Mickey

It's not easy telling a 6' 3", 331 lb pound multi-millionaire what to do. I think the team needs to assign him a chauffer 24-7 and we ought to start a group of fans who promise to boycott any bar in Erie County that would serve him a drink of anything besides orange juice.

Made it further than I did.

Playing it safe is what they have been doing and that has led to one 6-10 season after another. Risk nothing and you gain nothing. What you see as reckless, I see as bold. I would rather see them take risks and win big or fail big than watch them guarantee us another 5 years of mediocrity.

Oh good god, thanks for the tip.

"No one is forcing it on them, no one is beating them in the streets despite media reports that get attention it simply does not happen" If you don't mind, despite your vast and detailed knowledge of the experiences of LGBT persons, I will instead rely on the Crime Statistics as reported by the FBI (a known "flaming liberal" law enforcement agency) which show that in 2012, there were 1,376 crimes perpetrated against gay and bisexual Americans which were motivated solely because of their sexual orientation. In 2011, there were 1,572. In 2010, there were 1,528. In 2009, there were 1,482. The FBI doesn't track hate crimes against people who are trans though will start doing so in their next report. There have been 12 trans people murdered in this state. These numbers only include cases where federal charges were brought. The majority of such crimes never get reported to the FBI and are prosecuted by the state. The most frequently reported bias motivating hate crimes against people in NY in 2012 was sexual orientation (26.4%). New York also does not collect data regarding violence against people who are trans. However, Islan Nettles was murdered in NYC last summer. She was standing on the street with some of her friends, all students at a fashion institute when some young men passing by realized she was trans and proceeded to beat her to death in the street. But according to you, that never happened so I guess we have nothing to worry about. Nor did all those thousands of other reported crimes. Given how off you are on the danger faced by gay people and that you got there without even a cursory effort at obtaining the facts, there is clearly no need to further cloud your bubble with 21st century thought.

I am a simple person myself but I don't understand what agenda is being pushed down your throat? Do you feel that the media recognizing the historical relevance of Michael Sam results in an "agenda" being pushed down your throat? Btw, the term "tranny" is highly offensive to people who are trans identified, it is sort of their equivalent of the "N" word. I don't think you were in any way consciously meaning to insult anyone by using it but being a polite and well mannered person, I thought you would want to know that you were unintentionally using hurtful language. Lots of words that we were once comfortable with, we would never use in polite company today such as the racist slurs against Italians, Polish immigrants, Jews and others we remember from our youth. "[T]ranny" is one of those words, so to is "midget". "Transgender" or simply "Trans" is the preferred and correct term both socially, medically and legally. It seems to me that in this context you were trying to show just how fair minded you are, ie, so fair minded that you could even give fair consideration to a "tranny". Implicit in that statement is that there is every reason to not be fair minded with such people. In retrospect, you might consider that this wasn't exactly the best way to show how little you care about other people's differences.

Poor powerless bullied NFL owners. When are we as a society going to recognize the the living hell we put billionaire NFL franchise owners through just because we think that players that are gay ought to be able to live truthfully rather than living in the shadows, all the time fearing that they will be found out and lose the career they have worked their whole life to achieve? It's high time we started worrying a bit more about beleaguered NFL owners and a little less about basic fairness and equal opportunities. Bless you for your insight on the long overlooked, shameful treatment of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.

Yes, it is about right and wrong. I can assure you that based on demographics, there is almost certainly at least one and likely two or three gay or bisexual players on the Bills at this very moment and they were either drafted by the Bills or signed by them. I want to be the first to say good luck to you in your future travels and that we will miss you. Just to show there are no hard feelings, let me save you the time in digging up the ticket office phone number to cancel you season tickets: Call Now Try watching curling, I hear its guaranteed gay free. Gay men everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief. Now, if you were the first heterosexual drafted in the NFL and if there was a history of discrimination against heterosexuals; and if, as a heterosexual you had to endure your sexuality being pathologized and your romantic interests labeled a disease; and if you were only legally allowed to marry members of your sex and could be arrested for having sex with a woman then your comparison would be dead on accurate. Totally. Stuck the landing. A 10 from the Russian judge. Well done. Add a few more exclamation points, you deserve it.

I care. And I am not angry that others don't nor do I assume that they do or that they should. Hence the amount of coverage, be it too much, too little or too shallow, doesn't bother me. I would like to suggest however that for someone who doesn't "f'in care" you have some highly developed thoughts about his behavior in locker rooms. Suggesting, as you do, that this a valid concern, I wonder if you can point me to a study or some other body of evidence which justifies your deep concern for how gay men generally conduct themselves in locker rooms? Funny how his college teammates didn't seem to be bothered but perhaps they just don't understand gay people as well as you do.

These guys like to boil the draft down to an exercise in arithmetic as if players all have a perfectly quantifiable, universal "value". That isn't how it works. These are human beings and that makes them unpredictable and infinitely variable. The plain fact is that there are only a handful of players in any draft that will have long careers in the league as reliable starters. How many first round picks would an Andre Reed be worth? Two? Three? Four? How many picks will the Bills not have to spend in the future looking for an all pro receiver because they have Watkins? If you spent three first round picks to get Bruce Smith, would you have "mortgaged your future", "paid too much" or "squandered" your picks? If Watkins ends up a great WR, then no one will give a damn that we spent two first rounders on him and if he stinks, than even if we got him in the 3rd round it will be remembered as a draft day blunder. Kiper on Ryan Leaf: “His attitude will be an asset in the NFL and give him a mental advantage over [other players in his draft class].” On Jimmy Clausen: “If [Clausen is] not a successful starting quarterback in the NFL, I’m done. That’s it. I’m out.” On Jason Smith: “The OT spot is strong at the top with Smith, a former tight end who is supremely athletic and exactly what you want in a left tackle: someone you can count on to protect theblind side of your quarterback.”

I wouldn't trust Trump to do anything that didn't benefit Trump and if that means moving the team to Berlin, he'd do it.

The traffic problems getting in and out of Niagara Falls would be insane, I don't think they have the infrastructure to handle that many vehicles. That county is a notoriously unfriendly and unfair place to try a case in if you are being sued by an alleged injured worker. A stadium on the Rochester side of Buffalo positioned relatively close to the thruway would make it much easier for fans from Syracuse and Rochester to come to games and it would separate the game traffic with all the folks from Buffalo coming and going on the west side and the people from Rochester, Syracuse, Geneva, Canandaigua, etc. etc. coming and going on the east side. Our family all had seasons for a long, long time but the trip from Syracuse to Orchard Park and back through all that traffic was just too long of a day for kids, older folks and the handi-abled, especially in bad weather.

I saw him play at Syracuse during his short career here, the guy can flat out play. His incidents here were minor and I think the last one was an otherwise inconsequential car accident which was after curfew. Although the incidents at SU were not individually a big deal, he had a lot of them. In Tampa he had a DUI arrest that was dismissed in 2010 (you can see the field sobriety test on youtube and it had to be one of the worst DUI arrests ever). He blew under the legal limit and had a clean urine test. He also kicked in a door and caused $200 worth of damage resulting in criminal mischief charges. I think being released by Tampa and playing for Marrone will probably help him get his head back in the game but sadly, it won't last but a year or two before it'll all go sour. I think its a good deal if we get two good years out of him.

I like most of your picks except the lack of a G and I am not sure Jenkins is much of a blocker which would give us a pair of TE's that can't block. Williams is a long shot and after what we went through at LG last year, we definitely need a back up plan.

By "speculated" I think you mean "guessed". Certainty has value. This guy is a certainty, a guy we know can get the job done. A draft pick is just a big guess. Not saying this is a good fit for us but the goal is to improve your football team and this guy would definitely do that and is therefore worth a good long look. A draft pick might do the same but he might not. We would be crazy not to at least consider it.

