TigerJ

I remember John Rauch's brilliant strategy. Use OJ as a decoy and never give him the ball. I agree there is a lot of negativity among fans right now, and some of it is mine. It comes from frustration with losing. We've had too much of it over the last number of years and it really wears on you. I haven't given up on any particular player, but if you think people aren't going to notice that Eric Moulds dropped passes he should have caught and had a critical fumble, well, you're wrong. He did have some bad plays and it was costly. It is interesting, freak, that while you seem to advocate unquestioning loyalty of a handful of players, you do diss the coaches. Does that mean while a "true fan" can't ever talk negatively about a team's star players, it's open season on coaches? Is there some logic here I missed? I question some of what the coaching staff has done too. I wonder why Willis McGahee didn't get more touches in the Raiders game. I criticized Tom Clements for his seeming lack of preparedness in his play calling for the heavy Raiders blitz. That doesn't mean I'm agianst this coaching staff. To the contrary, I like the staff quite a bit, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be uncritical. I have hopes that this team is going to get better, though the window of opportunity for the playoffs is very narrow right now. I want them to do well. I'll root for them, for everyone to do well. but when players make mistakes, fail to execute, and lose concentration and it costs the team victories, I'm not going to gloss it over.

Years ago, some schools used the old "school prayer" that in each class the teacher would lead and students recite, along with the pledge to the flag. That is what the supreme court struck down, though I'm no sure why. It was a very generic prayer, which mentioned God, but no specific religion's terminology. "Jesus Christ " was not mentioned in the prayer, nor of course was "Allah" etc. Therefore the prayer did not in my mind constitute endorsement of a specific religion. A Muslim, or a Jew, or a Christian, or a Hindu could all recite that prayer in good conscience. Ultimately, only athiests were offended by the prayer, though there is nothing in the constitution that suggests the government should be forbidden from encouraging religious belief of the individual's choice. Still, I don't really advocate a return to the good old days of the official school prayer, mainly because I don't think generic, general prayers do anyone much good. A minute of silence is OK if schools want to have that. The thing I think schools ought to allow, though some school systems balk at the idea, is a provision, for students who request it, for a room where students can pray together and read the Bible (or Quran if it's a group of Muslims) at a specific time. In other words, students should have the right to have a religious group in a school with the same status of any other club. No, they wouldn't be able to cut classes to go pray. They would have to meet when and where a room could be made available just like the Future Farmers of America, or the Chess Club. Some schools have denied students that right in the past. I think when they do they missunderstand the constitution. The constitution not only forbids government sponsorship of a specific religion, it forbids the government from preventing the free practice thereof. If students seek to practice their religion in school, in a manner that is consistent with school policy for any student group, then the school, as an agency of government, is explicitly forbidding the free practice of religion. If my kid wanted to have such a club, and the school said he/she couldn't, you can bet I'd be suing the pants off the school board, and I think I would win too.

I agree that "90% of the game is half mental." (Yogi Berra) Winngin breeds the blelief that no matter what happens you can overcome it. Losing breeds an insidious self doubt. No matter what good things happen there is a nagging suspicion that it's all going to come crashing down. It's like a psychological inertia and accounts for the fact that teams that look better on paper still manage to lose while other teams with average talent manage somehow to keep winning. The question is what do you do about it? With the inertia of physics you overcome it by the application of additional energy. It takes more energy to start something moving than to keep it going. Coaches have to do a more effective job of getting team members to execute and cut down on costly mistakes. Players have to concentrate more. But you can try too hard too (Travis Henry's fumbles two years ago and Josh Reed's struggles last season). Coaches that take over losing teams and turn them into winners really earn their salaries. While Buffalo's 0-2 start makes me pessimistic about the chances of making the playoffs, I think it's still premature to say Mularkey can't get this ship turned around. I think if Buffalo can get that first win we will start to be a dangerous opponent for teams that have us later in the season.

I think they moved to 1A way too fast. I think Jim Hohfer has more on the ball than their last head coach ( a former assistant at Penstate whose name I can't recall, but unless Buffalo is willing to ante up some big bucks for a name coach who can attract recruits from beyond WNY, it may be years before UB can even think about having a winning season. However, except for the last game, UB has been playing opponents tougher than last year. I suspect they may yet win a game or even two this season.

Undergraduate degree - BA Liberal Arts-Applied music - Nope Graduate degree - M. Div. (Master of Divinity) - Yup (I pastor a church) I have three brothers and a sister. Only the sister's career is in the field where her degree lies (Special education) Older brother - BS in education (history) - work crew supervisor for developmentally disabled adults and rock musician. Next younger brother - BS Music Education - Vice president of operations for a small independent natural gas and oil company in NW Pennsylvania (When he couldn't find a job teaching music he got a second bachelors degree, this one in petroleum technology. Youngest brother - MD - Editor (albeit in the medical field) This is a second career for him. He has been a professor/instructor at three different medical schools, most recently in Hershey, Pennsylvania where he was the assistant department head in internal medicine.

