unclevlad

Sometimes I despair of people, and sometimes I despair of the culture. Is the guy stupid, or is he simply caught up in the trap of lies that others spread presumably to promote their agenda? I agree with the social media issue...which is why what Musk is doing is so problematic...but it's not limited to social media. It's simply the most reactive echo chamber...seed a few juicy, explosive tidbits, and sit back to watch the hyperexponential growth you're aiming for...which creates buzz off social media, and establishes a self-perpetuating 'truth.' I've said it before. Mainstream and social media manipulators declared a war on truth a long time ago...and they've won. They've established an alternate concept of reality wherein they're the lords of judgment. They create the lens through which facts are viewed. So to what degree is your co-worker foolish, versus a victim? EDIT: nasty tangent. If you question how a Putin can keep the Russian people toeing his line...well, just look at how effective Fox News is, with their followers...despite the presence of numerous alternatives. BTW, the source of this kerfuffle: https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-445225024907

That might be an interesting bit of speculation. 1. How many teams will have new (as in, not on their current roster at all) starting QBs next season? 2. How many rookie starters will there be? Obviously, #2 will be lower than #1 but...quite a few. The Draft Gurus think this is a QB-rich draft...and there's lots of teams in desperate shape at QB.

DraftKings has it KC -13.5, and the O/U is 45. The specifics are 15.5 for Denver and 29.5 for KC. I think this isn't a good game to bet, because who knows where the Bronco locker room will be, and whether they'll show up or not. Given that no one expected Hackett to last, firing him might ease some of the tension. And if Wilson has another bad start, yeah, we could see a duplicate of the Ram game. The Chiefs have also played several relatively shaky games this year.

My, my, we have choices for this one. Borzoi, AKA the Russian wolfhound in the past. EDIT: a warning. AKC's breeds list show nothing for Q, U, and Z...and neither does the Kennel Club of England.

Camellia Bowl on, so ESPN bottom line. Broncos-Chiefs line just flashed...it's now up to KC -13.

Sad to hear, but 12 years, 150 games, that's a long time to pound and be pounded. He's always come across as one of the Good Guys.

No, it's not uncommon, but as I understand it...it's also Not Good. And the possibly 3 separate concussive incidents, in combination with this? Also Not Good. And yeah, if his brain was fuzzy, those picks become much more understandable.

If Tua can't play...and I actually hope, as has been noted, he doesn't play...the last WC spot in the AFC just became wide open. Chargers locked the 2nd WC tonight. Miami is 8-7. There are 5 teams at 7-8...Jacksonville, Tenn, Pats, Jets, and Steelers. There's 2 spots, one of which is limited (AFC South). Miami, Tenn, and the Pats and Jets are all REELING...1-4, 0-5, 1-4, and 1-4 in the last 5 respectively. This feels almost equally symbolic to the AFC South, but it's predictable. Adding that 7th WC team guarantees mediocre-to-poor teams will be hanging around far too long. Way, way back when, there were discussions of a good percentage of a given field should qualify for playoffs. The numbers? Between 25 and 40%. Less than 25% and isolated losses can be too great a factor. (The CFP has this issue.) Greater than 40%, and the regular season is probably too diluted. The NFL and the NBA have this...altho the play-in aspect for the NBA is at least an interesting approach. There's a reward for the top 40%...direct entry...and a 2nd chance mini-round. MLB is at 40% with 6 teams; it's still debatable if 5 was better, but they're also constrained by their divisional structure. 6 is probably best.

NOTE THE QUALIFIER. For the seniors. It's part of Medicare Part D. I'll grant that's great but I'm worried the price for others may shoot up. The refined alternatives like Novolog and Humalog are MASSIVE profit centers for their manufacturers.

Schefter's point wasn't who was a worse coach; as Pariah noted, Meyer's was certainly a candidate for most embarrassing attempt at being an NFL head coach...and he may well have lost his team faster, altho that's hard to say. But Hackett lost the fan base in his very first game as HC. The only way to challenge *that* is coaches who got fired before they ever coached a game...and that means they lost ownership backing, most likely, rather than fan backing. Also, we kinda have to give Jeff Saturday a pass on "most embarrassing" because he's in an impossible position, and if anyone should be embarrassed, it's Jim Irsay. Here's some names we forgot. Did you remember that Lou Holtz tried to coach in the NFL? It was awful. https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/the_worst_nfl_coaching_tenures_of_all_time/s1__33296522#slide_1 I can pretty safely guarantee everyone's forgotten *several* of these.

Someone on a totally different forum commented about the hit for which Derwin James was ejected, baslcally saying, if you don't want get hit, don't play. <sigh>

The only thing that'll help the Broncos for next year is a time warp, so they can pass on the Wilson trade. Between the salary cap impact and the loss of draft picks, they're toast through at least 2025, it looks like.

Or, the team only a Nobody plays in a bowl game.....

