Punch

He was on IR last year following week 4, so he was not part of Green Bay's Championship run, and although he earned a ring as a member of the team he did not participate in the post season.

That's true, news of the Jets' interest in Heap is by far the most substantial free agent news regarding a TE to this point.

Yikes! I saw a reference to Barnett getting a garbage plate but it must have just been inferring that he was in the Rochester area. I didn't click on the link for the pic but put 2 and 2 together and came up with 5! Anyway, I still don't see this as some knock on Buffalo as was feared earlier by some.

I wonder if the Lions signed Tulloch because Barnett is no longer planning to visit them, or vice vice versa. It looks like he may be a Bill soon if Chris Brown's report of him taking a physical is any indication. FWIW, a pic of a garbage plate was included in the tweet and it looked kind of messy... I didn't take it as a slam against WNY dining, just a little joke about his choice of meal not being "fine dining".

My argument "that size equated to sucking in cold weather"? That wasn't me, dude, that was Dr. Trooth. My response to your post was my first post in this entire thread.

I don't think Barnett's size is necessarily a problem, but come on... Talley, Conlan and Bennett all started playing in the NFL 25+ years ago. Literally an entire generation----- and Spikes has been a 4-3 OLB, for the most part. Not exactly apples to apples.

He's definitely back at the Buffalo News. He recently wrote a longish piece on the life and death of former Buffalo Sabre Brian "Spinner" Spencer... It doesn't look like he'll be focusing on the NFL, but he still comments on the AFC East at his Facebook page.

Sorry, its not personal. The logic of a player choosing to remain with a contender over an unproven young team with a decade plus of mismanagement and losing where the contracts are the same is obvious, isn't it? I just don't understand criticizing Nix for not overpaying when no figures are reported. It appears the Bills made a strong offer which Clabo then used to drive up Atlanta's offer. Erasing the recent past for the Bills, Men in Black style, is not realistic.

Who's disagreeing with your logic? The point is, the Falcons had the right to match any offer, and they did. The Bills offer is as yet unknown. Whether or not they made a big offer is unknown. The Bills have been bad for 11 years... if I were a Pro Bowl OT and the successful franchise I play for matched the Bills offer, its probably unlikely I'd be playing in Buffalo. But we don't know what the Bills offered, so your rant is a little toothless.

Clabo himself said the Falcons had the right to match Buffalo's offer. The Bills didn't have the same luxury. That's all anyone knows at this point.

No, you said the Bills would need to overpay to get him. They very likely did offer a huge contract, and Atlanta met it or came close, which was the logical outcome. When the Bills start winning they'll have less difficulty in getting FAs to come to Buffalo. Until then, this is where we are.

So, like Derek in VA, you also know the specifics regarding the difference in contract offers between the Bills and Falcons? Please, enlighten us on how short the Bills offer fell.

Derek in VA says it's comical that the Bills don't understand they need to pay more than other teams. That says he must have inside info regarding the specific difference in contract offers between the Bills and Falcons. In other words... I fully understand that details are completely unknown at this time.

How much did the Bills offer Clabo? How much did he agree to in re-signing with Atlanta? Do you know?

http://twitter.com/#!/Buccigross/status/96525097518628864

I think he literally meant literally. As in, Tyson Clabo is a big man.

My fear is that he does like what we're offering him, and he's merely using that as a bargaining tool to squeeze as much as possible out of the Falcons. It's a good sign the Bills are targeting their needs, though, and for the moment it appears that it's not necessarily on the cheap.

Clearly, a fan has no business making "assurances". Predictions, perhaps, but using a phrase like "assurance" is kind of ridiculous. Why would you make promises you can't possibly keep? Also, citing old timers like Jack Ham & Shane Conlan and an UDFA signee like Wake is exactly what I was getting at... It's been a long time since PSU was known with any credibility as Linebacker U.

If the Bills really did match that ridiculous contract then I'm disappointed... not only in Nix but also in Poz, who obviously was talking out of is a$$ about being committed to Buffalo. If the money was the saem, why walk? If he didn't feel comfortable in a 3-4 then why make public comments about wanting to stay? Then again, if Kelsay is "worth" $6 mil/per, Poz is certainly "worth" $7 mil.

Who was the last great Penn State linebacker? And how exactly are you making these assurances? Fans have been making assurances about Poz and other Bills for years.

He didn't demand a profit--- he simply wanted to break even. At the time he purchased the team, this directive was made public, and to be honest I was ecstatic at the thought, figuring it would make the team competitive in free agency (to an extent) and spend up to the new salary cap. This came to pass, and it was relatively commendable. Then again, as Terry Pegula stated in his initial press conference: " If I wanted to make money, I'd drill an oil well." Billionaires generally don't purchase sports teams to make money, but to satisfy some kind of ego trip. My only real issue with Golisano is that he trusted a snake oil salesman like Larry Quinn, completely. Golisano didn't know anything about hockey and (wrongly) beleived Quinn was advising him well on the matter. I mention the profit Golisano made in the operation and sale of the team only to point out that he didn't exactly make a huge sacrifice to purchase the Sabres, and in fact, profited not only monetarily, but also earned the goodwill and adulation of an entire community. It wasn't enough to put him over the top for his NY State Gubernatorial bid, but it rehabilitated the state of the franchise and paved the way for a better hockey corporation. I will always respect him for that but also regret his bringing Quinn back into the organization. Quinn is truly one of the all-time great villains in Sabres' history--- in the pantheon with Brad Park, Bobby Clarke, and Brett Hull.

This isn't really true--- Golisano himself vetoed a relatively modest contract extension to Chris Drury which Darcy Regier had negotiated (and Drury agreed to) in December 2006. By stalling with Drury and then ignoring Briere altogether the Sabres wound up with neither, and were then forced to agree to the ridiculous offer sheet the Edmonton Oilers' Kevin Lowe created for Thomas Vanek. The policy of not negotiating contracts during the season was something he believed in strongly, until it completely backfired.

Anyone that doesn't have a problem with how Golisano ran the Sabres was simply not paying attention. There's a reason Pegula and his executives have taken great strides to publicly declare there will be no restrictions or interference on/with the Hockey Dept.---- "hockey people" were not making the decisions in the Hockey Dept. Larry Quinn was not a hockey man, and he held sway over too many important hockey decisions. The budget wasn't a problem in principle, but refusing to negotiate contracts in-season and lock up key players (not only Drury/Briere, but also JP Dumont and Jay McKee and others) is what ultimately tore apart what was arguably the best Sabres' roster in the history of the franchise. Of course Golisano's wealth would contribute mightily to an ownership group (it's not vast enough for him to go it alone, anyhow), but that's the extent to which I'd feel comfortable regarding his involvement. Furthermore, the NHL would have never allowed the Sabres to leave Buffalo, unless there were absolutely no suitors. The League bent over backwards to keep the team in Western NY, just as they have done for the Coyotes in Phoenix (a much worse situation than Buffalo's circa 2002-03). He deserves credit for stepping in, but he made a pretty big profit in the long run---- it's not as though he martyred himself for the good of the team.

Someone posted an interview on this board a while back where Goodell referred to himself as a Baltimore Colts fan as a youngster. A quick google search turned up this Ravens Insider post: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/blog/2010/08/goodells_ties_to_baltimore_run_deep.html "Affirming a strong, long relationship with Baltimore, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said on Wednesday that he grew up a fan of the Baltimore Colts and Orioles, that he went to Memorial Stadium at least 10 times during his childhood growing up in the Washington area." I have no idea how long he lived in Western NY, but I had absolutely never heard he had spent any significant part of his youth, let alone "grown up" in the Washington area.

Steve Young