Rocky Landing

I know that I am in the minority here, but I love the preseason games. I love them. It's a chance to get a real bead on the depth of our players. It's the best chance we have to know the player who is stepping on the field when one of the starters goes down, and we have to start relying on third stringers to step up. These games are also responsible for creating "dark horse" buzz around certain players who would otherwise fall into obscurity. Who here remembers Christian Wade's first NFL touch when he ran it 65 yards to the house? That was preseason vs. the Colts, and no one would even know who he was were it not for the preseason. Bottom line, though: If they cut a preseason game, and don't add a regular season game? That's one less game of football to watch.

I have mixed feelings. I'm certainly not big on indoctrination, nationalism, or overt acts of patriotism. But, I will say that over the last few months, as my kids had to endure online schooling from home, I have come to appreciate it. The principle of their school started every morning with it, and always made it weirdly fun and entertaining. It kind of anchored the day for them. It was the starting point of the day, and it helped them shift into academic mode, and focus. It helped them stay connected to the school, and their community. Maintaining that connection was a challenge.

Maybe you guys don't have kids, idk, but they've got my children reciting the pledge of allegiance every morning, including during the virtual schooling of the last few months.

They didn't have the Rochester Americans, or the Rochester Redwings, but they had the New Jersey Jets, and Giants. What's up with that?

And did you not listen to the press conference by Erie County District Attorney John Flynn on the top of the very page that you linked? I suggest you do. At one point during the press conference, which is not included in your TMZ clip, Flynn states very directly that if the guy had broken the law, then you arrest him, and what you don't do is hold your baton out, and knock him to the ground. He considers this case against the cops quite obvious.

This will be my one, and only post to you. If you truly have no idea of what systemic racism means, or what the concepts of white privilege are, then I'm going to assume a certain amount of willful ignorance on your part. But, to answer your assertion of "no evidence of systemic racism," here are several links, which took me all of ten seconds to find: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-04/Numbers-behind-anger-U-S-racism-inequality-in-stats-R39PKBLwty/index.html https://inequality.org/facts/racial-inequality/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming-evidence-that-the-criminal-justice-system-is-racist-heres-the-proof/ https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/un-report-on-racial-disparities/ Honestly, considering the tone of your posts, I don't expect you to take a single one of these seriously. But, I didn't want your cherry-picked, context-lacking "evidence" to be anywhere near the last word, just for the sake of the otherwise rational discussion that has been occurring on this thread.

OMG!

Out of curiosity, do you live in Los Angeles?

I would bet money that week one of the regular season (assuming it happens, and there are people in the stands) Drew Brees takes a knee during the anthem.

Yeah, one thing is for sure: If the NFL season goes forward with people in the stands, and you still have an issue with players taking a knee during the anthem, ya better get over it.

Whenever a Bills player screws up off the field, there are often discussions in the subsequent threads that take the opposing sides of "I don't care what kind of person a player is, as long as he can play his position" vs. "I want the players on my team to be people we can be proud of." I generally find myself tending towards the latter. But, the question really boils down to entertainment value. Do we enjoy the drama? Does the game day benefit from the drama? I would be pretty disappointed if Allen had come out and said what Brees did. But, at the same time, when Brady* took a shot in the ribs from Kyle Williams, knowing that Brady* is kind of a cheating douche, we all cheered a little louder. Brees' opinion, misguided though it may be, doesn't hurt the discussion about Kaepernick's protest, or the current BLM protests, because it gives people another opportunity for civil discussion where they may find fault in their own positions. But, I also don't think it hurts the NFL, either. Even in New Orleans-- let the drama unfold. It's something for people to follow, and when Brees comes out with his apologies, and back-pedaling (or not), it's just one more story on the sports page.

I'm often frustrated in these discussions by the blurring of fact vs. opinion. A fact is a fact, regardless of how it affects someone's narrative. If an opinion is in direct opposition to a fact, then that opinion is wrong. I shouldn't be able to say, "in my opinion, one plus one equals three," and expect to be taken seriously, or even have my opinion respected. And, if I'm too stubborn to adjust my opinion on the basis of solid fact, then that is my problem, and no one should have to waste breath arguing with me. The United States flag is not a symbol of the military, but a symbol of the entire country, as a whole. That is literally a fact. It always has been. Until Kaepernick took a knee, it had never been suggested otherwise. Grenada, Lichtenstein, and Samoa also have flags, and they don't even have any armed forces. I cannot take the opinion that Kaepernick's silent protest during the national anthem disrespects the military, because it disrespects the flag any more seriously than if people were saying that his protest disrespects Denny's.

If the NFL had a normal offseason, and training camp, it's not unlikely that Fromm would be our backup come September. Could still happen.

To be fair, he also had that throw to Scott Chandler that was about 3 feet in front of him, which, as everyone knows, was way beyond his catch radius.

I still have a Lynch Jersey.

I wouldn't sleep on the Jets O-line, either. They signed three new starters back in March, and then drafted Mekhi, who looks like he could be an absolute beast. Likely they will struggle to gel early in the season, but by midseason could be an exceptional unit.

I've said this before, and I haven't seen anything happen to change my mind: The AFCE is going to be a competitive division this year, across the board. In my mind, while I believe the Bills should be favored, I think it's by a much narrower margin than most on here think, and nobody should sleep on any team in this division, including the Jets. Flacco was a good move on their part.

I'm going with Singletary, and Murphy. The more abbreviated training camp is, the more coaches are going to rely on players who are already embedded in the system.

Honestly, it's a little too hard to tell from the studio photo. I'd have to see them on the field to have a strong opinion. But, as noted earlier in the thread, that Helvetica Bold font is awful.

Bring it on!

Fair. I'm not sure about the balance, though. I posted in another thread that I thought he had an odd, upright running style, and that his shoulders often didn't get low enough. Some people agreed, some didn't. I think his success in our offense, with how he is likely to be used, will likely depend on how well his slightly odd style translates to the NFL. Yeah, but Knox has about 30 pounds, and half a foot on Moss-- and a mean stiff-arm.

Good stuff.

I've been misrepresented several times in this thread. I did not say that LBs don't miss tackles. That would be a dumb statement. I said they don't miss tackles like the one shown in this highlight. Jauronimo, you found an example (from how many years ago, btw?), and that is anecdotal. I will maintain that running straight at a defender, no juke, no stiff-arm, is not an effective running style in the NFL. And, while this is a real nice clip, I'm not going to get too excited about it and expect to see Moss running over defenders in this manner in the regular season. It's not going to happen.

I'm very skeptical of these sorts of college highlight reels. I recall when we traded the farm for Sammy Watkins, there was a lot of buzz about how he would rack up the YAC. There were some highlights where he just plowed over defenders, sending them ass over elbows. The problem is: blown tackles like this just don't happen in the NFL. There isn't a third-string linebacker active in the regular season who will get blown up like that. The vast majority of NFL linebackers are going to make that tackle, and if Moss is going to make it a habit of running straight at linebackers, he's going to get stuffed. Often.

There are many different types of fans. It's pointless to judge.