Hollywood Donahoe

What an idiot.

I imagine that during the coin toss, opposing players exchange the usual pleasantries - "good luck out there," "try not to get hurt," etc. Oh, wait, I forgot to play to the audience. I bet he'll say "your [sic] gay."

I do hope you're right. Bruschi's shoes will be nearly impossible to fill, but I believe Brown can do an acceptable job if healthy. I must disagree here. While the LBs carry more responsibility and importance in a 3-4, less is expected of them athletically. While 4-3 LBs are often judged by their ability to go "sideline to sidline," a 3-4 LB has less field he's responsible for, and thus, less ground to cover.

Agreed, but the Pats LB unit was one of the best in football last year, old or not. Losing Bruschi will affect that, but I don't think age will. McGinest, Chad brown and Ted Johnson are the only real "older" players among the LBs, and they're all still solid, so I really don't see age as a factor.

No. I've no issue with that. I was just pointing out his factual error. Good idea. Can't we all just get along?

I had a harmless Brady avatar for a while. A Bills fan PMed me in May and requested a new topical avatar, so I made a Star Wars themed one. How is it "anti-Bills" anyway? It's a picture of your GM as my favorite Star Wars character. I suppose I just value accuracy in communication. My post, unlike your barrage of personal attacks, was not emotionally driven.

Their defense is pretty young, it seems to me: Richard Seymour, Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, Jarvis Green, and Rodney Bailey are all young along the DL. The secondary is young with Asante Samuel, Randall Gay, Eugene Wilson, and recent high draft picks Guss Scott, Dexter Reid, Ellis Hobbs and James Sanders. The LBs are a little old, but that's just one unit.

No real point to that. Teams don't show off their playbooks in August.

Did I hurt your feelings? I'm sure you will. No one remembers these threads at year's end anyway.

First off, Troy Brown was re-signed weeks ago. If your going to make a dumb 8-8 prediction about a team that's gone 34-4 over the last two years, at least know what the hell you're talking about. I wouldn't make a half-baked prediction about the Bills assuming Travis Henry was still on the team. Second, even if Brown was gone, he's hardly a key player. He's a 4th WR and subpar nickle back.

Todd mentioned the coordinators separately from the players.

No argument there. But Todd wrote "players." An "s" at the end of a word usually indicates a plural.

My posts are, by and large, unrequested.

Besides Bruschi, who?

Patriots: 13-3 Jets: 11-5 Bills: 7-9 Dolphins: 5-11

The result does not affect the process. The Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2003 despite catching very few breaks. Did you even bother to click on the link in my last post? It's a picture of Brady after the game against Philadelphia in week 2 of 2003. His elbow is the size of a grapefruit. He suffered a bursa sac injury in that game that affected him for several weeks after. The next week against the Jets, he re-aggravated a shoulder injury that he played through in the last 4 games of 2002. If my memory serves, he was on the injury report every week that season. He underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason. Inclined to agree.

Is your memory really that bad? In 2003, the Patriots were so ravaged by injury that they started 42 different players over the course of the season, the most ever for a division winner. Others, like Tom Brady, played through injury. Is that your idea of getting "every single break?" As for the topic, I'm glad Bruschi's sitting out. He shouldn't risk further injury by rushing back.

You guys are killing me! At least Pats fans and Bills fans have something in common now - we've both been burned by Bledsoe.

Indeed. Seriously though, I can't wait for Madden '06. The vision cone thing seems like it'll add realism and difficulty to the passing game, and superstar mode looks really cool. (EDIT: Looks like I'll have to manually edit at least one player. That vision cone is too big by half, at least.)

I believe the meaning is that whn something good happens, Donahoe shows up and takes the credit; but when something bad happens, he lets Mularkey be front and center. Not supporting that viewpoint, but I think that's what it meant.

Hey, you did find a better version. The old one was Flash, and was really hard to go through frame-by-frame. This one's QuickTime.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showtopic=17434 Still cool, though.

Every public board has its trolls. The Pats board I call home has a Colts troll and a Phins troll who are far worse than anything I've seen here. Thanks. I'm here for polite discourse with other passionate NFL fans. When someone gives me crap (usually MDB), I give it back, but I generally like to keep it civil. I'm surprised so many consider me a troll (although I guess the avatars have something to do with it).

Again Nostradamus, get back to me when even ONE of your "Pats' run is over" predictions becomes reality. You can only falsely foresee something so many times before people stop taking you seriously. The Patriots may or may not repeat this year, and the odds are certainly against them, but don't break your arm patting yourself on the back if they don't. You've bet the odds the last two years and lost in embarrasing fashion. Best quit while you're behind.