ProGKExp retweeted
Joe Flacco of the Cincinnati Bengals just offered to pay Caleb Williams fine out of his own pocket.
Here is what the fine is for.
Caleb Williams has been wearing cleats made by a company called Caddix. The NFL fined him 11,941 dollars for it after the Bears won at Atlanta in Week 6.
Not for anything he did in the game. For the logo on the side of his shoe.
NFL uniform rules let three brands appear on a player's feet. Nike, Adidas and Under Armour. Those are the three with league partnerships. Anything else has to be taped over.
Caddix was founded in 2015. The thing it sells is a stud design meant to cut down the rotational stress that shredded knees and ankles take every time a man plants his foot and turns.
Williams says he had been trying to get out of Nike and into these for about a year.
"They're smart cleats, they're science cleats, and they've been working for me."
He says he is focused on his health. He says they have helped his joints. He estimates about 40 NFL players already wear the brand.
And here is the part that changes how this reads. Williams has no contract with Caddix. Nobody is paying him to wear them. He is eating an 11,941 dollar fine for a shoe he bought into on his own.
That is when Flacco said this.
"If Caleb gets fined again for wearing Caddix, I'll pay the fine myself."
Jack Rasmussen, who founded the company, said he would cover it too.
Be straight about who is talking. Flacco is one of four athlete advisors to Caddix and has worn the cleats for years. He was the first NFL player to put them on, back in 2024. CBS has described him as an investor in it. He is not a neutral bystander here, the company went and put a billboard up in Chicago about all this, and every bit of this is good for Caddix.
So take the sales pitch out and look at what is left.
Flacco is in his 19th NFL season. Nineteen years of getting hit, getting up, and finding out in his forties what all of it costs. A man with that many miles on him has opinions about what is under his feet, and he is willing to spend his own money backing a 24 year old on another team who reached the same conclusion.
Williams has appealed the fine. Caddix has a hearing with the league on November 10. The Bears play at Seattle on Monday and he says he is not taping anything over.
Strip out the brands and the billboard and the sentence underneath it is this.
A quarterback is being fined for wearing something he believes protects his knees.
ProGKExp retweeted
Winston Salem University grounds crew seen eyeballing the field yardage markers.
Third down and ehhh
Had a great time last Friday catching up with John Stewart with the Syracuse Mets. You can see some pictures of a very young John in some of those throwback thursday photos from a few weeks ago. He's doing a great job, and will always hold a special place in my heart.
I love that they have the throwback sign from Randy Mobley, for those who remember him.
❤️❤️❤️ The very best to Chris Powell!
Leaving behind a legacy ☑️
Head Groundskeeper Chris Powell and Grounds Supervisor Scott Springer are retiring from the Browns after a combined 5+ decades with the organization
📰 » brow.nz/lhdy
Awesome visit with Jeff at the Bison's ballpark. It was our first time meeting, and it was wonderful to spend hours discussing different perspectives and ideas on all sorts of things within the turf industry.
Huge thanks to Aaron for spending the morning walking me through the new stadium and training facility. The level of forward thinking, planning, and the use of technology is at an unprecedented level in this new facility. These are all things that we love at PGE, so this was a truly special visit.
At a time when we're seeing some sports organizations possibly making decisions about their fields based on different factors, it's refreshing and exciting to see the Bills fully invest in the tools and technology that will give their grounds staff the best chance of success providing a playing field with the health of the players as the top priority.
I'm wishing Aaron and his staff all the success with the field at this new facility!
Connecting to this Throwback Thursday post from last week, I'll do a little sequential picture thread getting through those couple weeks leading up to the 2008 season.
It's strange looking back on it and realizing that was nearly 20 years ago. I had spent 2007 working in Baltimore with Nicole, Nick Rozdilski, and Greg Jones. Still friends with them to this day, even if we don't chat quite as often. I took the head job with the Syracuse Chiefs in December of 2007.
As mentioned in the previous post, the playing surface had previously been synthetic and the renovation was made following the 2007 season to change everything out to a natural field.
This was an incredibly educational experience. The older I get, the more I focus on learning something new every single day. The renovation and field were still under the control of the contractor through the winter. We worked together to do everything we could to be ready for opening day. With 18 years of additional knowledge and experience today, would I have done some things differently? Absolutely. But we can't change the past, we can only learn from it and get better going forward.
I look back with great fondness for my two years in Syracuse. I met one of my most dear friends who, years later, would give me the unbelievable honor of being Godfather to his son. I look forward to spending time with that family next week.
I met a young man with the same first and middle name as me with a great personality, a strong work ethic, and absolutely zero experience. We would work so closely throughout those two years, and he would go on to take over the head role when I left. He still holds that position today, and I can't wait to spend time with him and his wife and celebrate the birth of their second child next week.
I could go on about plenty of other special people and experiences, but I'll leave it at that for now.
These first few pictures were from March 10. We were beginning to clear the field of snow, but the ground was very much staying frozen and quickly began learning of the challenges of trying to thaw and dry a field that far north.
Throwback Thursday
Five days before opening day in Syracuse going into the 2008 season. The previous fall, the field went through a transition from a full synthetic surface to a natural one.
The installation of infield material and final touches were not completed before the 110" of snow for the winter began falling the first week of December through the next four months. With snow coverage remaining just days before opening day, and more in the forecast, the decision was made to erect a pair of giant circus tents over the infield, including heaters keeping the ambient temperature inside at about 65 degrees. The ground was thawed and the infield material was installed, laser graded, and rolled, all under the tents.
It wasn't a perfect solution, but it got the job done. Care was taken to avoid irrigation lines and heads with the tent infrastructure.
Professional Grounskeeper Experience
