GA Russell

I haven't seen a point spread for a few days. The last time I saw it, it was 13 I think. I believe that the New York City area has far more gamblers than any other metro. I have read that many of these gamblers will bet on the Giants regardless of what the point spread is. So when the Giants are the underdog, the point spread is lower than it otherwise would be. The smaller spread will then attract more bets against the Giants so that the bookmakers can balance the bets. That said, barring injury, I see the Patriots winning pretty big here. The Giants are on a streak all right, but as a team they were only good enough to be a wild card. I don't see them having the firepower to pull off the big upset. Has there ever been a big upset in the Super Bowl since the two AFL victories in III and IV? I can't think of one.

I too am having trouble with the site. Yesterday hepcat's link took me to the site, but the wish link button took me to a problem page. Today hepcat's link takes me to the same problem page yesterday's wish link button took me to.

John, didn't the Ottawa Senators have difficulty finding a new owner after they went bankrupt? And let's not forget that the Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets were sold to Americans.

Dave Dickenson is returning to the Stampeders. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home ***** Milt Stegall has changed his mind, and will not retire. At this point he is the greatest player to have never won the Grey Cup, so I guess he wants one more chance. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Maybe this discussion is best left to the guys with the discography books. But since I'm just guessing... Weren't all of Sonny Clark's albums for Blue Note? edit to add: Both of Manfred Mann's jazz group Chapter III's albums were for Vertigo. Both of Dreams' albums were for Columbia.

Kerry Joseph took a big cut in salary last year. Well now that he is the Most Outstanding Player and the Grey Cup champion, he wants a big raise to get up to what all the other QBs are making. He will have a tryout with the Saints this week. One problem: He already has five years in the NFL with the Seahawks (as a DB), so his minimum salary with the Saints (or anyone else) would be $600,000. He is 34 years old. NFL teams might not want to pay that much for a 34 year old who hasn't proven himself as an NFL QB. On the other hand, I have never heard of an NFL team not signing a player because the minimum salary was too rich. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home ***** The NFL has approved the Buffalo Bills' petition to play in Toronto five regular season games (one per year) and three pre-season games over the next five years. Argos and Ticats season ticket holders will be given the first opportunity to buy, but must purchase all eight tickets at once. This will certainly help the Argos' and Ticats' season ticket sales for this year! I don't know if any Canadian businessman would take a chance on owning the Argos in Toronto if the Bills move there permanently one day, but my personal opinion is that the people who want to buy NFL tickets and merchandise do not currently buy Argos and Ticats tickets and merchandise. I think that the NFL fans and the CFL fans are two distinct markets. So if there is an NFL team in Toronto, the Argos would lose prestige by being put further back in the sports pages, but I don't think they would lose any revenue. As I see it, Canada has a problem - There is a shortage of Canadian millionaires who want to own a pro sports team. So having an NFL team in Toronto may kill the Argos because no one will operate them. I can see the good ship Argonaut going down without a fight. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

I never heard of this before. Sounds like something everyone should know. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22900119/

Here's a surprise. The Riders have released Corey Holmes. They did not project him to be a starter, and he was making too much money to be a backup. I have to think that he will land a job without too much difficulty. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Sas...4800738-cp.html

My general recollection is that the games with only one week preparation have been the better games. Maybe the fact that injuries haven't healed 100% has enabled the underdogs to make a game of it.

I thought you would be interested to see all of the broadcasts of the Super Bowl that Sirius will be carrying Sunday. I received this email from them the other day: When the pre-game hype and hoopla is over and it's time to play football — SIRIUS delivers! Choose from 12 live broadcasts in eight languages on Sunday, February 3. Check back for exact broadcast times. Broadcast New England Patriots announcers Ch. 126 New York Giants announcers Ch. 123 National (Westwood One Radio) Ch. 124 BBC Radio Ch. 125 Spanish-Latin America (Westwood One) Ch. 181 Spanish-Spain (CANAL+ Spain) Ch. 110 French (France 2) Ch. 143 Japanese (NHK Japan) Ch. 140 German (ARD) Ch. 130 Flemish (Telenet) Ch. 119 Russian (NTV Plus broadcast) Ch. 122 Mandarin Chinese (SMG) Ch. 121 Maybe one of you Europeans can explain why there is a Flemish broadcast!

Whoa! I read this thread a couple of days ago when it was only one page. Then tonight I see that it was up to 14 pages so I click on it to see what I have been missing, and between the new members and the soap opera (!) and the haircuts, I can see that I missed a lot in just a couple of days. So welcome clave and Bev, Sandi and WorldB3, hepcat and all of you other people whose names I don't remember anymore! I want to point out to you newbies that this board has an ignore function. If someone gets on your nerves, you can go to your personal controls page and have him listed as "ignored". That really makes this place very pleasant for me! Be sure to check out the 2008 CFL Hot Stove League thread. It probably won't interest you, but it's what I live for!

