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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2387 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 5, 2025

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I think their is a kernel of an interesting conversation in discussing the union of impulse control, testosterone, substances of abuse (as are likely present) and how some of this may in fact be beneficial given the sport...but I don't know where to take that so I'll toss it inside.

Instead let's consider the game and metagame of this. Given that we can't take anything either of them say at face value (I assume Big Dom's hand is shoved firmly up Carter's ass and Dak is a pro at this point).

The game - I "believe" Dak probably was trying to instigate given the shit eating grin and the fact that both teams clearly came to play and were chippy as hell. But I think a reasonable person could believe Dak was doing it on purpose, and a different reasonable person could believe it wasn't deliberate.

So the metagame then - if you throw the book at Carter and let Dak "get away with it" it's going to make players feel that being a dick on the field is incredibly useful, as long as they don't get caught. That's a complete failure of the point of emphasis.

Do I think players are going to walk away believing that? Unsure. Certainly Eagles fans and anti-Cowboys fans will mostly think that.

Sidebar-

For the Eagles haters out there, this might be better for the Eagles in the long run, since it might decrease how much of a cap hit Carter causes when his big contract rolls in.

So the metagame then - if you throw the book at Carter and let Dak "get away with it" it's going to make players feel that being a dick on the field is incredibly useful, as long as they don't get caught.

I don’t think that’s the message at all. The league has had on-field shit-talk for as long as it has existed. What they can’t tolerate is overt, visible aggressive actions that can be seen on-camera. I’ve seen the argument that the league’s renewed focus on eliminating visible displays of bad sportsmanship from its TV product is part of a larger push to stop hemorrhaging trust among current parents of children. (The rising clamor over CTE has a lot of parents deeply wary of involving their boys in football; the league can’t afford to alienate them further by broadcasting their players being aggressive and unsportsmanlike toward each other.)

What Dak did has always been permissible under the rules, and, again, doesn’t really seem that bad or out of the ordinary. He literally just spit on the ground in the general direction of Jalen Carter; he’s not responsible for the fact that Carter has the emotional continence of a small child. If it’s that easy to get in Jalen Carter’s head and make him do something bad enough to get him ejected, then perhaps he’s not cut out for this league long-term.

What Dak did has always been permissible under the rules, and, again, doesn’t really seem that bad or out of the ordinary. He literally just spit on the ground in the general direction of Jalen Carter;

So same stuff happens, Carter doesn't respond, a ref catches it... you don't think Dak gets flagged this game?

I absolutely think they'd throw a flag for spitting at Carter while shit talking.

We'd probably be talking about it being an overreaction, but still.

No, I don’t think he gets flagged. Again, nothing that looks bad on camera, just your standard on-field verbal stuff that goes on throughout the entire game and doesn’t get captured unless a guy is mic’d up. (And then even if he is, the team just edits the hell out of whatever audio they capture.) Unless Dak said the same thing to a ref, in which case he’d get flagged.

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