Week Four Trash Talk
Not nearly as much criminal docket news this week, but one thing is notable. The NFL has started its pushback on the AP story of the “law enforcement official” who sent the full elevator video to the league now that AP has supplemented its original report to reflect that the law enforcement official sent the tape addressed to Jeff Miller, the head of the NFL Security Office in New York.
This is a sizable problem for the league. So now the NFL is shopping, through its oh so subservient mouthpiece ESPN, the posture that the tape story is all a lie:
“Our office has found absolutely no evidence to support the claim of the anonymous ‘law enforcement source’ that he sent a video to the NFL office or that he received a telephone call to his ‘disposable cell phone’ from an unidentified female using an NFL line,” the league said.
This is simply pathetic. As if they had not already engaged in enough mendacity and duplicity over their handling of the Rice case, now they are doubling down. Their defense to the tape allegations is it is all a lie. That the AP got hoaxed on their huge story. The AP, who knows exactly the full identity of their source, his law enforcement status, and presumably has confirmed details. The NFL is the truth teller and everyone else, from Ray and Janay Rice, to Ozzie Newsome, to casino security, to the cops, to the venerable AP…they all are lying. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Roger Goodell and the NFL grow exponentially more pathetic with each passing day.
After Thursday night’s debacle here at Sun Devil Stadium, it is hard to talk about football at all. Very ugly. A possible upset special might be Stanford at Washington. Tough conference game and the Huskies are improved under Chris Peterson. The national interest seems to be on FSU and Heisman criminal Winston at NC State. Hard to see the Wolfpack making a game of it, but one can hope. Really not a lot of interesting games this week.
On the beleaguered NFL side, there are a few games worth watching. Starting, of course with the best rivalry in the history of pro football, Packers and Bears. It is at Soldier Field, so I am not sure why the Cheese is a one point favorite. The Pack is playing like crap so far this year, no running game and an unusually ineffective passing attack. I’ll take the Bears here. Can the Lions stay on their early season roll and beat the Jets Jets Jets? Yes, they can. Eagles at Niners is really interesting. Eagles are rolling, and San Fran is reeling. Oh, and Jim Harbaugh really is a giant flaming detestable asshole. So, I will be rooting for the Iggles, plus they are more fun to watch. Patriots have been horrible so far, especially on offense. Still hard to see them not beating the Chefs to go to 3-1 despite how bad they have been. KC is still hung over from the Royals making the playoffs.
On a sad note, this blog has lost another of our old friends dating back to when we started. She has been absent for about two years now, but Skdadl was a great and wonderful presence in our comment threads for a very long time. Now she is gone. The full obituary for Susan Kent Davidson is here, and she had a full life. RIP Susan.
On that melancholy note, I leave you to chat it up.
Sad, re skdadl. May she rest in peace.
Re trash. King Roger the Clown and his minions are, by all appearances, trying to do two things: use their contractual power over the networks to spout their bullshit and smoke out the law enforcement source. (Yes, NFL HQ is starting to look like a clown car more and more.)
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So, this debacle gets more and more interesting. And King Roger the Clown has no intention of leaving. He’s going to stay until the owner decide the damage he’s doing the League isn’t worth the trouble of keeping him. Kind of like Ralphie on The Sopranos, though I doubt he’ll be squirting bug spray in Jerry Jones’s eyes before they beat his head in with a frying pan, take him out back and bury him in some condo development down the Shore.
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I’m waiting on the USPS tracking number of the tape’s package to show up. I’m going to bet it was signed for in the offices of the National Felon League where and when and by whom it was addressed to. (Second-to-last refuge of a scoundrel is to blame the Postal Service. Last refuge is to blame his secretary.)
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On to more interesting topics.
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Following a rash of defensive injuries last week in Carolina, my Stillers went out and brought James Silverback Harrison back from two weeks of retirement. Instead of watching Cartoon Network and eating cereal with his sons, he’ll be terrorizing the Tampa Bay offense. There are many who have some doubts whether he can perform at his old level or anything close to it. He is 36 (Biebs is older) and not the Force of Nature he was, but he knows the system and is a workout freak. This is the guy who, after his 101 yard pick-6 in the Super Bowl against BMAz’s local Cards was the ultimate winning margin, returned to Pittsburgh and went directly from the plane to the weight room.
