Ronin

That's the going pop-mentality because Marrone's from SU, but Marrone would disagree. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/college-football-rapidreports/20039051/big-east-notebook-syracuse-coach-doug-marrone-wishes-uscs-matt-barkley-left-early-for-nfl

Funny, this time last year everyone was talking about what a great up-and-coming CB he was.

Actually, you appear to have missed my point completely. I'll spell it out more simply for you. I made reference to the two "turning their lives around." Lewis has, at least to a large extent. Belichick, after getting busted, and absolutely nowhere did I equate cheating on that level with a murder (that Lewis didn't commit BTW), said he was clean, but a couple of seasons after that, when Sal Alosi was busted for that punting thing with the players lined up on the sidelines blocking the gunners, and it was proven that NE first began doing it, after Spy Gate and after Belichick said he was clean now, hardly anyone picked up on that. Again, my point, which I thought was clear, was that Lewis has in fact turned his life around, particularly as NFL players go. Belichick clearly lied once again and is a habitual liar. Get it now? Read my post above. You too missed the point entirely. As to the driver, perhaps you didn't read it either. I doubt the guy was there positioned with his hands on his knees looking like a referee at what was going down. I'm sure all the guy saw was a blur of the 16 men involved and reason dictates that there's no way he could have seen much of anything specific unless he was in the middle, which he clearly wasn't. It was at 3:30 in the f'ing morning too, or did you miss that part? It clearly wasn't lit like daytime. Also, it might be best to look at all the recorded statements instead of simply what some desk jockey sports writer says about them, don't you think? And did you think for a second that maybe the guy really didn't see a whole lot specific, was probably just trying duck and cover in fear of his own life, and before he sent an innocent person down the river, he might want to be 100% sure instead of 10% sure? Who drove the limo away? The driver. Where was he, exactly, the entire time? Again, stuff that I'm not going to leave up to some sports-writing-desk-jockey telling me what was in reports and on record by police. That's the problem in this country, it's trial by media. It's reprehensible. Either way, and again, did you read the piece? I thought it was pretty clear which two guys plunged a knife into the victims' chests. It said clearly who did it. It's hardly beyond the realm of reason that someone says "yeah, everyone was involved," but then afterwards, and upon thinking a little more clearly, reasons that "hey, I really didn't have a great view, all the guys were over there," as I'm sure they were, "but I couldn't really tell who did what." You need to apply some common sense here. I mean come on, you've seen a huge brawl before at sometime in your life, right? I've seen a whole bunch, and I wouldn't claim to know what goes on in them in the middle at all. I was on the outside and merely looking at a mob of guys mixing it up. Heck, even on TV sometimes, perhaps even in a football scrum, you know that ****'s going on in a "pile," but you can't see either.

Do you see things differently? I don't. Been that way for five seasons now. Any PoS team that they field, y'all go runnin'. Those of us that have said boycott the BS get chastised and labeled "not real fans" etc. Who's laughing now? ... well actually no one's really laughing, but who's got the proverbial "last laugh" now. Seems to me there's a humongous heaping bowl of STFU and See-I-Told-You-So on the table for anyone that has foolishly made this organization profitable under the foolish notion that their short-term "buy in" in this way would somehow keep the team in Buffalo after Wilson croaks. Just sayin'. Every season it's the same thing and I'm sure there will be more of it this year too. If Brandon does think what you said, he's absolutely right. If there's been any downturn in tix sales in recent years it's quite likely that it has a lot more to do with the down economy than the actual play of the team. Tix sales are down in most NFL cities that aren't in the biggest metro areas in the country. It's obviously not because they all suck as bad as our Bills. The home opener will be packed again, along with the next three or four games after that rendering your thoughts spot-on.

Huh? Seems to me that all it shows is that two of the guys that he was with stabbed them and all he was doing was being in their group. Put yourself in his shoes, he's right, anything that would have come out of that night was "on him." Case in point, how many of the other 7 in their entourage are even even mentioned? They're not mentioned in this piece either. And it says that shots were fired at his car. Don't know about you, but I'd have hightailed it outta there too. If his clothes were bloodied, could very easily have been from mere association and being nearby, trying to strip "his guys" off off "the pile" to get outta there, etc. Here's the thing tho, the victims weren't exactly two clean-cut kids in grad school at Duke who confronted those in Lewis' party with cutting in line or something, sounds like they were semi-thugs. They both had prior records. Who knows what happened, but I for one believe most of Lewis' account. Either way, what I don't believe is that he personally put a knife into anyone's chest. There's zero evidence for that. I have no idea why if he didn't he should be convicted of murder as so many insist that he should have been. The settling of the civil suit doesn't mean anything, it happens all the time. Also, the media trying to make NO associated with Atlanta to me is disingenuous. Exactly. And why no outcry to have the other 7 in his party also charged, and/or some of those in the victims' parties too. This is all clearly media driven. I feel bad for Ray who has truly, unlike Belichick, turned his life around after incidents, altho the differences in the two incidents notwithstanding. And you see no hypocrisy in your post here?

That's debatable. Very debatable. I think the message that needs to be sent is one of we're tired of seeing nonsense decision-making at OBD. At this point the only way to accomplish that is via empty seats, including early in the season. At that point the team will be left scrambling in attempts to figure out what's wrong, and while they still may not correct it, and likely wouldn't since the fox is guarding the hen house these days, at least the message from fans fully validated in their frustrations and dissatisfaction will be painfully and brutally clear to them whether they like it or not. The hard truth and consequences is the only thing that the top of this team is going to react to apparently. Not doing that necessarily says "yes" by "not saying no." Make sense? Otherwise, shouldn't the onus be on the team to first prove to us fans that they've gotten something right. I mean who has really enjoyed going to games over the last bunch of years? All I hear is pissing and moaning after most games, and justifiably so. Why pay money and waste one's time to get what will be obvious frustration. To me being a fan also entails supporting competence and not supporting incompetence, particularly when that incompetence is pervasive and repetitive.

No offense, but you sound like you work for the front office. Again, no offense, but it's your kind of support, generally speaking, and in not being able to assess things better than the media does because they have to be supportive in a large way, that helps keep perpetuating this charade. Check this article out if you haven't already. http://auburnpub.com/columnists/shawn_bissetta/marrone-is-another-example-that-timing-is-everything/article_b0c7e6cd-545e-5e90-8d9a-6b8c7d596681.html It's the best brief piece I've read yet and he addresses your core point(s). I've agreed with that piece before he wrote it. I too question to what extent things were "turned around" at SU given that two seasons ago he was 8-5 also before having gone 6-7. This season he would have been w/o Nassib. You really think he would have improved there? I don't. As they say, caveat emptor. Go ahead and give him the benefit of the doubt. The odds are so stacked against his success given the staff that he's assembled that it'll be half a miracle if he produces a winning team here in Buffalo. Think otherwise if you will, but when neither of your coordinators has called plays for even a season, well, IMO that speaks volumes. He has his work cut out for him and this ain't the NCAA with its "everyone's a winner" cheap bowl games. It also ain't the Big East football conference.

Anyone ever think that perhaps he didn't commit the murder, but just paid off because it was more expedient, like law settlements quite often are? ... or that relatedly those involved were trying to bilk him? I'm not saying I know, but neither does anyone here. There was a lot of mystery surrrounding that situation and it hardly took place between Lewis and his company and a pack of nuns. In OJ's case it was much different. Anyway, to presume that he committed murder amidst the uncertainty IMO is not fair. We don't know. As to the kids/wives, ... welcome to the NFL. Of many players, at least Lewis seems to have straightened his life out unlike many others, both busts as well as retired. Look how many are completely broke after having made tens of millions. I mean HTF does that even happen. Morons. Apparently Welker's wife is his judge. LOL Amen to what you wrote.

