Is anyone else starting to really hate all professional athletes...even the ones that we like the most?  The entire country from minimum wage workers to business owners have sacrificed for 6 months now.  

If this whole thing has taught me one thing it's that professional athletes, Hollywood stars, TV personalities, government officials and musicians have no grasp on reality compared to the rest of the country and no longer should they be looked up to as heros.  No more idolizing these guys because they have athletic ability or can make us laugh and so on.  We've had to watch commercials with NFL players in their mansions telling us to stay home, watch Hollywood stars sing a Beatles song and listen to the talking heads and our government talk down to us.  I'm over it.  I'm over sports.  I'll be happy when things are back to normal but I'm not sitting here counting down the days until TC starts or excited about MLB or the NBA. 

Give me my family, good food and our health and the rest will work out. Goodness, rant over.

Not really. I’m actually kinda surprised how many people take the side of billionaire owners over millionaire athletes who work there a** off to get to where they did 

3 hours ago, austinfan said:

Well, Price Fishback has a nice article showing the company store as the great exploiter of workers is a bit of a myth.

"Did Coal Miners "Owe Their Souls to the Company Store"? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900s," J Economic History (Dec. 1986).

Economic theory and empirical evidence offer several reasons to doubt labor historians' descriptions of monopolistic company stores. First, company stores faced competition not only from local stores but also from other mines to the extent that mine employers hired in a competitive labor market. In nonunion areas like West Virginia, company-store prices were part of an employment package, including wages and housing, offered to mobile miners in a labor market with hundreds of mines. The theory of compensating differences suggests that the gain from charging high store prices would be offset by the higher wages the mine would be forced to offer to attract workers. Second, extension of this analysis suggests that the value of employment packages would have fluctuated cyclically within a long-term trend toward less opportunities for exploitation as information and transportation costs fell.
Third, one reason company ownership of stores persisted was that it lowered transactions costs, reducing the costs of holding currency in isolated areas, lowering the risks of extending credit for store purchases, and preventing the costs of contracting to minimize opportunistic behavior. Fourth, comprehensive studies by the Immigration Commission in 1908 and the Coal Commission in 1922 show that prices at most company stores were similar to prices at nearby independent stores. Prices apparently were higher at isolated mines, in part due to higher transport costs, but scattered evidence suggests that higher prices were partially offset by higher wages. Finally, miners were typically not in debt to the stores nor paid entirely in scrip. Scrip was offered as an advance on payday, when miners, on average, received 30 to 80 percent of their earnings in cash after deductions for rent, fuel, doctors, and store purchases between paydays.

There is little doubt that early on, unions achieved significant benefits in safer workplaces, the traditional workweek etc.  Collective bargaining has a benefit but a detriment as well. I grew up in a state where the state constitution included a right to work.  There were no closed union shop. Contrast that with PA, where to build a school or pave a road, the municipality (taxpayer) must pay "prevailing” wage (read that as union rates), regardless if the low bidder is union or not.  That literally takes everyone’s right to negotiate out of play. 

3 hours ago, eagle45 said:

@austinfan and @justrelax right on queue with some poetic ivory tower union defense.  Unions exist for a reason...present day, there is some good, some bad to them.  But you guys are predictable.

How the F did you read Afan’s post as a union defense?

31 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Is anyone else starting to really hate all professional athletes...even the ones that we like the most?  The entire country from minimum wage workers to business owners have sacrificed for 6 months now.  

If this whole thing has taught me one thing it's that professional athletes, Hollywood stars, TV personalities, government officials and musicians have no grasp on reality compared to the rest of the country and no longer should they be looked up to as heros.  No more idolizing these guys because they have athletic ability or can make us laugh and so on.  We've had to watch commercials with NFL players in their mansions telling us to stay home, watch Hollywood stars sing a Beatles song and listen to the talking heads and our government talk down to us.  I'm over it.  I'm over sports.  I'll be happy when things are back to normal but I'm not sitting here counting down the days until TC starts or excited about MLB or the NBA. 

Give me my family, good food and our health and the rest will work out. Goodness, rant over.

So you’re mad at the athletes to defend the billionaire owners? Not every player is Mahomes, a lot of guys aren’t making a million dollars.

TrotterisGod aka Blitz4Kreig aka Rocket Scientist post breakdown (my explanations/guesses are in red):

There ya go. Bring back T. At least a character worth remembering - A previous poster referred to the Sopranos.  I believe here we can decipher T to mean Tony Soprano, someone who he really likes.  

