Mickey

Three PK's are the standard for training camp. One is simply fodder and one is there to push the starter. In my mind, Lindell is the fodder.

Absolutely.

I am not sure why the words "Flutie" and "great quarterback" would appear in the same sentence. I think the world of Flutie but he has never been, in the NFL, anything more than "better than expected" or "adequate". That was in his prime. At this point in his career, his skills have diminished to the point where it is a stretch just to picture him as a No. 2.

Since I want to win the division, the Patriots. They are the team to beat, now and for the immediate future. Look at it this way, when Miami plays New England, who do you root for, the fish or the pats? Enough said. New England is now the Darth Vader of Buffalo football.

Freedom of choice? Really? If the choice is "believe thus or go to hell" how "free" of a choice is that? If your choice is everlasting, unimaginable pain and eternal damnation or believing, it is not a free choice, it is a forced choice. Isn't it?

Good point but I would emphasize that I am not thinking just about christians here, the belief in an afterlife of some sort is fairly universal from religion to religion. I have never studied the notion but I would be willing to hazard a guess that the one common thread uniting most faiths is the belief in an afterlife. Faiths as different as night and day with almost nothing at all in common manage to have this one thing in common. It makes me wonder what, in human pre-history, so many people might have shared to lead to this common belief. I would think that fear of death would be universal and that it would be a natural inclination for primitive man to try to deal with that fear. A belief in an afterlife of some sort would seem to be almost inevitable. I'm just speculating obviously so please don't hurl any bibles at me.

I think that was a very balanced, objective look at the current state of JP and his likely prospects for the season. I especially like how they describe the value of his mobility. Basically, he isn't going to beat teams by running the ball but defenses will have to respect that ability, especially hitting receivers on the run. I think too many of us here have raved about the mobility factor as if he were Michael Vick.

Apparently your reading comprehension skills are unabe to survive your overheated rhetoric. Try going back and reading what I actually wrote and your response to see who started flaming. The poster asked for our thoughts on grieving the loss of a loved one and how that was effected by our belief or nonbelief in god. I gave him my take that belief in an afterlife softens the sting of death but that in softening that sting, death becomes less of a thing to avoid. Suicide is a pretty good example as certainly, there are those who are more willing to die because they think they are simply moving to a higher plane, heaven or whatever. That is all I said. I never mentioned anything about God, just a belief in the afterlife. Newsfalsh: there are plenty of people who do not believe in judeo-christian god but do believe in some sort of afterlife. I also said that I thought we might take saving lives even more seriously than we do. Only an idiot, supersensitive to any possible anti-religious remark, would read that to mean that I didn't think we already, believers and non-believers alike, take saving lives pretty seriously. Your response about abortion protesters and the like might have made sense if I had said the the religious don't care at all about saving lives but that is not what I said but by all means, pretend I did and then jump on your own creation. In response to your non-point, that some religious fanatics try to save lives (something I never denied), I provided examples of religious fanatics that weren't at all interested in saving lives, quite the reverse in fact. As for them, I believe that their belief in an afterlife makes it easier for them to kill others. Nothing you have said has at all refuted that point. I am not making an argument that all religion is bad or that all atheists are wonderful. Your statement that you are not restrained by politeness or decency and the fact the you are proud of that speaks volumes. You may want to add to your confession that you are also not restrained by any measure of intelligence. Please don't take this personally. You see, my faith teaches me to love the idiot and hate the idiocy.

Which religious fanatics are you talking about, the ones protesting in favor of capital punishment or those protesting against it? The ones who won't let their children have life saving medical treatment such as transfusions? The ones who fly planes into buildings? The ones who strap bombs on their backs and jump into school buses? The god-fearing folks at God Hates Fags.com? The ones drinking cyanide laced cool-aid? The ones molesting choir boys? So many religions, so many fanatics, it is so hard to keep them all straight. Its okay though, its all good. After all, they are all going to heaven for doing God's will. Just ask them, they are sure of it.

There were 30 teams in the league last year whose starting QB was not named "Bledsoe" and who did not win the Super Bowl. Apparently, "not Bledsoe" isn't quite enough to guarantee glory. The question is whether it was wise to draft for depth at positions where we have solid starters before you find a starter at left guard and left tackle. If we have suffer through yet another year with a marginal offensive line, this draft won't seem so great. If the line plays well, this will have been a sound draft. Only time will tell. I love your enthusiasm so don't think I'm looking to argue with you on this.

I think that is really denial in disguise. You don't have to deal with the reality and finality of death becuase the person isn't really gone, they have just moved on. You'll see them again in heaven sooner or later. You see, death isn't final afterall and as such, it is not to be feared. I think we would have a lot fewer suicides and suicide bombers if there were no belief in any kind of after life. I think we would also take the idea of saving lives even more seriously than we do.

I think he will be a bit faster this year, not just phyically though. He will know the plays a lot better and where the holes are so he should "play" faster. As for turning the corner, there has to be one to turn. With the questions we have at left tackle, that might be a problem.

