ThurmasThoman

lets go buffalo

We've been bad for so long you guys have forgotten how to circle the wagons.

Down 3 touchdowns with 19 minutes of game time left, and the bandwagon is officially clear? Cool--I'll enjoy this comeback on my own!

I'm gluten free as well. I recommend hot dogs without buns, but like a poster above said: its only 3 hours. Bring some Lara Bars in your pocket, just in case, and order a Coca Cola or two? Or, depending on how old your son is, if you're looking for him to have the game day experience, maybe smuggle in some popcorn of your own, go to one of the vendors and get an empty popcorn box, put your popcorn in, and bring it back up to your son. Good luck, but just make sure your little guy doesn't associate violent diarrhea and cramping with Buffalo's ascension to AFC dominance--you might involuntarily condition him to be a Patriots fans if you mess up today!

Awesome clip man, thanks for filming it widescreen. Great seats too! Was that the endzone Harvin hauled in the TD?

HAHA! Me too! That's the best part! It blows my mind that the current generation is basically experiencing their entire existence by watching the 5x3 screen of their iPhone, and I always wondered who cared about those videos. But I guess that person is me Last year, watching the Dolphins at Bills game from home, they didn't show the Kelly speech, although I caught a good chunk of it on WGR. Even this 20 second clip of the crowd going crazy chanting his name though makes me so proud to be a Bills fan. We are not just the "best" fan base, we stand outside of sports.

Excellent idea. Thanks for adding to the discussion, I would love it if this could become a thread where people post videos like that from the stadium. Hell, you don't even have to be there, but if you come across an "as of yet unseen" angle of some awesome plays from this weekend, put it in here!

Please... please please please... record videos on your phone of crowd reactions, upload them to youtube, and provide the links in this thread. Some of my favorite Bills media items of the last 5 years (and there aren't many), are the cam phone videos from the stands. This video of the game winning kick in 2011 to beat the Pats is amazing; and this shot of Stevie catching the game winner against Carolina captures so perfectly the atmosphere of being there, better than any tv shot ever could. How about this one of Sammy catching the game winner against Minnesota? Capture it all boys--from the tailgating, to the game, to the crowd filing out after crushing the division champs and beginning a new era of dominance in the AFC. Let's go Buffalo. And to anyone who thinks this thread is pointless or without merit: watch it, go run through a brick wall or 2 (as you'll surely want to), and get ready for one hell of a game on Sunday.

Or drink some ayahuasca tea, and use the universe as your voice.

He is not trolling at all--we are literally discussing the role of the media in sports, and the impact their "recognition" can have on ones enjoyment of the sport... in a thread titled "Bills are relevant again". Relevant to whom, per se? If, as multiple posters have claimed, the media attention is not why we watch, then why, pray, are we concerned about being "relevant"? Why care if we win or lose, to extend that thought further. A "win" is a completely arbitrary occurrence, where one group of men (not from Buffalo) scores more points in a made up game against another group of men (not from an opposing city). If that scenario occurs at a clip of about 67% or better during the regular season, these groups of men can continue onward, and play ever more challenging contests against increasingly tougher opponents, eventually culminating in a grand finale, supposedly pitting the two most qualified groups of men against one another. These teams could be labeled by ANY fashion: teams A through Z, teams Red through Purple, teams 1 through 32, or, in the course of literally every organized team sporting event in the history of humanity: teams from Region A through Region Z. The "value" that we as society have chosen to place on these competitions is in linking them to geographic proximity to us... as "fans". None of the players or coaches truly represent the cities they play for, so the entire notion of sports leagues exists as, essentially, a social construct. Following that logic, the only way to truly derive gratification as a fan, is hoping for your team to win. Which, is hoping for the arbitrary grouping of players representing "Buffalo" to win. Which, is to say, you are literally ONLY rooting for "Buffalo". Your entire life of rooting for the Bills, is rooting for the "Buffalo metropolitan area". The prize is, yes, a Lombardi trophy, but it's also the glowing accolades heaped upon the city/fans/team from national media, and yes, from ESPN.

Your third eye is way too open for this board.