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And was pissed when his teammates weren’t there with him.
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I expect him to make meaningful contributions on and off the field.
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And I expect the Stillers will win.
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Picks:
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Iggles over the imploding Niners. Given the revelations of Baltimore Harbaugh’s intervention to get Rice a sweet deal and the couple-Super-Bowls-ago paeans to the Harbaugh brothers’ bookended competitiveness, I’m suspecting Frisco Harbaugh has bad character, too. And it’s playing out in a locker room that’s no longer buying in. Keep in mind, this was the same locker room that drove Mike Singletary to drop his trousers. So, I suspect ownership and the interplay between them, the coaching staff, and players has grown some strange toxic fungus or something that is making this team go nuts. Kinda the same way good ballplayers suddenly can’t hit, pitch or field the minute they sign a long-term contract with the Mets, then recover their form the minute they go to another team.
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Da Bears. People down on Cutler notwithstanding, the Bears are winning. I see nothing changing that.
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Stillers over TB. Big Ben seems to be rolling into actually working well in the Haley offense. I do worry about their defensive backfield, though adding Silverback and his competitive fire and desire can and should help.
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J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS are a parody of a football team. Notwithstanding Stafford’s brush with falling bridges, I think the Kitties will win.
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Just an aside – if we as a country really want our infrastructure to stop collapsing and our governments to rebuild and maintain it the way it should be in a wealthy country, then perhaps strapping NFL quarterbacks to bridge abutments will get the pols’ collective thumbs out of their collective asses. Nothing else has, so far.
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Toss-up is the Owboys-Aints.
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Too nice a day here to be sitting inside in front of a screen.
“if we as a country really want our infrastructure to stop collapsing and our governments to rebuild and maintain it the way it should be in a wealthy country, then perhaps strapping NFL quarterbacks to bridge abutments will get the pols’ collective thumbs out of their collective asses”
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Brilliant suggestion scribe! Hilarious and brilliant. MoC would fall all over themselves rebuilding infrastructure to preserve the cachet of their luxury box tickets ; )
Strap a few NFL owners to the bridge abutments, too. Preferably close to their taxpayer-funded stadiums.
LOL — great idea ; )
Thanks for mentioning Stafford’s success at cheating death. I take that as a good sign.
aw, damn. skdadl you have been missed, and will be always. do click through her complete obit – fills in the amazing gal behind her wonderful comments. ends with:
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“contributions to the cause of animal rescue and in particular to the Humane Society of Durham Region (Whitby, ON, 905-665-7430) would be appreciated. You may also visit humanedurham.com to make an online donation.”
From skdadl’s obit: “Their Annex home was the site of many memorable parties, Robbie Burns fetes and Christmas dinners featuring the traditional goose.”
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Given her comments around here, I have no doubt they were memorable indeed.
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raising a glass of scotch
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To skdadl!
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DING!
The line seems on both sides of it now, but I’m also surprised the Packers would be favored in Chicago. In these cases though, usually Vegas knows something. The Bears do have a number of injuries and I guess Brandon Marshall is now a game-time decision. When Marshall is banged up, he generally ends up playing, but we’ll see. Plus the Bears haven’t been all that impressive either outside of the second half in San Francisco.
Prior to last year’s Super Bowl, I read something interesting about the line. It seemed it was being pushed to make the Broncos the favorite because bettors wanted to see Richard Sherman get his comeuppance for being shouty on TV. (White people, amirite?) That really surprised me, because I figure the serious gamblers are totally dispassionate. Not tooting my own horn, because I know crap about picking games, but when I saw that I wanted to put a whole bunch of money I didn’t have on the Seahawks.
If I figure anything else out I’ll try to share it, since you totally want to take betting advice from some anonymous guy on the Internet.
