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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, January 25, 2010
Calcatetris…it’s sweeping the nation!
So last night Brett Favre throws an interception that costs his team a trip to the Super Bowl. You think he’s going to be ripped for it, but within minutes of the game ending the ESPN talking heads are launching right back into that “he’s like a kid out there/he’s a gunslinger” baloney. The best one was Tom Jackson who said “That’s the thing about Brett Favre; he’s not afraid to throw an interception. That’s one of the things I most admire about him.”
I thought that was some of the best suck-up-inspired denial of reality from a commentator I’ve heard in ages, so I quickly tweeted the following for laughs: “That’s the thing about Bill Buckner. He’s not afraid to muff a grounder. That’s one of the things I most admire about him.” Worried that people may not get the joke, I applied a #FavreRulesForAll tag on it. I giggled to myself for approximately four seconds, shut my computer down and went to sleep.
I woke up this morning to find that the meme had been picked up (the tag improved to #ESPNFavreRulesForAll). Between 11pm and 5am this morning, hundreds of people had made thousands of “That’s the thing about [infamous person] he’s not afraid to [make a big historical failure]. Gotta respect that.” posts. Most were pop culture related. My favorite was Will Leitch’s “That’s the thing about France: It’s not afraid to build a war plan around the Maginot Line. Gotta respect that.” It was lightning fast. It was kinda brilliant. By dawn this morning it was utterly played out, at least on Twitter. There is something glorious about that.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Yes, I know 121 beat me to it, but I had to mention it again.)
I understand completely that it's personal, but I'd rather read 1000 more steroid threads than one more WWII post.
- well, not me
the steroid thingy been SO autopsied that there ain't even no recognizeable lumps of tissue left
the thing i likey most about BTF is that you can't never tell where a thread gonna get hijacked TO.
all this stuff about the generals/commanders and what they did with what they were given is interesting
and it really DOES explain to me why us females haven't done all the generalling even though we are smarter
for example
BBC goes to command the Southern Front:
my HOTTT aide and driver, commander Summersby Ausmus brings me the port-a-phone
General Gray, it's your Husband on line 1. AGAIN!!! sez one of the Dogss ate the kidz homework and the Dog won't eat the mustard to make him barf. what should he DOOOOOOOOO?
Too many.
One history channel program on WWII was great because they had a British Historian who'd done a fawning biography of Monty- everytime someone else said something unflattering, or pointed out where Minty had lied about something (not hard to prove, he did it all the time, during and after the war) this guy had some excuse handy, and depending on how lam the excuse was, he had an attack on some American General handy as a distraction.
"The goal wasn't a breakout at Caen, or even taking Caen, the goal was to tie down the Germans so the Americans could breakout, and in order to do that he needed sufficient and credible forces to make the Germans believe the breakout was going to be at Caen, that's why he demanded those resources, and he never said otherwise, except when it was part of the deception plan, so I can see why you were confused, but speaking of confused...
Monty = McClellan, yeah, that works pretty well, both had grandiose plans that took forever to set up, and then didn't quite seem to come off so grandiosely, largely because they weren't prosecuted as vigorously as they should have been... to be fair to Monty, he wasn't as quick as McClellan to decide a plan had failed and fall back in retreat...
In the last home game of the season, the Atlanta Falcons' kicker pulled a muscle at the start of the second half. The last couple of kickoffs were handled by Kroy Bierman. It was damned entertaining. And the lack of a FG specialist turned Mike Smith into Paul Johnson on fourth downs too close to punt. All in all, the game was better that way.
It's a bit unfair to say Favre's interception cost his team a trip to the Super Bowl. 4 fumbles had something to do with it. And without the int, they still need a 50+ yard FG.
And if Tom Jackson says something really stupid, that's on Tom Jackson.
I think you mean the mistake was thinking the Maginot line was a substitue for having an army.
Somewhere I saw someone propose that you had to kick a FG or XP with a player who had been on the field on the previous play. Sounds good to me (although I suppose for FGs the coach would simply put in a kicker as a WR on third down to run a play up the middle to set up for a FG attempt on 4th down).
Some of us know that you made that up. Pushed a half hour earlier, you mean.
I'm sure Wes Welker would be the scrappiest, most super try-hard competitive place kicker ever.
