stevewin

"Find A Way"

Agree. You factor in that kickers, even in normal circumstances, spend most of practice off by themselves, and I assume generally have less interactaction with offensive/defensive players. Add in that he's a rookie that just showed up, I doubt the majority of the team had tight bonds with him. I personally think almost to a man no one was grief stricken he was let go - it was probably a relief for most.

I think it probably was some of all of the above that you mention. Also, with regard to end of July, I can only imagine what the exchange with the psycho lawyer was like, we've all seen how he operates. Even if he did give details, the Bills at that time were prob like wtf? - then asked Araiza about it, who apparently stuck by his version of the story which obviously didn't have all the same detail. So at that point it was still Araiza's story vs psycho lawyer's "allegation" - so they continued to "have the back" of the player with the info they had at the time. I think the civil case made it real - even if the lawyer had mentioned some of the details in July, they could have thought he was bluffing/lying (again dont forget to take into account how this lawyer has presented himself - and that Araiza's story remained unchanged). Once the lawyer's allegations in July were in an actual civil suit, they were "real" now. And of course then then it hit the fan and they saw what a sh!tstorm this would be, and frankly at that point probably started doubting Araiza's version - or at least had to be concerned there were elements in the civil case that were very different from his account of what happened. It then became apparent it would drag out as a distraction and only get worse- and I also think the possibility that it was really true started to weigh more heavily on McD and others. It was simply an untenable situation to try to deal with this, both in the present and who knows how far into the future, and be 100% committed/focused on football

Agreed. If anything they reinforced that they had the backs of everyone else in the locker room by dealing with this one individual - cutting him loose for the benefit of the team

Note also the restructuring of Dion's contract which Beane did to create some room this week will come in handy to take on a little higher punter salary

On your first point, I appreciate what you are saying, but I honestly believe the tone in the locker room is more likely relief/gladness that the teammate is gone and all the craziness that went with it - I think the skies are more blue than grey now

Yep- just like that it's over. Starting tomorrow will never have to answer a MA question again. And as football fans we can all be spared a daily dissection of statutory rape laws, sexual abuse definitions, and disgusting ***** details

Then he proves his innocence and returns to punt in the NFL

That and "they ruined his life/career". They chose to not have him on the team, in due course if he proves his innocence he can try out for any team he wants.

Good to see its Beane taking the lead now

Ha I posted this in the other thread 🤣 New thread title: "Very Close to seeing McD Press Conference"

Eric Wood gonna come out and say he's not retiring

At this point I dont understand why it doesn't transition to Beane answering questions about MA. He is responsible for the roster. McDs job is to coach them. Let Beane take the wind burn for all the MA crap and let McD focus on coaching

Thats a nice bit of legwork/reporting by TG

How relieved are Bass and Ferguson that he's not practicing. At camp I thought about how awkward it must have been for them to always be off by themselves with both haack and MA, but this is next level

So at breakfast a woman saw us wearing bills gear and said i have to ask you a question, I'm relatively new to the Bills, where do all the fans come from - are they just all around - or do they travel. (we said both) Then she said my husband works for the Bills and I asked who and she said DL coach. Also, on the way out I saw Prince Emili's parents (his dad was wearing a shirt with Emili on the back) and wished Prince luck

I'm interested to see if anything comes out that other teams were aware of this before the draft while the Bills just missed it

Its interesting now looking at Beane's PC after releasing Ford and his 'review the Pocess for reviewing players' comments - if he also had Araiza on his mind when he made those comments. McD's PMT interview is also strange in this context, him being in such a jovial mood and making the 'great kid' comment (when he could have stuck with something more true to form 'The young man needs to prove himself in this league yada yada") - contrasted with his tone last night on the subject. On the surface, as surprising as it would be, it does give an impression he learned more recently

Josh Blanda

Especially for the guy who got stuck sitting next to Araiza.... "Boy I'm tired just gonna put on these headphones and sleep the whole flight"

I saw Luke on the jumbo with the kids, thought it was a meet and greet didn't realize he was a coach. Also, I actually saw the kid with metzalaars jersey and my thought was - wow what a coincidence, dont see that name every day - I forgot pete played for panthers never put 2-2 together 😛

I think this should put to rest the theory that the locker room would be torn apart it they got rid of him and didn't "back the player innocent until proven guilty"

That Patriot** fan troll gonna come one here and say it was a great throw, just a better defensive play

Random observations from game - Downtown stadium is kind of cool. Area around stadium was nice, was neat at night to look up from inside and see the tall buildings lit up outside the stadium - There were tons of split bills/panthers couples and families - The PA was super loud - prob the loudest i ever heard in a sports venue. Get off my lawn - The Panther hype guy that annoyingly gets on the jumbo all game and yells annoying things is annoying - Before halftime they were bringing two pop Warner teams out on the field who were going to play at halftime, and on our side was a team with Patriot helmets. Of course myself and some other Bills fans booed them. Was a little awkward when it became apparent the family of one of the players was next to us, and family of one of the cheerleaders was in front of us. Not sure if the little Mini-Cheater team won - They did a little light show at halftime synching the stadium lights with all other lights off to - the Immigrant Song and Bulls on Parade - Going off at halftime Josh and Baker passed each other and gave each other a big smile and bro tap - Was behind the Bills bench, I like to watch the interactions on the sidelines. At one point Josh was standing with Diggs, Knox and Davis and going over golf swing tips with them. Another time Knox was fetching water for guys sitting on the bench who just came out - went down the line 'you want one?'. Josh and Von Roten seemed to be talking a lot. Diggs was always moving and talking. One time he was zig-zagging up the sideline and Oliver saw him coming and stepped in front of him. Diggs then proceeded to 'school' Oliver and Epenesa on release moves. At one point von walked over and was shooting the sh!t with Josh and it made me think who would have thought, how cool is that scene - Didnt look like Poyer had anything on his elbow - Howard was playing STs - assume they needed bodies with so many guys not dressed - Number 66 the 4th or 50th string center was not good. He should change his number to 666 - At one point they put a big 'IT'S BAKER TIME' on the jumbo. My son took a picture and sent it to all his carolina buddies. Panther fans were definitely into Baker, Darnold not so much - My son wore a Bruce Smith jersey - Bills fans just love yelling "BRRUUUCE" when they see a Bruce jersey. People we yelling it at him walking to the stadium, walking from the stadium, from patios across the street, walking by as we ate dinner... - Panther fans were cool, not always fun to have your stadium taken over. Before the game I was half expecting to hear 'rapist-lover' or similar clever trash talk, but with the stakes so low and the fact they kicked our butt things were overall genial

We are in! PA plays Blind Melon No Rain 👍