trolls_r_us

I lived in the Adirondacks for a few winters... Buffalo does not seem cold to me at all in the winter... They close city schools when the wind chill gets below zero! LOL Up there, the actual TEMPERATURE without the wind chill would be -10 or so on a fairly normal basis, and sometimes we would see a week at a time where it stayed below zero for a high and get down to -20 or so at night, without the wind chills, which would make it feel like -50. Snow can be fun. Bitter cold is never fun.

Metz, That is beautiful! But do you want to live there every day of the year? I had a similar experience moving to the Adirondacks: beautiful, lots of outdoor stuff to do, but it gets boring after a while if you are used to being around a bigger city. Then winter hits and believe me when I tell you that unless you ski every day you will be bored out of your mind. I am not from Buffalo originally but I love living there. Everyone I have had come visit from other cities has found it to be a surprisingly fun and welcoming place with a lot more to offer than they suspected. There is a surprising amount of culture and arts, and a real sense of community. To each their own I guess. The biggest mistake people make is moving from city to city in search of happiness, not realizing that you make your own happiness in life.

pathetic... If the Bills move before the Jaguars, the NFL is finished........ It will tun into MLB: 3 decent teams and a whole bunch of cities who only half care because they don't have a shot

I suck at being a troll..... all these great pissing matches and I'm never involved... lol

is it really so beyond the pale that Losman has friends in Buffalo? He IS still living here, many people have seen him out and about recently. If he had no friends and no desire to live in WNY, why (especially given the way fans rip him apart) would he still be here? He is a single guy with millions of dollars. A couple years ago, I worked with a girl who was dating Losman. She met him at a party at his house that he had invited a bunch of people to, and told them to bring friends. This is a small town AND JP is the type of guy that wants to meet people. It isn't hard to imagine that there are people who he has become friends with. I actually ran into him twice in two seemingly unlikely places: at the Art Gallery on a Friday afternoon and in Delaware Park where he was walking by the lake/pond with a couple huge guys (maybe other Bills, I didn't recognize them...) So while there is no way to know if the OP is actually correct, it is certainly well within the realm and fits with the fact that Losman is still in Buffalo as we speak and has not signed with another team.

ans, I agree. I wouldn't say I am a huge Schopp "fan" but I have heard him do some good shows. Unfortunately, he loves baseball and tennis. If Buffalo had a MLB team he would be in heaven. I also think he is just angry at the idea of the Bills leaving town, so he is separating himself ahead of time. Just my opinion.

if I were Andy Roth this thread would be all I needed to give Schopp a bonus. 21 pages about a local sports talk personality. PEOPLE CARE, that is all that matters.

Just a couple of things: 1) Schopp grew up on Grand Island and has spent almost his entire life in WNY so I'm not sure where this idea that he is some outsider who hates the area comes from. 2) One problem WGR has that stations in bigger cities don't have is the lack of year round MAJOR LEAGUE local sports. Many have said they ought to try to talk baseball and the Bisons, or Lacrosse and the Bandits, but the audience is just too small. Too bad, because it seems like some local college, Bisons, and Bandits talk could add some variety. If you are in NY, Chicago, Boston, etc. you can talk NBA and MLB right now. If the Sabres cared about putting out a winning product, the NHL playoffs could bridge some of that gap. but you cannot expect that every year either. There are long stretches where WGR has to reach to find enough material for several hours of programming, and it suffers as a result. 3) I DO agree that at times WGR seems very "anti-Bills" especially Schopp. Partly this is due to the fact that the team has stunk for years, so he plays his schtick to drum up callers. I think Schopp represents that part of the WNY sports fan psyche that feels betrayed and/or angry about all this Toronto talk, and he expresses it. 4) Bottom line, there are threads about Mike Schopp here and on TBD. That means he is doing his job, bottom line. PEOPLE CARE about him and WGR, even if he generates negative feelings. People like Dennis Williams can disappear and nobody notices because he was so boring and had ZERO radio presence. Schopp is EXACTLY what you want in media: CONTROVERSY and INTEREST. If they love you, then you hit something truly rare. If they hate you, you are doing a great job. But if they don't care, you are unemployed.

you're right: why bother? 1.5 million for ticket increases and a couple million for naming the stadium= 3.5 million PER YEAR at least... But we're not Dallas so why even try...

why would the Bills need a new stadium? Spruce up the Ralph a little more and you could get 20 more years out of it easily... As nice as a new stadium would be, what would be the benefit to the team VS the cost of building it?

