Archives for January 23, 2016

'That is to say, if you’re raising ticket prices, even for unfailingly loyal and hopeful Bills fans, wait until their optimism has been buoyed a bit by free agency and speculation about the draft.'

'“He talked with us for a few minutes. He was asking my boys if they were big Bills fans,” Caswell says. “He also asked them if they’re good and listen to their parents. My little guy said 'Well … sometimes.' Jim thought that was pretty funny. He talked to me, too, and noticed my Tyrod jersey.”'

'Other than that, there was mostly what the record reflected: mediocrity.'

'“This will allow Dennis freedom to go, if he wants to spend more time with the secondary, with whatever, that’s fine,” Ryan said. “But Tim McDonald’s our secondary coach, and I feel great about that.”'

'“This is my football team,” Ryan said. “That’s how I’m approaching it. It’s not that I’m just a defensive guy. No, this is my team. It’s offensive players … every offensive player, every special-team player, every offensive coach, special-team coach, this is it. This is all about who I am. I think (hiring Rob) will help me to really tie in more to this football team.'

'“And Kathryn goes, ‘Well, Rex, we can get that up (from a video archive). We’ll call it up on their sacks,’” Ryan recalled Friday. “I said, ‘No, it wasn’t a sack.’ So I left it at that. I go out to practice, I come back in off the practice field and she has this thing already drawn up and put it on my TV screen. And she goes, ‘I believe this is the play you were referring to.’'

'“My job is easy; we want this guy or that guy,” Whaley said. “But Jim Overdorf has the dubious task of fitting them into the salary cap and dealing with the agents. Right now it’s pretty restrictive. I believe we’re over the cap and JO will be working hard, working his magic.”'

'"You know what? I'm a competitor," Ryan said Friday. "Above everything else, I'm a competitor. And I believe in myself, but I believe in this team. I believe in the coaches I've got and I believe in the players I have. … (Being) linked with something that underachieved, that bothers me. And so I'm ready to go. I can tell you that much. I don't know what the results will be, but I know what the effort's going to be. I can't wait to play. I don't even know who's going to be on the team, but I can't wait. I can't wait until it's all said and done and we're ready to roll. Hey, we're coming out here on Sunday. I can't wait for that. Maybe it's the competitor in me and whatever, but I know one thing: I believe in myself and I believe in the people that are with me."'

'"Well, there's an old saying that one bullet gets both of you," Rex explained Friday. "In that business, that's what happens. You set your own path. That was something, as much as we're proud of being the son of Buddy Ryan and things, for us to make it, I wouldn't be standing in front of you today if all I did was follow my dad. And the same thing with my brother."'

'"She's picked up things along the way," Ryan said. "This is just another opportunity for her to move forward. Is it and entry level position in the coaching field? It is. A lot of people break in as quality control coaches, but don't think it's not an important position, because it really is. It's a very important position. But I feel great about it. I truly believe she's going to do a tremendous job this way. She does not have field experience per say, I get that, but I know she's going to excel in the other areas of being a quality control coach, and I think she's going to be successful on the field as well."'

'Now, though, the real labors begin. Getting these kinds of gigs is relatively (note the italicized letters and bold-faced type) easy. Keeping them is another matter. And on this, 99 percent of all coaches, hired to be fired, will agree.'

'“I understand where it’s coming from, because my brother, twelve years he’s been a co-ordinator. But we brought my brother in just to add to what we have and to have other eyes in it.”'

'“The biggest advantage I had with those guys was the street credibility having played,” Welter told USA Today. “That might be the most difficult part for her.”'

'“It doesn’t shock me, but at the same time it’s shocking to see her face associated with this,” said St. John’s assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih, who worked with Smith as a team manager. “We knew back then with her affiliation to the Jets and working with the Fan Fest stuff, she was really geared towards working in the NFL. Following her career since we graduated in 2007, it’s amazing how everything has come full circle [with her" target="_blank"> as the first woman’s NFL coach.”'

'If the Bills' elevation of Smith suggests an enlightened mindset when it comes to women in the workplace, the lawsuit their former cheerleaders filed against the team, which a New York state judge earlier this month allowed to proceed, leaves an utterly different impression.'