San Jose Bills Fan

And away we go…

Even as a national media source, between The Daily News, the Post, Newsday, etc. I think it hardly even registers. Those NYC teams exist in a media maelstrom every day of the year. The Jets are gonna be a very interesting team to watch this year. It's a pivotal year in Ryan's tenure for sure.

Very nice. Didn't know you lived in Visalia. My brothers band used to play there quite often. Speaking of improbably places, I watched the Bills drubbing of the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game in a small bar in Jawbone Canyon, CA. Love it! Awesome! First good laugh of the day. Thanks! So many great anecdotes. My wife took her daughter to the game. Daughter wanted to leave at halftime. Wifey said, no… "you always finish whatever you start and besides, anything can happen. They still have a chance." The lesson must have made an impression. That girl doesn't give up at anything… her life is defined by her determination. Bruce, the game was locally blacked out. I watched it from Faherty's on Elmwood. Never left the bar, didn't even think about it. But if it had been on TV, I would have watched it at home.

Still, I'd rather be a hammer than a nail. Yes I would.

It's the same discussion… mechanics. If you overthrow the ball your mechanics break down and you lose accuracy. And thus the hiring of David Lee.

This is exactly where you lose me. Just because a person assumes the risk doesn't suddenly make them defenseless. I get no thrill from a 250 pound linebacker launching himself into a 190 pound receiver who is concentrating only on catching the ball. To me that's gratuitous violence. It's savagery, IMO. If you eliminate this type of play from the game FOR BOTH TEAMS, you'll still have numerous plays in a game where the play or game is decided by a monumental hit like the one you described. All things being equal the more physical team will still win. Even without gratuitous violence there will still be smashmouth football… a linebacker and a fullback meeting in the hole… the nutcracker, the Oklahoma Drill, all these things will STILL EXIST IN FOOTBALL. Teams will still impose their will. Teams will still be making "statement drives." It'll still "be about attitude" in goal line situations. But you won't have bigger men trying to maim smaller men who are trying to catch the ball. You won't have defensive linemen with full running starts smashing into defenseless, yes, defenseless smaller men. I love a good, hard sack. But when the attacker is going full speed and hitting a stationary target who he outweighs substantially, I see no reason to spear the quarterback for good measure. Violent football? Always. Intimidation? Always. Gratuitous savagery? Never.

Speaking of kids, I'm guessing you're on the younger side for people who post here. You seem to have that 'whippersnapperish" ability to annoy old !@#$s like myself. But it's better to talk football than personalities. Leading up to the draft there was a lot of discussion on this forum about Russell Wilson and the more I read and asked, and the more answers I got and found out about him, the more I was hoping the Bills would draft him. I thought Gruden or someone said that from a cerebral standpoint he was way more advanced than any other college QB he had grillled. Everything about this kid says special. Wilson has huge 10.26" hands. His athletic measurables are nearly elite. He was All-ACC as a freshman and had his team winning their bowl game before leaving with an injury. In his sophomore season at NC State, Wilson (too short, can't see the field?) set the NCAA record for most consecutive passes without an interception with 389. As a junior he led his team to a 9-4 record and a victory over West Virginia in the bowl game. He was again one of the nation's statistical passing leaders. As a senior Wilson transferred to Wisconsin where he was immediately installed as a team captain. He was voted All Big Ten QB by the coaches and the media, won the Griese-Brees QB of the Year award and finished with 33 TD passes. He led his team to the Big Ten Championship and a close 45-38 loss to Oregon in the Rose Bowl. One metric which many rely on for quarterback effectiveness is yards per attempt. Wilson's yards per attempt was 7.87 for his college career but 11.27 for his senior season… he had zero problems pushing the ball downfield. The naysayers seem to forget that Wilson played behind a Wisconsin line that averaged 6'6" tall. He had very few balls batted down because of his intelligence, ability to find passing lanes, and his over-the-top delivery. He completed 72.8% of his passes. I agree with those who theorize the Bills wanted to take Wilson or Cousins in the early 4th if he was still there. Here's the National Football Post link about Wilson's rookie camp performance which compelled Pete Carroll to declare him as a candidate for the starting job. http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Can-Russell-Wilson-win-a-starting-job-as-a-rookie.html Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Wilson This kid is one of the non-Bills players that I will be ardently rooting for.

Yep. There are people here who still think it was all about the defense, even though Johnson had a losing record with that same defense. That extra 2-3 first downs each game… the extra 5 minutes of possession time… all those things effect the outcome of football games. Flutie had lots of intangibles… Johnson had zero. Flutie also had 7 4th quarter comebacks in his 30 starts in Buffalo. He always seemed to have a trick or two up his sleeve for the end. So as I was saying to you guys, 13th overall in career pass attempts with the Bills behind such luminaries as Dennis Shaw, JP Losman, Trent Edwards, Todd Collins, and Alex Van Pelt. Not only did Frank Reich command the Bills in the Greatest Comeback game but he was also (along with Gary Kubiak) considered the best backup quarterback of his era. That's why he is on the list. Have a little respect for the guy.

Bills career passing… sortable database: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/career-passing.htm Reich is 13th all-time in pass attempts… look who's above him on the list.

Thanks for the link, JJ!

Why should anyone trust a person who insists that Levitre has the arm length to play tackle when he doesn't? Levitre succeeds somewhat at tackle IN SPITE of his short arms http://footballsfuture.com/2009/combine/og.html

Thanks. The takeaway for me was that no one in any profession should have an "old school" "traditionalist" bias against changes that make their job safer. That's why James Harrison is such a moron, IMO… because the rule changes make the game safer for him too but all he wants to do is bellyache about how he can't drill defenseless people smaller than himself.

