Archives for May 2015

'"When you look at it from my perspective, I had the opportunity to have dinner with him, and that's what I did. I'll just leave it at that."'

'He'll become the third Syracuse player to join the Bills in rookie camp. Running back Prince-Tyson Gulley and defensive back Darius Kelly will also be with the Bills this weekend.'

'"The relationship was never really great," McCoy told ESPN. "I feel like I always respected him as a coach. I think that's the way he runs his team. He wants the full control. You see how fast he got rid of all the good players. Especially all the good black players. He got rid of them the fastest. That's the truth. There's a reason. … It's hard to explain with him. But there's a reason he got rid of all the black players — the good ones — like that."'

'McCoy said that he has no animosity toward Kelly and that he intends to call his former coach soon. He understands the NFL is a business, but he said he felt disrespected with how the trade went down without his prior knowledge.'

'It seems more likely, given all we know about Kelly and all we have heard from McCoy since his departure, that the coach got rid of all of the players who viewed themselves as bigger than the system he was selling.'

'Those inclined to agree with McCoy are so entrenched in a mindset of racial bias that even the most logical argument against McCoy will not register with them.'

'“Other players have talked about it,” he added. “But that's one of the things where you don't even care no more. I'm on a new team, ready to play. So it's nothing to do with Chip. I have no hatred toward him, nothing to say negative about him. When he got [to Philadelphia], I didn't know what to expect. When he let DeSean go last year, I was like: 'C'mon. DeSean Jackson?' So it is what it is.”'

'"I'd rather just be ourselves," Ryan said following the team's voluntary conditioning session Wednesday. "I think the players are more comfortable doing that. I know I'm more comfortable doing that. And I think that's the way it is. I think you'll get a real feel for who we are."'

'Like it or not the only real narrative here is that Chip Kelly is football 24-7. He's not trying or even thinking about improving race relations in this country. He is only attempting to make the Philadelphia Eagles a championship contender and while many (including yours truly) believe he's made some very poor personnel decisions, none of them have been based on the color of people's skin.'

'"To be honest, I didn't want to come," McCoy said. "I really didn't. I was so angry at first. You take a guy who's made his whole name and career in Philadelphia and move him. I didn't know anything about Buffalo, so I didn't want to go. But when you sit back and you really analyze just the good things here, it makes a lot of things better."'

'You've had three practices with Rex at the helm. What is his personality like on the field? Laid back. He wants the guys to have fun. It's work, but enjoy it. His approach is how a player approaches it. It's no surprise, because in his family, football is everything. You can just see that in the way he runs everything.'

'Look at it whatever way you want, but as Ozzie Newsome told me before, he used to say this and he goes if he needed someone to recruit to get him in to heaven, than I would be the guy that he would choose. He has someone else that he would stay there with, but recruiting is a part of it. I’ve done it in the past. Sometimes you get locked in with an undrafted free agent and you’re going head to head with somebody, so I still think you do that even if there is free agents that you get on your own roster that there is still a little bit of that recruiting that goes on.”'

'“It was above and beyond anything I have expected,” Graham recalled in an interview during The John Murphy Show. “It was so informative, you learn so much about the aspect of franchises and different businesses along with how you go about owning a business and what it takes. It was long days, but I definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to own their own business.”'

'Manuel and Watkins were among several Buffalo Bills players to commit to playing in new teammate LeSean McCoy's celebrity softball event on June 13.'

'Gulley's presence with the Bills makes nine Syracuse players that will get at least a look from an NFL franchise either in mini-camps or training camps.'