Demps to IR - but he's not hurt.

If this is true I wonder what the penalty would be. A fine maybe.

 

He is injured. Despite profootballtalk's outstanding medical credentials, an MRI can't prove that someone is "fine". It just showed that he doesn't have a serious injury.

In order for a player to be eligible for the Injured Reserve, he must be "not immediately available for participation with a club" according to NFL rules. The Patriots evidently felt that Demps wasn't immediately available to participate in practices when they IR'ed him, and it is going to be damn hard for anyone to prove otherwise.

Did the Patriots "stash" Demps on the IR? Absolutely. But as far as anyone knows, they did so within the rules.

 

You are forgetting a couple important facts in your haste to cry favoritism.

One, the article notes that the league rarely does independent medical testing. Not just for players on the Patriots, but for any team.

Two, if he really isn't hurt, the player has to be ok with being stashed on the IR instead of hitting the waiver wire. Otherwise he could file a complaint and have the league look into this. The way I see it, if a player would rather sit out a season and be on IR instead of actually getting to play for another team, that is good for that team for being an ideal place to play.

Don't sit here and cry about this kind of stuff when the Jets didn't put Favre on the injury report and gained a competitive advantage from that. Wow the team lost 125k after the fact. Big deal. Would you be happy if the Pats lost 125k? I doubt it.

 

He was injured in the fourth game, and told reporters afterwards that he was "okay". Wtf does "okay" mean, coming from a football player? If you want to turn this into some sort of conspiracy theory, go ahead, but no one else cares, save a few other bitter Jets fans who would probably call for league investigations every time Belichick shows up to a press conference four minutes late.

 

Who cares? Stashed this year and cut next year..this guy will make Johhny Lam Jones look like Bob Hayes.

 

Its a funny one - it does look like he is being stashed on the sly but at the same time he clearly wants to play for the Pats and is comfortable with the arrangement so it would seem a bit harsh on him to be effectively forced to go play for Tampa or whoever, but as it said in the article given what the Pats apparently pulled with Ballard it would be pretty funny if he did get sent somewhere else.

 

I'll bet he's actually not on IR. The problem is that the Giants own the media and they only say things that they Giants want them to say.

 

The problem with this is that it happens all the time. The Jets have done it a few years in a row actually. Remember Eric Ainge's rookie season? he played extremely well during the 4th preseason game, and we could no longer try and stash him on the PS. So we IR'ed him for his hand injury that he played throughout the preseason and TC with. Then last year (or was it the year before?) We actually cut Kevin O'Connell and then signed him back 2 days later so we could IR him because the Dolphins wanted to sign him and do just that.

I agree teams shouldnt be able to do it. But it benefits teams and players, so its not going away. The player still gets paid the salary of a guy on the active roster, the team gets to keep a guy they like without having him take up a roster spot.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

He left the 4th preseason game with a foot injury and did not return. Is he hurt enough to not play at all this season? More than likely, no. Does he have to be to be put on IR, NO.

 

What did they pull on Ballard? Made a waiver claim on a player on waivers? How can that be allowed?

Demps is slightly injured and not in close to real football shape. The options were to IR him or take up a spot on the 53 man roster... no brainer.

Anyone ever read the book on Rocky Blier and how the Steelers offered him a paycheck to be "hurt" and placed on IR his rookie season so they could stash him?

The NFLPA loves this stuff because it is another player getting a paycheck from the league.

 

Come off it, everyone knows (or at least it was very widely reported that) that the Giants were seriously steamed that the Patriots broke an unwritten rule in taking Ballard at that point when it was reprtedly well known they were making some roster moves. It wasn't against the rules, it was well within the rules and a real miscalculation by the Giants but even so it was still seen as pretty poor form on the part of the Pats.

 

I love all of these "unwritten" rules. The Pats were willing to pay Ballard his full salary based on the expectation of his worth. The Giants wanted to get out from the contract and pull the guy back in at lesser money. The Giants screwed themselves over to save a couple of bucks. My guess is the NFLPA would be interested to know about any "unwritten" rules that allows teams to waive guys without worry that they'll be picked up, so they can be brought back cheaper.

As far as the IR thing with Demps, the Giants did exactly the same thing with Victor Cruz his rookie year when he had a "tweaked" hammy and was put on the IR.

 

the Giants put him on waivers and didn't think anyone would claim him. they were pissed that their plan backfired, not that the Pats broke any unwritten rule.

 

They weren't pissed because they didn't think anyone would claim him, Coughlin was fuming because Reese exposed a talented young TE to waivers on a "calculated risk", a risk that Coughlin obviously didn't agree with.

There are no written or unwritten rules. It's a business and you are directly competing against everyone else in the league. You don't pass on someone who can improve your team while it weakens another team.

 

^There are no written rules?

 

..lol. Uhhh, yeahhhh, what I meant was regarding waiver players and taking them, obviously there are written rules. Whoops. haha.

 

lmao I was just giving you a hard time I wasn't trying to be a dick