Big Blue Huddle

I like the mix up of Singletary, Tracy, and whoever wins the other RB...probably Gray IMO. It's always advantageous to have a variety of skill sets among those who are going to carry the ball. With Barkley, we were pretty much one-dimensional, not to mention every team we faced schemed for him whenever he was on the field. And we know Tracy can catch a ball and will probably be used like that quite a bit. Should be an exciting year to watch the youngsters get their feet wet on the big game board

We are now entering the dead zone of football talk, although I expect some interesting conversations during training camp. But for now, the board is just not that exciting.

We've talked a lot about rock bands and many other things concerning music, but I don't think we've ever talked about favorite female singers of the "Rock" genre. So...I'm not talking about Taylor Swift, or Gwen Stefani, or Shania Twain. I'm talking real "rockers". I've put together an incomplete list of female rockers who I like, and I'll rank them in my order later, should this thread takes off. Looking for the "Top Three Female Rockers". Of course, it's all subjective as people like what they like. A heads-up, I like unique voices. I didn't use the YouTube button in order to keep this post shorter, but you can click it and it takes two seconds longer

Gracie Slick – I saw her in concert on a surprise free concert on the beach when I was in Ocean City, MD. She (with Jefferson Airplane) was one of the undercards for the Beach Boys. She is the only woman rocker I've ever seen in concert...which actually surprises me. Interesting sub-story. Gracie and her husband moved to a nice house in a cul-de-sac in California. She changed her name in order to live incognito. She was friends with all the women in the neighborhood who had no idea who she was. Anyway, Gracie found out her husband was cheating on her, and she chased him down the street firing a shotgun over his head. She was arrested and made headlines for a famous person getting arrested...shocking all the women who thought they knew her...LOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEDnnT88A3w

Stevie Nicks Everyone knows Stevie as she had a lot of hits...probably "Edge of Seventeen" being the biggest, but she had a lot of big ones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwS9BIqbffU

Joan Jett – Her big hit was bastardized for Sunday Night Football...I will see her this summer at the NYS Fair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNw7jYkbVc

Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes) – one of my favorite female singers of all time. I got tickets to an Aerosmith concert in Binghamton years ago, and she was the undercard. Unfortunately, she couldn't make it because she blew out her vocal cords the week before after being named "Best Musician Newcomer" to San Francisco. She didn't take professional singing lessons and sang with her throat rather than resonating volume against the roof of her mouth. She never sang again,  Only Elvis was able to sing from the throat and survive a lifetime (well a partial lifetime) of singing. Linda now writes music for Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, etc. Very talented woman and I like her a lot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXnxTNIWkc

Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde)  - here she is singing "Joey", a great song (tune-wise and singing-wise) but the song is extremely melancholy as she sings about a man who is overcome with alcoholism and in a battle for his life against the bottle. Kind of hits home as a good friend of mine who started drinking the hard stuff from morning til night...he died at 42 yrs old on Christmas morning a couple of years ago. His wife is still having problems dealing with something where she just couldn't help him. I would never play this song when she is present...nosiree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ

Debbie Harry (Blondie) – not sure if she fits in the group of "rockers", but some people think so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU

Bonnie Tyler – grittiest voice among all women. Her best known song was played more times last month than in the last 40 years, as people waited for the full eclipse LOL  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcOxhH8N3Bo

Pat Benatar – genuine rocker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vppgaVcnfS0

Amy Winehouse – unique voice and I add her to the list mostly because she died at the same age of 27 a drug overdose and joined the "27 Club" with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain. This song is pretty dang melancholy, but shows off her chops. They blank out the word "blow", for which the guy died of (fentanyl laced nose candy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8

Janis Joplin – the queen of rockers, but a little rough around the edges, one might say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRhHdFRFBAs

Ann Williams (Heart) – often confused with Beach Boys, Brian Wilson's daughter(s) Wendy and Carna who teamed up with Chyna Phillips (daughter of Michele Phillips of the Mamas and Papas) and started the group "Wilson Phillips". Heart comprised sisters' Ann and Nancy Williams who got into a huge fight forcing the band to break up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZjEC4WhCvg

Quote from: Sem on May 05, 2024, 05:52:41 PMLOL. No, but that would have made a way cooler story.
Our paperboy was busy playing school sports so his parents would deliver for him. One winter late at night we had an inch or so of snow, and his mother apparently slipped stepping off our one-step front patio. She broke her ankle, or so her lawyer said. He also said she laid there screaming in agony for 30 minutes, (strange, our bedroom window was about 12 feet away and we didn't hear a sound). In fact we had no idea this even happened until about 3 months later when we got a letter from her lawyer advising us we were being sued, and to contact our insurance company. My agent told me their lawyer was a known ambulance-chaser. They paid without questions, and I canceled my subscription. End of story.

Wow...what a story! Sorry to hear

Quote from: Rosehill Jimmy on May 03, 2024, 05:11:13 PMAgree with most said here about DS. If there is a reasonable $ number for a guy that still drops too many passes for my liking, go for it

He's gotten better over time. The thing is, once you get tagged with the moniker "drops passes", every drop is magnified a thousand times so fans can reaffirm their belief and boast that "they knew it" and "they told you so". Yet Slayton actually had fewer drops (percentage wise) than most of the WRs in the league, including J. Smith-Njigba, S. Diggs, M. Evans, G. Wilson...and in fact, didn't even make the top 25 players in the NFL for drop percentage. Last season, Slayton had 3 drops and 50 catches https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/stats?category=receiving&season=2023&seasonType=reg&sort=rec_drops&sortOrder=desc