Time takes care of it all - I don't have any idea what is happening here.  Perhaps he's referring to his everlasting grief over the loss of James Gandolfini 7 years ago?

Have a great week fellas - Wishing us all a great week on a Saturday.  I would have gone with weekend, but hey....that's just me.  

Can forgive a lot of sins when the kid just keeps getting up and keeps swinging - If I were to guess, he's talking about Carson Wentz here.  We should all know based on the brilliant segway.  

I like the new group, no matter who doesn't - Eagles have lots of new rookies, and he is in favor of them despite the criticism.  Blitz4Krieg, I'm with you here dude.  

Keep Carson Vertical and play D even if the rest of the league has given up on the concept - Eagles need a good season of OL play and keeping Carson upright.   And breaking news...the Eagles will also have to play defense this year.  Because of all the rule changes to help offenses, all the concussions, protecting QBs, and the mediocre fans craving high scoring games, Blitz believes the NFL hates defense in general.  

I never liked D " Aka Jussie's" leadership style although I acknowledge his place "in the past" as the best we ever "had".  - Here's where it gets tough.  Is Blitz referring to Doug P as "D?"  If so, he's comparing his leadership style to Jussie Smollett, which is the first thing I think of when I think of the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.  He appreciates the SB that Doug brought to the city, and he's the best we've ever had.  If not this, then he is coming out of the closet to the entire blog.  

Wish he could've gotten out of the way of his own Ego - Now I question my entire previous paragraph.  I have no idea what's happening here.   

Philly doesn't dig on ya if they don't give a crap. They leave ya to rot - Philly gives players/coaches a hard time if they care.  But if Philly doesn't care, because the player/coach isn't giving maximum effort or living up to expectations, you're dead to us.  

Weird new year - Covid and BLM and murder hornets

 Anybody afraid of a Dab Revival ? Not me . Heck that's the AFC - Cam Newton, and Blitz doesn't care.  It's not the NFC.  

If we stay healthy and don't have enough to win THIS division? Something definitely wrong - E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!  

22 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Not really. I’m actually kinda surprised how many people take the side of billionaire owners over millionaire athletes who work there a** off to get to where they did 

I could be wrong but i don’t think when he said "business owners” in his first paragraph he was referring to nfl owners but more of the regular business owners across the country who are struggling just to keep their business open and their dream alive. I could be wrong though. 

 

42 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

We've had to watch commercials with NFL players in their mansions telling us to stay home, watch Hollywood stars sing a Beatles song and listen to the talking heads and our government talk down to us.  I'm over it.  I'm over sports. 

I’m not the biggest Beatles fan out there, but I definitely recommend listening to the Talking Heads any chance you get:

 

32 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

There is little doubt that early on, unions achieved significant benefits in safer workplaces, the traditional workweek etc.  Collective bargaining has a benefit but a detriment as well. I grew up in a state where the state constitution included a right to work.  There were no closed union shop. Contrast that with PA, where to build a school or pave a road, the municipality (taxpayer) must pay "prevailing” wage (read that as union rates), regardless if the low bidder is union or not.  That literally takes everyone’s right to negotiate out of play. 

The union issue is complex historically, involving questions of who's in and who's out (i.e. discrimination against minorities, etc.). The US choice of trade unions helped certain groups of workers, but retarded the development of a "worker's party" that would look after workers as a whole (like universal health insurance, so you could make a job choice without worrying about losing your tax subsidized health benefits - because they're not treated as income). A stronger safety net helps all workers by providing "social insurance" and improving their bargaining position with respect to employers.

However, the idea that the labor bargain is between equals is nonsense, companies closely guard information like salaries (though the internet has made it harder in some professions like law), providing a sizeable information asymmetry that allows companies to exploit workers (pay less than a wage that would be paid in a competitive market with transparent information). Workers also have higher transaction costs (i.e. finding a new job is expensive and risky unless there's an overheated labor market such as 2007). Companies also have better information about job risks, etc. Capital can move easier than workers.

1 hour ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

I could be wrong but i don’t think when he said "business owners” in his first paragraph he was referring to nfl owners but more of the regular business owners across the country who are struggling just to keep their business open and their dream alive. I could be wrong though. 