when it comes to billion dollar corporations such as an NFL team, there is no such thing as a coincidence when major moves start adding up. And AGAIN, for those like Haven Moses who cannot read, this is NOT MY WORK. Anyone who lives in WNY knows all about this rumor. They talked about it on WGR for about a week, it was on WGRZ and it was posted on almost every Bills-related message board.

this whole thing makes no sense at all.... something does not add up.... We DO know this: that Kelly is going to look AWFULLY BAD if it turns out not to be true. That gives me hope that maybe he has something up his sleeve...

funny how some people attack the poster rather than look at the post.... I did not make this up, dummy. Google search "Bills moving to Toronto." You will find this 2007 internet rumor which was emailed around and posted everywhere (including here at that time) to the point that Channel 2 sought out the people involved who all claimed it was just a rumor/hoax. Keep in mind this was all BEFORE the Bills "Toronto Series" where Rogers sat there with Ralph looking like a guy who just took your wife out on a date while you were on a business trip. However, interestingly enough, 2 years later, a lot of this seems true. I still don't believe the part about an expansion team though.... I find it interesting personally to look at these things with the benefit of some time...

what many of you are missing is that even BEFORE the whole dog fighting scandal broke, there were rumblings that Atlanta might be looking at other options at QB anyway... Vick is just not a good NFL QB. Look at his passing stats; they are not there. Vick is a faster JP Losman. Someone compared him to McNabb. There is NO comparison. McNabb's stats are far superior to Vick's, and he is not a scumbag little punk off the field. IF anyone picks this guy up, it will be for minimum $$. Why would any team bother to invest a large sum into him? He has only gotten older and more rusty as a QB and every year tons of new young talent becomes available in the draft and free agency. Look at it this way, people wanted to rag on Owens as being so much trouble that only the Bills wanted him, and he is a likely Hall of Fame caliber receiver who PRODUCES at a high level EVERY SEASON. Vick is just a below average QB who happens to run fast, is a convicted felon, and brings all sorts of negative baggage with him.

Most of us remember this little gem. I did a quick google search to find it again. If you remember correctly, it got so big that even WGRZ did a story on it. What is interesting to me is reading it 2 years later and how so many elements of it seem true now based on what we know. REMEMBER, when this first came out there was no deal to play any games in Toronto... Coincidence? Maybe, but I personally don't believe in coincidences. At a meeting Tom Golisano dropped a bombshell about the nefarious Ralph Wilson. Golisano claims that Wilson's intentions all along have been to move the Bills to Toronto. Stay with me on this......there are businessmen in Toronto that are ready to plunk down mega-millions for the Bills and move them there. Wilson already let the NFL know of this (Apparently they can't stop him either). Golisano & the people from Rich Products offered Wilson a similar financial package but Wilson demurred....when they offered him more, he demurred again...& said he wouldn't sell the team to them no matter how much they offered; it's not about money. Wilson wants it to be his legacy that he be the first person to bring international play to the NFL. Still with me..? There's more.... Not to be dismayed, TG went to the NFL & has an agreement that when the Bills move, they cannot take their name with them, ala Baltimore Colts/Ravens. After the move to TO, Buffalo will be granted an expansion franchise with the promise that they build a new stadium & sell it out for 5 consecutive years. (the NFL wants a franchise in Buffalo because it's one of the original teams & has history in the league) TG agreed to do this & will build a DOMED stadium on the waterfront in Buffalo with a capacity of 60,000. In addition, Buffalo will be granted a Super Bowl in the future. The caveat to this is that Buffalo will be without a football team for 3-4 years. The wheels are already in motion & no one can stop it. TG says that RW is playing the game right now..ie: crying the blues about money, saying enjoy the team while it's here, not signing/keeping star players, etc. Next year or possibly the year after the BIlls will be gone. Willis McGahee may have let the cat out of the bag with his recent TO talk in Penthouse. Star players don't want to come to B-lo because they know RW is a tight ass. TG also said that if he ran the team he will not be such a cheapskate & would turn things around in a hurry like he did with the Sabres.

but Ralph apparently doesn't want to talk to him....... OR he somehow is the only person alive who is unaware of this story.... That should tell you all you need to know.

originally I thought that the Toronto series was Ralph's way of ensuring the Bills stay until the end of the 2012 season. If he wasn't around, the team had not only a lease in WNY, but ALSO a pre-paid agreement with Toronto, making a move doubly difficult. Now, I am not so sure. It looks much MORE like the powers that be want to move the team there full-time. I would rather they go to LA, so nobody can even try the PR line of "still in our region...."

