BuffaloRebound

Well said. It's not like the Bills made him him play at the vet minimum his 1st 3-4 years, which they could have like the Bears are doing with Hester. On top of that, he hasn't been around since his hernia surgery. Peters' actions don't reflect someone who is serious about wanting to play for the Bills.

I have a hard time believing the estate tax prevents someone from starting a new business. An unnamed 1994 study isn't too convincing neither are 'some past economic studies'. In 2000, federal estate tax receipts were $29b and state receipts were $8b. The 2004 IRS expense budget for the year was $10billion.

If the average guy is doing alright. Right now he's not and there is no way the estate tax should be repealed when the US is running up $200-300 billion yearly deficits. I can't see how it would be good for the average guy if the the top 1% starts owning 40-50% of the total wealth. I actually think it wouldn't be good for the top 1% either. No one makes money in a vacuum. Consumers to buy goods, military and law enforcement to protect people and property, infrastructure to transport goods and workers, healthcare to make people well enough to work, etc.

For me it comes down to fairness. Mommy and daddy earned that money and you are getting the first $3.5m or $7m tax free, so I don't consider that being taxed again. The top 1% whom the tax would affect already own 33% of the wealth. Without the estate tax, that figure would widen.

Sad, but true. If it takes longer than 1 sentence to explain something, you lose most people. Dumb it down and it gets gobbled up.

"meager $3.5m exclusion", $7m for married couples. I love that... meager $3.5m. What's a multi-millionaire to do? Put the inheritance tax up for a referendum vote like gay marriage. I'm sure the average guy has a lot of sympathy.

The “Just Shut Up” rule applies, said Connors, whether you are innocent or guilty. The classic example is the innocent man accused of murder who tells the cops he never liked the guy, but he did not kill him. Comes the trial, and the cop testifies that the accused admitted that he did not like the victim. “Right there,” said Connors, “you’ve got your motive.” Lynch’s case is a whole different story, but you get the idea. What you say can and will be held against you — innocent or otherwise. So you clam up, let cops make a case and then — and only then — sit down and tell your side. It may look like Lynch is sidestepping the law as if it was an opposing linebacker. But that is how this game is played. It is not like the guy has run off and skipped town. His day of judgment is coming.

This article by Donn Esmonde, Buffalo News sums up the situation quite well. Lynch is playing it smart whether he's innocent or not.

Is this the same Frank Clark who claimed that 13 year old girl who was murdered in the 90's had consensual sex with a 50 year old, the same guy who was convicted of a previous murder in a similar way? Dateline NBC exposed Clark for being incompetent at best, vindictive at worst in their special on the Buffalo cold case detective who cleared wrongly imprisoned people. What do you have to gain by talking to the police/DA if you're Lynch? Even if you know you're innocent, why would you trust that they won't use what you said against you? Let them build their case. As far as I know, you can't incriminate yourself, so if the DA has the evidence to press charges, go ahead and do so instead of running to reporters. You can't expect someone to willingly talk to police especially someone who rightly or wrongly is distrustful of them, unless he has to. Lynch very well could have known he hit someone and drove away. But I don't know that and I doubt anyone here knows that. After watching that Dateline special, I would be handling this exactly the same way Lynch has been handling this.

If this is the same Frank Clark handling the case that was exposed on Dateline NBC for being an incompetent, vindictive fool, I would be handling everything exactly the same as Lynch is right now.

Also, that 60% going to the players doesn't include coaches, gm's, scouts, marketing. That's gotta be at least another 10-15%. So we are really talking about 70-75% of gross revenues going to employee costs. That is ridiculous. But it is the owner's fault for agreeing to that % in the first place. Then there are things like adjusting the rookie pay scale which everyone agrees with, but the players I'm sure will want something in return even though you'd be hard-pressed to find one veteran player who doesn't want the same thing. This has the makings of an ugly battle, but unlike hockey all teams are still making money, so you'd think they could agree to something.

Maybe you can, but I can't think of one industry where employee costs average 60% or greater of gross revenues. The most I can think of is in the banking industry where employee costs approach 50% of net revenues.

Agreed. I'd like to sign Evans too, but keeping Peters happy should be priority #1.

