dave mcbride

Best post of the thread. He is still upper echelon and was playing well before getting hurt last season.

65 percent of all Americans over 18 have had at least one shot and 62 percent of all Americans over the age of 12: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage.

I think that’s why they have an 85 percent threshold.

If you look at Hapless’s post above about the Florida evidence, it’s more for the flu but only in the sense of a rounding error.

Again, not my point. More deadly than “not really deadly at all” doesn’t tell you much in the actuarial sense.

Of course it is because the risk covid presents to children is negligible. That’s not my point. My point is that overall in public health terms writ large, covid is a far more deadly illness than the flu. The flu still kills very few children despite being more deadly than Covid for kids.

Lots of vaccines have been mandated for school attendance over the years (eg, MMR), but those ones tend to focus on long-term to lifelong protection. The flu vaccine is different because it’s not entirely effective (more effective than not getting it, of course) and changes every year. To enforce a flu vaccine mandate, which won’t happen, you’d have to ride everyone every year. The flu isn’t nearly as deadly as Covid, of course.

Fair point. I was speaking more of actual physical harm to others, but you’re not wrong.

Godwin’s law was a predictable outcome for this thread …

There is a difference. In not wearing a seatbelt, you basically put yourself at risk but not others.

I think it’s less about being morally superior and more about two things: a) his position is dumb on its own terms based on what we now know about the vaccines; b) since we all love the Bills and his presence on the team, his position has a chance to hurt the team in a season where they actually have a real chance to win it all.

@K-9,I had Covid twice: once last March (untested but just about ALL of the symptoms right after riding on the NYC subways right up through March 13 of 2020) and again in December (positive test), when it was worse (9 straight days of a fever between 101 and 102; loss of sense of taste/smell; physically out of sorts for another month-plus afterward). I have no idea how I got it the second time given that I was very careful (possibly my college-attending son), but the more contagious variant entered NYC in November, so that might explain it. I am fine now and in good health, but my sense of smell (not taste) is screwed up and may be forever changed (we’ll see; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/health/covid-smells-food.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Health). To be fair, it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s certainly real. Anyway, the idea that you become naturally immune is silly, and I’m frankly tired of the sort of BS he’s spewing. It is utter nonsense. To reiterate, though, I really do love his game.

Love the way he plays and what he brings to the team, but what a drama queen and what a fool. Oh well.

Best first pitch ever:

I think they have good and deep farm talent at the lower levels, but I'm not super-stoked about the near-MLB ready talent. I don't see a Cano or Severino on the horizon. MLB.com has them at 18th: https://www.mlb.com/news/2021-farm-system-rankings. Here's their specific take: https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-top-30-prospects-list-2021-preseason?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

This may well be the year the streak of winning seasons ends. At best, I see them going 85-77.

The bills alt least got an extra second rounder in that draft by dropping back to take manuel at 16. They traded away next year’s first to move from the second back into the first to get losman.

Unimportant plays by unimportant players on unimportant teams. Aim higher!

The Johnson play happened to a winless team. It doesn't qualify. There are a lot to choose from, but I have to go with the second Thurman Thomas fumble in the final Bills-Cowboys Super Bowl. The Bills are up 13-6 at half time, and get the ball to start the second half. They have two straight running plays for 13 yards and the Bills' line is MOVING the Cowboys' d-line off of the ball. I'm starting to feel like it might actually happen. And then: handoff to Thurman, Kent Hull gets beaten TERRIBLY by Leon Lett, and then Lett forces a fumble that rolls into the middle of the scrimmage line pile. OK, not the end of the world -- fumbles that land in the middle of the rushing-game dogpile get jumped on by one team or the other and the play ends. Not this time. Safety James Washington somehow picks it up in the midst of a sea of giant bodies and ACTUALLY RUNS FOR A TD FROM THE 46 YARD-LINE. After that the Bills, who were tied 13-13 now, played like a team that was down 30-3. That was the most disheartening play in Bills history because they could have won that one with a better bounce. (@Irv -- This one definitely deserves a spot on the podium.)

Rutgers. All you need to know.

They had fantastic drafts from around 2009-2015 too, as @GunnerBill has said repeatedly. Life isn’t binaries or either/or.

Chris Matthews. 16 catches for 176 yards in his two-year career and 4 catches for 109 yards in that Super Bowl. Here was the logic, at least. It didn't work out. https://www.clnsmedia.com/film-review-patriots-draft-proven-commodity-wide-receiver-nkeal-harry/

Well, Gronk was, and he was one of the best ever at it. But I get your point. Maybe BB and Ernie Adams thought they were exploiting a market inefficiency or something like that. Or maybe they were still scarred by David Tyree and those Jermaine Kearse catches in the Seattle Super Bowl. And maybe they remember Lee Evans failing to make the contested catch vs. Leigh Bodden in the 2011 AFC championship game.

The thing about Harry is that in terms of measurables, he was regarded as being the best catch-radius guy by far and the sort of player that wins jump balls. But the league is moving away from jump ball guys. The Bills have little interest in them and instead focus on guys who can get separation. The last jump ball investment the Bills made was in Kelvin Benjamin, and look at how that turned out.

Seems to me they actually expanded the option route menu in 2020. But don't take my word for it -- I'll let Beasley himself deliver the words: “It was an option route,” Beasley said. "We’ve worked on that. It was a new add this offseason. We worked on it a lot. I’m glad we finally hit one." https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/analysis-josh-allens-elite-arm-cole-beasleys-savvy-keyed-winning-drive/article_55b7f81e-011b-11eb-9295-9b393d487c9f.html And more, also from 2020: No quarterback’s gotten better faster than Allen. Two plays showed that Sunday. One: Mid-third-quarter, Buffalo ball, third-and-goal from the Rams’ 4-yard line. From Allen’s left, his go-to guy, Stefon Diggs, is singled by the Rams’ best corner, Jalen Ramsey. At the snap, Ramsey appears to gamble that the throw will be a typical throw in this part of the field, a “pylon” throw, to the front or back pylon, so he clings to Diggs. I thought Ramsey would have used the sideline to help him while cutting off the front side of the throw. But Diggs turned in and Allen, under extreme pressure, flicked his wrist, the ball landing right in Diggs’ gut. Allen had a split-second to see—for whatever reason—that Ramsey would be giving up the middle of the field, and Allen, about to get creamed, took it. “An option route, and Stefon won, and I gave him a ball where he could go get it,” Allen said. Bills, 28-3. Two: Late fourth. Rams have come all the way back to lead, 32-28. Third-and-22 at the Buffalo 31. You could feel it slipping away for the Bills, after a big Ram sack and an Allen incompletion. Next play: “Me and Cole [Beasley], we’ve talked about this route many a time,” Allen said. Beasley’s job: find a hole in the defense. https://sports.nbcsports.com/2020/09/28/two-plays-that-prove-josh-allen-has-become-a-great-nfl-qb/ And vs. SF this year, which discusses Beasley's option routes: https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2020/12/10/22166642/all-22-analysis-how-the-buffalo-bills-offense-outschemed-the-san-francisco-49ers-josh-allen. And the capper, which isn't about option routes but about how much of a challenge the Bills' scheme presents to opponents: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/film-room/2021/film-room-buffalo-offense