BarleyNY

I've been to Aro Tapas once and I'm interested in your opinion. Please post your thoughts.

I've never been to Oliver's, but you talking as if it's a good thing that the guy from there is involved gives me some hope. I've been to Creekview and it kinda sucks. Overpriced TJIFriday's level food with a very good location. I know it's the same guy, but if Oliver's is good maybe there's a chance for SEAR. That'd be nice because I do like the sound of dry aged waygu steaks.

That's a lot of "what ifs". There isn't much that can be done in regards to injuries once a player is acquired - sound conditioning programs, proper practice safety rules, etc. - and the rest is luck. The difference between drafting an injured player and drafting a healthy player is strictly in the valuation of the player as it pertains to draft capital. An injured player is (unsurprisingly) worth less than an uninjured one. That's why Myles Jack and Jaylon Smith went at the top of the second round instead of top 5 overall. Again, this isn't a criticism of Lawson, it's a criticism of the FO. Hopefully Lawson makes us all forget about the time he misses this season, but that doesn't mean picking him with a torn labrum at 19 was a smart move. It wasn't. But it could still work out in the long run. It's like a poker player drawing to an inside straight. Sure, sometimes it works out, but it's never a smart play and if he does it often enough it'll cost him.

The criticism of picking a player who had a high chance of missing part or all of his first season due to a pre-existing injury is valid. Some models of draft pick valuation consider the cost savings of a player on a rookie contract versus what an equivalent veteran would cost. The value portion of those contracts is for 4 seasons. The Bills are going to lose a portion of that value with Lawson, probably close to one full season - or 25% of his rookie contract value. He was at the end of the pick band that I had him in so I can't really give a bump for value at 19. Lawson at 19 is a mistake from that point of view. But those models use averages and variances. About 50% of the 1st round picks in this draft (every draft) will bust. So to your point, nobody will care about this missed season if he's a long terms stud for the Bills. I really liked Lawson as a player (injury aside) so I personally like his chances long term. We are all rooting for him to work out and become a difference maker. It is not fair to criticize Lawson for this situation or call him out as a bust. But the people and processes that led to taking him with a torn labrum at 19 do deserve scrutiny because even if they get away with it this time this kind of mismanagement will lead to problems at some point.

Texas has some extraordinarily business friendly laws and taxes. That's a huge driver. Houston is a terrible city from my experience. Other than money I don't know what could get me to think about moving there.

Lol. There you go.

I don't think you get how the numbering works......

No, outright assumptions are not necessary or helpful. But inferences can be made. We can look at what's known and fill in the blanks with reasonable accuracy. So, what do we know? We know that Rex guaranteed playoffs and a stellar defense to the fans last season, but we also know what a bombastic talker he is. It's reasonable to infer that he made some similar guarantee to the Pegulas. He obviously fell short on both counts. There are rumors of an ultimatum for Rex and Whaley - playoffs this season or else. I cringe at "ultimatum" here. Rumors often embellish facts so I take that with a grain of salt. Who freaking puts such an ultimatum in a memo anyway? And who gives it to a HC in his second season with the team? It'd really box in an owner, too. This isn't the Pegulas first rodeo either so I don't see such a mistake happening. Owners do have expectations for their organizations, however, and the playoffs for the Bills is certainly a reasonable one. I would be very disappointed in the Pegulas if they hadn't made it clear to Whaley and Rex that the playoffs are the expectation. I'd also be disappointed with them if they put themselves into a position where they would have no choice but to fire Ryan and Whaley if they missed the playoffs. Why would the Pegulas put themselves in position where they would be forced to fire Rex and Whaley if the team won 9 or 10 games and just missed the playoffs? That's not reasonable and I don't believe it. Are playoffs the expectation? Of course. Is ownership applying pressure to their GM and HC? Very likely in some fashion. Is there an outright ultimatum? Highly doubtful.

The discussion about CTE and football is now moving beyond the NFL, but it's been stalled for years by the league. The NFL has been attempting to influence government research as recently as this calendar year. And they're still fighting with their own, heavily biased research. It's awfully similar to the tobacco industry in that regard. And, yes, the NFL did settle some of the suits against them, but not all of them. They'll also have more exposure to further litigation from more recent players if they're found to be misrepresenting risks associated with playing football.

Part of the reason no one has a great understanding of CTE is that the NFL has suppressed accurate information on the subject. They've also advanced incorrect information about football and CTE and they've attempted to sidetrack and influence independent, unbiased research on the subject. So the NFL carries a lot of blame for the lack of understanding of CTE and its link to football. Fortunately there seems to be a push toward getting real, unbiased answers. At this time the logical response to a player worried about CTE is this: Football players are inflicted with CTE at a much higher level than the general public, so there is a correlation - and probably causality. We don't yet know the precise impact of playing football has on the risk of acquiring CTE. If we judge the impact of football on CTE by the actions of the NFL - who have gone to great lengths to obscure data and falsify research - we have to think it is severe. Right now the NFL is doing what the tobacco and lead industries did - they're trying to keep the debate centered on whether or not there is a problem. That is important because as long as that's the argument, they can avoid moving on to the next debate - which is what to do about it. Once everyone agrees there's a link between football and CTE, the NFL has to make changes (and possibly payout some settlement cash). They're kicking that can down the road as far as they can.

