Leaders and Best Michigan and Some Other Football Trash
On this day, University of Michigan’s footbball team is the uncontested champion of the 2023 season and the Detroit Kitties are the NFC North Champions, hosting a home playoff game for the first time in decades.
I had stopped watching much football even before I moved to Ireland, on account of the injuries. I didn’t take the trouble to find someone screening the games (which started after bar time here).
But I remember how magical was the 1997 season, when I was a student right alongside Tom Brady and others who were bigger superstars at the time.
Go Blue! Go Kitties!
Everything has gotten discombobulated in college football since I have watched, with Alabama losing in the Rose Bowl before the championship game, only to have two old style Rose Bowl teams play for the Championship in Houston. Confusing!
I’m instructed there are other big games in the NFL this weekend, with Buffalo digging out their stadium again to host the Stillers tomorrow, KC hosting the Fins in subzero temperatures today, and Flacco leading the Browns to Houston today. Plus some teams from the NFC East we’re more used to.
Plus, this week has also marked other generational transitions in football, as Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, and Pete Carroll also left the game. I’m hoping Harbaugh sticks with the college game.
A number of you have asked in the last week where bmaz is, and this is a post he might have otherwise have posted. Over the holidays, after months of difficulties, I yelled at bmaz. I understand he felt his role was not appreciated here. I regret I did not better show my appreciation, because I do value the contributions he has made to the site. He remains free to comment and I hope one day to resolve our difficulties.
A reminder to all new and existing community members participating in comments:
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Thank you.
What the fuck is the “EW Moderation Team”? That is pathetic. Put your name on it, or don’t post it.
This is not your call to make.
No, only yours it appears.
You have made your mark with me. Please fuck off.
GO LIONS! I miss @bmaz a lot. He was always solidly grounded in facts, law, and life!
Yeah, I miss bmaz as well.
BTW, Super PACs have come to NCAA Div I.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/ncaa-fan-collectives-nil-michigan/677046/
Mom and dad had a big fight. Dad went to the corner store for a pack of smokes and didn’t come back.
If you look in the window of that pool hall on the other side of town, you can sometimes see him. The one that used to be a nice(r) place from which to tweet. New ownership fucked it all up.
Hope mom and dad are able to save the marriage. Emptywheel without Bmaz feels a bit…emptier.
I appreciate you addressing it, Marcy. It was becoming the elephant in the room. Bmaz, while it does feel like the last year has been a little different in terms of your general demeanor, your legal mind and your willingness to put the law above desired outcomes is unsurpassed on this site.
Also, not gonna lie. I’ve seen some dumbass comments this month that could have used a stomp down from you. Rayne can’t do it all by herself.
We miss you and hope you return soon.
We’re blessed with seasoned community members who’ve been here nearly two decades who’ve applied some pressure on some comments in a manner which wasn’t aggressive and ad hominem — they were seen and appreciated.
Rayne, I agree. I’ve noticed a few commenters step up to help in his absence. They are appreciated indeed.
Give it a rest, holier than thou Rayne. Marcy advised me of what she had done in this thread. I neither asked for, nor wanted, one iota of that. But you get your licks in. Go girl.
It’d be nice if you knew what you were talking about but you’ve reflexively replied to a comment I made about wholly different posts in which some of our oldest commenters shot down iffy behavior with smart comebacks. My comment at 3:38 pm Jan-14 above had nothing at all to do with this thread or with you.
But get your licks in. Go dude.
Et tu brute? Bite me, and lick that.
Indeed—EW did advise you of what she had done in this thread. EW is a class act. You are too! And so too is Rayne! So, we have three class acts ready to continue doing what each does best on this site. All of us are not getting any younger, so let’s go.
Just another shoutout to bmaz. He always described the Georgia Fulton County prosecution as a shitshow. Well, now it is indeed starting to stink.
Yes, I always respected bmaz. But life is complex. Besides being well informed and smart, he was also uncivil. Gave me the impression of someone who hit the bottle and then hit the blog.
Shitshow with 4 pleadings, one of them running everywhere to spill all the beans and who knows what else.
And we haven’t yet gotten to Meadows and Roman himself.
Has there been more to the Willis and Wade lovefest?
You can go fuck yourself raw. I have repeatedly advised to other jerks like you that, due to medical condition, I not have much, if anything, to drink in well over a year. But you, self servingly spew that ignorant crap where I am limited in how I can respond. Screw off.
I have it on good authority that @bmaz likes Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. The season is on now.
ptoemmes gm ail. com me and I can supply you with ordering info via my grand daughters – and you can have them shipped to his home (I do not have his address, but assume you do).
On the other hand you could ship him a frozen Irish Pizza (if there is such a thing) he can slip into his OONI.
[FYI — your attempt at suggesting your email address has been broken to reduce the chance of scraping and phishing. /~Rayne]
EW, Pambo (MS Spark) and I were excited to see you with Nicole! Subscribed immediately, of course.
I am UM LSA 76 and MBA 86 and have seena lot of Wolverine football. September 72 in Markley I got a lucky number 302 in the draft lottery, Whew, no move to Canada needed, and I did not miss any games.
This link is to a short video that is a little ‘Bama schadenfreude from the Rose Bowl. Incredible patience to hold this shot and oscar worthy canine performance. Watch sound up.
https://x.com/allbluedotfans/status/1742290488114172179?s=20
I have been inspired by the Savage Librarian to offer a couple lyrics.
I had been marinating Paul McCartney into
Maybe I’m BMAZed by the way you school me all the time, fail to hold the line…….etc.
I hope BMAZ can deal with his anger.
There are lots of great contributors on this site.
Thank you and Rayne and Harpie et al.
As far as the Quantum Criminals Becker and Fagen
“They call Alabama the Crimson Tide” We say “Let’s Go Blue”
Avoid the rush. Start hating Bama early. 🤣
There’s also the trash of the NFL’s new broadcasting wrinkle this year . . .
The NFL, in its infinite greed, has made the Chefs-Fins game available only on Peacock (except for the KC and Miami area NBC affiliates, which hold the local broadcast rights). Per CBS:
Other local NBC stations are just out of luck, and are not particularly happy about it, like WRAL in North Carolina:
These stations cannot sell local tv ads, and even as they try to talk about the games ahead of time, they are cutting their own throats financially, as they are pushing folks NOT to watch their own programming but instead to go over to Peacock. Similarly, local businesses cannot market themselves as they ordinarily have done, which may drive their visibility and sales down as well. All that is money out of the local economies of every NBC affiliate except for two.
If folks do take WRAL up on their suggestion and call, I hope they are polite to the no-doubt-underpaid receptionist who answers the phones. Remember to speak clearly, and also to refrain from threats of violence (unless employing an NFL metaphor, like hoping that the NFL get hammered harder than the Chefs’ Chris Jones hits quarterbacks).
It’s been 25 years since the networks first started streaming content online, and it’s been hilarious to me how badly they’ve been screwing it up all of this time. And as a result, they’ve lost enormous revenue possibilities out of their dysfunction, and they’re still screwing trying to get weird hybrids like Peacock off the ground.
There were some technical and rights issues back in the late 1990s which needed to be sorted out, but the networks have always chosen the most complicated, least reliable, unsatisfactory path to ensure the number of users cheating the system was as low as possible, even at the cost of far greater overall viewership.
They also have chased the impossible dream of microsegmented targeted advertising, with the end result that shows on network websites often only have ads that are promos for other shows, because what advertiser wants space on a platform nobody watches?
The networks had the capital and the muscle back in 2000 to hammer out deals with content providers and launch websites that would have complemented their over the air and cable broadcasts. Instead they dithered and fumbled and still don’t know what they want to do.
To the contrary, this is great news! Anything that helps motivate people to watch substantially less TV—including fewer hours of sports—is a good thing.
