Fake-Fat Sunny

This interests me because I'm torn about who I would choose, but actually Manning's career is clearly the one I would want least. I can see what you're saying in that certainly of the three still playing he has the most hope of winning or getting to an SB, but I think that (as Marino and Manning have found out) winning or even getting to the SB is such a crapshoot that no player can count on this happening even though the experience is such a once or few times in a lifetime experience that reaching that pinnacle is what all players are shooting for. I think you are wrong in assuming that Manning will win some championships before his career is done. I think this was even a better assumption for Marino after he went to the SB in the first couple of years in his career and never saw it again except from some luxury box. Given Manning's contract, the cost of resigning Harrison, the likely cost and importance to Indy O productuion of resigning James, and the limitations of the salary cap on building a D which at some point in the playoffs (particularly if lack of homefield advantage forces them to NE) is going to have to pitch pretty close to a defensive shutout in order to win if the weather, refs and pressure are going to lead to Indy scoring 3 points, I think that the chances of him winning the Pro football championship or even making it to the SB are actually unlikely at best. It could happen if he takes the Elway/Farve path and takes less money than the market would give him so Indy can build a team, but I would niot bet on this. The fact remains that Manning is a far better QB than you or I (or Ryan Leaf) will ever be, but all of us have won or played in exactly the same number of Super Bowls.

I started thiking about this question last night after a humorous post that got few responses for Nick in RaChaChaChester. Its imposible to predict participation in SBs based on how well you play (just ask Marino) and all of these players are either done or played a good long time so I think it is fair and raises an interesting consideration. Of these 4 QBs assuming that the rest of their careers is pretty much like the first part for the 3 still playing whose career would you want. Basically it is a question about the import for you of winning the big dance, at least making it to the SB, leading your team and producing glorious stats. All of these players have been well compensated for playing a boys game so I think that is less of an issue. I think all of these players have things which speak for their careers and also shortcomings. Given the general tenor of this board and my willingness to cut him and move on after he finished the 2004 season, I somewhat hate to say it but given total achievements to date and more of the same, I think I'd prefer Bledsoe's career over the other 3.

BB has always been a pretty weirdbird and many geniuses are as they march to a different drummer than the rest of the world. Many problems with the Browns he seemed to be a victim of things not his doing, but also he deserves his fair share of the blame as well as many of the players gave up on him because he didn't earn their respect and loyalty as their leader. In addition to that he made a deal to go to the Jets and suddenly turned tale and opted out of it (probably they deserved it but this was no profile in good judgment initially on his part when he chose to do it). Even yb this NE gig where he has nade a number of genius moves, he built player to player cohesion among the NE team by turning everyone against him as a unit because of the way he misread and bollized negotiations with Lawyer Milloy. This led to a letdown where the lost to the Bills 31-0 but he managed them responding to a plethora of injuries by stepping up and becing a TEAM A pivotal point in his first star turn season when the Pats won the SB was actually courtesy of a Jets LB who by collapsing Bledsoe's lung forced BB to do something he was probably going to eventually have to do but the season would have been done of switching to 6th round pick and near rookie Brady. The simplification of the offense which he and Weis did because they had too proved to be a boon for their production. Quality folks take advantage of good luck when it comes their way, but no question a key to BB is not simply his genius but good old dumb luck.

But the point is that under the salary cap system where all teams are operatimg umder the same limits for paying salaries to build a D, 1. The Manning contract started at the huge and inflated levels of a 1st round drafted QB, 2. Indy then progressed as they were forced to get Edggerin James because even having the soon to be best QB ever gets you the same 3-13 rcord without a running game, 3. Then over time the Manning contract deservedly by his extraordinary play grew to ovr $100 million. 4. And in conjunction with this the D was further constrained by the need to buy Marvin Harrison and the other receivers necessary to make this team work 5. And the team spends further on the O by inesting in Vanderjagt. 6. And getting one of the best GMs in the game capable of making good assessments which get you a Dwight Freeney while he is cheap and as good as you can hope for in cheaper ST players. 7. And the team tries to deal with its D weakness by getting one of the best D minded HCs in the game. Yet, still the cap constraints of the Manning deal mean this team cannot make the investments necessary in a balanced way to get homefield advantage througout the playoffs so the December weather reeks havor on their passing game. My sense is that Manning is clearly one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game but as an athlete he simply commands too much money in the sorta free-market of the NFL to build a winning team.

