vegas55

The trust is doing no such thing. As local candidate Pegula posts the initial highest bid, the trust is soliciting other bids and asking for re submissions so as to drive the price higher. If they were "rigging" the game so the team stays in Buffalo, Pegula would own the team right now. Hey genius, if the sale was rigged to keep the team in Buffalo, please explain to all of us why Wilson insisted on an escape clause in the recent 10 year lease. Explain to us please why an escape clause is necessary when the intent is to rig the game to keep the team in Buffalo.

Elsewhere? He moved a number of games to Toronto for more money, at the expense of actually winning games, for more money. Toronto counts as "elsewhere". It's nice that your appreciative of Wilson not moving franchise, but isn't realizing 1 billion dollars plus in profit enough of an award, aside from your appreciation. This is an example of the typical Wilson fan. We have had so so many great players/individuals play for this team over the years, who are always referred to as "Jim", or "Bruce" - but invariably, this incompetent, greedy owner is referred to as "Mr" Wilson. Please

Much discussion in recent times concerning greed and the American economy. But exhibit A for pure greed could easily be many of the current owners of NFL franchises. Robert Kraft for example. So Kraft buys the New England franchise for about 400 million and it's now valued at over 2 billion. Nice profit right? Plus the substantial 50 million+ yearly profit he grinds out. But is that anywhere near enough for this guy, who is so often touted by the media for his "charitable" works. Give me a break. He squeezes every penny out of the fans who attend the games. From parking to concessions he charges the families that attend the very most he possibly can, I suppose, of course, because 2 to 3 billion dollars is just not enough for him. So ban fans from bringing in water bottles to the game, then charge 4 dollars for a bottle of your 25 cent water. If the water supply in Boston was suddenly poisoned, and the local 7-11 store started charging 4 bucks for a bottle of water, people would burn down the store. But Kraft is a saint. Who, along with Jerry Jones, would love to see the Bills relocate so as to enhance NFL revenue. But why look all the way to the New England area for egregious examples of greed. How about one Ralph Wilson Jr, hero to many in WNY as well as many on this board. Despite running (into the ground) one of the most dysfunctional franchises in NFL history, he managed to pocket well over one billion dollars in net profit as a reward for his epic mismanagement. His greed knew no bounds. To the community that built him his stadium, payed for it's up keep, spent hundreds of millions to improve, he extended a his middle finger from the grave. Puts the franchise up for the highest bidder, while sneaking in an escape clause in the lease allowing the team to be moved. And having his trust keep giving the low bidding out of towners chance after chance to increase their bid so as to squeeze yet even more money out of this franchise. At least Kraft contributed to the construction/maintenance costs of his stadium, and did not have the unmitigated arrogance to have the taxpayers forego the lucrative naming rights so as to have the stadium named after himself. Contemplate Wilson's greed. He is 90+ years old and a billion dollars to the good yet sacrifices his team's chances to win games by selling two games per year to Toronto; all for just an extra 5 - 10 million dollars. That's pure greed folks, and some day I hope the WNY area will wake up and cease and desist in their hero worship of Wilson. The first thing I would do after this team is sold is to rename the stadium.

Right - that is not the case and it is disappointing

We went to the game last night more to check out the new stadium renovations than to watch the most meaningless of all the preseason games. I was a bit underwhelmed. The new scoreboard was probably the most disappointing item. It's mind boggling that a simple concept like what constitutes a great scoreboard continues to elude the powers that be. As a fan, I am primarily interested in the video screen, the game & replays that are shown there. And yet again, the actual video screen takes up less than 50% of the available space on the board. The rest is taken up by annoying ads and out of town scores/down and distance info. I don't need that much space for down and distance info, and can't see why such a reduced portion of the board is devoted to the thing fans primarily want to see. There are some nice improvements/innovations, but really, a 130 million dollars later there should be. I wonder how much of that money was spent on the new Bills merchandise store, which adds very little to the actual game experience. All in all, a bit of a disappointment.

