The NFL

“It looks like the Titans have a good starting QB in Billy Volek, if McNair does retire. McNair will have surgery again this off season to repair his sternum. He has hinted that he might retire.
Volek's 918 passing yards (426 & 492) total over two weeks are the second most in NFL history in consecutive games. What he has accomplished in only seven starts is pretty impressive.
He has passed for 2745 yds in those 7 games, that is an avg of 392 yrds per game.

Next home game is Christmas night. High of 28 low of 16. It will be a chilly night in Nashville.”

“They were the Patsy's last night. Threw it away, just like the loss to the Steelers - too many interceptions. The last one was ridiculous, Brady definitely should have known better.”

“OMG! HELL YES! THE NEW ENGLAND PISSPOTS LOST TO MIAMI!

my two most hated teams, the dolphlubs and the petunias. i shouldve stayed up and watched the game”

“I'm hoping TO comes back faster than they are saying. He should heal faster, one would think. He's also a pretty determined cookie.”

“i dont see mcnair retiring after the season. itd be so anti-climactic, missing most of the second half of the season with injury. he'll give it another go”

“The Miami win is only PROOF that some games are fixed. I'm convinced there was chicanery in the Dallas/Phila game as well.

If Philly has learned one thing it is that when your star misses all the playoff games and you get to the championship series, you don't shake the line-up to fit him in. If your back-ups @ 100% are not as good as your star @ 60% you suck and shouldn't win anyway. (This lesson brought to you by the numbers 88 and the letters N, H and L.)
last edited: 12/21/04 5:22:17 PM”

“Pittsburgh, the league's other 13-1 team, had the next-most selections in balloting by players, coaches and fans.
The Steelers had six: linebackers Joey Porter and James Farrior, safety Troy Polamalu, center Jeff Hartings, guard Alan Faneca and wide receiver Hines Ward.
last edited: 12/22/04 4:55:50 PM”

“The Titans got no one. That is normal though for a team with a losing record.

Keith Bullock led the outsider linebackers in total fan votes but still didn't make it. Derrick Mason leads the WR's in total catches but still didn't make it.

Both of these guys were Pro Bowl Players last yr but the Titans had a winning season

Lots of WR's had better stats than (15th)Harrison and (16th)Ward but being on a winning team put them in.

.”

“LOL WLD!! You know how much I LOVE the Pack!
Let's hope we get another X-mas gift and see them on the floor begging for mercy from the Vikes.... :)”

“GO PACK. VIKES SUCK”

“nimblefoot, you're going down, down, to china town.”

“Yamster, where ya been??”

“harrison leads the league in touchdowns, and is a great decoy to get wayne and stokely open. but yea, i was surprised at his getting selected. manning was was a no-brainer however. hell, hes a no-brainer for mvp”

“Reggie White, the former all time sack leader until he was passed by Bruce Smith has died of a heart attack at the age of 43.

http://tennessean.com/sports/ut/archives/04/12/63354257.shtml?Element_ID=63354257”

“r.i.p. reg”

“Ah, but the Jaguars suck!”

“Would a Cowboys fan worry about being down by 4 to the Redskins with 30 seconds to go?

Of course not. It is every Cowboys fan's birthright to watch his team beat the Redskins.”

“It's about the only birthright a cowboy fan has since not many can prove their parentage, j/k.”

“It was quite the spectacle in my Restaurant when the Skins did what the Skins do best. I had a great time calmly persuading a very large & drunk customer to not destroy the chair he was holding over his head.

The Skins make me feel like the Bills weren't so bad.”

“True, but at least the Skins have been good. The Vikings however....”

“ARRRRRRRRGH!!!!! Big Ben is hurt! Rib problem. He got scanned last night and no word yet.”

“No T.O., no Big Ben....that might just about even things out.

(Actually, I hope he isn't badly hurt. I never like to see that.)”

“Associated Press (via ESPN)

DENVER -- A low-income elementary school is still waiting for a $50,000 donation promised five years ago by NFL star Reggie White to create a college tuition fund for 85 students.

"I'm really disappointed," Harrington Elementary Principal Sally Edwards said this week. "I think it's sad that we promised something and we didn't deliver."

