Dibs

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that she hits King's Landing well after the Hound had left, and I see no reason to assume that she had gone to court(to see the King where the Hound was located) prior to the events shown in the story.

All of these updates are much appreciated 26CB. Thanks!

I understand where you are coming from on this topic. Some people are irrationally convinced of Watkins' star NFL future status, and you have determined that his chances are not as good as most pre-draft talent evaluations had him. However, instead of simply stating the obvious logic that his future stardom is not a sure thing, you seem to have diverged into trying to convince everyone that it is a slim chance at best.....and in a manner that brooks no argument(which is what I have an issue with). From your listing of previous highly touted rookie busts I assume that you acknowledge that there is a chance that Watkins can become a star in the NFL......your point obviously being that prediction is not a 100% science. Assuming then that you are not giving him a 0% chance of becoming a star NFL player, all arguments become mathematically moot. In explanation to my mathematically moot point; if you give SW a 15% chance of becoming a star, and an expert gives SW an 85% chance of becoming a star.......then if he does become a star, you were both correct as both acknowledged that there was a chance for it to happen. Conversely, if he doesn't become a star, again both correct as both acknowledged the chance for that as well. He will become what he will become. As time progresses, any analyst's prediction percentage will alter. As example, if he isn't going to become a star, the experts 85% might drop to 50% after a mediocre rookie year.....then drop to 25% in year two......and by year 5 become 0%(and conversely, your low prediction will periodically increase if he is going to become one). In effect you are dogmatically arguing the percentage chances of something occurring that you not only acknowledge is notoriously difficult to predict, but has no real relevance to what will actually occur. For me personally......I don't pretend to have any ability to be able to analyze college players and give any form of reasonable prediction of percentages as to their future hopes in the NFL. I rely upon all of the "experts" in the media, the NFL teams and the player's final draft position to help form my initial assessments of a rookies potential. In SW's case, virtually all sources had him as one of the rare elite prospects.......so please forgive me(and all of the other Bills fans) who would rather go with the consensus expert's opinion over yours. I am happy hoping SW will become a star. I don't see why you feel the need to try and convince me(everyone) that my hopes are poorly founded.

Gee, and there I was thinking that several analysts, teams & scouts had him as the #1 best prospect in the draft. Oh well, I guess Sammy is gonna be crap then.

I'm a little vague in my memory(& I can't be bothered looking it up), but there was the whole "magic horn" that can bring down the wall story in the books which had Jon going North of the wall IIRC.

I'm glad you made this point as your continual usage of the word "then" instead of the word "than" doesn't garner said respect.

I thought he was a track star.

Hurrumph.......it's only 14 seasons. "Out of the playoffs for the past 15 seasons -- the NFL's longest active postseason drought -- the Bills need a winning team now. Ralph Wilson, who founded and owned the Bills for 54 years, died in March. There will be a new owner in place by early next year, just in time for the new boss to make sweeping changes if the team can't reverse its fortunes this season."

Wow....so 80% was just rounding off. 78% is a phenomenal figure, but on reflection doesn't sound too surprising. A vast majority of people I have ever met have had very little concept of money. An increase in wage typically means an increase in spending. The more one earns, the bigger the debts it seems.

I assume that the "80%" in the thread title was a made up figure for dramatic effect. Unfortunately it likely means that in 12 months people will be stating it as a fact. I wouldn't mind knowing the actual figure though....

You should know by now that you can't let mere facts get in the way of a good fear inducing news story.

Don't let fear rule your life. Overcome that fear and either let logic dictate your thoughts or stand self aware and content in ignorance. Not saying your fears are wrong, but you sure are arguing a lot for someone who has confessed he is using emotion rather than logic to direct his thoughts.

No spoiler.....I was referring to the action on the North side of the wall battle(episode 9 that just aired).

It's not that they are dropping like flies, it is the rate of injury that is the issue. On average you would need to watch 24 games of returned KRs to roughly equal the average number of offensive/defensive plays played in one game. I am certain that the number of injuries sustained to the Kick Returner over those 24 games would be far in excess of the average number of injuries sustained by an individual WR position(It actually would be many, many more games of KR needed as not all plays are directed towards a WR position but I hopefully have conveyed the "rate of injury" point). I think that this is a very good point. I would be very interested to see the numbers of rate/game injuries for KR compared to WRs(or RBs) in individual types of Offensive plays. If the numbers were somewhat comparable.......would people agree with not putting ones best weapons in those plays(for fear of injury)? I would think not. Conversely, assuming again the rate/game injuries were similar, one might decide that the benefits of a good kick return are similar to those on a good WR screen(or whatever other play is dangerous).......and decide to use one's best weapons as KRs. This is all of course speculation as we don't know the actual numbers.......but maybe Marrone does?

However, they say that even a mediocre can look good if he gets a tonne of time in the pocket without pressure as eventually a WR will get open.

I agree that the ice anchor was pretty bloody cool, but the barrels bit highlighted the crappy part(to me at least). A mammoth, 2 giants and a handful of wildlings? Seemed out of perspective to the 100,000+ strength army. The base of the wall needed to be littered with troops and bodies. Don't get me wrong though.....even my disappointment with the episode, I still liked it more than most other shows good episodes.

For me it was one of the few disappointing episodes. The action North of the wall was underwhelming.

You think Easley would be cut if we had a brilliant ST coach? You obviously haven't warched him play(on ST).

I'm not a gambling man, but if I were I would bet that Watkins spent a good deal of the weekend focused on his new job......probably EJ as well. Manziel is certainly allowed to do what he likes, and as you pointed out it is pretty normal behaviour.....but it isn't a normal job that he is getting paid for and he certainly won't garner any respect from it, nor will it help him in his new profession.

I quite like that. Best so far IMO.

You too forgot Bryce Brown. Likely he will be a key backup this year and more so in the future. Aside from that, great post. You should post more often.

Absolute twaddle. Everybody knows that Monsieur Khan was around well after Conan's time and was a notorious plagiarist.

The most important for this year I think would be Spikes. The most important long term will hopefully be Watkins.

I really don't know much about horse racing but it seems odd to me that a conversation about the best racehorse of all time doesn't have any mention of Phar Lap(possibly the best, certainly at least 2nd best).

Happily voted.