Apparently the team knew it was very serious at halftime, but he was still alive. That's when they decided to continue the game... New York was on the field waiting for them for 7 minutes before they decided to come out and play.

Owner Casey Wasserman found out that Lucas had died during the second half, and at the end of the game pulled coach Ed Hodgkiss aside and told him. Then Hodgkiss told the players in the locker room after the game. The customary postgame autograph session was cancelled.

Not having seen the game but looking at the statistics it looks like the Avengers put up a pretty inspired performance in the second half... 5 TD passes in the half. Ended up winning 66-35 but that hardly matters at this point.

A guy has the Fox Sports Net TV coverage on WMV at his fan site www.blackadam.com if anyone is interested.

On a more postive note, I saw highlights of Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour, Bill Russell and Bobby Orr throwing out the opening "pitches" today at Fenway. It was great to see Bruschi out in public since the stroke! Hopefully he'll give a official update on his condition soon.

I didn't see what happened, and there was only a brief story in one of today's papers out here about Lucas' death ... from what was described, it sounded like it was a million-to-one situation where his body just bent in the absolutely worst way ... just a tragic situation for all involved

Geoff, as for why it wasn't mentioned on the air:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-decision12apr12,1,7717142.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true

David Baker and Casey Wasserman explain why they handled as they did. They wanted to make sure the family was notified first.

Good to hear about Bruschi.

On another note revisiting one of our past topics, Michael Bishop was benched by Grand Rapids this weekend and his future as the starter is in a bit of jeopardy. Maybe you Argo fans will get him back full-time after all

Grand Rapids Passing
Comp Att Yds TD Int
Michael Bishop 12 18 103 0 2
Nick Browder 10 15 103 0 0

Grand Rapids Rushing
Rush Yds TD
Chris Avery 7 43 4
Michael Bishop 3 4 0
Nick Browder 1 -4 0

Certainly not one of his best games. Browder isn't any better though so I'm going to think they'll have to go back to Bishop by default... besides, Bishop is at least a running threat if nothing else. But he currently ranks 16th out of the 17 starting QBs in passer rating... ahead of Nashville's Leon Murray... but anyone who ranks below Matt D'Orazio has a major problem.

Every Rampage fan I know wants to undo the trade they made two years ago and get Clint Dolezel back. Of course they're going to be partial to him because he won them their only Arena Bowl... but they're right... it was a horrible trade and their QB situation has sucked ever since.

The complete NFL 2005 schedule will be unveiled today on NFL.com at 2pm eastern, hahaha, I feel like a kid on christmas morning!

Here's a direct link to the 2005 schedule:

http://www.nfl.com/schedules

The Patriots schedule is interesting, the usual 2 games versus the Bills, Jets and Dolphins. There second game will be a rematch of SuperBowl 38 in Carolina, then the Steelers the next week after. One step closer to the season kicking off!!!

Ugh, Packers-Vikings is the 5th home game of the year... meaning we don't get tickets for it with our season ticket package (2nd and 5th home games go to the Milwaukee "Gold Package" while we have the Green Bay "Green Package")... in theory it should only be a 1 in 4 chance that that game would fall on a Gold Package week, but it seems like Packers-Vikings ends up Gold Package more often than not.

That Packer-Viking game is in the middle of a killer stretch in November. Home vs. Pittsburgh on Nov. 6, at Atlanta Nov. 13, home vs. Minnesota Monday Nov. 21, at Philadelphia Nov. 27.

But... nice to have 3 games at Lambeau Dec. 11 or later

Andrew Perloff of SI.com posted a article of the 5 NFL teams that have the toughest schedules this upcoming season, and who's 1st, the Patriots. It never ceases to amaze me how people write this team off, keep in mind this is the perspective of a long time die-hard Pats fan. I understand it's a tough few games of the start of the year. I'm sure I can debate this topic upon end. Anyhow, the link to the article is below if anybodies interested:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/andrew_perloff/04/13/toughest.schedules/index.html

I'm not liking the early part of Cleveland's schedule ... after hosting Cincy in the first game, they play AT Green Bay in week 2 and then play Indianapolis before getting a bye in week 4 ... why not just give the Browns a road game at New England while you're at it? (for the record, we avoid a confrontation with the Pats this year )

True eh ALBrodeo, it would of been a interesting match up for sure, hmmmmm, I'd imagine it to happen in 2006!

Here's a question somebody should have an answer too:
Is the schedule made by people or is it done by a computer? Obviously the opener in Foxboro would of been chosen by the league. The Raiders owner, Al Davis complained that the league was trying to screw his team over by making them travel up to Foxboro.

I just read a article about the Patriots visit to the White House yesterday and when asked about his new contract his agent and the team are working out, Brady had this to say:

"I'd love to be here for the rest of my career, but it's not entirely my decision"

His current deal runs out at the end of 2006 so that gives them lots of time for a extension but apparently the big hold up, is the signing bonus. The Pats want to spread the bonus out over the length of the new contract which Brady balked at. I really hope this gets settled sooner than later. It would be a incredibly bad moment if Brady were to go play elsewhere in the future. I just can't see that happening...

PS-Did anybody see Bill Belichek present Bush with a "Belichek Hoodie" Maybe it'll solve his problems...

Hey RG, the NFL adopted a set formula for scheduling in 2002. Every AFC team must play each other at least once every 3 years and each AFC team play every NFC team once every 4 years with each team hosting every 8 yrs. Only 2 games on each teams schedule are based upon the previous years schedule. So there are very little "strength of schedule" issues anymore. When you average it out everyone plays the same schedule except for the additional IN DIVISION games.

I sure would like to catch the Bills in San Diego on Nov. 20th.