ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

Far from proof, but then again more than just "a few fans paranoia" - - - http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-silver_al_davis_raiders_relocation_la_stadium101011 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/11/01/week.8/index.html And here's one that doesn't directly mention the possibility of the team moving, but if you understand that the other NFL owners will decide who becomes the next owner of the Bills if Ralph doesn't leave the team to a family member, it creates at least some cause for concern: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-ownersrankingspartone072208

Thought this had some interesting info on status of concussion monitoring: http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2012/01/technology_may_help_detect_a_c.html

I was making no comment about whether I considered teachers to be adequately paid - - merely pointing out what they actually got paid in NYC in 2008.

Facts - - here's the 2008 New York City salary schedule from a teacher union website: http://www.uft.org/our-rights/salary-schedules/teachers To understand the New York City teacher 2008 salary chart in the above link, you also need the following explanation of salary "steps:" http://www.uft.org/our-rights/salary-steps I don't know how things have changed since 2008, but in 2008 a NYC teacher with 22 years experience and a Master's degree made an annual salary of $94,154. With an additional 30 credit hours beyond the Master's degree, the salary schedule for 22 years experience topped out at just over $100k.

Not sure how important it really is, but here's another factor not yet mentioned in this thread: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7128322/buffalo-bills-hire-firm-stadium-facelift-report-says

How does a team of bugs snap the ball, anyway? I suppose a praying mantis might have long enough "arms," but who's (what's?) gonna kick it?

Maybe they're both long nappers.

Turns out, art imitates life: http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7090907/zak-deossie-lonie-paxton-ryan-pontbriand-top-page-2-long-snapper-rankings

Go ahead and laugh, but if the public already knows about published basic invisibility research, is there any doubt that secret military research is more advanced? We may all see it some day. Well OK, we may not actually "see" it, but you get my point. http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49electric_universe/03files/Cloaking_Device_006.html What bothers me about this is that the pioneering research conducted by Duke University professor of computer and electrical engineering David Smith was funded by the "Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellowship Program." David Smith? Wasn't he one of the agents hunting down the "Chosen One" in "The Matrix?" That was published more than 5 years ago, and we went from no real space program to walking on the moon in about a decade.

The best snappers can snap for both left-footed and right-footed kickers - - something Sanborn has yet to prove that he can do.

Well, he would have to line up on her side of the formation - - that ain't automatic.

Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall reading somewhere that there is a limit to how many years a signing bonus can be spread over - - but I don't have a link. My hazy recollection is that the limit was 5 years total. Whether the pro-ration limit is either 4 or 5 years, that would increase Fitz's 2011 cap figure above the $4.229M figure, but not by a huge amount. It would still leave the Bills with over $17M of unused 2011 cap room, if my math is right. BTW, the rotoworld info includes a $10M signing bonus, and a total of $11M in roster and/or "option" bonuses. Seems like players (and their agents) would always want at least some of the money in the form of an upfront signing bonus.

The new Fitz contract would reduce the Bills' available 2011 cap room, but here's how rotoworld says the new contract was structured - - from http://www.rotoworld.com/teams/contracts/nfl/buf/buffalo-bills I don't know how accurate rotoworld is, but using their info, the new Fitz contract would result in a charge against the 2011 Bills salary cap of about $4.229 million (his full $2.8M 2011 salary plus 1/7th of the $10M signing bonus). For simplicity, let's ignore the facts that (i) the reported October 3rd cap room figure must have already included some base salary figure for Fitz (which would make the net increase in Fitz's 2011 cap figure caused by the new contract less than $4.229M), and (ii) the remaining pro-rated portion of whatever signing bonus Fitz received under his old contract still has to be applied against the Bills salary cap - - it doesn't just disappear - - but I'm not sure if it all counts in 2011 or if it gets spread out over the full 7 year term of the new contract (either way, the remaining pro-rated portion of the signing bonus from Fitz's old contract would increase Fitz's 2011 cap figure above $4.229M). With the above assumptions for simplicity, the new Fitz contract reduces the Bills 2011 salary cap room by only $4.229 million. The team would still have roughly $22.7M - $4.229M = $18.471M in unused 2011 cap room (before the effect of any other player transactions that took place after 10/3/11).