LOL. Any other recollections you'd like to share, Rev?

I agree with you but why this now? Was there some announcement?

I wonder if this means his house in Orchard Park is gonna get hit by lightning again.

It's not hard to understand at all. What also needs to be understood is that all these guys (Mayock, KIper, McShay, etc) get most of their information from NFL guys and then they decide what to use or not use. A person in the media is a gatekeeper of information. They have an ethical responsibility to be fair and balanced. This means that when they present a view, opinion, etc that they make sure that they are objective and fair to all sides of a matter. Clearly the character assassination performed by Nawrocki was not fair and balanced. He latched onto everything negative he heard about Newton and ran with it. Compare Nawrocki's "scouting report" to Kiper's, McShay's, Mayock's etc. Not even Mayock (who wasn't a big Newton fan) went out of their way to defame Newton like Nawrocki did. No one even came close to the hatchet job that Nawrocki performed because all of them were fair and balanced. Obviously Carolina didn't feel the same way that Nawrocki did about Newton's character. Buddy Nix intimated that the Bills would have drafted Newton had he been available so clearly the Bills didn't agree with Nawrocki either. The bottom line is that Nawrocki was out of line with his comments on Newton.

http://www.buffalobills.com/media-center/videos/#?id=980b50d2-fc81-4990-9504-3e202e6a575b&channelName=Recent What do you guys think?

Saban was kind of like the AFL's version of Lombardi. I guess Sid Gillman was Paul Brown. On second thought Al Davis was Paul Brown… founder, owner, coach, gm. Hank Stram… not sure who he was. edit: Hank Stram might have been George Allen.

FWIW, the guys running in the Nextel Series and the NHRA have some words of advice for NFL players. "Embrace Safety" There's the fans perspective which we talk about every day here but this is from players to players. It's a longer read but quite good. One item which is pretty clear is that the death of Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500 was a silver lining. "Old-school guys, purists, traditionalists" all scoff at increased safety requirements… just as they did when "The Flying Wedge" was outlawed in 1894. Let's move civilization forward, away from the senselessness of the Roman Coliseum. "In 2007, drag racing up-and-comer Eric Medlen was killed during a practice session in Gainesville, Fla. His head was rocked side-to-side with such violence that his brain was literally shaken to death. Medlen was driving for John Force Racing, and Force used that tragedy to start the Eric Medlen Project, a safety initiative that studied and eventually overhauled the way that dragsters are constructed. The body, head and legs were now surrounded by more iron railings. Many of Force's rivals reacted not with appreciation, but with anger. More rails meant having to build all new race cars. And that meant spending more money. So most refused to listen. "Later I was in the most god awful crash anyone had ever seen," Force recalls, talking about a Sept. 23, 2007, accident in Dallas. The ultraviolent, 315 mph collision ripped his car in half and ripped his then 58-year-old body apart, breaking his right knee, left wrist, left ankle and burning off the ends of his fingers and toes. "But I suffered no brain damage. Not even a headache. Eric Medlen saved my life. And damn if other drag racers didn't start calling and saying, so, um, tell me about this new car." http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7915908/nfl-learn-racing?fb_action_ids=3420748871001%2C10151109894395558%2C10151109871620558%2C10151109838565558&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=type%3Aread%2Cuser%3AJnhbWvv6aZIRrXKWS1JXEDpN2t0%2Cfb_opengraph&fb_source=other_multiline

Every once in awhile you see something that makes you think that society should have greater control over individuals… but then you weigh that against the political implications.

This is a great point and I would add that: While there are great football players that suck at special teams and there are great special teams players who otherwise suck at football that in general superior players will make superior special teams players. In other words, this roster seems much more talented than it was 3 years ago and as a result, the special teams players will also be more talented, that is, better. As succinctly as I can put it, the special teams will be better because the roster consists of better players.

First off, thanks for not reciprocating my rudeness with the same. As far as "grand conspiracy" goes, I think that it could just as accurately (if not more) be described as "unfavorable circumstances" although your point about these problems cropping up after his initial success is very strong. It does seem strange that Young had a very nice rookie season but that he developed problems later in his tenure in Nashville. As far as the maturity thing goes, I think we can all agree that (to a greater or lesser degree) we all mature as we age. I don't think that it's beyond belief that the rough sledding of the past few years hasn't had a positive effect on Young's overall perspective. I know I was a "late bloomer" so it's easy for me to believe that this guy (he's 29 years old I believe) views his career differently than he did a few years ago. As Hopeful expressed, I'm not too much into the gory details at this point. Like you said, he's a Bill now and as such, he has my support.

Anyways, we've kind of hijacked the thread… apologies. I'll have a hard time holding Nawrocki in the same esteem knowing what he wrote about Newton. And the Nawrocki piece which is the subject of this topic is ridiculous, IMO.

I know your comments are not directed at me specifically but I'm on the side that is more than willing to give Vince Young a bit of the benefit of the doubt. It seems like your intent on fighting the fight that Young is not worth the trouble. I've bowed out of a lot of debates here, not because I think I'm wrong, but because it's clearly a situation where it's pointless to debate the person you would be debating. That person isn't gonna change their mind, concede a single point and even if you mopped the floor with that person, he would never concede a thing. Why would someone enter a debate with a person who is ill-mannered and stuck in his own convictions? Why waste the energy?

Lurker, I get that Newton has rubbed some people the wrong way. I also get the distinct feeling that you're one of those people. But I still think Nawrocki's "scouting report" was preposterous. Twenty percent of it had to do with football, 60 percent of it had nothing to do with football, and twenty percent of it had nothing to do with football but was disguised in a football context. Nawrocki's "scouting report" speaks more eloquently to his own character than it does Newton's.