jad1
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Posts posted by jad1
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Maybe they can add some swings and store books in the new stadium, so when the Bills aren't playing, parents can take their kids to the "park" and "library."
And maybe add a couple of pentium IIs, so all the laid-off county workers can go there to surf monster.com.
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just because he was the only weapon, doesn't mean he was a good one.
those teams weren't the most potent offenses.
In Drews first year there were at least 4 games that Henry's fumbling cost us games. Bears vs bills, MB returned a fumble for a TD and cost us the game.
That wasn't the first or only time that happend that year.
Henry is a chump and a loser. Proven most by his poor attitude last year / this off season
The Bills beat the Bears in 2002. Henry scored on a swing pass in OT.
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'Buffalo Bills starting quarterback, J.P. Losman, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Buffalo Bisons 2005 Home Opener: Thursday, April 7 at 4:05 p.m. against the Richmond Braves.'
Doesn't he have a clue? Letting the franchise QB throw pitch at a minor league baseball game is probably the dumbest thing he has done in his tenure in Buffalo. If JP tears his rotating cup I will hold TD personally responsible!
If he tears his 'rotating cup' I just might puke my pants!
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Number eight with an anchor tied to your ankle?
Seriously did you see him at Bay Hill? It's painful to watch. He was in the middle of the fairway on 18 on Friday morning, and hit a weak fade right into the middle of the lake. (The pin was on the left side).
Somehow this guy has just lost it. It's sad to see.
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I disagree, Buffalo has had far more extensive rebuilds before in the late 60's, 70's and mid 80's and had to accomplish such rebuilds without the luxury of free agency and parity which permit far more rapid turn arounds now than in the past. TD has had just as many draft picks and just as much money to work with as other teams that have made the play offs. If by "couple of decent seasons" you mean not making the post season at 8-8 and 9-7, again, we disagree, I don't find those results "impressive" at all.
If wins and losses matter in grading out a GM, "mediocre" would be a generous grade for TD right now. He has already had a year longer than most GM's get to show results. At some point, he simply has to produce a play off team.
As for this draft, I have no idea what he will do. He usually thumbs his nose at conventional thinking like drafting a good player to fill a hole on the roster and instead goes for something clever. If the expected thing is to trade Henry for Shelton and then take the best C or DT in the second round, odds are he will do something else entirely. Besides, when it comes to the offensive line his clear pattern is to try and get by on the cheap with has-beens and never-wases rather than to committ sufficient personnel resources to secure the best available talent. Drafting Mike Williams is the only deviation from that habit he has ever shown. Maybe he is due again to put some jack into the OL but I wouldn't hold my breath.
No other Bills GM has replaced as many players as Donahoe has in a 4 year period of time. Donahoe didn't have young players like Kelly, Reed, and Smith sitting on his roster, like Polian did when he became GM.
And Polian also had the USFL, which is comparable to free agency today. Plus he didn't have to worry about losing young guys like Peerless Price to FA, letting him store talent on the roster.
So FA can, and has been a double-edged sword.
The salary cap also prevented Donahoe from keeping veterens on the team, like Polian was able to do with Fred Smerlas, Robb Riddick, and Jerry Butler. Polian never had to consider cutting those guys to meet a cap.
In terms of player turnaround, Donahoe has rebuilt the entire OL, RB, QB, TE, LB, CB, and S positions. Going into last year, he completely rebuilt the DL save for one player, Pat Williams.
When you consider that the Bills have only two defensive starters from 2001 still on the field, it's amazing how quickly Donahoe has built one of the best units in the league. In 2003 they were a top five unit, and last season they improved on that finish.
Like any fan, I also want wins and losses to matter when judging a GM, but I also have a grip on reality and understood that task Donahoe was trying to accomplish. If a Browns fans said that Cleveland was going to the SB this year, you would think he is insane. The Browns have some massive rebuilding to do. That's where the Bills were 4 years ago.
I also disagree with your opinion of Donahoe's drafting. Over the last few years, every position has been a position of need. CB, DE, RB, OL, LB and WR have all been "position of need" at one time or another, and he's done a good job of filling them.
And it's debatable that he's built the Oline on the cheap. He's used two 1st day picks (Williams and Jennings) and two medium-priced FAs (Villariel and Teague) to build the line. That's more than NE has spent on their Oline.
