Fake-Fat Sunny

In my mind these are the four choices. I personally would chose option 3 as my assessment. I think the Bills clearly needed an upgrade over RJ and AVP after the 2001 3-13 debacle. On the field, Drew merited his Pro Bowl nod for his gunslinging to a remarkable upgrade in record to 8-8 in the 2002 season. Bledsoe proved to be extremely effective for only half that season as opposing defenses caught up with him in the second half once they had plenty of tape to review, as Bledsoe threw a whole bunch of passes and took his usual amount of wicked sacks behind relatively poor pass pro from our young OL, and due to winter weather. However, his performance for the season as a whole, a nice inish against the Bungles and him making a comeback from losing his jpb easily made him one of the top 3 QBs in the conference that tear. Of great note since this sport is a business, Bledsoe's presence in rejuvenating interest in the team after a lousy 3-13 cap hell season was a key. Say what you want about his play, but from the way he shut up and took it for the team when Brady booted him out his job because Brady is simply a better QB was admirble and I only wish most NFL brats had his team first character. TD did great work pulling off a trade for a starting QB within the division and even with the two losses to NE because BB knew Bledsoe's failings the team still made a massive improvement in their record. In addition, NE did take it in the chops for a season losing Bledsoe, not because they missed him at all with a better QB in place but because the accelerated cap hit cost this team the ability to sign marginally better players and I attribute the SB win (with Bledsoe actually playing an essential role QBing the majority of a must-win game and then correctly shtting up for the team as the better QB came bacj for the SB) followed by a playoff miss I attribute to the accelerated cap hit, followed by an SB win once that cap penalty was off the books as why teams don't like trading a high priced player at all and particularly within the division. Yet, his play simply stunk up the joint last year and I would have just counted his 1 good year on the field and rejuvenation of the business as plusses and cut my losses by saying adios last off-season. I saw the utility of what TD tried to do and you only keep DB if you can resign him to a cap friendly deal for 2004 which he did. Howevr, TD and the braintrust made a mistake by not getting a back-up at #2 capable of taking over for DB if his play stayed south. It has. Travis Brown probably wasn't the #2 we needed even before his injury and the rookie Losman also was not the #2 we needed even before his injury. Marl me down as one who thinks pretty clearly the mistake was in resigning him because I think he was an excellent acquisition for the Bills in terms of his first year onfield play and his off-field contributions to the business. I would disagree strongly with those who would argue that we never should have acquired him because they hate him, think he is overrated, or whatever. Our choices at the time were to resign RJ (right make that argument amd evem folks who hate DB will laugh), resign AVP (he's in the right place for the Bills right where he is now) or take another available QB (Jeff Blake seems in retrospect to be he best available QB so getting Bledsoe for a song courtesy of an NE subsidy for two years was the best available option. Those who argue he never won correctly find some stats which support this point but simply ignore the fact that he QB'ed a team to the SB under the expert guidance of Parcells and actually played an essential role and earning his SB ring in being part of the 2001 season Pats. The argument that he has NEVER been a winner simply holds no water because it is wrong. the vast majority of QBs would kill to have DBs deserved AFC Champion ring and his SB ring he deserved. Likewise I disagree strongly with those who argue that his acquisition was a decision of TDs with no faults despite my sense that on balamce it was the right move to make. There was somewhat more good to getting him rather than sticking with RJ or going with Blake or Chandler, but he stunk so bad last year the Bills really should have said thanks but no thanks to him and used the cap savings to make the deal for Volek and also bid a little higher for Kordell to fight it out for the #1 and #2 Bills job with Losman as our disater QB. Signing him to his current deal was the right thing to do if your're going to rsign him, but the 0-3 performance strongly indicates that it was a poor assessment by our braintrust that he was judged salavageable and it was simply foolish not have a higher quality #2 than Travis Brown. As it stands, Bledsoe can still be cut after June , 2005 and his remaining cap hit will not be too bad for 2005 and 2006, but this year appears to be circling the drain. Though in my mind blaming this all on DB and his play is silly as even a better QB would likely post similar results behind this OL, with Sunday's D performance against Brady and with our OC still searching for an effective O plan would not make much of a difference in terms of the bottomline for this team. At any rate, TD done good by getting him but he should have quit while we ahead before this season.

