Ronin

LOL Yes, he should have said that you can get talented players and coaches to Buffalo by giving them historically record contracts at their positions. His bad. And you're right about needing to have the right people selling it, where's PT Barnum when you need him. Perhaps Tony Robbins can help. Good comedy in here at times.

Gem? Honestly, are you serious? Man, Bills fans may be the best fans in the world, but we never learn a damn thing. Talk is cheap my friend. Very cheap. If you haven't learned that after having been a Bills fan over the last decade, then I don't think you'll ever learn. Talk about a major-league roll of the dice ala Buddy Nix. You and anyone else that really thinks that Whaley, with absolutely no experience, is a solution for this team, have fully earned the plight that this franchise is now in in an ongoing basis.

Kind of like predicting that the sun's going to rise tomorrow considering that four of the last five are home games against other hapless teams that are 2-9, 4-6-1, 6-5, 5-6, and 4-7 for a combined 21-33-1, isn't it? I mean if they can't beat the Jags, Rams, Jets and maybe even the Seabags at home, then one could argue that not only has the team not improved, but it will have shown regression too considering that of the teams on Nix and Gailey's watch this is easily the most talented of the three. I'd still guess that they still win no more than three of them. I'm thinking that they even win only two. Not that it matters. If they don't beat Jax by at least two TDs next week though, we won't even know what to say.

Even collegiate stadiums are following in the same mode although not as expensive. Have you noticed that most are now named after corporations? They remodel them to add the "luxuries" and "luxury seating." Forget where, maybe 60 Minutes on Sunday, but they were talking about how only 22 NCAA FBS schools/teams actually break-even or make money, out of like 125. The nation's lost its way. Does it really matter, I mean really matter, what the stadium looks like on the outside? I fear that spectating has taken actually viewing the game out of the picture as the #1 goal. I mean what did people do in the '60s, '70s, and even '80s? Did they suffer? Were the experiences horrible? Someone commented that WiFi was necessary? Really? Most smartphones and other devices now link up on sat networks. Otherwise, who cares? Everything has a price tag. That's part of the reason why I don't go to games anymore, the fans have made getting drunk and acting like a$$holes a priority over just behaving like a decent human being and watching the games. Even inside, the language heard even in the expensive seats is enough to make a sailor blush. I'll take the HD and sit at home and watch. If the beer sales didn't make money they wouldn't sell it at all. I love a beer as much as the next guy, but one, or two, maybe three on the day, not so much that I get stupid drunk or even so drunk that I have no control over my language w/ kids around. Society has gotten so much more crass.

Sheppard was mediocre last year, it's just that no one wanted to see that. Ditto for Aaron Williams. That's what happens when people blindly go into support for Nix and Gailey and dismiss what should have been obvious signs of yet another poor hire after if not during their first season. Anyway, it's the viewers, as both of their play has been pretty consistent from last season to this. Wannstedt has always been overrated, ditto there. And the same for Gailey. They're no different than they were elsewhere, underachieving while employing pigeon-holed methods.

You got that right! It's gotten ridiculous what's "required" now for stadiums. And many talk about what a great business model it is, yet it cannot even support itself w/ owners requiring the financing, which is usually more than the actual cost, of these stadiums. Let the owner f'ing pay for it! Otherwise, you're absolutely right, fans of the sport have apparently become so pussified that they can sit through a game w/o heated seats and rooms to retreat to. What gets me based on my limited experiences in boxes and the like, is how many people watch the dam games on the TVs that are up there. it's no wonder Goodell's concerned with HDTV and people just staying home. Seems that they need to find 5,000 or 10,000 of the wealthiest people in any given sports city to shell out absurd amounts of money and that that's the real focus on spectating these days. I wouldn't trade any of it for having been able to sit in the snow and cold during all of those '90s era playoff games, yes, at times freezing my a$$ off, but not caring, then going out to the lots to stand by those enormous warm fires basking in the glow of victory. Priorities in the NFL and other professional sports are all f'd up these days. Meanwhile, it's part of what might drive the team from the region.

Gailey has notably better talent than Jauron had.