You\re right that 2005 may finally be the year that a first round drated QB delivers an SB win to the team which drafted him. Of course given that this event has not occured for a team since Dallas chose Aikman in 1989, this occurence may be the exception that proves the rule that if you want a highly drafted QB, just wait because Dilfer, Farve, Young and Elway will be available to you in a trade. We'll see.

If JP is so fragile that he needs to be molly coddled I doubt he is ready to start. One of the great things about him is his cockiness. It can go too far if he becomes such a legend in his own mine he gets worried about his own headlines and stats rather than the team's W/L. However, my guess is that his unfortunate injury from a shove by Vincent after he apparently had been using the tutu which stops tackling of QBs in practice and the apparent bitchslapping he got that only Billy Joe Hobert is unready to play anytime you don the uniform when he was thrown into mop-up the NE game have properly adjusted his attitude. If these rude awakenings to being a pro or being forced to work without the front office believing in him have made him a bad QB, then I can do without him and soon. The great ones like Farve and Young and even a good effort from Dilfer to win an SB came after front offices gave up on them. I expect as much from JP. As faras options. If Drew leaves then I expect we will have a couple of million dollars in cap room to acquire a QB. We probably have to resign Matthews as our disaster QB, but suddenly the Bills job will become more attractive to a rejected former starter who will be happy to dual with the youngster JP for the job. Heck, I would even think itsa good idea to sign your buddy Harrington because the word is that Detroit may give up on him. If he is willing to take the job without us going too far into our cap room to sign him (a cap hit for him of about $2 million) this may be the answer. Right now is premature because we need to see who gets cut.

Bledsoe was cleatrly one of the problems which stopped the Bills from winning it all or even making the playoffs, but is not the problem. In fact, in trying to make this team better, he is not even the first problem I would look at as we saw when we beat bad teams, second tier teams and even a few playoff teams in laughers during the streak. I think folks have been attracted by marketing to give too much credit to the QB for wins in what is really the ultimate team game in US sports and too much blame for losses. I think this team can win even with Bledsoe if we play like a TEAM.

I'm with you in terms of rooting for a 1st round QB to break the jinx of delivering an SB win to the team which drafted him. I'd hate for JP to have to carry the weight of breaking this streak which has denied teams an SB victory delivered for them by the guy they drafted in the 1st going all the way back to Dallas picking Aikman in 1989. Its an oddity that 1st round talent at QB has been available through other cheaper methods like the Ravens cap casualty pick up of Dilfer, or the Broncs and SF trading for this talent as they did with Elway and Young. At least with the way the NFC is lined up a first round choice will deliver even a berth in the SB to his team for the firs time since McNair led TN there in the last millenium. Detroit now looking apparently to jettison Harrington makes one happy we didn't take that rout to failure. Well at least Manning was able to increase by 50% the number of playoff wins he brought to Indy though unfortunately reinforcing Manning with the Marvin Harison contract. Edggerin James talent, Vanderjagts kicking and doing some great assessment to get ST players and do tough negotiating to deal with the drag of the Manning cap hit, and getting the best defensive HC in the game were not enough to deliver the goal all NFL players are shooting after. Perhaps, the line-up of Vick, McNabb. and RoboQB will be enough to at least finally make 2005 the exception to the rule that of you want to win an SB. dpm't expect a 2st round QB pick to deliver it.

Looking at their impacts on the W/L for the teams which drafted them the results are these: Ryan Leaf- 0-0 in playoff games, 0-0 in League championships Peyton Manning- 3-5 in playoff games and 0-1 in League championships Manning finally stormed ahead of Leaf last year in finally delivering a victory to the team which drafted him. This year he increased his total of playoff victories brought to the team which drafted him by 50% over Leaf's failed work. Boy, he sure is fun to watch during the regular season but I would certainly expect a little more W/L impact from a fellow who is probably one of the best quarterbacks to play the game. Maybe Polian should have spent a bit more time checking out the different insurance adjusters before he committed big bucks to resigning Manning.

