Ennjay

I believe Jake Arians, the former Bills PK, is his son.

Coming out of Oregon, he also has experience wearing a hideous uniform.

Let's not get carried away with this PC personality thing. Brian Billick comes across great at PC's. Maybe that's why he still has a job. Bill Parcells bullies everybody at his PC's. He wins everywhere. Dennis Green is charming. He's still yesterday's so-so coach for Minnesota and today's loser in Arizona. Mike Ditka gave great press conferences. Tom Landry didn't. Lou Saban often talked too much. Chuck Knox never said anything but he said it with passion.

For the sake of reminding: JP went to Tulane. Yeah they played their games in the Superdome, but has anyone else here ever spent some time outdoor (like every practice) in NO in the late summer/early fall? It's sauna-style-you-can't-breathe HOT. I don't think anything about the Tampa weather could possibly be JP's first time.

That's $10,530 for half a year (= $21,060 p.a.), MINUS taxes. Does that really sound good to you?

New employers will always ask about the circumstances of leaving your last job. Old employers now are afraid of workplace libel and improper/discriminatory discharge claims, so (1) they tend to say nothing to the new employer about why you left -- they just confirm the dates you worked there -- and (2) they'd prefer you leave on your own. However, they don't care about paying you unemployment because they already have: the Company's obligation was paid to the state when you were still working there (it's a payroll tax), and the Company doesn't pay any more for you once you're gone. Meanwhile, new employers can always smell out if something wasn't right about your leaving and the last thing you want to do is be caught in a lie. It also looks pretty bad if you're out of work when you're looking: why would someone who needs a job quit the one he had without something new to go to? The answer is he didn't quit, he got fired, and that's a red flag to a stranger (the new employer) who doesn't want to inherit someone else's problem. Plus the amount paid on unemployment isn't very much and you only get it for something like 13 weeks. Your current employer may be screwing you by giving you the message, but if you haven't been fired yet they're also giving you a paid on-site severance to spend your time looking for a new job. Take advantage of it and make yourself look good to the new guys by claiming that you're looking to move in order to improve your position. (Which is also true!)

I believe the way it works is that the coin-toss winnner picks which goal to defend first, which passes the choice of first-half kick or receive to the toss loser. The toss loser then chooses to receive to start the game. The order of choice (goal vs. kick/receive) is reversed in the second half, so the toss winner then gets to choose to receive for the start of the 3Q. . . . And I think that's exactly what the link to the Rules posted by stuckincincy says. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.

It's more a form of New York lower east side. As the New York Times once reported, comparing West Coast baseball fans to New Yorkers, "they don't know from frenzy."

Didn't know that. Thanks. I remember when Reeves died and Carroll Rosenbloom swapped the Colts for the Rams, bringing the Irsays into the NFL. Fordham was also Vince Lombardi's alma mater.

Sigh. A little bit of sports history: The Dodgers moved to LA in 1958 from Brooklyn. The name referred to Brooklyn "trolley dodgers," since Brooklyn, unlike Manhattan, had overland trolley cars. LA doesn't know from trolleys. When the team moved to LA they didn't change the name. The Lakers moved to LA in the early 60's from Minneapolis. Minnesota is still called the land of 10,000 lakes (check out their license plates). LA doesn't know from 10,000 lakes. When the team moved to LA they didn't change the name. And BTW, the Rams started in Cleveland. I don't know that the name has anything to do with Cleveland, but it wasn't changed anyway. (The old AAFC team was the Los Angeles Dons, which did have something to do with LA's history -- see any Zorro movie). The point is, they would name (or not re-name) a new team in LA anything they liked.

As I remember it (and this was several hundred years ago), they didn't do much more with the words than repeat the phone number and then say things like, "Won't you please call that number?" or (as someone else said) "Just dial that magic number."

Variety Club Telethon on Channel 7. Longtime fixture back in the day. I guess they don't do that anymore?

Wasn't Shelton cut by the Bears a few years ago? I wonder if he just psyched himself out of the game. (I didn't see the game but I gather Gandy handled himself fine.)

Upon occasion Woj mentions his Bona days. He was pretty torn up by the BKB scandal last year. He is pretty good, but writes more about baseball and hockey than football. (He doesn't pretend he knows what every other team is doing, either.) Now back to the topic . . .

Exactly. Most columnists, writers, etc. at most read the OTHER columnists, writers, etc. and just repeat the juicy parts. My local paper (the Bergen Record) has a Felser-type football writer, Vinny DiTrani, who's a HOF voter, etc., and gets a lot of column space weekly to opine on the NFL. Other than the Giants (whom he covers), he never shows any familiarity with anyone -- he just repeats things that usually I've already seen on the 'Net. And he's a leading sportswriter around here! (He rarely even has much insight about the Jets, and they're not exactly a distant team that's hard to follow from here.)

I don't read him that often. Is he up to speed on most teams? That's what impresses me about Mort. For example, what he had to say before Henry was traded indicated he actually understood the Bills' position. Just for comparison, guys like Mike & Mike never did.

I turned it off after Lachey passed over Willis for Corey Dillon.

You're right, and he's also from WNY. He seems to actually watch the games he writes about.

What part of Jersey are you in?

Running screens has a lot to do with the mobility of your o-line. Can Gandy, Anderson, Big Mike get out for screens? Maybe, but they're not exactly built that way. I see Willis catching a lot of flares as a safety valve IF JP can't use his TE that way. I expect once the season starts he'll be better than Bledsoe was at the quick dump-off when nothing's there because he'll be so well coached against DB's pat-pat-pat-wait-for-the-opening habit. UNLESS JP can't get over his urge to run.

Reading and hearing pre-season talk about the Bills reminds me how frustrated I get with the national football media because most of these guys NEVER WATCH THE GAMES AND DON'T SEE THESE GUYS PLAY. Thus, the national surprise about the Bills cutting Bledsoe -- if you haven't seen his mistakes and flaws you still think he's a Pro Bowler. Also the national indignation over trading Henry -- never mind he's slow, can't block, and can't catch. I trust Dr. Z because I think he makes the effort to watch game tapes. I think Chris Mortenson generally does his homework. And I like watching Ron Jaworski (the Lackawanna Rifle!) break down tapes but I'm not sure how many games he catches. Whose opinions do you trust in the football media?

Your post got me curious (I couldn't name many beyond Carr and Johnson), so I looked at the roster on www.houstontexans.com. Not a lot of household names, but: Marcus Coleman -- didn't he score a TD vs. the Bills on a Bledsoe interception a few years ago when he was with the Jets? Or was it RJ? DaShon Polk -- former Bill, right? Benny Joppru -- TE who's usually injured, wasn't he supposed to be a sleeper Bills draft pick about three years ago (meaning people on this board wanted him a lot; who knows what TD thought of him . . .).

One only-half-way-interesting-and-completely-predictable-note: the Mike & Mike Bledsoe discussion. It's clear that neither of these guys has actually watched Bledsoe play for the last two years. All comments were based on reputation and his status as a veteran who's been around and accomplished what I think of as longevity statistics. If you play for a dozen years in the modern NFL, of course you'll move up on the all-time stat lists. (Does anyone really think that just about every long-term starting QB in the NFL for the past 10 years is better than Johnny Unitas ever was?) Golic surprised me because I thought he watched more film, etc. for his ESPN TV gigs about the NFL.

Also notice UB is an 18/19 point dog in its UConn opener. Sigh.

By including Washington, DC. (#35)