SoTier

I agree. The Jets have more of the right pieces to be a real threat than the Fish. Rodgers is easily better than Tua. I think their WR corps are about equivalent. The Jets defense is significantly better. I think that Saleh has proven himself a competent HC at worst, but the jury is still out on McDaniel.

I still have had no luck attracting hummers to my feeders but I definitely have several -- again, apparently all females -- visiting my garden because they've been having aerial "hummer wars" all around my yard. One of the girls likes to sit on the top rung of my tall tomato cage and chase off all the others. She's apparently the "boss" hummer. My new feeder apparently discourages pigeons ... but the smaller birds have been reluctant to try it at all, and the cardinals and blue jays just ignore it even with the old feeder empty. I even took down the old feeder but still no takers except for some adventurous house sparrows. So, I filled up both feeders. I suspect that some hungry birds will eventually use it, especially as the seed feast in my backyards diminished as we go into fall. On a side note, as more flowers come into full bloom, especially tall garden phlox, coneflower, and Joe Pye Weed (a type of domesticated milkweed), I've had a bounty of pollinators from bees of all sizes and butterflies (including monarchs visiting the JPW) to several different kinds of hornets and moths.

Student loan forgiveness programs go back to the 1970s at least. The general outlines of the programs have always been the same: students who accumulated debt in pursuing a degree could have all or part of it forgiven if they worked in specified fields, most commonly teaching in inner city schools. As college degrees became requirements for many jobs, most public employees were made eligible. In recent years, the program administrators, though, made it difficult for students to qualify for the program. The Biden administration has made it easier for more students to have their loans forgiven.

I don't get it either. Fangio has had a long career as a defensive coordinator and produced some outstanding defenses, but he's also had average and below average defenses which suggests that he's not a super hero who can turn JAGs into superstars when his defense lacks talent or has been decimated by injury. Belichick, McDermott and Saleh were all outstanding defensive coordinators prior to becoming successful HCs, so they're not exactly trash. More importantly, they've had several years to build their defensive teams so that their personnel fit their defensive systems whereas Fangio is going to have a defense that's largely been built by others, some or many of which may not be a good fit with what he wants to do. He also runs a very complicated defense that may take a while to become effective. I have no doubt that Fangio can improve the Miami defense this season, but it was pretty poor last year. There's no way in hell, though, that Fangio's a better defensive coach than Belichick. It's not Belichick's coaching that's fallen off in NE, it's the talent level.

Terry Bradshaw. The Steelers won 4 Super Bowls between 1974 and 1979 after spending decades as one of the NFL's bottom feeders, and TB was their offensive leader.

Nope.

The girl in the Araiza case or the young woman in the Alabama case? I looked up the result of the Araiza investigation, and the criminal charges weren't brought against any of the defendents because there wasn't enough evidence to get convictions. Apparently, after the DA declined to bring charges, the girl (who was 17 at the time) filed the civil suit, which made Araiza's name public.

Well, that's certainly a scientific sample.

I think the difference is that the woman in the Araiza case actually had a basis for her criminal complaint in that she felt that she had been raped by several men at a party. I don't know if the criminal case against the other men went forward but the criminal investigation revealed that Araiza had left the party. The woman in Alabama fabricated the entire incident ... there never was a toddler on the side of the interstate and she was never kidnapped.

Longevity and success. Andrew Luck retired a decade earlier than he likely would have because of the injuries he suffered, compliments of Indy not investing in a better OL, but he's just the most notable example. Totally agree. Last year, Allen had to "run for his life" far too much. He also had to intentionally run far too much because the Bills running game was ineffective too often. A better OL would improve both of those issues even with just average RBs.

I'm also not sold on McDaniel. Maybe he's the genius that he's been proclaimed to be, but the NFL's history is littered with coaches who seemed great in their first season but proved otherwise. Most recently, Chip Kelly with the Eagles and Kliff Kingsbury with the Cards turned out not to be quite the geniuses they were considered early on.

The gap between the Fins and Bills at QB is the size of the Grand Canyon. Tua is a good QB but he's not in the same zip code as Allen, Burrow or Mahomes, and that's the Bills' trump card.

Your statement, " since 2000, no true "running QB" has ever lasted as an effective starter past Age 33" doesn't actually mean very much. Most pocket QBs, even starters, aren't particularly effective starters past age 33, either. Most QBs enter the NFL when they're 21 or 22, which means that they would have to be in the league for 11 or 12 years, yet you include numerous QBs who aren't old enough to be part of your sample. Most QBs, whether passers or runners, don't have 11 or 12 year careers. I looked at the 43 QBs drafted in the first round between 1998 and 2012, meaning that they all could have the ability to play at least 10 years, and would have been the QB prospects given the most opportunity to become starters early in their careers. Only 21 of these 43 QBs (49%) had careers that lasted at least 10 years. Only 14 of the 43 QBs were starters for 10 or more seasons (33%). Only 9 of these QBs were starters every year they played (P Manning, McNabb, Palmer, Roethlisberger, Alex Smith, Cutler, Ryan, Stafford, and Tannehill). Phillip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers both sat on the bench for 2 and 3 years, respectively, before they became starters and Eli Manning was benched in his last year, so there were 12 first round QBs who were "career starters" over a decade or more in the NFL (28%). There are numerous reasons why QBs fail to have long NFL careers. Mostly, they simply aren't talented enough. Sometimes they don't apply themselves to improving their skills. Sometimes they have/develop substance abuse problems. Sometimes other off-field issues, including mental health problems, short-circuit careers. Of course, even "pocket passers" can have their careers shortened by injury, with Andrew Luck being the poster-boy for injury shortening a career.