...but also seen as a way for government to control movement of the citizens, ala the U.S.S.R. Forcing average citizens to carry "papers" in order to travel in their own country and all. Thanks MG and Moose for your responses. Moose, that's what Ron Paul is talking about. He is saying that the neocons now running the government are not conservatives, and that what we have now is not Republicanism. (I suppose that this comment should be in the Politics forum, so forgive me.)

Don't foreigners own the Federal Reserve banks? That bothers me a lot more than their owning Citibank.

I got my most recent passport in 2000 when I travelled to Honduras to visit cigar factories. Great vacation! So without looking at it, I think that it won't expire for another three years. Not to hijack the thread, but there has been a lot of discussion in the US recently about having a national ID. Seventeen states have rejected the idea. I don't understand what the objection is. Anybody know?

Kenny Weir can verify this, but that looks to me like a Hawthorn Hawks jersey!

Thanks for posting this, Chalupa. Very interesting. 1) Who is Mika? Anybody I should have heard of? 2) Interesting that profit margins are way up while sales are flat, not declining, for the company. Makes me wonder to what extent the majors' problems are due not to the changes in the industry but rather to the incompetence of specific employees.

Many thanks to Aggie and WD45 for the heads up! I ordered: Charlie Parker - Savoy and Dial Master Takes (3 CD box) Maynard Ferguson - A Message from Birdland Gil Evans - Out of the Cool Gerald Wilson - Monterey Moods and for a friend: Miles Davis - Lift to the Scaffold edit to add: That's $2.56 per CD!

When I was a boy I was a Boston Patriots fan, and Mike Holovak was their coach for most of that time. He later went on to spend many years in the front office of the Houston Oilers. Here's his AP obituary: http://www.projo.com/patriots/content/sp_f...15.279dddc.html Mike Holovak, coached Patriots to first title game, dies at 88 07:37 AM EST on Monday, January 28, 2008 By HOWARD ULMAN AP Sports Writer FOXBORO, Mass. - Mike Holovak, a longtime NFL executive who coached the Patriots to their first championship game, died Sunday, a few hours before the team left for the Super Bowl. He was 88. Holovak died in Ruskin, Fla., of complications from pneumonia, Boston College spokesman Reid Oslin said after speaking with Holovak's wife, Pauline Scudder Holovak. Holovak was a former football star and coach at Boston College. The Patriots' second winningest coach, Holovak led the Boston Patriots to the American Football League title game after the 1963 season. They lost to San Diego, 51-10. He later was vice president of player personnel and general manager of the Houston Oilers and stayed on when they moved to Tennessee and became the Titans. He began his NFL career playing for the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams before he became freshman football coach at Boston College in 1949 and varsity coach in 1951. "Mike Holovak was a great coach and a wonderful person," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in a statement issued by the team. "I remember watching Mike's Boston College teams in the 1950s and his Patriots teams in the 1960s. "I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with him on several occasions. Our team has lost one of its founding fathers and the entire Patriots family is saddened by Mike's passing." Holovak had a 53-47-9 record as Patriots coach, including playoffs. Only Bill Belichick has more wins, 105. When the Boston Patriots became part of the new AFL in 1960, Holovak was their first director of player personnel and served as offensive backfield coach. They were 5-9 that season under Lou Saban and missed the playoffs. After they started the 1961 season at 2-3, Holovak replaced Saban and led them to a 7-1-1 record the rest of the season, finishing with a 41-0 win at San Diego and a four-game winning streak. The New England Patriots reached this year's Super Bowl by beating the Chargers 21-12 in the AFC championship game. On Sunday, about 15,000 fans attended a departure rally at Gillette Stadium at which Kraft and several players spoke. The Patriots went 9-4-1 in 1962 and missed the playoffs but made it for the first time the following year after posting a 7-6-1 record. They beat Buffalo 26-8 in their first playoff game, then traveled to San Diego for the AFL championship game. The Patriots didn't return to the playoffs before Holovak was replaced after the 1968 season by Clive Rush. "Mike was a mentor, a coach, a friend, and above all, a consummate gentleman," said Gino Cappelletti, the second leading receiver on the 1963 Patriots and sixth in club history. "His contributions as coach and general manager in the critical early years of the Patriots' franchise were monumental." Holovak also coached and held administrative positions with the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders and New York Jets. "Mike was the quintessential 'football guy,'" Titans owner Bud Adams Jr. said in a statement issued by Boston College. "It is rare when you see a person excel in all three areas of the sport: a great player in college, a successful coach and great talent evaluator, but Mike was one of the special people." A memorial mass was planned for the Boston College campus on Feb. 9.

Homocides ? LOL! I guess spelling isn't one of my strong suits.