Donahoe has made mistakes, but overall he has done an impressive job in repositioning the Bills to make a run at the SB.
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http://www.pga.com/news/tours/pga-tour/bayhill032005.cfm
"I was trying to win the golf tournament,'' Singh said. "If I had to do it again, I probably would have hit a different club, played safer a little bit and hopefully see if Kenny made a mistake. But that's not the way I play. I play aggressive and I went for the flag. It just came up a little short.''
"It looked like it was going to fly right next to the hole,'' Perry said. "From my angle you're thinking, 'Man, that looks perfect.' And then to see it ... I was stunned.''
No longer needing to match Singh's aggressive play, Perry hit safely to the middle of the green some 70 feet away, lagged to 2 feet and closed with a 2-under 70 for a two-shot victory over Singh (69) and Graeme McDowell (66).
These two guys are dressing up a bad shot. Singh would have been out of his mind if he was going for that sucker-pin placement. Especially since birdies are often made from the middle of the green. Tiger made one a couple of years ago to beat Phil and win the tournament.
And Perry wouldn't have altered his shot even if Singh knocked it stiff. He was going for the middle of the green the whole way.
The reason Robert Gamez has a plaque in the fairway for holing out on Sunday is the near impossiblity of the shot made his accomplishment extrordinary. That's why the pros shoot for the left side of the 18th fairway, and the middle of the green on Sundays. Anyone who says different is covering up a bad shot.
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I was about 20 yards away when Vijay took the shot and it sounded like he hit it fat. He had Perry on the ropes, but his shot selection was just way too aggressive... there's no way he would have lost had he hit it to the middle of the green (Perry was cooked after missing his par on 17).
I saw an interview with Vijay afterward and he said he aimed at the flag because "that's what Arnie would have done," and he really wanted to win Bay Hill badly after finishing second twice.
The guy who was really pulling trick shots out of his a$$ was Sergio Garcia. After he hit his drive on par 5 16th into the 18th hole tee area (I have no idea how he did that...it's about 75 yards from the 16th fairway!), he hit a blind second shot OVER the 17th hole grandstand and landed it in a spot about 10 feet in front of the lake guarding 17. He hit back across to 16 on his third stroke and ended up parring the hole. I've never seen anything like it.
I was at that tournament. I doubt Vijay was going for the flag, rather he was going for the middle of the green and mishit his shot. His drive down the right-center of the fairway really left him no other options.
Perry hit his drive down the left side, which left him a better angle to the green. It also gave him bail out room, if he needed it.
The 16th is a short par 5. It's an eagle/birdie hole. Sergio hit his drive way right, in the rough between the 16th and 18th fairways. The 16th is tree lined, so any shot to the green was blocked, as was a shot back to the fairway. So Garcia hit his shot forward, further right, over the grandstand on the 17th (par 3) green, into the rough next to the green.
From there he had a clear shot to the 16th green, about 120 yards. He hit the green and two-putted for par.
It was a good par, but guys who par this hole on the weekend really end up falling behind, because the contenders either eagle or birdie the 16th.
As for smokers, Tim Herron, Darren Clarke, Tommy Armour III, and Joey Sindelar also smoke on the course.
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Gee, all those brilliant moves and yet his record is 26-38. Any more of that kind of brilliance and we will be a cold weather version of the Cardinals. I think TD has made some good calls over the years but on the whole, he has been a good deal less than brilliant and if wins and losses count for anything, he is closer to being considered a failure than a success.
Actually the way in which he has cleaned out the roster, ridding it of overpaid, agining talent, we should be grateful that the Bills HAVEN'T turned into the Cardinals or Bengals.
TD has overseen the most massive rebuilding effort in the history of the franchise. In hindsight, being able to pull out a couple of decent seasons during this time is impressive.
And I agree with John, I think Donahoe will make the Shelton deal and grab the best C or DT available.
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Certainly there are other contributors. Divorce, the "all about me" society, etc.
I recall a discussion of this on C-Span some time ago. George Will was on the studio panel, and in time, a video link was set up with director Rob Reiner. I don't recall the dialogue, so I will paraphrase.
