LaParkaMarka

I thought it was a fun show to watch. I'm a little surprised at the hate for the cheerleaders and "hip-hop"...I don't see how music or ring girls take away from anything. Hell, NFL has cheerleaders, does it ruin the sport? This isn't UFC and I'm glad they tried to do things differently than UFC.

I wrote the book?!?!?! No, I wrote it.

Here's some interesting info I found, probably worth posting to our forums: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Offense QB The only thing to keep in mind here is the dropoff from your #1 to your #2. In some cases where the level difference is 5 or 6 or even more it's best to just not put your backup QB on the depth chart so he doesn't play, other than that it's straight forward. RB You want bread and butter from your #1 back but remember right now it's key to have similar types of backs that both fit your gameplan. Having an elusive and power back can cause problems at the lower levels when the power is slow and the elusive has no strength. You only really need 2 RB's even if one is a return man, you may need 3 if you have a return man and an 80% running offense. FB You don't need a backup fullback because on 3 wr sets he comes out of the game and with half decent stamina he can play all his 50 or 60 plays easily at a high level. It may be worthwhile to use a backup TE here so he gets some plays as well because the TE is in a similar situation. WR This is the tricky spot on offense. If you have 3 very good receivers then the slot one (#3 on DC) will get the best stats typically. This is not a reflection of your receivers but more of a reflection of matchups. In this case you might want to rotate them all through the various top 3 or 4 positions assuming they are equal or close to it. If your WR's are not equal and you have say 1 superstar then don't just put him in the slot. It may work in some games but if another team sees it and moves their best CB to #3 then you will really be in a big hole. Keep this guy at the #1 spot and hope you can feed him the ball a lot while you look for other receivers. If you have a "bad" slot guy getting better stats and complaining about playing time put him in the starting lineup and he will not perform well at all, you can then move him back to the slot based on "bad" performance. TE Having a backup tight end is reasonably important and if he's a good blocker you can play him at backup FB. If he's a good receiver use him as your 5th or 6th WR. LOT Your best pass blocker should play here because he'll go up against the faster DE's. It's also worth noting that putting your OT with the lower strength on this side is fine because he won't need it as much against the pass rushers high on agility and speed LG You can put your weaker guard at this position and use him against the better pass rushing defensive tackle. Normally the defensive tackle will have good strength but not as much as the nose so it's a good place to hide a guard. Alternatively you can put your better guard here and use him to demoralize the defensive tackle opening up lanes for your rushing attack later on in games. C Usually responsible for double teams the center is rarely left to do his own thing. Having some speed at center can help as well because if he gets a pancake on the nose tackle he can get downfield to take out a linebacker as well. He does play on the punt team so again his speed will come in handy to get downfield and hit the return man. RG This guy is responsible for playing against nose tackles. He often gets help from the center so you can hide your weaker guard here however having a pancake specialist here can demoralize the nose tackle which in turn will hurt the defenses ability to stop the run. ROT Put your best offensive tackle run blocker here. He'll face stronger DE's than the LOT and won't need to pass protect quite as well as the LOT. This is also a spot you can hide a bad offensive tackle because the TE will help him in the rushing attack. Defense RDE This is where you put your pass rush specialist. He gets one on ones most of the game and rarely has to play the run. Nose Tackle Put your strongest defensive tackle here. This guy gets double teamed a lot and if he can keep himself upright will really help wear out the offensive line and stuff the running game. If you are always playing better offensive lines than your d-line put your weak defensive tackle here and sacrifice him to pancakes in this spot allowing your other defensive tackle one on one chances. Defensive Tackle The nose tackle post covered a lot of this situation but you want your better pass rusher here. You don't need to put a super strong guy here if he has no other skills as well. LDE You want a run stuffer here as most teams rush to this side right now it's really important that he's strong enough to not get pancaked. If this guy gets pancaked then the OT can move downfield and knock a linebacker out of the play which will open up huge holes in your defense. ROLB This guy should be your fastest linebacker. He needs to move the most to make plays as runs goto the opposite side of the field from his starting postion. He also plays in nickel packages and sometimes gets called on to cover a WR, TE or HB. MLB Not the traditional football middle linebacker. There are two schools of thought here. Jed has a walking aura for a MLB and Tim Harper has a fast MLB with great base stats and no specials. This linebacker will only get a lot of tackles against power running backs but most teams have elusives and most teams run to the outside so you don't need your best linebacker here which is the traditional thought. LOLB Your best linebacker should play here. This guy IS your teams leading tackler and run stuffer. He also has to cover the tight end in most passing situations. The problem with playing your best linebacker at LOLB is that against passing teams he won't play as much because he subs out for nickel and dime packages. The solution to this is simple, either play him on specials teams or play him as the primary backup for MLB and ROLB so he's on the field as much as possible. CB Similar to the wide receiver situation the nickel will usually get thrown at more and get "better" stats. If you have 3 good corners rotate them through the starting lineup. If you only have 1 or 2 good ones then leave them as the starters and if the #3 guy playing nickel says he should start based on his stats give him a start against a team you know you can beat. You'll then show him that he's getting stats based on the DC position and I'm sure he'll be happy to move back to #3. Don't be tempted to put your best corners anywhere but starting based on their stats it's not worth it, stats for a corner really don't mean anything other than they got thrown at a lot in 90% of the cases. FS Fairly straight forward but keep this guy off special teams he needs to not be tired so you don't get burned deep. He won't get many tackles or picks on a good team but don't worry he's still doing his job well in most cases. On a bad team he'll probably be second or third in tackles. SS Same thing as the FS position except you can expect more tackles out of this spot. If you have a great run stuffing FS don't hesitate to put him at the SS spot and put your pass defending SS at FS the loss of skill for a positional change isn't a big deal at all. This guy needs to be good against the run because a missed tackle will usually end up in 6 points for the offense. Summary I didn't cover special teams because it's been beaten to death already but hopefully there is some insight for some of the common depth chart questions here, especially the RB, WR and LB positions. You can tailor your lineup to the other team as well this is merely designed as a starting point to build your depth chart in the best way to help your team out early.

