Boo Khaki

Bit of a difference between practicing your own religion as a private individual, and allowing it to interfere with or shape policy decisions. Presumably Wings would be similarly outraged at Forbes as FM admitting to praying inside or taking a bible into Bute House? What a fucking vile human being he is.

Aka 'The Chick Young Defence'

Just playing on a Thursday is bad enough. From a football fan perspective, yeah, great, one more night of the week with NFL football to watch. From a pragmatic point of view, it's insanity, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the NFLPA kick up a shitstorm over it the next time the CBA is up for renegotiation.

I understand why few will agree what with one of the games being a dead rubber, but trouncing the CIS in a game in a Euro finals and beating the ultimate runners-up in a WC finals group will always outrank any win over any team in a qualifying group. They are our only comfortable wins over serious footballing nations at major finals tournaments, and the former took place in the tournament that I believe represents our finest achievement. Finishing 5th in Europe is a bigger achievement than any of our first round WC exits, (ok, perhaps 9th in WC'74), and I don't really consider a narrow victory over Sweden in '90, or Switzerland in '96 as on a par with those two results. I'm too young to remember the Qualifying for 1974 but I think that's a good shout, and as much as last night was fantastic it will be glammed up a bit by recency bias. Beating France home and away was a great achievement in it's own right, but we shat the bed in Georgia and they still qualified ahead of us regardless, so I still consider the '89 victory over France as more meaningful and a more significant result that either of the 2006 or 2007 games. The CIS game is the only time I can recall standing watching us stroll a game at a major finals, and never once be less than 100% certain we were going to dish out a pumping (relatively speaking). It was very similar to the imperious feeling last night, but just a pity it came in an ultimately meaningless match. I remember the Netherlands victory in '78, but I was much younger then and didn't really comprehend the magnitude of that result.

"Shit happens ", "Meh, f**k them kids", and "My kids are fine, Yours are fucked", is something else coming from an elected official in the aftermath of a school shooting, but this is 'Murica, so I suspect there will be as many absolute roasters agreeing with him as there will be normal human beings completely appalled.

@scottsdad JV was actually comparatively OK in the Sauber because he'd knuckled down on his attitude by that point, but there's no denying the middle part of his career was totally underwhelming. I think he came to F1 thinking Williams would give him a front-running car for as long as he decided he wanted to be there, so I think the loss of the Renault engine for '98 was a really rude awakening for him and I think he dumped his attitude and never really rediscovered it until he realised he was on his last legs at Sauber. Regards Mika Hakkinen - I don't really believe his 2001 meltdown was anything to do with becoming a father. He'd had 4 straight years of having to give absolutely 100%, 100% of the time to even try to stay competitive with Schumi, and I think the stress of that totally broke him. That era Shumi was an absolute machine and I think he would have even got the better of peak Senna, so MH taking two WC's and pushing him close for a 3rd is an astounding achievement, even though it required superior machinery and a Schumi leg-break to do it. I can only imagine the stress, commitment, energy, dedication and grit required to get there, and given MH always seemed like quite a chilled and laid-back guy, I think he probably had to become a person he really wasn't for a while in order to do so, and that must have been a huge mental load that would inevitably take it's toll at some point. I am not and never have been a fan of McLaren the team, but seeing MH having the emotional moment behind the wall endeared me to him as a bloke and as a driver, and although I was 100% Schumi at the time I look back on that period and view MH a lot differently now than I did then.

