Author: Reid

NFL Quarterbacks Thread

Thread for topics relating to NFL QBs. The first topic is on the QBs with the strongest arm. Do you agree with the QBs chosen by NFL Throwback?

I think Cam Newton should be on this list. In terms of driving the ball downfield, in terms of line drives, I feel like he had one of the strongest arms. And this raises a related issue–namely, the difference between throwing the ball for distance versus throwing the ball on a rope (i.e., distance with a flat trajectory). A QB can throw it far without necessarily throwing it driving the ball with a flat trajectory. To me, this requires a lot of power. To me, Newton was up there with the best I’ve seen–e.g., Favre, Elway, maybe Marino.

I have a problem with Brady being in there. He didn’t have a weak arm, but he doesn’t seem like he belongs in this group. (I would put Newton above him.) Do you think Brady had a stronger arm than Troy Aikman, Phil Simms, Steve Bartkowski, Neil Lomax, Ken Anderson, Dan Fouts, or what about Jay Cutler?

NFL Running Backs Thread

Thread for NFL RBs. First up: NFL Throwback has a video on the best power backs. Do you agree with their picks?

I question the Herschel Walker, Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, and Marion Barber picks. I think Walker had power, but I feel like he wasn’t good enough of a RB to be on this list. Ironhead was maybe a better power runner than Walker, but I feel like he, too, wasn’t that good–not for a long enough time. I liked Barber as a RB, but was he good enough? Was he a better RB and better power RB than someone Natrone Means or someone like Stephen Davis or Marion Butts? Or what about OJ Anderson? (Or maybe people don’t think of him as a power back? Is Roger Craig not considered a power back?) I will say this: If I were building a roster, I’d take Barber over Walker and Heyward. (By the way, watching Barber’s highlights–the way he runs reminds me of Marshawn Lynch.) I question whether Jamal Lewis should be in there as well, for the same reasons I question Walker and Heyward. Is Barber better than Ricky Williams or someone like George Rodgers (I barely remember George Rodgers.)?

I really like runners like Brandon Jacobs, Jonathan Stewart, and Eddie George. Leonard Fournette is in that mold (but he’s been a disappointment).

1/6 Insurrection

During this week the House passed a bi-partisan bill to form a commission to investigate the 1/6 insurrection. House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, opposed it at the last minute, even though he initially gave support to Rep. John Katco (R) to work on this bill with Katco’s Democratic counterpart, Rep. Bennie Thompson. Mitch McConnell has now also publicly opposed this.

In any event, I wanted to post the articles about this in the thread, Journal During the Trump Regime (10): Interregnum, but that thread is to slow to open and navigate now. Because of that I’m starting this thread to post comments about the insurrection. I’ll start things off in the first comments by posting something from the Interregnum thread.

The Beatles Discography

I’ve been listening to entire albums on weekends, usually in the morning. The Beatles seem like a good band to listen on a Saturday or Sunday morning (at least that’s how I feel right now). But instead of writing reactions in the “Saturday/Sunday” morning thread, I thought I’d create a separate thread for Beatles albums specifically. My plan is to listen to the albums in chronological order.

Yacht Rock Thread

I’ve been discovering musicians in this so-called genre that I’ve never heard of before, and I’m amazed at how good these songs sound to me. There’s a certain sound that I really liked during the late 70s and early 80s, and I guess it would fall under the yacht rock category, but for some reason the amount of songs in this vein seemed really limited. Or maybe I’m tired of the songs I’m most familiar with. Perhaps that’s one reason I’m enjoying these songs so much–i.e., I haven’t had time to grow tired of them. What’s weird is that the songs evoke a feeling of nostalgia, although I’ve never heard them before. (Is there a plethora of good songs for every sub-genre that never made it on the radio?)

I’ll go over the first one in the first comment section.

Philly D.A. (2021)

This is a thread to discuss Philly D.A. is an eight part Independent Lens docuseries now playing on PBS. The series follows a newly elected D.A., Larry Krasner, who never worked as a prosecutor, but worked as a civil rights defense attorney instead. For most of my life, I’ve thought about improving government services, and I’ve gained some thoughts on the obstacles preventing this. For these reasons, I’m really interested in following Krasner and tracking his progress. Here’s a clip:

Great Food Synergies

Some types of food seem to go well with each other. A great example in Hawai’i is spam musubi–spam, rice, and nori. It might be the tomato-basil-mozzarella equivalent in Hawai’i, which may or may not speak badly about Hawai’i. What are some others? I’d also be interested in hearing an explanation as to why these foods go well together.

2021-2022 NFL Draft

This year’s draft seems unique, and I wanted to discuss some of the possible ramifications of this. For example, my sense is that teams have far less information about the draftees this year, due to the limitations created by COVID-19. Teams might not only have less information about the players’ talent and the way this projects into the NFL, but they may lack significant medical and psychological information. All of this creates unprecedented uncertainty, at least in terms of the last twenty years. Should teams change their approach to the draft because of this? And if so, in what way? I’ll address that in the first post.

Christianity Corner

Apparently the original thread died with the older V-I, so I thought I’d start a new thread–a general discussion thread on Christianity. I recently watched a conversation with Tim Keller that made me search for this thread. I wanted to comment on two points he made. I’ll do that in the first comment post.

Great Musicians You’re Not in Love With

I’m sure everyone has a list of well-respected musicians that you either don’t like–or you don’t like as much as others. I sure do. This is a thread to list and discuss these musicians. Here’s mine:

  • Prince
  • Stevie Wonder
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Charlie Parker
I’m sure there are others, but let me stop here. I actually like Prince and Stevie–but they’re far from my favorites. And yet, I know musicians and critics think the world of them. I never got the love for Armstrong. It’s not like I’ve listened to a lot of his music, though, so I wonder if I just didn’t hear enough of his stuff. My reaction to Parker is similar, although I think I appreciate and enjoy his music a bit more. With him, and maybe Armstrong, too, my theory is that I heard many different saxophonists who were heavily influenced by him prior to listening to Parker. It was like his thunder was stolen because of this. Then again, I heard a lot of Hendrix-influenced guitarists before really listening to Hendrix, and that did not diminish my appreciation for Hendrix. I’ll try to add more names to the list.