NFL Week 8 2019 Fine Blotter Part Deux

More on the list, from Spotrac's listings:

• Denver Broncos:  Mike Purcell:  $21,056 for roughing the passer
• Detroit Lions:  TJ Hockenson:  $10,527 for a chop block
• Detroit Lions:  Jarrad Davis:  $10,527 for taunting, making him a TWO TIME LOSER.
• New York Jets:  An expensive week for the Jets, with this third fine of the week:  James Burgess:  $28,075 for lowering the helmet to make contact.
• Buffalo Bills:  Jon Feliciano:  $10,527 for unsportsmanlike conduct.
• That's all for currently, more could come later.

Some thoughts, including the current list:

1. Most fined on the field team is Cleveland (2-6):  $264,000+ on the field, almost $102,000 for suspensions, team fines of $128,000+ for a total of $495,111.  If the Browns were not fined in Week 8, it would be the first on-field week they had this season they were not fined.
2. Most-fined team period is the Raiders (4-4):  $196,000+ on the field (but a $50,000 addition to that number for the Burfict ban), $250,000 for suspensions, a team fine of just over $100,000 puts their total at $546,136
3. Atlanta (1-7):  $147,393 on the field plus the $50,000 first-level fine
4. Green Bay (7-2):  $144,314 plus $50,000  (You think this week was a message to the players and the Cheeseheads in Green Bay as to how much the refs have been helping you to 7-2???)
5. Minnesota (6-3):  $129,000+ on the field, a bit over $44,000 in suspension fines for $174,271.

There are STILL four teams who have not been fined on the field this season.  Indianapolis and the Giants have suspension fines for off-season drug suspensions.  And the Chargers and Cardinals have had no fines at all, as of present research.

(WWE) Potential criminal angle from the Saudi mess...

It's been mentioned a couple of times during all the speculation and the like -- and the latest is that Spanish-language announcer Hugo Savinovich has increased the pressure on WWE, stating directly that the Saudi authorities had factually ordered the kidnapping of the bulk of the WWE roster.

And people who have dealt with the Saudis note that is usually the first step toward eliminating possible "problems" the likes of MBS have with them.

But that's not what I'm meaning when I make this headline today.  This is a far more concrete situation.

It's clear that the WWE knew well in advance that it was having problems with the Saudis with respect to receiving agreed-upon monies.  It has been referred to at least twice in recent investor communications.

On July 22nd, according to required SEC filings, almost $23 million of stock was sold by WWE executives (Vince, HHH, Stephanie, Kevin Dunn, etc.) at about $70 a share.  I'm not counting a much larger sale in April of about $270 million by Vince, simply because of the fact that sale is pretty much known to be related to the XFL launch for next winter.  (Wrestling Inc)

Another report indicates the totals are probably much higher.  One report has the total for July and August for WWE at at least $57 million of stock.

Why is the situation so significant?  Because part of the reason for the "dick-waving contest" was an apparent non-payment for the June Super Showdown blood-money card.

It would appear that WWE executives had to know that, once this all went public and the like, the stock price was going to tank.

The Saudi controversy has knocked another almost two dollars off the price of the WWE stock, taking it down to just $54 a share.  Meaning that those who even bought from the executives in July have now lost over 20% of the stock's value in just about three months.

There's two words for this, in very real possibility:  INSIDER TRADING.

It is illegal for executives to sell stock on information not publicly known.  And I would say much of this Saudi mess has not been publicly known.

Stay tuned.

Twitter storm costs Cleveland Brown his job, and probably his freedom...

And the continuing saga of the complete meltdown of the Cleveland Browns continues.

First, on the field, both Odell Beckham Jr. and Jermaine Whitehead were threatened at halftime to be thrown out of the game if they did not change to legal cleats.  Both will almost certainly be fined, fines the Browns will have to match because of the amount of fines already received this season.

Now 2-6, the Browns have Brown-ed their way to complete stupidity, but that's peanuts compared to word out of Cleveland this morning.

Jermaine Whitehead had started all eight games for the team.

After the game, he became the third Browns player to get into controversy, and was FIRED this morning from the team...

... for racist death threats on his Twitter.

He became the target of fan frustration after poor play during the loss to Denver, and that included a former NFL player who does post-game work for the Browns.

