Beck Water

I hope he hired a good lawyer, but I'm surprised a good lawyer and agent would let him speak.

Just a guess, but pretty sure if he stayed and they measured his BAC, it woulda been higher than the legal limit

Yeah, I'm familiar with that research. Here's the counterpoint - the brain shows remarkable plasticity as an organ. It changes in response to its environment and the demands placed upon it. When people are exposed to different environments and have different expectations and responsibilities, it's not a stretch to think the brain may develop differently. My Grandfather went to school through 8th grade then 2 years of "business college". At age 15, he went to work full time and was expected to play a significant role as a family breadwinner. This was only unusual, in that a lot of kids of that era went to work full time at age 13, right after 8th grade. Then there was Selective Service, which he was too young for in 1917 but registered for in 1942 (18 to 45). Young men were drafted, trained, and somehow expected to exercise a great deal of responsibility, not infrequently leading other young men in combat. It wouldn't surprise me, if the brains of these young men were examined, or the brains of young men and women elsewhere in the world who are expected to exercise adult-size responsibilities in their late teens/early 20s, if they were found to have significantly more mature pre-frontal cortexes capable of accomplishing executive brain functions at a higher level. In one interview Josh Allen was talking about his grandparents and father and uncles, and how, looking at photos of them at high school age, they had the muscles of "grown ass men" because of the hard manual work they did. My contention: young skeletal muscle develop early if needed and used on regular daily basis; young brain develop regularly if judgement and reasoning needed and used on regular daily basis. Meta in the sense I was using it, more comprehensive or transcending. Transitioning from this specific instance to comprehensive consideration about 20 year old kids, who at one time were considered adults and at 18 for some purposes and 21 for others, legally still are.

I mean, there are a couple of points. HC hired this season Broncos - retread Sean Payton Cards - Eagles DC Jon Gannon Texans - 49ers DC DeMeco Ryans Colts - Eagles OC Sean Steichen Panthers - retread Frank Reich 2 retreads, 2 young DCs, 1 young OC HC hired last season Saints - Saints DC Dennis Allen, retread of failed Raiders HC Giants - Bills OC Brian Daboll Bears - Colts DC Matt Eberflus Broncos - Green Bay OC Nathaniel Hackett Dolphins - 49ers OC Mike McDaniel LV Raiders -NE OC Josh McDaniels, retread of failed Denver HC and failed Rams OC Vikings - LA Rams OC Kevin O'Connell Jaguars - (out of football) Doug Pederson, retread of Eagles HC who failed to develop Carson Wentz but won a Superbowl and a WC game with Nick Foles Texans - Texans DC Lovie Smith, retread Bucs and Bears HC. With the Bears, Smith managed a Div, Conf, and SB appearance w/ QB Orton, Cutler, and Grossman 4 retreads (counting Allen as a retread), 1 middle-aged DC, 3 young OCs So it's clearly not true that only hot young offensive coaches are being hired. 6 of the HC hires of the last 2 seasons are re-tread HCs, and 5 of 14 were defensive coaches. However, only 2 of the 6 retreads hired were defensive coaches. Leaving aside the "race" question, I think it's fair for Frazier to look at his accomplishments and say that he's shown at least as much as other coaches who got a 2nd chance. What did Josh McDaniel do in Denver? 8-8, 4-12. What did Dennis Allen do with the Raiders? Two 4 and 12 seasons, one of them with Carson Palmer who moved to AZ and promptly showed that he could still play at a high level. As DC, Allen led a couple top defenses (#4 and #5) with NO but they fizzed in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Frazier has had 3 #1 or #2 defenses in his 6 years, and two of the years he didn't were rebuilding. As a HC, he took the Vikes to 10-5 and a playoff appearance with Ponder as his QB. Obviously, he'd get more looks if his D had performed better for the last 13 seconds last season and in the Cincy game this season, but failure of his defense to perform in a playoff game doesn't seem to have been a bar to Dennis Allen. So why is that? I'm not saying "race" is the answer, but I think it would be naive to think that it doesn't factor in. The owners of NFL teams are, for the most part, old white guys, and for the most part, all of us (black white M F) are simply more comfortable with people who remind us of ourselves in some way. Mostly we aren't even consciously aware of this kind of bias. It wouldn't be a surprise to me if that question weighed on Frazier, as another season with a top ranked D and a playoff win apparently failed to get him so much as a phone call, while the Broncos traded away what? to get Payton out of retirement. I would imagine there is an element of frustration there. It's common advice for guys who have not made it as HC to take a year off before taking another position, so that they can be sure they have time to do a thorough "lessons learned". That might apply to Frazier, as well. As an immediate reason to step away and at this time, I'm not sure. I would guess, that either there was going to be a change in the defense that he wasn't comfortable with - Joe Danna I think was brought in from Houston and Al Holcomb, whose longest experience was as LB coach of the Panthers, in part because the Bills want to utilize their safeties and LB a bit differently. Maybe Frazier isn't comfortable with that? It's also possible that McDermott decided that he was going to call defensive plays next season, and Frazier understandably sees that as a demotion. Then there's the possibility that there are medical or family reasons. After listening to Beane's entire presser, I personally think that is less likely. The whole bit about he doesn't want to retire and Beane isn't sure if he'll be coaching with the Bills in 2024 just doesn't sound like a guy who asked for leave for those reasons, but that's entirely a personal opinion.

