DazedandConfused

To continue beating the cancer analogy because to some extent it fits, one of the other pieces of handling cancer which often works is that the disease takes time to form and different treatments work when you get their early. This is the case with TO in this situation as I have little doubt that he will have a petulant brat meltdown at some point when he is here, but the tools have been put in place by the situation and the 1 year down that as a Bills fan I have little worry about him melting down this year. A player becomes a cancer when he divides the locker room. For example in Philly there were some vets who were McNabb guys and some vets who were TO guys and when the fight boiled into the public the media had a grand time fanning the flames of division. However, with a 1 year deal and the forewarning which comes with TO having jumped ship in Philly and having to be cut by Jerry Jones, I really doubt that TO is going to be able to divide the locker room with a half a season, 3/4 of a season or even a full season of great play. Even if he pulls some his historic antics like the Sharpie show or the pom-pom show these are merely going to be seen as antics which actually lessen the effectiveness he would have in building friendships and a fan base here. The general word was that 2/3 of NFL teams already were not in the Terrell market because of his bad rep and actually the fact one of the best WRs in the history of the NFL could be had for a mere $6 million (chump change in today's NFL) and no upfront money speaks volumes about the likelihood that if the Bills do not want to re-sign TO after this year or even cut him during the season that it likely it for him getting one more big contract. TO has always been about TO. This year it is pretty clear that this one year is a try-out for TO to solidify his image (actually I think this of little real value to TO since he is legend in his own mind) and to gin up interest in what will be an FA year for him next year (I think TO loves being a star and even he knows that star will burn brightly if he has a level of his usual productivity even with the likely decline of age he will meet or exceed the standards of achievement obtained by the Bills WRs the last few years AND he is not seen as a cancer). My sense is that the outcome of the year will be: 1. TO is getting older but can still produce something akin to the 1000 yds and 10+ TDs he has reached the past three years, even if he drops to 800 yards and 8 TDs he is among the best Bills WRs, makes Evans a better player, and far exceeds what we have gotten from our #2 WR. 2. TO likely plays the game of being a good scout for a year as some feel he generally is and as he generally has been able to do at his previous stops. If there is a tough decision to be made by the Bills its whether to try to re-sign him next year and if the predictions of those who claim he will meltdown after mid-season this actually makes the Bills decision next off-season quite easy. 3. If TO surprises everyone and actually had a productive year both on and off the field, the Bills would actually have an inside track on signing him if they want to and could even tag him at a huge but not unreasonable one year cost at the average pay of the top 5 WRs. The experience clearly shows that TO will meltdown eventually, but again the experience shows that this is unlikely to happen in his first year here and even if it does it makes the decision to let him go an easy one. I do not think anyone should reasonably be worried about the outcome of this deal. Even at its worst we are no worse off than we would have been.

Josh Reed's play and production actually stands to benefit the most from TO's presence if he is on his game well enough to beat out Parrish as the #3 WR for the Bills. Reed had a very good season as a rookie in large part due to the fact that the #1 and #2 WRs were Moulds who hit the century mark in receptions and Price who logged 94 catches. As the rookie #3, Reed got to take advantage of the fact that between Moulds productivity and Price's speed that both really demanded a double team and Reed got to run his routes against LBs too plodding to cover a WR or safeties too small to take on a WR with RB abilities. Right now, IMHO, it is Parrish who with his skillset of freakish speed and a surprising toughness shown when he is called to go over the middle who is the clear Bills choice at #3. In 4 wide sets, Reed will get to conceivably face the opponent's fifth best cover guy if team's man-up against the top 3 or use his superior route running skills evidenced in the first down reception ration you mention to pick apart zones. As far as having a great TE, the obtaining of TO makes it a seemingly far better move to employ the TE along the lines the Rams used of sending minimal passes his way as part of their high-flying offense as the TE is better used with Royal's skills as a sixth blocker to keep Edwards off his rear end rather than as a downfield threat in an O which actually is now 5 deep in quality receivers with Steve Johnson making a case that it is fact Reed who should be the #5 WR. The acquisition of one of the most productive WRs in the game over the last decade really does potentially revolutionize the Bills passing attack and O while it also clearly runs the risk of TO being poison. The good news is that the one year deal simply sets the Bills up in the best position possible to manage this poison to simply cut him lose if he potentially may damage the whole team by becoming a cancer. TO will not have the time to become a cancer in one year as he is unlikely to win the hearts and minds of his teammates and fans. The good news is that if he turns out to be so productive he does convince folks he is better than sliced bread, the Bills have the ability to tag him and keep him if we want. The downsides of this move are clearly there but they are quite manageable as if TO is a jerk you let him walk or even cut him and if he is a great you make a deal or tag him. Life has no guarantees so it is hard for me to see how we could have constructed this better.

