Sisyphean Bills

Agreed, Doc. Some of my favorite players are long gone. But I still follow the sport of football. Unlike some, if Tom Brady (or some other star) never played another down, I wouldn't shed a tear and it wouldn't mean I'd no longer enjoy watching a good football game. In fact, if the NFL doesn't put on another game, there will still be football and most football fans will still get up every morning and put their pants on one leg at a time.

It's pretty obvious that $1B is a constant number. Assuming total revenue continues to increase (which is not what ownership is saying FWIW -- they claim that they have maxed their market and maintaining the revenue streams they have is becoming a struggle), it at best represents a diminishing percentage. Just being an owner of an NFL team doesn't mean one is immune to inflation and the general economy either. While it is fun on a message board to pretend that all large numbers are equal to infinity, I guess, it's just simply incorrect. The NFL is a big business with big costs, etc. Anyway, back to squabbling over who's right and who's wrong here. Both sides seem to have their faults from where I sit. PS: And I think it was said earlier in this thread, but the real issue here is Power. The NFLPA leadership wants it. The NFL owners also want it.

Been there and done that, in fact. Not that you've made any sort of point at all. You might find this educational: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/exportingamerica/outsourcing_problems.cfm I think anybody can see the reasons why there has to be some information flow in a negotiation. I never claimed otherwise. On the other hand, I was responding to a post that suggested the court would just "open the books" and that would solve the whole problem instantly. Giving the union some information from which to negotiate is one thing. Opening the books to the world is another.

Can you provide a list of all the privately held companies that are compelled to make their books public at litigious whims of a union? You missed the point entirely by the way. I'm not simply rubber stamping the owner's stance in this as you assume. I was responding to the very specific notion that the NFL ownership is "nothing but overhead" and could be replaced trivially.

So you honestly think that there is no expenses to running an NFL team? It's not at all the case that the owners simply pocket 40% of the money to spend on coke and hookers.

Please cease with this. The Buffalo Bills are a company for obvious reasons. Ralph Wilson is the owner of that company.

Yep. Been there done that as well. Another alternative would be for the company to lay off a bunch of people, basically putting the suffering and sacrifice wholly on select people rather than distributing it across the board on everyone. How cool would it be to fire Dave Wannstedt because he has the least seniority, for example?

He's actually not comparing himself to Anne Frank, but rather his agent to Anne Frank. Which isn't to say that what he said isn't imbecilic, even if he was trying to be funny.

Look how fast they caved in...

On the other hand, it's a pretty well understood economic principle that a labor union drives up the cost of labor. Going to an independent contractor model would force every player to negotiate from their personal perceived market value.

Arm, I can tell you back in the day that there were folks that thought Dan Brandenburg was going to be a superstar and crowed about it aplenty. The Rockwood reference was to another guy who came out of Nowhereville but had an instant fan club because of his incredible size. Nobody even knew if he could play football (he was a swimmer as I recall), but some fans got lathered up because he was a giant. Leif Larsen was another DL that comes to mind. The guy could drag a locomotive with his teeth up a gravel road, but he never turned into much of a player. As I recall, fans seemed more optimistic about James Hardly immediately after the draft than Johnson. Personally, having watched Johnson play at Kentucky, I thought he would be a good player. Hardly was good guy to have when you couldn't afford a step ladder though. Truth. Pat Williams and also Jason Peters were both examples of when the Bills hit gold with a UDFA. If Jasper works hard enough to become a perennial Pro Bowl caliber player, then that will be an excellent 7th round, er, Modrak's Wheelhouse, find. Of course, for every Pat Williams there are many Joe Klopfensteins.

Don't hold back so much. Tell us what you really think.

John Shoop, card carrying member of the Dick Jauron coaching tree.

As far as the pick, the Bills decided they wanted to go with a 3-4 base defense and they didn't have a true space-eating NT. Troup was drafted to fill an obvious hole. Troup's college career started off a bit slowly, but he did see a little playing time as a freshman, grew as a player over his career, and eventually by the end of his senior season was considered an excellent NT prospect for a 3-4 team, and turned some heads in the Shrine game practices. Expect him to step it up and push for more PT this season (if there is a season). Those that thought he'd walk in and dominate the line from day 1 last year were buying into the hype hot and heavy. Now Dareus? It's quite reasonable to project what the guy many considered to be the best player in the country might do as a rookie starter. On the third hand, Jasper is in the Mike Rockwood / Dan Brandenburg category. There were a fair number of people that suggested Levi Brown would start at QB this time last year too.

It looks like some fans are discussing the merits and weaknesses of a Buffalo Bills player. That is precisely the service of this forum. You yourself even wrote that Troup had technique problems (and he does). For that matter, he freely admits himself that he needs to get better and says he is working hard to do so. But if there are posts violating the ToS, use the report button. Thanks.

On the other hand, how hard is it to spell the kid's name correctly?

Playing him in space is nearly as bad as I'd imagine it would be to have Donte Whitner line up on the nose as a space eater.

On the other hand, who'd be surprised if Dareus was in fact better already, and he hasn't been to a single practice yet.

Agreed. A Wild, Wild West would be quite interesting. The NFL wouldn't have pay parity clearly as not every franchise (nor community) is equal, but players may make decisions on where to play based on other factors and just being highly touted and compensated doesn't automatically guarantee victory. Who knows, but it could even mean an expanded labor pool where players get a few games as a "try out" and the next kid is brought in immediately. Many more people getting their micro-slivers of the pie could even be declared good old American capitalism and at-will employment in full swing, no more of that restricted trade stuff. Besides, getting to watch your team on the Jewelry Channel after they hammer out a deal for extra peanuts would be fun.

There are roughly 2000 NFL players. Do you think the Snyderskins are going to overpay them all? Let's put this another way. What owner and front office is going to "sprint to the podium" to give a player like Aaron Maybin a contract that's 10X what he makes now? When you think about it there are a lot more combinations than the rarefied pairings of Dan Snyders and Peyton Mannings and it isn't far fetched at all to see many owners would balk to give the average Joe Player a vast sea of money to be a 3rd string long snapper.

Probably because the cap has a ceiling and a floor and the NFL in the uncapped year didn't bother to reach for the floor marker. Not to mention that the owners opted out of the CBA because they obviously felt that the players were taking too much of the revenue. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d816fbd4e/printable/uncapped-year-hasnt-exactly-led-to-a-spending-spree

It's just money.

This thread reminds me of the arguments during the lathering phase (of the lather, scrub, rinse, repeat QB cycle) when Trent Edwards stepped to the fore as the real deal and big time QB answering the JP Losman problem...

That's not a very high standard. Certainly, someone felt strongly that Aaron Maybin was the best player the day they drafted him. Whether or not there is some zeitgeist that a particular player is "the best" or not isn't really the point. Who cares indeed. The evaluation must include whether the guy drafted actually becomes a good player or not. For the Bills, they have consistently and repeatedly failed to draft guys that were even average players, though they undoubtedly thought highly of them all. In short, the issue isn't the grade on draft day. The issue is in incorrectly determining what grade to give. Popularity doesn't determine greatness.

Like Buddy Nix said, "I'd rather spend the money on my own guys." I'd rather see a winning team that plays great football. So spending on the parts to accomplish that would be a better utilization of the finite cap resources than a "$6.5M buzz spoon". Your premise is that the sucking is not the variable. That's a nice summary of the genius of the TO marketing.