NFL in Thirty-Seven

I checked my countdown calendar widget today and folks, believe it or not, there are only THIRTY SEVEN DAYS until NFL football begins with the Hall of Fame (pre-season) game!!! 37!!! Whoopeee!! Seriously. Can't wait.

And the best part? I think my Bills have a very solid team to begin the year! Lots of optimism here in Western New York. Check out what I have been writing in the off-season at our Buffalo Bills Review Articles page.

Bring on NFL football!!!

Hit-N-RunShawn Lynch

Now, I'm not one to make light of others' misfortunes (usually) but I have to share a funny line regarding Bills RB Marshawn Lynch and his alleged involvement in a recent hit-and-run accident resulting in a minor injury of a pedestrian:

"All his life, he was taught to hit people and keep running. Now it gets him into trouble."

Thanks, Chi. :-)

Some Things Currently Distracting Me

• Quite a Stanley Cup Final... with Detroit winning the first two by shutting out the explosive Penguins, and then the Pens winning game three on the back of two Sid the Kid goals! Great stuff. Should (hopefully) go seven.
  
  
• Phoenix successfully landed on Mars on Sunday and I have been intrigued ever since. The link goes to NASA's website... tons of stuff there (photos, videos, etc). Pretty amazing that we can shoot large metal objects 420 million miles away, and hit a target with pinpoint accuracy - and not damage the highly sophisticated scientific research equipment. Incredible. And then we get to see photos back from it just a few hours later. Nuts.
  
  
• Facebook games and chat have also occupied some time recently. I love word games, and it's fun to play against friends (and Jen, too!) in between projects I am working on. It's kind of a funny "mental break" (since you're working your brain on your break?) but it's been a blast. I have found games similar to Scrabble, Boggle, and one called Word Twist that is similar to no other game I know of... And, I've been playing a good friend of mine in Chess. He's quite good. Haven't beaten him yet. :-) Oh, and Facebook added an instant message feature which has been a neat way to chat "live" with people I haven't talked with in a long time. Pretty amazing.
  
  
• On top of that, we've gotten to see a couple cool movies lately, as well as some awesome episodes of the Knight Rider from season two DVDs borrowed from the library! :-)

More to come, but there's more to do... so, more here later.

Update from Greg's Head

I must say this poor blog has been quite neglected for the past couple weeks. It seems that my writing certainly goes in cycles. Sometimes I have lots to say and just can't help myself, so this blog is full of things to read. Sometimes I am so full of things to do that even though I do have things to say, I am not able to sit down and write them out. Other times, it's simply time for intake rather than output. I'd say we're definitely in a cycle involving a little of both of the last two.

So, instead of writing lots of detailed blogs (which I could certainly do, but must tend to other things) I will try and cover a lot of the stuff I'd like to chronicle here in bullet-point fashion.

• Work
  I have been very busy with web and graphic design, so much so that I am considering expanding. It feels as though the work load has grown too much for one person to handle. (At least, and still have family/free time.) I'm not certain how to work that out just yet, but the influx of clients continues, as well as a regular stream of work orders from satisfied current customers. A week or so ago I felt as though I was cresting the seemingly insurmountable hill of open projects, but then the hill just got a bit taller. So, I press on... Have made a few cool additions to my site (linked above) in the middle of the various projects I have been working on. I seriously need to update my "samples" page though as several of those clients have closed up shop and are no longer on the internet! :-)
  
  
• Music
  Oh, I finally did take our "Christmas decorations" down at our basicmm.com website, too. :-) I forget what motivated me to do it, since it was already late April or May when I did, but ... anyway, it's done. Also on the music front, our trip to Virginia in June may be in jeopardy because our family is too large to house! :-) We'll see what happens there...
  
  
• Fun
  Jen & I both have been enjoying Facebook and the many fun things therein. They added a live chat feature recently which has been extra cool. Realtime re-connecting with people you haven't spoken with in many years, or perhaps barely even know. Fun! (At least, for me that's fun!) Also, definitely loving playing the various word games there. I do love word games...
  
  
• Brennan Manning
  Jen cleaned out the attic recently and found a bunch of old cassette tapes. In one of the boxes was a set of teaching tapes we had purchased. It was "Healing Our Image of God... and Ourselves" by Brennan Manning. Manning's background as a catholic priest (and a monk, I believe) gives him an interesting perspective on the Gospel. But the heart of what he says is so great. It's the simple truth of the incredible love that our Father - Abba - has for us. We heard Brennan at a retreat over 10 years ago, and got his tapes there. He's been saying the same thing for decades - and I believe God has been re-emphasizing this basic point to me and Jen in recent years again - because it's the core of the Gospel/Good News. God loves us more than we can ask or imagine, and invites us to live life side by side with him, as his kids. Great stuff... on tape 4 of 5 right now. More on this to be sure...
  
  
• Friends
  Our closest friends - who are more like family - are moving. Their last day in town is next Wednesday. We have lived in the same town as them since we met in our college years. I moved up here to Rochester area with them right after college. Our kids have grown up together, sharing most of the fun/special days together. We've known of the move for a couple months now. That's kinda nice. Been a nice long goodbye. But it's still a goodbye, and life will definitely change. Very exciting for them, and I'm sure God will blow us away with the way(s) he fills what we can only see now as a void. But it's pretty sad at the same time. We're sure there will be tears next week. In the mean time, been helping with packing and moving as much as we can, and also just visiting as much as we can, while they're still here. We'll certainly see them again, but 15 minutes is a lot closer than 6 hours driving time. :-)
  
  
• Family
  We've also been visiting family a lot this month. We got to see my sister's new house in the Buffalo area. Then went over the next weekend for a big garage sale, and I made a nice mother's day lunch for my mother-in-law. :-) We're going over again this weekend, and then the next for various family events, too! It's nice that they are close, but it's also certainly an expense with gas being near $4.00/gallon!! Yikes!
  
