Dr. Tom

Longwell and Keyshawn, for reasons already mentioned.

I'd be willing to see if we can stop sandstorms with nukes...

I whore out all of your mothers. Actually, I still work in IT for the government. I'm at a different job than I was before (started this one in mid-June), but it's closer to home and more money, so all is good in the hood.

It's good that this debate seems above that so far. People are arguing on philosophical, intellectual, and (when appropriate) theologic grounds. I don't think IDRM is sincere in his supposed beliefs at all, but the intellectual exercise has been interesting to watch, if nothing else.

I always liked Bert "Be Home" Blyleven, myself.

There are states which allow registered Independents to vote in one of their state's primaries. But really, why should someone who's not a registered member of a party have a say in who that party nominates for any office, let alone president? If I as a registered Independent couldn't vote in the primaries, I wouldn't really care.

Sigh... n00bs. Moved.

Never played on either. I have a PartyPoker account because I've heard it's easy money there, and I'll probably put money in that account shortly. Ditto my PokerStars account. Right now, the only place I play for money is UltimateBet.

I can imagine the backlash if Bonds wins yet another MVP award. "OMG he only got it because he hit his 700th HR!!!11" The thing is, the Cardinals are still a playoff team if they're missing one of their stars. The Giants without Bonds are just above a AAA team.

BTW, Colonel, my emergency tiebreaker score was submitted to you via PM, so you can ditch the frownie-face if I don't explicity list one. Bloody point spread. I was 11-5 picking games without the spread in my column. This is why I don't bet on football...

Huh? There were 2 Aces onboard and he had pocket aces? I think you lost that one, d00d, unless your cheating skills are quite svg.

If you mean, "I don't know if this belongs here," then it doesn't.

Except that wasn't at all true in 2001. Antowain Smith rushed for over 1150 yards and 12 TDs that year. Overall, the Pats rushed the ball 473 times that year, good for 8th in the NFL (and almost 30 carries a game), and gained over 1750 yards, good for 13th in the league, still above average, and hardly "near nonexistent". BTW, their 482 pass attempts ranked 24th in the league that year, and their 3326 yards was good for 21st -- both quite a few spots below the league average. And 482:473 is quite a balanced ratio, almost exactly 1:1. BTW, in the Super Bowl that year, the Pats ran 25 times (for a solid 133 yards) and passed 27, a balanced attack. The Rams, meanwhile, went 44:22 on the pass:run ratio. So to say your team's running game was in any way "near nonexistent" that season is selling them short. In 2003, they definitely passed the ball more. But you know what? They still rushed the ball 473 times, but that figure was only 12th in the league that year. So the NFL, on average, was rushing more, and the Pats basically went against the grain, the credit for which goes to their coaching staff. They didn't have any one back break 650 yards, but they did amass over 1600 as a team. And what about the knowledge that the law of averages will catch up with you? You can't keep winning close games forever.

Hey now, I remember the days of... um... er, Bert Jones, when he was with the Baltimore Colts? Anyway, peep the "Pass for Show, Run For Dough" section in my NFL article. Running the ball is still the more important part of the offense, no matter how much love the passing game gets on the highlight reels.

Yes. In fact, he received a Purple Heart when he chipped his tooth on a stale Subway roll...

Ralph Nader, responding to criticism about his attempts to get on the ballots of several states... Tyler McClelland's pecker is this small. OWNED, BITCH~!

I would mark so hard if Bush started talking like The Rock during the debate... "John Kerry, you get up here on this stage in front of the mmmmmillions (and millions) of Americans watching, and you run your mouth about what you'd do in Iraq. Let me ask you something... did you ever serve in a war?" "Why ye -- " "IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU EVER SERVED IN A WAR~! John Kerry, The Pres says this: you take your Purple Hearts you got for opening some guy's canteen, you take your freaky Lurch looks, and you take your crazy wife -- she loves the Pres' strudel, in case you didn't know -- back home to Know Your Role Blvd and wait for The Pres to check your monkey ass into the Smackdown Hotel!" I'd retract my stance on not voting for Bush if that happened.

Check the Snopes link; they mention the debris and show at least one picture of it. Why should they? To quiet a bunch of conspiracy nuts on the internet? Considering an attack on the Pentagon is an attack on national security, I'm sure whatever footage they have isn't exactly available to the public. BTW, I've never understood conspiracy theories for one reason. Ok, two reasons. One, they're patently absurd, and two, how is it that the government is DIABOLICAL~! enough to pull off these grand conspiracies without a word leaked beforehand, but stupid enough to leave "details" of it all over the place afterwards? Can one of you nutjobs who think a plane didn't hit the Pentagon explain that one to me, if you're not too busy reading the latest issue of Crackpot Monthly?

