Dr. K
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https://defector.com/o-j-simpson-was-always-more-than-polarizing
By Ray Ratto
. . . . That's where Simpson lives in America's head, as the obviously guilty man who was acquitted, the celebrity of celebrities whose lawyers made names for themselves by dismantling the Los Angeles police and legal establishment. He blew our own views of the legal system to smithereens and reminded any Americans who thought otherwise that race remains the foundation upon which all other things in this country are laid.
And then, because that wasn't sufficient, he capitalized on all of it for the final decades of his life, the embodiment of bulletproof celebrity, police incompetence and/or racism, a finger in the country's eye and a punchline all at once. We shed him of his surname so that he could become just plain O.J., The Guy Who Got Away With It.
He is among the most influential Americans of the last 75 years (we aren't getting into a quibble over Franklin Roosevelt or Steve Jobs) because of all of it. The football star with the warming smile and the electric running style who transformed into a game analyst and then a comedic movie star, and then in one night the avatar for all the unattended sins in our nation's subconscious.
Mostly, he laughed at us for our anger, and wore the overcoat of celebrity villainy with the same seeming ease that he had the cloak of national hero. He became the mirror for our sublimated cultural and political pathologies, and even if we didn't reference him in everyday conversations like we once did, he'd still pop up on this podcast or that from time to time to remind us who he was and what happened. He all but said why in a book entitled If I Did It, and owned the entire bizarre whirlwind of his work as though the new goal of his life was to agitate the nation. At that point nothing could come as a surprise, including spending nine years in prison after being convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas over sports memorabilia he claimed was his own.
He even framed how we go about handling celebrities' passages through the spotlight. Now no one exists as an unqualified hero in the way O.J. did before the trial, no matter how hard their handlers try. O.J. taught us things about ourselves we didn't want to know and yet now embrace because we can't pretend any longer. This is O.J. Simpson's legacy as the Most Outsized American Ever, whether we are willing to own it or not.
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Having given it some thought and listened to various suggestions, I think the Bills should not try to move up into the top ten for a receiver. Too many draft choices would need to be expended when the team has a number of holes to fill, and needs to get younger in a lot of places. There's no guarantee that a WR drafted in the top ten, even one who is called a "can't miss," won't miss. Every year there are names hyped up to the skies, as if they will be instant saviors who don't pan out. It's happened too many times. Often receivers taken later in the first or in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th rounds prove superior.
Justin Jefferson >>> Sammy Watkins
I wouldn't mind them moving up a few spaces if the cost is not prohibitive. But generally I think they should draft two or even three WR over the course of the draft, taking the Green Bay method.
I also don't like them trading for a big name receiver, a Tee Higgins.
I'm not sure the Bills will be a better team by acquiring somebody they will feel forced to feed the ball to.
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5 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:
There are so many false narratives about Diggs, why pick nits on this one?
Respect for facts. This particular one is not a big deal, but why contribute to misinformation?
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14 hours ago, FLFan said:
I had a different take on his on field demonstration after the KC game. I viewed it at the time as trying to draw attention to himself. Gabe was the potential hero of that game let’s not forget, not Diggs. That’s why he was demonstrating on the field. Me, me me.
You are talking about two different games. The one where Diggs stood out on the field afterward watching the Chiefs celebrate was the AFC championship game the Chiefs won 38-24. The 13 seconds game where Gabe scored four touchdowns was a year later in the divisional round, and I don't remember Diggs doing any on-field demonstration after that game.
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"Brandon Beane MD" ????
Doctor of Medicine?
Moby Dick?
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You're not serious, are you?
Rex Ryan was a fool. He would have totally screwed up Allen--no way he would ever have gotten to be the QB he is today.
Those of you who talk about his being a good defensive coach? Ryan took Jim Schwartz's first rate defense and completely screwed it up. He was a clown.
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I'm sure he would like at least one more high quality WR, but I also expect he is somewhat relieved and looking forward rather than backward.
It offers him the opportunity to demonstrate that his success was and is not dependent on Diggs.
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32 minutes ago, eball said:
This is an uninformed take. Diggs' contract is HUGE. He's 31 and anyone can see how his performance has diminished. The Bills didn't have to give up anything significant in the '24 draft to make this happen and get them out from under that contract in a year, plus they got an additional piece of draft capital to go and get their guy this year if they want to (and pay him a rookie contract).