  
• New Friends
  Jen has been going to the community center on Thursday mornings to join (mostly) moms with their pre-schoolers for a couple hours of playtime/funtime. This has been a cool way to meet people we have seen around town (at other similar events) and get to know them better. We obviously have the common link of having tiny kids :-) Looking forward to getting to know all of these new friends - who mostly live right around the corner(s) from us - over the summer.
  
  
• Lilacs!
  Whether you pronounce it "lie-lock" or, the proper, phonetic way (li-lac)... :-) I am just loving these flowers again this year. Been a neat spring in general. The flowering trees have been beautiful. Our neighbor has several lilac bushes and has generously allowed me to snap of some blooms whenever I'd like. And so, I've had beautiful, fragrant lilacs on my desk for the past week or two! Love it!
  
  
• Entertainment
  Almost forgot... been watching the NHL playoffs mostly these days. TiVo has been very helpful as we are usually out for evenings, but then watch the game in fast-forward once we are home! As close as the season was, it was surprising to see Pittsburgh and Detroit each take 3-0 series leads. The other teams both won their game fours, but should be a fantastic Stanley Cup Final between Pittsburgh and Detroit! They're both amazing.
  
  And, we've rediscovered our fondness for the 80s TV show, The Knight Rider. Our friends, the Vs, enjoy it as well (we loaned them our iPod to watch Season One in its entirety) and Season Two is now coming to our mailbox via Netflix. :-) Pretty corny at times, but also pretty fun. Ah, the good ol' days...

There have been lots of other fun events the past several days/weeks. Really can't share them all here. As I said, it's been a time of doing and intake more than a time of output :-) Suffice it to say, all of these social events have reminded me again that I am (or have become) a people person. I am not sure why I am doing an office-related job, then... :-) But am still super thankful for the provision we see from God in that.

More to come on the stuff I have been thinking through from the Brennan Manning tapes, as well as some good conversations with the church (friends who are fellow followers of Jesus), and just the stuff God has been placing on my heart and mind. So fun to share every bit of life with someone who loves me so much. Hope you know that, and you're experiencing that, too.

Bills Update

Been writing about the Bills this week. A two part, detailed preview of the 2008 team. Most of it is now in place after the draft, they even had Rookie mini camp last week. If you're interested in such things, check out our Buffalo Bills Review: Articles page.

Title of the articles, "The Team The Bills Will Field"

Buffalo Bills News

If you are an NFL fan, you know that the annual college draft took place this past weekend... and perhaps you are happy (or unhappy) with your team's picks. Well, the Bills used all TEN of their picks and have some pretty great new players. If you are interested in seeing what I wrote about the new guys, you can read my article here, or you can just head over to the articles page and browse the many videos and links I posted yesterday. Oh yeah... maybe even more fun... we also did a show last night, with four of the possible five BBR Guys in attendance! Fun stuff. Enjoy :-)

NHL "Parity"

Every sport tries to say they have it. Parity is the word that means you have achieved ultimate sporting success. There is true competition amongst the teams in your league. But really... so far as I can tell... only the NHL has achieved such a thing.

Proof is in the series between the Minnesota Wild and the Colorado Avalanche. First, they are the 4 and 5 seeds in the Western conference. That means they were the closest to each other in points. They are a great matchup on paper. But then, you have the actual games. Each of the three games so far has ended 3-2... in overtime. Including last night's game. Minnesota has a 2-1 series edge, but I fully expect a 3-2 OT win for Colorado the next time they play. This series is great!

So far there is only one series that is a potential sweep. (Well, two, but only one that might actually end up a sweep.) The Pittsburgh Penguins seem to have Ottawa's number. This is interesting in that Ottawa ousted the Penguins last year fairly easily (4 or 5 games) and this year were tearing up the Eastern Conference for quite some time. They have faltered at the end here, but still have some fantastic players who can score anytime they want to. (As evidenced by a late season 6-3 win over the Sabres - a game in which the Sabres held a 3-2 late third period lead!!)

Some other great first round matchups include the Caps and Flyers, Flames and Sharks, Rangers and Devils, Bruins and Canadiens... well, really.. ALL of them! The defending champs (Anaheim Mighty Ducks) are down 2-0 in their series, but I wouldn't expect that to continue... that should end up a great series as well.

So if you have Versus (a cable TV network) they are showing two games every night, and they have some great coverage between periods and after the games. NBC is carrying games on weekends. I think.

And, if you live in Canada... you're set. :-)

NHL Playoffs are here, and it is the #1 sports spectacle in all of pro sports! Enjoy it while it lasts!

2008 NFL Schedules Announced April 15th

The NFL has announced that the 2008 schedule will be released today at 2pm. The NFL Network will be doing a special show coinciding with the release. It's a fun time of year when you get to see how the next season will unfold. Bills fans are hoping for a prime time game or two. I know I am going to look for the game against Cleveland and circle it on my calendar! That will likely be the "Buffalo Bills Review Game of the Year" where we all attend and invite any listeners to join us before and after the game for some Buffalo Bills fun!

For more details, see this page at ESPN.com.

Go Bills!

Playoff Beard Hanging On For Dear Life

This time of year, many players in the NHL refuse to shave until they are eliminated from the playoffs. It's a bit of a good luck charm. A superstition. Not sure that's it's really all that effective, but you'll notice that most players on the Stanley Cup winners are sporting a very hairy face when they hoist the prized trophy in early June.

I do not play hockey. (Well, except for a bit of street hockey with my boys yesterday...) I just watch hockey. But I really don't like to shave, so... when my team is in the playoffs - or this year, in playoff contention - I also refuse to shave, hoping to bring the Sabres loads of good luck.

OK... I just don't like to shave. But, this is a fun reason not to!

The playoff beard is hanging around for at least two more days as the Sabres did beat Boston 2-1 in OT yesterday. They are 5 points out of the final playoff spot with three games left. In hockey, you get 2 points for each win, so you do the math. Basically, the Sabres need the Bruins to lose (they're in the 8th spot right now) and the Caps to lose (they're in the 9th spot) and they need to win their final three games. It's kinda like a playoff series already, and we started out down three games to none.

