Dan's Papers - February 15, 2008 -

Dear Dan,
I loved your article about the Giants winning the Super Bowl. I must say that as a rabid fan of the New York Jets, I found myself routing for the Giants too - a rare occurrence in New York Sports where Jets fans hate the Giants, Mets fans hate the Yankees, Islander fans hate the Rangers, and Knick fans hate the Nets (and vice versa.) But the story of this team was too great not to become excited about; a coach and quarterback vilified by both fans and the press succeeding in a dramatic and exciting way, a pass play that will go down in history completed by a scramble and a dramatic catch by a backup player, and a victory over an unbeaten team. If Dan had written this as an article, people would accuse you as writing one of your fun articles.
But I do want to correct one part of the article. The Giants did not play New England twice during the regular season. The only game they played this season with New England was the one they lost at the end of the regular season. The only teams pro-football teams play twice in a season are the ones in their own division (for the Giants it is with the Eagles, Redskins and Cowboys) interdivision and inter-league games are played only once a season with the team.

Harry E. Heller, Ph.D.
President
Research Consulting Agency
East Hampton
Via e-mail

They played and the Giants lost in pre-season and regular season then won the Super Bowl. - DR

Dear Dan,
After reading your article THE GIANTS WIN! I have a lot of things to discuss and correct. The Giants are still just a mediocre team. Eli is still just an average QB; He will never have the numbers Brady puts up. In 2007 Brady had 50 TD passes. Eli had 23, I believe a fellow named Randy Moss had more TD's thrown to just him than ELI did to all of his receivers. Lets talk about the NY fan base for a minute as well. An entire season goes by, then the Giants win the super bowl and all of a sudden everyone loves football and everyone loves the Giants. I know this because I live here in NY and I'm seeing it with my own eyes. Even on my way to work the same trucks I've seen commuting now have Giants bumper stickers and helmets on them. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon.
Now to the real reason I'm writing in to you. This article is untruthful, and you can't be wrong with facts if you're going to gloat about your teams' victory. First of all you said, "In Forty-Three years of the NFL, only once has a wild card won the Super Bowl." Are you sure? Not too long ago in 2005, the Steelers won the Super Bowl as a wild card, along with the 1980 Raiders, the 2000 Ravens, and the 1997 Broncos. A total of 9 Teams have made it to the big game from a wild card spot, those are the only teams to win it all. By the way 43 years, where did you get that number? In 1920 the league was formed with 11 teams called the American Professional Football Association, and in 1922 it was renamed the NFL. The wild card itself wasn't used until the 1970 season so you can rephrase your sentence and say "In 38 years of the NFL's wild card..." Moving on.... Lets now talk about how you said " ...they would play the New York Giants a team they had beaten twice during the regular season and somehow had wobbled into the arena" Well ill just keep this one simple. NO you're wrong, they played them once. If you noticed the Giants this season played teams like the cowboys and Eagles more than once, why you ask, there in the same division. Which is why New England will never play the Giants more than once in a season. Before this season the last time they actually played them during the regular season was in 2003. Keeping on the same topic you said, "Meanwhile, the New England Patriots were fourteen wins and no defeats" no they were 15-0 It was the last game of the season week 17! According to you it was the "second to last game of the regular season."
Finally you said referring of Tom Brady that "His Numbers were terrible" well if you call his numbers terrible then what were Eli's numbers? Eli was 19-34 that's 55% and 255 Yards with an INT. Brady was 29 for 48 at 60% with 266 total yards. Eli has thrown 266 yards or more only nine times his entire career, while Brady has had 266 yards or more ten times just this season. That's beside the point.
So next time get the facts straight, well who knows when next time will be, it definitely will not be next year.

Dear Dan,
I read you article on the taser death of David Glowczski. There is some information you will need to know about how the taser works first. The actual taser the Southampton Village Police used on David is no longer in use. That particular make and model is no longer availed to law enforcement. The unit delivered excessive electric voltage. After the unit is discharged a user can cable the taser to a PC and read the data the taser stores. The computer software will create a series of reports from the data. In the case of the taser unit used on David the data was corrupted and unreadable.
The reason David had 9 sets of burn marks on his body is that that he was not "tasered" per se. The front cartridge containing the darts and coiled wires was removed on orders from the Sergeant on duty. The user was ordered by Schucht to remove the cartridge and use the taser in the 'drive stun' mode. This means when the taser is triggered the electric arc is visible and the two electrodes become hot and burn the flesh. Drive stunning David was not the decision of the Officer using the taser. Why was David drive stunned with the taser? Probably because the officers at the scene did not have the confidence from training in hand to hand combat. Additionally both officers were not considered to be the most fit in the department. The taser was an easy alternative. There is much debate over excited delirium. Positional asphyxia is a more likely explanation and should be explored. I thought David was quite harmless in all my dealings with him. I wish I had been working that morning.