Lori

Wow. Sully's still on. And boy, IS he on:

Todd Collins, 1995.

True, KtFaBD. But after the holdout, you know it won't happen that way. If he does start slow, people will be all over him for missing camp -- and I can't say they'd be wrong.

Wow. Wouldn't have guessed the tone from Yahoo's title: Bills DE Maybin eager to make preseason debut

Link? No, on second thought... Sal's on vacation this week, so it has to be something by Matthews. And if that's the case, don't bother. Positive or negative, doesn't matter to me. Mailing it in does.

Sully's on now: http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sully_on_spor...th-sully-2.html And as I kind of figured, Tim is out for this week: http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/...ccount-of-stuff

I covered a high school team that went 3-15 last season. At some point, writing "Hey, they only lost by 10 instead of 20 this time" begins to sap your will to live... Last playoff game: Jan. 8, 2000 Last playoff win: Dec. 30, 1995 Roth and Maiorana both covered four consecutive Super Bowl seasons. Compared to that, being realistic about the postseason-free 2000s probably DOES sound negative.

Seconded.

Sparks? Yikes. Regarding your first point, true dat. Also, considering your job description, I'd assume that most of your stories are filed long before you leave the venue; this guy had some features and advances he hadn't backed up. Still had the audio/notes from his interviews, and such, but had to rewrite everything, of course -- and I still don't know how he managed to keep from killing the kid who wiped out his laptop. As he was trying to find someone in charge so he could borrow a computer and get back online, the kid (who worked for that school's SID) said, "You know, when I have to rewrite a paper or something, it's usually better the second time." I would've thrown him out the freaking window.

Really? Kelly only had Marv Levy for the final seven games in 1986, after Hank Bullough (lifetime 4-17 record) was finally, mercifully fired. In fact, all three of the other QBs cited had to deal with coaching changes either before or during their rookie seasons ... meaning that said coaches were probably also installing new systems, which could account for those teams' struggles.

Let's add a few more numbers, if nobody has mentioned this yet: Bills in 2006, the year before TE's first start: 7-9 Bills in 1985, the year before Kelly's first start: 2-14 Colts in 1997, the year before Peyton's first start: 3-13 Giants in 2003, the year before Eli's first start: 4-12 In other words, while Trent took over a team that almost finished .500 and lost five games by a FG or less, the other three inherited some of the worst teams in the league. (THE worst, in Peyton's case, since he was the No. 1 overall pick. The Bills tied with Tampa Bay for that honor in 1985; the Bucs "won" the top pick, and drafted ... Bo Jackson.)

I'd LOVE to know how you acquired this information, especially since the D+C is part of the nationwide Gannett chain, not under private ownership. Also, Matthews doesn't even cover games, other than the columns written from Rochester.

Mark Gaughan, presumably in Pittsburgh to cover tomorrow night's Bills-Steelers game, will be on Billboard at 11 a.m. tomorrow. And while Tim Graham is listed on the ESPN chat schedule in his regular 3 p.m. time slot today, stay tuned for updates on that one. As some of you know, Tim has been dealing with a serious illness in his family; while the situation seems to be improving, it could still affect his availability. If I get any different info, I'll post it here, and I'd also ask everyone to keep Tim and family in their thoughts.

1.) Gary who? 2.) Bills may lose, but Jauronball means they don't often get blown out on their home field. The one time they did -- at a night game against the Patriots, no less -- I don't recall any riots. Seriously, at this point, I see more apathy than rage.

Cheers to a couple of true TBD old-timers (and you too, nemhoff! ) Good seeing you in Canton, Darin ...

Agreed. They'd have to throw in Adrian Peterson before I'd be interested in that deal.

PFR had him at 24 games, 23 starts, which matches the official Bills stats. He played in 10 games in 2007, starting nine after coming into the first New England game in relief of an injured Losman. And if you're going to note Losman's loss in Arizona, you might also want to put an asterisk next to the second Jets game in 2007. Losman entered with the game tied 3-3 and the Bills ended up winning 13-3, accounting for one of the wins on Edwards' record.

http://www.wgr550.com/Owens-runs-routes-wi...eivers-/5095079 Since there seems to be some unknown difficulty in adding Paul Hamilton's practice reports to the news feed on the front page, figured I'd post a heads-up here. Also found this interesting from yesterday's recap:

I could see the Bears -- but only as a backup. Basanez didn't exactly make a positive impression against Buffalo, you know? That said, Green Bay is the one that makes me question Jasno's sanity. Rodgers is the unquestioned starter, and they drafted both Brohm and Flynn just last season. Flynn's a little nicked up right now (shoulder), but nothing long-term.

From your keyboard to God's ear inbox ....

The fight. The phantom snap was against Miami, during the Toronto fiasco.

8? We get to sleep in this year? (And the corollary, stay out later the night before?) Coolest. One KICK AZZ for me, please and thank you.

Well played, sir.

Maybe after the nosedive, he blocked last season out of his memory?

FWIW, not just Bills fans. KC fans were calling Trent Green "TrINT" while he was posting 4,000-yard seasons for their Chiefs, and we won't get into Igglefans/McNabb ... Not saying the over-the-top stuff is right, just that it's not exactly rare.