Professional gamblers are dispassionate. When the line moves, it’s so the bookies (legal and otherwise) can keep the bets on either side balanced. The line moves because either there’s a big imbalance in the bets or some big money knows something and lays a big bet that not only imbalances the betting but also indicates there are ignorant chumps – including the books – on the other side, or there’s a sudden change in the makeup of one team or the other, making invalid the old deductions supporting earlier bets.
Any thoughts on BAD’ Sherman conjecture? As a good self-flagellating lib, I found it plausible.
I am ready to throw in with you!
i always appreciated skedadl’s commentary, there was something especially appealing in her writing. i loved her nom d’plume. i have missed her commentary and wondered from time-justto-time just where she had got to. i’m sorry we won’t hear from her ever again.
Skdadl was such a wonderful presence for so long, it was incredibly jarring when she went offline a couple of years ago. We owe a great debt of thanks to @shekissesfrogs for alerting us to Skdadl’s passing and the link to the obit.
Gotta hug our rescue cats a couple of extra times for her in the coming days.
RIP Susan…! I like how she was an Albertan like moi…! ;-)
RIP skadadl/Susan.
In a rare occurrence, the KY ‘Cats are favored by 17 at home today. Of course, it is against Vanderbilt who seem to have reverted to their historical norm so the ‘Cats will most likely break their 17 game SEC losing streak (up 17 – 7 at the half). Then at 3:30 my WKU Hilltoppers get to visit Navy at Annapolis. Maybe they’ll be able to pull off the upset once again.
It has been over 20 years since I really gave a sh*t about anything NFL related so I will go my own way tomorrow.
Melancholy, indeed. I am so sad to hear of skdadl’s passing. So many voices stilled from those hopeful days at The Next Hurrah. I’ve missed seeing her handle around here. Missed her commentary. Her family and friends have my deepest condolences.
I’m not sure what to think about the Chefs and Pats. The KC crowd will be a big part, but a lot of their energy will depend on how the last two games go for the Royals and Tigers. KC is a game behind Detroit, and if KC ends up passing the Tigers (KC wins two and Detroit loses 2), the crowd will be absolutely bananas. If the Royals and Tigers end the season tied, then they’ll play on Monday night in Detroit to determine who is the division champ and who is the wild card (who then plays on Tuesday). If that happens, then there will be a lot of folks at Arrowhead with divided attention, and likely some cheers and groans related to the baseball game that would come at odd times for the football game. (Arrowhead crowd cheers a Royals triple against Detroit, just as the Pats run back a punt for a TD, for example.)
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In the Chefs’ lockerroom, however, I suspect there will be a little bit of a chip on everyone’s shoulders. I can hear Andy Reid now . . . “The Royals have sucked for decades, and now they’ve got a taste of the post-season. Good for them. But WE are the Chefs, and we OWN sports in this town. Tonight, we’re gonna prove it on Monday Night Football. Now let’s get out there and take the Patriots apart.”
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Will it work? I don’t know. But the intangibles are going to be a big thing in this game, whether it’s the crowd or injuries or something else. God help the Chefs if they have another starter go down.
Kenny Football and the Aggies are rolling again.
Where oh where is that scourge of the seas, the Gulf Coast Pirate??
Considering this comes from Gloria Allred I’ll give this a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most credible, but still:
There’s a claim that an NFL player was back on the field the day after an alleged rape victim filed her police report (no apparent issue of “prompt report” in this instance).
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/nfl-player-accused-rape-back-field-day-victim-files-police-report-attorney-article-1.1954366
I halfway hope this allegation is true if only because it will be yet another reason King Roger the Clown’s week can only get worse.
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Clicking through to read the whole piece, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of an author’s name on the top of the story. Instead, the piece is attributed to “ESPN.com news services”.
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Could it be that no reporter was willing to allow their own name to go atop such a blatant piece of stenography masquerading as journalism?
Are there any residents of the Big Mitten in here?
Bueller? BUELLER??
Even the folks in East Lansing are embarrassed by what happened in Minnesota today.
*ouch* That was a beat down in the Big Haus…! ;-)
Not to mention what went on in Detroit this evening, where the hapless Twins finally got a world-beating performance out of Ricky Nolasco, who
…might just be the worst Minnesota sports team acquisition since the Vikes nabbed Herschel Walker.
