The Avenger

I'm all for a guy staying and getting a degree, but let's be realistic here. As much as he should have a degree his livlihood is not going to depend on it - they guy's going to be a football player, not an architect. As such he should go for the best deal he can get. If you know you're going to be drafted #1 overall why go back? Things can't get any better - they can only get worse for you - an injury could lose you your shot at ever making it big. Great to stay and get the degree, but I don't think that's the best choice in this situation.

Yeah, but it's probably cool to be able to tell your wife that she still makes your heart skip a beat.......maybe it even saves on flowers?

' That's OK - I went to HS with his brother and the brother was a tool.......

Not a Bills story, but something that happened to me in WNY.... IN the late 80s Niagara Falls had a single-A baseball club called the Rapids. For games you sat on bleachers a la a high school game and I'd be suprised if attenance topped more than a few hundred. A buddy of mine asks me if I want to go to a ballgame and I agreed - we went to see the Rapids take on the Welland, Ontario Pirates. We sat on the third base line and because we were there we decided we'd razz the Welland 3rd baseman, a guy named Tim Wakefield. All game long we just yelled "Hey, Wakefiled.....WAKEFIELD". After the game was over and we were walking through the parking lot to the car a visibly pissed Tim Wakefield is waiting for us and challenges us to a fight. Told him I wasn't interested and he should get back on the school bus and go back to Canada. Years later I see they guy has not only made it to the majors, he's stuck with the bigs and now has a very nice career playing for my team, the Boston Red Sox. People are talking about what a great guy he is in the community and all I can think is "that d%*ckhead?" I saw a breakdown of his career and we caught him at his lowest - he was almost out of baseball, not cutting it as a utility infielder when the coach decided to give him a shot throwing the knuckleball he screwed around with at practice - and a career was born. As I think about it now, we could have picked on just about anybody else on the field that day and those guys all went on to pump gas within 3-4 years of playing - we managed to pick on the one guy who made it all the way and had a major league career, and now I have to root for him!

This is good news for Bills fans - we'll be all giddy about the players we got in the draft a month prior, expounding about what a huge difference our first and second rould selections will be and how much of a steal our later ronders are (our 7th is going to be a huge diamond in the rough). We won't actually live to see our early rounders bust and our later rounders lead us to yet another sub .500 season - everybody wins.......

Ah yes, back when we actually had the ability to draft well and select guys who weren't projects, whose skills were actually NFL caliber. Funny how we were in the Super Bowl those years and with the early round busts we've been drafting recently we haven't sniffed the playoffs in a decade, isn't it?

We tried the DE thing and look what we got - a big fast monster DE that can get to the QB - only we didn't realize that he was a 1 trick pony with who can get to COLLEGE quarterbacks and his COLLEGE speed isn't nearly all that fast in the NFL. He did make a nice bench warmer, though.....

I believe cougar hunting is illegal in almost every state - this guy is really in big trouble.......

It's not truly about having a higher draft pick - it's more about what options are available to you when you pick. Recent history suggests that the Bills have been just out of reach for the guys that they have rated highly AND fill a position of need (i.e. - Patrick Willis). I have no doubt that last year the Bills would have taken Bradford or Suh if they had been in a position to do so - they were not and felt that the best player available when they selected was Spiller. Seeing all the best players at positions of need go off the board before you pick forces your hand - you end up with guys you feel have great talent but they may not be at the positions we need (seriously - did we really need another RB more than we needed someone in the trenches?). The earlier you pick the less of a problem you have with this, and at this stage of trying to rebuild that's a big deal for the Bills. When all is said and done there's no guarantee that ANY pick the Bills make will pan out - Lord knows how many picks they've missed on, especially in the early rounds - that's one of the main reasons we are where we are - but it would be nice to be able to pick the player we really want/need rather than having to go to plan B or plan C because he was picked ahead of you.

Yeah, I was thinking Lead, South Dakota probably doesn't have any skyscrapers or public transit systems either........

Sadly I don't think this qualifies as very unique - people get their stuff ripped off from their bags every day. I think people for the most part know that valuables get stolen from bags when nobody is around to look after them.

Neil Diamond celebrates Christmas? Oy vey....he'll never play the Catskills again.........

I take it you never eat out? Heck, I'm on a diet and I find it hard to deal with situations where I travel and/or have to eat lunches/dinners at work - I have a whole lot more choice in what I can eat besides just plain lentils and I find it next to impossible sometimes.....

Yes, but if you look at the fine print of the luggage liability rules for your carrier (the FAA allows the airlines to make their own rules on liability), you'll see that almost all carriers specifically exclude liability for lost electronics, computers, jewelry and cash so they will eventually tell you you're S.O.L. ad they aren't giving you anything fo rthe theft. TSA's directly concerned with screening what gets onto an airline - they could give a rat's butt about stolen luggage - not their problem. To them it's not a safety issue.

It's called the FAA, and they have as a mission the promotion of commercial aviation that often comes into direct conflict with what people would expect out of a government agency that is also charged with protecting the flying public - things like flight safety, for example. Baggage is so low on their list of things to protect, especially if it will add cost to the airlines, it's not even funny.