Not so fast, i think Losman will develop better for the Bills as a QB if he follows the Vick/Pennington sit and learn to be a better QB method and then make the playoffs your second year rather than rushing him along faster than his background or talent merits and potentially make him into Todd Collins. I agree that this team is clearly not capable of winning by overdepending on the gunslinging of Bledsoe, but this fact does not mean that it can win by overdepending upon a rookie at QB or that this rookie will develop best and benefit most from being thrown in behind this Tulane like O-line. Granted that players learn things playing at NFL speeds they do not learn watching, but JP strikes me as someone who will profit most in player development by: 1. Really learning how a good NFL offense flows and works. He needs to replicate what Kelly learned which allowed him to call plays in the K-Gun and the best way for him to learn this is by sewing his ear to Sam Wyches mouth in the press box and really learn how the Os of both teams work. 2. Focuses on his own head learning the game rather than focusing on learning how to motivate and teach Travis Henry which he will have to focus on if he might play in the game. I take Kyle Boller at his word that his season ending injury last year was great for his development because their were simply things you can learn when you have no chance of playing that you cannot learn when you are playing. 3. Works on his own mechanics so he does the same thing every play rather than exhibiting the bad habit he picked up under the run at Tulane of throwing off the wrong foot or improvising to make the play after a blocking breakdown. I am not saying that QB scrambling talent has not effect on sack outcomes. One need only look at Doug Flutie's example to see that. However, one need only look at the Flutie example to see that there is a lot more to being a successful QB than running talent. I hope that JP focuses this year on improving his game and not on simply playing for the short term benefit of fans.

Coughlin and Parcells strike me as wo very different types of HCs so while it is clear that MM has failed to produice in his brief stint and TD made a huge mistake in hiring the "note ready to be a primetime HC" Gregg Williams, you suggesty replacing these failures with two very different types of HCs. Both are similar in that they have a clear point of view and the team alters itself to express that approach, thre is a whoelsale difference between the two which overwhelms this similarity or their difference in approach from MM. Coughlin strikes me as a guy who experiences initial success with his team but his "my way or the highway" approach tends to ultimately alienate the team and reverse the early success he had (this is the Carolina story and we may be seeing the beginning of it in NY) as he wears out his welcome. Hallmarks of the Coughlin style were episodes like the one in NC where he issued an edict against his assistants and players wearing sunglasses and seemed to assert his authority with random acts of firing and terror which kept everyone on their toes and demanded that follow the same approach but ultimately led to backbiting and his team doing an el foldo. Parcells on the other hand (anyone who saw the 60 Minutes piece yesterday can correct me with their perspectives as I didn't) seems to get it at the their is now a partnership between the NFL and NFLPA. Individual players may well be spoiled brats, but they have the money to be spoiled if they choose to be and though they sorely need and even want disicipline and need to be on the same page to be successful, he knows that you only discipline players with their permission. Unlike the reign of terror Coughlin mode which produces shorter term discipline but ultimately failure, Parcellls breeds fierce loyalty from his players and gets performance out of idiots like Keyshawn and oldsters like Testaverde because he is loyal to any player who plays hard and puts his teammates first even if a player like Keyshawn simply says stupid egotistic things. There are certainly quick firings in the land of Parcells (witness Quincy Carter), but they do not have the randomness that Coughlin brings and seem to happen against not simply players who take on the HC or violate his edicts, but against players who let their teammates down. Its hard for me to imagine a player taking a swing or even implying he would at Coughlin and being around, but Parcells almost encourgages such behavior to clear the air as long as eventually he and player kiss and make-up and the player is loyal to his teammates. Parcells seems to be able to find public fault with his players by clothing his cutting assessments in jokes and a great sense of humor. Coughlin seems more like a serious death camp type with his random acts of terror. So advocating that the Bills go to a firmer HC makes sense to me, particular given the lack of discipline under GW and MM seen in getting too many penalties. Hpwever, advocating an approach like Coughlin OR Parcells strikes me as two different things to advocate. So which type of HC do you want or do you not see any difference here?

