MichiganCardinal

The NCAA is completely powerless. Anytime they try to flex any power they get brought to court and lose. He might as well be shaking a fist at a cloud.

I agree with this. I’m hoping Graham Glasgow’s key card for building access was disabled at halftime of the Bears game. The sunny side up is that the line will get better by default with the return of a healthy LaPorta and Brock Wright. The one-two punch of losing those two decimated an already fragile offensive line. Of the five games you mentioned, there was no excuse (offense or defense) for Green Bay. But both KC and Philly have one of the best defensive lines in the league (or at least did when they faced us in the case of KC). Most offensive lines composed of the ghost of Glasgow’s past and effectively two rookies would struggle with that. With Pittsburgh and Minnesota though (and I would add the Rams game too even though they had some offensive success in the first half and probably should have won) we had effectively no tight end position. It’s hard to run the offense we are designed to run without a single NFL caliber tight end. It’s even harder without a tight end and with an interior composed of what it was.

It feels like I woke up some day in the last two months and all of a sudden every fast food joint, every ad, and every health craze, now just jacks up and advertises their protein levels. Is that the flavor of the month? There's probably something to it. In the grand scheme of macros, protein and calories are the only two I pay attention to. But what's with Chipotle, Subway, and every other place that pretends to be healthy screaming at me about how much protein they have?

In a past career, I worked in child welfare and became the primary caregiver of a kid with T1D. I learned so much, so quickly. He was a warrior and his parents made him just take care of it himself at like six-years-old. He somehow managed to do so until about 9 or 10, when he finally came to us. He could be a little **** head (like all kids in the system), and it became a little joke between us where I would tease him that he didn't need to prick his finger anymore because I could tell his levels just by what names he was calling me that day... Happy to say he got adopted, but not before we got his levels straightened out, his A1C steady, and got him on a CGM/pump combo. That last part made it so much easier. Anyway that all to say, hats off to you. That's a hard diagnosis with occasional nonsensical stigma from the ill-informed.

Gotta be, or the department would be bankrupting itself. You would think the PAC-12 would be happy to have a warm body. Does the agreement include baseball? Sac State has a very good baseball program that competes in the WAC. They would probably immediately become the best baseball team in the MAC. ETA: I see now it's football only. I can only imagine this is Sac State wanting to break into the FBS, but trying to be smarter about it than App State and Georgia State. They likely figure if they go to the Mountain West, or have to schedule their own opponents as an independent, they'll get creamed and eventually relegated to perpetual 3-9. But if they have Akron, Bowling Green, and UMass on their schedule every year, maybe they can manage to get the program to a respectable 8-4 by the end of the five years, in a position to compete in the MWC or PAC-12? And if you're the MAC, you have nothing to lose. Maybe the NorCal games will even give the smaller schools a shot at kids from the area who would otherwise go to FCS or D2.

Love the new thread. I've struggled with health my whole life. Weight is a simplistic measure for health, but correlates fairly well and I've yo-yo'd all over the place in my adult life. I was probably a no-muscle 235 when I graduated high school. Dropped 50 pounds in four months for a new job by basically strapping myself to a Planet Fitness treadmill, and I was like a dog on roller blades trying to run outside or look athletic. I was skinny, but I looked weird (still no muscle), and gained it all back and then some. It was gradual, but there came a time in graduate school I looked in the mirror, stepped on the scale, and saw it was 312. I wasn't happy. I got down to 245 by the time I graduated, but then moved for a post-grad job and was traveling a lot, was back up to 275 last December. I'm trying to do it right this time. I'm on a pretty strict high-protein and low-calorie diet (track everything I eat), go to a very difficult Cross Fit gym five days a week, and am gaining muscle a little faster than I can lose fat right now. I'm at 263 as of this morning. I'm really hoping to get down to 212, so that I can officially say I lost a hundred pounds. That'd be really cool. Of course, then I'll have to deal with a transition, because I'm moving again this fall. Moving (and hard transitions) has been my bear trap before.

