The Senator

And with the #9 pick of the NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills select Eric Berry, Safety, Tennessee.

And the Bills would do well to heed the words of the prophet. After all, Leach's Red Raider's led the NCAA in passing offense 6 of the last 8 years, coming in 2nd the other 2 - including this season when Leach was forced to platoon 3 different QBs due to injuries. Didn't the Bills finish this season with no depth at LT due to injuries? I believe we were starting Levitre at LT at the end. Draft a LT. Better yet, draft 2 or 3 of 'em.

Well, it's not like yours was the very first iteration of this debate, nor will this one be the last, and the reason I know this is because I've responded with my own opinion in several dozen separate threads - start with the O-line... "It doesn't matter what you run...doesn't matter whether you run it every snap, run the option, throw it, the most important position's offensive line. You can't do anything without a pretty good offensive line - and the more they handle, the more margin of error you have all the way around." - Mike Leach (link) Or, to paraphrase from this article... Texas Tech thrives on character of offensive line 'The secret to the Bills passing success will be the ability of their offensive line to keep [insert name of any Bills QB here] upright long enough to find Lee Evans and Terrell Owens downfield.'

Must have been the day he forgot to take his meds. Sullivan is the archetypal New England whiner.

Well, there's a guy down in Key West that's just chillin' - for the time being, anyway - by the name of... Mike Leach

Well, today he was 'pissed' that we fired John Guy, last month he was pissed that we didn't, so who knows WTF goes thru his warped, fragile, little mind? My guess is that every time he tries to ask what he considers to be a well-thought, sharply pointed question, Buddy Nix will show Sully to be the fool he is - then Jerry will go home, stew and pout for a few hours, kick his dog, then write the trash you'll read in the next day's column.

I like these.

Do not let anyone feed you that pile of crap - there is one reason, and only one reason the Bills have not won a Superbowl - the 'Curse of Pete Gogolak'... link REVERSE THE CURSE!!!!!

Hah! I would have expected a die-hard Patriettes* fan like yourself to be more knowledgeable of the circumstances surrounding the near-loss of Boston's NFL team*, but guess I should have known better. Facts are that there's been more talk about moving your Cheatriettes* in the time span you cite (15 years ago) than there ever was about moving the Bills in their entire 50-year history. (Only once, when the domed stadium deal in Lancaster fell apart in 1970, has RW ever talked seriously about moving the team - at that time, he seriously considered Seattle.) Facts are that Jim Orthwein fully intended to move the NE Patriots* to his native St. Louis when he bought the team from Victor Kiam in 1992, but instead ended up selling the team two years later to Bob Kraft - who immediately began plans to move them to a new stadium in Hartford... Panel Approves Proposal For a Stadium in Hartford (NY Times, 1993) If Hartford's governmental bureaucracy could have moved more expeditiously to that stadium built, you guys in Provincetown would most certainly be cheering for a Connecticut-based NE* NFL franchise... Talk Has Many Knocking On Door To Football Heaven Handshake on Deal to Move Patriots to Hartford (NY Times, 1998) PATRIOTS SIGN DEAL TO MOVE TO HARTFORD If it was nothing more than a vile canard on the part of Bob Kraft, Cheatriettes* fans certainly didn't think so at the time... GO PATS* (NE* fan blog) As fate would have it, delays in Hartford and voter outrage in Massachusetts caused the deal to fall apart at the 11th hour... Impasse Cleared for Securing Football Stadium Site in Hartford, Conn New England Patriots terminate Hartford stadium agreement ...but the deal was most definitely 'in place', moving forward, and not - as you so erroneously described it - an "obvious bluff". Had Massachusetts lawmakers not reacted, your team* would most certainly be in Hartford today. OTOH, and totally contrary to your ill-considered opinion, with all those cities eager for (and receiving) NFL franchises since 1995 - and with all the franchises 'in play' during the same period - if the Bills has any other owner than Ralph, it would likely be us Buffalonians bemoaning the loss of our team. Stick to 'bird' watching in Herring Cove (NSFW).

