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I wanted to post something around here, and I need to rant, so let me kill two birds with one stone!

During the PCF days I was single. My love life was a comedy of errors. But that area of my life has improved (as did many others). I'm married now, have been for a little over five years. Just laying the ground work so this next announcement doesn't shock anyone...

My father-in-law passed away about two weeks ago.

No, not ranting about that. Imma rant about work!

I had to take some time off of work to leave town and be with my wife's family and attend the viewing, the memorial service, etc. I usually have my shop a very low-maintenance, figuratively well-oiled machine that allows me to nearly sleep at work. You would think that I could leave things here and everything would be fine when I get back, right? Of course not!

Everything bad happened when I was away, and all this shit stacked up on me and I've been fighting with it since I returned to work yesterday! Add to that that I'm trying to get caught up with all this shit, and we had an influx of all of our work-from-home users come in to the office due to a failure of the server they log in to that I don't control and have no access to fix personally. So, for about 30 people I had to arrange accommodations for them all, on top of trying to get caught up on all my other shit.

It's about 3pm, and this is the first opportunity I had all day to sit down. So, I wanted to vent about it!

What did you do/say/think/throw/murder when the Vikings signed Favre?

thats the important question

All right, I'll bite on this one...

I was upset. No, not because Favre was the franchise quarterback of my team's arch rivals for so many years. But, because (in my opinion) he is one of the two most overrated athletes in human history (Mike Tyson is the other). Two of the many reasons I feel that way about Favre is because his numbers never justified his hype, and because Favre was always about himself first, and the team would come somewhere after that. How many Packers games, indeed entire Packers seasons, were sacrificed because Favre's consecutive starting streak was so important?

Anyway, at first I thought the guy couldn't decide whether or not he was retired. Then I figured out what he was doing...being all about himself, he thought that going to training camp with the rest of the team was beneath him. So, he stayed "retired" until preseason was over, then he magically comes back.

I will admit to this...if Favre would have played each season like he did in '09 for the Vikings, then I would agree that his hype would be justified. However, it just wasn't that way. Anyway, because Favre is Favre, and he's all about him, that's what cost the Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl.

I dunno how many of you remember, but late in the 4th with the game tied, all he had to do was to kneel on the ball and have Ryan Longwell (another former Packer) split the uprights with it and the Vikings finally get to go to their long-overdue Super Bowl. But, instead of doing the right thing, Favre instead reverted to doing what he did better than anyone who ever played the game...threw an interception. I have to admit that I wasn't all that surprised when that happened. I knew it was only a matter of time before the Favre I knew reared his ugly head and started being himself again.

Sometime next year I'm going to put together my pilgrimage to the Hall of Fame. I have always wanted to visit. I promised myself I would visit after Cris Carter got inducted and before the HOF's integrity was compromised with Favre's presence. I'm looking at next Summer. I think that Favre will go in I believe in '16.

In all fairness to Favre, I will also admit that with that masseuse scandal, I was on his side. One question that begged to be asked about all that, and I'm not sure it ever was, is if this woman was so offended then why did it take her two years to get mad about it?

Well, that's good to hear. Last I heard BigBaldBen was running this place, and also last I heard he doesn't hold me in the highest esteem. But, again, I only poke my head in annually or less so I don't know if, when, how, or why that changed. We all know what happens when you assume, so my bad.

Last time we 'talked' you seemed like you had moved on from all the drama, but to be honest, I didn't want to risk it.  And I felt I had a duty to those on the board who ... um ... were less forgiving and/or forgetful. 

I would have normally gone by this thread and not even read it, but for two things:

1) I don't own this place anymore, so your presence is not my call.  I haven't even been around much, just pop in from time to time.

2) I'm empathetic.  There are some things that I have said and done over the last decade that I would like to take back or do over.  Some people have forgiven me.  Some haven't.  But I understand the frustration of being truly sorry for something and having no way to convince people otherwise.  It sucks. 

Now you come back years later, again, expressing the same regret and humility.  If your apology still stands, then I accept.  And regardless of whether or not your apology still stands, I offer my own apology for not accepting yours earlier.  I hope you can understand why I didn't at the time. 

I don't know what others might say if you cross paths with them, but that's up to them, and if they don't have the same outlook as me they're still my friends and will (I hope) remain so.

So all of that said, I give you a virtual handshake and say let's move on.

There seems to be some misunderstandings here, so please allow me the opportunity to clear some of them up...

First off, I'll offer my own definition of "regret", or at least how I personally deal with regrets (with any situation in life, not just PCF). If, given a specific situation and/or set of circumstances, and given the information I had at the time, did I make the right call? If the answer is "yes", then I don't regret it, and I chalk it up to "shit happens". In life, you can only control what you can control, and you can only do your part. You can't control other people's behavior (at least not with methods that comply with local laws).

This isn't to say I have no regrets about the PCF days, but given my definition of "regret" they're not as numerous as one might think. And, Ben, not trying to start anything here but none of those regrets involve you.

As to an apology, I never offered one. I don't offer one. In my mind, I have nothing to apologize for. I did the best I could under a very trying set of circumstances to futiliy reach what was ultimately an unattainable goal. As to forgiveness, I am not asking for that from anyone as I don't require it and, again, I don't feel I did anything to be forgiven for.

