flopagamo

Now I feel horrible about myself. Rodak and I are almost identical on this topic. Ugh: http://www.espn.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/28621/august-trades-knock-buffalo-bills-record-prediction-down-to-5-11

Good. I'd prefer Tyrod to Kirk Cousins.

This has been some thread. Funny part: *I* am the original author of the OP's predictions. At the outset of each season, my brother and I exchange predictions (with oddly specific details thrown in here and there), game by game. Each year, his predictions are wildly optimistic. ("10-and-6! Playoffs baby! This is the year!")... and each year, I refute his wild optimism with a harsh dose of bitter cynicism. This year, I decided on a preemptive strike, hitting him with my grumpy take before he got his out. My knucklehead brother -- the OP -- was so entertained that he decided to share my outlook on four decades of Bills fandom with this community as if the predictions were his own... going so far as to defend its contents against the many slings and arrows... which is funny because he's actually the one of us who suffers from AEO - Annual Excessive Optimism. BTW, apologies for forgetting the Chargers' move to LA. I *don't* apologize for making fun of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms though. Like many in this forum, I've been a Bills fan for as long as I can remember. 70's Dolphin hate... We're talkin proud, Ground Chuck, Joe Cribbs... through the darkest of Dark Ages, aka the Kay Stephenson and Hank Bullough years... the glory years of Bruuuuce/Kelly/Thurman/Reed/Tasker/Levy/Bennett/Talley/Lofton, all those unheralded studs like Phil Hansen, and the best GM in the business, Bill Polian... and of course, the last two decades of mediocrity, peppered with glimmers of hope from guys like Doug Flutie, Eric Moulds, and Drew Bledsoe. I have college age kids who were not alive for the last Bills playoff win. My youngest son is asking if he can root for another team (answer: no! But I love that he asks for permission). I've gotten to the point where emotional investment is getting more challenging with each passing year. I've contemplated writing to the FO to say "I'm sick of this crap. I'm done. Call me when you're good again" but I stop short of that because (a) that would certify me as an old crank and (b) I don't buy stamps anymore. I'll keep pulling for the Bills. And I'll hang onto my cynicism until the boys on the field and in the front office convince me otherwise. Maybe this is the year!

I was about to chime in to say how depressing this thread is... then I saw the above. LOL well played!

Bruce Mathison

Found them inane and irritating. Greeny whines, Golic is out of his depth unless he's talking about offensive line play. Never understood the appeal of these two.

+1 I enjoyed Berman in the NFL Primetime heyday... what Bills fan didn't love his 'nobody circles the wagons' bit? He was entertaining. His schtick did indeed get old though. His work in baseball was brutally bad... at his absolute worst at the Home Run Derby. He was a huge part of building ESPN into the giant it is today. But when your on-air presence is a series of gags, it is bound to grow tiresome. No one would call him a serious journalist, right?

Good reporting requires cultivation of working relationships with good sources, discretion on when and when not to run with something (lest you ruin those relationships), mutual respect with your sources (i.e. the understanding that you each have a job that you must do), and of course the ability to write well. How many in the local media who cover the Bills meet these requirements? Sports media (nay, media everywhere) has gotten lazy. (How many utterly bogus stories have made national news in the past couple months? Eager for the scoop, reporters run with unverified info, and further undermine confidence in themselves.) Sports media engenders a different kind of laziness though. There are guys who have been at it in WNY for a very long time, tasked with covering a perennial mediocrity. Some of them fancy themselves as the voice of the fans, and they get jaded and bitter like fans do. Can an obviously jaded and bitter sportswriter have a mutually respectful relationship with sources in/around the team? I think not. I should clarify: I agree with others who've said it here... Sal Capaccio and John Wawrow fit the description of good reporters!

I hadn't thought of this...

That's fair. I guess. Stupid reality interfering with my dreams.

FRANK REICH 2017 I'm a DC area transplant and extremely infrequent poster here... a WNYer from the 70s and 80s who serves as the sobering voice to fellow transplanted Bills fans in my area who get caught up in the playoff scenarios year after year with unwarranted optimism. I'm the guy who says to them, "Fellas, just stop it. It's not going to happen." I would love to be optimistic about the Bills, but I've reached a point where I can't get all that fired up anymore. And I hate that! I'm getting old. I've grown weary of the annual disappointment. The Buffalo Bills have almost made me hate NFL football. They're not even good at being bad... they manage to get middling draft picks every year by being just good enough to miss the playoffs by a game or two. I've been down on pretty much every head coach since Marv, and none more so than Rex Ryan, especially after he dumped a very successful d-coordinator, then later hired his own bumbling brother (he of the reverse midas touch) to commence ruining what was once a very good defense. Good riddance, Rex. Who knew the NFL coaching ranks were nothing more than a jobs program for incompetent family members? I need a reason to get excited about this team again. Frank Reich seems to be on nobody's short list... and perhaps he doesn't deserve top-dog consideration yet. That said, given all the mediocrity that Bills fans have endured for so long, would anyone really object to the Pegulas giving one of the region's favorite guys a chance to pull off another kind of comeback? FRANK REICH 2017 LET'S CALL IT A COMEBACK

FRANK REICH 2017

You know what's not simplified: the Eagles offense right now... under the watchful eyes of Frank Reich. FRANK REICH 2017

<deep sigh> We've played two football games, and we're already talking about when the HC gets fired. Not even if. THIS... is Buffalo Bills football. The 1990s were so very long ago, but how I miss them... so let's get the band back together! FRANK REICH 2017

Frank Reich is figuring it out in Philly right now... FRANK IN 2017