UConn James

^-- Any inside info, tgreg?

Apparently you don't interact much with the world at large.

Bill, all due respect, and I agree with your sentiments, but at this point with Stroud and Johnson, Mitchell, and Poz coming back from injury, Bills brass may think they've tweaked the D enough along the front 7 to more effectively stop the run. I'd say the most serious ? on the DL is Kelsay, and right now he has one more year to show us he can be a solid DE. As for making 1st downs, the OL doesn't really look like the problem, minus Fowler rating a little lower than we might want at C (given the givens, not much to be done there, tho). Right now, WR, TE and possibly even CB are where we need to spend the prime resources in the draft. Having some solidity at positions so we can concentrate on ones that just need shoring up is a luxury I didn't think we'd have, if you'd told me 2 years ago with Marv's rebuilding. We've been rebuilding for so long... but now it may be time to grab a couple of your hated 'hands/specialty people' as long as we draft in later rounds for depth and FA eventualities at the areas you're pointing out (DT, DE, LB, G, C). All in all, tho, it's not a bad problem to have.

From the St.Louis P-D... Looks like they were looking for a special dispensation and got shot down for whatever reasons. The one-year notification is probably not w/o reason... such as the league has to have that info with that forewarning for print materials, website layouts etc. that would incur cost to change. I'm a little disappointed; I thought the Rams re-do to gold was a over the French's mustard yellow. But the individual teams can do what they want re: uniforms as long as they follow the time rules. Well on Mr. Rosenbloom for involving the fans rather than an ad-hoc of fruity designers who put in (and whose ad copy bent over backwards to try to justify) 24 colors and a control freak Pres/GM to approve them. The Sabres did much the same. The best thing TD did in his tenure here was to introduce the throwbacks. Simple. Traditional. For the life of me, I don't get why Russ Brandon hasn't made a switch, as this was under his purview as marketing director (Marv said he fielded the most questions about the unis and his answer was always 'I just work on football here.') and now he can just very simply tell someone to get it done. It's not that hard; the team owns all the copyrights/trademarks already. Life imprisonment, perhaps?

Are you going to be one of those dudes who incessantly posts about this crap until the draft and then after the draft, when virtually nothing (besides maybe an obvious 1st round pick) of what you've posted pans out, makes some vague threat regarding your support for the team because they passed on Duvaughn Flagler, who you've developed a hard-on for based on a highlight video (newsflash here: highlight videos are full of highlights; lowlights are conveniently omitted) of his play against crappy competition and then a week later either creates a new screenname or saunters back as if nothing happened? (whew). Dude, don't be that guy.

Many of those were the days where you could get a solid player deep in the draft that no one else knew jack sh-- about. Success depended on how good your gumshoe scouts were.

As an amicus curia in this case, I do not see any exposed nipple-age, but there is definitely some aureole.

I'd just be interested, how many of those who watched the film have had trouble wrt sleeping and such? I remember at the time of the Daniel Pearl murder, I saw a picture and had kafka dreams for a few weeks including some where it was me. Then again, I realize that some people here are pretty hardened against stuff like this and have seen worse in real life. As I wrote upthread, I have no intention of watching the film. I have read about many of the like things and that is enough for me to base an opinion. A picture/video can't be unseen and isn't just a mass of black text once its viewed. It forces you to look at it, forces you to feel a certain way, and with that comes the power of the image.

Seconded. I've had no problems with Ma Bell. Fracking unbelievable how companies have been forced to write their fine print/packaging copy for the lowest common denominator (i.e. McDonald's coffee "Caution: Contents are HOT!") because of lawsuits from stupid people and the judges/juries who buy into the mentality that people should be protected from their own stupidity.

They did. This was a broadcast on TalkUSA, iirc. Same guy is the owner. Basically... Air America Part Duh.

Well, thing is.... if Ralph goes to the gridiron in the sky, those subordinates will be replaced in short order by whoever buys the team with his/her own loyal people. <shrug>

Guy has never heard the expression, "Sh-- or get off the pot."

Fixed.

Now that many owners are realizing what a sh--box the CBA is, I'd go just to rub it in. "*GASP* So the old man isn't senile!?! *GASP* "

1) Why is the dude comparing how many website hits off of generic keywords he found on fuggin' Google? How does the # of such tell us anything, considering that the use of the Internet by the media has grown just a bit since 2000? And how much of today's # is just the same AP story, published over and over and over...? This is like telling us how many people had cars in 1902 and then in 1908. Stupid. b) I'm not sure Id make any sweeping judgments regarding gas prices' link with inflation and then make a sweeping judgment on the CPI based on that link. Some truth in it, yes.

