ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

When the announcer says: "And now for the all important . . ." [extra point attempt, replay review, third down play in the first quarter, 3-2 pitch in the third inning - - you name it - - no matter how trivial it actually is the announcer says it's "all important"]

Yeah, but when Pluto got downgraded from planet status to whatever it is now, they had to re-number the remaining planets.

The full en banc panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided that the First Amendment bars the US Patent & Trademark Office from refusing to register trademarks that if finds disparaging. This isn't the exact case involving cancellation of the "Redskins" trademark, which is pending before a different federal appellate court, but it may be predictive of the outcome of the "Redskins" case, because it involves a nearly identical issue. This decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is not binding on other federal courts of appeal, but they are likely to find its reasoning persuasive. On the other hand, if the court of appeals in the Redskins case DOES decide the nearly identical issue differently, it would greatly increase the odds that the U.S. Supreme Court would exercise its discretion to hear any future additional appeal. Earlier thread on this topic is now in archives: http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/178959-update-on-legal-dispute-over-redskins-trademark/page-10 Might make sense to re-open it and merge it with this thread. The full Federal Circuit opinion (including several dissents) is at the link below, and involves an application by a band to federally register a trademark for "The Slants:" http://admin.aipla.org/resources2/reports/AIPLA%20Direct%202015/Documents/InReTamEnBanc.PDF

But that would be incest. [C'mon people - - that was a softball right down the middle]

Maybe if I was Ron ("Metta World Peace") Artest. On second thought, coulda been his sister.

Not only is it an O-lineman far away from the DL movement, it's usually an O-lineman who doesn't even make any pretense of trying to block anybody - - he just stands up and points at the distant DL guy who moved. It's beyond ridiculous the way the refs enforce the rule.

If we somehow manage to finish in a 2 way tie with the Steelers for a wildcard spot, we already have the tie breaker. The Steelers finished 3-1 against the NFC. We already lost 2 games against the NFC. That means we now know to a certainty that we will finish the season with a worse record against NFC teams than the Steelers. The only possible way to finish the regular season with the same overall record as the Steelers, given that we are certain to have a worse record against NFC teams, is to have a better record than the Steelers against AFC teams. Having a better record against AFC teams than the Steelers is exactly what would give us the tiebreaker advantage against any AFC team outside the AFC East that we did not play head-to-head. Our chances of making up 2 games in the loss column against the Steelers with only 3 games left to play are pretty slim, but if we somehow manage it, we know to a certainty that we will have the tie-breaker against them. Maybe the universe owes us a late season upset of the Steelers because their 3rd stringers eliminated us from playoff contention in game #16 a few years back.

Captain James Kirk is now in command of the U.S. Navy's newest ship - - I s**t you not: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/navys-latest-super-ship-finally-underway-captained-by-james-kirk/

Dear Diary, I sure wish Kim would be a little more discreet. She's got a reputation for having a big butt, and everybody knows I left a head coaching gig so that I could spend more of my time in meetings with really big offensive linemen. Even those hacks in Buffalo will eventually put 2 and 2 together, and then the Twitter-verse is gonna blow up just as we're making a play-off push. The fax machines and sat-phones at TMZ will be humming. Why did she have to go and name our love child "Saint?" She must miss me almost as much as the fans and players in Buffalo. I sure hope that Kanye isn't a violent guy. I'm gonna have to keep this under my helmet, even though I didn't put one on my "soldier." Wishing Kim was a little less obvious about it (but I can understand why she couldn't help herself), Saint Doug leader of men and defiler of women

According to our supposedly patriotic songs, I guess he should have yelled "Get off OUR lawn!!"

Well if the song says that the same land belongs to everybody, I'm not sure that such socialist ideology has any place in the patriotic songs of a capitalist nation. The deeper I look, the more disturbing the submersive lyrics of our patriotic songs get.