He was convinced that Lee had 200,000 men, so when Lee exposed Richmond in the Seven Days, he retreated because he was worried that Lee would crush him if he didn't get under the cover of the gunboats. At Sharpsburg, he was convinced that Lee had 100,000 reserves waiting to attack as soon as he committed his last reserves. So Porter's corps just waited while McClellan passed up multiple opportunities to exploit a breach in Lee's line.
If everyone has an emergency kicker that solid on the team, this idea suddenly gets much less interesting. I mean, it's great to have fewer touchbacks and more 4th down attempts, so it's still a good idea. But the game doesn't get revolutionized.
They only lost three, but it could easily have been even worse.
If people are going to rip Favre every time he throws a pick, sooner or later people are going to have to start asking Adrian Peterson what he's going to do about his fumbling problem, which seems to be getting worse lately.
I'm not sure if you are referring to this, but Welker is 1-for-1 in FG's for his career!
I've read a lot of conflicting stuff about the 7 days, no doubt because everything was confused, what it seems to me was:
1: McClellan felt he was facing larger and better equipped forces than he was
2: McClellan felt that his whole army was at risk- indeed he wired Washington in tones of panic
3: McClellan's conduct of the campaign convinced Lee that McClellan had fewer resources than McClellan actually had- if Lee HAD been able to catch the bulk of McClellan's forces and fight the "battle of annihilation" he was seeking- that battle would likely have been a tactical stalemate.
4: Stonewall was in the middle of some existential crisis/schizophrenic episode/ severe depressive phase assuming he was manic depressive (some books say he was suffering from severe sleep deprivation- I don't buy it, something was going on, but that wasn't it)
What was overlooked was that this was the first significant engagement- especially in the eastern theatre, where the South suffered more combat casualties than the North- if the quality of the southern foot soldier had been superior to the north's at the start of the war (which it may have been, or may not have been- their senior officer corp was certainly better), that no longer held true. If the northern soldier could stand up and shoot the southerners on a man to man basis/ one to one basis, the south was screwed.
WWII threads seem unique to me in the neverending quest to prove that you have read more books, or have a more nuanced appreciation for historical complexities, or whatever.
This. A thousand times this. Every thread like this always eventually becomes everybody "correcting" each other, in an attempt to make themselves seem like more of an authority than the other person.
- amusement
even greater amusement
so WW2 threads are different from every other thread like HOW???
it seems to be how males talk to each other unless you are talking about something don't anyone know anything about. then all yall figger SOMEthing you know SOMEthing about so as you can show how the other guy don't know MORE than you do
Life of Brian?
Some of my favorite football cards from when I collected them in the late 70's and early 80's were the Pat McInally cards for the highly unusual position combination of "P-WR".
Probably Cromwell unless you think slaughtering the Irish is as grave a sin as steroids.
In Illinois, in Wheaton I believe, is a really nice modern musuem dedicated to the First Division which McCormick's son was part of during WWI. I've mentioned it before but they have a gigantic walk-through exhibit that starts on a landing craft which drops its ramp to reveal the exhibit and you walk through the various battles of the first division. Really impressive stuff.
If you were a man you would be able to discern the subtleties of these dick-measuring contests.
The best play of that game was on the last kickoff - the third kickoff Biermann booted. It wasn't as good as the first, but a bit better than the second. Not a squibber, but not enough hang time for the coverage guys to get down the field. So the returner breaks off a 40-50 yard return in the last minute of a game that was already salted away. The only reason he didn't run it back for the TD?
He was chased down from behind by Kroy Biermann.
Back in the day, the Cardinals had a guy named Chuck Latourette who both punted and returned punts, returned kickoffs, sometimes played DB and between games went to medical school. He became a dr., then was shot to death at age 37. Just a normal guy, in other words.
Not a big Doris Kearns Goodwin fan, I take it?
Other than the plagiarism, I think my very most favoritest thing about DKG is her belief that inaugurating her bone-deep Red Sox fandom with the summer of 1967 was some kind of prescient and soulful accomplishment.
Ok. So is there better movie for fake beard viewing than Gettysburg?
Life of Brian?
Nicole Kidman in "Days of Thunder," "Far and Away" and "Eyes Wide Shut"?
Zing!
This.
