Just in Atlanta

Would offend pacifists. PC types want to dictate how we talk, act and even think. UNC is banning the term freshmen (not inclusive). University of Maryland has a list of banned words with a mandatory inclusiveness manual students must read. Cranston RI has banned daddy daughter dances (gender discrimination). Kids are routinely expelled for drawing pictures of guns or even hugging. The publishers of Huckleberry Finn have banned the so-called n word. Nativity scenes were banned this year in Santa Monica. It goes on and on--it even wants to intrude into football. If you're offended by the term redskin, the world must be a pretty scary place for you.

Points out the absurdity of political correctness with absurdity. If you don't get that you truly are a PC disciple.

Viking was once a derogatory name too. "Look here come those damn Vikings to pillage our town and rape our women." Political correctness sucks.

Factory of sadness.

OK, now that that's settled, let's start getting some more input on how to run this thing...

The Terrorist threat level is funny. In a few days after reading these, I'll post the rules. If you have concrete ideas on measuring sentiment like this, please hit me up. (An aside: As per being held accountable for views we now know is stupid, I'll say I hated the CJ Spiller pick.)

On another note, I'm not a big fan of number polls. (from 1 to 10, how do you feel...?) One man's 10 is another's 5. NYT never gives out top ratings to restaurants. Other papers do. But this is our site. If you want it, we can do it.

I agree with not having a schedule. Big events, and crucial periods, only. The fewer we have, the easier it will be. My point is, I don't want to have 12 a year--I want just a few so we can look back and think "What were we thinking" or "Damn I'm smart." I agree. Keeping snark or sarcasm out will be tough. But hopefully we won't have debates or yelling. Just pure well-reasoned opinion. I'll be sure to post rules, which, of course, a handful of posters will ignore...but hopefully will be followed by most. Of course!

To clarify, this thread is not for the sentiment but to talk about our sentiment for "officially" measuring sentiment in the future. Mods--if you're on board with this, please say how we could do this. Don't quite understand the procedure. Do we pin it? Or do we have some magical official stamp? Or just do nothing special, other than a "sentiment" tag? I presume I can close a thread myself?

Good idea.

No specifics yet, but rather thinking maybe some well-designed polls and questions or something like that. After closing, we'll measure it as smartly as possible. Any ideas here would be welcome. But I don't think it's rocket science. Just one place for a limited time where we can officially bloviate, and some sort of follow-up where we try to show any trends.

You mean the potentially nearly 100 threads, the ones in which people wrote things without real reflection? That's my point. Further, these threads often have facts, knee-jerk reactions, etc. How about one that allows official sentiment--sentiment only, no facts or questions--after the emotional dust has cleared and after we have some facts? So we don't have to search through a gazillion of them?

As a frequent user of this site, I'd like to start measuring sentiment--on a few "official" targeted threads--for historical analysis. I often find myself wondering the same thing another user asked in a thread Jan. 9 concerning what we were saying about Gailey's hiring three years ago. I just couldn't remember what the overall sentiment was. If anyone is interested, and assuming the mods are OK with some sort of official tag, I plan to create sentiment threads on crucial events. The first one will be on our HC/OC/DC combo in a week or so, pre-draft predictions in March (my theory is only a very small handful will predict with any decent accuracy), post-draft sentiment in May, and pre-season sentiment in July. There will be an allotted time, and then each thread will be closed. At the end of the season, and each era, we can revisit these threads and laugh at each other...or congratulate ourselves...and maybe learn a thing or two about football trends and the psychology of fandom. I think it will be fun, and informative, to compare reality with our past opinions on just a few threads, as opposed to having to search through a gazillion. Does anyone think this idea doesn't suck?

Awesome post. Thanks. Great analysis. I have also not watched one single Cuse game in years, as SEC reigns supreme down here. This made me literally laugh out loud: "...he avoids contact when possible and when he does get hit, he doesn’t enjoy the experience."

Memories... Dick http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2303162 Gailey http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4838361

Prediction, and hope: Pettine will never blame the defensive woes on players simply not "fitting it up." He will attack QBs with multiple schemes. He will also never say "We live and die by our front 4." 3-4, 4-3, 10-1, I could care less what the scheme is, as long as we attack, minimize the run, and prevent big plays.

Chip Kelly is widely seen as a once in a lifetime innovator. I, and many other fans, have never heard of Nathan Hacket before today. Having said that, I'm giving Marone the benefit of the doubt until I see his OC in action.

Wide angle, soundless view of the entire field of play--all 22 players. It lets you watch what the other players are doing outside the normal tight shots. It's what the coaches typically use.

After reading about our OC pick, whose NFL expertise thus far has been quality control, I hear my high school DC might be interested in making the leap to the bigs. He'd make a big splash. In my hometown.

Am just warming up to Marone coming here, after hearing him speak and what analysts and former players have said. But this nepotism of sorts is something we need to be careful about. We will be doomed if we just start transferring everybody over from Cuse.

He's going to the Jets. About the only thing the Jets can do to top the circus of this season. So were about 27 other teams.

Is that some secret message from the KGB?

As a former Fitz backer who was optimistic he could improve under a new QB coach, we've seen everything we need ad naseum, cut in every which way possible: Chopped, julienned, sliced, diced, processed, mashed, pulsed, blended and juiced. 99 percent of Bills Nation knows Fitz juice is jive.

Isn't the "e" silent?

A "full time" role at RB now is rare. Most are 70-30 or 60-40 splits. No one--not a single back--runs every single down. We need Jackson. He will be at an elite level, IMO, assuming he doesn't get injured again, for a couple of years.