Sound_n_Fury

Thank you for leaving. One less troll to contend with.

Bullocks. DB's just being honest. He knows that a virtual rookie, no matter how great his physical tools, is going to struggle when the bullets are real. This ain't practice or pre-season we're talking about. If JP's going to have any success, particularly in September and October, it'll be running a very basic game plan and relying on the D and ST to come up big and put the offense on a short field.

Yawn. If DB wasn't pissed about being asked to back up a guy with 5 NFL snaps, what kind of man would he be? That's how I took his "particularly" comment. He still thinks he can start in this league and that he's better than some green kid.

Scouts Inc. also has Shelton rated the 51st best OT. JJ is rated 12th and MW is 18th. UFA Stockar McDougle (Grade 75, 24th rated overall OT) might be tired of losing in Detroit and jump on a Bills' offer for slightly less than JJ. Here's his Scouts Inc. profile: "McDougle has a massive frame and good overall strength. He comes off the ball quickly with good leverage and is physical at the point of attack. He has good initial pop and when he is locked on, he rarely loses a battle. He is an excellent drive blocker and can wear down defenders over the course of the game. He does an excellent job of finishing blocks and will engulf undersized defenders at the point of attack. In pass protection, he flashes a quick pass set and does a nice job anchoring with his inside leg to avoid being beat to his inside. At times will play with a nasty streak and his effort is good. However, McDougle lacks great overall athleticism and agility. He has average feet and is a bit of a liability in space. His lateral movement is limited and he will get beat when trying to redirect vs. double moves and as a result will become a waist bender if out of position. His overall technique is not sound, he relies on his size too much and he needs to improve his footwork in order to become a premier pass protector. " Looks like someone McNally could work with, too.

So you're saying that the legislative and executive branches don't need any staff? Last time I looked, it's the staff that does the actual work. It would be foolish to abolish these 6-7 bodies if it means county government would sieze up. There's expense control and then there's "cutting off the nose to spite the face." With 10,000 employees running around, there's ample room to cut elsewhere. It'll all come down to the courts, anyway, like it always does in NYS. I just hope Joel enjoys his vacation at Disneyworld this week. Maybe Goofy can give him some advice on crisis management.

So he's backtracking today. This guy's just too amatuerish for me...too much of the old "my brother's girlfriend works with the cousin of the Flyers assistant trainer's wife" for me. I like how the crack production staff at WGR actually thought the guy was Pelle Eckland, the ex-Flyer. That's why Brad thought he had credability, because he'd been part of the NHLPA and knew a lot of players. Opps!

What about the gorilla's rights! I'm sure PETA attorneys are filing suit right now, demanding better nipple viewing conditions and asking for a six-figure settlement.

Yikes! I read the topic line too fast and almost spit my coffee out. I'll get my head out of the gutter now....

On WGR the other night, Hub Arkesh said he thought the Bills press conference was scheduled before the NHL one. Even so, I'm sure TD didn't give a damn about Bettman's charade, even when/if he found out about the time conflict.

I agree. He seems like a high-character guy and it's a shame the whispers will haunt him until we know the definitive diagnosis. Nevertheless, there is evidence that links 'roids to this kind of side affect, so it's not outside the relm of possibility.

While I'm all for giving Bruschi the benefit of the doubt, there is evidence that 'roids can increase the incidence of stroke: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:ZbaB8...id+use%22&hl=en "Studies show that, over time, anabolic steroids can indeed take a heavy toll on a person's health. The abuse of oral or injectable steroids is associated with higher risks for heart attacks and strokes..." Then again, there's this side affect as well: "Anabolic steroid abuse can also cause undesirable body changes. These include breast development..." Hey, maybe GW was on the juice!!

TT's salary numbers don't seem that outrageous to me. I'd like to put a better LG next to him and draft a C to develop, but right now, I'm comfortable maintaining some continuity with Trey for 2005.

'Ol Albert's turning over in his grave to have his name connected with this one...

Whoa...what kind of tree are you climbing? I thought TT had his best year as a Bill last year when he had competent OG play on both sides of him. What's your reasoning for letting him go?

Totally agree with your description of both players. It was my first reaction when I saw this topic. Brady wins games with his head, more than his arm or feet. We'll just have to see if JP has the recognition skills and the "everything slows down and becomes clearer" mental abilities when the pressure's the greatest, which IMO is Brady's biggest attribute vs. other QBs.

