stevewin
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Posts posted by stevewin
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6 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:
This is going to be a long post about an incredible experience for anyone who wants to read it - if you don't want to read the bulk of it you can skip to the most important part - look for the bolded header below.
Quick back story - Lake Tahoe is a special place to me and my wife, we both spent a lot of time up there when we each were growing up. Now we are blessed to live about 90 min from there, and my mother-in-law recently bought a house in Truckee (about 20 min from the Lake) where we will be spending lots of time with our 2 boys throughout the years to where they get to grow up with it also being a special place for them.
My wife surprised me for my bday (which is actually today) with tickets to the practice rounds on Wed and Thursday to the ACC Golf Tournament, something I have never attended before, and just so we can try and see and meet Josh. She is a die hard Niner fan and even with some of her favorite Niners there too like Kittle, she made this all about Josh - shout out to my amazing wife. I moved to Southern California in 1997, so I had not gotten to spend too much time in Tahoe after that and never been to the ACC, nor did I even realize how big of a deal it was in South Lake Tahoe. I spent most of my time in west Lake Tahoe around Tahoe City and Truckee growing up, so it was a treat to spend time in an area only been a couple times in passing.
NOTE: We will be making this an annual event for us and cant wait to bring our boys who were too young this trip with my oldest just turning 2 and my other son 9 months. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this event to anyone who has thought about going. Players are so accessible, event is so much fun, and its on the Lake.
The ACC Golf Tournaments - Josh's tee time was 1pm on hole 16 - his group showed, but no Josh. Great group of 4 guys telling the fans there to see Josh he was late (his flight was delayed and landed late), but is still coming, so to follow their group if they want to see him as he was going to join the group once he got there on whatever hole they were on. Steph Curry was the group behind them, also not there on his tee time, but due to arrive as well. So we used this time to go check out Austin Reeves (I am also a Lakers fan) in the group in front of Josh's and lag back and watch Steph arrive and follow him a couple holes before catching back up with Josh's group a few holes later expecting Josh to arrive soon.
I spent a lot of time approaching any Bills fan I saw on holes who were not there to get the info telling them they will never see him if they stay on that hole, to follow the group that just passed if they want to see him. It felt good as a Bills fan to share the news and excitement, especially for kids, but it was also just so much fun meeting so many fellow Bills Mafia too. Makes me wonder if I met anyone from here without knowing it lol.
It was on hole 2 where I got to meet Josh's mom, who was following the group with Josh's clubs and stuff. My wife and I talked to her for probably 10 min, and my wife and her mom'd out talking about raising Josh, us raising 2 boys, etc. Listening to his mom talk about him, raising him, the adversity he went through, saying god always had a hand on him through all the struggles to get seen and taken seriously was incredible. She oozes class, warmth, love, pride, humility, and just kindness. We had a great couple of conversations with her.
Then as my wife and I are walking from the tee to the green after Josh's group tee'd off and were half way down the fairway, my wife says look out, there is a car coming - ITS JOSH - and we don't realize until he is passing the two of us where we shouted out GO BILLS and he yelled back GO BILLS as he passed us with Sam Darnold. Kids start racing up the incline to the green, kids who had been trickling around following the group who were lucky enough to know.
The best part about the practice rounds is that it isn't crowded, makes a more intimate feel for everything, like you are watching your buddies play. Josh took the time to acknowledge all the kids, even sign things even though he kept telling everyone he will sign after the round as he had to keep the round moving, especially since they were a large group. Other people we saw were not like this, they were not giving much time to the fans or kids, even in a practice round. Josh was different, and it was majorly apparent just how different he is as a person and his full awareness of just how important he is to the kids there to see him.
First green, hole he joined mid way, he was chipping maybe 2 feet in front of me, thats how close you could get in such a causal setting. Got a great video of it. He kept making time for kids in between, telling adults who were IMO inappropriately trying to get Josh's attention to sign their stuff "Just the kids right now guys". There were some adults inappropriately IMO trying to get in with the kids to get stuff signed even though Josh kept saying just the kids right now because he really didn't have a lot of time to do much with the pace, so he wanted to use that for the kids, and rightfully so.