White made the pledge in 1998 when his team, the Green Bay Packers, was in Denver for a preseason game against the Broncos. He gave a large cardboard mock-up of check, made out to Harrington Elementary, to the Rev. Leon Kelly, an anti-gang activist who steered White to the school.

White, who retired from the Packers after the 1998 season, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The money was to create a tuition fund for the school's 85 first-graders that year, to be awarded to those who graduate from high school with a C average or better. The students would now be in the sixth grade in various middle schools.

Edwards and Kelly said they haven't been able to contact White despite numerous attempts. Kelly said he feels bad the money wasn't there for the students.

"You can't get a kid to understand that," Kelly said.

Kelly still has the mock check.

If he could send a message to White, Kelly said, it would be, "Hey, Reggie, what's up? Cool. But what's up with this scholarship money?"
last edited: 12/27/04 10:19:05 AM”

“Violin, I feel like I am feeding a troll here, but have you no shame? The overwhelming reputation the man has is extremely positive. Why take a year-old story that presented one side of an issue and post it here when the man has just died? Dude, you're smart, you can be funny, and I still hope to hike with you someday but this really seems like a cheap shot.”

“Actually I'm not posting the many extremely bigoted public statements White made in the recent past, so I am showing restraint.”

“Did you hear we got MLB in DC? The Mayor has been named "Unsportsman of the Year" by our alt mag

"Take Wilson High School. Please.

Eddie Saah, the Wilson baseball coach and athletic director, has built a diamond dynasty. His teams have won 12 D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) titles in a row and 155 of their last 156 league games. All this despite being forced to play home games on the school’s football field, which can only be configured to host baseball only with one major concession: No right field. The only room for a right fielder is on Nebraska Avenue.

Most of D.C.’s gridiron greats never get to experience the thrill of Friday-night lights. Despite years of discussion about providing city kids with lighted fields, something that student athletes in all the surrounding suburbs and pretty much everywhere else in the country take for granted, that hasn’t happened. So games are held on afternoons—when most football parents can’t even attend—in front of piddly crowds.


“We want a field that somebody would want to play baseball on,” says Saah. “We’ve been asking for something for a long time, but I don’t know if it will happen.”

...The Cardozo boys’ basketball team did its city proud last year, first by winning the DCIAA title over Roosevelt High School. The Clerks then shocked the world, or at least a full house at the Smith Center, by beating Joe Wooten’s heavily favored and heavily moneyed Bishop Denis J. O’Connell squad, the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion, to capture what’s still called the City Championship.

All this despite not having a home gym. The Expos at least got to play some of their games in Montreal last year. Cardozo hasn’t had a home game yet this century. The Clerks’ gym was condemned years ago by building inspectors because the bleachers were crumbling and unsafe.

No movement has been made to fix the place, either.

“I know the people at Cardozo would like a gym, one that they can actually play basketball in,” says Jordan Spooner, director of D.C. programs for the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit that monitors the state of D.C. public schools. “That doesn’t sound like too much to ask, does it? But there’s no certainty that’s going to happen anytime soon.”

For now, the Clerks will continue to call the gym at Roosevelt’s campus their home court—on the days when the rival RoughRiders don’t have dibs on it.

Maybe the Cardozo players could identify with the aura of neglect that oozed out of the Coolidge gym, which is the biggest and supposedly best basketball facility our public-school system has to offer.

“There’s not even air conditioning in Coolidge’s gym,” steams Adrian Fenty, Ward 4 councilmember and a leading Williams antagonist over the stadium deal. “It’s like a sauna in there. Kids shouldn’t have to put up with that. It’s crazy.”

And when city construction crews finish up with Cardozo’s hoops room, why not let them take a crack at the school’s swimming pool? Like the basketball gym, it’s unusable now because of neglect.

Actually, most of the city’s high-school pools are currently unusable. One evening in July 2003, a large wall beside the Wilson pool collapsed just 10 minutes after the pool had closed for the day, and the entire facility has been deemed unsafe ever since.

Even if the Wilson pool isn’t put back into commission, the swimmers will still have a leg up on their track-and-field counterparts. There are no longer any indoor meets inside the city. The city championships were held at the D.C. Armory—until that facility was deemed too dangerous. “They were still trying to make the kids run on old wood boards,” says Saah. “We had to pour some sticky substance on the track—I think it was Coca Cola—so kids wouldn’t fall down on the curves.”

