of the leagues most formidable defenses. His

Everybody has a favorite Arnold Palmer memory.Maybe its that time you followed him at a tournament. At one point, he was seemingly in trouble behind a mammoth oak tree, only to hitch up his slacks, take a mighty lash with a 5-iron and land his ball on the green. To this day, you swear he looked right at you afterward and offered a knowing wink.Or maybe its when you ran into him at a restaurant. You didnt want to interrupt, but the man had always been your hero. So you nervously approached and asked for an autograph, only to have that chance encounter turn into him regaling you with a 15-minute story about the good ol days.Or maybe youre not even much into golf. Maybe you only know him because a family member was cared for at the hospital bearing his name. Or because he contributed to your favorite charity. Or just because those old black-and-white pictures make him look like the coolest guy who ever lived.Everybody has a favorite Arnold Palmer memory, because he impacted every single one of us.And now, after hearing of his death at the age of 87, these memories come rushing back.He wasnt just a brilliant golfer; he was the man who ushered the game into the television era. He wasnt just an icon of the sport; he grew to become one of the worlds most recognizable figures.The word legend is thrown around too often these days, but Palmer epitomized the very definition. He founded his own hospital, flew his own plane and concocted his own drink -- and that was just in his spare time.Most of the favorite memories about the man fondly known as The King are personal interactions. People meeting him, speaking with him, taking photos with him, receiving his meticulously penned signature on a hat or ticket stub. And of course, being a member of Arnies Army.My favorite memory is a private one. So private that it includes only him, alone.It was two years ago. Id played Palmers beloved Bay Hill course with some buddies, even stopping at the turn to get a photo with him, like so many thousands of others had done before. After the round, we had lunch and I wasnt in a rush to leave, so I headed back out to the practice green.Within a few minutes, some 50 yards away, a cart pulled up to the far right side of the driving range, two bags of clubs strapped into the back, as always.This wasnt the range where hed developed his game as a youngster. No, that was some 1,000 miles north at Latrobe Country Club, where his father had been the head professional and superintendent and where Arnold, even recently, would sometimes sneak his lunch down to the locker room and eat on a bench near the showers while swapping stories with his old buddies.He came to Bay Hill later in life, once he was already a champion and an icon. He didnt just hit golf balls on that range. He taught -- and yes, he might have even learned a little.Just six months ago, while playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his grandson, Sam Saunders, recalled a time when a lesson on that range turned into so much more. When a few people stopped by to say hello, Palmer took the opportunity to needle him a bit.He was going to try and embarrass me, Saunders recalled. He wanted to toughen me up; he wanted to make me feel uncomfortable. So he said, If this boy will just listen to me, hell be all right. Otherwise hes going to end up driving a tractor. Then he puts that big giant fist right in my face and said, What are you gonna do, boy, if I pop you in the nose? I got right back in his face and said, Ill knock you out, old man. And he got tears in his eyes. I knew thats exactly what he wanted. He was testing me.This wasnt the range where he honed his game; it was the range where hed tried to hold onto it for as long as he could.On that day two years ago, just before his 85th birthday, I watched as the familiar figure pulled up in his cart. Using a club as a cane, he ambled over to a spot on the range and moved a single ball from a pile closer to him. He took a few practice swings, then settled in to his stance, reached back and swung through it.Id love to tell you that the ball soared high into the mid-afternoon sky, his mighty lash no different than a half-century earlier. It didnt. It traveled no more than 100 yards or so. Palmer watched it, and shook his head. He checked his grip. He moved another ball closer. He swung again. Same result.Again and again, maybe 20 times, he hit shots with that club, shaking his head in disappointment after each one. This was a man years removed from tournament golf. He wasnt preparing for any big competition, didnt need to get his game in shape for anything coming up.There he was, though. Still trying. Still digging for secrets in the dirt. Still hoping that somehow, on the precipice of turning 85, the magic would return and hed start hitting towering shots down the range once again, reliving the glory days of his youth.The coolest man in the room. The champion, the icon. The philanthropist and pilot and drink inventor. The man who accomplished so much in his life, still wanted more. He wanted to hit that little white ball the way hed once done.When he was finished, Palmer used the club as a cane, easing himself into the drivers seat of the cart. He sat there for a few minutes, every once in a while looking back toward the range and shaking his head again. Finally, he drove away, unsatisfied with his game. Unsatisfied with himself.That will always be my favorite Arnold Palmer memory. Everybody has one. Cheap Air Max 720 Wholesale . 