Archives for June 20, 2014

‘The Bills closed out 12 days of spring practices with their final minicamp session. The highlight was a two-minute address by Bills great Jim Kelly to the players at the start of the session. The players are now off until they report for training camp in Rochester on July 18.’

‘His voice was surprisingly strong considering the cancer treatments have been tough on his mouth. The 54-year-old Kelly was joined on the visit by his brother Dan and fellow Bills Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas.’

‘Such bidders must sign the NDA in order to receive the “offering memorandum,” or sale book.’

‘The “Livin’ on a Prayer” rocker, who’s interested in buying the Buffalo Bills, had a two-hour lunch with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in New York on Thursday. “They were definitely talking business,” said a source, who reports the duo dined at power spot Fresco by Scotto.’

‘Two people familiar with the sale process told The Associated Press on Thursday that prospective buyers began receiving a seven-page non-disclosure agreement, and a brief outline of background material on the Bills franchise and stadium. The documents were distributed by Proskauer Rose, the legal firm overseeing the sale.’

‘”From everybody I’ve talked to, this is a very special team,” Kelly said. “Let’s get this thing back on the road, let’s start playing games in January.”‘

‘”You’ve just got to keep on giving those guys the ball,” Hackett said. “That’s a great room; we’ve got a lot of good players on this team. They all want the ball, and that’s what you want as an offensive coordinator.’

‘”This is what you need to put your arms around — each other. Make this your team. Make it very special. Realize it’s because when it’s all over, the things you have are your memories. The people that you built that relationship with — not just on the football field but away from the field.’

‘”Like to be honest, I’m not no little girl, but that brought a tear to my eye. That’s a legend right there,” said wide receiver and Buffalo-native Mike Williams. “I kept saying it every time he said a word, I said, ‘legend.’ It was a joy to see him out there talking and walking around, and to come and talk to us and to say the things he said about our offense, it was kind of like a joy.”‘

‘”We started off where, they threw me out there and I was just going every rep, and then the leg started getting to me,” Williams said, referring to a previous injury. “Then they started holding me back more and more, but then I started getting my leg back, they were giving me more reps. It was really the leg, but I should be 100-percent by camp.”‘

‘”Just to see him out here, I don’t care what you’ve got on your mind or what’s on your plate, it’s not near something that he’s gone through,” said Bills quarterback Jeff Tuel. “To see him out here to talk to us and keep our spirits up I don’t think we’ve had as good of a start to practice as we did after Jim spoke to us. He had great words and I think it fired everybody up because there was a lot of energy after that.”‘

‘I’m excited, I really am. I’m excited that we have those extra days. I wasn’t as excited last year because we had the least amount of practices. Now we will have the most amount of practices. So, I’m excited about that because we need that and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”‘

‘”I wasn’t expecting this, and sometimes it’s hard for me to talk but I want to first of all thank the guys who sent prayers when I was going through a tough time,” he said. “One thing I noticed about Buffalo, New York is that everybody comes together. There’s always somebody to pull you together, whether it’s on the football field or after a tough year or whether it was when I was in the hospital.”‘