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Rank is a good word for this crew.

The worst time to be a Bills fan in recent history was probably 2000 or 2001, as we were at the front end of a 13 year (and counting?) slide. No matter how long the drought lasts, we are 12 years closer to its end then we were in 2001. kj

I think this team needs to be officially outfitted in the Donahoe era uniforms.

Awesome. I was just being a smartass, of course, but way to turn that around. Great stuff.

Soon we will be arguing about team colours and how Monday night's game was great theatre! kj

I can't find YouTube video of any of these guys. This is great stuff guys.

I can't decide if I am enjoying this thread or not.

Thanks!

If the 4-3 was new and it was early for the 3-4, what came before the 4-3 and 3-4?

I had thought that last year they let him go too long before shutting him down and hope they didn't allow him to do permanent damage to his back in the process.

This is great and just solidly researched and argued. Kerry Byrne at SI tries to do the same with a slightly different (smaller) set of metrics that might be of interest. (One interesting point he makes is that "the passing game is LESS important now than it was in the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s.") http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130204/joe-flacco-eli-manning-super-bowl-quarterbacks/ But I like the points here better. Thanks. kj

Those are great. Raiders as zombies or whatever they are was very cool. Ravens-Patriots my favorite. kj

You are right. Especially important because of the chance that a penalty against the other team will not be overlooked.

I don't want to weigh in on the quality of the refs last night; I spent the night catching up with my neighbors and not paying attention too closely. Except for Beyonce. But I don't think the play would have stopped if the officials had recognized a hold. The only penalties that cause a play to be whistled dead are false start and when the D jumps and is unabated to the quarterback (or whatever that phrase is). Otherwise they throw the flags, let the play run, and then sort it out. So the outcome would have been precisely the same, time run off, two points for the 49ers, and a drop kick.

That same article points out that convention floor space has gone from 40 million sq ft to 70 million sq ft in the last 20 years, as cities have entered or expanded in an already crowded market. And your example of the success of Indianapolis is offset by the example of Houston from the same article, which defaulted on the debt used to build the stadiums and meeting space and has been sued by the bond insurer for insufficient reserves. Also, the bloom may be off the rose a bit in Indy, as the article points out, as revenues have slowed in the past year+. So I still hold that convention centers are generally a bad public investment. And stadiums, too, at least they way most are funded. kj

As a non-Xs-and-Os guy, I have to say thanks for talking through this stuff.

Convention centers are not lucrative for local governments. That sector is way overbuilt and simply not a good investment. It's been that way for about twenty years. I didn't know that the stadium space was also a convention center. But the returns aren't going to be there, regardless. And we should adjust for inflation when considering these investments. That's how Kroenke's thinking about this money.

Adjusting for inflation, that would be over a billion dollars in less than 20 years. Is there a serious argument that the Rams have had a billion dollar economic impact on the St. Louis economy?

Don't they all?

Tank Carder is still on the Browns roster.

Would have liked to see the same photo sequence on Brady's slide kick.

Saw this on Buffalo Rumblings. It's pretty cool, as are the other photos in the gallery: http://espn.go.com/espn/photos/gallery/_/id/8870055/image/3/stevie-johnson-bills-receiver-crazy-just-work

Thanks for that

Can anyone shed any light on how this flexibility would affect CB or S play? The differences in skills and responsibilities for LBs and DLs in moving from a 4-3 to 3-4 and back--that makes sense to me. But as a non-football guy, I don't get what happens differently behind the front 7. Is there necessarily an impact on DB play when you change the front? And how would that relate to the guys we have? Thanks, and pardon the ignorance. kj

Shouldn't Teo's girlfriend be among the top 3 fallacies of this year's draft? Good points, all 3, despite that.