There are many repercussions to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots organizationally sanctioned cheating, but I think the people who have suffered the most (outside of bills fans ) are Tom's fellow quarterbacks, both in and out of conference. Tom Brady and the Patriots basically set the bar for a "good season" at 18-0, record breaking offensive statistics, and at a minimum, a Super Bowl appearance--but a win should be expected. This has most impacted 3 quarterbacks: Roethlisberger, and the Manning brothers. Both Eli and Ben have won 2 (two!) Super Bowls, but you would think they are "average" quarterbacks. Peyton has won 1, and is still sitting pretty after a great win over Baltimore opening weekend. Now, with all that being said, do I think Peyton is at the end of the road? Of course. And his stats will be down this year, he'll be less effective, etc. But, at the end of the day, Peyton can still win football games, and while it might not be pretty, it'll work. There are no quick solutions to quarterbacking--I shudder to think what this board will look like after TT has his first bad game against a good defense. Surely, there will be calls for his benching.

It was crazy watching a football game yesterday... Am I the only one that was a little blase about the entire affair? I am a "shell shocked" fan... at one point a Colts receiver ran a crossing route, caught the ball, dove to the turf, and someone from the Bills defensive backfield forcefully pushed him down to the turf... I thought for sure a penalty was on the way. The league (whether in my imagination, or in reality) has legislated the "football" out of football. This, combined with everything to do with concussions, and the fact that the entire summer was spent with the league trying to punish the champions for cheating, only to have them skate at the 11th hour, and then to listen to everything from their fans, to the announcers, to the networks basically take the stance that "Pats are the best team in the history of the league--let's move on to football now that that witch hunt is over". NFL is losing me... FAST. I'm excited for the game this week, but honestly, by 5pm last night I had forgot the Bills had beat the Colts, and I am definitely NOT losing sleep over this weekends game. NFL had me wrapped around it's greedy little finger for the better part of 25 years, and I have 100%, definitely, without question, crested the mountain and begun my dissent into "moderate amusement". It's too bad this had to happen when it looks like the Bills have one of their best squads ever... but color me unmoved. And as an edit, let me just add: Deflategate matters/mattered because look how good the AFC East is. A Pats loss (without Brady) last Thursday would already have New England 1 game back of everyone in the division. The game for the duration of the vacated suspension: Week 2: Pats at Bills / Dolphins at Jags / Jets at Colts Week 3: Bills at Dolphins / Jags at Pats / Eagles at Jets Week 4: Jets at Dolphins / Giants at Bills / Pats *bye* Week 5: Bills at Titans / Pats at Cowboys / Dolphins, Jets *bye* Looking at those slates, it's easy to see a division shakeup along the lines of: Bills 4-1 Dolphins 3-1 Jets 1-3 Pats 1-3 Hard to see us giving up a 3 game lead over the Pats over the course of 10-11 games, especially with this defense. So in the end, the Pats got to cheat, win a Super Bowl (again), and skirt the punishment that would have given Buf an easy path to the playoffs. Yes, you have to play (and win) the games, and yes, they could still win games with Garopolo, but the point still stands. Goodell should turn his league into authorities, and have Congress audit the Patriots and nuke the organization from top to bottom. Which creative fan is going to be the first to bring a class action lawsuit against the league/sunday ticket/et. al? Am I due past expenses for buying a product that is, by it's own legislative trail of admittance, not "on the up and up"? And since the league felt strongly enough to punish the Patriots for cheating, yet they did not have to face that punishment, is it safe to assume that the Patriots are still engaging in activities that call into question the integrity of the game? And if that's the case, why are Patriots fans so glib about "the Steelers couldn't win because they were jumping at shadows--everything we did they thought we were cheating"! Is this not a problem of the highest magnitude for a professional sports league? That 31 of your 32 fan bases are loath to face a team (or even, in my case, follow the sport) because, "what's the point, theyre probably cheating anyways"? These message boards are read by lots of different people--so to the wet behind the ears NFL.com intern gauging fan reactions to week 1 from various team message boards, copy and paste this sentence and bring it to your next team meeting: "I would describe myself as losing interest in the NFL, and exploring other television options, because I no longer trust the fidelity of your brand, and am confused as to how your champion can be found guilty of cheating, yet face no punishment."

4 pages into a fashion thread, this warrior is ready to start calling people queer.

