AKC

Kids use premix, there's only one real Margarita- Adult Margaritas

You're not only centrally located but you can reach out your window and grab a cane of sugar! Aren't there a bunch of those poison trees in that part of Croix? I miss the honor bars and night time swimming all year long- I also spent a lot of time on St. Johns, my girlfiend's family (DeLugo) are all over the USVIs. Are you watching the games at a local bar? If I remember the Buccaneer had a football set up back in the C and Ku band days?

I'm not sure how far apart our opinions on Travis really are, but I'd argue against your suggestion that Travis "played for his teamates"- Accepting "I don't wanna be a backup! I won't play if I'm a backup!" to be the model for "team" players would insult way to many real team players we've had on the Buffalo Bills and for that matter throughout the league. Unlike much speculation on a Message Board there is actually good chance to see our assumptions regarding Travis tested in this case- As I mentioned Travis seems to be entering a highly desirable situation for himself- a team with a long-ingrained Head Coach who likes to run the ball to set up his passing game. A starting RB who is not overwhelming in his skill set and may be prone to getting dinged up. An offense that doesn’t look for their backs to pull down a lot of passes. For my money Travis is a tough guy physically but mentally he’s a cream puff. This flaw should also be hidden during his first year in TN since he’ll be focused enough to get everything he can out of every carry and ignore his overall role. So the cards for Travis AFAIC this coming season are a pretty desirable hand- yet even with all that good news for him unless Brown is hurt I don’t see Travis taking the top spot. That leaves him with limited carries and a chance to average maybe 40 or 50 yards a game. If he does supplant a healthy Chris Brown then I’ll have to concede he’s got a better grip on his faults (pun intended) than I’ve recognized- but if he doesn’t move up their chart I’d think it would go far in supporting Travis as more of a “little engine that could” player who might very well be best suited for a more limited role than that of feature back in the NFL.

With an improvised desert cooler under a large fig tree in the old gold miming camp we 4 Wheel up to the factor on a 115 degree day in Death Valley will feel more like about a 75 degree day in Western New York. So that's the best place to "hydrate"; things turn a little toastier up at the horseshoe pit or out on the Frisbee Golf course.

Are you in Christiansted? I used to live in Red Hook and made the boat pretty regularly to visit Croix- back in the old days of 99 cent Cruzan 750s ;-) And why wouldn't you choose the Stripe over Corona since it's a far better beer!

It's been mostly in the mid 80s but that's due for a pretty intense bump Thursday when I get to Death Valley for a camping trip ( the little lady is less enthused than I!). Summer camping in Death Valley is awesome because you don't figure on running into anybody else, the secret to it is hydrate, hydrate, hydrate........ ;-)

You might also sharpen the list by allowing Stephen Davis as the real Panther starter or better yet removing your qualification of "starting" running back. That would allow the Larry Johnsons, Steven Jacksons, Quentin Griffins, Chester Davises, DeShaun Fosters, etc. to bump Travis down the ladder even more under the assumptions of what they will all contribute to their teams this coming season barring an injury to the players in front of them. The one thing I'll say in Mr. Henry's favor here though is that I've never figured out Chris Brown; his style suggests he'd be easy to get your hands on yet he pops some healthy runs complemented by his exceptional burst. On first glance he looks like a very replaceable back, we'll get a chance to see if Travis has what it takes to bump another back with serious flaws in his game.

The SoCal Grail of Bills Beer drinking is called the Dee Cup- it's the Pine Mountain "Jug" awarded to the winner of the Bills Raiders game that I intend to reacquire this season. You're welcome to slug anything you want out of it ;-)

Just opening with a glass of Sancerre, a 2004 Le Manoir, but I'll be moving to a 2003 Biale "Black Chicken" Zin with fettucine, Victoria Vodka Sauce and grilled hot Italian sausage. You'll have to forgive me, it's still early out here in SoCal. There'll no doubt be 8 or 9 Rolling Rocks knocked down at the pub later on to boost the carb count.

"Hey Dude! I grew up in Venice and and it's cool West Hollywood throws you that big parade every year! Tell Bruschi the food at Paco's Tacos will get him back on the field in no time! And one question- when you see Belichick ask him if he'd stop eating them so fast that if a statue of him is put up in Gillette it can be made out of his boogers ?"

The interview was strong evidence that the cumulative intelligence in a tank of Sea Monkeys surpasses that of Eisen, Woodson and Henry. One unbelievably stupid Woodson question was "Do you think you're the kind of running back who fits better in a backfield with a veteran quarterback or a rookie?"

IMO pre-injury Campbell had become a VERY efficient blocker taking excellent angles in space and excercising decent leverage inside. The "ideal TE" you presuppose doesn't appear to me to be what this offense is asking for at all. In fact, Campbell had become a near model of the type of TE our offense seems to want: a player who can get out on the edge and seal the second level of the D, be counted on to effectively chip the big guys, and occasionally expose a defense who takes him for granted by pulling down spot throws with some level of reliability. Sure a NFL Primetime TE making Tony Gonzalez catches downfield is a tempting concept, but if you look around the league you'll be hard pressed to name 4 of them you'd pay huge money for. Campbell may be extremely vanilla, but in the strategy of the power running offense we've been building he might just be a perfect value proposition considering what he had been contributing before his injury and what he costs us come payday. If he returns at less than 100% of what he was though he could very quickly become a liability.

