zonabb

Well, if supporting this team means we continue to accept subpar coaching, subpar ownership and subpar players, then we as Buffalonians need to ask ourselves if that's all we want. Just beacuse thye're here doesn't mean we're obligated to support them. RW has preyed on this city and he feels he's entitled to our support and feeling obligated to out of fear of relocation is stupid. Move. Now tomrrow or next week. Now. I said it before, I love this team. I love going. I love how we come together for the team and for the city. But I won't sit here and pledge my undying financial support to this owner and this team because when it all comes down to nuts and bolts, we don't NEED this team. It's a luxury. Our attention might be better served finding a way to truly make this region worth something.

I didn't renew last year, lost my four-seat locaiton. Last minute I bought four again. Kicked myself after two months and have been waiting for some good news but its business as usual at Del Boca Vista. So I'm out.

Which makes him the perfect coach for RW, who also is a micromanager and I think can now be classified as certifiably senile.

+1 RW kept the team here, and his inaction will result in it moving. Nice legacy you greedy, micro-managing curmudgeon.

Not much on that list to like really. The bigger problem there is not the sheer number of players, it's the fact that the players they do hit on and are good (Winfield, Williams), they refuse to pay. So drafting well in their case doesn't do much when you refuse to pay market value for your own players.

QB? Really? Sanchez had 100 yeards passing today. 1 TD, 1 INT. A 60.1 passer rating. He threw for 182 yards and 1 TD last week. For the season, he had 12 TDs and 20 INTs and a passer rating of 63. So let's not start anoiting him the next Peyton Manning yet. He's been lucky enough to get a team with great offensive line play and a great running game that has kept him from having to win games by himself. When putting a list together of why the Jets are good this year, Sanchez ranking behind the OL, the entire defense, and then coaching.

Yeah, he's a genuis with the Williams, Jared Allen, Kennedy and the DBs like Winfield. It's so laughable this idea that coordinators are geniuses when they win with some of the best talent in the league. Isn't that what they're supposed to do? The best companies have the best talent first, not the best managers.

That's how you rebuild a team and maintaining winning. Inside-out. Build the lines first and foremost. That gives you the ability to draft a QB and give a running so he doesn't have to win slinging the ball. The defense keeps the other teams in check and games close. Perfect team building, which I've said on threads many times before and can't understand how this team can't figure that out. And when they do draft a lineman, it's a project or speed guy or one trick pony. They may have done well with Wood and Levitre, but I still don't understand how they thought they could skate by at LT. Watching these other teams is frustrating when you see how obvious the blue print is to winning. Sure a QB is critical, but you can't groom a QB with a shoddy line and a horrible defense.

I hate anonymous quotes. From a journalistic perspective, they severly undermine the credibility of the author or outlet. In the days of the internet, too much is posted on sites who's mere presence is supposed to be a replacement for credibility. Oh, Mike Florio has a website, he's credible. Nope. And places like PFW and PFT make a living off of smack that is floated by someone anonymous source. These sites are the equal of the Enquirer, they're a joke. And the incentive is all wrong. Who's to say that these anonymous quotes are actually real. No one would ever put out a salacious quote to drum up internet hits in an attempt to drive up advertising costs right. If this quote is real, it's some young, angry front office desk jockey pissed beacuse the posiiton didn't go to him or someone his age. There is one valid issue here.... an old guy like RW isn't likely going to take any **** from some 40-year old who is more than half his age. He likely seems them as younger than his own kids and therefore questions them as professionals. You see if in offices all the time, someone younger and more talented comes in and out works everyone but the promotion goes to someone the 70-tear-old manager has worked with forever, despite the guys shortcomings. Anyone who is willing to stick up for RW at this point, which is track record, is making an emotional and irrational judgement. Look at him, he;s team, his coaches and managers, and ask yourself where the track record of success is. And if for one second you think he's doing whatever he can to keep this team here, you're delusional. When he's no longer in control, this team is no longer here, not because it should move, but becuase he wanted to do things his selfish way, which was not to ensure the lonterm viability of this team in WNY but to be stubborn and maintain control to the bitter end. Those still clinging to Ralph as some Robin Hood delivering an NFL franchise to Buffalo will know the true commitment to Buffalo when's he's gone and hopefully will then honestly re-assess your vision of who he was. He was a guy who had a county build him a stadium, fund it's improvements and pay him money every year to ensure he could turn a $25,000 investment into a $900M gain off the backs of WNYers, only put his boot on the loyal necks of WNYers when he passes by not making sure this team goes nowhere. We have a stadium lease up in 2012. We have an owner who is 91 (I think that's his age) and controls the whole team. We know of no exit plan other than selling the team to the highest bidder. So tell me, who's confident the Bills 2013 home opener is at the corner of Southwestern and Abbott?

