Mickey

Lamonica? Don't you know how bad his completion percentage was? He had to have been terrible, he just had to be. Numbers don't lie, do they?

What I remember about McGee is that Belichik was so worried about McGee's KO returns that he always squibbed the KO when McGee was back there. I have never seen Belichik more frightened of a Buffalo Bill than he was of McGee.

I can't bring myself to read suffer through yet another insightful analysis that amounts to nothing more than an obsessive, tedious dissertation on completion percentage, completion percentage, completion percentage, completion percentage ad infinitum. Here is the illustrious list of the top 25 QB's in completion percentage in college football history. Lies, damn lies and completion percentage.

"Dr. Poyer and Mr. Hyde"

Makes sense. Explains why Brady gave him all those free sneakers and autographed swag, he has always been known to go out of his way to support the obese community.

Assistant Game Ball Deflator Equipment Quality Control Inspector, New England Patriots.

You can't beat the logic inherent in the observation: "Hey, who knows? He could be good." Its what those in the biz call "coaching genius". It makes so much more sense than the "nattering nabobs of negativism" saying "Hey, who knows? He could be really, really bad." And that my friends is how you seamlessly work in a Spiro T. Agnew quote into a post about quarterbacks.

Let the chaplain win? Shrewd. Will pay dividends.

Ummm...saying that I would feel compelled to hide my agnosticism does not mean that I would. Heck, I didn't even say I was agnostic. It was a hypothetical made for the purpose of showing that I believe that the NFL is an environment that is hostile to those with certain views on religion. And really, people shouldn't have to be worried about being shot in the face, fired or assassinated because of their views on religion. Nor should they be made to feel that they are cowards if, all things considered, they would rather make their beliefs known in ways that don't result in getting shot in the face. Martyrdom is not the only way to fight oppression.

I can't be certain McDermott considers religion in making personnel decisions but I was responding to someone who himself seemed to think that it was okay to do so if it was used as a tie breaker. Its not. As for McDermott, I respectfully disagree that eball's concern is entirely unfounded. Mac does talk about faith in connection with what he is looking for in a football player. Given how important religious faith is to him, it is at least plausible that when he is talking about "faith, family and football" he means faith in God. At the very least, its pretty loose language. We wouldn't be having this discussion if he said "family, community, football" or something similar. In the final analysis, either you trust the guy to be fair or you don't. Despite his loose language on the subject, I have "faith" in McDermott and the Pegula's that they would not improperly consider religion in making hiring decisions.

Maybe so because that particular prejudice seems endemic in the NFL. However, that makes this kind of prejudice more rather than less reprehensible.

Those are qualities that have nothing to do with faith. If that is what he means then I don't know why he would describe it using language that is clearly religious. The language he uses is problematic whether it truly can be inferred from that language that he improperly considers religion when making personnel decisions or not. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't but this question wouldn't even be asked without the constant references to "football, faith and family". I know that if I was on that team and an agnostic, I would feel compelled to hide that fact for fear of its effect on my career.

If you are giving someone "bonus points" for being religious, you are disadvantaging those who have a different view because they aren't getting those "bonus points" and that is pretty much the definition of discrimination. It would be no different if you said that when the candidates have an equal skill set, I always hire the man. It is illegal in this state to make employment decisions based on sex, race, creed or sexual orientation, not even as a "tie-breaker".

