Albany,n.y.

Will you do your usual routine? Dress Up? Tailgate? Cheer as loudly? Drink as much? I imagine the atmosphere has to be somewhat subdued.

I have faith they're not losing tonight, so I believe they can go on the road to Arizona on 2/12 & bring home the Lombardi Trophy.

Benjamin Button

The annual Jim Harbaugh back to the NFL thread based on what some guy said it on Twitter. If it's near the end of NFL season & there are coaching jobs, someone will Tweet it. Congrats to Bruce Feldman for being the 2023 guy.

I hate to tell you, but 2018 already happened. Seriously, if the Bills win the AFC next season they'll be in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.

Things were a lot different when the Bills had bad teams. I lived in Long Island in the early to mid 1980s when the Bills were a laughingstock & never saw any Bills fans. I didn't see any when I went to NYC either during that time. I imagine it was pretty much the same in the drought years. When teams have a star at QB & they're Super Bowl contenders suddenly fans pop up all over the country.

He could but the rates are around $1,000/night at the cheaper ones that are left. Meanwhile, places like Tucson are reasonable & they're the closest alternative that has a local airport.

I rarely drink & never at games. I promised Petrino I'd have a drink with him after the Bills won in the 2 Super Bowls we went together, but alas, I never got that drink. Food & soft drinks are included in Misc.

https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/bills/beane-reveals-bills-backed-out-of-trade-to-draft-basham-jr Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon beane made two selection on Day 2 of the 2021 NFL Draft, one in the second and third round. Wake Forest defensive end Carlos Basham Jr. was selected by the Bills in the second round, while offensive tackle Spencer Brown was selected by the Bills out of Northern Iowa. Beane revealed that Basham Jr. was a player that the Bills held in high regard. The Bills thought so highly of Basham Jr. that if he was still on the board when the 61st overall pick rolled around, the Bills would not go through with a trade down the draft board in order to select the edge rusher. “I kept thinking he was going to get picked,” Beane said following Day 2 of the NFL Draft. “We had a deal agreed to with an NFC club. We told them if one player was there, which was Basham Jr, that we weren’t going to do the deal. ... It would’ve moved us back into the third round and added some other picks. We felt like we were in a good spot.”

Thanks. You're obviously more adept at technology than I'll ever be.

Looks more like Ron Jeremy.

With the exception of Atlanta, every Super Bowl I've been to I was surrounded by real football fans, mostly for one or the other team. Don't knock something until you've tried it. Obviously from a financial standpoint it's better to be home, but for enjoyment of the game nothing beats being there.

The 2 years we had tickets from the Bills we had Bills fans around us. When I went to SBXXV I used the Disney package & was the last Bills fan before the Giants package, so I had Bills fans to the left & Giants fans to the right, it was fun talking with both. For the Atlanta game we were among corporate types & they didn't understand cheering & me yelling "They're playing the wrong Shout Song" after the Bills 1st score. In NJ, I joined in with the scattered Seahawks fans (I had Denver fans on my left & Seahawks fans on my right) because if the Seahawks won I'd win a pool that I put $10 in & got back $300. In Santa Clara I was neutral but our StubHub tickets were from Carolina, so we were surrounded by disappointed Panthers fans.

The biggest problem with the Basham pick is they thought enough of him that they turned down a trade down offer.

I've been to 6 Super Bowls, here are the costs updated for inflation to the present. Total then & adjusted for inflation in bold. I don't know how easily the spreadsheet will copy over to here so alignment may get messed up We won the Bills lottery in 1992 & 1993. I drove in 2014 & stayed with relatives in 2016 Year Transportation Car Rental Ticket Lodging Misc Parking Total Inflation ADJ to 2022 Notes 1991 $158.00 $83.73 $1,165.00 $60.00 $50.00 $0.00 $1,516.73 2.116975 $3,210.88 Lodging is for 2 motel nights in Orlando, ticket is Disney Package 1992 $919.00 $0.00 $150.00 $0.00 $50.00 $0.00 $1,119.00 2.05649 $2,301.21 Transportation and lodging grouped, includes $779 for flight/motel 1993 $344.50 $52.08 $175.00 $64.42 $100.00 $10.00 $736.00 1.996005 $1,469.06 Lodging & Car Rental represents half total cost. 1994 $60.00 $0.00 $1,248.00 $0.00 $150.00 $0.00 $1,458.00 1.947617 $2,839.63 Ticket includes lodging & flight, transportation includes est. railroad cost to Buffalo 2014 $60.00 $0.00 $1,857.50 $114.99 $125.00 $105.00 $2,157.49 1.233894 $2,662.11 Transportation is for gas & tolls to drive to game 2016 $395.00 $0.00 $4,726.20 $0.00 $125.00 $20.00 $5,246.20 1.2097 $6,346.33 Parking is shuttle to & from Fremont

I'll go, but I don't think I'll stay in Phoenix. I'm leaning towards Tucson where the motels aren't all booked up at over a grand a night. I bet $950 on the Bills to win the AFC at +425 (4.25/1) back in February as "Super Bowl Insurance" to pay for most of the ticket, which is currently at around $6,000 for the cheapest seats at NFL On Location. I'm trying to get Petrino to go with me but he's undecided right now.

It kinda came to a halt by the 3rd round of the NFL draft. I remember a pre-draft post comparing Willis to Josh even though he's half the size of Josh😉

Carr is the one going to the Jets.

The Denver job is as bad as the Bills job was when Chan Gailey was signed off the scrap heap because nobody else wanted the job because it was literally a no-win situation. The Wilson contract is a dead weight that will sink Denver for years. No decent coach will go there without a guarantee from ownership that the 1st 2 seasons records won't be held against him.

The Diggs trade was part of that draft.

Carolina would be crazy not to make Wilkes permanent.

Embarrassing loss yesterday

Smart coaches tailor their offense to the QBs strengths. They don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Look at Baltimore with Lamar & us with Josh. Remember halftime with a minute to go before Josh? The Bills would shut things down being too afraid to try to score because something could go wrong. With Josh, we get the ball back with a half minute or more & we're thinking of scoring another TD.

Go 1 deeper with Sanchez before Geno & it's 0-4 with 3 top 5 picks. That said, the Jets management combo of coach/GM has been different for all 4 QBs. Only Rex Ryan coached 2 of them. With all these changes in management, with each GM responsible for picking the wrong guy, it's almost more just bad luck than poor management. Here's what the alternatives were each of the 4 drafts 2009-Traded up to #5 for Mark Sanchez-Matt Stafford (picked #1) was the only successful QB & they took the best of the rest. Even if they had waited for 2010, they wouldn't have gotten anyone worth drafting since the only QB to achieve any success from 2010 was #1 pick Sam Bradford. 2013-Picked Geno Smith in the 2nd round in what has been historically one of the worst QB draft classes. Not willing to wait 10 years for a once in a generation story isn't on the Jets. 2018-Traded up to #3 to draft Sam Darnold & then gave him nothing to work with. A new GM came in & wanted his own man. Who knows what Darnold is even after 5 seasons because he hasn't been healthy any season, but obviously the Jets had a chance at Josh & didn't draft him. 2021-After trading Darnold the current Jets GM was sold on Wilson. Not correctly judging a player's ability to handle the NYC media & fans is a major blunder, even if the player has potential, which in Wilson's case is highly questionable. Right now Fields looks like the better choice, although long term it might be Lance, who at this point is a complete unknown. What is saving Douglas is he had a great draft in 2022, but where he was picking he better have had one.