Dr LBC

I saw where someone ran the numbers and eliminated Cole Palmer's goals from Chelsea's matches this season (which isn't yielding an entirely accurate result because the chances were still created so you have to conservatively figure that at least 60% would have been converted - and that's me hedging 12-15% off for giving Palmer due-credit for being in the proper position and/or making the runs that contributed to those chances before you even consider his successful finishes) and Chelsea would be in a relegation battle right now without him.

Rushed booking, and probably for good reason. With the draft on the immediate horizon when Rhea's injury happened they needed A) a women's champion to physical be able to be drafted and B) someone whom they could structure the next 1-3 months of feuds around which was going to influence the outcome of who all was drafted to that respective brand - without spoiling too much of how the picks were going to fall out. It's inconvenient, but in the grand scheme of things it's a drop in the bucket.

That and whether people like it or not, they've got a slew of PLE's in Europe and elsewhere where a number of the names that were topping the bill when they were selling the tickets at largely all out injured (Rhea, Seth, Punk, etc). "Card subject to change" only stretches so far, particularly when you want to be able to use these PLE's to entice/market to other international locales to try to entice you over like they're an NFL city and the Fed is offering up the Super Bowl. Priest is a newly-anointed main event champion. Cody, while he has been perceived as a main eventer for well over a year, is a newly-anointed main event champion. There need to be headliners that aren't just paying internet fan-service that actually move the needle with the layman. I also think part of this title grant was to try to push through extended Becky's contract (though I doubt there's any question that she's leaving). Also, if they stuck the belt on Liv that's basically telegraphing that she's holding the belt until Rhea comes back to a clear babyface reaction and wrecks her. That feud doesn't need the belt though and Rhea vs ____ very likely is a bigger draw than Rhea/Liv at SummerSlam (which is likely the target PLE for her return). Further, to the idea of putting the belt on Nia, for one she doesn't need it and for second, she shouldn't have it because part of putting the belt on any "monster" character is having a plan in mind of how you're going to get it off them (you book backwards, which is something Vince seemed to forget over the years, but which Hunter very clearly understands and does). Nia, however, makes a very logical first defense feud for Becky because there's still carryover heat from their previous feud on the Mania run-in and their Day 1 match that Nia won; IIRC Becky won a gimmick match on a RAW on the RtWM, but they're at best 1-1, and Nia can still make the claim Becky hasn't ever beaten her in a straight-up fight. You get Beck her win back and the tilt in the series between them and then Becky's prime to see some heel go over her and get a nice "most of summer" run before getting upended by a returned Rhea (you do the Rhea's revenge match on Liv as a lead-in) at SummerSlam - and then it doesn't really hurt your young, risen heel because she ran into a returning massively-over juggernaut.

If you go off of her Coachella sets (and I think the baseline for who people can expect the Super Bowl to try and go after for performers are Coachella headliners), she has a strong track record of bringing other popular artists with her for collabs. So that gives the Super Bowl access to Nicki Minaj, Beiber, and Drake (who I think the is the other get that's high on the NFL's list).

That said, I've got good money that the New Orleans SBHT show is going to be Ariana Grande; they're breaking up Wicked into a two-parter to maximize profits and the Super Bowl falls right smack in between the two release dates. They'll be able to coax extra cash out of Universal as it's further advertising for the movie and she has enough pop music appeal nad would be riding a high coming off the Thanksgiving release of Part One that it just makes too much sense.

Calling it now. Detroit will get a Super Bowl before Cleveland does; and even that might not happen until a second renovation happens there - though I'd argue the 2017 one did bring them up to sufficient capability to host. And I'm not just saying that as someone who is invested in a Downtown Detroit Hilton hotel REIT...

This is the issue with a lot of the (for lack of a better word) mainstream 70's and 80's rock bands, they partied so hard at the time that they didn't take care of their voices and, even though Super Bowl halftime performances are lipsync'd, they just don't sound the same anymore save for certain bands that don't have quite the mainstream appeal to play the Super Bowl (and you can make an argument that part of what help Rob Halford maintain his voice was having the "hiatus" from Judas Priest). But Def Leppard sounds like a shadow of their former selves. Same with GNR. You can't even really get anything close to the full version of Motley Crue anymore. Unless they're going to cobble together a Zeppelin reunion with Bonham's son Jason again or, similarly, a Van Halen reunion with Wolfgang playing lead and use the Super Bowl as an excuse to bring back both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, I'm a pass. And a lot of that is just an awareness of what acts they actually will book for the SPHT and what groups would actually do it (for instance, you're never going to get anything resembling Pink Floyd there... or RATM - who wouldn't be booked anyway). The best that rock fans can really hope for is likely going to be that the NFL finally pulls the trigger on the Foo Fighters - because they have been approached several times before but nothing ever materialized; 2027 in LA, given that Laguna Beach became Taylor's adopted hometown and it would be 5-year-anniversary of his death, might be the strongest candidate (plus they've already played SoFi in the past).

