I swear I'm not trying to stir up another blog war or anything here, but this has been bothering me all afternoon ever since I saw it and I thought I'd post about it. Sporson did a post over at the Sporting News about the special place in hell reserved for Alabama fan Joey Barrett, Jr., the guy that got all stabby at an Auburn frat house before last year's Iron Bowl. Seems that Barrett talked a friend who had been declared "mentally retarded" into taking the blame for the stabbings in exchange for a car. His ire towards Barrett isn't what bothers me; Barrett is clearly a stain on humanity and, worse, the Alabama fan base and deserves any and all scorn, ridicule, and prison "cuddlings" that result from his action. I'm not even upset at the ridicule by association we'll receive since every one of us is always quick to take the worst things we hear about a rival fan and apply it to our perception of their entire fan base. It's just the way being a fan of college football works, though if the boogs really want to run their mouthes too much maybe they should stop and remember that stabbings and despicable actions occurring at Auburn frat houses are old hat for them by now. Y'all wrote the book, Barrett, unfortunately, just read it. No, what does bother me is this picture and caption:

Everyone knows tattoo guy and depending on who you ask he's either an awesome fan or kind of an embarassment, but I think we can all agree that this is a guy who has never done anything to hurt anyone (and by all accounts is a very nice, friendly person) and doesn't deserve to a) have himself associated with Barrett for no other reason than he is a visible, recognizable Alabama fan or b) be labeled an "idiot" for no other reason than....well, unless there is something horribly wrong about people who get tattoos and love college football then for no reason whatsoever. I sent Sporson a text about it and he said he didn't have anything to do with it, an editor put it in, so at least I can feel a little better that he isn't taking cheap, unwarranted shots at an innocent bystander in all of this, but it's still a cheap, unwarranted shot. Boo on the Sporting News.

UPDATE - Chris Mottram, the editor who posted the offending picture and caption, was kind enough to replace it with a generic Alabama logo, so a sincere thank you to him. Hooray for the Sporting News.

...when it comes to the commit widget. Everything lines up perfectly in IE, but for you Firefox and Opera users (and probably Safari as well, but I don't have a Mac that I can check), I don't know what to tell you.

I've tried every trick I know and that has been suggested by others, but for some reason they just don't work in anything other than IE, so here's where you get to influence the blog. Is it annoying enough for me to go back to the old widget sans the profile pics, or should I just leave it alone and hope our readership is composed primarily of IE users?

UPDATE: Considering Pete Holiday's comment that the whole blog is getting jacked up, I went ahead and cut out all the extra code and moved the widget back to the left hand side. As far as I can tell everything looks right in IE, Firefox, and Opera, but if anyone is having trouble viewing anything let us know.

Poll

Make the commit widget look pretty or just leave it alone?

41%

Make Pretty

49 votes

58%

Leave Alone

69 votes

118 votes | Poll has closed

...is chocolatey.

Enjoy your weekend. Ladies, by request after the jump...

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Last week, I sought y'all advice on how best to fill out my blogpoll ballots once the season starts, and a good majority of you agreed that the damage of an embarassing loss should weigh heavier on a team's resume than a quality win.

This week I need y'all's help again. Last season, the Bocephus Album Cover Worry Index was (at least anecdotally) a hit, and I have every intention of doing it, or at least something like it again. While I want to keep it fresh with new album covers abd artists, Bocephus has become such an indelible part of the RBR mythology that it seems wrong not to continue on with it just the way it is. So the poll this week wants to know if I should stick with the Bocephus album covers, or if I should choose a different artist to feature.

Poll

Should I continue on with the Bocephus Album Cover Worry Index, or choose a different artist to feature this season?

57%

Bocephus Is teh bests!

364 votes

42%

Bring on the Eddie Money!

264 votes

628 votes | Poll has closed

So after playing half the season (I'm at the Ole Miss game now), some initial thoughts on the newest edition:

* I see where the complaints over the ridiculously easy kick returns come from. I've given up at least eight of them so far, and it seems like every opposing offense gets to start from around the fifty. It's frustrating as all hell, especially since every time I get a fairly comfortable two score lead it's inevitably right back to a one score as soon as I kick it off.

