Cabache's Corner

Nike are celebrating the 30 th anniversary of their famous “Just do it” campaign with a new message and it isn’t very subtle. On Monday 3 rd September Nike dropped an image and two sentences that sent a very powerful message to announce their 30 th anniversary campaign. A black and white photo of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick with nine words plainly typed across it: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Within minutes of being posted it had undoubtedly earned immense numbers of interactions, and can we really be surprised? Such a high profile company, the sole official uniform provider for the NFL no less, had just blatantly endorsed a man who had been kept out of the NFL, disgraced by the President of the United States and targeted with hate by millions of people in America, and even some around the world. In fact, Nike hadn’t just endorsed him, they had made him the face of their newest and celebratory “Just do it” cam...

Jon Gruden has started his second tenure with the Oakland Raiders by trading away his team’s best player. Khalil Mack is now a Chicago Bear. It’s no secret that Gruden wanted to have a big role in choosing his roster. Though personnel decisions are supposedly “a team effort” between Gruden and GM Reggie McKenzie, Mack’s trade suggests Gruden has a lot of pull, Mike Freeman’s and Scott Blair's respective tweets certainly seem to confirm as much.  From one team executive who spoke to Raiders about Mack, speaking of Reggie McKenzie: “It was crystal clear to me that Reggie didn’t want to trade Mack.” — mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) September 1, 2018 McKenzie said Mack trade "will sting" in the locker room..."They're going to miss Khalil. I'm going to miss Khalil. Let's make that point known now." — Scott Bair (@BairNBCS) September 2, 2018 So what does this move tell us? Gruden has a plan  What is that plan? Well, it has something to d...

The NFL’s preseason is over. The 2018 regular season starts in six days on Thursday night, with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Atlanta Falcons. Before that, though, every team has to go through the arduous task of trimming their rosters’ of 80+ down to 53 players. Over next two days, 1,184 NFL players will be fired from their jobs. Some will return to practice squads, but many will have no choice but to move on. There is no busier transactional time in the NFL than this weekend. For many it is a brutal weekend they won’t forget. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 31, 2018 The Baltimore Ravens are about to embark on a crucial season. After failing to reach the playoffs in each of the last three years, the pressure is on the staff and many players to get back this year. To do this the Ravens have to pick the right 53 to kick the season off hot. With many new faces and a hell of a lot of depth after a 5-0 preseason, the competition for roster spots has been fier...

Hello! And Welcome to my corner. The NFL season is rumbling on with week 3 starting tomorrow, and week 2 did not disappoint. The Raiders dismantled the Baltimore Ravens defense, who last week held the Broncos to no offensive touchdowns, to the tune of 37 points. Despite the Ravens offense also finding a new gear, scoring 33 points, the Raiders youth were too much for the Ravens to match. This was a great result for the Raiders, but the Ravens now find themselves in a potentially disastrous position and it's only week 2. The Ravens now have to face the 2-0 Cincinnati Bengals and then the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Ravens HAVE to win at least one of these games or it's virtually season over. The Jacksonville Jaguars upset the Miami Dolphins 23-20 and they looked good all round. Blake Bortles took care of the ball and Allen Robinson took over, with 6 catches for 155 yards and 2 touchdowns. On defense, they held the Dolphins when it mattered, giving their rookie kicker the ch...

Hello! And welcome to my corner. The NFL regular season is officially underway! The New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off the season in Foxborough on Thursday night with a 28-21 Patriots victory. In a game that saw Gronk do Gronk things, scoring 3 TD's, and Tom Brady begin his season of vengeance with an incredibly sharp performance, going 25/32 for 288 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Steelers on the other hand, despite gaining more yards, missed two field goals and even left Gronkowski completely uncovered on one of his touchdowns. They certainly shot themselves in the foot several times and gave away a game they could definitely have won. Then came Sunday, the first Sunday in 259 days with a full NFL schedule. The best of the early games was an NFC West match-up that featured the Seattle Seahawks travelling to the St. Louis Rams. Over the last few seasons the Seahawks have struggled against the Rams and this game was no different. The Rams beat the Seahawk...