Also, I got pinged that Tony Pauline is saying that if Latu is there at #19, the belief is that he'll be a Ram. On an entirely side note, I want Malachi Corley; and he's the type of WR that we already know succeeds in this system because the dude is basically a near-clone of Deebo Samuel (WR in a RB's body) and just a YAC monster.

Alt's not even the best OT in this class. And certainly not the best for McVay's scheme.

If they can't trade back, I could actually see that happening. Maybe I've juiced myself up on this a bit of late, but I think it's a bit telling that Harbaugh tried to recruit Latham and he didn't go after Alt. If the Chargers do sell #5, especially to Minnesota - I think you can put down in pen either Latham or Bowers at whatever 1st they end up at if one or both are still on the board. But I can easily see them having Latham ranked higher than Ola and I wouldn't be shocked if they had him higher than Alt - but I can see Hortiz, being an Ozzie disciple, trying to squeeze some extra value out of the hype on Alt, even if it was dangling him in front of Tennessee to see if he can coax an extra 3rd to get their pick of the litter.

Smackdown doesn't air on the west coast for another 2 hours, but I'm positing something based off of last week's Smackdown that I think fits some logic pegs for where they appear to be taking the Bloodline story. When Tama came confronted Heyman after Heyman was asked the status of Jimmy - after Tama and Solo attacked Jimmy - Tama said, from what I heard that it was, "By order of the Tribal Chief." Roman's claim to the Tribal Chief title was that he was the one who kept the family (and also the whole Federation) fed well... because he was the tippy-top champion and he had the actionable position to make demands and dictates to the company. Roman lost the championship to Cody and now the one who is in the position that he's providing the actionable position for the Bloodline because he is the company (or at least part of the Board of Directors) is Rocky. But Rocky's, conveniently but also practically because he's shooting another movie, not on TV and the same with Roman, so everyone is going to assume that Solo seized the throne for himself or went rogue, and really I think you've got fantastic groundwork laid for a great scene when Roman does return and confronts Solo, and Roman throws up the single finger and Solo starts to throw his up then uses it to point to the tron or the staging area (depending on whether they can get Rock live or have to do a tape-over) to reveal Rock as the one who was behind the (logical) power grab. You can even have Solo do a throwback to his father's line back in the day of, "I did it for the Rock." I do get the feeling that they're going to build to a Bloodline v Bloodline War Games, I just hope because it does fit organically to the story and is also incredibly practical because anything to keep Rock from getting injured and screwing up a penultimate Mania match with Roman is a good thing, that they borrow a bit from Gangs of New York and have (preferrably Roman) make the stipulation, "No weapons. We do this old school." It's a cool throwback to both the way WarGames originally used to be in NWA/WCW where the cage was the only weapon and also it's an Easter egg type callback to one of Rock's lines in Hobbs and Shaw, which is one of the ones he executive produced in order to get made. But you can basically bring the storyline nearly-full-circle and have Roman, both Uso's, and Sami against Rock, Solo, Tama, and Jacob Fatu in War Games and have Rock's team cheat to win... or rather bend the rules because Rock's on the board so he "makes the rules," and this is where you debut Zilla (Umaga's son) and have him scale the cage from the outside and give the edge to Team Rock for the win.

Also, Welcome to Smoke Week, gentlemen!

The bigger question for me and I think if the Chargers do trade back it becomes probably my most expected option for them: Harbs still did value blue chip talent at OL and while they didn't get into his final 5 because he seemed pretty intent on sticking in the south, Michigan did push to recruit JC Latham to the tune of bringing him in on two different visits.

I can see a situation where "McVay's first 1st rounder will be an offensive player... if the right player is there." And the italicized bit is just context being swept under the rug for the flashy narrative. But if the offensive player they want isn't there, Les isn't the type to just take any offensive guy just because Sean wants an offensive guy... if Les feels he can get better value in the pick from trading back and monitoring Sean's guy and trading back up to get him if Sean really pounds the table. I can actually see a scenario, given the relative depth of this OT class, where Les tries to finagle the 33rd pick out of Chicago to come back up and secure an OT to protect Caleb Williams after using #1 for CW and their other 1st for a WR for Caleb. Poles (their new GM) is a former OL, comes from the Andy Reid school of team-building (which loves it some trenches), and I could see someone like Latham or Mims having a lot of allure to bookend on the left with Darnell Wright (who they picked last year) on the right.

To be fair, I've called my daughter "Monster" since she was a 6 - it just is a bit more of an affectionate title now that she can legimately neutralize (and twist into pretzels) her twin brother 6 years later. I go the opposite route with her brother, who gets irrationally upset when I call him "dear," so naturally I needle him with that term of endearment multiple times per week, usually when I want to needle him into doing something.

