RyanC883 Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Great article. For those that say "winning" will cure it. You are correct. Although stacking the deck against the Bills in this fashion certainly makes it more difficult to win. I don't think it's intentional (the Falcons also got screwed). I hope Chris Brown sends his well-researched and written article to Godell. this is pure and unadulterated whining. the Bills have no reason to complain about a schedule that meets numerous franchise needs, particularly one that's back-loaded with games played away from Ralph Wilson Stadium. they spent the past two seasons complaining about how difficult it is to sellout games after Thanksgiving. now that the NFL meets that request, the Bills find another reason to complain. this is the definition of having gall. to get what you wanted and then complain about it. poor, Bills. this does not fly. jw ADD: odd, too, that when it comes to scheduling, the Eastern-based teams/fans' complaints also usually fail to take into account travel and time. take for example this year's Bills' schedule: they travel outside of the Eastern Time Zone twice by my count. their longest road trip is New Orleans, if i'm not mistaken. ... but "oh, the schedule is unfair." gimme a break. the schedule is what it is, providing most each and every team its advantages and disadvantages. I don't think the Bills would trade home games in December for a well-documented disadvantage by playing FOUR games against teams coming off of extra rest, and having their bye week compromised. I usually agree w/ your posts, but this one totally misses the mark. The NFL basically took away one "problem" (attendance) and handed them a bigger problem--one that actually effects their ability to win games. P.S. The "every team" has scheduling issues is pure conjuncture on your part that is not backed by any facts. Meanwhile, the posted article provides quite a few examples of how that is untrue and that some teams have much better schedules (MIA, NE, NYJ). Edited June 19, 2013 by RyanC883 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delete This Account Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Please see my response to WEO above. pm me yer address, i've got a half-used box of kleenex to send ... and not telling you which half i'm sending jw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph W. Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) If you can't beat a team b.c of a bye week then you don't deserve to make the playoffs. Edited June 19, 2013 by EJ3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ko12010 Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Great article. For those that say "winning" will cure it. You are correct. Although stacking the deck against the Bills in this fashion certainly makes it more difficult to win. I don't think it's intentional (the Falcons also got screwed). I hope Chris Brown sends his well-researched and written article to Godell. It's just easier for the NFL schedule makers to 'shaft' teams like the Bills because they realize how little national exposure we get (yes, I realize this is due to our futility). I guarantee as they're formulating the schedule and putting it together they have teams in mind that they'll likely place in the undesirable spots. It is what it is. It's pretty messed up, no matter if the advantage is small. I mean seriously, wtf, how many times have we faced New England coming off their bye week in the last 5 or 6 years? (Cue the 'New England doesn't need 2 weeks to plan for us' people). It's not right. But many posters are right--the only way to get out of this position is to win. No matter if the deck is stacked against us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloRebound Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Given their importance, no team should be given additional rest before a divisional game. Bills absolutely right to gripe about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph W. Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Given their importance, no team should be given additional rest before a divisional game. Bills absolutely right to gripe about that. Damn straight it can't be b.c the Bills are bad has to be a conspiracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanC883 Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Not that this will ever happen, but what about eliminating the Thursday games. This would solve a lot of problems. The NFL must make a ton of money off of this. But generally unless the Bills are playing, I prefer whatever college game is on that night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph W. Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Want to know how to solve this... Win games. The more games you win the better your schedule gets b.c they start putting you in prime spots which changes the schedule around. Edited June 19, 2013 by EJ3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloRebound Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Damn straight it can't be b.c the Bills are bad has to be a conspiracy. Who's saying anything about a conspiracy? The Bills have sucked for 13 years. Teams should not have extra rest for its 6 divisional games. Not a hard concept to grasp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delete This Account Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Great article. For those that say "winning" will cure it. You are correct. Although stacking the deck against the Bills in this fashion certainly makes it