BRH

I agree with that. The game slows down for him and not just because he's faster than everyone else. It's been a long time since I watched a college football quarterback and thought "he can bring his team back from any deficit." Joe Montana made you think that. Doug Flutie made you think that. I think Jim McMahon had it at BYU. There are probably a few others I'm forgetting, but not many. Vince Young is such a player. I don't think Michael Vick was.

And Leinart didn't?

A plethora? Mike Williams is a plethora all by himself?

One disappointing 5-11 season, Simon? How about 3-13? Want to give him a pass on that because he got us out of cap hell, fine. Or 8-8? That was a good year, except we were 5-3 at midpoint and imploded. Then there was 6-10, did you like that one? Or how about the 0-4 start to the 9-7 season last year and the horrible denouement against Pittsburgh, did you like that? Did you like five straight years of no playoffs after having made the playoffs in ten of the past thirteen seasons? How about being so impressed with Gregg Williams' laptop full of lists that you not only hire him, but let him hire Mike Sheppard, Jerry Gray and Danny Smith to run the three units? That worked out so well that two of them had to be fired and they had to bring in Dick LeBeau to hold the third guy's hand. Then there was the whole Kevin Gilbride fiasco. In fact, the three OCs we had during Donahoe's tenure here amounted to a steaming pile of stojan. The guy did some good things here, true. But when it comes right down to it, as he himself said, the bottom line is all that matters. The bottom line is wins and he gave us a product that averaged six fuggin wins a year for five years. It's pretty obvious why there was a power struggle in Pittsburgh between him and Cowher and it's even more obvious why he lost it. Pittsburgh's had a pretty nice run these last six years, no? Or doesn't 15-1 float your boat, Simon?

Bingo. Remember all those screaming matches between Jimbo and Andre on the sidelines? Those two got along fine, it wasn't a T.O-McNabb thing. It was two guys who wanted to win and knew that the other wanted the same thing. That's what those Bills were all about.

What's with the "anymore"?

You had snapper in the restaurant in front of your GF?

Good god, man, how does Flutie even belong in the same world as Vince Young?

Well, think of it this way. How many times have you seen a GM fire the coach and take over the team himself in midseason? Hell, it's happened in pro sports twice in the last month with Pat Riley and Lou Lamoriello.

Did anyone notice that at one point he referred to "Coach Levy"?

At the end he said he was up to 120 mg, not 100 -- he's upped his dose by 100 mg since the start of the season. Can't blame him one bit

