TimGraham

Those teams won because they were great. If being conditioned to play in the weather is such an advantage, why didn't the Bills win for 20 years before Jim Kelly got there? Joe Ferguson didn't have a field house or a practice bubble. Head games are overrated.

It's OK for you to mention the Steelers (or the military), but I can't bring up the Patriots? You're usually a much more compelling debater than this.

You're comparing the Bills to the military. What's sillier? The Dolphins won three critical games in bad weather: Denver, Kansas City and the Meadowlands in the season finale. Two of those three games they were underdogs. I don't know what those other teams do either. But I do know the Patriots stay indoors.

The source who told me Philly would know. I'll let you know if I hear differently.

My latest post: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-8-80/...-receivers.html

That's what you learn when you click on the link I attached.

That, too

Why is it bad for me to talk about that game?

I talked to Tasker about this last year before the Bills-Dolphins game in Toronto, and he remembered a bad-weather game against the Saints. The Bills just knew they were going to crush them. The Saints were going to fold in the snow because the Bills owned that kind of weather. http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-4-461...as-a-price.html

Judge Jackson could have used an editor.

The difference with those teams isn't that they practice inside or outside. The difference is they have great players.

It has nothing to do with shying away from something that's "hard to do." It's a careless use of valuable time. The CBA spells out specifically how much time a team can be on the field. You don't while away quality practice time on the if-come. I can understand how Bills fans want their players to be Arctic badasses. It's easy to embrace that blue-collar, "Welcome to Buffalo, suckers!" mentality. But it's totally illogical to inflict the elements on your practice time for a slight POTENTIAL edge. The Dolphins practice in 80 degrees every week. They won several key games in the cold late in the season. Any edge is negligible -- and that's IF the weather is bad on Sunday.

I think they're just trying to gather as many corners as they can and hope that they find four they like by the end of the camp because it's such a valuable position. I'm sure Youboty's health played a role in what they did during the draft.

You're assuming a team is capable of perfecting its game plan in bad weather. That's a risky assumption. Teams can guarantee quality practice conditions inside. You practice outside and you're adding unnecessary variables to your week just in case you have to play in it.

It's comes down to quality practices. What if you spend all week practicing in the elements and it's sunny and 55 degrees on Sunday? You wasted a week of prep time trying to weather yourself. Football coaches and athletes try to capitalize on what they can control. You can totally control your practices when you're inside.

For context, here are the links to all four AFC East teams and their drops: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast?search=...amp;x=0&y=0

Here are some numbers to chew on ... http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-7-56/...-receivers.html He dropped 11.5 percent of his catchable passes, which would be four percent higher than last year's team average. All of the receivers are listed.

The Patriots* rule would eliminate me before we got started.

I can guarantee I will be at that guy's locker a lot. I've written before that he's a great communicator.

He sure did look great the first third of last year. This came up at our blog summit at ESPN headquarters, that everybody thought he was a Pro Bowler. AFC South guy Paul Kuharsky was laughing that he thought he was looking at the next Manning or Brady with the Jaguars victory. Then the wheels fell off. I think his confidence was shattered by the game in Miami, where he stretched the ball for a first down like he was trying to break the plane of the end zone. It was a boneheaded play, and Joey Porter merely swiped the ball from him. That was the first of a long string of mental mistakes from a guy who had been pretty sharp up until then. Interceptions, fumbles, sacks because he was indecisive. The offense was tailored for short, quick passes. It'll be interesting to see if a few months away brings his swagger back. And he needs to stay healthy. A decent year in which he missed two or three games makes it very hard to trust him with your franchise moving forward.

Well, I did write it last week. It hasn't stopped PFT and Skip Bayless from promoting the Bills as a possibility. I felt ridiculous wasting a blog entry to cross him off the Bills' list, but others don't find it so ridiculous, I guess.

Just something to consider for the discussion: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-8-46/...they-were-.html

Thanks ... must have been the jet lag. Or maybe my rush to post something. Or my usually poor typing skills.

I guess I do have a Tinoisamoa update ... http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-8-73/...ring-Bills.html

Here's the piece I wrote about how it works: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-7-176...-for-Bills.html We don't yet know the specifics of how the Bills will conduct it, and I don't think they'll be eager to share that info.