Sen. John Blutarsky

Don't underestimate the impact losing Matt Birk has had on Minnesota's offense, especially in the short term. The center calls most of the protections, calls out stunts etc. Birk was a very good center and will not be easily replaced. Simeon Rice needs to split way out at end in order to get pressure. That puts the bulk of the pressure in Sunday's game on Bennie Anderson. Gandy will immediately be sliding out wide to get to Rice, Anderson will have to handle McFarland or whomever is over him and also be on the lookout for blitzers shooting the gap created by Rice's wide split. If Anderson has a good game and can maul the DT we can run off left tackle all day long. I'd look for a lot of traps and draws to the left side. Rice will run himself out of the play and Shelton will be up against a smaller linebacker. I like that matchup. If Anderson gets pushed around that hole closes and Willis won't be able to run wide because of Rice.

Finally, a little love from the NFL Network, I've been Jonesing for some extra coverage.

Gray will be a serious candidate as soon as we make the playoffs. He may get chosen the first year but certainly by the second. What we have to look at is who we have on staff to take over the reigns. I'm liking Tim Krumrie a lot, any thoughts?

It is possible to be extremely loud in the stadium and not make an ass of yourself and/or intrude on other people. Standing up for no reason is intrusive to everyone behind you, if you want to argue I'll come stand in front of you the next game, I'm 6'3" 250 and very hard to see around. Repeatedly bumping into people, borderline shoving them, over a period of 3 hours is extremely aggravating, again I'm willing to demonstrate for you if you'd like me to sit next to you. Getting ridiculously drunk, spilling things on people, vomiting in the row behind you, or the one you're in, is annoying and intrusive. I never had any of these problems when I was a season ticket holder and knew my neighbors, now that I have to drive in for my one game a season I end up sitting with morons who contribute heavily to lessening my enjoyment of the game. Please, be loud, seriously, curse your ass off I don't care. Just don't shove me around the stands, stand in front of me to talk to the people in the row behind me for literally 25 minutes regardless of the game action, or puke on or near me. If that makes me prissy, fine I'm prissy. You don't have to be an ass to be loud.

it's because many shoes, boots, sandals and things like that have steel reinforcing the soles. it sets the metal detector off and it slows down the whole line so they ask everyone to take them off in advance and run them through the x-ray machine. sneakers generally don't have metal in the soles so they don't set off the machines so they are not a problem.

I'll bet you the US Open Tennis final is shown in HD though....

On special teams it usually helps to be a little "special" It reminds me of the film room scene in "The Program", what's your job here, kill the QB <slide change> kill the TE <slide change> kill everybody... Point the big fast man and tell him who to kill. better yet tie a steak to the guy you want him to kill...

Right but if you look below that it says offer expires October 31, 2005. I think the year is a typo and the price is correct. I hope I'm wrong. The reason I posted this is because that site is different today than it was yesterday. Previously it had said something to the effect that pricing for the upcoming season was coming soon. So it isn't as though this site has been sitting unchanged for a year.

Price posted is $129 as long as you buy before October 31st. After October 31st it goes up to $159. So much for throwing hockey fans a bone...

Does it make anyone else giggle that their board is called the "Landing Strip"? Seems to me that should be the cheerleaders board.

Mel and John, explain exactly how this is different from Drew Bledsoe last year? Some good throws, some bad throws, inconsistent. JP is GOING to be up and down this year, the dimension he brings that Bledsoe didn't is his running ability, he showed a lot of mobility in the scrimmage, and not just scrambling, he stepped up to avoid the outside rush very well. The way see it is in terms of throwing Bledsoe and Losman are a wash, but JP can run when things get ugly out there and Bledsoe would curl up and get crushed. *pat* *pat* If those guys expected anyone to come out in the 1st scrimmage and light up anyone they're nuts. As others have said Favre didn't look that great either and he's a HOF QB. I'm looking for development, JP needs to be a little better next week than this week and so on. Will he have at least 1 horrible game, probably, will he make at least one comeback in the last 2 mins, probably. Such is life with a young QB.

Unfortunately everyhting else that guy says in that commercial is intentionally off the wall stupid. So chances are thats a tongue in cheek comment which we take as good but everyone else is giggling at...

OK, I'm drooling now. Bring on the hockey Also, with no red line now the Sabres should go get some defensemen that can move the puck and skate. People like Sandis Ozolinsh and Oleg Tverdovsky have value again. Not to mention the small fast guys that have been held into submission a la Paul Kariya

I have it on reasonably reliable information from the Flyers organization that the announcement will be made on July 15th. My wife got pitched by their marketing dept. and she asked them whether there would actually BE hockey this year or not and that as the date they told her.

Rights for chimps indeed, anyone think a chimp can get served at Starbucks? Chimps (of their own volition) wear neither shirts nor shoes thus cannot be served. I find these discriminatory policies of Starbucks to be reprehensible, to call for the emanicpation of a species and then deny that species service in their outlets, for shame Starbucks....for shame....

