The Frankish Reich

Bend but don't break! Over the long haul, that'll get you a ticket to a low seed in the playoffs.

Ouch. True, but still ... ouch.

I love that trick play where they hand the ball off in this new formation to someone they call the "running back."

Well, not conclusively. There have certainly been enough eyebrow-raising incidents regarding foul call discrepancies in the NBA, but it's always hard to separate NBA hero worship (Jordan/Kobe/LeBron - they are the best, and they get the calls because they are the best, which makes them even better) from assisting the teams of those heroes to advance.

Not always, but every season with the Pats they were able to paste together something decent even when it started very poorly. That's my big disappointment with the Bills this year. I thought it would come together with some group/offensive approach by now, but it really hasn't.

Regardless of expectations/results ... I still have trouble wrapping my head around the idea that we're facing off against the SAME DAMN QB two decades later. I mean, basically nothing in my life is the same as it was 20 years ago. Except that.

Pretty sure we would have drafted Dan Gronkowski.

Yep. This year is showing us how far you can go (or maybe how far you can't go) with an elite QB, an elite WR, and average to well below average talent at every other offensive position.

I am shocked - shocked - to discover that an entertainment product is striving to make its product more entertaining to more people! There is nothing sacred about the NFL, anymore than there is anything sacred about Disneyland. They exist to entertain people (including sponsors), not to heal their souls.

Agreed. Particularly with Klein out, we just didn't have the personnel to counter the heavy set. Guys like Wallace and Johnson got snaps not because they matched up well, but because McD and Frazier didn't trust any other option (Neal/Matakevich - special teams-first guys)

Star just seems like a nice guy. Family man (and a Mormon), interested in life beyond football, quiet, unassuming despite his size. https://www.deseret.com/2019/8/05/20451458/star-lotulelei-getting-married-was-something-that-helped-me-become-grounded#carolina-panthers-first-round-nfl-football-draft-choice-star-lotulelei-speaks-during-a-news-conference-in-charlotte-n-c-friday-april-26-2013 Unfortunately, we like our team's players to be tough guys who play through pain and sacrifice their bodies for those 5 or (if they're very lucky) 10 years of NFL glory. Sometimes a player like Star's behavior looks an awful lot like not caring about his team. But I can't blame him - if someone gave me the contract the Bills gave him, I might well do the same things. (other than the anti-vaxx thing!)

No! The wrong type of backup for this team. As everyone seems to agree, the right type of backup for Lamar ...

In fairness to Morse - I still believe that was a good signing. More than anyone else he brought stability, experience, leadership to what was previously a disastrous offensive line unit. This year is a different kind of poor line performance - rather than a chaotic unit I think we're seeing declines in individual performance based on a variety of factors. Morse: age, past his prime. Dawkins: COVID, perhaps post-contract letdown. Ford: failure to develop, etc., etc. Whatever, it's time to move on. They're stuck with Dawkins; you just have to hope he rebounds. Everyone else is completely dispensable. Spencer Brown has talent, but who knows; it's not like he's dominated. I wouldn't be surprised to see only Dawkins back as a starter next year. EDIT: I just checked the contracts again. They're pretty much stuck with Daryl Williams too for one more year.

I'm willing to argue a point with anyone, but that's just impossible when people even try to comprehend what a statistic means. That goes for COVID stats, football stats, whatever. I was obviously correct - TWICE - in walking you through why the stats you cited don't mean what you say they mean. I believe I've made zero progress. Serious question: how much math did you do in high school/higher education?

That's hilarious. Dead cap hit for Morse would be $3.75 million, salary would be $11.25. Given his performance, it's fair to say the uncle (even without inside knowledge) nailed it.

Fine, but I think you're missing my point. We can quibble with their individual scoring, but their bottom line meets the eye test - 6 of the 7 (I had forgotten to include Spencer Brown, who also ranks in the low 60s - poor) offensive linemen who've seen significant action this year have been in the awful-to-well below average range, with only Williams (barely) rating in the average range. PFF hatred is so great here that people will argue with their scores even when those scores basically support their contentions ....

We know you struggle with math. But reading comprehension doesn't seem to be your forte either. No. No, I did not "assume" any such thing. I corrected you on a misinterpretation of what COVID hospitalization rates in Massachusetts mean. What you cited had nothing to do with positive test rates, etc. Please read it again. And if you have a dispute with my math - the conclusion that, based on the Mass numbers, you are 6X more likely to be hospitalized with COVID - please address that, not some other numbers nobody is talking about in this discussion.

