Antonio Brown

I'll be honest - I didn't want New England to sign Antonio Brown. I was in agreement with Tom E. Curran that "the Patriots should run like hell away from Antonio Brown."

And, again to be honest, I thought this was both funny and probably true.

But then the Patriots signed Brown. Now I have to concede that my opinion doesn't count for much and that in Bill We Trust.

Antonio Brown and his agent are, of course, saying all the right things. He's going to be accountable, do things the right way, the Patriot way, yada yada yada. But the proof of that will be on the field. And in the locker room.

Everyone seems to want to make the Randy Moss comparison to the Brown signing. But the voice in the back of my head keeps reminding me that Randy Moss did not win a ring with the Pats. Granted that was through no fault of Moss who was a great player for New England. I'm then conversely reminded by that little voice that past Patriots personnel gambles Corey Dillion, LeGarrette Blount and Darrelle Revis all did win Super Bowls. 

One under-reported aspect to this whole scenario could be the potential impact Patriots great Troy Brown could have here. Troy's been helping with the coaching this season and what a perfect project Antonio could be for "Coach" Brown in helping Antonio become acclimated to the New England playbook and way of doing things.

As a side note - if this does work out for the Pats then it could make Tom Brady a favorite to win the MVP. Brady was a 20-1 shot before the trade (and yes I did put some money down on that).

Go Pats! (I have my fingers crossed that this doesn't blow up on them.)

Lets Go Pats!!

And a reminder of how you become a Steelers fan. Just kidding - sort of.

Bill Walsh's Standard of Performance

Bill Walsh's Standard of Performance which are what I'd consider the bedrock foundation of all of his success.

1. Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement.
2. Demonstrate respect for each person in the organization.
3. Be deeply committed to learning and teaching.
4. Be fair.
5. Demonstrate Character.
6. Honor the direct connection between details and improvement; relentlessly seek the latter.
7. Relentlessly seek self improvement 
8. Show self -control, especially under pressure.
9. Demonstrate and prize loyalty.
10. Use positive language and have a positive attitude.
11. Take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort.
12. Be willing to go the extra distance for the organization.
13. Deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation.
14. Promote internal communication that is both open and substantive
15. Seek poise in myself and those that I lead
16. Put the team's welfare and priorities ahead of my own.
17. Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high
18. Make sacrifice and commitment the organization's trademark
19. The leader must exhibit the principles, code of conduct and behavior that he's asking others to emulate.

This Standard of Performance could easily be applied to any organization or even as a personal code of conduct.

Miss Me More - Kelsea Ballerini

Nice song for a Saturday afternoon.

Heh Heh

Top 5 - Musicians Who Have Choked to Death On Their Own Vomit

Thought it was time to revisit this post which has become a bit of an annual tradition. Jimi Hendrix headlines a list of musicians who choked to death on their own vomit.

1. Jimi Hendrix - guitar god
2. Bonn Scott - original lead singer for AC/DC
3. John Bohnam - drummer Led Zepplin
4. Tommy Dorsey - bandleader and brother of Jimmy Dorsey
5. Mamma Cass - rock myth has her choking on a ham sandwich which technically isn't vomit but since she really died of a heart attack anyway - I thought I'd toss her in at #5 just to round off the list.

Even though everyone knows how Bonn Scott died - his death certificate actually says "death by misadventure". Maybe that's because it was unclear if he choked on his own vomit. You can't dust for vomit you know.

PS - My goal in life is now to have "death by misadventure" be my official cause of death. 

PPS - If it was just "musicians who have choked to death" Michael Hutchence from INXS would have been very high on the list. (Too soon?)

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh Heh

- The anti-aging drug that's just around the corner

- Holy crap is right. My lying eyes!

- Ban Everything!

- The terrible truth about Live Aid.

- Paper beats rock!

The Purpose of Wealth is Freedom

The Kardashian Conundrum

"The amount I care about the Kardashians cannot be measured in Planck lengths." - Chris Lynch

The above statement causes a conundrum. Those who like the Kardashians probably think, "Cool he's mentioning the Kardashians but is planking still a thing?"

Meanwhile, those who understand Planck lengths have probably never heard about the Kardashians.

Life 101

Nicholas Bate's list of Life Tips 101. Some really good stuff. Among my favorites;

47. Halve the TV viewing, double your reading. Triple your brain power.

Hat tip to Steve Layman for pointing out the list (which is more than 6 years old but still holds up very well).

Breaking the Internet

It has now been 5-years since Kim Kardashian "broke the Internet" and this still makes me laugh every time.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Sorry but reading this article all I could think was "This is how a real life The Blob horror movie starts."

- There is some truth to this

- Interesting - meditation and yoga practice linked to reduced volume in brain region tied to negative emotion

- Leading like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk: Lessons from their contrasting styles

- Interesting interview of Niall Ferguson who argues the US will win the trade war but the tech war will be a harder struggle.

- I'm fascinated by all aspects of the Stuxnet story.

