Except your message still shows as unread, and my response isn’t there in my box. So did you get my response?

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

They did NOT want the story to leak. They considered a leak of that story to be an unacceptable risk. Of what, we don’t know.

Also, maybe they just don’t care because at this time next year, JT will be covering high school football.

Yet, the story had already leaked. From the Bradford camp, we know that they were hearing about trade talk during the combine. We do know that Kelly talked to Bradford’s OU coaches…chances are very likley that got back to him. In fact one reason Bradford refused a paycut, according to his side, is because they thought it was just a way to make him more tradeable. Regardless of that detail, if the agent is hearing that kind of thing, chances are, he conveys it to Thomas.

So the trade wasn’t a secret. In fact–there was no reason to keep it secret.

Nevertheless, it goes like this. Thomas hears things from Bradford’s agent, and possibly other sources. So he directly asks Fisher one on one.

Fisher has any number of options there short of direct revelation. He could say, please keep this to yourself for the time being, but, we’re keeping our options open.

But instead, on the strength of Fisher’s denial, Thomas goes public hours before the trade and says “I was told directly by the best source that there’s nothing to this.” Then, wham, the trade happens, and the result of going public is, some people are laughing at JT and calling him a dupe and saying he’s not credible.

Meanwhile, JT says, no coach ever lied to me under those conditions before. And we have seen JT say yeah I talked to them, but I have to keep it to myself. If no coach ever lied to him, given his reaction to this, that includes Fisher–otherwise, JT would have said long before this “no one ever lied to me before except Fisher.” Yet what are the odds JT never asked a question like this before?

That means there’s a protocol they have that has been in place for a long time. JT asks, they don’t lie, though we also know from the past that JT DOES sometimes say in effect “I am not at liberty to discuss it.”

Fisher must know that JT had heard things about the trade. JT was basically saying, I will put this story to rest on the basis of your word. Fisher would also know that coming out with an official denial would make JT look bad after the trade.

I usually don’t take the PD’s side against the team. For example, I thought the entire “equipment manager scandal” thing was absurd.

But I cannot help but think Fisher comes across as a prick on this one.

..

The story leaked, and they contained it. They contained it by denying it. The front office met together – clearly – and decided as a team to deny the rumors. Fisher stuck with the game plan of denial. That’s all we know.

We don’t know that “there was no reason to keep it a secret.” There obviously WAS a reason. We don’t know what it is, and we might not like it if we heard it, but the front office consciously decided to keep a lid on it as much as possible. Maybe Philadelphia wanted to keep it quiet, too. The last thing GMs want is the media and fans all going berserk with their trade scenarios. You’ve heard fans. Rams fans would be calling the radio saying they want Foles and the next two 1st round picks from Philly, and Philly fans would be saying the same thing, and both fan bases would be even more pissed off at the actual trade. Who needs the media shitstorm that would come with trading a QB? I’d want to keep talk to a minimum beforehand if it was me, that’s for sure.

That’s just a top-of-my-head rationale for lying about it. There could be other reasons.

I do think it was a bad move on Fisher’s part because it isn’t a matter of insignificance to alienate a reporter. That’s not a good idea.

rfl wrote:

JT is really, really pissed off.

Snead and Fisher apparently broke the unwritten rules about playing the game cagey, but not blowing your credibility with your team’s beat reporters.

I still haven’t really heard a good theory about why they played it this way.

They did NOT want the story to leak. They considered a leak of that story to be an unacceptable risk. Of what, we don’t know.

Also, maybe they just don’t care because at this time next year, JT will be covering high school football.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Zooey.

I take BPA at #10 regardless of position. Even if he’s DL.

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

And they should get to know their teammates. And, of course, get to know the locker room.

Because that is what it’s about.

I think it’s important for me to be who I am. I think I’m sarcastic, and that’s okay. I’ve been getting away from that, from my core beliefs. I’ve been trying to do too much, I think. And I really believe that if I can just be the best me I can be, that’s what it’s all about. That just makes me a better poster. So I think it’s good that I’m starting over fresh at being me.

rfl wrote:

zn wrote:
Rams announce they have signed OT Garrett Reynolds; probable third tackle.

Third? I didn’t know we had a 2nd.

And the guy plays better at OG. So we sign him for #3 OT? I can’t help but think that he’ll be mainly at OG.

I wonder if this suggests that we are close on Joe B.

And of course we need to see the $ he signed for.

They don’t have a #2.

But they don’t have to sign these guys in order of prestige.

They need some depth. This guy has experience, Boudreau knows him, he fits, he’s cheap (probably).

I’m excited that Foles is committed to remaining himself. And that he wants to get to know his teammates.

Because that’s what it is about.

Cheesecake.