A thirteen page thread? For Kenny Britt? Really?

The Chris Williams signing sent tremors across the league, all eyes are on this young football guru for being the only one savvy enough to see the deeply hidden talents of a guy who ranked as the 76th worst pass blocking G in the league and 74th worst guard overall. The legend begins.

Winning is NOT the only thing.

Ummm......Evans' actual agent tweeted that this story is a hoax, that Cash Money is not a sports agent, doesn't claim to be and isn't trying to be one. https://twitter.com/DerykGilmore?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F1994734-mike-evans-reportedly-is-1st-athlete-associated-with-birdmans-cash-money-sports&tw_i=445294081766223872&tw_p=tweetembed So now this thread seems even sillier than it was at the start.

Pro Football Focus rates Pears as the second worst OT in the league when it comes to run blocking and also rates the Bills OL as a whole as the 8th worst run blocking team in the league. So who do we believe, Football Outsiders or Pro Football Focus?? Another question I have is how can we relate numbers based on all the games the Bills played to how EJ played when there were so many games he didn't play in? Ideally we would have data on those sacks and pressures for each QB. How do we know how many of the sacks that were due to the EJ holding on to the ball too long when the stats we are relying on include other QB's? Lastly, I don't think that football can be boiled down to simple arithmetic. Stats are useful tools but they have there limits, especially in a situation as fraught with unpredictable variables as is the modern game of professional football. For example, if we are facing 3rd and 10 and no one likely to pick up the first down is open, didn't we draft EJ in part because we want him to extend the play with his feet rather than just throwing the ball away and punting? That increases the risks of a coverage sack or a sack characterized by these numbers as being caused by a QB holding the ball too long. But that is exactly what we want EJ to do, try to rescue a doomed play in a critical situation. And who cares if he gets sacked when the alternative to "holding the ball too long"is punting when it is vital that we move the chains. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. These numbers can't illuminate these critical subtleties. I love the stats as much as anyone but we have to recognize their limits.

Boy that Parker is one crappy agent and Byrd played his hand so badly.......not. I wish him the best and I am glad it's over. Only time will tell if we made a mistake or if New Orleans did.

If tagging him didn't work with him getting 6.4 million, why would it work when it ends with him getting 8.4 million? If the Bills could force him to sign a long term contract that fit their budget, they would. The tag is not the all powerful, bad for Bird and good for the Bills, bargaining chip fans think it is which is why the Bills aren't using it. They aren't refraining from the tag out of the goodness of their hearts.

Exactly correct and yet soooo many people just can't seem to understand that basic point.

How will it develop? The rest of the league knows we want to trade him rather than pay him 8.4 million for one lousy year and enduring the same circus we went through last year. Why trade for a guy that might be released? If the Bills had a prayer of getting a decent trade for him, they would have done it. We weren't able to trade him last year and clearly, the Bills are certain that they won't be able to trade him this year. Since it appears that the Bills decided not to tag him, it seems reasonable to me that they made a considered determination that doing so is not in their best interests. And since Byrd decided to risk getting tagged rather than signing the contract that was offered, it seems equally reasonable to me that he and his agent made a considered determination that getting tagged wasn't as bad as signing a long term deal with the Bills. The opinions to the contrary around here are built on assumptions such as there being a good trade available or that tagging Byrd would really stick it to 'em, send him a message, play hardball, etc. The facts are that the Bills clearly don't think that they can trade him and Byrd clearly has no great fear of getting tagged despite how sure-fire devastating folks around here think the franchise tag is. A good question is how many players have we successfully pushed into signing a long term deal by use of the franchise tag? It clearly isn't quite the knock 'em dead negotiating tool many seem to think it is.

My guess is that they already shopped him around and it turns out that there wasn't a line for him, hence the report that the Bills "gauged the interest" in trading Byrd.