Hapless Bills Fan

It was probably in his interest to keep quiet in case another team had an opening and wanted to bring him in. Now that it's Week 15 and that doesn't look like happening, Yeah. C'mon Man that's his boss.

Sam Darnold knows Allen well. The Panthers asked Sam "Is Allen Gonna play?" Sam thought for about 2 nanoseconds and said "Oh Hell Yes." End of Thinking.

4 seconds, try 3

I don't think they can extend the season a week, but they could try moving the game to Monday or Tues....would give most of these guys a chance to be symptom free, test negative, and return

Didn't see this upthread, thought it was funny

Favorite Q from the Josh Allen interview from John Wawrow, something to the effect of "Knowing you and your competitive nature, I'm sure that you believe if you can walk out on the field then you can play, is that a fair assessment?" Josh: "That is a very fair assessment."

Reggie Gilliam off the list. Could be big if Taiwan Jones can't go.

Just guessing here, but maybe we're wearing color rush red this week, in which case the "red" jerseys for the QBs and other non-contact players would be green? Different green from the Jets though.

The easiest change (because the test and its accuracy are already vetted and accepted by the NFL and NFLPA) would be to just re-implement daily testing as done last season. By the time they get done discussing the antigen test and its sensitivity and selectivity and choosing a vendor and assuring supply, the season would be done.

Agree. They said if teams didn't do what they should (vaccinate, follow protocols) they would penalize teams and not reschedule. But, these are teams which have done nothing wrong and key players/coaches who are vaccinated and even boosted.

Maybe he's hoping that learning to stay in the vicinity of QBs will help him get there and stay there long enough to "clinch the deal" on Sunday

Really good plain-language discussion of Omicron and the above paper from "Your Local Epidemiologist", blogger Katelyn Jetelina https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/omicron-were-getting-some-answers Questions: Is Omicron more contagious (transmissible)? -So far in both South Africa and UK, the answer appears to be "hell to the Yes", with an Rt of 2-3 in South Africa (limited testing) and Rt of 3.47 in UK, and Omicron went from 0.01% to 2% of the positive cases in UK in just over 2 weeks. Is it less severe? -That's "we don't know yet". YLE does a good job of spelling out the possibilities: I'd like to point out a different way of looking at it, from Cornell president Martha Pollack in an email that was just sent regarding Cornell's Tuesday closure of in-person events and transition to online finals. Cornell is 97% vaccinated and Omicron was spreading fast (but not causing any serious disease, sniffles or nothing). In fact, if Cornell weren't testing every student every week, they would have no idea they had an outbreak, because most of the cases are either asymptomatic or milder than the cold/flu that is going around (in vaccinated students). Here is Martha Pollack's explanation of why we still care (Pollack is a computer and information science professor and knows her maths): Math sez: A Variant that is twice as infectious, but 10x less cases of serious disease, unchecked, will produce 100x more serious illness after 10 iterations of transmission.

OK, we have our first data on Omicron. First of all, lab study from South Africa. This is a peer-reviewed, accepted publication from a lab that has been in the forefront https://secureservercdn.net/50.62.198.70/1mx.c5c.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MEDRXIV-2021-267417v2-Sigal.pdf Bottom line: both immunity from previous infection and immunity from vaccination have decreased effectiveness against Omicron, as shown by testing for neutralizing antibodies. Vaccination PLUS previous infection maintains higher protection. Bear in mind: antibodies are only one arm of the adaptive immune system, and may not be the most important aspect of immune response to prevent severe disease. As the authors note "protection against severe disease, requiring lower neutralizaton levels and involving T cell immunity, would likely be maintained" This is from Pfizer/BioNTech about vaccination and Omicron (the overall facts are likely to be true, but the numbers may be more favorable than an independent study): https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-provide-update-omicron-variant -two doses of Pfizer vaccine are 25x less protective against Omicron (note that above, real life SA study said 40x) -"According to the companies’ preliminary data, a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against wild-type and other variants that emerged before Omicron. These antibody levels are associated with high efficacy against both the wild-type virus and these variants. A third dose also strongly increases CD8+ T cell levels against multiple spike protein epitopes which are considered to correlate with the protection against severe disease. Compared to the wild-type virus, the vast majority of these epitopes remain unchanged in the Omicron spike variant." This would be consistent with the South African data that 2 doses of vaccine PLUS a prior infection provided good protection, saying 2 doses plus a booster provide good infection. It is not unknown for vaccines to require 3 or 4 doses to provide consistent protection - for example, many childhood vaccines have a 3 or 4 dose series and a booster is recommended in the teenage years. Years ago, when I was vaccinated against Hepatitis B with the original vaccine as a condition of my employment and they took blood and checked for antibodies 3 weeks after each shot, it took me five (5) doses to seroconvert.

This is what I meant when I said upthread "batten down the hatches for Covid" I've seen it suggested "Oh well, drop the protocols, who cares?" Keep in mind the players are young and fit but even there, some are apparently fine (Brown, Boettger) and others struggling (Dawkins, Lotulelei). Then there are the coaches, who mostly are....Not young and fit. For right now, the NFLPA went into the season with the position that they care about preventing Covid and its spread among players, and the coaches and staff signed on to the season with the idea the NFL cared about preventing Covid. That isn't going to be changed mid-season, and frankly, to change the rules mid-season would be horribly unfair to guys like Ron Rivera (immunocompromised, Cancer) and Bruce Arians (3 time cancer survivor).

Yes.

Ouch

That's "up to" the NFLPA. They need to thrash out with their membership, what do they really want. Too funny. When did he say that?

To me it means "enhanced protocols" in the facility to prevent inside facility spread, and ask players to resume last year's protocols outside Yes, I think it can be prevented by doing this, it's just an airborne contagious disease. But players would have to take it seriously - no "chin diapers" and "mouth muzzles" As far as the "disaster heading into playoff time", you're probably not wrong because I don't see teams and players being proactive on this. They will wait until one by one the hosses have left the barn (like the Browns and the Rams)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/12/entertainment/megan-thee-stallion-graduation/index.html?fbclid=IwAR142GU5oUojoTriFZizoBBg-hMxbCJZOmNFizjE_CnuI16HEyDCooLJOyI Classy bougie ratchet?

It can happen to any and all and probably will. Like I said, Buffalo would be wise to Batten Down the Hatches right now, because the NFL rules are "test positive = Out". Not sure the players/coaches have the will to request that of each other though.

That's pretty funny. Rapaport echoing our local Stalkers

https://www.nfl.com/news/odell-beckham-tests-positive-for-covid-19-rams-entering-enhanced-protocols Browns are also in "Enhanced Protocols": Bills better batten down the Hatches on Covid protocols and try to get ahead of it. Whether or not one agrees with the Rules, the NFL's Rules are if you test positive, you're not playing.

Didn't the NFL try that a couple years ago, and abandoned it because they were never, but never, overturning the ruling on the field? Not once. Edit: yes, they introduced it for the 2019 season and didn't make it permanent https://www.nfl.com/news/owners-make-pass-interference-non-calls-reviewable-0ap3000001024371

That would make sense since we know Mrs Trubisky is in fact expecting.

L I B so it is. Who's the balding dude with his back to the photographer and the preggo lassie on the far right talking to Meghan? (At least I think she's preggo, but the Social Law is never say anything until the baby comes out, lest you be mistaken and it's just too many donuts)