At some point last weekend, the odometer on the 1976 AMC Pacer that is Battle Red Blog rolled over 4,000,000 hits. Seeing as how we passed 3,000,000 back in November, that means another 1,000,000 unique visits happened between then and now.

Maybe. I'm not sure. I'm not a numbers guy.

For a site that once consisted of little more than a couple of people lamenting the continued employment of Chad Stanley, this kind of growth continues to amaze me. It never would have happened without every single person who takes the time to read and contribute to the discussion here, and I am tremendously grateful for that. BRB is bigger than any one individual (well, except for maybe Rivers...that guy is a rock star), and it's more than a little daunting to realize how big this place has become.

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I had no idea Ritalin was even on the NFL's banned substance list. Mark Berman reports that Brett Hartmann has now received permission from the NFL to use Ritalin in the future, but that won't keep him from having to serve a three-game suspension this year.

The Hitman speaks after the jump.

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As one gets older and creates oneself a family, one realizes that certain things that were once important become less of a big deal, and other things that one previously took for granted become invaluable. The most valuable of these newly scarce resources is time.

It seems that as I get older and gain responsibilities in both my job and my family, I've not had the time for some activities that I used to enjoy deeply. I no longer have the calluses on my fingers from playing guitar, my 5K time has dropped drastically, and the amount of time I spend screwing around reading random stuff on the internet has been cut by an order of magnitude.

When resources are thin, one must become more... ahem... resourceful. As such, there are only a handful of places on the internet that I regularly visit. One of these is Joe Blogs, where Joe Posnanski spins his tales about sports and life.

Recently, he had two posts which, when combined, affected me in a way he probably never intended.

The first was this one where he talks about how his sports-hating daughter fell for a sport he never imagined: NASCAR. The second was a bit of a rambling post where he reflects on the death of Donna Summer and other elements of his childhood.

The first post got me thinking about how my daughter, who is 17 months old now, will grow to think of sports. I've mentioned before that my wife is more like Joe's daughter, only without the love of any sport, so there's certainly a chance my daughter will follow her footsteps, but somehow I remain optimistic that she will be not only a sports lover, but that we will spend countless hours watching and enjoying football and baseball.

Yet only after reading the second post was I slapped in the face with a sudden and frightening possibility. The impact was triggered by a single line:

I suspect more people today (though I only suspect it, don’t know it) choose their favorite teams rather than simply sticking with the team they inherited.

Suddenly I put the two posts together and was faced by a terrible possibility: What if my daughter grows to love sports but roots for other teams?

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Late last year, Andre Johnson supposedly hyperextended his left knee. Now word comes down that 'Dre had that knee scoped two weeks ago. He is not expected to be back before training camp, which means no 'Dre for OTAs or mini-camp.

'Dre says this is "nothing to panic about," and history says he may be on to something.

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With organized team activities for your Houston Texans officially beginning today, Gary Kubiak had some novel things to say within Dale Robertson's piece in today's Chronicle. The lockout last year meant no OTAs, which meant less official preparation and, lo and behold, the Texans had the best season in franchise history. That fact was not lost on Kubes:

"It does make a coach stop and think a little bit," Gary Kubiak admitted. "The NFL season is so long and such a grind. I think we all learned something from the experience. Keeping that momentum going, keeping everyone’s dauber up for six months … hopefully, we learned some things last year that we can put in place with this year’s bunch."

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The following is, from start to finish, a work of complete fiction. Any resemblance to persons alive and/or dead are purely coincidental, so please don't sue me (because I own nothing of value); unless, of course, it's a reference to someone here on BRB, in which case REALLY don't sue me.

Chapter One - It's Good To Be The QB

Chapter Two - A Blogger Named Scott Brooks

Chapter Three - The Quarterback Is Dead

Chapter Four - Why Is Housekeeping Never There When You Need It?

Chapter Five - The Photograph

Chapter Six - I'm Looking For A Girl. Yeah, Aren't We All?

Chapter Seven - Finnegan's Eliot's Wake

Chapter Eight - When You Wish Upon A Star

When Scott arrived at the office, it was as quiet as a tomb. It did not start out that way, but when Scott entered, all conversation came to an abrupt halt. Their eyes fixated on Scott's bedraggled appearance. His hair looked like it had gotten into a street fight with a hair dryer and lost, his black shirt was untucked and badly wrinkled with scattered bits of debris from the ground clinging to it like so much decoration, and his typically upright posture was replaced with one more in keeping with a character from a Victor Hugo novel.

Scott did not notice, he did not care. All he could think about was the pain that screamed from the left side of his abdomen and the "conversation" he had, such as it was, with Texans defensive end Marcus Sheridan. Scott lurched into the elevator, which emptied out as he walked in amid people muttering how they would take the next elevator up. He leaned against the side of the car and mashed feebly the button for his floor until the doors closed.

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A couple weeks ago, DreKeem was nice enough to grace us with his presence with a music open thread. I thought I'd do something a little different, as well, with tonight's open thread. Now, don't let me stop you from celebrating Chelsea's win today (EnglishTexan, that's for you, brother) or the merits of turtle stacking. Yes, this is fully an open thread. But I thought tonight would be fun to talk about food, as well. Before you stuff yourself to the point where movement is no longer an option, jump with me, won't you?

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A few days ago, we had a post discussing SB Nation's role in the NFL Rookie Premiere. That partnership is already bearing fruit for BRB, thanks to SB Nation's ability to sit down and chat with DeVier Posey. The full interview will be up on SB Nation's YouTube channel later, but some selected quotes await you after the jump to whet your appetite.

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