more difficult to win. I don't think it's intentional (the Falcons also got screwed). I hope Chris Brown sends his well-researched and written article to Godell. I don't think the Bills would trade home games in December for a well-documented disadvantage by playing FOUR games against teams coming off of extra rest, and having their bye week compromised. I usually agree w/ your posts, but this one totally misses the mark. The NFL basically took away one "problem" (attendance) and handed them a bigger problem--one that actually effects their ability to win games. P.S. The "every team" has scheduling issues is pure conjuncture on your part that is not backed by any facts. Meanwhile, the posted article provides quite a few examples of how that is untrue and that some teams have much better schedules (MIA, NE, NYJ). last year, the Bills had a much better case to stand on. they had a four or five week stretch of games against opponents coming off lengthy breaks AND the back end of the schedule packed with home games. this year, that is not the case. but they proceed to go public in once again voicing their complaints while knowing the NFL schedule maker provided them the gift of having the opportunity to sell more tickets, something that is conveniently omitted in this piece. i wrote about the Bills schedule last year because i felt it was an issue. should i choose to write about it this year, i will most definitely include the fact that the NFL met the team's desire for having fewer home games in the back end. you can't have it both ways. jw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marv's Neighbor Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Bag the bye and that problem goes away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Jabber Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 last year, the Bills had a much better case to stand on. they had a four or five week stretch of games against opponents coming off lengthy breaks AND the back end of the schedule packed with home games. this year, that is not the case. but they proceed to go public in once again voicing their complaints while knowing the NFL schedule maker provided them the gift of having the opportunity to sell more tickets, something that is conveniently omitted in this piece. i wrote about the Bills schedule last year because i felt it was an issue. should i choose to write about it this year, i will most definitely include the fact that the NFL met the team's desire for having fewer home games in the back end. you can't have it both ways. jw I agree John. Are the Bills always going to complain when things don't go their way? Like you said, the Bills complained about having numerous games at the Ralph after Thansgiving because the poor weather conditions at that time of year was having an effect on ticket sales. The NFL granted the Bills wish this year, yet they are still complaining! Back in the late 80's thru the mid 90's, selling out the Ralph in December & January was never a problem because the team was winning. If the Bills would focus on having competent management & coaches running this organization, then they wouldn't need to come up with excuses for their shortcomings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerball Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Want to know how to solve this... Win games. The more games you win the better your schedule gets b.c they start putting you in prime spots which changes the schedule around. Explain Jacksonville for me please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delete This Account Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 the Bills complaints laid out in the article also conveniently neglect to mention the Bills play a home game in Toronto, in which they prefer to have it played against an NFC opponent. that's all well and good, but had the NFL schedule-maker scheduled, say, New England, to play in Toronto, then the Bills would have one fewer game against a more-rested opponent, no? jw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cash Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I agree John. Are the Bills always going to complain when things don't go their way? Like you said, the Bills complained about having numerous games at the Ralph after Thansgiving because the poor weather conditions at that time of year was having an effect on ticket sales. The NFL granted the Bills wish this year, yet they are still complaining! Back in the late 80's thru the mid 90's, selling out the Ralph in December & January was never a problem because the team was winning. If the Bills would focus on having competent management & coaches running this organization, then they wouldn't need to come up with excuses for their shortcomings. Last year, I got paid significantly less than several co-workers for doing the same job. I complained to management, and my salary was brought in line with the norm this year. But my vacation was reduced by a week, and now most of my co-workers have a week more than I do. Am I wrong to complain again? JW - I think I get your point, but then again I don't get your point. Are you expecting unbiased journalism from a team employee writing an article on the team's website? It might be a nice world if people or corporations were willing to acknowledge the flip side of the coin when advocating for themselves, but when does that actually happen? I don't expect a district attorney to talk about evidence for the defense in his opening statement. Maybe you're worried that the average reader sees "journalist" next to Chris Brown's name and thinks he's an actual journalist instead of a team employee? I can't vouch for anyone else, but I know that's not an issue in my case. I do think it would be remiss of an actual journalist such as yourself to write a schedule article without acknowledging both that the Bills did well in terms of early home games and that they got screwed in terms of playing rested opponents. The travel issue is interesting, but not really relevant. All of the home and road opponents are pre-determined before the schedule is made up. There's no way for the NFL schedule-makers to favor or screw over a team in that regard, short of fundamentally changing the way opponents are determined. All in all, I'm glad the Bills are complaining about this, because it is a competitive disadvantage. Maybe it's a small one, but you shouldn't take anything lying down. There are two possible reasons why the Bills got screwed: 1.) The NFL doesn't look at or care about playing rested teams when making the schedule, and it's just random that the Bills have gotten the short end of the stick a few times in a short span, or 2.) The NFL actively favors some teams (common candidates would be the Giants and Patriots) and gives them beneficial schedules as a result. This means that in order for the schedule to work, other teams will need to have extra-bad schedules. (Even in this scenario, I can't believe that the NFL has a specific axe to grind against the Bills or Falcons or anyone. I just don't buy it.) The nature of fandom lends itself to believing that (2) is the case, but it could easily be (1). Either way, if disadvantaged teams start (and keep) complaining about it, eyes will start to be on it, and things will likely change. If the NFL just hasn't cared to this point, but start caring going forward, problem solved. If the NFL is doing shady things with the schedule, there's a good chance they'd stop once people start to notice. Then again, the NFL is long on arrogance and stubbornness and short on common sense, so you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobody Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 the Bills complaints laid out in the article also conveniently neglect to mention the Bills play a home game in Toronto, in which they prefer to have it played against an NFC opponent. that's all well and good, but had the NFL schedule-maker scheduled, say, New England, to play in Toronto, then the Bills would have one fewer game against a more-rested opponent, no? jw No way to know this as chaging the Toronto game to say NE would require the entire NFL schedule to be modified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Tuesday Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 the Bills complaints laid out in the article also conveniently neglect to mention the Bills play a home game in Toronto, in which they prefer to have it played against an NFC opponent. that's all well and good, but had the NFL schedule-maker scheduled, say, New England, to play in Toronto, then the Bills would have one fewer game against a more-rested opponent, no? jw The article failed to mention that, but I mentioned it a few pages back. Totally agree with everything you've said in this thread, by the way. It's almost as if they're already laying out execuses for the upcoming season... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Cubed Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) you can't have it both ways. jw Oh but I think you can have it both ways. Take for example Cleveland (I just picked a random northern team, with poor play, that has poor attendance in December). Of the 5 games being played in December, 3 are away and 2 are home. Add to that they only play 2 games with teams coming off extended rest. I'd say thats pretty much compromising and having it both ways. EDIT: I'm not saying I agree with the Bills complaining about it via their own blogger. Edited June 19, 2013 by Wayne Cubed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph W. Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Who's saying anything about a conspiracy? The Bills have sucked for 13 years. Teams should not have extra rest for its 6 divisional games. Not a hard concept to grasp. If you can't beat them in regular season then you don't deserve to be in the playoffs doesn't matter "extra rest" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobody Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I agree John. Are the Bills always going to complain when things don't go their way? Like you said, the Bills complained about having numerous games at the Ralph after Thansgiving because the poor weather conditions at that time of year was having an effect on ticket sales. The NFL granted the Bills wish this year, yet they are still complaining! Back in the late 80's thru the mid 90's, selling out the Ralph in December & January was never a problem because the team was winning. If the Bills would focus on having competent management & coaches running this organization, then they wouldn't need to come up with excuses for their shortcomings. Of course maybe they were winning because their opponents didn't have extra time off before they played the Bills? Someone would have to check that out. As for the league doing the Bills a favor by having more late season games as away games - that also benefits the NFL as those games end up selling more tickets which increases the league revenue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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