That has no bearing on Meredith necessarily. It's called trade-offs. When you have two old guys who suck but are experienced and one rookie with little experience and possibly raw and not necessarily ready for the NFL, you have exactly two stopgaps and a guy with promise. A team will try to hold the fort down while they groom someone. Obviously, they didn't think he was ready this year but had enough hope and saw promise to put on the PS, which is what the PS is for. I'm not saying he's the answer, I'm saying the logic used to say he sucks is, like many reponses on this board, seriously flawed.

On page 5 of this thread, someone posted that TT stated he never made any comments about this date on the radio and tweeted nothing is happening, which I tend to believe.

EXACTLY. Connect the dots.... he's a Pittsburgh guy, Cowher is a Pittsburgh guy and Donahoe was a Pittsburgh guy. Regardless of relationships or any bad blood between any of them, you can bet that what happened here with Donahoe was well-known inside the Steeler organization. I'll say it until someone proves otherwise... RW is the problem. He's the one constant on this team for 50 years od mediocrity and eipc FAIL. He's meddling, controlling and too involved in the draft.

Thanks. Some gets it! They built a team like you should... inside out. Start with the lines and you have the foundation. You draft a young QB and give him a decent so he can learn without getting killed and having his confidence destroyed. If he has decent skills players around him, he can manage the team and they can win in spite of his inexperience and often inconsistent play. He will be good, but the Jets are proof of how a team is built.

I agree that its the ownershiop, not the city. Sure, this isn't Chicago or NY, but other places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Green Bay (cold weather and/or declining small markets) aren't very glamorous either but don't seem to get spurred publically like the Bills. This team in 50 years has a losing record and the one string tying it together is RW. They have sucked way more years than they've been good. All signs point to a controling micro-manager. Guys like Polian, Butler and Smith are generally regarded as great football men yet all were run our of town or couldn;t get out on their own fast enough due to RW's controling, meddling ways. I don't think he's cheap, he does spend money, but I think he's too much of a hands-on owner and that reputation is killing the team's ability to gain talent. We're heard whispers in the press about RW's draft day demands on player selection. You think a coach wants a 91-year-old, Yankee-bean-slurper to be making or forcing draft picks? I doubt it. Think about what a coach wants. An owner with a dedication to winning with a willingness to provide the finances to make it happen, but also staying out of the football operation. Also, a GM he can work with. Put yourself in a coaches position. You get offered this job, the money is right and the town is football crazy. But you have good information about how the organization operates, how the owners can't stay out of the football operation. You're dedicated to winning but you see nothing but bad results here. Are you going to risk your reputation and future earnings to come here? Or because you're in demand and have a job, would you hold out another year?

So now we're requiring any post that is an opinion to be titled as such so as to save anyone from having to decipher the post and make a determination of whether or not the post is in fact an opinion? Give me a break. This board has a raging throbber for some clown in Florida with ZERO credibility other than a weekly Connelly Cup nomination but everyone else with just an account has to clearify spell out in his/her title that the post is a personal opinion. Aren't board like this intended to allow people to actually exchange opinions and ideas without someone with 9000+ posts to police everyone all the time. If the issue is one of your time being wasted, maybe reducing your posts and time on this board will make you more open to others opinions.

Well, I'm skeptical of the guy because he's a cherry picker. If he has a source, great. But he's only "reporting" news that would eventually be reported anyway, so what's the big deal? If you want to say he's great because he reported two signings, that's pretty sad. Let the guy build a body of work, provide some insight behind the scenes that doesn't involve just signings (afterall, he could have a contact in the league office, not OBD). Everyone loves to slam the mainstream media guys because of their misses while never applauding their hits. We get this guy who makes a report once in a blue moon and reports something that was coming anyway and suddenly this transplanted gym-class-hero who is deparately clinging to a weekly (not end of season finalist) Connelly Cup nomination in his internet bio has journalistic football credibility? Wow, guess I should dust off that BA in journalism and start my own website. And no, I'm not some failed journalist with an ax to grind, I'm doing just fine with advanced degrees and a stable 9-5 making more than a pauper's wage.

Nix mentioned the injuries over the last 3 years in his presser yesterday and he alluded to maybe it could be strength and conditioning and they'll adderss the injuries and see how to make it better.

