The Frankish Reich

Yeah, but we have had Boogie Basham! Drafted a few picks before Humphrey. (this comment is obligatory whenever Creed Humphrey is mentioned) In some alternative universe, Creed Humphrey is still snapping the ball to Patrick Mahomes, but both are in Bills uniforms.

So why was Sam Martin active? He was obviously unable to punt like an NFL punter. Was it his impeccable FG holding skills that allowed Bass to be his best self?

I mean, this season was weird, and we could've missed the playoffs entirely. But at the start of the season we were in our normal mode for the last few seasons - we play the entire regular season schedule to try to secure home field. And then we get it and it doesn't matter.

Wow. Well then it was just a terribly designed or terribly executed fake punt. Or both.

Agreed. We got THE pivotal officiating decision overturned in our favor. Against KC. On a play where I found nothing even close to clear evidence that the call on the field was wrong. The stupidity of the fake punt was negated. Status quo restored. We're gonna win! And then ...

Correct.

Here's the best explanation I could find. Some declared the curse broken during a game on August 31, 2004, when a foul ball hit by Manny Ramírez flew into Section 9, Box 95, Row AA and struck a boy's face, knocking two of his teeth out.[39] 16-year-old Lee Gavin, a Boston fan whose favorite player was Ramirez, lived on the Sudbury farm owned by Ruth. That same day, the Yankees suffered their worst loss in team history, a 22–0 clobbering at home against the Cleveland Indians Any volunteers to get two teeth knocked out? I mean, an ordinary tailgate Sunday results in worse injuries than that ...

It's still the Curse of #32 ...

The OP's topic is Bass = Norwood. Which sounds like it's bullying Bass, but in reality it's bullying Norwood. The quality of kickers overall is so much better than it was three decades ago, and unlike Norwood then, there's really no excuse for Bass's recent performances today.

You do that when you believe that the window of opportunity is open right now. Sometimes you're the Rams and it works. Most of the time it doesn't. Now we're stuck with some bad contracts for guys who may still be productive (Diggs is, and I actually believe Miller will be next year) but are clearly in their decline phases.

It was the ugliest fake punt I've seen in a long, long time. Even if KC had 10 men on the field (I counted 9 near the LOS and I guess there was just one deep return guy), KC had the LOS stacked to the left, which is exactly what Hamlin ran into. Is McD being nice to Hamlin (or whoever would call that fake) by taking the blame? What fake punt would ever have Hamlin involved in what looked like kind of a naked sweep? It may be that this goes back to the original mistake of keeping Martin active as punter when he obviously couldn't do it this week. Thankfully it was all negated by a call that I thought never should have been overturned, the "fumbled out of the end zone" on Hardman.

A healthy pre-injury/2022 version of Von Miller just might have put us over the top tonight. Zero pass rush will do that to you.

QB Class of 2018 is looking awfully good right now.

I've been watching this one kind of half-heartedly, not having a rooting or betting interest, but this 4th quarter may demand my undivided attention!

I had missed the part where he endorsed Trump. I guess he would for his own selfish motivations: Even if Trump wins, he can only serve one more term. So Ron 2028 stays alive! (He will have to contend with Trump's VP if Trump wins, and I don't see how Ron could do it since the President and VP can't be from the same state. If Trump moves back to NYC and switches his registration to NY we'll know what's coming next ....)

You mean it's time to give up and take the loss on that 50 acres of land I bought near the new Darien Lake area stadium?

Vivek got the usual Ron Paul crackpot vote. It is amazing that someone who says that many stupid and childish things even gets 5%. After all that storm and fury, he is once again irrelevant. Always a conspiracy. Yeah, various prosecutors brought tons of charges because they wanted Trump to get a publicity boost and win the nomination. Don't overthink this. The "It's a Cult" posters have a far simpler explanation. Because ... It's a Cult.

I always look forward to the part of the campaign where old white guys pretend to have their finger of the collective pulse of young(er) black America.

Reaching back to the Greatest Hits to distract from the point that both of these presumptive nominees are seriously compromised individuals?

I'm no Ron fan. But even I'm a little confused (dare I say disturbed?) by how he got zero traction. Why? Well, because he has been an effective governor of a big state. I don't agree with a lot (most) of his policy agenda. But he's pushed it through, and he's been generally a forceful and accomplished practitioner of the modern post-Trump agenda. Scott Walker was pretty similar in 2015: he reoriented Wisconsin politics in a more pre-Trump Republican direction, despite having a fairly slim margin in the state house and in the voters as a whole. So here's what I glean from that: at least in the (post-modern/post-Trump) Republican Party, accomplishment in government really counts for nothing. Zero. No one cares. No one wants to hear about your record. It is irrelevant. It may even be worse than irrelevant - that is, an actual negative - because it shows that you've been a part of the government before. We dismiss you, Scott, Ron, probably Nikki starting next week. All that "Governor is the best experience for a Presidential candidate" stuff we heard since Reagan, through Bush 43? Over. Eff your resume. We like the septuagenarian insult comic.

Calling it now ... this is the only suspense left in the race. Allow me to lead with the ass-kissingest competitor: NY's own Elise Stefanik. Trump rather famously confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley earlier this week, saying "Nikki, Nikki, Nikki" refused to call in the troops to defend the Capitol on January 6 even though she was in charge at the time. Here's Elise's brown-nosing "explanation" of why it wasn't a Senior Moment. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/20/elise-stefanik-spins-donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-nikki-haley-gaffe/

Bumping this one. For obvious reasons.

Can you imagine the uproar if Biden was caught blaming Ron DeSantis for January 6? “You know, Ron was in charge that day and he did nothing to stop the riot.” Two candidates who started out as not the brightest bulbs, now both solidly in rambling old man phase.

Other long run winners: The Carolina Panthers. The Detroit Pistons. The Colorado Rockies. The San Jose Sharks.

We are doomed.