We’ll see. In the meantime, aren’t you getting married or something? I imagine that will necessitate some travel.

Any chance you’re coming out to the Midwest sometime this spring?

Thanks for posting the Daddy’s Home pic, that cracked me up when I got there. Eleanor, tell your mother we need to talk.

A Game of Thrones – Genesis
I just saw this for sale on Steam, and remembered that you had a post awhile back about the tv show. I was just wondering: have you read any of the books and are you going to give the game a try? It looks a little bit generic, but it might be worth a try.

Two things: I absolutely agree with the need to protect players. No one wants to see someone who they loved to watch on the field as a vegetable 5-10 years later. For instance, the Dunta Robinson hit on the Philly WR (Maclin?) was absolutely sickening. But it is also a hit which has always been illegal (spearing with your head). I do agree with the new rule about leaving your feet to launch into the receiver (now illegal), but if anything Robinson just proved he can fucking destroy a WR without having to leave his feet (which he didn’t actually do this time). The other huge problem with this situation is the coaching. I just saw a headline that had a quote from a Philly defensive coach (don’t remember if it was positional or the coordinator) who flat out said that Dunta was playing the way they coached him to play. That’s a huge problem, if the player pays a penalty for doing what he is told but the people who are telling him to play that way get off scot-free, especially since his continued employment depends on doing what the coaches/front office demand of him.

The other side that I hate is the blatantly differential treatment given to a) certain positions but b) the league superstars. And how the refs always blow the calls and fuck the Lions in favor of your Bears. To a certain extent, I understand the need to protect particular positions. Kickers are incredibly vulnerable due to the physical mechanics of what they have to do, so special protection for them makes sense. I have a real problem with the way they have changed the rules for QBs though. Perfect case in point, the Tom Brady rule. It sucks that he was out for the season, but that happens to dozens of players every year. The reason he got his own rule was the fact that the league makes so much marketing money off the star players. To me a QB should have the awareness to either get rid of the ball sooner or go down in such a way as to keep from getting injured (Peyton Manning was a master of this second move the last couple years, which is part of why he had such a long streak of games before the neck rehab problem).

Finally, the refs have gone way too far in trying to protect the QB. Last years second Bears-Lions game was a perfect example of this. Suh took a penalty and fine for what looked like a perfectly legal hit on Cutler. In my opinion, any player who is beyond the line of scrimmage, in bounds, and carrying the ball (not sliding) is fair play to be wrapped up and driven into the ground. I don’t care how much the Bears gave up in draft picks and salaries, that was a fucking legal hit. The fact that the league went and fined him after the fact was completely absurd. That’s effectively telling a defender that they cannot do their job anywhere on the field at any time without the fear of an arbitrary ruling from the league.