Lori

For all the cumulative knowledge among the TSW collective, as far as I know, there is only one person here with credentialed access to NFL players, agents, and management (and the ESPN brand name to back him up) -- the guy who started this thread. The rest of us may be expert in law, finance, whatever ... but he's an expert in covering professional sports teams. And on a deeply personal level, realizing what it's taking for me to do the same at the small-town preps level, I know that job isn't nearly as easy as Oscar Madison or Ray Barone made it look on TV. (They were both columnists, not beat writers. There's probably a good reason for that.) We can discuss/analyze/embellish whatever info he comes up with, but without Graham and people like him to report the stories, this board would be a much quieter place. Seriously -- look at the threads on the front page of the Wall right now, then add up how many of them begin with a link to a story. And that goes back to his original point, I think. Nothing wrong with Mark Gaughan's gamer, but would Allen or Sal have seen something he didn't? I'm guessing Chuck was at the first Bills-Colts game in Indy, back in 1984. Would he have compared the gameday atmospheres of the two stadiums, places most of us have never been? I still believe this is just a one-game aberration, not a worrisome trend, but the fact remains: There were other stories to be written. (Yes, even in a meaningless preseason game.) Too bad there wasn't anyone else there to write them.

Nope. Whether it's now or in November, IR means, "Seeya in 2009." Good news.

No doubt in my mind. Perhaps the greatest player I've ever seen ... but Bruce was also all about Bruce. Who knows, maybe he wouldn't have been as good without the attitude ...

Sports writers too numerous? Not very many places hiring these days. Layoffs in editorial positions? I suspect you mean the people actually writing the copy, not the editors. You're getting the AP feed because there isn't anyone left to do a sidebar.

Agreed. I edited the original post to credit Brown and include a link. Far as I know, Chuck Pollock remains the only writer who has given TBD permission to reprint any of his work. The rules are probably a little looser for blog posts, but it's still Brown's/bb.com's original product ... [/copyright law lecture] Schouman's injury is still "weeks," I presume? Wonder who that knocks off the bottom of the roster ... or if Schouman ends up on IR because of it?

I heard them. As for believing them ...

To be honest? ESPN's made a ton of recent moves designed to improve their product. Not talking about the broadcasting wing, or throwing all that money at Rick Reilly. The .com is currently on a spending binge, bringing in good writers -- and even deskers, and damn, did they need some good editors -- from all over the country. Brian Bennett (formerly of the Louisville C-J) was a huge get for their Big East coverage. Ditto Pierre LeBrun for hockey. Not saying your point isn't valid, but they are making the effort.

Hey, that is pretty good. Interesting insinuation about the mood in the locker room; I'd be VERY interested to know the source of that, because the players normally stick together on contract issues. What was that writer's name again? Oh, yeah. This guy.

Great idea. Outstanding stable of writers. Horrid business model. Still miss it. Met Deford at Chautauqua back in June, but just long enough to get a handshake and a signed book. Wish I'd had a chance to chat with him about the paper ... [/threadjack]

Walking across the front of the set, ducking under the cameras, while he's trying to do a live shot: not cool. I can criticize Berman for some things -- nice pull on the "You're with me, Leather" stuff, Hopper -- but this isn't one of them.

$800 for rookies, $1225 for vets. This came up when they signed Hawthorne: http://www.nflplayers.com/user/template.as...=692&type=c

Dave, you realize the AJC I'm talking about hasn't existed since the late 1980s (before McKenzie left to start The National with Frank Deford, taking Mort with him), right?

If you're accusing Maiorana (or anyone else in that newsroom) of plagiarism, you'd damn well better be prepared to show some proof. Otherwise, your post is libelous.

Taro, Chuck didn't go to this game. With his sportswriting class at SBU starting today and the TH's Football Edition hitting the stands later this week, not to mention putting out a paper every day, I figured he wouldn't. (In fact, I was a little surprised he made it to Toronto, even though it was technically a "home" game.) Tim mentioned that fact in one of his responses on his blog -- Chuck's column in Monday's paper was written after watching the game at home. He does the same thing for West Coast trips during the regular season; much as he'd like to cover every road game, it just doesn't make financial sense. Honestly? I doubt the NFL would take column inches of coverage into account when judging a franchise's sustainability in its market. At the very least, it would be far, far down the list from gate receipts and marketing issues. I also agree with several previous posts -- several factors (Olympics, late game, long trip) combined to make coverage of this game extraordinarily light. I fully expect to see three writers from the News and two from the D&C at all regular-season road games.

Still 22 more to go. And they've done the early-cut thing before to try to sneak guys onto the PS, if that's the direction they're leaning. We discussed that re: Jason Peters ... Edit: or what Tsaikotic said two minutes ago ...