When I sent you that message two years ago (or whatever it was), it was to express that I was glad to see most of PCF's core posters still together, and to wish you all well. I meant that then, and I still mean it. I didn't have any ulterior motives for sending that message. If I recall correctly, the message was sent on some sort of "contact administrator" form and not a "thread" because I didn't want to sign up for an account. I meant what I had told you, but there wasn't more to it than that. I wasn't apologizing, I wasn't asking for forgiveness or approval or a way "back in", and if I recall, I didn't leave any contact info for myself because I didn't need a response. I just trusted that you would see it, I pretty much forgot about it, and thought I'd check out the site in another year or two or whatever these inconsistent intervals have been that I pop my head in.

As to "moving on", I guess that depends on your definition of "moving on". I feel more as if I left PCF behind me. I mean, it's over, and there will be no more chapters to the PCF story. I guess some would say that's the same thing, and it probably is.

As to holding a grudge...here's the way I look at it Ben. Continuing a feud with you would involve energies that I feel would be better spent elsewhere, and continuing to feud with you would provide no benefit to me whatsoever. I'd like to think an identical situation exists for you. Don't take this to mean I see myself as enlightened or something similar. I'm just saying that holding on to the old grudges isn't worth it to me.

Ben, I'll be honest with you...if someone offered me a magic wand that can just make people die when I wave it and say their name...I'm not saying I would never use it on you. I will say that, there's a lot of people in line in front of you for the wave of my magic death wand. By the time I finally got around to using it on you the batteries would have worn out, or someone would have taken the wand away from me for abusing my power with it, or it would have broken outside of the warranty period or something like that.

I'm not trying to start anything here. I'm just keeping it real, and letting you know where I was then at and where I am at now. Whether or not you can accept all of this or not, I'll sleep good tonight either way. All I can do is my part, and now I've feel I've done that.

GoChiefs... That guy makes me laugh. Not laugh with him, but laugh at him kind of thing. There are just some guys you can figuratively set your watch to, and Curtis will always be one of those guys.

The old PCF days...obviously that's not the way I wanted it to work out, either. But, after a few years to think it over I realized the drama didn't matter. That may sound strange, but I'll explain...

I started PCF with the primary goal to show the gaming industry that their perception was wrong, and that there was indeed a market that wanted to play football games on the PC. After all this time, I still believe that to be true. But, the NFL and EA signed the exclusivity deal (which I believe runs out next year), which has really hurt the games and hurt gamers. EA is a shit company, and probably always will be. They're going to spin whatever lies they're going to spin and they're always just going to do whatever the hell it is they want to do, regardless of whether or not it is good business. They haven't put an NCAA product on the PC since '99, or an NFL product on the PC since '08. I'm sure they're sitting in their ivory tower, slobbering all over each other about how they made all the right decisions and that PC gamers are an inferior class of people who don't like none of them sports, and PC gamers just play Warcraft when they're not masturbating to CHiPs reruns.

My point is that, even if PCF would have worked out exactly how I wanted it to, and even if my vision for it would have been fully realized, it wouldn't have changed anything because EA just does what they do and they think they're always right. Another huge business (bigger than them) had the exact same attitude: Blockbuster Video. Look how they ended up. I'm looking very forward to the day when EA suffers the same fate. Trust me. Either they need to change their attitude or they're going to end up out of business one day, also.

My only regret about the PCF days is that I didn't get out sooner than I did. When you're not making any money doing something, it had better be a passion of yours, something you enjoy and something you have fun doing. Well, I was spending my own money keeping PCF going. And, the drama sucked all the fun and enjoyment out of it for me. I held on as long as I did because I thought I had an obligation to see it through, and maybe it was just a rough patch it was going through. Once I saw that each new day was going to be exactly like the one before it, that's when I threw in the towel.

Well, not trying to stir shit, and I'm not naming names (because what I'm about to say could apply to so many), but I don't miss a lot of the people tied to those old forums. But, in fairness, they probably say the same about me. Though, only one of us can be right, and that would be me.

Well, I hear ya on the database issue. I know it's been a decade since I had to deal with it, and I don't know if technology has advanced that far since, but with PCF it wasn't exactly "set it and forget it". Some troubles were occasionally popping up, usually having to do with the web host's end. What a headache. That is on the list of reasons why I'll never admin a site again. Blah.

But, that was also a different product, vbulletin. Maybe this one is better...

Well, that's good to hear. Last I heard BigBaldBen was running this place, and also last I heard he doesn't hold me in the highest esteem. But, again, I only poke my head in annually or less so I don't know if, when, how, or why that changed. We all know what happens when you assume, so my bad.

I recognize rollntider (obviously), Crewe, TheNorm...so it is nice to see that at least some of the "core" of the old site still posts together.

Why did this place reboot, anyway? (Not trying to bring up unpleasantness if there is any, I'm just curious.)

OK, I'll reply to my own thread with a question I know has haunted many people for over a decade now...

I wonder if GoChiefs ever got the balls to ask Rori out.

I hope this doesn't get deleted before anyone gets to read it. I am Bret, former admin of pcfootball.net. Wow, that was over a decade ago...

After I walked away from PCF, I stopped doing the internet forum thing. I also stopped playing Madden, but for different reasons. Madden became more of what it already was...a fresh coat of paint, a roster update, and another $60 down the drain. So, I've been out of these circles for a very long time. But, lately I peek in about once every year to 18 months just to see what's going on, and I am surprised by this...the whole site is different, and no one is here. It looks to be rebooted, but I only see about three of the people I was expecting to.

Anyway, like I said, I don't do the forum thing too much any more. I just wanted to poke my head in to say hello and to wish you all well. Oh, and congratulations for outliving Maddenmania!