I make the best cheesecake there is on the planet, as far as I know. Really. I am expected to bring a cheesecake to every single family event, and if I don’t, I catch hell. Seriously. I honestly like my chances of winning at the California State Fair. So I am entering this year because there is apparently actual money involved at the state level. I won $15 at the the county fair which means I broke even. The judges told me to go to State with it because one can actually get money for winning, plus some corporation may pay for the recipe and slap it on their product. Cream cheese, for example. So what the hell. My kids have been entering various artworks for a few years at the fair, and my wife insisted everyone in the family should enter something, so she made her excellent chocolate cake (which won Best of Division for cakes), and I made my excellent cheesecake, and now we’re supposed to go pro, or something. Anyway.

I think Life of Pi hinges on the island. The entire book is set up in the author’s note with the promise that “I have a story that will make you believe in god.”

All of Part One, set in India, is about developing Pi’s credibility for telling the story on the lifeboat with Richard Parker in Part Two. Plus it establishes Pi’s love of religion, and his opinion that theists and atheists are brothers because they both go as far as reason will take them, and then they have to take a leap of faith (to believe in god, or to believe there is no god). He criticizes agnostics because they won’t take a leap of faith.

So then the reader goes along with Pi’s story. Then when he’s talking to the Japanese shipping representatives, they don’t believe him, and ask him for a different story. He tells the other version. Students always hit the ceiling at this point, and go berserk in class. They always want to know which version is true.

Neither version adds up, though. That’s the problem. And Martel does that deliberately. There is evidence both for and against each version of the story. And the Island is the crux of the question. So the reader has to take a leap of faith either way.

Pi asks the Japanese men – since it doesn’t matter to the shipping company either way – which version they prefer, and they say they prefer the story with the animals. Pi says, “So it goes with God.”

Which I interpret to mean that basically since there cannot be absolute conclusive evidence that god exists or god does not exist, that Pi is saying that the rational thing to do is believe in god because that’s the “better story.”

As for Richard Parker, in the “atheist” version of the story, he is Pi’s “madness,” or will to survive at any cost. It’s no accident that Richard Parker is anthropomorphized with a human name, and that Pi takes on similarities to RP throughout the book (like the way he eats and kills). They are driven closer and closer throughout the book, and once Pi hits Mexico and no longer needs that killer instinct to survive, RP disappears into the jungle.

I have not seen the movie, so I have nothing to say about that. Except I’ve heard it isn’t good, and as with all movies, crap gets moved around and modified, and people who have read the book hate the movie. As usual.

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:
In the mean time, I can avoid taking a stand on the trade until the time at which I can judge it in hindsight while claiming I was right all along.

You should post on message boards. Sounds like you are just right for them.

I’m thinking about doing just that.

Man, I think I could dominate.

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:
what cap usage can actually be ascribed to this trade.

Depends on what you mean by that. They gained 13 M. Actually more like 11+ M because they also took on Foles’s cap hit. Is it possible to figure out which specific players they got or will get with that money? I doubt that’s possible. But in the end, when you tally it all up, they will have had 11 M more in cap space than if he had stayed. Is that decisive? I doubt it. Because along with taking on Foles’s 1+ M contract, they also took on his upcoming free agency. Right now starting qbs up for their 2nd contract get around 19 M. So either they don’t like Foles or that, more or less, is what they will have to pay to keep him.

.

I understand there is really no way to figure this out.

But I can keep the whole matter under investigation in the media, various congressional sub-committees, and in the courts for a year or two. In the mean time, I can avoid taking a stand on the trade until the time at which I can judge it in hindsight while claiming I was right all along.

Winnbrad wrote:

Zooey wrote:
Just in terms of positional preference, I would prefer a veteran center over a veteran guard.

But I don’t know anything about Wiz or Blalock.

It is scary, though, how eager the Raiders were to move on from Wisniewski.

Yeah. The scuttlebutt is the Raiders felt like Wiz wasn’t gonna become the “elite” center they wanted. They said he regressed last year. Plus, the Raiders had a crap load of cap space, and Hudson was available.

So a perfect storm I guess.

Wiz is gonna end up somewhere, and right now Seattle wants him, bad. That bugs me. I don’t want Seattle to get him. I want their O-line to stink.

The Rams will have to pay him more than Seattle to get him. Seattle has to be a more desirable destination that St. Louis right now, so I don’t see the Rams getting him.

I wondered that about Bradford, too. If he had a good year with the Rams, what does his next contract look like? Too expensive, for too long?

But what would the market bear? I wouldn’t think anybody would want to lock him up without playing time incentives being a big part of the deal. I dunno.

Just in terms of positional preference, I would prefer a veteran center over a veteran guard.

But I don’t know anything about Wiz or Blalock.

It is scary, though, how eager the Raiders were to move on from Wisniewski.

How does anybody know how proactive the Rams were? How do we know they didn’t contact the Browns?

I think I read somewhere that Foles is not much of a vocal leader, either.