I'm not sure how your point about the Pats follows from the arguments you make about Bledsoe. Bledsoe strikes me as an essential part of the Pats winning the SB in the 2001 season. Granted his initial and probably primary contribution was getting hurt after two games and there is no guarantee he would provide the same service to give JP a chance like he gave Brady a chance (though TD seems ti be taking care of that). However, he 1. Played QB in the majority of a must-win game for NE in the championship game and even threw the TD which provided the margin of victory. 2. Is spoken of incredibly highly by Brady for helping him in his development before and particularly after his injury. I think if all you have to do is look at the Pats then you would attempt to work on th difficult issue of making sure Bledsoe deals with the transition gracefully rather than worry about moving him out.

I disagree on a couple of facts that you state: 1. Yes we would have had not traded the future #1 to get Bledsoe though I'm pretty happy with the 1st round pick we got in that draft and had no need to use that 1st on getting a QB as we likely would have done if Blake was our QB. 2. We would not have had over $6 million in additional cap room to spend if we didn't trade for Bledsoe. His first year cap hit was $5.4 million not over $6 million. I don't know about you but I do not consider a million dollar difference mere chumop change. Further, getting Blake as our starter also would have some cost. I'm not sure what his salary is but we paid Matthes $700K to be our disaster QB and my guess is getting Blake to start would likely have reduced your false additional $6 million number by another couple of million or more. In my mind, the Bledsoe problem we had was not the trade which I view in terms of on the field contribution as good as we could do in terms of producing an 8-8 W/L his first year and as bad as it could be his second year based on his horrendous play. Add to that from the Bills\ business perspective the off field marketing they did when he got here. Our problem was resigning him after that wash.