Last night did make it three games to one, but in this case... we don't control our own destiny, as they say.

So, we are watching the Caps, the Bruins, and the Sabres... and hoping for the best.

And I'm hoping I get to keep this beard a little bit longer... :-)

R.I.P. Big Ten

With State being trounced 92-74 tonight, that completed the "sweep" of the Big Ten teams in the NCAA tourney this year. Two made it to the Sweet Sixteen, none made it past that. Quite uncommon.

State scored 54 points in the second half, and did pretty well in all aspects of the game for that 20 minutes. That should tell you how the first half went. :-)

In other sporting news...

The Sabres did manage to salvage a point, but gave up another lead to lose in overtime. They basically threw away a much-needed point. That pretty much sums up the Sabres' 2007-2008 season. Work really hard, get some great goals... then have the other team tie it with 14 seconds to go, only to lose in OT. (I believe it's our 12th OT loss.) Surprisingly they are still in the hunt for the final playoff spot, but at this point, every game is a win or your out kind of game. Fun stuff.

So, it looks like my teams are either out, or soon to be out of my two favorite annual sporting events. Not a good sports day here!

March Madness

I may have mentioned this in years past, but I must say... 18 March Madnesses ago, my friend Adam invited me to his house, and he invited Jen Walker. And that night, a friendship began that is still going strong, and only getting better. I sure love my Jen, and in a strange way, March Madness reminds me of that. :-)

The tourney is also fun when my team (Michigan State) advances. They did that today with a pretty easy win over #12 Temple. #4 Pittsburgh is next. Bring 'em on! :-)

Just When We Thought They Were Finished...

The Sabres continue to surprise us. This team has been very streaky in 2007-2008, and thought replete with talent, they seem to lose to teams they should not lose to.

Partially that is due to an amazing season of equality in the NHL. Every team can beat any other team on any night. Pretty amazing. There are 6-7 teams fighting for the final few playoff spots in each conference, separated by only a handful of points. Pretty spectacular for the fans, for the most part.

But also very frustrating.

Wednesday night the Sabres were hosting the last place Tampa Bay Lightning, very much needing to win due to the teams closest to them in the standings winning the night before. Seemed a perfect opportunity, being on a bit of a winning streak, and playing at home against a seemingly easy opponent. But don't forget what I said above. This season, every team in the league can beat any other team on any night. The Lightning apparently knew that.

Leading 2-1 after one period, and 4-1 after two (with the Sabres mustering only 2 shots in the second period) the Lightning seemed in complete control, and Sabres' fans booed their team off the ice into the intermission.

Perhaps that had the desired affect. In the third period, the Sabres looked like the team they really are capable of being (super-talented, high-scoring, fast, aggressive, fun-to-watch, young team) and posted their second and third goals within 16 seconds of each other, then once they tied it, didn't stop till they tallied six altogether in the third period! Thomas Vanek even had a natural hat trick, scoring the tying goal, the go-ahead goal, and the clincher! Fantastic.

Tonight (Friday) the Sabres host the Toronto Maple Leafs who are closer in the standings to the Sabres, but whom the Sabres have recently had a pretty easy time with. This is a game the Sabres should win, and need to win. Two points are a must.

After the second period Wednesday it seemed the team had given up, and with only 8 games to go, it seemed time for me to face the non-playoff reality. BUT, after that third period... perhaps we are seeing the final streak for our boys in Blue and Gold? A good streak in the final eight games could conceivably get them as high as sixth place. That would pit them against the Southeast division champ (likely Carolina) whom the Sabres have had a pretty good time with this year!

They're still sitting in a very precarious 9th place for the time being, but this team has a good chance to land a playoff spot, as long as they can be the team that we saw in that third period last night.

Here's hoping they've got one more good streak in them this year! :-)

Too Many Streaks

This is the year of the streak for the Buffalo Sabres. Frustrating to fans, perhaps even more frustrating to the players and coaches.

Just when it looks like the team is getting back to their winning ways, the Sabres seem to match a long winning streak with an equally long losing streak. The result has been hovering about in the middle of the conference standings, with just over a .500 record on the season.

Now three points out of a playoff spot, with key losses to the teams they are chasing in this current losing streak, the Sabres are definitely in danger of not even qualifying for post season play. And they know it. The players held a "players only" meeting following yesterday's embarrassing 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

At least they understand that they need to step it up. And I believe they can. But will they? Maybe they can have a nice win streak to make the push for the playoffs, followed by their typical long losing streak, followed by a long winning streak to carry them into the playoffs? Not sure there's time. Then, wouldn't they just be saving their losing streak for the first round of the playoffs? :-)

It looks as if this year's team may have taken too much of a hit with the loss of Briere and Drury in the summer, and now losing one of their top defensemen, Brian Campbell (who always logged a lot of ice time) in a trade to the Sharks. Time will tell. And it will tell soon.

I remain hopeful, but weary of the streaks.

Not A Bad Deal, Eh?

Sabres fans are still sad to see Soupy go west to San Jose, but the guy we got in return had a decent start... TWO GOALS and an ASSIST in his first game! (He score the first two goals!) Ha!

Highlights above...

Trade Deadlines and Free Agency

It's that time of year again, in fact this year it's one week of craziness in my two favorite sports.

On the one hand, the NHL has set tomorrow at 3pm as the deadline to deal players. A couple trades have already occurred, more will come tomorrow. The NHL is pretty good at keeping things fresh, to be sure. People get caught up in the frenzy of the deadline as Sabres' GM Darcy Regier says above.

The main name on the board for the Sabres is all-star defenseman Brian Campbell. (Note: had my sister have been a boy, that would have been her name!) Campbell is fantastic, and could be a foundational piece for the Sabres for years to come, but for some reason, they have not come to terms on an extension. He's set to be a free agent come July 1st of this year, so the Sabres are certainly considering a trade in order to get something out of losing him (if he were to choose to leave).