So when I hear Shoop and his dog on WGR going off on EJ, and telling all that he had enough weapons last year, I note that in fact he had two rookie receivers, neither a first round pick, and a "number one" in good old Stevie, who probably won't even survive the cut and could only be counted on to drop a big pass or fumble away a game

Exactly - for the umpteenth time fan, you cannot make rational observations about these type of things by simply watching a game on TV, or worse yet, at the game itself. Experienced NFL coaches hate commenting on anything UNTIL they see and breakdown the game film. Of course the majority of pass plays have a mixture of routes, short and deep. The OC is not dictating that the QB only throw short. But the main point is, you can't just watch a game, see the QB throw short, and conclude that the play was designed for that. When Trent Edwards was our QB, of course they called for numerous long pass routes. Captain Checkdown chose to only throw the short, safe pass. He was unable to "see" the play develop downfield. But that's not on the OC.

A poorly worded question actually. There have been sellouts of preseason games in the past, always when they have the "take your kids" promotion. I don't know if that's the case for Saturdays game.

Game sold out does anyone know?

Bills backers Montreal is a bit vague on this, but I am in Montreal this weekend and wondering if there is a Bills bar here that will show tonight's Bills v Steelers game. ???

Could not agree more. The arrogance is over the top. Long Island really? NYC is the center of the universe? Been there, done that and come on, it's pure delusion - "downstate"

And it was the renown football "expert" Paul Hamilton hitting the panic button on the afternoon show. The only intelligent thing he said was that "Marrone knows a heck of a lot more about football than I do". He then went to second guess everything Marrone does in handling EJ, including suggesting that EJ should have played at least the entire half of the first preseason game, because he needs it for his "confidence". Of course, had Mike Williams held on to that TD pass, or if Watkins beat his man on that bomb, Paul would be singing a different song. If EJ needs confidence, he can look back on some of the great throws he made in the regular season last year. Or reflect that as a rookie QB, in a brand new offense, he achieved a QB rating of 77, a whole 10 points less than Brady's 87, running the same offense he has for a decade. Wasn't the panic last year over the fact that Mario Williams sat out the first week of practices? 14 sacks later, the panic was gone.

It's always an interesting discussion as to who was the best - Reggie or Bruce. But at the very least Bruce was second best at his position, not "top five"

Who in world do you think would trade for TJ Graham?

That's why in my original post I stated nobody OUTSIDE of Buffalo would put Thurman in top ten or even 20 being a stretch. I mean, come on now. For years ESPN and multiple football outlets and experts have compiled lists of greatest running backs of all times. Thurman has NEVER been anywhere the top ten in any of those polls. Are you really saying Sayers, Simpson, Brown, Dickerson, Campbell etc etc would not have thrived and won with those great Buffalo teams. I appreciate your loyalty, but putting Thurman in top 5 is beyond silly. Even Jerry Sullivan wouldn't go there.

As part of the local pre game show on channel 2 Sunday, this question was posed for viewers to call in and vote; who was the best Bills player from the 90s/Super Bowl era. It came as no surprise that fans who took the time to call in and vote got it completely wrong - Andre Reed finished first, Bruce Smith was 4th. Determining who is best player is usually a tough call but not in this case. Reed, Kelly and Thomas were great players obviously, but nobody outside of Buffalo ranks any of those guys in the top ten all time at their position. With Reed and Thomas, top twenty would be a stretch. Bruce Smith, on the other hand, is universally recognized as either the best or second best all time at his position. He was far and away the best player from those teams. But I shouldn't be so hard on those fans who voted. This same topic was discussed on WGR a while back, with Jerry Sullivan participating. Jerry never fails to disappoint when it comes to terrible takes and general ignorance of all things football. Genius Jerry voted for Thurman Thomas. In part, I believe, because Bruce was "mean" to poor Jerry on occasion. And in fairness, Bruce was known to have a short fuse when dealing with loudmouth know it alls.

Are you kidding. The money Ralph already made in yearly profits would take care of his great grandchildren. When you reach the 1.3 billion Pegula offered, that's an amount of money which would take care of your children's children children children and well beyond. To attempt to squeeze yet even more , an extra 100 million or more, without any preference to WNY owner, is just pure greed. But typical of the worst owner in NFL history, beloved by many saps in WNY just because he kept the team here. Forget the terrible win/loss record, forget being so cheap so as to lose number one draft picks to the CFL and USFL; Ralph's a hero to many here because he "sacrificed" by keeping the team here, making the taxpayers pay for his stadium, and making well in excess of 1 billion dollars for his sacrifice. Yes, what a hero. And a huge middle finger to all of WNY by putting in place a process that gives zero preference to a WNY based owner, all for the sake of making YET more money.

