Soul

He's a bench player. If he's starting, it's a weakpoint. I'm not one to say he shouldn't be here at all, but he's really not starter-quality. I do like him though. Guess the grit won me over. 8-) But as a supplemental player.

Neh. You always have to look at the dollars and what makes sense. Get the guy here, but don't hamstring us even further. We're already carrying some contracts that hurt, or are likely to start hurting.

What did the 49ers get in return for that 1st round pick? They must have gotten raped. They're gonna finish in the cellar, and they'll have no top 5 pick to show for it. Wow. And there are the Pats, perfect record and possibly the 2nd overall pick in the draft. Just wow. Wowzilla.

Left-handed. Don't forget left-handed. And don't forget coming off season-ending elbow surgery.

I don't like that the only GM who is talking about it is the Padres. Hendry is silent. Does that mean he considers our chances slim?

Zook is truly amazing on the recruiting trail. It will be fun watching this team in the next 2-3 years.

I never said the Cowboys aren't a good team. I think you're a little over-sensitive when it comes to the Cowboys. The Patriots, however, are a better team -- and they've already proven it on the field this year. That's a simple fact. Does it mean there's absolutely no chance whatsoever for the Cowboys? No. But the chance is very, very small. As for having as much a chance as the Bears -- we all saw what happened to the Bears with their chance. I agree there's still plenty of football to be played though. Who knows? Maybe someone pulls off the miracle and the Pats never even get there. You might be suprised to learn I already have the Cowboys penciled into the Super Bowl. I'm far from a person who thinks they aren't good. They did struggle this weekend against a vastly inferior team though. Not sure why, but they did.

Well I guess that would suck, considering there appears to be few other options out there.

If the Pats lost to the NFC contender in the Super Bowl, for me it would be a shocker on a level I have never seen. The only chance to upend them is if one of the AFC teams does it in the playoffs. Maybe Jacksonville or Indy. I don't really believe in Pitt. That's how I'm looking at it anyway. I'm prepared to be shocked, I just don't see how it would happen. It's not like the Pats have never been to the Super Bowl before so they might become intimidated.

Almost as great as watching Romo act like a little bitch when things weren't going great. 12-1 congratulations, you're playing for 2nd place just like the rest of the nfc Nope. We're playing for number six. Playing for it? Yes. With a solid chance of winning it? Not at all, not when the only way you can beat the Lions is with a lucky bounce. And that's just a fact, mandinga.

Tony's magic today came in the form of a Detroit player who should be whipped for trying to pick up the fumble rather than falling on it and ending the game.

Hey, he doesn't "hustle" enough, remember? Maybe Skiles and Hendry should get together and discuss the finer points of "grit" and "hustle" :roll:

So if the Bulls put together a run to the playoffs, is everyone going to be so overjoyed that they forget, once again, what losing 10 of their first 12 did to their playoff seeding? I want improvements to this team -- it's not going to end better than it has in previous years without a major change, and I'm not satisfied with another 2nd round ouster from the playoffs. With the lack of any real improvements to the team over the past 2 years, I have to wonder if the Bulls are happy with this. Maybe they just don't care to win it all. Too hard, and the seats still fill with the current club.

=D> In other words, I was proven a hypocrite by some guy in about 2 seconds but no matter, I'm sticking to my guns. LOL.

Same here. I was all for Cuban, then when he financed that movie I fell off his bandwagon real quick. Wouldn't at all say I'm off his bandwagon, though. He finances lots of movies through his company. He's using edge and controversy to build his HD businesses, and he's leveraging movies through those outlets in addition to releasing them in theatres. It's a heady plan -- he's actually doing premieres of his movies on HDNet at the same time they release in theatres, something that has never been even imagined before. My take on Redacted is this: I really don't like the movie idea. I didn't actually see the film, so I don't feel like I'm a position to comment. But I didn't like many of the things I heard. That said, if you are going to base a business on releasing films that have controversial content, then you'd better be willing to back things that might offend people. I think it's important to note that Cuban also forced the director to edit out certain parts of the film he thought went too far. So it's not like he's willing to run roughshod over anything and everything.