Holy crap! I accused Ralph of being cheap???? Where the !@#$ did you get that???!!! If you checked any of the Ralph-bashing threads currently 'in play', you'd see that I'm one of his most ardent defenders! What I said was 'RW was unprepared for a bidding war', which is true. It hadn't happened until that point, the whole idea of the 'gentlemen's agreement' was to avoid that scenario, and the Giants were offering Gogolak an amount exceeding Ralph's entire $25K AFL franchise entry fee! The whole damned post was meant in jest anyway, ferchrissakes. Like I'm really gonna fly to Westchester County, go into Gate of Heaven Cemetary, and bury some green plastic hot dog at Wellington Mara's grave site! I'm literally floored that anyone would read that post and think I was being serious.

I refer to that whole episode as 'The Curse of Pete Gogolak'... As most know, the Bills were the AFL Champions in 1965 when Giants owner Wellington Mara violated that agreement and signed Pete from the Bills roster. It would be the Bills' last league championship. The AFL was in its infancy and Ralph was unprepared for a 'bidding war', so Gogolak left for $'greener'$ pastures. As it happens, Gogolak went on the become the NY Giants' leading scorer - a stat he owns to this day - and the Bills haven't won a league championship since... Gogolak was also a prime factor in the "war between the leagues" and the subsequent merger of the National Football League with the American Football League. Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. paid Gogolak $10,000 in 1964 and offered him $13,500 for 1965, exceptional pay, in those days, for a kicker. Choosing instead to take a reduction in pay to $9,900, Gogolak, like a later restricted free agent, was able to "play out his option," thereby forcing the Bills to match any other team's subsequent offer. Fortunately for Gogolak, a wealthy suitor was at hand. The NFL's New York Giants, playing in the NFL's largest market, found itself saddled with struggling rookie kicker Bob Timberlake. The Giants, having witnessed Timberlake miss his thirteenth consecutive kick, ignored the owners' "gentleman's agreement" against signing another league's players, an arrangement that had previously depressed player wages and prevented inter-league competition over otherwise valued athletes. The desperate Giants, then playing in a Yankee Stadium whose mid-winter winds sometimes rivaled those faced by Gogolak in Buffalo, signed the Bills star; Gogolak would go on to become the Giants all-time leading scorer. link - Pete Gogolak (Wikipedia) Sure enough, as fate would have it, who did the Bills run up against in their very first trip to the Superbowl??? You got it - the NY Giants, in Superbowl XXV, 25 seasons after their last league championship - (Coincidence? I think not.) - in the infamous, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, "Wide-Right" game, losing by one point as Scotty Norwood stood horrified, watching his last-second kick sail just right of the goal post... This, of course, set in motion that unprecedented string of four straight Buffalo Bills trips to the Superbowl, and four strait losses. It's time to end this thing! One way to undo this cursed abomination is for the Bills to sign a Cornellian from the Giants, in full retaliation for their raiding our roster (interestingly, Gogolak not only went to Cornell, but his middle name is 'Kornel'). Problem is there ain't many Cornellians in the NFL, much less on the NYG roster. I was hoping for Kevin Boothe (we need o-lineman, and he became an UFA at the end of this season) but unfortunately the Giants, no doubt fearful that the Bills would finally right this wrong, took swift advantage of the turmoil at OBD and re-signed Boothe before the Bills GM and coaching mess could be resolved. So I'm once again at a loss as to how to finally end this curse and see the Bills in their rightful place as league champs. Longtime TSW member K-9 has gone so far as to suggest burying something called a 'Whammy Weenie' at the tomb of Wellington Mara in some sort of ritual grave-dance to appease the football gods... Link - The Whammy Weenie (Forgotten Buffalo) If anyone has one of those green things, I'm open to anything - even if it involves a trip to Hawthorne, NY and... Wellington Mara's Grave to finally, once-and-for-all, put an end to this torture and ... REVERSE THE CURSE!!!!! 19 and 0 baby!!!! GO BILLSSS!!!!!