Where Lawn Gnomes Happen Where Marvin Happens

Yes, this looks like an interesting read.

That was a crazy ending. Caracas goes up by 4 with 58 seconds left, we need a TD to win. Then, this happens: Awesome Allison~~~! Some great blocks as well there.

1) Yup, you gotta pay for flex points. Once in a while the admins might give some out for free due to system downtime or whatnot, but that's quite rare. 2) Yes. If you sign with a human team, make sure to avoid those silly 10 year contracts. Btw, our Smartmarks team is looking for backups, might be a good spot for you. 3) There are trades. You can also have a no-trade clause in your contract. 4) Nope, just update your stats basically. You need to log in every day or two to stay "active"

The only stat that matters in terms of leveling is number of plays. So that 51 plays means that you're basically getting max experience per game.

Better world champion: la parka or hhh Will either of the hardy boyz ever win a world title?

Well fucking done Desensitized. Some of the stuff is pretty memorable (Pumpkins, Alanis, Smash Mouth) but then you bust out the forgotten stuff: Gin Blossoms, fucking OMC, the New Radicals. Good stuff. I'd add 'Steal My Sunshine' to that track list, it fits in.

Special teams kills energy, and we've got mostly starters on the kicking & return game. It may not affect everyone energy-wise after the game (knocking them below 70, I mean) but it certainly drains in-game energy and that'll cost them plays we can't afford to have them lose. I'd rather see CPUs play special teams than have CPUs playing defense. I think you're absolutely right on with this, oldskool. We should consider bringing in a bunch of low level players to help shore up depth and contribute on special teams...if anyone wants to create some new players, this would be a good time (especially if you can make a WR or LB). Note: if you do make a new player (MARVIN), note that the starting stats of your character are random and can vary by a lot. If you get a bad set of stats, don't be afraid to retire the guy and make another one...it won't cost you any flex points and can actually be a huge boost (the equivalent of 5-10 skill points, or 1-2 levels). There's a nice guide floating around that gives out numbers for each position, but GLB is down...once it comes back up I can copy and paste the guide in here Ok, I posted it in our forum as well as below. ---------------------------------------------------- DO NOT settle for the first player the computer sticks you with unless your one of the really lucky ones that gets a great roll on the first try as shown below. Chances are the stats are not very good as the rerolling your players can actually gain you up to 2 Levels (9-10 points) higher then other rolls. You can retire and reroll a player with no penalty other then a bit of time. Usually it takes 20-50 rolls to get a top end roll unless you are lucky enough to get it sooner. Here is what I have found so far for the positions I have played with so far. DE: Stats your looking at: Strength, Agility, Speed, Tackling Ideal Range - 60-62 Highest Roll - 62 Notes - I did see a few 20's in the rolls for Physical Attributes and the highest I saw Tackling was 18 QB: Stats: Strength, Stamina, Vision, Confidence, Throwing Ideal Range - 69-71 Highest Roll - 71 Notes - Since QB adds in a 5th stat that varies I didnt see as high of numbers as I did for the DE but I still saw stats at 18 on occastion and Throwing around 15-16. C: Stats: Strength, Blocking, Speed, (Jumping) Special Note - Jumping is pretty worthless for so I really didn't consider it and only added the first 3 together. Ideal Range - 51-53 Highest Roll - 53 Notes - I actually kept a 52 roll instead of the 53 as I wanted a higher STR/BLK then speed. As stated above I pretty much disregarded Jumping but I guess if you had a choice between a couple rolls use Jump to break the tie. Speed never goes above 10 or below 7. LB: Stats - Strength, Agility, Stamina, Confidence, Vision, Tackling