Funny story - his mom and one of the guys from the original 4 some who I had spoken to a lot were driving up to the next hole and she hit me in the arm with her golf cart (at a slow pace, it was funny, nothing other than that). When we got to the next hole I told her "Well we should probably exchange information now and have my people call your people and get this worked out" and we had a big laugh about it. So next few holes anytime she passed me in the cart she would swerve at me like she was gonna finish the job as we kept laughing about it - again, his mom is awesome.
My personal best moment with Josh came when he passed by me walking to another hole and I just congratulated him on his marriage and he gave me a fist bump. My wife got in on camera on her iphone, it was awesome (also congratulated Sam Darnold on his season and new contract and also got a fist bump from him). My instagram stories post was a shot with Josh reaching out for the first bump and a shot below of it of us fist bumping and in between was my caption that said:
- "I went to the ACC Golf Tourney and all I got was fisted by a GOAT"
WHY JOSH IS DIFFERENT AND A MVP IN LIFE
After hole 9, there was no break as they didn't start on 1 remember, so they had to get rushed over by golf cart to the 10th tee. Josh and Darnold were walking the course, so they brought a golf cart with a back seat that faces out the back to shuttle them with the rest of the group quickly over to 10. As they were driving right in front of us the most incredible moment happened that says EVERYTHING you need to know about Josh.
They were passing someone in Bills gear standing by themselves with the person they were there with. Josh yelled to the golf cart driver STOPPPPP as they passed him recognizing this person was a special needs person with Down Syndrome. Josh jumped out of the cart and went over to him and gave him a huge hug, signed his stuff and took pictures with him. I want you to realize that the person did NOT ask him to stop, the cart Josh was in was just driving down this path and Josh saw him and immediately demanded they stop and let him out so he could go to this person. It was one of the most impressive and touching moments I have seen in person from someone of his stature.
For comparison sake - Aaron Rodgers in a recent year refused to sign a kids stuff or take any pics with him who was there to see him wearing his jersey and told him "I am too hot right now, I need to stay locked in" in terms of the tournament - a celebrity tournament these guys play for fun mind you.
We were walking at this point just behind where they stopped, as we walked by this person who was so blessed to have Josh stop, someone was talking to him about how cool that must be and he said "Yeah, we are like best buds now" and it was one of the sweetest things and my wife was tearing up just amazed at who he is. Mind you, he showed a ton of fun, class, humility, etc the whole time, this moment was just different. In a rush, rest of his group already ahead of him, he still demanded them to stop to take the time and make an unforgettable special moment for this person. And we felt blessed to have a front row seat to just witness it.
They say never meet your heroes - they will just let you down. And while this is true in many cases - JOSH BREAKS THE MOLD. He is an MVP in life, he does the little things, important things, untold things...things when there are no cameras to capture it...things that are bigger than anything he has done or will do on a sports field.
And on top of that - I can proudly and legitimately state "My wife got me fisted by Josh Allen" - Best. Wife. Ever.Awesome story - and Happy Birthday!
Your comments about his Mom made me think of my son meeting his family at TC one year. My Dad, son and I were sitting in the VIP section of the bleachers at TC (when there used to be such a thing) and we noticed that some members of Josh's family were sitting a few rows down - his Mom, Dad, sister, grandmother (not Patricia, the other one), and Britt. We had brought the pic in my avatar, which was from a previous TC Josh's rookie year (my Dad and son in photo) hoping to get near him again and see if he would sign it (we tried to play the old man card later - propping my Dad up by the fence waving the pic - or rather more accurately, stoically holding it aloft like an 85 yr old Lloyd Dobler - but alas Josh did only sign for kids that day, and not old men)
As a joke I told my son he should go down and get Josh's family to sign the picture, not thinking he would do it - but sure enough my son popped up and went right down and struck up a conversation with them about the picture, and how we were going to try to get Josh to sign it later - maybe they all could too? Instead of acting put off by this kid coming out of nowhere with this goofy request - they all just good-naturedly went along with. Especially his Mom and Dad struck up a conversation with him for a few minutes, talking and joking with him. I came away with such a good impression of his family from that brief encounter - just seemed like such genuine, good, down to earth people.
