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Trust me, Lushus, I'd love it if this year was a blow out win for the Pats ... I literally start to feel ill while watching their games, and the more important the game is the worse I feel.

While I do agree that this 'argument' is a non-story, I do wonder what teammates Schilling badmouthed to make A-Rod say: As far as I can remember, the only Yankee that Schilling badmouthed was A-Rod.

Philly scares me, as a Pats fan, more than either Indy or Pittsburgh did. With Indy, it was just stop the pass & make the Colts beat you with Edge or the short pass then YAC; easily done. With Pittsburgh, it was stop the running game and make it tough for them to blitz; easily done. Philly, though, has a good mix of rushing (both Westbrook & McNabb) and passing (even without TO) plus a very good defense. Having said that, though, I really can't see the Pats losing this game. It won't be a blowout, but it won't be a nailbiter, either. My prediction: New England 27, Philly 17.

It'd be too much of a clusterfuck for me to quote each thing that I want to respond to, so I'll just type if out normally and try to refer to who or what I'm responding to ... Dogbert's intentions of contracting the Rangers in lieu of a team in Saskatoon or Houston makes me wonder if he's really a hockey fan. Seriously, contracting an original six team to put another one in Texas?!? I don't care how pitiful the Rangers (or Blackhawks, for that matter) get, they're an original six franchise and thus should be considered safer-than-safe. Putting half the teams in Canada is not a wise decision ... there should be more than the six there are now, but to contract SO many American teams in order to put more in small towns in Canada is unwise. Not that hockey gets a lot of coverage in the US, but it'd be entirely ignored if it was so Canadian-based. Just contract some of the riff-raff US teams, add in 2 Canadian teams (hmm, how abotu returning to Winnipeg & Quebec City, two cities that never should have been stripped of hockey) and leave it as a 24 team league. And make that a 24 team league without Gary Bettman anywhere near it. Have 8 of the 24 teams make the playoffs, and seed them 1-8, not Cambells & Wales (yes, we're going back to the pre-East & West days). I think the teams with the best record getting home ice throughout the playoffs is reward enough.

While is name might be an anagram, too, the thing that I've heard (and is probably somewhere in this thread) is that his last name, Rom, and ROM is the nickname for the Royal Ontario Museum ... and when he first encountered Hurley he said that he was from "Ontario" (or, it might have just been "Canada", I forget).

CanadianGuitarist, I really don't want to make this a political thread, so I'll make my one comment and then go back to thinking about hockey ... One of the reasons the US got into debt in the first place was that they forgave millions, if not billions, in debts to countries that couldn't afford it. Just wiped it clean off the books. So, yes, the US has since rung up a staggering debt, it's not like it was due to mismanagement per-se. Plus, doing things like giving $350+million to the tsunami relief fund is bound to add to a country's debt, innit?

Adding a healthy Corey Dillon & two healthy starting tackles is a major improvement to the offense. (none of the three played on Halloween) Adding two and a half months of experience to the young guys in the secondary is a good improvement to the defense. A lot of the DB's were getting their first experience in the NFL that weekend, and have since had major playing time in both actual games and practices. So to say that the Pats haven't improved is inaccurate. And the only key guy that they'll be missing this week that played in that game is Seymour. (Of course, as much as I'd like to downplay that loss as a Pats fan, missing Seymour could be HUGE this week.) So, basically the Pats are healthier now than they were in October.

Even most Pats fans don't think that the 'new' Corey Dillon is the saint that the ESPN article portrays him as being ... we all recognize that he's one outburst away from being a malcontent once again. But having said that, this writer sounds like a whiner in this article, like someone that's pissed that Dillon was able to turn-around the public perception of him. It's almost like he wanted Dillon to come to New England and act like an asshole to prove that he really is one, and not just that he became one after years of being in Cincinnati. In one of the games earlier this year, Dillon fumbled the ball. He went to the bench bullshit with himself, and had a bunch of teammates come over individually to tap him on the pads and tell him that it was Ok and that other teammates would do what they could to cover for his mistake. And, then Belichick came over and gave him instructions (I think it was "you're standing too tall, and holding the ball wrong. Change your mechanics to how you normally have them and you're all set" or something comparable.) Dillon went on to say how things like that didn't happen in Cincy, but that he was left out to dry for the fumble. So, it sounds to me like it's more than just earning the W in the standings, but the sense of winning that surrounds the team. Just my opinion.