 

Could be, but I read "does anyone hate all professional athletes” which I think is off the mark in general. I’ll admit it gets annoying when they bring disputes into public via social media, but still, owners for some reason get a lot of slack I feel. 

12 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Could be, but I read "does anyone hate all professional athletes” which I think is off the mark in general. I’ll admit it gets annoying when they bring disputes into public via social media, but still, owners for some reason get a lot of slack I feel. 

I think some owners do. Your Daniel Snyders, dolans and marlins entire ownership group and front office. I think baseball owners were getting it during their issues during the pandemic. Players were as well. the cardinals owner who said something really idiotic when all this was going on and people lost it on Twitter  

I agree owners definitely don’t get enough of the fans ire unless it’s a really poorly run franchise. It’s definitely less than what players constantly get. Imo part of the sixers FO issues falls back on poor ownership and they don’t get enough of the ire of fans. That said, most owners are not all over social media or constantly in the media spotlight besides guys like Mark Cuban, Jerry Jones and small number of others. I think that’s where a lot of the hatred and discontent towards athletes grows from nowadays. The growth of social media being a 24/7 thing with twitter, Instagram and being on TV (almost everyday) is a huge factor in why they get more of the hate of the fans thrown their way. Just my opinion. Definitely other factors too but i think those loom large 

7 hours ago, justrelax said:

There's a bloody and brutal history of unions. Before them, it was in essence, corporate slavery. Check out the lyrics to Tennessee Ernie Ford's 16 Tons.  

 

8 hours ago, bpac55 said:

Is anyone else starting to really hate all professional athletes...even the ones that we like the most?  The entire country from minimum wage workers to business owners have sacrificed for 6 months now.  

If this whole thing has taught me one thing it's that professional athletes, Hollywood stars, TV personalities, government officials and musicians have no grasp on reality compared to the rest of the country and no longer should they be looked up to as heros.  No more idolizing these guys because they have athletic ability or can make us laugh and so on.  We've had to watch commercials with NFL players in their mansions telling us to stay home, watch Hollywood stars sing a Beatles song and listen to the talking heads and our government talk down to us.  I'm over it.  I'm over sports.  I'll be happy when things are back to normal but I'm not sitting here counting down the days until TC starts or excited about MLB or the NBA. 

Give me my family, good food and our health and the rest will work out. Goodness, rant over.

They never should have been looked at as heroes.

6 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Could be, but I read "does anyone hate all professional athletes” which I think is off the mark in general. I’ll admit it gets annoying when they bring disputes into public via social media, but still, owners for some reason get a lot of slack I feel. 

They keep their mouths shut far more, generally.

8 hours ago, WentzFan11 said:

So you’re mad at the athletes to defend the billionaire owners? Not every player is Mahomes, a lot of guys aren’t making a million dollars.

I'm not defending the owners at all.  Just over a lot of it to be honest.

8 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Not really. I’m actually kinda surprised how many people take the side of billionaire owners over millionaire athletes who work there a** off to get to where they did 

Not siding with owners at all.  I'm just fatigued by everything.

Not really sure why the owners care that much about a preseason game but whatever. It's progress. 

6 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

Not really sure why the owners care that much about a preseason game but whatever. It's progress. 

Even without fans they make good money from TV rights. 

5 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Even without fans they make good money from TV rights. 

From a preseason game?  If that's the case fair enough.  I guess this year I'd watch them too.

2 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

From a preseason game?  If that's the case fair enough.  I guess this year I'd watch them too.

NBC drew 5.3 million people for a Thursday night preseason game, and it was the highest rated program in America that night. I think it would be wise for the players to bend a little bit on that issue, but it’s easy for me to say. 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/the-unkillable-nfl-preseason/amp/

On 7/18/2020 at 4:36 PM, bpac55 said:

I'm no James Franco fan but he plays a heck of a stoner/weed dealer in Pineapple Express.

He's not playing

Having 1 NFL pre-season game makes sense. You'd like a test-run with Covid-19 preventative measures. There's a reason why other leagues have exhibition games too. Yes, it's about the money but it's also about safety. It can be both.

 

19 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

 

Sorry to tell you guys but "safe at work" isn't something anyone is feeling right now. That said Football is something we can live w/o so bag the season for all I care.

9 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Not really. I’m actually kinda surprised how many people take the side of billionaire owners over millionaire athletes who work there a** off to get to where they did 

So by this I'm guess you don't think any of the "billionaires" work their a** off?