May Day 10

i think he is really good and its a loss for the program/event

similar to jauron and gailey's genious on 3rd and 10+. draw up the middle and hope for a facemask?

i was at a pearl jam concert and they brought out donna grantis. i guess she was in prince's band. she rocked solos in rocking in the free world

ZOLTAN!

Philly is pretty bad sports-fan wise. I get all stadiums see fan on fan violence at times... but at Philly sporting events, there is a large number who take pride in being violent to opposing fans. I was at a Philly/LA NLCS game once and saw an old man, maybe 70 years old in a dodgers jacket getting physically pushed around and intimidated by a group of 20-somethings in a bathroom. There is also a level of 'bailing' when a team is down and latching onto the hot/good team(s). Check out the Phillies attendance.

I really think the 'huge fan of the Sabres' thing was kind of overstated. He really has never seemed knowledgeable at all, other than being able to identify who the French Connection is. He also bungled the Bills'. A fairly similar situation... however, he did have 2 factions here vying for 'continuity', and he selected the wrong side. You had Marrone who was going to bring in Polian as a consultant who would have likely re-organized the FO and found a GM.... vs team Whaley and Brandon. Pegula chose Whaley/Brandon and went on to hire Rex which history shows was a series of incorrect moves. The events of the last quarter of 2016 and early offseason were humiliating. Maybe they hit it with McDermott. I like McDermott's attitude and attention to detail. I also like what Beane has to say and his professionalism... but they still have a lot to prove. The playoff berth this season was great, but it wasnt 'resounding'. As was mentioned, it could have happened in various other seasons in the drought if the atmospheric conditions of the AFC were this optimal... but they were in a 'transition' year, built up assets and got more out of the team anyone expected.

This falls on Terry Pegula. The organization was stale and in need of change when they bought the team in 2011. He decided to stick with the status quo, and threw money at problems that only magnified and compounded them. Then, they decided to embark on a 4 year master plan. Liquidate the team, tear it down to the studs, maximize assets, build through the draft and prospect pool, and manage the salary cap. Then we had a series of half-measure management changes. Lindy Ruff was fired 2 months into a season after an extended lockout offseason. Then, the following year, Regier and Rolston were fired, again less than 2 months into the season (see: mid-stream), in favor of Ted Nolan and Pat LaFontaine (and Craig Patrick). Not long after that, LaFontaine hires Tim Murray. There seems to be some degree of misunderstanding in delegation of responsibility and influence because LaFontaine resigned in the midst of the trade deadline. That left Tim Murray who was clearly in over his head to run the entire operation. (IMO, LaFontaine intended on Murray being a 'head scout' type of GM, while he had final say in a lot of matters such as trades). Murray later fired Nolan (who had his AHL-level team over-performing). They failed to get Babcock to come here. "settled" on Bylsma (while spending a 3rd round draft pick on him). You also have had various comings and goings of upper management there in Black, Brandon, Patrick, etc... So you have this 4 year plan, and compulsively change various levels of management at numerous times... then wonder why things didn't work out. Im also nervous about going with rookies in the GM and HC roles. They really could have used some experience there.

bob kraft: “Well, whatever I can do, you know,” Kraft said. “In life, you know, the hardest thing is to surround yourself with quality people, even in a marriage if it’s your partner, and then having continuity. Life is difficult, especially if you’re doing things at a high level. … There’s a lot of strong-minded people, but when you have something good going, everybody’s got to get their egos checked in and try to hold it together.” to me, that indicates there is fire where all that smoke is. who knows if they still keep it together or not... but i think that article was mostly (if not all) factual

the level of jubilation from belichick certainly exceeded any non superbowl win... and even those dont seem like as much. not sure if its worth reading into. he could have just been happy for his coordinators. or he knows it was his last game in foxboro as the patriots' coach

1 penalty all game

its very possible they take a step back next year. especially if they hand it to a rookie qb.

I like Howard Stern. His sirius show got too stale for me years back and I got sick of/annoyed by most of his staff (Benjy, Ronnie, etc)... I was also completely sick of Artie before the end of that. He became the driver of 100% of the show's content for the last year.

trump didnt start toronto rumors. they have been there a long time, and flared up in 2008? when home games were moved there. the second bon jovi expressed interest, every bills fan new it was very suspect. it was widely known/reported that he was in tight with mlse, lieweke, and the city of toronto. did donald trump write kryk's columns for him? it took everyone 30 seconds to connect the dots

i suspect he left mainly due to pegula choosing to continue with a flawed management structure. he didnt want to stake his career on things like brandon and whaley trying to force ej manuel to be good. mcdermott got what marrone wanted here. polian would have been brought in to mold the front office, probably chosen a gm to work with marrone... and we would likely have had a better result in 2015 and 2016.

I also get annoyed by the spot foul thing. A tacky PI call results in a huge swing.... but with that said, yes, I think the other way would result in muggings of WRs when it is strategically beneficial. One thing I dislike though is the removal of the 5 yard 'inadvertent" facemask penalty.

Yeah, I dont get it, really. I guess I kind of do, but I don't agree/feel it myself Marrone, IMO was against the leadership of the Bills and wanted serious changes to be made and/or control to continue. He was right. Pegula chose the 'lifers' and continue the lineage of Brandon/Overdorf/Whaley calling the shots that affect the football team. Marrone didn't want to stake his career on it. Pozluszny is what he is. Seems like a class guy. I never felt spurned by him Dareus is a little tough... the Bills are the ones who gave him that deal. He already had question marks. But whatever. Questionable characters win the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl every year. I have admiration for Coughlin The Patriots. Such an insufferable fan base and team. If they win, they will also be tracking the last thing we have - 4 consecutive Conference Championships.

zero dilemma

Agree with this 100%. Sal agitates me. Not only his delivery of yelling into the microphone, but his outlook is always Murphy-esque positive and he refuses to focus on areas that call for criticism. IMO Buscaglia is the best/honest balance. He seems to have a very neutral, measured, and well thought out approach. I dont mind Sullivan, but I understand how his personality turns people off.

it was hardly a bad question.

fan alliance between the queen cities. i was delighted to read the mmqb piece on a few of the beneficiaries from andy daltons foundation. its really great that some positivity can come to the surface about the nfl, when 98% of the (off field) news is negative. dalton and his wife seem like good people and i will root for him moving forward. i hated the bengals for breaking my heart in the icky shuffle afc championship game. i did root for them in superbowl xxiii because my 10 year old self wanted the bills to lose to the best. that is an underrated super bowl. that bengals team was great. we did steal credit for the no huddle from wyche though

im optimistic. firing dennison was not easy or fun. but they did it swiftly because it needed to be done. still work to do and its very possible the team will win less than 9 games in 2018... but they a committed to building a sustainable football program. i havent felt that way since butler or donahoe

These guys mean business

Whaley isn't a good GM. He ran a leaky ship strife with dysfunction. Some of the contracts they handed out are puzzling. Obsession with trading up in the draft hurt. Absolutely no urgency to resolve the awful QB situation. Publicly, as 'CEO' of the football department he came across as a boob. To me, the whole Levy/Brandon/Nix/Whaley lineage was basically one administration anyways. Just a series of passing the baton to buy another few years so the fans wont revolt.

i think we are massively stretching the boundaries of "ugly" here

i still believe