For the same reason, I appreciate the Mariners moving to a much more expensive cable tier. Now it’s up to me to see how well I do in making more fruitful use of all those additional summer evenings.
Thanks NFL and MLB! Best of luck to you.
I did what I suspect many did: signed up for Peacock, watched the game, then cancelled. In effect, it wound up being a pay-per-view event for me, $ 5.99. To their credit, they make cancelling easy. I cannot imagine that NBC (after paying 110 million) made money on this deal.
Warriors dynasty is in its last throes, sad.
Niners earned a first round playoff bye, good.
SF Giants fine-tune their mediocrity.
College football is unrecognizable; Miss the PAC-8/10/12.
Hi to bmaz if you’re out there. Your principled grouchiness is polarizing – hello Flamethrower of Wrath ™ – but integral to the EW experience.
I second your emotion. I can’t change any of this, but I can say to bmaz, Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean. You are missed.
As someone whose been lit on fire by bmaz, I am missing him too.
The EW comment area is like a game of Mao. You have to figure the rules out while you’re playing. While that approach runs counter to most everything I do personally or professionally, I am a big believer in independently operated, actively moderated forums online. They are the very best online communities you can hope to find and it’s worth the effort to be patient and get acclimated to the local customs. An acerbic broadside from bmaz is not really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
With apologies to punaise however, Draymond Green’s departure from the NBA can’t come a minute too soon.
Oh, I’m done with Draymond, too. Except Steph Curry wants to keep him and Klay Thompson around, which is inhibiting the evolution of the team.
I am a fan of Draymond who has been pained to watch him struggle with the inevitable sand in the hour glass. I think that many people do not see what a sensitive person he actually is, nor what drives him.
Marcus Thompson ll has an excellent piece in The Athletic today. I hope people will take the time to read it and understand that the most honorable of motivations can sometimes lead people to lash out with unintended consequences.
https://theathletic.com/5196497/2024/01/15/draymond-green-warriors-return-suspension-legacy
Marcus Thompson has great insights to Green when I hear him on sports radio (or what’s left of it here i the Bay Area). They’re buds.
Ultimately, in my opinion, his substantial and unique contributions were outweighed by his toxic mode of play. Oh, and the same goes for Draymond Green.
zing
Get lost
Speaking of mediocrity, the Chron today had a column about trade bait possibilities for the Dubs. Only Curry was off the list. It depends on whether GM Dunleavy has a good feel of his locker room, and I don’t really think so. The Dubs miss Myers and Jerry West before him.
Second stop on the so-so tour is the Cowboys. I don’t think McCarthy lasts the whole week even with Dak’s demand. The team was not ready at all schematically and generally incapable of adjusting while getting blown out at home. While such things do happen from time to time, this loss was the third in a row at least, including two at home. Jerry Jones doesn’t do moral victories or making the playoffs as a long-term goal. Maybe Pete Carroll or Saban or the Evil Elf himself out of New England? I think Harbaugh would be effective until he clashes with Jones and I can’t see Harbaugh agreeing to that possibility.
Third stop, the Giants. The Dodgers and Mets have proven that mere payroll doesn’t guarantee championships but cohesion does. Melvin is the kind of manager that usually gets the very most out of his team and unlike San Diego he will not have a meddling GM to interfere. I think the team makes the playoffs.
Harbaugh got canned and SF. Then he won a national championship at Michigan. I think there is a method to his madness,
I’m rooting for the weather (hurrah for snow and brutal cold!!), then the Dolphins, then the Bills. And a huge BOOOO to the NFL for putting playoff games on a streaming service.
Re bmaz: I’ve been a long-time reader and occasional commentator since the days of FDL and the Next Hurrah. You and bmaz possess incredible talents for detail, bare bones analysis, and a loyalty to the rule of law and procedure, often embodied within sharp-tongued critiques. But lately that acerbic criticism is laced with personal insults toward other astute journalists and colleagues in the media, as well as friends and strangers who comment here. There seems little room for error, and even less room for forgiveness, whether mistakes are born of ignorance, naivety, or malpractice. It is unsurprising that someone would feel stung and hurt. I hope you both can resolve these tensions and apply salve to the wounds. And figure out a path forward that eliminates the personal insults.
Weather just beat NFL in Buffalo, where they rescheduled the game.
The jury is still out on Arrowhead stadium. The Kid’s girlfriend has noticed that the ticket prices are plunging along with the predicted temps, and they are currently debating whether to go to the game or not. Seats in the upper deck, where you can catch a nice breeze, are going for as low as $33 on one authentic resale site. On a warm September day, that would be a great place to sit, but tonight, staying out of the wind is definitely what you want to do. Seats in the lower area nearer the field can still be had for $60-$100 each.
Of course, Mother Nature may toss in a freebie of frostbite to go with these seats.
I heard some guy on SportsCenter say the same thing: sit under the upper deck, not on it, you need shelter from the wind.
Local media here are telling folks that the “what you can bring in” rules have been relaxed:
“Cold concrete” is an understatement. We’ve been having Wisconsin-like weather here all week, so it’s been soaking up the cold for quite some time. “Frozen concrete” would be a more appropriate phrase.
The Ice Bowl cometh.
by Huge E, No-Kneel
The Kid and his girlfriend have wisely decided that a watch party with our two families at her parents’ home is the way to do it. Mrs Dr Peterr is very relived at this choice.
Good for them. And for you and the Mrs., for minds at ease.
I think going forward with the game is a bad idea, and attending just to watch, an even worse idea.
I suspect on Monday morning, there will be 150,000 people who will claim to have been there for the game.
Never mind that the stadium that seats about half that many.
If they win.
Spouse and I are still working on attending our first rugby game in the stadium that is close to us than Michigan Stadium was to most if not all of my Ann Arbor homes. There’s a game next week but I may get surgery (removing the screw and hopefully all the hardware in my foot), and we don’t understand what “Standing” means.
There’s a possibly apocryphal story spouse’s uncle tells that spouse’s grandfather had a heart attack, leading to his death, in either that stadium or the GAA one which is even closer. So you’d think we’d know all this.
Oh, I think even if they lose, folks will still claim to have been there.
There is a sizeable Real ManTM contingent at Chefs games, and the pull to claim to have toughed out a game in the deep freeze will be irresistible to them.
(These are the same yahoos that drove their pickups into the ditch this week, as they drove like idiots on the ice because they had 4WD and they thought that means they could drive on anything.)
And three days later, the KC Star puts the count of hospitalized yahoos at 15:
Whew. This may be blasphemous to the Trash Talk crowd but football is not worth this.
Wonder when KC will begin talk of an enclosed stadium…
Careful about going to rugby, Marcy. It is absolutely addictive, especially for those of us who live in New Zealand and have to refer to football as “gridiron.”
I, too, have missed Bmaz’s posts. Yeah, they’re not sugar coated, but they provoke thought and help me get a broader view of a topic. There’s so much coming up of a legal nature this year, it would be great to have all your voices.
Hail Blue for sending Saban off into the sunset as a loser.
Well, I would wager that most people look back on their careers, and on the careers of others, as a whole, usually not focusing on the last entry. Like Saban or not, like Alabama or not, I sense that he was a very good football coach.
PS: Did you know that the grammar checker on this site will highlight, as questionable, one’s mistyping of the phrase “he was” as (incorrectly) “we was”? Howzabout that!
Sure that’s not your browser doing the spellcheck? O_o
Michigan and Georgia could beat some NFL teams.
The windchill at KC will be a factor for the fans.
Watching football is a guilty pleasure. The winner is usually the team that has lost the least number of star players to injury. Right now the two best teams are Ravens and Niners. I hope the lights don’t go out again and the refs are not the same crew as in the Dallas/Detroit game. I like the Lions but their head coach is a little too much of a risk taker.
