CA OC Bills Fan

I'm going, bought 12 tickets @ $136 each (end zone). I've been to StubHub Center for Galaxy games, can't wait to go to the Bills / Chargers there.

I was at the game, end zone seats on the side that Christie's winning field goal was kicked. I lived in Endicott, NY at the time, a 3.5 hour drive. The night before I stayed with friends who lived in Orchard Park and had season tickets in the end zone near the tunnel (I along with a few other friends bought those tickets for them for their wedding). He came to our seat at halftime, looking really dejected. If he had said, "let's go back to my house and drink", I would have been gone. If I wasn't driving back to Endicott after the game to go to work the next day, I would have been gone. But, he didn't offer and I didn't bring it up, we stayed. To be honest, I was very late in thinking the comeback was happening. I remember at least after the first two scores and maybe even the third, saying to my friends that were sitting with me, "This is just making it less embarrassing, there's no way we're coming back to win this." I absolutely didn't BILLieve, even though I'd been at some great comebacks for the Bills (such as vs. Broncos in September 1990, Bills score 20 points in 77 seconds of the 4th to win 29-28).

Just bought plane tickets to go visit my father in Rochester. Will be at tc the last day of camp with him. He turns 93 the following weekend. We last went to camp for the 2nd day two years ago. Since I rarely post, none of you feel you know me, but I've been reading most of your posts daily for many years.

Of course most of us remember Kevin Everett. How about Derrick Burroughs? 1st round (pick 14) pick for the Bills in 1985 draft. Excellent DB. A Monday night game in 1989 against Houston he injured his neck and never played football again. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. He wanted to make a comeback, but no team would touch him. According to this article, https://tspnnews.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/derek-burroughs-erased-from-history/he had to sue the Bills to even get his medical bills paid for (I presume they said it was a preexisting condition, but I didn't research it and didn't know the Bills refused to pay until I looked up the article). Bill Polian was mentioning him on Sirius XM the other day, without mentioning his name. Just said that one of our 1st round picks from the 80s had this condition, the Bills knew about it before the draft but the doctors said he was safe "unless he had an incident." Per Bill, in the Houston game he had an incident and that was the end of his career. I found it interesting that Bill described the entire thing but did not mention his name. And, I had never heard before that the Bills knew he was vulnerable before hand. I kind of remember it had been reported as if we were surprised to learn of the defect until after the injury. By the way, Burroughs is now an assistant coach at Jackson State.

Was I really rambling? I thought I gave the details of the story pretty well. And although I thought it was quite a bizarre story that the guy was making a career decision based on a postcard and the name of a stranger he met at a gas station, I enjoyed listening to it and thinking that if he's good (since frankly I have no idea), that's got to be the worst reason ever for us to miss out on a free agent signing. Bill Polian listened to the entire story (probably more than 5 minutes of Tre telling it), then said something like, "What a great story."

I just heard Bill Polian interview Tre Boston on Sirius XM. Tre explained why he chose the Chargers. He went back to Carolina after visiting both teams and was trying to decide. He stopped at a gas station he had never been to before. While he's pumping gas, someone pulls up and asks if he could spare 1 or 2 dollars to help with gas. Tre gave him $20. The two talked for a while, the man explained his story, told him what he makes and how he decides what to use for gas and what to spend on food. Tre gave him another $20. The two kept talking and Tre felt the man was put in his life to help him. He was thinking about how to ask the man his opinion ("Buffalo or LA" or "choose city 1 or city 2"). Then, before he asks anything, the man says, "My name is Mike Daniels (I may have remembered the last name wrong, sorry) "but everyone calls me "L.A." Tre immediately started to think this was a sign. Then, he turns around to the gas pumps. The one he was at had one of those credit card leaflet holders and there was a postcard that said "Jesus saves." He checked all the other pumps, this was the only one with a Jesus saves postcard. At this point, he was convinced this was a sign from G-d that he is meant to go to LA. He went home and told his wife and was crying the entire time because he's convinced he was given a sign as to what he must do. Just listening to him, I think he's more of a Buffalo person than an LA person. Very much a family man, that sounds like he'd be happier in the smaller city.

According to this article, average face value price will be $192 with the range being $70 (behind North end zone) to $375 (behind Chargers bench). They are expecting to take in as much as a normal size stadium so obviously the prices need to be high. I've been to several LA Galaxy (soccer) games at StubHub, I've always had good seats, but I can't imagine that there are really any bad seats in the house. Last year I went to the Bills/Lambs game, paid just over $100/ticket, and was so far away I could barely see the field. Also, there was a huge Bills Backers party near the stadium. Personally, I'm really psyched to see a Bills game in this venue.

