Rubes

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone reading this thread. If you read through the entire thread, you'll realize that's not what he's saying. If you grab and hold someone, yes, it is illegal. But if you grab and hold someone before the ball is thrown, it is "holding." If you grab and hold someone after the ball is thrown, it is "pass interference." In cases of pass interference, however, the refs have the ability to make a judgment call on whether the ball was catchable or not. If they think not, they don't have to throw the flag. This is what Dave is arguing: that it was pass interference, not holding, but that since the ball was not catchable, there was no foul. The problem I have with that argument is that we rarely see the "non-catchable ball" called on the field anymore. One could argue that the ball was non-catchable explicitly because the receiver was held and prevented from getting to it. I'm not saying that was the case here, but I fully expected to see the flag thrown on that play because there was clear contact, and because we hardly ever see them rule that the ball is not catchable anymore. Either way, I don't really care -- it was fine with me. I'd rather see no call in those situations.

I definitely agree with this. I think Smith was just starting to come into his own when he was replaced. I have always thought he had a strong arm and good accuracy.

Man oh man. Everyone in those videos got exactly what they deserve. Wait, I don't get it. First you said the bulls in the video are about ideal, then you said they aren't too great. It certainly does look like the bulls in those videos are sometimes just doing things to !@#$ with those people.

Exactly. And if you trade down expecting that the guy should still be available at pick X, someone else who really needs a QB and suspects this is what you're doing may very well trade up to pick (X-1) to jump ahead of you and grab the guy you thought would still be available at pick X. Just because you "think" he should still be available later on, doesn't mean he will be. So it depends on how much you want the guy, and how much you're willing to risk.

I can't even remember what it's like to have to draft in the 26th position.

The Bills are in a tough spot because so many teams in front of them on the draft board need QBs. With the tendency to often pick QBs higher than they rate, it's a risky move to hope one of those guys is there in the second round. I'm not a big proponent of moving up into the first to grab someone risky (see: Losman), but if the Bills really like a second-round-type guy like EJ they may have to move up.

Well played, sir.

Whoever was playing the Patriots. I also wanted the Raiders to beat the Bucs, mostly because I didn't want to see a franchise like the friggin Bucs win a Super Bowl before us.

If he's off of the Jets, that's good for us.

If only he played for Norway...

Jesus. This thread is like reading a Yahoo news story comments section.

Hmm...so how was it that we finished with the #6 rushing offense last year if everybody figured it out? Good grief, are people here so tightly wound they can't just have a decent discussion without crapping all over the OP? I never got the impression he was trying to say "Fitz is great!", just that he was trying to compare his Bills tenure with Bledsoe's tenure, neither of which were stellar. Yes, Fitz and Bledsoe were about equal in their Bills performances. Neither did much to get the Bills over the hump, despite their supporting casts. Bledsoe won a little more, Fitz had slightly better stats. Neither one got us to the playoffs. But I think it's at least interesting to consider that Fitz, whom we all think of as an "average" to "below average" QB, was about as good as a Bledsoe in decline. That's something I hadn't considered. Not that it means anything, but it's an interesting thought.

There's a little irony for you.

Here's Ed's tweet: Ed Werder ‏@Edwerderespn NFL will review Tom Brady play for possible discipline for appearing as though he tried to defend himself by kicking at Ed Reed

Ed Reed is most definitely not a 300 lb monster. He's the guy Marcia was targeting.

Maybe the $130 million will go towards having both at the same time. Why settle?

Uh, sure. You been drinking tonight?

Doubtful he even thinks of trying it.

It looked to me like he was clearly trying to kick Ed Reed, as it turns out right in the knee. If he had made better contact, he might have caused some real damage. It was very unsportsmanlike. In fact, you might call it unsportsmanlike conduct. 15 yards. Personally, I call it a puss move. I wanted Baltimore to b!tch slap Brady so badly after that, and they came through. What a great day. Sabers beat the Flyers, and the Pats* get slapped out of the playoffs at home. Then I get to have dinner and see a movie with my wife. Could that be scripted any better?

I've been trying to pay attention to which football games other than the Bills that I watch during the season. As it turns out, I often will have the Sunday/Monday/Thursday Night Football games on, and I occasionally will watch whatever games are being shown on CBS/FOX on Sundays. But I hardly ever watch any non-Bills games with DirecTV. So I guess the question is -- with respect to football, are we talking all football games, even those on CBS/FOX and on Sunday/Monday/Thursday Night Football, only being available by pay-per-view? Or would the same games be available on CBS/FOX/NFLN/ESPN, and this ala carte model only being applied to the games not otherwise available on those channels? I would probably prefer the ala carte model if games were still shown on CBS/FOX/NFLN/ESPN.

Hopefully we'll get a few.

I wasn't looking forward to Whis or Lovie, so in that respect I'm happy with Marrone. I just don't know enough about him yet. I like the Pettine hire, but the rest of the staff is a bunch of question marks. Time will tell, for sure. I just hope these guys can put together an NFL-caliber offense.

Hell, I used to chat with chicks online back when I was using The Source and the early CompuServe, back in the early '80s, with 300 baud modems and crap. Never met any of them, but I remember one of them sent me a picture of herself.

Some interesting perspectives from the 'Catfish' creators. They seem to think Te'o was a victim in this story and that the story goes much deeper... 'Catfish' Creators Reel at Manti Te'o Hoax