sfaJack

The Eagles play as a team? What the hell do you think the Patriots do? They are the most well-coached team the NFL has seen in at least a decade. And you are insane if you think the Patriots are not hungry or will fail to match the Eagles' intensity. If anything, the Eagles "hunger" would be more likely hurt them. You can be too amped up. And the Patriots have no momentum after destroying 2 of the top 4 teams in the league? Please.

Having Dave Campo as head coach for three years with Jerry Jones running the draft had a lot more to do with their sucking than lack of a quarterback.

Astros sign John Franco and have pretty much guaranteed him a roster spot. What a joke.

Terrell Owens having a shot at a Super Bowl ring disgusts me. Fuck this.

Huh? Are you joking?

Considering I was very nearly killed in a wreck 8 years ago and only survived because I had my seat belt on, I never go anywhere without it on. I used to never wear them at all, but it's funny--the girl I was dating at the time of my wreck got me in the habit of wearing them. Her logic was along the "what if something happens" line... Turns out she was right.

Why should they be furious? They could have given him a drop-dead date to make his decision (like they should have done with Beltran) and been prepared to move on without him, but they chose not to. And how reasonable would it have been for them to expect Clemens to play for $5 mil again? He certainly earned this contract based on what he did last year. And, even though they're paying him $18 mil this season (plus the incentives he earned last year), the Astros are getting two years of Roger Clemens for just under $25 mil--that's a bargain if you ask me. They weren't going to use the money for anything else anyway (though they SHOULD use it to at least lock Berkman up long-term). I just better not hear Uncle Drayton bitch about losing money again this year.

96%, 4 miles, 185 secs. Kansas was the first state I got and was thus my biggest mistake (bit too far south). A little too far west on Delaware, too.

Well at least the Astros will salvage some of their offseason. I can't help but wonder though, since they're unlikely to make a serious run this year even with Clemens, if they aren't better off telling Clemens to retire and using that $18 mil to help lock Berkman and Oswalt up long-term. Those guys are the future, not Clemens, and now is the perfect time to get both of them signed before the price goes up next year.

No he isn't. If you take Trent Green to quarterback your team over Vick, you're a fool.

I gotta say, as a Cowboys fan, I'm all for the Eagles getting rid of Andy Reid and bringing back Rich Kotite. Anyway, my picks for the title games: New England 24 Pittsburgh 16 Atlanta 14 Philadelphia 20 (I BADLY want the Falcons to win this game, though)

Ah, but bringing a sports team to a city adds prestige and value to the community, which leads to more people moving to the city, which equals more dollars for the city. I agree with this point, but I think it's overrated. Just looking here in Houston, the main reason given for building Minute Maid (and now Toyota Center) downtown was to revitalize the area and bring people back into the city. It's been 5 years since Minute Maid opened (and 8 since they broke ground), and it really hasn't happened. The only time downtown has been really bustling was the Super Bowl and (to a MUCH lesser extent) the All-Star Game last year. Problem is those events don't happen every year. Traffic, parking, construction, and homeless bums hanging on every corner are still serious problems downtown and while you can probably blame most of that on poor city managment, the ballpark does nothing to solve them. Things like that, which are widely noted here blemishes on the city's reputation (and often cited by locals as reason they don't go downtown), are not offset by having a baseball team play 81 times a year. Perhaps the money Houston spent on Minute Maid would help in solving them...perhaps not. They should work together to put the best possible stadium plan in place, but when push comes to shove, I just feel the team should pay for it. If the city wants to volunteer some money (or if voters approve), fine, but when teams use threats of moving to try and get their way, I have no sympathy for them.

It's a stupid thing to say, but considering how many of these teams hold cities hostage and extort taxpayer dollars to pay for their playpens, I see where he's coming from. Terrorism isn't limited to just senseless executions and suicide attacks--it is more often used to coerce others into giving you what you want. So while he shouldn't have used the term 'terrorists' to describe the Marlins, I think his point is valid.

I really do not understand why teams can't build their own stadiums. It might be expensive, but that's part of the cost of doing business. Run a more efficient organization and the debt service doesn't have to be crippling to your operation. What I also don't understand it why it HAS to be a retractable roof. Those roofs are 1) too expensive and 2) unnecessary. If you're so concerned about rainouts or fan comfort, just build a dome and be done with it. Rainouts and hot weather have been a part of baseball for 150 years; I think the game and its fans have survived just fine. I'd be interested to know if the Marlins have a significantly higher number of rainouts than other teams.

I still don't get the appeal of this show. Maybe I'm missing something, but watching a bunch of talentless asses try to sing is not my idea of entertainment.

That Eddie George's career YPC average is less than 4 is a solid argument against him too, IMO. Just carrying the ball a lot doesn't make you a great player just as simply playing a long time doesn't make you a great player.

I'm a "brainwashed Bush Administration supporting fuck" who doesn't support FS's banning over this. He's a dipshit and I think the board will be better off without him, but I don't like that he was banned over this. Do I need to wake the hell up? Do you think the ban had anythinng to do with partisan politics? No. It had to do with a dumbass saying a dumbass thing. Bannable offense? That's questionable...but I don't think it has anything to do with Bush supporting fucks.

I don't think the Texans will go defensive line with their first round pick. Just listening to the conversation around here, getting a rush linebacker seems to be a higher priority for them as they get almost no pressure on the QB (at or near the bottom of the league in sacks again, I believe). A #2 receiver is another possibility, as Corey Bradford won't be coming back and Jabar Gaffney is what he is--a decent 3rd guy. That would depend on which receivers are available obviously. Not that they don't need a stronger DE...I just don't know that they go for one in the first round.

Hawkins is still their best choice at this point though, to be fair, Dempster hasn't had a chance in the role yet.

Some combination of Redding/Hernandez/Duckworth, I suppose. Good news for the National League, to be sure.

If Roger Clemens retires, the Astros are in serious trouble because their rotation will be pretty thin and their lineup has lost a lot of its pop from last year. Cards had more than a couple of guys give either career or near-career performances last year and I just don't see it happening again. Pujols' heel injury flaring up again recently will hurt them if he ends up missing any significant time with it as well, and they can't afford that. The Central should be for the Cubs taking but we've got a long way between now and October.

One other thing that pisses me off about these phones: I'm doing my grocery shopping Saturday afternoon and there's this fat bitch blocking the milk case with her basket because she's standing there reading off the differences on the nutrition labels between 2% and skim milk to whomever she was talking to on her cell phone. That shit's just uncalled for. I was even more annoyed by this than I have been by people reading the backs of the movie boxes at the video store to people over the phone and agonizing over the life-altering decision to rent either Revenge of the Nerds II or III.

I think one of our local tv newscasts did a story saying that that was just a nasty internet/chain mail rumor that is untrue. Something about a federal law that prevents them from doing so maybe, but I wasn't really paying that much attention to it. Yeah, I actually considered getting one of the bare bones monthly plans from one of the wireless companies, but the cheapest I could find was $20 a month with only 60 mins or so. Made no sense at all to do that, especially since I've used exactly 12 of the 400 minutes I bought 6 months ago.

Indeed. TracFone is the way to go if you're an "emergencies only" phone user. I think I've used mine 4 times since I got it last July.

I'd actually go Ramirez-Lee-Sosa for 4-5-6, but maybe that's just me. I think the Cubs will be ok offensively. They did win 89 games with basically this same lineup last year. Given (hopefully) full seasons from Prior and Wood, they should be the Central favorite. Just need to tweak that bullpen....