UConn James

I'm gonna go all Reggie Dunlop here and say, I got $2,000 for the guy who ends Tom Brady's career. But really, do you know when the Paytoilets* started to fold and when the Bills started to win last game? They were up 21-0. It wasn't the interceptions. It wasn't the drops. It was when George Wilson laid out Julien Edelman. It was when someone from the Bills stopped serving tea and crumpets and saying that winning is hard. It was when this team finally got physical and punched the prissy schoolyard bully right square in the mouth and exposed him for the dink -and-dunk pansy that he is. It was when KW's quote about not knowing whether we're going to win, but that at the end of the game, the Brady Bunch will know that Hell just descended on them. We don't have all those guys today but we still gotta play tough. We gotta knock 'em down. That whole Wilfork cheapshot at the end? That was nothing new, but they get stupid when they get knocked down, humiliated and angry. We gotta bring hell down on them once again. Only, we gotta bring more. Let's start this year off right, boys! Bring it!!

As I've written before, PI should be reviewable... both ways. We don't need to slow down games any more, and keep the same 3 (incorrect) challenges per half. But PI should be added. There's way too much personal judgment involved for the refs and for way too big o' chunks of yardage, as '64 wrote. PI has become such a huge part of the game as this has turned into a passing/Arena/neutered-defense league. There needs to be some recourse for the many obvious non-calls and obvious gimme-a-f'in-break calls.

It's amazing how kids will often enough listen to strangers or other kids' parents explaining manners and they may follow it grudgingly, but they'll follow it. Yet anyone in their own family saying these things... it's like they're brick walls. But to anyone trying this, be prepared to have those parents up in your face saying "These are my kids! I'll handle it!" --- even though to that point, they hadn't been handling it and there was no evidence they were going to --- roughly 85-90% of the time.

Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver.

How does processing a paper check cost less? About 25% of that $2 is the postage they have to pay to send the bill by mail to the customer. Then add in paper and printing costs, staffing costs to process check payments, etc. It just boggles the mind.

And the soft bigotry inherent in the comments of these minority-group "leaders" is just as jaw-droppingly stupid as the fact that they think all of it was the shoes' fault, rather than it being only the most recent example of the failure of the entitlement society this nation has become. The bolded section is the most intelligent sentence in that article. But here's where they fundamentally get it all wrong with their pinko socialist bullstevestojan. It doesn't take collective responsibility. No one ever sees any direct consequences when "collective responsibility" is the norm because each person thinks it's everyone else's fault. It takes personal, individual responsibility. (You know, that thing those big, bad Republicans harp on incessantly and harsh so many mellows with.) It takes leaders telling the community that better is expected of them --- a truth that the community might not like to hear (see: Cosby, Bill) --- rather than blaming a shoe company for the community's problems.

Saw MI:4 last night. It had the similar disavowal theme to it, slight alterations in spy-tech, and not much for character development, but that's par for the course and not what MI is about. They do impossible missions in style and save the world with 3... 2... 1 second to spare. I'm not generally an action-flick viewer but it was really watchable and entertaining. I, too, don't care to hear about the private life or every unedited thought out of celebrities' mouths. To be fair, after that whole episode of jumping on couches and telling Matt Lauer that only Tom Cruise understands the history of psychology, he seemed to get that he needs to STFU and stick with making movies.

With how he's performed on the inside, I don't see who in the right mind wouldn't put him and KW at the DT spots and just officially shift back to the 4-3 full-time, pick up a good DE and see if/how this pair + some edge help can bust up through the middle/collapse the pocket and make QBs have to scramble (one hopes) into dumb mistakes. The 3-4 experiment failed. Soooooo much of this team's problem is the inability to generate any kind of a pass rush against teams that have anything for an OL. Against the Iggles, there were a couple of times we blitzed eight (count 'em --- 8!) and still did not get within 5 yards of a pocket-passing Vick.

This thread really doesn't have anywhere else to go, does it? Some people are upset that parameters allowing for smoking aren't in place. Some people are happy that there's no smoking. Some people are dismayed that even with the ban, in true theory-meets-reality, people are still smoking in the stadium. The rule is the rule and bitching about it isn't going to make a damn bit of difference, b/c no doubt they expected that there would be some backlash, but they still made the choice to ban it. If you don't like it, TFB. You can watch from a bar that allows smoking or at your own place. The owner and/or tenant of the stadium makes the rules.

