Sen. John Blutarsky

Yes. Because large accountancy firms are above reproach. Why isn't Arthur Andersen or that list? Maybe because they are all still serving out their felony sentences. Or is it because after they got caught lying cheating and helping other steal they broke up the company and sold it to KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton? Most of the folks who perpetrated those frauds and helped companies like Enron cook their books never lost their jobs or went to jail. Arthur Andersen White collar crimes are OK.

The absolute worst place to be in any sport is just out of the playoffs. You aren't good enough to win but win just enough to prevent yourself from drafting highly enough to get top talent. Here's my example. In the two years before the lockout the Sabres just barely missed the playoffs. The Penguins were brutal and ended up with Malkin and Crosby. The Sabres got Stafford and Zagrapan. So, by being just good enough to miss the playoffs the Sabres dropped themselved from the top 2 choices to #13 two years in a row. Had they just been bad they had a shot at Vanek, Malkin or Ovechkin, and Crosby in 3 straight years. This year? They have no shot at John Tavares. None. They weren't bad enough and now will end up with a piker.

Brilliant...

I'm a 3-4 devotee. I think it's easier to find players for that defense than a 4-3. D-Line: In the 3-4 you only need 2 genetically freakish NTs, they don't have to be overly quick or athletic, just gigantic and strong. In the 4-3 you need 4. These genetic freaks are hard to find and generally very expensive. Your DE's need to be a little bigger than a 4-3 but you can also get away with them being a little slower and less athletic. You also have the option of taking tweener college DTs who are skilled but too small and pushing them out to DE. LBs: OLB is easy, you get all the undersized college DEs you can find and tell them to rush the QB to death. Coverage skills are a bonus. 4-3 OLBs need to rush the QB and cover, be 245 lbs AND run a 4.5. hard to find and expensive. ILBs can be little slower than a 4-3 MLB who again, needs to be large and very fast to the ball. It's much easier and less expensive to find 2 Posluzny's than 1 Patrick Willis. Dbs: 3-4 is usually a zone scheme so I don't need to shell out big coin for the "lock down" corner. Zone corners are almost always cheaper than good man corners. At Safety I'd like a ballhawk at FS and a hammer at SS. SS is probably the hardest position to fill well in this defense. You need a guy who can come into the box and lay wood but who can also cover a TE well, or a slot WR, when the LBs blitz. You need size and speed. But...most teams don't value SS that highly so you can get a genetic freak later in Rd 1 than you would normally be able to at other positions. FS I want range, height and speed. Tackling is a bonus. Give me a tall college corner who runs a 4.6 that I can get in rd 4. That's my new FS. Sean Taylor would be ideal, but he's rare.

It's a pretty big stretch between defending Vick and stating that, in America, after a person has paid their debt to society that they don't deserve a chance at redemption. FWIW - Fido got taken to the SPCA after he bit me on the face when I was 1 year old. I hope Fido got put down and Fido can kiss my butt from dog hell. Fido (Fudge in this case) never bit anyone previously and was definetly not trained nor goaded into being aggressive by my parents. Fortunately for me Fido was a lab and not a rottweiler, pit bull, husky or mastiff. I don't like dogs. I don't like your dog. I don't care that your dog is a nice dog. I don't think dogs (or anything) should be abused or killed unnecessarily and I don't approve of dog fighting. However, I am the guy who will sue your ass if your dog bites me or my kid when we're walking down the street or sitting in our yard. At the end of the day, a dog is a dog and a person is a person. Lassie was just a dog. One has more inherent value to me than the other. It sucks that some kid's dog got stolen by Mike Vick's evil henchmen. Will the kid get over it? Yup. Chalk it up to a life lesson learned. It doesn't make it right but the man has already lost everything including his freedom for 20 months. He's paid his debt. He should never be allowed to own animals again, but I think we can let him try to do his job again.

As the bottom of my post states, we're a lot more likely to look past white collar felonies. I'd argue that G. Gordon Liddy helped to destroy what was left of America's innocence and faith in government but he gets to have a radio show.

