Cotton Fitzsimmons

TJack may not ever be starting material, but given the recent history of Thiggy, VY, and TJack... TJack is clearly the best QB of the 3. Whatever happened to Vince is unfortunate, because he was really good, and you can still see shades of it and that was frustrating (the zip he has on the ball, his strength, his speed, etc.) Whatever happened to this guy, it appears he's just checked out and doesn't plan on checking back in. With regard to Fitz, we should keep in mind that last preseason the starting offense put up 3 points against Chicago, 3 points against Denver, 17 against Jax, and the few starters that were in against Detroit (I don't believe Fitz took a single snap in that game) put up 0. The tone around here was very much the same as it is right now, and we saw an explosive offense come out of the gate once the regular season started. I would've loved to have seen Fitz and the offense play much better in the preseason, but I truly don't believe we will know anything about this unit until Sept. 9th. Getting T-Jack, however, is yet another net improvement for this team. A clear upgrade at backup.

The only positional concern regarding our DT's will be that which comes from opposing QB's and how quickly our DT's make them "assume the position"

YE OLE is not entirely sold on Williams just yet, but I too thought he was solid last night.

"Touchdown" Troy Edwards will most certainly supplant Franz Kafka on the depth chart.

Thank you my friend. Just taking things a day at a time right now. I've definitely missed the good folks here as well!

K-9 my good man, truer words have never been spoken!

I just wanted to drop in and tell you folks again how unbelievably grateful my family is to this community. We left New York last Wednesday night. We rented a car and I drove my wife, mother in law, and our little boy back home to Michigan. We literally left one hospital and went to our hospital here when we arrived Thursday afternoon so they could once again check my wife from the complications she had from surgery. Her incision actually opened up a day before we left New York, and they didn't want her to leave under normal circumstances, but being that we had to get home to bury our little girl, they were able to close it back up and have her get treatment immediately upon arriving home the next afternoon. Everything is okay with my wife now in a physical sense. We laid our precious Abigail to rest next to her brother last Friday. We had purchased 3 plots together, 3 years ago when we lost our first born, and had planned on mom and me being buried on either side of him one day, so the logistics of this horrible scenario weren't something we could've ever anticipated. However, the the cemetery allowed us under the circumstance to bury Abigail between us as well, which brought some small comfort. It's been a long, difficult week, that was exacerbated by various complications and problems caused by the funeral home here in Michigan. We were very fortunate that the coordinating funeral home in Brooklyn was extremely professional and helpful and did most of the legwork to get Abigail home. For anyone who is in the city, the name of it is Evergreen Funeral Home, and it's run by Leslie Rago and her family. For anyone who is going through the passing of a loved one, I can't tell you how highly I recommend their services. They are as top notch as it gets. Our situation was incredibly complex in getting Abigail home and they were beyond fantastic in handling everything. Needless to say, we've had many tear filled days and nights and comforting my wife who went through so much physically as well as emotionally has been difficult, but we are doing the best we can to adjust and move on while honoring our little Abigail's memory. One thing that has helped us a great deal is stopping in and reading all of the continued well wishes and support for us during this time. Again, I just can't tell you how much our extended family here at TBD has meant to us in this process. God bless you all, you are truly amazing people.

First and foremost I want to thank everyone for the incredible support we've received from this community. As difficult as this is to type out right now, I want to update you on everything that has transpired as I know so many of you have shown such deep concern for us. Our little girl who we named Abigail Concepcion (Concepcion after her great grandmother), took her last breath late Sunday night with myself and her mamma holding her hand. Abigail was very strong and fought very hard, but the AVM in her brain was simply too much for her to overcome combined with coming so early into this world. They were never able to get her stable enough to get an MRI done and the life saving procedure we had come here to get for her. She was born on her daddy's birthday and spent most of Father's Day with me before she left. Perhaps, this fact alone is the cruelest of all and will forever leave a gaping hole in my heart. Aside from the ultimate heartbreak of losing our daughter, my wife had a very difficult time. She is okay now, but doctors strongly suggested doing an emergency c-section because of a slew of complications found in my wife's vascular system that easily could've led to her bleeding to death. However, it was the only way to give our little girl any chance at all. With that in mind, I knew my wife being the mother she is, was going under the knife without a second thought. She did lose a lot of blood during surgery, and needed a transfusion but made it out okay considering all of the complications. We've now begun the very difficult process of getting our little girl back home to Michigan to bury her next to her brother, who we lost 3 years ago. This is a process which has been made more complex and painful, because we are out of our home state and we've had to navigate the laws and regulations of NY to get this accomplished. We never thought we would have to go through such a heartbreaking experience again of planning our child's funeral, and while the pain is crippling we are blessed to have our 2 year old son with us, and I hope that as time goes on we will once again begin to find some happiness and joy in life. It has been an amazing blessing having such a wonderful group of friends and family here at TBD and I will forever owe you an unrelenting debt of gratitude for all you have done. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and God Bless.

I just wanted to let you folks know that our little girl was born yesterday (on her daddy's birthday no less). She's very sick and weighed 5 lbs. at birth. Whats more due to a whole slew of complications my wife risked her life to have a csection despite a vascular disorder that was discovered here this week that couldve caused her to bleed to death to give our daughter what little chance they gave her to survive delivery. She made it through the night and doing her best to hold on. The endovascular surgeons have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow and will coordinate treatment from there. This isnt how we drew it up to attack this already difficult disease, but we're definitely down 35-3 here and in need of a miracle. But as I write this she is just down the hall in the NICU holding her ground. Thank you again for your prayers and support.

