stoneghost28

Me too. I have to admit to being totally shocked that it's tolerated. The Patriots dynasty was a radical aberration in a lot of ways. There have always been dynasties in pro football, but there has never been one like the Patriots, especially since Free Agency began 25 years ago or so. Nobody probably wants a tour through the decades beyond diehards, but I can simply reference that across the decades there have been innumerable successful teams rising and falling over time, mostly due to good fortune with ownership/General Management/and some key signings/draftings over the years (considering it's a sport where one position has historically been so critical) but it's telling that in a league like the NFL, there's essentially virtually no teams without a history of success, If I think about all the teams, even teams that have been bad for decades like the Cardinals, Lions, Bengals, or have just been notoriously snakebite like the Browns or Jets have all had their moments (the Cardinals lost a classic Super Bowl and made title games in the thirties and forties if memory serves, the Lions were great in the fifties and made a title game in '91, the Bengals made two Super Bowls in the eighties, the browns were the dynasty of the fifties in the AFL, the Jets had '69 and moments in the early eighties and late aughts. No fanbase has loved a franchise that was never any good at all, all of them have been good and most have either won titles or played for them in the past 30+years with only a half dozen or so teams outside that realm. I cannot imagine the loyalty of a fanbase of teams that literally have no chance EVER to win period and it's basically built into the game that it's that way. Baseball and Basketball have somewhat similar issues due to revenue sharing issues in the case of the former, and due to the nature of the sport and player power w/regards to basketball but there's still hope if you have quality management best summarized by multiple curses falling in the past 15 years (Red Sox curse didn't make it to 90 years, White Sox curse ended a year later, and the Cubs curse was demolished by continuing the Indians curse back in '16, which is now the longest of the curses after the Nationals won last year to break the DC Baseball curse which extended to the 1920's). It's just amazing to me that European fan bases tolerate situations in which only a handful of teams really ever have anything like a chance. It's kind of insane to me, but the relegation system is super fascinating, but not possible in our country because of how sports ownership evolved over the decades, our leagues developed differently than yours, and I guess that's why it was never even exactly considered. Fascinating to think about and I wish it was possible over here but I think it would only be possible w/a brand new sport being built from scratch, I can't see it any other way which is unfortunate because it's a spectacular way to reward quality Front Offices and punish incompetent management. Fans of the Knicks, or fans of my redskins are basically punished for the life of the owners. We know with owners like Dolan and Snyder there is literally no hope whatsoever. Relegation might make that different, maybe these clowns would sell if they knew ownership carried such risks, alas, ownership of those teams is a license to print money for the rest of your lives and that of your heirs, and so we're stuck with fools like Dan Snyder and James Dolan.

Otoh, I'm certainly happier that players get a bigger piece of the pie these days than the owners as compared to the past, at least when it comes to American sports where far too many owners are legacy ---hats who haven't contributed a damn thing to society. At the end of the day it's the players themselves that have created the wealth the game generates, not the owners. They're merely hangers on with investments that until this moments with Covid (again at least in American Sports) carried zero risk, and generated ceaseless profits.

+1

We've had Keepers that were quite successful, and Dempsey was good to very good with Fulham. I recognize he wasn't a star or superstar but he regularly scored tons of goals including one of the most famous they've had (against Juventus in the UEFA cup). He also scored in three consecutive World Cups ('06, '10, '14) notching 4 in all, scored the knockout clinching goal against Egypt, and then scored against Spain and Brazil in the semifinal's and final of the '09 confederation cup, winning the bronze ball and added another 3 goals at the '16 Copa America Centenario. Granted, not superstar level, but he was a very good player on the international stage and had a good career in England. Not intended to derail the thread, just saw one reference to Dempsey as "decent" and then a reference to the US never really sending a good player over, and I wanted to give Dempsey his props, I don't think many people realize how superb he was for us in major tournaments, and the quality of his career at Fulham (50 goals and 17 in his last season there).

It's odd to hear the potential angle because those of us who are USMNT/Pulisic fans in this Chelsea context have been watching him play since at least as far back as '14. It's not really a potential thing with him to us other than the question perhaps of whether he develops into a world class caliber player (top 25 or top 50 or top 100 or however you might want to measure it), for us, he's been playing like this since a youth national team player going back more than half a decade. Take a look at something as basic as the goals he scored for Dortmund Youtube clip, or anything else and you'll see elements of everything he's doing. If any of us were concerned about anything it was with the twin impacts of the US debacle in qualifying at Couva in '17 which seemed to really crush him, and the arrival of Sancho and a few others at Dortmund, this all seemed to roll together and lead to a dip in form and non-participation with the USMNT throughout much of '18 and early '19. Whatever's happened in Chelsea has actually really helped because things with the USMNT have been a disaster under Berhalter and our incompetent Fed, but it seems as if the year with you guys has really brought a level of focus and consistency to his game that seemed probably missing since the winter of '17-'18 or maybe that spring (I just happen to think the disaster at Couva, missing that cup itself, and the issues at Dortmund kind of hit him hard for a while). Regardless, how he's playing now is essentially the best of what he is, a dynamic attacking playmaker who can work on the wings or centrally or even at Forward, and just score from any angle. His slight form is a concern, and hopefully he'll hold up to the rigors of EPL play (though to be fair, he seems more physically sturdy these days than at any point I've ever seen him. I think you guys should be very happy with him. He carried the youth national team at times, was a key player for Dortmund as a young kid, was one of only two regular starters during our '17 qualifying campaign disaster that had nothing to apologize for (lead us in scoring, and scored the goal to get us back into the game at 1-2) and is a truly special player. I don't know if he'll reach the heights that other players have for you guys over the past few decades but he has played up to and beyond his potential pretty much everywhere he's been save for that up and down 2018-2019 time period that was at best uneven, and right now, honestly, he's playing with more confidence than I've ever seen. Whatever you're doing with him, it seems to be washing away whatever issues caused his game to slip a touch a few years back. Thank you!