GaryPinC

Say what??!!?? Look at his forearms in the photo. They should be perpendicular to the bar and his have a slight inward angle but not much. It's probably his normal grip considering he's 5'9". If his hands were where the spotter's are then we could talk close grip.

That Miami game breaking the streak in 1980 cemented things in for me. Not that I would have ever given up on the Bills, but as a kid (I was 10) they sucked so consistently that decade I definitely had times I doubted whether I wanted to endure a lifetime of that! Our house in West Seneca abutted US 219 and I was in the backyard helping my dad scrape the loose paint off our detached downspouts so we could repaint. I remember everything. Mostly sunny day, my dad had rigged up a sandblaster (SOB stuck me with the wire brush!) and to protect himself had donned a heavy green plastic rain parka, welding goggles, and ventilator mask making him look amazingly like an illegitimate Tusken raider/Jawa love child. But that's my dad. I remember the old silver radio in the grass, trying to keep that AM station coming in and struggling to hear over the sand blaster. Just following the game while working, slowly realizing Buffalo wasn't going away like normal, interrupting my dad but he was sure they'd blow it, then just stopping work in the fourth listening to Fergy bringing them back and the defense hanging on by seemingly the skin of their teeth. Jumping around the yard like a nut after it was over, listening to the scene afterwards and finally hitting the TV watching them pass the goal post up the stadium. What an amazing feeling from that game and season. The traffic jam on 219 lasted at least twice as long as usual. The minute people got stopped they were out of their cars dancing and celebrating with each other it took 'em a while to realize the road had cleared in front of them. Nobody cared, what a fantastic reward after the previous decade! Go Bills!

The thing about what Ralph did with the lease is that if it's apparent the new owners will move the team to Toronto, then I would think ticket sales would fall through the floor until 2019. Maybe lack of attendance would allow breaking the lease early and paying the 400 million but that would still take years to resolve. I know if a Toronto group takes them over the team is dead to me unless they announce plans for a new stadium in WNY.

I'm well aware of this fact, I was simply addressing the value of your post. Plus, your post doesn't directly discuss him getting kicked off the team!

IMO Freddy's earned the right to keep playing until it's completely obvious to everyone he's ineffective. That hasn't happened yet, and if it does I suspect Freddy will have already announced his retirement. I would expect this from a team-first humble leader and warrior.

You were 14 days late with this post.

Haha. Great one!

I think you have great points on this and in all honesty it makes the most economic sense for the new owners to have a stadium in Niagara Falls also. Plus, I would think casting aside the Argos to plunk an NFL franchise down would really alienate football fans in Canada let alone the Buffalo fans. Factor in the lukewarm response to the Bills playing up there and you have to wonder if an NFL franchise would be successful up there. Always makes me laugh how the NFL stares at the size of the market and lets that mandate a franchise. That's never worked for LA and I have to think it won't until you address how to get people to support the franchise. Completely on board with PTR's points about foot or shuttle traffic across the rainbow on game day. Any tailgating Canadians can cross at Lewiston but the rest can park in NF, Canada and more quickly come across. Alleviating as much border-crossing pain as possible is critical. If done correctly, having a stadium in close proximity to the border would be of huge benefit. Regarding the local politics, I think the casinos, hotels and restaurants/entertainment would really support this and pressure local leaders to do so and I would think even the most despicable politicians would play nice for an opportunity of this magnitude. I just see all the businesses on both sides recognizing the opportunity to offer packages and sell game days into all inclusive weekend deals during a traditionally slower time of the year. Having the stadium functional as a conference center and other events would seem critical also. When I consider that NYS may step in to help or manage the financial situation, the franchise needs to keep and grow as much of its fanbase as possible, and the new owner needs to have the team in the best US regional economic situation, Niagara Falls seems like a no-brainer.

If it's any consolation, the sarcasm meter was off the charts in your second reply to Tom.

I agree and am in DC Tom's camp about his private vs public persona. Whatever his faults, I'll always applaud Bill Cosby for trying to publicly point out the African-American community needs to take more responsibility for its problems.

Actually Jessie Jackson came to speak at the hospital I work at in Feb of 2013 and I found the time to go and hear him. I was quite surprised and pleased to hear him say the fight for racial equality is over and that while isolated racism still exists both the black and white communities need to continue to come together and work together. It would be great if some leaders of the black community publicly condemned this altercation.

I would argue that we should have won the last one also but after TT fumbled early in the third quarter for a Dallas touchdown to tie the score, the team gave up. The camera panned the players' faces on the sidelines immediately after and I was so mad because the look of defeat was so obvious I was yelling "it's only a tied game!" at the TV. That actually bothered me a lot more than wide right.

