Blowing it up, or how I learned to avoid speculation and love the bomb

Blowing it up, or how I learned to avoid speculation and love the bomb

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I deliberately avoided posting something here about the match. Why? I don't know. Pain, or something like that. Not physical pain (unless you ate my chili, in which case, my condolences — but I told you it was spicy) but that pain of "It's over, isn't it?"

I don't mean everything, either. I'm not a "blow-it-up" proponent, and I don't think Garth Lagerwey and Jason Kreis are, either. They're much too reasonable for that. Why not blow it up, then? Let's talk. First, let's say for purposes of discussion that blowing it up involves dropping at least 6 or 7 players, all veteran core players.

1. Blowing it up involves cutting guys who are on guaranteed contracts, which means spending money to relieve them of their contracts. You can't miraculously just dismiss somebody who you've guaranteed money: It would run afoul of contract law, of league rules, and of common sense.

2. Blowing it up means getting rid of important players who still have years left on their legs. You don't actively look to move on players who can still perform well for you unless they prove a horrendous value. I don't think we have any of those.

3. Blowing it up means disrupting a good thing. Yes, I know losing hurts, and surely we have to improve, but my word, we've got a good thing here, and getting rid of it all would be foolhardy.

4. We've already started, anyway. A little bit. Remember Robbie Russell and Andy Williams? We didn't happily just set them off, but we had to get rid of them for salary cap and age reasons (in conjunction with one another). We did, and while there were certainly some growing pains as a result, I don't think it ended us.

If I'm to guess, we'll see a few players off this offseason. It's inevitable, really. I'm not going to speculate on who those may be, but I suspect we'll keep with our pattern of only shifting off players who don't have too many years left in their legs. I could well be wrong.

Oh, and in case you're curious — I don't think we're getting rid of Jonny Steele, so just stop your whining and get on with it, please.

Three things to remember as you continue speculating on all that nonsense: Age, value, and ability. Not to say you wouldn't consider those, but you know, you can never be too careful.