To which, according to ESPN, Whitehead said the following while he was in the locker room:

In response to Fox's criticism, Whitehead wrote, "Come get it in blood b---- made ass lil boy. I'm out there with a broke hand .. don't get smoked ... " 
Whitehead also wrote, "Imma kill you b----.. that's on blood" to another Twitter user.

Twitter suspended his account before he even left the stadium.

(WWE Update Monday Morning) Oh boy...

To say this is a "shit hitting the fan" situation is probably a SEVERE understatement.

In about 17 hours, the final Monday Night RAW before a European tour is about to start, but neither that nor a build to a tri-branded Survivor Series in three weeks time is probably going to be on the minds of many wrestling fans.

It's going to be:  "What, if anything, is the talent going to do about the situation where they were left to be pawns in a situation in Saudi Arabia which, if Vince continued what was seen as a 'dick-waving contest' with a despot trillionaire who wouldn't have a problem executing his entire roster?"

Vince's attitude would probably be "Nothing, and like it."  But after the last 72 or so hours, it is clear there is not only significant discord among the roster, but also roster toward Vince and the fans toward Vince as well.

Various facets include:

• The 20 people allowed to leave on the one plane to try to get them to Smackdown on Friday -- and failing to do so, against the rest of the roster stuck as pawns in Vince's petty shit?
• AJ Styles being the first to try to toe the company line in video -- as he went on Mixer tonight and tried to give a story consistent to the "plane trouble" situation, though he went off and probably invalidated the attempt by claiming the initial delay was a guy taking a fuel truck to the plane to fuel the plane for the Transatlantic flight, blocking the plane, and calling it his work day.
• The fans against Vince...  Oh, the chants could be interesting tonight...
• The talent against Vince...  Of course, there's a serious problem other than the obvious:  How do you piss off Vince without compromising the experience for the fans?
• The fact that Vince McMahon MAJORLY fucked up.  This isn't one of his normal business propositions like when he spit in his father's word to the other promoters of the early-80's that Vince Jr. wouldn't drive them out of business.  This is a propaganda situation for a despotic government who doesn't have a problem beheading political opponents.  If Vince pulls out his dick and throws that side-bicep pose of his, MBS will be more than happy to execute the entirety of his performing roster if it's his whim to do so!  This is what a lot of people were worried about (though I was believing that could be for another possibility!).

This is bad.  Very bad.  Stay tuned.  This could be a bumpy ride.

Updates: The NFLPA is pissed, and it appears we have an international incident!!

• The NFLPA, today, slammed the NFL Network for their coverage on the Trent Williams situation, feeling the Network took the side of the team which all but literally told Trent Williams to fuck off and die from a rare form of cancer.
• And the situation with the WWE and Saudi Arabia is...  out of hand.

The public face is something WWE is trying to put on to save Saudi Arabia's face because there are still eight years and sixteen scheduled shows the WWE would like to put on with the Kingdom.

However, it is now clear that an international incident all but certainly occurred at and after Thursday's card.

The WWE has been trying to gather video of it's Superstars stating it was, in fact, mechanical error and problems which left them in the country for more than 24 hours after their scheduled departure, which led to a complete rewrite of Friday night's show in Buffalo, NY.

A cursory view of the matter appears to indicate the following:

Vince was not paid an eight- or nine-figure amount for the last Saudi program, including television-rights fees in the Kingdom.

As a publicly-traded company, the WWE is required to file periodic financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Wrestlenomics Radio (and I'm certain other wrestling "sheets") was able to find this information from the latest quarterly 10-Q filing of WWE, Inc. with the SEC:

p. 45 of WWE’s latest 10-Qhttps://t.co/a3RGNoL6L7 pic.twitter.com/xr82mqg97c

— Wrestlenomics Radio (@wrestlenomics) November 3, 2019

The circled portion appears to indicate that a nine-figure decrease in "cash generated from operating activities" was largely due to problems collecting money from "Super Showdown" in 2Q 2019 -- the THIRD Saudi blood-money event, held June 7 in Jeddah.

