That Aud Smell

You're gatekeeping what's an acceptable dance and what isn't? I'm curious to hear more about your criteria. Baker's interpretation of the Walk It Talk It dance was in-line with how the young folks were doing it at the time. (There's no one way to do it - not unlike Digital Underground's The Humpty Dance ("no two people will do it the same; you gotta get down when you appear to be in pain").

Ideally, your black socks were knee high when you made that decision. C'mon. There's nothing wrong with the guy dancing and goofin' around. That said, my take: The executives and pundits who pegged him as the #1 QB prospect in that draft identified a player who looked so NFL ready that they failed to consider that, maybe, what they were seeing was all he was ever going to be. He was at his ceiling. And then they failed to reckon with his average physical measurables - size, speed, etc. I still think he could be a decent NFL quarterback, if healthy. One thing that seems to be weighing more heavily against him is that he has had a good to very good running game to support his play at QB. You'll often hear that: This guy could be good or even great, but he needs a strong run game to support him (e.g., Russell Wilson). Anyway. I wish him well, except when he plays the Bills or plays in a game where the Bills need his team to lose.

He was super fun. I know I’ve asked it here before: Didn’t he tussle with Ray Bourque and win in a split decision?

Not necessarily - maybe not at all. See @Norcal’s point about decoy routes. Brown seems crazy - but he could be crazy like a fox when it comes to his money. If he knew he was getting sent in for packages not designed for him … that could’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back … or the straw that stirred the drink (?) 😜.

Thanks. So it was 8, not 3 or 4. Seems safe to infer that the tension was tied to the incentives. Brown may have interpreted a lack of targets for him, and the coaching staff's indifference to whether he reached those incentives as the coaches plotting against him. And, honestly, it is IMO totally possible that the coaching staff was working to cap those incentives and save the owner a few bucks (and the GM some cap space (?)). So when Brown was busting his butt to play through pain, but was not getting targets (and his cash), and then was told to go back in ... maybe he made a different sort of business decision? Like, "nah, man, I'm good. I can play through this pain if there's a million dollars at stake ... but if you're trying to keep me from that money? Funk you. I'm hurt. Can't go." To which the coaches may have reasonably responded: "Okay. If you're hurt and can't go, then go to the locker room for treatment." Which Brown would have heard as: "You're fired. Leave."

Ian Rapaport carrying water for A. Brown, for sure. The truth is at the bottom of a bottomless pit.

Story emerging is that he was ~3-4 good catches (for ~50 yards) and a TD away from ~$1M in bonuses ($333K for each item), and that he understood the coaching staff as actively keeping him out of the game plan so as to avoid him hitting those incentives. Which, by the way, is totally plausible.

Can anyone recall a sabre from the 80s/90s who would qualify as "remember that guy" obscure, and would have been a bit of a Short King? not nathan gerbe short, but built much like nathan was/is -- like a brick sh1thouse. the name is escaping me. Wait. I see it above: Gates Orlando. Whew - what a career that guy had. Half a lifetime spent playing in Europe!

And immediately, I picture a young #18 winding up so far and hard that the blade of his stick is almost touching his skates, attempting a slapshot from 5 feet in front of the net. That, of course, never happened. But it didn't stop us, as kids, from imagining that it did. Also: He borders on non-obscure. If I were to go obscure from that era, I'd offer Sean McKenna.

I am partial to Keith Gretzky, even though he never played for the big club. Greg Brown is another good one. I was convinced that the Hobey Baker finalist was gonna light sh1t up for the Sabres. Not so much, turns out. And TIL: He's created a good coaching career for himself. Final honourable mention goes to Norm Lacombe. Great name. He was a bit of a bust, I believe.

I think the joke reached its completed form with "Mike Peca Smehlik Zhitink!" I think the best joke I ever made was -- in real time, at a game with old friends, with no pre-planning -- bursting out into "Never gonna clear the puck, never gonna leave the zone" in the midst of some defensive futility on his part. I mean, my friends and everyone in ear shot burst into laughter. This was also before "Rick Roll" existed.

It's well documented that TBI's can cause personality changes and mood disorders -- some of which can persist a long time. Whether those effects are consistent with CTE is a totally unresolved question, AFAICT.

I'm not really suggesting anything, seeing as I don't really know anything about this evolving area of study. But if we accept as true that subconcussive impacts are the driver of CTE, then I would suggest that, of all positions on the field, wide receivers in (American) football are probably the least affected by repeated subconcussive impacts. That's not to say that they're unaffected by them. But they sure aren't experiencing them like linemen or linebackers, who basically crack heads on every single play. As for your mention of "being tackled repeatedly," I'm not even sure whether garden variety tackles of a WR would register as a subconcussive impact -- I'm sure some of them would, but if, say, a DB grabs a WR by the waist and spins him to the ground? That's probably less of a subconcussive impact than each of the O-linemen experienced on that play when they came out of their stance and engaged with a defender.

"Currently, the best available evidence suggests that subconcussive impacts, not concussions, are the driving force behind CTE." https://concussionfoundation.org/cte-resources/subconcussive-impacts

I've also heard people talking about the CTE angle. I have no idea on that front, and no one else does either AFAIC. (FWIW, I would tend to doubt that he's a CTE sufferer -- the big CTE risks seem to be players who crack heads with other players on just about every play.)

I'd wager dollars to donuts that he is essentially broke. I heard the interview with the guy who picked him up at Newark Airport yesterday -- Brown could just be a class-A arsehole ... but it sounds to me like he might actually suffer from some sort of manic mental disorder -- bipolar or the like. Really good post, especially this last piece. It worries me that the Bills rely on Allen as much as they do. There were plenty of "MVP" chants in the stadium yesterday after his second rushing TD, which of course is not happening with that passing stat line. But it's true, IMO. No player is more valuable to a playoff team than Allen is to the Bills. They need to get him a little more help, both in terms of personnel and play calling.

Hear, hear. At the stadium, I sort of lost sight of the fact that his passing stats were subpar. (Quick aside: I specifically recall 3 or 4 early-ish drops, although without the benefit of replays, I lost track of them.) He was the heart and soul of the offence, for sure. He found a way to win, and led his teammates in doing so.

With early variants, there was data to show that the vaccines inhibited transmission. With Delta, that effect started to wane pretty significantly (and pretty quickly following the second shot). I have no idea what effect Omicron is having, but I presume that vaccines (and their boosters) remain highly effective at reducing severe illness, hospitalization, and death from the novel coronavirus's variants ... but are probably not effective (or, if effective, very minimally) in preventing transmission.

That throw to Davis was bonkers. Beat the Patriots!

I'm talking like within a matter of days ... or hours. Also, it strikes me that the professional leagues' COVID protocols are an ill fit for the Omicron wave. They're going to have to revamp their rules because, under their current rules, they just won't be able to play. It'll be impossible.

NHL's gonna pause play, aren't they? It seems inevitable at this point.

Maraschino Welts.

Maybe I haven't listened long enough, but what I just heard is that, when he's watching the games, he's "99%" focused on watching the game and is almost entirely not looking at his laptop or peripheral monitors. His discussion of how the data and the eye test work together is very smart, balanced, reasonable. One big takeaway: The data is a tool - it's not a religion.

HC DG would never.

Alternatively: