I know a lot of you are Browns fans and I apologize for that. Not that it's my fault, but as a Bills fan, it's nice to have another set of fans to look down on and make the butt of our jokes and I apologize for all the times I've done that, one of which is also going to be this article, where I am going to address DeShaun Watson. We know all the bad stuff about DeShaun and how he attacked Browns fans for justifiably (in my eyes at least but apparently not his) booing him during Saturday's preseason game vs. the Bills. He completed like 5-of-11 passes or something and from what I read (I try not to watch too much preseason football- but that could be fodder for another column) played badly. 

This led me to question, really, when was the last time DeShaun Watson was a good football player?remember a game eons ago, when the Texans played the Bills in the playoffs. I think it was Josh Allen's second season and Watson clearly outplayed Josh and led the Texans to victory. But has Watson been any good since then? Let's take a look at the stats. (Copied from Pro Football Reference)

That game took place in 2019. In addition to the impressive passing stats that year, as seen above, he also rushed for over 400 yards and led the team to an 11-5 record, a playoff win and an early lead vs. the eventual Super Bowl champion Chiefs in the second round. Then the Texans traded All Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins and the Texans went 4-12 the next year, although Watson had an even better year statistically, so this may have had more do to with the decline of the Texans defense and former All-World DE JJ Watt than anything Watson did. Then came the controversy, the suspension and the trade to the Browns - maybe not quite in that order, but that was the idea.

When Watson came back to play for Cleveland 13 games into the 2022 season (coincidentally against Houston), he was no longer good. We can certainly speculate as to why, and it wasn't because of his age, as he was only 27. It probably had something to do with loss of confidence in his superiority due to his his humbling experience with his accusers, but the fact is he has never  been good for the Browns in the three partial years he has played for them, and he is now over 30 and coming off a serious injury, so he's almost certainly washed, but the Browns seem to be clinging to some hope that he's still at least some semblance of that great player in was in college and during his days in Houston. 

So, that leaves him and (poor?) Shedeur Sanders locked in a QB battle, at least as of this weekend, when Sanders apparently outplayed Watson. But almost nobody, except delusional Browns fans and some attention-seeking analysts, seem to think Sanders is any good and at least Watson was really good - on an NFL level - something like six years go. Yeah, it's a complete mess, Myles Garrett is on the Rams - but the good news is it's the Not For Long league, so the Browns have yet another opportunity to rebuild, so why not hold out hope? It can happen,  teams go from worst to first all the time in the NFL, although it's probably just not going to happen with DeShaun Watson at the helm. But, then again, there was Joe Flacco...

Addendum: Watson was named the Browns opening day starter today.

 Billy Blanks featured in an article  (behind a paywall) about the resurgence of Tae-bo in yesterday's New York Times. The article discusses people's yearning for nostalgia, which is good for Mr Blanks these days. I love his final quote in the story, “People are going, ‘Wow, Billy Blanks is back,’” said Mr. Blanks. “I’ve never been gone!” Sometime you've just got to wait things out it seems.

Dee's Deli Specials Today Sound Great

Especially the smoked turkey on a pretzel roll.

 Sadly, my stomach/intestines are a bit upset so I will have to pass but at least I can dream, right? 

Bills-Ravens

 Does anyone remember this SI Cover?

It's date Feb 1979 I think, so I must have been 12. Someone in my family, myself or my grandfather, had an SI subscription at the time, and I remember I saved all the issues and would read them cover to cover. This was one of my favorite covers, although I don't really remember anything about the boxer. But, he does look cool doesn't he?

As far as Bills-Ravens go, I saw somewhere the Lamar Jackson said he has never played in snow and doesn't particularly want to. This is the type of thing I will ignore, as it seems like it leads to false hope. This is gonna be a real knockdown, drag-them-out affair. We need ever edge we can get. Bills 17-14.