Here's a list of all the fatal pit bull attacks in the US since July 2006 - there were 34. Have there been fatal attacks by other breeds? Sure have, mostly huskys and rottweilers, but pit bulls far far far outpace any of them. obvioulsy any dog can be dangerous but pit bulls are inherently strong, heavy, and have aggressive tendencies which is why they are chosen as fighting dogs. The following list generally follows the patetrn of the very young or the very old being at greatest risk because they can't fight off the dog. I bolded attacks that were done by the family dog or by a dog that was familiar to the victim - I counted 21 but there's room for interpretation, at least 15 are rock solid. Is it possible that all of these people mistreated their dogs? Sure, but it's pretty unlikely. Here's the link in case you're concerned that I'm just making up a list. July 27th, 2006 71-year-old Ms. Jimmie May McConnell was in her yard in Kansas City, Kan., when a pit bull jumped over her fence and killed her. Earlier in the month, 3-year-old Mariah Puga of Hargill, Texas, was killed by her parents pit bulls. July 31, 2006, John Brannaman, 81, died of a heart attack at Orlando, Florida, after he was mauled by two pit bulls in front of his home when he tried to retrieve garbage cans from the road. October 8, 2006, 44-year-old Jeannine Fusco was killed in Ramapo, NY, by a pit bull that she was taking care of for a friend. October 28, 2006, 40-year-old Tim McCurry of Montgomery County, TX, was killed by a pit bull that he was considering buying for home protection November 4, 2006, one-year-old Allen L. Young died after he was mauled at home by his dad's four pit bulls, which took the boy from his bed at night. November 8, 2006, a pit bull was found eating the body of Richard Adams, in Phenix City, Alabama, after it killed him. January 2007, 10-year-old Amber Jones was fatally attacked by a neighbor's pit bull on January 12, 2007. She previously had played with the dog. April 2007, 2-year-old Brian Palmer was mauled to death by the family pit bull. The boy had been left alone in the house with the dog and the boy's brothers, the oldest of whom was 16 May 13, 2007, Celestino Rangel, a 90-year-old man in San Antonio, Texas, was killed by two pit bulls that had broken into his home and attacked him. June 29, 2007, Mary Diana Bernal, 62, of Dallas, Texas, was killed by a pit bull owned by her brother in law, Eliasar Macias. "My dog never had any problems. He was a real friendly dog until now," Macias said. July 29, 2007, a 6-month-old pit bull in Bath, New York, killed 6-year-old Sabin Jones-Abbott of Steuben County, New York. The boy had been feeding the dog minutes before the attack. August 31, 2007, 6-year-old Scott Warren of Dallas was killed by his family's pet pit bull. October 3, 2007, Tina Marie Canterbury, 42, of Middleburg, Florida, was mauled to death by the two pit bulls which she had raised from the time they were puppies November 6, 2007, 11-year-old Seth Lovitt was running through his own home when his parents' pit bull jumped off a couch and mauled the child to death. November 12, 2007, 21-year-old Jennifer Lowe of Knox County, Tennessee, died after she was mauled by pit bulls at the residence of a friend. December 13, 2007, Holden Jernigan, 2 years old, was mauled to death in his grandmother's back yard by her male pit bull. She was babysitting him when he went into the yard, alone. December 17, 2007, 77-year-old Blanche Broduer was attacked in Clayton, Georgia, by a pit bull in the home that the victim was house-sitting. December 25, 2007, in Yermo, California, 45-year-old Kelly Caldwell was killed by up to five dogs. The dogs were running at large on the street where the victim was walking. The dogs were pit bulls and at least one belonged to a neighbor. January 20, 2008, 24-year-old Kelli Chapman of Longville, Louisiana, was killed by her two pit bulls. Her husband found her on the floor of their bedroom, where she died of bite trauma and blood loss May 18, 2008, Tanner Joshua Monk of Breckenridge, Stephens County, Texas, was mauled by two pit bulls, resulting in his death June 18, 2008, Pablo Hernandez (aka Pablo Lopez), 5, of Hidalgo County, Texas, was mauled to death by a pit bull. July 22, 2008, Tony Evans Jr., a 3-year-old boy from Jackson, Mississippi, was playing with friends across the street from his home. The house had a carport where a pit bull was chained. The dog dragged the boy into its doghouse and killed him. Six-year-old Isis Krieger of Anchorage, Alaska, was mauled by her parents' pit bull on August 12, 2008, and perished on August 18, 2008 August 2008, Robert Howard, 38, of Detroit, Michigan, was killed by a pit bull outside his home. The dog was attacking a female neighbor's dog and was threatening to go after the woman. Howard came out of his house to stop the attack. The pit bull bit him in the calf and ripped out the arteries, causing the man to bleed to death on the spot. Henry Piotrowski, 90 years old, of Staten Island, New York, was mauled by two pit bulls on July 1, 2008, and died on August 17, 2008. One of his legs had to be amputated, and he had been in the hospital since the attack. September 4, 2008, Luna McDaniel, 83, of Ville Platte, Louisiana, died as a result of being mauled by 3 pit bulls on August 24, 2008. The old woman was collecting cans in her neighborhood for recycling September 12, 2008, Cenedi Kia Carey, a 4-month-old girl, was fatally mauled by her family's two pit bulls in their North Las Vegas home. The child was in a stroller and being watched by her grandmother. The dogs were in the back yard. They got through a screen door to attack the girl and then, when the grandmother pulled the injured baby away, the dogs attacked again and finished the child off. September 29, 2008, Katya Teresa Todesco, a 5-year-old girl residing in Simi Valley, California, died from a pit bull attack which occurred on September 23, 2008. The dog was in a neighbor's back yard. October 31, 2008, 62-year-old Chester R. Jordan of Muncie, Indiana, was killed by three of his own pitbulls, inside his residence. December 19, 2008, Gerald Adelmund, a 60-year-old resident of Rubidoux, California, was attacked and killed by two pit bulls. The dogs lived with him and his son, daughter-in-law and their three children. One dog was a pure pit bull, while the other was a pit bull mixed with mastiff. He was in his own back yard. January 6, 2008, a five year old girl in Thomasville, Georgia, was mauled to death by her parent's pit bulls while she was playing in her own back yard. March 26, 2009, Tyson Miller, an 18-month-old Texas boy, was fatally attacked in his back yard by a female pit bull. His parents had been caring for the dog and apparently thought it to be harmless. March 31, 2009, two pit bulls killed Izaiah G. Cox in San Antonio, Texas, as the child was laying on a bed. The dogs broke through or went over a baby gate inside the house. When the baby's grandmother tried to rescue him, the pit bulls attacked her too, requiring hospitalization

