Lori

Fixed. Khalif Barnes (JAX) and Mario Henderson (OAK, injury replacement for Kwame Harris) don't fit my definition of elite.

I'm sorry, I thought this thread was supposed to be about New England quarterbacks? Let's keep it that way. Thanks.

As always, thanks for the kind words. Glad they managed to pull it out, but this outlook -- "If they don’t keep the Raiders in the game with turnovers or other mistakes, they’ll succeed, and the Fire Lane Kiffin Watch will resume." -- ended up being far too close to the truth for my liking. Nice of the offensive line to finally show up at the stadium for the second half.

But, again, there were other places to open that 53rd spot. For example, although he has gotten some game time, I was surprised to see them keep a fifth DE, Copeland Bryan. (We knew Ellis would stick.) No, actually SIX ends, since that's technically long-snapper Ryan Neill's position. Tim makes a good point about Denney, I think. When they were scrambling to put 11 healthy D-men on the field early last season, putting him on IR and filling that roster spot would have made sense. As it was, they got less than half a season -- and one sack -- from him. On the other hand, a lot of us thought they moved Posluszny to IR too quickly, too. Just my opinion, but I have to believe that Crowell's upcoming free agency played a role in the decisions made by both sides. Thanks for stopping to clarify your position, Tim.

RJ, you'll have to ask Tim that. He does know about this thread, and I'm hoping he gets a chance to check in here before the gameday stuff pushes this down the board. Speaking of gameday, my alarm is set for 5:30 a.m. Long day today, long drive tomorrow. G'night, all.

Chargers docs told him NOT to play, Dean. That was totally his call. But you're right -- Angelo's the only one who should be deciding what happens to Angelo's knee.

I'm assuming that if that had been the case, France might have adopted a different tone when he talked to Graham. But you know what they say about the word "assume" ...

He pulled up lame (groin pull, maybe?) right at the end of the preseason. Think I remember some contract negotiations going going south at roughly the same time. I'd have to dig into the transactions to make sure, but I think they put Christie on IR the same day they released Henry Jones, then cut him a month or so later.

I believe he still gets his salary as long as he stays on IR, but if the Bills do a waived/injured move, they stop paying him at that point (instead of the entire salary being guaranteed). I'm working on a gamer right now, so I don't have the time to dig through the crappy new NFLPA Web site. But if anyone else out there does, here's the link to the complete CBA: http://www.nflplayers.com/user/template.as...=358&type=c

Yes, I believe everybody got one. I threw mine away, but from what I recall, it was just general info about the new fan code of conduct and a referral to the guest services hotline (which I already had stored in my cell).

When I told Tim about this thread, I mentioned that it sounded all too much like the way Tom Donahoe got rid of Steve Christie. I'll be interested to see if he agrees.

Bruce always was, and always will be, all about Bruce. That's just part of his personality. He's also quite possibly the best football player I've ever seen. Even during his final year here, if he was in the game, our binoculars were trained on him -- waiting for him to do something special -- and he rarely disappointed.

Did you leave your tickets behind? Thought that's how that was supposed to work -- they check the tickets carried by the drunk-and-disorderly types, then crack down on the people who own that account, not anyone whose seat they happen to sit in. If I'm wrong about this, you have a legit beef (and it's something we'd all benefit from knowing).

Yup. Nothing new here, unless you count the wedding reception. Fan hijinks in the visiting team's hotel are part of the tradition in some cities (including this one) ...

Nicely played.

The answer to each of those questions is yes, or at least they attempted to. Whitner politely declined to comment. Lofton, as always, answered honestly. And here's part of Donn Esmonde's column from shortly after Kelly retired: From what I've been told, Lynch didn't even bother with a simple "no comment" until delivering a prepared statement after the plea was agreed upon.

The view from the end zone seats at that game: Four sacks (three on Losman, one on Holcomb), four forced scrambles, and a roughing penalty. And since it was too damn hot outside to drink anything other than water even after escaping into the Alamodome, my memories of that game are reasonably clear ...

You didn't really put a kicker on that list, did you?

I'd be one of them, because visions of the Lions' Roy Williams are still scorched into my retinas. Agreed, McGee has gotten much better since then. Here's hoping he gets Russell to make it three weeks in a row with a pick...

I noticed the same poster started a different thread with a quote about Losman from Mark Kelso. For anyone who's interested, here's what Kelso had to say about the quarterbacks at the midway point of last season: (Sorry, no link. This is mine, from a Booster Club recap that went down with the ship when the board crashed in March.)

Hear, hear. It's not our job to give everybody sunshine and lollipops. Kudos to whoever in the PR department decided enough was enough, and set up the interview.

Mmmmmm, I like spam ...

Raiders preview

Something you may find of interest: http://www.nfl85.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=479 (NFL85.com is a site run by Hochuli's son, Scott. And for those of you who were curious, he's apparently working Cleveland at Baltimore this week.)

Hope they're not leftovers, 'cause they'd be ever-so-slightly past the sell-by date by now ...