The Avenger

1. Lack of football people in the front office 2. Coach who has proven he can't get it done and gets outcoached at almost every turn

Has to be Take the Money and Run - it began the mocumentary and without it there woukd be no Spinal Tap (also one of my favorite movies). St. Abernathy's Day - that's classic....

How relieved is Mark Sanford that Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcet will keep his name out of the news for a few days? That's hitting the jackpot of news cycles....

Very sad. I'm glad her pain is gone - it doesn't look like it was very easy at the end.

Exactly. Regardless of what people think about the morality of WHY he disappeared, the issue is that he disappeared. Whether he cheats on his wife doesn't really have much bearing on how he handles his job, but disappearing shows that he willing to flake out/check out and go take care of personal matters without regard to the state's need to have a functioning executive and not even let his staff know what's going on and how to reach him if necessary - that's what people should be upset about.

That's what I hate - different rules at different airports. And when you get somewhere and they are operating under rules that are new to you the screeners treat you like some sort of ahole because you're supposed to know how they do things in that city

In a split system, the outside unit houses the condenser and compressor - if the fan isn't turning that unit isn't functioning and you're not going to get cold air. Lots of reasons why this could happen - you'd need an HVAC tech to diagnose. I have an ancient system at my house, installed by the previous owner in 1978 and a couple of times the condeser/compressor stopped. I figured the system had finally died, but when the HVAC guy came out he told me it stopped because a pressure switched had been tripped - the system had gotten dirty and was working too hard so it shut itself down. Both times he was able to do a cleaning and get it working again for about $50 - a great deal for me and I was thrilled to know I had an honest guy who was going to give me the real story rather than sell me a new system. Good luck.

More than 75% of people think the Bills are going to have a winning record for the first time since 2004? Really? And even more surprsing, I see lots of people predicting double digit wins, something the Bills haven't done since 1999. Man, some serious homers here... Week 1 Mon, Sep 14 @ New England Patriots* - L Week 2 Sun, Sep 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers - L Week 3 Sun, Sep 27 New Orleans Saints - W Week 4 Sun, Oct 04 @ Miami Dolphins -L Week 5 Sun, Oct 11 Cleveland Browns - W Week 6 Sun, Oct 18 @ New York Jets - L Week 7 Sun, Oct 25 @ Carolina Panthers - L Week 8 Sun, Nov 01 Houston Texans - L Week 9 Sun, Nov 08 BYE Week 10 Sun, Nov 15 @ Tennessee Titans - L Week 11 Sun, Nov 22 @ Jacksonville Jaguars - W Week 12 Sun, Nov 29 Miami Dolphins - W Week 13 Thu, Dec 03 New York Jets (Toronto) - L Week 14 Sun, Dec 13 @ Kansas City Chiefs - W Week 15 Sun, Dec 20 New England Patriots* - L Week 16 Sun, Dec 27 @ Atlanta Falcons - L Week 17 Sun, Jan 03 Indianapolis Colts - L

In case you didn't notice, some fans here think it's pretty stupid that there are good writers and bad writers....

We need to establish some color color coding so we knowinstantly who is good and who is bad: Don Banks Peter King

5-11 Tougher Schedule Improved divisional rivals (Brady's back, Fins and Jets better than last year) Revamped Offensive Line No guarantees Maybin will have an impact or that Schobel returns to form Marshawn out for first 3 games I'm not sold on Trent (even when he had time last year he often looked like he was doing a Rob Johnson impersonation by hold ing onto the ball way too long) Dick Jauron - 10 games into the season last year he still can't manage the clock - that suddenly changes with a new year? As Ralph said, just not enough talent

That is one sick WR lineup - T.O., Fitzgerald, Boldin and Evans - can we run 4 WR on every play?

I'd also add: Rocky George - Suicidal Tendencies Tommy Victor - Prong Scott Ian - Anthrax Pepper Keenan - C.O.C.

When you say you don't lobby, does that include not going to vote on a ballot initiative barring gay marriage or providing financial support to groups lobbying? When I say everyone's entitled to their own opinions I mean that, but I have strict definition of personal opinion - it means you don't do anything to spread that viewpoint and impose it on others.

I agree with that, but there are plenty of people (and maybe not this poster in particular) who don't keep their opinions to themselves - they go out and actively lobby that thier opinion/viewpoint/moral values should be made into law for ALL to obey. That's what I have a problem with. If people want to hold their own personal beliefs on the topics it's nobody's buiness, but they should return the favor and not try and push their opinions on anyone else.

