Archives for July 2010

‘The resort has teamed up with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, who will be in training camp from July 29-Aug. 24 at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford. During tournament week, Aug. 2-8, four celebrity guest Bills alumni will participate in the Wednesday (Aug. 4) pro-am, which has been renamed the Buffalo Bills Pro-Am. In addition, the Buffalo Jills cheerleading squad will be on hand to cheer on the contestants.’

‘Maybin believes that his game will translate well to the 3-4, and that his skill set will be accentuated in the new attack. “I couldn’t be more excited about this season coming up, with the new defensive scheme that we’re running and with the personnel that we’re bringing in and that we’ve already brought in, and just the guys on the team that we already have. I couldn’t be more excited,” he said. “I think it’s going to be great.”‘

‘Twenty-one points per game might seem like an arbitrary benchmark to determine NFL success, but not when one looks at the league’s playoff participants in 2009. Last season eight of the top nine scoring teams in the league made the playoffs, and 10 of the top 13. All 10 of those playoff clubs averaged more than 21 points per game. Even the Jets armed with the NFL’s top defense averaged 21.8 points per outing to rank 17th in the league. That timely offense helped to vault them to the AFC Championship game.’

‘Tickets are gone for the home-opener against Miami on Sept. 12 and the Week 12 game against Pittsburgh on Nov. 28. The game against the New York Jets on Oct. 3 has only limited tickets available, the team said.’

‘As part of the Bills Season Ticket Holder benefits program, Season Ticket Holders had the opportunity to purchase group and individual game tickets in advance. Group tickets had also previously been made available to the general public. In addition, Bills Backers including Bills Facebook friends, Bills Twitter followers and Bills Text Alert subscribers were given an early online pre-sale opportunity to purchase individual game tickets on July 12.’

‘Terrell Owens says he’s concerned teams haven’t signed him because of the perception that he’s a troublemaker, but his season with the Buffalo Bills should prove he won’t be a distraction.’

‘”Today was a great day at the zoo,” said Arthur Moats. “We got to see the little kids, sign autographs and go around the zoo. My favorite part about the day was seeing the zebras. Antonio was joking about seeing the zebras saying he wanted to ride one. All of the kids really enjoyed joking around with us, so when we finally saw them (zebras) the kids really liked it and wanted their pictures taken in front of them.”‘

‘"I think we’ll have a great team. We’ll put in a lot of hard work. Everybody’s committed. Everybody seems focused. The main thing is we can’t worry about what outside people think. I think some people have us finishing last in the NFL. Who’d have ever thought the Saints would have won the Super Bowl last year? Those guys probably just blocked out everybody else and went to work. That’s the same thing that we’ve got to do."’

‘”We’re all in this like a new team,” said Marcus Stroud. “We’re all going out there together and learning plays together, and by the time the season starts hopefully everybody will be right where they need to be and things will start clicking at the right time.”‘

‘"I let my agent handle all of that. We’re not going to rush. We’re going to make sure we cross our T’s and dot our I’s, however long the process takes. I just have to be patient. I can’t get antsy about the situation. I’ve talked to a lot of veteran guys. My teammates aren’t concerned about me holding out. They know that I want to be there, but at the end of the day it’s a business. You have to do what’s best for your family. It was good to get that support from veteran guys already – before negotiations have heated up."’

‘Parrish is the most talented punt returner on the team, registering a career average return of 12.4 yards, but has seen sparing repetitions on kickoffs. He has just 29 kick returns for 685 yards since being drafted by the Bills in 2005, with the majority of his work coming on punt return. Parrish’s speed and ability to create once he receives the ball make him a threat anywhere on the field, yet he has far less experience on the unit than some of his veteran teammates.’

‘The transition to the 3-4 defense by the Buffalo Bills has already yielded some intriguing discussion regarding the various positional battles when training camp practice opens July 29 at St. John Fisher. Areas that have been addressed in detail to this point have been the defensive line and linebacker corps, but that is only half of the defensive alignment.’

‘”He never told me one way or the other when Kyle Williams and I went down there early in the offseason to spend some time with him,” said Chris Kelsay. “I never really got a feeling one way or another. But knowing him as a person and being close friends with him and playing my entire career with him I know he’s a family man, he places a lot of his choices on what’s best for his family, but he still has that football mentality and he showed that last year with double digit sacks in his ninth year. That was pretty impressive.”‘

‘"Everyone talked about the thing between me and Trent and the bottom line is he didn’t have an offensive line last year with all the injuries, and he had a system that I totally thought stunk," Kelly said. "It’s a new start, not many people get a third opportunity to show what they can or cannot do."’

‘”There are a lot of different things in this defense. We’ll be making other teams think more instead of just being here and here and being so mundane,” he said. “We’ll be switching things up a lot pre-snap with moving around. It should be good.”‘