Early Morning Internettery

A personal note before the goofiness: this last week was pretty fucking tough. My college instructor, mentor, co-worker and friend James Meadow died following a bad bike accident at Chatfield Reservoir, only one week after the Rocky went out of business.

Went to the memorial service yesterday morning. The Mayor was there, so was Barry Fey. Seemingly everyone in Denver, actually. The Governor issued a special proclamation declaring yesterday "James Meadow Day" and I broke down listening to "For A Dancer" even though I can't stand Jackson Browne.

James was a 3-D comet in an industry populated by cardboard cutouts. He was unafraid of life. He was one of the finest writers I've ever encountered or will ever encounter. He loved the semi-colon; Hickenlooper told a story about a discussion between Meadow and Kurt Vonnegut, who hated semi-colons and said they were "hermaphrodites." Meadow's response was "in the hands of a good writer, that's a very sexually active hermaphrodite."

He was a Prima Donna, a pain in the ass and a cocky New York Yankees fan. He was also my friend. If I'm lucky enough to leave the world half of what he did, I'll have lived a better life than I ever would have dreamed. Adios, old man.

That's out of the way. Thanks for sitting through it. Here are a few bumps along the ones 'n' zeroes superhighway for you both. Enjoy 'em.

First, more Cutler! Mike Klis actually brings something to the table with this one--specifically, the idea that Belichick was pushing Cassel hard and that a trade never even came close to happening. Interesting. Also worth noting: the comments below, which lower humanity's common denominator to the point where merely pulling a breath should be considered a triumph of the intellect.

Also, this--which is arguably the biggest story and got the smallest newshole. So a "sourced report" from CBS4 indicates that another meeting took place on Saturday morning? And said "source" (cough cough Bus Cook cough) said that it didn't go well?

Look, Vic Lombardi clearly has someone feeding him info here, and given that each one of these scoops has been slanted toward the "Jay is being mistreated and feels upset" angle, it's hard to imagine the source being anyone *but* Cook. Or maybe Cutler's daddy. All I know is, at this point, how can anyone not think the kid and his people are actively angling for a trade? It's not even behind the scenes, anymore.

Enough of the disingenuousness. Enough hiding behind your righteous indignation, Jay. Out with it. Your defenders in the media can only write you so many excuse notes--and honestly, Woody Paige's are full of misspellings and sentence fragments.

For instance, Dave Krieger may think we Bronco fans are just a flock of Nubian goats waiting to trot behind a crook-toting Pat Bowlen, but we can still see that the sky is blue behind these orange-tinted goggles. A fan's loyalty is to a team, not a player. The columnists and talking heads can't ever quite grasp that--or more accurately, don't care to--because they are professional non-rooters.

They like individuals. Especially individuals with good back-stories. Especially individuals with good back-stories who work for a columnists' favorite charity.

(Don't think that plays a role, here? Check out Krieger's work in the future for one of his eternally positive mentions of Bernie Bickerstaff, who ran the Nuggets into the dirt but let Dave's son practice on the court back in the day, or something similar. He'll be tootin' Cutler's horn long after he leaves town.)

Drives me nuts. Anyhow.

In something of a first for me, hockey.

Al Davis, don't you ever change.

Both the Broncos and Chefs will end up with at least one player each from this list. Possibly more. I like Frank Cooney because, unlike nearly every draft analyst extant, he writes in complete sentences.

I periodically link to this. Simply because of The Awesome.

And in an effort to give some equal time to the tooth-gnashing happening next the Missouri river, here. It should also be acknowledged that posters at the KC Star's website are by and large toothless hayseeds who make corn likker in the shed and married their younger sisters.