I think he develops better as a contributor to the Bills over his career and as an nfl qb if he is simply our disaster qb and never plays at all this year If he somehow shows in practice with MM and the Bills braintrust that even as a rookie he is the greatest rookie QB since Marino you obvously play him but given the shortcomings already seen in the game of someonw with Tulane level experience i think the following experience is our guide A Clearly you learn stuff playing against pro players you do not learn in the classroom but JP seems like he has the most to learn from the classroom and pressbox side than on the field side of the ball I think he learns more and better being next to wyche in the pressbox than learning the scout team as a back_up He needs to worry more about the Xs and Os than worrying about inspiring Travis Henry rught now B The Vick Pennington model seems to offer him more than starting his first year C As Boller said during the draft his injury after starting last year demonstrated to him that there are simply tjomgs a player learns sitting and studying that he cannot learn on the field jp starting will do a lot for us fans who think Bledsoe cannot do it but I think it will likely be less helpful for development of JP who needs to learn to anticipate NFL play and improve his own mechanics rather than how to be a leader or how to play at NFL speeds

Actually the tape u have of the play shows him quite clearly firming up his grip on the ball before he gets hit by the first tackler and then a second tackler comes in who hits the ballsquarely (as anyone can see it flew forward a couple of dozen yards after the hit) and he also hit one of his teammates and knocked him out> the woulda< coulda seems legit in that if things were different they wouldn:t be the same< but the shoulda seems pretty farfateched if someone wants to claim that a good player would have prepared even further against the bizarre chain of events which led to the fumble

I am happy to "reveal" this secret since it has been discussed before as with reversed names like yvel vram for our sainted hc of the old days< my name is a reversal of an eminem (mm) tune title as far as DB goes he has seen his best days but simple honesty (rather than devoting too much focus to db by loving or hating him) needs to recognize that he has played an essemtial role as qb on teams which made the sb with parcells reminding him to throw the damn ball rather than going into his trademark patpatpatsack mode and with bb when he filled in for an injured Brady to win a must win game in their SB run He deserved his Pro bowl nod in his first season for the bills and deserved to be cut after last season howeve if a GM chooses to keep him I suggest this only happen under particular circumstances A do not focus on his play to lead your team_ run and run the ball some more and use the threat of his arm as a changeup B negotiate a cap friendly deal with him C get a backup qb capable of leading the team to wins in at least a Reich kind of level I think if all of the codiciles laid out by Bill from NY were met in term of the team not making stupid plays and my thoughts were met in terms of the team not relying on db but using him as a threat i think this team could make the playoffs with MM pulling off a Parcells like coaching job However I don"t mistake MM for Parcells>

I'm happy to vote for Bush to be President of Iraq because he certainly did citizEns of that country a great service by having our military clean that evil idiot Saddam's clock. However, I agree with his Dad who passed on eliminating Saddam in the early 90s because he understood (Like Colin Powell) that the cost of American lives to do this was too high. Clothing this war amidst the 9/11 tragedy is a nice Pol. trick but doesn"t serve us interests as iraq has replace afghanistan as a recruiting and training ground for world terrorism The democrats are foolish political jerks as well< but at least they seem to know how feeble they are while we pay for the Presidents folly in both blood and cash>

If recognizing that this is a team incapable of making the playoffs even if Bledsoe got his act together makes me an apologist, then call me an apologist. Bledsoe has seen his best days already and even at his best needs an HC like Parcells or BB to make a team a winner with him playing an essential role. However, focusing on his sorry production as the source or the beginning of the Bills problems simply devotes too much time and attention to his play. As I have said, i think TD made a mistake by not saying sayonara to Drew after last season and using his cap room for investment in a cap casuallty starter and a back-up with some upside to fill the QB position while Losman sits for a year and trues to follow the examples of Vick and Pennington. However, it sdimply shows a failure to understand pro football to assert that the Bills prolems end or even begin with Bledsoe's sucky play. This team has not even remotely done what it needs to do in terms of: 1. generating an NFL pass rush from its defensive front four 2. Recovering from a three year vacation at building a credible O-line which suffered under Vinky and Ruel and which JMac has not reversed yet. 3. Simply makes too many critical mistakes at the worst times in terms of the poor discipline showed by the many penalties. Bledsoe has a role in at least two of these three problems as he is not fleet of foot if your OL sux and as one of the older players on this team, he has to work like the the coaches and front office to bring discipline to this team. However, it is beyond me how anyone thinks this team would win with Vick, Pennington or virtually anyone else at QB instead of Bledsoe. Even Brady probably wouldn't have fumbled in the 4th quarter, he merely would have been sacked for a big loss o 4th down by an onrushing Teddy Brueschi if he were our QB. Over focus in Bledsoe whether it is hatred or love is not the answer for this team.