That's a fair point. Per the USC website, their #2 lawyer has employment litigation experience as an associate at a big Los Angeles law firm. One way Haden could screw up would be to think he didn't need to take advantage of that specialized expertise in handling the firing. If he was smart, he got the university's #2 lawyer involved early in the process. http://ogc.usc.edu/AboutUs/OGCAttorneys.html I don't know what outside firm will represent USC in the Sarkisian lawsuit, but because both the #1 and #2 in-house lawyers at USC were hired from Latham & Watkins, there's a pretty good chance that Latham & Watkins will get that job. If Haden screwed up somehow there's only so much they can do, but in general, they're good.

Not necessarily: http://mmqb.si.com/2014/03/20/nfl-free-agency-money-contracts

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/sarkisian-695362-haden-usc.html Just FYI, USC athletic director Pat Haden has a law degree and worked for a well-regarded Los Angeles law firm after receiving it. Both Haden and his "right hand man" in charge of overseeing the football program are lawyers, so they should have been aware of any potential disability discrimination claims when they decided to fire Sarkisian. Doesn't mean they didn't screw it up somehow, but my best guess is that USC will have the upper hand in the lawsuit but settle it anyway to get the embarrassment out of the media: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/sports/23haden.html?_r=0 http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/20/sports/la-sp-0821-dwyre-20100821 http://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/la-sp-usc-sarkisian-20151012-story.html

Maybe you're right, but you have a much higher opinion of agent ethics than me. I would expect at least some of them to lie any time that they thought they could get away with it. How are the Bills going to prove it's a lie if it comes down to the agent and the Bears' GM telling different stories about a phone call that the agent could place just to have a phone record to point to? I'm not saying this sort of thing would routinely happen, but to paraphrase a once popular Texas oil patch bumper sticker: "Don't tell my momma I'm an NFL player agent - - she thinks I'm a piano player in a whore house."

So if a formal offer from another team is what triggers the official team-to-team notification process, can the agent lie about getting a preliminary inquiry from a team that lost a TE last weekend? If you're Whaley and O'Leary's agent tells you that let's say the Bears made a preliminary inquiry about signing O'Leary, what do you do? Do you call the Bears GM to confirm their interest (and remind the Bears in the process that you've got a 7th round TE draft pick sitting on your practice squad just waiting to get plucked)? Do you sit back and wait to see if the Bears follow up with a formal offer that triggers official team-to-team notification? Or is it the nudge you need to take a hard look at your own team's TE needs when your attention might have been focused elsewhere absent the nudge? Would the Bears need to notify the Bills in advance that they are going to talk to O'Leary's agent? If not, I can still see opportunities for the agent to lie about another team's preliminary interest in hopes of getting O'Leary elevated to the active roster.

I admit I don't know the specifics of the process. But does O'Leary's agent have to show any proof of the supposed "sniffing" to Bills management? If not, I would not put it past agents to lie about another's team's interest.

So if you're O'Leary's agent, and you know that he's been doing well in practice, do you tell Whaley that you've been approached by one of the teams that lost a TE last weekend about signing O'Leary? Even if the agent just fabricates the story, is there any downside for his client? If the Bills don't elevate O'Leary, agent can always just say that the other team had a last minute change of heart and signed some other practice squad TE or street free agent TE to fill the injury hole.

Gotta admit - - I always liked the bumper sticker that read: "My third grader can beat up your honor student." Honorable mention to: "My son was convict of the month at San Quentin State Prison." You should get one that reads: "Buffalo Bills - - we ain't much but we knocked your a$$ out of playoff contention"

Garbage in - - garbage out. If we wind up in a 2-way tie with the Steelers, the tie-breakers are not prioritized the way you listed them, because the Steelers are not in our division (the AFC East) Proof: http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakingprocedures

With the log jam of AFC teams in the hunt for the 2 wild card spots, I thought I'd take a look how the Bills are likely to fare if the tie-break rules come into play at the end of the season. You won't usually read about this in the mainstream media because it requires a little analysis (but not much). Here's what I found (assumes a 2 way tie between the indicated team and the Bills, 3 way ties are beyond the scope of this post): 1. Pittsburgh - if the Steelers beat Seattle, the Bills will have the tie-break over the Steelers, no matter what happens in any other games for the rest of the season. Sounds crazy, right? But it's true. Here's why. The first tie-break for the Bills versus any team outside the AFC East is conference games if we haven't played them head-to-head. So how can we know who would own the tie-break between the Steelers and the Bills with so many AFC conference games still to play for both teams. Answer - Math. All regular season games are either conference games or non-conference games. If the Steelers beat the Seahawks this week, the Steelers will be 4-0 against the NFC. The Bills have only played one NFC team so far, which was a loss to the NY Giants. So even though the Bills still have 3 games left against NFC teams, if the Steelers beat the Seahawks this weekend, we will know to a certainty that the Steelers will finish the regular season with a better record against NFC teams than the Bills. With a worse record against NFC teams, the only way the Bills can finish the regular season with the same overall record as the Steelers is if the Bills wind up with a better record against AFC teams than the Steelers. Having a better record against AFC teams than the Steelers would give us the tie-breaker over the Steelers. That's just math. 2. NY Jets - if the Bills lose to KC this weekend, the Bills chances of owning the tie-break over the Jets goes up, not down. Sounds even crazier, right? But once again it's true - - blame math. Here's how it goes: Within the AFC East, the tie-breaker isn't conference games, it's (1) head-to-head, then if necessary (2) AFC East division record, and then if still necessary (3) record against common opponents. We won the first head-to-head game with the Jets, so even if the Jets win the re-match in the last regular season game, they can't own the tie-breaker over us based on head-to-head record. Right now, we are 3-2 in the division, while the Jets are currently 1-2 in the division. So for the Jets to own the tie-break based on division record, they would need to not only beat us in the last regular season game, but would also need to beat Miami this weekend and beat New England in their next-to-last regular season game. But let's say the Jets lose to either the Fish this weekend or to New England in week 16. That would mean the Jets would finish the regular season with no better than a 3-3 division record, even if they beat us in the final regular season game. In that scenario, even if the Jets beat us in the final regular season game, we get to the third tie-breaker, which is games against common opponents. Each AFC East team only plays 2 regular season games against non-common opponents. For the Bills/Jets tiebreak scenario, the non-common opponents for the Bills are the Bengals and the Chiefs (because those are the only 2 teams we play that the Jets don't play). The non-common opponents for the Jets are the Browns and the Raiders (because those are the only 2 teams the Jets play that we don't). The Jets already beat the Browns and lost to the Raiders, so they are 1-1 in games against non-common opponents. We already lost to the Bengals, so if we lose to the Chiefs this weekend, we will be 0-2 against non-common opponents, and will know to a certainty that we will finish the regular season with a worse record against non-common opponents than the Jets. The only way we can finish the regular season with the same overall record as the Jets, if we have a worse record than the Jets against non-common opponents, is to have a better record than the Jets against common opponents. That would give us the tie-breaker against the Jets. So this weekend, if we lose to the Chiefs and the Jets lose to Miami, we will win the tie-breaker with the Jets, no matter what happens in any other games this season. If we lose to the Chiefs and the Jets later lose to New England, we would also win the tie-breaker with the Jets, no matter what happens in any other games this season. Just thought y'all might like to know. http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakingprocedures

I tried to look it up by googling "the song refers to shiny seaman." The results were inconclusive, but I did find this: http://www.paulandstorm.com/lyrics/the-captains-wifes-lament/ And if "sea" is short for seaman as you claim, the lyric in question becomes: "from seaman to shining seaman" Somewhat less disturbing, perhaps, because I can understand how there might be more variation in relative shininess between two different seamen as opposed to between two different bodies of water. But your suggestion raises more questions than it answers. Here's just one: In my experience, seamen have a tendency to sail all over the place. Given their mobility, how are we supposed to know just which places we are singing about? If seamen wind up shining in Newfoundland, I could be singing about Canada and not even know it. Let the Canadians get their own song - - make it about polar bears or something.

I have issues with writing pat** with or without "ically" on the end.