On Friday, we have the other side of things. Free agency begins Friday Feb 29th for the NFL. That means players whose contracts have expired can shop around to the highest bidder. Last season the Bills knew exactly who they wanted, and they got them within half a day of the free agency period starting gun! Will that happen again? Not sure. We had some big name guys who were set to leave last year, not so much this year. And there aren't a lot of big name players on the market who have generated the press you might expect leading up to such a deadline.

One deadline ends with a frenzy, the other begins with a frenzy. And all in one week!

So, stay tuned, I'll probably have a report here, and definitely on my Buffalo Bills site.

Free Hockey Tickets, Anyone?

Two nights ago we decided at the last moment to spend our evening celebrating Ian's birthday (yes, he's the Christmas boy...) at Chuck. E. Cheese. We have made a tradition of celebrating birthdays there (even mine!) and so though not actually on his birthday, we wanted to do the same for Ian. (As did he!) We planned a day in January, and invited our friends, the Vs. Problem was the day we picked was a super windy day... that knocked power out in some places, including the block where you find Chuck E. Cheese.

SO, about a month later, we packed up the van and headed out! Had a nice little dinner at Wendy's first. Always a good time. (My favorite fast food place, I'd say...) and then we were ready for the real fun! We got to CEC and were grateful that they had power this time. A bit less grateful that there was a vacation week crowd (forgot about that...) but we figured out a good game plan (Dad took the girls, Mom went with the boys) and we headed out to have some fun!

After a little while of singing with Chuck E. in the other room, I decided to reunite with Mom and the boys. We made our way back and when we did, Jen had a surprise! An employee had approached her earlier and offered her FREE tickets to the Amerks game the next night! FREE??? Free. And not only that, they had a TON of them. So we could have as many as we wanted, and give them out to friends! We're in!

We'd never actually gotten to go to an Amerks game. They are the local AHL team, affiliated with the Buffalo Sabres (at least for now they are) and for many years have been quite good. Most of the current Buffalo Sabres have come through Rochester. For whatever reason, we've tried, but never been successful at getting to a game. But now it looked like we were going to finally make it!

We left CEC with 18 tickets. There are only 6 of us that fill seats. And one of those doesn't need a ticket. That means there were 13 available tickets!! We phoned a couple families we thought of first thing when we got home. (Yes... it was late.) The first were our friends, the Vs. It was Scott's birthday that next day, so it seemed like a fun birthday thing to do! BUT, he was sick. As were a couple more in the V house. So, no go there. And in fact, no go with the other family I called that night. More sickness.

So the next morning we tried to think of some more people who might like to go. One friend was able to go. Steph was going to come with her three girls - not big time hockey fans, but Steph remembered going to games at her college. Next, we invited some friends from the other side of town who weren't available, but they knew some people who were big Rochester sports fans... and perhaps we could give the tickets to them? Why not?! :-)

Surprisingly, we have another friend whose birthday is February 20th, so I called him to see if he and his family would like to go. But, alas... they already had some family plans for the night... so no go there. Still had a few tickets to hand out... but running out of ideas for who could go.

Finally, I thought of my friend with whom I play basketball once a week. We haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with their family, but I knew they sorta were into sports, and just might be able to go. They were! With our friend Steph bringing their 8-year-old neighbor, the tickets were now fully accounted for! :-)

The adventure had only just begun however.

Just before we were to leave, Steph calls and says, "My van won't start!" She said she'd keep trying and call us back. Well, she called back, but to tell us it just wouldn't work. I said, "OK... no problem. But, just in case, I'll bring the tickets with us, if you can get it started, and you'd still like to come!" She agreed, but it didn't sound promising. So, that was too bad.

Add that to our lateness, and the night was not starting as I had hoped.

We got to my basketball friend's house to begin our van caravan with them. They were just sitting in their driveway waiting for us... who were now at least 15 minutes late! Oh boy. They have been to the Blue Cross Arena before, so they led the way.

On our way, Steph calls and says, "I'm on my way! We got it started!" Ha! Perfect! Things were shaping up!

Just as we were getting to downtown Rochester, I remember that we were meeting our friends' friends at the arena at 6:45 to get them their tickets. It's well past seven at this point, so I checked our phone and sure enough there were two missed calls!

I called them back to reassure them that we were almost there. Left a message. I hoped they had stuck around.

We got to the parking garage and parked for four dollars! Great deal! Wasn't expecting that cheap! Bonus! We quickly got out of our vehicles (the game had already started!) and briskly walked through the cold streets (around probably one big city block) to the place we were to meet our friends' friends.

(Are you with me still?) :-)

Finally got there and I recognized Shane from a previous meeting at Cross Creek a few months back. (That was a funny encounter. Not sure we had met before that. He saw our oldest son Ian wearing an Apple shirt, and some other distinguishing clothing that made him realize that Ian must be the son of Greg Campbell, whose blog he regularly reads.)

Yes, I'm famous. :-)

So we all meet up there, and have a good laugh (at least I did!) at how little we all know each other. In fact, none of the others we invited had even heard the name of each other. They all had a connection with us, but to varying degrees. Pretty funny!

After hearing of this assortment of people who were joining us at the game, my basketball friend's wife (who is not the most socially outgoing person you'll ever meet) said of me, "They don't come much friendlier than you, do they?" Guess she thought it was odd that I was giving tickets to a hockey game to people that I really didn't know (Shane and his fam...) But I thought... why not? :-) Seemed like a fun plan to me!

And it was. We all finally got there, and watched a decent hockey game. There were plenty of snacks. Plenty of children! A little bit of hanging out with friends, meeting new friends, and watching some live hockey! Nothing like it! Love watching hockey in person. My boys were instant Amerks fans. Cheering and - as much as possible with many friends there - watching the game intently.

Sure hope we can go again!

The night ended with a pretty cool view of the lunar eclipse while we crossed over the rushing Genessee river which flows right by the side of the arena! Beautiful. Fun! Superb evening.

And all cause we went to Chuck E. Cheese at the last minute, on a whim!