We seem to be infantalizing early-20s kids these days and acting as though that's the norm. If we're gonna go all "meta" here: maybe that should stop. I mean, Durrrr, but is that supposed to be a problem or something? Or does it hit a "soft spot" in you? In other words, What's Your Point?

I have sped,and driven recklessly, but not 1) in a populated area 2) while under the influence of alcohol. It's one thing to die or risk turning into a vegetable for your own kicks, and another to risk inflicting that on someone else. No DUI, car he was driving was not in an accident What's Your Point?

I doubt that there are sidewalks in that particular area, but otherwise, Thank You. This. This was not a long empty straight deserted country road. There were other cars on the road, a road busy enough to have a center turn lane, and they were passing them. Then I don't even know what to say to you. Yes I do - you were an ####### when you did it, you were putting innocent bystanders at almost as much risk as if you were twirling around shooting a gun, and you really need to quit normalizing this as something just "everybody does". https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/teen-volleyball-player-from-tennessee-critically-injured-in-downtown-st-louis-crash/ This kind of thing. There's a young lady - a young lady who entered the weekend with a full ride volleyball scholarship to college - who just lost both her legs and whose life will never be the same (if she lives) because #######s think that traffic laws don't apply to them. The driver and the other car are fine, of course -the car and its engineering protected them, but not the young lady who was walking down the sidewalk minding her own business. You did it, you don't do it now, Good for You, but don't normalize it.

I will put it out there. I think you are confusing "most guys" with "the guys I know" and "Pearl clutching" with people being appalled at behavior that puts innocents at high risk, and at normalizing this behavior as something "most adult guys" have done. You're correct, he didn't kill his teammate. The other driver - a white woman, by the way - killed his teammate and herself, so I'm not sure exactly where your "white kid does this and good ol boy routine" gets off.

Good grief I get what you're saying about teenage/early 20s "invincible" thinking and testosterone-fueled pursuit of the "danger zone" But Barnett State Road just outside Athens is not a deserted straight long country road. It's suburban, heading into another town, where the crash occurred. It has a center turn lane (which they were reported to be using) and they were reported to be passing other motorists.

Oh, without a doubt it was a total team collapse.

Well, that speaking won't happen if Carter's legal defense team has anything to do with it. Seriously, driving 104 mph in the opposite lane of traffic (edit: in a suburban area, no less) seems like "something almost everyone has done" to you?

You have a point. There were a lot of factors - injuries, field conditions etc - but the Bengals had horrible OL injuries and we couldn't take advantage. I've heard that a lot of play on the lines is mental, not physical. You have two sets of behemoth men, both of whom train hard and are strong, both of whom are playing hindered by injuries at that time of year. The difference often comes down to mental preparation and toughness. Same with being able to plant and cut on a snowy field. I have had the thought, for a while, that someone on the Bills defensive staff needs time and familiarity to craft an effective gameplan. We've played the Chiefs 6 times under McDermott, even split. 5 times with Mahomes at QB. The first two times, they thumped us convincingly. Then we beat them convincingly, then the 13 seconds playoff game where it looked like we had them beat, only...then another strong win last fall. Part of that is the McDermott growth mindset that if you don't succeed, you pick your failure apart and decide what needs to change and fix it and try again. We had not played the Bengals since 2019, with Andy Dalton at QB (we won). It seems as though sometimes, someone on the Bills coaching staff has a sort of failure of imagination and can't necessarily craft an effective gameplan from watching what works for other teams. For whatever reason, whether coaching or execution (I think, both) the Bills defense appeared unprepared and ineffective. A good question is if the seeming need to actually play a team and get thumped by them before we can craft a good defense against them, belongs to Frazier, or to McDermott, or to both.

There's a crying need-to-know here https://www.insider.com/bodybuilder-showed-how-fitness-photos-can-be-misleading-2019-10#in-2016-murphy-posted-a-10-minute-transformation-challenge-video-to-his-youtube-account-to-share-what-he-learned-about-posing-for-photos-with-his-followers-2 Spoiler: same guy, same muscles, same time different pose: I'm not saying Gabe may not have gone off his training diet a bit for a month (and why shouldn't he), but you clearly have been engulfed by the unrealistic body expectations projected onto men these days by a combination of ripped GI Joe and superhero toys and male Instagram influencers. Gabe is not required to oil his body, flex, and pose with optimal lighting and posture to meet your standards for his appearance in order to demonstrate that he trains seriously to function as an NFL WR at a high level. You clearly don't understand that male Instagram influencers like bodybuilder Connan Murphy who train for defined musculature, don't even look like that when they're chillaxing with their buds. And that's not even getting into the difference between training for functional strength and training for appearance.

