Mickey

Yeah and that could totally, totally happen because its not like the Bills have access to any doctors or medical diagnostic equipment to verify an injury, if the guy says his toe is broke, the team is helpless to refute it.

The Narnia defense is unbeatable

I think I will get through this by self medicating.

Why did Rogers stop playing with no whistle being blown? I bet Marrone is going to be unhappy when he sees that on film.

amazing catch by kaufmann

Ummm.... he is a professional football player, a sport known to be quite violent and, over time to take a toll on a person's health. Some injuries are traumatic, some happen as things degrade over time until they reach a critical point and begin to cause pain or limited movement. I am 52 and play soccer three times each week. I have lots of injuries that pop up which can't be traced to anything that happened on the field. I don't see, apart from jealousy, why the amount of money he makes is at all relevant to the discussion. Oh, and he was at practice (you claim he "didn't show his face"). He reported the problem and the team, not Mario, the team, made the decision to keep him out of drills, etc. until they could evaluate the problem so they know whether or not this is a small problem that could turn in to a big problem if they don't let him sit down for a few days and heal. Given their investment in him, any other course of action would be foolish. Further, Williams is obligated to report any physical problem he is having, again, the team has a vested interest in his health and well being.

The players certainly do contribute to costs. Concussions, ravaged joints, splintered bones, etc. resulting in endless pain for the rest of their lives. Without their willingness to endure that, there would be no football product to sell.

This. This really isn't all that hard to figure out. Unless EJ rips it up in pre-season or the vet stinks it up, the vet starts until hurt or until he plays himself right off the field. Then EJ starts.

According to one article, top local fan sites (hog haven and Mr. irrelevant) have come out in favor of getting rid of the name. One quote in particular, I think, fits the way the discussion is being framed here to a tee: "For most Native Americans, there's no more offensive name in English. That non-Native folks think they get to measure or decide what offends us is adding insult to injury." ----Suzan Shown Harjo, a woman of Cheyenne and Muscogee descent who is president of the Morning Star Institute, a national indigenous-rights organization in D.C. See the full article at grantland

Wow. This guy so belongs in Buffalo. We are lucky to have him.

He had a lot to be angry about. Wanting to drink out of the same drinking fountain as everyone else doesn't seem to me to be too entitled. As for the Raquel Welch bs, the real story is that the filming of that movie was a day to day pain in the neck because of the over-pampered, untalented Diva and her unprofessional behavior. Many on the set complained, including Brown and since that is where the juicy story was, his complaints got all the press. Welch has been eternally ticked off since then and got back at Brown with the whole story about the french kiss. Many, many bigots and racists lost their minds over that scene and the crap that Brown had to endure over a simple, G-rated love scene because of the color of his skin was inexcusable. Again, the man has a lot to be angry about. He did not receive a scholarship to SU. He was warned by the head coach, several other coaches and white players that he could not date white girls and was told by the Freshman coach, that he couldn't run and was kept on the bench despite being the biggest and fastest player on the team, by far. He was also the only african-american on the entire freshman team. He was on of only 10 black students in a class of 1,627 students. One of the few former black SU players, Wilmeth Sadat Singh was not allowed to play, by his own coaches in a game against Maryland; they had mad a "gentleman's agreement" not to play a black player against the Terrapins. The chancellor at Syracuse had advised the director of admissions to make it harder to admit african americans. Brown only went to Syracuse because an attorney in his hometown (Ken Molloy) was an SU alum and a former lacrosse star. Roy Simmons was the coach of the SU lacrosse team (and a former QB on the football team). Brown, tired of the abuse he was singled out for during practices nearly quit several times but was talked out of it by Molloy and Simmons. Molloy personally raised the funds for Brown's education at Syracuse. Many people don't realize that Brown was a great basketball player, averaging 38 points per game as a shooting forward for his high school team. He played for Syracuse but despite his talent and brilliant performances as sub, he couldn't crack the starting line-up because of the "rule of two" which was that teams would not play more than two black players on the floor at any given time. Syracuse had two black stars on scholarship, Vinnie Cohen and Manny Breland thus Brown was the odd black man out. Brown was the second leading scorer on the team playing as a sub in his Junior year. Frustrated with the lack of playing time based solely on the color of his skin, Brown quit the team and did not play in his senior year. Despite all he endured at SU, this angry, "too entitled" black man returned to SU in 1970 to try and mediate between the coaches and the african american players who had boycotted the team after finally becoming fed up with the racist treatment they received. Brown was unable to resolve the dispute because coach Schwartzwalder refused to make a single concession. A University investigation of the incident concluded that the coaching staff was rife with "chronic racism". That is just a little bit of what he endured over his career and I am willing to bet that all that stuff is far, far less known then that crap, press agent invented, story about Welch and Brown. I realize that just because Brown endured boatloads of racism over his entire life doesn't mean that he isn't, on a personal level, something of a jerk. But before you start brining up a bs story about a hack actress and throwing around suggestions of Brown being "...too entitled..." or having an "angry attitude" and expecting "too much homage", maybe, just maybe you ought to do about 3 minutes worth of research to see if there is anything that contradicts your blurb about an angry arrogant black man who expects the world to kiss his but while he sticks his tongue down the throats of unsuspecting white girls. Good life lesson#1: when you hear a story too ridiculous to be true, chances are it isn't true. Good life lesson#2: there are an endless number of racists willing to tell any lie about a successful black man.

