Archives for December 2008

‘”I think he’s probably where a lot of guys are in their second year, honestly,” Van Pelt said. “I think the bar was set really high early on by his play. I think that’s what we expect from him after he puts a few of those games together. Then when he starts to play more like a second-year player at times, you start to realize, maybe you were expecting a little much early on."’

‘”Right now I haven’t been ruled officially into the game, but I think I’m going to play,” Whitner said. “I feel good enough to play. I feel strong enough to play. . . . Barring any setbacks, I think I’ll be out there.”‘

‘Many people, including me, are worried about the future of the Bills in Buffalo. But as I see it, the only way the abominable fan behavior is going to change is if we do what they did in Philadelphia: blow up the Ralph and build a new stadium and insist on higher standards of fan behavior right from the start.’

‘And rather than spend all of it standing on the sidelines as he has done for 10 ½ of Buffalo’s first 12 games this season, it looks as if Losman is going to get the start for Sunday’s AFC East showdown against the Miami Dolphins at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.’

‘They were reportedly spotted Saturday during a late-night visit to the Seneca Niagara Casino in downtown Niagara Falls. That’s hard to believe that they would be out on the town past midnight – on game day.’

‘Without warbling a single word, Cohon’s quaint eight-team outfit got an unexpected shot in the arm courtesy of Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams and Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly.’

‘According to Ticketmaster’s website, non-VIP seats to Sunday’s game ranged in price from $105 to $350 (Canadian). With such steep prices, many Bills fans have decided to remain in Buffalo Sunday afternoon and, as of yesterday, organizers in Toronto were still hustling to avoid the TV blackout the NFL imposes on games that don’t sell out.’

‘”When the schedule comes out the fans always ask, `When are the Bills playing the Dolphins?’ because they are our No. 1 rivalry,” Kelly said. When we found out they were playing this game up here it was a little bittersweet because we wanted the Dolphins to come up to Buffalo with a little snow on the ground to have that advantage.”‘

‘”In general, I just like Canadians. They all seem nice and honest. One thing I tell people about Canadians versus Americans is in America I think you’re frowned at if you try to be yourself. From my experience that’s something that’s appreciated in Canada. Obviously, I don’t always fit in wherever I go.”‘

‘”It’s bittersweet,” Kelly says. “It would be great for a city like Toronto to have an NFL franchise – as long as it isn’t a Buffalo franchise.” In fact, Kelly has made himself the poster boy for efforts to keep the Bills in Buffalo, trying to cobble together an ownership group, and to persuade his old boss to sell the team to local interests before he goes to his great reward.’

‘It’s not so much Schonert forgets entirely about the run when his team gets in the red zone – the Bills called a run on the first play of each red-zone possession last Sunday – but they wouldn’t stick with it.’

‘”It’s their billions of TV revenues and their lock on all the largest sponsors that could give [the NFL] the power to be predatory if they wanted to be.”‘

‘”He did the rookie show,” former Argos defensive back Orlondo Steinauer said. “He wasn’t saying, ‘Well, I’ve played all this time.’ Once people saw that, they didn’t see him as a failed drug test guy, they saw him as Ricky Williams and he earned the respect of 99 per cent of his teammates.”‘

‘”I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of people who have contacted me, that they want to be a part of the team that stays here in Buffalo,” Kelly said. “To be honest with you, there are some people who said they wanted to own the team and take it somewhere else. I will not engage in any conversation with anybody who wants to take the team and move it — whether it’s north of the border or some other city in the United States.”‘

‘”I was probably six months old the first time I saw my dad breaking down game film,” April says from Oregon. “The first time I started helping break down film, I was probably eight or nine years old.”‘