Albany,n.y.

Recently I tried to transfer a program from MSG Network that I recorded on a tape to a DVD. I hooked up the VCR to my VCR/DVD recorder. My DVD recorder gave me an error message because although I could tape it on the other VCR, I'm not allowed to record it on a DVD due to a copyright that the DVD program recognized. There was something on the tape before that program & the DVD recorded the few seconds before the program came on & then stopped as soon as that program started playing.

Good Point. Lebron James not only avoided a state income tax, but a NYC income tax as well by going to a team in Florida. It's bad enough that the state has their hands out, but in NYC the city is dipping into their pockets as well. Then there's the traffic.

The NYC media & specifically the tabloids like the Post & Daily News are the worst. Every time an athlete or coach doesn't want to bring their skills to a NY team, they call them chickens & afraid to be in the NYC spotlight. The latest 2 incidents happened at the same time. Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies & the NYC media said he was too afraid to sign with the Yankees. Never mind the fact the Phillies are the favorites to win the World Series. Lebron James played the Knicks & the Post has him as a chicken on the back page of the paper. When the Knicks went after James, they looked a lot like the Cleveland Cavaliers when Lebron looked at his chances of winning a championship. When Bill Belichick spurned the Jets to join the Patriots, the NYC media dubbed him "Belichicken". Too afraid to coach the Jets. It really worked out poorly for Bill, didn't it? All these "chickens" had 1 thing in common. They didn't think the NYC team was in as good a position to win championships with over the team they signed with. Wanting to win a championship and possibly multiple championships as Belichick has done hardly makes one a chicken.

Gibbs calling the 2nd timeout had no effect, since Lindell nailed the FG the 1st time he kicked it.

Keith Richards made it to 67? Do you believe in miracles-Yes!

I didn't notice Wang last week. The Bills were rotating Howard & Rinehart at RG, Wang wasn't in the rotation. Since Bell, Levitre, Wood & Wrotto played the whole game I doubt Wang got in for many, if any, offensive plays. There was an article I read this week where the writer attributed Rinehart's playing time to Wang, but the writer was wrong.

No, you touched a nerve because you sit home in Syracuse while I go to games & then you have the nerve to call me a part time fan. I've never seen you at any of the tailgates or ever claiming that you go to games. For someone to sit home & then call a fan who travels almost 600 miles to EVERY home game a part time fan is an insult. Ok moron-find my posts about the Giants & Jets & link them. You can't because there are none. There are none about the Jets, the only Giants topics are that Eli Manning is better than people think. Hardly always posting about Giants & Jets. When someone says things without merit that are as dumb as you have, profanity is needed. Put up or shut up-post links to the alleged Jets/Giants posts or STFU. I put up every game at the stadium. You sit home in Syracuse.

Detroit with their injured backup QB at home in OP. Cincinnati team that hasn't beaten the Bills in over 20 years & is in total freefall. Cleveland with backup, washed up Delhomme at home in OP. You're right. Things aren't black and white. In horse racing if a horse is an also ran against allowance horses in NY & you drop him into cheap claimers at Finger Lakes, he might just win a few races at Finger Lakes. The Bills have experienced a drop in class. It's a lot easier to go 3-2 after 0-8 when the dregs of the NFL suddenly show up on your schedule. If the Bills had Carolina on the schedule during this 3-2 run, it would have been 4-1. The Bills have yet to show they are anything other than tier 2 bad. They're not tier 1 bad like Carolina & Cincinnati, who are both being coached by lame ducks, but they really haven't proven anything by winning 3 of their last 5 other than they're not the lowest of the low. Let's see them win 2 of the last 3 and then we might have something to be excited about.

FOX pregame show just said the coach was suspended for the rest of the season

My biggest worry wasn't the gametime weather. I was concerned about our trip home. It turned out those early forecasts were all wrong & there wasn't a single snowflake across the state on the way home last night. It didn't even rain hard until we got past Utica. Anyone from points east who was scared off and missed the game did so for no reason.

And WTF does that have to do with who I root for? Find any posts where my main topic is the Giants or Jets. The only thing I discuss is when someone underestimates Eli Manning & says our QBs are better. They're not, not JP not Fitzpatrick. When I'm talking about TV schedules I have to bring up the Giants & Jets because when they play directly affects the chances of the Bills being shown on home TV, which I don't have to worry about for home games because I go to every one. I lived in WNY for about 7 years, so where I'm from & where I live now are irrelevant to what team I root for. By the way, I'm heading out to WNY for the game in a few minutes. We'll pass right by you as you sit at home 140 miles from the stadium criticizing fans who actually go to the games. I'm sorry I called you a moron & an idiot, I stand corrected, you're an f'n moron & an f'n idiot.