Just wanted to thank you all again for all of your support. We arrived in NYC yesterday morning and had a long day of tests and consultations with various specialists. The good news is they think that our baby's heart is in better condition than was reported to them from the University of Michigan. On the flip side, they are now diagnosing this aneurism as a possible genetic malformation in the RASA-1 gene, as my wife suffers from fairly severe vascular issues of her own as a complication to these last 2 pregnancies. They told us when all of this is done, there's a lab in Belgium that we can send out to and have tests done to confirm this issue in the gene. While it doesn't change the treatment or prognosis at all, it is interesting. Because of a heart murmur and the vascular issues that manifest during pregnancy for my wife, they are holding off on the digoxin IV treatment for a day or so while they do MRI and other tests on her. They truly seem to be a brilliant group of doctors for all things endovasular. They have let us know that they plan on us "moving" here to get this treatment done, which means we're going to be here it looks like now for at least 2-3 months. Adjusting to life here will be a bit of a challenge, but we feel blessed to have to found a group of doctors that have such a wealth of knowledge with regard to this disorder.

paintmyhouse, my good man... YE OLE must respectfully disagree. If there is not a win in those 6 games as you claim to be the case, then this entire, euphoric offseason was all for not. Either we are better or we're not better. If we are, in fact, better by virtue the tremendous infusion of talent and building a potentially nasty defense, then we should expect to be able to go and defeat other good teams at home and on the road. In fact, YE OLE is quite certain that Mr. Wilson did not open the checkbook to the tune of 100 million USD to land SUPER MARIO, only to lay up on the difficult part of the schedule.

We must never question the greatness of "Hurricane" Chris Kelsay.

We went to our last appointment here in Michigan last Thursday and were able to get some pretty cool 3D ultrasounds of our little girl. She was feisty as ever and moving around a lot during the ultrasound and she has very chubby cheeks already... even more so than her big brother who was quite a ham himself when he was born. Maybe I'll try to scan and post a picture or two if it's cool with everyone. If you've never seen a 3D ultrasound, they're amazing. It's unbelievable the technology they have on this front. We've had the privellage of getting them during all 3 of my wife's pregnancies. Everything seemed to be about the same at that appointment. Her heart is still far too big, which is expected, but doesn't seem to be showing any significant signs of heart failure just yet. There's still no major fluid build up around her heart or lungs, which is a good sign, and no fluid on her brain. We are all set to fly out for NYC on Wednesday morning, and will have a run down of appointments with the pediatric cardiologists, OB's, and neurology team at Roosevelt that day. At that point, my wife should be admitted for about a week or so and they'll start an IV of digoxin that will hopefully help ease the stress on our little girl's heart over the next few weeks before she's born. At that point, the treatment protocol will begin in earnest. The expectation is they will do a C-section around 36 weeks, so long as her heart holds up that long and she will require an immediate embolization procedure to begin repairing the aneurism. Depending on how much they can block off the irregular blood flow on the first procedure may determine how many more she will need to be completely cured. I know I'm beating a dead horse here... but thank you again on behalf of my entire family for everything you guys have done. We are truly blessed to have such amazing support.

Ochostinko the cousin of former Eagle great Todd Stinkston?

Bravo! YE OLE teared up a little bit watching that. There sure have been some good times over the years, gents!

So sorry for your loss, but glad that you have so many memories. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Joe, the work that Now I Lay me Down to Sleep does is truly honorable. Ironically, my wife and I had seen a program on TV about the work they do with families shorty before we lost our first born. We, of course never knew that we would one day find ourselves in that position having lost a child. That said, we're seeking treatment for our little girl and believe she will pull through this. The team at Roosevelt has had success in treating this condition and we hope and pray that their doctors will help her.

Great to hear about your little girl, Gringo. Our little guy got tubes in his ears last summer and it made a world of difference for him. The year up to having it done seemed like he was sick every other week. Afterwards he's been completely fine. It was the best thing we ever did.

Allow YE OLE to field this one via the gift of HAIKU: Edwards will be cut Says conventional wisdom Kelsay can go too

A happy belated birthday to the good doctor.

It's a well known fact that YE OLE is a big LIGHTS OUT fan... but Merriman looked really strong prior to getting dinged up again last year. Despite the lack of sacks, he was playing the run surprisingly well. If he can return to even 80% of his old form he'll reak havoc on this line.

If that list includes Bobby Hoying and THE BOZ, count YE OLE in.

"Lights Out" Shawne Merriman starts at RDE and dominates... FACT

YE OLE has been in need of a wood chipper. Last year the neighbor's tree was devestated by a storm that rolled through and left huge limbs down in the backyard. Naturally the neighbor being the sterling example of humanity that he is, left YE to deal with the aftermath of said catastrophe. After sawing and stacking, it's turned into nothing more than a large pile of brush waiting to catch fire. Now YE OLE has been wondering where to get one of those wood chippers for a day or so, so perhaps it's as simple as calling up the local Home Depot and doing a classic YE OLE DMC impression:

Selmon, my good man, the best thing you could do for yourself is be good to your fellow TBDers and refer to yourself in the third person. This is the recipe that YE OLE has always followed around here.