Cotton Fitzsimmons

You gents never cease to amaze YE OLE... my family and I will forever owe you a debt of gratitude for all that you are you doing. God bless you all, you are amazing folks.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your support and generosity. YE OLE has said it before and will say it again, you are truly an amazing family here at TBD. We had another appointment today at the University of Michigan and our baby girl's condition has not changed significantly over the 11 days since her last battery of tests, which is a good thing at this point. Her heart is still taxed, however, and dealing with this issue is the key to getting her to term over the next few weeks. Dr. Berenstein in New York wants to put my wife on an IV of digoxin to help ease the burden on our baby's heart and has had a history of success with this treatment. Unfortunately the team at U of M does not see this as the way to go, still today, so we have set an appt. with Dr. Berenstein in NYC for Tuesday of next week and will be flying out that morning. This is much earlier than we had hoped to make the trip, but we know if our girl is going to make it she needs the best care available, and his team is the best in the world for this rare disorder. It will be an anxious week waiting until then, but we have many plans to make and are trying to figure out the logistics of it all so that should keep us busy. If anyone has advice on flying with children that will help as well... as the Mrs. would never go anywhere without YE YOUNG... and he just turned 2. I'm sure he'll be amazed by the airport and big city, so perhaps that will be one nice distraction from all of this. Thanks again, our family has truly been blessed to have such a strong group of family and friends supporting us. God Bless, and GO BILLS!

YE OLE has it on good information from you cousin, Captain Foresight, that our D-Line brings massive devestation upon THE SANCHIZE opening day.

A big thanks to Joe, Sage, Mead, and everyone for suggesting this. My wife and mother inlaw set this up today through PayPal's "fundrazr" system: http://fnd.us/c/1JqIb Please feel free to read more about our story that they posted on that site. Again, I can't overstate just how much our family has been blown away with your support, this community truly is an amazing group of people. We already have a laundry list of doctor's appointments lined up this week, but I will do my best to post continuous updates as I'm able. Also, for those who have sent PM's with terrific advice and support, I am working to respond to everyone there as well and it has been much appreciated!

Thank you so much for the support. Again, I can't overstate how much it means to us. As far as a fund for donation... we haven't set up anything at this point, but would be very humbled and appreciative if anyone felt like they wanted to donate. What would be the best way to go about setting something like this up?

I just wanted to say how deeply moved my family and myself have been from all of the well wishes and all of the great advice being given from our extended family here at TBD. I apologize for not getting back sooner with any updates, but it has been a very hectic week. Just today, we were able to touch base with the Dr. at Roosevelt for the first time since they had a chance to review the MRI's from our visit to U of M last week. He told us that there were no signs of hydrocephalus at this point (fluid on the brain) which is a good thing, but there is definitely what he described as "stress" on her brain from the condition. He said it's very difficult to predict what the severity of this damage would be when she is born, however. It could get better or worse. However, his opinion was that he sees no reason not to move forward and give her every chance we can. He wants my wife to be admitted to the hospital for the next week to week and a half to receive heart medication via IV which will supposedly help ease the burden on our baby's heart. He had spoken with the doctors at U of M and had believed we had their cooperation on this, however, late this afternoon when we called to set this up, we were told that they don't support this course of treatment and are now refusing to work with the team in NY on this. This means we will likely have to travel to NYC immediately and spend perhaps an extra month there. Originally they had planned on us getting there when my wife was around 35 weeks or so, as they could monitor the condition and work with U of M for the care we needed in the mean time. Needless to say, that wasn't what we were wanting to hear, but all the same we are elated that the team at Roosevelt is willing to take this case on and give our baby girl every chance they can, which is much better than the prognosis we received originally at U of M last week. Thank you again... I can't tell you how uplifting it has been to get such an outpouring of support from this community. Not that I would expect anything less when we need to circle the wagons for one of our own... but again a heartfelt thank you from our family to all of you guys. Hopefully we will have more positive news to report in the near future. Until then, God Bless... and GO BILLS

As many of you know I have enjoyed visiting this forum for a number of years to share the ups and downs of our team and (hopefully) bring a few smiles to the good folks here along the way. Unfortunately tonight I would like to ask for your prayers for our little girl. My wife is 28 weeks pregnant with our little girl and 2 weeks ago we learned that she has an exceedingly rare condition called Vein of Galen Malformation. This condition is caused by a malformed connection between the artery that goes to the brain and the vein that returns blood from the brain back to the heart. After spending a very long day at the University of Michigan hospital yesterday and having many tests (fetal EKG, MRI, ultrasounds, etc.) and meeting with their cardiologists and neuro surgeons we were told that our little girl likely will not survive. That said, my wife and I had been researching this condition over the past 2 weeks since the original diagnosis and joined a parents support group and through that have learned of an endovascular surgeon, Dr. Alex Berenstein, at Roosevelt Hospital in NYC who has had great success in treating infants and children with this deadly disease. We have had all of our records and tests sent there and will be planning to travel from Michigan to see their team at Roosevelt, where my wife will likely deliver, and hope that they are able to save our little girl's life. As some of you may know, we lost our first born only a couple of hours after he was born due to complications from premature birth. My wife had many complications in her second pregnancy, but our little boy made it through. Despite all of the problems we have had, which have been a long series of medical anomalies that doctors have not been able to explain, my wife being the trooper she is, wanted to try one more time. She comes from a large family and desperately wanted to give our son a sibling to grow up with. Needless to say, the news we have gotten in the past days has been devastating, but we are hoping with the prayers and support of our family and friends and my family here at TBD, we will get our little girl here healthy and happy. Despite her condition, my wife has reported to me that she is kicking much harder and is stronger than either one of our boys in her two previous pregnancies. This was evident at U of M yesterday when she was extremely feisty and uncooperative during all of the ultrasounds and tests. All I can say is I'm sure she is a Bills fan like her daddy and will share in our toughness and resilience. We had read of a little girl in Batavia who suffered from this condition and made the trip to Roosevelt Hospital and was cured by Dr. Berenstein and his team, if you happen to be out there somewhere on this board (which I am making the assumption being Bills fans you might be, because where else would you rather be than TwoBillsDrive?) we would love to hear from you and any insight you could give us on your experience that may help us on our journey. Also, if anyone has any advice or insight on traveling to NYC and Roosevelt hospital it would be much appreciated. I have only been to the city once, about 15 years ago and have little familiarity with Manhattan's Upper West Side where the hospital is located. As soon we get the word from the team at Roosevelt if/how they can help us we likely will be traveling from Michigan on a shoe string budget, so if anyone has any advice on where to stay, eat, etc. near the hospital we would greatly appreciate it. We are in contact with the social worker at Roosevelt who is the contact person to possibly get us into the Ronald McDonald House near Roosevelt, but it is based on availability which can be limited, so I am trying to do all of the leg work I can ahead of time to have plan B and C lined up and keep as much stress off my wife and baby as possible. Thank you in advance for the prayers that you send our way. GO BILLS!