Below is a pic of them on the field after practice that day with Josh - and their sigs on the back of the pic
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13 hours ago, eball said:
It gets a lot of laughs and eye rolls from the dome crowd, but “wind confusion” technology is a thing. Also, they’ve adjusted the orientation of the stadium/field — no doubt to address weather/environmental conditions as well.
They hire engineers to do this stuff for a reason.
I was wondering about how the stadium is oriented wrt to the prevailing wind vs the sun - assume they took both into account. One thing I was thinking is that you would be much better off buying tickets on the side of the prevailing wind - on the other side even if you are under the edge of the canopy the rain/snow will blow on you. On the side with the wind at your back you will definitely be protected if you are on the edge of the canopy or probably even a little over.
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The thing that will be heartbreaking is if/when they confirm after his passing that his brain turned into mush from CTE
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On 6/21/2025 at 4:56 PM, Augie said:
It breaks my heart. I used to follow Xavier basketball almost like the Bills. I’d make an annual trip to Cincinnati, travel to games anywhere close and try to get to their city in the NCAA tournament. Those were some awesome times!
Now I have no idea who’s on the roster, what theirs skills are, where they came from or how many years of eligibility they have left. Eligibility actually means very little, since it’s a series of one year contracts. Every year is like a new pickup game at the YMCA.
Please don’t get me wrong, I think the players should be paid and they should have mobility. I just don’t happen to like the resulting product nearly as much. They desperately need some guardrails on this mess.
BTW - I spent a week at UNC hoops camp in Chapel Hill every summer for at least 4 years when the kids were young. Awesome times!
Whenever I hear Xavier I think of an IBM company league softball team I was on as an intern back in the 80's - there was a guy on the team who had recently graduated and had been a walk-on for the basketball team at Xavier. Became a friend of mine and I started following Xavier because of him. Over the years lost contact with both.
My daughter also went to a few of the hoops camps at chapel hill while in HS (eventually attended college there and played on the club team)
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3 hours ago, GunnerBill said:
I forgot Matt Simms the other day. Grading myself a D- must do better.
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21 hours ago, Draconator said:
This didn't come from the Jets front office. This came from a fan website and this is a fan opinion.
This makes so much more sense
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Regarding the McD rookie/vet playing discussion - one thing he emphasized in one of last week's PCs is not putting someone out there if their "teammates don't trust him". A reminder that there are things factored in that we as fans don't necessarily know anything about.
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1 minute ago, Doc Brown said:
What's the weight of the passengers on the train?
And how much wind are they breaking
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4 hours ago, Doc Brown said:
You'd have to calculate how fast each train gets up to that speed and the wind resistance.
And the wind confusion coefficient
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2 hours ago, Einstein said:
I will never understand people advocating illegal streams.
For some reason, it being media makes it pallatable for people to say things like like this. But most of us would never say “oh that restaurant meal was expensive - but there are ways to skip out the door before paying without the waitress knowing”.
Why not just straight up say “i’m a thief”?
My biggest issue with illegal streams is all the spyware and other crap I imagine is being downloaded to my computer.
I will gladly pay the cost of standalone ST to just know I have reliable access each week. I already have subscriptions to all the other streaming services so there is no net additional cost for me for those
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Interesting side note - article noted he was the last remaining player on the team from when it played in SD
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19 hours ago, K-9 said:
I was wondering the same thing. Is the overhang just gonna flap in the breeze? 😄
Another design element to confuse the wind
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23 hours ago, Simon said:
When you also take into consideration that pre-wedding brides are temporarily insane, high-strung sociopathic perfectionists that are liable to murder anybody who fails to make their day perfect, then you'll realize that taking a 20 minute walkthrough can possibly save multiple lives.
At my rehearsal, the 'Monsignor' was an old school priest who had been the head of my wife's parrish forever and was treated like the Pope by all the parishoners - nobody ever dared question anything he did (I always thought he was an a-hole but kept the opinion mostly to myself). At the rehearsal there was a point in the Mass where my wife wanted us to turn to the congregation and he forbade it - saying God was present on the alter or something and my wife defiantly said "God is everywhere!" making a grandiose sweeping gesture. There was immediate tension - and he responded with something patronizing which riled my wife up even more. I was prepared for my 'temporarily insane, high-strung sociopathic' wife to throw down. The next day, of course my wife made sure that we turned to the congegation at that point during the actual Mass 😛
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A proper Belinda post has no message text - Mods need to start flagging improper Belinda use
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29 minutes ago, RiotAct said:
Kelvin Benjamin for sure
Tolbert
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1 hour ago, boyst said:
isn't it amazing that some average joes think they can compete against athletes like this? sure, they stand a chance but the level of exceptionalism in these elite athletes is something most people have not witnessed.