Next whim that comes along will be taken more seriously... :-)

Buffalo Bills Things

For those of you who do not regularly follow along at my Buffalo Bills podcast website... I posted a few things there this week and just thought I'd link to them here. First I wrote an article responding to all the speculation about the Bills moving to Toronto. Then we did a special edition of the BBR where we talked about that and more.

Check it out if you are so inclined...

18-1*

I'm a little late to the party here, but I wanted to get some of my thoughts on the "cheating" scandal(s) that surround the New England Patriots.

News has surfaced that the Patriots may have video taped the St. Louis Rams' walk-through practice the day before the Super Bowl in 2002. That was the one where the Pats managed to somehow upset the heavily favored Rams. The Rams offense was just sensational that season, and somehow, the Pats had the answer - enough to have a 14-3 halftime lead! It ended with the Pats kicking a FG to win it, and stun the world. Of course, then they went on to win two Super Bowls in the next three seasons.

But all this talk - and hard evidence - of the Patriots finding unethical, against-the-rules ways to get these wins, made me notice a couple things.

First, the Pats were 11-5 in that first Super Bowl season, finishing 14-5 with the stunning Super Bowl victory. Then, for some reason, they didn't even make the playoffs the next year. They finished 9-7, in a three-way tie with the Jets and Dolphins. (Poor Bills...) :-( By a tie-breaker, they were excluded from the playoffs.

Perhaps they were trying to do it "by the book"? Well, that didn't work.

So here are the following seasons' results. (I'll include those first two as well.)

• 2001: 14-5 (won Super Bowl)
  
• 2002: 9-7 (no playoffs)
  
• 2003: 17-2 (won Super Bowl)
  
• 2004: 17-2 (won Super Bowl)
  
• 2005: 11-7 (lost divisional round ... and maybe got a conscience? or... just didn't cheat as well?)
  
• 2006: 14-5 (lost championship round)
  
• 2007: 18-1 (LOST SUPER BOWL!) :-)

Those are impressive win/loss totals. 100-29. Four Super Bowls. (But they did not win them all...) ;-) Could they all need to be followed with an asterisk? Should it read 100-29*?

Not sure yet. There is talk that a more thorough investigation could be coming. One run by the US and various state governments.

What will the NFL and the Patriots do then? The games have been played. Is an asterisk enough? Can they take the Lombardi Trophies away from the Pats? Can they give them to their unethically-beaten opponents? Do they want them? Then they would have a championship with an asterisk.

Not sure if fines, suspensions, or even jail time will befall the New England Patriots, but it could get pretty ugly over this off-season.

The last minute blemish to their perfect season (and the shenanigans that followed by Belichick, Brady, and Moss) might be only the very start of a long, dark off-season for the Patriots.

Why The Super Bowl Is Not A Big Deal

At least, not to me. And, I actually mean that more as a compliment than a slam. Let me explain.

When it comes to the playoffs, and especially the finals of most sports there is an intensity like no other time during the season. The players step it up, the fans step it up... the atmosphere and the play on the field, court, ice are electric. There's a big difference for example between a regular season hockey game and a playoff hockey game of any level, let alone the Stanley Cup Finals or especially a Game Seven of the finals!

Other sports are the same way. Looks at the fantastic athletic event that is March Madness in college basketball. Play in the regular season may be exciting for die-hards, but come March, tiny schools who weren't even on the national fan or media's radar are suddenly playing like - and becoming? - champions.

There's just a different level to the playoffs in most sports.

Except the NFL.

I don't mean that as a knock on the NFL players, coaches, fans or anything. Again, it's really more of a compliment. I don't know if it's because there are fewer games, or because of the sheer intensity of the sport, but I believe every NFL game offers the same level of competition, energy, atmosphere, and fun for the fan. Now, there are some that are a small step up. The Bills hosted their first Monday night game in over a decade this past season and their stadium was rockin'! Fans were totally pumped up. The team played out of their minds. But what for? Just a regular game.

This is my point. The NFL has the best overall product because every game can be - and usually is - as intense as if it were for the ultimate championship.

But then we have the Super (Hype) Bowl. Two weeks of incessant media hype, covering every story from every possible angle ad nauseam. We don't watch much TV around here lately, so actually I haven't been bombarded as much this year as past years. But it's still there. I've caught the fringe stuff. And tonight there will be all the flashiness that the NFL wants to bring to their "showcase event".

Does that make it better? Does that make it a more competitive game? Do we really need all that stuff?

In the end, I've already seen all the best games this season. (I could be surprised, but usually the Super Bowl does not live up to its hype...) The Patriots vs Dallas, Indy, and even Jacksonville in the playoffs. All the Bills games... ;-) And a handful of other very exciting competitions. Probably were better games than tonight's game will be. At least they were better than some other Super Bowls I have seen.

So, I'll stick with my vote for the NHL playoffs, March Madness, and maybe even a few others as being a bigger step up in the post season than the NFL offers. I'd rather watch most any NHL playoff series than the Super Bowl most year.

(Of course, it would help if my team was in the Super Bowl... then I might be saying, "This is going to be the best game EVER!!) ;-)

Nah. Gimme some NHL playoffs and March Madness. I'm good to go.

Luck

Last night Jen and I played a new card game called Tunge. (Not sure how you pronounce it.) She discovered it on a blog she reads and wanted to play it with me. I'm always game for a new ... game. :-)

So, we figured it out pretty easily and had a good time playing. Mostly. That is until I noticed that this game - as with many card games - is almost entirely won by luck. You just have to get the right card. "By the luck of the draw." Those aren't my favorite kind of games. I like knowing that I won (and you lost) because of my skill and cunning and craftiness.

:-)

But what all that reminded me of was my Buffalo Sabres.

See, this year, the Sabres - who last year finished the season with the best overall record - are not doing as well. At a quick glance, you might even think they were bad. I don't remember if they were ever officially last in their conference... but they were at least second to last. (That in itself is deceiving as they were still only 6 or 8 points or so out of a playoff spot.) Most people do assume that the Sabres are just a shell of their former selves, losing their two captains from last seaons, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere.

