RJ (not THAT RJ)

+1

that would be my guess. The 506 will know come Friday.

I thought if the home team does not sell out, then "its" network (in this case, CBS), will show nothing at all.

What does terrible taste like?

Shhhh Bill. Some of us are enjoying this.

Diminishing returns, friends... diminishing returns.

In the 1970s, the Bills were 40 games under .500. Check that piece of proof.

It was 1971. The Cards won 28-23.....

"When S awoke from strange and troubling dreams, he discovered he had been transformed into a pancake on the RWS turf..."

Short and snappy is nice, though I do not see the need for the crack at others' reading skills. Your thoughtful post emphasized how your personal situation (age, experience, level of interest, feelings about the economic situation in WNY) led you to feel that this current situation is the worst for the Bills. All perfectly understandable points, but all related less to outside/objective factors than to your sense of what they mean. It appears to this observer that Dean's short and snappy point, that one's feelings about the current situation being worst say more about the poster than the team (which I did not take as an insult to anyone), was pretty spot on.

Yes and no. Really, the dryest period in team history was 1967-1979 inclusive. 13 seasons, three winning seasons (1973-1975), one playoff appearance (1974). eight seasons with 10 or more losses (1967-1971, 1976-78), two with 9 losses (72 and 79). And note that before 1978, it was a 14-game season. In 1968, and 1971, the Bills won one game; in 1976 they won 2. It is true that the one playoff appearance broke up the awful years, but that is minor. Consider, in this period: No wins against the Dolphins (in Miami between 1966 and 1983, anywhere 1970-1979), Oilers (1966-1983), or against any team on the West Coast (1966-1980). That cavalcade of pain is off the top of my head. The present does not come close. Just keep it in perspective kids.

Amen to that. But the people you just described do make up the majority of posters on internet message boards.

Lancaster was the site of the proposed dome. There was actually a lawsuit that dragged well into the 1980s about it.

I heard that the Batavia stadium is included in a clause in Chris Kelsay's extension.

Buftex, I am not in denial at all. I am not defending Ralph. I thought first my post was clear on that. If it was not, that is on me. I do think that a lot of what is said here is pretty hysterical, in both the humorous and clinical sense, as people (not necessarily you, since your criticisms have been more measured) vent their hatred for an old man who stands in for the father, boss, or authority figure they hate and fear. My point is to identify the historical irony that Ralph had himself concluded in 2001 that he needed to pull back from meddling, and hired TD precisely because he wanted to turn the team over to a real football man, and that it was TD's failure to deliver (a failure that in 2005 was seen by pretty much everyone I ever remember reading on TBD, and pretty much the entire punditocracy with the possible exception of Mort) that led to the Ralph/Marv debacle and all it brought. Thus for someone like Mort to combine his criticism of Ralph (which is to my mind certainly justified) with the implication that all would be well if TD were around is to ignore the fact that it is TD's own fault that he had to leave Buffalo, and the spectacular flameout of his tenure is one of the main reasons why things are so bad right now.

Actually, it was discussed in great detail around 1998. Bob Matthews was a fan. It does make some sense, being close to the Thurway and all, though it runs up against the same huge question: who will pay for it, and why should they? Such questions are not insuperable, but they are crucial.

TD was responsible for the new uniforms too, by the way. That alone should keep anyone on this board from pining for him.

Ah, I see. So now we all love TD again, so that we can all hate Big Daddy again. Fair enough. Too much revisionism on TD is not a good idea. He did sign Jeff Posey, after all... and the failures to address the O-line effectively were a constant refrain on TBD during his tenure.

Mort and the now-fashionable Ralph-bashers do keep missing the crucial point. Ralph hired Donohoe and made him Team President in the hope that he, Ralph, could pull back more or less completely from running the team and leave it in the hands of a "football man." That is what he did, and all observers realized it at the time and commented on it. TD had total control; you will notice there were no limits on free agents or spending during his tenure. By 2005, though, TD's manifest failure to turn the team around brought that experiment to an end, resulting in the Marv II debacle. If TD had turned out as Ralph and others had expected, he would still be running the team. This is not to defend Ralph's management since 2006, but simply to say that Mort and his ilk should be careful about trying to link their Ralph-bashing to praise of Tom Donohoe. That dog don't hunt.

We are all damaged, Bill. That is what binds us together as a community. All we have is each other. Better days are ahead.

Well played. There is a big difference between bad luck and willful mismanagement, which too many people ignore in their attempt to work out their own Daddy issues by attacking Ralph Wilson.

I guess it is a symptom of the psychological battering all Bills fans have gotten over the past decade that even a sensible poster whom I respect deeply would spin Trent's being cut as an attack on cheap Ralph, but really? Cutting Trent makes a great deal of sense once the team decided he was no longer the right man for the job. Why keep him as a #2 when you think he plays like #2? Better just to let him go, especially since a trade is not likely at all. As for the financial side, the savings are miniscule by football standards. Trent was not making big bucks, and anyone they sign to replace him will cost something, reducing the savings even further. It may be a shame that a QB many had high hopes for did not pan out, but that is all it is. Time to move one. There are much bigger problems facing this franchise.

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Actually, Welker was probably comparing the Pats performance this week vs. their performance against the Jets, where they were predictable and did shoot themselves in the foot. But don't let me get in the way of another round of Bills fan self hate.

WHADYA SAY? CAN'T HEAR YA!