The Frankish Reich
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Posts posted by The Frankish Reich
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Exactly. Who cares about issues that are bothering other people besides you? You are what makes this country great.
But to answer your question, it's racial injustice and police brutality.
Well, that's the narrow reason. But I view the entire thing through the lens of behavioral science. It's more virtue signaling than anything else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling That doesn't mean it's anything different for the people who stand at attention for the anthem; that's virtue signaling in the other direction. Better questions for Kaepernick and friends: 1. You are playing a game in London. The British National Anthem plays. Sit, stand, or take a knee? The British government is not without blame regarding racial injustice. Do you protest that? 2. You are on the Bills (!) and the Toronto "home" games are back. Sit, stand, kneel for the Canadian anthem? Why, or why not? 3. You resume your old career as a baseball pitcher. You are on the Yankees. It is the 7th inning stretch on a Sunday. God Bless America is being sung. Sit, stand, or kneel? 4. The Congressional Black Caucus invites you to a public rally on the Naitonal Mall. It begins with the National Anthem. Sit, stand, kneel? What if your hosts stand at attention? My guess is you haven't really thought any of this out. This is almost always the case with virtue signaling, unless it is done for expressly selfish motivations (e.g., "I am resigning from Trump's Business Roundtable" because I fear repercussions from his opponents if I don't)
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FU & STFU
So glad you joined TBD. We've been missing that kind of insight around here.
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Hitler was a real people person and motivated an entire country. Castro was a champion of health care!
Neither did anything wrong.
Godwin's Law ... 10 pages in! That's pretty good.
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And what is the very symbol of that freedom?
If you can't respect your flag and anthem for 2 frickin minutes of a 24 hour day once a week what can you respect? I know, nothing! McDermott wants to be respectful of his players disrespecting the flag. Yeah, whatever, that makes a lot of sense. These idiots need to go live somewhere else and disrespect their flag and see what happens to them!
That US kid in Greece acted like an American disrespectful meathead and what happened to him. These idiots are so lucky to be Americans. Rest of the world doesn't play these disrespectful bull **** games.That said, I do not agree with playing the anthem for every single sporting event. It's way to much. Should be played on special occasions only, i.e. super bowl, Indy 500, etc.
Flame away!
I agree. I see nothing respectful to the flag or the country to play the national anthem to a group of 80,000 people, half (Buffalo) or a quarter (other places) of whom are already totally wasted.
EDIT: I mentioned above that in Britain they used to play the anthem before movies. Why not? Why at sporting events? I went to a rodeo this summer: national anthem and special salutes (individually) to all branches of the armed services. I went to a few concerts: no national anthem anywhere. Why? I suspect it has more to do with the crowd itself wanting to feel good about itself. The rodeo crowd is a country crowd, with a much higher percentage of ex military. The non-country concert crowd is the opposite. So taking a step back, Kaep may be using the anthem to make a specific political point (a kind of Black Lives Matter thing), but the larger idea is this: "I am separate and apart from the kind of people who go to events where the national anthem is played." We have enough virtue signaling in this country already. We don't need to have it at sporting events. End the anthem.
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We didn't always play the national anthem before sporting events. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/30/a-brief-history-of-the-star-spangled-banner-being-played-at-games-and-getting-no-respect/?utm_term=.6afef360c876 And I'm not really sure why we do it now. I spent a fair amount of time in Britain in my earlier days, and people told me that God Save the Queen was played before the movie started in movie theaters up until some time in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Why did it stop? Why did we never have that in the United States? It seems rather arbitrary, and I'd be for abolishing it except on special days (Memorial Day, 4th of July). Think about Bills fans, many of whom have been getting their drunk on since 8:00 am. Not the most respectful atmosphere for playing our anthem at 1:00 before kickoff, is it?
Having said that, when it is played I stop what I'm doing, take off my cap, and try to stand respectfully facing the flag (or the scoreboard image of the flag), and here in Colorado, I'm pleased to say that the very clear majority of fans do likewise. And I like to see that from the players, coaches, refs, etc. too, but I'm not going to hate on anyone for not doing so.
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The draft market is pretty efficient now. By that I mean that all teams have access to the same information/same video. The days of a team having an advantage through better scouting are pretty much over, particularly when talking about the first 4 (5?) rounds. So the "stretches" - guys drafted way above where most smart observers have them - are pretty few and far between, including for the Bills. Starting in 2011 (first 4 rounds only):
2011: Dareus, Aaron Williams, Kelvin Sheppard, Searcy, Chris Hairston. I don't see any stretches there. The fact that some lower picks (Searcy) turn out to be valuable and some (Sheppard) don't, and some have careers derailed by injury (Hairston) is just a part of NFL life.
