MattM

May have been a game of chicken and Whaley didn't blink.

On Lawson, they may be just trying to save $ and not have to fully guarantee his deal--they may have told him "go shop yourself and come back to let us match if we think it's reasonable". A gamble, but one teams sometimes take.

Then you shouldn't read a Pats* fan message board--I'd bet there are some of those jackholes who are sad to read he's doing well. Very glad to read he's doing well.

Many thanks.

Is Dareus coming back from rehab this year? Serious question (and I'm too lazy to review the whole Dareus thread for that info).

This is clearly the Pegulas saying "enough with this ****--we won't be made the laughing stocks of the the League." No matter how they dress it up, this was not a football decision.

I was there when he had his 78 yard punt--man, am I old....

Nice first half by the home side

Nice play

Tyrod might be the real deal

That drive is us in a microcosm

So far I just watched the first Cheats* drive--two hand offs and an incomplete short pass thrown behind Dobson. From the timing in the box score, it does look like his stats came largely after the Bears starters were out. I did, however, watch the first 2 Bears series and they absolutely lit up the Pats* D, which was supposed to be good this year. The first two series yielded 11 points in the first quarter. Sheard didn't play, but most other starters did. Something tells me they're going to miss Jones and Easely up front more than Belicheat thought....

Apparently there's no $10m buyout payment if cut after this year--even better deal for the Bills: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/08/17/tyrod-taylor-deal-gives-player-more-money-now-team-more-flexibility-later/ Sorry if others above noted this, but I'm too lazy to search the whole thread.

Thank you very much for the excellent write ups--keeps us out of towners up to date on our team!

He'll also be 34 years old in 2017--pretty old for a DT who relies on his quicks for penetration. I like KW, but it's a business and paying an old vet that much rather than investing in younger players doesn't sound like a good move to me.

Kraft bought the team in '94. They had a losing record the previous season, but brought in Parcells in '94 (hence the optimism/ticket sales) and then went 10-6 and made the playoffs in '94, thereby stoking the fanbase's optimism for '95 when they had a losing season, the years following which they had winning seasons and went to a Super Bowl. All in a metro area of 5 million people. Not selling out there would be kind of like the Jets or Giants not selling out (which rarely happens). See, it's not so hard if you keep up.....

You just made my case for me there if Kraft had nothing to do with Parcells. It's pretty clear (at least to me), that the Parcells hire is what largely drove those ticket sales. Bringing in a HOF coach will tend to do that. Fans don't give a crap who the owner is (and I'd wager at least 20% of seated fans in some cities couldn't even name theirs). Winning (and the increased chances of winning, like the next year coming off that 10-6 record and playoff appearance) tends to put fannies in seats. Hiring a HOF coach tends to increase your chances of winning. Not that tough to see. Let's see where their ticket sales go after they go 4-12 for a couple of years in a row.

They also went 10-6 that year and, more importantly, had brought in Bill Parcells as coach (much more likely to draw in fans than a change in ownership, although admittedly Kraft hired Parcells). Let's see how they do once the winning stops, Bob Kraft or no. And I don't know what to tell you if you can't figure out why it might be easier to sell 70,000 seats in a 5 million person metro area vs a 1 million person metro area.

Interesting "weak sauce" sleuthing on the true origins of our "guest". Looks like that term wasn't used before 2004, so we've either got the hippest grandpa around gracing our threads or a guy living in mom's basement watching Adult Swim--I'll let you make the call-// https://www.quora.com/Where-did-the-phrase-weak-sauce-come-from

Go !@#$ yourself. I lived in Boston (really Cambridge--you do that math) back then. Nary a Pats* fan to be found. Nothing like winning to bring out the "true fans". I loved the story here a few years back of a Bills fan winning Patriot* trivia bets with Pate* "fans" who couldn't even tell him who their starting QB was in the '85 SB......

RIP--like most others here, I, too really liked his work, The stories about his battling depression are incredibly sad and troubling. Here's hoping he's at peace....

It wasn't the arrival of a new owner--it was winning. Biggest bandwagon fan base in sports, as we'll see as soon as Brady retires (or, hopefully, even before then--it would be nice to see some payback for things like his love of blowing out opponents (read his Esquire interview from a few years back)). We both know that the Bills could consistently put a loser on the field and still not dip below 30k in season ticket sales, once again, in a city about a quarter the sour of Beantown.

And just a few years before that, they had less than 20,000 season ticket holders, in a city probably about 5 times the size of Buffalo.....

And if they aren't, they should be. Even scarier to them is the idea that the player pipeline dries up more slowly over the years as fewer kids play the sport, kind of like boxing's slow fall 50-60 years ago.....

I think he's (in my mind, correctly) worried about losing him at the same time we lose KW, which would mean that if something should also happen to Shady during camp we'd be back to the undrafted FA, waiver wire guys starting at RB. For a run first team, that's not ideal generally, but particularly not a great way to start the season. Considering how well Whaley's done with mid-rounders (like KW) the last few years, some of us are also very interested to see how someone like JW (a high talent mid-round pick at a devalued position who slipped largely due to injury concerns) was going to fit with our rushing attack. Personally, if I had to guess, I'd say JW's case doesn't go to trial until at least our bye week. The system isn't set up to try people in a month as a general matter and considering that JW lives and works in another state I'd bet the judge allows things to slip back until then, when JW will have the time to go back to AR. We'll see in time what happens.