If recognizing that this is a team incapable of making the playoffs even if Bledsoe got his act together makes me an apologist, then call me an apologist. Bledsoe has seen his best days already and even at his best needs an HC like Parcells or BB to make a team a winner with him playing an essential role. However, focusing on his sorry production as the source or the beginning of the Bills problems simply devotes too much time and attention to his play. As I have said, i think TD made a mistake by not saying sayonara to Drew after last season and using his cap room for investment in a cap casuallty starter and a back-up with some upside to fill the QB position while Losman sits for a year and trues to follow the examples of Vick and Pennington. However, it sdimply shows a failure to understand pro football to assert that the Bills prolems end or even begin with Bledsoe's sucky play. This team has not even remotely done what it needs to do in terms of: 1. generating an NFL pass rush from its defensive front four 2. Recovering from a three year vacation at building a credible O-line which suffered under Vinky and Ruel and which JMac has not reversed yet. 3. Simply makes too many critical mistakes at the worst times in terms of the poor discipline showed by the many penalties. Bledsoe has a role in at least two of these three problems as he is not fleet of foot if your OL sux and as one of the older players on this team, he has to work like the the coaches and front office to bring discipline to this team. However, it is beyond me how anyone thinks this team would win with Vick, Pennington or virtually anyone else at QB instead of Bledsoe. Even Brady probably wouldn't have fumbled in the 4th quarter, he merely would have been sacked for a big loss o 4th down by an onrushing Teddy Brueschi if he were our QB. Over focus in Bledsoe whether it is hatred or love is not the answer for this team.

Agreed. Both have brrn lousy at production but there is simply no comparison between MM failing to produce wins and Bush hiding behind the great work of a miltary (that should have 300,000 guys to win the "peace" in Iraq according to military minds) and getting over a 1000 of our boys killed and multiples injured. Lets have a little perspective here.

NE is so much better than what has proven to be a horrible team.

Tax rates are a big concern but really a secondary concern for me behind the failure of elected officials to control spending. There is a chicken and egg aspect to this as tax revenues are raised to spend money and poor spending leads to higher taxes. However, there is a natural tendency on the part of the public to rebel against higher taxes without one having to generate interest while spending controls are generally ignored as an issue. I ronically, we seem to fall for the game that there is some critical important difference between the GOP and the Dems. The Dems are the party of tax and spend, but the GOP has abandoned any semblance of fiscal discipline and merely borrow and spend. Federak spending and the debt have hit unheard of levels under Bush as he attempts like the Dems to buy his way to re-election. Quite franjly I am happy to give taxes on my income to the government for spending for the public good. it makes no sense for me to buy my own fighter planes to protect me, for me not to pay for firefighters, and I also think it is a good thing for me to pay teachers to teach youngsters and to pay to take care of those who are disabled. I think my taxes are higher than they need to be for those good purposes because we routinely spend public dollars on private things like subsidies for businesses as we compete state against state and city against city to attrack them with tax abatements that have led to the vast majority of corporations essentially paying no taxes. Though individual tax rates have fallen in a huge way federally since the 70% tax rates under Nixon, these costs have mostly been shifte to the local level as state and local taxes have gone up to meet this gap. The complaint against these rising local taxes is just simplistic and ignores the realuty of its causes.

A rebel? It sounds like a sad case of un or poorly treated mental illness to me (based on what his Mom said). I find it strange to attribute much logical thought (even if it is merely a commitment to rebeling and being different than the norm) to a sad setof actions which clearly have brought pain to a lot of family members, could have been much worse because he took such a danagerous path and ended in the death of someone who had so much.

That's funny, I thought it was Amherst where many citizens need a bailout because of leaking basements and cracked foundations. As an Erie County resident who does not live in Amherst, I understand that sometimes your neighbors can use or need a hand-out because they have fallen prey to stupid political leadership or unscrupulous folks making a buck. Tax increases strike me as a legit way to share this burden amongat us all> the problem from my point of view is not taxes< the problem is greedy and stupid politicians and profiteers.