Dig the photo of the suspect. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-5murde...0,6530536.story

It was announced last year that Tony Proudfoot has ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 1985 Grey Cup. Nice guy. Today there is an article that says that his roommate Larry Uteck died from ALS in 2002. Furthermore, The CFL Players Association says that 8 of its 15,000 members have ALS. The article says that in the general population only 2 of 100,000 have it. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...4796663-cp.html

MG, do you get the Doonesbury comic strip in England? There is a character called Uncle Duke who is based on Thompson. Thompson's alter ego in his books was Raoul Duke.

Raleigh has a chance to get a team in the proposed United Football League, and that is what we have been reading about in this area. Here is an article about another proposed league that I had not heard about. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home New football league holds first draft GEORGE HENRY Associated Press January 26, 2008 at 8:23 PM EST ATLANTA — Bryan Randall and Eric Crouch still long to play professional football. Though the two quarterbacks might not earn another NFL paycheque, Randall and Crouch are grateful that the All American Football League will debut in April. Former college standouts Randall and Crouch were the second and third picks in the league's inaugural draft on Saturday, with Randall going to Tennessee and Crouch going to Texas. Randall, a former Virginia Tech standout who spent time on the Atlanta Falcons' squad, went to training camp last year with the Pittsburgh Steelers but didn't make the team. "It's a great opportunity for me, and I can't wait to get back on the field and compete," Randall said. "I guess I've learned that you never get football out of your blood, or at least I haven't been able to, over the last few months." The league will fill the void created when the NFL shut down NFL Europe earlier this year after 16 seasons. The league was losing a reported US$30 million a season. With teams in Detroit; Little Rock, Ark; Gainesville, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and a yet-to-be-determined city in Texas, the league hopes to build on fans' identification with former collegiate stars. Former Troy offensive lineman Zarah Yisrael was drafted No. 1 overall by Arkansas. Florida picked Marshall quarterback Eric Kresser fourth overall, and another quarterback, David Koral of UCLA, went to Michigan in the No. 5 spot. Alabama drafted centre Josh Sewell, formerly of Nebraska, with the sixth and final pick of the first round. Crouch, who won the 2001 Heisman Trophy at Nebraska, is eager to show American fans that he can still play quarterback. Drafted No. 3 overall by the Texas team, Crouch was an NFL receiver for St. Louis and Green Bay. Kansas City later designated him to NFL Europe, where he remained a wideout in 2006 for Hamburg. But not long after leaving Germany, Crouch was allowed to play quarterback again when he signed with the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. "I love the game of football, but quarterback really is my passion," Crouch said. "I can't deny that I'd like to get another chance to play in the NFL, but the fact remains that I'm really excited to play this spring for Texas. I think the atmosphere will be great." League CEO Marcus Katz, who made a fortune after co-founding a company that provided student loans, first announced plans last year for a professional league that would lean heavily on the year-round craze of big-time college programs. So when the All American debuted its colours, logos, helmets and mascots during the draft, it was no surprise that everything was nearly identical to those used by each state's most popular college program. Florida, for example, will wear orange and blue and play three of its five home games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. Former Gators quarterback Shane Matthews is the head coach, and Kresser will face competition from Chris Leak, who helped the state's biggest university beat Ohio State for 2006 national title. Hoping to avoid alienating fans from rival in-state schools, the league has encouraged teams to sign players with regional ties. Auburn running back Tre Smith will wear crimson and white and play at Birmingham's Legion Field after signing with Alabama. Receiver Peter Warrick, who starred at Florida State before the Cincinnati Bengals drafted him No. 4 overall in 2000, will play for Florida. The league has yet to complete a television contract, but it used many of the techniques on Saturday that have helped the NFL make its annual draft a media phenomenon. A studio at TBS hosted a central draft show, and the league set up a "war room" at its headquarters in suburban Sandy Springs. Each team hosted a draft-day event that was televised from hotel ballrooms in the clubs' hometowns. Former NFL stars and other celebrities made brief appearances in an attempt to lend credibility. Lem Barney, a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee with the Detroit Lions, boxing legend Thomas Hearns and former current Cleveland Browns receiver Braylon Edwards announced picks in Michigan. Actor David Keith, a renowned Tennessee fan, did the same in Knoxville. Former SMU running back Craig James and former Houston quarterback David Klingler appeared for Texas.

Welcome clave and Bev! I've got you all beat. I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body. The woman on the far left is Polly Bergen. When I was little my sister had an early LP of hers called Bergen Sings Morgan, in which she covered the songs of Helen Morgan. Twenty years later I had a part time job in a department store, and she made an appearance into my little corner and briefly chatted with me. I think she was in the store promoting a new perfume of hers. She was still quite attractive, and very nice too.

Jeff Garcia was chosen today for the Pro Bowl game in a couple of weeks. This will be his fourth Pro Bowl. IMO, this is a "Please forgive us for not picking you last year" sort of thing. He had an amazing run with the Eagles last year, but the selections were made too early, and Tony Romo was picked ahead of him, which last year was a mistake. This year Garcia played very little the second half of the season, with a back injury. Of course, without him Tampa Bay would not have made the playoffs. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home