Hey, as a former journalist, I want to say you guys are missing something here with WGR access to the Bills. Paul Hamilton has access like any other REPORTER. He has press credential and access to players and press conferences/releases. Schopp's issue is that he's a talking head, entertainer and loudmouth and he's sad that the Bills, rightly so, have chosen to ignore that station and the talk show hosts who try to pass off as journalists. So really, WGR serves two purposes but Schopp has them confused. Purpose one is to REPORT the sports news, which they do very well and have no access issues and no problems (although I think they feel they should have every member of the organization's personal phone number and unfettered access to everyone, WRONG). The second purpose, self-chosen on their part, is to try to analyze and act as though they know everything and get people to tune in, ie the entertainment business. It's that end of their business they suck at (I recall turning my car on last week to some stupid Xmas draft, so that by itself kills any credibility Schopp and his show may have ever had). So stop listening to them. I know, they're the only sports radio station right? That's not an excuse to listen to someone with an obvious ax to grind. Tune out.

Hopefully he grows into a new brain too becauze he sure didn't seem to figure out a way to compensate for his shortcoming. He just continually ran into a brick wall over and over. Maybin = Erik Flowers

If Thurman is jazzed, can it be bad? He's as true-blue of a Bills fan as their is. Not that his opinion matters but if he's promoting it, how bad could it be? How bad are we as fans to assume the worst? Man it's tough being a Bills fan.

Why would the Bills, as Mendola says, announce something the fans won't like before the last home game of the season? Makes no sense. Of course, it would actually make perfect sense given RWs usually M.O. of bad decisions. I suspect a GM so they can kick off the HC search in earnest at 00:00 left on the game clock Sunday.

So your no. 11 pick picks gets a monster contract, millions in salary and signing bonus for his first year and gets a free pass? Do realize how illogical that is when a DE as a rookie can have substantial impact immediately, unlike a a QB? He's Erik Flowers, that's who he is. Too small to play DE and gets absolutely manhandled at the pont of attack. He tries to avoid engaging, hoping his speed can allow him to make plays, only to get further out of position. 10 games in college. Undersized. OWNED.

I suspect that this may just be an easy way for companies to lay off people during a tough economy I agree. Companies seem to want to pour through the coporate handbook for any excuse to lay someone off other than they're slow. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Fidelty oin the gambling business? It's only legal because the government allow them to gamble with other people's money. What a joke. Corporate America sucks, and I sadly work there.

As a lifelong WNY, I'm sick of subsidizing RW's $25m a year in profit to the tune of $3M a year in taxpayer dollars. He took a $25,000 investment and using the loyalty of this fanbase and the NFL's fanbase and turned it into, by some accounts, a $900M entity. The continual taxpayer subsidies of teams like the Jets and Giants and Dallas Cowboys (JJ is a complete ahole saying that revenue sharing is on its way out and no longer going to happen while he took $350M in subsidies from willing taxpayers for his new stadium). Sorry but I'm open to this team leaving. See ya. Bye. Adios. Part of it is downrigfht hatred for the greed of the new neoliberal NFL, part is that $3M would be better spent elsewhere in this community, and part is sick of the owner and his greed and whining about how this city isn;t worth it anymore. Take you football and go home. I for one don't judge myself and this city based on the football team. My, and our, identity is not this team. Maybe if they left, we could focus on making the community better instead of using the team as an unfortunate distraction away from the issues that should be talked about in forums. And I'm a season ticket holder, so it's not that I just hate the team and the owner. I support them financially as a ticket buyer and as a taxpayer. But I'm sick of the record profits, record TV contracts, semi-literate millionaires acting like children and whining about money as "respect," the game of owners and players argung over how to split billions of dollars in revenue while holding fans hostage, the $75 parking prices at NFL stadiums, $10 beers, $5 hot dogs, etc. This is my last year supprting this team. I just can't get to a place where it matters to me anymore. So when they're ready to move, I'll gladly show up to the stadium and help pack the truck. And I wanted to add in repsonse to the post above about the Chargers leaving being a "big problem" for the city. Yeah, research continues to show that subsidizing professional sports has minimal economic return and that it's largely just a political handout as teams are considered more of a symbol of a city than an economic engine. Basically asking taxpayers for a subsidy for a new stadium is akin to the owner saying "Hey, I want the average over-taxed, underemployed Joe to pay monmey to ensure I make millions in profit." The NFL is highly profitable because it was able to leverage public subsidies into marketing to grow the brand on our backs. Then after they grew on new stadiums and hype, they hit us up for personal seat license and disgustingly high ticket prices.

+2 Typical flag-waving, fear-mongering, republican, everyone-is-a-scumbag-and-there-are-no-second-chances mentality.