Moot point. Carolina & Cincinnati are ahead of us in the draft.

Frank Reich could use the top talent around him to win, but couldn't carry a team like Eli Manning can do in the final moments. Eli Manning does it week after week, Reich never had the opportunity, but was a great backup, just like Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick's W-L record speaks for itself. He's the best QB on a 2-10 team. At the beginning of the season I was defending Fitzpatrick because he was never as bad as a lot of people thought he was. Now I find myself trying to explain why he isn't as good as some people now think he is. He's always been somewhere in the middle of the 2 extremes. The fact he was the main QB in 5 of the 6 wins last year shows he isn't the bum some people made him out to be. At the same time, he doesn't elevate a team to the next level, as evidenced by the fact the Bills have only won 2 games this year and he continues to make critical errors at key points of games, week after week. Fitzpatrick can be here for another decade, but he cannot be the starter for the next decade if the Bills want to win a Super Bowl. There's no such thing as a perfect QB. All QBs take heat from their fans. All one has to do is think back to how many times Bills' fans got on Jim Kelly's case. Some wanted to bench him in favor of Frank Reich. Because Albany is Giants country, I hear more & see more about Manning than any non-Bills player. I know the Giants fans who think he sucks. I also hear the comments on sports talk as to why the Giants management feels he's so valuable. Fitzpatrick is not in Eli's league and never will be. That doesn't make Fitzpatrick a bum.

You're a moron. I've been to more Bills games in person than you could dream of. Just STFU you idiot.

If you watched Eli Manning, you wouldn't be saying that. The big difference between Eli Manning & Ryan Fitzpatrick is their ability to dig deep when the game is on the line. Eli Manning is clutch, when it's on his shoulders to get the team the win, he delivers game after game. That's why the Giants pay him the mega-bucks. Fitzpatrick is no Eli Manning. When has Fitzpatrick carried a team on his shoulders for a game winning drive? Eli Manning has come through in the most important game there is. If they were both free agents, Manning's contract offers would dwarf Fitzpatrick's, and rightfully so. This is almost as ridiculous as the posts years ago saying JP Losman was better than Eli Manning. Eli Manning has consistently won games from his second season in the league. Ryan Fitzpatrick reminds me a lot more of Frank Reich than Eli Manning.

It's not about the team tanking games. This team won't tank the games. The debate is about the fan's right to root for winning 1 game each week versus the FAN rooting for what he feels is better for the long term. That's what has fans divided. I don't think you will find 1 FAN who doesn't wear a tinfoil hat who will want this TEAM to tank a game. On the other hand there are many of us who look at the big picture who don't mind seeing a group that needs an infusion of better talent lose naturally. Fans who quote Herm Edwards saying "You play to win the game" are truly bluring the line between a player and a fan. I don't PLAY at all. I pay my money & root for the team until the season becomes meaningless, then I root for whatever is best for the long term interests of the team. Not only have I rooted to lose the final game of the season to move up in the draft, but I have also rooted against the team when I wanted an incompetent coach fired. Never have I advocated the players or coaches doing that, but once I pay my money to go to the game, I have the freedom to root for whatever outcome I decide I want to root for. Now let's examine the mindset of winning every game, as Herman Edwards stated he believes, versus the attitude that you don't have to win meaningless games. In my opinion there's no difference between a game that is meaningless because you've clinched your playoff spot and a game you are playing after you've clinched last place. They're both meaningless. HOF coach Marv Levy didn't play to win every game. Take a look at those season finales where Marv thought it was more important to keep his players fresh & healthy than win a meaningless game. Future HOF coach Bill Belichick does the same thing once the Patriots have locked up their seeding in the playoffs. Last season Jim Caldwell chose resting his players over winning a meaningless game against the Bills & made it to the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Herm Edwards with his philosophy, is working for ESPN instead of coaching in the NFL because his teams may have played to win the game, but didn't win often enough for him to keep his coaching job. Then there are the fans who say you have to win meaningless games to change the culture of losing. To them I say just look at the handful of players who survived the 2-14 seasons with the Bills. Guys like Darryl Talley had no problem going from losers to winners. Players on the 1985 2-14 team included Talley, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed, Jim Ritcher, and Frank Reich. Did it destroy their ability to play as winners, did they not all learn to hate to lose? No. What turned around the culture of losing was an infusion of better talent like HOFers Jim Kelly & Thurman Thomas. Once the team got more talent, everyone hated losing, yet they still could realize the difference between a meaningful & meaningless game and didn't demand to Marv to play in meaningless games at the end of the regular season.