I bought a weather ap called Dark Sky awhile ago--it purports to use a new model to predict weather. I have found it extremely reliable with snowfall predictions, and a little less (but still excellent) with rain fall. For Ralph Wilson Stadium tomorrow, it says: Noon to 4: Mostly cloudy; no rain; 12-14mph wind; 60 degrees warming to 65 over the course of the game; 75% humidity dropping to 66% over the course of the game. So, sounds like a warm front is moving in and pushing moisture out

post game, it was crazy, i cant wait to see the unedited cut. im telling you man, the league is on full on revolt. the networks are in damage control, the announcers are painting such a rosy picture. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/11/tomlin-angry-with-communications-problems-at-gillette-stadium/ profootballtalk, through nbcsports, who showed the game tonight (no conflict of interest there), isnt reporting the full details of the press conference, and nfl network cut away from it live. fascinating.

from the greatest song in history, well done.

In his presser, Tomlin basically called the Patriots out for cheating, and defended his position. I'm beginning to think there is a significant minority (10-15) of owners who either want a) the Patriots nuked and beli gets a life time ban or b) roger goodell fired or c) both

this is bigger than this. did anyone see this live? i did. it was f*cking crazy. NFL network cut away from it immediately, as if roger was in the studio himself. something crazy is brewing with the league you guys, im telling you...

yes. people should stop paying attention to the comment sections, and look at the people posting ON THOSE SAME PAGES "i made 5000 a week working from home, ask me how".

I posted this a few weeks ago: http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/179494-brady-4-game-suspension-upheld;-will-go-to-court/page-114?do=findComment&comment=3637017 And I assure you that the end of the Patriots "cheating" is upon us. Change is coming. Roger's final days draw near, and a young senator with a las vegas bug in his ear looking to make a name for himself might want to open a full investigation into the league's handling of the Patriots, and begin the (as of now) taboo discussion of vacating titles for professional sports teams. Owners know that the fans are becoming restless. Simple metrics can be run on the top 5 message board for each team for keywords like "sham" "wwe" "fraud", etc. etc. The league knows which way the wind blows, and it's clear as day: 31/32 fanbases are mad as hell at the Patriots, and think the league is a farce. There is way, way... way too much money involved in this for you to think that the messages we're being fed aren't designed to shape our perceptions. I have seen some on here mention comment sections, as if "the people aren't getting it". Please. Profootballtalk is an arm of whom? NBC Sports, which also owns the rights to Sunday Night Football, which is how big of an account? Billions, if I recall? I wonder if they might have a few "account managers" deciding which comments get the top few spots. Everyone is in absolute damage control in the league marketing division right now, and people are getting testy.

It would seem to me that the only person who "went rogue" is Russ. I'm sure he is behind these leaks to some degree--he is the only hold over from the Ralph days who is firmly entrenched in upper management. The "old Bills" ran a very specific model, which was based on a cost/benefit analysis, was heavily market-based/fan opinion driven, and put winning as priority number 3 behind the bottom dollar and a packed stadium. And it worked. The Bills have been a steady "success story" in the NFL for the past 20 years, despite putting a horrible product on the field. This is due to one man and one man only: Russ Brandon. I love the guy, but his job was to keep the Bills afloat in the salary cap era, and make us look like a "legitimate" football team. As you are seeing from our moves this summer, the road to being a "legitimate" football team is a different one than we have traveled of late, and most fans are adjusting slowly... which is better than the Buffalo News, who have thus far been unable to change at all. Fred Jackson is one of my favorite Bills of all time, second only to Kelly. But, sadly, his "prime" may be behind him. If we were set at QB (like Seattle), we could afford to keep a veteran running back on the team to spell the bell cow... but we can't, and we'll take 3 QBs into the season. If this decision was made 4 years ago, Fred would still be captain of the Bills, because the fans love him. But one stat I don't see brought up very much in the discussion of Fred's career is the Bills records during that time... 6-10, 6-10, 6-10, 4-12, etc. etc. That is not to say Fred is responsible for those records... he isn't. He was a ray of hope during those days. But the fact of the matter is, a football team has to be run a certain way to be that bad for that long, and the Bills were run that way by Russ. Everything was a marketing decision to put butts in the seats, regardless of the product. Toronto: Marketing decision. St. John Fisher's: Marketing decision. Terrell Owens: Marketing. and on and on and on. Well, now the Bills make FOOTBALL decisions. To win FOOTBALL games. To try to put people in the seat that way. Will it work? I hope so. But at the end of the day, the only "internal" sources that seem to care about this Fred decision are the marketing guys... who didn't get enough of a heads up.. ala, Russ Brandon. He doesn't like giving up his power and influence at one bills drive (who would), and the old model would have been to either let a guy retire on his own accord because the fans love him (Kelsay), or trash him on his way out the door because we can't afford him (Lynch, et. al). This is a relatively new phenomenon in Buffalo, to cut big names for the sake of a younger, better roster.