FACT: Tyler Thigpen NEVER lit up the stat sheet in KC. Thigpen's best season in KC that you and others have referred to is one in which he: completed 54.8% of his passes for 2608 yds., and threw 18 TDs/12 INT's with a rating of 76.0

Perhaps YE OLE can try his hand at deciphering this dumpster fire of a post. YE feels that ShouldaPlayedFlutie is on to something here and OP probably meant Whiskey Tango Foxtrot as in "WTF" in regards to Brad BUTLER retiring on a whim to pursue a career in BIG BID'NESS. Robert Smith is another potential match here, but Butler being more recent and a former Bill just makes more sense. That said, it appears OP has been heavily into the sauce tonight.

Canks, my good fellow, way to keep these noobs in line!

In YE OLE's opinion, you don't go out and sign the $100 million prize of free agency and work aggressively as the front office has throughout this offseason and expect a 2 game improvement and miss the playoffs yet again. Not saying it can't happen, but if it does... 8-8 would be an utter failure.

The Pats took Mallett with a 3rd rd. pick so if they are willing to part with Mallett for a 3rd or 4th rd pick a year later as Bill in NYC threw out there it leads YE OLE to believe that they dont think much of their investment in him.

Perhaps YE OLE can share some insight on this one. This past week YE had the opportunity in the course of an interview process (all of this so called 'TOPGRADE' nonsense companies are using now) to take an actual Wonderlic test. Now mind you, YE OLE, had taken various practice tests and so called sample questions online each year when inevitably a big name prospect tanks it. I will say, all of the sample questions that one sees online (ie 'What day comes after Tuesday?' and so on) were not on the actual Wonderlic that I took. Ultimately YE scored a 37... respectable, but definitely not Ryan Fitzpatrick material, but as I said YE OLE found it to be rather challenging given the time constraint. Also, there were no circles to bubble in, you had to actually provide written answers on each line of some form. Usually a number given a calculation problem, or 'next number in the pattern' type question, or in the case of formulating words you might write the last letter of the word in the correct answer. Given this style of answer format, I would guess if someone is not literate it would be next to impossible to score well. You can't simply fill in random bubbles. Part of the information I was given did indicate that a score below 9 or 10 or so indicated possible illiteracy.

When you need to move the chains Tashard is the CHOICE

This offseason would be an embarrassment of riches if we ended up with Blackmon on top of everything else Nix has pulled off.

31. Bills offensive tackle Demetrius Bell.

Did someone say MAROON?

Looks like SUPER MARIO is sporting a #90 here: Super Mario

NeverOutNick... as promised via the SHOUTBOX, YE OLE is here to shed some light on this nonsense. Restricted free agents (RFAs) are players who have three or fewer accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. RFAs have received qualifying offers from their old clubs and are free to negotiate with any club until a deadline which occurs approximately a week prior to the NFL Draft (for 2012 the deadline is April 20th), at which time their rights revert to their original club. If a player accepts an offer from a new club, the old club will have the right to match the offer and retain the player. If the old club elects not to match the offer, it may receive draft-choice compensation depending on the level of the qualifying offer made to the player.

I read that tweet that they will be talking Mario Williams during the break, but not talking TO Mario Williams.

Maybe he didn't want to aggravate that pec injury.

Can't nobody cover Rrrrrrandy Moss. I have ve-hicles... you know me I'm going to have ve-hicles.

All your base are belong to us.

No, however, YE OLE would prefer to see the JESSIE WHITE TUMBLERS: YE had the opportunity to see these gents a decade ago during the Big 10 basketball tournament in the Windy City... suffice it to say at halftime while the rest of YE's party went to hit the can and seek some high end refreshment, YE OLE was on the edge of his seat waiting to see what death defying stunts the tumblers would do next. It was real high energy she-ot, gents.

The odds of Polian coming back to Buffalo are slim and none, and slim just left town gents! That said... anyone who can seriously attempt to make any argument why we should not want Polian back is completely out of their gourd. Polian is one of the greatest team builders the league has ever seen, period. Just for the sake of argument... IF Polian did come back, we would be a contender again in short order.