R. Rich

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?

He was a tremendous player, even though he did attend 'that school'. I just admire a player that stays w/ one team for so long. That has truly become a rarity in today's pro sports.

I'm not sure if you plan to attend the opener, but if you do, we will be meeting @ Duff's on Friday night (Sept. 9th).

Neither did I, but I'll be on the lookout for it. Thanks, Harv.

Do you know which game you'll be attending? If it's the opener, you can check the Tailgate East forum to see what's going on then. Basically, we have our annual tailgate across the street from RICH @ Hammer's lot. People start to show up there about 6am or so. Show up and meet the gang. If you're going to another game, we tailgate @ Lot 1, Pole 5. Like aussiew said, it's just to the right of the fieldhouse, so it's not too tough to find.

Damn. I missed out on the league. Oh well, we still have to set up the TBD league here. Either KzooMike or myself will set that one up soon.

I'm in too.

The way we use it, it does. You can also have head to head games via an internet connection, but that involves having everyone purchase the software to use. I kinda like the way we're doing it, because I don't have to do a whole lot of work inputting all the necessary data (rosters, lineups, tendencies, etc.). I can just submit my lineups weekly and wait for the simulated results. BTW, my team lost again 35-23. We're 0-2 now, and I've lost my only bright spot on offense, RB Julius Jones (256 yds, 1 TD in 2 games on only 39 carries), for the next 6 weeks to an injury.

The only thing that really was time consuming in the sim league I'm in on BillsZone was the stocking draft, which was about 55 rounds or so. That took us about a couple weeks to get done, but we tried to schedule it where people were given time slots to make their pick. If they were online, they could just make the pick; if not, then they had a makeup period @ the end of the day where they could make the pick. They also had the option of sending in a list of potential players to draft, so that they didn't hold up the entire draft.

I remember a certain buzz being killed @ that point in the game. What's that? Third down, you say? No problem...

Williams is a decent run blocker to be sure, but is a liability in pass protection. Andrews could push him for playing time, though he's nowhere near as good as Shawn is (I'm looking forward to seeing how well Shawn recovers from his injury from last year's opener). Ghiaciuc is still a bit weak to push Braham for the starter's job, and that's too bad because that's where the Bengals line needs an upgrade-the center position.

Yeah. I believe there's talk of everyone ponying up the $$ so that we can do head to head type games for the next season, but nothing has been established as of yet.

I think it's called Action! PC football or something like that. I didn't set this league up, so I'm not 100% sure.

I've started a poll over in the Fantasy Football forum about this. It describes all that goes into a sim league, so if you may be interested, feel free to check it out and vote in the poll.

I'm involved in a sim league on BillsZone that has just started. It's a lot of fun, @ least I think it is! It's different from a regular fantasy league in that you act as a GM, meaning you draft an entire team, set rosters, work the waiver wire, deal w/ injuries, hire coaches, pick a stadium to play in, and all that. It did take some time to do the innaugural free agency draft to stock our teams, but it was fun. We're into Week 2 of the regular season now. We've decided to do our league in the offseason so that we have some kind of football to pay attention to. If there's enough interest, we could think of starting a league up here. The costs are very minimal (I think we all chipped in for the software needed to simulate the games) and I do think it's fun to build a team from the ground up and monitor it. So, what do you all think?