LOL In a great division too. Here were the QBs to rival the Pats over that span: Van Pelt Bledsoe (a QB that Belicheat couldn't even post a winning record with) Holcomb Losman Edwards Fitzpatrick Fiedler Feeley Frerotte Harrington Lemon Pennington Henne Moore Tannehill Testeverde (at 38) Pennington Bollinger Favre (at 39) and Sanchez. I don't think that the Bills, Miami, or the Jets had a QB for more than three seasons. Pennington on the Jets maybe. He's always been a below average QB though. Otherwise, the Pats' opponents posted only 13 winning seasons during the Brady era. 6 times 9-7, 4 times 10-6, and 3 times 11-5, mostly by the Jets. The Bills have been a two game handicap for the Pats over that stretch for the most part handing them two easy wins every season but two I think. Has there been an easier division in football from '01 to '12 apart from the Patriots? I don't think so. I completely agree. It screams volumes that Belicheat has not been able to win a Super Bowl, particularly in 2007 and surround years when he had superlative talent, without having cheated. Remember too that several of his win en route to his three SB championships were won by a mere 3/4 points, not to mention each and every SB game won by 3. His cheating clearly impacted in his favor in such close games. Either way, it was great to see that Patriot players' heads hanging yesterday after their presumption that Brady could lead them back by default failed to materialize. I agree with Terrell Suggs, they're an arrogant bunch from the head down. Either way, when you are the Super Bowl Vegas Odds favorite for 8 straight years and fail to even get there in six of those seasons and then are outcoached severely in the two in which you did make it, then there necessarily needs to be an exercise in reconciliation between the perceptions as to how great Belicheat is and the reality of it. The reality of it is that Belicheat was nothing but a loser except when he's had the best QB to ever play the game. When that QB has failed him, he has had no solutions whatsoever and has always been left standing there with his pants down around his ankles.

Brandon's a marketer John, and that's exactly what this was, a carefully crafted marketing set-up. You hit the nail on the head here. When the best thing that can be said about the changes are that they're "in a different direction," well, then clearly it has marketing at its core. Hiring high school coaches would have been in a different direction too, that wouldn't make it a sound move. Should we have expected different from a marketing person? (semi-rhetorical) I would say that it has largely worked, wouldn't you? All that the organization needed was for fans to cut them some more slack instead of standing up and telling them to go pound sand in a proverbial manner of speaking. I think that the reaction that they've gotten was about as favorable as it could have been short of hiring Lovie Smith, someone that took a similar team and averaged 9-7 with it, wouldn't you. So, without having given up more control than Brandon & Co. would have liked, they've gotten the best reaction that they could have, fans are apparently ready to empty their wallets again next season if for no other reason than "it's different." So from that perspective, I'd say mission accomplished by the marketers.

For her sake I hope she doesn't pick Travis Henry.

I appreciate the implicit admission that you haven't done a lick of homework on the topic, but that info is all over the web. Do a simple google search. I've done that homework a long, long time ago. Nevertheless, if the revenues exceed the taxes, then why the taxes? Think about it. The NFL, like all other pro sports teams, major leagues or not, are expense items to a community and not closed business systems thereby requiring them to bilk taxpayers, which is now largely deficit spending. Those complaining about this and helping out multi-multi-millionaire sports teams owners are absolutely right. How many of those in this forum that own their own businesses can tap other people that they call "taxes" or "taxpayers" for money to advance their businesses under the guise that they'll be paying taxes as a result? None unless they own huge corporations or commercial banks or their financial subsidiaries. What's "not much?" Then consider, this is just one of thousands of spending programs, add it all up and maybe it'll make a little more sense. P Perhaps pro sports teams should revamp their business models so that they don't have to have others pay their expenses for them. But what great businessmen they are, right? Gee, give me a few million from other people and I'll show you what a great businessman I am too. Either way, it's no wonder that this nation is in the state it's in, everyone has their pet spending likes that they justify to themselves. Add it all up, and well, here we are. Perhaps the players and coaches should get paid from what's left instead of off the top thereby leaving the rest to the citizenry, many of whom don't care for a completely unnecessary thing that they don't enjoy, or deficit spending to cover the balance. It shouldn't have to struggle, the salaries in the game need to be reduced, that's all. Think about it, ~ $200M over 10 years say, that's $20/year. That can easily come of contracts for coaches and players. Heck, Mario's contract alone would have paid for a good chunk of a new stadium.

You should take a math class. If the revenues for the county exceeded the taxes, then they wouldn't have to levy the tax. Otherwise, do your homework, it's been disproven many times over that pro sports teams do not bring in money to their states/municipalities. All I know is that anyone that agrees with this kind of stuff, for us, for them (downstaters), etc., should clam up when it comes to overspending governments.

