The Real Buffalo Joe

I think the biggest reason I can't seem to adopt the Texans as a #2 team is the fanbase is so fairweather. When I first moved here in 2010, hardly saw any Texans gear. In comes JJ Watt, and all of a sudden they've all been fans their whole life. The local news station had a poll asking what you're favorite team was. I think the Texans go like 65-70%. Buffalo wouldn't even have to take that poll, and if the did, I guarentee it'd be 90-95%. I became an Astros fan when I moved here, mostly because I'm a huge baseball fan. They sucked, so I could go to just about any game I wanted, save for opening day, or when the Yankees or Red Sox were in town, for about $5. Sat where ever I wanted in the mostly empty stadium. Now that they're good, everybody is a fan, and claims to have been a fan the whole time, ever since Biggio and Bagwell. Where were these people between the two eras? I'll admit I wasn't a fan of the late 90s- early 00s teams, because I didn't live here. But where were you people when Bud Norris was the #1 pitcher?

I could tell from watching his Notre Dame commentary that he'd been using the tanning bed, but damn.

You forgot @Gugny's favorite, Doug Flutie.

I couldn't do it. Bud Addams was an a-hole. Can't imagine his kids are any better.

I've been to exactly one Texans game that wasn't against the Bills. It was a preseason game, against Miami. Friend had a free ticket. Wore a Texans t-shirt that I got as a gift, and my Bills hat. As I told people who asked, I said I have two favorite teams. The Bills, and anybody playing the Dolphins. That Texans shirt I've worn exactly two and a half times outside of the house. Once to that game, once when they played the Patriots* in the playoffs, and once under my Bills jersey when we needed them to win to keep our playoff hopes alive.

The league I grew up in didn't keep score in t-ball. They tried keeping score, and it failed horribly. The rule was, as soon as the "pitcher" got the ball, the play was over. So instead of teaching kids the fundamentals of the game, they were just taught to get the ball to the pitcher, ASAP. So they stopped keeping score, not because of some self esteem BS, but because it made it a better environment to teach the kids how to play the game.

Oof. I was at the local Bills Backers Bar a few years back. There was a group of girls about my age there. This was before I met my wife, and they were all pretty cute. The Bills scored a touchdown, and I was giving double handed high fives to everyone, then I noticed she didn't have a hand. I felt terrible and haven't seen her since, and wonder what happened to her.

The baseball league I grew up in, everybody got a small trophy. It was really more of a keepsake/memento than an award. The players on the championship team got a big trophy, and the runners up got a slightly smaller trophy. So there was still something to play for. I do find it ironic that people from the older generation like to point out that we're the "participation trophy" generation, but my question always has been, which generation is the one that gave us the trophies that we'd have been perfectly content without.

Living in Houston, I really don't care about the Texans one way or the other. I like JJ Watt, but mostly because of his off the field work.

The products are what make them legally legitimate. The one I spoke about earlier the product was a discount club. Nothing you can't get from AAA, AARP, or even a decent google serach. Yet a two year membership cost $800, and a lifetime was like $2000. There are a few MLM companies that are legitimate. The way to tell is whether they promote recruiting over the value of the product itself.

I was only three, so I don't really remember it. As most in town remember, the game didn't sell out in time. I guess because Reich was starting, people didn't think we had a chance. So my dad went to watch it at a bar he knew that had an illegal feed. After halftime, he gave up, went to visit my grandpa in the nursing home. They listened to it on the radio, and when the Bills started coming back, he told my grandpa, "I love you dad, but I gotta go!" My grandpa understood, and said he'd be going with him if he could. My dad made it to the bar just in time for the start of overtime. He always tells me "The game didn't sell out. The stadium holds 80,000 people. I've met 100,000 who told me they were there. And not one of them admits to leaving at half time."

