FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Jeff7465 makes a good point... this was a stadium full of 65,000 drunk fans who were minutes from their team making it to the Superbowl. It may have been tacky to have party music playing, but it may also have been quite practical.

<-- not a Cowboys fan. But, I gotta say I think this is a bad idea. Johnson is not playing great, but he's not playing terribly either. With Romo coming back any day now, why instigate more churn at your most important offensive position?? If Romo were out for the season, I could see handing the reigns over to Bollinger to see what develops. But with Romo coming back right away, this will just confuse everyone.

"Tightening the noose" is not a phrase that has traditionally been used with racial connotations, and the only person making us think about Plaxico's skin color here is Al Sharpton. Then again, the honorable reverend hasn't been in the news lately, so what do you expect?

This more than just an NFL problem. Bacteria in hospitals -- and now, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals -- is going to be one the top health issues of the 21st century. We have remarkable to technology to repair and to heal, but iatrogenic (look it up, meatheads) illnesses are becoming more and more of a problem...

If Gonzales truly refused to go to Buffalo, then he's an idiot. Buffalo has a much better chance at going deep in the playoffs this year than Green Bay (and *definitely* more than the Chiefs!!) and the future just looks brighter after this season.

I agree with user Go_Bills: A 3rd round choice was appropriate, more than that would have been overpaying. I think Gonzales could have really helped the Bills for this season and the next, but this is a young team and their best days are still ahead of them. We don't need to break the bank for a player in the waning years of his career, no matter how much of a playmaker he might be.

Ah, okay, so Cleveland Clinic, there ya go. Still, something is fishy! Maybe stop using that clinic??

This is the sixth Staph infection in the Browns locker room in two years. Something's fishy. People don't just like, get Staph infections all the time... Dirty locker room???

Yeah, I'm not sure I buy this one. I need to see more evidence. Where the story came from, etc. Could just be rumor and innuendo at this point.

If this is the case, don't say Eagles are a "cheap" team. A 3rd rounder was the right price for Gonzales. He is an impact player, sure, but it is mid-season already and he's only got a couple years left.

I was really hoping to get him for the Bills, as we need an impact TE badly. But if the Chiefs wanted more than a 3rd round pick, forget it. They wanted too much.

That's.... a lot of picks. I agree the Lions got the, ahem, lion's share of that deal. Good for them.

For those asking "Why?", the answer is simple: A squib kick may allow the offense to set up with a shortened field, but it ain't getting returned for a TD, and Smith thought (understandably) that with 11 seconds left, a kickoff returned for TD was the only way they were going to lose. That said, with only a field goal necessary to win it, I think I agree that it was a bad gamble.

Petey024 has an interesting point: kick it long and out of bounds, giving the ball to the Falcons on the 30 and guaranteeing there will be no return. If Smith was that worried about the kickoff being returned, that was probably a better option than a squib.

As far as this "Bears should be 6-0" nonsense... Apparently you don't follow the NFL too much. This is, after all, the Any Given Sunday league, and the entire point of being a good team is to win the close ones. With parity being what it is, any team in the NFL can give any other team a run for their money. The difference is that the good teams actual GET the money (i.e., the W) instead of just making a good try at it.

Look at the '07 Bills. By my count, if Buffalo had won all of their down-the-wire games last year, they would have been at least 10-6 with an easy wildcard. But guess what, THEY DIDN'T.

Now look at the '08 Bills. By my count, if Buffalo this year had lost all of their down-the-wire games, they'd be 1-4 instead of 4-1. But guess what, THEY DIDN'T, because this year Buffalo has a quality quarterback, a healthier and upgraded defense, and a better gameplan than they did last year. This doesn't manifest itself in blowouts -- it manifests itself in being able to tough out the close games for the W.

The Bears are NOT grinding out those Ws. Saying that the Bears coulda-shoulda-woulda won if only blah-blah-blah... you might as well say that the Bears should be 6-0 because they could just as well have had a healthy Tom Brady at quarterback. But guess what, THEY AREN'T, because they aren't that good of a team. Welcome to reality.

Perhaps a sign of an impending retirement?

I would have very mixed feelings about Madden retiring. I am not a fan of his commentary these days, as I think his reputation for stating the obvious (or at least, what is now obvious; see below) is well-deserved. "What they have to do to win this game is score some points." heh... I really don't find his commentary enlightening. Not that most crews are any better (it can't possibly get worse than the MNF crew, with poor Ron Jaworski forbidden by management from saying anything remotely insightful, and Tony Kornholer continuing to be just as dumb and irritating and fake as ever)

On the other hand, Madden's contribution to the game cannot be overstated. When he first started calling games, it was a revelation. Part of why his nuggets of wisdom are so obvious these days is because *he made them obvious*. Believe it or not, but the idea that you need to have a credible running game in order for play-action to be effective was once a foreign idea to most fans. Madden has done more to advance the football knowledge of the average fan than any other single person. He deserves a lot of accolades for that.

Now if only there would be a new Madden to take things to the next level... Perhaps an unbridled Jaworski, free to impart his deep knowledge of the game to the masses despite the producers' fear that it will just frighten the cattle? A fan can dream...

Would love it if the Bills could snap up Gonzalez. I ain't holding my breath, but it would sure be nice. Buffalo is still very weak at tight end -- Robert Royal is considered by many to be one of the worst starting TEs in the league, and while he had a strong start to this season, he has since returned to form, including a critical lost fumble against the Cards.

Oh, heh, just saw that user wpod already made a similar comment. heh... Yeah, we can dream!