This article should be saved as a reply to anyone who wants to argue flat out that the Bills should not have signed TO. It is important not because it makes the claim that the TO signing guarantees success for the Bills, but that it is a signing with huge upside for the team that takes the risk and the downsides are managed as well as they can be managed by the one year contract. Overall, it simply is funny as from the Bills fan perspective one can judge our situation as the worst it could be in the world as we have not even made the playoffs this millenium, but this takes a Jets fans perspective that the Bills record of making 4 SBs in the last 20 years simply does not compare to the futility of the Jets not making an SB in over 40 years. Both are true, it is the perspective as to whether you judge a glass as being 3/4 empty or 1/4 full that makes the difference.

The big problem that Buffalo presents opposing Ds with TO added in as another WR who demands a dt is what do you have to rush the passer after you do what is necessary to cover TO and Evans. If the Bills commit to 2 WRs and add Parrish to the mix, an opposing D at a minimum needs to use a dime defense if Evans and TO both credibly demand a dt and Parrish is dealt with one on one by your third CB. This set-up basically demands you to play a zone as by commiting 5 DBs to worry about the pass this leaves you with 6 defenders to prep for controlling a run by Lynch and/or rush the passer. The Bills will face this with 5 OL players and a TE to face these 6 defenders and one has to like our odds if this is the base set-up.

However, this is exactly why the addition of TO is so potent. Brooks is right on target in seeing that the import of having the two out there is that both WRs routinely require a dt to shut them down, With Evans opponents have held him down by running over and under coverage with a good cover guy sticking on him as best he can to reduce Evans as a short threat and a fast guy on the over coverage who is there to stop Evans from simply outrunning the cover guy on fly pattern and to close quickly on Evans making a catch underneath. TO also commands a similar dt with the cover guy hanging close to try to suppress TO doing a crossing pattern and the over dt closing quickly to reduce his RAC numbers. Opposing DCs will be forced to either try to cover one of the these players one-on-one (this is the true Trent challenge because if he can read the D to figure out which one has the man coverage and the routes called either simply exploit the one-on-one or TE and the WR make the same read and adjustments the result is likely a TD. This is why I view this addition as not simply giving us the freedom to trade Parrish for a quality guard, but in fact keep Parrish as now the opposing DC not only must make a tough decision about which side to roll the coverage towards or to somehow dt both Evans and TO, but in a 3 WR set, he is in essence forced to man up against the fleet footed Parrish. These three players simply force the opposing D into a zone coverage and Edwards gets an even easier read as to which of these three players are not going to have immediate press coverage and if so he gets it to that guy quick and it is off to the RAC races. The question is whether this pass-happy O does not give Lynch enough chances or leaves Edwards to the sack threat. On the face of it I would say the answer is no as in a 3 WR set, the D basically needs to commit 5 players to doing zone coverage or dting both Evans and TO and still covering Parrish. This leaves 6 defenders working against 5 OL players and the TE. Lynch who is almost never brought down by the first tackler will have a field day and Edwards will never get rushed by an unchecked rusher and his feet and quick release will become even greater weapons. The simple fact is that it is an incredible rarity for a team to get a chance to add a WR who has gained 1000+ yards and at least 10 TDs in each of the last 3 seasons and add him to the scary freakish speed demonstrated by Evans and Parrish. Edwards getting sacked is among the least of my worries with the addition of a top quality WR to this unit.

