Big Jack*ss

is it possible for someone to be a bigger jack*ss than randy johnson? wow, what a jerk.

i think it makes me a bad person but i did chuckle a little at the notion that all his daughter wants is a car and to go to community college. (all i wanted was a pepsi and *he* wouldn't give it to me)

of course what she really wants is a relationship with her dad, which is sad.

Playing with Google Ads II

hmm. it appears that google's scan is much better and more contextual than what can be outwitted by a simple list of porn stars.

attempt two is to replace every instance of ---boys with some variation on the name, and every mention of j--ry j-nes with jenny jones and bill p---lls with bill parsmells.

let see how google handles that.

playing with google ads

just messing around to see how contextual the google ads are...

jenna haze
taylor rain
ginger lynn
christy canyon
peter north

college basketball thoughts

the ncaa tournament is the most exciting event in sports... at least that's what the general consensus seems to be and what the pundits are constantly saying. the brackets, the gambling, the upsets, the number of games -- they all combine to make the tournament very unpredictable and entertaining.

wanna know why the perception stays that way? because most people don't actually watch the games. college basketball games suck -- both teams clanging shots left and right, missing layups, being very "active" on defense but not actually playing very good defense, dumb coaching moves.

the ncaa tournament is exciting, but it's not very good basketball.

runyan is back

as hoped for/expected, john runyan is coming back to the team. some published reports say he took a little less money to come back than the jets were offering -- which makes sense given that he already made a ton of money with his last free agent contract. why screw around for a few extra dollars and risk playing out your career on a 1-15 team, when you already have more money than you know what to do with anyway?

i'm ecstatic that he is back. the two lines are the biggest problem on the team and this move will help to ensure that mcnabb doesn't spend another season on his rear. plus, we get a few more seasons of watching that fat guy "sprint" out of the tunnel. outstanding!

Me-O has BO

thought this deserved its own post.

from profootballtalk.com and phil:

BUYER'S REMORSE IN BIG D?

Based on some of the rumblings we're hearing out of Texas, it sounds like members of the cryboys front office already are beginning to question the wisdom of signing receiver Eldorado Owens.

Between the book deal, which we hear wasn't disclosed to the team before he signed, and the self-aggrandizing (is there any other kind?) rap song on his web site, and the rampant talk in league circles that boyCows owner Jenny Jones was merely bidding against himself for Me-O's services even though he apparently was led to believe otherwise, there is a concern that maybe, just maybe, Owens is the same guy now than he was a year ago.

Some league insiders are convinced that Owens is no different. "This guy has not changed and will not change," opined one league source.

"He's a star among stars," added the source. "That says it all. This will not work.

"This will cause the demise of Jenny and Bill [Parsmells], too."

We'll keep our ears open for more.

And we'll keep eating our popcorn.

i mentioned the impending second year depression for the cowgirls... looks like i was wrong. it looks like it could be second day depression.

you go on eldorado. you do your thang to big D. i'll love ya for it.

meeee-Oooooooo, me-O, me-O, me-Oooooooo
meeee-Oooooooo, meeee-Oooooooo

meeee-Oooooooo, me-O, me-O, me-Oooooooo
meeee-Oooooooo, meeee-Oooooooo

quick friday points

couple of quick friday points:

- jay glazer is reporting that me-o has a deal in place with the sowboys, but rosenbag is denying. mike florio thinks that a deal is, in fact, in place and that they're waiting for jessie james to get back into town to announce. me-o is great, but a) he's not the cowbugs' biggest need (or closest need), b) it won't take much longer than minicamp for him to figure out how much better don is than bledsoe, and c) it will be entertaining to watch the second year depression hit the highboys.

- i like the jabar gaffney signing. i don't think any of the other free agent wideouts this season are much better than gaffney. i would have preferred randle el (because of his versatility), but you can't pay no 1 wideout money for a no 3 guy. you don't need star wideouts to win.

- white-man dreads is out with schobel coming in... gosh i hope they have someone coming in to upgrade parry.