It's true that they miss the leadership and production of those two guys, but it's not true that they are as bad as their record would indicate. Hockey is certainly a game of skill, on many levels. But it also involves a good bit of luck.

The bounces have not gone the Sabres' way this year. They have outshot teams many a night, and come up losing by a goal. The goalie has made incredible save after incredible save, only to have a puck bounce off the boards behind him and either into the net, or right to the lucky opponent standing near the crease to cash in. Goal posts have rung, goals have been disallowed, injury after injury after injury have plagued this once-feared team.

We do not have cable this year, and so have only kept up with the team via radio (over the internet) and reading at sabres.com and NHL.com. We have also caught the occasional Sabres game on Versus.com. But from everything I have seen, this team is still very good. Very young, but very good.

I try and catch the post game interview with Lindy Ruff after every game. (Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes.) I like to hear what he's got to say. He's seen this team be the best, and now struggle through a year of seeming mediocrity. When things are bad, he says it. This year he has not said it. Almost every night he has nothing but positive things to say about the players and their effort and the chances they have created. He usually says something like, "It just didn't bounce our way." That has been my observation as well. The Sabres have just as much fight in them, just as much skill (though, more injuries to be sure) but they do not have as much "success".

It will come. Luck works both ways. At least over the course of a whole season. The Sabres are coming out of a horrendous stretch of two wins in fourteen games. They have won three games in a row, looking for four tonight in Atlanta, where they play a Thrasher team that is tied with them in the conference standings.

Perhaps this small streak is the beginning of things starting to go our way. Maybe the Sabres will be on the more fortunate end of bounces, calls, injuries, etc.

If we're lucky... ;-)

This Day in (GregHead.net) History

An idea popped into my head today. (Yes, that would be GregsHead...) I thought, I wonder what things I have blogged about on this day in my four-plus years of blogging? So, I set out to discover what was in the archives for January 25th.

To my suprise, excluding entries from this January 25th (today) there was only one other entry. And it was about my Jen. :-)

I did also discover that there were a few cool things from January 24th here at GregsHead.net. At the top of the list would have to be 1/24/04... that's the birthday of the new blog with the oft-mentioned URL --- GregsHead.net! January 24th is not the beginning of my blogging, but the birthday of GregsHead.net. Neat.

Besides that I found a couple interesting posts worth re-reading from that same year. Well, at least one is. One is just interesting in light of the Super Bowl match up coming up in a week and a couple days. (I wasn't happy about it then, either...)

The one I'd love for you to re-read though is the one titled, "I Call You Friends." Very neat reminder of our relationship with God.

So, take a trip with me... back in time...

I Call You Friends
A Winning Attitude?

Crazy New Yorker!

Today was the coldest day of the winter so far here in Western New York. How did we spend it? Well, in the morning, we toyed with the idea of playing outside under the beautiful, clear, sunny skies... but eventually thought better of it. But later in the day, following the pregnant urges of my wife, I put on the parka and fired up the grill on our deck for the first time in a couple months! I was grilling hamburgers at temps in the low double digits!

Only in upstate New York, folks.

Speaking of NY... it is a complete shock to me that the Giants are in the Super Bowl. Complete. I mean, with each game I thought, "You know... they have a chance to win!" but really, in the end, no one thought they would be in the Super Bowl this year! And, even though I really don't like the Giants, I will be rooting for them to finish what they started in week 17 and put the perfect exclamation point on the year for the Patriots and for them. They will be 12-1 on the road this year (winning 11 straight) and the Pats will go 18-0 ... only to LOSE THE SUPER BOWL.

Man that would be awesome. And I don't even like the Giants! :-)

So, from the Frozen North.. here's hopin' the Giants can pull off one more major upset in the Super Bowl.

(Did I just say that????!!)

NFL Playoffs Start With A Bang!

I have really just one favorite team in the NFL. It's the Bills. Really I'm not even much of an NFL fan besides any game that directly impacts the Bills. However. I do have two other teams that I would say I almost always root for.

And one was playing tonight.

First are the Bills. Maybe #1-1000 are the Bills. But 1001 is the Bengals (with my roots being in Southern Ohio) and #1002 is the Jacksonville Jaguars... probably only due to some cool people we met down there who befriended our family on one of our tours who are HUGE Jags fans, and... well... I just like them.

Jacksonville has a great, balanced team. Probably the most complete team in the playoffs. No real superstars, but enough greatness to beat anyone. They were 11-5, but should have been 12-4. (Took the last game off.) And they can do it all. Stifling defense, solid, productive offense... even great special teams. And two fantastic running backs, along with the league's 3rd rated QB this season.

And, it showed. Tonight they took a commanding 28-10 lead into the 4th quarter until on 4th down and 12 on the first play of the 4th quarter, the comeback began. Yes folks... an 18 point deficit was completely erased and the Jags were down 29-28 VERY late in the 4th.

But on 4th down and 2, with just about 2 minutes left in the game, Jags QB David Garrard calls his own number, and not only gets the first down... he gets THIRTY-TWO yards for a HUGE first down, and gets them WELL into FG range. Huge. HUGE.

This forced Pittsburgh to take their remaining time outs, and after getting the ball to the two yard line, Jacksonville set up for the go-ahead FG.

They made it!! Whoohooo!! Game ended with the defense forcing a Roethlisberger fumble, and the Jags move on... likely to face New England in round #2. Should be a much better game than you might imagine. Except that Belichek does just great with two weeks to prepare.

Anyway... fun start to the playoffs. I probably won't see much if any of the other two games though. :-) Going to hang out with some friends tomorrow. Will probably have kid duty and just be catching up with them.

So... on to round two! Go Jags! :-)

State Of The Union?

In a somewhat surprising move, the NFL decided to allow CBS and NBC to simulcast the Patriots vs Giants game that was scheduled to be broadcast on the NFL Network this Saturday night. The NFL is not known for its generosity, but the NFL Network is in such a small percentage of homes, and this game is of pretty significant (sports-world) historical significance, so it will be shown on all three networks.

