leh-nerd skin-erd

I don't waste much time on the pats and spygate (unless i'm busting on one of my friends, anyway), but the flip side of the argument is that had BB and the boys not spygated, they'd have the moral high ground here. As it stands, they earned the comment. But you're right, it's on the Ravens.

sometimes you feel like mcnutt, sometimes you don't.

But that's the whole point. Tebow has broad appeal regardless of whether you root for him, against him, or are just checking out the news every now and again. You treat a guy like tebow like the little engine that could because that's the angle that sells. As for the NFL and Christian poster boys, you tell me. If tebow and the Broncos go 3-13, and miss the playoffs, does the media coverage continue? i don't think so, except as it relates to vultures circling the carcass. you don't think cam newton gets that coverage if he makes the playoffs? i don't spend much time watching press coverage on the various networks as i find it repetitive as well. in a 24 hour news cycle world, i don't see how it could not be. by the way, as for the nfl manipulating the media, i try not to confuse the business of the nfl with the games played each week. the nfl isn't about crowning the SB champion, the nfl is about the entertainment business that brings in billions of dollars. tebow's good for that, not unlike michael oher and 'the blindside' were good for it as well.

thank God he still has his money. this will kill him. (actually, that's a pretty funny shirt, even though it's gibberish. "discount double choke?")

I think you have it backwards, honestly. The perception that Tebow is a good guy doesn't come at the expense of Alex Smith or anyone else. If you live in a world where you only have room for one complimentary thought for someone you've never met, I suppose you can go that way, but why bother? As for Tebow being a 'good person' because he's religious person, you're displaying an inability to see the shades of gray on the whole issue. Tebow, if he is who he seems to be, is a good guy who happens to profess his faith publically. Whether or not the good things he does are rooted in his beliefs to me is irrelevant. You're correct, the Tebow legend is the stuff of media and those who gobble it up. So? The whole reason sports like the NFL exists is because some people indeed gobble this stuff up. Alex Smith was largely irrelevant outside of SF because, well, he was irrelevant. That doesn't mean he's not a good guy, or charitable or whatever, it's just it's not all that interesting a story. If he delviers a ring tio SF, he'll become a pretty good story, no? I heard recently that Dan Marino is one of the more philanthropic former NFLers, and while that might make him a good person, I'll continue to hold disdain for the guy just because I can. I'll admit though that he probably doesn't lose too much sleep over it. And if you think the Tebow story ignores the facts, well, read the stories again. Much of his legend (as it were) is sort of similar to "that little engine that could" storyline--a guy who won football games in exciting fashion despite the obstacles he faced (self-created or otherwise). Finally, here's one additional reason I liked the Tebow story. It's quite fashionable these days to make fun of a person's belief in God, his/her religion, whatever. I understand that the object of ridicule 50 years ago was for the 'non-believer', and the cycle has changed and now the shoe's on the other foot. Whatever. I think by and large there are many in the media writing the story in anticipation of the fall of this guy, be it so they can write more stories about the collapse of Tebow, or more sinisterly perhaps, to write about the fall of an athlete who had the nuts to speak openly about his beliefs. You can read that as agenda-driven. Me? I'll root for a seemingly-good guy to prevail. In the end, it doesn't matter much. I think tebow will keep doing his thing, trying to get better, trying to win a championship. As of right now, he wrote a pretty interesting chapter in 2011.

i haven't responded to the Tebow phenomenon, but thought the guy was a good football story this year. Yesterday was as inevitable as lake effect snow. An offense built around scoring points in small bunches, a team that was wildly inconsistent over a 16 game season, playing a team that scores points in huge bunches and is consistently one the dominant teams in the league. The aberration would have been if the Broncos defense could have held the Pats to 9 points, thus allowing their low scoring team to win by 1. Seems what you're looking for is someone who wants to come on the board and say Tebow was solely responsible for every win the Broncos had, and played no part in any of the losses---which is absurd. He did, however, help them get to the playoffs, help raise the profile of the team in the national spotlight, and seemed to be a decent enough guy off the field. Sounds like a winner to me. I like that kind of story, at least until they steamroll my team.

