Two Bills Drive

‘Concluding nearly three weeks of negotiations, Hansen agreed to reduce his scheduled 2001 base salary from $3 million to $2.5 million, thereby granting the Bills the salary cap relief they needed from him. The restructuring, sources told SportsLine.com, will be officially signed Wednesday.’

‘Johnson and Flutie have salary cap figures of nearly $8 million each and whomever is chosen to remain in Buffalo will have to restructure his contract. Adding additional years to help in the accounting of bonus money makes more sense financially with Johnson, who is 10 years younger than Flutie.’

‘Doctors who operated on Thomas’ right knee in December shook their heads.

"They told me that if I reinjured it, I could end up with a permanent limp," Thomas said.’

‘The wounds that festered after Buffalo’s incomprehensible act of cutting their all-time rushing leader in a tawdry salary cap move, were healed in a classy ceremony in the field house attended by his family, former teammates, coaches, administrators and owner Ralph Wilson.’

Since everyone else is posting information from our message board, we might as well too. According to a trusted poster on the Stadium Wall message board, Rob Johnson has survived the final battle between him and Doug Flutie. This is the earliest report of the quarterback decision on the internet. (TBD normally doesn’t post such items here, since we tend to be cautious with “unofficial” news.)

This source has broke several stories, including the hiring of Gregg Williams, before any other media outlet. That includes CNN/SI, ESPN, the Buffalo News, and the AP. That is why other internet sites are so confident in publishing information from our message board community. We are honored to be their source of information!

However, TBD cautions that nothing is final until GM Tom Donahoe makes an announcement.

‘Concluding nearly three weeks of negotiations, Hansen agreed to reduce his scheduled 2001 base salary from $3 million to $2.5 million, thereby granting the Bills the salary cap relief they needed from him. The restructuring, sources told SportsLine.com, will be officially signed Wednesday.’

‘Whether or not Thomas epitomized the greatest team never to win a Super Bowl, there’s no doubt about one thing …’

‘Once the salary-cap-based decision is announced by Thursday, about half of football-mad Buffalo will hail the Bills president and general manager, and the other half will deride him.’

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‘”Even though I am retiring today, this is a place that I’ll always remember, it will always be a special part of my heart.”‘

Len Pasquarelli reports that most people at the combine have installed Philadelphia as the early favorite to land Marcellus Wiley when the unrestricted free-agent signing period commences Friday morning. I have read this in several sources now. This was the first authoritative confirmation.

Len Pasquarelli writes about QB's at the combine. Queried if there were any 'sleepers' among the quarterbacks, one head coach retorted: "Yeah, all of them are sleepers. They started throwing, and I nodded off." Anyone thinking there is a QB of the Bill's future hidden in this draft ought to think again.

While awaiting word on reworked contracts and the QB situation I read Hunter S. Thompson's take on the XFL. He writes: "It is worse than any dream that ever happened in the worst and most tortured hallucinations ever suffered by the most pitiful LSD victim…. nobody except Vince McMahon was anxious to see it born, and nobody except the cheerleaders will miss it when it's gone…"

‘The Bills will bring Thurman Thomas back to town at 3 p.m. today for his official retirement announcement.’

‘Thurman Thomas will be on WGR55 this morning at 9:05 am. You can hear them live on the internet from their website.’