RuntheDamnBall

We've taken to smoking meats and drinking whisky in the backyard. Brooklyn is country.

A good half of those are pretty much issues of a person's day-to-day activity being made public (mostly via Twitter). You wouldn't know about them but for the fact that people make a big deal of them. I am mostly concerned about the on-field ones, and honestly, the Happy New Year one didn't bother me much at all because it was not taunting anybody. Do I think he's a mature guy? Not really. He is also playing a kids' game for millions of dollars. I know we really enjoy this mythical Vince Lombardi/Tom Brady narrative of the guy who works tirelessly and mercilessly to be better than the rest... but Mr. Brady himself has plenty of "stunts" in his past. He just doesn't really dignify the bloviating masses with a response over them. Stevie likes to play to a crowd in a way that others don't and it sometimes backfires. Thankfully he seems to be putting the on-field ones behind him. The off-field stuff... Jesus, who even knows when that photo was taken? Is it tasteful? Not really, but he's not my dad or my kid. He's just an entertainer who hits the mark sometimes, and at other times does not. I'll agree that until the Bills do better and win more football games, he'll draw more scrutiny with this kind of stuff, but it really seems to me like our frustrations about whatever he's doing are really magnified by the fact that he is not a part of a winner. These "antics" or "stunts" on a winning team would be characterized as "keeping the guys loose" and the work of a "fun-loving guy" who is "like a kid out there" doing what he loves. I've no axe to grind with Stevie. If other receivers on the roster start surpassing him and making him look foolish, we'll talk. It could happen - but I'd rather see him be a part of the turnaround. I think he has the skills to do so.

http://www.buffalo.edu/

I dunno. It gets pretty earnest around here. Maybe give them the out clause: it's either ironic, or "artisanal," so you can justify a higher price tag.

We do canning and listen to Waylon, Willie, George Jones, old blues records, Johnny, Jerry Lee Lewis, and play banjo. I guess if you do country stuff in the city, it gets the "hipster" tag, though.

I knew that would come up... Which is partly why I chose the guy. For years Harrison was the quiet, respected guy who just "did his job." If there is anything we know at this point, it's that you don't know the whole story based on what you can gather from media.

And if he were a quiet Marvin Harrison-type and put up the same numbers, to his critics he would not have enough passion or heart. We're talking about a shirt here. And the shirt does not say "I kill snitches" or "whoop that trick" or really anything that anyone hasn't seen before. In an age where the average hit on the top ten says worse, I'm just inclined to give this the "meh" it deserves. Regardless, if Stevie is thinking about this stuff at all, he's thinking it'll get him attention. Mission accomplished. I respect your opinion, but you're contributing to that phenomenon. Get yards and points, and don't rape, kill or hurt anybody. Don't go to jail. I am not hoping for much more from my NFL players.

I love Massive Attack, PTR. Protection is my fave album of theirs -- and the song of the same name is as sexy as hell if you're looking to stir up some romance. Someone who collaborates with them a good bit: Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. I guess all my haunting songs are in open D.

And definitely an acolyte of Big Star and Nick Drake...

The only way Pro Bowl safeties make that kind of jack is if they have crazy-ass hair.

I'm getting tired of the superhero franchises. I guess if I were still a teenager and way into comic books, that'd be fine, but it seems like they've all arrived at the same formula - dark mythology, troubled young men, a little more violence than the prior incarnations, everything shot in this kind of steely blue... meh. They used to be a lot more fun and even tongue-in-cheek -- I just don't really enjoy what they're doing anymore.

Thanks for putting this together. I think one thing you've highlighted is that just about any of these games can be close. I have a feeling they can probably put Gilmore on an island most of the time, but I am not sure that will allow them to mask some of the other deficiencies, inexperience being foremost among them.

Brady makes more endorsement and appearance money than his contracts will ever pay him; you can bank on that. I am sure he is crying tears in his castle with his supermodel wife and rings. I hate the Patriots but until they become less successful than the Bills, there is no denying that I want the Bills to be what they are.

Tannehill... wow. I guess Dolphins fans are stupider than we first thought.

Agreed. And I believed at the time that these character red flags were worth worrying about as regards Newton. He hasn't exactly won any playoff games yet, but he is an impressive and dynamic athlete who could win in the NFL with the right team and philosophy.

Well, at least he is used to covering the Tragic part.

It's actually not the city's call to determine whether these franchises are well-run, and there are some very wealthy surrounding areas that support the teams as well. These teams are run like good businesses and they get rewarded with fan support. It's not just about the immediate urban surroundings. Tell me, would Buffalo be able to support the Bills without the populations of surrounding communities like Clarence, Amherst, Orchard Park, to name a few?

And if you do, just say, "sorry honey, I just got distracted thinking about your @$$." #recovery

"Your @$$ is perfect, baby"?

Let me be the first to state that I do not believe Donald Jones has a drinking problem.

I wish the league would just offer an arbitration process to navigate players through the early years of free agency, suck it up and concede to guaranteed contracts, and 90% of these battles would be over. Baseball never has holdouts because the players know where they stand and they know they won't be punished for taking care of themselves in times of injury. The crux of this conflict is that a player who plays a vicious sport knows that he is one injury away from it being all over. The team knows that it does not want to be on the hook in that same scenario and is trying to create cost control. Arbitration creates cost control without pitting team and player against one another in a stalemate. The ruling is decided, and at the end of the day an unhappy player can offer his services to another team next year. Guaranteed contracts mean that teams can't play these stupid shell games with contracts that aren't worth the paper they're written on, and crazy bonus money. I really don't think any MORE money would get wasted than currently does. What will happen is that the absurd deals simply won't be front-loaded with guaranteed money and backloaded with money the player will never see. You never see holdouts in baseball because the conditions that create them don't exist. This could also have the favorable side-effect of rationing out player money so that they don't get these lump-sum bonuses, and they have time to more carefully plan their financial futures. Can someone smarter than me explain why this wouldn't work, other than blindness caused by the greed of the union and the greed of the owners? I know baseball's player union is stronger, so perhaps this is part of it.

Took them all of 2 months.

Felt and Hug'ns.