Fatty Liver

I like Doug Brown whether his opinions are popular or not. He's the only writer/broadcaster we have (bad lot) with any inside football knowledge worthy of thought. I think what he said holds fairly true for any team in transition, not just the Bombers.

Link?

Three keys to Blue Bombers' success During a recent four-minute radio bit, I was asked to come up with three of the most imperative, actionable items the local professional football squad needs to deliver on for a successful 2016. While it can be difficult to sort through the chaff and identify these key kernels — as an obscene number of variables can impact a football season — it is an interesting and thought-provoking exercise. It’s easiest to begin with what is sure to be a consensus factor for success for most any CFL team: the task of keeping your starting pivot clean and upright for 18 games. With all due respect to Matt Nichols — who does give the Winnipeg Blue Bombers an opportunity to win should a piece of starter Drew Willy break again — the franchise quarterback is still the quickest road to competence and to redeeming a ticket to the playoffs. While the play of the offensive line is critical in keeping any pivot functional, the line should never carry this burden alone. If you give most defences enough of the same looks as to how and where your quarterback will operate in predictable scenarios, regardless of whom you have on your line, they will find a way to get to him. The challenge will be as much about forcing defences to respect the run, having the entire offence understand the protection schemes, moving the pocket and changing the launch points, and having a crew of receivers that can recognize and adjust to the coverages and imbalances that occur. It all starts with the five men up front but it will take the entire unit to help keep Willy healthy. The second core factor is the lag time it usually takes a new offence, with new players, to get up to speed. The Bombers simply don’t have the luxury of growing pains this year. Each season, you are certain to hear defensive players play at a higher level faster than their counterparts on offence due to the different nature of these phases of football. Smart defensive co-ordinators working with a number of new players (Winnipeg’s defensive line will have three new starters) keep things simple at the beginning of the year and gradually add complexities and wrinkles. If your starting 12 on defence play fast and react instinctually, they are already three-quarters of the way to tapping their potential as a unit. Conversely, because things such as timing, recognition and rhythm are critical for an offence to be productive (and there is a new playbook to be learned as Paul LaPolice takes over plotting the Bombers’ attack) this will be a large obstacle to surmount. Add to the equation they will be competing against some of the best defences in the CFL last year, starting in week 1, and this learning curve needs to be short and sweet — or it could be over before it begins. Finally, the third major variable deals with the many new, high-profile players that joined in the off-season the Bombers via free agency. From a leadership standpoint, there is a fine line between a player joining a football team and wanting to step up and lead and contribute, and a disastrous Casey Printers-type scenario (circa 2007, when he reportedly alienated three-quarters of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ room by assuming a mantle of leadership that had not yet been granted to him). Rarely do all new additions understand the size of the contract you wield does not automatically garner you authority and a platform on a new team. When existing leadership ranks are merged with new personalities that are also used to leading the way, it is up to the head coach to clearly define roles and ensure group dynamics are as harmonious as they can be in such a testosterone-laden environment. Outside of navigating these three ominous factors, a return to prominence for the Blue Bombers should be a piece of cake. Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press. Twitter: @DougBrown97

I get the impression that Trump does not have a team of "deep thinkers" behind him, he's a blustering one man show and doesn't have enough policy to cover the bases. In the end his campaign will prove to be nothing more than a publicity event to garner himself more attention.

Apparently the woman on the left is Georgia Ling the woman Bubbles is accused of choking. Two things. I don't think Bubbles could taker her and I suspect Georgia is not officially a woman.

In a related story. Lucy DeCoutere says she has resigned from the “Trailer Park Boys” just hours after one of its principal actors denied assaulting a woman in the U.S. DeCoutere, who co-stars in the show, testified against Jian Ghomeshi in the former CBC host’s highly-publicized sexual assault trial.

Idiotic. Can't even say the Riders will make the playoffs, on paper way too many unknowns and hopefuls. Jones and Murphy are good but their rebuild is massive and will take a couple of years before they reap rewards.

Bubbles shoulda stuck with his cats.

Henocare where he goes as long as it be party time.

No surprise as the "Guvna" is paid and works for the insurance companies. If anyone can explain the difference between lobbying and a bribe, I would be most grateful.

A well played "fall-down" has it's merit.