I'm in.

I only listened to the first 3 sentences or so of his introductory news conference. His first word obviously was... "Obviously".

One of the things I remember from after the game was that Harmon took no responsibility for the drop. He insisted that the pass was behind him and if it was a better pass he would have caught it. I think in my mind that's why I hated him after that and was thrilled the Bills cut him (pretty sure he went to San Diego and had a few decent seasons for them). If he had taken responsibility, probably would have forgiven the drop. While Harmon was with the Bills, Thurmon wasn't thrown to nearly as much as he was later, in fact, I think he didn't play on obvious passing downs. For the Bengals game the year before, I remember Bruce was unstoppable. Only the refs and injury could stop him. Munoz couldn't handle him. But as said by someone else, there was a fandom face mask call on a sack. And he got injured (shoulder?) in the first half and didn't return.

Showtime: Boomer, Phil Simms, Michael Irving all pick Bills to win.

This is from the Orange County Register. The article basically says that it was a stupid call and Fisher blames everyone but himself for it not working. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fisher-731631-rams-bills.html Quote from the article: "And that prompted Fisher to half-jokingly – we think – put the screws on Rams fans for tipping off Darby the fake was on."

I have no idea how many of us were there, but everywhere I went was dominated by Bills fans. My seats were in the upper stratosphere on the Bills side, I didn't go to the tailgate but parked in a structure next door to it and tailgates with 11 of us there.From the parking structure, to walking the mile to the game, to where we sat, to the walk back to the car and even the drive to the freeway, I saw more Bills colors than Lambs colors. But obviously there were many more LA fans than Buffalo fans. They were actually very loud once or twice during the game when the Bills were on defense.

I'm going with my wife and 15 year old son and two other families. Since my wife and son don't drink (or my wife doesn't and my son can't legally drink) we aren't going to the tailgate to pay $45 each for them. Anyone know where we can go before the game to tailgate?

Ulcerative colitis is very similar to Crohn's, collectively they're called IBD or irritable bowel disease. I've had ulcerative colitis since I was 12 (I'm 55 now). It's been pretty much under control since my late 20s. But, as a kid I had very frequent flair ups. I was only hospitalized once for it, when I was 24 - my weight had dropped to below 120 pounds. When I had flair ups I lost a lot of weight and had very little strength. I'd have very regular intense stomach cramps and would go to the bathroom 12 times per day. No way could I have played a sport. Also, when I had flair ups the primary medication was prednisone, a steroid which I assume would be illegal in the NFL. The prednisone actually destroyed my hips and knees enough so that one of my hips had to be replaced. No issues at all now, I take medication regularly. By the way, although he's just a kicker, I remember Rolf Bernirschke, former Chargers kicker, had ulcerative colitis badly enough that he was in the hospital during the week between games to be fed intravenously.

Yes, Rob is an assistant coach at MVHS which is 1 mile from my house. It's a perennial football powerhouse. Rob's father, Bob Johnson has won state championships at both MVHS and El Toro HS (3 miles north of MVHS) and is the only coach in CA to do that. On Bob's staff is Rob, his brother Brett (who supposedly was the better quarterback before being injured) and at least last year Keyshawn Johnson (not related ). MVHS is also where Sanchez went to HS and where he held his Jersey Jerks West Coast Camp. Back when Rob was playing for the Bills, his parents lived around the block from me. One of my daughter's first Halloween's she dressed up as a Bills cheerleader (the outfits made for toddlers, not quite the same as the real thing) and we went to their house as part of our trick or treating. I talked to his father for a few minutes, he gave us an autographed picture of Rob.

And, what happens if we don't whiff on Hunter and instead take someone else who goes later in the round: Gill Byrd, Leonard Smith (had a decent Bills career later on), Willie Gault, or Jim Jeffcoat? Do one of them win the Bills a game or two to make it so we don't get Bruce? Or, do nothing much for us for the first couple of years but are good enough to put us over the top vs. the Giants?

On Sirius XM last night, Gil Brandt and (I think) Alex Marvez were talking about the trade. Based on earlier comments, I believed Gil thought it was a bad move on Buffalo's part. He asked Alex, "Do you think they gave up too much if they make the playoffs." Then went on to say he wrote an article earlier in the day saying that he believes Buffalo will make the playoffs this year because of this trade. Alex was skeptical, saying he doesn't believe the Bills can win the division and doesn't think there will be two playoff teams from the AFC East, but Gil stuck to his opinion.

I heard the interview this morning with BP. A couple of things: - I didn't get the impression that he was completely negative on the Watkins trade, just that we gave up a lot and that we're betting a second (or third including next year) draft on EJ. If EJ works out, it's ok. - The quotes above about Gronkowski very accurately depict what he said about Gronk not being on his draft board and his comments in the draft room about it. It was very insightful. But, he went on to say that in the win now league as it is, these decisions are evolving. If the player will be good for a few years, that's ok whereas in the past you wanted longevity. - He did make the comment out "the Bills 7th round pick of the kid from Miami is a head scratcher" when he was talking about taking a chance on some kids with character flaws. He said that right after saying that it's fine to have a few. But, as Piz said, a 7th rounder, so what if he flames out. On a different note, a couple of comments about Gil Brandt. - Last week he was asked about trading up for Watkins. He replied that you never trade up high in the draft for a skill player unless it's a quarterback. I was then listening to him on Sirius XM when the Bills trade was announced. He immediately said, "the Bills pick is Mathews, you can bank on it." When it was announced as Watkins, he didn't have much to say at all. Although I never heard him say it, I don't think he liked the trade / pick.

The only non-sell out as I remember it was the Houston Wild Card game. In fact, they set NFL attendance records some of those years and topped the league in attendance pretty much every year during their Super Bowl years. For the Houston game, I know many will legitimately say these are just excuses, but in one of the smallest NFL markets they did only have one week to sell tickets as many or most fans were still expecting a first round bye. And, since they were just beaten badly the last game of the season by the same team (and Kelly was knocked out of that game and would not be playing the Wild Card game), many thought the chances would be dismal. Just like now, people don't want to sit in the cold to watch a team lose. I was at the comeback game and could have easily been talked out of leaving at halftime. In fact, it I didn't have a 3 and a half hour drive home after the game (I lived in Binghamton at the time and was working on Monday), I likely would have suggested going over my friend's house in Orchard Park and just drinking.

I think that London Fletcher was an excellent free agent pickup by Donahoe. One of Levy's major GM mistakes was letting him walk.

I live in the LA area. As I remember reading in the local papers at the time, he resigned because he had to go due to the performance of the defense. Seeing as his son is his boss, he wasn't going to force son to fire father or have the son lose his job over refusing to make the changes to his staff. The "looking to return to the NFL" excuse was just that, and excuse.

Great episode as all of them have been. I got a kick seeing Harbaugh tell his team before the game, "Where else would you rather be than right here." A Levy fan?

I haven't lived in Upstate NY since 1993 and in the blackout region since I left for college in 1978, so it has no affect on me. However, my parents, in their upper 80's and still living in Rochester, can't see any blacked out games and I think that's very unfortunate. Unfortunately, I agree that for the Bills this is probably the correct decision because of the change in revenue sharing if they change the blackout policy. However, I still have at least two concerns. First of all, the decision to extend the blackout rule to Syracuse a few years ago stinks. The farther away from Buffalo you get the more they are competing for new, young fans with the Jersey teams. I think allowing them to watch on TV will bring in new fans that may otherwise be lost for life to the Gints or Jerks. Secondly, I think the new policy from the NFL sucks. They needed to change the blackout rule. But, making the choice up to each individual team and financially penalizing teams for changing their policy is a sham. They should have either changed the policy across the board, or, they could have made it up to individual teams but not by giving a disincentive to teams to opt in to the new policy. Also, I really don't believe that many people, particularly from farther away like Rochester or Syracuse, decide to buy game tickets because they are afraid the game may be blacked out if they don't do so.

Yes, they still played 2 games against each division opponent so half of their schedule were division games. So far as why the Fish are in the AFC East, that was because of Ralph Wilson. The league wanted the Bills, Browns, Steelers, and Bengals together since we are all pretty close. We had a huge rivalry with the fish dating back to going 0 for the 70's against them and then into the Kelly / Marino years (where we owned them). Ralph would not accept any realignment that didn't include Fish / Bills in the same division. At the time, I completely agreed with him. I remember reading an article stating that it was short sighted, that if we played the other teams close to us twice a year, could go to games in their stadiums and their fans would come to Buffalo, new rivalries would arise pretty quickly. Now, a decade or so later, with the Bills and Fish afterthoughts for most of that time to the rest of the NFL, I tend to agree with that article.