On the topic of trash, I think Judge Engoron is going to let the kids off with a light fine, throw the book at Trump and put a receiver in charge. Sue Craig of The NY Times noted that his last question to the State attorney included a reference to Bernie Madoff. Does that count as trash talk?
“Michigan and Georgia could beat some NFL teams.”
Some NFL teams from 60 years ago, maybe.
Commanders played like a team from the NFL of 60 years ago, especially in the last part of the season.
Occasional reader, rare commenter-
Go Blue! (and go Lions!).
With respect to bmaz, he was unfailingly rude to commenters, often (seemingly) unprovoked- whatever he added was generally overshadowed by attitude.
I miss bmaz, however over the last few months, it was hard reading some of his replies — they seemed to either start out or devolve into rants. If anyone tried to point out that maybe he missed the point of a discussion because he didn’t address it, he’d fire back with “I read just fine”. If they asked for an example of his complaints about an issue, he’d say “I’ve already said it many times”. Ask for a legal opinion on anything that Fani Willis is doing, and he’d simply say that the whole thing is a load of crap.
Even on a forum that prides itself on open discussion, debate, and not holding back, it was as useful as the trolls who are “just asking questions” and it tended to lead to hurt feelings, almost like a Thanksgiving dinner in which relatives screech at each other over politics.
Even so, I’d like to see him return soon. I miss his contributions; he had a lot to say. I have no illusions, I’m a retired finance guy and I tend not to have contributions that add much value to this forum, but bmaz is quite different. I and others have learned a lot from reading his posts.
bmaz might exert a bit of an emotional toll on sensitive souls, but without the ‘bmaz effect’, all of us are going to be a little less careful to justify the claims we make here. Almost everyone draws his fire from time to time, and it can be a pain in the ass, but it has been bmaz who has made Emptywheel inhospitable for idiots.
please everyone —
stop, just stop, using the past tense in connection with bmaz!
I don’t really follow football but it sure seems that, since Nick Saban’s retirement announcement, Alabama fans haven’t been this angry since Brown vs. The Board of Education.
As former UA faculty (no love lost there) who dated a 4th generation Bama guy (made me reconsider). I’d like to observe a few things about Saban’s tenure in Tuscaloosa. Perhaps I’m naive, but it seems like Saban’s approach held his players to higher standards than in past, leading to less occasions of bad behavior by college players all around.
While I’m not someone who likes per se an athletics-dominated university, Saban plus former UA Pres Witt used the increased visibility positively for UA as a whole. The former head of Honors Program there told me that a few years after Saban came,he could fill all of the honors program slots with the best out-of-state students in the country (indeed, he had to push to keep slots open for in-state scholars). Not surprisingly, faculty recruiting was better, leading to higher research productivity and more financial resources such as grants.
I find this notable for its contrast with Bear Bryant who was known for his near permanent inebriated state and lack of concern about the non-athletic side of Bama.
I hope a be-better-do-better attitude about student athletics persists and helps improve the scholarly capabilities.
The Oregon Duck fans who leak into my Trail Blazer timeline most certainly did not demonstrate any sort of regional loyalty for the “Natty.” There was much schadenfreude to be had when the Huskies got rolled.
As someone who went to undergrad in Madison and law school in Oregon, this was a supremely unsatisfying matchup. I confess to rooting for a tie. With a lot of injuries.
Husky alum here – BS ‘83, MS ‘87. After many games, home and away, I believe that Duck’s fans are the rudest, most discourteous blowhards in all of CFB. What a true pleasure it has been to defeat them 3 times in a row starting in ‘22. lol. As for the Natty, we were just plain outplayed by UM using Washington’s old Don James formula for winning championships – good solid running game and crushing/suffocating defense. The Wolverines won fair and square, though drops and many missed opportunities killed us.
As for Bmaz, he was never rude or short with replies to my very infrequent questions. He just doesn’t suffer fools gladly, at least that’s what it seems like to me. I just plain like reading his comments and I’m thankful that EW is here
I enjoy/appreciate commentary that isn’t sugar-coated
Other than college hockey (Go Hockey East!), I quit following college sports quite a while ago. My sporting drug of choice will always be baseball. I find it amazing that they’ve dragged the NFL season out so long now that the Super Bowl is on February 11, and the reporting date for pitchers and catchers is just three days later. Three days! Amazing…
Happy to see Michigan win. That being said, any time the SEC doesn’t win is a good day. Just a thought; I may reside in New England, but I’d like to see Buffalo finally win a Super Bowl, it’s time. Go Bills!
The NFL should add one more bye week to the schedule so they can merge the Super Bowl with the Daytona 500. Sponsored of course by Budweiser.
thank you for the update on bmaz. Miss him. Liked his opinions and his taste in music. His comments could be sarcatic, informative, legal, but I did like his “shots”, such as, he’d said it before. Some of his writings were what I referred to as cranky lawyerish. They gave me some good laughs and deep thoughts. bmaz, reminded me of a lawyer, Harry Rankin, in Vancouuver, B.C. who was also a city councellor back in the day. He passed some time ago,, but can still remember his style.
Now I’m going to listen to Jessie Colter’s, “I thought I heard you calling my name”.
I had lunch with Jesse a couple of years ago. She is fantastic.
Nice!
She just has the most amazimg voice.
Take care and Happy New Year!
It was an effort to build a recording studio and adjacent amphitheater venue in Cave Creek. Sadly it has, to date, came to nothing, but Jesse was wonderful. Our idea was to name it after Waylon.
I probably misstated that. Jesse (I think) put the suggestion up, and I thought it perfect. Still do,
First of all, the most important thing here is GO Lions!!!
Also shout out to the Cleveland Browns our brothers in suffering.
I am a recent reader and new commenter, and I thoroughly enjoy the site. But, Bmaz was kind of a turnoff at first. His posts were great but the moderation was sometimes cruel.
I compare it to watching Clapton play guitar…I can play too, just not like that…and if I ever got a chance to jam with Eric, I wouldn’t expect him to scream at me for lunching the solo to Miss You on the first take.
Husky-in-law here. My wife, determined to get her BA before our youngest child, graduated UW honors in 2000. It took her 9 years starting at UMass, but she did a fulltime senior year, so I was privileged to be sleeping with a UW co-ed at the age of 51. Said youngest child just got our family’s first MA(*), also after 9 years of work.
Anyway, tears in this house.
And come back, bmaz. I can easily skip over the concise imprecations for the sake of the robust law-first insistences, from which I have learned much and had my views reset.
(*)if you don’t count the “free” MA I got from the University of Cambridge. Let’s not go there.
My next door neighbor growing up in Westfield NJ was famed Wolverine Butch Wolfolk. We shared the space on the street in front of our houses as he would practice wind sprints and other speed drills while I worked on skateboarding tricks.
I had the privilege to watch Woolfolk play many times at Michigan Stadium. I believe he held the national record in high school for the 200 meters.
Early in his career, some reporter asked Schembechler, “why don’t you play Woolfolk he set the 200 meter record”?
Bo said ” great when it’s 1st down and 200 meters to go, I will put him in”.
I gradually peeled back from pro sports. I used to live & die for baseball and my beloved Go-Go White Sox, then I lost interest, the NBA, where nothing matters til the final 90 secs , then NFL with ridiculous Super Bowl halftimes, circus acts in the endzone after routine TDs, drama over who’s taking a knee, who isn’t and why. Then gradually college football, as even divine ND became a commodity. Everybody has agents, even “amateurs”, I’ve recovered lots of personal time and enjoy well streamed HS sports where players still play to win not just to gain negotiating leverege. It’s liberating.
Being a normal size type human I got into tennis and I thank my lucky stars. It’s great to play & to watch even if drama (like Djokovich’s vaccination status) sometimes seeps in.