Cliff notes begin: Get readt for Kordell to come to Buffalo if Mort is right and Bledsoe is a goner. Cliff notes end. The news that TD is apparently pushing Bledsoe to the wall to take a paycut is quite interesting. As I thought the resigning of Bledsoe was a mistake getting someone better at a reasonable cap hit is fine with me. However, I have yet to see any of the folks dancing with glee at the thought of getting rid of Bledsoe suggest real alternatives for who and how the Bills go forward at QB in 2005. I think one real world way of looking at this is to try to guess the Bills 2005 budget and I would love to see any rationale ideas about how we can play the best football we can under this budget. I think it shakes out this way: Current: #1 QB- Bledsoe (but fortunately TD says he has to win the job and I think this is more than approrpiate). Cap hit= $6.5 million #2- Losman has been given the opening by TD to use the minicamps and the pre-season to demonstrate that he can be our starter. Cap hot= $1.3 million #3- No one under contract but Matthews had a cap hit of $700,000 last year. These numbers are the best available I have seen and are based on Clumping Platelets work checked by looking at Bills' Daily, the official Bills website and other sources. If you have better #s fine, I'd love to add the source. At any rate, in our budget we apparently have devoted about $8.5 million to the QB position currently and we have one more player to sign. My guess is that we will need to sign another QB who is better than Matthews to be a credible team. JP is clearly our QB of the future, but it remains unclear when the future is here. I think JP developed nicely though not impressively last year primarily because of his injury. He did not get much time in real games which all players seem to need to truly be a contributor. On the negative side he came out of college with an impressive resume and rankings, but clearly identified issues regarding his mechanics and most pundits felt he was at least a year away. In pre-season I was impressed with his athleticism and in the scrimmage against the Browns and his pre-season appearances I was impressed with his athleticism and I think he is the real deal. However, the rumblings out of camp seemed to be that the cockiness which he showed (which I like) sometimes verged on obnoxiousness. There were some rumors that the hit he took which caused his injury was in part the result of his taking inappropriate advantage of the "tutu" QBs have in practice which stop them from getting hit to run the ball when he blew a pass play and that Troy Vincent gave him a shove he was not prepared for when he bailed out and ran the ball. Nevertheless, making lemonades out of the lemon as a fan of having him injured, I actually hope that he took advanatage of his enforced absense to soak up knowledge from Sam Wyche in the booth since he could not simply stand on the sidelines with the boys during games. His return to play was not stunniing at all as he was thrown into mop-up duty against NE and shall we say did not impress anyone with his athleticism or ballhandling as he produced an INT and a fumble. Yet, he seemed to take the correct lesson from this for his development in that his comments indicated that he not prepared himself to play and that in the future he would take it more seriously because you never know when you will be called upon to play. In his next two mop-up appearances he drove the team to TDs relyingon WM to run the ball. I think those who see these appearances as worthless because he did not throw the ball do not fully understand football and playter development from my view. Even with the mental preparation necessary which differs from the NE game, JP showed that he still has things to learn in terms of controlling the huddle and the game like a vet He took a delay of game penalty in his second appearance which I lay to him not being in total control when he first came in. The good news is that he overcame this initial failure by calling the plays and handing the ball off well enough to WM to get the TD. He improved in his third appearance in that he did not lose control such that we were penalized, instead he took an unecessary TO because he did not have control of the clock. Not good, but better than a penalty. Again he was impressive in moving the ball with the team as he not only got the team to a TD but converted a nice 3rd down with a scramble and even completed a clutch pass top Trafford. He needs work, but I liked what I saw. The bottomline is that JP may well have the stuff to earn the starting job sooner rather than later, but correctly he needs to do this on the field and not be given the job and we just suck it up and accept the losses while he learns. He is well in front of his peak and there will be some tough games as part of the learning process, but JP need to show in my mind that he delivers a ggod enough chance at winning now to make this learning prcess tolerable. 0-4 was unacceptable under Bledsoe's watch and it will be unacceptable to me under JP's watch. He may well win the job in mini-camp or pre-season or after a few games in 2005 (Brady did it in his second season and JP is far better regarded as a QB talent coming out of college than Brady was) but it would only be prudent for us to have a QB with at least the upside of Bledsoe for the dollars we have in 2005 if JP is not ready. Thus, there is a lot of interesting talk today from Mort of us pushing Bledsoe to take pay cut to reasonable back-up levels. I don't know exactly what prompted this or what it means (the same as with everyone else). Whatever. I am pleased to see the Bills moving forward to improve the QB positio. I trust the football braintrust enough that if this means Bledsoe is gone and we get someone better for a price we can afford, so be it. Likewise though if we keep Bledsoe and improve the QB position by picking up a better player with a giveback from Bledsoe that is fine with me also. Yhe bottomline to me is this: The two options (assuming Mort is right which is a big assumption since his reporting is not the same thing as TD publicly announcing something like Bledsoe must win the job). strike me as: 1. Keep Bledsoe at a reduced 2005 cap hit of a couple of million. 2. Cut Bledsoe and pick up 2 QB with the $2.8 million in cap room we have for QB in 2005 plus whatever cap room we want to devote to this pick-up instead of using this cap room for other FAs. Under the first option, I think we can probably pick-up one of the current FA QBs fiancially (Brees will want to get too much money for us from the market and will probably not be on the market anyway. This means Kordell. Holcomb, Bath or MacMahon who I think likely can be had for a 2005 cap hit of $2.8 million. I/m ot impressed with any of them but a three-way competition between JP. Bledsoe, and this FA should give us two QBs to start the minicamps with. The problem is I'm not sure that one of the available FAs can't do better than going up against JP and Bledsoe for the job. The second option is also doable for us. My guess is that we are limely to get someone like Kordell as our #2 but if TD can make the deal work to give Kordell some active time as out slash starter we might be able to arract a career back0up able to run our run first D successfully like a Holcomb. This really is interesting.

This is why the mistake was not trading for Bledsoe (which I have argued many times citing the results for both the Bills and the Pats was a wash at worst for us) but the mistake was resigning him. Even though we hung onto him in the most palatable manner possible (resigning him to a deal with a lower immediate cap hit rather than honoring his existing contract) it still has put us in a position where if were to cut him or trade him before June 1st we are taking a big cap hit. TD is up to something. I hope this is a sign that the braintrust sees good signs in JPs development and the team around him that it is reasonable to push Bledsoe to the wall.

