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• Helping Others this Thanksgiving

  November 24, 2008

  Checking into the Yard, getting ready for Thanksgiving. Each year a bunch of the guys on the team donate turkeys to the Cleveland Foodbank so that we can help many struggling families enjoy a Thanksgiving they deserve. We will meet at the Foodbank Tuesday afternoon and help get the meals prepared and hand them out to the families. Many of the guys will bring their kids so that they can help pass out the food and learn the value in helping others. When you can do something like this it always makes you feel good, especially when you see the smiles on their faces. I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck and struggled to make ends meet so it's important to me to be able to do things like this. When we had Thanksgiving back home in Florida it was a whole day thing. The entire family came by and we turned it into a big block party for us. Thanksgiving is all about family coming together and enjoying each other. I hope everyone in the Yard has a Happy Thanksgiving.

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• Much Needed Win on Monday Night

  November 18, 2008

  What's up Yardbarkers! There is nothing like playing on Monday Night. You don't get to do it every year so when you do you want to make the most of that exposure. This is my first season through it, we have three Monday Night games this year and it's very exciting. Everyone is watching, your friends, your family, the rest of the league, everybody, so as a team you want to build that momentum and as players you get a chance to showcase your skills. We all want to go across that water and play in the Pro Bowl so those kind of games are fun to play in. I had a little scare early in the game. I couldn't feel three of my fingers on my right hand for about 3-4 plays so I checked with the trainers. They said I hit a nerve or something so they took me in for X-rays to be sure. The X-rays were negative and I got the feeling back in my hand 15-20 minutes later. I've had a thousand stingers but I've never had anything like that. But I'm 100% healthy and was glad to get back out there. It was a much needed win, it wasn't the prettiest win, but it's an important one. We were two teams fighting all night and it came down to the last play. Coach Crennel said all week you never know what play is going to make a difference in a game. Phil Dawson made a big difference. It's tough to kick in the cold like that but he was dialed in. I cannot stress how big a week it was for us. We had a lot of distraction and had that Q word thrown at us. Knowing how hard this team works that is an unfair label and we played with a sense of urgency to disassociate ourselves from it. Brady showed progress, we all showed progress. He made the throws to get us down there to win it. Now we're just two games out of the wild card race. We all believe in this locker room that we can make it to the playoffs.

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• Big One at Buffalo

  November 13, 2008

  We've got a big one this week against Buffalo. The Bills started 5-1 and lost the last three. We've been up the last two weeks and let them both get away. We both need a win and it's Monday Night so the whole world will be watching. We beat Buffalo last year in the blizzard and now we're coming to their house. They will be gunning for us and we have to match their intensity. We win this one and we're back in it. Aside from Tennessee, everyone has at least three losses. This year's showing the parity in the NFL. It's hard to win and we lost a couple games early in the season and we're still trying to get out of that hole. Jacksonville is a team that was this close to beating New England last year in the playoffs. They're a great team, but they're trying to dig themselves out. It's all over the league. The only people going to keep believing in us are the guys in our locker room and we are focused and determined to turn it around. The last two weeks have been frustrating, no question, we're all disappointed that we let them get away, but the guys are playing hard and we're fighting until the end. We practice hard as a team, we watch film, we prepare, it's very competitive but we all need to do a little extra. That's our focus.

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