Actually, I think behind closed doors he should have followed up with "Look, you're an exciting player with a ton of passion. However, you look like a total moron when you've pre-scripted touchdown celebrations that hurt your team when we're struggling to win games. And you know what? If you consistently made big plays in crucial game-winning moments, we'd forive you. hey, look at Plax--he landed on his feet after nearly shooting his johnson off. But to script out celebrations and then to drop potential game-winning catches make us all look bad. If you're going to choreograph like a superstar, make superstar catches when they really matter. Now take care son, I like the haircut.".

The op starts by posting about the stats in the run game----CG gets no credit for that? I guess if you assume the production comes spite of the play calling instead of because of it, it's easy to knock it. Additionally---look at spellers production after fj went down. No credit there for CG? A few of our losses boiled down to execution of the calls played, not so much the call itself. Let's hope they plug in a few more pieces for 2012.

There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with the performance of the bills in general, but it seems a bit unfair to throw "they didn't plan 3 deep" onto the pile.

I heard Belichick carries 7 back-up-back-up-back-up centers, and that Sean Payton carries 9. Any roster with less than 5 tri-backs is lame.

wait until we play the pats again. based on our pass rush, brady will be 46 of 47, throw for 1100 yards and have a qb rating of 1.2 million. to boot, i missed 90% of the first game when we actually beat them this year, so that alone would lead to a loss. (oops, just saw your note, tomdayfan. great minds think alike.)

With this defense, with the injuries to his supporting cast, Tebow would have been a hop-skip-and a jump away from a Stevie-esque twitter: @tebow#I DEVOTE MY LIFE 2 U 24/7 AND THIS HOW U DO ME? BUFFALO??? Y NOT LOKUST & PESTILENCE!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!

I know the op was looking for a catalyst moment, a period in time when while maybe the wheels hadn't come off the bus, the mechanic in charge forgot to double check that the lug nuts were tightened and thereafter it was only a matter of time. However, I think this statement is pretty accurate. I have long shied away from the "Ralph is cheap crowd" because it's far too simple an explanation for a business as complex as professional football. The front office spends money, cash to cap philosophy or not, and you only need to review several of the posts on any given day as casual fans bellyache about the exhorbitant salary extension given to ***** or the money wasted on draft selection *****. Money aside, the one constant on this team has been RW. And during all these years, yeah, we had some good runs, but I have to ask myself---Is it because of RW, or in spite of him? I think it's possible to develop a culture of losing, a perspective on life or business that more often than not leads to a bad result, and I think RW has done just that. To be accurate, I think RW is a pretty astute businessman--and we can argue about the 'can't miss' NFL ownership deal but that's a different subject---but a not-very-good manager of a football team looking to consistently win games. The Polian departure is as good as example as any. The team Polian oversaw was one of the most exciting teams in the history of the game. We weren't too far removed from the days when the team was quite bad. You'd think an owner could rationalize keeping a guy like that at the helm for the good of the business, and for the good of the business of winning football games. Heck, why would you want to risk going back to incompetence when victory is so much fun (and, I'd imagine, profitable)? You'd think a leader of a franchsie could rationalize putting up with personality quirks or other disagreements. Ours could not. Unfortunately, the stench of losing will stay until there is a sustained commitment to winning and more importantly, a sustained period of acutally winning.

all well and good, but in the end, you're just another shmo typing thoughts with only part of the information. would you have signed him at any cost?

