MattM

Interesting that Donte is nowhere to be found on the list....

Slightly OT perhaps, but there is a football lesson here-- http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/07/03/magazine/03statsofsummer.html?ref=magazine Very interesting graph showing the impact of payroll on odds of winning the World Series. From my count, in 8 of the last 16 years, a team in the top 3 of payroll won it all. More daunting is the fact that only twice in that period did a team from the bottom half of the League in payroll win the WS (and one of those two times the winner had the 15th highest payroll out of 30). So I guess if you're a fan of a team perennially in the bottom half of the payroll structure then you've got to wait about 60 years on average between championships, assuming an even distribution among that group. If you're in the bottom third, I'd wager it's more like once in 90 or so years. Keep this in mind as football shifts more and more in this direction in terms of unshared revenue over the coming years. I used to love baseball as a kid, spending my Sunday mornings poring over the stats looking for my favorite players. Over the last twenty years that slowly died. It's now rare for me to watch a game or go to one, and I live a stone's throw from two major league parks and have young kids I could (and probably should) take. I spend little time and almost no money following this sport. Apparently I'm not alone, as over the course of that period the sport's ratings have tanked. I'm hoping that the NFL owners are smart enough not to make the mistake that baseball made and kill the golden goose of parity that helps keep their sport popular, but with greedy egos like Snyder's, Jones', Kraft's, et al. involved, I have my strong doubts.....

Many thanks, John. That's quite depressing hearing this from you, but it is what it is. Any specific basis (if you can say) or just a general vibe on this? Personally, I think the only really workable way for the team to stay here post-Ralph is for the team to regionalize and become something like "the Niagara Frontier Bills" playing in a stadium between Toronto and B'lo to draw on both fanbases (and, most importantly, Toronto's corporate luxury suite base).....

Senator, wasn't that David Tyree you're thinking about? Burress caught the TD with no trouble on that series, since the defender was basically befuddled. I've still got the 4th quarter of that game on my DVR after all these years.....

My dad and I are hoping to attend (if they play the games this year, that is!)

The bond trading background and living in LA, combined with a carefully worded statement on his "love for the [buffalo? LA?] Bills" and the idea that he's part of a group (read "a frontman") scares me. I got a bad feeling about this one....

Grew up in Easta Roch. Moved to NYC for college and around a bit since for grad school and work, but generally have lived in the NYC area since graduation from HS. Used to hit an Upper West Side sports bar called "Boomers" (part owned by Boomer Esiason) to get my Bills fix in the mid to late-'90s (funniest story from that time--spent a game standing next to, and chatting with, Phil McConkey, ex-NYG WR and Buffalonian and Bills fan, and didn't realize that it was him until the third quarter when he said something to the effect of "they didn't hit like that when I was in the League") and now live in the NYC 'burbs. Still get to a home game or two each year (have gotten my dad season tix for about the last ten years) and one away game each year. My Bills roots go back to my parents, some of whose earliest dates were to old AFL games in the early '60s at the old Rockpile. My own first game was a 17-0 drubbing by a Unitas-led Colts squad that featured a young Ted Hendricks.....

This must be Stevie J. all-media access month--a buddy of mine who's an editor at Maxim magazine had him in his offices with some other NFL players earlier this month. Said he was a very cool guy (in a good way). Very funny, intelligent and a generally good guy. Other than making my buddy feel really old, a great time was had by one and all apparently. Knowing that I'm a huge Bills fan, he got me an autographed set of gloves from him, pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.....

Completely disagree. The team needed to do something to generate support in Rochester, a city about 2/3rds (or more) Buffalo's size and only 60 miles away. I should know--I grew up there and remember being one of the few kids in my town who was a Bills fan growing up in the 70s. No excuse not to spread the faith in your own backyard. In terms of the camp itself, Fisher does a top notch job, as applauded by many of the national sports writers who come through town for it. I've seen a few (Clark Judge and Peter King (although he's skipped it in recent years), IIRC) list it as among the best in the League. Very smart move, IMHO.....

Never say never. An injury to Matty Ice, Abraham and/or Gonzalez hitting the "age wall" and losing two or three close ones and I could easily see this team losing more games than it wins, but that may be just me. I also believe that their RT Claybo is a FA (if we ever get to FA), so there's that to consider as well. (I'm personally hoping the Bills bring him in for a look if we do ever get to FA, but with the drafting of Hairston I doubt that's in the cards).....