The damage is done. Everyone knows who the good owners and bad owners are and it's who we expected. The Lions got poorly rated on food in like 2023 and overhauled their food services. I'd like to think they're on the right side of this ownership wise and would have done that even if it weren't made public.

JV taking the mound in September:

Since they aren’t allowing 6-6 Northwestern to play 7-5 Central Michigan at Ford Field, maybe now they can stop allowing 3-6 Michigan State and 3-6 Penn State to interrupt the MHSAA championships.

May the QuickLane Motor City Pizza Bowl presented by GameAbove Sports rest in peace.

The Canadians haven’t seen the Stanley Cup since Clinton’s first term. Thirty-year-olds don’t even know it exists north of the border. They are supposed to take permanent elimination as some kind of a threat?

I have a hard time seeing either political party actually dying for the same reasons I have a hard time seeing either the Big Ten or SEC ever dying. That's where the money and infrastructure is, so that's where the money will always flow. As long as there is no reason for the party system (conference system) to commit suicide, it'll kick around. Back to politics, if a powerful player is going to tip the apple cart like Trump did, or like Bernie tried to do, it's going to have to go through that structure, even if that structure becomes rather toothless in the grand scheme of electing a name.

It cuts both ways though. The Dems (or rather, all voters with sanity) need to unite, yes. But Rs still need to figure out a path without DJT. Is that Vance? Don Jr.? Rubio? It's not as if the GOP is innately well run right now so as to anoint a successor. DJT will throw any successor under the bus in a heartbeat if he dares question a move he's made (or video he's posted) in the last 12 years. Trump doesn't actually care what becomes of the country when he's dead and gone, he just cares about his "legacy" (which is why we see his name getting thrown on **** indiscriminately). So in 2028 (or even in the primaries if they dare to have genuine open primaries), Vance (or the GOP field) will have to pretend like DJT is beyond reproach (lest DJT cut them off at the knees with his base), while not being the actual cult leader who has defied all historical odds to become the rapist/racist/pedophile in chief. And if it doesn't work, and Newsome/AOC/Shapiro/Beshear wins in 2028, all bets will be off in the GOP. It will be chaos as they try to fracture into either (a) trying to replicate Trump with a Dr. Oz / Vince McMahon / Trump Jr. figure, or (b) making a half-hearted return to conservatism with a Rubio / DeSantis figure. That all said, the path forward isn't crystal clear for the GOP either. Of course, they do have going for them that their party has managed to unite behind a person as horrific as Trump. While everyone on the sane side gets their knickers in a knot over Clinton/Biden/Harris not being their perfect candidate.

I totally called the latest development in The Pitt. I didn't think it would happen in that episode, but I just had a feeling that character wasn't on the same arc as Season 1.

There were late process rumors to that effect, but as I looked back at them I also found a healthy dose of skepticism that those rumors were legit (as opposed to fodder put out by teams picking 8-12 in the hopes that it would lead to him dropping). The one seemingly legit rumor was that he discussed his "brand" five times in a combine interview with one team, that put them off. I don't really know what that means. All players have a brand. Surely by now his play can speak for itself.