I didn't hear the questions so well, but I did hear Ralph's answers. The prozac thing cracked me up! Ralph starts... Happy new year...i'm here today to announce that tom donahoe is leaving the buffalo bills as president and gm. his replacement will be announced shortly and we will do so for you folks at a press conference. this is diffciult for me bc tom and i are very good friends. when tom came here and john butler departed, he took over a franchise that was literally in a financial mess under the cap. the bills were way over the cap and tom had to release many of our old veteran players and to get under the cap he did a great job. i don't know if i've ever seen anyone work as hard as td. he was here at five in the morning. took scouting trips on saturdays during the fall, flew back to buffalo or wherever we were playing in time for games on sunday. worked very very hard and i thank him for it. his wife margaret is a lovely lady and has been very instrumental with the players and coaches' wives in the community. and td himself has done a great job in the community. most people don't know how much he does in the community bc he doesn't want to advertise it. wouldn't even put a bio up on the website for him. however, during my 46 years with the franchise. i just don't feel we've made enough progress during the last five years. i take responsibility for this organization and if any bullets to be fired, fire them at me. however in tom's leaving it's my feeling we need a fresh start. need a restructuring of the bills operation on both the football and administration sides of the club. i think we have a good future and i do think we need a fresh start and that's why this change is being made. there is one thing i want to clear up. i want to apologize to the fans of buffalo who are great fans, we haven't given them a very good product in the last five years and i apologize for that. but i want to apologize for an incident a week ago monday where i read some letters to the editor where the stadium personnel were going around picking up protest signs. i just want to apologize. that is NOT the policy of the buffalo bills. protest signs and so forth do not fall under that category of signs that should be removed and i want to apologize to the fans who had them taken away. do i know who did it? not me. i was **infuriated** that it happened. so i will be happy to invite any questions -- interrupt -- just a second please. q. mike? a. mm and i had a visit and we talked over what's best for the team and we will continue to do so and a decision will be made very soon. a. we will improve the product on the field for the fans of buffalo and wny. a. we have not yet decided who will be the next gm but we will announce it in the next day or so. a. coach levy -- we're going to announce who the next gm will be and i can't tell you right now. have i talked to mr. levy? no no not in the words you're using here. a. we are going to try to make that decision in the next few days. a. the new gm and myself will be talking, yes, but i'm going to be talking with mm, i talked to him yesterday and i'll talk to him this afternoon, and we're going to resolve his status. a. the assistant coaches being released? that would be mike's call, not mine. i don't hire them and i don't release them. a. eric moulds had nothing to do with it. pardon me? i just thought that we were not going in the right direction, uh, and, um, needed a fresh start. and td talked to me because he wanted the best thing for the bills. and he came to my house and we talked about it. uh a week or ten days ago. a. tom told me that he thought it was best for the franchise that we have a fresh start. tom modrak is going to continue to be the assistant gm and will be in charge of scouting and probably more involved in the operation of the club. a. there was not any one game that made me arrive at this decision. but i can tell you candidly that the loss in miami was _____ to me but it was not the only thing. a. i'll let you all know that answer when we decide on mm. q. are you staying with the coach? a. we are still talking. a. it's just a combination of the last five years. i don't see any progression in five years. and it's my responsibility. and as i say, i'll take the brunt of everything. for the fans' sake we've got to TRY to improve this franchise and give the fans of buffalo a better product? a. well, i was not as involved. i'm glad you asked because i am going to take back the presidency. the new gm will not be the president. i am going to be the president and will be much more active than in the last five years. a. tom modrak at this point is not a candidate to become gm. he is going to retain his title as assistant gm but he will spend more time here in buffalo than he has in the past. a. i will be more actively involved in really knowing everything that's taking place. i don't mean calling plays on sunday because then i'm afraid i might lose my prozac. i started out this year my doctor said wilson you don't look so good. you look depressed. wait (laughs) i'm trying to tell a story and you're interrupting me. i said what do you suggest? he suggested that i take 20 mg of prozac every day. now i'm up to a HUNDRED mg of prozac. a. yeah, you can have a field day here today jerry. huh? i can see why you're in the front seat (laughs) a. i think that will probably be in the hands of the head coach. the gm. i won't be involved. i talked to eric moulds in my office a couple weeks ago. a. uh, yeah, mm has done as good a job with what we had -- new qb -- as possible but there are some things i want to talk over with him. a. oh no no no. you can go home and sleep tonight (laughs) i didn't sleep much last night. you can get a couple hours that i didn't get. a. things haven't progressed longer than "hours." it goes back more than a few hours. a. we're doing the best job we can in the time frame. it's very complex as you know. we're trying to do the best job for you people and definitely for the fans. a. tom is a very qualified individual a. i can't judge jp losman. rookie qb only played three or four games. a. the prozac? 120, not 100. okay, thanks fellas.

The gaggle seems to be having a grand old time.

I'm in

Hm. I think that may be more because they are two of the original AFL owners left standing. Like if you go back for your 75th college reunion and the only other guy left was a total d1ck in college, but you have to talk to him because he's the only one left.

Huh? I thought Ralph was always pissed at Al for giving him damaged goods in return for Daryle Lamonica and vowed never to trade with him again. And he didn't, until he sent him a third-rounder for Billy Joe Gunrack. That sure worked out.

I think, too, that Donahoe had the advantage in PGH of being a local boy. Wasn't his grandfather the governor of PA or some stojan like that? Here he was always seen as sort of an interloper from the outside, come to tell us how they did it Pittsburgh and how it was better than what we did here. (Greggo learned that lesson his first year here when he came in with all that "this is how we did it in Tennessee" garbage.)

I'll go with that. You don't see or hear anything about Losman trying to poison players and media against KH, for one thing... which was something Flutie did all the time.

TD was pretty handcuffed financially in Pittsburgh. He had to let FA after FA go each year and when it came time to replace Noll, he went with a guy who had never been a head coach before. That Cowher guy turned out to be pretty good. Now it's an excuse for TD that he was handcuffed financially?

I've met Scott. He's smarter than Mort.

OK I just saw your avatar and tagline. I'm dying here

I'm not questioning your sources, Scott, but they seem to have TD's fingerprints all over them.

Rogers also was drafted one slot ahead of Conlan. But didn't the Bills trade down to #8 to take Conlan?

To Tom: We'd like to send you a sympathy card. Should we save our postage?

Look at the first eight picks in the 1987 NFL draft. Vinny Testaverde. Cornelius Bennett. Alonzo Highsmith. Brent Fullwood. Mike Junkin. Kelly Stouffer. Reggie Rogers. Shane Conlan. Just two of those guys panned out as worthy of being top eight picks, and both played the majority of their careers with the Bills. For good measure, the Bills took Nate Odomes with the first pick of the second round (#29 overall; that would be a first-rounder today). And took Jamie Mueller in the fourth round, Keith McKeller in the ninth round, and House Ballard in the twelfth. House Ballard in the twelfth round. And TD picked Mike Williams #4 overall.