I also think TO eventually makes the HOF, but the key to the HOF is that it is like it or not a popularity contest where you gain admission not by accumulating some specific # of individual stats but by a committee voting you in. TO has fairly clearly amassed individual stats that get him on the list of 75 or so finalists and even gets him into the final list of nominees. However, the final decision will end up being a lot more about who the competition is at his position in that given year and what the future competition looks like. TO will quite often lose out in the final competition because he is demonstrably a jerk and most important because he does not have the SB rings to show he is a productive team player. It seems great to me that he signed a 1 year deal with the Bills because this maximizes the leverage that he is gonna be a productive player if he decides his priority is to either 1: demonstrate he has matured to not be such a cancer and can help a team go deep in the playoffs, or he wants to sign one more big FA deal which he will not get if the Bills cut him or decide not to resign him as a cancer. If he is a jerk, fine the Bills let him walk. if he is that great then you resign him or even tag him. Its easy for me to see the Bills not winning from this move, but it is harder to see how they lose that badly as if he is a jerk one simply cuts or does not choose to resign him.

Nope. My sense is that there is little risk of TO becoming a cancer in his first season. In order to be a cancer you must infect other tissue around you. With his lengthy time in SF and in both the Philly case and to some extent the Dallas (a little weird because it was the owner who drank the Kool-Aid and by the golden rule- he who has the gold rules- the cancer was pretty immediate) case it takes some time for TO to build friendships with teammates and a rep with the fans that he can actually divide the team. In Philly he rather quickly took on McNabb but did this so quickly he was a quite survivable cancer as they simply excised the TO boil. In this one year, TO will not become a cancer for the Bills because even if he is a jerk he will lose the affections of any teammates and fans if he mouths out much at all his first year. TO knows that he can become an FA next year and the biggest threat to him getting yet another big contract as an FA would be if he became a cancer and the Bills cut him lose because he was so nuts in 09 or so bad they choose not to bring him back in 10. If TO becomes a cancer quickly he consigns himself even despite his outstanding talent to at best a contingency laden FA contract with little more than the vet minimum up front and subject to the salary cap, A 1 year deal simply forces TO to work not only on producing on the field but being judged to be a productive force off the field. If not, the Bills simply cut the ahole and can say at least they tried. The other possibility is that TO proves to be a great player on the field and OK but not outstanding off the field. As an FA if we choose to we can even tag him and retain the rights to him. My sense is that if he wants out you let him go (but to some extent if it gets bad with him wanting out and mouthing off it directly lowers the amount folks will pay him as an FA to get him so again I doubt he mouths off after a year and if he does you are smart to let him go. All in all I would say the only risk the Bills face is the $6 million they are paying him but the bet is that even if he is such a jerk you need to cut him (certainly a likely possibility given what a jerk he has been in the past) you have not committed any salary cap to him in the future and an affordable amount from our large cap room this year. I think there is little risk for the Bills in a 1 year deal and in fact it puts them in a great position to deal with whatever happens.