I really can't emphasize enough how much I believe that their cheating is 100% done and is going to have a significant effect on how they perform as a football team. Please consider the following: Let's say in the future, you and your lovely family are traveling to Hawaii to escape a cold Buffalo winter. You have a lay over in Las Vegas, and decide to spend a night at a high end casino and play a few rounds of black jack with your significant other. You put on your best dress pants, tuck your shirt in, hell, even your wife looks good enough to keep you off Ashley Madison for the evening. You head down to the floor feeling pretty good about your prospects. But what's this? The world series of Poker is happening, and it's down to the final 32 players. At first disappointing, you quickly become excited at the prospect of watching 32 of the best Poker players in the world determine who is the best among them, as they do every year. You grab a seat in the rows of folding chairs they have lined up ringing the final tables, order a Coca Cola and some nachos, and settle in for the next best thing to actually playing cards yourself: watching other people play cards. But suddenly: chaos. 31 of the 32 poker players stand up from their seats, point their fingers at one of their competitors, and accuse him of having an ace up his sleeve. I'm going to stop this analogy right here, because it's all that needs to be said to convey what I'm trying to say, and that is this: I respect the opinions of the other card players at the table, much more so than even the most educated of observers in the room who may say "It's impossible--I've been watching that player all game, he's my favorite, he would never cheat!" The Patriots are being accused by their peers of cheating. Again. The New England Patriots are being punished for cheating by their peers, again. The New England Patriots are forfeiting large amounts of cash and draft picks for cheating. AGAIN. Regardless of whether you, your brother, Mike Florio, judge Berman, or every person on the planet feels that the Patriots aren't cheaters, the people that they play this sport against are once again PUNISHING them for being cheaters. You need to subvert your ego in this matter and look at this as objectively as possible: your opinion does not matter. From KellytheDog to WEO, whatever side of the fence you're on; however long you've poured over the Wells report; it's irrelevant. The parties engaged in competitive contests vs. the New England Patriots have not accused... they have PUNISHED... the Patriots for cheating. Again. Their opponents KNOW the Patriots cheated. Please understand that deeply. The Patriots cheated, according to those they play the game against. Maybe not to those that watch the games, but to those who play the games, it has been "proven beyond a shadow of a doubt". More likely than not? No. It's simply a certainty. This incident has embarrassed the league, and potentially on a deeper level than people are appreciating. Each of the owners knows that having the Patriots win another championship by cheating is NOT a good look for the league, and retribution will be harsh. It is over for that football team. The only person they could get to play there was Reggie Wayne (lol). Their 3 divisional opponents (including, if not especially, us) have built incredibly strong defensive fronts to get after QBs. This season is going to be fun. I have such confidence in their inability to win football games that I am hoping his suspension is overturned. He's got nothin. Put a fork in them Buffalo. It. Is. Over.

The NFL Network will be reairing the Patriots/Panthers matchup from last night, today at 12pm. I strongly encourage those of you not living in the New England region (who did not get a chance to watch live last night) to tune in today before the Bills kick off at 4. Make no mistake: the Patriots are going to be a bad football team this year.

Peronsally, I think we need to stop arguing amongst our selves and with the media over this one--it appears that there are 3 quarterbacks capable of leading this team. For this first time since the mid 90s, there will be an expectation (both by fans/media AND the team, coaches and players alike) that the team earns a playoff birth... and maybe more--a lot more. The excitement of last season, or 2010, where we started 5-3, but knew that a wildcard would be lucky, simply doesn't seem good enough this year. I would expect Ryan wants us at 6-2 and better at the break. If his nominal starter gets us to that mark, there's your 16 game starter. If we're 5-3 or 4-4, I would guess it's next man up, in comes whomever. And if they can't get it right, the next guy gets his shot. I look at a "week 1 decision" as meaning: who's going to start wild card weekend when we, as the 3 seed, host Cincinnati. That decision will be made with a much larger body of evidence.