As of about 10 days ago, Rian Lindell's agent Paul Sheehy estimated that the 2012 cap "should fall in the area of $142.2 million." He never says how he arrived at that figure, but he presumably has at least some basis for making that estimate. That quote is from the following link, which is technically a blog entry, but written by the agent (it also contains some insights about what agents do this time of year): http://www.bleed-green.com/blog/?p=12513

It's always true that all 32 NFL teams are under the cap - - NFL rules require it. The question is by how much. I wasn't able to quickly craft a google search that zeroed in on end-of-season 2011 salary cap figures. But here's what I did find with less than exhaustive effort: 1. As of around August 16, 2011 the Bills had the 5th most cap room ($26.2 million) for the 2011 league year of any team: http://blogs.nfl.com/2011/08/16/updated-cap-space-for-all-32-teams/?module=HP11_content_stream 2. As of around August 29, 2011 the Bills had the 6th most cap room ($24.4 million) for the 2011 league year of any team: http://blogs.nfl.com/2011/08/29/updated-salary-cap-space-numbers-for-all-32-teams/ 3. As of Monday, October 3, 2011 the Bills still had the 5th most cap room ($22.7 million) for the 2011 league year of any team: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/04/updated-cap-numbers-as-of-monday/ Now I realize that the $22.7M cap room number was early in the season, and would probably decrease as a result of in-season player transactions. Link # 3 above just happened to be the most recent article about league-wide 2011 salary cap room that I could easily find. Note that the 8/29/11 league-wide figure for cap room was just over $362M, while the first link in Beerball's post # 10 above says that the league-wide cap room figure still exceeded $300M when the 2011 books "closed." That says nothing about the Bills' exact situation, but might be an indication that most teams' available 2011 cap room did not dramatically change after October 3rd. But even if the Bills' available cap room was somehow less than the league median when the books "closed" for 2011, failing to make the "carry over" election would put us at a competitive disadvantage for the 2012 season if other teams took advantage of the opportunity, no?

Although the 2011 CBA does have a provision that allows teams to elect to carry over unused salary cap room from 2011 to 2012, I don't recall seeing anything saying that the Bills plan to actually do that. It's certainly possible that the Bills said something like that and I just missed it. Do you have a link?

Does possession change at the exact moment when the punted ball crosses the LOS, or only (assuming nobody on the receiving team catches it to establish possession by the receiving team), when the referee blows his whistle to end the play because (1) the ball rolled dead, (2) the ball went out of bounds, or (3) a player on the kicking team downed it? Maybe when the punted ball crosses the LOS, the receiving team merely has an irrevocable opportunity to possess, which they remain free to screw up by muffing the punt at any time before the whistle blows?

Yes. Team B had an "opportunity to possess." Same result if Team A opens the OT by trying an onsides kick, recovers it, and then kicks a field goal. The only time a field goal doesn't immediately beat you in OT is if you never had a possession OR an opportunity to possess.

Sullivan would whisper in Ralph's ear (so the devil couldn't hear it): "It's a shame that neither of us lived to see it!"

Team B wins, because Team A never got a second possession (so Team B's possession never ended - - the muffed punt is merely an unsuccessful "opportunity to possess" for Team A). The Team B punter is MVP for the 90 yard punt, and goes to Disneyland. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81d817d7/article/postseason-overtime-rules

I don't follow the Cowboys much, so I can't comment intelligently about whether it puts Garrett on the hot seat or not. But I'm surprised by what Fox said about Tebow - - he could have been a lot more circumvent in his comments. I wonder what the Broncos locker room thought of it?

Why would I google "satire" if I'm looking for articles that mention Chan Gailey?

What are you talking about? If you do a google search on "Chan Gailey," this article is one of the "hits."

Chan Gailey is quoted in the article below. His comments are short but insightful: League-wide coaches poll My apologies if this was previously posted.

I guess you don't speak Italian - - it's imported from Italy (I've heard that Father Guido Sarducci drinks it). Humor's a subjective thing, so it isn't everybody's cup of cappuccino, but for those who like crayonz's brand of humor, I highly recommend a series of books containing letters from "Lazlo Toth" to politicians and corporations and their responses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Novello I suppose some people will think the Lazlo Toth letters and responses are neither clever nor ironic, but they frequently left me in stitches. Note to crayonz - - if you've never read the Lazlo Toth stuff check it out. I'm sure you would appreciate it (assuming you've never been "Special Vatican Reporter").