...because this will make or break your reputation, and possibly your website.

Regardless, the evidence shows there was a bit of foul play, whether if this is true or not.

The first thing the Democrats will scream is "KARL ROVE".

After initially claiming he had an allergic reaction to painkillers, we find out that he did have an allergic reaction....to 30 of them.

Screw football.  I hope T.O. really gets help, and fast.

UPDATE:  ESPN has caught up with the local Dallas media, and they said that Owens was even trying to swallow pills as medical personnel arrived on the scene.

And you wanna know what spin is?  Check this out:

On Tuesday, Etheridge said of the incident: "This is not serious."

Probably like this:

"Where you at, 85?"

"I don't know"

Heh.

    - The Panthers are 0-2.  I wouldn't be as concerned about Sunday's loss if it wasn't one that was completely blown.  Make no mistake about it:  the Panthers had no business losing to the Vikings.  At all.  And we can thank Chris Gamble for it.

The mind-numbing lateral off of a punt return was the highlight, but ended up being an overall bad effort on the day for Gamble.  And it wasn't just him either; Foster never got his ypc over 2.5, and the offensive line was unprepared for the Vikings' blitz packages on third down.  If it hadn't been for Delhomme actually able to get rid of the ball a couple of times and took the sack, it would have been a worse situation than what it was.

Meanwhile, Carolina's problems in game and clock management (probably the worst I've seen in the John Fox era) overshadowed Julius Peppers's amazing defensive performance:  8 tackles, 3 sacks, and no telling how many hurries he placed on Brad Johnson (who, for his age, is damned good in his own right).  How could anyone say Peppers is not the best defensive lineman in the NFL today?  There's no question that he'll make it to the Pro Bowl, injuries aside.

But the rest of the team let Peppers down.  He might not say it, but I will.  It looked like nobody else on that team was trying to win a football game out there, and that's uncharacteristic of a Panthers' football team in the John Fox era.  I know there's plenty of football to go, but the Panthers need to get on the ball and it's got to start this week against Tampa Bay.

     - After the Giants played the Colts in the Manning Bowl in Week 1, I picked them to be the favorites to win the NFC East.  It's early, but I don't see how you couldn't pick them as the favorites right now.

Eli Manning led the Giants to a come from behind overtime victory this week.  They were down 24-7, and won 30-24 over the Iggles.  If you didn't believe it before, Eli is for real, and the Giants could go deep into the playoffs if they can continue to play this kind of football.  They're one of the most balanced teams in the league on both sides of the football.

    - I was kind of irked by Fox's coverage, because although the Panthers take precedence in NC - and rightfully so - they should have went over to the overtime coverage after the game.  I don't understand why the Giants/Iggles game wasn't the national broadcast this week, instead of regional.  And if people actually watched rodeos on television, you'd see them broadcast more often than they currently are.

    - Well, I guess the Steelers aren't looking so hot anymore?  Blanked by the Jaguars on Monday night, I'm sure people will say Rothlisberger came back too soon.  But how do you explain that 26 net yards rushing, though?  Even if you say the defense was able to concentrate on the run due to Big Ben's play, an 11 carries, 20 yard performance by Willie Parker won't cut it.  Do better, Willie.

And I told yall last week:  the Jags are for real this year.  They'll need to put up more than 9 points, but I think they're forgiven considering they beat the defending Super Bowl Champs.

    - If you've been watching NFL Network lately, you'd think Chad Johnson had bought it and made himself the main attraction.  He's on there for every other commercial break and on several of their original shows too.  However, the Simon Phoenix lookalike has had a lackluster start, failing to get over 80 yards in his first two games and one touchdown.  He got drilled in the hit of the week against the Browns.  Oh, and his first TD dance of the week was lame.

    - Detroit will be a better team than they were last year.  However, Roy Williams needs to do less talking and more playing.  Getting humbled by the Bears after guaranteeing a win was not a good look.

    - Everyone's calling the NFC East the best division in the league, but I digress.  It's actually the AFC North.  The Super Bowl Champions, along with the Bengals, who won the AFC East last year, and then you have the resurging Ravens.  Those are three tough teams that I wouldn't want to play right now (and the Panthers have to play the whole division this year).

    - Key games this week:  Chicago/Minnesota (for the NFC North lead); Cincinnati/Pittsburgh (will the Steelers lose 2 in a row?); Jacksonville/Indy (AFC South lead and possibly to see who's the best in the AFC right now); Giants/Seattle.

    - Could someone tell me why ABC scheduled Atlanta/New Orleans as the Monday Night Game?  Plan to hit the bed early.

No, I haven't forgotten:  it's football season.

    - First, let's get the Panthers out of the way.  Am I panicking because the Panthers were thoroughly dominated by the Falcons?  No.

Why not?  It's several reasons.  First, just like last season, anytime the Panthers lost to someone they hyped the team that beat them and always made the Panthers seem like they were on their way out of the playoffs.  Carolina lost to the Saints in their opener last year, and everyone talked about how the Saints are playing on emotion, and they're going to get something done this year.  The Saints only won 2 more games the rest of the year.  When Carolina lost to Chicago midseason, everyone thought Chicago was the new favorite to go to the Super Bowl in the NFC.  Carolina faces them again at Soldier Field in the playoffs, and Steve Smith makes mincemeat of them.

Second, Atlanta is Atlanta.  Fox knows the score; if you don't stop the run, you're not going to beat Atlanta.  If you stop the run, you blow them out.  Although the acquisition of John Abraham definitely made for a better Falcons' pass rush, this is the same team that's been doing the same things for the last 3-4 years.  Vick only passed for 140 yards, and his completion percentage was still under 50%, even though he's got Lielie, Crumpler, Dunn on the flats, and White.  That offense, once again, will be tested again this year, and if they don't create a balanced attack, they will not only miss the playoffs, but they can look forward to Vick quitting again at the end of the season.

Now, am I worried?  Yeah, because we didn't show any semblance of a running game during Week 1, or in preseason.  I felt paying Foster that money was a mistake; not only because he's an injury-prone running back, but he didn't show much after he was given the starting job last year.  He had a couple of good playoff games, but he didn't show anything in the regular season.  If Foster isn't averaging a good 4.5 ypc, then the running game becomes a liability, and makes the team one-dimensional.  DeAngelo Williams shows promise, but he's not ready to start.

I expected more from not only Foster, but Keyshawn Johnson, and that offensive line.  John Fox makes some of the best adjustments of any coach in the NFL, so we'll see what look he brings to Minnesota on Sunday.

    - If you want to know why the National Football League is the top professional sport in America, all you have to do is look at the marquee games on Week 1:  a solid matchup on Thursday with Pittsburgh beating Miami; the "Manning Bowl", which saw the brother tandem showing why both teams are Super Bowl contenders this year;  and then the September 11th double-header, with a tight Redskins/Vikings game and Phillip Rivers debuting as the Chargers shut out the terrible Raiders.  Even the Chargers/Raiders game was still fascinating to watch for a lot of reasons.

    - Does the Deion Branch acquisition make the Seahawks the favorite in the NFC again?  I don't know.  But looking at that terrible game against the Lions, where they won 9-6, they definitely need him to help create a spark.

    - The Jags only made the playoffs last year because they happened to have an easy schedule down the stretch.  Having said that, they are a solid team this year, and will give the Colts problems in the AFC South.

    - Are the Ravens for real?  it's hard to argue with that 27-0 buttwhupping placed on the Bucs.  For their sake, I hope so, because both Brian Billick and Steve McNair's fates are controlled by each other.  If they don't make it to the playoffs, Billick won't have a job and McNair might not start for another team.

    - Phillip Rivers was placed in the best position that a quarterback could ask for:  the league's best running back in the backfield, and the league's best tight end on the line.  Then he has a solid veteran to throw to in Keenan McCardell, a solid defensive line, and a decent coach in Marty Schottenheimer.  Now that I think about it, SD had no business not making it to the playoffs last year; I don't care if they had Aaron Brooks at quarterback.

    - Speaking of Aaron Brooks...it's a dead heat between him and Bret Farve for early voting of the worst starting quarterback of the year.  I'm sure Al Davis had to love that 42 net passing yards his new quarterback got him.  Here's a hint:  unless it's Duce McAllister, you're not going to get too many valuable players from the Saints.

    - J.P. Losman, watch the lines.  A safety in the fourth quarter won't help garner confidence in your ability to lead the Bills as a playoff threat.  When you have a chance to beat the Pats, you have to make good on it.