Carter taking a swing at him sounds doubtful since Parcells seems to view this type of exchange as partof building a positive and winning relationship between the HC and player. Perhaps Testaverde is a better bet for the type of outcome he describes and Keyshawn would be a better candidate in terms of the players temperament and the outcome.

Apparently the full interview will be on 60 minutes this Sunday. I look forward to it as this quote seems to be rooted in the reality of achievement that the key is not doing things perfectly with no mistakes (that ain't gonna happen) the key is surviving the mistakes and the bad times together as a team. I think that we have all lapsed into some sense of being afraid to acknowledge mistakes and claiming perfection when last I checked we were all human and imperfect. Good results like Parcells has acheived comes with fights and errors, the key seems to be getting past the my way or the highway mode and realizing that a TEAM needs to stay on the highway together even with the conflicts.

But what are you actually advocating? Take JP off the injured list right now because Drew is so bad even though he and every one else knows he is not healed yet (even being ahead of schedule), much less ready to play even if he was ready to be made active. I think not (though correct me if I'm wrong). I think virtually every one agrees that: 1. Bring JP along as his medical condition allows. He should not be made active until he is physically ready to be active. Whe he is made active, practice will be the first and only thing for him to do. 2. He should be placed on depth chart based on how he practices. This is as our disaster QB until he proves to be a better bet for the team and his development as the back-up. He should neither be promoted quicker than he shows to be our back-up, not is matthews so good that if he immediately shows that he has the talent to be better as our back-up should his progress be restricted. I don't know anyone who advocates that JP be expected to gain the most for his development from soending time with Sam Wyche as i do or even those who foolishly want to rush him in as our starter who see a different course of action for the Bills in either case. JP should be brought along as quickly as the reality of medicine allows. That reality will not even allow him to be an active player who is able to be our disaster QB for a few weeks at best. When JP is made active, reality will determine how quickly he can contribure to the team and by that time we will know a lot more about the state of the Bills season and the state of Bledsoe's play. For now, the best and only thing for JP to do is to get his physical condition as good as it can be and to study like a demon.

The sarcasm is unfortunately predictable. I can see why some folks are worried about TSW because there are a lot of posts lately from folks more interested in their own opinion than they are about the Bills. This strikes me as the main problem.

Peyton Manning is clearly a singular talent at QB in the NFL and why anyone would simply take what worked well for Manning as the method which must be followed by lesser QBs (I think Losman is no Peyton Manning, do you think he is?) makes little sense. My sense of Losman is that when one looks at his specific pluses and minuses shown by his performance in college and in the pre-season, he is a player who stands to improve and profit most from things he will learn off-field rather than things he will learn on-field. In terms of his development, both is better! By playing the game, he will see NFL Ds up close and personal, assuming he is not killed will learn to play at NFL speeds against NFL opponents and will learn to make good decisions under the gun. However, from what I have seen of Losman, I'm less worried about him perfecting these skills than: 1. He needs to practice his mechanics so he always is throwing off the correct foot and getting the most jucie out of his body for any pass he throws. The highlight films from Tulane I have seen show JP making some phenomenal throws under the gun because the Tulane blocking was so bad, however, though one canget away with questionable throws, spirals and accuracy in college he will likely get raped if this is the norm of his pro style. Even worse, co-ordination rather than free-lancing is even more important at the Pro level and he will have to make the same throw the same way for his recevers. I see his work in this regard as watching a lot of film to understand what he could do better and watching film of the good QBs like Manning to learn what they do well. This will need to be augmented with him getting on the field for practice throwing, and also working with running patterns with Evans and the reserves, but i think he has work to do in this area before he gets the practice of doing this in a real game. he should be working on this now even without being able to take the field. 2. He needs to understand how our offense works and be able to anticipate Clements calls even before he makes them. Again film review is the key. 3. If he gets really good not only will the Bills O become second nature to him, but he will learn opposing Ds as well. JP really has a singular opportunity right now to make himself a better more productive QB without the distraction of being prepard for this weeks gameplan so that he doesn't pull a Billy Joe Hobert if he were the back-up or even the disaster QB. I for one would love to see JP on the filed being Peyton Manning but he isn't Peyton Manning from all I have seen, he really looks like he will be more productive in even the short-run (next year) for the Bills devoting his time right now to soaking up knowledge from Sam Wyche than worrying about Troy Vincent taking off his head for being an uppity rookie.