Deja vue all over again ... the Broncos also were supposedly only a QB away from being a SB contender.

The Jests being the Jests, that was my first thought, too. Splurging on another RB is something they seem likely to do rather than improving their OL, which is terrible.

My hummer(s?) are back in my garden. Usually I only see 1 female in the garden at a time, so I'm not sure if I have only one or different girls come at different times. I don't know how long hummers live, but I've had at least one female feasting on the bee balm by the porch every year for about a decade, so I suspect that there have been numerous girls coming at different times. Last year, after the young had fledged, I did see several males. The problem with observing hummers in my yard is that I have flower gardens with bee balm, hostas, salvias, and crocosmia (all hummer faves!) on three sides of my house, so they can be scattered all around. My lot is long and fairly narrow, so the back gardens that contain the trumpet vine and more hostas are a long way from the house, so seeing tiny birds there is impossible from the back porch. I've had no luck attracting hummers to a feeder, which is where many people see multiple hummers. They apparently prefer real flowers! I'm trying again with a new feeder and nectar, but no luck so far. I'm going to put a shepard's hook in a batch of bee balm and see if that attracts some to the feeder.

Ummmm ... so, the victim saying, "Joe Smith walked up to me and stuck a gun in my face" shouldn't be accepted but Joe Smith saying "I didn't do it" should? Is that what you're say?????

The reason that the "original emails" were never published is simply because many, if not most, were too disgusting to be published in the mainstream media, and before you start bellyaching about the "bias" of "MSM", consider that local and national news outlets don't broadcast or publish the worst crime or accident scene photos, either. As for Gruden's "reputation", it was a carefully maintained fiction. He's just a hypocrite who revealed the real guy behind the facade with people he believed shared his "values". Mel Gibson never had a reputation as an anti-Semite, either, before he was arrested for drunk driving and started spewing venom about Jews.

It's hard to be "truly apologetic" or take steps to correct bad behavior when the only thing you think you did wrong was getting caught. That seems to be Gruden as far as I can see. Keep in mind, too, that Gruden wasn't a dumb, easily influenced adolescent or young adult but a supposedly mature fifty-something who ought to have known better when he wrote these emails. Moreover, the volume of the bigotry Gruden expressed -- not to mention the crudity of some of it -- makes his behavior significantly more than some instances of poor decision making.

Did you read the article? It referenced/quoted several positive reviews as well as others that panned it. It also stated that the movie doesn't make any reference to QAnon or make any political statements. The connection to QAnon apparently stems from the film star's comments.

Forgiven for being a bigot and a hypocrite? I think not. Howard Cosell left MNF voluntarily after the 1983 season because of the controversy resulting from a comment he made during a MNF broadcast in 1983 that was interpreted by many as racist (Cosell). Three decades later, Gruden wrote/posted excrement that was blatantly racist, homophobic and misogynistic, even by standards of the 1980s. I'm not sure what legal grounds Gruden has to sue the NFL over the emails. Once you send an email to someone, the recipient can do whatever he/she wants to do with it just as if you sent that person a letter via "snail mail". If these were sent to Snyder at an official Washington Commanders' email address, he absolutely had no expectation of privacy. Those emails became the property of the team as soon as they hit the team's server(s). When I was in high school more than half a century ago, one my teachers said something that always stuck in my mind: never put down on paper anything you'd be ashamed for your mother to see. Just add email and/or social media, and that's still a good rule to follow.

FWIW ... Here's a piece on the film with some explanations about why it's controversial ... and why it wasn't released sooner: Why 'Sound of Freedom' is a Hit.

A veteran player's potential to improve significantly depends upon several things, probably his age, position, and his "fit" for the new team being the most important. It's not uncommon for young veterans who played their first contracts as part-timers behind established veterans to blossom on other teams where they get the opportunity to start in an offensive or defensive system that fits their skill sets. Think Jerry Hughes, Michah Hyde, and Jordan Poyer. Sometimes, veterans just need an opportunity to play, too. Think Fred Jackson who failed to catch on with the Bears, Broncos and Packers and wound up in NFL Europe before signing with the Bills and finally getting an opportunity to play. Older veterans can sometimes improve, too, especially if they've been in a bad situation where they are used differently or feel better about the atmosphere, etc. There's also no guarantee that bringing in a big name FA is going to pay immediate dividends. In fact, there are numerous examples to show just the opposite, so teams need to do their homework to be sure that targets FAs truly fit. What exactly constitutes your "general consensus" besides commentators, amateur and professional, who share your opinions about the Bills? IMO, any team with a top level QB beyond his rookie contract, simply can't afford to have many other elite offensive players beyond their rookie contracts without depleting their defense of talent.

There are feeders with weighted perches that are squirrel resistant. I bought a tube feeder like that to discourage pigeons (Squirrel Proof Tube Feeder). The ports are large enough to feed peanuts in shells. If the cardinals don't like my new feeder -- they tend to prefer platform type feeders -- I will probably get one that looks like a building that has long perches: Birders Choice Feeder

Some people just HAVE to have bragging rights whatever the cost ... to themselves or to others.