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Troup to have surgery to repair "minor fracture" in his spine. AP story jw

hey, i had a crush on Susan Dey and Maureen McCormick back in the day, too. as for your link, must warn you that it is NOT safe for work because it is of a person who is fully and completely unclothed. jw

Kate Jackson in "The Rookies" was extremely hot, especially to a young impressionable lad at the time ... but not top-10 hot. surprised Scarlett Johansson not on this list. there's a classic beauty in her. jw

well put, SJBF. well put. jw

you're wrong about that ... ooops, kneejerk reaction ... jw

all of the defense you mention had more to them than the Bills currently have. the Rams had a solid defensive backfield led by Aeneas Williams. the Colts had both a pass-rush and solid linebacking depth from what i recall. The Giants had a solid pass-rush. i recall that Colts-Patriots game you referred to. The Pats were vulnerable that season because Belichick understood his defense could not keep up with the Colts. and yet, let's remember, one of the most prolific offenses of this age or any -- the 2007 Patriots -- failed to go perfect. all that said, the Bills defense as it stands right now, needs to be improved. and it needs to develop a pass-rush in order for this team to show it can become competitive. jw

sure, Bills defense needs to improve in order for this team to be competitive. jw

nah, i was looking for a cheap laugh. guess joke's on me. ... prurience? really? "tantamount to an editorial piece?" ... in, what, High Times? jw

i stopped reading here. come up with a better title, then. jw

this deal made sense on numerous levels. and would've been done in training camp -- or maybe before -- had the offseason not been wiped out by the lockout. the logic is that the Bills, for a few years, no longer have to worry about the QB position with Fitz and Thigpen in place. both are familiar with Chan's system, which makes the transition easier for now than having to introduce someone else to it in hopes he'll "get it." the move now allows the bills to focus on many of their other needs moving forward. it all starts at qb. and if you don't have one, good luck in building a winner. and those needs moving forward include pass-rusher, another wide receiver, offensive line and dbs. the rest of the team now has to catch up to the quarterback position. and fitzpatrick has proven he's capable of producing wins with capable players around him. at this point, there are not as many capable players around him as there were in the first two months of the season. it's also true, that the injuries on defense has hurt that side of the ball coming together. rather than building on a slow start, the defense has essentially regressed in part because of all the different untested players being plugged in, and also due to the lack of any hint of a pass rush. it's asking too much for the offense to compensate. jw

sorry, i've changed my mind. said i wasn't going to close this thread, but out of respect that this thing might be getting out of hand, i will. i'm running late, and have a funeral home to get to. it's been a tough week. jw

sorry, JohnC, you lost me there. what was this all about ... jw

too late. there have been enough regrettable posts made over too many months to stop now, and one truly regrettable challenge by someone eager to punch someone in the media (not me) in the face in another social medium. i started this and there's no real point ending it. the mob should be allowed to call for its pound of flesh. and this thing should be allowed to run its course for better and worse. jw

i did what now? from what i can tell, you're referring to the thread in which you questioned someone that the Bills wre not in the bottom 5 in defense. i responded that the Bills were ranked 27th, which puts them in the bottom five. in retrospect, i was wrong. that put them in the bottom six. and yet how this counts as a "personal attack" is beyond me. jw

this wasn't dredging. PTR's thread has bugged me for some time, and i found it evident back then that there was nothing i could write that could counter the wave of enthusiasm sweeping this board headlong toward the Super Bowl. ... i exaggerate just a little bit. but that's where many posts here during that whirlwind first month were pointing. as i had written, i preferred to start judging a season by its midway point, not one game or one month. and as much as i began buying into the 5-2 start, there were warning signs along the way. i have no issue with PTR or anyone being a root-root-root for the home team fan. and i really don't have any ill-will toward PTR. he has a right to express his opinions as much as i have a right to exprss mine. but in a week in which we in the business lost a respected colleague, it struck me how little respect we get sometimes -- particularly from some on this board. and it also struck me how often times "the locals" get it right. hey, criticism comes with the business. but this one thread stood out for how it called out "the locals" (i'm one of them, and i'm the only one here with a voice choosing to stick up for us) as being blind, naive, lazy and lacking any reasonable function beyond expressing wet farts (i'm paraphrasing here, using poetic license, but that's how it read to me). this isn't loyalty out of loyalty's sake. these are friends, with whom i happen to compete against. so, yeah, i'm going to take a little offense on occasion. the nutty thing is, i'm more encouraged about next season now that the Bills are developing depth and learning another lesson -- maybe one too many -- about what it takes to win. and i still think this team has about 2 more wins still left in it. i could be wrong. jw