The Canadian press has a slightly different perspective: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2005/02/18/935011.html "As is often the case in situations like this, rumours were rife. But there is no attempted coup. There has not been a liaison between Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky to force a reopening of talks. There has not been a delegation of NHL players approaching the league's New York office to try to effect a solution. But there has been a lot of talking between interested parties who saw an opening in commissioner Gary Bettman's answer to a Toronto Sun question on Wednesday. When it was suggested to Bettman that a deal could have been struck based upon a $45-million US salary cap, Bettman said: "If they wanted 45 million, I'm not saying we would have gone there, but they sure should have told us. It would have been incumbent upon them to tell us if that's where they would have made a deal." Yesterday, sources said that Bettman himself could have gone there. Hours before his self-imposed deadline of 11 a.m., Bettman was given authority by the owners to agree to that $45-million figure, if pressed. But Bettman apparently wanted the union to re-open negotiations so he could appear to be making a concession. When the union didn't call, he cancelled the season. Yesterday, Bettman's hint that a phone call from the NHLPA might have given him reason to pause was seen by analysts on ESPN and the MSG Network as a key point. They said that perhaps it might not be too late to make a last-ditch effort to bring the season back from the dead. Perhaps as a result, there has been some urging -- on both sides -- to consider whether it is irreversibly too late to save the season. But it doesn't go beyond that. New Jersey Devils president and CEO Lou Lamoriello summed it up best when he told Pierre LeBrun of The Canadian Press: "All I've heard is all the rhetoric. I don't pay attention to that until someone tells me factually. "Believe me, I think I would have heard something factual, but I just hear what everyone else is hearing. After a while, you start believing it because you hear it so much. But then you pinch yourself and remind yourself that there's probably nothing to it." Gretzky also denied that anything was in the works. "I did talk to Mario today," Gretzky told the Fan 590. "I had a brief conversation about pretty much what everyone else is talking about, can we believe we're in the situation we're in. "Nobody understands why we're in this situation. Nobody has the answer to how we got here or how we're going to get out of here. "To say Mario and I had a conversation to try to stir up the conversations and talks again, that's just not true."

So??? Hindsight's great. But projecting the future is a crap shoot. Sorta like picking tomorrow's lottery number. Hey, anyone got any clues about what numbers I should play on my Take 5 card? Baby really needs a new pair of shoes.

Eureka!

TD is a river boat gambler. He takes big risks...sometimes they pan out (WM), sometimes they don't (DB). In my opinion, I'd rather have that quality in a GM than a Casper Milktoast afraid to pull the trigger. At least TD doesn't dwell on his mistakes for very long, which is a strength rather than a weakness. As far giving up a #1 for DB, at the time it was considered a smart move, especially after he made the Pro Bowl his first year here. DB's still got some football left in him. He's just not worth $6.5 million-plus per year, particularly when he can no longer carry a team when the chips are down. Better to move on and see what JP can bring to the party. It would be nice to have 20-20 foresight (rather than hindsight) on the things that didn't work out. But, sadly, it don't work that way.

There's no way the owners give up their exclusive rights over the arenas...that's their trump card. I'm sure the contract's they have with the arena's give them right of first refusal over any hockey-related activity. If they're serious about calling off the season, the owners will enforce those arena contracts to the death, paying the rent to keep out any competition.

And what arenas would they be playing in? That's where the NHL has the player's over a barrel. Go ahead, play somewhere else, but if there's only 2,000 people in the barn, expect to get paid accordingly. Unless your capitalists want to pony up to build a couple dozen more 15,000+ seat areana, that is. Yeah, sure, that's going to happen.

Uh, last time I checked, Buffalo also had the lowest rate of job creation of any major American metropolitan area. Think the two facts might be connected? I don't think anyone's denegrating the late-50ish guy who, unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of options when it comes to retraining, relocating, etc. However, for 20, 30 and 40 year-olds that do have the ability to adapt and change, but find it easier to whine and hope for "Big Daddy" to protect them, I don't have a lot of sympathy.

I've been following the story in the Canadian press. It's interesting to see the spin they're putting on it: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Kerna...929143-sun.html

http://theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4106&n=1

Interesting post. I don't know if you read Gregg Easterbrook's column at NFL.com but he had some parallel thoughts to your own today: "It bears repeating that New England has won three of the past four Super Bowls in part by constantly varying its game plans. Week in, week out, the Patriots do things differently from the week before. Most NFL teams vary their game plans surprisingly little. Pressed on this, coaches often say, "Tactics are overrated, we just have to execute better." This is the same as saying, "It's not the coaching staff's fault; the players are to blame." Bill Belichick now has spectacularly demonstrated that tactics are not overrated: constantly varying the game plan creates an edge. When will the rest of the NFL catch on?" http://www.superbowl.com/news/story/8173992 How many big games have we seen from a Belichick-coached team where two down d-linemen and a combination of LBs/DBs are used to confuse a pass-oriented offense (hint: SB XXV comes to mind)? How many other teams ever seem to do something similiar? Maybe a better question is, could you ever imagine the Bills trying an unconventional alignment like that in a must-win playoff situation?