Albany,n.y.

When I was in high school in Long Island a girl in our class had just moved there from Chicago. The teacher put these three words on the blackboard & asked her to say them: Mary, merry, marry. When she said them, they all sounded the same. If you don't have that accent, they are three distinctively different sounding words. The class all laughed at her and then the teacher continued teaching the class in a New Yawk accent.

JP should have a good game against the worst team in the league. I saw the Sentinals live last week in Hartford and they're pretty bad. Too bad Cottrell has such a bad roster to coach.

Ok, then please explain why Chuck Knox came here in 1978 from Los Angeles. Not everyone has the attitude about outsiders coming to Buffalo as you do, otherwise no free agents would ever sign with the Bills.

Haslett has about the same resume as Jauron. One really good season and a bunch of bad ones. Then an interim gig where the team had virtually no interest in keeping him on as head coach. Just because he's got the best bunch of NFL rejects in a 4 team league, doesn't mean he should coach the Bills. 11 years ago, before Haslett proved his mediocrity as a head coach, I wanted him instead of Wade. Haslett isn't much as a head coach.

1) Assuming you're talking Bills picks, see Walt Patulski

It's 9:00 for those of us on the east coast. Anyone attending the game will get a free ticket to the championship game next Friday 12:00 Pacific, 3:00 eastern time. I figured out what's going on with this league. They're living off TV money. Incredibly, they have a two year deal worth $35 million a year. With a salary structure of $35,000 for players, except QBs who get $60,000 they can thrive on that $35 million. That's why the stands are always empty & even though attendance is less than half of what they're claiming, they can survive without any fans in the stands (it's pretty close to that now). The moment of truth comes after season 2 when they either have to sign a new tv deal or fold. Also everyone is free to go to the NFL after the championship game.

More than anyone else the biggest failure in this organization is John Guy. Just look at some of the bigger busts who has been signed as free agents during his reign of error: Matt Bowen Derrick Dockery Melvin Fowler Kelly Holcomb Craig Nall Tutan Reyes Robert Royal Trey Teague Larry Tripplett Langston Walker Jason Whittle Just look at all the bad offensive linemen we signed with Guy as the guy.

Until this year, when apathy set in early due to all the losing, you could easily sell a Bills ticket for 150% of face on ticket exchange. So if the Bills are winning, they could charge 50% more than what they're charging for most seats now & people would pay. When I went to Giants Stadium this year to see the Bills, my bus trip was $119 & the tickets in the nosebleed sections we were in were $75 each. They'll be more for the Jets next year in the new stadium. My typical day at the Ralph: Ticket $45, Tolls around $22, Parking $20, Gas $60. That's close to $150 per game, over if you count food. Since the ticket is less than 1/3rd the cost, I'd be willing to pay a lot more for a winner.

JaMarcus Russell WAS the #1 pick overall and he's hardly OK.

I've seen JP having success this year when his receivers got wide open & he didn't throw it over their heads like he's done numerous times this year. What I haven't seen is too many passes that have been spot on in heavy coverage-something a successful NFL QB has to do every now & then.

This is the official sign that Trent Edwards days as a starter are over, although he could be back this year because of an injury or because Fitzpatrick isn't much. The only reason Hamdan was here was to give Trent an extra coach on the sidelines. Hamdan was Edwards' best friend on the team, once Edwards fell out of favor, Hamdan wasn't long for this team.

Based on a Rob Johnson type 1 game showcase, it looks like the only hope for success, after this week's benchings of Russell & Trent, is Kevin Kolb. Here is the QB draft class of 2007 *-already cut by the team that drafted him 1st rd: Russell, Quinn 2nd rd: Kolb, Beck*, Stanton 3rd rd: Edwards 4th rd: Stanback (WR)* 5th rd: Rowe*, Smith 6th rd: J. Palmer* 7th rd: Thigpen*

The Bills just cut a former NFLE MVP. Just goes to show all the JP lovers how meaningless some minor league stats are, and JP isn't even the best QB in a 4 team league. I've seen all his games except the game in NY after the Yankees game 6 came on. Same old JP, weaker competition. I'm sure JP also looks good when he plays sandlot ball with a bunch of kids from the block.