PTR: you're kidding right? first, you brought me into that thread by wondering if maybe i could provide everyone an explanation of why many of my colleagues were essentially lazy and blind. ... "Maybe John Wawrow could tell us." -- you wrote. so, essentially you're asking me to disparage my respected colleagues so you can get your kicks. ... righto. i'll get right on that. and you then proceeded to go on some hell-bent rant on if "reporters" (i'm one of them) "all of you" you wrote "are so shocked by what you saw, what the f**k do you do all day?" you then accused reporters of of falling behind "head gremlin Jerry Sullivan" for making our assessments. later in the thread, you proceeded to remain high atop your horse in writing: "What I want to know is why the guys paid to cover the team have no clue?" later in another post, you wrote: "But if you are a reporter and your job is to watch the Bills every day, and you come out every day and report the Bills are a crumbling disaster, how can anyone take you seriously after today? Are you saying its impossible to see any improvement, or is the local media so jaded by losing they dismiss anything the Bills do, good or bad, as crap?" and then: "Here's a question: We're they right because they knew something or we're they just guessing right? The Bills historically have been a poorly performing franchise. Predicting they will suck every year make you right more than wrong, but doesn't make you an expert. And that is my point. The local media stopped doing its job and just predicts "suck" every year. They have shown they are no more knowledgeable about the teams they cover than any of us." and then after i chimed in and explained my views on the team, that i'm impressed but taking a wait-and-see approach, you came back and wrote: "I'm glad you responded, but I'm still curious. What do you actually see when you cover the team and does it offer a glimpse into the direction of the team? I know you said you got burned on predictions before. Is it that hard to judge what you see outside of games?" you then said it's probably your fault for singling out "Bills beat reporters," Before adding your beef is with those "who probably don't put the time into covering the Bills like you do." well, Jerry covers the team as much as i do during the season. so do the TBN beat writers. ... and strangely enough, many of us came to the same conclusion that the Bills would have difficulty fielding a winning team this year. their thin depth was a big issue. still is. yet, you proceed to shoot the messenger when the message doesn't fit your view. and even when you're proven to have been off-base, you still proceed to accuse members of the media for being wrong even when it's evident they have been right. which is it: are we all still blind hacks? or is it now, we revel in the Bills losing? and let's get this straight: i respect the hard-working members of the media on the Bills beat. so to ask me, in your utterly ham-handed way, to question any one of them takes a lot of gumption on your part. now do you see why you made that thread personal? jw

PTR: it was the vigorous bile, and anger posed in your thread -- calling us all out as being unprofessionals, lacking vision and perspective -- in which i took offense to. this is not about good news or bad news. i was actually on board with this team at 4-1. and yet, back then, there was no pleasing some on this board when anything hinting at being negative was broached. and, if i recall, you were the one leading the anti-media charge. sure, some consider this a classless act. i've been wrong. and i'll be wrong again. but to go to the extent that you did in opening this initial thread was both, in my opinion, very much overboard and classless in itself. you opened yourself up to criticism in part because you've spent much time on this board criticizing the media for being amateurish, blind and overly negative. and yet, you continue to bang this drum that bad news is good news. no it's not. i personally enjoyed covering the Sabres two runs to the Eastern Conference finals. and i had a sense of excitement when the Bills got off to their fast start and actually wondered if what i saw initially was somehow wrong. ... turns out, some of the media's intitial impressions were correct. trouble is, you'd never give the media any credit. and that's why i started this thread. jw