don't forget: Erie County must approve of any further moving of games, as the leaseholders. I think the state also had to sign off, but I am not sure. The point is that the Bills CANNOT unilaterally decide to move games without the consent of the county. I would say NO to the Bills moving more games if I were the state and county. Time to bring this to a head and settle this thing. What is the true plan?

something is better than nothing..... That's what sucks... WHEN this team moves full-time to Toronto and we get thrown a scrap here and there that's what many Bills fans are going to say, and my god it is sickening......... I would rather the team move to Los Angeles than Toronto, just so we wouldn't even have to listen to the "it's still everyone's team, it just plays in Toronto.." PR line that would be almost as bad as not having any team at all. Let's be clear, if this team goes full time to Toronto, it is NOT our team any more, and never will be again.

if you think the Bills are cheap, look at the small market Chicago Bears.... They are hampered by playing in only the nation's third largest city, and lack all the economic benefits the Bills have. Therefore, their GM is apparently "handcuffed" and the team cash-strapped. Their off-season has been the DEFINITION of boring.

Kelly sold his house and moved about 15 minutes away to a new house.

if it were a rule that a team was REQUIRED to do what someone else thought was in its best interest, Ralph and the front office would all be in hot water. What rule was broken here?

"If you don't have a good quarterback, you don't have a good team" - Dick Jauron comment to Ralph Wilson. You tell me.... According to Ralph, Jauron said that to him (as if it were news to a guy who has spent 50 years in football). Still.... Edwards just isn't that good. Do you think the coaches are blind to that fact?

SanJose, Nice response. I agree that talent plays a role, but you could look at it this way: the teams that hired him were teams that were not considered "premier jobs." Thus, it kind of goes with the territory. In other words, none of the true contender teams thought enough of him to hire him, and they have not so far. It's not a simple thing to determine how "good" a coach is, for sure. One thing I look at is "who almost beat (or did beat) New England last season?" Here are the coaches who beat (or almost beat) the Patriots, who seemed invincible: Brian Billick (w/ KYLE BOLLER, on MNF, and a Ravens team that WE beat). Tony Dungy Andy Reid (w/ AJ FEELEY, on MNF, in New England). Tom Coughlin 3/4 of those coaches have won a Super Bowl. IT could be argued that until the playoffs started, only Indy had a legitimate championship calibur QB. That is what GOOD COACHING can do. No, it didn't overcome superior talent (except in the Super Bowl) but it came darn close. Feeley VS Brady in NE on MNF with a perfect season in the balance shouldn't even be a contest. Yet it was. NO GAME with Boller at QB should be a contest, yet it was.

Jauron did NOT start coaching yesterday, folks. In fact, he has been a head coach in 117 games. Surprisingly, he is one of only 83 coaches all-time to accomplish that feat (100+ games). Given that fact, it is surely fair to examine his record and see how he matches up. After all, that's a LARGE body of work, as NFL head coaches go. So how does he compare to the others in the 100+ game club? The numbers tell a grim tale. Of the 83 coaches in this group ALL TIME (100+ games coached) Jauron has a better winning percentage than only 9! Put another way, 73 of the 83 coaches to coach 100+ games have a BETTER w/l record than Jauron (he ranks 74/83). Here is the list of coaches that coached 100+ games, and had a WORSE winning percentage than Dick Jauron currently has: (For the record: Jauron's numbers are listed at the top of the table) Coach................................games coached....win %.....# of playoff games Dick Jauron (see above)........117....................43%..........1 Dan Henning........................112....................34%......... 0 Marion Campbell...................115....................30%......... 0 Ray Perkins.........................117....................36%..........2 Leeman Bennett...................119....................42%..........4 Bruce Coslett.......................124....................38%.........1 Joe Kuharich........................142....................42%.........0 Dom Capers.........................128....................38%.........2 John McKay.........................133....................33%.........4 Bart Starr............................131....................41%.........2 ******************************************************* Not exactly a "who's who" of great coaches. THIS (along with my observations of POOR game day decisions and lackluster training camps) is why I say that Dick Jauron is simply never going to be a successful NFL head coach. There are those who say "Jauron is a good coach." Based on WHAT? How else can you measure success in the NFL other than wins and losses? (Sorry but "he's a nice guy and he really loves football" doesn't count). Almost doesn't count, looking cool on the sidelines doesn't count, being a great guy doesn't count, and "being smart" doesn't count either. When it comes to wins and losses, the list above is the list of coaches to go 100+ games who Jauron has been more successful than. A few of them even have MORE playoff games than he does. Just facts.