    - I'm still not sold on Cincinnati.  Maybe it's because I haven't seen enough of them this year, but I think I want to see more out of Rudy Johnson and the running game as well as that defense before I can say they're one of the top teams in the league.  Consecutive games against Pittsburgh and New England at the end of this month will probably do the trick.

    - The best game of the week:  San Francisco falls to Arizona.  Who would have ever thought that would be as entertaining as it was?  With Jim Haslett unveiling an improved Rams defense, Norv Turner working with Alex Smith at the Niners, and Edgerrin James bringing needed depth for Arizona, the NFC West will be much tougher, and more competitive than it has been in years.

    - I only have two picks for the hot seat:  Brian Billick, who better hope Steve McNair can stay healthy, and Jon Gruden, who might be out by midseason if the Bucs continue to play like they did on Sunday.  I would add Art Shell, but would Al Davis ditch him after one year again?  Who knows.

    - This year, I'm in two fantasy football leagues and in a 25-man football pool.  I went 1-1 in my leagues, and I'm tied for 17 after week one in pickem.  My picks were 9-7.  Ugh.  Week 1 tends to be my worst week, anyway.

More football to come later.

tonight on WPTF and tomorrow morning on 850 The Buzz.

NC State loses 20-17....to AKRON?  AT HOME?????

And straight up:  he'll deserve every single bit of it.  NC State was talking about having a chance to get a ACC title game berth.  Now they'll be happy if they can salvage a bowl game from this season.

NC State's defense was absolutely pathetic, especially on that winning Akron drive, which saw them put it in the endzone on the last play of the game.  They should have simply stepped aside and let them score; at least they would have had a chance for a last drive, rather than Akron sucking up the rest of the clock. 

And what in the HELL was State thinking when they called an option on 4th and 1 inside the 5???  They were in the lead by a field goal at that time....why didn't they kick the field goal?  Or at the very least, if you're going to go for it, punch it up the middle??  There's no excuse for that play AT ALL.  You're in a tight game in the 4th quarter, you take the points.

I agreed with the Buzz guys a few weeks ago that the catcalls from the peanut gallery that Amato should go were premature, and he's doing a relatively decent job at State.  However, this loss to Akron will make even more noise, and if Amato is run out of Raleigh as unceremoniously as Herb Sendek was in backetball, people will point to today's loss, and how terrible every fascet of the game was; offense, defense, and coaching.

But as a Carolina fan, and despite seeing my Tarheels get smoked by Va Tech today, I revel in it.

It sure sounds like it.

According to a new article by the Associated Press, the officer that shot San Diego Chargers linebacker Steve Foley was off-duty, in civilian clothes, followed Foley all the way home from off the interstate, and Foley was unarmed.

Here's more:

"To my knowledge, I don't believe Foley did have a weapon, even though I was told he reached into his waistband with his right hand," said San Diego County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Brugos.

According to the Sheriff"s Department's initial report Sunday, Foley was shot after he reached into his pants with his right hand while approaching the policeman, who was in civilian clothes and driving his own car.

[Officer Aaron] Mansker has been placed on paid administrative leave, said Leah Corbin, a police spokeswoman in Coronado, a wealthy peninsular enclave across the bay from downtown San Diego. She declined to release any other details about the officer.

According to official reports, Mansker noticed a car swerving on the freeway while driving at speeds of 90mph and almost collided with several cars.  He decided to follow the car, thought to be Foley, which had stopped at three lights on the way to the residence.  Mansker had ordered Foley to pull over before the shooting incident, but Foley ignored it.

It's not even known if Mansker even showed Foley his badge, and considering that he was behind some bushes when he confronted Foley and his girlfriend (who promptly tried to run him over), he more than likely didn't.

But even if he did, it's irrelevant.  We're talking about an officer that was off-duty and out of uniform trying to pull someone over on a traffic violation.  When the person didn't comply, the officer then followed him to his residence, which resulted in an altercation and the driver being shot.  And note:  all of this is happening in the middle of the night in a large city.  If I see a person that is off-duty, and in civilian clothes trying to get me to pull over, I would think I'm about to be carjacked.

Why didn't Mansker call headquarters for backup and allowed them to make the proper arrest?  An off-duty cop is precisely that:  off-duty.  Particularly since troopers are often required to be in proper uniform and go through proper protocol when pulling over vehicles, you'd think cops would be careful about getting in altercations off-duty and out of uniform.