Your math while accurate is a perspective taken by a shopper who sees something on priced at 2 million dollars but buys it on sale at 50% and feels good about it because they saved a million bucks. All well and good and accurate, but if all they have to their name is $2.50 then they are going to be paying off this debt for a long time. If you are going to look at this from the Bills team perspective right now they will get the inadequate play of Bledsoe for a cap hit of $6.5 million, By cutting him we end up with $4.3 million in dead space. Though we are advantaged in cap allocation by $2.1 million, we now have to buy a QB who at least will be a good grooming agent for JP and if he is not ready or gets hurt again we will need that QB to be our #1. If you are going to be truly accurate in assessing the cap impacts on the Bills of releasing Bledsoe it will be impossible as we will not know the replacement move until they make it, but you need to add your suggestions and their potyential implications is you want to claim accuracy. On the vet QBs currently on rosters who meet the thought of being former starters who are also developing youger QBs with whatever degree of capability they have to do it: Brunell has a cap hit of 2004 cap hit of $8.75 million but Ramsey is the QB of the future behind him. Warner has a cap hit of $8.6 million with Manning the QB of the future. Garcia has a cap hit of $6.3 million with uncertainty about the future Kerry Collins has a cap hit of $5.4 million with uncertainty about the future. Any somewhat accurate assessment of the cost of releasing Bledsoe should include an assessment of what it is likely to cost the Bills to play football, From the current FA lists, there are Qs like Brees who almost certainly won;t be available or would not want to come here to eventually lose out to JP and there are more likely candidates for us that are former startes like: Kordell Stewart Kelly Holcomg Charlie Batch Mike MacMahon Do be truly accurate you will need to estimate the costs of getting them and add this to your 2005 QB cap hit total.

This sounds great! Folks get all wound up in a kicker's placekicking results that they seem to devalue the other parts of the kicking game which while not the difference in point total for a particular game usually determine game-in and game-out what will occur. This is no defense of Lindell because after he missed the chip shot I think that the placekicking issue is such a problem this may well provide the room and the pressure for TD to take the deadspace cap hit from the mistake of signing him long term. However Lindell does get high marks for some really outstanding directional kicking that was a big part of our ST being so great in kick coverage in 2004 based on the stats I have seen on return yardage and also I think drive starts as well. One thing that AT demonstrated very well in this game was how important it is for blockers to set up a great picket line for a return and how important it can be when the team runs fakes and decoys well in the return game. A crtical job for the kicker is to kick it to exactly the place and exactly the manner that the team plans on him kicking it. Lindell showed an extraordinary ability to make some kicks squibs, some kicks high kicks and to kick to either side of the field without it going OB giving the receiving team great field position with no effort. No one knows whether he actually kicked it as ordered for suure, but given the Bills nearly pristine record in kick coverage and the diversity of types and lenths of kicks we saw in games, the strong likelihood is he did the job he was paid to do. A third facet of the kick game that Lindell did well with which is far less prevalent than the coverage game or the pressure kick game was onside kicks. I believe Lindell was called upon to do this twice this season. The effort was unsuccessful in the Steelers game but did not look like the kickers problem to me. The other time which occured during the streak was marverlous work by Lindell as the Bills opened up the 2nd half when the opoonents needed to an were clearly pumped to reverse the momentum of the game. April and the coaches made a great call in going with the onside kick as lclearly the opponent was dropping back to block and provided the Bills with a great opportunity. Lindell faked like he was doing a normal kick well. He hit the requisite 10 yards and he recovered the kick himself. Kudos to the whole ST unit as no one tipped out hand no hits or blocks can be made until the ball travels 10 yards. I believe they still use a higher tee in college than in the pros which makes it easier to create touchbacks. Nugent is far from a no-brainer even if he is available in the 3rd round where I think the Bills would take him because in addition to hitting FG, a judgment will have to be made that his touchback numbers will be the same in the pros and he will have to master the winds of the Ralph and directional kicking to make this a good pick.

