RRRRRavens

For the house, assuming it's not an A-frame or a tepee, I believe you're going to need the width of the house at the roof level to complete your calculations. Your calculations work for a pole, not a polygon which most houses appear to be when viewed from one of its sides.

Do I detect just a touch of irony in your statement?

Second case of knee ligament damage for him, this time a different ligament, apparently. I know we'll have to wait for the medical exam by the experts. Still, it does make you wonder if he has weak ligaments everywhere? Wonder why this didn't show up in college?

Oh, no!!!

We may get a partial answer to which set of TE's are better, NE or Ravens, on Monday night, Dec 12 when we go mano a mano with them in Foxboro in week 14. Looking forward to watching it.

Slow your roll, son, on that bet. While I certainly agree with your sentiment your logic might not have included the fact that the division the Pats play in is much much easier than the one we play in. Hence yards will come easier there than in ours. Overall we may be better but it may not show in our relative stats due to the difference in our competitors.

Have to disagree with you there. Trent is not saying he IS the greatest but that he aspires to be great. Ali was never "the greatest". He merely asserted he was. An assertion that was never proven nor could it be since he never fought all the great fighters that ever existed - a requirement for the mantle of "greatest". Nobody, and no team, can ever be "the greatest" for the same reason. The concept of "the greatest" is largely an invention by the various sports media to drum up fan interest. Your heartfelt opinions may differ but logic is logic.

A comment on Trent's dream: I don't think you can build a great team with players who don't dream of being great themselves.

Unfortunately back injuries can be tricky and unpredictable. Hopefully it will cure up more quickly than is pessimistically predicted so far.

Totally agree. Get creative and dream up new ways to compete that don't put the players at high physical risk in a competition that is meaningless to the heart of the NFL - the regular season.

To Eugene Monroe I say the following. I agree with your stance on having marijuana take its place along side other medications that relieve pain. Having said that I strongly support the idea that ANYBODY playing sports while on any kind of anti-pain medication is crazy. Pain is in your body for a purpose when it comes to musculo-skeletal conditions. It tells you when you are damaging yourself. Without the pain feedback you don't know that you are causing further damage to your body. My rule would be to allow any pain med a doctor found useful but no player may EVER play who is currently taking ANY pain meds.

I like these Fact/Opinion pieces. Helps clarify the air at times. Even if I don't always agree with each and every detail I think they are useful. Keep it up, John E.

Perhaps you haven't played Fantasy Football long enough?? Here's a reminder for you. Several years ago, the league had a plethora of FEATURE running backs. I'm talking back around 2005, 2006. Back when Fantasy got real popular. In the last few years, there have not been as many FEATURE backs. The league did appear to be trending back to what things were before when you think about the Leveon Bells, the Todd Gurleys, "AD" obviously. Yes Marshawn Lynch retired, and Matt Forte is only occasionally healthy and and same story for Jamal Charles, and Ed Lacy has not shown the same promise as his rookie year, but you now have other potential FEATURE backs...guys with promise such as TJ Yeldon, Latavius Murray, Melvin Gordon, III maybe, Lesean McCoy still has great days ahead, as does Doug Martin. Can't forget about Demarco, David Johnson. Nevermind the out of nowhere play from Devonta Freeman who was actually expected to play behind rookie Tevin Coleman. Whether Ezekiel lives up to the hype or not, the league is back in the position of having more than 10 bonafide FEATURE backs. Teams with tandems or Running Back Duos aren't the best option for Fantasy. Even if they are considered sleepers. A guy might play well one week and then he doesn't do anything for 4 weeks. And then of course he plays well the week that you bench him. It's a guessing game. I don't doubt that he can play well and be a sleeper, but to think that he'll win you a championship is Pie in the Sky man! I don't see Dixon winning 85% of snaps over the incumbents on the roster and even if he did, I see the MAJORITY of our TDs coming from the 10 receivers we'll have on the roster - whether anyone of the 4 TEs or the however many WRs we'll have. You're probably better off going with a guy like Carlos Hyde as your sleeper because Baltimore does not have a FEATURE back right now. IN FACT, you're better off picking him up as a free agent and not in the draft. Teams also don't really seem to have that "Goal line" back anymore. I remember the days of the Redskins with Gerald Riggs. He was a big bodied RB who only touched the ball when it was very short and gaol and the guy scored 20+ TD's that one season. It was also something Marcus Allen prolonged his career with in Kansas City because he was just so adept at it. It is now a lot more popular to go with "trees" on short and goal and to pass it in rather than to slam it if in from 4-5 yards out. To me, I don't care how you score the football, just get me some darn TD'S! Did you mean John Riggins, aka Riggo or The Diesel?

Everybody in society today is so "busy" they can't find the time to call. Everybody of small character uses the "I was busy excuse." Timmy J. needs to call Sapp - we all need a phone call especially when your a little down and out. Agree. I know we're all too busy with our lives. So maybe each day each of us should ask ourselves who can I help today by doing a "little" thing, such as calling somebody who would probably be lifted by it.

