RJ (not THAT RJ)

No disagreement there. Remember Bobby Shaw wanting to hold the ball out to show he caught the 2-point conversion against TN in 2003? It got knocked away, and called incomplete. Dumb plays... but in this case, a dumb rule that obscures rather than clarifies.

I would take that bet. Remember, the official right on top of the play, standing right there, signaled TD.

He needed to play for a different team. Seriously, there is a pattern of bad calls in the NFL, always has been. Good teams get fewer bad calls, bad teams get more of them—see the holding penalties and lack of arm bar penalty in today's Bills game.

I appreciate your effort there, but am not convinced, since it is obvious to me that the process was complete. Anyone watching that play (and considering it was video-reviewed, that would be anyone) can clearly see the ball is caught, all feet, arms, butt down... and the player put it on the ground to celebrate. For the official to choose to read more into it than that is an unacceptable insertion of the official into the play, which is something the NFL should be trying to avoid, especially in game-changing plays. That the video folks chose to screw the Lions is simply further indication that bad teams can expect to have the rules interpreted to their detriment. The NFL should be ashamed, and if they trot out a few flunkies this week to natter on about process, that will only make it worse. This beats the tuck rule!

Unreal. Bad teams get robbed... there is no way that is not a catch, and if the idiotic rule wording says it is not, then the rule is wrong. Period.

Gosh, there I was, actually wanting to see the team I have pulled for all my life succeed. How silly of me. I should be a "realist," or maybe a tool who comes onto a fan board to attack his fellow fans for having hope.

Indeed, which is the reason for the diminishing returns at each successive stop. He has no taste for the management anymore, and the risk of failure is too unpleasant. Miami will probably be his last stop, but his name will come up annually among those who do not know the BPLoDR.

For all his football ability, Bill Parcells has a decreasing attention span with his teams. This retreat from responsibility should surprise no one who has seen the pattern. The fun was in the initial recovery... he is too old, too rich, and too established to want to hang around and manage a team. He has shown that in NE, NY, DAL, and now MIA. This takes nothing away from his successes, but it does show how difficult it is to repeat the kind of long-term success he had with the Giants.

There you go... freak out fans.

Oh, so that was YOU on NF BLVD!

...and then explain how this decision shows how Ralph is cheap.

It doesn't even have to be that extreme. Just a series of shorthand analyses that can be plugged in at regular intervals to make the commentators' jobs easier. At least until actual games provide material.

I cannot believe this is literally true, but sometimes it appears as though ESPN develops a script for the start of the season and just hammers it. This year, it is as if they have decided to start with the "Bills are the worst team" meme and spread it across all platforms.

Not to hijack the thread, but I think this is the big question. It is worth asking whether the overwhelming majority of supplements sold over the counter today have any positive value at all.

BPLoDR

That is usually the job of the third string. In fact, Brohm said in an interview he was running the scout team.

Oh, it was on Rogers Sportsnet? Then there is only one response necessary:

As if he is just fending off suitors....

Dude, anyone who gets my reference to Fred Besana deserves this.... You have an excellent point with free agency. That does create more chances for promising young QBs to shop their services, provided of course that they have a portfolio to show off, and a good agent. Heck, even Billy Volek was able to profit from free agency, wasn't he?

The Internet does encourage a certain amount of solipsism, I fear. Truth is, my friends have called me RJ since I was a kid, and as you remember, back them every other thread was either "RJ sucks" or "RJ deserves a chance" etc. etc. I was trying to be clever. The fact that JW, a decade later, is the first person to notice is an indication of how well I can predict the reactions of others. Thus I am a historian, and not a bookie.

Rob Johnson. Since I first registered as a user back in 2000, it seemed like a good idea to make that distinction.

Good point, on Schaub and Brunell (heck, even Favre would qualify there, wouldn't he?), and on Marangi, who was so popular until he actually got his chance to play. It does make me wonder whether everyone gets his chance though. Could it be that any number of backups could have been good, even great starters, but just never had the good fortune to be given their chances? What if GB had decided that Brunell was a valuable backup and never let him leave? Is Fred Besana a HOFer in an alternate universe?

Hey now, don't be a "joique." Seriously, though, nice Yonel Jourdain reference... a preseason HOFer we can all remember!

Too many were in too big a hurry to spin this as a mistake by the front office (one TE! Dooooomed!) to wait and see what would happen next.