I didn’t realize Bmazz signed off but I did notice a more mellow, cordial vibe here. Que sera, sera.
I did not “sign off”. Not at all. And I expect to be banned for not making nice.
I appreciate bmaz’ contributions here and learned a lot from reading them. Over the past 6 months or so his comments had gotten less tolerant of opposing viewpoints and acerbic in a way that was often unproductive. As others have pointed out, he had stopped engaging in discussion and was either dismissing others with prejudice or just insisting that he had already proven his point elsewhere. He had little to no patience with some widely held viewpoints that had been well supported by others here who clearly have the gravitas that he does.
As one who was the lone progressive in a group of extremely conservative former coworkers, I can appreciate the frustration that bmaz was feeling and I eventually left that group because the discussions had gotten less productive for me than the aggravation that accompanied them. I found myself less gracious than I wanted to be – even as I was called “libtard” and “traitor” and worse – so like bmaz, I disengaged. I hope to one day return to that group as I hope bmaz will return here after a cooling off period. Hopefully then he will be able to set aside some of the challenges cited in my first paragraph and he will again contribute to the highly engaging and productive discussions he so often prompted.
Discussions and groups are always better when you have a few people willing to challenge the givens and promote unpopular but principled positions. Bmaz played an important role here. Hope to see him again.
I was not sorry to see bmaz’s “I’m never wrong” approach take a powder, but reading about Fani Willis’ poor judgment in the past few days makes me think that he had a point. Never as prescient as emptywheel however, whose links back to the posts from one or even two years earlier remind us how clearly she foresaw the events unfolding today.
bmaz absolutely warned about Willis. These allegations are not yet proven — importantly, Mike Roman submitted no declarations and mostly this seems like a nasty divorce. But Roman is/was Trump’s enforcer, which raises some other question.
But if they are substantiated bmaz deserves a vindication tour.
I’m having trouble connecting her personal behavior with her legal work….
I don’t recall bmaz hinting at Willis’s extracurricular activities, only that the case was a legal mess and/or showboating. Did I miss that? Separately, could he have been in the know quietly?
I’m with you, David.
Oh, you don’t remember my intonation that Willis was a politically ladder climbing hack that ran on attacking Trump, was scolded by courts for her political advocacy as a prosecutor, and had the appearance of impropriety from before she even took office? I will stick with what I said from the start.
Hee-wack—he’s back!
No, I am not. Not by my decision, but by others.
Well, that’s a bummer, but hopefully you all can eventually come to terms. If not, I’m truly sorry to see you go, bmaz.
I fully expect the allegations of a substantive conflict of interest to be confirmed.
Willis never had a good explanation for why Wade was hired. He doesn’t have any specific relevant experience, as far as anyone has been able to determine. Even before this latest filing, there were unexplained oddities about the process used to hire him. None of that was determinative, of course, without evidence of a corrupt purpose for his hiring. Of course, being in a pre-existing romantic relationship with the hirer is exactly that.
And Willis seems to have more or less confessed today. See here: https://nitter.net/AnnaBower
Go back to the first reports of Fani Willis, and you may see what I saw. It is a putrid scene
I think this is the direct link
to the Bower THREAD WO references:
https://nitter.net/AnnaBower/status/1746600729119211758
Jan 14, 2024 · 6:30 PM UTC
Lol, there is way more, and way before, the vaunted Anna Bower. I would do a post and talk about it, but thanks to Marcy and the oh so pious Rayne, I cannot.
Why didn’t you do it a long time ago? Why did you wait? Professional reasons?
Snowflakes.
I miss him, but I’m a masochist.
He really did it for me.
I miss Bmaz. In addition to his legal prowess, I miss the music and sports (especially F1) perspectives. Hopefully it is not a health issue.
Re Fani Willis, mixing business and personal relations is often done, rightly or wrongly, but the bad judgment is doing it when so much is at stake and the whole world is watching. Doing anything to leave yourself open to this sort of attack reflects an approach that isn’t consistent with someone who knows how to build a bulletproof legal case. In our law firm (IAAL), we always ask “what could go wrong” before we make any major move. So I worry, what other holes has Fani Willis left for the rats to run through?
Agreed.
It remains to be seen whether Roman is blowing smoke, but if the allegations are true, one wonders what on earth Willis and her paramour were thinking.
It brings back bad memories of Gary Hart and Bill Clinton.
Oh, and Go Packers! ; ) Congrats to MI and good luck to the Kitties : )
Yeah that Monica thing was a real momentum-killer to the Clinton presidency and opened the door wide for Newt and his progeny to do their thing with vigorous impunity. Gary, on the other hand, was more of a minor-league John Edwards kinda guy…they all could’ve been contenders, but didn’t have the audacity to turn their human frailties into “virtues”, like Trump has done, and then some.
Well said Southern exposure. I do hope BMAZ it’s okay his behavior of late worried me. Not that I ever knew him in any way except for here but still.
Thanks for your comment, Southern, which I echo heartily. I have noticed Teri Kanefield (to mention someone with what I think of as a polar opposite demeanor to his) increasingly getting stern, and (for her) uncharacteristically short, with people who’ve missed the logic boat in their comments (or rather, missed the same old logic boat that she’s UP TO HERE with explaining yet again). I’ve missed bmaz’s F1 and music commentary as well, but especially in the legal realm I’ve never felt, in all the years I’ve been trafficking this site, that I got the last word on legal issues until bmaz weighed in. He seems to regard The Law as a kind of higher calling, and hews to that standard, come what may. And in this age of cheap, grandstanding TV lawyering, that’s entirely indispensable (to me, a non-lawyer).
Go back to the first reports of Fani Willis, and you may see what I saw. It is a putrid scene.
That’s a real shame about bmaz. Candidly, he was the main reason why I read the site. I love that he doesn’t hew to any political standard, I love his respect for and knowledge of the law, and I love that he had no problem speaking truth to anyone, regardless of the politics involved, and being pointed. The reality, which everyone understands, is that the other writers on this site have a clear left-leaning perspective, and I liked the fact that bmaz was as close to apolitical as I’ve seen in social media, and he provides a much-needed counterpoint to some of the opinion that is expressed on this site. I really hope y’all patch it up soon, as I predict that the number of monthly visits to this site will go down significantly if bmaz stops posting permanently.
Huh. This feels like more of a weekday topic to take note of:
Addressed here.
Gracias, missed that one.
Amid the US snowstorm there was an Irish flurry.
I’m rooting for Flacco the Central Park escapee, Hope Cleveland prevails.
I watched the Belichick and Kraft noon time presser last week- Hope we can view the rerun on Saturday Night Live
I too miss BMAZ. I am also a huge Draymond Green fan, but ultimately his passion became a distraction and took away from the whole dynasty. He crossed the line and the antics overshadowed everything. I am hopeful that after some true reflection and some therapy, that Draymond can come back and be just as passionate, but keep within the boundaries. He’s still a helluva player, and has always been extremely intelligent as a human and as player. It takes a lot of courage to come back publicly and acknowledge another perspective and change.
Bmaz, as others have noted, has recently become more of a distraction,and conversations have become more about him than the topic.
There is no warriors dynasty without draymond. And emptywheel is not the same without Bmaz.
Valley Girl, if you’re out there, I guess it’s safe to come back in the water now.
I too miss bmaz very much. I checked out his Xitter feed ‘tother day, and he seemed to be having fun calling out CNN coverage and various sports teams. I have to say, that often when he put up what seemed like a short sharp dismissive post, if I thought about it for a moment, nine times out of ten, there was a very strict logic behind the comment; so I tried never to react first, but rather sit down and figure out what actually was being said. As to his opinion of the Georgia prosecution, I have to disagree that it necessarily makes a bad precedent (local DAs taking on national issues, etc.), but as to that, we will know hereafter. I hope he returns soon.
