***PetrinoInAlbany***

His campaign has done the smartest thing imaginable. Sticking to Bush's record.

Anyone want to bet me dinner that Bush WON'T have a huge "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner hanging over his podium? ...

I hope Kerry turns to Bush tonight and says, "Let's talk about 'flip-flops' ... To date, you have given twenty-three different reasons for going to war in Iraq. Saddam had WMD's ... Saddam attacked the Twin Towers... Saddam had yellowcake uranium and was going nuclear ... Saddam threw out the weapons inspectors ... Well, Mr. President, pick one! And for God's sake, stop calling me a 'flip-flopper' when - two years, two hundred billion dollars, and a thousand deaths into this war - you still cannot decide on a justification." - --- Go get 'em, John!

What I'm looking for is that running game breakout where we average (team) 4.0 or better-per-carry. That would spell success. Travis and Willis in whatever tempo the game dictates ... save the damn reverse for LATER in the game once you've set it up ... and maybe even have the statue Drew toss in an occasional run or two. But if we get 4.0+, in any way, we win.

Greg ... Agree it's sad that the Expos are leaving. THE GOOD NEWS: Washington should have a baseball team. THE BAD NEWS: The guy running the ownership syndicate apparently is known for failed business ventures on a grand scale. Stay tuned ...

Check out the Dolphin logo over his shoulder ... Even the mascot's pissed at this guy in Miami!

I just checked back in to read this thread... I botched the "quote" function, but one of you guys had a great line: - - "Put a team like we had in the 70's on the ice, and they'll sell-out every game again!" - - Oh, man ... I'd settle for having just one guy like Perreault. I remember his rookie year, there were seven guys on the roster who could boast six-foot height and over 200 pounds .... The six defensemen, and Gilbert. Remember him dropping Dave Maloney his rookie year with one punch. No one ever challenged him again. What a specimen, and such raw skaiting power. He was the greatest passer and stick handler I ever saw (until Gretzky came along) too ...

Two things: - - It bugs me when he's called old. Kelly won two AFC Championships and started in two Super Bowls AFTER his 32nd birthday. Drew's not old, and he's NOT done. - - As you know, I attend every home game and microscopically watch the road games. Well, I haven't seen anything resembling a "pocket' yet this year. Yeah, I'm SO glad Ruben departed... I mean, think how badly it might muck things up having a six-time Pro-Bowler at left guard. Valarial's hurt, and that doesn't help. Mike Williams? Head case. [And meanwhile, Kyle McKinney's playing like a block of granite.] Let's be fair ... With our pass protection, Joe Montana in his prime might go 6-10 and get tagged fifty times. Wanted: An O- line!

-What blows my mind is that NHL players have the highest average player salaries in sports. But another poster (above, somewhere) pointed out something that's bugged me for years about the NHL ... - -I grew up in Amherst. I learned to skate when I was so young I still thought "porn" was sneaking peeks at African women villagers' breasts in Dad's National Geographic. Ice hockey was like a religion. I had a rink in my back yard. So did a lot of kids. Hell, a friend of mine, Rick Frenning - Assemblyman Frenning's son - actually had a rink in their yard with BOARDS and LIGHTS! We'd play games starting at ten at night and play until our ankles gave. Your parents would see you going out at ten on a school night with your stick and skates over your shoulder, and they didn't even have to ask what you were doing. We worshipped Martin (met him, he married a neighbor of mine), Perreault, and Robert. When I got older, my buds and I would all chip in and pay whatever they were asking to rent a rink for two hours... And when the only times available were from 1AM to 3AM, we took it! And we were glad to get it, too. - -My point? Do kids growing up in Phoenix and Nashville and Tampa start skating at ten? Do they have rinks in their back yards? Could they take a pass between the ankles on the fly (without looking) and find the slot in their sleep, and still be not NEARLY good enough to make their high school team? Do they even know who the hell Rod Gilbert, Roger Crozier, Guy Lafleur, Eddie Shack, Tom Lysiak, Jerry Korab, and Dave Taylor ARE? Probably not. So why does the NHL blindly chase demographic shifts? Why are their teams in places where it's 85 in January? It's ridiculous, man. Just ridiculous. - - I love the game, and I love the NHL. Hell, I loved the AHL, too. (Must be a Buffalo thing ... The AMERICAN Football League .... The AMERICAN Hockey League ...) I know I'm ranting, but a great league and a beautiful sport are being mucked up by a bunch of idiots. (*sigh*) OK ... I'm finished. Sorry, guys.

I was referring to the age factor. Drew's not old, and he's not done. And Pete ... about your signature "God Bless You" for Pat Tillman ... While I share the sentiment, you do know that Tillman was an atheist, right?

Do the idiots running the NHL realize that they are going to kill professional hockey in North America? The sport I love (second only to football) at its highest level is being ruined. It's unfathomable to me that these guys would even consider killing the season, yet it's happening. Reminds me of the time the WNBA threatened a strike and nobody noticed ... Guess those TV ratings must've gone to their heads. Now, when they do come back, they risk being pased in the TV ratings by Texas Hold 'Em ...

FACT: Jim Kelly won two Conference championships and started in two Super Bowls after his 32nd birthday. Drew ain't done yet ...

I thought it was a great story, too. I first read about him in ESPN Magazine. Veteran. Thirty-nine years old and will play in an NCAA Division 1 game. That takes stones. It reminds me of my favorite quote... - - "Age is merely a number. Youth is a state of mind." Frank Lloyd Wright said that ... at the age of eighty ... when he was still working!

