Mickey

I see what you are saying but you need to look inside the numbers on those sacks. He only had 8 last year and 5 of them came against the fins, browns and bengals (he was 25th in the league in sacks). I think just about any DE worthy of playing in this league could net 5 sacks by accident. I also think he is pretty weak against the run. I do think he is more athletic than most DE's and forces his share of fumbles because of that athleticism. Despite his mediocre play, it is certainly possible some team would have been dumb enough to over pay him though I think that 10 mil figure is just a wee bit high. He is better than average but not by much. Clements on the other hand ranked 3rd in the league in picks and has a habit of turning one or two of those into touchdowns. He is also a pretty fair punt returner. He is not quite the second coming of Deon Sanders but he is on a whole different level than Aaron Schobel. Look at it this way, what would be the fan reaction around here if it were announced that we just signed Champ Bailey or Chris Gamble? We'd be going freaking nuts adding a shut down corner of that caliber. Well Nate is just about as good as those guys if not better. We are just going to have to pay him, a lot. Anyway, so how's that brilliant daughter of yours?

There is no comparing his situation with Schobel's. Nate is a sure thing, barring injury, when it comes to cashing in big time in free agency. Schobel was and is a pretty mediocre talent. It was by no means sure that he would hit it big so the injury risk probably was a much bigger factor, relatively, in his case. The pay day wasn't going to be all that huge and he could easily have had a lousy year. I don't see that happening with Nate. If we want him we will have to pay him what the market says he is worth even if we think it is too much ala-Winfield. For me, I say we keep him. You don't get better by losing your best players.

Anyone know who his agent is?

I was looking at some stats at the team's web site and lo and behold, Steve Christie is listed under "Scoring" for 2004. Must be a typo but wouldn't it be nice? check it out: Christie

I wouldn't place too much store in our defensive ranking. Those are based on some pretty suspect stats. We played a very easy schedule and there were a number of games where the defense evaporated in the crunch. That doesn't mean that I don't think we have a good defense, we do. I just wouldn't think of them as "dominating". The defense does need improving, especially when it comes to generating some pressure. Posey has just not been providing much of that at all. He is not awful, not by any means but by the same token we aspire to something beyond mediocrity. For that, we need to upgrade a few positions on the defense. LDE, and, with the loss of Williams, DT are the obvious places to start but after that, where else would you want to upgrade? Either Posey or another CB in case McGee can't handle starting would be my guess. I don't see it as a huge priority but replacing Posey would certainly be on my top 5 ways to improve this defense.

Why would they be more worried now? Buffalo's problem according to Bill B. is that their "line is for s..t". Losing JJ and adding a couple of rejects from crappy teams isn't likely to change that. We had healthy tight ends last year for most of the year. If you think BB is cowering in fear over facing a virtual rookie QB rather than Bledsoe or anyone else, you need to pass that bong. We made no bones of the fact that we were going to run, run and run some more last year and in response, defenses put 7 or 8 in the box to stuff the run on first down. Our line was not strong enough then nor is it now, to gain yards against a defense playing the run. With all those guys in the box, they would just blitz when we didn't run knowing that our line would not pick it up or Drew would be forced to check down to a receiver running a 5 yard pattern on 3rd and 11 which, in football language, spells: p-u-n-t. This obsession with quarterback "mobility" as the holy grail of offensive productivity and the lack of it as the cause of everything from holding penalties to global warming has got to stop. Football games are won or lost in the trenches. If you defense stinks, it is usually because your defensive line stinks. If your offense stinks, it is usually because your offensive line stinks.