RE Draymond
He is back with the Warriors because he signed a 4 year / $100,000,000 contract with Golden State including $100,000,000 guaranteed
They are stuck with him, he is well past his prime and untradeable.
Lost a step or more and reduced to a cheap shot artist.
Saban retired because the current NIL/Transfer Portal system is a nightmare for coaches. UA is in the upper tier of paying recruits but now a player can get a check from UA and then xfer to Texas a year later for a second check.
Harbaugh built a championship team with only two 5 star recruits. UM will not pay players to come to the school. Only players who stay get NIL.
UM develops 3 star recruits into NFL players.
Harbaugh has been campaigning for schools to pay the players directly from TV revenue and offered to take a pay cut to help finance it. After the natty he recommended that players form a union. No wonder the NCAA wants to suspend him for not rembering who paid for hamburgers for a couple recruits who showed up on campus uninvited during covid. Other schools’ have recruits with Lamborghinis per Joel Klatt (Fox Sports college football lead analyst)
In keeping with major aspects of this thread, over on X Bmaz posts that the transfer portal and NIL are the most corrupt things in the history of college sports.
The NCAA is offended by this statement. “We have been the most corrupt thing in the history of college sports since forever, as opposed to these Johnny-Come-Lately upstarts.”
This: “And emptywheel is not the same without Bmaz.” – iamevetssays:January 13, 2024 at 6:48 pm
And I had hoped to someday discuss picayunes and bupkis over a beer during one of my trips to Southern AZ. I doubt either of us would care for a second together, but the first would be precious in a worthwhile stimulating way. Moderators have my email BMAZ. I’ll buy.
Oh, I am here in AZ and would love to do that. You don’t even need to buy! I did not ask for this bullshit self paean by Marcy, and I did not even look at it originally. Because I figured I would react negatively. Now I have. Oh well.
You come to AZ, let me know. I have met with and broken personal bread with countless members/commenters of the Emptywheel blog over give or take 20 years, and would be honored to do so with you.
When it comes to researching criminal, civil and national security issues, EW is the best in the business. She is second to none. Her daily work product is often groundbreaking and always thorough. Thank God she has this website.
Per the comments today concerning the long downward slide of college football…A Modest Proposal.
It seems inevitable that eventually the national sports media & entertainment industry will take the $billions$ they’re currently paying universities and the NCAA, and instead spend it on carving out and owning America’s commercially televised/streamed college football. ‘It’s just bidness.’
Non-U.S. universities don’t subsidize minor league pro fútbol. Why do ours? Conference shuffling, the transfer portal, and NIL money are just nibbling at the edges. The best thing that could happen to colleges and universities—higher education—is to let them entirely decouple from the sports entertainment business forever.
University presidents will be relieved to hand off pro sports business assets and headaches (including professional student-athletes) in exchange for substantial licensing income and a marketing agreement. So, something like a new, fully for-profit College Football Association of America (CFAA) will contract with the top 30-50 programs judged worth monetizing. This new CFAA will:
• license the universities’ intellectual property (school/team names, goodwill),
• sign mutual marketing agreements for the CFAA to promote the universities and the universities to promote the CFAA,
• lease the famous on-campus stadiums and lux training facilities, and
• through a contract two willing parties freely enter, pay a fair wage to management, coaches and—dropping the student-athlete charade—full-time players. (For the marketing value, such employees’ negotiated benefits may perhaps include off-season or post-football, free or discounted tuition.)
Eliminating the below average deadweight, they’ll start with only the top teams from each Power Three Conference (plus the ACCident) and enough of the most corrupt others (if it has positive football cash-flow, nominate your school!) to divide into four, 12-team geographical divisions (gerrymandered for competitive balance):
• Atlantic-East Conference
• Great Heartland Conference
• PAC-West Conference
• Southeastern Conference (SEC is the top brand—why abandon good IP?)
Divide into divisions, swap the Bowl Season for the CF-double-A Playoffs—where the real money is—and there you go. This will blow up the NC-double-A you say? OK, that’s a positive too! Win/Win!
[Have a secondary Modest Proposal for all the colleges and sports left behind but will leave that for another day].
oh. look … how widely we hold open the door, in excited anticipation.
it’s pretty clear we won’t take ‘NO’ or ‘NEVER’ or ‘YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING’ – so come on in, bmaz.
nobody’s gonna sit in this chair but you. it’s kinda tall for most of us.
… and you know how patient we are.
Observation from the bench:
Meet the Emptywheel Lord Jeffs, now called the Mammoths.
Owner and CEO: Emptywheel
General Manager and Offensive Coach: BMAZ
Assistant legal advisor to the GM: Earl the Pearl
Defensive Coach, Chief Enforcer, and Moderator: Rayne
Mediator(r) and Ethics Counsellor(r): Peterr
Team Jester and Pun(ter): punaise
All around good guy and Mascot: harpie
Deep Thinker and Ethics Master: Ed Walker
Music Director and Book(ie): The Savage Librarian
Season ticket holders: All commentators and lurkers.
P.S. The team’s stock is currently selling for $75 per share, down considerably, nearly 40%, from the news that BMAZ left the building.
The game is on — and let’s welcome back the lawyer from the great state of Arizona.
We miss you BMAZ…. a contract extension is waiting your signature
I demand a contract extension!
My agent (Mme. punaise) says I can continue my monthly subscription for years to come. Unless I get traded for Draymond Green.
How about Mac Jones and Steve Belichick?
Throw in Click and Clack and we’ve got a deal.
No deal. A long-dead Tommy M is still funnier than Peter Sagal.
Here you go:
CCCCCooooonnnnntttttrrrrraaaaacccccttttt!!!!!
ducking
I await your re-tract-shun :~)
“Feist – Hiding Out In The Open (Official Music Video)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmEzW7aS1dA
I never posted about Fani Willis and the Fulton County prosecution of Trump, because getting verbally punched is something I avoid. No conversations were possible. The only person who challenged him was Marcy.
Our country’s election system is rooted in messy federalism. While we would like laws that unify our various states’ methods of electing electors and place them constitutionally under the federal government, we don’t have those laws. Even under our federalist system, it would have been preferable for the GA AG to prosecute Trump but wasn’t going to happen.
If Willis’s prosecution does anything, it highlights how intentionally undemocratic and messy our Democratic Republic is. Will that result in a Constitutional amendment? No, we’re still compromising with the original Southern colonies and secessionist states.
I cannot describe how hesitant I am to even post this, ghosts of the recent past. I disagree that Emptywheel will lose readers. I’ve already noticed an increase in substantive comments.
This is the thing that seems important to me in the GA case. With the Supremes gutting of the Voting Rights Act, who is left to defend the rights of targeted voters to vote and have those votes counted?
I don’t buy the argument that the appropriate prosecutor was the GA AG. The voters of the state of GA were not targeted as a whole, only those in certain areas. If statewide officials are reluctant to pursue charges due to party affiliation, then the only people left are those at the local level.
I appreciate the risks of going this route. See, for example the MO (I think it is) Secretary of State threatening to throw Biden off the ballot in retaliation for Colorado and Maine finding Trump ineligible. But if there is a fair judicial process, then one should expect frivolous cases to lose and meritorious cases to win.
But to not even attempt to defend the rights of targeted voters being deprived of their rights is untenable in a functioning democracy.
Wow, 100% agree with your comment.
I agree with phred.
It’s really important to grasp that the Georgia AG Chris Carr was not going to prosecute the violations in Fulton County.
