The Avenger

I think you have to add Willis McGahee to the list. Face it, the guy only runs 16 times a game and last week he didn't even bust 100 yards. Simple lack of production. If that's not enough reason, the guy is one hit away from another devestating knee injury - we don't need a guy with a bum knee. I'd also add Moorman. For God's sake, he's a punter. When was the last time he came up with a big play? How many points has the guy scored for the Bills in his ENTIRE CAREER? The guy's a stiff - all he does is kick a little ball.

Actually, Step 3 is Profit. Step 1: Gather underpants Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit

That's great, Jerry. I have a toilet seat shaped like Texas Stadium at my house - round with a hole in it.

I'm not so sure the Bills had the time to ask the league for pemission to wear the alternate jerseys - did they say last week that it was already too late to ask for them to be worn for the New Orleans game? If that's accurate they certainly didn't have time to get the OK on throwbacks for today. I'm still guessing it's silly party hats. Oh, and like Lori, I want $.10 back for this stupid alert.

Yes - word for word, that's what V-Coach said. Stupidest alert EVER.

VCoach alert - "The Bills are planning a surprise for today's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers" Silly party hats?

Nothing, I mean NOTHING, compares to Bocce on Bailey. The place hasn't changed since I was about 4 (over 30 years ago) and the pizza is one of the best damn things about WNY. Every year when I make the Hajj to Buffalo for the first home game I make sure to go to Bocce's and get pizza plus at least 1 famous half-baked pies to freeze and cook later. That usually lasts me until spring, when I start jonesing so bad I break down and order a half-baked to be shipped to me via FedEx. I can proudly say that I've had Bocce pizza in 4 states - it's that good. Damn the sausage is kickass! If you didn't vote Bocce you've never had it....

I say WE and I mean WE. Sure, Ralph writes the check, but WE, THE FANS pump plenty of money into the account Ralph writes the check upon. Lindell was money on his attempts, but I don't see why people think he's a hero. Did he go above and beyond in any way? No. He didn't hit a 50+ yard field goal. He didn't kick into a howling January wind. He didn't hit a game winner with no time left. Those are the things that make you the hero. I contend that Lindell does not do those things well and because he doesn't he'll cost us more games this year than he'll win for us (although I seriously hope I am wrong about that). Go and buy your official Lindell jersey at the pro shop if you must, but understand there's a reason why you have to special order it...

While I appreciate what Lindell did for us on Sunday, I can't get too excited. Yes, he made 5 FGs and accounted for 16 points, but he was only doing what we pay him $1.125 million to do - make makeable FGs (42 yards and under) in good conditions at home. Let's see him hit shots of 45+ on a regular basis and/or under poor weather conditions (wait until it's snowy/windy in Orchard Park).

Why the hell would the Bills choose to wear dark jerseys on a hot day at home? As the home team, don't we have a choice? Wouldn't we wear white?

Wow - wish I could play in that league! Carson Palmer picked before Priest Holmes? Moulds available at 150? Taking Doug Jolley before Lee Evans?

Add/drops are all set on the League Rules screen under the transaction section. You'll need to set the add/drop policy to "use a waiver process to do add/drops". Then you specify which nights of the week the process runs. Once the first game starts, all FA players are locked until waivers run for the first night (usually Tuesday night). You can't get as specific as 6pm on Tuesday, just Tuesday night (usually between midnight and 5am eastern time).

Eric Shelton is hurt - I believe he is gone for the year. Davis is supposedly the starter, but I don't think anyone has great confidence he'll hold up after having microfracture surgery. Foster doesn't hold tremendous immediate value due to Davis being the starter, but he's worth holding onto for a few weeks until the situation becomes a bit more clear.

This topic moving to PPP any second now..... Kayne West is stupid for saying something like that durring a charity event, and in my opinion, just stupid about saying it. The problem isn't so much a racial divide as it is an economic divide. People suffering in N.O. are suffereing because they're black, they're suffering because they're poor. Becuase the they had no means to get out. We are talking about people that have no safety net of their own - they rely on governmental help as a safety net. When that help isn't there or not working well, you have what you see in N.O. - terrible. I read that fully 28% of people in N.O. live at or below the poverty line - that's truly amazing. I don't know if you know what the poverty level is ($19,484 for a family of 4), but living on that doesn't just mean things are tight - it means you are desperately poor and need some sort of outside safety net (food, housing assistance, etc). N.O. shows a great economic divide and how it plays out in times of crisis. The question isn't why does the president/government hate black people, it is why they aren't doing a better job of helping the poor who need the help the most. If you talk about race you have to do it as a part of this discussion - why are so many of the poor minorities - that's a different discussion.