It's sorta like DJ and turnovers. In 2022, when he was called a "turnover machine", he was ridiculed incessantly for a turnover as it verified fans' negative opinions of him. Yet, he only had 8 turnovers in 17 games. Compare that with Dak who had 16 TOs in 12 games, or compared with Josh Allen's 19 TOs etc. Yet, every turnover by DJ brings out the haters who say, "see what I told you???". Meanwhile, Dak is being touted as a "franchise QB" by the media

Once something gets stuck in a fan's mind, they watch for, and keep track of, and magnify every fault to confirm their staunch beliefs. Fans can be brutal...especially when vying to prove they know more than others about the game and team

Quote from: uconnjack8 on May 03, 2024, 06:39:32 PMWish the Giants had the problem of too many draft picks they wanted to re-sign that would command huge salaries.  Although, somehow, with the worst record in the NFC for the last decade they are still up against cap wise

One of the things a lot of people forget, Schoen inherited a "cap hell" situation, which delays a rebuild if you stay focused on fixing the cap. And it seems, Schoen has done a decent job of getting it into reasonable shape

Interesting. His proprietary "risk formula" should be able to be figured out using historical data. Otherwise, the only way to get it is to hire him, and he's probably had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so even that might not work. I would think if the Giants read, or already know, this, they'd have a few of their math/stats gurus working on a similar risk assessment analysis and apply it. It seems to work

Quote from: Sem on May 03, 2024, 11:08:10 PMRic can relate. Growing up near Binghamton as a youth we had two daily papers. The Sun Bulletin, which was delivered in the early mornings, and The Binghamton Evening Press, which was delivered around 4pm every day. I used to like reading the Sun Bulletin's sports pages in the morning before heading off to school. But they never had the west coast baseball scores. No internet then, so I had to wait until I got home to check the late scores in the evening paper. At some point the two papers merged and became The Press & Sun Bulletin, which was delivered in the mornings. Some time around 2008(?) I canceled the paper though when our "paperboy" sued us for $50,000. I haven't subscribed to a physical paper since.

What'd you do? Steal his parent's BMW? LOL

Quote from: MightyGiants on May 03, 2024, 03:30:27 PMI am going to add an observation I think is reasonably on topic. What is a really great driver of an offense is a long-time pairing of a receiver (WR or TE) with a quarterback. I think the longer the pair works together, the better they get.

I was thinking along that line when considering whether or not to bring Slayton back. He's worked a long time with DJ and has done a bit better than average because of it. The two know exactly how to work together

To add to the Tom Brady conversation, not only did he do a lot of dink and dunk, he usually had two great TEs to take the ball further down the field. Not wanting to take anything away from Brady, but he wasn't without some pretty good receivers to help out

I think we hit this year with Theo and Tracy...time will tell 

Pearls before Swine is one of favorite comic strips, Steve Pastis is hilarious

I love reading a real newspaper, but I can't afford them. The Binghamton Press used to be 3 or 4 sections with about 30 pages of news for 50 cents. Now it's 2.50, 1 section, 8 pages (3 are obits) and the rest basically taken from the USA Today. Awful

Syracuse Post only prints a paper a couple of times a week, plus weekends, and the Cortland Standard (1.75) every other day, not including Sunday

I now get my news off the internet Binghamton Press, Syracuse Post, NJ.com and NY Post. A lot cheaper and more content. I particularly miss "local news" that used to be the bulk of local newspapers. I suspect the day will come when there are no more printed newspapers 

Quote from: AZGiantFan on May 03, 2024, 11:21:09 AMAnd both times the Giants beat Brady-led teams in the SB they did it by breaking down his OL.

Ha, ha...I remember reading the patriot message board the following day and one guy wrote, "I just want to shoot myself in the eye...and who the f..k is Jay Alford anyway?" (who got one of the 5 sacks on Brady in 2008 SB)

 

I'm finding a certain amount of joy watching the drama unfold between CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons and the Cowboys; although, neither has been declined a 5th year option (so it doesn't really address this thread), but a good story anyway. They both want an extension and more than double what they're being paid, and looking at 30+ million per year. Jerry's in a pickle because there's nothing they can do about Dak's huge contract, who flat-out refuses to have it altered or restructured in any way in order to help out the team

Minnesota has the same problem with Jefferson, who says he won't play this year unless he's paid a salary commensurate with top WRs (30+ million per). Will probably be our problem in a few years with Nabers, LOL

Hmmm...hard question 

Winners: Kayvon Thibodeaux, Slayton (if he returns), Hyatt, Neal (due to better RG beside him as well as Stoll and Manhertz to help block)

Losers: All RBs from last year whose name isn't Singletary or Tracy; maybe Bellinger as there's a new kid in town; Azeez Ojulari will be sucking hind tit behind Burns now; Gunner Olszewski if the stories about Tracy's p/k return prowess are true; Ezeudu; Cager

Quote from: MightyGiants on May 03, 2024, 10:21:47 AMThe sense I got (although I couldn't find a quote that nailed it down) is that Slayton wants an extension.

He should get one. He took a measly salary because he wanted to be a Giant. He would've gotten much more if he took the FA route

I think he loves playing for Daboll. I'll never forget the play a year ago where he looked up field a nanosecond too soon and dropped a very catchable ball. He went to the sideline devastated (not sure if he wasn't crying), and Daboll was the first one to meet him on the sideline and instead of going into a tirade, Daboll put his arms around him and patted him on the back. From a player's perspective, you can't ask for more than that from your coach

Quote from: sxdxca38 on May 03, 2024, 10:20:38 AMWhat is more important to the QB than the WR is the offensive line.

Go and look up the offensive line rankings Tom Brady and Eli Manning both played with in the prime of their careers.

It is no coincidence that both had elite level line play to give them time to dissect a defense.

You bring up the great point that it's "team work" that makes the plan work as schemed...not a single individual. Football ain't golf!