RuntheDamnBall

Goddamn, coffee on the monitor again.

The really awkward part was when Ricky Schroeder walked in and said, "Damn, Jack."

11-5, my fellow Vonnegut devotee? Confidence! I like it. I know I'm going to be miserable either way if they lose, so why would I want to take any joy at all in being right if they do? !@#$ it. Let's go to the playoffs. I say: Sept. 9 DENVER BRONCOS W Sept. 16 @ Pittsburgh Steelers W Sept. 23 @ New England Patriots L Sept. 30 NEW YORK JETS L Oct. 8 DALLAS COWBOYS W Oct. 21 BALTIMORE RAVENS W Oct. 28 @ New York Jets W Nov. 4 CINCINNATI BENGALS L Nov. 11 @ Miami Dolphins W Nov. 18 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS W Nov. 25 @ Jacksonville Jaguars L Dec. 2 @ Washington Redskins W Dec. 9 MIAMI DOLPHINS W Dec. 16 @ Cleveland Browns W Dec. 23 NEW YORK GIANTS W Dec. 30 @ Philadelphia Eagles L

Jack stopped the terrorists and the next 30 minutes documented an intimate celebratory menage-a-trois between him, Morris and Chloe. Fox really toyed with the sensors with this one.

First non-classical concert that I actually wanted to go to: Hum at the Tralf in '95. Best ones: Radiohead at Air Canada Centre, I want to say 2000(?), Sigur Ros at Beacon Theatre 2002, Undertow Orchestra (Mark Eitzel, Vic Chesnutt, Dave Bazan and Will Johnson) at Bowery Ballroom, Tricky @ BB, REM and Centro-matic numerous times, Built to Spill 1998 at Brownies... I like far too much music to really single any one show out as the best of all. Recently, the Books at Webster Hall were amazing.

Maybe a more heavy-handed one, but it's always lived with me: '"There are plenty of good reasons for fighting," I said, "but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side."' (Mother Night) RIP, Kurt. I knew this day was coming soon and that I was going to be pretty broken up about it.

I didn't really mean to link them together and knew as soon as I typed that that it'd probably appear that way. My point is that the people coming to defend him by saying 'rap musicians say this all the time' don't think much of rap music, so why are they using it to defend him? This is typical though. I don't know why it needs to be much more hashed out or redirected around the notion that the guy just said a stupid thing that got amplified to a loud-enough audience that it began to matter. Gwyn Ifil (WH reporter and Washington Week in Review anchor whom Imus referred to as a 'cleaning lady') wrote a pretty good NYT op-ed piece about this, anyway. Far more eloquent than I have been on the subject. It's just pretty plain the the dude takes easy shots at people who've done nothing to deserve it. I'm pretty surprised, the more I read, that he has managed to command major political guests.

The comparison is baseless because these people were being directly labelled by someone who doesn't know them from Adam. And what's the hip-hop comparison other than another "well, 'you people' do this?" And is it exactly some sort of badge of honor for Imus to be compared to hip-hop artists that he and most of the self-proclaimed moral majority would be disparaging anyway?

I only saw select moments of the coach's PC and thus didn't hear anything about 'physical injury.' What I did see was the players talking about their achievements off the court and the depth of character that each of them possesses. I didn't miss your point. The fact is, though, that baseless comments become the media story, and thus it's not just Imus speaking about these people, it's everybody else piling on and labeling them and speaking for and against them. I think the situation merits the players an opportunity to speak for themselves. It's not about self-image so much as national image, and these kids were put in the spotlight and marketed, and then made sport of for no particular reason by a guy who probably couldn't sink a free-throw or make an intelligent comment to save his life. I can't imagine that you wouldn't go on the record about it yourself if you were the subject of such a comment.