It's been one year. You may be right or they may know very well what they're doing. It's early. Perhaps you would feel more at home as a Cleveland Browns fan. I'm looking forward to our draft this year. I don't believe Buddy "keep it simple" Nix was responsible for trading back and getting us that extra pick last year.

Nothing's changed? For starters, if Ralph had still been in charge I highly doubt the Toronto series gets put on hold. Looking at how we went after Marrone and Pettine, I don't recall the Bills being that organized and decisive about coaching decisions ever. Just to clarify, Russ Brandon is not directly responsible for winning games. He is responsible for bringing in the proper people under him so that they will win us games. Right now it's Whaley and Marrone and you HAVE to allow your people to work for you. It's also unclear if Whaley was Brandon's preference, he may have been Buddy and Ralph's preference. I don't hold Brandon responsible except from 2013 forward. He is a corporate speak guy, but you should be if you're the face of the franchise. He also came back from Detroit and went to an informal tailgate tribute the next day, he said they were going to review the Toronto series shortly before it got put on hold. That says a lot about his underlying character. I have the sense that this franchise has an organized plan moving forward which is refreshing. As far as Byrd, we just don't know what the decision making process was on that, Whaley/Marrone could have been a significant factor. We just know the FO wasn't comfortable with $9 mil per year, we'll see how it works out.

I share your viewpoint on Russ almost entirely and I'll just say this. He has to sell this team to every possible ticket/merchandise buyer he can and so he does. He's the face of this franchise. But he will also own up to unacceptable losses and did what he said he would with the Toronto series. I pay the most attention to him when he's addressing solving issues presently facing the team.

Incredibly gracious. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish? Most everything said or heard about Ralph is that he valued the person, people but he was seldom one to give out fish. Business is business, yet he has put preconditions on the next owner(s) in hopes we all learn to fish and keep the franchise here without permanently tying down ownership. That's more than anyone should have expected and I for one am grateful for his thoughtfulness. I think the NFL wants the team to stay here for the reasons discussed in this thread and now a large part of that is up to us the fans.

I'm with you 100% Fred's a straight up kind of guy and he's all about the team. Well, how's the offer she made to you? Going to take it or test the market? ;-)

Players know this league is a business. It is the rules of the league that the Bills can use the tag and does Byrd make us a better team? How do FA's view our FO if we are not trying to put our best team on the field? The FO seems to have been respectful about the whole process, whatever the past they now risk sending the message that they are weak. Certainly the "lifers" spat points to that and not tagging him would also IMO. As others have queried, what NFL GM is going to talk trade about a player who's about to become a FA? The tag is the only leverage we've got left to get any kind of value in a trade.

+1 Sadly, I think this is what it all boils down to and the rest is fluff. Now we need a team to offer us a reasonable deal for him like Philly did for Peters. Hope to hell we're both wrong about all this though!

Thing is, I picture Byrd being sick of the instability and turnover with the organization as top of his list to leave. He'd be fire jumping if he wants Cleveland.

Norwood put it just wide, not short. If he was short I could see your point. But it was well within his range that night and was simply mis-aimed. If something weird happens trying to run another play and your receiver gets tackled in bounds it would be much worse than what Levy decided to do. They didn't need to squeeze a few yards out of one possible last play, Norwood simply blew it. Plus, according to the statistics here, http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/N/norwosco01.htm the 1990 season saw Norwood hit 6-10 FG 40-49 yds, so he was 6-9 coming in to the superbowl. Over his career he seems to have hit from this range about 2/3 of the time so I'm not sure where you are getting the 1 of 5?

Cleveland's offense finished the season ranked 28th, sent Joe Thomas, Alex Mack, Jordan Cameron, and Josh Gordon to the pro bowl. I could acknowledge that Thomas didn't have his best year and popularity may have been a factor but not for the rest.

Keep in mind they have to hold together the roster and I don't expect that to happen. That locker room has been through inconsistent or missing leadership for years and I think firing Chud after 1 year may have been the tipping point. Pettine is inheriting a mess, players do not trust ownership and the FO. Plus, as others have said on here, it's not like Pettine has some awesome resume. I too wonder if he'll be any good as a HC considering the better teams were able to run holes in his defense with no answer/adjustment. It's not all bad he's leaving, if we get Wade back I will view the entire situation as a positive outcome.

Think of the marketing potential for next season! I'd be all for it myself.

I also believe Haslam was solely behind Chud's firing and I predict Banner will move on within the next year, probably sometime after the draft. He had a great plan right up until they fired Chud.