Ideal Range - 78-80 Highest Roll - 80 Notes - Again you have a whole bunch of stats that vary so it limits how high they seem to go...I did see a few 18's but they were few and far between. Guard: Stats - Strength, Speed, Confidence, Blocking Ideal Range - 63-65 Highest Roll - 65 Notes - Jumping is also variable but I again ignored it like I did my Center. Pretty similar to the Center and I'm assuming the Tackle. Speed never goes above 10 or below 7. OT: Stats - Strength, Agility, Confidence, Vision, Blocking, Speed Ideal Range - 84-87 Highest Roll - 87 Notes - Lots of stats to look at here...highest stat I saw was a 20 on Blocking which is the one I took at 84 total. Speed never goes above 10 or below 7. UPDATE - I just hit an 87 when the best I had ever done before was an 84. Punter: Stats - Confidence, Punting, Stamina Ideal Range - 50-52 Highest Roll - 52 Notes - I actually got a 51 on my 2nd roll but kept going to see if that was really as good as it first looked....it was but I did nail a 52 later on. Highest I saw was a 25 on Punting...22 on Confidence and Stamina ranges from 7-10. Kicker: Stats - Confidence, Kicking, Stamina Ideal Range - 50-52 Highest Roll - 52 Notes - Pretty much the same as the Punter. Stamina ranges from 7-10 and the highest I saw was Kicking at 25 and Confidence at 26. TE: Stats - Strength, Vision, Blocking, Catching Ideal Range - 58-60 Highest Roll - 60 Notes - Depending on what type of TE you want to be you can look for stats that not only add up to a good number but also that more fit what you want to do. I was looking for high blocking and strength numbers ideally. WR: Stats - Agility, Speed, Jumping, Stamina, Vision, Catching Ideal Range - 81-83 Highest Roll - 83 Notes - Ugh WR was horrid to get a good roll. You not only want a good roll but you most likely want to see the stats favor what type of receiver you want to be....speed or possession or get the roll and then just go with whatever way is easier. There has been some debate over Height and Weight and its been acknowledged that it does have a minor effect on things. This is one position I think you should at least look at it. The Jump Catch ability even states taller receivers can catch more high passes. If you want to go possession try for a tall receiver 6'2"+. RB: Stats - Strength, Agility, Speed, Confidence, Vision, Carrying Ideal Range - 76-78 Highest Roll - 78 Notes - Since both RB's and WR's have 6 stats that vary I figured I could get up to the 80+ range as well but that was a pipe dream and I think I rolled for 2+ hours to get the 78. Either go into this with a type of RB in mind or once you get a good roll let that guide you to either power or speed back. FB: Stats - Strength, Agility, Blocking, Carrying Ideal Range - 60-62 Highest Roll - 62 Notes - Here you gotta also look at whether you are going to be a blocking FB or a rushing one. I kept a 61 roll over the 62 due to the face it had a very high carrying and didn't need it for the blocking one I wanted to make but would have been great for a rushing one. DT: Stats - Strength, Agility, Tackling Ideal Range - 52-54 Highest Roll - 54 Notes - You can really get some nice stats out of this one...20, 18, 16 for me. CB: Stats - Agility, Stamina, Speed, Jumping, Vision, Catching Ideal Range - 79-81 Highest Roll - 81 Notes - Usually a good spread of 13-16's works good here so you can build however you want without any one stat being really high unless you want that stat high anyway. FS: Stats - Stamina, Speed, Vision, Tackling, Catching Ideal Range - 67-68 Highest Roll - 68 Notes - I got the 68 in the first 10 rolls and rolled forever thinking I could do better...landed alot of 67's but never even matched the 68 and gave up when it hit midnight. SS: Stats - Strength, Stamina, Speed, Vision, Tackling Ideal Range - 67-68 Highest Roll - 68 Notes - Very similar to the FS..same # of stats and seems to be the same outcome just a few different stats. --------------------------------------------------------