I was mostly ambivalent over the arbitration dispute, but I do wonder what its effects on the grander scheme of the CBA will be. I don't see how we don't lose at least one season of baseball at the rate we are going. The infighting amongst owners will need to be settled before a new deal can even be negotiated. The Walter (LAD), Cohen (NYM), & Steinbrenner (NYY) coalition are probably pretty okay with the status quo. The Nutting (PIT), Castellini (CIN), and Monfort (COL) groups are going to be out for blood. And then a ton (including Ilitch) land somewhere in the middle, who won't want a season of lost revenue but also recognize the need for reform. Amongst the owners, the conversation probably starts with revenue sharing, which is a hot mess right now. You've got the New York, LA, and Chicago media markets that are doing just fine. And then Milwaukee, Tampa, and Cincinnati are making a tenth of that money, while many local TV deals are going sideways. All the while, the Dodgers benefit from a Chicago Parking Meter like deal with MLB. Revenue sharing is at 48% right now... where do you go from there? Beyond revenue sharing, when push comes to shove at the table between owners and MLBPA, what are the owners even going to fight for? Presumably a salary cap, which if they are serious about, will probably cause an NHL 2004-2005 lockout in and of itself. Of course, that should probably be accompanied with a salary floor that will ruffle the feathers of the cheaper owners (see revenue sharing above). Now after Skubal, a lot of owners will want to see arbitration get an overhaul too. Will the entire rookie ball system of control need to get one too if high profile players aren't guaranteed a payday in year 7/8? Everything is a mess. It feels like by March 2027, there is a chance they'll have only torn down, and anything and everything will be on the table and up for grabs. Speaking of the NHL, it is the most comparable professional sports league in terms of revenue/game (obviously only because MLB has nearly double the games). Yet, the highest paid player AAV in the entire NHL ($14MM) would be outside the top 90 highest players in MLB. Now, should the owners go to the table and say "we want to be more like the NHL"? Obviously not. But, I do think they have a point that higher profile players in their league are paid significantly more commensurately than the other professional leagues. It's all just messy and I don't see any easy path forward for anybody.

I don't think Decker is at any risk of being cut if he doesn't retire. He wasn't his old self, but he wasn't nearly as terrible as Glasgow, who is good as gone. If you believe in PFF, Deck finished 41/89 across all tackles, 45/89 in pass blocking and 57/89 in run blocking while playing hurt all year. So pretty average. For context, Glasgow was 33/40 for centers, 26/40 in pass block, and 36/40 in run block.

Mike Payton made the case for trading for either Kayvon Thibodeaux or Alex Highsmith. Both guys with lower cap hits than Crosby with more team control. I like Thibodeaux a lot and thought he might be the pick if the Lions screwed up and didn't take Hutch in 2022. He fits the Lions mold as one of the top run defenders in the league, and has shown an ability to get after the QB in past years, though his sack numbers have gone from 11.5 in 2023 to only 2.5 last year. Payton argued it would take a 2nd round pick. That feels pricy for a team with Abdul Carter and Brian Burns, who obviously can't pay Thibodeaux. Of course, not having a 2026 3rd makes it harder.

For the purposes of manifesting (and because I am nothing if not modest in my being right one time), I did correctly predict the Lions-Rams trade terms like the day before it happened. So sample size of one, I’m on fire.

Glazer says that Crosby is done in Vegas, but that he expects the trade would fetch more than Micah Parsons (two 1sts and a starter). First, I don't think Glazer is correct in his assessment. Parsons was 25 and a trade and sign, where you were drafting a deal after you traded for him. Crosby is going to be 29, coming off some injuries and regression, and due $35MM next year (before any restructuring occurs). I'd love to have him here and I guarantee he'd love to be here (lest we forget Crosby Field is sitting in Ypsi). But I doubt Holmes could be in on a price tag north of what Parsons got. Playing pretend, I would do a 2026 and 2027 1st plus some day three picks. I'd like Vegas to take on some of his 2026 cap hit as well. If I had to throw in a player, I might consider Branch (if we can't afford both him and Crosby) or Montgomery. You put yourself in a precarious position at that point if Decker retires, but I think he and Hutch would have at least two phenomenal years together. More than two 1sts and a player though gets harder to swallow.

He just updated his original story too. The same provision applies to Josh Paschal.

You’re too good at this I ain’t betting with you.

NFL Owners are like the most exclusive fraternity of all time. Anyone who’s had the experience of being in one of those stupid groups knows: “don’t **** your brother” If Bezos has skeletons they think will **** them, they won’t let him in. They’ll find a reason.

Depending on how the bracket shapes out, I wouldn’t be shocked to see all of Michigan, Michigan State, and Nebraska in the Final Four. Three very good basketball teams.

If Michigan is a one-loss national champion with the loss coming to Wisconsin, the loss will be Juwan Howard’s fault.