MattM

Walt Coleman?!?! The guy behind the Tuck Rule and the AFCCG against the Colts, along with, according to a poster above, the famous "Just Give it to Them" game? How the heck is he (a) still in the League and (b) allowed to do Patriot* games? If there was ever something that looked fishy about officiating, here it all is in one big package, wrapped up in a nice pink (for Breast Cancer Awareness month--hurry now and buy a pink NFL jersey so the League can make $50 and give $1 to charity) bow.....

I'm not so sure it's the "big market" thing, but it does seem to be one team over and over that one finds involved in horrible calls at key times helping them win games. We all know who* that is--the same team found to have cheated, with the League sweeping the extent of the cheating under the rug, and thought by many to have done much more (like screwing with opposition teams' headsets at their stadium, having an extra radio frequency on their own headsets, etc.). It's gotten so bad over the years that I always tell my wife before those games that I'll be happy either way so long as it isn't the refs who decide the outcome. I don't feel that way against any other team. That feeling is based on watching the same thing happen to us (and others as I recently noted in the thread on officiating) over and over and over again. How and why this is happening, no one here knows for sure, but I think we can all believe our eyes, no? And our eyes tell us that something odd is pretty clearly going on....

He was at the game yesterday--I saw him on the sidelines pre-game. Maybe just visiting to see his handiwork....

Some of you are just noticing this NOW? Really? Why is it one team, over and over again (and not just against us), that seems to get game-changing calls in their favor? This has been going on for years. Remember that Ravens Monday Nighter in 2007, the Tuck Rule, the AFCCG in 2004, "just give it to them", the atrocious game with JP a few years back where there was an inadvertent whistle preventing a Bills likely game-winning pick 6, followed by 3-4 more drive-enabling calls that let the Pats* win? That's among others, of course. The same team that goes about 2 years recently without playing opponents coming off extra time, when we get hit with about ten in the same span. It had actually trailed off a bit in recent years, but was back in full force yesterday. If it was truly random, it would even out over time. It hasn't and probably won't. Most likely because it's not random....

This occurred to me, too....

I'll be there as well. My in-laws live in Ross in Marin, so my bro-in-law (big Raiders fan) bought a block of tix for the family.

Hasn't Walt Coleman been involved in quite a number of controversial calls over the years, including some pro-Patriot ones?

Oh, yes--Hackett did his best via horrible clock management at the end of the game to give the game away. Thanks God we overcame it. A HS coach wouldn't have given the ball back to the Lions in that situation, much less a pro coach.....

I just sent Mike Florio at PFT a note on this--we'll see if he writes anything on it

Perhaps not, but the League certainly has (a) friends in the media--many, many of them and (b) press agents whose job it is to get things in the press. Between the two, this would be very easy to get in the national media if they wanted it to be. With all the negativity around the League and this being such a great feel good, positive story I'm stunned that no one nationally is covering it.

I'm stunned, absolutely stunned, that the national sports media, like PFT, SI and ESPN, don't seem to be picking up on this story at all--mind boggling considering all the negative stories lately. What is it? Are Kraft, Jones, Snyder and company scared that this will set an expectation precedent?

This ^^^^ He put his $ where his mouth was in important ways. We should all take a lesson....

Yes, we all know that if you mean "directly". What it does do, however, is speed up the recovery process which lets the user train harder to get bigger and stronger or heal more quickly. Personally, I expect older guys to be the main users. Those early aughts Pats* teams would have been a good bet back in the day, for example.

That is pretty bad--I was at the game and couldn't really tell live. He basically had his arm on him straight out the entire way down the field. We didn't play well enough to win, but that is still pretty atrocious....

Remember, too, that Rodney Harrison was caught there using HGH towards the end of his career. The only way you got caught back then was to be dumb enough to use your own name when ordering it--the online pharmacy he was using got raided and he was caught. I've also long harbored the same suspicion about the Pats*....

I'm in the same boat (down by 7), except I've got Matt Forte. Here's to him rushing/receiving for at least 100 (or I'll take 2 TDs in a pinch)....

My bad on St Albans--it was actually Bronxville, which, although a public school, is in one of the richest towns in NYS in Westchester Cty (two towns over from where I live). That would explain the Giants recollection I had

Really? He grew up in DC, went to St Albans, I believe (about as far from blue collar Buffalo as you can get), and rooted for teams other than the Bills I seem to recall reading elsewhere (Redskins or Giants). His continued push for geographic expansion to LA and London was about chasing the almighty dollar for Kraft, Jones and Snyder and is going to cost two small market fanbases their teams

How exactly has he been "pro-Bufdalo" other than the occasional throw away remark? This guy was picked by the big market teams and represented them well (see Spygate (and. still waiting for the Pats'* Dennard to be suspended) and all the talk of LA and international expansion). He needs to go for being caught in lies yet again

Personally, I'm seeing a trend--Goodell lying and covering things up, "putting the best face on things" and hoping no one finds out the truth. This and burning the Spygate tapes and then telling us all that no more tapes existed (until, of course, Matt Walsh appears) come to mind. He needs to go....

As someone who just had to put down the canine love of his life, this made me smile (and shed a tear or two out of loss). Here's to EJ and Titan becoming Buffalo fixtures for years to come....

As TMQ likes to point out, just because the NFL is extremely popular now, doesn't mean that it always will be--look no further than boxing for a potential example of a formerly popular sport being brought low. The NFL needs to be careful to protect the game and its popularity over the long-term. Problems like those of the past week may not turn away too many of the addicts (like all of us here, most of whom are old enough to already be "hooked"), but may turn off/away potential new/younger fans, either directly, or via their parents deciding to not expose the kids to the League or the sport (ie., declining youth participation). Personally, I think in the long-run the bigger news this week might turn out to be the NFL's admission that a third of their players end up with cognitive difficulties far earlier in life than non-NFL peers. Not sure if they intentionally dropped that nugget out there in the midst of the other news or not (I suspect not, as it came out in a litigation context).

You do realize how badly you're dating yourself with that Gamera reference?

You have to go to McFadden's, it's in midtown (E. 42nd or so, I believe) and is the official NYC Bills Backers bar

For what? For arresting Ray Rice? For telling the truth about the NFL having been sent the tape (as evidenced by the voicemail )? That's about all the police did. Do you mean the judicial system? That one's another matter entirely, but some folks are mad at both the League and the judicial system.