when you've been around enough athletes you recognize the special ones. when you see them in person you can recognize the stars. two examples of this in my life i have seen personally: Cael Sanderson as a senior in HS wrestling at Iowa (not ISU) during the summer offseason for training against a former NCAA champ while Dan Gable worked with them & Charles Woodson in high school ( i was at 8th grade)
I had this experience after HS playing pickup basketball at Lancaster Boy's Club one college break and Don 'Majik Man' Majkowski was playing with us. I played against him in HS and in pickup games back then (and he was a great HS multi-sport athlete) but by this time he was playing at W Va and holy crap had his athleticism reached grown-ass-man levels. When the dude came down and tomahawked a slam dunk like white chocolate thunder we all kind of just stood there like "OK". He took it easy on us the rest of the way :p. You know all these guys are great athletes but sometimes seeing it first hand and up close can take your breath away
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Just caught new S&C coach Will Greenberg on Eric Wood's Centered on Bufffalo podcast. Found it very interesting
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26 minutes ago, chongli said:
Woody Paige having a cutesy white board message in his shot became tired years ago. And the point system seemed inconsistent and depended on if Reali agreed or not.
That being said, it was an enjoyable show, especially at first, and like a comfort food; but it jumped the shark yeas ago.
TRIVIA: What was Reali's nick name when he first started?
I assume you're referring to Stat Boy
I remember watching PTI when he was just stat boy. Its kind of an amazing story how they called him to fill in at ATH the day after the SB since every other 'big name' at the network was off covering the SB - and he did so well he just kept the gig.
Reali is known for as being extremely positive and generous on and off the air and think he is a genuinely good dude. I give him credit for purposely turning the show from just a yelling match when Kellerman started to something a bit more structured and even thoughtful at times.
Not sure why some people get so bent about the scoring thing - there really wasn't any specific system - just him going by feel - was just a device to add more entertainment (what if friends were debating sports at a bar and someone was sitting there scoring them on who was making the best points).
Last few days I've watched all his interviews as he made the rounds. Even if I didn't watch it religiously lately it was to me still a fun distraction when I did (esp day after some major sports story). It's sad to see something that was part of your life for decades go away (for no apparent good reason - was still one of the highest rated shows on the network). I wish Reali well - he seems to have moved past acceptance phase and already is making moves to move forward with other projects/platforms.
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18 hours ago, Augie said:
So close, but it looks like you didn’t quite finish that last one! 🍺
Or it finished him 😛
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2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:
The last few Hard Knocks have been singularly dull compared to the early years so I don't think the distraction is the same as it was in the years when this was novel. Teams are much more used to this kind of behind the scenes filming than they were.
I'm excited for it personally.
I agree - it is also I think much more superficial now where they don't really try to create as many "dramatic" story lines or dig as deep into the ones they do make (which I'm sure is partly done to try to make it less objectionable to prospective teams)
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I love you Josh Allen!
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Random question - will the parking lots for the SNF game open 4 hrs before kickoff like every other game (ie open at 4:20 in this case?)
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1 hour ago, chongli said:
Ok...I'm actually stupid. What does "Belinda" mean? I've seen it posted here a number of times over the years. Belinda Carlisle?? That's all I got.
Technically the proper use of 'Belinda' is at the end of the thread title - as a substitute for NM for 'No Message' - with no text in the body of the message.
As others have indicated - it was used to basically troll a user named Belinda in the old days who was very outspoken on her hatred for users creating threads with NM in the title and no message text - so of course the creation of such messages increased dramatically at the time - with the replacement of NM with Belinda to amplify the wise-assery 😛
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They say "Never meet your heroes" - and then there is Josh Allen...
in The Stadium Wall
Posted
The random "20 yrs ago I was playing pinball with Carlton from Fresh Prince and he got mad I mentioned Silver Spoons" story might rival the Josh story 😛