Agreed. Think we should spend a day 1 pick at TE, esp. after cleaning house at the position in the offseason. No reason to throw depth away. Someone named 'El Tigre' should know the phrase 'A tiger doesn't change his stripes.' Wright is a RB. He will never be a FB. Then again, I said the same thing about Joe Burns and his naked pictures of Ralph kept him on the roster for how long? I'd be satisfied with either of them. OS is a bruiser ala Gash. Hillis does seem to be more well-rounded, which our offenses have tended to prefer sometimes to our own detriment. Don't know how many times Fairchild called passes to Shelton in -and goal situations, which were precious, don't you know. It was like an irresistible unnatural man-love for someone who should have known better than call them in the first place, or to keep calling them no matter how many times they ended in failure.

To be more specific, the rumors of a 'degenerative knee condition' that have floated for the past several weeks. FWIW, Jauron said the other day that the Bills trainers didn't see any problems in that regard. This is one of those things that happens every year as agents try to jockey for position to get their guy to be picked earlier. Sports agents as a group rate just behind 60-year-old biddies on the snark meter. He's scheduled to run next week and maybe any confusion will be cleared up by then.

BF, I don't exactly think anyone's surprised by this Admin's readiness to take a red pen to the Constitution. Not like the title of the document blatantly describes activity that violates Posse Comitatus or anything.... But, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Thing is, we in the West have such short memories while much of the Islamic world talks and acts as if 600AD was yesterday. Just sayin'. They have a much different mindset and concept of time re: abuses/atrocities. I will say that the "Behead those who say Islam is violent!" signs are really Monty Python-worthy.

You should probably note that it's NOT for the squeamish. I haven't watched it. Don't intend to watch it. I know *of* what has gone on which is enough to have my mindset be "do whatever you need to get these bastards" --- but there's things that I don't want to *see.* My oldest brother who did three tours in -istans told me that he has enough nightmares and PTSD for our family... and that that's why he fought, so that we don't have to experience it firsthand.

I guess communism = "not the most capitalistic" There will never be 32 equal revenue markets in the US. There just can't be. Some owners will make relatively more $, some owners will make relatively less, just based on demographics. How 'bout we let individual owners of franchises decide what they want to do with their teams? If the NFL goes the way of MLB, so be it. If the little guy is priced out of going to games, so be it. Popularity will drop along with revenues and people can choose to spend their $ elsewhere... and maybe on something more productive than the opportunity to watch grown men in plastic shells hit each other senseless. <shrug>

Actually, I think the rookie signing pool $ you're allotted kind of puts the kibosh on it. The first pick alone is enough to put teams in a serious hole for a long time, and if he's a bust, the result is darn near tragic. That's kinda why I'm a proponent of trying to never get a lower pick than ~ #9. Draft is a big crapshoot anyhow; why bust your cap to select some schmoe low when you have just as good a chance to get screwed over by a Mike Williams type for a hell of a lot less at, say, #20... or you could get a Nate Clements there.

At first, I was thinking, "But the taxes will kill them".... but then again, if they were looking in Boston, Taxachusetts, apparently that's not a big deal. Hope they aren't looking for local WNY jobs to be able to pay for it all, tho.

Well, that's what I was referencing upthread. I just think that in a tussle for the ball, a small advantage goes to the "Tall WR" who is heftier and more physical against DBs who tend to be smaller. Agreed. I think just for the impact it'd have on not being able to get OOB to stop the clock as easily puts the kibosh on it. But along with the facemask one, the desire to cut out judgment calls on the part of the officials looms pretty large in these proposals. I think it's backlash against so much of wishy-washy referee influence that's happened in recent years; teams might just be tired of certain teams/players getting breaks. The league has trended heavily toward offense, esp. wrt PI... but sometimes the pendulum needs to swing back.

And thinking about it a little more, this proposed rule change puts a little more premium on the generic "Tall WR" that is coveted so much, and you'd probably want him to be a physical and a little meatier. A guy who can outreach and outjump smaller CBs/Ss, either at the sideline or as the action gets pushed a little further infield. I read in another thread that Malcolm Kelly is up to 230 and it hasn't affected his speed much (4.4).... Hmm.