Mark80

Nice! Yes. Great one. A few of mine: "It's been a long time since I rock and rolled" - Led - Rock and Roll. Just the way it starts out the whole album with that great rockin tune. Awesome. "I seem to recognize your face, haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it" - Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman...

Absolutely. He is / was considered the most recognizable current athlete in their country. It is their "crime of the century" trial. At least it's nice to know that fame and money can buy you freedom in South Africa just like it can in the US! What a joke.

Please take a moment in your day to thank a firefighter or police officer today. Drop off some baked goods to your fire station, honk your horn and give a thumbs up to a police officer on the road, just say "thanks" to someone that you know. These men and women risk their lives and their families well-being on a daily basis to help total strangers in their greatest times of need for way too little in return. Thanks.

They are so annoying that a lot of fans don't want to deal with them anymore! Plus, you get quite the premium on selling those from what I've heard. We keep ours every time though! My best game I ever went to was the 1999 Conference Finals when we beat them in game 4 to go up 3-1 in the series. Unfortunately my brother got the ticket with pops for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, even though we lost, it would have been great to see someone raise the cup.

What could you possibly be booing?

Good luck Marquise! You certainly have some great motivation to work for. Awesome piece.

It has to be hard for Rookie QB to come in and be a leader from day one. It takes some time to earn respect, show your work ethic, have some sort of performance on the field to back your words up. Year 2 though, that's a different story. You're right, hopefully we see more of it going forward because it makes a big difference on the field when you have a guy like that leading your offense.

The Players Association doesn't have a choice in the matter. If there is ground to stand on in challenging the new suspension, then they are legally bound to do so. Unions are under a legal obligation to protect and defend every single one of their members under the agreed upon terms of the CBA. It is known as the "Right of fair Representation." If a union does not do so, they will be held accountable by the National Labor Relations Board. Accordingly, if there is a "double jeopardy" protection in the CBA and Smith isn't doing anything about this Rice can file a claim with the NLRB and the Union (and Smith) would be held accountable. That's why I don't think there is anything they can do, no ground to protest it (unless it's happening behind the scenes) otherwise, they would be required to do so. Labor Law is a bit rusty from my Undergrad and Law School days, but that's how I remember it.

On EJ. I hated the pick for about 10 minutes. I actually said right before we picked him..."any QB but Manuel." We picked him and I hit the web. After watching a highlight video I found this one and felt like "hell, yeah", I'm on board. We don't have film of his speech from Saturday, but if it was anything like this one, I can see how it motivated guys. Leadership, confidence, charisma, intelligence cannot be learned, they are inherent traits in people. He has all of them. Once he tunes in his accuracy he will be a force in the league IMO. Go Bills.

Not entirely sure on the legality issues here, but I would assume that, as a private entity, the NFL can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't violate Federal / State laws or the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Now, there is certainly no law protecting an employee from being terminated or suspended numerous times for the same incident (as there is in criminal law - double jeopardy) especially if it is shown that they lied about the incident (as rumored here when they apparently played down the incident in interviews and even hinted that she was the instigator) and further evidence emerges at a later point. However, there could be something in the CBA regarding punishments and a sort of Double Jeopardy Clause (or possibly even in Rice's personal contract). If there is and Smith is not doing anything then he should be terminated as the Union Head. Regardless of how it looks, what they did, the PR of it all, whatever, the job of the union head is to protect his members and their negotiated rights. I feel that there is nothing in there to cover Ray Rice in this case though and that's why Smith is silent and not backing his union member.

Dude, Bill Cowher is never coaching again. I just don't understand why people insist on bringing his name up over and over and over again. He's done, he's happy, he ain't coaching again. And honestly, who even really wants him? He's been out of the game for almost 10 years now, it took him 14 years to win a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh when he had extremely talented teams (especially D and running games) every single season.

Sorry, Mr. Wilson comes first.

YES!

Or is it Hackett has improved and suddenly Manuel gets better? Personally, I think it's a combination of both men at vital positions in our organization learning, growing, and getting better together. We could very well be in for some important December games this year, tough ones too. Should be exciting at least.

"There was nothing else that needed to be said after he spoke." Love it.

"I would like to get paid whatever is appropriate for the position" is a perfectly acceptable response for someone who really doesn't have salary expectations. Let them make the offer first and decide whether you want to negotiate or not after that (and after they've offered you the job). Also, don't be afraid to ask what the person who previously held that position was paid and base a number off of that.

%Bubble

The real question should be can anyone turn around the negativity on this board! It's not even the regular season yet for heaven's sake. What I wouldn't give to be able to discuss the Bills optimistically with some people.

Reading comprehension is an art, I know. But let me try to explain this further. Most players in the final year of their contracts sign extensions added on to their current contracts rather than re-negotiating the terms of their final year with the new deal. This means that the money paid to them this season is not affected at all. This dead money will be gone next season. If we signed any of those players to an extension nothing would change until next season when the dead money is off the books. Thus, it is irrelevant. Try some understanding before being such a smart _ _ _.

This money has nothing to do with them. It will be off the books next season and we will be able to resign them all without having to deal with any of this money. The only thing it would affect would be money for this season if they re-signed during the season and received significant salary increases for this season but most deals are extensions rather than re-negotiating current salaries especially in last year of deals.

Of course he does, but many posters here put the blame completely on Marrone for our QB depth, but the buck stops with Whaley. To put it simply, it's Whaley's job to put together the roster and it's Marrone's job to coach that roster.

So you're calling Marrone an idiot for the GM not getting a better backup? Marrone doesn't make signing decisions, Whaley does. Amazing that so many people have no idea how an NFL organization works. I may be wrong, but I believe Belichick is the only coach / GM in the league right now.

Sort of like saying a QB is a bust after one season (shortened by injury) and a pre-season. Oh wait...that's only for our QBs I guess. QBs need AT LEAST 2 years most of the time, AT LEAST.

I find it so funny that people here actually believe the type of offense we saw in the first half of that game (and for most of the pre-season) is going to be the same play calling as during the regular season. No one knows what they are doing and thinking. No one knows their real game plan. No one knows their EJ development plan. I am of the thought process that they severely limited the play calling last season for EJ to give him a development year and not hurt his confidence level. Although derailed by some injuries, I think they did it pretty well. I also believe that this year they will be opening it up a lot more and that they don't want to show any teams what we will be doing until the real season begins. Other teams will have no idea how to prep for us going into the season and I think Chicago will be completely surprised (less so as the season progresses but that's OK). I think we got just a little taste of it in the second half yesterday when the play calling completely shifted (and what the heck was that screen type pass to Chandler?). I believe they did this to see if what has been working in practice is transferred to the game, and it did. Now, is this plan going to work? Can EJ execute it? That's a whole different question, but to think he's going to be throwing swing passes to covered RBs and short throws all season again just doesn't make any sense to me, and our coaches are a whole lot smarter than I am in football matters. If they do, I'll be first in line to jump on the "clean house" bandwagon, but let's just see what happens in the regular season for a few weeks first please.

Congrats JohnnyGold, you are now the second poster I've put on to my ignore list.