Not in Minnesota! In Ann Arbor. All the more pathetic, but thankfully I had all the ready excuses not to see it.
bmaz, I’m definitely looking forward to you and Dahlia at the Book Salon…!
(by Mom’s absence take it she located her errant Irish in-laws…)
Correct. By scrambling after they canceled their flight I was able to get them the last 2 seats (First Class!) on the 2nd flight out to Detroit, not Grand Rapids. So we had to drive through crazed pre-Spartan traffic there and back to fetch them. They’re in good sorts, if worse for the travel wear.
Tomorrow we head up to a cottage on a beach in Traverse Bay. That ought to relax them up.
Speaking of which:
“LITTLE BROWN JUG” BY GLENN MILLER:
http://youtu.be/YOG89TrL4Vk
Keep Tommy on his feet.
Seems the Packers have the sane problem as the Pats
“Much has been said about why the Packers’ offense has sputtered to begin the season – receivers can’t get separation, quarterback has missed some throws, running game is dormant and unimaginative play calling, to name a few.
During a discussion about the Packers’ sputtering offense on NBC Sports Network’s “Pro Football Talk,” Cris Collinsworth fixed the finger of fault on the offensive line.
“The typical fan playing fantasy football cares about the quarterback, the running back, the wide receivers,” Collinsworth said. “When you watch the games unfold, and you study them on tape, it comes down to – the offensive line open holes for Eddie Lacy? Can they pass protect for Aaron Rodgers? Corey Linsley had to come in and play center in Seattle, Bryan Bulaga got hurt early on, and Derek Sherrod came in and had problems.
“If you can’t run block and you can’t pass protect the way that you thought you were going to, you’re not going to look the same offensively,” Collinsworth said. “They really have had trouble keeping an offensive line intact over the last few years, and it’s hurt.”
Thanks for that BSL. It drives me to distraction the way a lot of football commentary focuses on certain positions and pretty much ignores all of the rest. There is a reason all those guys are on the field. It’s nice to see Collinsworth point that out.
Now, if the Packers can just sort out those problems before kickoff in Soldiers Field ; )
Whatever happened to Randall Cobb??
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Witness protection program or something??
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Is Donald Driver rested and ready?
Didn’t know Jeter was from Kalamazoo Michigan.
Mickey Mantle played his last game at Fenway on September 28th at age 32.
He ended his career 0 for 20, rattled with injuries.
So are you watching the last installment of Jeter-palooza? I’m actually skipping the Packer kickoff (don’t tell anyone) to watch NESN’s coverage of the ceremony for Jeter in Fenway…
The ceremony brought tears to my eyes
The captain goes out with RESPECT
Me, too. Never thought I would tear up over a NY Yankee ; ) Very nice send off by the Sox organization. I especially got a kick out of Jeter laughing as the woman sang about respect “when you get home”. That was both hilarious and perfect : )
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bmaz, Driver sounds like a great idea! Much better than the bring-back-Favre foolishness ; )
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And ros, thanks!!! Team Phred needs all the help it can get! : )
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Uh, bmaz, this is what I get for being a slow typist, Cobb just made a very welcome appearance… Go Pack!
I’ve heard it said any number of times by journos who know them that, if you had a son, you’d be proud to have him turn out like Andy Pettite or Derek Jeter. Jeter’s whole life in and out of the game has been about RESPECT and about doing things the right way.
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Now that Jeter’s career is over, consider the one statistic no one has mentioned among the 3465 hits (6th all-time), games at shortstop (most all-time), and all the rest.
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In 20 seasons in the Majors, he was never ejected from a game.
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Never.
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Never argued balls and strikes, never argued calls, never. Just took the call, respectfully, and approached things with the attitude of “I’ll work through the situation now, and get the hit or the call next time.”
Excellent point scribe, I hadn’t heard about the (non)ejection statistic.
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Just want to mention to both you and BSL though, they’re spelling it RE2PECT in Fenway today ; )
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And while I’m mentioning things… Pack just went up 31-17 in Chicago. I’m giving rosalind the credit ; )
Good point.
