Dirtbag

im not sure how you can make such a claim without providing any evidence, while summarily dismissing my earlier (fact-based) comment regarding the real and obvious increase in minority coaches since the rule's implementation. do you have information that supports your premise that the rooney rule was somehow inconsequential to these hirings? the rule only requires that teams interview minority candidates. they aren't forced to hire anyone they don't want. it simply brings new candidates into the fold who were previously overlooked (as evidenced by the nfl's clear lack of diversity in coaching prior to 2003). i've never understood the furor over making a billionaire owner take a couple of hours to conduct one additional interview.

prior to 2003 (when the rule was adopted), there had been a total of 5 african americans hired as head coaches in the entire history of the league. since 2003, there have been 7.

dude, we gave up over 250 yards in rushing today. honestly, when i watch other teams play us, i wonder why they don't simply run every single down since we can't ever stop it. i'm not saying that our offensive is amazing, but when the whole ship is sinking you need to plug the worst leak first.

i thought the dude had at least 2-3 more years of sexting left in him.

this post reminds me of the stephen a smith "quite frankly" commercials from a couple years ago where he happened upon the realization that tom brady is a pretty good quarterback.

every year (for the past ten, since i've left wny), i've maintained that i won't pay for the ticket given the horrible product the bills field every season. in the end, i always get it again. hope springs eternal.

this is actually one of the more intriguing questions going into the offseason. will chan hang on to wilson who has proven to be (depending on how you view it) either 1) completely out of his league or 2) unable to effectively coach up buffalo's dismal talent? given coach chan's history, he's got to know the clock is ticking. he's not going to have a helluva lot more chances in the pros after this, and the bills d isn't going to magically change overnight. he's gotta find someone who can make chicken salad out of chicken sh!#.

i've long maintained that the best thing about trae williams was that he doesn't wear his south florida degree like a badge of superiority.

our long national nightmare is finally over: http://deadspin.com/5715209/peerless-price-is-not-exactly-in-hiding this excerpt from his wiki page is hilarious: Legal Troubles Unfortunately Peerless Price has not done anything the public at large would consider "newsworthy" post his NFL career. There are no scandals surrounding him or a great number of women; no illegitimate children; no rape charges, drug charges, or any violent acts. In fact, Peerless has continued to live an extremely low key, family centered life with the average day looking like golf, school plays, and lunch with his wife. In remarkable opposition to the extremely high number of retired football players and other athletes who have, in fact, found themselves in financial difficulties, Peerless and his family continue--and will continue--to live the same lifestyle and enjoy the same luxuries they enjoyed while Peerless was playing in the NFL. He has lived, and will continue to live, in the same home in an elite subdivision in Georgia until such time as HE chooses not to. Any court documents saying his personal home is in any danger of foreclosure or any other legal activity is in direct lineage with what is known in the legal arena as "slander" and or "libel." Keep printing and reporting such activity, and it is possible that 'Wikipedia' itself will have "legal trouble."

if i'm remembering correctly, lombardi just wanted to end the game since the conditions were so brutal. he wasn't sure his team could endure overtime. i'm guessing that running the ball helped green bay since (as you noted), a pass play seems farm more likely in that situation. i'm not sure if they mention it in the documentary, but you'll notice that chuck mercein (green bay's fullback) appears to be be making the "touchdown" signal with his arms in the famous shots of starr going in for the score. in truth, mercein had his arms up in the air because he didn't want the officials to think he was pushing starr into the endzone (which would have been a penalty). here's the pic: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8t59jorH2DM/Rze5V8PQwEI/AAAAAAAABHw/blkyDHPSKQU/s400/Green+Bay+1967+Ice+Bowl.jpg

old ralph won't let them set the thermostat over 63 since it's too damn expensive. he also requests coach chan only turn on the fieldhouse lights if absolutely necessary.

did they say if it was a dry heat? i hope coach chan realizes that it's not so much the heat that's problematic, but rather the humidity.