Al'Qaeda bought out McDonald's. That annoying guy on the Chicken Selects commercials is feeding them secret information thru verbal codes...

Let me explain how I mean "Perot Effect." I don't mean that Nader would get 19% of the vote. He'd be lucy to get 1/10 of that. By the "Perot Effect," I meant the independent candidate who is a latecomer to the ballot (covering Perot's "I will return as your servant" crap and Nader's late struggles) and manages to leech enough votes from a candidate to swing the election. Obviously, Perot got a large figure in 1992 that Nader has no prayer of matching, but it's obvious to me that, if Perot never returns to the race, Clinton doesn't get elected that first time. Perot picked up some Independents and a few Democrats, sure, but he cost Bush I a LOT of votes. If Nader can have even 1/10 that impact on Kerry, I'm all for it. If things go as they are now, I don't expect Bush will need the help, but it'd be nice to have it there anyway.

You're missing one of the key points, though. Even a run up the middle for no gain helps them. They lost 12 yards on that sack, I think, pushing the Colts out of easy FG range. Even if Edge barely gets back to the line (and it's safe to assume he'd have to dodge McGinest at some point), it's a kick that's 12 yards shorter. I look at it this way: if they run, even for no gain, there's a 99% chance that they keep the ball, and probably a 90% chance the game goes into OT. OT itself is a coin flip, so they have a 99 and 90% chance to get to a 50-50 situation. If they pass, they have about a 50% positive expectation (Manning's completion % - his INT %, adjusted for the red zone, where passing is harder). If they get the first down, the clock can easily be stopped. An incompletion leaves them where they started. An INT or fumble is game over, obv. I think the percentages are better with the run, especially considering they'd rushed the ball 40 times and gotten 5 yards a carry against a top-shelf defense by doing it.

I'm aware. And yes, I think that was getting way personal and going too far. But you'll never convince me that the fans don't have a right to say that kind of stuff. When you buy a ticket, you can heckle the players to your heart's content. Obviously, fans who throw things onto to field should be ejected and prosecuted, and any fan stupid enough to get on the field deserves the beating he has coming to him. If a fan is particularly vulgar, I'm sure people around him will complain and have him removed. A lot of people bring their kids to games and don't want them to hear a bunch of four-letter words directed at the other team. Not me. I'd fine him into a trailer park and suspend him for a good long time. Rubbish. It's part of going to a game. You're going to cheer for your team and boo and deride the other team. All their players suck, all their moms give head, all their wives are ugly whores, etc. Players are used to it from college and the minors (I think hardcore heckling is wrong in high school and below, obv), and if you can't tune out one guy yelling garbage at you, how do you tune out 40,000 people yelling when you're in the game and it's do or die? The same principle applies to internet "flaming." I'm sure most people who habitually flame others wouldn't walk up to random strangers and talk shit in their faces, but it's done online all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've been "flamed," both here and at many other boards. I tune it out. It's sticks and stones, words on a screen, the faceless rantings of someone I'll never have a need to give a shit about... whatever you want to call it. Professional athletes can do the same. Hell, if I made $5 million a year and some drunk yahoo started heckling me, I'd just remind him that my next paycheck would be for more than he'll make all year. Shrug.

Heck, I'd like to see him on the ballot everywhere. Let Kerry feel the Perot Effect, especially if Nader gets made into some kind of martyr by the national media for his small-party struggle to get on the ballot.

He doesn't fumble much, so the odds of him doing it again are very small. Especially since he'd certainly be covering up the ball in that case. Besides, he's not the only RB on the roster; Dominic Rhodes is often used in short-yardage situations. The fact remains that a run up the middle for 0 yards takes 10-12 yards off the missed FG. And the Pats never expected a run on any of the 40 rushes for 200 yards the Colts had that game? When you've rushed for 200 yards, there's no reason to abandon it when the game is on the line. As for Willie's play, had Dallas Clark stayed in to block (as he was being yelled at to do on the O-line) instead of trying to be a glory hog and catch a pass, someone would have had a body on McGinest. James read the blitz and stayed back to block, but it wasn't enough. No one disrupted McGinest at the line. 40 rushes for 200 yards. Who would have about no time left on the clock to do anything with a tie game. I'm not trying to give NE no credit, because they did come out with the win against a very good Colts team. But to ignore the Colts' poor choices and virtual beating of themselves in a rush to give the Pats mad props is disingenuous. 40 rushes for 200 yards. Ya dance with the one dat brung ya. The Patriots were not able to stop the Colts' running game all day, and the Colts abandoned it for the pass when they didn't need to. The fact remains that running the ball is still the most important component of an NFL offense, the Colts were excelling at it that day, and they went away from it. Besides, a "leader" shouldn't run backwards five yards when he's got someone in his face and take the team out of easy FG range. That's *terrible*.