RJ (not THAT RJ)

NFN, but your second comment undercuts your first. They do indeed call them receivers, thus one need not be a "Kool-Aid drinker" to wonder whether a receiver who makes no receptions is all that great.....

Thanks for the link, Mickey. There is an interesting story there, though it is a shame it was obscured by that particular author's "style." Actually, Chandler, the all-injury year was 1968, whereas Powell and Flores arrived in March 1967. The 1967 season is interesting in itself, because it was an excellent example of how quickly a veteran team can collapse even without injuries. Heck, the Bills even added an aging Keith Lincoln to a squad that had won the Eastern Division in 1966, so some people thought they would be back on top. But the rest of the team, Kemp especially, began showing their age. They lost a lot of bad luck games, and fell to 4-10. I am betraying a bias bequeathed to me by my dearly departed father, but he always said that trading Lamonica was the killer because he was several years younger than Kemp and it would have been better for the team, if they had to move one of them, to dump #15. As a matter of fact, Flores even beat out Kemp for the starting job (though Jack came off the bench to win the opener against the Jets two days before my birth), which indicated that even Coach Collier knew Jack was nearing the end of the trail. But Kemp was a team leader, very popular with his teammates, and not sleeping with his colleagues' wives... so Daryle had to go. That Flores and Powell both turned out to be washed up only made the whole thing uglier as the Bills entered a Season of Suck that lasted until 1973. My apologies for the history lesson. Occupational hazard.

Now this ^^^^ is is a nice example of PDS, mixed in with a dollop of Bills fan self-hate. Well played!

It is funny, I did hear it and thought... "nawww... it can't be." Then a few moments later he apologized for it!

Please. This topic was beaten to death on TSW back then; 4 weeks was a very optimistic expectation, 10-11 weeks much more likely, and thus IR made sense. Brandon and Jauron did not need to be prescient to make the necessary choices, and as it happens, they were right.

Perhaps not derangement syndrome, though an inability to recognize either humor or sarcasm could be a symptom of Asperger's Syndrome. Might want to look into that.

That sounds plausible.... who knows?

Exactly. It makes no sense, and thus is very likely not an STD. I do hope that we will know something for sure, if only to preserve the kid's reputation against more speculation. But more than anything I hope he gets well.

Golly, I write a post, and the next one proves my point so neatly. It's a good day.

Around here, I would explain the assumption as a part of the general Polian Derangement Syndrome: He is so marvelous and wonderful, he can even make his team awful better than anyone else when necessary.

Excellent research, even if it is a depressing reminder of the lack of real historical knowledge out there. Go Bills! and Go Crusaders!

Not a one, and that was not my point. My point was just that it is not easy for good teams to find replacements for star QBs.

The Packers are a good counter-example. The Pats* found their HOF QB without looking for him, though.

Great minds think alike, eball... that was my first thought too!

It is worth noting that teams who hope to stay on top by replacing one HOF QB with another instantly find themselves floundering from savior to savior. (See Bills, Buffalo, 1997-2010).

In fairness, this thread began after the Denver pre-season game, which created such a storm of panicky "we suck, we suck, we suck... everyone else is better... every move the Bills make is either intentionally penurious and evil or just plain stupid" posts that any positive impressions of the team were drowned out. In the meantime, Tennesseeboy pulled back from the brink and even predicted a win over KC. So there is room for redemption for us all. Go Bills!

I have only lived in the Philly area since 2003, so long after he was gone, but a buddy here tells me Facenda was an anchorman for one of the newscasts. Not a sportscaster, but an anchor, and NFL films picked him to be their narrator because they had a Philly connection, which is also why he was succeeded by Harry Kalas, another great voice.

Be careful this week, because we know what the Autumn Wind is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSKIJvVQI0 [Hate that team, but love me some John Facenda...] Go Bills!

Staph infection.

Cynicism is easier than optimism. This is true in all walks of life, and especially among those who want to appear smart and with it. Of course the team's decade of suck has made it easier as well, so commentators and reporters in WNY just direct all their venom at the home team. It makes them feel good when the team does badly, and if the team does well, they can shrug their shoulders and keep on going. In markets where the home team has been strong for a while (WEEI comes to mind here, as do some of the Philly writers), the media adopt a position of homerist ball-washing (our coach is a genius, this or that player is all-world) and discharge their need for cynicism with arrogant insults directed toward other, poorer teams. Until those teams get good, and the home team suffers a setback, and they reset to home-directed cynicism.

Calm down there, bro. Larry Fesler has been covering the Bills since 1960. His post-retirment columns have been lazy, yes, but his knowledge is unquestioned. Though in my family, Felser was persona non grata for being what my father called a "Kemp Man" during the QB controversies of the 1960s. I personally never liked his cheerleading for Matt Kofler to replace Fergy, but that's just me.

His first full game in 2 years

They had first and 15 at their 10... being conservative makes sense. They got the first down they needed to kill KC momentum.

Quite so, and it has already resulted on one turnover. Goodness gracious, pessimists!