George Santos admits he lied about several things, but then tries to say, it's nothing everyone does it. I wonder if a recall effort is allowed. Technically, perhaps, he's not a criminal, but he's a conscience-deficient slimeball.

That was the gist of the comments from Booger and Steve on Countdown. Steve said you *can't* expect self-reporting (I think he meant during the game) or another player calling out a potential problem...it's against the culture. No one's gonna want more game stoppages, but they'll take a short stoppage for evaluation purposes over watching another spasming player. Yeah, the protocol still has huge problems.

Oh dear. Tua declared OUT for Sunday. Self-reported concussion symptoms. On the MNF lead-in, Booger asserted "sit Tua for the rest of the season." And I have to agree. They're showing a hit from the 2nd quarter. He stayed in the rest of the game. No one spotted it...but today he's self-reporting? There WILL be an investigation. This is VERY concerning. Potentially 3 concussions over a span of, what, 4 months, is scary as HECK for long-term problems. BEST of luck to him. EDIT: Schefter on Hackett. "There has never been a head coach who lost the fans faster." The week 1 disaster...and then, never giving the fans a reason to hope.

Oh my.... And the Aggies continued their TOTAL BOWL DOMINATION!!!!! 24-19. After a disastrous 0-4 start. Tainted, perhaps, as Bowling Green lost their starting QB to a late hit OB. Called targeting on the field, that was overturned...ehhhhh. Questionable overturn, it was a bad hit. The Aggies are 4-0-1 in bowl games, believe it or not....

IMO Evero would probably be a mistake; his record suggests it'd be premature. Sure, good job this year, but it's his first year at coordinator level. Defensive passing game and secondary coach for the Rams last year...which is a huge factor, the glitter of that Super Bowl ring...but just position coach before that, or less. He does have a pretty long history in coaching at the pro level, I'll grant, but the titles/responsibilities look to be pretty narrow until last season. https://pro-football-history.com/coach/1320/ejiro-evero-bio Mind, that SB ring tends to cover up a whole lot of potential warts, so yeah, he'll probably be courted for HC by multiple teams.

So report is Jerry Rosburg, the advisor brought in to deal with game management since, well, Natty Hack (y'all like that one?) couldn't...is interim HC. That's probably minimal disruption, leave the coordinators to do what they do, and Rosburg arguably had half the head coaching duties during the game anyway.

No. Absolutely not after that complete, utter debacle and the entire, awful season. Waiting sends terrible messages to the team and fans when the team's shown it's that badly dysfunctional. And don't feel bad for Hackett. Assuming a prorated salary? He only made about $3.5 million or so. He's not hurting.

Just had a thought. A potential reason why Hackett doesn't get fired until after the season is, they still have 2 significant games left. Not significant to *them* but overall. Chiefs are battling for the #1 seed...a big deal. Chargers are battling for a playoff berth...a VERY big deal. OK, so...if the owners think they need to completely clean house...Paton, Hackett, and at least both coordinators, and sit Wilson...the Broncos are fielding a shell for those games, and will appear to be completely non-competitive. It isn't necessarily a good look at this point. It's a move that could've been made weeks ago, but now it offers the appearance of throwing games to aid other teams in your division. DraftKings line on Dec 20th was Chiefs -10; it's now -11.5. It's in Arrowhead. Can't say it'll be any worse than yesterday as that's a really high bar, but it's likely similar.

And the bowl season starts back up today with a warmup, before kicking into high gear. Today, it's, I believe, a pair of teams that were in the Bottom 25 for several weeks: NMSU (definitely) and Bowling Green (think so). Only the one game because, well, almost every bowl game is on ESPN and it's Monday......

There's a story from the Denver Post this morning. One feature is a poll...grade the game. 94% gave an F, not surprisingly. Almost 3% gave an A, which I suspect was sarcasm. And there's this quote: And there's this story. https://www.si.com/nfl/broncos/news/russell-wilson-broncos-take-action-change It calls out Wilson for intense criticism, but there's also this: They called for a press conference announcing a coaching search as well. And yeah, I have to agree. You know how often broadcasters (particularly) and sometimes talking heads dismiss player tiffs and bad reactions...altho, IIRC, they weren't doing that yesterday...but as much as has happened this year? Hackett and Wilson have lost this team. The only one you can ditch is Hackett. He MUST go, and he must go NOW. Not doing so at this point is a massive failure of leadership. Logan: Mayfield played fine, he took what was given...but that was the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Broncos shattered just like this:

The NFL is different. They've played on Sunday regularly. And note that they moved most games to Christmas Eve. With the NBA, it's a pure, unadulterated cash grab in association with ESPN/ABC. They saw, in most years, a giant void, and they wanted to make it the equivalent of the New Year's Day bowls, and the NFL's Thanksgiving games.

Ugh. Double Ugh. Triple Ugh. I wouldn't say the Cards blew it because it's not like they had more than a couple positive plays anyway.