Agreed, the source is questionable but the stats. are not. I remember reading a book in the late 80's discussing this exact same phenomenon but can't recall the name of the book or the author. In many respects the US is a third world country but a vast majority of their poorest citizens believe so strongly in the ideology and the economic principles of the free-market that they delude themselves into believing that they or their slack-jawed off-spring will one day rise to the top of the pile. Just watched the movie "Lincoln" the other night and was fascinated to see that the corruption, cronyism and lobbying inherent in their political system was already well entrenched back in the 1860's. Encourages me to do more research to see how their political system evolved and if it wasn't just a carry over from a well established European model from the very start. The problem is finding the right source because you won't find the honest truth in any history book.

Buzz and Boomer just weren't as much fun after they killed off old Green Drop.

An interesting perspective. http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/26/report-proves-stupid-red-states-parasites.html By now only comatose Americans or fools dependent on Fox News for their information, are aware that states that consistently vote Republican and against their own best interest suck more money from the federal government than Democratic states. It leads one to marvel at the relevance of George Carlin’s saying “never underestimate the power, or danger, of stupid people in large groups.” Residents in red states across the nation are already suffering from Republican policies that are raping the economic life out of the people, and in most cases the only thing keeping the people, particularly the poor people, from starvation and ill-health is the federal government; the entity they hate with religious fervor and elect Republicans to eviscerate. Now, yet another report reveals that those same red state Republican voters who want the federal government cut to shreds are leeching substantially more assets from the federal government they want destroyed at the expense of blue states that are supporting them. This time the report is not from a liberal-leaning think tank, or any government agency; it is from a commercial organization with no political or economic stake in the study’s results. If this were the first report of its kind showing red state economies would wither and die, and the people would starve, without leaching federal funding from blue states, one may be inclined to dismiss it as an aberration. However, study after study has consistently exposed anti-federal government Republican states as being incredibly dependent on the federal government they hate with religious passion and just voted for Republicans to fulfill their wishes and decimate it. Never, never ever, underestimate the power of stupid Republican voters in red states who are a Presidential veto away from seeing their evil dream reach fruition. The new report is courtesy of WalletHub; a commercial personal financial web site that rated all 50 states on the basis of their dependence on the federal government to support their economies and keep poor people alive. The report was compiled from data and condensed into “four metrics” not unlike other studies, but without a political motivation for conducting the research. The categories were; the return in federal dollars on taxpayer investment, or how many federal dollars a state receives as opposed to what the residents pay in. The percentage of state revenue from federal funding that keeps the state from declaring bankruptcy and its residents from starving or dying from lack of medical care. The number of non-defense (civilian) federal employees in a state, as opposed to states supported by large military installations. And last, the per capita federal employee rate in the state such as federal marshals, park rangers, federal highway workers, and federal regulators keeping air, water, and food safe. Obviously, the two most important metrics in the study were the return on taxpayer investment, and the percentage of federal dollars a state depends on to prop up its economy and provide for the people’s general welfare from federal programs. Republican states have benefitted greatly from federal healthcare such as Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, and it is relatively common knowledge that the largest percentage of SNAP (food stamp) recipients are poor white Republicans in red states; likely because red state legislators enacted Draconian ‘right to work’ laws keeping wages at or below poverty levels. What informs the epic stupidity of red state Republican voters is that they are the morons who consistently send Republicans to Washington to rein in the federal budget and cut the federal government down to size. True to their word, and according to their base’s wishes, the Republican congressional representatives their mindless supporters just handed control of Congress to just passed a seriously Draconian budget that does precisely what red state voters yearned for; ended “federal interference” in their lives. If the Republican budget stands, red state voters will get their wish and can finally stop bemoaning the horrid ‘federal interference’ in their lives; the interference that kept food on their tables, their families in relatively decent health, and their state economies from going bankrupt. It is likely that the same morons and racists are too stupid to comprehend that the damage their state legislatures have been wreaking on them is about to be magnified a hundred fold due to less federal interference (funding) in their poverty-stricken lives. In fact, it may seem inhumane, but one almost wishes President Obama was not inclined to veto the Republican budget proposals just to let the real Americans, those patriotic “rugged individuals” comprehend just how much worse their pathetic existence would be without the federal government, blue states’ largesse, and humanitarian Democrats unwilling to allow their fellow citizens, no matter how stupid, suffer so the rich get richer. One also wonders exactly how red state legislatures will fund their wealthy residents’ tax cuts when their already fragile economies’ revenue streams completely dry up due to budget cuts congressional Republicans voted for to ‘balance the budget and rein in the federal government. It is no secret that, for instance, every dollar spent on SNAP (food stamps) returns $1.70 back in red states’ floundering economies that in turn creates jobs. Obviously, Republicans in Congress could not care less that crucial federal dollars keeping their home state economies from disaster is being transferred directly to the wealthy and the military industrial complex instead of sustaining their idiotic constituency. Some of the poorest states, all red states, are dependent on federal funding for 30 to 45% of their total revenue and the GOP’s budget will slash that revenue and make dire revenue shortfalls already decimating red states seem like an economic bonanza. There is no accounting for stupid people who, as equally stupid Sarah Palin claims, are the real Americans sitting on their porches holding their guns, their god, and their Constitution while supporting Republicans who promised to ravage the federal government they are convinced is stealing their liberty. It has always been a mystery where those dunces who receive federal assistance in food and healthcare think their government assistance originates. Maybe if they would lose that assistance for a while they would get a clue that the federal government they sent Republicans to Washington to demolish is all that prevents them from starving, working for a dollar an hour seven days a week, or going without lifesaving medical care, but even that eventuality is debatable. What is noteworthy is that the blue states that receive 20, 30, or 40 cents in return for every dollar they invest in the federal government are not revolting and threatening to secede. But that is the difference between blue state residents and hateful red state Republicans; they accept that Americans assist their fellow citizens no matter how stupid they are for voting against their own best interests and the federal government that is likely all that stands between their demise and survival. Unfortunately their stupidity is a threat to the rest of the population and it is beginning to appear that they comprehend exactly what they are doing; if that is the case they are not just stupid, they are evil.