Interesting how consistently you hear rookies talk about the increased speed of the game they experience when they first get on the field with the pros. I can't say as I can see it all that clearly when I'm watching a college game versus watching a pro game. But that's just me. Nothing like being on the field experiencing it first hand like these guys are.

Remember so far this season all that you are hearing about is coming from practice without pads. Meaning nobody is really pushing anybody very hard yet. When the pads go on and the real physical mano a mano starts you'll get a better picture of who can handle who. And you'll get an even better picture when we start playing preseason games against other opponents who are also trying to win spots on their teams.

The notion of a Monroe trade at some point is an interesting idea. It prompts several speculative questions at this early part of the season. 1. If the trade offer comes in the middle of training camp how much would we have to get to take the trade? 2. If it's in mid-season and we are in a tight race for the playoffs and Monroe has been starting LT what would we ask. Or would we not trade at all? 3. If Stanley has won the starting LT but Monroe is the main back up do we risk trading him and lose our protection if Stanley goes down? If we do take the risk what should we ask for him. 4. What kind of team who has lost their starting LT would be wanting to trade? I think it would have to be a team in contention for the playoffs. Otherwise a lower ranking team would just wait till the draft next year. I also think that the later in the season the contending team loses their LT the higher price they will be willing to pay for Monroe. What do the rest of you think?

and vice versa

It was a very costly mistake. I think it's dumb to penalize a team that heavily over wearing pads for 5 minute, but just pay the fines and get in as much work as possible with the OTA days you have and move on... lesson learned, it's not that big of a deal. Totally agree. "Enough with the damned pads. Let's talk football."

Sort like comparing before and after notes?

I used to feel that way a lot too. I still get mad when refs blow a call but not so much these days. I changed the way I look at the game. I now feel that if it’s a close call, like a receiver bobbling a catch or barely getting two feet inbounds, that it’s up to the player to make the legitimacy of the play obvious to the ref. The closer the receiver makes his play to the edge the more likely the pass will be ruled incomplete. So, in a way, it’s partly the player’s fault if the call goes against him if he has played too close to the edge.

You claim there is some sort of record of these players expressing dislike or discontent for Harbaugh. Could you provide us references of these claims so we can read them for ourselves? Thanks.

Well, Rivers has been very good against the Ravens historically, so I worry about playing against him plenty. Averages 287 yards/game against us with 14 TDs and 4 INTs in 7 games. 2nd most TD passes against a non-divisional opponent out of all the teams in the league. Yeah, but nobody has been having too many INTs when they have played us recently - - - unfortunately.

Yardage doesn't matter. Its a stat that doesn't translate into winning. Arguing about literally anybody being "elite" is a terrible waste of time. There's no right or wrong answer. It’s a waste of time, true, but it is also quite human. We humans are typically looking for heroes to tell our stories through. We always have and always will. It’s in our DNA. Every successful dramatic movie, novel, or political movement is seen by us first through the hero of the plot even if the real reason for victory was more complex or prosaic. We gravitate towards the myth of heroes and invent them even when they don’t really exist. Psychologically we seem to need them, so we invent them when they are not readily available. You can see this now in the present political campaign for president. Of the three remaining candidates two of them are seen as “heroes” by their followers even though a deeper look into each of them reveals they are anything but heroes. It happened in Italy and Germany in the 1930’s where the populations of those countries felt they needed “heroes”. To their everlasting shame they got their “heroes” alright! I’m not decrying our human fallibility for the need for heroes. We are, after all, only human. As a species we’ve only just come out of the trees. What I do ask is that we recognize and accept this tendency to create heroes when none exist. Be real. Check to see if the king really is wearing any clothes. The QB doesn’t have to be a hero, or “elite”. He only has to be “good enough” to help win the game on game day. Payton Manning showed us that during the last Super Bowl. He was good enough and managed to not lose the game for his team.

OK, but there really are a lot of guys who win when it matters. Brady, Flacco, Roethlisberger, Manning's, Brees, Rodgers, Wilson. That's 25% of last years starting QBs who have all hoisted Lombardi's and have had previous success in the postseason. And THEN, you start looking at other successful postseason QBs who haven't won a SB, like Rivers and Luck. Heck, even Kaepernick has four postseason wins. You're looking at 8-10 QBs in this league right now who have proven they can win consistently in the postseason. And that's just QBs... that's not even including every other position on the field. Hence why this notion of being a "winner" isn't nearly as rare as people make it out to be. This sounds like a fun discussion to dig into. Let's start with Flacco and Kaepernick re Super Bowl records. I contend that the difference in their SB records, in fact a complete reversal of same, is one great (maybe illegal) defensive play by Jimmy Smith in the endzone near the end of the game. If Jimmy doesn't make that play SF scores and ultimately wins the SB.