He's playing against minor league competition. That's not making strides, its called a drop in class in horse racing. He still makes too many mistakes, and holds onto the ball too long, which causes too many sacks. Last week after a play that JP got sacked, McGuire was practically yelling at him on the air for taking a stupid sack by not getting rid of the ball. Do you know what the UFL announcers have been commending JP for once in a while? -When he checks down-something Edwards has already mastered. The only reason that JP has the ability to get better is because he's so bad. That doesn't ever mean he actually will get better, just that there is so much room for improvement. I've seen him playing all year in the UFL & factoring in the drop in level of competition, I can say he's not one iota better than when he played with the Bills. As for Edwards, like JP, he's now a part of Bills' history and for all intents & purposes, totally irrelevant. The thing JP lovers who have blamed Bills coaches always fail to bring up is that JP had one of the most respected coaches for developing QBs in the business, Sam Wyche, and he couldn't learn squat from him and these idiots say the Bills coaching ruined JP.

Not really. Because of the Rooney rule they have to have open interviews, not zero in on a name like Detroit did when they hired Mariucci & the NFL slapped them for it. You can't do those interviews in season. The next team would likely get a much greater punishment than Detroit including possibly voiding of the contract like last year when the league voided the clause that Haslett had with St. Louis that if he won so many games he'd get the permanant job.

I play the guess which column is Jerry's game too. Wasn't very hard this week.

I tried to think back to the mid 80s teams & who was left from the bad squads when we got good. Using that as a guide, I could see these guys on a Super Bowl team down the road. Some guys, like Stroud, I don't expect to be around in the 2-3 years needed to rebuild. 31 Byrd, Jairus S 5-10 200 23 R Oregon 27 Corner, Reggie CB 5-9 175 25 2 University of Akron 83 Evans, Lee WR 5-10 197 28 6 Wisconsin 22 Jackson, Fred RB 6-1 215 28 3 Coe College 25 Lankster, Ellis CB 5-9 190 22 R West Virginia 67 Levitre, Andy OL 6-2 305 23 R Oregon State 9 Lindell, Rian K 6-3 233 32 10 Washington State 24 McGee, Terrence CB 5-9 198 29 7 Northwestern State 8 Moorman, Brian P 6-0 172 33 9 Pittsburgh State 89 Nelson, Shawn TE 6-5 240 24 R Southern Mississippi 51 Posluszny, Paul LB 6-1 238 25 3 Penn State 65 Sanborn, Garrison LS 6-0 240 24 R Florida State 20 Whitner, Donte S 5-10 208 24 4 Ohio State 95 Williams, Kyle DT 6-1 306 26 4 Louisiana State 70 Wood, Eric OL 6-4 315 23 R Louisville 60 Butler, Brad OL 6-7 315 26 4 Virginia 28 McKelvin , Leodis CB 5-10 184 24 2 Troy

In case anyone I know wants some. Plus by the end of the game, I knew they were just going to throw them out.