One thing I wonder about when thinking about the U.S./U.K. 2003 Iraq war is why the Germans and Japanese accepted that they were defeated after 1945, as opposed to having large portions of their population engage in a long, drawn out, low intensity conflict which tires the invader.
Th best explanation I can think of in Germany's case is there was no public simpathy for more war (even for ex-Nazis), plus there were enough German speaking Allied troops to keep the German population honest (and perhaps the topography and climate were not conducive to guerrilla warfare). In re: Japan, I think I've read that McCarthur pretty much became a quasi-Emperor, and the Japanese people were willing to kow tow to him (and the U.S.) because McCarthur set-up a post-invasion structure which wasn't that different (from a hierarchical standpoint) from the pre-1945 Japan structure.
Iraq (and Afghanistan, for that matter) is a broken, non-homogenous polity which can only be kept together through LOTS of force and terror (or by de facto partition /at best, loose confederation).
Union soldiers from the rural areas of the North were often every bit the equal of their Southern opponents - they often didn't get the quality of leadership they deserved.
My grandmother's grandfather was a 19 year old soldier in the 5th Vermont and was wounded at Savage's Station June 29, 1862 during the Union army's withdrawal from the Peninsula. In this rearguard action, half the regiment's men were killed, captured, or wounded delaying the Southern advance. The South suffered heavy losses as well and Major General George "Young Napoleon" McClellan was actually given credit by some that his army and most of the artillery escaped. The Union left behind thousands of wounded and sick while destroying tons of supplies and equipment. McClellan was fortunate General Jackson didn't bring his "A" game.
My ancestor was also later wounded at Spotsylvania May 12, 1864 at the "Bloody Angle". He survived the war and was a farmer the rest of his days.
Cantigny. Great place. They've got a bunch of tanks out in front that the kids can climb all over. Nice golf course too.
Right. I mean, he _did_ play pretty well. And he really did get beaten up out there.
There was the interception against Frisco in 1999 when the Packers had the 49ers on the ropes but Favre throws among 3 guys and it's picked off by Woodall leading to a SF score soon after.
The six interception debacle against the Rams where two interceptions were returned for touchdowns. Several of those interceptions were bad luck tips/on receivers but two were simply Favre throwing it up for grabs.
The 2003 Atlanta game he gets a pass as the team offense was gutted by injury leading into and during the game.
The devastating overtime interception against the Eagles where Favre simply tossed it to Brian Dawkins for no discernible reason.
The four interceptions against the Vikings where an undermanned Vikings team beat GB in Lambeau where after the game the Vikes defenders gloated about just waiting on number 4 to 'throw up a prayer'.
The crushing interception against the Giants in the conference championship game.
And these are just the playoffs over the last decade.
The guy is tough. He can still play. But let us not think that Favre has no weakness nor is this 'just trying to make a play'. For his own reasons he has, at times, just thrown the ball in the air for no good purpose.
What are you using as a standard? The are any number of generals who did a terrific job at the divisional level but failed when they were moved up. Cleburne and Hood were both outstanding divisional commanders while Hood was a failure in army command and his record commanding a corps is nothing to write home about.
Longstreet was worthless in independent command but the best corps commander of the war at a tactical level.
Sherman did a great job as an army group commander but his record at a lower level wasn't great.
Thomas drove Grant nuts as an army commander but was probably the best union corps commander and the right guy for an army command when slow and steady was all that was needed.
My first cut would have: Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Hancock, Meade, Lee, Forrest, Jackson, Longstreet, Cleburne, Hood, A. P. Hill
The next most important generals on the Union side would probably be Schofield, Hooker, Howard and maybe Wilson or Hunt. Hardee was the only competent western Corps commander. Stuart and Wheeler were more famous than effective in my opinion. No shortage of fine brigade commanders (Gordon may have been the best and did very well with limited resources when advanced)
I'm not very familiar with Japan, but I think in Germany a lot of it has to do with the fact that the German population had just been through a long, drawn out conflict. By 1945 war exhaustion was such that most sane people in Germany were just glad the war was over, win or lose.
I think every kid should be shown a WWI gas mask and told, "be thankful, because your great grandfathers had to rely on this piece of junk while everyone was dumping mustard gas. Do you know what happens when you get mixed up in the mustard gas? Well let me tell you son..."
That doesn't seem to be working in Afghanistan, which has (arguably) been at war for over 30 years.