If the AP's article is accurate, and we aren't missing anything significant, I'd say that Foley has a good chance of winning a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the City of San Diego and against Aaron Mansker.  Mansker's handling of this incident was over the top, and he should have called for backup instead of trying to handle it himself.  This resulted in an incident that 1. possibly could have been avoided  2.  resulted in Foley getting shot, and almost got Mansker ran over  3.  will cost Foley the entire NFL season, and will make every team think twice before they pick him up....if a team will ever take him again.  The loss of the season, along with the time taken for rehab, and the public airing of this incident could end Foley's career.

I normally give the cops the benefit of the doubt, but not in this case.

If Republican congressional candidates want to know how to get back on the ball despite the odds being against them, they shouldn't look no further than Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who essentially made his opponent, Bob Casey, look lost and not even close to being on his level.

The debate, which aired on Meet the Press, was simply a breath of fresh air.  Santorum proved why he is one of the best senators in America, bar none.  Santorum was considered to surely lose this election, as Casey once led Santorum by as much as 15 points in the Rasmussen and Quinnipac polls, which his support hovering around only 35%.  Just after Memorial Day, Santorum trailed in the Rasmussen poll by 23 points.

However, he's fought back, and now Quinnipac has him behind by a 6-point margin, and Rasmussen has him down by 8.  This past week hasn't been kind to Casey, starting with the quasi-endorsement given to Santorum by Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.  After the Meet The Press debacle, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Santorum has made this race a toss-up, moving the race into the margin of error.

On MTP, Russert threw everything but the kitchen sink at Santorum, but Santorum batted it right back.  He was a little defensive at first, but Santorum laid out his beliefs and was totally unapologetic for what he supports, and most importantly, who he supports. 

Here's a prime example of what I'm talking about (via transcript):

SEN. SANTORUM: What I would say is that we have found weapons of mass destruction, they were older weapons, but we have found chemical weapons. The report was just released not too long ago that, that said that there were over 500 chemical weapons found in Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator, the president has accepted the report of his two task force and said, "That the chief weapons inspector has issued his report. Iraq did not have the weapons our intelligence believed were there."

SEN. SANTORUM: Well, there were all sorts of weapons that our intelligence believed were there. They thought that they were new weapons. So far we, we did not—we have not found any new weapons. But we have found old weapons, weapons from the Iran/Iraq conflict, and we found over 500 and the report says that there were more.

This marks a key difference between Santorum and most of the congressional Republicans running for reelection.  Santorum did not back down from Russert's assertions; instead he confronted them with the facts.  I hope RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman was paying attention and taking notes, because this should become gospel to Republican candidates throughout the country:  stand your ground, and hit them with the facts.

Here's another one:

Do you believe you should have the same standard for President Bush? He should give a defined objective, he should give an exit strategy, he should give a cost, and he should give a timeline for Iraq, just as you were demanding President Clinton give for Kosovo?

SEN. SANTORUM: No. Because, because Kosovo and, and Slobodan Milosevic were never a security threat to the United State of America. No way. There—I mean, it wasn't even close.

MR. RUSSERT: But these are men and women at war.

SEN. SANTORUM: We had, we had—excuse me—we had no business, in my opinion—and I felt this today—we had no business going in—into that area.  We had no national security interest. We are up against an enemy that every single day in the streets of Iran they're out talking about how they want to destroy the United States, how they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Once again, this is one of those "gotcha" questions that Russert pulled on Santorum, and he adamantly defended his position and booted that right out of the park.  Once Russert pulled this card, Santorum became really passionate about what he believes in.

Meanwhile, Bob Casey came in and spouted the usual talking points from the DNC.  Here's Casey on fiscal responsibility:

MR. RUSSERT: Over 10 years.

MR. CASEY: Over 10 years, that's right.

MR. RUSSERT: Yeah, but, but if you rolled back the top 1 percent, it's about $56 billion in a year. Our deficit is 200...

MR. CASEY: That's true, Tim, absolutely.

MR. RUSSERT: How you going to balance the budget? Which, which programs you going to cut?

MR. CASEY: Tim, you can't, you can't balance a budget in one year. They've put us in such a fiscal hole, it will take many years. I hope it doesn't take 10 years, it took...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, but give me a couple ideas. Which programs would you cut?