This is is what I've been saying all along - the numbers show that Lindell is not reliable past 40 yards and that the coaches have been wary to even give him the opportunity. The last 2 seasons he's been last in the NFL in terms of longest FG on the season (44 yards and 43 yards) - that's pretty sad. I don't want to bash the guy and I certainly hope he's taken his game up a notch, but he's going to have to do more than hit a 54 yarder in the preseason to make a believer out of me.

What changes is the weather at teh Ralph and most other places. The ball gets colder, the winds get stronger and its more liekly you get rain or snow. Preseason weather gives the kicker an advantage - things get much more challenging during the regular season.

Local Boston TV announcers on the Pats preseason game at Cincy report that Donahoe is at the game, possibly scouting players who will be cut. Typical Patsy homers - their trash is so good people clamor for it...

Does anyone NOT have lung cancer? That's the second celebrity passing due to lung cancer, and we also found out Christopher Reeve's wife was diagnosed with it this week.

It is a very sad day indeed. I worked with Peter at ABC News for a number of years in the early 90s. After Cronkite retired I watched ABC and Peter was one of my heros. It was a thrill to get to know him. He was really and truly a nice guy. There are plenty of egos in the news world, but Peter was not one of them. I remember doing a remote shoot with him in Nashville once - the broadcast was focused on healthcare and Peter was to anchor the live newscast with teh Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the background. Peter was famous for coming to the set with only a minute or so to spare. Everyone rushing around and he would calmly stroll in at the last minute, sit down and do the broadcast. Fortunately in nashville he showed up almost 30 minutes before air. This was very lucky because shortly after he arrived the Life Flight helicopter about 200 feet away from the set took off to go to a serious accident - the noise was deafening. Peter went to the set and even yelling into a hand-held microphone he couldn't be heard over the whirl of the chopper. We ran up to the dispatcher who estimated that the helicopter would return at about 6:45pm, right in the middle of the live broadcast. Few things can't be put on hold for live TV, but life saving medical flights fall into that category. We were in deep trouble. Peter knew what to do - tape the second half of the broadcast and then go right into the first part live. It worked superbly - Peter started the broadcast live on air and we cut to tape in NY just as the helicopter could be heard returning in the distance. Nobody ever knew. Peter was angrier than I've ever seen for being put into that situation and not to long after the senior producer who picked the shoot location was fired. We spent the 6 hours after the broadcast looking for a new shoot location - no way was Peter doing that again. To this day I still have a Vanderbilt Life Flight helicopter pin that reminds me of that trip.

No - he didn't miss that many, but he has no range and they don't generally bring him out to try a FG if the attempt will be more than 40 yards - that's a problem... You don't ever want to settle for a FG, but when you drive down the field and you're facing a 4th and 3 from your opponent's 25 you want to have a good shot at making the FG and putting points on the board. In that situation the Bills either have to go for it or punt because Lindell's range is terrible - that's a problem...

Sinking or swimming with Lindell bothers me. In the past 2 seasons with the Bills he's attempted 10 FGs of 40+ yards and made only 4 of them. His long last year was 43 yards. It is so bad that the team only attempted 3 FGs of 40+ yards. That means that you pretty much have to penetrate within the opponent's 25 yard line to have a decent shot at coming away with points on the board. I think it's really dangerous to risk giving the offense a long field every time...

I saw the scrimmage last night and saw that Ryan Longwell got a series of FG tries (he made all of them) and kept waiting for Lindell to get a series but I never saw it. Did Lindell get a series of FG attempts, and if so, how did he do? If there is one position that I'm really not happy about this season it's kicker and I was hoping to see something last night to put me more at ease.

Never happened - I saw it and in no way did Carville make any motion towards Novak. The guy is either a thin-skinned baby (which I don't believe he is) or he was looking to exit before he was asked about Valerie Plame. Throwing a phontom hissy fit was his out - he looked stupid but not as stupid as he would have if he had to face the Plame questions.

Breach of contract is breach of contract. If the network paid him for shows he did not do I really don't see them allowing him to skate off into the sunset with their cash - they'll be asking for it back and threatening legal action just like the Fins did with Ricky.

See also: Williams, Ricky