nfreeman

I do not think JBot will give Reino a long-term deal, but he might, and if he does, I will be observing both Reino and JBot with a gimlet eye from then on.

Welcome Imlach!

From the Athletic:

My wife and I just finished "Dark" on Netflix. Recommended. It's sort of a German version of "Stranger Things," albeit a bit...darker. Beautiful scenery of the German countryside and very well done.

I'm harboring some hope that DOR can become a decent NHL player.

Taken much too soon. Godspeed Ray.

She's not a "victim" if it isn't true. To be clear: it's certainly quite possible that she is telling the truth and that McCoy is involved. If so, he's a dirtbag and should be prosecuted and kicked off the Bills immediately. But I see no need to pretend that it's not possible that she's fabricating. It also strains reality to say that McCoy hasn't denied it, or that the attorney hasn't walked back her initial statements.

Of course the facts aren’t in. But there are certainly plenty of indications that she could be fabricating, including McCoy’s immediate and firm denial, the attorney’s walk-back and the fact that she’s squatting in his house. And there were 2 accusers in the Dareus case.

OK -- but McCoy's involvement is pretty much "the whole thing." If someone unconnected with McCoy beat her up and she decided to claim it was engineered by McCoy, I think it's fair to describe that as "lying about the whole thing." I suppose YMMV.

There are quite a few possible scenarios that might have led to the walk-back, including the possibility of the attorney realizing that the ex-GF was lying about the whole thing.

That sounds like a pretty material walk-back.

While I agree that the other factors mentioned upthread are relevant, I also think football simply attracts more sociopaths than the other sports do, probably because (i) of the violent nature of the game and (ii) more young kids with violent tendencies are funneled into football. For the record, I think most football players do not fit that description -- I just think a higher percentage fit that description than is found in other sports.

Marcel Dareus continues to cover himself in glory: https://deadspin.com/jaguars-dt-marcell-dareus-has-been-accused-of-sexual-as-1827574312

I was driving on a 2-lane country road in upstate NYS a few days ago, where the deer are dense and an ongoing road hazard, and I saw a pretty gruesome car-deer collision. (You might want to stop here if you are squeamish.) I was traveling at about 50 mph, and I assume the car coming towards me was doing about the same. It was dusk and darkening. I could see, from about 50 yards away, a small deer in the other car's lane, with his hind legs and butt pretty much on top of the dividing line in the center of the road, and the rest of him facing the side -- so he was perpendicular to the oncoming car in the other lane. As I got closer, it seemed apparent that the other car didn't see the deer, since the car didn't appear to be slowing down or honking or anything. The car's left front bumper hit the deer squarely in the head and neck. The deer was decapitated. Its head and neck went spinning away from the collision like a frisbee and landed on the shoulder on my side of the road. The rest of the deer's body just crumpled to the ground immediately. A second later, we passed the other car (which didn't appear to be damaged) and then the headless body of the deer on our left and the head and neck of the deer on our right. It was like something out of Game of Thrones -- like what the Mountain might do to a deer if he was in a bad mood.

Joe Yerdon has a good article on Reino's contract status in the Athletic today:

Well, I appreciated Brawndo’s report. Not sure why a couple of others were so crabby about it.

Now that was a nice quote, Thorny.

Well, either McCoy or the accuser is a dirtbag, depending on which one is telling the truth.

Bold!

Roy played heavily sheltered minutes in 2006, since the Sabres had so many good forwards that played ahead of him. The next year, when it got harder in the absence of Dumont and Grier, he had 2 goals and 7 pts in 16 playoff games. And, after Black Sunday, when it got much harder, he put up numbers in the regular season and then had zero goals and 2 assists in 6 playoff games in 2010. Like Vanek, there's a reason Roy played with 5 NHL teams in 3 years after leaving Buffalo (and 4 Euro teams in 3 years after leaving the NHL). Once other teams got a good look at each of them, they quickly decided that their numbers weren't a reliable indicator of quality hockey.

Vogl on the Athletic today (he did a Q&A):

Yikes. My mistake on Skinner. I still like him better than Roysie though.

The difference is that diving is an annoyance created in an attempt to give one’s team an advantage, while Roysie’s gutlessness manifested in his vanishing when it mattered, which very much disadvantaged his team. And gutless players don’t make the US (or Canadian) Olympic team.

I guess I don’t think Pacioretty would sign an extension for less than, say, $6MM x 6 years, and I wouldn’t want the Sabres to give him that contract.

Well, Flagg sure is being a poopy-pants.