the all-fundamental team has supplanted fox's "galloping gobbler" award as my favorite football honor. i particularly like that wide receivers and tight ends are praised for exhibiting the "catching with hands" fundamental: http://www.allfundamentalsteam.com/offense

it's stunning to me that so few fans know of vainisi, particularly given how draft-obsessed the culture has become. the dude practically invented scouting and serious player evaluation. i think that he's mostly forgotten because those pre-lombardi green bay teams (that vainisi built) were so terrible. but also he died so young (at 33, i believe), that he wasn't around for the championship years. plus, obviously, the shadow of lombardi looms large.

hilarious. even better would have been for the dude to say, "eh, dad thought lombardi was a so-so coach." i've never heard of the lombardi/canisius connection before but was able to dig up some info from larry felser's "the birth of the nfl." apparently, felser ran into lombardi in a restaurant early in his green bay years. at that time, lombardi admitted to felser that canisius was "the disappointment of my career." He had interviewed for the canisius job in '47 (when he was still coaching high school) but didn't get it. as a result, he ended up coaching at fordham. according to felser, years later lombardi would later deny making this statement, saying he had never been turned down for any job in his career. felser suggests this denial was simply meant to preserve the aura of invincibility he had cultivated during green bay's golden years. it's certainly interesting stuff and well worth the read: http://books.google.com/books?id=HiL53_048JgC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=lombardi+canisius&source=bl&ots=bjujsK7t2i&sig=q73mxrL_7cRPK2DWTL-JlHFbXg8&hl=en&ei=Mc0KTeH4NY3CsAOw4eGOCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=lombardi%20canisius&f=false

one more interesting fact (at least to me): when lombardi was teaching high school basketball at st. cecilia's, he had a player named mickey corcoran. corcoran would later become a legendary high school basketball coach in the nyc area, often crediting lombardi as his mentor. one of corcoran's high school players was bill parcells. as a young coach (and indeed throughout his career), parcells adopted the coaching philosophy of corcoran, who he viewed as his mentor. for this reason it's often suggested that parcells comes from the lombardi coaching tree. becoming a great coach sometimes requires one to stand on the shoulders of giants.

i'm most offended by the acting and production value.

you also might want to check out the lombardi biography "when pride still mattered." the author, david maraniss, appears in the hbo special. the book's opening is a little slow as you work through his childhood and family life, but it quickly builds up steam when he starts coaching. it also reveals lombardi as being much more thoughtful and intelligent than he's typically portrayed. too often he's dismissed as a hardass who just screamed at everyone. in truth, he was a great motivator because he understood the psyche of the team and catered his coaching to the mentality of the individual players. the most telling part of the doc is the reference to (packer's defensive tackle) henry jordan's famous quote about lombardi: "he treats us all the same -- like dogs." as the commentary says, it's completely untrue. lombardi treated jordan like a dog because that's what it took to get him to play. other players he treated with kid gloves. hence the nearly universal love for him exhibited by his players. it's unfortunate that the popular, simplistic image of lombardi as a loudmouth persists today. more unfortunate is that many fans clamor towards these types of one-note "fiery" coaches as somehow being "lombardi-esque." it's the reason why we have so many clueless meatheads with whistles roaming the sidelines. link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/When-Pride-Still-Mattered-Lombardi/dp/0684844184

ah, i actually was referring to the tv announcers' tendency to repeat the same drivel week after week, not the commentary on this board. as dependable as a gus johnson shriek of ecstasy after a td.

and you have succeeded brilliantly!

their first choice is ronnie jones.

the weekly "fitz wedding ring" observation has been supplanted with "the bills' best players were either late round picks or undrafted" storyline in recent weeks. luckily, we can still look forward to the "fitz went to harvard" commentary every sunday. that one never gets old.

this might not count since it happens after the game. caution: salty language ahead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXPxGaHjscA&feature=related

i'm still unsure as to why sunday's evisceration was fated to happen. prior to the contest, i actually thought we were bound to win.

the only real way to settle this controversy is to have wisconsin play the locomotives. winner gets the bills on a neutral field.