May Day 10

I have the Jets, Ravens, and 49ers starting 0-6. Cardinals Seahawks, and GB starting 5-0 or 6-0 Bills and Pats at 4-3 tied for first head to head in week 8 Bills mathematically eliminated on week 14 (and Im not even pessimistic or anything, just picked the games) For some reason I have the AFC West as an absolute horse race between 3 teams until they beat each other up down the stretch. Got the Bills winning the 1st 2, then losing to ARZ and NE. Beating the Rams and 49ers for 4-2.... but then dropping @Miami, NE, @Seattle, @ Cincy at 4-6 before beating the Jags for hope, then dropping the make or break game @ Oakland. 5-7, but then beating PIT, CLE, MIA, and @ Jets to close the season and save everyone's job Bills winning their last 4 games to be 9-7, 3rd place. Ravens win 1 game. Browns and 49ers 2. Titans, Chargers, Lions 3. Jets, Rams, Bucs 4 Bengals 14-2 Chiefs 13-3 Pats 11-5 Jags 9-7 Steelers 11-5 Raiders 11-5 Green Bay 14-2 Seattle 14-2 Carolina 14-2 Dallas 11-5 Cardinals 14-2 Minnesota 13-3 Cant believe I have 5 teams 13 wins or more in the NFC Wild Card Steelers over @ Jaguars @ New England over Oakland Cardinals over @ Cowboys @ Carolina over Minnesota Divisional @ Chiefs over Steelers @ Cincinnati over New England Cardinals over @ Seattle @ Green Bay over Carolina Championships @ Cincinnati over Kansas City Arizona over @ Green Bay Super Bowl Arizona over Cincinnati for posterity, Ill attach a score: 31 - 16 http://nflplayoffpredictor.com/?L=EwRm5NU7V7IzFRS2pnOSHKg7CDRXYo8cvFZUg+Ck1LHbGlLCI4pz9+TBlSFCuGWvSrwgA

That would make sense. Ideally, you can just call them 4 different conferences. Once you get to a Conference Champion/final 4, they re-seed. The chances of abolishing the AFC/NFC brands though are nill

just throwing it out there... What if the NFL went with 4 Divisions: AFC North AFC South Buffalo Houston Cleveland Miami Pittsburgh Jacksonville Detroit Tampa Bay Cincinnati Carolina Chicago New Orleans Minnesota Atlanta Green Bay Tennessee NFC East NFC West New England Denver NY Giants Los Angeles Washington Seattle Philadelphia Kansas City Baltimore Oakland Dallas San Francisco Indianapolis San Diego 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. 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. Division winners get byes. #2 and #3 in each division play in the wildcard round.

I would like to see some sort of re-format just for the reason of shaking it up. 15 years or whatever is an eternity in the sports world for having one format like this. The format has gotten a little boring/stale. Its nice how they have a 'perfect' scheduling balance.... but usually things isnt so balanced as they may seem. And I really feel no rivalry with Miami. like zero since the Kelly/Marino days. Maybe if both teams are at the top of the division again for a number of years? I dont know. I would think that Buffalo/Cleveland, Buffalo/Pitt, would be much, much more intense. At this point, the Miami thing is just forcing it. It has been clinically dead for too many years. I would really like some sort of re-format, and for the Bills to enter with teams from the North Divisions. Wouldnt even be opposed to some sort of variation of the NFC North, although I prefer the proximity of Cleveland/Pittsburgh. I always feel like we are more aligned sports-wise with Great Lakes/Midwest more than Eastern seaboard or Florida.

Rivalries nowadays are purely a product of competition. Ravens steelers on the way out... Cincinnati pittsburgh suddenly heated again. I have no feeling really about the dolphins. The jets i hate because i dislike nyc sports teams. New England i hate because they are 1st every year for 20 years. When they had red uniforms and steve grogan i actually liked them.

He wont. He has come this far. He will try the Supreme Court.

if he (and the Patriots) would have made a half-hearted fess-up and taken a light punishment from the getgo.... this would be forgotten ancient history.

I really cant fault anyone, especially on the outside for thinking this... You look at the Ryan brothers... and you are conditioned into expecting things to not work out for the Bills.... it is easy to imagine the crashing and burning to be spectacular over the next 2 seasons.

Stevies the man

The science behind that ranking is flawed and will favor the large markets and bandwagon/good teams. If it were me.... IMO the biggest measure is how many people show up when the team stinks. Take a 10 year swath and go with percentage of capacity / wins. I do think ticket price should also be taken into account, but probably indexed with the market size and per capita. I also think a subjective approach is necessary. Do we want 63K people who make gameday a 12 hour event, are into every play of the game, sprint to and from the bathrooms, etc.... or is it a better fan who spends 10x more to see his division leading team,, but gets to the game late, and spends most of the time socializing in a lounge and leaves early. How well traveled is a fan base? etc. Also, IMO twitter and facebook fans and mentions is silly. It IMO is more of a bandwagon measure and also market size (and also rewards contraversy and negative press as in New England's case).

And 1 step further... should be done in a war room to remove officials bias to uphold their call

New England is #1! Congrats guys! http://sports.yahoo.com/news/new-study-ranks-the-nfls-best-and-worst-fan-bases-wheres-yours-120511265.html We ranked in the bottom 5. Come on guys, we can do better than that

one rule? I would go with the ability to review/challenge PI calls.