All-Time Bills Head Coaches Ranked - Part 1

Somebody asked me recently if I like Sean McDermott as a coach. Well, as a Bills fan for the past 45 years, I have to say, yes, he's certainly been been better than a lot of our coaches. Then, today I came across one of those links on ESPN for "The Worst Head Coaches in NFL History" and was expecting to find at least Harvey Johnson and possibly Jim Ringo represented, but, alas, neither appeared, likely forgotten in their 5-45-1 ineptitude - and the fact that it occurred in Buffalo. Yes, younger Bills fans, if you think your team is bad these days, fathom that winning percentage (it's .100 for the mathematically challenged). It was achieved in four seasons over 10 years - luckily only two were consecutive. Of course, Lou Saban, who is actually one of the most remarkable coaches in Bills history, appeared smack in the middle of all that.

Anyhow, this all inspired me to come with an all-time ranking of Bills head coaches over the years. I feel like I have some familiarity with all of them except the initial guy - Buster Ramsey - as I became a Bills fan in 1974 - during "The Second Age of Saban" (Lou, not Nick) and as Saban started with the Bills in their third year (1963) I feel connected to everything that came after him.

I grouped these in tiers, starting at the top:

Championship Winners
1. Marv Levy: Well, so, Levy didn't win a Super Bowl, so no NFL championship, but he did win four AFC titles, which I guess is technically the same as Saban's AFL championships, because in 1964-65 there was no Super Bowl, and who's to say that the Bills could have beat the Browns or Packers anyway, although the '64 team was pretty awesome. We'll also get to Saban's baggage, but Levy was simply great as a Bills coach with a 112-70 (.615) regular season record and a 19-11 playoff record - not to mention a place in the Hall of Fame. The only argument against Levy is that his teams were stacked, but it's important to note that he was the one who first discovered Bill Polian, the architect of the great '90s teams, when Levy hired Polian as a scout back in his days with the Kansas City Chiefs, so the two are inexorably linked.

2. Lou Saban:  Lou's record with Buffalo was 68-45-4 (.605) in the regular season and 2-2 in the playoffs (smaller tournament back then) but those two wins produced two titles for the Bills in 1964 and 1965. After leaving Buffalo following the second title, Saban returned seven years later and built the  Bills back up into a playoff team again. Saban is known as a coaching nomad, having made something like 20 stops in a long and winding career as a head coach at the high school, college and professional levels. But, his biggest successes came in Buffalo, where he turned a fledgling franchise into a champion, and after the team crumbled in the wake of his departure, returned and coached them up again. Of course, the Bills once again crumbled after he left the second time and Ralph Wilson wouldn't even put Saban on the Wall of Fame due to bad feelings over it.

Defensive Gurus:

3. Chuck Knox:  Chuck Knox was a very good football coach - especially in the regular season. In 22 years as an NFL head coach (with three different teams, including the Rams twice), Knox was 186-147-1 (.558) and this was somewhat tainted by his last four seasons, when he failed to record a winning record. Unfortunately, he was 7-11 in the playoffs, so he was kind of like an old school Andy Reid, but Knox's specialty was defense. He began his head coaching career in 1973 with the Rams and proceeded to go 54-15-1 in six seasons but couldn't make it past the NFC Championship game, falling to the Cowboys or Vikings every year. So, in 1978, he ended up in Buffalo, taking over a team that had gone a combined 5-23 the previous two seasons. By Knox's second season, the Bills were 7-9 and had the eighth ranked defense in the league. The 1980 and 1981 teams featured top six defenses and both made the playoffs, losing in the divisional round. In the strike-shortened 1982 season, the Bills struggled to a 4-5 record, dropping their last three games to miss the playoffs. Knox and Wilson then had a disagreement over salary and Knox ended up going to Seattle, where he turned around the Seahawks and took them to the playoffs in the four of the next six years.

4. Sean McDermott: Yes, I am going to place Sean McDermott here, even though he arguably took over a mediocre team from Rex Ryan and made it, well, mediocre - so far at least. Sure, McDermott has yet to win a playoff game, but either has anyone else on this list after Knox (and he won one Wild Card game). I am basing this ranking on what I see as McDermott's potential. He seems to have a plan and has certainly developed a top notch defense. Now, if we can just fix that offensive thing...

