SouthernMan

You're right. I forgot about BPS, also known as "Buffalo Paranoia Syndrome - the chronic worry and concern over what the rest of the nation thinks about Buffalo, it's sports teams, fans, and the surrounding WNY area. And please...quit bragging on the Frank Lloyd Wright houses and Albright Knox. Who gives a rat's ass. If they're really concerned, Buffalo needs to do something about all the local chicks with cheap men's haircuts. Is Flowbee a big seller in Buffalo? WNY should have a bad haircut awareness week that they could squeeze in between Amherst's Old Home Days and the Hertel Ave Italian Fest. Does nothing go right in WNY? First, wide right, no goal, OJ the ripper, Tim McVeigh, bad women's haircuts, and now, the Chiquita Sabres logo. Why would you want attention from the national media? Now where's that fckuing sarcasm thingy?

Oh yeah?!?!? Well, you know what's even gayer? Mock drafts. That's right. They're stupid and serve no purpose other than to give wankers something to do between porn surfing escapades. The only thing about the NFL that I'll concede and is totally gay and I've learned to live with is the referee signal for a safety. When they came up with arm and hand signals for penalties, scoring, and so forth, they must have let someone's kid sister submit a signal, just so they could get rid of her. That of course became the Egyptian palm press over the head. I think originally she wanted the whole egyptian walk to go along with it, but the NFL vetoed that part. Just my theory.

So, you're saying it's completely acceptable to yell "A dollars hole" at our visiting team fans and guests? Totally disagree. I don't even know what it means.

You're final sentence makes my point. In a league where there's only a fine line between the worst and best teams, ranking the teams is ridiculously subjective. So, what is the point of these rankings? It's nothng more than some nitwit's opinion. Do your own friggin' rankings for chissake. What's the difference? It's not like you're gonna have Indy at # 28 and Detroit at #2. There isn't a single member of this forum who couldn't look up the standings and read a few box scores and come up with nearly identical power rankings as those published and broadcast on "legitmate" sports outlets. I think what bothers me is that some of you give way too much credit to professional football writers - the same dummies who every year pick the Dolphins to go to the superbowl.

What is this - college ball? Power Rankings for the NFL are GAY. Who started this crap anyway? Some football columnist with writer's block who couldn't come up with a story? GAY! There. Someone had to say it.

I thought one of the commentators doing the game stated that either the kickoff or receiving teams can signal for a fair catch, if in position to do so. Did I hear this correctly? Anyone else catch that comment? And if it was said, was it a correct statement? It's bad enough when there's bogus call made, but it's even worse when it results from the officials ignorance following a seldom seen and innovative playcall. In this case, April was thinking outside the box, saw a flaw that could be exposed, had the team execute to perfection, and then had it all taken away because it was unfamiliar and foreign to the officiating crew. Did the flag come out only after a Viking coach yelled out that there was a fair catch signaled? I sometimes wonder how influenced the officials are by salesmanship from coaches, players, and fans. Are they that indecisive? Bottom line : they blew the call. More important bottom line: Bills won and we won't have to look back and ask, "what if"....this time.

I would hope by this time next year, all games will be in High Def. I still can't believe it's taking this long to make it standard procedure. At this rate, my high def LCD TV will be old, burned out, and obsolete by the time they start putting everything out in HD. http://www.hdsportsguide.com/ Note that there are Sabres games in HD 10/4 and 10/13

I don't doubt that I could have a good quality of life, even with a lower wage. The future is my big concern. The lower wages would probably mean sacrificing some, if not all, of my retirement savings. The one hope I have is that my Atlanta home will continues to appreciate at a 4-6% annual rate so that in 6 or 7 years, I could sell it and use the equity to buy a Buffalo home with cash and no payments, then get a pleasant little job at Wegman's.

Boy, this comes up every few months, huh? You're not alone. Yesterday morning, me and the Mrs were getting ready for another lovely day, starting with Atlanta traffic. I was getting all stressed out as the hands on the morning clock seemed to be moving way too fast, and all I could think about was hitting the road before the traffic came to a standstill. Traffic being what it is, we now have to get on the road between 6:30-7am to be on time to work and class. She's in Buckhead and I'm in class all week in Sandy Springs. As soon as the school buses pull out of the subdivision at 6:40, the mommy and daddy parade fall in right behind the bus or buses. These are the parents who park on the street where the school bus stops. In their cars are their half-asleep 6-year-olds waiting with them for 'the cheese' to show up. Then there's the hundreds of other parents who simply taxi the kids to school every day, since the poor kids have 50 lbs of books, supplies, musical instruments, etc. You know how this impacts the traffic on the roads and side roads near these schools. Side street traffic jams!!! That's what happens when you don't have roads configured in a grid, as is common throughout WNY. Georgia DOT must be the preferred job placement destination for special ed graduates. By the time we get home at night, cook, clean up, etc., it's almost time to hit the rack again and start the cycle all over again. So much for quality of life. As I was standing in the bathroom yesterday morning, listening to traffic reports, waiting for my stress heart attack to kick in, I turned to my wife and said, "we gotta get out of here". So, here I sit, 4am after a few hours rest. Too late to go back to bed and already thinking about the stress that will be arriving with the sunrise. If there were better paying jobs in Buffalo and WNY, a lot U-hauls would be packed and headed back there. I don't need to get rich, but with the high cost of health care and retirement (hopefully) less than 20 years away, it's not reasonable to even think about making a Buffalo level income, where the wage scale for private sector companies is still somehow stuck in 1975. Now, if you can get a job with the state......

