CodeMonkey

Interesting that as far as QBs go, he has Gabbert at 5 and Locker and Newton at 20 and 21 respectively. With an asterisk on Newton as a project. If I was a pessimist I'd say that seals it, the Bills pick Newton at #3

You guys are reaching quite a ways. I would hope that the Buffalo economy is not so bad that a significant number of businesses are going to downsize or go under because of 10 days a year. And tourism? The vast majority of season ticket holders live within a pretty tight (~100 miles) radius of the Ralph. They come to the tailgate, stay for the game, then go home. Tourism ... you guys kill me. You guys and lots of others love the tailgating, and going to the games. I get it, and that's a wonderful thing. Tailgating at the Ralph (hardcore drunks not withstanding) is a lot of fun. But please stop talking about tourism issues and companies going out of business if there is no football for a season. Besides, I can't imagine either the owners or players will let that happen. The owners are generally smart business people, they aren't going to easily let billions of potential dollars slip away. The players as a whole are smart enough as well. They will come to some agreement before the start of the season and it will be business as usual. The only disruption will be to OTAs and camp (if even that).

Eloquently put, as always.

It already has. But nowhere near critical mass yet.

"A lot" is a relative term. I believe that not anywhere near half (probably not even 25%) of adult Americans plan their weekends around football. To some, like you perhaps, it is more than a game. To me and others it is one form of entertainment and nothing more. This is clearly true.

That's very common anymore. I am a software contract worker for a fortune 500 company and 75% (maybe more actually) of my organization is contract. Easier for the company to hire and fire without worrying about any union or lawsuit bull ****.

Come on Phil, think about this a little. Even ignoring Toronto, you are talking about 10 days (including preseason) out of a 365 day year, or 2.74% of possible business days. You are trying to tell me businesses (and I am talking about businesses that decide peoples livelihoods, not someone allowing people to park on their lawns) need these extra 10 days or they will not "survive". You are being a tad over dramatic, don't you think? I'm not saying anyone should boycott, not boycott, go to the games, or not go to the games. It's (for the most part) a free country. But this local businesses going under angle is a bit much.

For better or for worse, this is clearly true.

It is just a game. One managed by billionaires and played by millionaires. But just a game.

I see a lot of fan outrage in this and other threads. So ... what are you outraged fans going to do about it? The answer for the vast majority is ultimately nothing. Most will whine, piss, and moan until some kind of deal happens then start kissing ass again. The players and owners know this well and bank on it.

This is absolutely the case for me as well. I watch very few non-Bills games. And when I do, the only way I can tolerate it is I have software to record shows and strip out the commercials. It doesn't kill all the wasted time between plays etc., but just no commercials makes the game significantly more watchable.

Occam's razor (a principle that suggests we should tend towards simpler theories until we can trade some simplicity for increased explanatory power) says they are considering Newton. My personal opinion is all this talk of smokescreens is a bit beyond Buddy and Chan.

Yes YES dammit the never ending bias by the officials against the Bills cannot go unavenged!!!!!

You may be right, I don't know. But regarding Buffalo drafting him, how can you possible use a pocket passer when you have no pocket? Seems like putting the cart before the horse to me.

Until cåblelady is a Jill they will never achieve their full potential

You are about as far off base as a person can be with this, amused or not. The primary goal of the project is to create a computer system capable of interacting with humans in what a human considers natural language. Jeopardy was seen as a good benchmark due to the nature of the answers, the speed in which the system would need to respond, and the vast and unpredictable scope of the knowledge required. Also, advanced technology is about the only thing the US has not lost it's edge in (yet). We are still the best at pushing the envelope and creating cutting edge technology. It is mainly the mass production of said technology that we have lost our edge in due to reasons too numerous to get into here. A sister project to Watson, also by IBM, is called Blue Gene which involves supercomputers mapping the human genome. Which, among other things, is expected to contribute heavily to ending the cancer and other wretched diseases that are killing not only Americans, but people in the other countries as well. Now had they developed Watson to out coach human NFL coaches, THEN I would be pissed at the waste of resources. Unless it would coach the Bills and out coach the satanic coach of the Pats of course

Hmmm. If it were the Bills in the middle of this I wonder how many people here, or Bills fans in general, would do the same. Precious few I suspect.

I don't think that case ever had any merit at all. And it is an insult to even bring a case about something as insignificant as !@#$ing football to the supreme court. If King Roger wasn't going to do anything about it (which he didn't), it really is up to the other owners to force him to. But the owners care about very little other than money and punishment of the guilty was not going to bring them more of that so why bother. Besides, who knows what other unethical things are being done by all of the teams that might be exposed if the Pats were severely punished and decided to drag the league through the mud. King Roger probably did the right thing and minimized the damage.

And a record of 4-12. Unimpressive to say the least. Basically the bar was set very low so being a undrafted free agent on that team was not the same as being one on the pats for example.

That question should be asked right now not just of those 3, but of all owners and players alike as they bicker over how to divide 9.3 billion dollars per year.

Come on now. We all know that the real reason there might be a lockout is because there is only 9.3 billion dollars to split between players and owners. That is not nearly enough. You should be honored to give more of your money to them. They need it much more than you do after all.

They are all !@#$ing !@#$s, players and owners alike. While these millionaires and billionaires are battling it out with each other over money for playing a !@#$ing game, someone should remind them that there are plenty of people in this country battling to put food on their tables to feed their families. !@#$ those pieces of ****, every one of them. I hope there is a lockout and no season this year, and that each and every one of these !@#$s goes bankrupt because of it.

I agree with Thoner here. There was a decent chance Spiller would have still been on the board and they could have gotten more much needed help. And as far as I am concerned, having Spiller off the board at that point would have been a plus for the Bills but that's another discussion . All this assumes of course that someone would have made Nix a good offer for the #9 pick. But my gripe is Nix was so closed minded he didn't even give it a chance.

And ... if they had waited instead of picking immediately one of two things would have happened: 1) No trade worth accepting was offered and they pick Spiller. 2) A worthwhile trade was offered, they give up the #9 for presumably multiple picks later. Then they take Spiller with one of the later picks if he was still available (fair to good chance he would have been) and other much needed help. Or Spiller is gone, so they fill multiple positions of need which so far anyway, would have been the preferable choice based on last season anyway. My original point stands, keeping the door open for a trade costs you nothing and perhaps works out better for you. The Bills sure as !@#$ need as much talent as they can get their hands on. Well, OK, 3 things: 3) They trade down for multiple picks and waste all of them instead of just the one. But I'd like to think that wouldn't happen.

That's exactly what they did last year.