Maybe it seems that way. But the simple thing is that with someone drinking alcohol, it doesn't necessarily mean that the drinker's actions are going to cause an annoyance or harm to someone. It is possible for people to drink and not be a bother to anyone. With smoking, that's much more difficult if not impossible; the act and physical reality that inherently goes with smoking is the harm. Also, there are rules regarding the behavior of drunks as well. It's not like they get off Scot-free because they bought the beer from the stadium vendors.

I forget who said it, but "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." If blowing smoke for everyone around you to inhale is a freedom, then I'm sure you won't mind granting me the freedom to piss on your head. Your definition of freedom is seriously skewed.

+1. The ridiculous liberal interpretation of pass interference is much more pertinent to the discussion. CBs have had to play it safer and marginally relax their coverage or the other team gets automatic yards even if the WR might not have made the catch. Defenses have been neutered. CBs can't breathe on WRs without getting flagged. I will reference the game this past Sunday where McKelvin got flagged --- at least from what I saw he played it cleanly with minimal incidental contact (which the WR actually initiated by having to stop short for a slightly underthrown pass) but because he didn't turn his head, he got the yellow. Everything else was clean, but "he didn't turn his head!" the announcers said. that stevestojan! Is a CB's penis supposed to contort to face the ball too? What does it matter what direction his head is turned if he played the WR cleanly? I don't get it. How far backwards is this league going to bend in favor of offenses? How close to Arena League are we going to get? And at the very least, instant replay needs to be extended to PI. You're telling me they can review whether a ball moved 2 inches beyond where they marked it, but they can't review a bullstevestojan judgment call that can result in a 20-, 30-, or 90-yard play? This is killing the game, IMO.

For insurance costs, I'm only basing that on a reason the U gave when they banned smoking and grills in the stadium and lots... they said insurance costs were a factor in creating the rule. I would imagine it's also a factor in the Bills' decision. If it were a case where there were no immediate second-hand health effects to people other than the user, I'd be saying the same. But it's not. It would be one thing if smoke could be controlled. In the physical world, smoke drifts. And in the Ralph, it drifts everywhere. Your right to slowly kill yourself with cigarettes ends when others have to inhale the fumes.

The morbidly obese and gingers. They are considering how they treat their customers. Hence the ban. It's also probably a bonus for stadium maintenance issues as well as insurance rates.

Since it might mean illegal immigrants wouldn't be allowed to vote (Democrat).

My brother may have gotten a himnia (hernias are for girls) during the Feats of Strength.

This really is the thing that makes me sit on the fence over whether I should continue being a fan and spend time and $ watching sports. I mean, it's within the realm of possibility that the Bills could improve if they magically hit on 7 guys of All-Pro caliber each draft... or once we lose Scrooge McDuck and his bagmen and actually pay to have competent depth. But, you can't win when the league has it all scripted out to decimate a city's pride and run down the franchise in order to move it elsewhere with less fuss.

Half of those people are probably on food stamps, to boot.

I imagine there will be a few tweaks in the shift to Nike (I'm hopeful that the sleeve stripes will become more standardized rather than having some guys having them in the traditional horizontal -- and some guys having them as a 3/4-over-shoulder slash / ). There may be a return to the Standing Buffalo theme for the allowable two games; I'm not sure about that. At the time of the unveiling, we learned that there weren't any blue pants, but that it was possible they would tag along when the switch to Nike was made. But there won't be a major overhaul. There can't be a major overhaul of the design this soon, per NFL regulations. Teams must wait five years minimum b/w major changes, and any minor changes need to have a good reason (e.g. the Dolphags reducing the thickness of the black shading/striping a few years ago b/c it looked like absolute crap on the new HD cameras). The manufacturer may have some say WRT available material, seam patterning, and they do have some input once a team decides to change but the teams have final say-so when it comes to their branding. There will probably be a few teams who were waiting for this transition to make changes --- it's widely spoken of that the Broncos will be going back to some version of an Orange Crush uni. Those 'Nike Pro Combat' images die hard in fans' collective memories, tho. Rest assured that those were musings, probably as a way to give a couple of Nike interns some busy-work. The manufacturer CANNOT force big changes. For the pricing, well, that's to be expected when they're switching makers. They've gotta sell as much of the existing stock as they can to people who don't give a stevestojan that they're not buying the laundry with the Swoosh on it like the team will have next season.