We are Bills fans which means, among many other things, we have known the sting of sadistic irony like no other fans in the league. We had perhaps the greatest running back in the history of the game on our roster and in our hearts for decades. He was our one claim to NFL immortality and what happens? He goes and murders two people and gets away with it. So instead of being able to proudly brag about his exploits as a Buffalo Bill, we have to tuck away our memories of his great running into a deep hole somewhere. We make it to four Super Bowls in a row. Without a doubt one of the greatest achievments of any sports franchise. Rather than being able to treasure that accomplishment and toss it into the face of the Dolphins fan on the next bar stool, we have to suffer the irony of having lost all four. What does that make us? The best team of its era or the worst also ran of all time? We support our team like no other fans in the league, regularly at the top of the attendance charts despite having the smallest market and some of the worst weather in the league. Despite our rabid support, whenever an article is written about some large city without a franchise looking to steal a team, Buffalo is at the top of the list. It seems the more we support the team, the closer we come to losing the team to Los Angeles or Toronto or some other Megatropolis. Into this upside down, inside out town of silver clouds and dark linings comes one Willis McGahee. A great college back who had, in his senior year, one of the most productive and amazing years of any running back. He led his team on a tear through the college ranks that should have, would have, could have but did not, lead to a national championship. The greatest player, on the greatest team in their greatest game suffered the worst nationally televised knee injury in the history of sports. His team loses the championship because it couldn't do with a substitute the one thing McGahee excelled at more that at any other running back task: punching it over from the goal line. So mind bogglingly close and yet so far, far away from glory. Given the sadistic irony of his senior year, what better team for Willis McGahee to end up on than the Kings of sadistic irony, the Buffalo Bills? Perhaps fate has finally decided to cut the Bills a break. Perhaps the days of "wide right", "no goal", "if it don't fit you must acquit" and "the Music City Robbery" are about to end. What better way for the sports tragedy that is Buffalo to finally be embraced by redemption than to be led to the promised land by a running back who has known the suffering of obscene misfortune, who has endured the pains of endless rehabilitations? It is time for a comeback my friends. This battered but never beaten team will be led by its battered but never beaten running back to the promised land and this time, it will comeback with a championship.

That was effen awesome. If we can just get a line to open holes for this guy and a passing game threatening enough to keep the safeties back, Willis will take this team for a great ride.

Hammett is there at 11

I don't like the karma of that situation at all. Our starter is coming off of one of the most horrible knee injuries I have ever seen and it wasn't even his first. Wishing for some other RB for some other team to go down so we can get a third instead of a fourth round pick gives me the heebie-jeebies.

You forgot: "The O-line sux"

JP is our guy now and there is no choice but to hope for the best. Undeniably, there will be an awful lot of excitement come opening day with a new sheriff in town that will last as long as he plays well. That being said, there is no way to avoid comparing how Drew does in Dallas and how JP fares here. If Drew lights it up down there and JP starts laying eggs, there will be lots of criticism of the decision to let Drew go. Its unavoidable and not entirely unfair. By the same token, if Drew plays bad and JP lights it up, there will be lots of praise for TD and company for making the switch. Justly so.

What keeps me up at night is that as "unspectacular" as JJ was, he was the best lineman we had. That would mean that all the rest are less than unspectacular. Yikes.

Exactly what google search caused you to "accidentally stumble" on an article about a masturbation exhibition in San Francisco?!?!

I think it is more of a "better than nothing" situation than a "win-win" scenario. I do like having a good back-up for Willis but was hoping that would be one of the off-season RB acquisitions we made. Those guys will have fewer reps to develop with Travis still on the roster but at the same time, I recognize that Travis could be a real nice card to play if our Ace is out. Hopefully, Travis will recognize that it is in his best interests to play well for Buffalo this year to enhance the new contract he gets with whatever new team wants him next year.

Why, because I suggested that he wait for "them" to actually bring a law suit before flaming them for doing so? Curious standard. Where is your post asking him if he is going to send that girl a letter of apology if she doesn't?