LMAO! ... you understand the organization. Also, first Nix & Gailey foolishly put their faith in Edwards, even to the point of humiliating some young male fans during training camp who knew what Edwards was all about. Then they hitched their future success, again, foolishly, to a career journeyman backup QB, both times arduously insisting implicitly that they knew what they were doing, and now after three seasons, the "proving period" for new GMs and head coaches, they want a mulligan! Isn't that just the flippin' dandy! Talk about chutzpah! Meanwhile, all that they have proven is that they're both terrible in those roles and clearly don't have the first flippin' clue as to what they're doing. This was all fully predictable I might add. But again, how many Bills fans and people, even here, were applauding or at least not condemning their hires at the time that this idiocracy of an organization made them. Next time, unless Wilson fires these tards and does get someone like Bill Polian, who if I'm not mistaken is idle right now and loves Buffalo, instead of everyone talking about how other dimwits just like Gailey or Nix, not to mention the rest of the suit-selling organization, are "experts" and know more than we do, they should call the organization on the carpet and post their vote of "no sale" by not catering to further idiocy and negligence by not buying anything, including tickets. Odds of that happening are slim to nil as PT Barnum's statement that "a fool and his money are soon parted" will be in full play even if they draft some QB stooge in round 2 or 3. They'll buy lipstick by the gallon and apply it liberally to the next pig and the line asking for dates will be out the doors at OBD. As to Gailey, he may very well be the worst gameday coach that the team has seen in the era of free-agency.

When you make that kinda coin you'd better **** gold dubloons! If I were better performing players earning a few milion, I'd be miffed.

LOL Maybe as with the Texans, the team will improve with him on IR. Ego mania. Ironically, Mario is nearly on pace for his 16-game-average season sack-total of 10 sacks. That's just over a half-sack per game, almost what he has. He's on pace to meet or beat his sack total from three of his prior 6 seasons. Since his production seems to be primarily measured in sacks, perhaps there should have been more discussion with the media, both national as well as regional, at large, as well as among Bills fans, as to that fact before everyone thought he was going to come here and do things he's never done before.