The story accurately set forth the fact that the charges were dismissed and that the dismissal was only because the victim decided that the trial would be too much for her. The DA was ready to try the case. Patricia absolutely is innocent until proven guilty and I would be the first to defend him if anyone tried to throw him in jail without a fair trial. But we aren't talking about criminal charges, we are talking about reputation and at present, there is no law that prohibits publication of accusations that were already published 22 years ago because doing so might tarnish one's reputation. I hardly think the reporter involved should be a candidate for a Pulitzer or win a blue ribbon for fairness. At the same time, this is news. It might be crappy, unfair and old news but given the current social movement towards ending the societal compact in favor of silence when it comes to sexual assault, this is definitely news. In the end, it was inevitable that some reporter somewhere was going to publish this already public information. As for a speedy trial and the unfairness of not having a chance to make his case to a jury, Patricia could have sued her for defamation back then and cleared his name if he had proof that she was lying. For that matter, if the DA thought she was lying he could have brought charges against her. Neither happened. In this case, they had medical evidence collected at a local hospital and it was presented to the grand jury who considered it in handing down an indictment. It sounds like more than a ham sandwich case to me. Some people are going to look at this and think he did it, others will look at it and say no way he did it. I can't make up my own mind so I can't really disagree with either side of it. One thing I am sure of, I have a lot more sympathy for the woman involved who hoped to leave it all behind but had the bad luck to "maybe" have been assaulted by a guy who later became famous. I am sure this is a nightmare for her. She is being called a liar on a national TV and she can't possibly respond without bringing ruin and mayhem down upon whatever kind of life she has fashioned for herself. Matt Patricia is going to be just fine. He is a pubic person, wealthy and has ample resources with which to defend he reputation. Her? We'll hopefully never know unless someone outs her to the press.

It makes sense that they would research this stuff after he was hired, it would make no sense to commit that level and resources to check the background of someone the Lions might hire. Moreover, we have no idea when they first came across whatever information they had that triggered their research. As interested as I am in the finer points of journalistic practices I am quite a bit more concerned that a grand jury in Texas found sufficient evidence that Patricia, now a head coach of an NFL franchise, sexually assaulted a woman. Blaming the paper for writing a story seems to miss the point. The information was out there and was bound to come out sooner or later. Newspapers are not in the business of covering up sexual assault charges against prominent persons. Their only obligation is to try and get the fact right. Has Patricia denied the facts of the story? On a side note, by posting the link to the story here, you have actually engaged in what legally is an act of publication yourself.

A weak arm is a weak arm, the fact that others are able to be successful with a weak arm doesn't change the fact that his arm is weak. There are many variables at play that make comparisons difficult. Prescott has the best offensive line in football in front of him and an excellent running back. Watson had some great games before he was hurt but so did Griffin. His long term success is an open question. And if I was cherry picking, how many abject failures with arm strength similar to AJ's did you leave out? I made it clear in my post that arm strength is a questionable measure of a QB's worth and that AJ's other talents will hopefully be enough. All that being said, his arm strength is barely even average. There is a reason he wasn't at the top of any team's list of must have FA's.

Its barely adequate and certainly compares poorly with guys like Goff (58), Wentz (57), Cousins (59) and Foles (57). I'm not sure velocity means much other than the ability to make some very difficult throws. I know I would prefer "strong" over "adequate" any day. On the other hand, I am sure that McCarron's game isn't built on shooting lasers through the eye of a needle 40 yards downfield and hopefully, his many other talents will more than make up for arm strength that is a bit on the average side.

Will no one shed a tear for Billy Joe Hobert and his epic 1997 season of despair? Not since another Billy Joe went off the Tallahatchee Bridge was there a more tragic tale. Pass the biscuits please...

Its not an either or situation. It is absolutely part of Beane's job to build for the future and it is absolutely part of his job to win games now. If he mortgaged the entire future of the franchise he would be justly pilloried for it as he would if he totally ignored trying to win the next game in order to win games in the future. There is a lot of room between tanking and paying for the present by robbing the future. I hate it when journalists ask coaches that question, its a trap that gives them a story to write no matter what answer they give.

Yes, he seemed promising until he got injured. Played behind one of the worst offensive lines we ever had. He was sacked 30-40 times a year. He was never the same after that injury. Still, even before that he had twice as many picks as TD's.

But golly, the problem is that we are loaded, absolutely loaded with Wide Receiver talent. Given our stable of fleet footed, tall, sticky-handed, shifty pass catchers, how could we possibly make room for Gentry? Its a real puzzler.

What about Kelly Holcomb, Dan Darragh, Gary Marangi and Dennis Shaw?

Bruce Mathison - a forgotten hero

That is a brave piece of theatre.