MR. CASEY: Tim, there are a lot of things. I—in, in state government, I've already done this. Sometimes you, you try to limit the number of, of consultants, that's one idea. Sometimes you limit the size of, of, of the federal government. I've already done that in state government. There are a lot of ways. Especially some, some tax loopholes, off-shore tax loopholes that are in there right now.

There are lots of ways to cut. But the first thing you have to do, I think, is—and let me just outline these quickly. First of all, the tax cut. Over 10 years, if you repealed it for 200,000 and up, you could get $730 billion.  The second thing, on the estate tax, if we set the general estate tax exemption level at $3.5 million for an individual, 7 million for a couple, maybe even carve out a $5 million exemption for family farms and businesses, you could get a savings just on that alone of $300 billion over 10 years.  You're already at a trillion. It's a step along the way. A corporate welfare commission, over—conservatively over 10 years could get you 200 billion. And finally, you've got to make sure that we have a pay as you go strategy, just like a family has.

Out of that long, convoluted speech - which, ironically, Casey criticized Santorum twice during the debate for - there wasn't one thing within what he stated, that actually sounded anything like fiscal discipline.  Everything consisted of either repealing tax cuts, restoring taxes, closing loopholes, and raising revenue; none of which actually addresses the problem of runaway government spending.  I wished Santorum would have jumped on Casey about this; but his response was still good.

Casey had the nerve to attempt to criticize Santorum for his virtually unwavering support of President Bush and his policies, but it's very clear after Sunday morning that Casey will essentially be a clear supporter of the Senate Democratic leadership on an overwhelming majority of issues, if not more than Santorum's support of Bush.  It showed whether he was talking about abortion, or Social Security, or the debt.  At least Santorum supports a number of Bush policies because he actually believes in most of them, while Casey came off as another voice of the Democratic machine.

It's no wonder that Casey refused to have ten debates with Santorum (he did agree to four), as he got his clock cleaned on Sunday morning, and there isn't any reason for him not to get it again in the next debate.  I think there are some Democrats are starting to panick, because the Senate seat of one of their hated rivals thought months ago to possibly be a relatively easy pickup has possibly made this a neck-and-neck race that will be decided down the finish.

Whenever a hurricane is remotely seen in the Atlantic Ocean moving westward, you can guarantee the alarms will sound from the local and national news and there will be nonstop coverage from hour-to-hour.

Tropical Storm Ernesto, which is approaching my house as we speak and I can feel it's winds out of my window (don't worry....you sneeze harder than those winds will blow) has been covered every second since Wednesday.  CNN has their meterologists on it, so does Fox.  Hell; even Sean Hannity dragged Accuweather's Joe Bastardi onto his radio show just to talk about it.  One of our local news stations in the Triangle, WRAL, used up two extra hours of news - going from their normal 5-7 to 5-9pm - to provide extra coverage of a storm that barely made top wind speeds of 70mph.

Maybe that's exciting news to people that live inland, or further up the eastern seaboard, as they rarely get to experience full hurricane winds, but it's nothing to those that have experience the brunt of real storms.  Diana, Gloria, Charlie, Floyd, Dennis, Fran, Bertha...I've seen them all.  This one?  It's nothing.

As a kid, I used to love watching the local weather and see this large storm approaching the Outer Banks.  Considering where I lived, there really wasn't much to look forward to.  I would liken it to midwesterners in Kansas or Missouri being amazed by tornadoes and eventually become storm chasers. 

I remember, over 10 years ago...this LARGE hurricane approached the Outer Banks, and got up to 100 or so miles off of the coast of NC, and SAT there for two days.  They evacuated the whole coast of NC, because the National Weather Service expected a "direct hit", which meant the hurricane was going to slam into North Carolina through Cape Hatteras, the easternmost point in NC.  However, it finally rolled out and back into the Atlantic, slapping Bermuda again for good measure.

UPDATE:  I found the hurricane.  It was Felix in 1995.   Wow. 

Events like that, I'll never forget.  However, anytime a storm even thinks about approaching the U.S., we can expect the news to blow it out of proportion or hope the hurricane would just disintegrate in the ocean (and they have done that before) just so the media will stop talking about it.  I'd rather go back to my smaller, coastal local stations that I grew up with as a kid (particularly Skip Waters of WCTI 12), rather than these ridiculous 5 day coverages done by the networks and news wires that ridiculously hype up storms that anyone with a bit of common sense knows have no chance of doing significant damage.

That's what we're getting from this one-sentence article from the AP:


I hope it's true.