Archives for September 2003

‘An unconfirmed report says the Bills have reached a verbal agreement with Milloy. Buffalo has only three safeties on the roster in Coy Wire, Pierson Prioleau and Izell Reese.’

‘Of the 53 players, 23 weren’t on the Bills’ active roster a year ago.’

Buffalo’s Gregg Williams: This is not your typical on-the-bubble situation. Williams is in the final year of his contract, has a team ready to win, and could wind up hitting the jackpot somewhere if he and the Bills come through. Odds are Buffalo makes the playoffs and Williams enjoys his payday in upstate New York. But if not, he and the Bills could be ex’s.

Within two hours of Milloy’s stunning release, ESPN.com reported Tuesday afternoon that the Buffalo Bills had already made a solid contract offer.

‘Drew Bledsoe, who played with Milloy in New England, has reportedly lobbied hard for the Bills to sign the hard hitting strong safety who is also known as a solid clubhouse leader.’

‘New England’s sweep by an aggregate score of 65-24 showed just how far Buffalo had to go. Sunday’s opener will demonstrate just how far the Bills have come.’

‘The Patriots are 9-2 in their last 11 games against AFC East opponents, dating back to the 2001 season.’

In a move that some observers regard as curious and others see as cutting edge, five teams — Buffalo, Denver, Indianapolis, San Diego and Washington — will begin the season with only two quarterbacks on their active rosters.

After re-evaluating James Stewart’s shoulder injury, the Lions decided to put on him on season-ending injured reserve Tuesday. After injuring the shoulder in Detroit’s final preseason game against the Bills, it was originally thought that Stewart would only miss the first three or four weeks of the season. While Stewart’s injury obviously hurts, Detroit addressed its lack of depth at tailback over the weekend by acquiring Olandis Gary from the Bills.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but we had to turn off guest access to our message board because of server load. We will allow guests back in once the Lawyer Milloy situation dies down.

The Chicago Bears signed G Corbin Lacina to a one-year deal today and made room on the 53-man roster by waiving T Bernard Robertson. Originally drafted in the sixth round (167th overall) of the 1993 draft by Buffalo, Lacina has played in 121 career games with 79 starts, playing for the Bills for five seasons (1993-97).

”’I’ll tell you what, I became so comfortable with the whole situation here so quickly, I feel like I’ve been here a lot longer than I have,” Bledsoe said. ”I feel young again and excited about playing.”’

Armed with Drew Bledsoe’s endorsement, the Buffalo Bills have already contacted Milloy’s agents and made an opening contract proposal, ESPN.com has learned.

‘For the past six years, Skorupan has worked as the director of business development for Marsico Corporation, which is a commercial general contractor in Pittsburgh. "We’re about a $30 million company and half of our work is done through private negotiated work. The other part is through bidding process. We do schools, hotels, office buildings. So I work with developers and architects and try to negotiate projects (in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio)."’

‘"This is a game we all want to jump on and redeem ourselves because we didn’t play as well as we probably could have last year against them," Williams said. "We made some strides against some of the other teams. Now our guys have a real good, focused approach that what has to happen (on Sunday). I like their attitude, I like their work ethic and I like their concentration level right now. They’re pretty focused."’