Spiff

bandwidth limit exceeded, well it should be back sometime soon i guess. in the meantime, do you know where it is anywhere else on the web?

D'Angelo Hall out 6-10 weeks with a fractured hip. That's s***ty, he's one rookie I really wanted to watch.

Euro-trash is so funny 'cause they don't care about dignity at all. You'll never catch me huffing alcohol from a tube. I'll stick to cans and bottles, thanks.

Couple things I forgot to mention for people who might be new to this, or to review for people who aren't. Games are straight-up, no point spreads. You'd think this would make it too easy, but not really. Picking a correct upset helps you a great deal. All picks have to be in by the kickoff of the first game (usually 1pm eastern). The only exception is Thursday games. You can pick just the Thursday games (before kickoff of the first one, of course), and then pick the rest of the games before kickoff on Sunday. We make this exception because people are busy during the week and don't always have time to put thought into 16 picks. All thursday, saturday, and sunday (1:00 & 4:00) games are worth 1 point. Sunday night game is worth 2, Monday night is worth 3. This might seem like an unfair swing, but it makes it more interesting, the monday night game is rarely meaningless (like it was the first year when we didn't use the point system). And also, be patient. We're only human and we have stuff to do outside of this. We try to get stuff like picks and standings up as soon as possible. Picks are almost always completely up before the week's action starts. Standings take a bit longer, but are usually up by thursday. That said,

Yep, we decided to re-up for another year and get the league back together. I'm assuming Cali and DBAH0 are in, if anyone else wants to play just say so in here.

MinnesotaSoxFan starts with: Tex responds: grade-A stuff

No it's fine. Really, these guidelines are just to have a sort of plan of action for all the mods in case someone really acts up. Don't worry about the normal give and take that goes on, most of the time it is self-contained and as long as people aren't carrying grudges from thread to thread and constantly attacking each other, you won't even notice a difference. You're not gonna get suspended for calling someone an idiot. This isn't WSI and it never will be.

Two good points I heard yesterday: 1. Whether or not he was on steroids before, he's not on them now because of testing and all the attention being payed to him. I don't see how he could get away with it now. 2. Why is he taking days off when the Giants are in the thick of a divison/wild card race? They need every game, he needs to suck it up and play. He sat out yesterday and they lost by a run (because of the bullpen, but still).

Comparing anyone to Daver is the most heinous and uncalled-for personal attack I can think of.

Good thing Dallas has a mobile quarterback....oh wait, they cut that guy.

I love how Fogerty says the word "turning", it comes out like "toinin".

I love both hockey and soccer. I think soccer is tough for people to get used to at first because it's not constant end-to-end rapid fire shots etc. The scoring chances develop slower, there's a lot of thinking involved, it's sorta like chess on a giant field. I wish the World Cup was every 2 years instead of every 4, because it's one of my favorite things to watch. Hockey is awesome for other reasons, it's fast and hard-hitting (when played right, as the WCoH is), with ridiculous stick work and crazy goaltending. Regular season hockey can sometimes fall on the boring side, but nothing beats the intensity of playoff hockey, especially sudden death overtime. Olympic hockey is really fun to watch too because of the more open, free-flowing style and the average skill level being greater than the NHL with its 30 teams.

Vikes released Brock Lesnar. Finland beat the Czech Republic in the first game of the World Cup of Hockey 4-0(mmmmmiiiiiiikkkkkkaaaa). Tomorrow night at 7pm est it's USA vs Canada.

I don't know how you call Rodney Harrison a dinosaur and expect that to make your argument. Old or not, he is still better than Mike Minter. You are talking about those Panther players being potential pro-bowlers. The Patriots had 3 on defense (Seymour, Law, and McGinest) last year, the Panthers had 1 (Jenkins). I have been watching all those guys you mentioned since they were in college, and Morgan is the only one I see ever making the pro bowl. Manning had a good playoffs last year, but he's gotta do it consistently. Witherspoon is a nice player, but he's undersized and he doesn't seem to make many plays that really make you say wow, plays that get you in the pro bowl. Minter hits hard, really hard, but so doesn't most of the safeties in the league. BTW Jessie Armstead is done, has been done for about three years. He doesn't help them, but Brandon Short is a guy I really like. And of course Brian Allen, because he was on the greatest FSU team ever. I'm not tryin to tear down the Panthers, but when you said they were undoubtedly the best defense that knocked me off balance. It's a good squad though, and they showed a great deal last year. They are fun to watch, last night was a good game, even for the preseason. It's good though, to talk football with people who know what they're talking about. The Pats aren't my team really, I like them though and I watch a lot of their games cause I am from Mass. The Giants are my official team (which is why I'm so sure about Armstead and Short), but they don't evoke the kind of passion that FSU and the Sox do. Not even when they were in the Super Bowl against Baltimore, and especially not last year when they mailed in the last 10 games of the season. Overall I still want them to win, but it's weird to have such an identity crisis when football is my favorite sport. Maybe the Dave Brown era left me so shell-shocked that I approach every game looking like this

Bud Light is not the best but its ten times better than High Life Light, and it was on sale.

Last week I was drinking warm High Life Light :puke while watching the Sox lose to Boston and team USA lose to Lithuania Solved that problem quickly with a 30 of Bud Light (cold). No one should have to go through that.

And also, you can scout potential draft picks by watching them play in actual games.

Another badass aspect is they have the outdoor arena from when the Oilers and Canadiens played the Heritage Classic. http://www.espnvideogames.com/news/screen.php?id=750&gid=8

I love the gameplay in Sega's hockey series so much more than EA's. All my friends preferred it too, I dunno if that means anything to you, but after playing last year's EA version they promised to never complain about anything in ESPN hockey again. And yeah, they have dynasty mode.

points of interest: "The most useful and troublesome new moves are done with the Right Thumbstick on defense, which acts as a Punishment Stick. Slap the stick in different directions for more powerful checks on opponents. If you click in on the Right Thumbstick and punish a player, you'll go over the top with your viciousness." "Puck action is improved this year, particularly around the goal. Last year the goalies were far too dominant and would smother almost any failed shot. This year sees a more realistic interpretation with easily double the number of rebound opportunities. Goalies tend to deflect first and worry about catching later. This leads to a better game pace simply because rebounds turn into a furious battle for control."

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/534/534865p1.html It sounds like they added a ton of crap. It seems like just yesterday I bought 2k4, but at $20 there's no way I won't get it. Though seeing St. Louis on the cover sucks, I might have to cut out a picture of Iggy and put that over him.

And New England would have won by more if they had Corey Dillon and not Antwain Smith. None of this coulda, shoulda, woulda stuff. New England has a superior defense. Carolina's front line might be a little better, but the Patriots linebackers and secondary are way better.

I don't know why anyone would predict Illinois higher than Northwestern, considering Illinois didn't beat a I-A team last year, and NU went to a bowl game.

Yeah he took a hotel maid hostage or something. They had a story on sportscenter about it a few months ago.

wtf? are you forgetting the team who won the super bowl last year? the one who made peyton manning look like heath shuler? the one that played every game but two without roosevelt colvin, and now has him back? there's no way you can say carolina is undoubtedly the best, they were 10th in scoring defense last year, new england was #1.