Up until I was about 8, I believed anything and everything my grandmother told me. I asked her how old she was, she said she was 49. That made sense, that was an old person in my eyes. When my mom told me that my oldest aunt was 42 at the time, meaning she was seven when she gave birth. Still seemed about right to me. I have a cousin who was about my age, but was a pudgy kid till he was about 5 or 6. My mom used to sing to us "Daniel my cousin, you are, fatter than me." She had me convinced that she wrote the song, and Elton John changed the lyrics just a little bit. The McKinley Mall used to have generic bronze statues all around. A mother shopping with her child, a man walking, stuff like that. After I had just seen the Wizard of Oz for the first time, I got worried, and every person my mom would talk to, I'd ask if they knew where we could buy oil cans because people were rusting up. The laughing of The Lunatic from Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" scared the crap out of me. Like legitimately made me scream and cry.

Two things my dad used to tell me were that if you wrote on your hand with a pen, you could get sick and die of ink poisoning. Also, turning the light on in a moving car was illegal. It wasn't until about two years ago that I found out neither of those things are true.

San Diego Fleet: Join the #FleetFamily

There was once a soap commerical on TV. It started with a white woman getting in the shower, then a bunch of closeups about the soap, then showed a black woman getting out of the show. So I insisted that my mom bought the soap, so I could test it and see if it really changed your skin color. When I first moved to Texas about 8 years ago, we had Tamales for Christmas dinner. Never had them before, and they were really tough. Spent ten minutes at a party with everybody watching me before someone was nice enough to tell me that you have to unwrap it from the corn husk first. Also, in the relm of misheard lyrics, I thought "Can't buy me love" from The Beatles was "Got Puppy Love."

Nathan Peterman, Birmingham Irons MVP. Book it.

Honestly, they can list off all the former Cougar and/or Bills players they want. The team that sends me a free shirt and/or hat or something gets my undying loyalty.

I sent this message to all of the AAF (American Alliance of Football) teams official Facebook. "I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Die hard Bills fan here. Moved to Houston and became a fan of the University of Houston Cougars. What does your team have that would interest me in fan hood?" So far, these are the responses I've gotten. Salt Lake Stallions: Our Director of Football Operations Ryan Hollern spent a few years with the Bills as a scout...plus our Defensive Coordinator Donnie Henderson was there from 2013-2016! Arizona HotShots: Awesome organization and players with character who are hungry for an opportunity. Birmingham Iron: Well good news is that we have first dibs on all former Bills players! We hope you choose to #ForgeOn with our talented team this season.

Yeah. It's very common in college for the home fans, granted a majority of them the students, to storm the field after an upset or big win. Agree. I always feel that Rex is under appreciated for the football mind that he has. His problem is personnel management. I feel he doesn't command the type of respect needed as a coach. That he cared more about being their friend than their boss, which would only be amplified if Rex ever took a HC job in college.

There are plenty of stories of guys who are great college coaches, that just don't translate to the NFL, and a few that are vice versa. Most notably as of late, Chip Kelly, and Nick Saban. To me, it seems like a discipline issue. For better or worse, these guys seem to have a dictator type leadership. It works with "kids" in college, but not so much with grown adults. Is there more to it than that though?

I woke up on draft day, and read the stories about his tweets. I somehow knew right then and there he was gonna be our QB. That said, even before I knew for sure, I was able to quickly dismiss them as tasteless jokes made by a teenage kid. Didn't think he was actually racist, just attempting to be funny and edgy. That said, I was on board with drafting him for his raw talent, but was adamantly opposed to him starting until at least midway into the 2019 season. He had too much fine tuning and, in my opinion, needed to sit behind a veteran. The Peterman/McCarron fiasco happened, and I think were were all a bit flustered at that. I didn't like the idea of Allen being thrown to the wolves, but have been pleasantly surprised. His issues have largely been due to fixable problems, and protection/personnel problems that will hopefully be fixed this offseason.

I've been carrying the same $20 bill in my wallet for two weeks. I haven't had to use it yet.

No way someone goes from HC to anything lower than a coordinator.

We went up to Oklahoma with her dad to visit her brother. After we opened gifts at his house, my wife and I decided to go back and pack before we left the next day. ?

It's a supply and demand thing. They're not paid high because they're that great. They're paid that high simply because teams like Detroit know anybody else they get will be a downgrade from Stafford, so they pay him what they can because he's their best possible option.