BRH

And Dan Manucci!

What? We didn't develop Todd Collins?

Excellent times. To me there's nothing like end zone seats. Except last year at the Steelers game when I paid $125 to sit with a thousand loudmouthed pee-stained-rag-waving Steeler fans and watch (1) Bledsoe throw that two-foot interception, (2) Clements fumble a punt, (3) their fourth-string running back break off a 250-yard run, and (4) Lindell miss that chip shot, all right in front of me. I do have to say that hearing "Don't Fear The Reaper" come over the stadium loudspeakers in the third quarter almost made up for all of that. Almost.

Yeah well the only bad thing about this article is that Kellen Winslow doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Evel Knievel. Not to take this off on a tangent, but who else here had those Evel Knievel bikes with the crank that you'd wind up and send them flying into walls?

Don't forget Matt Kofler, Willie Totten and Brian McClure. God those were dark days. An entire generation of fans has grown up since then, so they're excused, but I have no patience for people my age and older who didn't become Bills fans until AFTER those dark days had passed.

120. Row 28.

Got four seats in the lower bowl near the tunnel for Opening Day and man am I stoked!

All I can say is it won't feel as good as winning that first one against the Giants would have felt.

Get well soon Fergy, and thanks for the memories -- especially that win over the Fish in the Orange Bowl.

And here's training camp.

I think I'm more shocked that Boss Hogg went to Yale than I am that he was from Buffalo.

The fire occurred in the food court across from the law library on March 19. Basically, smoke and soot permeated the law library and forced its closing and the relocation of several nearby offices and classrooms, but the rest of the building remains open.

That's odd because I had the reverse experience (went to UB and took a year as a visiting student at Cornell) and I thought that the classroom curriculum at Cornell was superior -- although I do think that Buffalo offers better clinical opportunities (due in part to its metropolitan location, I think). As for adjunct staff, I had excellent adjuncts at both places. At Cornell my Sports Law professor was Buck Briggs, who is the NFL's assistant general counsel (and used to hold the same position with the NFLPA), and he was fantastic. But adjuncts are definitely harder to find in Ithaca -- Buck was an exception because although he lived in New York he had a weekend place on the lake. As for the students, I felt that the top students at UB could hold their own at Cornell Law (if I may be allowed some immodesty, I was, and I did). The difference was that almost all the students at Cornell were the academic caliber of the top 10-15 percent at UB. To be blunt, about 25% of the students at UB Law really don't have any business being in law school, and they're the ones who kill the bar passage rate and the employed-after-graduation percentage, which are critical factors in ranking. You would think that being the state's only public law school with plenty of state-specific law courses, UB would have a New York pass rate substantially higher than the state's average, but that isn't the case. I agree about the UB CSO. As bad as it is for students, it's even worse for alumni. You have to pay to subscribe to their job-listing service, I think, and getting in touch with them is a pain in the ass. Cornell's CSO website is much better. And it's true that unless you do well in your classes and make law review and/or do moot court, it's almost impossible at UB to get an interview with a large firm, particularly one in NYC. And I would never go back to law school!

Of course, they could have run that leg above-ground like they do downtown.

Actually some of it isn't bad if you like the postmodern look. There's a lot of Louis Kahn influence in the O'Brian building, for example, but the problem is it's only influence. As far as I'm aware, none of the North Campus buildings were designed by, like, actual famous architects (UR's Wilson Commons came off the drawing board of I.M. Pei, for example).

Yep. And it didn't only because the burghers of Amherst didn't want, you know, "those people" riding the Metrorail up to their nice town from the city. As a result, UB North is completely isolated from downtown. There are shuttle buses to South Campus where you can catch the Metro, but that's a pain in the ass.

UB Law was ranked something like 80th in the most recent USNWR, which would put it in the "second" tier, although USNWR recently stopped doing tiers and started calling it the "Top 100." I've always felt that the rankings unfairly shortchanged UB Law. Not that it should be top 10 or anything -- I spent my 3L year at Cornell and there was definitely a difference. But if you can't go to Cornell, Columbia, or NYU, UB is a much better value than any of the other New York State schools -- particularly, in my opinion, Syracuse, whose law school pales in comparison with some of its other highly-ranked professional schools like Newhouse and Maxwell. The USNWR rankings tend to boost law schools in major metropolitan areas (higher post-grad employment) and law schools attached to universities with high-profile sports teams (they get higher reputational scores from lawyers and judges who don't know sh-- about the school but they've seen its hoops team on TV).

I graduated from UB Law in '98. Only complaint I have is that you had to park in East Nowhere and the walk to the building was usually colder than a witch's you know what. The campus itself bears a striking similarity to RIT. Not just the bricks, but the lack of convenient outdoor space for student congregation in the original parts of campus. Both were designed in the late 1960s with an eye toward limiting the ability of students to gather and protest in large numbers. After about 20 years or so, both colleges realized their mistakes and began to integrate more open space into their expansion plans. I rarely go back but I hear the renovations (including the student lounge) are nice. They should be, since it costs a hell of a lot more to go there now than it did then.

And at the very same time, unbeknownst to me, he was also coaching the McQuaid varsity (yes, coaching high school ball while playing in college) while I was a freshman at Penfield.

Looked like Flutie hanging Thurman out to dry back on opening day 1999 is what it looked like.

Speaking of hockey, last Friday I was in Chicago so I decided to take in the White Sox game. Damn, Jose Contreras is a human rain delay, but I digress. I was standing next to a pillar in the concourse behind home plate for awhile to shield myself from the wind and the 40-degree weather, and got into a conversation with two White Sox fans who were bitching about the general state of incompetence in Chicago sports, and the conversation turned to how Bill Wirtz had destroyed the Blackhawks. (As is my wont when I attend games elsewhere (unless it's a Bills game), I pretended to be a local.) These guys started talking about all the bad deals the Hawks had made -- Larmer to the Rangers, et. al., so I helpfully added, "Yeah and we traded Dominik Hasek too!" They went ballistic. "Oh yeah I forgot about that! Dominik Hasek! Jesus! And we got NOTHING for him too!" "Stephane Beauregard," I interjected, again just trying to be helpful. I think I wrecked their night!

This would be a great story if it was true. From the Bengalszone site: Yearly Leaders: Rushing Year Player Attempts Yards Average Long TDS 1968 Paul Robinson 238 1,023 4.3 87 8 1969 Jess Phillips 118 578 4.9 83 3 1970 Jess Phillips 163 648 4.0 76 4 1971 Fred Willis 135 590 4.4 36 7 1972 Essex Johnson 212 825 3.9 19 4 1973 Essex Johnson 195 997 5.1 46 4 So, in their inaugural season, they did have a RB go over 1,000 yards. And if we're talking about Essex Johnson's 997-yard season, it wasn't his rookie year. In fact, Johnson had been around since 1968, when he gained 178 yards. None of the other Bengals' yearly rushing leaders had a total that close to 1,000 without going over. And none got to 980 either. Don't worry -- I mess these football stories up all the time too. But as an editor I check facts for a living these days.

Does he mean that Lawrence Smith will be our LT to start the season?

Just like a Miami fan to not read the directions. The contest closed at midnight! Too bad I was out of town and didn't get the chance to submit my own picks. I'd be like Kadeem Hardison in White Men Can't Jump... "We goin' Sizz-ler... We goin' Sizz-ler..."

LeRoy is a good goddamn deal farther from Buffalo than East Aurora!