If Desmond Howard fumbles some of those returns in SB 31, are we now talking about a world were Brett Farve is considered a playoff choke artist?
I guess we've all just been too easy on the general population. They're not exhausted enough!
Having a quality golf course handy is one of my leading decision criteria when selecting a war museum. Tanks strewn across the lawn is purely a secondary consideration.
Back when I played sports games, I loved play Madden a lot better than the NCAA game because of the extended play clock. I usually audibled or changed a few receiver routes every play. I would get numerous delay of game flags in the college PS2 game.
But in real life, watching football, there is no need for a play clock to be that much.
Favre played great in the playoffs under Holmgren who was a tyrant and when he has had rest before the game. Sherman was unable to provide sufficient guidance to keep Favre from following his instincts. Childress looks to have made headway there.
Except for yesterday late
I'm not very familiar with Japan, but I think in Germany a lot of it has to do with the fact that the German population had just been through a long, drawn out conflict. By 1945 war exhaustion was such that most sane people in Germany were just glad the war was over, win or lose.
FOr the most part I think everybody realized it would be futile to fight that kind of war in Germany. What would it gain? You think the Russians were going to play that game nicely? And why would you force the West into that kind of war?
As for Japan, I don't have a great answer for that. The emperor capitulated which a lot of Japanese from that time period state was a huge shock and factor for how quickly they gave up. Plus what else were they going to do? What would they have fought with? Japan is an island nation which by that point had its economy destroyed and had almost no resources to fight a war. What would they gain by going off into the mountains and sniping at the allies?
In neither case did the Allies totally replace the powers in charge which I think plays a huge role in this.
Oh and one more thing. Think of the sizes of the occupational forces and then compare that to Iraq.
One key component in Japan was the Emperor- who announced that the fighting was over.
More importantly, a key consideration in the Iraq example is the notion that the occupying force lacks the will (or the ability) to commit sufficient resources to the occupation and that impeding their occupation will convince the occupiers to abandon their effort. I'm guessing the Germans didn't see that possibility as likely.
Am I advancing any common misconceptions?
Japan: The Emperor told them to quit- the ones most likely to carry on a protracted post war insurgency were also the ones most likely to listen to the Emperor.
Germany: there was a lingering low level insurgency for some time- it was stomped on brutally- and not just by the Soviets -
sheer physical incapacitation - who tends to make up the overwhelming bulk of an insurgency? young males- where were Germany's young males- dead or in POW camps.
WRT Afganistan, they had a multi-year insurgency against the Soviets, post soviets they collapsed in the face of the Taliban- whose foot soldiers tended to be young males who spent the Soviet insurgency days in refugee camps in Pakistan- they weren't war weary (the older mujaheddin were) they were just getting started.
One thing that would be interesting, and I have no idea what the answer is, is just who the Taliban's fighters are now, how long have those individuals been fighting?
And that's how you win: by "throwing it up for grabs." Virtually all such passes are deep balls that you're trying to get to your wideouts so that your wideouts can have a good chance to make a play. And in most cases, an interception is as good as a punt anyway, so if it's third down you don't lose a whole lot. And the gains are huge. You can't connect on deep passes if you don't throw deep passes.
Banging on Favre is pretty silly. He's been an extremely good quarterback, has been very successful, his teams have won, they've been in the playoffs a ton, and they've won a Super Bowl. This is like criticizing Carl Yastrzemski for not being Ted Williams.
By the way, this is a bogus stat. He's also played a ton of postseason games in his career, which (A) is a good thing, and (B) means that he's had a ton of opportunities to throw interceptions. Why someone would cite this stat (ESPN also has been doing it) without at least adjusting for opportunity is beyond me.
There was an announcer who used to day that, "as good as a punt"
Years ago, I remember a game where a team decided to go for it on 4th and 1, from about their opponents 40, play action fake, through the ball way down field... WR slipped, Corner caught it like he was catching a punt on the 5...
mike picked up some coach SCREAMING from the sidelines, "NO! DROP IT YOU BASTARD!!!" That was of course the CB's coach yelling at him his intercepton cost his team 40 yards...
There were discussion regarding the permanent dismantling of German industry, forcibly turning them into a third world nation and the mass deportation and resettlement of millions, 1945/46 1:that didn't seem so far fetched- 2: it COULD have been done; also 3: what didn't seem so far fetched was that the Soviets would keep killing Germans until pacification had been reached (your point). Continuing to fight was a really bad idea.