Looking and applying elsewhere would be the smart thing. If nothing happens then you can pull out of any job offers or if you find a job you like more (or that simply has better pay/benefits) you can site the above reasons as why you looked for other employment. I'm not one to advocate for job jumping every year but I will say there is no reason to give jobs undue loyalty. Most have reduced benefits, tossed out pensions over the years, and their "raises" are borderline disrespectful. Conversely, if you do receive an offer or are even enter advanced stages (scheduling 2nd interviews, etc) of the recruitment process, this does give you more (at the very least, "perceived") leverage to point blank ask your superiors to lay it on the table as to what the situation is. It's not a guarantee as all companies are different, but sometimes the perception of losing an employee can shift the company's (or at minimum management's) view as to how expendable they are. Especially with corporate culture, but just in general, the larger a company gets the easier it is for cogs to be taken for granted - and sometimes the higher-ups need a little reminder. (And, mind you, this is something I encourage my students who are often working the minimum-wage-level gigs as teenagers to do even when they have a job they're mostly satisfied with. If the place of work truly values you, even if it sometimes takes giving a manager a not-so-subtle reminder that you can be desired elsewhere as well, they can make concessions to keep you. I try to remind my students that doesn't mean you're going to get a pay-bump, but it could at least mean more consideration when it comes to scheduling, and so forth.)

Yeah, our youngest takes down the whole house at least 4x per year... and he's been fully immersed in elementary for 2 years now. I had pitching, and since at the time we were on the heels of coming out of the worst of COVID my wife almost bit on it, that I'd install one of those biohazard emergency showers in the garage and force the little gremlin (yes, I'm referring to my son as a gremlin, come at me) to strip down and shower before entering the house, though in retrospect the one of either my wife or myself would have risked inoculation anyway just being in a car with him. The lone positive I've found - though this may be more a case if/when you have multiple kids - is that it's a heckuvalot easier to convince the older ones to eat fruits and vegetables because the vitamins help ward off their brother from getting them (as) sick.

I've been saying this for a while, the biggest culprit is ego and people's unwillingness to check theirs. And the covertness of being behind a keyboard coupled with the widespread engagement that social media (and message boards before it) offers folks puts those egos into overload. One of the simplest but most poignant things one of my doctoral professors told someone in our program that's always stuck with me (and I'll admit, I've pirated and used on several of my students since...): "Congratulations, you have an opinion." And she just left it at that with absolutely no chill; it was perfect!

So would I, but Ricky Pearsall is going to go in the first 3 rounds - as do most WR's who break the 4.42s speed threshold. And, while I know a number of y'all feel like we absolutely need to come out of this draft early with a WR, I feel like that's a luxury that isn't going to align with maximizing value on our premium picks (or even close to maximizing).

Moreso from there being a semi-recent arson case in a neighborhood nearby. I say arson because they were able to prove it was arson/intentional because, among other things, of the traces of accelerant found. And while the guy was doing it to try and get out from under crippling debt, he actually managed to get himself in jail and saddle his family with ever greater debt because the fire also caught and did extensive damage to his neighbor's properties.

Also, I'm less than 6 months away from having teenagers. I believe that officially graduates me from "eld" to infirm.

Just don't make it obvious (i.e. don't use an accelerant).

You know that feeling most of you east coasters get when Californians complain and call sub-50-degree temperatures cold (or "freezing")? That's the reaction a lot of us out west had to people flipping over a 5-pointer (earthquake). I'm not saying it's something to be proud of largely being desensitized to, but as someone who used to live in a house legitimately along the San Andreas fault line, I've lived through a felt multiple upper-6's (Northridge in '94 and San Simeon in '03). Both Northern and Southern CA average a 5-pointer every 5 years and 3- or 4-pointers at least bi-annually.

That's literally all he can work at this point. He was buried by his own friends, and this is a guy who is supposed to be, I guess, one of the pillars of the company. This whole thing just reeked of little brother syndrome - which was a recurring theme of the night. And what's sad is that whether they consciously cut time from it or not, for an angle that was - by Tony's own admission - supposed to being done to hype Dynamite and Dynasty, they shortchanged segment time that could have gone towards their World Title feud, which actually has had good build and a lot of people interested, in order to give the Jacksons more time to be self-indulgent in a program where they're probably going to put themselves over - because of Cash's legal situation. Tony's rightfully been getting cooked on socials for this.

That was it? Tony really greenlit that for a poor hotshot ratings grab and so that the Bucks could kayfabe a jumpoff point for heat with FTR? There are more negative narratives that can and may spinoff from this than remotely positive ones. IMO it just makes Tony look completely cucked by the Jacksons when he's the wallet so, whether they like it or not, he's their boss.