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Jonathan Drouin also scored and had three assists while Zachary Fucale made 17 saves for the Mooseheads (16-8-0), who led 6-1 after two periods. The intent of Total QBR is to isolate each NFL quarterbacks contribution to his teams fortunes as accurately as possible with the data available. It measures nearly every aspect of quarterback play, from passing to designed runs to scrambles to turnovers to penalties. QBR also strives to separate the performance of the individual quarterback from the rest of his team, all in an effort to rate the overall efficiency of each quarterback in the league.One thing it hasnt done, however, is to account for the strength of the 11 players on the other side of the line of scrimmage.But now, QBR accounts for opposing defenses: Quarterbacks who face tougher defenses will have their ratings adjusted upward in proportion to the difficulty of their opposition, and those who face weaker defenses will have their ratings adjusted downward. This is one more step toward gaining a true measure of overall quarterback performance -- and a big step.Heres how the opponent adjustment works. Early in the season, we dont have enough information on how good each defense truly is. It usually takes several weeks of data to have a reasonable estimate of how tough each defense is. So the adjustment starts with an estimate for each defense, which is based on a model of how defensive performance varies from one season to the next. Then, as each week is played, we update that estimate with performance information from each game. The result is an accurate and relatively stable estimate of how tough each defense is for a quarterback to face. Several weeks into the season, the effect of the early estimate becomes very small, and by the end of the season it is virtually nonexistent.Next, we compute an adjustment to each quarterbacks performance based on those estimates of how tough each defense is. We also factor in home-field advantage. Its no surprise that quarterbacks playing at home tend to have an easier time than those playing on the road. These adjustments are made underneath the hood of QBR -- on each quarterbacks share of his teams expected points added (EPA) per play, which factors in nearly all aspects of quarterback play, including passes, scrambles, designed runs, sacks, turnovers and even some penalties. Those EPA rates are also adjusted to correct for performance in garbage time, when the games outcome has effectively been decided.Lastly, those adjusted EPA rates are scaled to produce the final opponent-adjusted QBR, which is a number from 0 to 100. This scale can be thought of as a percentile of game-level performance -- 50 is average and a 99 would be among the best games on record. Quarterbacks dont often get below a QBR of 5 (theyll get benched by that point). On a season level, a QBR of 75 or higher would be elite performance, and 25 would be considered replacement-level performance.Early in the season, the opponent adjustment will have the most impact since many quarterbacks have faced an imbalanced sset of opposing defenses.dddddddddddd Some examples will help explain how the adjustments affect the ratings.Through Week 3 in 2016, Ryan Tannehills unadjusted raw QBR of 53.0 suggests he has been playing at a league-average level. But his adjusted QBR of 62.2 is significantly higher, highlighting how difficult his opponents have been so far. The Dolphins have faced the Seahawks and Patriots, both on the road, plus the Browns, whose defense so far has been middle of the pack.Drew Brees exemplifies the opposite. Through Monday night, his opponent-adjusted QBR is 52.7, lower than his unadjusted raw QBR of 57.5. His Saints have faced the Raiders, Giants and Falcons, all three in the bottom-third of the league in terms of defensive QBR allowed, with two of three games at home.By the end of the season, most starting quarterbacks have faced an evenly balanced set of opponents, so their adjusted and unadjusted QBRs will be very close. But there are exceptions, and those are the interesting cases. For example, in 2015, one reason the Panthers were able to finish the regular season 15-1 was that they faced a disproportionate number of weaker defenses. The difference between Cam Newtons unadjusted raw QBR of 70.3 and his adjusted QBR of 65.1 (retroactively calculated) reflects the relative weakness of his opponents.On the game level, the adjustments are usually more stark. Matt Ryans recent Monday night game at New Orleans was among the weeks best performances with a raw QBR of 92.4. But because the Saints defense is among the leagues easiest for quarterbacks to face, Ryans opponent-adjusted QBR for that game falls to 87.8.Jacoby Brissett, the Patriots rookie fill-in, had a storybook debut against the Houston Texans, who have one of the leagues most formidable defenses. His raw QBR for the game was 62.1, but after opponent adjustment, it becomes 70.7. The highest-rated game since 2006, when QBR began, is a 99.8 by Colin Kaepernick in the 49ers 42-10 win against the Jaguars in 2013.Jacksonvilles defense was near average that season, so Kaepernicks raw and adjusted QBR are the same. Kaepernick was 10-for-16 with a TD and no interceptions, but this is where QBR and the traditional passer rating diverge. Kaepernick absorbed no sacks, never fumbled, rushed for 54 yards on seven carries, and added two rushing TDs. Remember that QBR is a measure of efficiency, rather than total production, and this game is almost as efficient as it gets.The new, adjusted QBR is now the number youll find under the Total QBR column on the QBR page. The unadjusted QBR is now called raw QBR and is still available for all seasons and games. No player rating system can be perfect, but we think adjusting for opposing defenses is one more step forward for measuring total quarterback performance. ' ' '