New England coach Bill Belichick said, "It'll be like the State of the Union, on every channel."

If you'd like to read more, check out this article.

The Giants don't stand a chance, but I would laugh for DAYS if they managed to defeat the undefeated Pats. They are the least likeable "great" team I have ever seen in my couple decades of sports fandom. They are arrogant, obnoxious, self-absorbed, and really just a bunch of jerks. Very hard to root for them. It's hard enough to just stomach them at all.

That said, the Giants don't stand a chance.

But, not many more people can watch the annihilation of yet another 2007 NFL team. And the unsportsmanlike taunting and gloating of another.

Great TV, eh?

Tape Delay

So, you just gotta love TiVo. It's so easy. You watch what you want, when you want to (or can) and you can even fast-forward the commercials!

I love hockey! Versus carries at least one NHL game on Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm busy every Monday night, and somehow we are usually busy on Tuesday nights, so I have gotten in the habit of TiVo-ing them.

Well, tonight after recording the show, I picked up where I had left off when I went up to the office to record. Thing is, Jen was there, too. And, while I like hockey... I like talking with my wife more. So, we did.

At one point I finally noticed that the hockey game I had recorded was playing in the background while we chatted and snacked.

Do you find that odd too? Who records something in order to not pay attention to it? :-)

My Teams

As many of you know, I am a sports fan. Many sports, but not all sports. (You won't find any baseball, golf, auto-racing, or gymnastics being discussed here...) Well, there's a good deal going on with all of my favorite teams, so I thought I'd give a brief update to those who might be interested (or wonder what sorts of things I and the Campbell fam are doing these days...)

Buffalo Bills
Obviously I am following this team the closest, as I still have the number one Buffalo Bills show on the internet! :-) The Bills are also making it fun! Two weeks ago they benched last year's starter - for good - and brought in the first year guy Trent Edwards, who after a 4-touchdown game last week is now 5-1 as a starter! That's fairly amazing for a rookie, but when you factor in the unprecedented amount of injuries this team has suffered, and the already "green" talent that he has to work with anyway... that's almost impossible!

Believe it or not, the talk around Bills country is that this team of injury replacements actually has a very good shot at making the playoffs! If they win their last three games, they will finish 10-6, and the best the other two teams they are contending with can do is 10-6. Now, if they all finish with that record it's bad - crazy tie-breaking procedures - but, if just one other team is tied with them... the Bills will go to the playoffs. (I know... ridiculously hard to understand, but I do think I finally get it.) Basically, if we win all our games, and Tennessee loses just one... we'll go to the playoffs for the FIRST TIME since 1999! Wow!

So, we're pretty excited here, and had one of our most fun shows last night. If you've never checked out our Buffalo Bills show, click the link and check it out. You might like it even if you're not a Bills fan. :-)

Buffalo Sabres
I got to see a Sabres game last night - which is rare these days, since we're not paying the outrageous price for cable just to get the channel that carries their games! - and it was ... not so good. Strange, really. The Sabres (if you'll recall) were the President Trophy winners last season. That means they finished the season with the most points and the best record. Of all the teams... they were the best.

BUT, this year has been very different. They are near the bottom. Were AT the bottom at one point. Bad bounces, players lost in the off-season, injuries, strange bad luck. I saw more of it last night. They outshot the other team more than 2-1, but only scored one goal! Goal posts, great saves, missing the net, more great saves... it was crazy. And so, they are 13-14-1. I don't think they had 14 losses till March last year! :-)

Michigan State Football
Yes, my Spartans are in a Bowl Game! December 28th at 5:00pm you can catch the Spartans and the Boston College Eagles on some channel somewhere. :-) They have a pretty good team this year. Some stars on both sides of the ball... lost a lot of close games in a very tough conference. They hung with the #2 team in the country, Ohio State. (Or are they #1? I forget...) They are all a bunch of young guys, too... so expect to see them near the top of the Big Ten next season!

That's a pretty good update for now. There might be more, but I need to get back to working on websites :-)

Go Bills, Sabres and Spartans!

Some Teams...

There are just some teams that I never like to see win. I know, I should root for a team instead of against the other one, but ... that's just the way it is.

Tonight I am rooting for probably my second favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals, but it's not looking good for them. The Steelers (one of those teams I never want to see win...) are getting lots of "homer" calls, and it's pretty annoying. Probably wouldn't be as annoying if I didn't like the Bengals and so strongly dislike the Steelers...

Just so it's in writing, here are the teams I always root against (and if they are both playing, I usually just don't even watch the game!) :-) Steelers, Cowboys, Patriots, Giants, Eagles, and Ravens. So yeah, remember those two Super Bowls that featured Giants vs Ravens and Eagles vs Patriots? Didn't see 'em. :-)

There are some other teams in other sports, but since it's primarily football season, I'll leave it at that.

On a more positive note... my Bills did pull out a last-second, one-point victory today! Nice job, Bills!

On Sean Taylor

The Bills play the Redskins this weekend, and the importance of the game has been seriously diminished by the killing of safety Sean Taylor. Taylor is one of the Redskins best players, leaders, and loved by all of his coaches and teammates.

A lot of people think that will motivate the Skins this weekend, but from what I have read, and especially heard and seen in press conferences and interviews, they are not thinking about football. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling the Bills will end up winning - maybe easily - and they won't get the credit for it. The Redskins are definitely mentally and emotionally somewhere else.

There is a bit of "good news" regarding the murder. I found this article today which says that the police have charged three suspects and detained a fourth. The "good" is that they have the people who are responsible (and confessions from them) but it's really sad that these guys are just teenagers. And, according to the story, were not intending to kill Taylor, just got "unlucky".

Not sure I'm buying that.

So, it's a really sad series of events, and certainly overshadows any of the fun of this game. It was going to be kind of fun, two 5-6 teams, Trent Edwards starting, London Fletcher playing against his old team, Derrick Dockery for the Bills doing the same... but sometimes there are things more important than football.