That was a big puzzle to me, why that was the case. Did not seem to be slowing Cincy at all

If it is true that Davis was playing hindered all season: 1) we often praise the Bills injury handling, but it did Davis no favors if true, because he only missed one game, week 2, and played 96% and 98% of the snaps in the following 2 games where he was on injury report and had a "Questionable" game day designation. 2) I like the kid, but same story last season - "Questionable" week 2, but played - then towards the end of the season we're hearing about how he was visibly hampered through most of the season In order to be a #2 WR the team can count on, Davis can't be hampered all season by injuries that occur in Week 2 and aren't serious enough to stop him from playing two years in a row. Or, to put it another way, if he's going to be injured and play through it, he has to play at a high enough level to contribute anyway. I'm having uncomfortable flashbacks to the 2021 Combine when Beane told us that Cody Ford had played more games injured than he had played healthy, and that he'd have to compete but he thought he'd be one of our best 5 OL for 2021. It took 3 games to see that notion still was not working out. I'm sure every player who has drops would like some of them back. The question is, will he be able to come up with a program that changes what actually happens?

That would be...unfortunate

At least on this forum, there seems to be a sizeable and vocal contingent who do not respect Frazier....examples: I'm not saying these aren't fair points, but people seem to forget that he did run a defense that was consistently good and GOT us to the playoffs.

That's one possibility, yes.

As far as I know, having a coach under contract voluntarily take a year off from coaching is damned near unprecedented. So I have no idea how the NFL would handle it if he came back and the Bills said "oh, he's a member of our staff still, so we get compensated if you hire him" But folks here have to make up their damned minds - either Frazier is not under contract, and therefore if someone else hires him now or next year no compensation to the Bills - or, if compensation is a possible motivation for how the Bills are handling things he is under contract, not only this year but next, and the "smoke" that Frazier was not under contract to the Bills is without fire. What you write here seems a bit contradictory. You seem to be saying that people believe ridiculous theories in order to "not tarnish" McDermott andd Beane - and then point out that those ridiculous theories would, in fact tarnish McDermott and Beane badly by showing a poor level of organization and leadership. Then you seem to imply that believing Frazier needs a year off or doesn't want to be here next year would "tarnish" them, whereas there are multiple reasons why Frazier might need a year away from the game that do not tarnish them (medical, family, reaction to the Hamlin incident, frustration with being passed over for job offers and needing time to process/reset/reflect)

Don’t know. Doubt Frazier knows either, at this point. A lot depends on why he’s doing it. Medical? Family? Gap year to ensure time to study and reflect? Polite way of being forced out? All of those reasons could have for/against arguments why do some fans feel the organization owes them anything but football games and reporter access to ask questions?

If that's the case, why not just fire him? McDermott has fired other coaches - Rico Dennison, Juan Castillo, Jim Salgado this season. The goat has better scapes if you officially lop off his head. I dunno about "FAR more power than Beane", because I think it's been pretty clear at times Beane has made moves McDermott was not on board with. I agree that the way it's set up, both Beane and McDermott report to the Pegulas, and Beane does not have fate control (authority to fire) McDermott. I think it's very clear that at times during games, McDermott weighed in on defensive playcalls. But I think the primary playcalling and the primary game plan responsibilities were both Frazier's and he called plays most of the time.

My personal take from Beane's presser is that either McDermott will take over game day playcalling, or one of the defensive assistants will move up to DC.

I don't think it was a snap decision made and announced today either. But I don't think it's been something in the works for weeks, comparable to the new coaching hires which were leaked in social media but only announced by the Bills today. I expect if we were roaming around on Chiefs fan boards between 2015-2017 we would learn that a number of fans did, in fact, want Reid fired despite the two 11-5 and the 12-4 season. Losing the conf. championship with an MVP QB and the #1 O in 2018 probably didn't help.

? what else on ST other than giving up that 50 yd punt return? Oh yeah - kickoff OOB, Bass had too many of those this season. I didn't mean to imply that the Bills D was all suckitude or something, but there was a pattern of giving up 4th down and big 3rd down conversions that they struggled with last season - the Dolphins game wasn't an anomoly there, and I think it was a real and repetitive problem.

The thing is, these days, "an awful lot of smoke" can result from one guy with inaccurate sources reporting wrong info, and then everyone else regurgitating what that guy said with no verification. Welcome to information challenge in the Age of Social Media, though back in 1710 Jonathan Swift said "Falsehood flies, and Truth comes limping after it". Not saying your take is wrong, either, just pointing out that in this day and age, one can't judge factuality by the amount of airplay and electrons something receives.