The Frankish Reich

Live in the real world. Evan Fournier of the Knicks - fine player, not a star - is not getting the Jame Harden foul call every time he jumps into a defender while launching a 3. Beasley has been around long enough to have internalized these rules. In a little while we'll be calling them the Josh Allen Rules and everyone will be loving that disparate treatment.

Yes, we should definitely be comparing Cole Beasley to the 1st or 2nd or 3rd biggest star the NFL currently has.

I've said it before: when guys are playing at a replacement level, there's literally nothing to lose by replacing them. And sometimes a significant amount to gain.

Ouch. You mean maybe he wouldn't have been a starter on a dozen other teams? EDIT: He is really, really good at not getting COVID or being too close to someone who has it.

Damn. Carr back out there. Peterman redemption story will have to wait. Probably forever. Always good to be taunting the team that's whipping your ass.

Sunday Ticket Watcher Alert!! Derek Carr hurt. Mariota on COVID list. NATE PETERMAN READY!!!

Remind me never to eat at your restaurant.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/12/26/dave-barrys-year-review-2021/?itid=hp-top-table-main Dave Barry's annual year-end review - this is the start of his entry for May: the CDC further relaxes its covid-19 guidelines in response to new scientific data showing that a lot of people have stopped paying attention to CDC guidelines. At this point these are the known facts about the pandemic in America: ⋅ Many Americans have been vaccinated but continue to act as though they have not. ⋅ Many other Americans have not been vaccinated but act as though they have. ⋅ Many of those who got vaccinated hate Donald Trump, who considers the vaccines to be one of his greatest achievements. ⋅ Many who refuse to get vaccinated love Donald Trump. What do these facts tell us? They tell us that we, as a nation, are insane. But we knew that.

True. If Jake Kumerow weren't on the active roster he's currently be playing the Da'Rick/Duke role of everyone's favorite WR who never got a fair chance. Prediction: Tanner Gentry will be the next practice squad savior.

first, hope you had a great Christmas. No conspiracy theories here. Just plain old fashioned politics. Trump pandered to the conspiracy theorists, from the famous "I don't really know about QAnon, but I know they don't like child trafficking and they like me" to (after his election loss) being all coy about whether or not he got the vaccine, to stating he probably wouldn't get a booster just a few months ago. And now he's tacking hard to the middle in the hope of at least picking up some of those disenchanted with Biden. This is not to say Biden won't do the same thing. In fact, he'd be a fool not to (so far the fool hypothesis is a pretty good one). The point is what I said it was - he looking past his vaxx-skeptic base and to where most of America is.

Well, I'm not calling Trump or his acolytes dumb, but there was this precious bit of pandering just a few months ago: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-he-is-unlikely-to-get-covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-11630694477 Take your pick: 1. He's dumb. 2. He's not dumb, but he thinks his supporters (or at least a lot of 'em!) are dumb. 3. He did a lot of his own research (his uncle taught at MIT!) and decided that a booster was wise after all. This one would make sense, but weirdly enough he's not saying that. He's just saying "deal with it" to his anti-vaxx supporters. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-covid-booster-shot/ Trump revealed his booster status during a conversation with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, telling the host "yes" when asked if he received the booster shot. O'Reilly continued the conversation, but Trump interjected when he heard some in the crowd booing his answer. "Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, no, no. That's — there's a very tiny group over there," the former president said in response to an apparent smattering of boos, according to video posted by O'Reilly's show "No Spin News. Prior to the question about the booster, Mr. Trump lauded his administration's efforts to develop the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S., saying "we did something historic" and urging supporters to "take credit — we saved tens of millions of lives." The former president was criticized for not disclosing his vaccination status while in office, in contrast to former Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials. Pence and others received the vaccine on camera, something Trump declined to do. Only in March did news outlets learn Trump was vaccinated at the White House in January, and many in his own party wanted him to be more consistently vocal in support of the vaccine. My premise is that Trump thought he would gain support of the nutty anti-vaxxers by feigning vaxx skepticism, all the while lining up for his shot/booster as soon as it became available. Look at the timeline. Oh, and I know all too well "what people are saying." Some have said it right here - the vaccine is poison, it is used to track you, to compel compliance with the agenda of a mysterious cabal, to rearrange your DNA, etc., etc.

👏 Fantastic comment, start to finish. I just want to highlight this one part. I disagree. Other than Dawkins, the guys who are out on the O line haven't been strong performers this year or any other year. You are replacing a replacement-level player with ... you guessed it, by definition a replacement level player. It really hurts to lose both Beasley and Davis. If Sanders is reasonably healthy and is a go, well, that means the drop-off for at least one of them isn't that great. I am not looking forward to Marquez Stevenson getting his first real game action in a critical late December matchup ...