Choose the crimes that you could deal with without firing the team forever.

Well, at the time I was 13, nobody had the internet, and I pulled his name out of recall just now on demand so that excuse is pretty weak. That signing was made by the Immortal Triumvirate of Wilson, Polian AND Levy. So if Vick would taint the Bills beyond reproach I would argue that they've been tainted (by their most hallowed leaders) for the past 20 years or more. My entire point in this endeavor was to show that your team (and every other team) has already sold its immortal soul to the Devil of winning/profitability. There isn't a single team out there who hasn't had at least one player do something completely and utterly reprehensible to another human, let alone to animals. Granted, some have had more than others, but ALL teams have had this problem in some fashion.

Dogs Most Likely to kill I could care less what the AKC says about the breed. The fact that so many people train them to be aggressive and that the "gene pool" is watered down means that you have no idea what that dog will do and the vast majority fo folks out there don't have AKC dogs. As such my 3 year old will be taught to stay very very very far away from pit bulls and rottweilers. Here's a quote from the study. "If almost any other dog has a bad moment, someone may get bitten, but will not be maimed for life or killed, and the actuarial risk is accordingly reasonable. If a pit bull terrier or a Rottweiler has a bad moment, often someone is maimed or killed." Yup, sign me up.

Leonard Little killed a woman in 1998 with a .19 BAC. He has since been arrested for DUI at least once more. Reggie Rogers was the 7th pick in the 1987 draft, killed 3 teenagers in a DUI crash, served 16 months in prison and was released by Detroit. He was brought back into the NFL in 1991 by the Buffalo Bills. Ray Lewis probably killed at least one guy in a fight and paid off witnesses to change their stories in court. He has subsequently reached out of court settlements with the children of the 2 dead men. I'll admit that this is a probably. In the NHL, Dany Heatley killed a teammate in a vehicle accident where his Ferrari was traveling at an excessive rate of speed and basically split in half on impact. Not only does he play, he's an All-Star. Lawrence Phillips dragged a woman down a flight of stairs by her hair and was still drafted 6th overall. Granted, he didn't kill her but he had a host of additional DV issues before he was eventually put in prison. Read this article from the NY Times in 1991 to learn more about the Bills' attitude toward Rogers after signing him. Some pretty interesting quotes in there both from Rogers and Levy.