OK. Send me one of those message thingys and maybe we can talk about it. There's another guy from the board who lives in the general area. I thought I might contact him and see if he wants to join us. I have a freezer full of Sahlen's dogs and I make some great wings. Let's do some home opener tailgating!!! Later.

There's a place in Marietta called Sidelines, which has a huge Bills' gang. It's about 40 miles from Fayetteville. They used to have a big screen and dedicated room just for Bills fans. I don't go, so it may have changed. You can come join me in all my big screen High Def glory and surround sound - if you don't mind driving 50+ miles northwards. The ol' lady is going to get her nails done ( or some such crap) and me and few Buffalo buds will be down in the dungeon watching the game.

I got mine completely free for 2006 (as a long time customer) AND...get this.. a complete rebate for LAST YEAR'S Superfan fee (after I complained that there were only about 2or 3 Bills games offered in HD* through that package last year). *There were 2 ESPN games in HD (not part of package), and the locally broadcast Falcons/Bills game in HD (blacked-out on Superfan package). Trivia: The first ever NFL HD broadcast game was the Jets and Bills in 1998. 8 seasons later and CBS can only manage 3 HD games per week. I can't believe that it is taking this long to make the total transition.

This young defense has the potential to become a dominating force to be reckoned with, but the offense better start getting it together. Had they scored any points in the second half at New England, the Bills might be looking at a 2-0 record, with 8 of their final 14 games at The Ralph. After 2 games, they've only managed a single offensive touchdown. I'm hoping they're just keeping their cards close to their vests and not revealing the entire playbook until the early string of divisional games is complete. We haven't seen any plays designed to give JP the option to use his speed. Nothing in the way of end arounds and very little play action. I'd like to see them open up a bit against the Jets and have something like a 34-0 win, finishing the first 3 games with a 2-1 divisional record going into game 4.

During bathroom breaks, you could leave the sign on your seat saying, "Gone to lay cable - back in 10 minutes".

"Players from up north"? Where's that come from? Apart from his self-promoting arrogance, I think another reason McGahee rubs me the wrong way is that he comes off as a hired hand - nothing more than a guy on the payroll. When I think of Kelly, Thurman, Reed, and yes, Bruce Smith, I think of players with a real love for their team who took pride in being part of the spirit and tradition of THE BUFFALO BILLS. McGahee, on the other hand, strikes me as someone who doesn't and never will care what uniform he wears. I can't picture him standing on the Bills' sidelines after his playing days. The topic of this post was the question of whether Mcgahee is overrated. I believe he is preceived more by his college status and the expectation and potential of his NFL prowess. Is he a good back? Yes. Is he great? Not yet. When opposing defenses have to start planning around the McGahee-led running game, maybe then he can be seen as a contender for pro bowl consideration. I don't think he's exactly striking fear in the hearts of defenders. Until then, he's just another NFL caliber back.

McGahee may be the most overrated player in the NFL. For some reason his publicity machine has no trouble getting him booked on sports talk forums and NFL promotional ads. Pretty good face exposure for a guy who is not much more than a very average starting running back. Anyone who thinks he is a first-tier back is kidding themselves. He doesn't shed tackles all that well, doesn't really have much in the way of juke moves, not enough speed to beat defenders going to the outside, and now with his weight loss, he doen't even have the power to get the extra yard or two in a pile. He did a good job of making something out of nothing on the one play where NE overpersued and he ran around to the left - I'll give him that. A lot of his yardage is gained on draw plays where there aren't as many defenders stacked in the middle. For some reason, the guy rubs me the wrong way. Always has. I think what bothers me most is that he acts like he's in the elite class of NFL players. 1000 yard rushers are a dime a dozen in the 16 game schedule. It wouldn't bother me a bit if they shipped him down to Miami for a 3rd pick - which is about all he's worth. I really like A-train and would love to see him be the starting RB.