Seeing as how I view the future as now when it comes to the NFL, I'd much prefer a player even less of an athlete than Henry if he were able to contribute to this team winning next year. Draftees are fun to speculate on, but like JP theu can be highly thought of an contribute little to the team of immediate value. If we can get a TE capable of filling the gap until Campbell or Euhus are fully recovered (this can easily be a year an half for a torn ACL), a back-up RB capable of giving Wills an occasional blow and take a game full of carries if we ever need him (I like Shaud Williams as a change-up for WM and as a 3rd down back, but I don't see the little guy taking the punishment of a game full of carries if our back-up needs be our starter) or a desinated pass rusher in the Jim Jeffcoat mode, I would easily trade Henry for this lesser player who fills an important role to make us a winner.

Individual records are certainly entertaining for those of us with an interest in this game cause its fun to watch. The records also provide some insights into trying to figure out something which is incredibly complex for being just a game.

Certaily we all should feel free to make predictions and I'm glad to see that like me you realize they are way out on a limb and totally baseless right now, but the prediction seems to say more about the predictor than the team you are predicting on. I think right now the predictions actually say whether the predictor is a: Mindless optimist- 16-0 Hopeful optimist- 12-4 Careful optimist- 10-6 but we make the playoffs Whiner- 8-8 Brutal pessimist- Losing record Its way before the season so everyone is 0-0. Quite frankly I think the brutal pessimist has a lot more to say for their views than the whiners. I generally tend to be an optimist amd I'm somewhere between hopeful and careful right now.

Actually, this just in kicking in general is hard. The clutch is often not the situation but the hand ofthe kicker going around his own throat. I think this does not excuse Lindell at all for missing his chip shot, because PKs get the big bucks for doing this hard thing. The real indictment here is of TD for his misguided comment after cutting Christie that good kickers are a dime a dozen in the NFL. Right. TD does many things well and I am glad he is our GM on balance, but he and the Bills simply have to do a better job with the kicking game.

Like I said, I have no idea why he isn't in because like many Bills partisans his record would seem to make this pretty logical. In the absence of seeming logic I am moved to consider even illogical reasons. I like the cut shared by Nanker that the main reason is that Ralph's teams have failed to win SBs while AFL based folks like Al Davis and LaMarr Hunt who should be even more reprihensible to the NFL types are already in. I am attracted to the theory that Ralph's blow-up with Butler was a bit too public and he lost (a truly unforgivable sin in this world) but this does not seem to strike me as likely moving the votes of that many people, My recitation of the events surrounding the Kelly walkway money seem to be the public record of events and if I got any wrong I appreciate the correction. I think these events would also tend not to move votes and the entirely theoretical part of my thinking which would move votes would be if Ralph took one line of rectitude initially but then took the line of what I believe to be the facts of the Kelly case in real life. These events were reasonable but from my view though they were more what a moral relatavist like a Jerry Jones would do rather than an absolute judgment doing the "right" thing every time. As I sad, this is all theory on my part and I only consider these illogicak conspiracv ideas because the logical thing of honoring RWS with the HOF simply is not happening. I'm certainly game to embrace some other illogical theory to explain these events.

Getting back to the original question (rather than various speech-to-text promouncements) in layman's terms the CBA governing NFL players is in essence the framework for rules underlying the growing partnershp between the NFL (owners) and NFLPA (players). This partnership is a maturation of a relationship that hit its low point in the mid-80s when the owners beat the crap out of the players who were demanding 52% of the gross receipts of the NFL be devoted to players' salaries. They made this demand under the leadership of Ed Garvey and tried to force the issue and gain a victory by striking. The NFL responded by hiring replacement players and marketing their product and basically broke the union. Under the leadership of NFLPA President Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA adopted a new strategy in the post-Garvey era and moved to decertify itself as the representative for the players. This would actually have forced the owners to compete against each other in the free market for players. The highesr bidder in essence would buy the best players as it was actually through the cooperation of the NFLPA that the NFL is able to use non-free market restraints on free trade like the NFL draft, fines of players based on consistent rules, etc. In the face of not being willing or able to do business in a free market, the NFL instead agreed to formulate a basic partnership with the players where they now get approximately 70% of the DEFINED gross in salaries. This defined amount is less than the actual gross as it does not include important revenue streams like club seats in stadiums. However, due to the stability and security that the CNA provides even this lesser defined gross is far more money than the players would have gotten even if they had received 52% of the old total gross receipts. In general many posters and fans are stuck in the old mode of thinking that their is a zero-sum competitive war going on between the players and owners, Actually they have now recognized that they are partners and through co-operation defined in the CBA (and mostly enforced through all parties having to share total information about the salaries they pay) they both make tons nore money (mostly through the cashcow of TV) bu co-operating rather than fighting. In general though we humans seem to love fighting this is actually true of most things.

