Bmwolf21

I'm not gonna lie - I'm not a big beer drinker anymore, so during games it's either pop or water for me. Besides, with the way this team pisses me off more often than not, adding alcohol to my building rage is not a good idea. On the plus side, my son, now 16 months old, was just a colicky 7-10-month-old during last season, so I was forced to be much better about my yelling at the TV during games, lest I risk waking him up and listening to him crying for the next hour or so. I'm hoping to carry that self-control over to this season -- I'm getting better, but it's an uphill battle with this team...

Nailed it.

I accidentally broke a picture frame with an empty Aquafina water bottle after a Trent interception last year. I caught a lot of flack from the wife and the parents after that one. Not my fault, obviously - I mean who expects an empty water bottle to break the glass in the frame and dent the edge of the wood?

Damnit, there they go, ruining my birthday. I don't know about you, but I'm going to the store right now and upgrading my cell phone, home entertainment system, and heck, while I'm at it - a new car.

Yep. It was a sad day when the NFL sold exclusive rights to EA. I really hate having to buy the latest game just to get the rosters, uniforms and announcers updated, since the new features are usually things I don't care about or need... I haven't played a Madden game with any regularity since Madden 04. '05 was the first one that I thought really sucked, because they screwed with the defense and made it damn-near impossible to run the ball with anyone against even the weakest run defense. I played a little Madden 07 but got bored with that real quick.

I'd totally be on board paying $100 for "one team" or maybe $150 for "one division" instead of paying for a bunch of games that I won't watch. Since my wife watches the games with me it doesn't make sense to go to a bar to watch - we average around $25 bucks for the two of us plus my one-year-old - so at $250 it's still a better deal than giving the money to Buffalo Wild Wings, but if we went HD and had to pay the extra $99 for the Superfan/HD broadcasts, the gap between ordering Sunday Ticket and going to a bar narrows considerably.

I understand that, but that's the kind of stuff that will make me stop watching a particular network altogether. Right now it's just syndicated reruns on cable networks, but what's next? Pausing in the middle of a key pitch in a TBS-covered baseball game to promote House of Payne (what a God-awful pile of garbage that show is, BTW.) All I can say is that this crap has certainly killed any possibility of me ever watching the Bill Engvall Show. I'm starting to get that same feeling, Chef. Garbage stays on TV while good shows get killed off; more commercials (especially in sporting events) and why bother putting a movie on network TV or even basic cable if you are going to edit the heck out of it? Best we've seen all year from him. We need it, too - not only with Westbrook and Carmona on the shelf, there is always the possibility of a mid-season Colon-esque trade and anything good from CC will help bump his trade value.

So tonight I am channel surfing between innings of the Indians-Twins game and stop on TBS to watch a little Family Guy. But in the middle of a scene Bill Engvall literally walks into the scene and clicks his remote, which "pauses" Family Guy mid-scene so he can do a 10-second "Bill Engvall Show" interstitial commercial, then clicks his remote again and Family Guy restarts and then goes to commercial. Here's a link to a clip that shows this crap. Those stupid little pop-up ads that TBS and TNT do was bad enough, but now they are actively interrupting a show to plug another show? Seems over the line to me.

Same here. I've heard the lists referred to as a "laminated free pass" meaning it can't change, but I think I'd need a dry-erase board, an eraser and a bunch of markers...

This one also loses Watanabe and Rutger Hauer in addition to Neeson, but they do pick up Ledger and a couple others - Eric Roberts, Sabres' fan William Fichtner and Anthony Michael Hall - yeah, that's right, AMH. Katie Homes to Maggie G is just a lateral move, IMO.

Sounds like the trainer is starting to throw Desormeaux under the bus: Jockey Kent Desormeaux eased up Big Brown with a quarter-mile remaining in the race, won by 38-1 long shot Da' Tara. "I don't know why he had to do that," said Dutrow, who questioned Desormeaux's decisions in the race. Entering the first turn, Desormeaux took a hard hold of Big Brown and yanked him to the outside, bumping with Anak Nakal before finding running room outside of Tale of Ekati while Da' Tara opened up a three-length lead around the clubhouse turn. "I'm sure he didn't have any idea what the hell was going on going into the first turn the way [Desormeaux] was switching him all over the damn track," Dutrow said. "I don't know what he was doing."