- scarface in 90 seconds

darren howard

reports are saying the birds signed darren howard to a 6 year deal today. that's a good move and one that is going to be underrated. howard would have been one of the premier free agent on the market a couple of seasons back had new orleans not franchised him.

howard has been a double digit sack guy and plays the run pretty effectively (he plays around 280 i believe). he should be a good complement to kearse and is definitely an upgrade over kalu.

i'm pretty miffed that lecharles didn't sign here, but now it's looking like he really was just using the eagles to get cleveland to up their offer. his family is in cleveland and that's where he wanted to go. still, a big disappointment to the start of free agency. it's offset somewhat by the darren howard signing, but is disappointing nonetheless.

birds discussion

I am cool with the Shawn Barber signing. He is an upgrade over Bullet. As a matter of fact, he was a monster here before he left. Dhani Jones also played poorly last year so I am more concerned with getting a SLB...who knows what the plan is, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are done upgrading at LB

i'm ok with the "s. w." barber signing as well (isn't sw what he used to call himself in the MNF intros?). he was a good player when he was here and none of the weak side LBs the birds have had since he left have measured up to him production-wise or physically. like you mention and i've said in the past, strong side LB is really the biggest weakness in the linebacking corps. i think they see this as well and i'm betting that they're going to bring someone in and cut dhani loose. i'm still holding onto the hope that the someone is arrington.

I'd be willing to bet the Eagles 1st draft pick is not a lineman. The invested heavily in those positions in last year's draft and look to do the same in free agency this year. My bet is either a LB or TE.

while the eagles did draft a lot of bodies for the lines last season, they didn't get that much in the way of quality. everyone they picked up (even herremans) was a project and i don't think they see any of them as being ready to start for a contending team (at least i hope they don't). andy has always been about building teams from the lines out and he definitely sees that the poor play on both lines last season was a huge problem. they didn't just get beat on the lines, they were dominated in many games last season. fixing the lines is their priority.

as far as drafting a LB or TE in the first round, i'll believe it when i see it. i don't think JJ wants a first round rookie LB. by all accounts, LB is mentally the toughest position to play in JJ's defense and is a big reason why rookie LBs never seem to make an impact on this team.

i'll take you up on the bet. i say it will be a lineman of some sort you say it will be a LB or TE.

nfl cba

well, the cba is done. unfortunately.

the birds still have more cap space than just about everyone out there (i think only minnesota has more), but relative to how much space everyone else has the gap is much closer to the other teams now (since plenty of teams used to have zero and now all of a sudden have 8 mil in cap space).

the shopping is going to be a little tougher and the blue chip players aren't going to be on the market (at least not in the numbers they could have been). i suspect the market for the top guys like bentley is going to push past the point the eagles are going to feel comfortable with. sigh.

bentley and arrington or bentley and hutchinson. rats. just a pipe dream now.

flyers trades

you can always count on clarkie to make moves to solidify the flyers heading into the playoffs. come on, how can you argue with a history that includes winners like:

- alexandre daigle
- sean burke
- chris gratton
- kent manderville
- daymond langkow
- sean burke
- jiri dopita
- john vanbiesbrouck
- sean burke (was it actually 3 or 4 times or did it just feel like it?)
- claude lapointe
- mike comrie
- tony amonte

he's like a machine. the cal ripken of bad and/or purposeless trades.

CLARKE MUST GO!

stupid cba extension

last night i went to bed with lecharles bentley wishes and lavar arrington dreams... today i am reading about kevin mawae contingency plans and shawn barber visits.

a new cba is going to ruin everything!

mel kiper's gigantic head

with all the hoopla about barry bonds/steroid use/head size, something that has gone under-reported is what is happening to mel kiper's head. what gives? it's gigantic now. his cranium and hair helmet is reaching near great gazoo proportions.

lavar arrington

from dave barr:

There are a lot of talented FA out there. I’d love to see Laroi Glover, LaCharles Bentley, Garcia, and others wearing midnight green. However, I do NOT want to see Shaun barber back. He was decent enough here, but his last two years have been ravaged by injuries and he’s puny. Give me more of a traditional run stuffer. I’d rather see Brandon Short than him.

i think dave's comment on barber is interesting given lavar arrington's release by the redskins today. now that arrington is on the market, i'm guessing the philadelphia eagles go after him and go after him hard. why? for a few reasons:

- while the eagles don't usually overpay for guys who are good or very good at their position, they usually are willing to overpay for guys who can be difference makers. lavar arrington, as undisciplined and raw as he still is, can be a force on the football field and can make plays that only a few other linebackers can make.

- i'm betting that jim johnson thinks arrington is just the kind of attacking player that can turn this defense back into an intimidator. trotter was a failure in washington for the same reasons that arrington never fulfilled his potential there, because the defenses washington was using never used their skills effectively and made them play to their weaknesses. i think a trotter and arrington combo would wreak havoc on the league in a JJ defense.

- even though the eagles brain trust doesn't view linebacker as a position of high value, i'm thinking they make a run at arrington for the same reason that they made a run at TO. he is one of the 5 most physically gifted guys at his position and they have a history of paying guys for extraordinary performance at positions they do not value (TO at wideout, dawkins at FS).

as i've opined previously, i think the biggest weakness in the linebacking corps is their inability to cover tight ends. they've been horrible at it ever since emmons left as they've never replaced his size (6' 5" i think) and ability to jam the TE at the line. i don't know how good arrington will be in coverage, but i doubt there are many TEs who are going to dust lavar in a footrace.

another weakness right now is lack of effective blitzers at linebacker. trotter is a good run blitzer, but marc simoneau is probably the best pass rushing linebacker they have and that's not a good thing. when i wrote my thoughts on the roster for next season, i was hoping for julian petersen, but arrington seems like a better fit considering petersen is coming off an achilles tear.

i hope i'm not just deluding myself...

rooting against cba extension

i love the nfl as a complete package as much as anyone, but the reality is that i love the eagles more. much more. as a result, i am actively rooting against any sort of agreement between the owners and the nflpa on an extension to the collective bargaining agreement. the eagles benefit from a failure to extend the CBA probably more than any other team in the nfl.

failure to extend the CBA will result in the salary cap staying close to the existing number (i've read that it will stay around 95 million) rather than the 105 million expected and planned for by most teams. since the birds have been hoarding cap space in anticipation of this season, they'll be incredibly well positioned to sign many of the blue-chip players that will be cut by teams trying to get under the cap.

another key factor is that the other teams in the division are not in particularly good cap health (especially the redskins) so they will likely be forced to cut rather than add.

failure to reach an agreement for the extension of the CBA will be like the best christmas ever for eagles fans.

banner's master plan?

i'm starting to think that banner knew the collective bargaining agreement was going to expire (in fact the eagles are playing an active part in it being one of the high-revenue teams refusing to share), and that's why they have been hoarding cap space for the last few years.

all part of his master plan, i'm guessing. if the agreement isn't renewed and the cap stays at 95 mil, then the eagles are well positioned to sign the cream of the crop from the biggest set of cap cuts ever. we could be in for a pretty wild ride, birds fans.

another convert

The Flyers will not iwn unless they get rid of Clarke (OK Peter, you've convinced me, see my note in the previous blog), and stop playing dump and chase hockey...

CLARKE MUST GO!

the le-eagle is landing?

woo hoo! one thing you can count on with the birds, if there's someone out there that is proven and still young they jump all over him.

don's biggest weakness is dealing with pressure up the middle. replacing fraley and jackson with bentley would be a huge upgrade and also bring a guy with one of the funnier names in the nfl to the team.

full mickelson

holy sh*t. phil mickelson has blown right past plump and headlong into fat. he looks like a gigantic version of the fat, red-haired catcher in "the sandlot".

sorry for the lack of activity. i'm working 20 hours a day lately... (no sh*t).