That's what the players do. To turn an often quoted phrase by Trent Edwards around: I'm not a Bills' player, I'm a Bills' fan. As such, I do not delude myself into thinking I have to approach every game with a player's mindset. Just as Trent Edwards tried to tell the fans that he did not have to take their mindset into a game, the same is true for us who are able, because we are fans & not players, to look at a bigger picture. The players have to try to get to 4-12. As a fan, to me, there is no difference between 4-12 and 2-14. It means the team is far away from being a contender until we get better players than the ones who are currently playing to win the game and continuously failing week after week in achieving that goal. The players play to win the game one week at a time. The fans who were here before these players arrived (and in cases like mine, before they were born) want to see championships and are not satisfied with a game that gets the team closer to a 4 win season. It's not as simple as you make it out to be. Any fan, who is delusional enough not to see that he is not a player, and therefore can use his own judgement as to when to root for what's best for the team, has no right to tell other fans they're not fans because they'd rather win 12 games 3 seasons from now instead of 12 games over the next 3 seasons. Ask the real Indianapolis fans if they would have been happier WATCHING (since they weren't playing in those games) the Colts win a few more games in 1998, or having Peyton Manning these past 13 seasons.

The fact that we're in a total rebuild means just the opposite of your statement. If we were a player away from being a contender, your statement would be more valid. Since we're a lot of players away, if Buddy decides he's a franchise QB, this may be the best time to get one. I'd rather see us draft a QB who will sit at least part of next year & be our leader in the Super Bowl in 3 years, than get a LB, DE or RT who starts on opening day 2011, and still be a QB away from anything in 2013.

The Thruway is $25.70 or $24.42 with EZ Pass for the round trip from Exit 23 to the Depew toll booths. Gas is in the mid $80s or less depending on MPG Save $10 on parking by walking half a mile. Don't eat as much. Don't stay overnight Bet correctly & you can afford a laptop and pay for the rest of your Christmas presents. If you went to last year's game, have bragging rights for life that you were at the 2 worst games ever played in the NFL-PRICELESS!

Unless procedures have radically changed in the 28 years since I had my appendix removed, how can Cassel play on Sunday? http://www.profootballweekly.com/2010/12/08/chiefs-qb-cassel-undergoes-appendectomy

Because the people who live here don't always check the TV listings and may want the information. Not everyone on this board lives in Rochester.

You think that's bad, just look at what NY State has done to some gamblers on their taxes. Any NYS resident who ends up gambling online can end up like these people: http://www.nysdta.org/Determinations/822130.det.htm http://www.nysdta.org/Determinations/821982.det.htm

I have season tickets to the Bills & go to every game. In fact I had a streak from mid 1990-mid 2007 where I never a regular season home game, playoff home game or any of the 4 Super Bowls. I'm not any type of Giants or Jets fan. I'm not originally from Albany, I'm from LI & went to college at Fredonia & lived in WNY a few years after I graduated. There's snow on the grass in my yard right now-we got an inch in Delmar yesterday.

The forecast is for a combination of rain, sleet & snow. That's not lots of snow. Lots of snow is what parts of the Buffalo area got last week.

It has always been the Giants' market. Since the Giants started training in Albany, Albany also gets all preseason Giants games on local TV. Here's the story on the Jets. 2 years ago CBS channel 6 chose to take the Jets as their primary team. This included showing Jets exhibition games, which before that weren't shown around here. This past preseason, the Jets games weren't shown like 2009, I don't know why. A few years ago when CBS 1st got the AFC from NBC they were doing the same thing our local NBC station was doing & having us vote for the Bills or Jets. We won a good percentage of the time because we had a better organized voting bloc than the Jets did. When the Jets got good & the Bills continued to miss the playoffs, CBS Albany went Jets 1st. Back in the NBC days when we were Super Bowl contenders every year, we won a lot of those voting contests. It also didn't hurt that one of the guys who was making the programming decisions at NBC's channel 13 was originally from Buffalo & was a Fredonia grad.