OK, so segregation and barring interracial marriage is clearly wrong, even though people can and did find religious justification for both, but homosexuality isn't - got it. I can also point out biblical justification for not touching the skin of a pig (not popular on a football message board), the wearing of syntheic fibers and outlawing crop rotation. Seems pretty subjective to me, though. Not to mention that religious justifications should have nothing to do with laws of society, especially when nobody agrees on whose religion is the right one.

What about kids in segregated Alabama who were taught that Blacks didn't have the same rights as whites and that interracial marriage was a sin against God and grew up figting for segeration? You going to say they're not racists becase they simply took what they were taught and formed an opinion? How are their reasons for their opinions any different than what is happening today with discrimination against gays? I'm curious to see how you say the two situations are different.

I bet 40+ years ago the Africa example wasn't as cut and dry as it is today... 40+ years ago there were laws on the books outlawing interracial marriages - the laws were't overturned until the late 1960s. Looking back on that today most of us probably view such laws as rediculous and anyone who stepped forward to defend such laws is now seen as a racist kook. I wonder what this country will look like in another 50 years and what we'll think of people who step forward to oppose someone else's marriage because it offends their morals...

I think a B is pretty generous - the talent evaluation for the organization is a major contributor to their continued mediocrity. In 5 years they've only managed to have a single Pro Bowler, an alternate at that. Nearly none of their second day picks have contributed anything, and a majority of their day 1 pics aren't even starting quality, especially the 2003 and 2004 guys who should be at their peaks. The JP Losmans and John McCargos (busts), are killing us with help from the Chris Kelsays (guys playing nowhere near where they were drafted). We also aren't finding the late round diamonds like so many other teams seem to do and that hurts. Throw in some terrible personnel decsions at head coach and you have a total mess. In short, to succeed in the NFL your day 1 guys have to live up to their draft positions and you need to find later round guys who exceed expectations. You'll always have busts and extenuating circumstances (Kevin Everett), but your good moves need to outnumber your bad moves and that's not happening with the Bills. Bottom line for me is that it is clear that the organization is not being run by football people and that leads to everything else.

Agreed. While Roscoe isn't on the field every play, he can be very effective when he is. What scares the hell out of me is what the Bills would do with a 5th round pick - they'd get some backup OL utility guy (probably a C/G who could play either position but neither well enough), or some DE who maybe sees 3 games as an injury backup - neither of which justifies getting rid of Roscoe IMHO. If the Bills had a better record of finding solid talent in the draft, especially in later round picks it might be worth a gamble, but I can all but guarantee any trade would be a net negative with what the Bills find in the 5th round. Talent evaluation is what's kept this team a non-contender for a decade.

Anyone want to bet that our first 3 games will be: At New England New England Miami (gotta do the 2 NE games the first 2 weeks in case the appeal knocks the suspension down to 2 games)....

The Bills front office IS optimistic - they're selling T.O. jerseys like hotcakes and could possibly rake in extra money from a SECOND Toronto game in the years to come - what's not to like if you're a marketing guy? Meanwhile on the football field.....

This is what I said when the deal went down and I got blasted by euphoric T.O. fans who continually told me there was no downside to the deal. While that's probably the case, it might not be. But even if there is no downside, I don't love the deal from a football perspective. T.O. does NOT solve enough of our problems to get us to the playoffs and the bottom line to me is that's where we need to be in late December. I don't give a rat's a$$ if we win 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 games next season - if we don't make the playoffs it doesn't mean anything. Seriously - is anyone going to be happy with 9 wins and the opportunity to watch other teams play in January? It won't be any different than the past decade. Great marketing move - kudos to the Bills for getting what they can. Is it surprising at all that the front office is run by marketing guys and not football guys? This move IS the front office...

Here's a question - if we sign him now for what he wants - $12.5 a year - how long until that's not enough and he's back to his holdout ways? Can you imagine what will happen if we ever do reach that threatened upcapped season and Peters is locked into a contract for "only $12.5 a year"? I think they guy's got solid talent, but I think you have to weigh how much better he makes the team over another cheaper guy vs. how many holes this team has to fill. This team has a lot of needs beyond left tackle - we can't be hamstrung is trying to address those needs by paying a guy who may throw the same tantrum a couple of seasons from now. Trent also has to get rid of the ball and make some better reads - so many times last year he had time to throw and didn't do anything with it. If that continues it doesn't matter if we have a Pro Bowl tackle - it will really be a waste of huge money on the line.

Given how down people were about the team and the general feeling about how far the Bills had to go to make it to the playoffs, has that attitude changed? Does the T.O. signing translate into a playoff berth for the Bills?