"There is quite literally proof that he texted an alleged sexual assault victim threatening to physically abuse them."
Before I have to continue going back and forth with you on this, how many of the pieces of evidence that you're discussing have you actually looked into? Because I can tell you right now there was nothing even close to him threatening to 'physically abuse' anyone, and that is quite a strong calim.

And for clarity, I'm not even here trying defend AB on any level as being some innocent figure, and when the Patriots first signed him I wasn't sure why they'd even want to bring that kind of problematic attention on themselves. But after doing it, then going on to cut him after 11 days when your team was clearly focused on trying to integrate him into the offense, and the reasons had nothing to do with what he'd done on the team or anything he'd even done in his duration with the team, just made them look totally clueless. And it's left the Patriots offense and several of the players looking frustrated every game, even though they're winning comfortably.
And what did it get them? Are the media going to forgive them now? https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2019/9/23/20876383/new-england-patriots-antonio-brown-signed-released-bill-belichick

I figured if they were gonna sign AB they should at least stick with it and try to go the distance until there was a real sold reason giving them no choice but to cut him. Instead they totally caved within a matter of days and nothing but hearsay and media bombardment, which they should be used to anyway.

https://celebrityinsider.org/britney-taylor-drops-sex-abuse-lawsuit-against-wide-receiver-antonio-brown-329040/

"According to a report from CBS Sports, Britney Taylor, the woman who was suing the wide receiver, Antonio Brown, has dropped her civil suit against the football player. However, she reportedly intends to refile her suit at some point in the future."

"Furthermore, the latest documents show that Taylor’s legal team has changed since the original filing, including the addition of a new Florida-based lawyer, Andrew Knopf. Previously, Jonathan S. Abady was in the suit however, his name wasn’t included in the new filings."

Sounds like it's all on solid ground to you huh?

AB, guilty or not, is a piece of ****. I'm glad he is gone.

Where is the next week predictions? See this is why miss some Thursday games. If I have to wait till freaking Thursday to post I might get to work and forget about it before too late since I work second shift.

I mean, you're the one who claimed that her plan was to refile in FL from the start, so I'm not sure how this would change anything. It's rare to file a civil case in federal court anyway, so this may just be venue shopping.

But sure, let's assume, for the sake of argument, that all of this is fake. Taylor is just making all of this up as a cash grab. At the very least, AB has still thrown furniture out of a six story window (which came perilously close to hitting individuals), and sent intimidating text messages to an accuser. Both a doctor and a chef have accused him of skipping out on paying bills long before he joined the Patriots. He was both late and disruptive in the court case he was required to show up for. Unless you think the entire world, our judicial system included, is out to get AB, I don't really see an argument for how he isn't a terrible human.

They're up Wednesday evenings. Set an alarm for Thursday mornings, if you forget that consistently.

I thought I made this clear enough already, but I guess I'll state it outright: my argument is not that AB isn't a shitty human being, it's that the Patriots management knew what he was to begin with, signed him anyway wasting resources and time on him, then cut him after getting cold feet from the amount of media attention.

The whole situation has made them look totally silly, and I didn't even mention perhaps the most important aspect of the saga-- that they had traded Demaryius Thomas immediately after signing AB --who at the very least would have saved them trading away a 2nd round pick now for Sanu, and would've got them by until N'Keal Harry returned and got initiated in the offense.

So where are this week's predication? Am I being dense?

Okay got it seemed some weeks up sooner.  I'll just do it every Wednesday night/Thursday morning when I get off work that way never miss another Thursday game.  I appreciate you filling in for rol this year and taking time to host league.

Right here. They go up on Wednesday nights (at the latest, sometimes earlier if I think I'll be busy on Wednesdays).

Standings are not up tonight, however, because I think I've figured out what's been causing the Thursday night prediction issues (more on that soon).

That's only part of your original argument, and not the piece I've been taking issue with. Your original argument was, and I quote: "I don't care what you think about how AB handled the allegations. They never existed until he joined the Pats, and as soon as he was cut and the media conveniently decided those allegation weren't news-worthy anymore, the charges against him were all dropped."

Claim whatever you want about the Patriots' management supposedly being "duped," or giving into pressure, or whatever, but there were plenty of allegations against him before he signed with the Patriots. Using a racial slur against a GM, the furniture incident, stiffing payments from people, etc. These were all widely reported when the stories initially broke. Again, I'm not a fan of the way the media has handled certain incidents involving the Patriots in the past, but this one was absolutely not some "clear job by the media," as you claim.

If you want to argue that the Patriots just buckled under pressure (personally I think it's just Belichick giving a troubled player a chance and seeing if he can get his shit in order, then as soon as the text happened he was out the door), we can have that discussion, but that's an entirely separate issue from arguing the whole thing is just some media scheme to get AB off the Patriots.

When I said "allegations that didn't exist until he joined the Patriots", I was specifically talking about the 'rape allegations' that were only discovered after he joined the Patriots. The furniture incident, spat with the Raiders GM and all that other noise were all documented and proven events that we all knew about before he joined the Pats, so I'm not sure why you'd think I was referring to them.

The whole text message situation that you originally believed was 'threatening physical abuse', is really a stretch to even call a threat to begin with, when it was him group messaging his team of people to investigate the person who was trying to make a sexual assault case against him, and the only things threatening about it was his aggressively defensive way of sharing information about the accuser, and the fact that he included the accuser in the groups chat (intentionally or unintentionally, no one even knows).
The only thing he ever asked people to do was look into her and her credibility, and there was no hint of him trying to order anything like physical abuse or another threatening action. Only thing the accuser could have been worried about was the unwanted attention, which would beg the question why is she subsequently screenshotting and releasing all of this information to begin with? Along with only deciding to pursue these charges once he joined the biggest team in the NFL?
And again, just for clarity, AB is indeed a dipshit, and he handled the whole situation like a dipshit. But what exactly about this one scenario was so egregiously worse from his previous offenses that the Pats had to now take decisive action? Was this not just consistent with his usual dipshit behaviour? And was he not actively trying to keep these things from going public, and actively trying to not bring any distractions to the team by dealing with the issues as quick as possible? (in his own dipshit way)

The text messages were literally the only thing seen or heard from AB during his team with the Pats, and it he wasn't even the one that leaked them. Meanwhile all the teammates and coaches had nothing but good things to say about him and his work ethos with the team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taUt7HREfPs&feature=youtu.be&t=345
(Brady still liking his posts on IG long after being cut)
All the antics from his time with the Raiders had all ceased once he joined the Patriots, yet the media made sure if he wasn't going to give them any stories they'd dig some up one way or another. And I guess the only thing that can make a character assassination that much sweeter for them, is if they can also drag the Patriots name through the mud, as they are always looking for ways to do. The fact they could also pressure them into cutting AB within a matter of days is just the icing on the cake.

We can keep going back and forth over this, but at what point do the Patriots management come out looking like they handled the AB Saga in a semi-competent way? Or that they somehow came out without some major casualties to their offense?


On another note, I see they've placed Josh Gordon on IR, meaning he's done with the team, even though he was out there practicing today. At least they managed to keep a spot for Gunner Olszewski. Brilliant.