Leaf wasn't a #1 overall, but aye, the NFL is littered with QB's taken high who totally flamed out for a whole gamut of reasons. The Leaf pick was totally understandable at the time, and he didn't want for physical ability, his problems were entirely mental health and personality related. Manziel never had the physiological tools to be an effective NFL QB, so it was a mystery to me why he was drafted in the first place, never mind the fact that he was also a notorious party-animal, showed no inclination towards any sort of professional discipline, and had 'this guy is a moron who will bust' stamped all over him for years even before he was draft eligible. Sometimes the 'mistake' is entirely foreseeable and the blame lies entirely with the idiocy of the organisation that drafted them rather than the player himself. Manziel never at any point hid what he was, whereas with Leaf it was a slightly different era and teams didn't have the tools available to them that they do now. Leaf and Russell are still talked about because of things that happened off the field more than what happened on it, but there are plenty of other guys who were high picks who totally bombed, but they sank without trace entirely and didn't do anything noteworthy on or off the field, so nobody really remembers them. The year after Leaf was drafted Tim Couch went #1 overall and Akili Smith #3. Couch wasn't a true bust because he meandered along playing at a mediocre level for 3 or 4 seasons, got beaten to death playing behind a crappy OL, then disappeared, whereas Smith did absolutely nothing of note and was playing in the World League by the time he was 30. Derek Carr's elder brother David was a similar story to Couch. Taken #1 overall, genuinely talented, but got smashed to bits playing behind laughable protection and was pretty much done as an NFL starter within 3-4 years. If you go back and look at the drafts in the 70's and 80's its even more egregious how often players just bombed completely. The tops of those drafts are full of players who barely played 1 or 2 seasons and a few here and there who never played at all. Jackson isn't remotely close to being a top NFL QB. it's all hype based on the fact he makes spectacular plays with his legs, which obscures the fact he's a mediocre passer who struggles with the mental aspect of the game. He's the Michael Vick/RGIII of the 2020's, and I think his career will pan out much the same way as those guys. Josh Allen was really the 'Mahomes' prospect in that draft class, a potential boom-or-bust pick with a huge ceiling but also a risk to flame out. Darnold went into a shitty situation that didn't help him one iota, and while Mayfield's was a bit more stable, it was still the Browns and they will inevitably find ways to make things more difficult than they should be. Mayfield playing badly hurt for most of the 2021 season was a bit unfortunate because that was really the make-or-break year for him and prior to that he'd shown he was capable of being a perfectly viable NFL starter. Trubisky was a totally understandable pick because he came out of college by far the most polished and pro-ready of that cohort of QB's. Watson wasn't far behind, but with Mahomes there was a feeling he wasn't quite ready for NFL duty, that his freebooting in college might see him get into a lot of bother in the pros, but that if he sat and learned for a year or two then he had the intangibles to perhaps be a very intriguing NFL prospect. At the time Philip Rivers was starting to look creaky and there was a bit of chatter about taking a QB to replace him. My view was that the only prospect I'd be interested in in that draft was Mahomes, but only on the proviso I could sit him for a couple of years. If I had been in charge of a team that needed to take a Day 1 starter then I'd also have taken Trubisky, but the truth is that was perceived as a very weak QB class overall, so it's not really a surprise that Trubisky didn't really develop on a poor Bears team because he wasn't regarded as a sure thing to begin with. It was no shock to anyone that Kizer bombed, and nobody would really have been all that surprised if Mahomes and Watson failed either, so the reality with that draft class is there were three guys who were viewed as 'maybes', and two of the three made it, one didn't, although I think Watson really needs to pull his finger out next season and prove he's still the QB he was 2-3 years back. As I mentioned up the post, a lot of the time the team is as much to blame for these guys not panning out as the player themselves. They don't go in to equitable situations, so I think there are obvious cases where a guy flourishes or fails, when if you hypothetically put the exact same player into a slightly different situation you'd get a completely different result. Tom Brady comes to mind. A lot is made about 'how could a guy who is perceived as a GOAT and won 7 SB's or something have lasted to the 6th round?'. Well, in that draft the Chargers head coach Mike Riley wanted to take Brady with the Chargers' 3rd, and 5th round picks. They needed a QB because this was at the backend of the Leaf debacle. Bobby Beathard vetoed it both times because he considered him a UDFA level talent at best, and Brady went to the Pats and we all know what happened. If the Chargers had drafted Brady I strongly suspect we'd all be sitting here saying 'Tom who? Oh, that guy who achieved absolutely nothing and was out of the league after a couple of years?' because the Chargers were totally dysfunctional at the time and Brady honestly didn't have the talent to overcome that sort of situation. Likewise, if the Chargers had actually drafted Mahomes when I wanted them to, then I think they'd probably have been looking for another QB already because Anthony Lynn is certainly no Andy Reid, and Drew Brees would never have become a HoF 20 year career player had he stayed in SD and had to play through Norv Turner, Mike McCoy, and 10 years of shitty OL that Philip Rivers had to deal with.