Picks

This season I have been asked to join a panel of "experts" in predicting the outcome of each week's NFL games. So far I am in second place, behind my Buffalo Bills Review partner, Dave Drake, and another guy who are tied for first.

This week, after hearing the boys subtly add their voice to the discussion of my picks each week, I decided to let them in on it! So I made up little sheets for them to each make their picks and we'll see who ends up with the best record by the end of the season. :-) (Actually, you might be surprised... there's a good chance they will!)

It's fun to see how excited they are about it :-)

Even funnier was seeing how Alex changed a couple of his picks after announcing the games he was not going to get right - only to find out he could still change his picks up to kickoff time. :-) He's pretty cute. He now assures us that he will go 16-0 this week.

The big game of course is tonight, where our Bills face the New England Patriots. Ian and I have our Bills winning in the end (good boy, Ian!) and Alex changed that one... which will of course help him go 16-0.

We'll see!

Go Bills!

The Bleacher Report

I have been fascinated with a new website I found via an application on Facebook. It's called The Bleacher Report, and the idea is that it's an open source sports page. Anyone can create an account and contribute, and anyone can modify existing articles. These modifications can be just correcting grammar, spelling, typos, or even incorrect facts. Some of the articles I have posted there have actually been considerably re-worded, but in a good way. It's like having an editor for free! (And if I want to change anything, I can always go back and change it.)

Stop by for a visit, create an account if you're into sports of all sorts... and comment, edit, revise, or start your own sports column! :-)

One of my recent articles there, "Are The Bills Better Off Without Losman?" was instantly in the top news results for a Bills-related search. Pretty crazy!

You can just stop by my page there, too, if you'd like:
http://www.bleacherreport.com/users/1447-Greg_Campbell

Looking (Linking?) Back

What a week! I'm sitting here on my porch with a nice hot cup of tea, at one in the morning, following an hour of trying to restore the network here in my house... have I mentioned before that I have four routers on my network for six or seven computers? Yeah... I need an IT department...) and I finally feel relaxed. :-)

It's been that kind of week. I actually don't think I took any sort of real break today. I know I didn't eat anything until dinner. That was kinda crazy... I just couldn't stop. Too much to do. At least, that's how it felt.

I mentioned earlier this week that the blog has been silent not because there's nothing to say, nothing to share... just simply because there was no time where I could sit down and share. Here's a quick overview of the past while for the Campbell family...

Work
Some people still have no idea what I do, but if you look at our income taxes, you can see that the majority of our money comes through my web design business. Just a couple weeks ago that picked up again big time! I got a few new clients (The Center For Body Wellness, First Church of Christ Binghamton (still their old site), and I'm working on a brochure for Angel Eyes Security), and lots of new work for current clients (Houston Nutraceuticals, The Scarlet Thread, Orient Express Band, Christian Way Farm, and Project URGE) and some stuff that I have not gotten started on yet for other existing clients (In House Graphics, Cross Creek Church, and Aussie Hill Alpacas.)

Whew! And the crazy part is, I'm sure I forgot a few! (By the way, if you clicked on all those links, you should get a prize. I'm not sure who you'll get it from, but you should get one.) :-)

Add to that all of the hosting accounts that I must regularly maintain (email problems, hosting questions, domain renewals, hosting invoices, technical support, and the list continues) as well as my OWN sites I need to maintain (GregsApples.com and BuffaloBillsReview.com get the majority of my attention. Though, my blog does get updated now and then. My web design site is horribly neglected, however. I did post a few links to the ol' Link-O page I maintain this past week...

Apple Sales
ON TOP OF ALL THAT... I have about a dozen peoples and/or businesses who are maybe at step 3 out of 5 in the purchase process for a new Mac. (OK, yes... I made that up. I just mean they are all pretty close!) So I've been doing a lot of research, communication, and question answering there. Even sent out a newsletter last week. :-)

If you're interested in a new computer, or even an iPod or AppleTV... stop by my store! Or, shoot me an e-mail. I can probably help you out.

Buffalo Bills Review
In talking with a few friends this week, I realized that some folks don't know that I - along with my partners in crime Dave Drake, John Dupra, and Dre Smith - am something of an international celebrity. :-) OK, not entirely, but we have found a small bit of success with our little show, now in its third season. It's a fun hour of Bills fans talking Bills football. We have guests on now and again, including some current Bills players like Brian Moorman the Pro Bowl punter. The team is 0-3 this year, but that hasn't stopped our downloads, and iTunes ranking from continuing to rise. Guess we're doing something right. :-)

And, it's tons of fun. :-)

Well, as I said, we must be doing something right, because all of a sudden we have had three websites contact us to purchase ads on our website! That's great! The site is finally not only paying for itself, but even making a little money. (Just a little, mind you... but it's a start!) I've been busy the last couple weeks setting up our various advertisers as well. (And of course, keeping up with all the latest Bills news. Anyone aware of all the insane injuries the Bills have sustained through only three weeks this year?? It's just nuts!)

Family
AS IF that all was not enough... we still have four kids to take care of, and boy do they need taking care of! :-) Hehe... :-)

One good thing, family-wise, has been that Jen & I have been trying to get one night (or even daytime) out per week. We have an awesome babysitter, and we try to take full advantage of that. :-)

Facebook
Oh, and I mentioned this before, but I must say I am enjoying the wonder that is Facebook. I have reconnected with - and stayed connected with - so many folks through that site over just about a month's time. Very cool. Almost too addicting, though!

MONK!
Oh yeah... the other thing that has taken some of my time over the past several weeks... we're Monk junkies! We're most of the way through season four now, and looking forward to seasons five and six! We are getting them on DVD from our library system! AWESOME! Free Monk! :-) The show is hilarious (we think) and such a breath of fresh air compared to just about EVERY other current TV show. Even though it's about a homicide detective, it's not over the edge as far as graphic grossness. The language is tolerable. It's just nicer on the soul. And, it's funny. :-) (Plus, it has revealed the OCD in me. I find myself straightening things all the time, and cleaning things... pretty funny.) :-)

Man. No wonder I never post anything here anymore. :-)