I can appreciate that it is a very tough job. I think the most frustrating bad calls are when a penalty is called where there was no bad behavior; the phantom holding call on the Clements punt return and the pass interference that saved BC's butt. I can see missing something that took place and not calling a penalty that should have been called. It's tougher to be patient with officials who see things that aren't there.

You can also get them inside the nose. They aren't associated with a cancer risk there though. I'm speaking from experience here.

CROP Walk (raises money for Church World Service, an ecumenical Christian relief agency). After that I'll probably start thinking about two funerals I have to do this week (Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning). I might watch some of the ESPN Sunday night game.

I'd guess the Hamburg exit is your best bet. Besides the Holiday Inn, there are a couple places that should leave your wallet just a bit thicker. There is a Red Roof Inn and a Tallyho (owned and operated by Howard Johnson).

I'm watching college football: Boston College-Wake Forest. Wake Forest was shutting them out. Boston College on offence. Boston College QB passes the ball. Wake Forest DB gets postion and makes a nice play to break up the pass. Never touches the receiver. Pass interference call from an official who is not in position to see. Fifteen yards and a first down keeps the drive alive and BC scores a TD before the half.

I will be quite surprised if the Orlando airport is not closed Sunday. Your friend is likely to have his meeting canceled for him.

The reality is two thirds of the teams in the NHL cannot be profitable under the terms of the recently expired CBA. I don't know that closing down just a half dozen teams would fix it. If you shut down all 20 money losing teams, the remaining ten don't have the critical mass necessary for a viable league. It may be that the current situation is the fault of the owners in the big market cities who overpay players, but they cannot and will not excercize the necessary restraint fro the league to survive. Nor will they ever agree to revenue sharing. Either the players agree to some sort of cap, or the NHL is effectively dead. It's conceivable, perhaps even likely that eventually in its stead another league will arise, maybe even with some of the current owners, in which a cap is part of the ground rules from the get go. It'll be strictly minor league quality for a while, but I think that may be the best chance for the survival of professional hockey in North America. The current high priced superstars will all end up earning pennys on the dollar for their national teams and will keep complaining that the owners were really making money.

I never could understand why the call for Hamm to give his gold back. The judges also failed to take an automatic deduction of the Korean gymnast's routine that would have dropped his grade more than correcting the math error would have raised it. How can people harp on the one error and complete3ly dismiss the other one? Nowhere but in the Olympics (sometimes) do they alter the results after the fact.

Isn't Gannon about 7 years older than Drew?

Dawgg made my point. I haven't done any statistical ressearch, but I do seem to recall that several of Moorman's punts were attempts to pin opponents inside their 20. In a small sample, 2 games, that can certainly skew the average. I think he had an 80 yarder in the first game. His leg still has it. I don't remember any shanked punts, though he did punt into a strong wind a few times.

I'm not convinced that a challenge on the TH run that didn't result in a TD signal would have been overturned. It sure didn't look to me like the ball crossed the plane, the plane being the edge of the goal line strip closest to the field of play.

The idea behind the preparation is they wnat you completely cleaned out so they can get a good view of everything. Can you imagine trying to poke that scope through all of that. . . ? well, you know what we're talking about.

I had one about ten years ago. The proceedure itself is a snap. They gave me an anesthetic that allowed me to be semiconscious during the proceedure so I could listen to the doctor and do what I was told, but left me with no memory of it, at least that's what they told me. It must have worked, because I can't remember. I had zero after effects. The few days leading up to it are another story. You start with a clear liquid fast for a couple days and add laxatives. I took Ex-lax and had to drink quantities of Citrate of Magnesia. Finally, on the morning of, I gave myself an enema. I had some unexplained bleeding because of which my doctor recommended it. The bleeding turned out probably to have been due to a hemaroid (sp). The colonoscopy did reveal diverticulosis. I'm not happy about having the diverticulosis, but at least knowing it I've made dietary adjustments and now have virtually no symptoms.

A CROP Walk. For those who don't know, a CROP Walk is a walk to raise money for hunger relief both in this country and abroad.

It's not the losses per se, though they hurt. What is discouraging is that were seeing the very same stuff out of the offence that we were led to believe would be fixed. I won't stop being a Bills fan, but the consistent ineptitude does begin to wear on me after a while.

Well, since Ryan Denney is a Mormon, and Mormons don't drink, period, I'm guessing NCSU is making up stories or having a dream himself.

In western New York, I think we've had more summer since September first than we had in June, July, and August put together.

Presumably the term "second level blocks" only applies to running plays, since on passing plays that would essentially be an ineligible receiver downfield.

That's a huge step to take. You have my admiration and prayers. I hhope your friend realizes what a friend he has in you.

I know Schobel takes a fair amount of criticism that he's inconsistent and a lot of his sacks are, well, not up to par with other sack specialists around the league, but his sack total was top ten last season. I wouldn't begin to start trying to rank the tandem as top ten until I see what they produce through a whole season.