* Open field tackles are darn near impossible. I can't tell you how many tackles I've had shrugged off (it seems like all of them) by opposing players. Case in point, every single Georgia player took two or three defenders to bring down, and that includes offense and defense. If you want to make Moreno hard to tackle in the game, that's cool. He's hard to tackle in real life. Stafford? Yeah, he's a big guy, though the six tackles he shook off was a bit unbelievable (couple that with the 60ish yard TD he threw after all that and the controllers start a flying). Still, making him hard to tackle isn't too unbelievable. The receivers? They can shake a DB here and there, but when you need a safety and a LB to come over and help bring them down every time they touch the ball it's getting ridiculous, and Asher Allen is now my least favorite person in the entire world after taking a kick off return back for a TD while breaking four tackles in the process (and juking two more out of their cleats) with only 1:32 left in the game to bring the Dawgs to within a FG of winning (thankfully I recovered the onside kick and ran the clock out).

* Rashad Johnson will pick off anything thrown near him, and then immediately fumble it away as soon as he is hit. This will happen every time the computer needs a long pass play to convert a third (or fourth) down and you think you have them stopped.

* Andre Smith is a punk in this game, spending more time on his back than an Auburn sorority girl. Same goes for Marlon Davis, Antoine Caldwell, Evan Cardwell, Mike Johnson, and Nick Walker, none of whom could block a little old lady with a decent head of steam. Cardwell (who I have at center and Caldwell at RT) is blown up at least 95% of the time, and Johnson is typically flattened right after him, if he's not busy turning and watching the defender run right past him. If this game were real, opposing defenses could literally only rush three every down and still get to Wilson before he has a chance to throw. There was actually one play where I was being sacked the instant I hit X. It was ridiculous.

* The defense is stout, though, holding Arkansas to five total yards and leading the country with a stingy 93 total yards per game.

*Marquis Johnson is almost single handedly winning the games for me, either taking INTs back for TDs himself or at least setting me up in easy scoring (by which I mean FG) range.

* Bobby Greenwood and Luther Davis are my two DEs, and they are absolute studs. Same for Cory Reamer, who I have at OLB.

* Terry Grant will fumble every single time he rushes. I've gotten to where I only use him in shotgun formations where I can throw to him on a swing pass. Anything else and he's a turnover waiting to happen.

* And speaking of running backs, has anyone else had trouble with the running game? Maybe it's because the opposing d-line is five yards into my backfield as soon as the ball is snapped, but the only rushing yardage I can muster is from the receivers on sweeps and option pitches.

* Wilson has something like a 6/15 TD/INT ratio right now, and the vast majority of those INTs are from throwing the ball while being engulfed by three defenders. It's like Bob Connelly got hired by EA to program the pass protection schemes or something. He also has zero accuracy over ten or so yards.

* In the two games I was actually comfortable enough to start subbing players in (Clemson and Kentucky), McElroy was amazing. The digital McElroy has an arm on him, and I've taken to subbing him on long distance downs since he can actually hit receivers in stride on go routes while Wilson invariably throws it out of bounds or short (and subsequently into the waiting hands of the CB or safety).

That's it for now. How is it treating the rest of you?

...is back on the red carpet.

The Girl is headed to Oxford for the weekend, giving me plenty of time to sleep really late, sit in front of the TV and play NCAA '09 for hours on end, and just generally be a fitlhy, lazy slob get back on track with the SEC previews, so look for South Carolina, Florida, and UT next week. Ladies, if you dare...

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...is artsy.

click to enlarge

Enjoy your weekend. Ladies, after the jump.

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...is early since, after weeks of 10+ hour days, there is no way I'm getting up before noon on a too rare day off to do a random ten and the other assorted foolishness that you would normally find here on a typical Friday. If y'all get crazy withdrawals from not having one, that's what the diaries fan posts are for. In the meantime, some founding beefcake for the ladies...

Enjoy your weekend, kids. Team previews for the SEC start Monday, plus I have a few other posts a brewing including my once yearly attempt at stat wonkery and the start of the inevitable countdown 'til football. Don't worry, Pete, this year there's actual content with it since last year's "find pictures of a famous player with that day's number" plan backfired so horribly. And for the three of you interested, Snow after the jump.

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