Lori

Tough to get good help these days... (Uh, boss, that was a joke, okay?)

Waitaminute. "titans20". I might know who this is.... Hadley Engelhard, is that you?

You went to the trouble of registering, just so you could post that?!? Next time, don't bother.

I really should let this post stand on its own brilliance... So to match the population in the Cleveland and Pittsburgh MSAs, you want to add everything within a two-hour drive of Buffalo. Okay, I'll add Columbus' 1.7 million people to Cleveland's number. Takes me longer to drive from northern PA to Orchard Park than from Cleveland to Columbus. You know, if you're going to call someone else a moron, you really should try typing sentences in comprehensible English. But I digress. Back to the point... And regional baseball TV contracts have.... what, exactly, to do with NFL attendance data? Have a nice day...

Small markets compared to NYC and LA. Not to Buffalo. And I don't care about baseball. List_of_United_States_metropolitan_areas (from Wikipedia) #21 Pittsburgh, PA - 2,386,074 #23 Cleveland–Elyria–Mentor, OH - 2,126,318 #47 Buffalo–Niagara Falls, NY - 1,147,711 As the caveman in the GEICO commercial says, "Next time, do a little research."

Cleveland? Pittsburgh? Denver? Small markets? Yeah, right. The only metropolitan areas smaller than Buffalo with NFL teams are Green Bay and Jacksonville. Green Bay is special; we all know that. (Of course, having Milwaukee, the 26th-largest MSA in the country, 100 miles down I-43 doesn't hurt.) And Jacksonville covered 9700 seats before the 2005 season, after having 12 of their previous 16 home games blacked out.

Yup. Todd Collins started at QB (and played horribly), Thurman played just long enough to get his 1000-yard season before sitting down, and Yonel Jourdain led the team in rushing that day. To the original point: the teams listed sell out the vast majority of their stadium with season-ticket sales, leaving maybe a couple thousand seats available on a game-by-game basis. Bills sold 43,000 season tickets this year in a 73,000-seat stadium, leaving 30K single-game seats available for a game on Christmas Eve between two teams that combined for a 9-23 record last season. Do the math.

That amber scoreboard is about the only thing I remember from my first Bills game... (OJ was still here, so I couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old). TreeSweet orange juice ads during TV timeouts; wonder if they still make that brand? Can we secretly hope for a MarineMidlandArena-style "accident" with that scoreboard? Perhaps with Jerry Jones standing directly underneath?

"Old school" = 1988? Good Lord. Have fun, Simon...

Ah $%#! -- and I was going to pick the Bills this week....

Sweeet.

Yearly stadium-maintenance funds, as agreed to in the last lease. In other words, taxpayers.

When a decent percentage of my tickets already go unused? (I go to all the games, but sometimes end up sitting in the folks' JK Club seats instead of using my own... but I never know if that seat is available until I'm actually at the game. I've carried extras into three games this year.) I wouldn't be offended, but I seriously doubt I'd buy more... Here's a better idea: instead of more aggressive marketing to people who've already made an investment in the team, maybe they should find some NEW buyers.

We'll at least have my small gas grill... with most of BADOL's regulars otherwise occupied, I'm not sure if he'll still be driving the van (with the big grill). If you wanna bring some munchies, feel free.

Long as you're here, SK, I'm curious as to your take (as well as TEN fans' in general) on the way things played out with McNair. I think we all knew that gigantic cap number meant they'd eventually have to part company, but the perception outside Nashville remains that the Titans "done him wrong." Your thoughts?

Actually, I think he covered that under the "drug suspensions" statistic. C'mon, she said she was 18. What was he supposed to do, ask to see her I.D.? Truly, truly evil.

I should've been sleeping this evening, because I've still got another midnight to work, but I couldn't pass up the chance to catch one of the few Habs games I'll get to watch this season. Good times. Still hoping they don't meet before the conference finals, because I truly believe these are the best two teams in the East.

Thanks, Jack. I knew you'd put that up a while back, but was too lazy to go look for it...

Depends on your definition of "Christmas Spirit(s)"... Sounds like most of the "diehards" are drifting in for this game, but I still expect a somewhat sparse gathering. Ah well. You can also wander over and check out the Pinto, if you haven't already done so on a previous trip... Tsk. You trying to get the poor guy killed, and on Christmas Eve? Now that's just not right.

I'll be there. But my stepdad's side of the family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, starting at noon or thereabouts. His other sons (Bengals fans) are driving in from Cincinnati for the weekend. "Suck it up" does NOT apply.

Yes, actually, I have. Skewed by the game against the Giants' 28th-ranked pass defense, the only game of the four where he finished with a QB rating over 74.0. Kid's a playmaker, and his running ability makes me nervous. But given that the Bills D has given up just six TD passes in the seven games since the bye, I like our chances against his arm.

A few numbers, courtesy of the media guide... First, let it be known that the Bills hardly ever have a home game during Christmas week, much less on Christmas Eve itself. Before the 2003 Miami game (on 12/21 of that year), I had to go back to 1996 to find a home game played between Dec. 21th-24th. The list: 12-22-1996 - Bills 20, Chiefs 9. Win-or-go-home game for a wild-card spot. Attendance: 68,671. Season-ticket count that year: 41,504. 12-24-1995 - Oilers 28, Bills 17. The only other Christmas Eve home game in team history. Bills made the playoffs that season. Attendance: 45,253. Season-ticket count that year: 40,806. 12-23-1990 - Bills 24, Fish 14. First Super Bowl season. Kelly vs. Marino. Levy vs. Shula. Attendance: 80,235. Season-ticket count that year: 46,307. (I believe listed stadium capacity back then was still 80,280. All right, where the #%*! were the 45 no-shows?) Christmas Eve weekend road games since the AFL-NFL merger: (games on Christmas Eve in italics) 2005 (Cincy): 65,485 2001 (Atlanta): 43,320 2000 (Seattle): 61,025 1994 (Indy): 38,458 1989 (Jets): 21,148 1985 (Miami): 64,811 1980 (49ers): 37,476 Going by those numbers, honestly, is anyone shocked that a Christmas Eve game between two teams that drafted in the top 10 last April might not get 50,000 through the turnstiles?

Dunno when that would've been, since I pulled into the parking lot at 8:05 for that game. Oh well, maybe next time... More precise directions for anyone looking for us: go directly to Pole 5, turn towards the Pinto (same side of the lot as the Fieldhouse), and start looking for either a big blue Dodge van (that's BADOL) or a black Grand Prix with PA plates (mine). Or, I could just put up the tent and hang the TBD banner up, couldn't I?

So in other words, they targeted their alleged #1 WR almost as much in the last fifteen seconds of the game as they did in the first 59:45. Welcome to our world, circa 2005...

Looked at their stats lately? Young is completing barely half his passes, has more INTs than TDs, and has a lower passer rating than Harrington even including Jooooeyyyy's meltdown in the RWS mist. I think Young is a better player than JH; the guy's already proving he can make the big play to win a game, something Harrington's never done. But "better passer" is stretching it...