I don't know why, but I've always been a big Uncommon Valor fan ... sadly, when I try to watch it now it loses some of it's luster. The cheese just seems more blatant & harder to ignore.

No, the most disturbing thing about that season was David hanging a bumper sticker that said "Stay out of my way, or you're going to get played" and then proceeded to take home nothing but fat, unattractive girls. Playa my ass.

I doubt that the polar bears were hallucinations ... the first one was seen by like half-a-dozen people, and caught a couple of bullets, and this one was seen by three people. I think, even on a surreal, supernatural mystery island it'd be hard for multiple people to share a hallucination.

While a complete and utter waste of time and money, I don't think that this should be the gooker winner ... the Kane/Lita debacle was more offensive and lame to me as a wrestling fan, and there were other things that I would have voted for (can't remember what other options RD had to vote for). Actually, I'm having a much harder time calling myself a wrestling fan these days ... I've probably watched about 2 hours total in the last two months.

An 18 year old journeyman? Christ, I'm getting old... He's 21 now, and was 18 when Dory said his quote. Not that 3 years makes someone a journeyman, but it's at least better than an 18 year old.

First of all, as a die-hard American hockey fan, fuck off for saying that hockey should stay a Canadian-only sport. I was a fan long before the Bettman-era killed the game, and I'll be a fan long long after he's gone. It's not D E A D in the USA, it's D E A D to the bandwagon fans that jumped on recently. Cities like Boston, Detroit, Philly, Minnesota, will ALWAYS have hockey fans. Second of all, even if this year is lost (which is still up in the air, I'm holding out that some of the recent rumors are true) then I really think that if there's still no resolution by the middle of next season (or where the middle of next season would be on the calendar) then the lockout will end because the PA will crumble. The owners can last FOREVER without having another game, the players cannot. Soon enough, the players that haven't been paid $4,5,6 (etc) million dollar contracts will need the bigger paycheck, and will be willing to play with a cap.

It's hard to fathom how these kids have such a difficult time at their jobs; other than Miami, which had a reasonably difficult assignment, every other year has been given the easiest or most enjoyable of fucking jobs imaginable. "Go work with kids in a center" ... "travel around and write about what's good or bad" ... "host a radio show" ... "do a local TV gig" ... "work in a surf shop". It's unfathomable how most of these kids would survive in the real world (no pun intended) since they can barely handle a gimme job. No wonder they all dig being on the challenges, they can't find real jobs to save their lives.

EDIT: Ooops, I forgot to "quote" who I was responding to ... this is in response to cabbageboy's post at the end of the previous page ... sorry. Nothing about 90210 was 90s? How does that make sense? Most of the show's existence ocurred in the 90s, and thus everything about it was 90s related! It's not like they're going to reference other 90s-related things. That's like saying Welcome Back Kotter wasn't 70s. And, having said all that, they DID show things that were 90s-related: the fashion, the music, etc. And I didn't mean to infer that you were too young to remember, but more saying that you just weren't their target audience. If my math is correct, when they were graduating high school, you were in 8th grade (give or take a year) and thus wouldn't identify with them as much as people that were the same age as them. I graduated high school the same year they did, and should have graduated college the same year they did ... so people my age dealt with the prom at the same time, and the stress of going to college the same time, and then the stress of going to the 'real world' the same time.

Uhhh, North Dakota is the one that's further north ... South Dakota is further south.

They say 5 plays, but am I the only one that thinks we'll see lame views from these cameras ad nauseum throughout the Super Bowl?