I think we should chip in and buy Scribe the new book: The Scribe by Globe columnist Bob Ryan
The most awesomely imposing huge physical presence in the HISTORY of the NBA (no, not talking about that Shaq fraud) NEVER fouled out of a game.
Born in Pequannock, New Jersey, raised in Kalamazoo.
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Only in America.
Oops: Kansas fires Charlie Weis in attempt to reverse losing culture
Good luck with that, KU.
Charlie Weiss has spent the rest of his career proving Belichick was the genius.
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Gotta give Weiss huge credit for pimping Notre Dame out of all that money and prestige though.
the teevee gods have delivered unto me solely GB/CHI, so I shall root for Team Phred!
Jeter’s last hurrah (infield hit/RBI)
I owe you a Coke ; )
And Jeter’s career has come to an end with a base hit for a RBI… An end of an era.
Seriously rosalind, can you be persuaded to cheer for the Pack every week???
Pack up 38-17
Last two scores after interceptions. Have I mentioned how fond I am of a good defense???
Grumble grumble grumble
Shoulda been a Bears TD right before the half . . .
grumble grumble grumble grumble
Grumblin all the way, In a one horse open sleigh!
Sounds like an estate inventory I did once, which also ended in the barn with “and a one-horse open sleigh”.
Seriously.
Did the inventory start with “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go . . .”?
No.
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It began something like “Below please find an inventory of the tangible personal property of the Estate of [dead guy’s name] located at the decedent’s last residence.”
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The mid-30s Packard touring car (straight 12 engine, ran perfectly) out in the garage was pretty nice.
Dude, I have background in this. There are no Packard Straight 12’s. Straight 8’s absolutely, but Packard 12’s were V’s.
You need to work on your poetry, scribe. When you’ve got a great ending to the inventory, you should have redone the opening to match.
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*grin*
This was lawyering, not poesy.
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BMAz – you’re right. Straight 8. It only looked like a 12, the hood was so long. Still really nice.
Oh man, Packard Straight 8’s were fucking awesome. Don’t get me wrong on that, just didn’t want peeps thinking there were straight 12’s.
I was an awesome car. No back seat legroom to talk about, but still way too cool.
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In football news, Bridgewater carted off. So much for the Vikes.
I blame you for this, you cheesehead lover. You clearly jinxed things by picking Da Bears, and as a result the Pack got fired up. “Deserter! Turncoat! By God, we’re gonna go out there and show that bmaz that he better get back on board with the Cheeseheads!”
Any which way but loose.
Hmmm, sounds like you need to take a page out of Saint Jeter’s book ; p
Rosalind is our remote reporter. She is loyal….sometimes, but you cannot count on her. Sometimes the woman goes saying! I mean. just imagine!
For the next two hours, Dahlia Lithwick and I are hosting Erwin Chemrinsky, Dean of UCI Law School, on “The Case Against The Supreme Court”, his new book decrying SCOTUS and where it is leading us. Join us at FDL Book Salon!
Really sorry to have missed the book salon, oddly enough it was due to a local book club I belong to. I’m going to go peruse the thread…
A’s manage to bumble their way into the 1-game playoff Tuesday.
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Maybe they’re trying reverse psychology: instead of getting knocked out of the playoffs after posting huge regular season wins, actually make it past the wildcard and next round by playing dead the last 45 games of the season.
or not.
Girl. We are ALL Royals now!
I left my heart with Philadelphia. In San Francisco.
I don’t feel quite as bad about my Stillers giving away their game, now that the Iggles lost.
RIP Skadl. I was not aware that she was part of the Kent family. For the non-Canucks, brother Peter was a news anchor for the third Canadian network who then got elected as a Conservative MP and was appointed as environment minister. His “achievements” in that position must have challenged Skadl’s brotherly love. Justin Trudeau once described him in the House of Commons as a “piece of shit” with some justification. Brother Arthur was the infamous “Scud Stud” from the first Iraq war. I always enjoyed Skdadl’s very balanced view of the world in her typically understated manner. I have missed her for the last couple of years and I guess now for ever.