There simply isn't much too say beyond windbag braggadocio after our 0-31 drubbing at the hands of NE at the end of last season, after needing to fire our HC last year and start over (not from scratch but near there), after NE won it all for the econd time in three years and after a horrndous close but no ciga 0-2 start. The starting point (at least even a sem-logical one) has to start on the field this Sunday with the Bills at least making a good showing and really protecting our houseinthe face of an NE team which can set a consecutive wins record. A lot of BBs rantings are simply the victor writing the history out of convenience. For example, it is correct that BB recognize that Milloy was on backend of his career and did not merit the impact his contract would have on the team by NE honoring it. However, the implication I have seen from his remarks that Milloy was done, a bad player, a negative leader for the Pats, and not NE material was simply not BB's views when he was trying to get Milloy signed to a low-ball deal. BB would have happily taken Milloy for a little less money than Milloy demanded, and probably would have said he is a great guy who we are glad to have if Milloy had "rolled over" and taken meres millions instead of multi-million of dollars from Bb and the Pats for his services. However, despite the conveniences of Bb's revisionist views, the facts are the Bills sucked at the end of last season and have done nothing yet on the field to reverse this conclusion. Hope springs eternal for us fans this weekend though so we'll see.

No one likes to see anyone get hurt, but ironically as long as JP recovers fully physically in the ling run, I think not being able to play is probably the best thing for his development as a player right now and as a future bigtime contributor to the Bills. This can easily be mere whistling in the dark, but my thinking is: 1. I would have loved to see JP burst on the scene and be ready to go right from the start and lead us to an SB this year. However, in the real world this wasn't going to happen anyway. I had him penciled in as the disaster QB for the Bills this year as I thought it was even unlikely that this rookie was going to contribute to the team as a winning gack-up as a rookie. I'm bummed he's hurt, but i see know difference between his contribution right now injured to what his contribution would have been to this team if he were healthy. 2. Nothing teaches like playing at NFL speed against NFL opponents. However, in addition to learning how to play at pro speeds against pro opponents, I also feel that Losman has a lot to learn about understanding the game mentally as well as physical improvement in playing at pro speed rather than Tulane speed. Between the two, I am actually much more confident at Losman's physical abiliies (particular after this pre-season than in his mental abilities. Even hirt he can still learn the clipboard stuff which i think is a key to improvement for him. In fact, as Kyle Boller observed at the NFL draft, I think he will do a better job learning the game without the distraction or preparing himself (even as disaster QB) on the off-chance he might play the game. if the result of this injury is more quality time for him at Sam Wyche's knee learning the game in the press box rather than learning the game carrying the clipboard I think he will benefit. 3, The pressure to play and produce is a real deal and I think a big part of the mismanagement of many a young talent. The Brett Farve's of the world, Steve Young's, Trent Dilfers and Brad Johnson were traded away by teams which rushed them along and I'm glad that this temptation and pressure is not there on JP right now. Its fine with me if Losman sits out this whole season and does not contribute to the Bills because I really doubt he will contribute on the field as a rookie if he were to play. I think like Micjael Vick, Chad Pennington and others the fact that he sits out all or most of this season should have little or no negative effect on his future production and the opportunity to sit and watch without the distraction of being prepared to play can and should be a great benefit to his game.

One of the difficulties for BB and the boys in figuring out a strategy for this gameis that it is not clear at all what the Bills will try to do since offensively they have yet to identify and approach that they do well, Cerainly the Bills will try to run and run some more. However, it is less than clear what types of runs and what running plays the Bills like because they have yet to establish an offensive pattern of being successful with a particular approach or some series of particular plays. This is not problematic for BB in that the answer is going to be for him to set the tone and force the Bills to answer to him and follow his lead. However, this is tough to do defensively anyway and even tougher to do on the road. I think a lot of this will come down to individual player performance and who wants it more. Neither team has been imposing in forcing its will upon the opponent. However, as far as it goes a desire to avoid an 0-3 start seems to me to be a bigger motivation than to try to set a consecutive wins record. I like our chances on this one.