Thw fining and the firing are not necessarily things I would compare because they designed to achieve different effects and also to achieve different things. I see the fining of Moss as not designed at all to hurt him financially, because it is obvious that as far as he goes 10K is mere chump change in terms of what he makes from the NFL and what he has overall in terms of wealth, I think it is more of a statement from the NFL of what it wants to be associated with or not and what it judges to be the relationship it wants to have between itself, its employees and its clients. I think the Moss fine is low not in relation to its impact upon him and his finances, which quite frankly is going to be pretty negligible up to a huge fine, I think it actually is not much of a statement in terms of showing respect to its customers in terms of leveling some level of censure on a player for a blatant non-football act and an act of childishness. The firing on the other hand involves a hefty financial hit on the individual involved because he substantial salary is being taken from him and uncertainty about his future delivered upon him by his firing. BoA may actually be well within their rights forfiring him as his actions involved what the company deemed an inapprorpriate display on company letterhead and in a report. It doesn't bother me even if he was a cross-dresser as long as he is providing me with the service I want for the price I am paying him. However, I can easily see that BoA may not find it in their interest for him to cultivate a cavalier and fun style that I might not find offensive when their business is managing folks money. So this judgment is not something that bothers my sensibilities even though the cover picture does not bother my sensibilities either.

I've always wondered if part of Ralph's problem with some folks on the selection committee was the way the final days of Jim Kelly went down vis-a-vis the salary cap. The cap was just swinging into full implementation and the Bills were hard at work trying to squeeze in one or more competitive teams before the grim reaper of cap hell came to call. Butler had done the unfortunate but probably necessary thing of extending vet contracts far beyond the time a player would play (Bruce, Phile Hansen, John Fina contracts for example) so that he could lower their immediate cap hit by paying them the large amounts or money the market demanded but prorate these payments over several years. This method is effective for holding onto vets, but eventually catches up with you when its time for a player to go and his cap figure accelerates into the current year. When Kelly's contract was coming to an end, he demanded to be paid what the market offered but did so a year in advance of his actual negotiation date occuring. RWS was correctly reluctant to extend the Kelly deal when it was not a sure thing he would be able to play much of his extended contract (in fact he occured that Kelly could not play any of it since Jax and his declining play forced him to retire). However, he made a handshake agreement with Jim to take care of him when the negotiations around this contract occured one year in the future and gave his solemn handshake to do this. Theoretically, such a deal in itself is a violation of the rules as RWS was taking on a future debt without taking a cap hit for it. However, this is not a real or enforcable violation as there was no real dollar amount involved and no actual figure to prorate. The problem was that when Kelly was forced to retire after the Jax concussion, he did make it clear that RWS needed to hold to his word and give Kelly something significant. There was no written contract with specific amounts so RWS could have simply walked away and left Kelly hanging (like the vendors who Kelly left hanging when his Buffalo restaurant folded), but RWS did not do this. He apparently gave Kelly a walking away check for $1 million. In mu mind, this was probably well deserved since Kelly had been a great Bill and helped bring the team many victories and glory and was easily a part of bringing RWS far more than a million bucks in profits. However, he paid this amount and as far as I know this was never allocated against the Bills salary cap because Kelly was not under contract to the Bills anyway at that point and the "walking away" money was probably done as a personal services contract between RWS and Jimbo rather than the Bills an Jimbo. The situation was unfortunate but things happen in life. RWS did something like the right thing in that he honored his word and Jimbo did nothing more than hold RWS to an agreement made and probably merited some payment based on this aggreement, past service to the franchise and the unknowns of Krabbe's disease and Hunter Kelly. However, the fact these payments did not hit the Bills in terms of cap was only legit in that Kelly was no longer a Bill and the general agreement was made when he was a Bill and based on an assumption he would remain one and any payment could be added ("hidden") in his future contract. The deal is marginal but not necessarily problematic in and of itself to the level to deny RWS what seems to me to be a merited place in the HOF. However, I do wonder what RWS said in the days prior to these events because similar off the book deals were being made by folks such as Jerry Jones as the tested the new CBA. I know nothing as a fact, but it would not surprise me at all if some folks may have a problem with RWS taking an initial stand based on an absolute assessment of what is correct and fair in terms of implementation of the CBA (the Jones/Deion Sanders deal was wrong from my perspective) but then he himself invested in a deal which was marginal at best in terms of implementation of the CBA with the Kelly deal. I'm not a fly on the wall so I have no idea what happened. However, if we are theorizing as to what on earth could be denying RWS a rightful spot in the HOF based on his AFL contributions and that even more controversial AFL figures like Lamar Hunt and Al Davis are in, i would suspect that there is something else sticking in the craw of voters. I doubt Ralph had an affair with Pete Rozelle's wife. I doubt RWS is a secret crack cocaine user and folks are taking a stand against him because of some weird transgression or rumor. My guess is that part of the rationale behind folks denying RWS this honot may well be how the Kelly deal went down and comments he made before which did not speak directly to this case but certainly seemed based in a more absolute reading by RWS of what is right and what is wrong. Who knows? I can't explain this bizarre denial beyond wondering if it is something like this.

