Pats cancel joint practices with Tennessee

[Love The Drake]

Sorry, but all the canceled stuff, the days off, the overlooking egregious irresponsible nonsense such as leaving the field in a snit during practice looks far less new-age "compassionate," "adapted to the needs to today's athlete" and far more just plain soft. Right now, this team is not close to ready for the regular season. It would not be a wild stretch to say this team is at this point simply ill-run, badly coached, badly GM'd. The dereliction in rebuilding obvious weak areas over the past few years is coming home to roost, and now the practice schedule seems more under the aegis of the Oprah's of the world than the George Halases. In a year or so, when we are ready to ask, "When exactly was it that Bill's decline as a coach really accelerated," we may well point to this silly fiasco as a major inflection point.

I am glad the guy is not as seriously hurt as it seemed he might have been, but that's not the point, is it?, and giving the boys extra time to "process their emotions" is just ridiculous. The team cannot afford, and has certainly not yet earned, that consideration.

I think I’ll agree with the other poster who said it’s the bad habits that the team picked up for instance Roberts play on love and the Scrap that almost ensued.
Bill imagined that being Aaron Rodgers and the Pats losing a close divisional game that decided their playoff hopes by a stupid hot headed ill advised selfish decision that impacted the whole team.

Vrabel’s teams are dirty and will care more about swinging their Dong than disciplined football.
Bill knows this.
I applaud that move last thing we want is a player getting injured by a overcharged Titan and missing a difference maker against Philly.

 

[Brotherblues]

I'd love to spin it a million ways and pretend the constant undisciplined brawling has nothing to do with it.

 

[Pape]

No big deal... Already had one session with another team...

 

[Thelonious]

Absolutely agree, the health of the team is what matters most. Pre season is what it is . All that matters is the health of the team heading into week 1 and beyond.

If that's all that matters, maybe they shouldn't be playing football at all. Selling insurance, for example, is far more healthful. Maybe Bill could give them a week or two off to think over their career options. After all, it's all about their health, right?

 

[Family]

Sorry, but all the canceled stuff, the days off, the overlooking egregious irresponsible nonsense such as leaving the field in a snit during practice looks far less new-age "compassionate," "adapted to the needs to today's athlete" and far more just plain soft. Right now, this team is not close to ready for the regular season. It would not be a wild stretch to say this team is at this point simply ill-run, badly coached, badly GM'd. The dereliction in rebuilding obvious weak areas over the past few years is coming home to roost, and now the practice schedule seems more under the aegis of the Oprah's of the world than the George Halases. In a year or so, when we are ready to ask, "When exactly was it that Bill's decline as a coach really accelerated," we may well point to this silly fiasco as a major inflection point.

I am glad the guy is not as seriously hurt as it seemed he might have been, but that's not the point, is it?, and giving the boys extra time to "process their emotions" is just ridiculous. The team cannot afford, and has certainly not yet earned, that consideration.

Somewhere I read there were 17 fights that had broken out during these practices. And it's happening all over the league.

I saw Keion White, the rookie everyone is raving about, including myself, throw a helmet in the air.

How is discipline no longer a huge part of what a team should be practicing? BB has always believed teams hand you games. How many games did we hand away last year?

Sam Roberts play last nite was one clear example. It's more important that they clean this crap up, maybe than anything else if they have any chance this year because let's face, they are not good enough to overcome mental mistakes.

I think the anarchy that takes over these joint practices is feeding into these mental mistakes, and I wonder if Bill hasn't had enough.

 

[Love The Drake]

Has the new Bill gone softer?
Absolutely he has, but the entire NFL without a doubt.
The days of coaches applauding knockout hits and getting players to wake up after getting their bell rung from smelling salts or popping a dislocation in place on the sideline and going back in a few plays later is replaced by agents, influencers, advertisements, social media, in the ME first generation.

 

[Ian]

Has the new Bill gone softer?
Absolutely he has, but the entire NFL and dare I say United States have.
The days of coaches applauding knockout hits and getting players to wake up after getting their bell rung from smelling salts or popping a dislocation in place on the sideline and going back in a few plays later is replaced by agents, influencers, advertisements, social media, in the ME first generation.

Yeah ... how about we don't go there, that will spark an entirely different discussion that I'd rather not have happen.

 

[Ian]

The days of coaches applauding knockout hits and getting players to wake up after getting their bell rung from smelling salts or popping a dislocation in place on the sideline and going back in a few plays later is replaced by agents, influencers, advertisements, social media, in the ME first generation.

I also think it's less about that and more of the fact there's far more liability now from the league, etc. Player safety has to be the priority.

 

[Thelonious]

Yeah ... how about we don't go there, that will spark an entirely different discussion that I'd rather not have happen.

Why not, one wonders? But very well.

 

[Real fan 02]

If that's all that matters, maybe they shouldn't be playing football at all. Selling insurance, for example, is far more healthful. Maybe Bill could give them a week or two off to think over their career options. After all, it's all about their health, right?

You have to look at the big picture.. it's relatively simple. If we continue to loose guys.. say Mac gets Injured from a dirty play or something of the like then we can forgot about being in contention this season. Even though we were already buried according to the reporters.

