Kirby Jackson

For me it was always about quality of life. Autonomy and flexibility have always been at or near the top of my list. Basically, how much control do I have over my environment? Had a guy come in once for an interview and proceeded to tell us how he got drunk and vomited on Bourbon Street the night before. He then told us that he forgot his tie so he paid a bellhop for his!! We then said, “do you have any other questions for us?” He confidently responded, “Just one question from me, so how much are you guys going to pay me?” I’ve probably interviewed a hundred or so people in my career and this was BY MILES the worst. The sad part is his resume and experience were strong. I guess you don’t know what you are getting until you meet them.

Don’t forget Tommy Sweeney. I would have preferred a WR to Cody Ford in the 2nd and would have loved the class. With that being said, he’s okay. There were just more impactful options IMO. I’d say that the class is a solid B/B+

Not to dwell on cap space but you can release Murphy and Kroft and save almost $14M. There is money to be saved on Long as well as DiMarco. The Bills aren’t tied to any really bad contracts (outside of Star). They have a lot of flexibility at this point.

I’m thinking that they draft a guy early (Herbert or Tua) and roll with Tyrod or Dalton for now. If Tua is at full health he probably starts day 1. Herbert should be more of a mid season type of thing.

I think it depends on where Roberts sits. I tend to think of him as just ST. He can’t be higher than 6 (or 7). I would be totally fine if Roberts, Brown and Beasley are the only guys back from last year. McKenzie or Duke can be 5 or 6. Anyway you slice it though you need 2 to 3 more including a number 1.

That’s part of the reason I think a trade up for Jeudy is possible. If he lasts to the teens (which he probably won’t) the Bills will be on the phone. They say he’s as good of a route runner as they’ve ever graded at this point. To me that says “smallest learning curve” and “highest floor.” Receivers often take some time to adjust but Jeudy will enter the league ready to go. 22, a 3rd and 4th....something like that

It looks like there are a lot of fringe NFL players in the XFL. There are way more than there were in that last league. We will see a whole bunch of XFL players in camp later this summer.

I think that I counted 7 former Bills on that roster!! Tyree, Cardale, Malachi Dupre, Shamarko Thomas, Khari Lee, De’Ondre Wesley, and AJ Tarpley.

Kobe was the top 20 trending topics on twitter today!! This was similar to John Lennon. This was one of the biggest stars in the world because of the international nature of the NBA, he is different. Kobe is the most recognized athlete in China. China has billions of people. He’s a different kind of famous.

Y’all, I’m really struggling with this. Kobe was never my guy but the tragic nature of it all has me in a weird place. I cried today (keep in mind I cry a lot). I just can’t wrap my head around it and for an empathetic, analytical person that’s really hard. I’m not capable of shrugging my shoulders and saying, “such is life.” Today is horrible

Just tragic, heartbreaking

That is not applying my logic. I said that basketball and soccer are 2 sports way better at the highest level. They are based on skill and athleticism. Football is more about strategy, matchups, style, etc... I prefer the openness of college football to the NFL. Not to mention, there are teams and players that are interesting. If you want to talk about “super teams” though you must despise college football. There are only 4 to 5 out of 100 and something teams with a chance. They are the same 4 to 5 every year. I guess that we just vehemently disagree. I used to be a much bigger college basketball fan until I started watching more NBA. It isn’t even close for me at this point. I can watch any NBA game but can barely watch the Final Four. The gap between the play in college and the NBA is bigger than it has ever been (and widening). There just isn’t talent at the NCAA level like there was. When they eliminate the year of school needed it’s going to continue to get worse.

College football is my favorite sport so that’s a pretty poor assumption. In terms of college basketball, I don’t need to see a bunch of guys shooting 25% from 3. No team is very good or interesting. March Madness is fun because of the upsets and gambling but it isn’t a well played game. The beauty of basketball is the elite level of skill and athleticism. That holds true more so than any other sport besides for maybe soccer. Watching the Premier League is way more interesting than MLS.

They don’t even fly in and out of the airport as we know it. They get off a plane at prior aviation and on a bus. (With that being said there is a lot of cancer ads in that airport).

Can someone explain this to me? I used to be a college basketball fan until I really started watching the NBA. It is like watching the Batavia Muckdogs instead of the Yankees. I mean I get it if you live in Batavia but otherwise I have a hard time wrapping my head around anyone that prefers the Muckdogs. I don’t view college football like that but college basketball is ABSOLUTELY like that. It’s really a bad game at this point. The best players are all 1 and done. In some cases they don’t even go to college for a year; they play internationally. The quality of play is just not any good. The NBA is infinitely more interesting (and it didn’t used to be).

The money is his #1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 priorities. It’s like any business. Your boss wants you to make money. As much as the comments were at the wrong time he was trying to drive revenue. Everything needs to be viewed through that lens. Even when it is player safety, Kaep, player conduct, etc... it is all about the $. Those PR nightmares threaten the $. That’s what he is there to do. Everything else is ancillary.

...except they don’t do any of that in season. They fly in Saturday afternoon. They have meetings, a meal in the hotel and go to sleep. They get up, have breakfast and take a bus to the stadium. They play a game and take a bus to the airport. That’s the same routine whether you are in Miami or Buffalo. The stadium, hotel, weather and visiting locker room are what they do not like. It has nothing to do with architecture, nightlife, restaurants, etc...

I guess that the bolded kind of illustrates my point. Here are 2 guys talking football on a message board and we don’t know the name of the league. We are WAY more into football than most people and we could not name a team in the last league. That’s a problem. These minor leagues NEED people like us have to be the core and from there they can attract fringe fans. If these leagues cannot pull in people like us how are they ever going to get the next tiers to survive?

None of these leagues last more than a year. This one has the best chance IMO but it’s probably not more than 50/50. There is no market for minor league football.

Believe it or not Ray-Ray has more career touches than St. Brown

You really think that I want PSL’s huh? No one wants PSL’s. My whole point, is, and always has been, I’m fine paying a little more if the environment and experience is a little more. I would venture to say that EVERYONE feels that way. If we had a nice new stadium we shouldn’t object to paying the price associated with a nice new stadium. We pay more for a steak at Ruth’s Chris than we do at Outback.

It is imperative to remember, they fly in the afternoon before the game, have meetings, dinner at the hotel, go to sleep and get on a bus to the stadium. This has nothing to do with restaurants and nightlife. That’s not an NFL thing. That’s applicable in the NBA , NHL and definitely in baseball where they spend 3-4 consecutive nights in a city. We are talking about the stadium and hotels, that’s it.

Over/Under 1 full season?

The Iowa visiting locker room is the most famous I believe. That dump in Oakland is pretty famous too. https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/college-football/2017/9/23/16320460/iowa-hawkeyes-pink-locker-rooms

That can be said about every single city that they go to. That’s kind of the point as to why everyone shouldn’t get their panties in a bunch. It’s 24 hours