I think you missed the meaning. The poster was stating that Johnson had many of the same qualities as Bledsoe (erratic internal clock, good arm, etc) except that UNLIKE Bledsoe, he was a china doll. Other than maybe Brett Favre, Bledsoe is probably one of the most durable QBs over the past 10-15 years. Bledsoe has a solid frame that can take hits. Johnson was a gym rat who made an effort to bulk up by putting muscle on his stickman frame. He was never a naturally stout individual. I give him credit for trying to hang in there, but his body type was better suited for being a punter or kicker.

This is so fugging lame. It's as if the NFL is making those sorry Buffalonians get on their collective knees and beg to see their team. I guess the NFL has trouble finding a slot on the network schedule. I mean, afterall, they have to have room on the schedule for the 100th showings of Chargers or Seahawks training camp, or "Making the Squad" - the dick and tear jerking story of the long road to becoming a Dolphin cheerleader. Is there any silicon left in silicon valley? Shouldn't this be on one of those chick channels like Wifetime? If not for the occasional showing of last year's Six Days To Sunday production, you could hardly tell Buffalo had an NFL team assuming your only source for information was the NFL Network. It's a damn 24 hour a day NFL channel and about all the coverage Buffalo ever gets is a once in a while statistical crawl at the bottom of the screen or an obligatory word or two in one of Adam Schefter's spots. Somehow, bad boy Terrell Owens is far more worthy of coverage than an entire team. Same goes for the much overhyped and overrated Michael Vick. For those of you crying about your cable companies not carrying the Network- stop whining, you're not missing much. In the NFL Network's eyes, the Bills are like the Rainman of the league. They have them hidden away in a home and never talk about them in polite company and hope that Tom Cruise never comes snooping around. BTW - there are few other teams that get dissed also. Are the Cardinals still in the league?

747626[/snapback] This sounds like a question from some dumbass too lazy to look it up, but I'll be damned if I can find out what channel High Def Directv NFL Network games are shown on. Anyone know? First the game is supposed to be on Sunday. Then we hear 1pm Tuesday. Now, I'm hearing 12pm in HD on Tue. What the hell? What kind of crappy programming practice is this? Meanwhile, it doen't even appear on the guide so that our TiVos can record automatically. The small market conspiracy again?

The crawl at the bottom of the screen states the Bills-Bengals game will be shown at 1pm today. I'd go with that over the on-screen guide. Chill.

Very sad to hear the news. Rest In Peace. I sat with the TSW gang at last year's opener. I had also taken my 10-year-old nephew so he could feel the excitement of live Bills' football in the same way that I had been initiated at that young age. He was to be part of the group of fans carrying on the tradition for the next generation. Sadly, he also took his own life, one month before Paul did. We still don't know why. He was loved by everyone, though I don't think he knew it. As a Bills fan from way back in days of head coach Joe Collier, this is the first time I can remember being so unenthusiastic about the upcoming Bill's football season. I never thought I could be this apatheic about it. I believe it's a result of the lingering shock and sadness from the loss of my nephew, who was like the son I never had, and who I loved very much. Events such as these losses put things in perspective. They are both safe now under God's care. -SoMAn

I know there are a few of you out there who will know the answer to this.... If someone comes to my door to serve a subpoena to me, but I'm not there and a family member takes possession of it, what are my rights? Am I obligated to appear? Here's the stupid part....the person wanting me to testify on their behalf in a custody case is not going to get any benefit from my testimony. The person is a scumbag pervert who tried to kiss my barely teenaged daughter. On top of that...I have a job interview the day of the court appearance. The document says that I'll be in contempt and can be arrested if I fail to appear. Any thoughts or advise? I obviously have no interest in wasting my time on this matter.

I think Belichick is going to have Doug stand with his back at the door jamb leading into the locker room and put a pencil mark with the date and height that Doug was on May 15, 2006.

I saw him on there one morning several weeks ago and didn't realize it was him. I thought it looked like him, but wasn't sure. I was impressed with his ability to be more than just a talking head or a jock celebrity getting some face time. He appeared to be well-versed in issues concerning the middle east and an overall good conversationalist, and someone who can hold his own conversing with seasoned reporters. He was exceptionally at ease and had the poise and manner of someone who'd been a regular on that type of show for years.

I've been preaching forever that he Bills MUST build from the trenches outward, beginning with their porous O-line. That said, I wouldn't be disappointed if they drafted Davis. He may be a difference maker that opposing defenses have to plan against and double team. As much as I'm against sexy skill position picks at this stage of rebuilding, Davis may be the kind of talent that can make the rest of the offense click.