Source: Washingtoncitypaper.com 12/24/04 By Dave McKenna.”

“Wow. Looks like I forgot how to cut and paste. Not sure how the 2nd paragraph got in there.”

“not saying i agree or disagree with vio's disenchantment with white, but could we please not drag this thread down to the level of 99 percent of the other threads here on this board? i didnt agree with whites anti-gay statements, but i otherwise respect the guy and i defineitely think its bad form to be pissing on his memory before the grave has even been dug. shame on you fiddle-boy. >:(
last edited: 12/27/04 11:42:58 AM”

“at least theres still plenty of time to get this taken care of. the kids are in 6th grade, its for their high school graduation. reg is an stand-up guy, im sure this was an oversight that will be corrected in time.”

“CB is right! So what kills a man at age 43?

reminds me of an old joke;

Q: What do you call a weightlifter with a large peenis?


A: A beginner.


I'm sorry! Violin made me do it!”

“bm, id hate to think it was steroids that caused it, but look at flo-jo and her early heart-attack. the way she beefed up so quickly and died of heart attack so young, im convinced she was on steroids. maybe white had an enlarged heart. pro athletes are freaks of nature (i dont mean that unkindly) and maybe going from being hyper-fit and taking care of oneself to the nth degree to a more sedentary lifestyle caused it. im just speculating, im not a doctor, i just play one in my mind”

“Maybe G-d's team is playing Satan's on New Years Day and G-d needed a defensive end (kinda like SpearChucker Jones in M.A.S.H.)”

“I guess it's OK to speak ill of millions of living people... but say one thing about a dead guy and the world comes down on ya.

Makes sense to me.”

“I'm sick of hearing about his death on the news. You'd think the Pope passed away. I was a big fan of his when he was an Eagle, but gee whiz, enough already.”

“What do you expect from a Nation who's domestic violence spikes after the Super Bowl?”

“"I guess it's OK to speak ill of millions of living people"

no, it wasnt ok. nobody said that. it was wrong. im sure when your wife or mother or father dies, you dont want some jerk-off stranger bringing up their faults and mistakes.”

“i just read today that manning probably wont be able to keep his record-setting ball. ill double-check, but i believe #48 is going to canton and his final touchdown-pass ball will be going to a museum to eventually be built in indy. not sure where #49 is going, i think its going to the museum in indy, but once he throws #50, i guess it wont be that special.
i just think it stinks that after years of tradition of players getting to keep certain "milestone" balls, the nfl all of a sudden cries "MINE!". yea, technically, they have the right, but having the right doesnt make it right. its PEYTONS record, it should be peytons ball.”

“"Tentative plans are in place to deal with the historic objects: TD pass No. 48, which went to running back James Mungro and tied Marino's mark, and No. 49, which ended up in Stokley's hands. It's uncertain how Manning, or the receivers in question, figure into those plans.

Each football has a place in NFL history, and is safely tucked away inside the Colts' Union Federal Football Center. Within the next week, the team will FedEx the football that tied Marino's single-season record to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. They will include a No. 18 jersey Manning wore in a game this season along with other assorted items that commemorate the moment.

The fate of football No. 49? That depends on whether it's the final touchdown tossed by Manning this season. He might up the record a notch or two on Sunday when the Colts (12-3) close the regular season at Denver (9-6).

Colts' owner Jim Irsay wants the football used on Manning's last TD pass this season to be among the central exhibits in a projected Colts' Hall of Fame. The team is considering making a museum, open throughout the year, part of the proposed state-of-the-art stadium that would replace the RCA Dome in 2008.

"That is a concept only right now," said Pete Ward, the team's senior executive vice president.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is at the mercy of players and teams when it comes to historic items.

Joe Horrigan, the organization's vice president of communications/exhibits, has kept in contact with the Colts during Manning's pursuit of Marino's record.

"We work back and forth until we can decide what's going to happen and how it's going to happen," he said Monday afternoon.

As soon as the Pro Football Hall of Fame receives the souvenir package from the Colts, it will organize and open an exhibit.

"It's for the fans," Horrigan said. "We're used to old things, but in this immediate world of today, you like to see things now."

A trip to Canton might be the only way Mungro gets to see the football that forever makes him a part of NFL history. Stokley? He might have to wait until the grand opening of the Colts' Hall of Fame.

