Dan

So you would be all for the LA Bills or the Fargo Bills as long as they're winning? So, why not become a Steelers fan? They just won the Superbowl. I guess it comes down to what's more important - cheering for a winning team or cheering for a Buffalo team?

So Modell moved for more money, but Ralph is the bloodsucker? Why? Because he decided to turn down more lucrative offers to move the team and has kept the ticket prices at or near the lowest in the league? I don't follow that line of logic. And, no, I don't decide who's acting immature and who's not - I'm merely pointing out what's fairly obvious. Ordering a hamburger and getting just a bun is not even in the same realm of reality for an analogy. Ralph owns a football team and for 50 seasons has put a football team on the field. Now, you don't like the football team on the field and want to whine about it. Yes, that's your right. But, ever hear of the expression, don't bite the hand that feeds you? Back to your analogy, would you complain and gripe because you order a hamburger and they gave you a hamburger, but it didn't taste like a Burger King hamburger? No, you'd go to Burger King. Ralph has fielded an NFL team in Buffalo for 50 years. You're pissing because he's not fielded a winning team or a good enough team. Well, if you want to win every year, follow the Pats* or Cowboys or whatever the latest greatest team is. But ya know what... for all the great moves the Cowboys have made each year in fielding a great team; they've won just as many playoff games as Buffalo this decade.

So is that why Modell moved the Browns? He lacked fan support in Cleveland. Or how about Irsay, I supposed he moved the Colts because Baltimore didn't want the team anymore. It all makes sense now. All I have to say is for all the people that want a new owner of the Bills, just be a little more patient. You will get your wish soon enough. And hopefully, you won't get exactly what you deserve. I, for one, will be at the HOF Ceremony and I'll do all I can to make sure my cheers drown out any potential boos from completely classless and immature individuals that can't comprehend all that Ralph has done for Buffalo, the NFL, and for most all of us here on this board. I'm sorry but all this pissing and moaning about Ralph is akin to an immature child whining because Mommy and Daddy bought him/her a used Mercedes for their birthday and not a brand new one. Whaa.. whhaaa I want everything and if you don't give me everything then I don't like you.. whaaa whaaa.

Come to think of it... there was a report of him visiting Buffalo, but no report of him leaving Buffalo. Could it be? nahh.. Well, maybe, just maybe, Brandon kidnapped him and they're waterboarding him until he signs a contract?

got his groin pulled while gettin a bj-- whaaaat?

No doubt bolstered by signing TO followed by an O-Line draft, this board has become decidedly optimistic about the upcoming season. So far, we have a very positive outlook: 0-16 1-15 2-14 3-13-> (1 for 1.3%) 4-12 5-11-> (1 for 1.3%) 6-10-----> (5 for 6.4%) 7-9---------> (9 for 11.4%) 8-8---------> (9 for 11.4%) 9-7------------> (12 for 15.2%) 10-6--------------------> (20 for 25.3%) 11-5----------> (10 for 12.7%) 12-4---> (3 for 3.8%) 13-3-> (1 for 1.3%) 14-2--> (2 for 2.5%) 15-1 16-0------> (6 for 7.6%) (DC TOM - You missed one of your W's on the Carolina game or so I assumed. Might wanna go check it.) ================================================================ Here's my stab in the dark: Week 1 Mon, Sep 14 @ New England Patriots* -W Week 2 Sun, Sep 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers -W Week 3 Sun, Sep 27 New Orleans Saints -L Week 4 Sun, Oct 04 @ Miami Dolphins -W Week 5 Sun, Oct 11 Cleveland Browns -W Week 6 Sun, Oct 18 @ New York Jets -L Week 7 Sun, Oct 25 @ Carolina Panthers -L Week 8 Sun, Nov 01 Houston Texans -W Week 9 Sun, Nov 08 BYE Week 10 Sun, Nov 15 @ Tennessee Titans -L Week 11 Sun, Nov 22 @ Jacksonville Jaguars -L Week 12 Sun, Nov 29 Miami Dolphins -L Week 13 Thu, Dec 03 New York Jets (Toronto) -L Week 14 Sun, Dec 13 @ Kansas City Chiefs -W Week 15 Sun, Dec 20 New England Patriots* -L Week 16 Sun, Dec 27 @ Atlanta Falcons -L Week 17 Sun, Jan 03 Indianapolis Colts -L 6-10 Unfortunately, I cannot yet share in the optimism. I would love to be so terribly wrong, but our coaching staff is still entirely too huge of a question mark for me.