That's pretty amazing. I knew Zook was recruiting very well, but I didn't know it had gotten to the point where kids are seeking out Illinois.

and what's florida's payroll going to be? like 8 dollars or something? this is ridiculous. no wonder they have no fans. They're gonna average like 5,000 for home games this year. It's a complete joke. It's the Expos all over again. Can a move be far behind?

If they were in the NL Central, they'd have it sewn up by June.

Hendry's always been bad, but now he's bordering on being a bumbling fool.

...and the AL continues to get better while the NL sinks.... I view this move as the Marlins' official "we give up" trade. I'd be suprised if they were still in Miami in 3 years, barring a new stadium deal which looked to be a longshot earlier in the year.

Not really rooting FOR them, I just won't mind seeing the '72 Phins have to shut up.

The timeout did turn out to be a bad idea, but Billick made a good point in the press conference that he'd be roasted had he not called a timeout even though the Ravens had the wrong personnel for what they thought the Pats were going to run. They got lucky on the stop, but the timeout (which was probably the smart thing to do) canceled out that luck. It still doesn't excuse the horrific "holding" penalty the refs handed to the Pats. Saw a replay on SportsCenter where they showed a view from behind the Pats line of the play and the Pats WR did appear to be held after the 5-yard limit. It was holding. possibly, but that type of "holding" occurs on just about every play. I understand where you're coming from here. However, the guy was making contact past 5 yards and Watson was visibly held going into the endzone. Maybe they don't call it every time, but if you are going to make obvious contact with a guy going into the endzone and he's thrown the ball, you run a pretty good chance of picking up a holding call. I'll grant that it was a little ticky tack, but not deserving of all the hair pulling and teeth gnashing that I'm seeing. Let's put it this way -- you could probably go to the game tape of every game played in the NFL this year and find a couple plays exactly like it where no flag was thrown. You're right, it could be called. It's kind of like holding along the OLine; it probably only gets called 20% of the time if we want to go right to the rulebook. I think it's sad though that the refs didn't call this all game long and then suddenly whipped out the flag on the most important play of the game. The inconsistency is what bothers me the most. Even Randy Moss said the Ravens were playing like that all game. So if they don't throw the flag earlier, how are the Ravens to know how they need to play? It's like the strikezone in baseball -- consistency is most important. I'm sort of torn on the Pats. I really don't like them, but I think I like the '72 Dolphins less. So I won't be upset if they win out. At least we won't have to hear champagne corks popping from Miami every year anymore.

lol wow he has 30+ years of karma ready to bite him in the ass I guess I dont know much about Csonka (sp?), is he a a-hole? He probably wasn't originally, but the obsession with being the only undefeated NFL team has turned all those '72 Phins players & coaches into smug jerks.

Yeah, this guy would revolutionize the Cubs, and maybe the entire league. Come to think of it, that's probably one reason they'll block him from buying the Cubs. Owners don't want Cuban's kind of out-of-the-box thinking.

That guy! I love that Illinois is basically in a no-lose situation. Everyone expects them to get blown out, so they can only impress. People who think Illinois is going to get blown out either just hate Illinois or they don't follow Illinois or both. We were being blown out just once this season and it was the first game of the season. And we ended up losing by just 4. USC is playing well right now, but did anybody watch the USC/UCLA game? USC didn't look all that dominating to me. They looked much better against Arizona St. to me. If there was a Pac Ten vs Big Ten challenge in football, how many games do you think the Big Ten would win of the following? Maybe two or three, like they do in basketball vs the ACC. OSU vs. USC Illinois vs. ASU Mich vs. Oregon State Wisc vs. UCLA Penn State vs. Oregon Iowa vs. Arizona Indiana vs. Wash State Mich state vs. Stanford Purdue vs. California Northwestern vs. Washington Indiana vs. Best High school team in California Indiana went 7-5 and is in a bowl game; I think they deserve a better matchup than a high school team. I'm sure you mean "Minnesota" at the end. As for that list, the Big Ten would win well more than two or three. I feel pretty comfortable on five of those, ignoring #11. And that doesn't include a couple toss-ups. (I'm assuming Dixon is still out in this scenario.) Yeah looking at that, I think it possible there could be several wins. Put the games in the cold midwest -- add maybe some trademarked slushy snow? You could see the Big 10 matchup decently. I still think the Pac 10 is clearly the stronger conference though.