It's routine for players to keep footballs following touchdowns or interceptions, even fumble recoveries. They generally flip the football to a member of the team's equipment staff, who marks the ball and tosses it in a storage bin near the bench.

On Sunday, Stokley handed the record football to wide receiver Aaron Moorehead, who was not active for the game. Moorehead informed Stokley after the game that sideline officials immediately took it from him and tucked it in a box for safekeeping.

"I think the NFL called a while back wanting the ball, depending on which number, I think they said they wanted No. 49," said Manning, who apparently won't end up with the record-breaking ball either. "Hopefully we can throw a few more (on Sunday), but I think the Hall of Fame wanted the ball.

"I think Stokley got to touch it a little while."

Just who actually has claim to a ball, whether it's a record-breaker like TD No. 49 or one that commemorates a special moment for an individual player, is not easily discerned. Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president of public relations, was unable to shed any light. "That hasn't come up before," he said.

Asked the protocol on "ownership" of a football, coach Tony Dungy referred to a discussion he had with a league official last week.

"The message I got was the balls belonged to the NFL," he said. "All our players take them after they score touchdowns or whatever, so I kind of thought they belonged to us.

"But I was corrected last week. When push comes to shove, what I was told last week is it's the league office's ball."

So, Stokley might be out of luck.

"(He's) way down the food chain," Dungy said”

“Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger (bruised ribs) is extremely doubtful for Sunday against the Bills. -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette”

“WHHAAAAAAA! The Packers beat the Vikings AGAIN.

On a more serious note. My condolences to the White family for thier loss.

Reggie White was not perfect, but he was a good man!”

“The game against the Bills is a meaningless game for the Steelers I doubt you will see any of the Steelers regulars playing this week. The Bills should win this game no problem they sill have a good shot at making the playoffs. Roethlisberger has three weeks to recover he should be ok.”

“even if big ben is a teensy bit doubtful, he shouldnt play. steelers clinched number one seed, nothing to play for. i think its rot that some will say that teams like the steelers or the colts who are locked into their seeding but are playing against teams on the cusp, have an obligation to play their starters just to be "fair" to the other teams. sure, you play your players to keep momentum, to keep sharp, but your obligation is to your team and no other.

take for example, indy vs denver. if denver does make it into the playoffs, they will be facing off against the colts the following week in round 1. now, if i was head coach and i thought that denver was the team that could most likely beat us, i would try to knock them out of contention without risking my stars. if however, i felt they were the weakest of the teams vying for the last playoff spot, i would be tempted to let them win and let them into the playoffs. but only if i absolutely felt my team had their number (of course, ask the patriots about the dolphlubs).

next weeks game against the broncos is going to be tricky if denver is their first-round opponent. dungy has to balance not wanting to get his stars injured against not wanting them to get out of synch, balance not showing denver too much vs probing denvers weakness and strengths. they dont want to run up the score and give them a cause to avenge, yet they dont want to give them too much confidence either. itll be a tightrope act”

“The game is meaningless for the Colts. I bet Manning will start but if he gets hit once they'll pull him out real quick. You don't risk your franchise in a meaningless game. Imagine if Manning got hurt a week before the playoffs in a meaningless game. Something like that could go down as the dumbest move in NFL history.”

“id like to see him throw number 50 then yank him. i dont think its a good idea to take a week off when the colts offense is all about timing. now, if i saw that the broncos pass rush was getting close to him consistently, id pull him, but no one in recent memory except the chargers have been able to do that. id consider not playing james at all since running backs are the most susceptible to injury of the offensive skill positions, and is the most critical position after qb for the colts. id also rest anyone whose diagnosis is not at least "probable". all "questionables" take a seat on the bench.”

“I think I'm having flashbacks... all season long.”

“How 'bout dem Bengals!!”

“Yes, the Bungles roared to victory against the Eagles subs. What a team.”

“peyton manning obliterates steve youngs passer rating record with a final score of 121.1, and owns the single season td passing record with 49 while dwight freeney wins the sack race with 16.

curtis martin edges shaun alexander by 1 yard for the rushing title to become what has to be the oldest player ever to capture the rushing title. good job, man!”

“A W is a W for us Bengals fans Geo. Second string or not. LOL! We ended 8-8 again this year! Yippee!”

“hooray for mediocrity!”