Yes. https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/07/19/andrew-pekosz-delta-variants/ Of course, the problem is that with a pandemic it isn't enough to vaccinate the vast majority of people in a single country; the unvaccinated throughout the world provide the laboratories for mutations. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/12/01/1055803031/the-mystery-of-where-omicron-came-from-and-why-it-matters

So you're saying you took ivermectin because, after all, you didn't trust Big Pharma, and you took Big Pharma-created monoclonal antibodies because, well, having COVID is no time to be a political purist?

https://www.si.com/nfl/buccaneers/news/tampa-bay-buccaneers-bruce-arians-says-buccaneers-are-100-percent-vaccinated-against-covid-19 It's a Belichick-worthy form of "cheating" - the intense pressure brought by Arians (and I suspect Brady) on his players to all get vaccinated violates at least the spirit of the NFL-NFLPA agreement. Some may call it unfair, some may call it leadership. They had it, we didn't.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-booster-shot-anti-vax-reaction-1275660/ Even if he ultimately doesn't run again, he's definitely reading the polls and, umm, "adjusting" his messaging. I noticed this a couple weeks ago when formerly mainstream Romney Republican Hugh Hewitt interviewed Trump an openly encouraged him to run on two great achievements: 1. Operation Warp Speed - seize credit for pushing vaccine research and production! Claim to have shown the leadership necessary to turn the corner on the COVID situation in America. 2. The Abraham Accords - claim this as a huge turning point in U.S. foreign policy! https://hughhewitt.com/former-president-trump-on-boris-johnsons-woes-sidney-powells-dough-and-more/ Anti-COVID vaxxers, he just pulled the rug out from under you. It now has to become something wishy-washy like, "Yeah, it's a personal choice, and he made his choice and I'm making mine." But ... what's left of the "it's poisoning us, it's an instrument of government control," or [and these people show up here from time to time] "they are using it to monitor us/rearrange our DNA" opposition? I mean, a core belief is that the Democratic controlled government is forcing all of this vaccine nonsense on us, and if Trump isn't the Marvel Superhero standing alone against this, at a minimum he's the "guy who knows what's really going on." And face facts: he's decided it polls better to present himself as the Vaccine Savior rather than the Personal Freedom Anti-Mandate Defender. https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-was-angry-at-capitol-mob-only-because-they-looked-cheap-and-poor-report/ He used you when it was politically expedient. He's kind of done with you now.

Rebel without a Brioche!

Well Chef Jim is all about retirement on here, so is Medicare not public money?

It matters to me because you are not signing a waiver that says "if I ever get a severe case of COVID, do not expend any public monies on me."

Read this thread - it makes a lot of sense to me.

Assuming is a lot of what goes on here. Was it you (or was it one of your fellow travelers) who just got through suggesting I'm busy hand-wringing, mask-wearing even when not required? Because I'm neither of the above. I want you - all of you - to get vaccinated. That's been proven effective. Masks? Not even close. At best we can say "probably a good idea in certain situations." And I believe those situations are very limited.

Agreed. And I think Mac will be exposed as perfect passing conditions become rare in December and January (assuming they don't draw all dome/warm weather playoff locations). But ... when you can run for 222 yards without even pretending to try to pass, well, then I can't argue with your strategy.

I pointed this out after the game - 1974, Jets at Bills. Joe Ferguson - nobody ever accused him of having a noodle arm - threw 2 passes. (He actually threw 4 - the first two were picked off but negated by penalties. After that, Lou Saban decided that trying to throw the ball at all was stupid.) The Bills won in the rain and wind. Joe Namath's coach wasn't afraid of him throwing the ball. He threw 3 INTs. You play to win the game. https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2021/12/07/patriots-three-passing-attempts-are-nfls-lowest-since-1974-bills-jets-debacle/

Now "they" are GIVING PEOPLE ANTHRAX in order to silence "their" critics who've revealed the ruse!! "They" are truly evil!!! "Their" evil knows no bounds!!!! https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wz5a/people-got-sick-at-a-conspiracy-conference-theyre-sure-its-anthrax

I am no youngster, and I regularly visit my elderly parents. The risk-benefit calculus clearly weighed against attending thousand-plus people events at this time last year. I am triple vaccinated now, so our my parents, and there is good reason to believe (in fact, it would be truly surprising if the opposite were true) that the recently vaccinated/boosted are very unlikely to have a severe case of COVID. My response was rational then. It's rational now. It's the world around us that's different, at least for those of us not cowering in fear at a little jab. That may have been what you meant to say. What you said is "they lead (sic)* us to believe that the virus hovered over mass gatherings," as in they led* us to believe something that isn't true. Otherwise your sentence made no sense whatsoever. *May we pause for a moment to consider the irony.