- Bruce Lee on self-actualization

Voyager Spacecraft and Richard Nixon

Outside the Apollo moon landing the Voyager Spacecraft may be NASA's signature program (argue the Mars rover if you like). The thing that often or always gets overlooked is the fact that the Voyager Spacecraft (Voyager I and Voyager II) would have never happened if it wasn't for Richard Nixon.

Yet Nixon never seems to get any credit.

Seriously. Can you find any mention of Nixon in the Wikipedia page on the Voyager program? Without Nixon granting NASA the money specifically for this project this never happens. Without Voyager there's no "pale blue dot". And without Carl Sagan's elegant words the appetite for space exploration probably is not close to what it is today.

Yet Nixon's name comes up less frequently when it comes to the Voyager program than Chuck Berry's.

And if you think I'm trying to give Nixon too much credit please remember that George McGovern stated in no uncertain terms that if he was elected President he was going to cut the space shuttle program and redirect those funds toward domestic programs. Do you think the Voyager science experiment would have got funding if it wasn't Nixon in office?

No chance. Yet Nixon never gets any credit.

Ryan Fitzpatrick

Ryan Fitzpatrick has been named the opening game starter for the Miami Dolphins. This will be Fitzmagic's 15th NFL season after graduating from Harvard.

I have a special place in my heart for Fitzpatrick because I predicted his success. Here's what I wrote on September 11, 2004:

"I am picking Harvard QB Ryan Fitzpatrick as my dark horse candidate for the Heisman this year. Fitzpatrick is the real deal. He has a cannon and can run. Some day he'll be playing on Sundays. If the Crimson can go undefeated - then look for Fitzpatrick to pick up some Gordie Lockbaum like support from the major media."

Now I'm not trying to say Fitzpatrick is a Tom Brady level QB but 15 NFL seasons is no joke.  Fitzpatrick was the last of 14 QB's taken in the 2005 NFL Draft (4 of which never played an NFL down). Aaron Rodgers was by far the best of the QB's drafted but Fitzpatrick could easily finish with the 2nd most passing yards and TD's of the group (assuming Alex Smith's career may be finished by his devastating injury last season).

Oh and 2004 Heisman - I'm guessing winner Matt Leinart got the votes but I bet he wishes he had Fitzmagic's NFL career.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

With so many people running for President on the Democratic side (and many of them not even "Democrats") it seems a little weird that Ralph Nader is not among them. I know he's 85 and the vigor of the campaign trail may be beyond him at this point but it would be nice to see Ralph... Heh Heh... Always remember that one man's punk rock is another man's pop... Wow - just wow... Firmly believe that the remaining Democratic Party debates should open with REM's Shiny Happy People (what they pretend to be) and close with the theme to Shaft (what they're trying to do to US taxpayers)...  "The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation combined with action." - M. Scott Peck... Remember right after the fall of Baghdad when CNN personnel let it be known that while Saddam Hussein was in power that they had to have Iraqi "minders" to monitor what they said on air? And that these "minders" basically intimidated the CNN folks into pro-Saddam reporting? The Democratic Party doesn't even need "minders" to intimidate CNN on-air personalities into pro-Democratic Party reporting. And they wonder why their ratings are in the toilet...

The Beast of Gevaudan

File this under "You learn something new every day." I had never heard of the beast of Gévaudan but I guess "some consider the creature to be the French equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster."

Robert Louis Stevenson described the beast as "the Napoleon Bonaparte of wolves" while some believe that it was a werewolf (although most attacks came in the morning) or an escaped lion or hyena. The beast is said to have killed eighty-nine people (fifteen women, sixty-eight children, and six men). The deaths were real and so you would have to think the beast was real too.

One of the mysteries of history.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Happy Labor Day. When I was a kid Labor Day was the official end of summer and time to go back to school. Now kids have been in school a week already and the significance of Labor Day has been diminished. How ironic the the significance of Labor Day was probably destroyed by a labor union - the Teacher's Union... Good advice... If Hillary Clinton was a Harry Potter character - there's no doubt in my mind that she'd be Delores Umbridge...  The modern Bukowski will Tweet his poetry and go unnoticed. As an aside Modern Bukowski would be a good name for a band or fantasy football team name... The answer to why there is crushed stone along railroad tracks. And all this time I thought it was to make it easy for kids to throw rocks at trains... A person at age 20 should read the top 50 classic novels of all-time and repeat the exercise every 10 years for the rest of their life. It's amazing the wisdom that can be gleamed from the same material from different points in your life...

Our Reaction to Technology Over Time

Douglas Adams on our reactions to technology over time. So true!

Hey There Cthulhu

Just because.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh Heh

- Tom Brady is a really good guy.

- Florida PSA's seem different than most States.

- Fires globally have decreased 25% since 2003 thanks mostly to economic development.

- Great Niels Bohr story.

- Think people are finally recognizing just how important Dante Scarnecchia is to the Patriots sustained success over the years.

- Heh Heh