I remember waking up to sheets of pavement the size of autos flying down my street- afterwards one of the cleanup jobs was removing picnic benches that floated away and got stuck in power lines.

Used to live on Big Pine Key- (I'll be in Islamorada next month when bug season opens)- our prep for any big wind was to retreat to the safest abode among our friends who were riding it out and bring our best beverages, assuming a 3 or 4 day stay. Love the RN Riviera- best beaches in the contiguous 48 in PC for sure. Keep your sand down tonight and enjoy nature's roller coaster.

I've raced up and down the aisles of the LA Coliseum after we kicked the Raider's butts there screaming "RAIDERS SUCK", and at the same time I've been afforded "poor" treatment by their fans in the same venue on other occasions. It's a matter of judgement in most arenas, if you're truly concerned about a crowd simply attend the game with an opposing fan or two and you'll have no problems. If you don't know anyone in a town you're going to, buy seats from local ticket holders- the fans around them will keep an eye on you as a favor to the regular ticket holders.

I'd like to be wrong here for the sake of our season, I just can't see it with the blind faith in TAnderson or worse yet being forced to play Edwards on running downs. We can fix this with a situational run down player, even someone on twilight time, and I'll be surprised if we don't see this addition. On Farr- you are correct that the Rams did not use big interior linemen. I think Agnew was only playing around 280, Farr was probably a little lighter than that.

He had a lot less wear and tear on his body back then, plus he's now in his 30s. Unlike a lot of other 'backers in the league who would take less risk if the line underperforms and a game has gotten away from the D, London will continue to play full out even if Edwards proves to be the run sieve I see when he's in on rushing downs. This will expose London to a higher risk of injury than some slacker who gives up. To answer your question about who he played behind in St. Louis while London was winning his Super Bowl ring- the Rams used a rotation of Ray Agnew, DeMarco Farr and Jeff Zgonina. Being only the 3rd best lineman in that rotation, Zgonina is still a productive interior guy in Miami.

Even if Anderson evolves as a good run stopper, we will have merely a "starting rotation" of three interior linemen- one a superior interior player who can excel against the run and pass, a one-dimensional pass rusher and one making his plays on first and second down. This is basically a "bare cupboard" DLine rotation in today's NFL and any peek at our schedule should be a warning to our management to bring in competent help on the interior DLine before the 5th week of the coming season. If it doesn't happen you won't have to worry about London Fletcher getting knocked around the field all season by OLinemen- he'll be an injury casualty before we reach week 17 due to his big heart/play through anything style.

Like you, I believe we have FAR more to fear in relation to the quality of our DLine against the run than we do about any other area of our team. For Christ's sake- at least on the OLine we have a rotation of guys who have actually played at this level! Here's a string expanding on those concerns: DLine Woes

I've had the procedure and at least from my own standpoint I'd tell you to be aware of a couple things that won't be stressed by the facility who is looking to do it- A) You WILL lose peripheral vision, the more your correction the more you'll lose. B) You WILL suffer some loss of low light sensitivity. I definitely have a NOTICABLE loss of night sensitivity. C) I read a lot for work and personally. I was not warned that my reading without any lenses from the day after the surgery would cause me to end up with a fine ability to read without glasses but sacrifice some of my long range correction over the first couple months (and of course permanently) . They offered some hokey option to have "one eye set fotr reading and the other for distance" which sounded worse than where I started, but in the long run it appears to me that they right now are only capable of getting you good on one or the other.

The fact that Aaron has been a top sack artist over the first four years of his career apparetnly doesn't qualify him as a superior player. How about: 5 Fumbles forced, third best league-wide in 2004 among all DLinemen, along with 3 Recovered Fumbles, making him fifth league-wide in that category plus 4 passes defensed. Makes you wish all our players were as "mediocre" as Aaron!

Before calling a guy who's averaged 8 sacks a season over the first 4 years of his career "mediocre", one might consider the averages over a like portion of the careers of the "best" players in the league at DE- Strahan- 3.8 Kearse- 9 Kerney- 7 Simeon Rice- 10.2 At least based upon his ability to pressure the QB Schobel scores much closer to "best" than to "mediocre".

The loss of confidence I sense is specific to his inside move- he had been working on a combo punch and swim move in the end of '03 that not only picked him up 2 sacks but made him more dangerous outside as it became harder to overplay him to the oustide and risk the inside rush that has mostly awful outcomes for a QB: Picks/Batted Balls/Fumbles and of course Sacks. I'd concur with your observation that he was used more situationally last season, including an increased reliance on inside stunts along with zone coverage duties. My concerns are simply that he not lose the good work he previously had put in developing a new hand technique that makes him a far more dangerous one on one rusher, a skill he's already proven competent in.

I like his talent but was disappointed in 2004 to see him revert back to his reliance on favoring the outside move. He was making good progress on his inside move exiting the '03 season but he seemed to lose confidence in it between seasons and took too many of those looping sprints around the OT. Some of that is by design but I'd like to see Krumrie get him back on track to become less predictable by taking an inside move with more frequency.

I'd merely offer this advice: Enjoy the first quarter of the season. Short of a good DT being brought in I'm guessing you'll see my doomsday prediction playing out very clearly before our Bye in week 9. And at that time there'll be no way to correct our lack of quality AND depth in the middle of our defense.