Heck its already 2005 so wait til next year means this year, so this is my way too early-don't hold me to 'em-worst to first is possible like never before- cut at what will happen with our record in this year's 2005 season. Home: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Broncos, Chiefs, Falcons, Panthers, Texans Away: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Buccaneers, Chargers, Saints, Raiders, Bengals Home, I think I'm pretty conservative picking them to go 6-2 at home. The good news is that 8-0 is incredibly unlikely but that all 8 games are quite winnable. Depending on the way the season goes we will not be favored in every home game but we might easily be. Our worst chances off the top seem to be facing a NE team that clearly knows how to take advantage of Bledsoe. However, one has to ignore us beating them 31-0 at home last amd evem hanging with them for over 3 quarters this year to insist that this game is not winnable. The Jets, Broncos and Falcs are the three 2004 season playoff teams we will face at home. Given the direction these three teams are heading in their development I suspect we cam handle the Jets at home again, the Broncs actually appear in disarray to me and the Falcs appear to be the second touhest home game on our schedule but with this mercurial team who knows. Figure we beat one team we should lose to and lose to a team we should beat and I figure it shakes out at 6-2. Road: Being optimistic, I think we can also produce a winning record on the road and finish 5-3. We finally have learned how to win on the road. Maybe its the cheeseburgers and also facing bad teams like SF. However, I was impressed by us beating a playoff team in Seattle and a good gut check game against an up and coming Bengals squad and by large margins each time. Going 2-1 against division opponents on the road will be tough but it is doable. Yhe good news is that of the other 5 road games, only the Chargers are a playoff team and much remains to be seen how they handle their QB issues before we see what our chances are. At amy rate this 11-5 record almost certainly makes the playoffs and depending upon how the ball bounces homefield advantage is not impossible to dream about. From an initial view I like the schedule. Most playoff qualifying opponents are at home and always tough road opponents like the Chiefs and Broncs have to come to our house.

I assume he was able to buy some type of exotic insurance policy in case he gets hit with a massive injury ala WM. Does anyone have any details on this type of policy assuming it exists. Certainly with insurance and with what USC boosters are willing to provide him and his family in terms of the many "legal" benefits an athlete gets and whatever is happening under the table he will be quite fine in the short0term. If injured an insurance policy will assure financial benefits and if not injured he will greatly enhance his market value by staying in even if he has a so-so year which is probably unlikely given the significant number of returning USC stars, , phenoms attracted to a winner and his talent. This looks like a good move morally and financially.