Sure the buck stops with the HC whether he did something correctly or incorrectly he should or shouldn't have done. It appears from my vantage point that it appears doubtful that even if MM had challenged the Henry call, that the replay gave the conclusive proof the rule requires (though the rule is inconsistently applied by the refs) necessary to reverse the call on the field. Hindsight is of course 20/20 but I doubt that a challenge by him here would have made the difference as it is unlikely the cll would have been reversed and even if it was the Bills still need to win the rest of the game (which given the other ref errors some of which could not be challenged and our own misfires was in grave doubt). Still regardless of why the result happens he gets to much of the credit and too much of the blame. In terms of reality, blaming him for this to the some of some coaching change or lacking faith that he and the TEAM will take the lesson from this and not make themselves sugbject to the luck of the refs seems way too early to do.

WGR pursues their interest which is making money. In the old days there was some thought at least given to them also having an interest in pursuing good journalism, supporting Buffalo and WNY, or some sense of a broader mission. However, it certainly seems to be the case that all they are pursuing is their legal obligation to maximize fiscal returns for their stockholders as this is what the law requires. Such is life.

A salary cap certainly seems to be the main issue of dispute, however, there is legotomate argument as to whether this large change in the nature of the economics of the game would simply be treating the symptoms of the NHL's problems or would in fact be a treatment for the cause of the problems and thus be a long term cure. From what I see looking at other sports and their place in society, the creation of a salary cap would be a big deal and create many positives for operation, however, unfortunately it will only treat some of the symptoms and basic and fatal problems would remain which in the longrun will bring down the game and even in the shortrun will not improve the prpduct which the NHL puts before its customers. As was pointed out in another post in this thread, there seem to me to be some fundamental problems with how the NHL presents the current game and these problems take it away from the grea game which hockey used to be. Though the major battle is over whether there will be a cap or not and whether it will be a hard or a soft cap, the salary cap will at best influence but certainly not address a large number of issues which are key to the product: 1. Rinks are too small for the speed and size of the current player- There has been a perfect storm of better nutrition and training of players which has made them bigger and faster, the advent of new technologies from stick materials to size of pads, and a desire to put more seats in to be sold close to the action rather than devote it to playing space which had made the NHL into a lesser product than what I remember from my youth. Maybe its just me being human and thus resistant to any change, but the clutching and grabbing. center-ice traps, low scoring games and other issues simply strike me as a worse product. This exacerbates the problem that the puck moves to fast for the casual fan and the danger to players (which has obscured their faces with helmets when faces are part of what you sell) and even to fans (a little girl got killed by a deflected puck). 2. The violence issue has not been settled- Violence is part of human nature. Conflict is part of competition. In terms of the media, if it bleeds it leads is still part of selling stuff of interest to people. Nevertheless, the NHL has moved from a general balance where violencewas part of the game, but it was held in check and somewhat controlled by the agreementof all involved and through the use of enforcer players. It has happened however that the size of players, the ability to use new technology as weapons, and a market which has seen both zero tolerance and the XFL be the way things are done is conflicted on this issue. Most agree that some of the best hockey they have seen in their lifetime was the 1980 Olympics and fighting had absolutely nothing to do with this great product. Decisions need to be made about the balance the NHL will strike. 3. No one has forced NHL owners to overpay players and sign stupid contracts- One can go through a titanic battle over a cap and still end up with stupid decisions being made. And so on. In general, it looks like hockey is going down for the year. The owners generally tend to lose money when they play so they will actually be better off finacially with no action. The players now realize that they are the product and quite frankly the NHL does not exist without them. The owners are actually redundant as the best players now have so much money that financially they do not have to play. There is also a lot of competition from other sports and other hockey leagues so that up and down the ranks of player talent thought they would prefer the NHL, they can make a good living playing in the minors, in Europe or elsewhere. Everyone appears to be able to survive without the NHL in terms of both the owners and the players. My guess as to what will happen is that this strike will go on for awhile and a key point will happen when and if a critical mass of players goes off on their own and forms their own new league. if it has a critical mass of talent and forms a league small enough to be sustainable economically, but large enough to attract TV money, it can actually operate without the owners of the NHL. This threat will either make a go of it on its own presenting a good product or will enough of a threat to force the NHL to cave.