I'm sorry, am I the only one that believes that the Rutgers players did nothing to deserve this potshot, and that Imus is a goddamned tool for doing this? What had they done to anyone besides having the season of their lives and appearing on national TV? Call it right, wrong, call out rap music, whatever. All I see is a lot of declaration that the man bears no responsibility for what he said on others' part, when the man himself knows he is responsible for what he said. It's capitalism at work: people don't like his product, and thus they are going to disparage said product and its currency should take a hit. Imus was free to say something stupid and he took that chance. Freedom of speech means he doesn't get arrested for this. It doesn't mean he lives in a zone that is any more consequence free than the one you or I live in. I don't agree with Sharpton and the other profiteers, but that's the way the media landscape works. Just as Imus is/was a fairly powerful guy, he's now contending with other people who are happy to exercise the power they have to bring him down. The Rutgers team did not have to respond to this at all, Tom's right. At the same time, put yourself in their shoes; put your daughters (if you have them) in their shoes. Few of us would not defend ourselves against such baseless comments. And VikingGumBoot: you don't know these girls so I doubt you have a leg to stand on with your suppositions on what kind of music these girls listen to. Regardless, there's a real difference between listening to a song that names people in the abstract, and being identified by someone else directly as inferior (not the 'nappy headed' comment so much as the 'hos' one).

I'm with you. It's always the right time to draft for young depth on the lines, particularly when you have extra picks. You never know when you might get a gem, and you also never know if the guys you have are necessarily the right ones. I thought we saw improvement with Preston in there but only because Villarial was such a stiff at the end of his tenure. Addition by subtraction. But he might be gone or he might be motivated. No reason to not fortify with more talent, IMO. On the other side, with a rotation you have a possibility of holding onto a fifth DT and that guy is Tim Anderson right now, or Jason Jefferson. Again, no reason to not look for better if you can find it. Is a fourth-fifth round LB at this stage of the game going to give us better than Stamer or Ellison? Probably not. We do need to draft a starter but I'm not sure we need more guys of the caliber of the ones we already have.

That's all well and good, but... no linemen, defensive or offensive? No 3rd-string QB to groom? All LBs, RBs and CBs?

No way dude, meet new President Karen Hayes.

He was suspended by his employer. I imagine many of our employers would review us if we were talking like this around the office. This has everything to do with how a company wants to represent itself and little to do with politics or political correctness, despite the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world getting involved. He's allowed to say what he wants, but if his company feels it's going to lose money by him doing so, Imus has to live with it. He did a dumb thing at work. Period.

I agree it was a great episode but it really felt like season's end.

High school sucked anyway. I worked hard enough in high school so I could let loose a little in college and the rest of my life.

He's shifted his positions with the wind to appeal to Mass including on abortion and gay rights, and now is taking a more right-wing line on them. Religious voters will accept him though, because in this instance it isn't flip-flopping, this is "seeing the light."

Another day, another douchebag.

Gonna correct you on a technicality here, S&J -- technically, these franchises still exist in new cities -- and the 'Yotes even honor Winninpeg players -- but the teams don't. So for example, the Ravens team is the old Browns franchise. The new Browns team is a new franchise.

Small deal but I'm glad we're not trying to squeeze more life out of the bag of bones formerly known as Chris Villarial.

Don't speak so ill of the man who saved baseball on cable.

For the sake of this conversation, Andre Johnson of Houston also has HoF talent, but he's had 6th grade talent surrounding him. The question is whether he has the clutch playmaking ability that will help his team succeed on the highest level. Same question with Evans. We'll see.

Looks like he's got a mean streak, though.

You put the best players on the field, regardless of pay. So if Walker turns out to be a poor investment, so be it. But it's better to be sitting on a couple of good options rather than saying outright that Pennington is not going to be the guy. As was the case with JP last year, the competition will do everybody good. Pennington may have been a 7th rounder but we have seen street free agents blossom into great tackles. It's not the norm but it does happen. At the same time, the investment in Walker will no go unnoticed and if he is the man for the job he will surely earn it.

Totally. My post is less directed at you and more at someone who might post that the Smiths are the most influential band in the history of music.