Hardy should be reprimanded. It's probably not smart from a business standpoint for the Bills to do it themselves, but it looks like they are doing it through the back-channel route. Hardy needs to know showing up in police blotters won't be tolerated whether he is charged with a crime or not given all the talk about him growing up from his past incident.

I don't think the Bills are at the point yet where vets at the end of their careers hop on thinking they are the missing piece. This is what concerns me a bit about the relative ease in which Stroud was obtained. Maybe the guy truly wanted to come here, but you'd think a guy with his pedigree and with many teams in need of quality DT's that Stroud could have picked where he wanted to go if he was healthy.

Exactly. The only evidence up until now was the Jets tape and some very vague statement from Goodell about the Patriots taping other games. The Bills did a good enough job sucking on their own the past 8 years, so for me it was a bit of a jump to think the Patriots contributed to that sucking by cheating. Now that there is hard evidence of them taping the Bills, this directly affects me as a Bills fan and changes my perspective a bit because there is now no doubt about the depths of their cheating.

How can Ralph say nothing now that it is official they taped the Bills? I know we sucked anyway during that time, but plenty of people invested hard-earned money, time, and emotion only to see an opponent dominate the division the last 8 years who balatantly cheated. One 1st round pick and everything is supposed to be OK? We can't blame sucking the last 8 years on the Patriots, but 1 f'in 1st round pick ain't gonna do it. If Ralph doesn't demand a greater punishment, it shows a huge disregard to the team's fans. Belichik needs to go.

He's really in a good situation as the 4th DE. He has some time to develop into a complete player, but in the meantime can pin his ears back in pass-rushing situations and use his athleticism on special teams. It sounds like V Tech runs a similar defense to the Bills and he has 30 plus starts in that system.

I agree. Use them both. I remember in last year's Dallas game after McGee took it to the house, he sat out the next defensive series to get a breather. I'd bet both McGee and Parrish are happy they'll have someone to share the load with.

I think we keep 6. Look at all the CB's we went through last year. Unless James has nothing left, then we keep 5. People forget that Youboty is still a young pup. I think he gets another year.

Good find. 10 games??? I thought it was only 8 games. $78m is still an extra $15.5m per year in Ralph's pocket since season tickets still cost the same amount less 1 regular season and 1 pre-season game. The only thing Ralph loses is parking and concessions which can't amount to more than $1-2m per regular season game and much less for a pre-season game.

Looking back, it truly is amazing and a testament to the coaches that we were 7-6 and playing in Cleveland for a playoff spot. Add Stroud, Poz, Johnson, Ellis, Mitchell, McKelvin, Simpson and some more corner depth and we might have a defense that can get off the field. I just hope with all these new faces on defense that they can play with the same heart the under-manned guys played with last year. Lack of a Tight End is still the #1 worry. Unless Hardy has a rookie-of-the-year type season, the offense really hasn't improved much on paper. God forbid if one of starting OT's goes down.

The draft went about as well as it could have in the 1st 3 rounds. 3 out of the top 4 needs were filled with non-reaches. Edwards and the offense still need an upgrade at Tight End - it is now the weakest position by far on paper...Royal is mediocre and our 2nd Tight End is either Teyo Johnson, Schouman, Fine, or the other guy the Raiders cut .

Probably a trade down with Detroit since they supposedly wanted Mayo. But that still leaves us with Cromartie or another CB at 15 unless the Bills had Devin Thomas rated higher than every other team. The Bills really would have been stuck at #11 if McKelvin didn't fall. Knowing what we know now, the Bills were extremely fortunate things broke the way they did including Hardy making it to #41.

Flowers looks good but our CB's have the same height/size issue as our WR's. One guy who's not getting talked about a lot because of his pot-smoking is Aqib Talib. The kid looks impressive on those highlights and Kiper has him rated as the best CB and a Top 10 pick. Strictly from his play on the field, I think he'd be ideal here. He's big and always seems to make plays and be around the ball. I'd love to see a trade down with KC which included one of their 3rd round picks and a swap of 2nd rounders getting us up to 35. With #17, I'd take Talib or Cromartie (if Talib can't kick his weed habit). At #35, we'd be in good position to catch whichever one of Hardy, Sweed, or Kelly falls.