Think about it. Everyone's mindboggled and upset about how the team is playing, but whose fault is it to have BILL-ieved that Nix, Gailey, Fitzpatrick, Mario, and other players would do things that they've never ever done? Take Nix, he was in scouting for crying out loud, and his career there was spotty and nebulous to say the least. He was never a GM. Anathema to anyone that pointed that out to the next god and "Bill Polian" of the team at the time of his hiring. Now it's chic to complain about him. What about Gailey? He coached two years in the NFL nearly a decade before he was hired here, but with a QB like Aikman and Emmitt Smith in his prime still, he still couldn't manage to do much offensively in Dallas except be slightly above average before turning his team into a very average team. He got schooled twice in the playoffs there. Otherwise he'd been busy in college running a variation of an option there giving him absolutely no skills or frame-of-reference for the pro game. Then of course in KC he was horrible as an OC for a season before sitting idle after having been fired from that role. Wannstedt, whom Gailey hired, is a whole other story. He had no serious credentials for managing a defense, another media fabrication ala Mario having been the free-agent prize, in fact he's sucked at defense. So why the contrary belief? How about Mario? The media told everyone that he was the big defensive prize in the free agent market, but how many of you actually took a detailed look at his stats and told yourself, "something isn't matching up here." After all, for that kind of hype and money you'd expect a player that had been in the top-5 at his position, but Mario was never that. Since sacks are the big measure there, in six seasons he managed to crack the top-10 in sacks only twice. Top spots both years no doubt. Nope! In 2006 he ranked 92nd with 4.5 sacks. In 2007, five seasons ago, he ranked tied for 3rd with 14. In 2008 he ranked 8th with 12. In 2009 he ranked 17th with 9. In 2010 he ranked 28th with 8.5. This season he currently ranks tied for 31st and 3.5 with five other players, one of which is Dwan Edwards, a DT even, that the team just released. Is that really out of line with his history? Slightly perhaps, but hardly severely, and not far out of line with his history. What about Aaron Williams? The stats on him were out last season, he wasn't an above average CB, so why did the team release Drayton Florence, a competent if non-stellar CB? He wasn't that pricey relatively speaking. [Note: See "Nix" above] Powell hasn't outperformed Moorman, a fan favorite, in either net or total punting. Whose brain-baby was that? [Note: See both "Nix" and "Gailey" above] Why all the faith in Sheppard at MLB? It should have been obvious to anyone that watched any games last season, or simply looked at the stats, that he was problematic at MLB coming into the season. So whose fault is it for not recognizing that? If Nix and the Front Office sent coupons for free coffees at Tim Hortons, and told the season ticket holders that they were the tickets to the games, would anyone believe him? I don't know, perhaps they would. But the other things are just as obvious, assuming that one does the homework instead of trusting an organization that has a clearcut conflict of interest to lie through their teeth. So I ask, everyone's upset with Nix now, not prior to the season even much less when he was hired, but wasn't his performance predictable? Wouldn't have he achieved the galactically amazing if he actually had done what he said he would do? What about Gailey, why did most if not all of the media and most fans seem to think he was a good hire? ... just talked yourself into it when he was hired? Why? Fitzpatrick's a whole other story too. But the list goes on. So why is everyone complaining now, and talking about boycotting the team now? Because they're simply going to go into wash, rinse, repeat mode after the season, and many of those complaining the loudest will once again BILL-ieve and chide those that see things for what they are. The time to complain fellow fans is when the team makes stupid decisions, dresses up and puts lipstick on the pig and vanilla frosting on the pudding pop that they're about to cram down your throat if you're foolish enough to say "AHHH" when they say open wide. This pattern is now more than clear since the '90s and is the gift that keeps on giving. Sure, it all starts with the front office, but in the same way that a lemon is presented as a creampuff on a used car lot, no one forces you to buy it, but in this case most do. Nix was pure mystery meat as a GM and as such had a monstrously steep path in order to prove himself merely average. He was brought on as a result of the Friends and Family program that Donahoe put in place and which still exists. Gailey was a known quantity, a failure, a coach supposedly known for his "offensive prowess," but one that underachieved with talent the likes of Emmitt and Aikman, who sucked buffalo balls in KC, and who otherwise ran an offense completely unsuited to NFL play and did so only to a level of mediocrity, average in a good season. Mario should have been a known quantity too, especially after he got hurt last season and the team and defense in Houston didn't miss a beat without him. These things were all known, ... but ignored. So when assessing fault, remember, this team got what it wants this season, initial interest, several sold-out or close to sold-out games if they weren't sold-out, and renewed interest. Why should they do anything different, they've gotten this for years. Think about it! Then, if you're still upset, do your homework and reject anything that even remotely looks or smells like a pig with lipstick. If you don't, then three or four seasons you'll be looking back again saying the same things. When the team doesn't get what it wants from you, then maybe something will change. Until then, why should it? Why don't the fans that have blindly supported this without doing their own homework deserve this? Again, think about it.

You'll be back next season after they apply some more turd polish.

Putting Polian, whom the organization fired after he took the team to four straight Super Bowls while giving the franchise its only era of sustained success, then went on to win a SB with the Colts after transforming an expansion team into winners, on the Wall-of-Fame.

LOL They're so bad that it makes one conjure up theories like that. I've been going through those mental machinations for years. But the answer is no, they're really just that bad. What I don't get is that it's almost always obvious when they hire these jokers except most fans and media always think that they're good hires because the "experts" in the organization are all smarter than we are. Even here most everyone originally supported the hire of Nix and Gailey and deferred to them. Now all of this. In fact, it was just two months ago that most here were heralding Nix for his work and insisting that a 10-22 coach otherwise was all of a sudden going to propel this team into the playoffs or at least a winning record. Now .500 seems absurdly optimistic. Well next time they try to force feed everyone a fat pudding pop, instead of spouting how the experts and people that get paid [a lot more than we do] to make these decisions know more than we do, how about sending an immediate message to the organization that you're not happy and saying that you're going to boycott the season and most likely the following season too until they become as serious as you are. They obviously don't know WTF they're doing, they obviously don't have a clue when they put the car in Drive and it goes in Reverse. But watch, they'll hire some other head coach to liberally apply turd polish to, ditto for the GM, and it will be wash, rinse, repeat mode right here, on schedule again. Then after the astute fans realize how they've been screwed before it happens once again try to express as much, they'll be treated like lesser fans for doing so. Two seasons of an empty stadium will do the trick. Never going to happen though. There are enough fools out there that insist that financial support for losing is the best way to prove how much of a fan one is.