— GA AG in Nov-Dec 2020, Carr was a fact witness:
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-attorney-general-chris-carr-testifies-before-donald-trump-grand-jury
— Carr had been pressured by Trump about TX AG Ken Paxton’s suit:
See: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/12/09/trump-to-meet-with-ten-state-attorneys-general-backing-case-to-overturn-election/?sh=2ee865f33fe1
— Carr was chairman of RAGA (Republican Attorneys General Association) which had been involved with funding robocalls encouraging participation in the January 6 “march.” He remained chair of RAGA until April 2021.
https://democraticags.medium.com/republican-attorneys-general-attack-on-democracy-a-timeline-42ac4c3d4e34
Lastly, Fani Willis isn’t just a county prosecutor. She is one of the chief prosecuting officers for Georgia’s 50 judicial circuits. If the state’s AG was compromised (and possibly his staff with him), who else would prosecute violations of state law which occurred in Fulton County?
See: https://pacga.org/about-pacga/
What a load of fucking crap. Perhaps you are not familiar about how legitimate case get prosecuted at the state level.
Well now, the maize and blue got it done – congrats. But MSU is THE University of Michigan. Glad to get that out of the way. Now if there were a post regarding Mad Anthony Wayne that ended with a reference to Fort Wayne Mayor Harry Baals that would be something. Given that my former home State was once (in it’s lower peninsula lifetime) all Wayne County there is a lot of interesting history here.
Knuckle-dragging construction worker that I am there are three solid aspects to the EW site (and to a lesser extent the humor) that brought me here and keep me interested:
*top-notch investigative journalism
*the journalism has a strong legal slant
*the journalism has a strong political slant
Thank you Marcy – you rock. How you can get this much done as quickly and accurately as you do is phenomenal.
I am not going to state with certainty but it strikes me that about 30-40% of the contributors here are in the legal profession; many contributors who are more interested in the interaction between the political and legal can/have learned a great deal from the conversations.
My greatest heartburn is the distinction that justice and the law are two entirely different critters – and that seemed to pique the ire of Mr. bmaz; okay – not going to challenge a Lawyer to a legal spat but from a lay perspective a majority of the voices here recognize the truth that the former guy is abusing the legal system as a delay tactic, period. Legal? Yes. Just? No.
That is not a legal position – it is an observation on the intersection of the subjects of justice and politics.
Aileen Cannon refusing to enforce what seemed to be a routine deadline – legal. But unjust. There is talk of starting * wait for it * impeachment proceedings based on her acting like the Orange Florida Mans personal lawyer and not an independent judge. Good comments by Norm Ornstein on the subject.
I am very well aware of the need to NOT have drumhead, rushed legal proceedings but there is also a point of absolute and asinine absurdity. Are here we are.
Trump got $400K SLAPPED out of him – legal, yes and some semblance of justice.
The SCOTUS exhibiting signs of partisan behavior – unethical and unjust but passes legal muster.
Unfettered immunity? See reference to absolute and asinine absurdity above (alliteration accidental). Just another delay tactic. Legal? Yes. Just? No.
The former guy speaking out of turn on the final day of the Civil fraud trial? Ballsy but Engoron will have the last word – here’s hoping for justice in the form of a steep monetary penalty as well as running that orange moron out of business in New York. Would like to see Kise heavily sanctioned for participating in that theater but not sure of the legality.
Sunday morning, lazy now but will become busier.
Marcy – bmaz, please don’t fight in front of the kids.
They’re not, hadn’t you noticed?!
[FYI – username fixed and follow-on comment deleted. Thanks. /~Rayne]
I’m not into American Football one bit, but my wife and I are huge cyclocross fans and watch all the races we can. This year, two riders from the Netherlands have obliterated the field in almost every race: Mathieu Van Der Poel in the Men’s and Fem Van Empel in the Women’s. Each wears the rainbow stripes of the 2023 World Champion.
At 28, Van Der Poel—”MVDP” or “The Flying Dutchman”—has been around a long time in cycling terms, and his history of victories has only grown—he’s won 10 out of the 10 races he entered this season. Grandson of French great Raymond Poulidor, Van Der Poel’s reputation and performances make him the strong favorite going into the 2024 World Championships.
His compatriot Fem Van Empel, on the other hand, is only 19 years old. She’s had a strong early career as a Junior, won 3 World Championships, but took things to a new level this season, winning 8 out of 12 races. Van Empel is also the favorite to repeat at the World’s.
Both these racers are a joy to watch as they carve through the mud and sand, bunnyhop the planks, dismount and remount their bikes in the blink of an eye, charge up stairs and unrideable sections with bikes shouldered—all at speeds that most mortal rider couldn’t even sustain on a smooth road.
Re: bmaz, I also miss his input and moderation, not to mention his deep legal knowledge and superb musical taste. As many of us have expressed, I sincerely hope he is well, safe, and will eventually return.
Van Der Poel is indeed an incredible cycling talent but his short temper is grating. I really hope he reins it in soon, because it will probably lead to nothing good (and has already gotten him in plenty of trouble).
Agreed. I can almost understand the recent spitting incident—it must be hard to resist retaliation when people are booing and throwing beer and piss on you in the heat of battle. Still, I can’t see (just for example) Wout van Aert doing that.
But the incident with the kids in Australia the night before the ’22 World’s Road race was ridiculously stupid. In my opinion, it’s not just his temper that works against him, though—he’s also impetuous (attacking and attacking at the ’21 Worlds Road Race until he bonked in the rain & cold) and can make boneheaded decisions (forgetting the ramp on the big drop-off on the Tokyo Cross Country MTB had been removed, falling 15-20 feet and landing on his back, which has never been the same).
All that said, when he’s firing on all cylinders, nobody can touch him. And he evidently has 12 of ’em, like one of his Lamborghinis. When he makes mistakes, they can be huge ones, but he looks set to romp at the Worlds.
On the other hand, Fem Van Empel appears icy calm at all times and for one so young, her head seems virtually bombproof. No Lamborghinis or hotel dust-ups for her! We’ll likely see Fem destroy the field at the Worlds, but I’m a huge Lucinda Brand fan, so I wouldn’t mind a surprise—Brand just won the Dutch National Championships a week after breaking her nose, so she’s in great form. Then again, Van
Empel didn’t compete, so it’s hard to judge.
Did anyone watch the Dolphins and the Chiefs?
Really wanted to see it…but did not…would not pay extra.
My wife signed us up for the night. At -6F it seemed like a good option. Andy Reid was in top form. His offense was well planned and his defensive coordinator produced a defense that was very disciplined. Few or no penalties against KC’s defense.
We watched at the aforementioned watch party. One of the other guests had two adult kids at the game, well-protected by a ton of cold-weather hunting gear. They (the two kids) were appalled at some of the idiots who no doubt went home with frostbite.
Apart from the game, two vivid images stand out to me. . . .
1) Mahomes’ helment shattering on impact. From looking at slow motion replays and a couple of still photos, it looks like the defender first made impact with the grill on Mahomes’ helmet, which put a lot of force on one weak spot where the grill attaches to the helmet proper. Add it the temps, which likely made the helmet more brittle, and POP! Helmet manufacturers are going to study the film of this event like engineers dissected the Challenger explosion.
2) Andy Reid’s icicle-laden mustache. Anyone who has ever had a ‘stache and shoveled snow on a cold cold day can related to Reid last night.
Today’s high in KC is predicted to be -2F, with a low tonight of -10F. Depending on the Stillers-Bills game tomorrow afternoon, either Houston will come to Arrowhead next weekend (if the Stillers win), or the Chefs will go to Buffalo if the Bills win. Given the much-more-likelihood of a Bills win, I think the Chefs’ victory in the cold last night will take away any perceived fear of going into Buffalo and dealing with the weather. “Been there, done that, got the busted helmet as a souvenir.”
It did take some time to understand the moderation and what are the boundaries for a particular post. BMAZ enforced the rules very efficiently and ruthlessly which I admired. However he did have some apparent bias when it came to the “local yokels” prosecuting the Georgia Election case. I do not know where that bias arises from but it seems very similar to the ones people end up expressing without realizing they have it? I have a soft spot for “local yokels” as we all have to start somewhere and just because you are a county prosecutor, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are less of a legal mind than some ass kissing, box checker that becomes a Federal Prosecutor like Rudy Giuliani.