I think the trade is a win for the Bills and a "to be determined" for the Texans -- but I understand why Caserio did it.
My point was not that Beane made a bad trade, but that the fact that he made the trade on these terms tells us that no other team was willing to give more for Diggs, and so Beane was forced to give up draft picks in addition to Diggs, with only a second round pick NEXT YEAR in compensation, and no 2024 picks from Houston.
It suggests that the Bills were determined to dump Diggs, that they do not feel he is worth any more than they got for him.Whether or not it proves to be a "win" for the Bills down the road, Beane clearly thought it was a win now, or he wouldn't have made the trade.
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The terms of the trade, which seem quite bad for the Bills, and the fact that Bills made the trade anyway, suggest that nobody would pay any more for Diggs where he is now in his career. It really says that the Bills REALLY wanted to get rid of him, even if the market for him was not good.
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27 minutes ago, BillsMontreal said:
Sounds good, but those players were part of the process in the Trust the process. So, the same Staff who bring them in this process will bring some others players and tell us to trust the new process again? I will be there and i will root, but sincerely, i dont know what's this process now. I guess it's a kind of -we'll try to be competitive and who knows if we could be lucky? - and nothing more than that.
I don't know exactly what "The Process" is, but it can't possibly be to hold onto players when they are in decline or when they are a drag on the locker room. Any process to keep a team competitive must include getting rid of players when it's time to move on.
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1 hour ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:
A 2025 2nd round pick!
Beane got had.
This is all to placate McD's fragile ego.
This is really stupid move for this year.
Only way Beane recovers from this is to mortgage multiple picks to move up and get one of the top 3 WR.
Sad sad day when you chose the loser HC over the guy that was the heart and soul of the team for years.
Diggs was in no way shape or form "the heart and soul of the team." Your saying he was, IMHO, calls your judgment into question.
Or if he was, that helps explain why they have fallen short.
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13 hours ago, scuba guy said:
Most people don't know that Kansas is only a 1/2 mile away. And that Cincinnatis airport is in Kentucky.
I lived in KC for five years, on the Missouri side, and would walk across State Line Road every day to my workplace in Kansas. . . . and have to file two state income tax forms every year.
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I agree, Shaw.
Reading the responses confirms that if there's one resource that fans on this board have in abundance, it's arrogance.
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26 minutes ago, <bills4life> said:
in order of bolded:
-I never implied that you were-and what exactly has he done? Win some afc east titles? Okay I guess
-I would argue that most decent coaches would have similar outcomes with josh allen as their qb.
-people pointing out flaws or criticism is not always necessarily ranting or raging in my humble opinion.
i am also not saying you are wrong with your assessments. However I also subscribe to the mantra “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. I have zero problems with McDermott as a leader, culture builder, teacher and scheme builder. My problem is his in game coaching decisions at critical points during the game especially in the playoffs. At times he exhibits very poor judgment and mental lapses. If you are telling me you have a franchise qb and other talented players, not to mention the qualities I gave him props for, and it still isn’t enough? That tells me a change needs to be made.
We'll have to agree to disagree.
I'll just suggest that there is no guarantee your new head coach is going to have the qualities that I bolded in your post and leave the floor to you. I only wish I didn't have to hear the same complaints every day in every thread.
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11 hours ago, <bills4life> said:
“It’s business, it’s not personal”. A lot of McDermott detractors would say he is not a horrible coach. However like you so eloquently laid out with your “of mice and men” analogy, things go awry. We are now going into year 7 with 1 afc championship appearance. I’m sorry but that’s a problem. I understand many are infuriated with the ungrateful negative Nancy’s. But on the flip side many are infuriated with the good ship lolly pop “beane is a wizard” “McDermott is doing a great job crowd.”I think most can agree that the bills are not achieving at the level they should be. One group wants to be divorced from the negativity and the other wants to be divorced from complicit apologists. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I’m older so I don’t have time for excuses. I have more of a sense of urgency. When you are younger, there is a lot more time to wait.
I find this funny. I'm 73 years old. In my experience, the younger you are the more impatient you are and the less willing you are to admit that life is not simple.