You might not like the man, but his job isn't to please fans, it's to advance the interests of his client, and he does that very well. One thing I will say for him, he doesn't negotiate in public or through the press. He doesn't run a circus. I like Byrd and I hate, hate, hate losing good players. That said, it's a hard sell to justifying that the place to dump a lot of money is at free safety.

Civil rights law in the state of Massachusetts has long prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in the work place. I think it's great that Kraft is being proactive on this issue but by stating that he wouldn't discriminate against a gay player, he is doing nothing more than stating that he is willing to obey the laws of the state of Massachusetts. A similar law, SONDA, is in place in New York State having been enacted, I believe, in 2003.

I was wondering when the Nassib lovers would start expressing their hurt over our Nassibless draft.

The Colts fans are pretty happy to be rid of Hughes and think that, in getting Sheppherd, that they got the better end of the deal by far: http://www.stampedeblue.com/2013/4/29/4282826/colts-trade-jerry-hughes-to-bills-cementing-2010-draft-class-as-a-failure

Given the roster holes we have, we would have needed 18 picks in the first two rounds to address them all. So yeah, we have offensive line problems but we also needed a QB. Its going to take some time to plug all the holes in this boat.

Whew

I pray for the preservation of your pinky finger! (not a Nassib fan).

Absolutely. Bill Polian today said this of Austin, "No WR that small has had a long and productive career since around 2002 so if you take him, your bucking the odds" Given the status of this team, can it really afford to roll the dice on Austin? If Dion Jordan is there, it would be the height of foolishness to pass on him for a mini-receiver.

Great article on why it would be certifiably crazy to draft Nassib with the 8th pick in the draft: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/clark-judge/22122605/why-buffalo-cant-afford-to-spend-its-first-pick-on-oranges-nassib

If any of the three OT's drops to us, or Jordan, we should jump at it. I am hoping someone takes Smith, Floyd and Lotuleli before us so that Jordan lasts to the 8th pick. Otherwise, if things go pretty much as predicted, one of the guards or maybe Ansah. I think Austin would be a mistake, small fast receivers are just not that hard to find. A big guy with speed, now thats special.

Yeah, because NFL GM's always publicly announce their draft strategies to make sure everyone knows their plans. Agreed. And taking Nassib, the 35th ranked college QB with the 8th pick in the draft is not the way to make a team better. Though I have to say, he looked really good against Stoney Brook. It might help us pick higher than 8th next year though.

This Especially Patterson though he will be available for a pick longer than he should be if we waste the 8th pick in the draft on Nassib. That will be a boon to everyone who picks after our first round pick and before our second.

Would you be happy if they took Ryan Nassib, a guy Mayock and just about everyone else has as the 50th best prospect, with the 8th pick in the draft? If so, fair enough but with all the holes we have, I think it would be a waste of a pick. Add in that in any other draft Nassib would barely make the top 100 and its a no brainer, for me at least. Pass on Nassib at 8.

A "bevy of draft picks" for Tavon Austin? Lots of teams want to trade down in this draft and not many want to trade up. The whole reason the Bills and several other teams want to move down is that there just isn't that much talent at the top of this draft class. And that is precisely why there are not many teams that are at all likely to want to trade up. There is no one worth trading up for. It might happen but the Bills will not know if it is possible until they are on the clock. It is not anything they can count on, its not something they can make happen. I am sure that they are not building their entire draft strategy on the unlikely event that someone wants a guy who was passed up in picks 1 thru 7 so badly that they are going to trade a "bevy of draft picks" for him. I am sure the Bills will be ready for whatever comes their way on draft day and trading down is probably just one of many, many ways they can go.