The Avenger

Now that we're all giddy about winning a preseason game, at home, against a weak team like the Jaguars who were missing some starters I think we should burn a guy like Felser at the stake - the nerve of an experienced Buffalo sportswriter to write an opinion piece based on his assessment of the talent level and direction of the team - doesn't he realize our third string guys have enough heart to pull out a win over their third string guys? Surely he must know that when you don't write positve things about the Bills you're a hack, journalistic accomplishments aside (see also: Sullivan, Jerry) - sports journalism is all about being a cheerleader for the home team, right? Let's see what this team looks like after the final roster cuts and after they start playing real games against real teams - I suspect the pendulum will swing back and we'll be talking about Andrew Luck and nobody will bother to say that perhaps the old guy had a point - can't wait to see that - who's got tickets?

No - he's talking about the version they play in Chinese restaurants, "Come on Irene"........

One of my favorite movies of all times. I also thought about that quote while reading about the critical drug shortages that exist for some drugs - some people can't get cancer drugs because the manufacturer has slowed down or stopped. If you need to fight mild pain or are feeling a little depressed you have about 100 drugs you can get - have pancreatic cancer? Not so much......... This is why I don't think the free market takes care of everything all of the time........

And if you have VoIP it won't matter whether you have a cordless phone - no power = no Internet = no phone...... Another good tip I heard - if phones are down and you have to use cell phone the cell towers could be hard to come by but in many cases you should be able to send/receive text messages. Texting will also use less power than making a voice call if you're trying to save battery. When the quake hit D.C. this week the only way I could communicate with my mother was text but it worked great.

What's really scary about the whole vaccine scare is that intelligent, well educated people have bought into the fear. If you look at who forgoes vaccination there are a lot of folks from higher income, highly educated backgrounds who refuse to get their kids the shots. You can show the scientific studies showing it is safe and these same intelligent people will disregard evidence and go with the gut fear that has been created and will live in perpetuity on the Internet - absolutely crazy. This could become a real problem down the road as much of warding off an epidemic within a population involves having a critical mass of people being vaccinated. Some people may come down with measles but as long as a certain threshold is vaccinated it will not blow up to an epidemic. I'm in my 40s and we now know that some of the vaccinations I got when I was a kid no longer protect me from some of these things - I don't worry because my chances of coming into contact with these things is very low. If vaccination rates fall and more and more people like myself get exposed it could get ugly. I really don't want to get sick because people allowed disases to spread by not vaccinating their kids.

No locusts, but it was raining blood and frogs for about an hour yesterday - is that bad?

I'm just south of you in Chelmsford, MA and keeping a close eye on this thing as well. Things in this area just aren't built for that type of wind - the power outtages could be a real issue. I'm trying to figure out how much of this is media hype by the local weather people (the same folks who freak out about a "major winter storm!!!" that drops 2 inches of snow) or if this thing really is going to be bad. The models don't look encouraging, though - they seem to be moving west which means damaging winds rather than flooding rains - I'd rather the rain.

I'm a UCONN fan but I have to give it up to Pat Summit - she's truly amazing. She defined women's sports - without her women's athletics could still be just some sort of extracurricular activity that gives the fairer sex some phsical exercise. You may not watch women's hoops or be a fan, but you have to admit it's a real sport with real athletes who practice and play with the same seriouness and focus as their male counterparts. Anyone with daughters in athletics owes a debt or gratitude to Pat Summit.

Look - I don't begrude anyone for being an optimist. I get a good chuckle out of watching people predict that the Bills are a double-digit winning team "this year" - if only it could be true! What I really hate, though is not sunscribing to the same sort of blind optimism and being bashed for it. It seems that there is some sort of Taliban-like purity code amongst some that if you say something negative about the team you aren't a "real fan". That's a load of BS. I can't tell you how fired up I get when I express my displeasure with the way this organization has stuggled in futility for the past decade + and someone questions my more than 30 years of being a Bills fan. I won't bash you for thinking the Bills are going to go 12-4, make the playoffs and "surprise a lot of people" no matter how unrealistic I think it is, but in return I ask that the self-appointed "fan police" not bash me when I make a comment about how poorly this franchise has been run, how much talent we lack or why New England beat us by more than 30 points for the 15th time in a row - I let you have your opinion, you let me have mine.