A week's pay??? Not by my math. Eric Smith makes $400k/yr. The fine is for $50,000. And as I understand it, the fines are levied after-tax, not pre-tax. So that's something like 1/5 or 1/6 of this take home pay.

Also note that NFL safeties only get to work for like 10 or 15 years before they have to find a new job. I plan on working for about 40 years or so before I retire. So really, this is like someone making $100,000 a year getting fined $12,000. In today's economy.

This is no small matter. Even if the contact was avoidable, Eric Smith is getting financially cornholed for a mistake he made in under 1/2 second. (And for the record, I don't believe the contact was avoidable)

If Goodell felt the need to make an example of somebody with a ludicrously large fine, it should have been a superstar making multiple millions a year.

If it weren't Al Davis we were talking about, then the reasonable thing to expect would be some kind of settlement. The Raiders would buy out Kiffin's contract for something less than the $3.5mil he is owed. (After all, if you had a choice between, say, a definite $1.7mil vs. a protracted court battle where you might get $3.5 mil or you might get nothing, which would you chose? I'll take the low-stress low-risk cash, myself...)

However, this is Al Davis, and it sounds like he is going to go to court for it. Which is really dumb. Unless Davis was skipping work, coming in drunk, or in some way not fulfilling his contract, it's going to be hard for Davis to show "cause". Just because an employee hates their boss and subtly talks smack about their leadership abilities is not enough for "cause".

Skeletor should settle. I have a feeling Kiffin would be glad to accept a reasonable settlement. Maybe there's still a chance of that happening, but you never know with Al Davis.

This "America's Team" debate is so tiresome. It's simple: The Cowboys are called "America's Team" because they apparently have the most non-hometown fans. Who knows why that is the case, but in my experience it is. I live in upstate New York, and aside from Bills fans, I know one or two Steelers fans, one Eagles fan, one Bears fan -- and like five or six Cowboys fans. That's just how it is. Whether you love or hate the Cowboys, that's just how it is.

Hence the "America's Team" nickname -- many people who are from America but not from Dallas still consider the Cowboys their hometeam. It doesn't need to be some huge acrimonious debate, people...

Very sad story, really. Davis seems to be so obsessed with this idea of winning One Last Super Bowl that he has become highly delusional about the current state of the team. The Raiders are in the depths of a rebuilding phase, and probably a minimum of five years away from contending for a Super Bowl.

There is no shame in that; I am a Bills fan, and that's where Buffalo was a few years ago. And while it's likely that the Bills will make the playoffs this year, I think it's still a couple more years before we can really start talking Lombardi with a straight face.

That's just the way the NFL is in the salary cap era. You do well for a while, then you don't. And then you rebuild. Problem is, Davis knows he may not live much longer and doesn't appear to have the *patience* to rebuild. For instance, even though Oakland got kinda shafted on the Moss trade, I don't think they had a choice. Would Moss ever have gone back to his playmaking style in Oakland? Do you really think they could have gotten a better pick for him, the way he was playing? Trading Moss was right for the organization long-term, but Davis is so obsessed with getting One More Ring that he doesn't see the reality of it.

I think that's a big part of what drives the Coaching Carousel in Raiderville. Any head coach worth his salt knows the Raiders are in a deep rebuilding phase, and the correct thing to do is 1) trade away anybody who costs too much, 2) try to trade higher picks for more lower picks and then use them to do some prospective drafting, 3) develop the young talent to see who sticks, and then finally 4) a few years down the road, when you have 3/4 of a good team and a lot of salary cap room, THEN go out and buy quality free agents to round out the roster.

But that's not what Davis wants to do. His plan: 1) Hang onto overpaid talent even if they are in a serious slump, 2) draft high with risky win-now choices like a rocket-arm QB, instead of the solid-but-unglamorous choices that build a team, 3) scream at the head coach for not winning enough, 4) ?????, 5) Super Bowl!!!

As soon as Davis comes up with a plausible step 4, then maybe he'll stop being a punchline. Until then... yes, it's very sad, that a tired old man's delusions are being paraded on a national stage. I'd be furious if I were his son.

D SLIQ -- where do you get the "time with God" thing from? Some people have a one track mind. To me, there's no difference between those crazy stoners in the Ricky Williams thread who can't stop talking about how "natural" pot is vs. these crazy churchies who make everything about their God. Jeesh....

Having gone through a time in my life when I smoked pot very heavily (about $100/wk habit at one point in my early 20s) and a time in my life when I drank heavily (min 4 beers/night, and a binge of 8-10 about three times a week), I can say that it was way easier to quit/cut back on pot. Around the time I was 26 or so, I just got kinda bored of smoking pot and found myself smoking less and less, until suddenly it had been over six months since I last smoked and I hadn't even really thought about it. Drinking, on the other hand... That was a lot tougher. Took a lot of pressure from my wife and the realization that when we have a kid (due in Feb!), I don't want to be drunk around him all the time. Finally did it, but man, that was a lot tougher than quitting weed.

As a Buffalo fan, I would just like to commend Linehan, Jackson, and Bulger on creating this little controversy/distraction. Please guys, keep it up. In fact, if possible, maybe you could cancel all of the practices leading up to Sundays game altogether, so you can spend more time debating this? Pretty please?

http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/ram_roast.htm

#1, I don't think the "cable guy" excuse is going to work in the NFL. heh... #2, I do have to say that I have at least one family emergency where I did not expect it to significantly hold me up, but then it did and I ended up being a no-show for work. It happens, y'know?

Of course, without knowing what the emergency was, none of us can judge. If it was that his cat looked unhappy, I suppose being suspended is appropriate ;)