BRH

Look, it's not rocket science. Lofton was a BIG part of our SB runs and neither Marv nor Ralph forgot that, as old as they are. They need to interview a minority candidate to satisfy the Rooney Rule, and they don't want to insult Rivera or (certainly) Cottrell by bringing them in and dinging them. Those guys are already legitimate HC candidates and deserve a better shot than that. But bringing in Lofton both satisfies the Rooney Rule AND rewards James for his years of service here by getting his name out there and giving him HC interview experience. I'm sure James knows the drill and is fine with it. HE may even feel that he owes the Bills that much for resurrecting his career.

Think about it, though. In order to ripen on a coaching tree, the assistant fruit has to be relatively young. Most of Marv's assistants had been around the block, in some cases several times. For much of his time in Buffalo, Marv had Ted Marchibroda and Walt Corey as his OC and DC; those guys were born old. Henning and Phillips had already been HCs when they came onboard, too. Belichick, Cowher, Parcells, all those guys tended to hire younger assistants. You can look at it as though they're better groomers than Marv, or you can look at it as though Marv isn't intimidated by hiring his peers as assistants. I don't think Joe Gibbs has much of a coaching tree, either, come to think of it. Unless you think Joe Bugel counts.

I hear they're all good teachers, too.

You've been around this board long enough to know that's EXACTLY how it works.

What the hell are you talking about? How many Ivy-educated coaches did Marv have on his staff with the Bills? Oh I forgot Chuck Dickerson went to Wharton and Yale Law.

:lol:

Why not? It worked so well for us these last five years.

I like Danny a lot and I don't think Chris has a problem sharing the C with him. You don't become a leader just because you have a letter on your sweater (see, e.g., Miro Satan, October 2003), and you don't stop being one just because you don't have the C on a given night.

Connolly sort of alluded to that in his postgame quotes last night. "We're in Canada," he said, "so I'll get to see a replay of my goal on TV."

That's something else Drury does: he has the front office's ear and while he can't order trades, he can certainly influence them. It's no secret Drury lost patience with Satan and sanctioned his release, or that he knew Grier well from their BU days. His teammates know he's in a position to hold them accountable.

You'd expect a bit of a letdown after a 10-1 laugher and a long plane flight to West Bumblefck to start a long road trip. And in fact the Sabres didn't play all that well in the first two periods -- their passing was particularly off -- and never could get the PP untracked. But here's some things they DID do: 1. They all showed up in the third period. The Oilers couldn't get a damn thing going all period. 2. They got some tremendous individual efforts. Miller in the nets, Connolly on his goal, Max on both his goal and assist. 3. As awkward as their PP was, their PK was outstanding. Edmonton had several opps in the third period and couldn't set it up to save their lives. You've really got to like the Rochester kids. Look at how many of these guys were with the Amerks last year and are playing key roles now. I don't think any team took advantage of the lockout the way the Sabres did. Last thing. We've got the best captain in the league, for this team especially. Remember this is a guy who's been in the spotlight since he was 12 and it's no accident that his teams have won all manner of championships (Little League, Bantam, high school, NCAA, Stanley Cup). He was overshadowed in Colorado but still ended up wearing the A on a team that had Sakic, Forsberg and Blake. The guy is preternaturally calm in pressure situations and I think the team feeds off it -- they don't panic when they get down. Also he gives 100% every shift and plays 20 minutes a game; guys see their captain doing that and they want to follow him.

This worked so well for Gregg Williams.

Man, why would I have ever had him on my list?

www.espn.com look at the first headline on the right

it's on ESPN.com now.

...a two-time defending AFC champion made it to the playoffs the next year, they faced down all kinds of pre-game and in-game adversity and engineered the greatest comeback in NFL history to make not only a third but a fourth consecutive AFC championship a reality. No team had won two straight AFC titles and made it back to the playoffs the following year since those 1992 Buffalo Bills, until the New England Patriots did it this year. And what happened? They crumbled. Five turnovers. A crucial missed FG. Two interceptions by the Great God Brady and several overthrows caused by the thin air that seemed to thicken mysteriously whenever Denver had the ball. Etc. etc. Ahhh. It is to smile about, yes, it is.

It must be over. The refs just called a penalty on the Pats.

Jake is sharpening the stake right now. In fact when Denver wins this game we should call him Jake The Stake.

Now they're out of it. You could almost see the IQ points oozing out of Genius Belichick's ears after Brady overthrew a wide open Troy Brown (because of the thin air in Denver, according to Simms), Vinatieri missed the FG, and then they muffed the punt.

Not quite. When he's not suspended, TO comes to play.

But, you know, having a nice career while shoving coke up your nose didn't seem to hurt Lawrence Taylor.

Since just about everybody born in the '60s or later in New England wasn't a Patriots fan until 2001, and since a good quarter of the Giants' fan base defected to the Patriots along with Parcells, I don't really see why this is a falsehood.

Bridgeport isn't desirable, but Trumbull (which is next door to Bridgeport and Stratford and which is where my wife is from) is. Trumbull and Shelton are nice bedroom communities but plan on spending at least 400-450K for a house at minimum. My uncle-in-law is a realtor in Trumbull. If you want I can put you in touch with him; he helped a friend from here (Rochester) find a house in Trumbull after he got a job in Norwalk. PM me.

Except on one particular January day in Pittsburgh.

The regular swill over at the local A Plus MiniMart does me just fine.