birdog1960

i f@rt in your general direction

this, and...maybe the owners will see the wisdom in continued collaboration, including jones and snyder. their biggest customers (networks and advertisers and indirectly, fans) can at least attempt to demand negotiations for access to products from individual, more marketable teams (possibly including tv rights) through the courts and attempt to break that collaboration. the assertion that there is still a "relatively competitive balance on the field" ignores the 8-10 perennial have not teams who have little to no chance of making the playoffs any given year, much less winning a championship. the anti trust exemptions and revenue sharing should have prevented this but have failed miserably and thus may have outlived their usefulness regardless of the courts ruling.

it would make sense for the big market teams if they could make much more selling their games individually than collectively. just look at the broadcast maps for last years games. the good teams would make much more revenue if the broadcasters could save on not covering poorly watched games at all or at a steep discount. some games are shown to a tiny sliver of the country and this obviously doesn't maximize profit for the popular teams or the broadcasters.

it's conceivable that someone like comcast could sue to negotiate with individual teams to broadcast games outside of the nfl agreement with direct tv. I'm no lawyer, but it seems reasonable that statements such as justice steven's would support this argument. so, no I don't think were sure at all. if the supreme court had gone the other way, we would be sure that it wouldn't happen.

justice stevens, in his opinion, wrote that the NFL consists of 32 profit maximizing enterprises, not a single enterprise. As you note, this has implications for free agency, tv contracts, merchandising and possibly salary caps but I can't see how these bode well for small market teams.

the best anyone can give is a probability of further serious injury and for future performance. it's far from an exact science. i suspect the bills doc gave somewhat better probabilities or the bills were willing to accept less than great probabilities or both. no really encouraging scenarios exist here.

these are just opinions. the fact that a surgeon had great success with a particular patient doesn't make it a given that his opinion on another patient (and a different issue ie: survival versus playing in the nfl at a high level for a long time) is more valuable than another physician's. what is concerning is that there didn't seem to be much interest (and no offers) elsewhere which might tend to support the raven's concerns.

yeah, the bills hold all the cards. they have 2 lt's and we have none.

it shows the incompetence of the owner...even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut (and then he benches one of them for a playoff game)

very interesting stats. probably explains why these are the 2 highest paid positions on average and why the bills haven't addressed them and why currently the bills have the worst odds of winning the sb (+10,000-same as oakland, tb, kc,detroit,rams and cleveland) while much maligned washington has improved to +2000 from +5000 after the mcnabb deal.

would be nice to fix the bills problems so easily

this is how it looks to any objective observer

astonishing that you would run into substance abuse at an afterhours party... great place to get a representative sampling of the various professions. since you seem interested in social science you might also consider doing a study on the correlation between carrying a lighter and smoking.

better consult a map. ann arbor and detroit are about 35 miles apart and the cities really almost blend together (much to ann arbor's horror) as you make the drive.

methamphetamine is rarely prescribed for adhd and almost never by a family doctor. methylphenidate (ritalin) is commonly presribed for adhd and is commonly abused thus most practitioners prescribe slow release versions with less abuse potential. it has also been used, with limited success (and with questionable rationale) to treat methamphetamine addicts. most people using methamphetamine or crack ARE addicts in the sense that they will have withdrawal signs and symptoms and craving when forced to abstain. someone using crack or meth would be well advised to seek treatment. these are not drugs commonly used by casual,"recreational" users. Toradol is an nsaid with no effect on mu receptors and thus no measurable euphoric properties except those from placebo effect. as mr weo stated, this article doesn't pass the smell test.

based on this, we should have tried for last place in about 40 of the 50 years of the franchises existence...maybe even more.

when does journalistic positivity regarding a perennial loser become propaganda?

IF nix doesn't trust him he should fire him regardless of the timing...unless he's not able to make that caLL

ok then,i'll buy the "on further review" argument for nix but he and gailey were truly out of left field..at least as far as speculation on this board (i certainly anticipate a response to this statement) or even the major sports outlets are concerned. why do the bills so often have to look for the diamond in the rough and ignore conventional wisdom? statistically the herd is often right and if you don't buy into herd mentality then why not at least choose aggression over passivity. even cleveland was able to make some big (and yes speculative) deals. when you're on the bottom, gambling may be your best option. the status quo hasn't worked here. where's the wheelin, dealin bold moves? it would be nice if the bills would once go "all in" but this offseason is the antithesis of that. what's the worst that could happen, 0-16? many here have guessed a 4-5 win season as it is...why not bet the house on 4 games? and yeah, it aint my money but i'm not 92 with no trophy, staring the grim reaper in the face.

i challenge anyone to think back 5 months and remember what hopes you had for the new gm, coach, the draft and free agency. before the sheep were prepped by nevergiveup, i really don't recall much, if any, excitement for nix, gailey, spiller, or any of the free agents that were picked up. can anyone here really say this was the best they were hoping for? there was talk of cowher or gruden or shottenheimer and mcnabb and draft prospects for qb and lt yet none of it came to pass and everyone is satisfied, some even giddy. why?

nevergiveup is back

this..but the bills are clearly not in a win now mindset. hell, i'm not sure there in a win it all ever mindset. thus, i believe they rationalize not signing an expensive LT (and they are all expensive) as throwing good money after bad. the investment isn't likely to result in immediate large rewards so wait til they're closer to being competitive to spend big on this position. sucks for us fans but good for the bottom line. that said, i hope i'm wrong, they get him and truly signal a new direction for the franchise.

maybe to avoid losing seasons for the foreseeable future and actually compete with good teams that would pay him. maybe to show that things really are different now.

as always, well reasoned and presented from an extraordinary perspective but...being somewhat removed from the worst in your field is hardly impressive or admirable. i'm sure this is not what you aspire to in your profession and it certainly not what i do. damned with faint praise comes to mind...