Martha Stewart, G. Gordon Liddy, Micheal Milken, these people are unemployed? We're a lot more likely to ignore white collar felonies.

FWIW Hardy and Stevie Johnson were tied for 2nd on the team for TDs catches. Granted it was only 2 but the team leader only had 3 so Hardy and Johnson together had as many TDs as Evans and Reed.

There's no such thing as a friendly pit bull there are only pit bulls that haven't attacked anyone yet. Are there plenty of friendly dogs in the world? Sure there are. Cocker spaniels? yes. German shepherds, yes, Retrievers? yes. Bulldogs? yes. (which by the way were specifically bred for their fighting acumen which is why they look the way they look) Pit bulls exist for a single purpose and I would not let my child NEAR one let alone own one.

Unfortunately you could say the same things about Sam Cowart and Damien Covington.

They're down on Gaither and he had a bad year last year and was benched after wk 12. Jordan may start this year

Me. Hate away.

It's really easy to say that today. I don't think you're going to have to worry about it anyway.

Just means he needs permission from Canada to come in. Bob Probert (a Canadian) served 3 months for federal cocaine possession charges in the US and had no trouble going across the broder in either direction after his release. US could have deported him and barred him from re-entering. Canada basically just needs to sign off that it's ok and he may have some stipulations while in the country.

Actually, if they really are trying to move signing Vick and drivng out people like you is a bit of a master stroke. I'd really like to be a fly on the wall of your house (and many other folks houses) if the Bills do sign Vick, he sits all year as #2 QB and doesn't play a down. TE gets hurt in the Super Bowl and he comes into the game. What do you do? Does the soap box come back out or do you, like everyone who was pissed about Jauron staying, TO coming in, Lynch not being traded/flogged/banished, Losman leaving, Edwards staying, Flutie getting benched for RJ, etc. etc. etc, get your popcorn ready? Imagine your conundrum if he makes some insane play that wins the game. The thing you've ostensibly wanted for years upon years upon years is finally delivered by a person whom you find to be morally reprehensible. What a dilemma. If you don't think that'd be a major dilemma you're either in denial or not nealry the Bills fan you proclaim to be. The worst day of my Bills fandom thus far was the day they signed TO. The new worst day would be if they sign Vick. The internal conflict sucks but in the end I've loved the Bills longer than I've hated either of those two and if they can help me get to my goal I can deal with my personal disdain for them as people.

And if they win the team will have absolutely no trouble filling your seat and will bid you a warm farewell.

The offensive line situation in that commerical is about right.

There is something to be said for running a different defense than everyone else. it does make finding players to fit the system easier. Now, I think the Tampa-2 is about the most limp-wristed defense I've ever seen and I can't stand it but at least we don't have to overpay for Cato June anymore.

I don't think anyone is going to hand him big money or a starting job out of the box. He needs to sign a 1 or 2 year deal for low dollars and maximize any on-field opportunities he gets then try to cash it in again.

No, I'm not missing the point at all. My point is that if the Bills can make a decision to actively pursue and sign a person who on his 2nd or 3rd DUI got into an accident and killed 3 teenagers AFTER he just served 16 months in prison (Reggie Rogers) and you can stomach that decision it seems a little disingenuous to say that because Vick got caught fighting and killing animals you will disown the team. Mike Vick's actions sicken me as much as anybody else and I'm not saying I'll be super peachy pleased if they sign him, just that if you've already accepted things that other people in Bills history have done to people without disowning them I'm not sure how this can be a last straw. Furthermore, I'm also not naive enough to believe that Vick is the only NFL player who has engaged in this type of activity. He may be the one who went to the farthest extreme but I'm sure there is a pretty long list of folks who have fought dogs in the NFL currently.