hey, PTR: hope all's well. i seem to remember something you posted a little while ago that went something like this. ---- well, well, well Posted 12 September 2011 - 12:18 AM At the risk of starting another conflagration, I really want to know what the Buffalo sports media does when they are supposedly covering the team? Maybe John Wawrow could tell us. I can understand the national media has 31 other teams to cover and the Bills have been such an afterthought that few if any would bother to take a close look at us. But how do reporters, who's job it is to cover camp and practices, talk to players and coaches, etc, be so dead wrong on this team's prospects going into the season? Seriously, if all of you are so "shocked" by what you saw, what the f**k do you do all day? I do have a theory. Things have been so bad with the Bills the last 11 years that most of the press, thinking they are being unbiased, dismiss any good signs out of hand as being a mirage. And with the head gremlin Jerry Sullivan leading the charge, all the other reporters fall in line behind him. This is the only scenario I can imagine because the Bills didn't just expose the KC Chiefs today, they exposed the Buffalo News and WGR for short-changing local sports fans. PTR --- um ... well, ah ... in retrospect ... i think your theory was, well, disproved. jw

there is no shame for rooting for the underdog. and there shouldn't be shame for rooting for a team that is showing signs of turning the corner -- just not as fast as many might want. and given the 11 seasons -- perhaps going on 12 -- of missing the playoffs, patience is at a premium i'm sure. though, i'm not exactly sure what -- beyond keeping Lee Evans and Geoff Hangartner -- this team could've had done during this latest rebuilding process. i see progress. and i believe the clock starts ticking next season on whether the new regime has it right. if you're humiliated to being a Bills fan, then i guess that's your perogative. as for all these busts who end up being productive for other teams, that's quite a flawed and kneejerk argument, as is how this team "completely" might have let everyone down. most sober observers (and i can't really say that given the time of night) had the Bills hopefully getting past the Dolphins this season and preparing to make a serious run next season. there is nothing i've seen so far to show me that timetable has changed. jw

The AP, citing a person familiar with the NFL's disciplinary decision, is reporting Johnson has been fined $10,000 by the league. jw

my point is that some of us in the media were being targeted by many on this board early in the season for failing to forecast the Bills as being playoff contenders once they got off to a 3-0 start. and some members of the media were being villified for it. i've attempted to maintain a pretty even perspective here in the face of shifting winds that while the Bills are better, they've yet to prove they're playoff contenders. and i'll acknowledge after picking them to win 5 games that i also said the best hope is that they get to 7-9 or 8-8 and show they're capable of taking the next step in their rebuilding progression given some of their apparent deficiencies, some of which are cropping up, such as their lack of experienced depth. and that has been an issue since Buddy Nix first raised it in training camp. Gailey and the offense have made strides. they will eventually need to make more. and bolstering the pass rush is critical going into next season. but for this board to go literally overnight from hailing Gailey as Megamind to referring to him as "an underlying problem," well that's a little knee-jerkian isn't it? he's a good coach, who's done much with little, given where he began. the 3-0 and 4-1 start might have raised hope, but the fact that this team will likely arrive somewhere around 7-8 wins at the end of the year doesn't make this for a lost season. i don't live in a vacuum. i happen to attempt to maintain a sense of perspective. jw

damn, i got nothing. ... that's funny. jw

i get around. i'll also not name the poster. the intention i had in starting this thread is not to call or rat someone out -- i've never put a poster on ignore or reported a questionable post (other than those in which copyrighted information was used in a post without credit). instead, i considered it a good time to open a discussion and perhaps have it serve as a reminder for everyone here who exchange private messages that, perhaps, it's good form to keep them private. jw

7. jw

Folks: as i'm old and altogether unfamiliar with these issues, i've got myself wondering on what proper protocol on message boards are when it comes to private messages. it's come to my atttention that there's a member of this board who has shared the contents of a private message exchange i had with said member about a month ago. it's nothing terrible, and nothing that i wouldn't have shared in a natural exchange on this board. since it's been published, the poster noted that in a response to his private message (which followed a lengthy exchange on TSW that left said poster unsatisfied), i wrote "i really don't have time for this, sorry." eventually, the poster persisted, at which point i accused him of being "absurd." i won't share any other part of the private message exchange discussion, since that hasn't been published. my question is since the person reached out to me in a private message, i kinda assumed that the conversation would be kept, you know, private. and yet, lo and behold, i happened upon another discussion board in which this information was shared. sure, i understand that everything that we write -- whether it's posts on the board or in private messages -- are open to be made public. and yet, it seems to me that it crosses a bit of a line -- an unwritten rule, perhaps -- to publish the contents of private messages, and on another board no less. perhaps, i'm making too much of this. but i'd rather not have private messages shared. yer thoughts? jw