Richard Noggin

As a lover of Van Miller's everything, is it okay to question how much effing drama and suspense he added to seemingly ordinary play calls? I seem to remember a lot of (and please consider each dot to be like a tenth of a second): "Kelly takes the snap...................surveys the field.......................***** his arm......................**at this point crowd noise often indicates a development in the play that has yet to be narrated**..................the pass is in the air....................AND HE FINDS REED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD FOR A FIRST DOWN!!!" Then he'd give this succinct, effective, energetic recap quickly before the Bills ran up to the line and got off another play in rapid succession. I remember, let's call them pregnant pauses, in his play-by-play. And we liked it.

I wonder who else in the AFCE uses a similarly complex and difficult-to-learn offensive playbook from the NE/E-P tree? Sure do feel sorry for that team, I'll tell ya...

You're conveniently only acknowledging the older, more etymologically-literal definition. There is another, official, completely legitimate and in fact more often used meaning of the term. Don't be dishonest (or oblivious). If teams were required to actually HIRE based on "race," rather than simply interview, then these new rules would be problematic. As someone else pointed out earlier in this thread, there is potentially some problematic territory with respect to what, exactly, constitutes a person's "race." If we're being annoying and technical, one could argue that many/most/all persons have some degree of "racial" diversity in their ancestries. Of course, that line of thinking tries to overtly sidestep the obvious and important social constructs and historical implications of race in the U.S. The NFL so often triggers anger from certain cultural tribes in our country, and maybe we should all just relax and realize no one is being harmed when the NFL strives to correct or at least recognize an institutional/cultural bias that continues to work against well-qualified "minority" candidates.

I endorse this message.

I'm going to skip ahead after reading the first page of posts and just say this: you Tom Brady apologists, especially in light of this newest malfeasance, are a special breed.

I have also made many, many terrible decisions. I just happen to be both quite gifted at driving and at speaking with authority figures, and...maybe more importantly, I'm a ginger, which is about as white as a person can be. Never overlook the advantage that provides when dealing with police.

Dammit I loved the NBA and specifically the East in the 90s. Was a Knicks fan, which was tough. But what a physical and emotional contest back then.

I really needed that.

Size queen.

I think GreggTX raises a number of valid concerns. I don't really agree, but I cannot tell him he's wrong about his takes.

That dude is schizophrenic. I used to live not far from where he's from. It's not a great area at all. But it's not the carnage he has apparently witnessed often. Of course I cannot deny his experience, but I can question it. Sounds more like he's untethered. Was plain to see when I waited on him as part of 8-12 person tables at my now former high-end restaurant gig. Always with the solo bottle of pink bubbles, even when first drafted and underage (I'm no stickler). Always aloof. Not connected to his group. From there he'd head down to Encore to do what people used to do there: get obliterated. Waste of immense talent. Unfortunate.

I'll say it: upon first glance, the Dolphins have assembled a decent starting roster. Not really laughable at all. Possibly kind of dangerous. I was expecting something funnier when I scanned their projected starters. They played the Bills tough as heck last year, and look to be much improved (although that many new pieces could take time to synch up). Hate myself for typing any of this.

I hate every point you make mostly because they could be true. New England COULD grind out a 9-11 win season on the merits of their stifling defense and ball--control offense, no matter who the QB is. One mitigating, up-yours factor at play here is the annually unpredictable nature of NFL defensive success. But even there we find numbers that don't feel good: since and including 1996, NE's scoring defense has ranked outside the top-10 only six times (IN 24 SEASONS)! They had a fairly bad run of yards-allowed rankings from 2010-14 and 2017-18, but that didn't matter much with prime, top-5 Brady-led offenses. Belichick really is the best defensive coordinator I've ever seen. He's done it so many times, with so many different rosters. I'd say THAT's the number one argument in favor of the 2020 Pats being good. Then again, if the offense takes a major step back, that makes it MUCH more difficult for the D to play to its strengths. So that is the potential fly in the Hoodie's three-quarter sleeve ointment.

Um... ...have you watched the news lately?

Oh...boy.