My experience in companies that “looked down” on people without the “proper credentials” has taught me that being a degreed individual or having an engineering degree is not always indicative of a person’s talent; it is more likely a consequence of opportunity. Once given the opportunity these so called “local yokels” can excel.
I have not read the details of the Fani WIllis accusations but it sounds like somebody had sex in association with a highly charged situation involving men and women working in a high pressure environment. News flash folks, it happens all the time and in every organization. Sex reduces stress in the short term, but fishing off the company pier can have long term negative personnel issues or lead to marriage. YMMV
I grew to ignore the BMAZ attacks on the “local yokels” because the value he brought to the whole of emptywheel was worth it and I hope he returns.
While it is unlikely to totally derail the trial, if Fani Willis was having an affair with Nathan Wade and she did indeed go on trips with him using taxpayer money associated with any of the $600K that has been paid to him, that’s very much illegal, and it sheds light on the fact that Willis appointed Wade over many much more qualified prosecutors in Fulton County.
While I think they’ll still prosecute Trump, Willis and Wade may be removed from the trial and it may end up moving somewhere else in the state. I think many people are not taking these allegations nearly seriously enough, which is unfortunate, as it shows yet again that politics gets in the way of absolutely everything.
Yes
Congrats to the Maize and Blue!
EW, it’s been quite the flurry of writing the past two weeks. Thank you for keeping track of the ball of threads and how they are wound together. I am forever thankful for the clarity you bring when MSM gets it so badly wrong more often than not! Hope your foot healing and recovery go quickly and successfully. That’s not an easy injury to face. Thanks so much for keeping your amazing writing pace while facing physical challenges.
As for bmaz, if you are lurking, thank you for rallying the troops when I was a new comer at TNH – especially one time when the site migrated and I was having tech issues. You rallied all the tech savvy here and reached out behind the scenes to make sure I migrated with the flock! You also made sure I landed at FDL too and encouraged me to finally do my own posts there!
You have been understanding but “bmaz direct” with all my IANAL questions! Supportive and appreciative of my research and finds on: underwater cables, building capacity policy, infrastructure, the strategies of RU propaganda, identifying RU propaganda strategies being deployed by our own citizens, and Ohio voter fraud.
As for sports and music, you welcomed my Ohio State football history due to my personal journey in my youth with Woody Hayes, despite your dislike of OSU. You were kind about my music tastes in your bmaz way of being kind about my tastes!
Furthermore, I appreciated the moderation balance you and Rayne gave to the site.
Wherever you are, you are missed.
Now Rayne! Thank you for all your posts and mods work! I deeply admire the mods work you do and cannot imagine the level of behind the scenes bombardment from bots, sockpuppets and propagandists you face and manage! “Thank you,” seems to not capture my depth of appreciation!
Peter and Ed, thank you for your posts as well. Wonderful and insightful writing, full of “bigger picture” thinking and “long game” thinking.
Take care team. You are light.
Thanks, klynn, always great to see you here in comments. :-)
What Rayne said.
Rayne: You are a backstabber that participated in none of what KLynn discussed. Go to hell.
Checking in, in the absence of my Stillers this fine Sunday afternoon. King Roger the Clown buckled in the face of a little snow and will likely wind up making a hash out of the playoff schedule. And there’s talk in the last hour or two about pushing the game from Monday to some other day. Whichever team comes out of Orchard Park the winners will wind up facing their opponent on some of the shortest rest in NFL history. At least since King Roger’s Corona Rules of 2020 had my Stillers playing Baltimore on a Wednesday afternoon and then the next weekend. My betting is, if the Stillers win, they’ll have to go to Baltimore for a Saturday game.
King Roger hates my Stillers.
I was hoping the universe was going to give King Roger a bale of grief. As those of you who follow the weather may have noticed, Maine has been pelted with three vicious storms in the last week. Sunday, there was well over a foot of snow (pushing 16 inches!) falling on King Roger’s clifftop seaside lair. Also known as his Maine coast vacation palace. Tuesday into Wednesday, it rained. And blew. A lot. Like multiple inches of rain and 70 mph gusts. Buildings washed away. Friday into yesterday, more of the same. I’ve seen video of waves crashing with spray half the height of the lighthouse on the Maine state quarters. Google tells me that lighthouse is taller than King Roger’s cliff and only a couple miles from it.
So, you can see I was rooting for the crashing waves and sideways torrents of rain to inflict some pain on King Roger the Clown. So far, no word on whether my wish was fulfilled.
Just had an update on the situation for Buffalo. Wisely, the Stillers’ plane is still on the ground in Pittsburgh. No one has quite figured out how to get them to the team hotel from the airport, in the face of a travel ban in the entire Buffalo area. Similarly, no one has figured out how to get all the volunteers to shovel out the snow in the stadium, to the stadium in the face of said travel ban. And no one has a frickin’ clue how to make it all work. To say there are a lot of moving parts in the coming goatscrew is to present a master class in understatement.
If asked, preflight I’d have given the Stillers players the same advice I got once about floatplane trips to remote fishing lodges: the weather is always uncertain and you don’t know whether or when you will take off or land. Pack a thick historical novel with lots of characters and side plots. Preferably a paperback so, when your buddies start looking for something to read you can split it into chunks of a hundred pages or so and give each a share.
It was with some pleasure that I saw Kraft send Cheatin’ Bill down the road. Let’s not kid ourselves with this “mutual parting of ways” bullshit: Kraft fired him and decided to fire him a long time ago. One of the Boston sports media talkers said it really stemmed from Cheatin’ Bill refusing to extend Brady after the Atlanta Super Bowl. (That, of course, was after Bill wanted to send him to SF before that SB.) Kraft, seasoned executive that he is, refused the impulse to intervene or otherwise insult his subordinate Cheatin’ Bill. He chose, instead, to let the man “do his job” and live with the consequences. The real breaking point was when Cheatin’ Bill presented Kraft with an extended report on how older quarterbacks decline, reaching the conclusion that Brady was Done.
To near-quote Kraft: “He told me Tom was Done, and then Tom went to Tampa and won a fucking Super Bowl.”
After that, it was all passive-aggressive bullshit, played at a high level but nonetheless more suited to some mean girls in junior high. Bringing in the inept Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to be dual offensive coordinators. When neither had a clue about offense. Ruining whatever chance Mac Jones had of playing effectively in the League. (No surprise, then, that Mac Jones is reputed to blow off what coaching he does get. Cheatin’ Bill put him in a position to fail, more to prove a point to Kraft than anything else. Why should Jones listen to that guy?)
Looking back to my Stillers, they wound up running out of options and finally did the right thing, firing Matt The Idiot Canada as their OC. And, lo and behold, they started winning. Kenny Pickett got a raw deal out of all this, seeing as how he first had to put up with Canada and then promptly got injured. Mason Rudolph has performed well in the job. More to the point, the Stillers have rediscovered the Undiscovered County of Running Backs Going North and South, not East and West. And, lo and behold, it works and they score points.
It was nice to hear Big Ben come out and admit blowing off Canada’s play calls and calling his own audibles, knowing he was going to retire and not have to put up with Canada’s bullshit playcalling any more.
I’m going to miss Watt The Younger in the Bills game, whenever it gets played. I hope he heals enough to play in the later rounds, assuming we move on.
And, when the Dallas Owboys lose, look for Jerry to hire Cheatin’ Bill to be his head coach. Won’t work. You only have one soul to sell, Jerry, and you did that for those Super Bowls back in the 90s.
Lots of good stuff here, scribe. Let me just jump in on that last part.