Brings new meaning to a certain holiday movie phrase "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!!"

I would not be surprised if they use an AutoPen. Sorry if I'm bursting any balloons here....

Possible. Now that teams will be REQUIRED to spend 90% of the cap next year, graduating up to 99% in a few years, there's less reason to keep the bean-counters around --- or at least so many of them. Also, look for Ralph to start going into convulsions and foaming at the mouth once the team HAS to spend most of the TV $. You know... less for his coin silos.

+2. IIRC, Buddy was bent on retiring when he was shown the door in SD, and Ralph talked him into re-upping in B-Lo. As some here said when he announced the Evans trade, it didn't seem like he was very happy with it and the decision came more from the Ralph/Littman/Overdorf squeeze-the-nickel side. We may or may not hear Buddy say "I'm gettin' too old for this stevestojan!" before he opens a chain of Hulka-Burger franchises. The Whaley hire smacked of Ralph's long-time policy of getting someone into the organization, getting comfortable with them, seeing how they work and then promoting them. Similar circumstances got Terry Francona fired in Boston after he won them 2 championships after an 86-year drought. Ralph is going to have to spend serious coin now if he hopes to get fans back. We're not going to be satisfied with one TO type $6M deal, either. There has to be a major commitment. And tightwads get pissed as all hell when they have to burn cash because their tightwad ways backfired.

On Conan last night: Or maybe KJI figured out how to use the seashells from "Demolition Man"....

I missed commenting on the Brandon section. It is a little sad that like those fights during high school/gangs his family didn't show up. (Besides Russell, who said Brandon did "everything" wrong in his gameplay.) But who's really to blame for that? Brandon is the kind of kid that takes stevestojan to extremes; as I've said, he's the most bipolar player (and perhaps, person) I've seen. One second lashing into someone for lying to him, the next, offering them his immunity. He really needs to seek professional help and maybe get on a medication. You can call it what you like, but there's a reason his family didn't show up on Sunday. His whole thing with Mikayla was so like a dude who rapes a girl he lusts over and then murders her because he's ashamed of that lust. It really was creepy. And then, like all his other things on the island, when what he was plotting got blown up during Tribal and, he broke into tears and asked for forgiveness but it didn't change anything in how he thought or what he did. In any church I've ever been to, forgiveness is about letting go of past transgressions with an understanding that someone's learned from their mistake and won't repeat it. Next day, Brandon was still staring at and gunning for Mikayla as the Hot Evil B word Woman who, in his warped mind, would use her curves to control the game. You know, at least Coach had the decency to make up a 'She used a lot of sugar!' pretext when he decided it was her time; Coach at least didn't say 'She has a great ass that I leer at all day to the point I can't get anything done! I wanna (figuratively) kill her!' Brandon's got issues. Albert though he was going to win? Really? REALLY, Coach? You've gotta be kidding me. Everyone and their brother knows Albert was toast after he refused to give the immunity back to Brandon. That was very low rent and no one but no one respected that. The fact that the necklace slipped off of Albert just as Brandon was having his torch put out was kind of poetic. Ozzy kind of screwed himself by revealing his deal with Coach. If he'd kept that quiet, it might've gone differently.... but then again, Sophie's argument that Ozzy'd been whispering in everyone's ear right before he put them out of their misery on RI probably would've ultimately swayed it to the same result. Coach not electing to put it to a make-fire challenge spoke volumes. Whatever his promise to Ozzy was, he did not want Ozzy there. And how can you be surprised that Ozzy wouldn't vote for you after you pull that? Coach based his game on 'honor and trust' and at so many turns, he !@#$s honor and trust in the ass. Again, under the pretext that God told him to. And I resent anyone who thinks the social game is not part of "Outplay" in the words on the buffs. Part of the game is to not piss off people... or rather... to piss off people on the jury just slightly less than the other two sitting beside you. So, Coach screwed Ozzy over and Ozzy did his own little part to screw Coach over. Tit for tat. I guess it needs to be asked: Who exactly is being the "whiny little B word" here?