You should go ahead and purchase NFL rewind, which would allow you to watch a replay of every Bills game last year. You might be surprised to see how wrong you are about EJ. Unless of course you are comparing his play over four quarters to the highlight film of the rest of NFL QBs. Basing your post on vague memory of what you saw a year ago - well, enough said.

Agreed Smith is a good blocker -but he has a disturbing habit of drawing a lot of motion penalties in a limited amount of playing time.

Used to be the only NFL highlights you would get were Monday Night Football ala Howard Cosell. Now with ESPN and multiple other networks you get NFL highlights 24/7. Which is great, but the casual NFL fan and the WNY media tend to base their opinions/perceptions based primarily on their exposure to highlights. So EJ is judged based in large part on the highlights of other QBs. Russell Wilson is a perfect example. How many casual fans or WNY media watched every Seattle game last year? The answer is none. And what they missed was a 6 game stretch where Wilson was mediocre, at best. But they did see his highlights. If EJ has a stretch of 6 games this year where he is mediocre, the local media will be calling for his head. Anybody ready to bench Wilson based on that lousy stretch of games? Of course not, in large part because local media never saw it - they saw only the highlights. The good stuff. EJ produced a lot of good stuff last year. I would suggest that this "highlight" bias could well result in EJ having a better sophomore year than Wilson had last year, yet still have media and many fans calling for his head.

Wow - who said Ralph owed us anything. After all we only built a stadium for him, we then paid for $200 + million in improvements to that stadium, we then gave up the lucrative annual naming rights fee so that the stadium that WE paid for could be named after him. But please read the post - IT DID NOT say the Wilson family should not ask and get 1.2 billion+ for the team, it in fact said just the opposite, genius. It just asked that if the bidding reached 1.2 billion, a simple expression that a WNY focused buyer be given some additional consideration/preference. That's all. And by the way an inheritance tax of 50% or 600 million +, does not go to, or benefit the taxpayers of WNY. It's mostly a federal tax

It was interesting to see Sal P. roll into town for the opening of camp and in 48 hours develop more inside info than our local media has all year - Dareus etc. One interesting piece of inside information was relative to the sale of the team - that is, that the team is going to be sold to the highest bidder, regardless. So all of you Ralph Wilson apologists/admirers should finally concede that Wilson, who made in excess of 1 billion dollars from this team, who had the taxpayers of WNY pay for the stadium named after him, who ran the most dysfunctional franchise in NFL history (loses a # 1 pick to the CFL, loses another # 1 pick - Kelly - to the USFL, an overall terrible won/loss record) throws a final middle finger to all his adoring fans in WNY by trying to squeeze out the very last dollar from the sale of this team. He could have simply left an instruction to his trust that all things being relatively equal his preference would be for a WNY focused buyer to be favored. He could have left a simple instruction to his trust that if the bidding hit 1.2 billion, that preference should be given to a WNY focused buyer. He did NOT ONE thing to assist a WNY focused buyer to secure a winning bid. In fact, what did all of you Wilson fans think was his purpose in inserting a minimal buyout in 2019 within the current lease. There is one reason and one reason only to have such an unusual clause in a lease - that is, to make the team more financially attractive to a bidder who wants to move the team out of Buffalo. That clause was not put in there to help a Terry Pegula, or a Jim Kelly led bidding team. It's there to assist in squeezing out yet more dollars out of this franchise. Because for Ralph, 1 billion plus was simply not enough.

That apparently, is one of Marcel's problems - relaxing

And our great talent evaluator, Joe B., has this clown rated as #1 most talented Bill. Hey Joe, there's a difference between an athlete with great physical talent and an actual football player. A HUGE difference. This underperforming, out shape clown doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as a Kyle Williams, but genius Joe has Marcel rated well above him. BASED on what Joe B ?

How hard is it to post a response without an f bomb. And it's not really the same as a real Sabres training camp is it? I mean, it's just rookies and scrubs who play on third rate teams in a third rate league (compared to the NFL). Go ahead now, post a response that the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, that the NHL merits more media attention than the NFL. And don't forget the f bombs, genius.