tfarks

I disagree. The Colts could have easily picked Ryan Leaf over Peyton there. The Bulls had their selection made for them - like most NBA drafts. They could have easily taken Michael Beasley Actually yeah, I forgot about that. Still, Peyton wins.

I disagree. The Colts could have easily picked Ryan Leaf over Peyton there. The Bulls had their selection made for them - like most NBA drafts.

I live in downtown Indy and I run into absolutely zero racist rednecks. Been to Conseco Fieldhouse many times - never talked to any. It's dumb and naive to say the fans of Indy stopped supporting their team because they're racist rednecks. There's no basis to it other than the ignorant view of an entire state. People who say dumb things can be corrected once in a while, it won't hurt them. Moving on. Hey, go back and read. I said the fans left because the team has sucked for a while. Somebody else claimed it was because of personality. I said that whoever used the excuse of "bad guys" for leaving the team as opposed to the fact that they stopped winning is just throwing out a convenient excuse while hiding their racist tendencies. I run into racist rednecks in New York city on a regular basis, how in the hell can you possibly claim you've never seen any in Indy? They didn't want to follow a team that ruined Reggie Miller's last year and his shot at a championship. They're hiding their racist tendencies by wanting their black franchise player to finally get a ring? No, it was a combination of disliking the players the represent the city and them losing games. It's not either or. They could have kept everybody and made the playoffs again the next season, but no one in Indy wanted to see that - and racism had little to do with it. Shooting up strip clubs does not endear you to many people. And as far as racist rednecks, I just haven't. I did when I went to college in the country in northern Indiana. Maybe your definition of a racist redneck is somehow different than mine? Maybe I'm bad at getting them to bring their racist redneck tendencies out. But when it comes to being in the city no, I don't see it.

I live in downtown Indy and I run into absolutely zero racist rednecks. Been to Conseco Fieldhouse many times - never talked to any. It's dumb and naive to say the fans of Indy stopped supporting their team because they're racist rednecks. There's no basis to it other than the ignorant view of an entire state. People who say dumb things can be corrected once in a while, it won't hurt them. Moving on.

Hey, cool. The guy that calls a bunch of people racist rednecks thinks his opinion matters.

Ok? Still impressive. Very impressive. You can try and mock great all you want. I never said they were a dynasty. Said they knew how to build a great team. Not that their franchise has been wildly successful. It's certainly more impressive to me than a team getting lucky and drafting Derrick Rose. Or paying out for Lebron James. They built a great team because of how they brought in role players who played well together. Take anyone off that Pacers team that got to the Finals and they're nothing special leading their own team, even Reggie. To me that's building a great team.

Bird has been in the front office since 92'. Now he's the GM and has been for a while. Donnie Walsh is still the owner's best friend and consults with him. They had a very well regarded scouting team there because of how long they have been there. Yknow, since the 90's. Again, I'm not getting into great - don't care. If you wanna say okay, that's cool. But not being able to beat Jordan makes the front office dumb? Great logic there. And who cares if you're unimpressed? It was impressive what they did, no matter how you may feel. And of course the small market matters even though its not baseball. Free agents don't flock to Indy. What big free agent have they ever signed? And the owner certainly doesn't bring in the same amount of revenue, he can't blow away the luxury tax like the Lakers. Yeah, no big deal the small market teams can't pay an extra 20 million like the big market teams can and get players to come live on the beach. No matter.

"fact." How many small market teams have had the success the Pacers have had since the 90's started? The brawl destroyed their reputation but people are glossing over plenty of years before that. From the 89-90 season they went to the playoffs 16/17 times. And had 9 consecutive appearances before the brawl. How many big franchises can even claim doing that? Any? In the NBA land of get your superstar and win your title they were successful without it. That's called building a great team. Maybe you want to argue 'great'. Which I'll pass on.

I stumbled across a website full of housewives blogging (forget how I got there), had something to do with the Pacers. Probably another strip club incident or something. And they were talking about how they used to go to so many games and love the Pacers, now they're a bunch of thugs they could never support. I think a lot of Pacers fans were spoiled by the awesome 90's teams. They made the playoffs every year, represented the city well. Every report about the team and its players were positive. Look at Rick Carlise quotes that came out recently about how those Pacer teams he was an assistant coach for were had the best veterans he has ever been around. Yeah the same guy who just won with a bunch of good veterans in Dallas. I could go on and on, but of course everything with the brawl and the strip club incidents and gun charges really soured the city and they did not want the team to be a Jailblazers type. So Walsh and Bird overhauled the team and started over. Yeah they have sucked for a while, which is obviously a big deal on attendance. But the fact is the Pacers front office knows how to make a great team and they wanted to do it devoid of bad character players. They're succeeding and rebuilding the right way. The fans will undoubtedly come back, and not just some of them if they were winning with "thugs." Fickle fans or "racist rednecks"? You decide.

He knows us so well.

Including the AK-47 from the start just to make It Was a Good Day jokes. Brilliant.

Friggen sweet

Wow I had no idea the guy hit 1 HR in high school last year. I hit more than that. That is certainly some projectable power they're seeing

Alrighty. So with the 4th pick 1 of either Vick/Adrian Peterson/Chris Johnson/Arian Foster will get to me. So, should be easy then right? Or would those out there pass on Foster for again, someone like Jamaal Charles? The chart he showed of 18+ TD RB's and their following season was pretty damning.

Would say, Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning be a better pick than Jamaal Charles? And take my chance on a 2nd round RB?

So I read this article: http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=NFLDK2K11_TMRManifesto What do you guys think of this? I have the 4th pick in the draft, if he's there do I take Michael Vick? If I do, how long can one usually wait to pick up a 2nd QB worth something? My initial thought was to pick up someone like Jamaal Charles, but if Vick really does provide that many points than it would be worth a shot, no?

That is most definitely a play full of fail. Also, Thomas won't enjoy watching film with his teammates when they replay him getting owned by Tebow's stiff arm not once, but twice. Wonder what Meph thought about that play...

Awe damn you done brought the hockey folk up in here

Yeah that works. I don't see any way he ends up on the Bears. You're probably right, but I wouldn't be entirely opposed to a trade centered around Evans and Knox. I wouldn't do that. If Knox is sincere about "being a Bear for life" is it a good idea to trade him for a WR going towards the wrong side of 30? Especially with Knox being cheap for 1-2 more years and full of potential. We would be exchanging vertical threat WR's but with one having a significantly longer career left.

Haha thanks TT. I was a little off there.

I know this doesn't really fit but this thread somehow put it in my mind. Does anyone still have that story about these nerds and their damn stats? Something like, so I'm at the game right, and Manny Ramirez comes up to bat. And this little kid is like daddy daddy Manny is hitting .300 and I just freakin lost it, man. These nerds and their damn stats. I also remember this part: And your buddy is wearing a shirt and no pants, and I was like, he's Donald Ducking it bra, it's classic.

Indubitably.

Damn, I was hoping Knox would stick around for a while. Hopefully the season starts and he realizes he will get a lot of balls thrown his way still.

Just taking the optimistic outlook here, but maybe they didn't spend quite as much as they thought they would to get some of the bigger names and were able to go a little higher in other places (like the Shoulders signing)? Just a guess, since I'm hoping they got a bunch of those bigger names. Could be the freed up money of not signing Ricky Jacquez. Which I'm speculating just based off of his tweet.

Did you read the post above yours?