It's been a bad idea for the Iraqis too, but not as self-evidently a bad idea as it would have been for the 1945/46 Germans
farve postseason career -- scroll to the bottom.
24 games, 60.8% comp, 86.3 Rating, 44 TD 30 INT.
Not bad, pretty much in line with his career regular season stats.
I live in Berlin these days. If you look at any building that was around in 1945 -- well, actually I can't think of any. Maybe Tempelhof airport. The whole city was pretty much rubble, relying on the occupying armies for basic rations. Germany didn't have anything to fight for, and they didn't have anything to fight with.
(a) He had a great year this year, one of the better years of his career, actually;
(b) the end-of-regulation interception was only one of about ten hideous mistakes the Vikings made to cost themselves the game. My Vikings-following friends tell me this is completely normal for them, and most of them are incensed about the large contract extension Brad Childress just received.
And by my count his teams are 13-11 overall in the playoffs, and that's of course against good teams. Not bad at all.
I don't mean to pick on Harveys, but listing Favre's big interceptions kind of only tells one part of the story. Why not list his TDs or his big completions?
I've read that one of the Flak Towers still stands, it was in the French Zone, they were supposed to demolish it, they sent demolition team in, bored holes, wired up the explosives, detonated it, and the damned thing still stood, then then called in the bull dozers, buried it under tons of dirt and planted stuff, it's now a "hill" in some park, but it's still standing, archaeologists have been asking for permission to excavate it for a few years now...
I was in Berlin in 1988, the year before the wall came down. I stayed in an old Hotel which must have been pre-war. Don't remember the name or exactly where it was. Just off the Ku'dam, within walking distance of Ka-De-We. Anyway, the whole neighborhood looked like it survived the war. Old buildings, old trees. I remember walking in and around the hotel, and mentally transporting myself to the spring of 1945 and trying to imagine what it was like. A truly transcendental experience.
I was there in June 1991, with one other person -- a man -- who wound up bawling uncontrollably. The Soviets were rightfully very proud of their role in crushing fascism and the memorial evokes that pride dramatically. I'd classify the statue "Soviet giganticism."
Any Viking fan who wasn't expecting a loss in the most excruciating and seemingly unimaginable way possible is living in denial. I cheer for them to do well because it makes a lot of my friends happy, but as someone who is pretty emotionally distant from the team but grew up in Minnesota - that was the most predictable way for the game to play out. It was like the entire game was trying to figure out a way to be even more heartbreaking than the 98 NFC Championship when Gary Anderson missed his first FG of the entire season.
Oh, and that loss and play-calling and everything is all at Chilly's feet. If his dumbass can figure out how to huddle out of a TO, then Favre doesn't need to make the pass. Or, if his dumbass doesn't decide he's satisfied with a 50-yard attempt and takes his foot off the gas and kill 45 seconds, then Longwell's got an easier kick regardless of the distance. Basically, Chilly is a buffoon and everyone knows it.
A few (3-4?) years back, the kickoff specialist for the Florida Gators was also a second string linebacker. He didn't have the strongest leg on the team, and most of his kickoffs barely reached the five yard line. But I remember two instances where he kicked off, shed a potential blocker, and simply leveled the return guy around the 25 yard line. Having an eleventh, competent tackler on your kickoff team I thought outweighed the extra seven or so yards of distance on your kick you'd get with a regular kicker.
At the college level, it might be better for some teams to teach a linebacker or safety to kick, rather than teaching a kicker how to tackle.
There's also the big cathedral just off the Ku'damm that was bombed to smithereens and, at least according to guidebooks and plaques, the Germans left standing as a reminder of the horrors of war.
I found the experience transcendental also. Large chunks of the Wall were still up when I was there. The Potsdamer Platz was a no-man's wide-open wasteland where, on one weekend, there was a bungee jumping contest going on around a carnival that was Fellini by way of Berlin. By 1997, when I went back, there were buildings sprouting up there, and scores of cranes indicating many more were about to go up. I believe they've built up a lot of the area around Checkpoint Charlie, also. In the summer of 1991, it was still essentially what it had been since 1961. The memories of the Wall and the armed guards with orders to shoot to kill in the watchtower were still raw.