OK, #1, I work in Camden, NJ with adolescents that get kicked out of their schools. 40% of my kids are hispanic, 59% are black and 1% are white. 100% of them live below the poverty line. So lets gets this idea that I don't like NBA players because they are black out of your head. I don't like the majority of NBA players because they live, or worse, pretend to live the "Thug" lifestyle. I don't like Ron Artest because he is a dispicable person who has absolutely no control of his anger not becuase he's black. I don't like Allen Iverson because he does whatever he wants, refuses to accept responsibility for it and blames others for his problems. Coincidentally that is the exact same thing my kids do and it makes it hard for me to show them it's wrong when AI can make 100 bazillion dollars doing it. I don't like the NBA because league management has no spine whatsoever. Their drug testing policy is an absolute joke, thier players run amok and nothing of consequence happens. The only exception is Ron Artest and there were a great many people in the NBA who railed against the severity of that punishment. At least in the NFL when people get caught smoking weed they get suspended, the NBA wrote that off as part of basketball "culture" many years ago. And by the way, I have just as big a problem with NFL players who act that way too. Jamal Lewis' situation sickens me, so does Ricky Williams. The fact that the Dolphins would accept Ricky back after what he did shows me all I ever need to know about their organization. Make no mistake, there is a big part of me that like that the BIlls don't frequently have players who act grossly inappropriately. And I know someone will list a litany of players who have done wrong while in Bills uniforms, my response will be that those players didn't stay in town very long after they screwed up. Let's not confuse my disapproval of NBA players lifestyle choices with a dislike of their ethnicity. Nobody forces players to act that way whatever their skin color. For many of them it is a conscious decision driven by marketing. In the post- Micheal Jordan NBA "Thugs" get the money. Ben Wallace is marketed because he has an afro (not that there's anything wrong with an afro) not because he's a great defensive player. name one other NBA player who got marketing based on defense (and don't you dare say Dennis Rodman because Rodman got no airtime until he became a freak show).

Wow, can anyone imagine the run of felonies there will be if we have the whole NBA locked out with millions of dollars to spend and nothing to do without even the pretense of drug testing?

I read the must read section, it's not like pre-payment. You actually have to take delivery of the casket when you buy it. They won't keep it on lay-away until you die. So you actually would have to put it in your garage, or attic , or crawl space a la ted Bundy

Ok, so lets go ahead and file this in the never gonna happen folder. Allison, Kariya, and Forsberg....shyeah...hright

Here are 2 DTs from our roster last year DT #1 Had 21 tackles, 15 solo, 4 sacks and 2 tackles for loss in 11 games DT #2 had 53 tackles, 43 solo, 3 sacks and 7 tackles for loss in 15 games Here's the caveat, DT #2 had 12 tackles, 8 solos and a sack in 1 game. Was our defense dominating that day? No, it was week 17 against the Steelers when they ran up and down the field against us. If you subtract that 1 game DT #2's stats become 41 tackles, 35 solo and 2 sacks over 14 games. DT #1 averaged 1.9 tackles, 1.4 solos, and .36 sacks per game DT #2 averaged 2.9 tackles, 2.5 solos, and .14 sacks per game (subtracting week 17) So DT #2 averaged about 1 tackle more per game than DT #1. Obviously DT #1 is Ron Edwards and DT #2 is Pat Williams. Take into account that Williams was a starter and saw the field way more often than Edwards where is the huge dropoff in production? Do you not think that Ron Edwards can bring 1 more tackle to the field with more playing time? I'd also like to point out that the reason Sam Adams made the Pro Bowl last year was because he got benched during Miami game #1 in favor of Ron Edwards. After that game Adams was an unholy beast to block for the rest of the season because he had to compete for his playing time with Edwards, if he didn't perform he was gonna sit. Edwards may not be as well known as Williams but don't call him a scrub. He was just as productive last year and is 6 years younger than Pat.

I'd love to know how many of those they sell. "Honey, I'm going to Costco today." "Great! Don't forget to get some milk, oh and be sure to check out the caskets, I hear the '05 models are in."

Wow, 2 in one year. 1 in 10 million odds...hmmm The omen thing was kinda funny, but then the original omen croaked and the was immediately replaced by a new one.... to quote Tim Curry from Clue "This is getting serious..."

Not that I know the details of the cases or anything but I see how it'd be very easy to have two incidents like that at your house without your involvement. Get a big house, throw a party. All kinds of stuff can happen that you don't know about at all. Maybe it was one of his friends, maybe it was someone else from the Browns, who knows. I'm just saying it isn't that unreasonable nor does it necessarily reflect badly on Verba, especially since they happened in such close proximity, it could have been the same person in both instances.

Throw in the Polish Porch and the bug zapper and you're all set.

Actually Ricky Williams owes the Dolphins several million dollars at this point, which I'm sure is a motivating factor in his return. Also, Kellen Winslow, Jr. has to repay the Browns somewhere between 2 and 3 million of his signing bonus because he violated the terms of his deal by riding a motorcycle. I get the jist of your comment though, Ryan Leaf gave back 0 dollars and neither Williams nor Winslow are doing it by choice.