Both positions are very important. In our particular case, we are much worse off at LT than we are at TE right now so the move is probably a good one for us. If Peters ends up a solid LT and that is..., a big IF.

The prophets of doom are just as full of it as those gushing praise for his every fart. We don't know diddly one way or the other. You have to see it on the field, in a game. That is when we will know what we have in young Mr. Losman.

Thank you for sharing with us the story of your wonderful cousin. In reading your post, it is clear how much you loved him. I am sorry for your loss.

I hope you are right but I have been through too many off seasons where we serenaded ourselves with how impressed we were with some unproven talent because at this point in the off season, there is little else to do. I remember similar comments and analysis about a number of guys who ended up being worse than useless. Basically, we know nothing or next to nothing about our future at QB. JP is simply an unknown quantity right now as is the rest of the team. We need data and we won't have much until camp opens. I am glad you like him and I certainly hope you are right about him. For me, I need to see it on the field. The only harm I see in this kind of speculation is that unreasonable expectations for his performance will build to the point where nothing he does on the field will live up to those expectations. Change is always exciting though, you have to admit. Gawd, anything that stops the whole Bledsoe debating society that has dominated talk about the Bills has my support.

I hereby retract my irresponsible comments regarding endzone goalposts.

The point was pretty simple, your post suggested that requiring military service would cure the problem identified earlier in the thread of raising boys to be responsible men. I disagreed taking the position, obvious in the response, that military service is not a cure all for that problem. Hence my use of the word "panacea", ie, a hypothetical cure for all ills. I didn't think I was being controversial since there doesn't seem to be any ground well of support for the idea of forced service in the military from any political quarter.

One question: why do they ever bother to set up road blocks and perimeters and such? In four years they have yet to snag a single suspect with one of those. Yet, every time they lose track of a suspect which happens two or three times an episode, the first thing they do is set up a perimeter with an X mile radius and road blocks, alerting LAPD and so on. The guy always escapes resulting in Jack going "rogue" to track him down. Then, when Jack finally gets him the suspect usually sufferes a fatal injury as he is finally taken into custody but somehow manages to whisper some tid-bit of useful info with his dying breath that gives Jack something to track down next week.

An alternative possibility is that desperate times calls for desperate measures. I think the conversation went something like this: MM: Tom, we have to do something about left tackle if you aren't going to pay Otis JM: I agree Tom, if this gets anyworse, I'll have to suit up. TD: Agreed but who do you want? MM: I dunno JM: I dunno TD: How about this Gandy guy? JM, MM: He Sucks TD: Yeah but he sucks less than the other guys we could get MM: Well, if that is the best you can do, OK, besides, it is JM's butt not mine. JM: Thanks, thanks alot. TD: Okay, its agreed, we pick up Gandy and I'll tell JP's agent to ramp up his catastrophic injury insurance. JM, TD, MM: *sigh*

Our situation at left tackle is fine, more than fine and you would see it if you were a smart fan. Only true Bills fans can see the Emperor's cloth....err, I mean the great left tackle. Aren't you a true Bills fan?

To some extent, I think a draft would be great. A lot more people would think a lot longer and harder about military adventures and the politicians who endorse them if their butts were on the line. I'm not sure troop strength is the problem. If we had 3 times the number of active duty military personnel on 9/11, would that have stopped a handful of creative lunatics with box cutters? Military service in Israel is mandatory for everyone. Despite the numbers, they are unable to stop terrorist attacks. Thinking that if you throw enough soldiers at a security problem it will go away is about as valid as thinking that you can solve social problems simply by throwing enough money at them. It seems like it should be true but it just isn't .

pay was lower, racism higher, Jim Crow, Polio, cancer survival = not many, fewer owned homes, fewer owned stocks, people who hate eachother staying married, pollution galore, zero opportunities for women, segregation, entertainment no more interesting than Ozzie and Harriet, goal posts in the endzone, no seat belts, no air bags, politicians and policies made and broken in back rooms rather than (gasp) by the people expressed by votes in election years and in polls in-between, etc, etc, etc, etc. Sounds pretty crappy to me. Your welcome to go back and enjoy a meal at an all white lunch counter and dump some benzene in the village drinking well if that is what floats your boat.

I am inclined to agree but there had to be a reason why they used their second pick on him when we drafted Euhus just last year. My guess is that there is some doubt about the recovery of Campbell and Euhus. Alternatively, they may have no concerns about TE but simply felt Everett was too talented to pass up. We'll never know now.

Talk about bad Karma. This board was awash in learned opinons that we were in the catbird seat with regard to the Henry situation because: A. Some other team was sure to lose a starting RB to a preseason injury. B. Travis was the best choice to replace that injured back; thus C. Despite the abundant evidence that no one thinks much of Henry, some team would be forced to overcompenaste us to get such a mediocre RB. So what happens? We are the ones who get snake bit with a pre-season injury and are in the market to overcompensate a mediocre replacement. I usually don't believe in such things but the bad karma of this situation has got even me wondering.