MattM

Spikes I'd wager

This-- I believe he's the rare bird that's both a PED offender (while Seattle led the League there the last few years as per PFT, the Cheats* weren't far behind, so this may put them over the top) and substance abuse offender. Maybe he figures joining the Cheats* gives him a better chance of not getting suspended in the future. Hey, it worked for Dennard, why not him?

BillsNation is with you in this fight, Jimbo....

Brandon Browner visiting the Cheats* as per PFT.

I'm still just pissed that he left and we got stones for him--in fact, his leaving might hamper our ability to sign some scrub for fear of losing our 2015 comp pick for him....

Agreed--and it probably only goes down from here, depending on market action and the use of cap space, here and around the League....

I haven't gotten my usual renewal package form OBD yet this year--anyone else, or did I just miss something? Perhaps they were waiting to set prices based on the Toronto deal news being reported elsewhere this morning?

Getting nothing for Byrd will just leave yet another hole to fill. Absolutely ridiculous that that they don't tag him if they can (as many here are saying) later drop the tag if he doesn't sign it. I'm sure there's someone out there that he'd like to play for, who will pony up decent money to sign him long term and who'd be willing to give up at least a 3rd round pick to get him, but that may just be me. If I was Whaley, I'd take that chance....

Gimmick or not, I'm personally glad RI is getting professional help--he pretty clearly has some mental health issues. I saw a commenter on PFT note that he had anger management issues while with the Bills. Personally, I don't recall that, but perhaps my memory is faulty. In any event, it looks to me like this was a case where two guys had mental health problems where one guy's (RI) issues massively exacerbated the other guy's issues.....

If we can get someone like Decoud, Ward or Delmas for $3-5m per year on the open market as well as a 2nd round pick for Byrd in a tag and trade it's a no brainer to tag and trade him. Instead of paying him the $8.7m tag or his asking price of $8-10m per year, we'd get a decent to above average safety in place of him as admittedly "elite", have enough money left over to get an average to above average LG and a high draft choice in a stocked draft. That, to me, is a no brainer--you can shore up 3 spots (or about 1/7th of your starters) for the next 3-4 years with one fell swoop. I'd take that trade all day long....

There was a WSJ article on this earlier this week--in particular what Brent Celek of the Eagles does in the offseason under Chip Kelly's new regime. Interesting stuff....

I'm not so sure about that.....

Sometimes kids who are being bullied think that the WORST thing that could happen is that their parents get involved--in their mind, that won't solve anything and will make the problem worse. And all of us who have been kids at one time or another have to admit that in some, perhaps even most, cases that's just what happens--Mom and Dad aren't there every moment with them to protect them and school yard retribution is swift and severe for getting parents involved. That's just the observances of a former kid from a semi-tough blue collar neighborhood--that's the way it would have worked where I grew up. Martin went to Harvard Westlake--probably the most exclusive prep school in LA--so his experience may have been different, but perhaps not. For all those who seem to be apologizing for Incognito, what do you make of his treatment of the Asian trainer? I'd say that alone might be enough to get the guy fired/cut. The trainer clearly didn't "enjoy" the attention and was too scared to even cooperate fully with the investigation--that fear was righteous, in that he's correct that being involved in something like this could (sadly) negatively affect his reputation and ability to do his job.....

I've read 2/3rds of the report so far and I'd agree with this. RI himself has some serious mental issues I suspect--he even alludes to them himself in some of the materials cited in the report. To me, the saddest parts of the report were the e-mails between JM and his parents. You have to remember that during most of this period he was a 22-23 year old kid, one who happened to be a bit different than the others on the team and line. I agree with the poster above, too, that despite his size, wealth, fame and education, he came across in those as the poor kid getting mercilessly picked on in middle school and not knowing what to do about it....

Now THAT is genius.... There really aren't too many any more in general, especially compared to years ago--when I was a student there in the mid-80's you (a) couldn't walk 3 blocks without seeing a homeless beggar and (b) with respect to GCT itself, pre-renovation it was a SCARY place. I've worked in midtown or downtown for 20 plus years now and the city's gotten a lot better in that regard. Not sure if the solution has actually been to help those folks or to simply keep them out of sight....

I agree--my ideal would be to either resign Byrd if he's asking for a reasonable contract and if he's not, then tag him, trade him for a decent pick and use the savings to pick up probably two decent (but not star quality) starters like a LG or LB. If we signed Delmas now, however, that really may tie our hands in trying to tag and trade Byrd, as potential trade partners would know we can't keep them both....

...in a cap move. Any chance he ends up back with Schwartz here? If so, good bye to Byrd? Personally, I may not have minded something like this if Byrd asked for too much and we were able to tag and trade him for a 2d before signing someone like Delmas--get a decent replacement, a draft pick and cap room to sign more decent players

I read recently that gay porn Google searches were found in roughly the same percentages in states that had far fewer "out" gay folks (ie, the deep South and Midwest) than other more "gay friendly" states (ie, NY and CA). What does that tell you? Perhaps that homosexuality is roughly constant across populations, even in very different social climes and levels of social acceptance? If so, wouldn't that argue for biology vs choice?

Good for him--that is courageously brave. Here's hoping that the society of the NFL has made (or makes) the strides it needs to to accept this. Not being much of a Twitter guy myself, I'm assuming that WEO's making up that J. Martin tweet for yuks (although that is what I've personally suspected since his whole mess started)....

You beat me to it--great player who unfortunately died of brain cancer several years ago....

This one got a snort laugh from me....

Capote is well worth seeing, for his acting (the rest of the cast wasn't shabby either) and the writing. PSH went to my HS's rival and he was a year behind me. My best friend's older brother was PSH's English teacher and drama coach at Fairport and was still in touch with him. In fact, he came to NY to see him on Broadway last year and hung with him backstage after the show. Needless to say, my buddy's brother is devastated. (I found out about PSH's death via his old teacher's FB page.) From everything I'd seen and read he was a good guy. I remember seeing him do a local Rochester news interview by satellite the Thanksgiving Truman was out. He was a big star by then and didn't need to do the interview, but was humble and gracious throughout and really seemed to be getting a kick out of doing the local news he watched as a kid. I also saw recently that he'd had a relapse while filming a movie. The producers claimed he was now clean and sober and ready to continue filming since they'd given him a whole 7 to 10 days in rehab. I remember being worried for him at the time and thinking the producers were greedy SOB's who cared not one whit for him, so long as their movie got done on time and under budget. Wherever they are, I hope they feel suitably ashamed of themselves.....

And New England* (must never forget the asterisk!) never won without cheating--so what's your point? In fact, they're 0-4 when not getting caught cheating, just like us....

Even so, other folks (like SI's Don Banks) gave us credit for the Manuel pick and thought we'd take him there again in a do over draft. Personally, the worst I'd give this draft (which should include Robey) is an A minus....

Wow--this will be a big loss, as he was indeed one of the best O-line coaches in the League