Sounds like all Marshawn has to do is stall for a month and he's home free: "There were a number of people that were with him that night," Clark said. "How quickly we get to the bottom of this will depend on how cooperative people are. ... Whether it takes me a day, a week or a month, it'll get resolved."

Yeah, I was looking at that on Sabresfans.com's history section. I'll give you 1 3/4 players' credit for Hasek - Paille and three-fourths of Hecht, since we had to parlay both Kozlov and the pick into something worthwhile. We had to send two second-round picks - the 2nd we got from Atlanta with the #36 pick we got from Nashville for our 2003 2nd-rounder and a 5th(88th?) pick in 2002 -- to Edmonton for Jochen. To get our second-round pick back for 2003 we had to send Barnes to Dallas for Mike Ryan and the Stars 2nd-round pick in '03. Not sure how the 1st-rounder worked out (what pick it was - I assume the 30th) but we sent the 30th pick in the '02 draft and the rights to Mike Pandolfo to Columbus for the 20th pick, which we used on Paille. Man it can get confusing tracking those trades just by looking at a linear written history. I still want to know what our "future considerations" were from Detroit for the Dom trade and for the Jason Wooley trade. Anybody know?

Same here. Instead we got one half-year out of a malcontent who wanted nothing to do with Buffalo and Lindy Ruff and a 1st-round pick (eventually became Paille, I believe.)

Besides, we've got more than enough tall and athletic guys. Wait...

Where in the Summit Mall? That's not too far from my parents' place, so it might be nice to take my nephew there when we come to visit...

Can he gain some weight and play tight end?

The umm, ahhh, ummm has been part of DeGeorge's on-air repertoire since he was at WGRZ and Empire Sports Network.

^^^ What he said. You never know how a guy might react to a change in scenery, a new coaching staff, a different group of guys in the locker room and different expectations. I can't see how it could hurt to bring him in for a look and see if he's worth adding as another big red-zone target and special teams player.

We have a winner.

In all fairness, Lindy mentioned in the end-of-season presser that Vanek needs to be better away from the puck and more consistency: (LINK) ---- And to another post earlier (can't remember which) I recall Lindy mentioning after TV scored his big contract that he was going to have to stay on him to improve his play, his focus, his consistency and to deal with the pressures of signing such a large deal. There was a lot of discussion that Lindy seemed disappointed that TV got such a huge deal so early. I can't seem to find the articles now, but I certainly recall reading them. TV has a lot of good in his game, but his game also has some warts, and I'm not talking about different playing styles from true superstars. Yes, there are games, periods, shifts where his focus seems off, his legs don't seem under him, whatever. This year he was benched at different times - sometimes for periods and sometimes for individual shifts, and he is not too far removed from the 05-06 playoff run where he struggled to find his way out of the press box. Whether his contract was deserved/justified and whether he is worthy of $50M is pretty much immaterial now. The deal has been signed, and we're likely on the hook for the next 5-6 years. In an off year he still scored nearly 40 goals, so I am not too worried about his production, but I would like to see the Sabres protect their investment and help TV develop by bringing in an on-ice veteran who can help him deal with the pressures of his deal, how to deal with his upgraded status on the team (going from promising youngster to franchise player) how to grow into more of a leadership role, and how to deal with slumps and frustrations.

True - Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen and the veteran presence of Jack Palance in Young Guns, while YG II had Estevez, Sutherland, Phillips, Christian Slater, William Peterson (CSI), Alan Ruck (Spin City, Scrubs, Twister, Mad About You) and Viggo Mortensen.

Not even a bit, and I already explained why: I was thinking of The Outsiders and Red Dawn - not legendary casts, but several young actors who went on to have pretty good careers or were decent-sized stars for a while. Swayze and Sheen have had pretty good careers; Thompson has had a solid, if not spectacular career (up until about 1999, when she seemed to make the transitiion to full-time WE actress); Jennifer Grey's star cooled in the late 80's/early 90's, like C. Thomas Howell's - but he was in Soul Man, The Hitcher and Side Out, so it doesn't matter what he did after that.

You're not kidding. The offseason really brings them out of the woodwork, doesn't it...