Doubt that. Most NFL owners don't do that.

Now they're probably going to reach for a QB in a QB bereft draft. Everything that they've done for over a decade is completely out of phase. LOL

Nix had no experience as a GM. Both fans and the media made it sound as if all of the good decisions that the team made while he was here in other capacities were all related to him, even if only implied. They're doing the same dam thing now w/ Whaley. What qualifies Whaley to be a GM? Correct answer, nothing. But there are many fans right here hoping for that. This cycle that the organization is in is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just like they say we get the government we deserve, so too we get the coaching and GM we deserve. For the media, here's a clue, the next time a coach is hired, instead of talking about what a great fit he is for the organization, how about being overly critical and going back and finding all the flaws in that coach or GM's track record and talking about those openly, and then if those can be overcome with trust, then let's talk about what a great fit it is and all the good things that are expected. How many times have Jack's three magic beans been sold over and over and over again to Bills fans. Next time the beanstalk's really gonna grow though don't ya know. The whole thing is a black comedy. As they say, if you can't laugh at yourself ... Accept proven competence, nothing less. This just in, but "hoping" or Bill-ieving doesn't accomplish anything, all it does is alter your expectations to include the unlikely and unreasonable. You'd be surprised at who may bite when enough money is offered. No one wants to coach the Bills for what they pay. Instead of offering the farm to a player like Mario, or giving Fitz half of that, how about giving Fitz money to a coach and then see what happens. Maybe all these players you see performing better after they leave the Bills might actually start doing it here in Buffalo. Call me crazy.

The team is most if not all of that. He can't go spend a portion of the team. Otherwise, if he is it's his own fault. I still can't believe he's in the Hall of Fame. For what, taking a flyer on a cheap team back in the day. If you put the cost of a team today in then dollars, it's like a million bucks, for an NFL team. Granted, it was an AFL team, but still, the AFL was nearly as viable back then. He also had nothing to do w/ the merger. So what is he in the Hall for, for firing Polian? Because that's the biggest thing he's ever done for this team since Polian accidentally, not by Wilson's design, got the job to begin with. But I digress. If this is true, and I find it difficult to believe, then Wilson can only blame himself. Look at all the money, real money, spent on bust players over the years brought in on free agency. The list goes on and on, and while Mario's not a bust, he's hardly worth $100M, more than any other defender in the league. He's not even in the top-10 in sacks and has half of what his former teammate has. And most of what he does have this year he can thank rookie and crappy QBs for. The whole reason they brought him in wasn't so that he couldn't do a dam thing against Brady. If Wilson would have spent some money on a proven competent head coach, this discussion wouldn't even be taking place. Merchandise sales might be among the tops in the league, and like all winners, they'd have fans everywhere. Besides, he'll have plenty of money when he sells the team, which by his design, will be after he croaks. I'm sure his family members all have jobs just like the rest of us. Maybe they can all move to Buffalo and chip in on the taxes for this new stadium deal.

Start one of those online petitions and start sending the link around.

I won't argue that, but if you'd read the accounts, it has been the fans that have been verbally abusing him personally for wearing a Sanchez jersey. I mean would you harass fellow Bills fans for wearing a Maybin jersey? I sure hope not. Sounds tremendously immature if you ask me. Either way, this made it sound as if he quit wearing his jersey and doing cheers because the Jets suck too. Not the case. I won't disagree that he may be a ham, but what, our stadium is chock full of 'em too.

Nuthin' like creating policy on an exception. Once again, some fans deserve exactly what we have here in Buffalo.

How original.

Maybe the Bills' players are using PUDs, Performance Unenhancing Drugs.

Fireman Ed bailed because of the fans, not the team.

Even more thinking that's gotten us to where we are. Thank you. Same as it usually is, put on your special Bills Nike's tap your heels together three times while saying "BILL-ieve!" We'd have a better chance of catching a cold while sitting on the beach in Cancun.

Just musing back, ... remember when Fitzpatrick's ribs were the excuse? So what happened, who was wrong? ... or lying?