but even on the issue of funding youth football...i don't know why these decisions have to be an "either/or". Either the Buff Bills fund youth football or they must be cheap. Either they fund the radio broadcast or they must be tightwads. I would hazard a guess that the bills are approached by hundreds, if not thousands of vairous entities all looking for a contribution for what they perceive is a worthy cause. My son plays football, my daughter is a cheerleader. If they pull football funding because they opted to contribute to an underfunded cheerleading program, that would make the cheerleading folks happy, no? perhaps that's at the expense of the football program, but if you think about it--every time an organization funds one group, many others suffer. hmmm, instead of funding the radio show, maybe they allocate that money to spinal cord research, concussion studies, or whatever. i know with certainty that it's very easy to criticize someone when only part of the information is available. even when all the information is available, the potential is that someone will be unhappy. in the end, i'm simply not all that interested in spending someone else's money (unless it's to re-sign fred jackson!).

you should really think out your answers before you commit them to print. the article doesn't indicate the cost to the buffalo bills, nor is it really relevant here. your analogy to 'art in schools' also misses the point, if for no other reason than i never suggested anything about funding 'art in schools'. here is the point: the article attempts to lay out an emotional case against the buffalo bills for deciding not to fund something they have apparently funded previously. i see the set up, and the hook, because apparently buffalo bills = football = funding this endeavor because it = football. would you feel differently if you knew that the bills reallocated the money to some other cause that they felt worthy of consideration? i have to be fair to them, maybe they just thought the money was wasted on a crappy product and couldn't justify it anymore. i have no idea, and apparently neither does the journalist. that IS the point. i have a larger problem with it because this old heartstring angle is overplayed. you see it in the newspaper, on tv, in the political spectrum, and i find it manipulative. heck, you're a prime example of why it bothers me. from this article you figured out that the bills were too cheap to spend $10k on the kids. That sir, is a total BS argument.

I think it's deeper than that. It's prejudice against the Irish. They all look alike to some people.

What's irritating to me is the part where he says "You and I would certainly think that an NFL team could afford to stay involved with these kind of broadcasts -- it kind of falls into the "are you kidding me?" category". It's presumptuous of the guy to assume that I can't think for myself, and I certainly wouldn't spend more than half-a-second thinking "Are you kidding me?". This is classic emotional journalism, tugs at your heart strings by telling only part of the story. I certainly think this: the Bills likely have a budget for this sort of thing, and it no longer fit into their plans. Quite honestly, I would rather see them dedicate this money to, in no particular order...breast cancer...prostate cancer...american heart association...alzheimer's association...habitat for humanity...and so on. Don't drink the kool aid. It's a big world out there. Plus, you know...you could fund it.

abc's agenda aside, why on earth do they want the distraction? the guy's had a good run on the show, he made a comment that was kind of silly and they don't want him anymore. i'm no fan of president obama, but this doesn't see all that hard for me to follow. i'd fire him too.

quick check reveals that hw jr has an estimated net worth of $45,000,000. using the meal ticket analogy, that's a lot of gumbo. i'd be surprised if his fan base would sweat a heck of a lot over his comments one way or the other. espn has to get rid of him. i don't actually see it as pc going too far, the issue was supposed to be THE song. now the issue is hw jr, and who needs that?

I have a question. Why do you call yourself a hypocrite when you intentionally tired to trick people into answering your question? I see you as more of a trickster than a hypocrite. Or a cultural experimentationalist, given this was a science experiment of sorts. Either way, you crazy, girl.

Promo T--don't fall into the trap! I haven't read Ms. Gash's column but it likely would have riled me up. I've been in Albany for 20 years (proudly born and raised in Kenmore). There are some great people out here. Some love to bust my chops a bit about the Bills, some understand on some level the pain associated with being a bills fan, but most are pretty good people. I stopped worrying about what the morons think a looonnnng time ago. wuh-ur-duh.

No good deed goes unpunished.

wow. you grew up there? thanks for sharing your experiences as i'd bet most of the other fans of the Buffalo Bills on this board live in Sedona. you've painted a vivid picture and it's pretty clear to me you indeed have something on the ball. i love the Boston area but meet people all the time who prefer not to live there, even with the $0 property and sales tax coupled with the 72 and sunny temps 365 days a year.

excellent. i kept thinking he reminded me of someone, and it is indeed morticia's husband in the flesh.