Thursday Night games will not be flexed - Yay! Teams can now appear twice on Thursday Night NFL - Oh for f**k's sake

Americans inserting an entirely superfluous, totally unnecessary 'of' into the middle of a sentence.

Makes a change from 'mental illness'. People all over the world experience episodes of poor mental health, yet there is only one country that is going through an epidemic of school shootings. That country is notorious for having next to no free/affordable mental health care provision right enough, but it's clear as day that it isn't 'mental illness' that is killing schoolchildren otherwise every single country on the planet would be experiencing the same phenomenon.

The logical endpoint of their argument, is that when you hand teachers assault rifles to combat school shooters, the school shooters will start turning up with even more deadly gear, so eventually you have Mrs Perkins the elementary school teacher in her Apache gunship v's the latest angry incel type in his privately owned and maintained M60 tank.

The problem with RTP isn't that it can't be reviewed, its the fact that what constitutes RTP has been so widely expanded over the past while that you get flagged for ridiculous stuff like accidently brushing your hand on his helmet while reaching out to take him down, or grabbing him around the waist while being shoved by a 320llbs OT that causes you to put a shoulder into his knee. That sort of stuff needs wiped completely, as does the 'hit below the knee' pish. Utterly ridiculous that QB's bodies are subject to special rules and protections not afforded to other players, and no, running into the kicker is not the same thing and that is absolutely required.

Even if it was one of those underwater funerals?

I have no idea who this is, but i already hate them based on this photo alone.

In a typically Staley era Chargers headscratching move, the HC has announced that last year's 1st round pick Zion Johnson is moving from RG to LG to accommodate Jamaree Salyer playing RG. I thought ZJ was a bit underwhelming for an OG taken where he was, but if the move is necessary to get the best out of him I can understand it. What I don't really understand is drafting a guy with your 1st round pick, who you are making what you'd hope is at least a 5 year commitment to, and ideally much longer, then playing him out of position in favour of a vet who had never been more than 'average', had played multiple positions in the past, and played like shit for the entire year despite being played at your rookie's preferred spot on the OL. A vet who stunk so badly right from week one that after the season you cut him with a year to go on his contract. Like so many Staley decisions, it just makes me Fully expecting us to sign Zeke Elliot next, despite him showing ominous signs of being close to the end and not even the type of back we need anyway, only to have to cut some other guy to free up the money to sign John Johnson III in June. Wouldn't be a Staley year without some Sony Michel-esque pointless signing that fucks the roster elsewhere, thanks to overloading at a low-value position and cutting serviceable talent at a now thin position in order to facilitate that.

It's difficult to discern who precisely you are attempting to mock here, since much of the aforementioned backtracking and straw-clutching involves GC's who have previously been adamant that they can 'always tell' desperately concocting excuses to explain why this time they were so 'confused'. Seems that the GC's are happy to 'misgender' people not only as a deliberate act of spite, but also when it's a convenient but patently horseshit excuse for jumping to prejudiced conclusions and exposing themselves for the the hateful arseholes they are.

You are either responsible for, and guilty by association with the randoms who turn up to ostensibly side with you, or you are not, so which is it? I ask because the GC lot that Stock sides with have spent much of the past 10 days or so vehemently denying that this is the case, and doing everything they possibly can to distance KJK from actual Nazis, and the far-right groups she flagrantly consorts with herself, yet here the complete opposite apparently applies when the group in question are pro-trans rights. Gender Criticals yet again indulging in duplicitous hypocrisy? Well strike me down with a feather.

