SoTier

Nailed it!

I got hooked on the TDF about 5 or 6 years ago. I had some health issues that left me stuck inside with the AC for much of July -- and I discovered the Tour de France. I've been hooked ever since. Everything you said is spot on. It's the only cycling event I watch but I may watch more since Peacock apparently carries more cycling. I watched Picock's race live. That he was able to get close enough for a medal was impressive but his duel with Koretzky was thrilling. After Pidcock caught and passed Koretzky the first time, Koretzky regained the lead and looked to be loose on the lead, but Pidcock caught him again to finally pass and win the race. Good stuff. The women's team gymnastics contest was great. The American women won gold and the Italian women upset the Brazilians to take silver.

If you like some of the lesser known sports, Peacock is a good choice. I got it to watch the TDF when it was like $49.99 for an entire year. I also get replays of just about all the Olympic sports plus the NFL games that are exclusively on Peacock. BTW, Thomas Pidcock of Great Britain, another TDF participant, won gold in the men's mountain biking yesterday. He came back from an early mechanical problem to win.

I don't think Taylor's book necessarily supports your premise. Differing leadership styles are more about differences in personalities than differences in generational sensibilities.

What's "wrong" with "three stars and a QB" is two of those stars are WRs. I think we've seen over the last few years that the old cliche "defense wins championships" is the operative word. The Fins won't have the money to invest in their defense because they spent on multiple high priced WRs in order to support their QB. I personally think that Tua's contract is okay. The real problem for the Fins IMO is the team philosophy and coaching. Sinking so much money into the offense to produce a juggernaut doesn't result in playoff wins because great defenses beat great offenses most of the time.

You are right that Tua is "a pretty damn good qb", but the operative words are "pretty damn good" rather than "great". Tua is a known quantity. He's a system QB who needs a lot of talent around him to be successful but he's not a QB who can significantly elevate JAG players like Allen and Mahomes. Miami is always going to have to provide him with a strong supporting cast of WRs (one of the most expensive positions) which doesn't leave much money to invest in other positions, especially on defense. Signing Tua means that the Fins aren't going to be in the market for a starting QB (who might turn out to be great) for the next 4 seasons plus they will have so much of their cap invested in Tua and his WRs that their team is going to struggle to field a top notch defense. What could be better for the Bills for the next 4 years?

I'm a big fan of the Tour de France, the 3 week long cycling road race through various parts of France (and depending upon the year, parts of neighboring countries like Italy, Spain, Belgium and Monaco), so with the Olympics coming just a week later, I'm interested in seeing how the TDF riders fare. The cycling time trial is tomorrow, with TDF 3rd place finisher Remco Evenepoel likely a favorite. I believe he's the currrent world champion cycling time trialer. The Olympic road race is later in the games, and one of the riders to watch is Matteo Jorgenson of the USA who finished 8th in the TDF and almost won a stage, losing by 21 seconds, to Tadej Pogacar, eventual TDF winner.

Sad but true.

You do realize that "financial advisors" are not required to be licensed by anyone, right? Just about anybody can hang out a shingle claiming to be a "financial advisor" or "wealth manager", including convicted criminals. Following the advice of incompetent or shady "financial advisors" is why so many successful people end up in trouble with the IRS or land in bankruptcy court.

I totally agree. He's an excellent QB, not on the same level as Mahomes and Allen, but certainly among the top five or six in the league. I think that he would be a better passer if the Ravens had replaced Roman sooner and moved to install a better passing offense. Roman is great at taking a young kid and turning him into a successful dual threat QB but that kid is never going to develop as an NFL-caliber passer with Roman as OC. Lamar does seem to have some health issues separate from football injuries. I think he's missed either all or part of a few games because of "illness". I remember one game where he left because he was sick and came back later and lit up. Maybe he has a chronic health condition that flares up from time to time or maybe he's just been unlucky and catches any nasty bug going around.

This is true. The Tour de France was affected with several riders not participating (Sepp Kuss of the US) or withdrawing during the race itself. Some riders were who were asymptomic continued in the race. For several days during the race, everyone was masked. it seemed to pass fairly quickly however.

Nebraska tends to be worse. Before global warming, temps in eastern Nebraska regularly topped 100+ for several days during July and August and temps frequently plummeted to -20 in January and February -- without wind chill. Unfortunately, while global warming may make winters milder, it will probably make the summers hotter.

How can you really be friends with people whom you repeatedly insult? I don't think you can. My guess is that Gruden split his life into 2 parts: a public part in which he had Black acquaintances and expressed mainstream social views and a private part which he only showed to friends, acquaintances, and others who shared his personal views of everyone who wasn't a white, straight male. This isn't really anything new. Many years ago, long before "email" was even a word, one of my teachers warned my classmates and me to "never write anything on paper" that you wouldn't want the world to see. I was in junior high, and the teacher had just confiscated a note that had been passed around the classroom. It was good advice 60 years ago and remains valid today, perhaps even more so when just about everything done on a computer or phone can never be completely erased. "This" has always been about the emails in which Gruden expressed his bigotry. People were shocked by not only by Gruden's racism, homophobia, and misogyny, but that there were so many over so many years. The emails were never "released" but were leaked to the media by an unknown party. Gruden hasn't disputed that he wrote and/or forwarded the offensive emails, but rather he's claiming that the NFL leaked the emails.

Cry me a river for Jon Gruden, a racist pig who got what he deserved when the leaked emails exposed him for the hypocrite he is. This isn't an issue of someone being falsely accused of doing wrong or being denied the opportunity to rectify an "injustice". It's simply a ruling on a legal proceeding. If Gruden doesn't like the rules under which his lawsuit moves forward, he can always withdraw it. Thumbs up for whomever leaked the emails BTW.