They hit on McCourty as well last year and Mayo and Vollmer in recent years, but before that their last few drafts were pretty bad, actually. While I hate the Pats*, I think the Mallett pick was a smart one, if for no other reason than they will now have a competent backup for the next few years....

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6456351 Nice work, Ray Ray--who says that people can't change and/or "grow up" as they get older.....

If the Bills can pick up Claybo, a TE and a LB in FA, we might surprise some folks this year....

One thing you can say about it--it's great for depth, but it's not adding folks likely to make a difference right away. For ex., Solder and Light can't both play at once, nor can Brady and Mallet nor the 2 backs they took.

Unfortunately, I think you're correct. Great move by the Cheats*. At least now they have an adequate backup to Mr. Bundchen. Our best hope is that Mallet gets Tombo hooked on weed and they both get booted by the League....

I was thinking the same thing myself tonight. Bonus points if he can bring Bo Scaife with him.....

Intersting that Jordan was still on the board with an 8.49 (better than Solder's 8.48) also at a position of need (DE) for them--although they may be going OLB instead to get their pass rush....

I agree (that is if those bastiges don't trade down again and snag yet another 1st rounder next year).....

I'm assuming you mean NYC (especially if you're here for the Draft). There is a chain called "Patsy's" that is very good. There's one I think up around 74th and Columbus (call first, as it's been a while since I lived in the 'hood). Another school day favorite of mine up near the Columbia area on about 110th and Amsterdam is V&T's--good, old style Italian restaurant. Hope this helps and enjoy your time here.....

I think you're wrong about that--in fact, the statement you made right before that about Jones not wanting to share revenue undercuts your own statement. Personally, I believe that there are a decent number of owners (again, what I think of as the "large market owners") who would like to get rid of revenue sharing to the largest extent possible (look at the fight over things like luxury suite revenue) and/or create an uncapped system that will upend the relatively level playing field that this sport has enjoyed and which has led to its incredible popularity. For ex., creating such a high cap, without a concomitant decently leveled floor, that most teams don't spend anywhere near it, allowing those teams who do a great advantage, at least in terms of chasing FAs. I think Kraft, Snyder, Jones, et al. would love that system, whether they'll publicly say that or not. In terms of your cheap shot at Ralph, it's just so easy in a market like Buffalo to sell luxury suites (which is where the money is made these days) to all of the Fortune 500 companies in the WNY area, isnt' it? While I typically don't agree with you, I figured you as smart enough to understand that different teams in different cities will have far different opporunities to make money in terms of what the local market (individual and corporate) will bear. Your comment reminds me of my arguments with my cousin, who, for the life of him, can't seem to understand why the KC Royals can't invest in their team like the Yankees do and spend the same kind of money to build a winner.....

I think you're wrong on that--I recall Jerruh making noises several times about decreasing the amount of revenue sharing in the League--and it's also been reported that the so-called "large market owners," which group includes Kraft, Jones, Snyder, Lurie and McNair among others, favor less revenue sharing than has traditionally been the norm. In fact, that's been a big internal NFL battle over the last several years at the owners level and figured into the last CBA negotiations, IIRC. Your talk in absolutes and need to be contrary all the time is really getting old....

Many thanks.

And as a I noted in another thread, that may be part of the large market owners' master plan--let the union dismantle the parity system that the League has thrived on so that they can turn the NFL into an MLB-style sport, where the big market/popular teams (Pittsburgh, for ex., is not a large market, but the Steelers have a huge following) could dominate and teams like our Bills, the Bengals, Lions, etc. (about 2/3rds of the League) serve as an eternal version of the Washington Generals. These guys are supposed to be super business geniuses, but haven't at all acted like it so far in terms of results of how this has played out, unless of course this was their plan all along. Perhaps they looked at it this way--either we succeed and the League beats back the union and all of the owners are better off, or, if we fail, perhaps the union will do our dirty work for us and we (the large market owners) will be better off. Either that or they were just arrogant idiots used to being "yessed" all their lives so that they can't see when they're pushing a loser case. I'd give it a 50/50 either way, personally.....

I'd like to watch the draft on my train commute home tonight--anyone know if NFLN or ESPN is planning to stream the draft live tonight?

I'm starting to get worried that this is all some grand master plan by the large market owners to knock the parity board over and go to an MLB-style free-for-all without being blamed directly for doing so ("wasn't us, it was the evil union that broke the revenue sharing system"). I mean, they couldn't have been this dumb, could they? It's either that or they're morons for so badly misreading the situation and their chances.....