I dont really care/mind. I do like being unique and a throwback by having a real named-stadium... but sell the rights and I respect that.

It seems to me that the best target for a mass shooting is the logjam at the gates. The logjam created by excessive searching for stowed away food, drink, and smokes. Improving that imo would go a long way toward prevention

I said Moorman because it makes sense. I thought he was still in the area. Looking at the MO of Terry Pegula, he loves giving ex-players jobs including (and especially) in media. One aspect of keeping a positive image of the organizations with members of the NHLPA and NFLPA. After your career, we can take care of ya and maybe get you started in coaching or broadcasting.... or even just being a dignitary who visits suites, kicks back and schmoozes people. Typically radio shows (and broadcasts) have a straight man/radio guy and a less polished guy. I would think John Murphy plays the straight man role well and is well versed in media, putting on a show, conducting interviews, etc. It seems logical that an ex-player takes the seat next to him. Having Sal in that other chair gives you 2 radio guys and that isn't usually a good combo. I dont believe Sal and Murph would be a good show. I remember when the Sabres had Jeanneret and Harry Neale. Both hall of fame worthy broadcasters.... but they were awful as a pair. Both were too goofy and it fell flat. You need a straight-man. Its hard to believe, but Rob Ray holds that post pretty well.

I think it will be a former player. Maybe moorman or someone. I dont need sal yelling at me through my radio at a scheduled time every day.

Sorry to hear. Positive thoughts to you and jimbo

You know what they say. Its not a tailgate party without planning and salads

I think the NFL was hoping to create a huge buzz and event. Rogers family would keep giving Wilson money for the games (perhaps expanding the series) and keep their placeholder on the team. Once Mr. Wilson passed away, Rogers would have been capable of blowing any offer out of the water and it would be the Toronto Bills, already with the trial run, fan base, and built in disclaimer that it is only 'an hour from Buffalo". The NFL (and Rogers) vastly overestimated the amount of interest and desire from the GTA. Ticket prices were set too high, people were lukewarm up there. It was also a factor that the Bills were in the process of being completely irrelevant as a competitive NFL team. They expected this huge raucous event as an audition for the NFL, but it fell on its face and was on life support at the end. Especially once players started to hint displeasure in the games/venue. Rogers lost money on the deal and had to reel back the preseason portion almost immediately. Also, Rogers passing away so quickly IMO threw a huge monkey wrench in the process as his heirs didn't have the appetite to bring the NFL to Canada like the old man did. There was/is also some deal of family drama that would make it difficult for them to band together the funding for the team, relocating, and a facility. That leaves MLSE and Bon Jovi who arent the juggernaut Rogers is. The lease and NRA is friendly to WNY... but a huge factor is Mr. Wilson passing the way he did. If he passes in March of 2017 or 2018, it could have been a completely different story. The NFL would very much have preferred the Bills relocation to Toronto IMO, but the timing of Mr. Wilson's passing combined with the NRA and Pegula's interest and wealth was the perfect storm that made it impossible. So the verdict: Mr Wilson/family: Victory, earned more money Bills: mixed. Got money through the Wilson family. The regionalization into GTA aspect fell flat (in large part to the quality of team) NFL: Loss Wanted NFL in Toronto out of this. Fell flat. Optics were getting very bad by the end Rogers: Loss Wanted NFL in Toronto. Ted Rogers passed away early leaving a rudderless ship. Certainly lost money on first deal, terms of 2nd were swept under rug but deal was axed anyways Bills Fans: Win. Just because we are where we are now. Maybe if there wasn't a deal, Rogers just buys the team outright in 2008. It stunk at the time and felt like a slap in the face every time the Bills told us we were incapable of selling out December games, but we survived.

I think it was a success because it netted the owner a pile of money and that was its primary intent. Nothing else

Last time I looked, the Steelers have had some success over 2 decades. People shouldnt take it so seriously and have a little fun. Storming the field would be great. It sounds like it is you who have the inferiority complex with so much worry over what others would perceive, and how we need to act "big league". People do it in NCAA sports for far less. It isnt like people will be holding "Mission Accomplished" banners. This city overall would be deep in Bills fever if we were (when we are) at that point. It would be so exciting and put our fans on good display (provided it is an semi-orderly scene). Clinching a wild card (other than maybe a decisive Week 17 game) may be a little over the top of a reaction too. I mean, if they won the Division but nothing else and the team had a ceremony to proudly hang a Division Championship banner front and center, yeah, OK, a little lame.

I really think if a Division title is clinched at home and it is a tight game, people would probably storm the field, and it would be awesome. I think the rest of the sports universe would think it were a very awesome thing. Dont see that stuff in sterile pro sports. Tortured fan base, excited...

Another detriment to the renovation option would be a temporary home. There really isn't a feasible option. You would think a renovation to satisfy the needs/wants of the owners would be pretty major and couldnt be completed during off-seasons

I agree. I wasnt angry about it or anything. Just thought it was silly. Anyways, the uniforms are sharp for the most part. I really hate the "progress" of NCAA football uniforms. Those carbon looking helmets every team needs and 20 sets of different uniforms. Thanks a lot Oregon. jerks.