R. Rich

Bruce Banner and Bill Bixby (RIP), but who's keeping track?

I guess they have to have someone w/ some insight. It's the same way that you have 'experts' on fantasy sports that go on TV and radio shows and give their 'expert' advice.

Yeah, right. Posting something like that will get the child-like opposite reaction. You should know that.

I'm rooting even harder for her to be a well adjusted young woman.

Me.

Time keeps on slippin', slippin'......

65 Days And Counting!!!!!

I do it because I am very into the NFL draft. Aside from the season, it's the best thing out there.

Yep. Williams is great near the line of scrimmage, like Carolina's first round pick Thomas Davis, but struggles in any type of coverage. Reed is a fantastic playmaker and can be counted on in run support also. And, to think: he wanted to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. What if they did land Reed and later added Polamalu? Wow.

I don't think Peerless is a bad player, but people had to realize that, like Harper, he greatly benefitted from playing opposite a Pro Bowl wideout. To think he would just seamlessly make the transition to being THE receiver on a team was premature. Obviously.

You mean Alvin Price, don't you? Or, is it Peerless Harper?

That makes more sense. It's funny how Jones has actually become a pretty damn good LT, because people were blasting the Bengals for taking him so high in the draft, saying they wasted another high first rounder. Shows what the 'experts' know.

Above McKinnie and Jones? Which Jones is that? I hope it's not Walter. That would be ridiculous. Unless your last name is Ogden and you start @ LT for the Ravens, you shouldn't be rated ahead of Walter Jones.

'Worth' is a relative term. I don't believe you can say there's a dollar amount a player is precisely worth. Take, for instance, Jonas Jennings. Would you think he'd get a deal worth more than $40 million? I certainly didn't, but someone was willing to pony up, and everything fell into place for JJ (players like Jones and Pace were tagged, there was a weak pool of OTs in this year's draft, and the free agency market wasn't a whole lot better). Would I like to see Clements brought back? Of course, but I'm sure it will probably take a whole lot more than $6 million to make that happen. As for Moulds, I think if he won't restructure his contract that they should explore options of trading him. His play is not @ the level that the Bills should mortgage their future to pay him.

I hear they've worked out a new slogan for the NHL: "NHL. You can't live without us."

I hear ya. This year I'll be going to the New Orleans game, which will be my first away game.

No problem, Jack. I was planning to call it off anyway, since I couldn't get the place I wanted and it seems like most of the people who usually attend can't make it anyway. Next year, we'll have to have a tailgate twice as good!

Cajun, I just may have to do that some time. Not for this season though. I'm going to 5 Bills games (4 @ RICH, 'Nawlins game) and possibly one Steeler game (Monday night game vs Ravens........on Halloween). Next year, I'm planning to make the trip to South Bend to watch my Nittany Lions FINALLY get a shot @ the Irish after 13 years! I may also try to attend the Bills @ Bears game next year, especially if they fall on the same weekend. If I do make it to Baton Rouge for a game, I'll try to catch up w/ you.

You know Ned, I've heard that from a bunch of people who live in the Baltimore area. Some go down there just to tailgate. They say it's that good. Then again, Baltimore hasn't got a clue about what a great tailgate is.

Death Valley? Clemson, or LSU? I think they both refer to their places as Death Valley. I've only been to a few college venues (Ohio State, Michigan, SMU, and, of course, Penn State), but Ohio State and Penn State were both pretty intense.

Only the brain dead people w/ a very small capacity for remembering things. It does suck that Brown didn't play his entire career for Oakland, but I think most people will remember him for his greatness while there, just like most people will remember Jerry Rice for his record breaking seasons in San Fransisco.

Just to give you some idea of what's involved: 1.) In our league, the first thing we did was get our volunteers. Our league has 20 teams (may add more later, but for the first year, it's 20). 2.) The next step was to have a lottery to pick the venue our teams play in. Most everybody wanted cold weather places and hardly anyone wanted domes. Go figure. Well, I ended up w/ the top pick in our lottery, so you can probably guess which stadium I picked. 3.) After that, we set up a draft order to do our free agent draft to stock our teams. This was the longest part of what we've done, as it took over a month to do. We did our draft online and did 2 rounds per day, giving each person 15 minute time slots in which to make their picks. If they missed their slot, we tried to be pretty lenient, but if it went too late, they'd have a makeup period of 1 hour @ the end of each round where they could make up their missed pick. Trades were allowed, which made it more interesting and challenging. I traded out of most of the teen rounds and ended up w/ about 25 picks in rounds 20-30, where I did most of the stocking of my team. The thing to keep in mind for the drafts is that you have to mind the salary cap and players are given a $$ value based on which round they're taken in (1st round picks were $10M, 2nd/3rd round picks $7.5M, etc.), which also makes it tough to stock a solid team. I traded out of the first round and then down into a later 2nd round pick and still got the player I wanted w/ my first choice: LT Jonathan Ogden. 4.) Next, we went on to the rookie draft. Now, rookies are inactive for the first season, same as any player who was on the IR for the previous season, as the computer ranks players by the previous year's stats (no stats=no rating). In our rookie draft, I traded up into a 2nd pick in round 1: I took LB Derrick Johnson of Texas w/ my #2 pick and then took LB/S Thomas Davis of Georgia w/ my additional pick I traded up for. 5.) After the rookie draft, we had to set our depth charts and then set up our lineups to submit to the person who entered everything into the computer for simulation. We had to give our basic formations (split back, single back, I formation, etc.) and any variations (3/4/5 wide, goal line/short yardage, etc.) before the games were simulated. We had 2 preseason games (my team lost both), and are now 2 weeks into the regular season (same). So, that's about what we'd be looking @ if we decide to have our own league here. If there's enough interest, I'll purchase the software and then we'll set up the league (stadium lottery, free agent stocking draft, rookie draft). As for the rules, I could just use the ones for the league I'm in and, once we get established, we could add to/change them accordingly.

The software costs about $50. That's it. If we do decide to do this, we can just sim the games for the first year and then decide if we each want to purchase the software so that we can have head to head games over the internet. Personally, I like having the games simulated; it gives me something to look forward to.

Rumor has it that it's also one up from "Ctrl" on the right hand side of the keyboard.

No, don't keep political discussions off the Wall. After all, if you can't discuss politics here, where else can you discuss them?