If you actually don't have time, maybe you can appoint a GM to help out? You'd still own the team, but a GM can help set up tactics or sign free agents or whatnot. Broward83 or oldskool would probably be happy to help out. I think we also need to make a plan for each game and make sure every player sticks to it. We might not win, but at least we'll all be on the same page.

I'm just the punter, so things don't really change on my end. However, the more successful teams usually have a "gameday tactics" thread. The Owner posts his general gameplan and then posts exactly what each player should set their tactics to. Something like "This team likes to stretch the field and take advantage of big plays with their speedy WR, so we want our corners playing close/medium with wrap tackling and focus on the pass" We might want to do something similar with our team...assign a couple of people as scouts, one as OC, one as DC, and have all of them come up with gameplans for each game.

This does not apply if the face champion is HHH.

Then you're a psycho.

Exactly, how is a tiny guy (and his bee girlfriend or whatever) going to carry a movie? Unless they went completely on the comedy angle. Maybe they can cast Adam Sandler as Ant Man.

I love this video. Jumper Cables, people. Jumper Cables.

Nope. He was very tight with Dave Nonis...Nonis actually went to Sweden to visit Brunstrom last year, Nonis promised that he'd play with the Sedins, etc. Then a week or so before he was going to sign, Nonis gets fired. The new Canucks GM hasn't spoken to Brunstrom at all. He almost certainly isn't going to come to Vancouver now. Heck, it seems like most of those Swedish players on the Canucks may be gone by the end of the summer. Naslund may or may not resign, and the Sedins are rumored to be on the trading block. Alex Edler (a Swede) is one of the Canucks top trading chips, and if they all go then Ohlund might waive his no trade clause.

That episode of 30 Rock was great. "A drinking party? What am I, 12 and at my boyfriend's frat party?" "Wrong again, it was for TWO undescended testicles!" "You used ghostbusters for evil!" "You're choosing the sandwich over the guy? That's less cliche" "I can do it!" (stuffing her mouth full of sandwich) "I can have it all!" That was excellent stuff. Tina Fey just kills me with her geeky slovenly character.

Not really. His boss is a retard, makes a lot of terrible decisions, and constantly makes bizarre racial references to Stanley. Would you have any respect for a guy like Micheal?

Actually, most Detroit fans would love to see BOTH Bell and Calhoun gone (Calhoun has basicaly done nothing in his time with the Lions; I'd rather have Bell than Pinner but most fans can't stand him). Pinner is nothing special but his signing pretty much ensures that either Bell or Calhoun is out (remember, they have Aveion Cason as well). Also, they drafted Jerome Felton who should be a great short-yardage option. What's the deal with Calhoun? Wasn't he injured all of last year or something?

I don't care for it either. Smartmarks FC still works, but seeing a Houston team playing in Europe Pro, or Texas in Canada AAA is just weird. At least pick a city that's in the region.

You should probably trade Reese while you can. Try and pawn him off to one of the newer teams for a level 4 CB or a couple of level 3 depth guys.

It's because skill points don't count, only those basic stats like speed/strength/etc. That's why you see Offensive Tackles with a yellow bar in tackling...not because of the points they have in tackling, but because of their high strength.

There's probably some FA corners out there too. We really need to get rid of every garbage CPU player on our team, they just kill us compared to humans. The fact that DEs are still amazing returners is stupid. They need to fix that.