2012: Gilmore, Glenn, T.J. Graham, Nigel Bradham, Ron Brooks. Again, I'm not seeing any stretches. That's actually a really good draft with a couple of well above average players (Gilmore, Glenn), a very solid contributor (Bradham), and a guy who's still hanging around (Brooks), with one bust (Graham). But it wasn't as if Graham was some projected late-rounder that only the Bills had on the board. He was at most a slight stretch as the 69th overall pick. NFL.com had him as "speed guy ... who could go as high as the 3rd round."
2013: Manuel, Woods, Alonso, Goodwin, Duke Williams. O.K., here's the big stretch: EJ. Projected by most as a 3rd/4th rounder. But understandable that he moved up fast because every year now at least 1 or 2 (or more?) QBs ascend the draft ladder out of the desperation for a franchise QB by teams like the Bills. Taking Goodwin in the 3rd can be criticized as a do-over on TJ Graham, but he wasn't really a reach in objective terms.
2014: Watkins, Kouandjio, Preston Brown, Cockrell. I don't see any stretches here. Again, the valid criticism would be that the Bills panic-traded up for Watkins in a desperate attempt to salvage EJ, who didn't look like a future franchise QB in his rookie season; "hey, maybe he just needed that great WR to throw to" was the theory. Kouandjio: stock dropped before the draft from likely 1st rounder to 2nd, so he was a known risk. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Cockrell: a fine 4th round pick, the mistake was in letting him go, not in drafting him. Preston: a productive pick giving you what you expect from a 3rd rounder.
2015: Darby, Miller. No stretches here. Some would have dropped Darby lower based on "character," but there was no doubt he was at least a 2nd rounder based on talent. Miller was taken right where he was projected. Again, the problem here was ... 2 picks in the first 4 rounds, a consequence of the Sammy panic.
2016: Shaq Lawson, Ragland, Adolphus, Cardale. I don't see any stretches, but I do see a theme developing. Trading up for Ragland? In retrospect (as many thought at the time) not the best idea. Drafting Cardale in the 4th? That's where a talented project QB like Cardale goes. Sometimes that guy turns into Dak, sometimes he turns into, umm, you know. More of a problem with how the Bills view what they're trying to accomplish with the draft than with overrating a particular player. As Sammy was brought in to save a sunk cost (and sinking project QB) in EJ, so too Ragland was brought into save a drowning fat man coach. These things usually don't end up well ...
2017: White, Zay, Dion. All chosen where they should've been. Time will tell whether the "Whaley" (pretty clearly McD when we look at it today) strategy of thinking that value is found between, say, the low 1st round (White, 27th overall) and the late 2nd (Dawkins, 63rd overall) will turn out better than the prior strategy.
So ... other than EJ, I don't see any huge stretches. I just see the lack of a coherent, long-term strategy that has, over the course of several years, consigned us to a rebuilding project. Again.
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I have little hope for him and his future for the Bills.
But i would push everydman button I could to kick start his rear.
Nothing soft and nothing fuzzy.
Work him.
I hope he plays the whole game tonight.
Something very poetic here. Almost like a too-long haiku.
Dareus missing
Bong covered by sailor cap
Somewhere Whaley grins
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Leonard Smith (obviously)
John Holocek (BEAST!)
Nickell Robey (playmaker, should have been retained)
Jim Leonhard (playmaker, should have been retained)
Chris Hogan (OBVIOUSLY)
NEVER. This Massh*le homer will NEVER get any praise from me... talk crap about the Bills to the enemy, get the horns, MFer.
I haven't paid any attention to what Smerlas has been doing for the last quarter century, but now that I look it up .... Pats fan, but cozied up to Goodell during the time of deflategate. Special guest at a Trump fundraiser. Apparently will do anything for a buck. Something to offend everyone. I will begin looking for another 1980s favorite player.
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Stop digging.
You don't think it gets a bit tedious, this "golly gee, Cleveland is so dumb" stuff? They blew a 1st round pick - 22nd overall. It was a stretch, but not an outrageous one. No more so than EJ Manuel the year before at 16 overall. The Browns have made terrible personnel decisions over the last decade, and now they're trying to unwind them. They're closer to getting there than the Bills, who are in exactly the same process right now.
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Who is 60 years old.
