May Day 10

I would like it if they went with 4 conferences Lambeau Shula Buffalo Houston Cleveland Miami Pittsburgh Jacksonville Detroit Tampa Bay Cincinnati Carolina Chicago New Orleans Minnesota Atlanta Green Bay Tennessee Parcells Walsh New England Denver NY Giants Los Angeles Rams Washington Seattle Philadelphia Kansas City Baltimore Oakland Dallas San Francisco Indianapolis Los Angeles Chargers NY Jets Arizona It is treated more like NCAA football. Play each Division team 1x. rotate home/away year to year. Pair up 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 for an extra Divisional game to make 8 Divisional games. It would also keep teams at the top of the Division duking it out once more each season so you wouldnt lose the 'situational' rivalries that pop up. Then 4 from your other conference Division with typical home/away rotation, and 2/2 from each Division from the other conference with typical home/away rotation. Conference winners get byes. #2 and #3 in each division play in the wildcard round. Then play for the conference championships and re-seed for the final 4.

I have been in favor of this awhile. I like: 4 conferences, 8 teams.. play each team once, but pair up 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4 and so on for one extra game. Play 4 games vs your other afc conference... then 2 vs each nfc one Im sick of miami, ne, and the jets taking up like 40% of the schedule every season. Its boring.

He made an arm chopping motiin when he said russ brandon was business side only. Oh yeah... but then listed many scenarios that he would be involved... and how important it is that everyone needs to be involved in everything.

I have an open mind. It seems that Russ Brandon was (finally) far from the process, which has been my wish for almost a decade.

I wonder if Whaley actually pulled a move on Russ Brandon as well as Rex.

Not a trace of rat hair from russ brandon Im cautiously optimistic a good choice could have been made

The bills have a 50+ year history... lots of source material there.... Interviews, player features, behind the scenes workings of obd and the stadium... early look at 2017 opponents... top draftable players... in depth on coaching candidates including interviews with colleagues.... the john clayton interview on s&bd is always entertaining and takes a chunk of time... focus on current nfl playoffs. Anything but take constant opposing views of callers

I cant begrudge the show for not being cynical and tearing down the inner workings of their organization... However, a show that takes callers needs to screen them. Find more neutral topics and talk about those. If you cant get enough callers that want to go along with the show, start creating non-caller-driven content. Concentrate on the NFL playoffs more, the college bowl season, do more interviews and features, etc. Taking caller after caller, pretending to be obtuse, and arguing is a bad look and a bad show. This happened on the early days of Hockey Hotline too when the Sabres held onto Ruff and Regier too long.

Tbh... out of the current weak crop of choices, mcdermott seems like the best

I dont see it as quitting. He had a contractual opportunity (given by the bills) to leave. For whatever reason, he felt it was in his best interests. Same with any free agent players who do so, or teams who decline an option on a player. These people act in the best interests of their careers. Then you see the bills having similar problems with a new coach, while marrone plays nice as a lowly offensive coordinator. It makes you think a little, especially reflecting back to the whole "lifers" conflict thing. You also start to wonder if the 'serial leaker' within the bills organization floated some unflattering notions about marrone in order to save face.

Columnist vs Reporter

trade for Payton

We need someone who vows not to take a wife, or father any children

Considering the amount of stagnation that has existed, I think that layer of team president is sorely missing with both franchises. LaFontaine, publicly said a lot of extremely prudent/intelligent things on the state of the Sabres and his vision. I was behind him 100%. Not sure about the full body of work as GM, but I would trust him with decisions... or at least the power of signing off. His job certainly wasn't supposed to be 'find a GM' then sit there.

I like his demeanor... however, I do think he talks publicly and candid a bit too much... and I like his attention and experience to scouting My jury is still out on him overall. He needs to hit on some of these picks, other than the slam-dunk tankey guys. He spent a lot of assets in some trades and those moves (Lehner, Kane/Bogosian) are looking a bit questionable. Rochester is somewhat barren and they are fairly short on prospects, considering where they were when Murray took over.

No... but we do not know what happened behind the scenes. All season there seemed to be an impending 'struggle' between Marrone and those entrenched in the Bills' organization. There is likely blame on both sides. Sometimes, general opinion can be 'accepted' as fact, such as "Saint Doug is a Jackazz who attempted a power and money grab". Even if that is true... was he wrong?

First, LaFontaine has this "stigma" due to the Islanders situation that was extremely toxic. He was an unpaid advisor, and was expecting to work with Neil Smith... However, Charles Wang, a notoriously meddlesome owner of a dysfunctional franchise fired Smith like a month later and replaced him with their backup goaltender... and hours later, the unpaid LaFontaine resigned. Any reasons people give for LaFontaine's departure from the Sabres is speculation. Only a few people know and they are on NDAs. I do know I would want LaFontaine running the ship right now as opposed to a Brandon-Pegula-Murray triumvirate. They also had Craig Patrick on board and lost him in the process. I also know the Pegulas are amassing a repeat history of front office drama where it is only fair to not heap all blame on LaFontaine based on assumption.

I am pretty sure if the Bills made a major front office overhaul and committed to a proper rebuild, 90% or more of the fan base would be behind it. The Sabres' fan-base did and they remained capped at Season tickets throughout the process and even were able to increase prices.

Itll poison the well. No self respecting football exec or HC will want to work here. If he wants to make the decisions... just spare us the chirades and make Russ Brandon, Marv Levy, or Buddy Nix the GM again

so who "leaked" this one?

I do not agree. I don't believe the Bills are close at all, and are better off cutting the line and going all out on finally rebuilding. This drought is largely a byproduct of continually trying to patch a systemically leaky boat each season. They need to go all out and find the QB and build/continue to build in the trenches. I don't think this team is only a matter of 'fix the defense' away from competing. It will be something else. I don't see the offense replicating this season. Everytime McCoy gets tackled I hold my breath. Taylor is a liability, as a running QB, he takes a lot more hits than a QB should take. They have a major hole at WR and are largely one-dimensional.

If this is true, then we are truly screwed. Im no Whaley fan... but if Pegula wants to interject with every decision, the Bills are in worse shape than ever. It is like we have a younger, less knowledgeable Ralph Wilson

he is like the people on facebook who post the 'woe is me' posts, then says nothing else when everyone asks them what is wrong

It is incredible that they feed this out and people eat it up. This is the exact card they played when Ralph Wilson 'stepped down' and it was treated as a reset once and for all...

I always thought it sounds very silly when the bills or even fans talk about making the playoffs as the goal. Miami's season with a bunch of smoke and mirrors wins and a road playoff blowout is not impressive. I would take it. Heck, even an actual meaningful december or week 17 game at this point... They really need to fix the organizational structure. Its a fragile thing. Even amidst super bowl years, egos tore it apart. Lots of entrenched egos there now. They need to put every resource into finding a franchise qb. Lastly, they need a smart, adaptable, hard working, hungry for glory, and detail oriented head coach.