Really? Is that what you guys in Provincetown really think? In 1995, the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders back to Oakland, leaving a HUGE void in Los Angeles, the nation's second largest TV market. The NFL has been hankering for someone to put a team there ever since, and you can be sure (well, not you, but most intelligent folks) that if the Bills had an owner other than RW, that the lure of that market would have been too much to pass up - IF they hadn't been lured to St. Louis first to fill the void left when the Cardinals left fo Arizona in 1988. In fact, Jim Orthwein was going to move your beloved Cheatriettes* to St. Louis in 1992, before selling them to Bob Kraft in 1994, who almost moved them to Hartford, CT right around the time you proffered, the mid-90's - so there's two more cities (Hartford & Boston) that may have targeted the Bills. Further, two years later, in 1997, the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee, leaving many football-starved Texas oil-billionaires without a franchise - another market too good to pass up for someone without a rock-solid commitment to keeping the Bills in Buffalo. And, if the Bills had been available in 1995, perhaps it would have been them moving to Tennessee (both Nashville AND Memphis desperately wanted teams and had buyers and stadium plans in the works). So your novel notion that the Bills would have remained here had Ralph sold them 15 years ago - as well as your ill-mannered vindictive about Mr. Wilson - is utter nonsense, like most of your vacuous comments.

Wow is right! You want to kick a 91-year-old man's ass, eh? Nice. Well, I'm sure you'll run into him - all you billionaires hang out in the same places, right? All due respect - which, right now, is none - I've been posting on this board for many years. I've met many of the members and some of the staff, and I can assure you this site was not founded for a-holes who only want to B word about the Bills - there are other, lesser Bills sites for the mentally challenged. This site was founded (and funded) by diehard Bills fans, for diehard Bills fans, not to 'B word about the Bills' (though that's your right and seems to be the M.O. of many recent members), but to exchange views and ideas about our favorite NFL franchise. I'll continue to post here, despite the recent influx of morons like you - or at least until there are so many of you that it becomes intolerable, so rather that advising me to 'move along little doggy', I'd advise you to go screw yourself. And if all you really want to truly want to do is 'B word about the Bills', try calling WGR between 3 and 7 - I'm sure you'll find plenty of kindred whiners there with the same limited mental skill-set as yourself. (And BTW, I'm not a 'tax guy' - just someone who hates paying them to support bloated government, corrupt politicians, and wasteful pork.) Have a great day.

..."and Chan...who's Chan? Charlie Chan??? What's he doing on our payroll?"

From Wikipedia... Jim Bates (born May 31, 1946) is an American football coach for the National Football League, most recently serving as defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He primarily runs a 4-3 scheme, using fast, undersized linebackers. Bates served as interim head coach for the Miami Dolphins during the 2004 NFL season. "Fast, undersized linebackers"...sounds like the Bills...except for the "fast" part.

Easy solution - don't tell 'im.

Yeah yeah, blah blah. Got it. You got a hair across your ass 'cause you didn't take a giant risk with a $25K roll-of-the-dice investment 50 years ago and nurture it into a $$$billion$$$ asset. Tough sh-t. I bought a pair of season tix when I moved back to WNY in '97, so I guess that gives me the right to piss and moan too, but ya don't hear me whinin'. (And before that, I traveled x-country to a couple of home games every season, and a road game or two as well.) Tell me, crybaby - if it weren't for Ralph Wilson, where do you honestly think the Bills would be playing now? And what would they be called, since 'Buffalo Bills' would make no sense in another state? And how happy would you be w/out such an 'inferior product' to whine about? (BTW - Ross spends his leisure time in Bermuda, not FL - not sure why, probably favorable tax treatment - but I've seen him and his big floppy ears flappin' in the wind as he races around his private island in his big-ass Cigarette speedboat. )

You do? REALLY??? OK - let's take a look at the #'s. BMW's market capitalization is $20.4B. In 1992, they received $150M in gov't subsidies - using the CPI, that converts to roughly $230M in 2010 dollars, or roughly 12% of BMWs total market cap valuation. Not sure if Spartanburg, SC falls under the TVA or some other quasi-gov't entity, but I'm sure they're also receiving cheap, taxpayer-subsidized power. I'll have to assume there was also a favorable land-acquisition deal and hefty breaks on tax assessment values but would need more time to dig up those #'s, so I'll leave it be for now, which will work in your favor. Also haven't bothered with any further gov't subsidies for plant expansion since the initial construction, which no doubt occurred since 1992 - but hey, what's another $100 million or so? I do know that BMW received a tax credit of $1,500 per new job - that's public record. And, if SC is anything at all like WNY, all those figures are probably underestimated to make the gov' t 'investment' seem more attractive to the taxpayers. So that's what I got on BMW AG, so far. Whaddaya got on Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., retired insurance salesman?