The Unter den Linden for a mile east of the Brandenburg Gate was the Soviet embassy, some nondescript Communist style buildings and one lone newly-free bookstore, which was the setting for the final scene in The Lives of Others.
David Bueheler kicks off for the Cowboys and plays on punt coverage. And he's really really good at kickoffs.
The huddle was a crucial mistake, and I too noticed that they let up instead of trying for another few yards for better field goal position. Running the ball straight into the pile like that when the defense knows what's coming is damned near useless. People will argue "Look what happened once they did turn Favre loose," but if Favre is throwing on first or second down *still* in reasonable field goal range, he's much less likely to try to make something happen and throw a pick.
Yes, I remember that one well. Not too far from our hotel.
Of course the entire wall was up when I was there. I was not expecting the entire western side to be covered in graffiti.
The Vikings lollygagged at the Saints 33 with 50 seconds to go and first down. That cost them the game.
In OT, I thought the spot on 4th and 1 was terrible, the pass interference call was a joke, and Meacham didn't have possession. All those cameras and all those eyes, and all that time, and it's still 50/50 they get the call right. I don't see any reason they can't allow challenges for pass interference calls; the penalty is so potentially severe that it's tough to accept such blatant screwups.
Could you freely cross zones?
...And with that, I find myself in complete agreement with SugarBear.
The Favre interception was obviously a back breaker and a mistake, but it needs to be viewed in context.
It's hard to criticize players for making snap judgments on the field, but I really don't see why he didn't run it or pass it to the right. Either play was right in front of him.
And to tie in both baseball AND movies, a scene from A League of Their Own was filmed there.
This happened 15 years ago.
Misirlou, there's no such thing as a time machine, but for re-creating the atmosphere of Germany in the immediate aftermath of defeat, this Rossellini film (Germany: Year Zero) is about as close as you can get. It's the least known of his wartime trilogy that also includes Open City and Paisan. You can allow for my usual hyperbole, but just about anyone who's seen these three films would rate them among the top 50 of all time. There's never been an American war movie even remotely comparable to any of them. Criterion just put out an expensive boxed set, but Netflix already has it, and eventually I'm sure they'll show up on TCM. There are earlier versions of Germany: Year Zero still available, but the subtitles on those are a total crapshoot.
Terry Bradshaw did before the game on Sunday.
There was also a movie filmed in Berlin around 1947 or so, can't remember the name...
Sarajevo immediately after the blockade/siege was lifted? Mogadishu any time...
Hey, thanks, rlc. I just put it at the top of my Netflix queue. Never knew about it before.
That would be A Foreign Affair, with Jean Arthur, John Lund, Marlene Dietrich and Millard Marshall, which shows often on TCM, and in fact just played last night right after the Saints game ended. It was filmed in Berlin in 1947 and released in 1948, and shows a lot of footage of the bombed out city. Corny as hell plot, but it's still worth watching just for the "scenery" and for the running commentary of the Millard Mitchell character. But you can tell by the original trailer that it's not exactly in the Rossellini category.
Yes. I was in the Air Force at the time, and we had unrestricted access to all parts of Berlin under the 4 power agreement. When we crossed into East Berlin, they weren't even allowed to search us. Thus, we were able to buy our Ostmarks in the west at the market rate of 10:1 instead of the official East German rate of 1:1. The irony was, everything was dirt cheap, but there was nothing to buy.
anybody can play this game. if the vikes had won, someone would be on here sure as shooting saying that some crummy calls on the saints and bad breaks made the difference. bad calls are always going to happen. the pass interference call that gave minnesota first and goal on the one was pretty ticky tacky too.
when you talk about shaky decision making, you are on better ground. vikes lost because they couldn't keep their act together. more than one viking fumble was from getting the ball punched loose by a defender. vikings were darn lucky on one of petersons fumbles, it was a miracle he got it back, so don't say they didn't catch any breaks.
favre had been getting his clock cleaned all night long, and so he has a lapse in judgment at the end of regulation. i don't think the two are unrelated, and its to N.O.'s credit that they figured out that they needed to do that.
if the vikings can't hang on to the ball or manage their drives, it doesn't mean they are a hard luck team, it means they aren't that good.
I'll eat that taco with 3 squirts of hot sauce.