Dude, I think this teacher may have taught at my Catholic grade school when I was at Christ the King in Amherst ...

Abdullah The Butcher v. Coco Brazil ... Now THAT was wrestling!

By accident. I was stoned and trying to type in "www.busty-bikini-babes.com" and screwed it up and wound up in here. Glad I did, because I have met some great people, and the TBD Parties are the highlight of any (non-playoff) season for me.

- - Drew drops back to pass - In one-point-seven seconds - Pocket collapses - - A sickening thud - Drew is looking at the sky - Scrape him off the turf -

I like my view from the first row in the tunnel end zone. When they peel Drew from the turf after a pass play, you can actually hear the sound it makes ... like peeling a decal off a bumber. Adds to the game ...

It's cake. Really. I was terrified, and the actual work was totally unfelt. The lidocaine does that. Here's the best part ... if the dentist does a good job (mine did) then you don't ever feel like you've got anything other than your God-given tooth in your mouth. You'll be surprised, you'll see!

Here's my answer in a word ... YES. Why? Well, in each game, i can also point to plays that - had they gone the other way - we would've not even been in a position to win at the end. Moulds' TD against the Jags came because a rookie forgot to cover an All-World receiver. And in the Raiders game, Jerry Rice was Coy Wire's man on the option that wasn't. If the other receiver gets that pass off, Rice scores jogging. So as far as 'what if' ... it works both ways.

I am 110% with Thai Stick on this one! Seriously. Just because they're millionaires, they can't be expected to work through a rough spot? I am 100% in agreement here. They need to practice, and they need to focus. You want to tell me this offensive (and I do mean "offensive") line couldn't use two weeks of intense drilling? To most people, myself included, the early bye is a bad thing. Too early to be useful for rest. So, I say - and I think Thai is also saying - convert the NEGATIVE to a POSITIVE. Take it as a two week stretch to get READY for the frickin' WORLD CHAMPIONS, who will be in our back yard in two weeks. If you go on a fricking VACATION while your job crumbles around you, then you're George Bush ... Practice them until they look like a finely-oiled precision machine! I would.

I'm beginning to think that the keys to a long & healthy life are not letting the Bills' performance on any given Sunday make me crazy. (*sigh*) Still, I can't help it. I've been a fan for 37 years, and I still haven't learned how not to care too much. Performances like yesterday's STILL cause me ulcers ...

Yeah, we'll beat the Patriots. And you know what else will happen the SAME day? ... - - You'll get home, and Bush will have a press conference on TV and say, "The whole war in Iraq is a scam. It's a money grab ... Carlyle, KBR/Halliburton, big oil, big defense ... one big money grab. People are dying for our greed. We now see how wrong that is, and we are sorry. We're ending it now..." - - The Surgeon General will announce the same day that cigarettes, borboun, and adventurous sex with women you've just met are the keys to a long & healthy life... - -Rich Gannon will go to the Raiders' execs and BEG for a trade to the Bills. His stated reason will be, "Man, I WANT to play behind that O-line!" - - The NHL players and their owners will agree.... "Look," they'll say, "we have the highest per-player average salary in professional sports. For God's sake, let's just shake hands and PLAY!" - - Money Magazine will list Buffalo as the number ONE hot job market in the United States. The Western New York demographic will change dramatically as young people graduate from universities and move TO Buffalo for high-paying jobs in whatever field they choose... - - Bush/Cheney will agree to as many extemporaneous debates as Kerry wants. Bush will say, "No more 'White House Spokesman' responding 'ouch' when someone kicks me in the shin! I can speak for myself. I am an intelligent, articulate leader, and I'm running on the strength of my ideas, and the excellence of my record, damnit!" - - Finally, the Patriots will lose out the string, go 2-14, and pretty much throw the AFC East wide open!

0-2 going into the bye week will do that to you...

Moorman was the best player on the field for the Bills yesterday. That's generally a bad sign, in my book. Still looking for the passer rating number, to confirm whether or not his was higher than Bledsoe's ... - How bad has it gotten? Well, they actually ran an offensive play with NO quarternack on the field at one point! The direct snap to Moulds in the backfield. I understand the sentiment involved in trying that, but it also tipped the Raiders that it was a run play. Thus, 3 yards. - We were robbed on the "holding started at the one" call, too. That was a TEXTBOOK safety. The BLOCKING started at the one, damnit! The call the ref made violated both the INTENT and the letter of that rule. A Bills defender was in the end zone charging at the QB for an impending end zone sack, and was clearly tackled by the Raider offensive lineman two to three yards deep in the end zone. Jesus, that's exactly why the rule exists. To call it the way they did was a major stretch. - While I still (believe it or not) haven't written off Drew, I was sickened by what I thought was two disturbing things: 1) Rob-like pocket awareness, and 2) Ferguson-like hanging of the head. The first may be attributable to the fact that a "pocket" per se did not exist all day. The second, well... If I can see it, don't you think everyone else can too? I was disappointed by that. I saw no "fire" in the guy's eyes. I saw a lot of looking down, and it's always been a belief of mine that the Q is like the captain on a ship... the crew must never see fear & indecision in the captain's demeanor. But that's just me. - Last rant: Is it just me, or does everyone else see the genius of giving up on Ruben Brown? Yeah, this line is so terrific, we don't need Ruben. Probably wouldn't even have started... - I need a drink.