Tim, I'm glad you started this discussion ... but do you really think Sam Zell and Lean Dean Singleton are listening to their readers? They should be, but are they? First, a programming note: if you plan on trying to have a serious discussion with ESPN.com commenters, well, good luck with that. We try to maintain at least some guidelines for posting on TSW. There? It's "Lord of the Flies." And unless you feel like spending your days moderating your own comments section instead of actually, you know, breaking news and writing stories ... And "Toronto" has become a trigger word to Bills Nation. Not surprised it drew an (over)reaction. Now, to your original point. Buffalo first. Obviously, we knew Sully was otherwise occupied, but I was surprised to see that Allen Wilson apparently didn't make the trip. Looks like he hasn't written since they broke camp? That's strange. But at least Mark was there. I was flat-out shocked to see that Sal Maiorana didn't go ... until I started thinking about it. The D&C is a Gannett shop, and it's unfrickinbelievable what's happening in that chain these days. (Congrats to CEO Craig Dubow for raking in $7.5 million last year, while the company's stock price has crashed from $75.31 to $17.67 since he took over in May 2005. Nice job.) Did I mention that the new Gannett Web sites suck? Yeah, I think I have, once or thrice. Rochester has had it pretty good with both Sal and Leo covering the team, but honestly, I'm not sure we can expect that to continue much longer. Hope I'm wrong, for their sake as well as ours. And nobody else is going to make a 10-hour trip for a preseason game, especially when it's also football tab time. Chuck has two advantages over the metros: time and distance. Because the Times Herald is a p.m., he doesn't have to pound out his game stories on a tight deadline. And because he's at a relatively small newspaper 70 miles away, the coaches and players probably aren't searching out his work. That allows him to inject some opinion -- which is something beat writers are normally supposed to leave to the paper's columnist, but Chuck handles both jobs for the TH. Here's how he described his style to me: "I see my role, especially on Monday afternoon after Sunday games, as both analyst and critic. By then, people know the nuts and bolts of what happened and want to know why it happened and what I think. I don't mean that they thirst for my specific input, but rather just to verify that a journalist's impressions mirror their own." And yeah, he's damn good at what he does, something I believed a long time before I ever met him. Whites Bay: But I'm just like any other fan, watching games from the stands or the couch -- and depending on the guys who DO have credentials for their first-hand reporting and writing. That's one thing the subsection of the blogging community which celebrates the demise of print journalism keeps forgetting. Former San Bernadino Sun SE/columnist Paul Oberjuerge, who covered his thirteenth Olympics as a freelancer after San Berdoo chopped him off their payroll back in March, talks about the print holocaust on his blog: Unfortunately, that part isn't true. There have been over 8,000 layoffs in newsrooms across the country since Jan 1. Lot of talented writers out there looking for work right now, or getting discouraged and leaving the business entirely -- and a lot more who are currently employed, but fear every phone call from the HR department. It's a buyer's market, and the veterans with all the sources and institutional knowledge are being shoved out the door in favor of fresh-out-of-J-school kids who are willing to work cheap. (Unfortunately, that management style isn't confined to the newspaper industry ...) The rest, I can't disagree with. I like what ESPN.com is doing, bringing in beat writers to improve their product. But except for Outside The Lines, the mothership is a steady dose of short-attention-span theater. To get back to Tim's original question, this isn't just a Buffalo problem. Remember how Hartford was going to be the Patriots*' new home? Can you imagine how many season-ticket holders live there? Well, from the looks of their Web site, the Courant isn't even staffing the team any more. It's all about UConn and preps, and picking up Pats* stuff off the wire. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- once one of the best sports sections in the country, with Van McKenzie running the show and guys like Chris Mortensen kicking ass on their beats -- just gutted the sports department. Steve Wyche was the only full-timer on the Falcons, and he ***BREAKING NEWS*** reportedly just bailed out to go to the NFL Network. Will the last guy out of the newsroom please turn off the lights? And if sports journalism ever becomes the sole provenance of broadcast media and team-supplied information, fans everywhere will be poorer for it. Late add: LongLiveRalph, great post.

That was before Wright started fumbling in games. Now? We'll see ...

There are a few exceptions -- Posnanski, for one. Overall, though, you may have a point. Blogs are best when they're serving up information, like (shameless plug) Tim Graham's AFC East page on ESPN, especially when he's linking to some of (another shameless plug) our man Chuck Pollock's fine work. ( , Tim. Haven't had a chance to ask him, but I hope you overloaded the OTH's server with that linkage.) But when they're used as random-thought collectors for columnists, eh, not so much. Unless you're JoePo.

Fixed. And he rarely blogs more than two or three times a week ... Unlike most here, I actually don't dislike Sully. He's written some good stuff -- features, mostly, including a piece I honestly thought should have made BASW in 2005. (Told him that, too.) But he deserves to be called on this flipflop.

How could you forget a name like that? The funniest thing -- he's not even on the all-time roster or listed under any jersey number. After I posted that, I had to pull up an old gamebook to see what number he wore. (86, for the record, since he was officially a TE.) I can also tell you what numbers previous long-snappers Adam Lingner (63) and Ethan Albright (76) wore without looking them up. And yes, to save you the trouble, I know I'm not well ...

No. In fact, since he was a midseason addition, he wouldn't be in the media guide anyway.

As a lead blocker, not a ballcarrier.

Bradford Banta.

In 2007, the Bills faced 40 third-and-short (1 or 2 yards to go) situations. They converted just half, including an abominable 12-of-26 rushing attempts (46.2 percent). The year before, they fared slightly better on runs (15-of-22, 68.2 percent), but worse overall (20-of-42, 47.6 percent). The K-Gun hardly used a fullback, either ... but it sure was nice to have one around for those critical short-yardage plays.

Depends on which day it is. From that column: Ah, but look back a few days earlier, on his blog: Suhr loser?