I'll eat it w/ 4 squirts.
5 squirts.
Eat that taco.
Ray Guy was a college safety (when not punting of course)-I recall several nasty hits he laid on returners. BTW, did you know Ray Guy ranks 64th in gross punting average? Before you claim that he is overrated, I'll point out that there's nary a single contemporary (c. 1973-1986) above him, because when they moved the goalposts back in his 2nd year, teams started punting from the opposing side of the 50 much more often, limiting the gross yardage you could get (because of touchbacks).
Yes, but this assumes that the bad calls evened out, which seems unlikely. And if they didn't even out, then, yes, the Vikings have reason to complain.
The Vikings had all three questionable calls go against them in overtime, when it could be argued that all three of them should have been in their favor. That's pretty hard to even out, unless you're saying that had the Saints gotten their calls in regulation there wouldn't have been an overtime. Which would be a fair point.
Sigh. This reminds me of the baseball playoffs last fall, when people were arguing that despite the umpire gaffes, the Twins had "only themselves to blame" for losing to the Yankees in the postseason, since the Twins made boneheaded baserunning blunders. No. Calls from refs or umpires are a completely separate issue. No team "has only themselves to blame" if they fall victim to bad officiating, no matter how many mistakes they make of their own.
But I agree with you that fumbles are often not accidents; they are often the result of skill by the other team (the Saints were ripping the ball out) and/or a lack of skill in protecting the football.
By the way, is it just the proliferation of camera angles now, or has it become more commonplace in the NFL that players try to rip the ball out? It seems like players try for this now far more often than they used to.
Is that a Foxtrot reference? Maybe we can turn this into a comic thread.
What happened to the funnies? In my youth, I could rely on Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, Tom the Dancing Bug and Foxtrot to deliver the goods on a regular basis. Now Foxtrot has lost it, Bill Waterson has become a hermit, Gary Larson retired and Tom the Dancing Bug is gone or retired or hidden, I don't know which. The funny pages are pretty gosh darn unfunny, save for absurdist appeal of Mark Trail and Rex Morgan MD.
It's pretty easy to figure out why, but that doesn't make it any less of a shame.
I'm sure you old toots could make me dizzy with your knowledge of the so-called golden years.
Misirlou, were you allowed into East Berlin during down time? I ask, because if you had had a chance to do so, it may have been dirt cheap to eat and drink beer in East Berlin with your true market rate Ostmarks.
Speaking of Civil War generals, here's an article claiming Grant was one of our greatest Presidents.
My understanding is that most of the good comics are online, but I wouldn't know...
I was there on leave, and for only 4 days. Yes I did eat and drink there. Beer worked out to be about 10 cents a pint. Horrid stuff though. The good stuff we tried to buy, good quality Vodka, Zeiss binoculars, Red Army Surplus coats, gloves, hats, ... they wouldn't sell to us. Precisely because they knew we brought in our market rate Ostmarks.
I used to work at a bank, and a lady once approached me looking to make a withdrawal from her expense account. She owned a bead shop or something. I ask if she's okay with fifties. She flips out: she says she despises Grant and refuses to possess anything that bears his likeness. Her reasoning wasn't that he whupped the South. That would have made a degree of sense. No, no. Apparently he was nasty to the Native Americans. Someway, somehow. She wanted 20s. Bearing the likeness of Andrew "Trail of Tears" Jackson is okay, apparently, but US Grant is not.
I made a point to investigate a bit into Grant's service as president. Shockingly, and contrary to what that loon had been spouting, Grant was in fact a tireless servant in the protection of people's basic humanity, particularly in the cause of Indians and African-Americans. I swore to myself that if that crackpot ever showed up again, I'd give her a piece of my mind, customer service be damned. Fortunately for me, I never saw her again.
But "Tom the Dancing Bug" is still available online, at Salon.com at least.
And Gary Larson put out a terrific kids' book a couple of years ago called "There's Hair in My Dirt: A Worm's Story."
I visited in October 1989 and March 1990, and some of the Wall areas already had changed significantly. No new buildings yet, but even before the unification, the fortress look was yielding to the vacant lot look.
We tried to visit the Tiergarten Soviet war memorial one evening, and the Russian soldier (stationed?) there made it abundantly clear that idea wasn't acceptable to him.
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