We also don't have a population that comes close to 320 million. So what?

Same goes for any QB with a last name that rhymes with silly. Better to trot to the sideline immediately head hung in shame for throwing an intercept and leave the cleanup duties to the likes of Smith and Dressler.

I agree completely, Reality TV and the dumbing down of politics has brought us to the point were Donald Trump has a legitimate shot at being the next president. Spike Lee discusses Trump and this phenomenon around 9:00 in the following interview. http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/spike-lee-1.3509378

Also if ball carrier runs into his lane, much higher chance he makes a tackle. If he's free-lancing on ST to increase his tackle stats he's not doing his job properly despite the numbers.

I don't get your angle, you don't like their message but I doubt you're espousing censorship. You understand that the point of their shows is strictly to sell soap, right? Can't blame the producers if a great swath of the general public choose to reference their show and can't be bothered to watch the news in the first place. Just another step along the long path to the dumbing down of America. Edit: Dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content within education, literature, cinema, news, video games and culture in order to relate to those unable to assimilate more sophisticated information. Watched a video the other day of some talking head interviewing Elon Musk about the Hyperloop concept. After he explained the basic design concept she commented that it all sounded very complicated and probably involved math, Yes dearie, unfortunately it does involve math as I would hope any design that shoots a projectile with people inside through a tube at over 1,000 kms/hr. might.

This has the potential to be the news story of the year. I hope Quicken Loans lets these brave patriots carry arms on the convention floor and allows nature to take it's course.

Players who's careers were terminated by lack of skill or injury. A lot of coaches did not play professional football but at one time that was their goal. What word would you like to use other than failure? Successless???

Pretty sure Matthews wouldn't have taken two years to decide to cut Brohm.

One thing to consider, compared to most HC's O'Shea has been a coach for a relatively short time period since retiring as a player in 2009. Most coaches are failed players who would have joined the coaching profession at the bottom rung in their early 20's after their playing careers were terminated by lack of skill or injury. O'shea is 45 and he got his first job in coaching when he was 39 after a lengthy 16 year professional career. There are exceptions to be sure but for the most part head coaches have 15-20 years of apprentice coaching in their pocket before they get a shot at the big job. O'Shea is a very inexperienced coach no matter how you look at it.

Enough doubt not to convict in this case, happy to see that the courts did their job and didn't fold to public pressure.

Nothing beats a beautiful piss trough for efficiency and cleanliness.