Sadly it's a pretty simple equation. Nobody (airport/airlines) is held legally responsible - at most they pay a small percentage of what got stolen and you either can't sue them because they are legally restricted in their reponsibility or it would be cost prohibitive to go after them in court. They hire dirtbags to handle your bags because they are cheap and you don't exactly get community pillars and Rhodes scholars to lug bags in the cold for $9/hour - they hire ex-cons and people who have "ins" with current baggage handlers, so it goes on and on with no incentive to change it. Oh, and nobody wants the bad press about their employees getting busted for theft. Because they can, and they get some really nice merchandise for free when they do look.......

Typical pass the buck - they don't work for us, they work for the airport. Yes, they understand the issue and they're sorry, but the net net is that they don't have to pay for it and as a result they don't fix it - you get to pound sand and eat a grand on a camcorder unless your homeowners insurance wants to jump in and save you from eating the whole thing. You can't sue anybody becasue their liability is strictly limited so this stuff goes on in perpetuity - it's been going on for decades and nobody ever does anything about it except learn to assume their stuff is going to get jacked and avoid checking it. Remember that story of that guy at the Phoenix airport last year? They found him taking a bag and were able to nail him. When they got to his house the guy had literally thousands of bag that he had stolen over time - probably YEARS - nobody ever caught up with him because nobody but the indivual flers involved were ever negatively impacted. Sickening. Dirtbag in Phoenix I haven't been a victim of this like you have - can't imagine how fired up I'd be. As it is I'm getting worked up just thinking about how long this has gone on with nobody looking out for the traveling public - you have to fly and you have to leave your bags so you're stuck - sure would be nice if someone did their job and protected it instead of helping themselves.

OK - I'll jump in and ask a question.... As someone who actually works professionally in the world of the NFL, what are your thoughts about getting a new CBA and avoiding any labor strife next season? Is it crazy to think that things will get resolved before next season? If there is no CBA, what does that mean for you and your clients?

Which would make observance the wrong term to use. I belive the noun he is looking for is "observation".

It certainly does NOT excuse the theft - totally agree with you on that. Thing is that if you have something valuable they WILL find it. Not only are they experienced and fast, I think there are plenty of opportunities for them to take their time. If they saw things were wrapped they assumed there would be something of value - they probably put your bag aside and made sure they could go through each and every wrapped goodie before putting your bag in the hold (actually, al lot of the suff happens IN the hold, away from anyone's eyes). My guess is that the wrapping paper really worked against you because it drew attention to the fact that there was probably something cool in the bag somewhere.

That does suck - sorry to hear you got ripped off. If you haven't already been jerked around by the airline you will be - they won't accept any responsibility for what happened and they won't give you jack for your losses. In the fine print mumbo-jumbo they're not responsible for anything more than $.32 of loss or some such nonsense - makes you want to seriously grab someone by the neck and choke the ever-loving *&&*%! out of them.... It may not have been the TSA folks - my guess is it's the bagge monkeys who work for the airline or their subcontractor - they pay those guys dirt, treat them like dirt and attract some people who have some sketchy backgrounds, then leave them along with your stuff - gee, where'd my stuff go? 2 bits of advice for anyone traveling: 1. Never pack or take along wrapped gifts - even the TSA will tell you that's a no no - you're not supposed to do that and they can (and do) ask you to unwrap them or unwrap them themselves. Every year my brother shows up for Christmas and has to spend time wrapping his stuff once he's arrived. 2. Never, ever, ever, put anything of value (electronics, cash, jewelry) in your checked bag. It shouldn't be a suprise to anyone that when people have access to your bag and you're not around they steal anything they can get their hands on. Doesn't make it right, just the way it is. If the damn airlines were ever held responsible for obvious thefts to bags in their care they might actually do something about cleaning up their act, but they aren't so they just let it happen because YOU get screwed, not them. You have to assume anything you leave in your checked bagge is fair game and will be stolen if it has value - don't give them anything of value. I hate traveliing because I have to cram all this tuff into my carryon bag because it will get ripped off if I don't - I would love to check it but I know it would disappear if I did. And the airlines wonder why people bring so much crap in their carryons and there's never enough space in the cabin - clean up your damn act and it wouldn't be that way.

Majorities yes, but not a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, where the 111th Congress set a new records for filibusters - over 100 times and counting. Easy to say Democrats control both houses, but with the rules of procedure the minority has the power to bring things to a halt in the Senate when they want.

Exactly. While I have no love for any of our AFC East teams, thinking that Miami is our main rival because of stuff more than 30 years ago is like hating the Germans for WWII. Time marches on and you get new enemies - like Iran and the Pats*.

Exactly. I see some progress, but I also see a huge lack of talent and the same ability to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory that sometimes makes me want to hurt myself.... I want to be optimistic about the future and I could be, but for me it's still too early - I'm not fully convinced that Nix and Gailey have us on the right track. I generally like what they've done, but I think it's too early - they have to show me more than they have for me to take a drink of the Kool-Aid after the past decade. Imagine if they draft another Maybin and we win 2 games next year - how many people will still be convinced that Buddy and Chan are the answer? People will be screaming for yet another round of new faces. We've won 3 games this year, all against some pretty poor teams - whoopie. They seem to be playing hard and I like that, but at the end of the day they can play as hard as they want - if they don't have the talent they won't be able to do anything more than beat bad teams who play with less heart. Progress this year followed by progress next year and I'll start to feel better, but I won't really be happy until this team can contend with the good teams in the league.....

I wonder if he has one of those cheesy t-shirts that says "Beard/Moustache Rides, 5 cents"......