I'm not on "the good ship lollipop." If you'll go back a few years you'll see that I was one of the most skeptical of McDermott's "Trust the process" mantra in his first years. I think it's possible firing him might work out for the best, but it seems to me that those who are most eager to do this underestimate how hard it is to do what McDermott has done, how many times in life dumb chance prevents a desired outcome, and have a fantasy in their heads that "if they just hire X, then we will win a Super Bowl."
For this particular old dude, the repetitive raging that fills this board (and this particular thread) seems characteristic of men (mostly) who cannot face complexity.-
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4 hours ago, eball said:
First of all, you're nuts to believe anything coming out of Li'l Dirty's mouth.
Second, what if it wasn't McD's play calls and the players simply didn't execute? Would we "have so much respect for him" if he blamed Levi Wallace for blowing the coverage or blamed the ST coach for not communicating the call correctly on the kickoff?
He has taken as much accountability for that game as anyone ever should. People still act as though it was a miracle even though we've seen teams get into position to kick a long FG like that before and since.
Leslie Frazier's defense folded like a lawn chair in crunch time.
McD is rightfully proud of what they've accomplished over seven years, but is obviously not satisfied. I really don't know what the hell anyone wants him to say.
It's very clear that they want him to say, "I'm a terrible head coach and I'm resigning."
If he said, "I take total responsibility for the 13 seconds loss," they would not be satisfied, of course, unless the next sentence is "I'm a terrible head coach and I'm resigning."
That's the only thing he could say that would satisfy them. And they'd still be cursing him as he walked out the door.
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1 hour ago, <bills4life> said:
Yes it could. Losing in the divisional year after year comes to mind.
The endless ranking on McDermott, in which the same people say the same things over and over again, and nobody raging that he should be fired has said anything new since the 13 seconds game--or at least in the last year--makes me never want to come back here again.
The few who want to talk about other things relevant to the Bills and not ride their hobby horses to death keep me coming back here to check in now and then.
And the repetitive anti-McDermott whining drives me away again. You can't begin reading any thread without eventually running into the necessary quota of bitter complaint that McDermott will never win a title/is a fool/is arrogant/is lazy/is too conservative/has lost the locker room/is surrounded by his yes-men, yada yada yada.
Maybe he should be fired. I don't know. My instinct and life experience tell me that the world is not fair, that time and chance happen to us all, that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, that even brilliant people make mistakes, that leadership takes many forms, and that finding success is not as simple as these people insist. But apparently there are a lot of Bills fans who have never been wrong in their entire lives.
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11 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:
This will turn into a McD bash thread, but I have no issues with his answers. Felt like something other than coach talk.
You are psychic.
Of course, two out of three threads on the board turn into McDermott bash threads. It could not possibly get more tiresome.
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Jeepers, guys! Calm down.
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I could not care less.
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4 hours ago, Lost said:
Raising our children to be decent human beings might help too... just a thought
Sure. Let's do that. But not everybody will be able to, so I don’t see this as any solution. In the presence of so many lethal weapons, there will always be enough bad actors around to commit such atrocities.
I think the number of weapons and the type of weapons are the fundamental difference between the US and other countries.
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Mental health issues are a problem in every country, but no other country on the planet has the problems with gun deaths that the U.S. has. You can't solve this through "better access to mental health treatment" though I am all for that.
350 million weapons in the hands of citizens are the problem. It's too easy for bad actors to murder the people around them. The numbers can't be reduced unless you reduce the number, availability, and lethality of the weapons in our country.
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Patriots a 10
Cowboys a 10
Dolphins a 10
Jaguars an 8
Jets an 8
Titans a 7
Chiefs a 6
Bengals a 5
Steelers a 5
Chargers a 3
Lions a 1
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If Shanahan defers, SF wins 22-19.
One positive from Diggs departure that isn't being discussed
in The Stadium Wall
Posted · Edited by Dr. K
How many Super Bowls have the Bills won with Diggs, Poyer, Hyde, Davis, Morse, etc. on the team? Diggs has been a no-show int the playoffs, Davis has not progressed as a receiver, and the others are on the downside of their careers.
Running them back again and expecting a better outcome is like hitting your head against a wall. Not to speak of the cap restraints if you keep them all.
Now is the time for a youth movement, replacing them by players on the upside of their careers or with new ones whose play will get better, not worse as the seasons progress. Maybe there will be a step back in the first year but I'm not convinced that will be the outcome. I am convinced that the Bills would not be better in 2024 than they were in 2023 if they kept all those players.