Precisely. And last year we did all that nothing with Peters at LT. So why, now, is it so certain that our offense will suck without him. As I see it, we sucked with him and we'll suck without him... if Trent can't become a real QB. Look across the league and teams with very average LT's do better than the Bills on offense. Why? Because they have better QBs. I'm sorry, but the offense's success this season comes down to the play of Trent Edwards, not Jason Peters.

Agreed. Why go to all the various football sites? It gets posted here within minutes of hitting the newswire. Sure, maybe that's not inside, know before anyone else knows type of information. But, I can live with knowing about a signing within 5 minutes of it being announced. But, then again, I'm a patient kinda guy.

I really like this news. It was 2 summers ago (I think) and I was watching NFL Europe to get my football fix. And there's this RB running all over the place; nothing spectacular, just good solid, hard hitting effort runs and blocks. I remember thinking... why can't the Bills get a guy with that kind of fire on their team. He just looked like he played with more determination and passion than the other guys on the field. Low and behold, a few minutes later, I noticed he had the Bills' insignia on his jersey signifying his rights were held by the Bills. And, at that time, I hoped someone in the Bills FO would recognize what this guy was bringing to the field each down and, at the very least, give the guy a shot. Well, a couple of years later, it's refreshing to see that he did get his shot. He did perform when he got that shot. And the FO recognized him and that effort and just signed him to (hopefully) a 3-4 year contract. All in all, a very good story. So, here's to Fred Jackson and I hope he continues to do well for himself and the team.

Excellent question. If only we had someone who was an expert in nondivisional tie-breakers on the board! Of course I'm no expert, but I think we want to lose those games and a forfeit would be a loss. So.... I think we'd also win all the tie breakers.

Why risk injury playing in these nondivisional games? I say forfeit them and put 100% of the effort into winning the 6 divisional games. 6x1.5=9 plus the bye week and we're in with 10.

Lots of good suggestions already. I'll add that sometimes (for me) it's been as easy as releasing/renewing your IP address. Go to Start --> Run. Type in CMD In the black window, type in IPCONFIG /RELEASE (stuff scrolls on the screen) type in IPCONFIG /RENEW (more stuff scrolls). It may take a minute to renew the IP. sometimes that gets it. Also, It may be something as simple as manually telling the computer to reconnect to the wireless network and re-typing in the security key (assuming you've set it up that way). I know it sounds simple, but I've seen people upset because "my internet is broken" and all it was, was their computer dropped the wireless connection and wanted them to manually reconnect. But, the DNS Hijacker is also a good bet, sometimes I've seen them go through the "proxy" as well. So a good idea to check. And as Dean suggested, posting a Hijackthis log can tell someone who knows if there's any more malicious software running and screwing things up. I'd also agree with Dean, wiping is fool proof but can often be time consuming and unneeded if its just some relatively benign spyware crap. I usually do that as a last ditch option or if I get a serious virus like that win32 virut thing.

Now, I'm totally confused! Who's Sam and who's Will? And why aren't these guys lining up right? Maybe we should cut them both and get this damn defense fixed once and for all.

Precisely! And if you're about to give a player(s) millions of dollars, wouldn't you want every bit of information available to help make/confirm your decision? I would think/hope the Bills' FO is all over this type of information and already called the guy (or hired someone similar) to see about him consulting for the team.