As the writer stated, it's the deception and continuing misrepresentation of risk that's the primary issue here. The huge smoking lawsuits were, in part, due to the tobacco companies denying the inherent risk of smoking. Those companies employed the same tactics as the NFL in denying the science. Notably, a big difference with tobacco was the addictive nature of nicotine. I've seen people's bodies broken down by a lifetime of jobs demanding physical labor. That's part of the reality of life. But people aren't free to make informed decisions about the risks inherient to those jobs when companies lie about them. It's one thing to go to work in an auto factory and know you're going to have aches and pains when you're older, but know it's worth it to provide a good life for your family. It's another to go to work in an auto foundry thinking the same thing, but wind up dead 25 years early because of the supposedly safe asbestos you were working with. I have several family members in the former category and one who died 5 years ago last week in the latter. This sort of thing has happened over and over in our country. Lead in paint and gasoline went through the same cycle of industry lies and faked science to maintain profits. That's where we are here with the NFL, although certainly on a much smaller scale population-wise. Players can make huge money and have a celebrity life playing football (though many don't) and that's certainly worth some degree of risk. But they deserve to have an honest accounting of what that risk is. The NFL is opening itself up to major liability by lying about those risks and that puts the game itself in jeopardy.

Wow! Thanks for posting. That was the best sports article I've read in a very long time. I honestly didn't think SI was capable of a story like this. It's good to know that the NFL's influence still has its limits.

Agreed. During the whole brawl mess the smartest thing Shady did was keep his mouth shut.

Speaking of which - I thought the Jags gig was supposed to be for just the one season. Seems like maybe the market for his Head Coaching services was a tad weaker than he expected.

The NFL changed the Designated To Return rules for this season. Teams no longer need to make the designation at the time they place the player on IR. They still can only bring back only one player, but now they can wait until they are ready to bring someone back before stating who it will be. So Bell could still play this season.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/06/02/fitzpatrick-impasse-is-a-matter-of-perspective/ This is surprisingly good rationale of the current impasse from PFT. In short,

These points are exactly correct - and the most relevant. I was excited to see Rex hired because I thought he'd keep the defense rolling. He didn't. Regardless of the reasons, those were the results and they weren't acceptable. He's lost my confidence and its in him to earn it back. He's got a plan to do that, which is a lot better than planning on doing the same thing. The plan is to run "his defense" entirely this year. That's not what I'd like to hear. Visions of a lot of square pegs and round holes immediately pop into my head. What I'd liked to have heard was that he was going to tailor his defense to the talent available. The best coaches are good enough to do that. But it's on him to improve the defense and to chose the path to do so. It's certainly conceivable that Ryan's defense is comprehensive enough to effectively utilize the talent on the roster. But the defense that he chose to run last season was a significant regression from prior seasons under Schwartz. That doesn't make me hopeful, but bringing up the number of zone blitzes and speculating on the number next season is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It's just a tiny piece of the puzzle and it might not stand alone well. The defense's performance showed us that he didn't utilize the talent nearly as well as it had been utilized. He got his Mulligan. The honeymoon is over. His bravado is looking more and more hollow without results to back it up. He's got this season and next - at most - to do what he's told us over and over he can do. I'm definitely in "show me" mode now though.

RIP, "bad" man. I remember a reporter recounting what happened after he won the world championship for the first time. He said that Ali was standing by himself on a dock looking out at the water. The journalists did not approach him, but just let him have his moment alone - something the reporter noted would never happen today. After a little while Ali came over to the reporters and simply said, "You have no idea what this means to me."

I guess you could give Elway credit for building the team in Denver and making it a place Peyton wanted to come and play. He's done a great job of putting together a quality roster - and that isn't easy. That's a big difference between the Broncos and Colts. The Colts were smart in tanking the season that gave them Luck, but they haven't been any good at building the team around him.

Always remember the Manning Rule: Mannings play where Mannings want to play.

Yeah, it seems like the two sides are tracking to a 3 year deal with 2 voidable years at about $12M for the one season.

http://buffalofambase.org/2016/02/16/jerry-hughes/ This is definitely worth the read. It's a pretty good breakdown of Hughes' last season and some differences from 2014. After reading this it's awfully difficult to blame any defensive setbacks last year on him. Other than too many penalties he did have an excellent season.

Exactly! Outstanding!

Dammit. Was hoping Costco was moving forward with their Buffalo store. WTF is taking that so long?

Agreed. Dalton at 13 over Flacco at 15? Also ridiculous. Some other pretty bad errors too.