NFL News & Rumors Digest

INDIANOLIS (NFL/Florio) – The NFL owner who has repeatedly demonstrated that, when it comes to his Twitter account, he has no impulse contol is asking his clients to not be so quick to turn their backs on his rebuilding team.

“The schedule is out and new era is right here . . . in 1998 we went 3-13 and it took us till Jan. 2004, almost six years, to win 1st playoff game,” Irsay said Wednesday on Twitter.

His one particular-word request? “Patience.”

Sorry, Jim. It doesn’t work that way. There’s no six-year plan. There’s not even a two-year plan. It’s win now, or the fans may scatter.

More accurately, the challenge is to stay in contention as deep into each and every season as possible. Even even though Irsay is accurate when he points out that the Colts didn’t win a playoff game till the seventh season of Peyton Manning’s career (a not-so-subtle slap at the team’s former quarterback), they made it to the playoffs below Peyton in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

And so while the fans may possibly not bail on the new regime if the Colts don’t win an additional postseason game until 2018, they’ll want to get to the playoffs by 2013 or the negative comparisons to the Manning era will start.

Or, even worse, Colts fans will select to stay home and watch Manning and the Broncos on Television.

(About:) This report was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For a lot more NFL football news see: Jim Irsay preaches patience for Colts fans.

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• Jim Irsay Preaches Patience for Colts Fans

INDIANOLIS (NFL/Florio) – The NFL owner who has repeatedly demonstrated that, when it comes to his Twitter account, he has no impulse contol is asking his customers to not be so quick to turn their backs on his rebuilding team.

“The schedule is out and new era is here . . . in 1998 we went 3-13 and it took us until Jan. 2004, almost 6 years, to win 1st playoff game,” Irsay said Wednesday on Twitter.

His one-word request? “Patience.”

Sorry, Jim. It doesn’t work that way. There’s no six-year plan. There’s not even a two-year plan. It’s win now, or the fans may scatter.

More accurately, the challenge is to remain in contention as deep into each season as possible. Even though Irsay is accurate when he points out that the Colts didn’t win a playoff game until the seventh season of Peyton Manning’s career (a not-so-subtle slap at the team’s former quarterback), they made it to the playoffs under Peyton in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

And so while the fans may not bail on the new regime if the Colts don’t win another postseason game until 2018, they’ll need to get to the playoffs by 2013 or the negative comparisons to the Manning era will begin.

Or, even worse, Colts fans will choose to stay home and watch Manning and the Broncos on TV.

(About:) This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more NFL football news see: Jim Irsay preaches patience for Colts fans.

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• Jim Irsay Preaches Patience for Colts Fans

The initial winning September of the Norv Turner era has not inspired Chargers fans to suddenly start acquiring tickets.

The Chargers announced that Sunday’s game against the Dolphins will not be televised in the San Diego market.  More than 6,500 tickets stay available.

Los Angeles football fans may possibly be happy about the development.  They get to watch the far far more intriguing Raiders-Patriots matchup instead now.

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The 49ers don’t need to be concerned about violating PUP rules anymore with Michael Crabtree.

The team activated Crabtree on Tuesday, then watched as he practiced officially for the first time in the Jim Harbaugh era. Barely.

Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports that Crabtree didn’t actually do anything different than on Monday, when caught a couple of short passes and mostly worked on the side.

“We’ll talk about that quite little and just assess it as we go,” Harbaugh said when asked about Crabtree’s involvement.

It’s hard to imagine Crabtree will be ready to play a lot of snaps, if any, in time for Week 1 at this pace.  If Crabtree isn’t ready, San Francisco’s leading three wideouts entering the season will be Braylon Edwards, Josh Morgan, and Ted Ginn.

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Anyone who believes Bill Parcells might return to the NFL will be disappointed. Parcells just doesn’t see it happening.

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In this era of NFL running backs sharing workloads, Pittsburgh’s use of Rashard Mendenhall last season was a bit of an anomaly. His 324 carries was fourth in the NFL; no one else on the Steelers had more than 53 carries.   If you include the playoffs, Mendenhall’s workload went all the way up to 385…

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Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf and Deion Sanders — the five players in their first year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame — will be among 15 modern-era finalists considered for election when the 44-member selection committee meets Feb. 5 in North Texas.

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The Panthers said Friday the contracts of John Fox and his coaching staff won’t be renewed after this season.
NFL.com

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