Archives for August 14, 2009

‘Town Tavern is set to open next week at 200 N. Tryon St., site of the old Brick & Barrel, which closed last month. New owner (and St. Bonaventure University alum) Andrew Reid is teaming with Bar Management Co. to make it a hot spot for former Buffalo residents. The new tavern will be a two-story sports bar.’

‘”I’m going full speed,” said Hardy. “I’m making sure I’m getting my stride length that I had before the injury. It’s coming along, there will be times where I get fatigued every now and then, but I’m just trying to get consistency.”‘

‘”Yeah, I am very excited,” Edwards said about Saturday’s second preseason game. “The frustrating thing about the preseason is you get warmed up for the game, and you go through your pre-game rituals and then you get out there and you are out before you know it. That is the same thing that happened Sunday night and it is probably the same thing that is going to happen Saturday night.”‘

‘"I just enjoy what I do," Lynch said. "I’m blessed. I’m blessed every day I wake up. So I just try to maximize every day to the fullest."’

‘That didn’t stop the pulses of anxious Bills fans from racing over rumors on Internet chatrooms and on Twitter accounts that Vick was about to don the blue, red and white of the Bills.’

‘Another full house in the 4,000 range watched the Bills’ final night practice at St. John Fisher. With a preseason game just two days away, the Bills worked in pads for individual drills but then took the shoulder pads off for 11-on-11 work. There was a lengthy special teams session. Rian Lindell bounced a 57-yard kick off the crossbar. The offense worked on two-minute drills. Trent Edwards had a good completion on time to Derek Schouman. Terrance McGee had good coverage deep on Lee Evans. Ryan Fitzpatrick hit a fourth-down throw down the seam to Derek Fine for 20 yards and scrambled to convert a third-and-long play.’

‘It’s hard enough in the NFL to revamp an offensive line, but the Bills have made the project as difficult as it could possibly be as every position is being manned by someone who wasn’t in that spot for the Bills in 2008. They have two holdover starters changing roles at tackle, two rookies are being groomed to start at the guard spots, and Hangartner was brought in to be the new anchor in the middle.’

‘"We didn’t talk about it at all (in the locker room), but personally, I think he’s an unbelievable player and I would have liked to have him as a teammate," said safety Donte Whitner. "I’m not the one to make the decisions, but you want to have a guy like that as a teammate."’

‘”We feel like we’re deeper, we feel like there’s more of a challenge at every position in our secondary this year than there’s been in the previous three years that we’ve been here, so that’ll show on the field,” said Jauron. “And because there are probably more guys that are capable of making plays, so more plays are being made. They’ve done well and they’ve worked hard.”‘

‘”Bud (Carpenter) and I haven’t really talked about that but I’m sure Bud’s talked to him. You know I’ve been out here, we’ve kept him off the field as you all know, so I haven’t seen a whole lot of him. I’m out here and he’s inside getting treatment and getting it as often as he can but as far as I know it’s really coming along well.”‘

‘Updating his injury on his Twitter page before the team’s practice Thursday night, Owens wrote his toe is getting better and he’ll possibly be back at practice Monday. He added that fans don’t need to worry.’

‘”(Wood and I) went at it for a little bit. It was just a spur of the moment thing. We’re both out there competing so no feelings hurt out there … it’s just football.”‘

‘We aren’t the only ones who need to adjust. The teams need to grab ahold of these stories too. I give the Bills credit for issuing the statement. Smart move. Get ahead of a story because if you don’t it will get a hold of you. The teams, even the Bills, use to think they could control the flow of information. Those days are gone my Media relatuions friends. Players have PDA’s and Twitter pages. Everyone and their brother has a blog. We live in a 24/7 world no matter how tiring it can be.’