Agreed, on the surface, he's stating the obvious that anyone with half a brain cell not yet intoxicated could see. However, when you're an owner or GM and making decisions literally with multi-million dollar price tags attached, its extremely beneficial to have something more than just gut feelings to go on. If I owned a team or company worth $100's of millions, you better bet I'd have an entire team of guys working up statistics like this so that I could make more informed decisions. Granted, I don't think this type of data should be the only factor in the decision, but it should certainly play an important role - IMO.

skew your data much?

We all do realize that last year there were only 7 QBs that threw for 24 or more touchdowns. There were 11 that had 20 or more. So do we all reasonably expect Trent to jump from the bottom 3rd of the league to the top third in one season? Trent threw 11 touchdowns, so he has to more than double his production to hit 24. Certainly, it seems reasonable with TO now in a Bills uniform. But, it would be a dramatic improvement.

I would say that the premise of this whole thread is flawed. Levy was here for 2 years, plus he readily admitted that he did not control all aspects of the team. By contrast TD was here for 5 years and had complete control of all aspects of the team. So how do you really compare the two? However, through shear longevity, coupled with several bad coaching hires, I would say that TD's reign was far more detrimental to the team. Interestingly, for all the flack the current FO gets, they seem to be making more sound decisions than the two previous FO incarnations. If Brandon could finally bring in a decent head coach, it would be a slam dunk.

Much agreed. What I would ask about TO - if Coles or just about any other WR had signed with the Bills, would they have still signed TO? Of course we'll never really know. But, I would suspect not. Agree about the line and Peters.

Why is that when they're trying to sign Coles or just about any other WR on the FA market, they're looking to bring in another weapon opposite Evans but if they bring in TO, its all for PR? Fact is they were looking for a WR long before TO was released. Hence, I'd say they lucked out more than they were going for a PR stunt. Also, if the Bills had made the playoffs last year, chances are they'd have made a lot of different moves this off season, as it would be proof that they had the makings of a playoff team already. The fact that they haven't made the playoffs or had a winning season with Jauron necessitates some fairly big changes in and of itself.

Just curious, but what inside information have you actually gotten that was accurate?

Why don't we just pin a thread that says: the FO was dumb to trade Peters and all attempts to bring in any new linemen are dumb because anyone we sign is a scrub or unproven and Peters is the greatest OT ever and the FO is dumb and we have the only offense in the entire league that's completely reliant on the greatest OT ever (did I mention that was Peters) and the FO is dumb and oh yeah any fan that doesn't realize that is also dumb because our FO sucks for trading the greatest player ever and dooming our entire team to sucking because Peters was the only player on the team that ever allowed us to score or did anything so the FO sucks?

Exactly. Look at the glory days of Napster. Downloading free music was occuring at a breakneck pace. The music execs wanted it shut down because they knew they could get people to pay for the music. How's that turned out? Outside of itunes and perhaps more importantly because of the success of the iPod, I'd guess music downloads are still considerably less than when it was free. So, yeah, you can charge people to read CNN or whatever. And, yeah, some people will pay. However, I'd venture a guess that CNN's overall online readership will drop dramatically and other still free sites will rise. And in the end, the people at CNN will still be wondering how they can make more money. I guess, as with all things, the consumer makes a decision based upon how much they're willing to pay for something. When it's free, I'll look at anything and everything. Why not? Charge me something... anything, and suddenly I start looking at a lot less content because now I have to weigh the cost of reading the crap. The problem is too many people think that nothing is worth doing unless you make money on it. And then when you make a little money, you have to figure out how to make more money, because suddenly yesterday's profit margin isn't enough.

I agree with you only in part. I think the league is against Hamdan starting as well. Something about breaking every league passing record with one pass. I don't know, seems like it'd take 2 maybe 3 passes to do that. But, that's what I've heard. And yes, technically, you may be right. But, if you count them one at a time... there's only one word.

I've got one word for you.... the Chroisen One! Fear not.