TheLynchTrain

I wouldn't go that far. I love both Marshawn and Fred, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear veterans say that they respect Fred as a leader more than Marshawn. Remember, Marshawn's 23....Fred is 28. And with all thats gone on in the past year with Marshawn, I wouldn't be suprised if veterans said that Marshawn was not one of their leaders because he's still acting like a kid. Leadership is more than production and star status...there's respect in someone's hard work and what they did to get to the present time in their life. And I think leadership is obviously defined quite different in each locker rooms...on a team with spoiled pampered stars like the Cowgirls, I would say the leaders are probably the stars, regardless of how hard they work or if they are actually good leaders. On teams like the Bills (or any other team that would be considered "no name"), I think leadership is a little different. But we'll probably never know the truth because we don't get that inside access.

One thing I read about this whole Smith situation...I think Stuck in Cincy posted the article... the guy was supposedly 10 pounds lighter at his pro day than at the combine...but then a few days after the draft Cinci went and had a quick interview with him again and it was "reported" that he was "only" 7 lbs heavier than his playing weight....and this "sold the Cinci staff." Unless this is all poor reporting (or terrible reading on my part), the guy gained close to 15 pounds (give or take) between pro day and the draft? And this is a good thing? I'll say I wanted us to draft the guy if we could have because he was the most dominant college player the last four years. But I must say he does have bust written all over him. I hope he proves his critics wrong, except when they play buffalo of course!

http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/04/26/was...lmost-a-falcon/ This article says that he has 18 mil guaranteed left...AND KC would be on the hook for all of it. You guys think this is true? I can never trust writers anymore on salary cap issues (or contract terms of that matter) because they are so complicated that I don't think even Roger Goodell knows. I don't think KC would have ever considered trading him at any price if they had 18 mil on their books they couldn't get rid of....I think most teams would trade away any number of picks if they could get their hands on 18 mil. Besides, DT struggle in their first year, and I think Dorsey has enormous upside. And why can't they fit him in their new system, because he's not a NT? I'm so sick of teams throwing away good players because they don't fit the system. Build a damn system around your players!

Contracts are never what they look like, ie Nate Clemens bogus 8 year 80 mil http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpag...NFL&id=4661 7/26/2008: Signed a five-year, $33 million contract. The deal includes $22.5 million guaranteed. Another $18 million is available through incentives. 2009: $385,000, 2010: $983,500, 2011: $1,582,250, 2012: $2.181 million, 2013: $2.75 million, 2014: Free Agent Obviously still a lot of money, but he's not making 10 mil a year. I'm still looking for his signing bonus breakdowns...read on ballhype that the chiefs got a pretty good deal, in terms on no 5 pick money...

He DESTROYED clements in that one TD catch...

Thank you for taking time out of your day to post that insightful, intelligent and most necessary thread title on TBD. You really made the community better for it....

+1 On ticket prices, we've all said a million times everyone would pay 5-10-20-30 more a ticket...but the fact is the bills haven't gone to the playoffs in 9 years. I think if the bills had constantly raised prices every year while not going to the playoffs, everyone on this board (and in the Buffalo Area/Media) would go nuts, calling ralph cheap, yada yada. But if the bills competed on a level in the past decade of, say the seahawks, vikings, titans (teams that make it to the first round 2 or 3 times in a 5 year period), the bills could charge any price they wanted. But since they haven't made it in 9 years, I think the bills management is sensitive to that fact... And again, the only way the bills will stay in buffalo (and stay a viable market) is through winning... But hey, just my two cents.

Are you his therapist? Because you seem to know a lot about Marshawn and his personal life to be throwing around judgments... On signing Rhodes, it was an insurance against Lynch, but I think it was also a message to Freddie that they hold the cards and can replace him if he doesn't play by their terms. Freddie's one of my favorite players on the team and I thought the bills could have signed him quicker, but they obviously had other priorities. And look, at the end of the day its May....season doesn't start until August and the guy is now locked up. If they didn't sign Rhodes, I think Freddie (and his agent) would of thought they had more bargaining room with ML suspended for three games and no good RB depth on the roster.

yeah i heard its pretty cool, and the fact that they're (hoping) to expand to portland and vancouver will give em some rivals on the west coast.

Obviously but its not the same as it was when the entire stadium was bleachers...

Buckeyemike: Big Sounders fan? I hear you guys are making quite a noise up there as well?

Paul Allen had a pretty large say in the stadium. He had the architects build the roof so it locks in the noise. Also, the upper deck is directly on top of the lower level, and I've heard that the way the stadium's built the fans are as close as you can get to an NFL game. Combine that with the Hawks Nest in the endzone, which has metal seats (think of the ralph when everybody used to bang on the bleachers) and you have a lot of artificial noise for 67K people...

Week 1 Mon, Sep 14 @ New England Patriots* L Week 2 Sun, Sep 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers W Week 3 Sun, Sep 27 New Orleans Saints L Week 4 Sun, Oct 04 @ Miami Dolphins W Week 5 Sun, Oct 11 Cleveland Browns W Week 6 Sun, Oct 18 @ New York Jets W Week 7 Sun, Oct 25 @ Carolina Panthers L Week 8 Sun, Nov 01 Houston Texans L Week 9 Sun, Nov 08 BYE Week 10 Sun, Nov 15 @ Tennessee Titans L Week 11 Sun, Nov 22 @ Jacksonville Jaguars W Week 12 Sun, Nov 29 Miami Dolphins L Week 13 Thu, Dec 03 New York Jets (Toronto) L Week 14 Sun, Dec 13 @ Kansas City Chiefs W Week 15 Sun, Dec 20 New England Patriots* L Week 16 Sun, Dec 27 @ Atlanta Falcons W Week 17 Sun, Jan 03 Indianapolis Colts W 8-8

It seems the article mentions that this was the stance before the season started. Also added that freddie's "inspired play" was a factor along with marshawn's troubles. Sounds like the logical thing to do before 2008. I think a lot of us here liked Freddie before last year, but in reality he didn't do much in 07...had one good game against Miami and the versatile role against Washington, but I think most would have been comfortable tendering him the one year. Last year changed the whole story, regardless of marshawn's troubles...

You obviously do because you took time to create a profile, log into a rival fan site, flip through the links and post a useless comment.

another dumb thread by skooby

These threads have gone on and on....one pops up every week....enough of this crap skooby

he's listed as 6'8 250 but he likes to say he is 6'9 260 in interviews....

iirc he built another house in east aurora so he's not going anywhere

Too bad nobody mentioned this humorous fact about Maybin as Easterbrook did... Bills first-round draft choice Aaron Maybin majored in "integrative arts" at Penn State. Electives in the major include a course on Elvis Presley ("eight chronologically arranged units of study that trace Elvis Presley's life") and a pop arts course with this incredibly rigorous requirement: "Every two weeks, students will be required to see, read, or hear an assigned contemporary work of popular mass media art." http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;sportCat=nfl If that isnt a major tailored to football players, I don't know what is.

Kelsay wishes he was half the player Wright was...

Thats funny. I didnt know the players actually had to buy those jerseys. I guess it amounts to chump change for them....probably at most a couple hundred K if they are somewhat high profile. Very interesting...

Yeah he signed a reasonable extension, but I mean an extension like Larry Johnson money with plenty of guarantees. That would have been a huge millstone on the Bills...

If we were converting this sentence into Marshall speak, I think he would say: "The guy can barely perform a sentence."