Nephew.....

"Levitre demoted to hot dog vendor, Montgomery Burns signed to play LG"

Memories...... I don't think many folks go back far enough for the reference.......

Lowered Expectations

JoeB from WGR tweets that he clearly saw Rinehart at LG and Urbik an RG..... Good Lord, I always suspected the Buffalo Bills were the true incarnation of Major League - I think this confirms it...........

Yeah - but if they're all just going off of Chris Brown's report you could see why - that's what I hate about Twitter - impossible to tell the source of anything - info just gets recycled and you have no idea......

Please tell me that this is simply a case of Chris Brown not knowing his left from his right........

I don't know what everyone is upset about - the Bills have drafted plenty of solid picks in the 4th round over the past decade: Da'Norris Searcy Chris Hairston Marcus Easley Shawn Nelson Reggie Corner Derek Fine Dwayne Wright Ko Simpson Raymond Preston Tim Euhus Terrence mcGee Sam Aiken Brandon Spoon Terrence McGee was a starter, and Ko Simpson is worth millions! I'm sure we are going to get a solid player who will all have us remembering our former first round pick and #1 WR and saying, Lee Who?

Jaws and Gruden's breakdown is really great. I consider myself a pretty big football fan (as would just about everone here), but when these guys break things down it really gets you to understand football at a deeper level. It's probably way too much for the average or casual fan, but I absolutely love watching a game and feeling like I learned something I didn't know. If they had a weekly show where they just broke down plays on film I'd watch it and learn (I think Jaws used to have a show).....

Here's something that should have been factored in - what other teams exist in the market to vie for your attention/passion/money? Buffalo only has 2 major professional sports teams whereas some others have more. Bigger markets have more people but also more professional sports options. Living outside of Boston I certainly see Patriots fans but at its root I think Boston is a baseball town - the Red Sox still rule this place even though all the other teams have won chamionships in the past decade. I wonder how much more popular they would be if the only other team in town was the Bruins - my guess is the Pats would be significantly more popular.

Let them go. I see this every year - there's an element of radical optimist fans who believe you're not really a fan unless you predict playoffs this season (because, hey - THIS is our year). If you say you think the team is weak, the team sucks, the team can't compete you're labeled a heretic and people wonder why you bother to be a Bills fan. I love having my 35+ years of being a fan called into question by someone too young to even remember seeing Jim Kelly play. What's funny is that if you save a link to this thread and come back to it when the Bills go 2-6 over the first half of the season these same optimists are the most suicidal screaming and crying about how bad the team is and how they are never going to win - happens every year.

Nobody COMES to Buffalo - they END UP in Buffalo...... Think we were T.O.'s top choice? No - we were his only choice. Same thing with Merriman - we claimed him and he's here because it's possibly his only opportunity to prove he can still play - guaranteed that if he does manage to regain something near his old form he'll be outta here quicker than Buddy and Co. can put some pathetic spin on it. Guys come to Buffalo because they have no other options or because they have opportunities to play where they would never see the field elsewhere. Brad Smith? The guy is here because we might actually use him instead of letting him ride the pine in NY. If we manage to get a tackle or a TE it'll be because that player hasn't drawn interest elsewhere. It feels like the the geek in high school who can't get a date - most girls won't even give him the time of day but a few are friendly enough to say maybe, IF they don't get a better offer from someone else. Kevin Burnett is a prime example - "sure - we can go the the prom, but give me a couple of days before we finalize anything".

Tim Burton's got a real dark interpretation of Candyland coming out at Halloween starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter - it's going to be crazy......

I think Kelsay's up for another headscratching raise.......

He's flying in with George Siefert.......if there's one guy who knows the Buffalo airport it's that guy - he's lived there for years.....

Face it - Bush is no Spiller and Orton is no Thigpen - Bills certainly besting the Fins there.....