I went to the Florida Tuskers vs the New York Sentinals game in "The Rent" Rentschler Field E. Hartford Connecticut Thursday night. The final score was 24-6 Tuskers, but it was more the gameday experience than anything else that I came for. As far as the game goes, it wasn't up to NFL standards, but it was entertaining. The Sentinals actually kept the game close and were driving for a go ahead TD late in the first half. That's when QB Quinn Gray went out with an injury and was replaced by Ingle Martin, who quickly threw an interception and cost them any chance of a halftime lead. The Tuskers ran out the clock and it was 10-6 at halftime. Two touchdowns later in the 2nd half would seal the game. Haslett called off the dogs & switched QBs in the 4th quarter. Now for all you fans who criticized Dick Jauron for punting down 10 in the 4th quarter, Ted Cottrell out Dicked, Dick. With about 5 and 1/2 minutes to go in the game, deep in his own territory, down by 18 points Ted chose not to lose bigger & punted. I arrived early in the parking lot, paid my $10 and drove in. When I parked my car, I wondered if I was at the right game. The stadium was all lit up and people were in the parking lot, but the only thing they seemed to be interested in were their kids, the peewee players who were all dressed up in their uniforms and ready to take the field. I got to the ticket window and sure enough, they were selling tickets for the night's UFL game. I decided, what the heck, and bought a $40 ticket that put me in row 7 at the 25 yardline. I then went back to my car & waited until 6:00 for the gates to open. Upon entering the stadium I started looking around for programs, since getting a program is always part of my gameday ritual. I saw a bunch of unopened boxes behind a program stand and went to the people at the gate and asked if those were the programs. They didn't know, but since the boxes were addressed to one of the guys who runs things they gave him a quick call & got permission to open them up. Inside were the programs-they only have 4 pages -a cover with the team logos, the date, stadium etc; two inside pages with the depth charts and rosters; and the back had a summary of the Sentinals last game and a preview of the game that night. At the bottom of the back page was the logos of the UFL sponsors (StubHub!, Motorola, etc) but no advertising. It didn't have any photos of players, but for its size was efficient. There were literally thousands of programs in the boxes. The guy handed me one and I asked for a few more, I left with 3. I then went to find my seat. It turned out that I was on the Tuskers side of the field, behind their bench. I sat down in my seat Sec 102 Row 7 Seat 1. It was cold and I was the only one in my section, so I got up to walk around a bit. When I hit the bathroom, I saw a guy with Tuskers gear on and asked him if he was with the team. He said no, but his son is. It turned out he's Rob Petitte's father. I talked a little football with him as we washed our hands and wished him luck in his son's dreams to get back to the NFL. Fortunately, his son was a guy who I had heard of and I could say, I remembered his son's days with Dallas. He mentioned that these players are hoping that their coaches make it back to the NFL & bring some players back with them. I went back to my seat to watch the pre-game warmups. After the teams finished there was about a half hour before the game and the peewees I had seen in the parking lot hit the field. By that point I had thought the peewees were being held there until halftime to keep them and their parents in the stadium for the game. When the game started I was the only one in my row, which seats between 15-20 people. Some came into my section before the game, but the only real crowd was in the lower center seats. Those went for $50, but I assumed they were mostly freebies. There were some freebies in front of me in my section too. A guy came in with his two kids and stadium tags indicating he didn't have to pay. They sat in the front row. Pretty soon Todd Sauerbrun, the ex-NFL punter keeps coming over to talk with them. I guess he's friends with the father, because he keeps coming back. Then he started giving the kids stuff. They ended up getting gloves, and even a UFL football from Sauerbrun. I decided to do a headcount and calculate how many fans were in the stadium, which has a capacity of over 30,000. It wasn't that hard, because, except for a few scattered souls, nobody was in the upper decks or endzones. Earlier they had upgraded the folks in my side out of the upper deck, but a few people remained there, at least in the first row center. Since the majority were in the good seats and I knew there were 21 or 22 rows, with about 50 people per row per side, I figured that 22 x 50 x2 was a good start. That's 2,200. Since it was about 75% full on the Sentinals side and about 60% full on the Tuskers side, that equaled about 1,485. Add in the people from the other parts of the stadium and the most that could be there was about 2,000, it was probably around 1,700. In the next day's edition the Hartford paper said over 10,000 tickets were distributed but only 5,201 showed up -the UFL box score says 5,201-What a joke! I wish the UFL had the guts not to pad their attendance figures. I noticed on TV that there were well less than 1,000 at the Sentinals game the week before at Hofstra on Long Island yet they announced the attendance at over 4,300. Why not be honest with people? Worse, so far the only time I've seen the attendance figures at a Sentinals game questioned was when the NY Post, in a little story on the California -NY game at Giants Stadium where they stated the attendance, announced at over 10,000 was more like 1,000 in the huge NJ facility. The guy writing the story in the Hartford Courant had to know there were a lot less than 5,200 people at The Rent, but since Hartford is trying to get an expansion team for next season, he chose to cowtow to the UFL & go along with their story. The one thing he was honest about was the halftime exodus. The paper did mention the stream of cars leaving the parking lot at halftime. By the second half, maybe 500 to 600 people were left. By the 4th quarter there were only a few hundred souls left to bear the cold, empty stadium. If they dropped their prices & did some promoting, they might have actually had 5,200 people there. To make matters worse, they offered free admission to all UConn students. Unfortunately, UConn isn't that close to East Hartford and that night they were having a tribute to someone big at UConn that kept most of the students who might have gone to the game on campus. Since the giveaways were all on the Sentinals side (they were throwing free tee-shirts into the stands) I decided to move there for the 2nd half. At halftime, I noticed boxes full of programs and took about 40 more. The 2nd half went on and I was able to move around quite a bit. As the game became one sided, the exodus continued. I stayed until the bitter end. As I left the stadium I took more programs, I ended up with about 120 programs. I expect the UFL to last 1 more season, because they get TV revenue (they have a two year deal), then pack it up. Their paid attendance is virtually non-existant (I'm one of the few to actually shell out full price).

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I'll delete my Sosa post.

I'm crazy enough to go. I'm heading off to Connecticut tomorrow afternoon. It's the matchup of the best team, the Florida Tuskers coached by Jim Haslett, versus the worst team the New York Sentinals coached by Ted Cottrell.

TO

Tom Brady & John Elway are from California.

I guess you haven't been watching Bills games this year.

Sterling still holds the record for dumbest remark ever made on ESPN. After the Bills-Titans playoff game Sterling said the Titans bailed out Wade Phillips (for his choosing Johnson over Flutie) by winning on homerun throwback.