Real quick PFF check, just to see if they agree: Horrible, one of the worst at his position (maybe the technical term is "garbage?"): Ford Replacement Level: Feliciano, Boettger Below Average: Morse, Dawkins Average-ish starter: Williams

Proving my point.

OK, here we go again. Math is hard. I get it. But your noble tutor never gives up on a child! No matter how many times that child gets held back!! MA 12+ population: roughly 5 million. MA vaccination rate: roughly 80%. So ... Total vaccinated 12+ in MA = 4 million. Total unvaccinated = 1 million. Number hospitalized with COVID: they say 450 at UMass. That's the biggest hospital. Let's say 1000 statewide. 60-75% of those unvaxxed. Let's play nice and use the lower range of 60%. That means 600 of those 1000 hospitalized with COVID are unvaxxed. 600 unvaxxed hospitalized out of total unvaxxed population of 1 million = 600 per million. 400 vaxxed hospitalized out of total vaxxed population of 4 million = 100 per million. [NOTE: see what I did there? I divided both sides by 4. So 400 per 4 million is the same as 100 per million. It's a neat trick and it works! Every time.] Ratio: 600 per million : 100 per million. [Watch out! Reducing fractions coming round the bend again ...] 6:1 You are 6 times more likely to be hospitalized in MA if you are unvaccinated. Which is kind of exactly what they've - those evil money-grubbing big pharma companies that the evil money-grubbing Donald J. Trump threw money at to produce vaccines before we even know they worked! - have been saying all along. It started out at perhaps 12:1, but we learned that immunity wanes over time. 6:1 is about what we get now without boosters. You're welcome. Let's do this again sometime!

Well, the only "news" buried in this rambling transcript is this: Trump is considering running again in 24. Not that that should surprise anyone. Yes, Hillary's sad old lady reading what could have been was pretty cringe-worthy. Even more cringe-worthy would be if she said she was considering running again ...

Agreed. And we've seen this elsewhere: Amazon workers in Alabama (where the company fought hard to keep out unions), Tesla, etc. Coming soon to a purportedly "woke" corporation near you!

"Stream of consciousness" doesn't begin to describe this. WTF? https://hughhewitt.com/former-president-trump-on-boris-johnsons-woes-sidney-powells-dough-and-more/ HH: Let me ask you about Sidney Powell. The Washington Post yesterday reported that she raised more than $14 million on the election litigation. Did you know about that? DJT: No, she was, she didn’t work for me. She was a lawyer that was representing General Flynn and some others, and she never officially, now she was on our side from the standpoint, I guess, you know, from the standpoint of what she was doing, but she didn’t work for me as per se. She worked for General Flynn and others. And I disagree with some of the things that she’s doing, and some of the statements that she made, as you know. HH: Yes. DJT: But I didn’t see the story, no. HH: Okay. Last night at a Christmas party book party that Keith Krach, who worked for you at State Department, gave for Stan McChrystal. A fellow named Len Khodorkovsky, who I know very well, he worked for you at State, loves you, came up to me and said, we were talking and I said I’m going to interview the president tomorrow. He said tell him not only is he the best president ever for Israel, he’s the best president for Christmas. He saved Christmas. What do you think about that? DJT: Well, he’s a good man. It’s true, though. You know, when I was running, 2016, Christmas was like you couldn’t say the word. I said the word. And I said we’re going to bring back Christmas, and we’re going to be saying Christmas. And you know, department stores weren’t using it in ads, little things like they’d show snow, and they’d show a red wall, but they wouldn’t say Merry Christmas. And I think we brought it all the way back. And we can do it with other things. I look at what’s happening, and you know, this whole female athlete thing is a very big deal, too. I see that a record, a swimming record was broken by 18 seconds, another one was broken by 38 seconds, okay? You know what 38 seconds is, right? HH: Yeah. DJT: And we have to bring back the female athlete. This is just crazy what’s going on. These records, you know, one record held up for many, many years, and if they break it by one-eighth of a second, that’s a lot. You don’t break it by like 36 seconds and 18 seconds. It’s ridiculous what’s going one. HH: Only Bob Beaman in the long jump, if you remember that. DJT: That’s right. HH: Bob Beaman shattered. That was a big one. DJT: Yeah, he’s about it. HH: Yeah.

You are saying "too warm," but I am hearing "climate-controlled dome"