I’ve heard the “BillBel to Dallas” stuff, too, and I’m sorry but I can’t see that happening. Jerry is too much of a control freak — Owboys Owner, President, and GM all in one — and so is BillBel. He never had the formal titles other than Head Coach, but had such informal power that calling him a control freak is an understatement.
So if you put them together, who makes the final call on draft decisions? Who has the final say on who to offer contracts to? Who decides how much pay goes with each contract? If BillBel walked into his pal Jerry’s office and said “We’d make a great partnership: you get all the titles and I get to make all the decisions,” Jerry would laugh his ass off and show him the door.
Not. Gonna. Happen.
And if by some miracle it did happen, I foresee a new Tina Fay movie: Mean Girls, NFL Edition.
Did coach Bellichek win anything without the quarterback named Brady? But I recall Mr. Brady briefly enjoyed success as long as he had Gronkowski.
Belichick is sitting in the catbird seat.
If Dallas loses to Green Bay, will Jones pull the trigger.
Save the date: Take a quick trip to Detroit for the NFL draft on April 25-27. Maybe the Tigers will be in town.
Observations from the metal bench:
Meet the reorganized, revitalized, and recharged New England Patriots. Ask anyone who rides the T in the morning and listens to Felger and Mazz?
Owner and CEO: Robert Kraft
CEO in waiting: Jonathan Kraft. See succession plan.
CFO: Fan Duel in partnership with the Pats and Roger Goodell
Disposed, but highly praised Head Coach and General Manager: Bill Belichick. See divorces without alimony.
GOAT – Coach Belichick. See noon time press conference which will be rerun on Saturday Night Live.
Coach Emeritus: See BB above
Pissed off Coaches dead and alive: Knute Rockne, George Halas, Vince Lombardi and the irate Don Shula (15 more victories and counting).
Interim General Managers: Robert and Jonathan Kraft as a cost savings measure.
Rookie Head Coach and former linebacker: Jerod Mayo
Vacant Offensive Coach: submit your resumes to Indeed by April Fools Day
Vacant Defensive Coach: see Offensive Coach above.
Assistant legal advisor to the former GM: Anonymous Agent
Chief Team Enforcer, and Press Conference scheduler: Uncertain. Bob Lobel is in the running
Team Jester and Pun(ter): My money is on Gronk
All around good guys and Mascot: Pat the Patriot has retained his job, sans tricone hat
New logo: Up in the air, but Elvis must go
Season ticket holders: Remember to ask for your 2023 refund check.
There’s a lot to miss about Ann Arbor, but celebratory or angry drunks in F-150s after the games certainly isn’t on the list. Send a prayer to everyone living there who just wants their lawns to be free of vomit and empties ;)
LOL. IIRC, you live in an awkward spot for all that.
The win in 1997–when students overtook the President’s house (then Lee Bollinger) was fun.
But I was pretty far off campus by then.
Hey Kitties Fans ! Jared Goff, former Cal quarterback; Marin county boy. Have fun next weekend !!
w00t!!!
Congrats to the Kittie contingent in these parts! Your friends across the lake are genuinely happy for you : )
I of course didn’t see the game but I’m seeing a lot of happy people.
Well done, Kitties!
Congrats to Blog mommy and all fans of the kittehs!
Happy New Year All – just got done with all the Orthodox Christmas invites and am preparing for all the Chinese New Year invites. It’s a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it😀
Bmaz, hope you’re hale and hearty! Marcy, you’re brilliant as ever. Thank you🙏
Oh, I am fine, thanks. I still have a wife, daughter, cute dog and a day job. This whole post was by Marcy. I never agreed to it, nor wanted it.
There was never any “fight” between me and Marcy, there was only her proscribing what I could, and could not, even discuss. I was right about Fani Willis, and will be right about Colorado.
Go ahead Rayne, ban me you ingrate.
[FYI — I didn’t ban you; you managed to make a typo in your email address on two comments which I have now fixed and freed. /~Rayne]
Nice to see you back, perhaps the rest on Uncle Fester’s bed did some good. As a hypothetical given what Fani Willis had to work with in terms of pretty solid evidence (leave out the speculation stuff), how would you have prosecuted that GA phone call? That was pretty damn criminal in any book.
With that said, Fani in church going after MTG was IMHO an error for a couple of reasons. It didn’t really have to be done now, and it only gives credence to the ‘witch hunt’ narrative employed by Inmate P01135089 and his defense team.
The idea is to give zero strings to pull by the other side.
Oh, I am very much not back. Marcy and Rayne have assured that. I can, barely, even comment at all.
What Fani Willis “had to work with” was politically motivated horse manure. But, hey, I can be excised for saying so
While you are leaning on the door frame, bmaz, do you mind answering a question? We’re well aware of your cogent reasons for dissing both Willis personally and her case, but were you also aware of her amorous activities before the rest of us were surprised-not-surprised? It’s been suggested as vindication for you, as if you needed any.
Counting down to Cheatin’ Bill signing with Dallas. In a postgame interview Jerry says he hasn’t even given a thought to McCarthy’s future.
Don’t forget – Jerry believed Parcells, and Parcells and Cheatin’ Bill are as close as two alpha bulls like them can be close. Parcells has doubtless been whispering in Jerry’s ear how great it would be.
Meal time in Texas
Are you saying that Parcells is cooking dinner and Belichick has brought in his groceries?
I shouldn’t be surprised that the perennial fraud-ass Cowboys failed to beat the green and yellow NFC North tyrants, yet I’m still a bit pissed that they did and depressed that FTP found yet another really good QB.
Go Lions, I guess
Hey, do think BMAZ was chasing those two llamas in Phoenix yesterday? It could account for his late arrival to trash talk?
Yeah, we have coyotes and wild peccaries in the wash by our house, but no llamas. Have a good life Jack.
The Washington Huskies lost.
The Washington coach won.
Does anyone else question the football coverage where play’s over. Show the crowd. Especially those in funny outfits. Show a coach on the sideline. Discuss and show an injured player who everyone, especially the betting crowd, knew would not play. Show a family of a player in the stands. Quick switch to the field just before the snap where you’ve little time to see the offensive formation and the defensive alignment and even whether the backfield’s empty or possibly even a two back alignment. Barely see whether the quarterback is under center or deep, or if it’s a wildcat substitution. Show the play. Repeat.
It is scripted by football haters. They believe seeing a huddle, the field, substitutions made, breaking the huddle, two tight ends or split, who’s in the slot, etc. is boring and needs replacement with fluff. Sideline Susie. It used to be better in the old days. When less money was put into broadcasting and guys outside of the stadium in a truck were not used, with thirty camera feeds to choose among, one or two focused on the field, and the truck crew gets to pop back and forth between “interesting views.”
Any thoughts on Tacopina fleeing the defense team? IMHO, a bit late to save his reputation, but perhaps there are ‘irreconcilable differences’ in the strategy. Or, it could be yet another delay tactic to dodge the bill from the E. Jean Carroll trial.
Tacopina is an ass, but not totally stupid.
Congrats all Ganders!
Was pretty cool seeing the x-quarterbacks duel.
And Wolves just devoured some ‘Eyes on the college court.
Pretty amazing month for the state.
Gonna make the Prez show up i bet.
Bmaz , who i gonna torment with the 14th stuff now? At least it’s warming up around here for a week. Atmo river coming next week, so shore up your remaining saghuros ! I’ll stick with Jerome.
https://thearp.org/litigation/citizens-const-integrity-v-census-bureau/
Scribe,
On spec.
Would you be comfortable with Bill taking the reins of the Steelers?
Your coach had a purple haze moment – “Excuse me, while I blitz the press room.”
No.
Steelers don’t cheat and don’t tolerate cheaters.
They are as pure as the driven snow. Wouldn’t think of using steroids or step on the field during a kick-off return.