What's the only thing in US sports more egotistical and thin-skinned than an NFL official? Answer -

Terfs wanking themselves into a frenzy over the news that the perpetrator is trans. The dawning realisation that the perp isn't trans in the way they were assuming is a sight to behold. Of course, virtually no concern shown for the victims or mention of the insanity of US gun laws, just sheer joy at the prospect of some ammunition to beat trans people with.

There were so many moments of unintentional hilarity during the Murphy era that it all kinda blends into one. Peak SLab banter years though. The Irn Bru crate, scenes on the 6pm news of him standing on it and dishing out a speech to absolutely nobody whatsoever, being trolled by a guy on a purple bicycle, Murphy, Izzard, and a 30 strong mob of Labour activists being driven out of Glasgow by no more than 2 or 3 vocal hecklers then trying and failing to blame it on a 'violent mob of nationalists' only for that to be shown for the complete fantasy it was thanks to photographic evidence. Probably many more I've completely forgotten about.

Fairly certain that after that scene there was a shot of the sword lying on the ground, and it was quite clearly Din who picked it up.

Yeah, I distinctly remember the one policy manifesto that made specific reference to this guy in Eyemouth you keep gibbering on about.

A few people saying they think the Rodgers -> Jets trade will be finalised this week with the owners meeting. Would be nice to get it over with and have nearly eight whole months free of bullshit before the next round of 'will he retire/demand a trade/new contract/piss off to host Jeopardy' nonsense starts up again.

Well I think a fight over the sword will definitely factor in somehow because both Bo-Katan and Paz have claim to it, it's clear Din doesn't want it and can't really wield it anyway, and it hasn't appeared for a few episodes despite being a big plot-line at the end of season 2 and the start of season 3, so it would be weird if it's just forgotten about altogether.

They have theoretically two more years of team control. I honestly believe that if anyone signs LJ to an offer sheet the Ravens will not match it because they are not completely invested in going forward long term with LJ as their incumbent QB, but that doesn't mean they are willing to just let him walk away with no team compo. I also don't think they are particularly weakened by a trade request from the player, because by putting him on the non-exclusive tag the team has basically said 'you can leave' to him anyway. If they don't sign a deal before July, and I honestly don't see that happening, then he can either come back and play on the tag or sit the year out, but even then he isn't free of Baltimore because they can simply tag him for yet another year. A recalcitrant player sitting out a year obviously diminishes trade value, so the Ravens will want to avoid that, but this is a player who has ongoing concerns about his health and longevity. Sitting out will do nothing to dispel those doubts, nor will it prove to anyone that he can improve and expand his passing ability beyond his current mediocre level, so sitting out does nothing but harm his own earning potential as well. My guess is that there is a frosty stand-off between now and July, nobody shows any serious trade interest, he plays on the tag this year for Baltimore, and if he stays healthy and improves as a pocket passer then both parties will have more inclination towards getting some sort of longer deal done. If he gets injured again or continues to play at a mediocre level, then I think he'll get traded next off-season for far less than the current asking price, or perhaps even just outright released because it's in everyone's interest to move on including the Ravens, but right now he's more valuable to them to keep on the roster versus what is likely to be an underwhelming trade return. If there was really the market out there for him right now then some team would have submitted an offer sheet, and if he was truly worth the money he appears to want then the Ravens would have given him it. Again, this is all down to LJ dramatically over-estimating his own dollar value, and his ability value as a 'franchise' QB. The fact he's sitting there waiting to be picked up and yet nobody is biting shows that. He has value as a proven viable NFL QB, but he's not an 'elite' passer so nobody is going to pay him like one, especially when his actual 'elite' attributes are also in question because of injury. He needs at least one solid 'prove it' season to justify either the money he's after, or entice some team to commit to him and give up the money and trade value that will require.