Reiner predictibly descried any connection. Will then said to Reiner, why does the countless billion dollar advertising industry work? If visual images and the repeat again and again have no effect, why do you buy adversing time, hammering away repeatedly in the hope that even that short exposure will induce folks to act as you want them to do - in this case, attend your movies.?
Reiner was flummoxed - dropped his jaw, eyes like saucers, and muttered something less than a coherent comment.
The local AM radio big noise here also disputes that media has effects. but certainly, he would slit his own very profitable economic throat like other apologists if he said that is possible - he'd be blackballed in an instant. He, of course, makes a bunch of $$$ on the side voicing commercial pitches. Evidently the folks thay pay him are satisfied that he gets the message across and influences behavior...
I'm sure Will would admit that there's a huge difference between convincing a person to buy a bar of soap, and convincing them to go on a muderous rampage.
Maybe Reiner was just aghast that Will would make such a moronic comparison.
There's 10s of millions of people who play these games and commit no acts of violence (myself included). Just as there are 10s of millions of gun owners who also commit no acts of violence.
Kids are falling through the cracks here, for a myriad of reasons. And it only takes one or two to cause tragedy.
The question is, what are willing to do about it as a society. Change our reaction to bullying? Hire school psychologists? Put more police and metal detectors in schools?
Its no surprise that mentally unstable kids are in the school system. How do we come up with a better way to deal with them?
Or do we leave it alone and assign blame according to personal and political agendas? There's thousands of school systems in the USA. One or two attacks really don't cause that much relative damage, right?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the OWNERS called OWNERS because they actually OWN the teams? That would make the teams their property not the fans'. Which means they should be able to do whatever the hell they want with their teams.
How would you like it if someone said to you...."You know what? We like you as a neighbor. We like you so much that you're not allowed to sell your house and move. EVER."
I thought so.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the owners subject to the laws of the counties, states, and country in which their business operates. Business are subject to Anti-trust rules, SEC laws, and IRS laws, are they not? So the NFL is subjected to regulation, right?
And don't the the majority of these owners rely on taxpayers to build them stadiums so that they can make their enormous profits, when, in fact, they can afford to build and run their own stadiums?
Don't you think it's about time that communities that sacrifice improvements to their own infrastructure, health care, and education to subsidize a billion dollar monopoly wise up and say, "you want the money, here are the new rules." Why can't the taxpayers expect to protect themselves in the same way we expect owners to protect themselves?
And to answer your off-base question, I financed and pay for my own house. There are obligations under those agreements that I must meet before selling it.
Stopping the movement of franchise is so simple, it's ridiculous. Make it illegal to make stadium deals that benefit a specific team as it's primary tenent. If the taxpayers build the stadium, by law all the concessions, the parking money, the luxury box money, even the PSLs go back to the taxpayers.
The owners keep the gate.
That would force politicians to make better deals for their taxpayers, end the fight between communities that end up in franchise moves, and force the NFL and its owners to finance its own playgrounds.
Taxpayers could then build stadiums when it makes fiscal sense, rather than emptying its coffers in a form of corporate blackmail.
Too bad so many fans have been brainwashed into believing that free enterprise requires the government subsidization of billion dollar businesses. Too bad we've come to accept that politicians and the taxpayers are supposed to get bent over backwards in deals like this.
Like you said, life sucks.
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They shared Shea with the Mets, and if they were in the Polo grounds, they shared it with the Giants. They've never been the primary tenent in a stadium.
And there are plenty of ways to stop the teams from moving out of blue collar towns. Too bad we've been programmed to say "life sucks" instead of taking action against the idiots who let this happen.
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I wouldn't hold my breath on a sizeable number of 18-54 year old American males tuning into more "affordable" sports on Sunday afternoons. XFL, anyone?
The day NFL games go to "pay per view" will be the day the whole thing implodes. Charging big bucks for PSL's in the wealthest city in America may be distasteful to most of us in "blue collar" Buffalo, but it's actually amazing the Jets held out as long as did in NOT doing this.
And what is stopping them from making the decision to move teams out of blue collar towns in favor of cities like Los Angeles, based not on fan support, but on TV and Luxury seat markets?
The amazing thing about the Jets is that they've gone their entire existance without having their own stadium, so it's not like they were holding out. It's more like it took them this long to gain the support to get this thing built. And the support they have looks shady.