On a more serious note, I believe Cleveland acquired Osweiler via trade. I haven't done the research, but it was a very rich contract that Cleveland swallowed. If that's true and the salary portion of that contract is significant, Buffalo may not want to use that much of their cap space on him. I'm assuming at this point the Bills will head into the season with Taylor as starter and Peterman as backup. You're not going to want to spend much money on a third string guy. It is pretty much a given that if your third string QB is playing more than a game or two, your season is in deep doo doo.
Seems like there must be an analysis of this somewhere, but here's what I don't get: when the Browns traded for Osweiler, the story was that they were so far under the cap they needed to spend money on someone to bring their salary base up. Getting Osweiler + a draft pick was a better deal than just throwing away money to get up to the minimum. But ... now they dump Haden's big contract. Doesn't that put them back where they started? There's a DePodesta crazy (or crazed genius? That remains to be determined) manipulation going on here, but I don't get it.
EDIT: this seems to be what they're up to: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/08/30/cutting-haden-could-be-the-final-precursor-to-cutting-osweiler/
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I see your point. Watkins career in Buffalo has equalled Manziel's career arc.
WTF.
The kid who's last in his class mocks the kid who flunked out. Such is the way of the world. Revel in your sub-mediocrity! There is a greater fool out there, and his name is Cleveland! (For the moment)
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Tommy. Tony Romo.
Romo: good one.
Brady ... I guess he counts as the developmental 3rd stringer, although I looked and he was "blocked" (if you could say that) by John Friesz. -
I don't really understand carrying a 3rd QB unless it is a developmental guy. Even then, the value is debatable since I can't recall any of those 3rd QB/developmental guys ever becoming a long term starting QB. There's always a Thad Lewis (he has a job now, but he didn't last year) available out there - the classic replacement level QB. 2-4 W-L record, 81 QB rating. A TJ Yates is no better (probably worse), and I've seen no evidence that having a guy like that around just because he "knows the system" provides any tangible benefit.
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What exactly is your point? That you would have passed on Watkins for that assclown? That would have been sooooooo much better, trading a 1 for Manziel.
No. Just that Bills fans really are in no position to mock any other team for their stupid personnel moves ... in other words, would we be worse off today had we (stupidly) traded down for Manziel as opposed to trading up for Sammy?
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I was on BBMB at the time and not on this board.....was this board filled with a bunch of people angry the Bills didn't take Manziel?
It was like that on BBMB....it was a non-stop topic of the ineptness not taking Manziel.
Wow, that was a lucky escape. We would've missed out on the Sammy Watkins Playoff Years if we'd been stupid enough to take Manziel.
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It applies across the roster I am afraid. Kirby was making the point in the surprise cuts thread, and I agree with him, that there don't appear to be 53 NFL calibre football players on this team as it stands. Go back to 2015 and we were cutting people who ended up on other rosters..... the lines of Deonte Thompson and Ross Cockrell et al. That 2015 roster should have been a playoff team. It really should. More than any other year that team was built to compete.
Yup. In retrospect, that was the famous window of opportunity. The peak of the talent cycle. Whatever the hell you want to call it. And it all disappeared behind a blob of fat Rex.
You guys gonna try and get this Hogan thread to 200 pages?
Don't you think we should resurrect the old one? The "I still miss Hogan?" I loved how every time he caught a pass it would be bumped back to the top. (Umm, did I do that once or twice myself?)
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He now has more time to run around nude.
While the beauty of a summer in the shadow of Lake Erie is highly underrated by outsiders, let's face it: Buffalo was never conducive to that nude (correction: technically "without pants") running thing. Detroit? Maybe worse. If you love something, set it free. Without pants. Good luck to you, CK! And remember: you don't have to worry about being deported that Trump Deportation Force anymore (that naturalization thing), so free your butt and your mind will follow.
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I was born into Bills fandom and it got serious in the 1970s. So ...
1970s: Jim Braxton. Somehow ate up 800+ yards as OJ's blocking fullback one year.
1980s: Fred Smerlas. Kind of a poster child for everything Buffalo in 1980s
1990s: Marvcus Patton. Because "Marvcus."
2000s: Peerless Price was without peer (for a year or so)
2010s: now it gets tough. Let me go with ... Scott Chandler. Yeah, he kind of sucked. But that's the whole point - favorite players who really didn't do enough to warrant that label. I still think that "shoveling snow" TD celebration when we played a "home game" in Detroit, destroying the Jets when it seemed to mean something (in the end it didn't) is my favorite Bills moment of the decade. Which is a sad commentary indeed. But there you have it. Runner-up: Kiko. Loved watching him in the brief shining moment we called the Mike Pettine era.