Now you're cookin' with Crisco!!!! Seriously - you may be on to something. A class-action? Hell, why not??? I wouldn't be a bit surprised. If we've learned anything, we've learned that anyone can sue anyone for anything. Ooops - I'm a clumsy oaf and spilled my hot coffee on my leg pulling away from the drive-up window while fumbling with the radio buttons...OWWWWW!!!!! Hey, let's sue McDonald's! Cue that awful music...."Cellino and Barnes, your injury attorneys, call eight five four, twenty twenty..."

Tell that to the folks across the street at Rivermist and Marina Park who bought their properties 15-20 years ago, pay $12K in property taxes, and are now watching their property values plummet because Carl's selling his new buildings with a 10-year tax exemption! Dammit, Carl, you took my money to build that hi-rise - YOU OWE ME!!! BTW, talk about ridiculous analogies - when you drag BMW into this, you're talking about a $$$multi-billion$$$, multi-national corporation. Doesn't really compare to Ralph Wilson's insurance agency now, does it?

Who can blame them? Certainly not you or me. Heck, I'm tempted to buy a reasonably sized boat, move to Florida, and live on it - no property, school, OR state income taxes! Even The Peoples' Repiblic of Massachusetts is in revolt. BTW - 'Tax Freedom Day' is comes end of April for New Yorkers this year - until then (the first four months of the year), all our income - every dime we work for - goes to Barry Obama, Dave Paterson, Chris Collins, etc. link

Undocumented? Undocumented??? Are you nuts, or blind, or maybe just can't read??? What, exactly, would you like 'documented', that I have not already provided thru multiple links to reputable web sites and publications? Your argument is vacuous, your reasoning ridiculous. And I did read Webster Guy's post - But Ralph has stated unequivocally that he won't sell the team, and the team's not moving as long as he's alive. So what I'm wondering is, if Ralph's not moving OR selling the team while he's alive, just how does he provide a detailed explanation of what happens once he's deceased?? Ralph owes you nothing, and has no 'moral obligation' to provide you anything, other than a seat at RWS (if you bought a ticket). And it's your county legislature that gave him naming rights and rents him the stadium, and it's your county and state legislatures that financed construction of the stadium (still one of the least expensive facilities - if no THE least expensive - in the league), so blame the guys you voted for if you don't like it, not Ralph Wilson. Now since Carl Paladino received substantial government incentives and tax credits (including a 10-year Empire Zone tax exemption - something originally intended to spur investment in depressed areas) to build his luxury high-rise and townhouses on the exclusive downtown Lake Erie waterfront, I guess (by your reasoning) that he (and every other business that receives government incentives) is also indebted to you. Why don't you try hitting Carl up for a new condo? Tell him he 'owes' you. (And please let me know when you do - I want to be there to see Carl's face and hear his reply. ) Also, it seems you are unaware that, save for the one (and only) completely privately financed and owned Gillette Field, virtually every stadium in the NFL is either publicly owned, or has received some kind of public incentive, handout, land grant, or public (i.e., taxpayer) financing - so I guess every NFL owner except Bob Kraft is 'indebted' to the taxpayers. Take your time, mull it over, and try again.

Round 1 - Anthony Davis, OT, Rutgers Round 2 - Dan Williams, NT, Tenessee

I'm pretty sure everyone in RW's tax bracket consults their tax attorneys/accountants about charitable contributions. Even I do that. It still doesn't change the fact that, if RW was the greedy, penny-pinching miser he's accused of being by some, he could just keep the money (minus the taxes) and be better-off still. Let's approach this from a different perspective: do you think Al Davis gives a !@#$ about Oakland having a team after he 'kicks it'? How bout Jerry Jones - think he's worried about the people of Dallas before his own pocketbook? We've already seen what Bob Irsay, Georgia Fontierre, and Art Modell did with their long & well established NFL franchises in Baltimore, LA, and Cleveland. I'll bet when all is said and done, Wilson will have a say in keeping the Bills right here after he's gone. Right now, he's not obligated to share it with us. JMO.