I'm not going to sit here and get all upset over canceling a meaningless joint practice. I see your point ,and your not wrong to have your opinion. I'm just looking at it like stay healthy, try to work on correcting things from film and practice. We already key guys on offense and defense dealing with things. So maybe if they think selling insurance is better/safer than being healthy and playing football they should all put in applications with Plymouth rock?

 

[Real fan 02]

No big deal... Already had one session with another team...

Absolutely correct.. why are some Making it out to be more than what it is.. it's a fnnn.. joint practice.. every team needs to refine things, tweak line ups.. add/remove things from the play book.. we have 90 players and need to get down to 53 by 8/29. The importance is health! Having Mac, and all our key players available week 1 and beyond is all the matters IMO. Injuries unfortunately are part of the game. Once week 1 starts where teams are scheming, game planning in a real game that's what matters..

 

[Thelonious]

I am baffled that some see validity in the argument that we should not practice against Tennessee because they are mean and might hurt us. A serious question: is that really where we are now? I have thought of football as a recreational refuge from the play-safe, be-nice, color-in-the-lines drivel which comprises most of modern life these days. In exchange for wildly munificent salaries, a subset of society agrees to engage in a dangerous sport for our entertainment, and because they enjoy, for the most part, doing so. Football is not a safe sport,;it is not some sappy HR workshop intended to make its participants paragons of mental health and benificence. We lament, and certainly should, when one of them is seriously hurt - no question - but opting out of competition because somebody might be too mean or give a guy a boo boo is to my perhaps archaic eye pathetic and ridiculous.

Addendum: I suspect, and frankly hope, that this issue gets broader discussion than on this site. It engages some interesting and important questions. If I were still teaching philosophy, as I did for 25 years, I'd be all over this as a fascinating topic for discussion. Some of the interaction might be a little prickly, of course, but that's a good thing. Discussion can be a rather violent sportas well as football, after all, when played properly.

 

[yukon cornelius]

Honestly, how much more do they need to see re: roster decisions? I'll bet they could make 98% of their cuts right now, and little would change with another week

It's about cost/benefit analysis.....there's little to be gained right now, especially with the way these things are trending, with lots of potential cost

 

[Brandon_Cox]

Vrabel’s teams are dirty and will care more about swinging their Dong than disciplined football.

Oh, please

 

[50-yard-line]

I don't see it as a big deal. But their practices should be full speed and tough this week.

No chippiness, but play football like it matters.

 

[JR52]

I'm less concerned about missing preseason joint practices/games and more concerned with the idea that we are just going to suspend games because someone gets hurt. Hamlin situation this is not; hoping this isn't going to become a "point of emphasis" in 2023.

 

[TheRainMaker]

a curious decision to cancel the practices w Tennessee, considering Bill the Coach has led his team to consecutive 1-3 starts

I’d rather have them get reps in a preseason game as joint practices are just controlled environments. Coaches can work on what they want to work on.

It can also come back to haunt you as it was talked about this week on ESPN. Joint practices were brought up and Diana Russini mentioned the Jaguars had a good idea of what the Pats like to do on offense because of their joint practice session in 2017. They gave the Pats a scare in that AFCCG.

 

[Ian]

I am baffled that some see validity in the argument that we should not practice against Tennessee because they are mean and might hurt us. A serious question: is that really where we are now?

I think it's less about that and more about the fact they were supposed to start on Tuesday, and the schedule was thrown off because they spent the night in Green Bay rather than being back here early this morning.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Every single player on the team must have been looking at Bolden lying motionless on the field, perhaps paralyzed for life or a vegetable for life, and thinking "that could have been me."

Fringe players a few days short of cut-down day are tempted in a joint practice to take that hit or takedown a bit further than in a normal practice, and so risk of injury increases. It wasn't just Belichick - the Jets coach also canceled the second day of joint practices citing the increased risk of injury. Only half the league even hold joint practices and we are unusual in scheduling four days of joint practice. So it's a risk reward thing - you learn something practicing against another team, but risk of injury undoubtedly goes up too compared with holding your own practice.

Incidentally everyone is criticising the Robert's hit on a sliding QB as showing a lack of discipline - it looked to me like he launched just as the QB gave himself up. He's a huge guy running full speed - not as if he can stop on a dime.

 

[PScottman]

I do wonder if teams are going to start doing them less each year. When they first started, it was fresh and exciting, and the teams came into it with a cooperative attitude. But it feels like the number of fights and general chippiness has ramped up the last few years. I wonder if players have started to realize how much evaluation is being done at these, and are thinking, "This is where I need to win my job." I don't know. In this case I think @jimnance is right and it's mostly about scheduling and letting guys get their heads right. But I'll be curious to see if they do two sets of joints next year.

Another negative outcome of reduction in both real padded practices and preseason games to perform evaluation and select a team. I agree that the evaluation aspect ramps up competitiveness in the joint practices therefore increasing the potential for negative emotional response because this is livelihood we are talking about here.

If we had this same thing in our jobs "today in we are bringing in coders from HyperTech and if they are able to produce more apps than you in our two hour joint session, we're just going to have to let you go." we'd probably end up fighting Norm from HyperTech Accounting too.