"of course, money will be demanded." It hasn't been. Why not wait until it has before getting your panties in a bunch about it? That would seem to be preferable to imagining they will do what they haven't yet done and then pillory them for what they haven't done. Did the particular girl in the year book incident wear "The Black Woman" T-shirt or is she a hypocrite for being offended because of what somebody else has said or done? Is your point that all black people are hypersensitive hypocrites? Does the girl in the year book incident have to prove that no black person anywhere has ever used the term in any way with impunity before she is allowed to be offended by its use in her particular case? Our thinking on this issue shouldn't be so lacking in nuance that we are unable to recognize that a particular word can be offensive in one context and not another or that the the same word coming from one source can have a different effect than when used by another. Who is in a better position to judge the racial offensiveness of a given remark in a given context, a person who has been a victim of racism or one who never has? My primary point here is that if this girl says she was offended, why wasn't the response here the same as it was by the year book people: apologize, tell her no harm was meant and fix it? Why was the response instead to mock, attack and refuse to even consider the possibity that her hurt feelings might be legitimate? Again, I think simple courtesy and manners would take care of so much of this kind of thing without all the hair pulling and breast beating on both sides.

Only because I'm tolerant.

A third rounder certainly seems reasonable and that is exactly what TD has been trying to get but the plain fact is that we haven't been able to find a buyer at that price. We may ultimately be able to capitalize on some other team's misfortune like the situation with the Titans. If that doesn't fly, under the current circumstances, I don't think we are going to get that third rounder.

The point being what? That there are both black people and white people who are rude and obnoxious? I don't believe anything I wrote in that post stated otherwise.

I would ask him why he was offended and providing that he had a decent explanation, I would simply apologize again letting him know that I had no idea that it was offensive in that context. My hunch is that what he would have said in that situation is that being consistently and automatically identified soley by his race is what was offensive, not the words "Japanese man". I could have said "the guy over there in the white shirt" or the "guy next to the window" or whatever. He might have some entirely different reason I never thought of. I would have accepted that explanation and bought him another beer. Again, do we really need for this girl to prove the worthiness of her feelings before apologizing? Civil interaction between citizens shouldn't require an ironclad case. If he tells me it offended him, what should be my response? Call him a liar? Attack him as thin skinned? The words "black girl" are not offensive. Being the only one referred to by her race and little else could easily be hurtful. I imagine her thought was "is that all I am, 'the black girl?'" Why not the "tall girl" or simply "unknown"?

Knowing nothing about it, I'll take your word for it on this Billy Hunter thing. There are those who make false claims of racism just as there are those that are serious racists. That shouldn't govern our responses to these things. I sense you have some personal experience with this so maybe you are a little more concerned with false claims than with the true ones. As for this particular incident, seems like the kids who printed up the yearbook feel bad about having offended anyone unintentionally and are going to fix it which is really the good manners type of response that is called for here. We need more of that all around I suspect.

Not the same Campy. You have a whole country to roam around in that is white as white. Forays into small areas that are the reverse are just that, temporary forays. I think it is a different experience to see white, white, white everywhere you go. If that was a white girl it would have said "unidentified student" or simply "unidentified". That doesn't mean that the students were or are racists. The question really is whether the girl at issue was offended and whether that should be respected or, as was done in this thread, dismissively mocked. People say things all the time that are offensive to someone when they meant no harm. The basic way to handle that is to simply apologize and forget it, not attack the person offended. I once used the phrase "japped" to describe a situation I got into playing pool one night. I never knew it was a refernce to something sneaky because the "japs" bombed Pearl Harbor in a sneak attack. A guy standing in line at the dining hall behind me was Japanese and he was pretty po'd. We talked it out, I apologized and that was it. If I reacted like the so many have in this thread I would have added further insults and called him "thin skinned", etc. I don't know. I always just thought that the rules of polite society pretty much takes care of these issues whether they involve racism or some other offensive comment.

You know, I seem to manage to get through the day without ever giving such offense or even having to take care to avoid them. Is it really that hard? All I do is practice the basic manners I was taught as a kid and that seems to cover it. Who has to "tip toe" just to be polite? Its effortless.

Right, you had to have lost that job because the other candidate was black and a woman, it couldn't possibly be that she was the better candidate for the job now could it? Why do so many white losers blame affirmative action for their own failures?