5. Wade Phillips: Speaking of defense, Wade is regarded as one of the all-time great defensive coordinators , his reputation cemented when the Broncos shut down the Panthers to win the Super Bowl a few years back. Last year, he helped the Rams make it to the Super Bowl. With Buffalo, Phillips also had a top 10 defense that peaked in 1999, when the Bills went 11-5 before falling in the Music City Miracle game. Overall, Phillips had a 29-19 regular season and 0-2 playoff record with the Bills, so he really didn't do a bad job, but you still felt he was riding the wave of those great Levy teams. And, of course, he oversaw the whole Flutie vs. Johnson fiasco. Phillips was fired after an 8-8 season when he showed loyalty by refusing to fire some of his assistants (as I remember it, or maybe it was refusing to wear a headset on the sidelines).

Coming next:  A Parade of Mediocrity.

10 Greatest Fiction Books

Currently reading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and re-realizing what an amazing piece of literature it is. Really sums up an interesting time in American history - from my perspective at least - that hasn't been covered very well in our traditional history books - at least from what I've seen with my kids. Or, I haven't even seen many TV specials or anything that really cut the the heart of the matter like the great Hunter S.

I grew up in 1970s - I was born in 1967 and really came of age during that time period. So, I remember the '60s hangover that the '70s was and the way that Thompson depicts what really went down. I think the '70s, which spilled in into the '80s, were a very selfish time - of course, I was a kid, so I was naturally selfish as well - in the aftermath of a very community-oriented period. The '60s kind of ushered the spirit of individualism in America, but I think it went too far in some ways in rebelling against authority. Authority is often designed to maintain a communal spirit and that spirit I think got lost.

Thompson does a great job chronically all this in the form of a very entertaining story about a few days in Las Vegas. I am reading the book now after reading his Hell's Angels portrait that kind of broke Thompson into the mainstream. While that may have been a revolutionary book at the time, it doesn't really hold up that well. Fear and Loathing on the other hand, I think I could continue reading for the next 100 years at least. It's Thompson's perfect book. After that, he manages to get through about three quarters of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and then apparently has a breakdown of some sort and last quarter is just dictated and not nearly as tight or strong. After, that he seems to show intermittent brilliance in his column writing but nothing as sustained as his first two Fear and Loathing efforts.

So that's sort of a long prelude (in honor of Hunter) to my current list of 10 greatest fiction books I've read. Off top of head, here's what I got

1. On the Road - holds up on every read through
2. Brother Karamazov - so much depth
3. Catch 22 - black comedy as its finest
4. The Ginger Man - also great black comedy - kinda of a favorite theme for me
5. Sun Also Rises - Hemingway's best
6. Fear and Loathing....
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest -gotta have some Kesey
8. Crime and Punishment - I am a sucker for Dostoevsky
9. One Hundred Year's of Solitude - this should probably be higher
10. The Shining - great American Horror Story. I am thinking I am missing something that should replace this...

10a. I knew I was forgetting something - the Odyssey by Homer clearly needs to be placed near the top of this list.

but I have read all these books multiple times and will likely read them again and that is why they make my list.

Please share some I am missing and I will hopefully get a chance to check out.

Why Trump Needs AI

There's a great Dilbert strip that ran today. In it, our favorite jaded engineer is discussing the "breakthrough" he had in developing AI technology. Basically, he realized he was trying to duplicate something that doesn't exist: "rational human thought."

I think that fairly explains the current situation in the White House. Very few people who thought about it rationally would vote for the Donald as our president. At least that's what us Dems like to tell ourselves. But, there is more to the human make-up than rational thought. Unlike Dilbert, I haven't despaired completely, but I do realize that rationality only makes up part of our "intelligence." There are definitely things like "gut" and instinct that also come into play when making decisions. Trump has always understood this and capitalized on it vs. Dems who want to intellectualize everything.

And until the people that make AI understand this...well, maybe they already do. Check out this article that recently ran in The Atlantic on Why Technology Favors Tyranny. I mean look at what Facebook is being accused of doing to the U.S. elections.

Perhaps the bottom line is that Trump doesn't need to be smart, he's got tools (computers) he can leverage for that.