Hello! And welcome to my corner! The regular season is finally upon us! On Thursday night, or Friday morning, the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots will host the Pittsburgh Steelers in Foxborough and life will be good again! Earlier this week, the Deflategate scandal finally came to a close (for now) with Judge Berman overruling Commissioner Goodell's 4-game suspension of Tom Brady. During the hearing, Berman pushed for both sides to get a settlement done, but the terms couldn't be agreed on. Brady was rumoured to have been willing to accept a 1-game suspension for obstructing the investigation, but still no settlement was reached. Following the ruling, Tom Brady said, "While I am pleased to be eligible to play, I am sorry our league had to endure this. I don't think it has been good for our sport - to a large degree, we have all lost."  This ruling has triggered yet another controversy; that Roger Goodell's role in the disciplinary syst...

Hello! And welcome to my corner! The NFL preseason is nearly over! The 3rd week of the preseason has wrapped up and the 1st round of cuts ended yesterday, leaving teams with just 75 players. So, naturally, there is plenty of news. One of the biggest story lines of the preseason has been the various QB battles across the league. A three way battle in Buffalo between Tyrod Taylor, EJ Manuel and Matt Cassel, the battle in Washington between Kirk Cousins, Robert Griffin III and Colt McCoy and the Hard Knocks' face off between Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett in Houston. Now, entering week 4 of the preseason we know the winner of all 3 battles. In Buffalo Rex Ryan decided to give the keys to the offense to Tyrod Taylor, and I think he made the right move. Matt Cassel not only showed very little, is a known commodity. As Dave Dameshek frequently points out, why not roll the dice on a guy with potential? In a business that bases success on wins, go big, take a risk! That's why I li...

Hello! And welcome to my corner. Last week marked the end of every teams minicamp, meaning we are getting much closer to football. Though it does also signal the start of a long wait for training camp. This week wasn't nearly as busy as last week in terms of big news, nevertheless, here's a run down of a few of the biggest stories. Tom Brady's Appeal Begins Yesterday, Tom Brady's appeal hearing for his role in Deflate-Gate took place and it was a long one. The appeal was meant to last no longer than 4 hours. It lasted 10. Now we wait, Roger Goodell, though no time frame for his verdict has been given, is expected to announce his decision on Tom Brady's suspension at around the same time as training camp starts. As far as the Patriots are concerned, that time frame is okay. Any later would obviously start to cause problems as they need to know whether Jimmy Garappolo will in fact be the starting quarterback for a month. Does Odell Beckham Jr. Need to ...

Hello! And welcome to my corner. It's now officially Rob Gronkowski days until the NFL kicks off again, minicamps are underway and training camp is just around the corner. Excitement among NFL fans is definitely building! With teams training again, there is a natural increase in story's and roster moves among the 32 teams and two of the biggest stories of the off-season continue to make headlines. The San Francisco 49ers' disastrous loss of players and Chip Kelly's complete turnover of the Philadelphia Eagles' roster. The 49ers have been subject to a very sudden and harsh fall from power. 2 years ago they were one play away from winning the Super Bowl. The following year they were one win away from making a 2nd consecutive Super Bowl, they have now fired head coach Jim Harbaugh, lost star linebacker Patrick Willis, Willis' replacement and up-and-comer Chris Borland, longtime d-line lynch pin Justin Smith and starting RT Anthony Davis to retiremen...

Hello! And welcome to my corner! All 32 of the leagues owners convened in San Francisco this past week for their annual spring meeting. Robert Kraft made a statement regarding the Patriots actions towards the Ted Wells report, he finally announced that the Patriots would not appeal their punishments, thus allowing the owners to focus on rule changes for this upcoming season. At the top of the itinerary was changes to the extra point. For a few years, now, the NFL has been thinking up ways to change/get rid of the extra point. Finally, they have. The owners voted 30-2 in favour of the rule change. But is it a good thing? The extra point has always been from the 2-yard line making a 1-point conversion a 17-yard kick, which was converted 99.5% of the time. It's the point at which viewers stop watching to refill their drinks, get another bag of crisps or check their fantasy matchup. The new rule makes the 1-point attempt a 32-yard field goal, which has a league conversion rate ...