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That's what they want you to think.
It's not nearly as much of a mess as they seem to think. They are ridding YOUNG talented players just because the previous regime drafted them.
Asinine in my opinion.
Maybe that's what happens when you hire coaches who are so convinced of their own brilliance that they demand to run "a Rex Ryan defense" or a "Sean McDermott defense" regardless of whether their most talented players are a good fit for that scheme. Maybe it's just me, but it seems that the best coaches adapt their schemes to suit their personnel? Here's a quote from a guy in Boston who's had a little bit of success:
There are a lot of different alignments out there, you see 4-3 teams use odd spacing, you see 3-4 teams use even spacing. Look, you have 11 defensive players. You can put them in various positions. Whether you want to put it in the pregame depth chart as one thing or another I think is a little bit overrated4-3, 3-4, call it what you want; we'll put our players in the best position to succeed.
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And also look at Denver for OT help. They have huge depth: Ty Sambrailo, Allen Barbre, Donald Stephenson are a couple that could shake free.
You wouldn't have to shake too hard. I take it you have never watched Sambrailo and Stephenson play ... I live in Broncos country, and I think it's fair to say that Stephenson is the Broncos' Jordan Mills; Sambrailo may be their Cyrus K.
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You finished now?
He might get a fine of some sort to the extent it's allowable by the CBA.Yeah. Just having fun ... we don't really find out where things stand until the first practice this week, which I imagine is Monday ...
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Dareus did not travel home with the team. Had to find his own way
Sean McDermott hasn't had further conversation with Marcell Dareus, but plans on it. Unknown if more punishment coming. #Bills
Nothing to see here. He arrived late for the game. EOS.
Oh, and then didn't travel home with the team. Real EOS.
Oh, and may have more punishment coming. Wait, is this really the end of the story, or is it like those movies where I shouldn't leave before the credits roll because there's a really amusing extra scene after the credits?
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i honestly dont like the Hayneworth comparison
Albert Haynesworth was a dirty ass player who stole money from several teams......he basically forced his own release
Marcel has issues......but he plays the game the right way....he is a knucklehead....but not on the level of Albert
No, it's probably not a fair comparison, but even Dareus has to understand that it will always come to mind unless/until he starts performing at his pre-Rex level again. I actually hadn't seen this before; it's kind of enlightening:
playing for the Redskins -- who signed him to a $100 million contract -- caused him to lose his "passion for football." Haynesworth writes about meeting with Mike Shanahan (who will now get an extra chance at jumping into the media fray!) and learning the then-Skins coach simply wanted him "grab the center," "let the linebackers run free" and "eat space." Haynesworth writes that he was stunned to learn about his responsibilities given his contract and eventually fell out of love with the game. "You will lose your passion for football in Washington, and it will be impossible to get back," Haynesworth writes. Hindsight is always 20/20 (well, unless it's 50/50) but clearly Washington was a bad fit. Haynesworth's other piece of advice for his 14-year-old self? Stick with Schwartz. "If nothing else, listen to me on this, Albert: Do not leave the Tennessee Titans. Your defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is a mastermind," Haynesworth writes. "No matter how much I tell you this, you’ll probably never realize it until your career is over, but it’s true. You’re like a system quarterback. You thrive in a very specific scheme."
Now that's an interesting comparison. Haynesworth was at his best rushing the passer in the Titans' scheme under Schwartz, who has routinely gotten the most out of his defensive tackles. Marcell Dareus, Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley and Kyle Williams are all on the list of guys who produced at a high clip under Schwartz.
Now Dareus was very good before Schwartz, and then dominating under him. So I guess we'll see if McD/Frazier can help bring some of that intensity back. But I'm sticking to my main point: the great players can adapt to different coaches/systems. Sometimes it takes a little more professional maturity for an Oscar Robertson to play second fiddle to Lew Alcindor (now that's going back a ways! At least I didn't go with Wilt Chamberlain on the Lakers ...), and my fear is that Dareus is still far from that point.
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Jets seem to be saying McCown will be ready for Week 1, and given how awful Hackenberg has looked, I've got to think that if he's at all ready to go we'll see McCown. But that shouldn't exactly strike fear into the Bills' defense either.
Drafts - Have the Bills made many stretches?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Was that really the case, that the Browns wanted our 2nd that year? If so, that's a pretty awful outcome - Whaley gave up the next year's #1 in order to take Kouandjio ... Whaley was probably thinking "our 1st round pick the next year will be in the low 20s, so not much of a difference."