CanadianChris, I have two points about previous posts, and both just happen to be yours ... the first was regarding the article that you posted, with Goodenow saying that players should prepare for a long lockdown ... I really don't trust him and figure everything that comes out of his mouth is a ploy to gain something, either from the fans, media, or owners. And, the last thing you posted, with the positive news, is the best news I've heard in weeks ... damn, I'd love it if there was NHL hockey to watch.

Actually, if they wanted this terrorist threat to have any tie-in to the inaugeration, they probably would have used DC as the suspected point of attack. Leading me to believe that the Bush-bashers are yet again barking up the wrong tree. And, it was funny, Mayor Mumbles Menino made some crack about the terrorist warning being a Republican ploy during some Hillary Clinton speaking thing here in Boston ... his joke went over like a fart in church.

Speaking as a die-hard hockey fan, the casual fan can go to hell. It was catering to the casual fan that killed hockey. The sport existed for decades as a fringe sport, and the owners made decent money. But then the league decided to try & emulate the NBA and brought in Bettman, and now it's in the predicament that it's in. Let the casual fan go away. Let the teams that don't have reasonable support get contracted. Lose the TV package. Fans that want to watch hockey will pay for things like the Center Ice cable package, and even if they're unwilling to pay for that, they'll still watch the regional games. I'd rather have the small, underground sport that it was than the bloated, dying monster that it became.

He doesn't have many weapons because his immediate reaction is to run ... the guy just NEVER looks to throw an out pattern to a wideout, it's either a dump pass to a back or a pass in the middle to Crumpler. And if those options aren't there, he runs. So don't blame Price; you can't catch the ball when it's not thrown your way. Don't get me wrong, I think that Vick is an amazing athlete, and his team has a good chance of winning this weekend. I just think that a QB that can't or won't use all of his weapons, and instead just runs, is not a great QB. Except thats bs. If he just "took off and ran" he certainly wouldn't be getting sacked at the rate that he gets sacked. Why doesn't he throw outs? Because, defenses man up against the falcons and put 7-8 in the box. An out in man coverage can also be known as "I wonder what dance the CB is going to do after he scores" You don't throw outs on man coverage. Even if you have never played the game, any self respecting video game player knows that. The problem with his Wideouts is that they don't get open. if their initial route is jumped, they simple stop trying. You hardly see them sit down, or come back to the ball or break off their route....except for Alge Crumplier and Brian Finnerman..and looky at who his major weapons are. When Vick gets out of the pocket, his recievers should be looking to get open. They simply don't do it. Are you denying that he doesn't take off and run too quickly? It's one thing to use your speed & elusiveness to buy time for your receivers ... it's another to just tuck the ball and run. And I probably shouldn't have referenced out patterns ... I meant just throwing outside to the wideouts. Which is something that most QBs throw game in and game out without throwing pickoffs. Vick does NOT throw to his WRs nearly enough, and it makes it easier on the defense. (and, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I'm not a self-respecting video game player ... the last football game that I bought was NCAA 1998). I won't deny that his WRs could be doing more to get open ... but after a while of busting balls to get open only to find out that Vick's already tucked and ran, it would make sense that they'd start slacking a bit.

He doesn't have many weapons because his immediate reaction is to run ... the guy just NEVER looks to throw an out pattern to a wideout, it's either a dump pass to a back or a pass in the middle to Crumpler. And if those options aren't there, he runs. So don't blame Price; you can't catch the ball when it's not thrown your way. Don't get me wrong, I think that Vick is an amazing athlete, and his team has a good chance of winning this weekend. I just think that a QB that can't or won't use all of his weapons, and instead just runs, is not a great QB.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, I guess ... I hate, hate, hate when war analogies are used in sports, and this kind of falls into the same category. I see your point, but don't think it's wise to use a terrorism analogy at a time when terrorism is more real, and more widespread, than it's ever been

I watched like 30 seconds of this show this morning and they actually showed a clip of Tom Arnold wrestling one of the midgets from the TNA promotion week ... they didn't reference TNA at all, but it was pretty obvious that it was wrestling related, and non-WWE.