What appears to be the story the "sheets", especially Meltzer, is presenting as at least strong rumor is the following:

• Vince is owed a significant amount of money (figures vary from $75M to a figure of WWE Spanish-language announcer Hugo Savinovich states could be over $500M) from the House of Saud for the first three shows the WWE has put on for Saudi Arabia's propaganda mega-event, "Agenda 2030".
• There was word on an investor call that WWE received $60M of the money in October, but the amount owed appears to be significantly higher.
• Vince ordered, through his television production, the agreed-upon television programming of the event in Saudi Arabia terminated.
• This angered the Saudis, and it is unclear whether, if this is what actually happened, whether any of the event was actually aired.  Some reports state that the card was eventually aired, but on a delay -- the claim was 40 minutes, some heard it was two hours.
• Vince and the Saudi exchanged further "pleasantries", and Vince stormed off just after the card and flew out of the country.  (Given what would happen later, this has much of the stranded/detained talent PISSED!!)
• Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and all but certainly outside talent Tyson Fury were already out of the country before the card ended.  (At least Lesnar and Heyman were confirmed, as they were in Buffalo for a segment to open Smackdown the next night.  Cain Velasquez, however, apparently was stranded.)
• Under the gun for time, a chartered aircraft had been commissioned for about 70 WWE wrestlers and 100 other WWE parties to directly go from Riyadh to Buffalo, NY.
• It now appears that the House of Saud ordered that plane grounded in retaliation for Vince's demands -- all but a hostage/kidnapping situation!
• The big fear on their part was they all knew that the women's match previously mentioned stepped on a few hardliner toes, and the fact that no one was being given a straight answer only increased fears that a hardline cleric with ties to the law in Saudi Arabia had ordered the lot arrested, with who knows what happening to Natalya (Neidhart) and Lacey Evans, the two women who performed the match.  There is at least one report that Saudi military police were near the plane on at least one occasion.
• The WWE presents this as the talent doing it themselves, but it appears that there were at least negotiations to get necessary talent to Smackdown for the next night.  A plane took off early Friday with a skeleton group of 12 necessary talents (including Roman Reigns, Baron Corbin, the New Day, the Revival, and Cesaro).  They didn't make it in time due to weather conditions, etc.  A number of the stranded talents didn't take too kindly to this -- since there were a total of 20 people on that first plane, the hashtag #NotTop20 has surfaced on Twitter and Instagram.
• All indications appear that the talent held in Saudi Arabia were taken care of -- they were taken to a hotel, told they were not allowed to leave the hotel, but told to order and have whatever they wanted to try to keep them as comfortable as possible.
• The talent was finally allowed to depart early Saturday, Saudi time, and got back to New York City about 10 in the morning Eastern time on Saturday.

Wow.

As if the situation with Vince and the Saudis could get any WORSE!!!

Stay tuned.   If this ever DOES become public, look out!

Any doubt left the games are rigged?

And if you don't believe me, watch this gem from the London game this morning...

Every week, there’s a call that’s more absurd and pathetic than last week’s most absurd, pathetic call. https://t.co/37Qqr5RzYf

— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) November 3, 2019

2019 NFL Week Eight Fine Blotter: Starts with a MONSTER...

• Washington Redskins:  Jeremy Sprinkle:  EIGHTY-FOUR THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE DOLLARS.

He's a repeat offender for a shot to the head AND another foul for unnecessary roughness.

So he's a two-time loser.  The fine will probably be reduced under the amount he is paid (this would exceed two game checks), but the Redskins are on the hook for the unnecessary roughness $28,075 and $50,000 for shot to the head repeat offender.  They only had one previous fine all season, but that $78,075 is more than half the necessary amount for a team fine.

Neither fine drew a flag in the game.  He will still probably be fined almost an entire game check.  He'd be fined $28,075 for the repeat-offender foul, and another $7,019 for the other unnecessary roughness.

He played for free last week.  His game check for that game, as a result, would be about $2,875.

And another monster here:

• Oakland Raiders:  Max Crosby is now a THREE-TIME LOSER and gets the team fined again.  

$10,527 for unnecessary roughness, $42,112 for repeat offender roughing the passer.

That puts the Raiders over the final limit, so it's another $25,000 to the team, plus the overage is another $25,010.  So those two incidents total over $100,000 -- plus the Raiders are fined dollar for dollar for anything else this season.

So the Raiders have been fined $250,000 for suspensions, plus another $100,010 for fines.  Wow.

• New York Jets:  Brian Poole:  $10,527 for taunting.
• New York Jets:  Ryan Griffin:  $7,017 for ball into the stands.
• Philadelphia Eagles:  Malcolm Jenkins:  $21,056 for roughing the passer.
• Cincinnati Bengals:  Jessie Bates III:  $28,075 for the helmet rule.
• Carolina Panthers:  Tre Boston:  $28,075 for unnecessary roughness.
• More to come.