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I was ready to let this thread die until that last comment.
Uh, the definition of a playoff team is one who makes the playoffs. The Bills beat the teams they should have and were not a playoff team. An improved team, but not a playoff team. With a harder schedule and with a downgrade in offensive line personnel, I don't see it getting better unless the aforementioned coaching improves that situation.
The Bills have a great chance to get better this year. Barring injury, McGahee, Evans, Milloy, and Vincent will all be in the starting lineup from opening day. Last year, those guys were on the bench the first 5 weeks.
It's no coincidence that the team started winning when those guys were put into the starting lineup (Vincent at safety).
With the Shelton trade, which will most likely happen, the O-line remains the same from last year, assuming that the returning players do not improve. It's possible that the Bills can pull a starting guard from the 2nd round of the draft, if they decide to go that way.
So there are many opportunities for the team to improve this season. Of course you admit you don't really follow offseason events, like the draft, so it's easy to see why you're pessimistic.
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Entertainment, huh? Been to a Broadway show lately? How about a U2 concert with premium seats going for +150 a pop. Supply and demand dictate price, and obviously there's ample demand even with the price increases we're starting to see.
BTW, the NFL's mass appeal was built on television, not in-stadium attendance. The total number of NFL seats available on any given Sunday (about 1 million, league-wide) is a drop in the bucket versus the 25 million households that tune in each week.
No doubt entertainment has become more expensive (I'm going to a U2 show tomorrow night). But there's a difference between expensive and PSL outrageousness.
I guess a got a problem with building a stadium with taxpayer money, and then charging a PSL for the right to buy season tickets.
And you're right, the NFL was built on television. The next deal with be close to a billion a year. And NFL merchandise is still something like a 2 billion dollar a year business.
Yet the NFL bends the average fan over with PSLs. Since in-game attendance is only a "drop in the bucket," maybe they could give their most avid supporters a break.
The NFL earns billions of dollars from being "expensive." Building outrageously costly stadiums while pushing the costs directly to the taxpayer and consumer is another level of greed. In the end it will only server to alienate and erode the fan base that made the NFL successful to begin with.
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Yeah, there's money on the line, the difference between a guy making something like $650 million or $675 million a year. So crank up the PSL, overpayed meglomanics need an extra couple of million to roll around in.
Equating a call for restraint with turning the NFL into a charity is idiotic. The NFL has made BILLIONS of dollars a year without raping the average "joe sixpack."
The NFL is a business? I don't really think so. IBM is a business. Verizon is a buisness. I don't see people paying 50 bucks a pop to watch them work everyday.
The NFL is entertainment. It became a wildly successful buisness because of the mass appeal it generated with middle class america. The same people who get screwed in deals like this.
So give Fireman Ed's seat to Ken Lay. No problem with that, right?
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I'm curious to see what they paid. For vet min. or just above it isn't a bad deal.
Although many like to use Wiley as an example of TD's genious, he hasn't been a bust based on lack of talent. He did very well in SD before getting injured. Yes, injuries are a part of the game, but it isn't like he was asking for a lot more money that he was worth. He was a hell of a force when healthy.
I didn't watch enough of Dallas to know whether or not Dallas used him wrong (what Wiley claims), or his level of play came down that much, but for the right price I think he is certainly worth the gamble. IF he plays well, Jax will have a great Dline.
Wiley was often injured when he played with the Bills. The guy has proven to be injury prone
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MY EYES! MY EYES!
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It's a fact that those moves were made, however your conclusion that they were bad moves is wrong.
For those of us who remember Buffalo's last rebuilding period during the early/mid 80's, when Ferragamo, Kofler, and Dufek were the QBs, Bledsoe was a good choice to be the transitional QB, and worth the mid-first round pick.
Donahoe did a good job of getting Buffalo back into the first round with the Price deal.
The risk in drafting McGahee was a calculated risk, as the Bill medical staff signed off on his knee. So it's hard to figure out how you criticize a guy for getting top 5 talent with the 23 pick in the draft.
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The Lineage of Travis Henry...
in The Stadium Wall Archives
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Nope, it was Donahoe in his first draft, even though the Bills had Smith, Bryson, an Morris on the roster.