IMO, owner Woody Johnson wanted Rodgers, and Douglas and Saleh had no real choice in the matter, including bringing in Rodgers' very own OC and WR plans.

I think that a bigger question is would Brady actually be a good QB coach? A lot of top athletes are so talented that they just naturally do some things well and they make up for their weaknesses with speed or arm strength or power etc. IOW, they don't have think about what makes them excel. Frequently, a lot of the best coaches had modest playing careers who depended on studying the game and learning how to play their position better. As for why Brady might want to be a coach? How about because he wants to remain in the game? I recently heard a very well-known former top-tier player was a HS coach in some town out west. Whatever his salary as a football coach is, it's pocket change compared to what he made in the NFL or what he could make at some other job in some other field. Obviously, this ex-player loves the game.

I'm old enough to remember the Electric Company, the OL that blocked for OJ for his fabulous 2003 yard season in 1973. Everybody knew they were going to run, and they still did it. Last season, the OL showed some flashes of that under Brady, so I'm very hopeful.

I don't know about Edwards, but I would love, love, love the Bills to be able to run at will, especially in the red zone. That would make the Bills passing game absolutely lethal, especially off play action.

The Jests are the most dangerous divisional foe IF -- Rodgers comes in healthy and stays healthy Rodgers plays at least as well as a top ten QB which means he not only has to come in physically ready but also has to be "into" the game not distracted by his plans for his life after football the Jests' reworked OL has to gel early and play significantly better than it did last season the Jests' defense has to play well all season Saleh and his staff have to coach better, including adapting to the inevitable setbacks on both sides of the ball I don't think that the Fish are really players in the divisional race unless the Bills have very serious injury problems and the Jests don't step up. They have been a one-trick pony the last two seasons, using their offense to overwhelm poor defensive teams but struggling against teams with good defenses that stop or adapt to their vaunted offensive show. Their defense was decent last season, but they've lost some key pieces in the off season while putting most of their resources into the offensive side, particularly offensive weapons. That doesn't seem to be a good recipe for improving their record against good teams.

I think that MLB is more culpable than that. MLB owners had an agreement in place to not allow black players into the leagues even though there weren't any MLB teams located in the Southern states where separate but equal was written into law except perhaps in St Louis and Washington, DC. While in most of the country segregation was a common practice, it wasn't written into law. Branch Rickey broke when he signed Jackie Robinson -- and I think that he had to do some politicking among other owners to get support for breaking the agreement.

I think what stevewin means is that at other times when the Jests had even modest prospects -- like a winning streak at the end of the previous season or a good draft -- Super Bowl dreams among New York media and Jests fans exploded like dandelions in the spring long before TC, even outside of the NY Metro. That kind of preseason hype has been around for decades ... and it certainly seems much more muted this season.

I watched the Giants/Cards game, too. One of the interesting things that Kendricks said was that the MLB video game started adding Negr0 Leagues players in the 2023 edition, so that many younger kids had learned about players from the Negr0 Leagues through the game. He also talked about plans to expand the Negr0 Leagues HOF in Kansas City.

Yes ... 148 Colonial Ave, Tonawanda $149,900 3928 Caitlin Terrace, Hamburg $189,900 1120 Highland Ave, Tonawanda $189,900 87 Moore Ave, Tonawanda $194,900 109 Woodcrest, West Seneca $134,900 175 N End Ave, Tonawanda $175,000 74 Frontier Drive, Hamburg $185,000 These are from Realtor.com, which are bonafide listings. I don't know if these houses are priced to encourage bidding wars, but they do exist in Buffalo suburbs. My guess is that they are either really small or are fixers. The point of my post was that house prices in WNY are bargains compared to much of the country. In some metros these same houses would likely be selling for twice the price -- or more. There are houses selling for $150+k in the Grant-Amherst neighborhood where my maternal grandparents and aunts and uncles lived for decades. Most of the housing there is working class "doubles" built between 1900 and WW I with no redeeming architectural value except that they're pretty sturdy if they've been decently cared for. As prices in Elmwood Village, North Buffalo, and Delaware District have skyrocketed in the last two decades, more middle income families have moved into Grant-Amherst, changing a tired old neighborhood sinking into a slum into a more of a modest family neighborhood like it was 50 years ago. That's happening all over the city in small pockets, including Bailey-Kensington as well as varioius parts of the West Side like Grant Ferry and Connecticut Street.

Actually, a house that goes for $200k in the Buffalo metro (city and suburbs) likely goes for $300+k in most parts of the country -- and significantly more than that in "popular" metros. Frequently, HOA fees pay for infrastructure and services that your taxes pay for in WNY. In the parts of the country that are prone to repeated significant natural disasters -- wild fires, hurricanes, flooding -- have seen homeowners' insurance rates explode. So, the actual cost of mortgage, insurance, taxes, and HOA in many areas isn't all that much less than in WNY. That would include popular areas for expats like Florida and the Carolinas. That's always been the nature of cities. There are safe neighborhoods and business areas and there are those that are much less safe in every city big and small. Even upscale gated communities may not be nearly as safe as residents or would-be residents believe they are, especially homegrown vandalism. If you are determined to be the biggest fish in an ocean career-wise, then yeah, Buffalo isn't going to compete with those huge metros. If you want to make a good living and have a decent quality of life, then WNY is certainly competitive. I'm a former expat who left the area almost 40 years ago for my career but took a pay cut to come home because the I got tired of the career treadmill -- and I wanted a better work environment (less office politics and more real career growth). BTW, if I had chosen to work in/near Buffalo (I had 3 job offers) rather than in Jamestown, I wouldn't have had to take a pay cut at all. I picked small town life and outdoor access over money.

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