Not sure what's worse, the team or your grammar, spelling, and spacing. My eyes are bleeding, ... could be the game, could be your rant.

A lot of people here and elsewhere originally saying that he was pretty good, but players do not get worse like that overnight. Also, it was just a matter of 6-8 weeks ago that many were talking about the great job that Nix has done, sometimes despite Gailey. Curious what the thoughts are now about Nix's great work. And let's not forget, Williams was one of those guys that Nix and the other poindexters in the FO claimed was really a 1st-rounder that slipped.

Wow! Kent was just a great guy! Fantastic person. RIP indeed!

That's when Ralph finally mailed it in. Even then, the writing regarding Donahoe was on the wall, plainly. But even then, no one wanted to read it much less heed it. The organization keeps plucking people that have ridden coattails of other successful coaches and GMs, and then they paint them to be "the real reasons why their employers were so good." That's like saying that the reason why Belichick is so good is because of Daniels, Crennel, Weiss, etc., rather than putting the horse before the cart and simply saying that it was Belichick that created them, not visa versa. This organization works completely the opposite though. They find some stiff that can't really be criticized for lack of data. Then they broad brush him with whitewash and sometimes (Jauron, Wannstedt) turd-polish. But under the superficiality of their statements there's always data that suggests strongly that they're full of it too. it's just that no one wants to see it. If you don't want to see it, you won't. The rest, as they say, is history.

Who made the decision to hire the coach? Problem solved.

You're asking here? LOL Here Sullivan's a pariah and persona-non-grata because he hasn't lip-locked the sphincter of the organization. Put another way, he writes independently and doesn't drink from the same water cooler as most here do and have. Now that he's been more validated than the average person here however, I doubt there will be much criticism of his work anytime soon. Once that pendulum starts swinging the other way, lookout, nothing can stop it. lol

That was cool! Were you at the game? ... it was great!! By the 4th Q the fans were all partying and somewhat lackadaisical. But as the Raiders finally came into scoring range all of a sudden everyone perked up as if to say "not in our house," lol. The fans went raucous as if the Raiders were about to go up if they scored a TD, ... and were denied. [Deep Sigh] It's been so long since those days when you'd go to the stadium realizing that they could beat any team in the NFL and likely would at home. Wilson will always be remembered by me first and foremost as the man that fired Bill Polian for really no significant reason, and in hindsight one of the most foolish reasons that could have existed, and given his daughter's complete lack of desire to have anything to do with the Bills, one of the most idiotic decisions ever made in the NFL. I have no idea why Wilson's in the NFL. His having purchased a team back then for a $25 flyer would be the equivalent today of someone paying $1M for a team. LOL Would make more sense.

In the grand scheme of things, yes, it is just a game. If this were the '60s where these guys were getting paid a pittance more than the "average joe" with most working outside of the immediate season, he would have more of a case. I'm sure that losing his brother put things into perspective. But none of it is an excuse, particularly for the other 52 on the roster, the coaching staff, GM, FO, etc. that didn't "just lose a brother," because all get paid very handsomely, particularly the coaches and players, to levels far exceeding what the "average joe" makes, and in an arena that is largely supplemented, usually for stadiums, by taxpayers who have no choice. Having said all of that, for Mr. $100M, and any of the other highly paid players, for those words to come across their lips when they should be on their knees, literally, before God thanking them that they can make more in a single season than the "average joe" makes over an entire lifetime, is shameful. It shows a disdain for the "average joes" that fill the stadium, or at least used to. Again, Dareus may still be grieving, and no doubt he is, and therefore likely to say some unfortunate things, but by and large, that's a ridiculous tack for any top paid player to assert.

And that my friend you can pin entirely on the coaching!

LOL

"Thinking" being the operative term there. Is that it, we feast on the weak and feeble, then use that as some kind of measuring stick? Weren't the expectations much higher than having to take advantage of a poor pass-protecting team? I thought that we heard about how this "new and improved" DL was going to dismantle Brady? How the standards change. Now we're reduced to merely hoping for a game of abuse of a hapless QB, OL, and offense generally speaking. This team had better more worry about the Cards and their highly ranked pass D, which is what these Bills should have been, and their 17 sacks and top-rankings in pass D otherwise. Cards are a +4 in TO and the Bills a -4. You do the math. Hard to tell around here.