Thank you. I did not know so much about Peter, but I have long known about Arthur. I toyed with whether to mention that, and in the end did not because Susan seemed so much larger in ideology. Agree or disagree with all of it though, it really is a rich family history, and one worth saluting.
Absolutely, bmaz. We liked for herself, not who her siblings were.
indeed. my reaction to learning who her siblings were was how lucky they were to have such a sister.
Bmaz et/al:
Great tributes to Skdadl. I didn’t agree with her on everything, but I and others respected her a great deal. I was sorry when she felt she had to leave the social media world, and sad we won’t see her back.
Just have to throw in a late word on the total classlessness of Phil Mickleson. He is whiney little bugger.
He was, however, exactly right. Watson was incompetent.
Per the NY Daily News . . .
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In response to a letter from She Who Shall Not Be Named, “The NFL sent a letter to the security directors of all 32 of its teams this weekend asking for any information the clubs might have about a still unnamed player who allegedly committed rape on Sept. 20 and took the field the next day.”
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What makes this interesting is buried a few paragraphs later, where they say She Who Shall Not Be Named “will hold a news conference in Los Angeles later today. She has demanded a response from Goodell about what the league knew about the player.”
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Der Google doesn’t show anything other than this story at NYDN about a presser today — perhaps she’ll do it right before game time. Or perhaps SWSNBN is just playing with Goodell’s mind by planting the story about a game-time press conference with NYDN.
Holding press conferences is all that “She Who Shall Not Be Named” does.
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Seriously, tell me the last time you saw a headline proclaiming “She Who Shall Not Be Named Won a [Criminal/Civil] jury verdict? Two bit, self aggrandizing, cloying promotion machines do not count in real life.
She did get King Roger’s attention, though.
King Roger has proven himself to be not real bright.
Uh, Giselle needs to fix this STAT!
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Cause the corpus of the Patriots is looking very deceased.
Biebs feeling the full impact of The Mankins Gap. Cheatin’ Bill not looking so genius now, eh?
The Pats finally scored near the end of the 3rd… can you feel the comeback??? ; )
Um, no.
Note, I did not specify when said comeback might occur ; )
So I stepped out for a minute, did Brady get hurt or did BilBel just pull him for fun while he watches the rest of the implosion?
CTut, give yer better half my condolences, this is painful (outside of the greater KC fanbase ; )
Clearly the Red Sox are not the worst professional sporting team in Boston.
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Also, I believe we may have a quarterback controversy brewing in Foxborough.
Ouch ; )
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I might actually listen to a bit of sports radio tomorrow (not much, I usually can’t bear it), just to see if you may be right…
Clearly the Red Sox are not the worst professional sporting team in Boston.
. *snort* Now, now, I’m still licking my wounds from my Cardiac Sox dismal season, bmaz, at least, the Evil Empire is outskis too…! ;-)
Hey, just saying….
Mon Dieu…! What a beat down the Chefs are handing
BieberBrady…! That’s gotta hurt…! Naturally, my Fitchburg born and bred, Better Half, is wicked pissed…!Annnnd…the Raiders have fired Dennis Allen.
Uh, not to put too fine a point on it, but the Raiders haven’t been relevant since before Marcus Allen was “seeing” Nicole Brown Simpson.
The Raiders are one of the three teams we have in California. That makes them relevant to fans.
My mistake — I was using a term that used to mean something (“relevant”). I actually shared Raiders season tickets when they were in LA, long long ago when they used to proudly put “winningest team in professional sports” up on the scoreboard, those were the days…. :)
There are, for some reason, still people who want them in LA. This despite the evidence that pro football isn’t a winner here.
AEG is still trying to get a stadium shoehorned into downtown LA. They’re trying to get an extension on their plans. I hope they don’t. Downtown LA is the last place you want another ‘attraction’. (I worked there. Traffic hell is caused by people who drive in and can’t follow the signs. Smart people use mass transit.)
Last night’s game is in the dictionary next to “Asswhipping”.
Biebs needs to shave. Every time he starts letting that beard grow, the Patsies lose. And that hipster style thing just ain’t doing it.
Also, I understand that Michigan is eying Lane Kiffen for its next head coach.