Everyone needs quality OL play, but for the most part all that a team will be able to assemble is adequate OL play. The question is what quality of play is going to be adequate. With Brad Butler as the only reasonable option at G right now, the Bills need to get at least two reasonable options to play G (one a reasonable starter and one a reasonable back-up). However, while I feel that two good enough players can be acquired through the draft and FA at this position (actually it is getting a better player at C that I think is the larger priority and actually using Hamgartner as a player who can flip back and forth between being a starting G and back-up C is I think the path to go for building a solid OL) that I would prefer to see the Bills keep a dictating solid core at WR which I think they have now. I view Parrish as not an added thing but actually a key at #3 WR who forces almost all opposing Ds into a difficult zone D because of match-ups. Right now I see our O set-up and the D scheme it forces the opponent into as: #1 WR- Evans- demonstrated raw speed, and success at catching the long pass and turning it into six that the opposing team pretty much has to double-team him. The Bills did not have a well enough designed O and a quality threat at #2 WR that opponents simply dt'ed Evans with an over and under coverage that took away a large part of his game. Evans was good enough and Edwards was quick enough with the release that he could still be a clear #1 WR, but the deep game was taken away so that he was not an imposing threat. The Bills OL actually had proved to be outstanding in the past against the pass rush (the 07 team gave up the fewest # of sacks ever by a Bills squad) but the cost of doing this was that they never have exploited the long game like they have in the past with JP hooking up with Evans. What TO brings is an ability for the Bills to deal with the opposing pass rush with merely adequate though not great G play by forcing the opposing D to have commit so many players to coverage that even merely adequate Gs do not have to play against a lot of stunts and difficult pass rushes as the D will be back on their heels. 2. #2 WR- TO- He has produced 1000+ yards and racked 10 or more TDs in each of the past three seasons. He would be the clear #1 WR on many teams and has been such a producer on the field that he also commands a consistent dt or it is simply a matter of time until the opponent gets burned. Of the top 4 of the 11 defenders are now forced to put a major focus of their work on 2 Bills. Off the top this leaves 7 defenders who MIGHT be thinking about the pass rush as a thing they might do. As these 7 men also have to deal with the possibilities of Lynch, the TE and a 3rd WR a mismatch is already created as the Bills will have 5 OL players taking on 4 pass rushers if the D man-to-man's these three offensive threats. 3. #3 WR- Some folks obviously view Parrish as an unneeded player and they are anxious to trade him for help because they are now frightened by the possibility of losing Lynch for 2-4 games or that he will be an idiot. Could be. However, this is a game about aggression. The Bills approach the past decade has been one of avoiding problems rather than one of taking risks to create problems for the opposing D. To change this approach is why I argue that Parrish rather than an added luxury actually creates match-up problems for the opposing D that we must push to finish the opponent. Parrish has simply demonstrated in real play that he has tremendous open field running ability which has made him one of the top PR guys in the NFL. This is in part due to his freakish speed which mandates that the opponent cover him with a fast player or at least create enough traffic in the middle that Edwards cannot pass to him. Like it or not, Parrish is also a little guy and does not present a huge target and he has suffered a couple of injuries in his brief career which simply indicates that he cannot be expected to be a #1 or a #2 relied on consistently to carry the weight of a lot of catches. This being said, Parrish has demonstrated with his play that he does not fear contact and that actually he is a player who can be counted upon to make a tough catch in traffic over the middle. If one does this a lot with him one runs the likelihood that he will eventually get hurt. the good news is with the acquistion of TO that clearly the problem is not going to be one of over-use of the #3, but instead how do we manufacture enough throws for both Evans and TO to be utilized fully. Rather than simply using this fun problem as a rationale to get rid of Parrish, I argue that instead it is time for the Bills to put the pedal to the metal and force opposing Ds to address the difficult task of with Evans and TO both mandating a dt and either arguably demanding coverage by the fastest DB the opponents have, if Parrish is also out there in a 3 WR set, the opposing D will have little choice but either put their 4th or even fifth best DB on Parrish or instead give Parrish the coverage his speed demands and Evans or TO gets to pick on the 4th or 5th best DB as the back-end of their dt. If the opponent is committing 5 of their 11 defenders to cover a spread passing game featuring Evans, TO and Parrish, this leaves 6 players whose primary looks are how to combat Lynch led by 6 blockers (the 5 OL players and the TE). I feel fine about Jackson as my RB for 2-4 games (a 2 game suspension seems likely but given that both convictions against Lynch were misdeameanors it is not impossible for him to escape suspension but we will see). At any rate, the luxury here would be to trade Parrish in my view and if we keep him and put him to his highest and best use my sense is that the 09 Bills will be very difficult.

If I am an opposing DC, I am now very afraid of facing a Bills offense showing a single back and 3 WRs as this forces me to do zone or either go nickle or even dime as both Evans and TO demand a double team and now I am matching up my 3rd fastest DB at best against Parrish one on one. Even worse, this spread D now must face Lynch who really never goes down with the first tackle attempt and even worse has shown some talent the Bills have never really utilized as a receiver. The addition of TO who has racked up 1000 yards and at least 10 TDs in each of the past three seasons immediately makes Evans a better WR as he now gets to match his speed up against a single cover CB or gets to look for openings in a zone. Likewise Parrish now almost certainly gets single covered. Even Reed who will now appear in empty backfield sets will have the same situation he enjoyed as a rookie when having Moulds and Price as the WRs allowed him to savage opposing Ds. The TO move may make for an interesting off-season next year if TO has a productive 09 and does not act a fool and actually builds allies so his future fate divides the teams and fans. However, for 09 this poses nothing but trouble for opposing DCs.

If he does, that fine, we cut his butt as he will not have won enough allegiance of teammates or Bills fan to be seen as anything more as a disease. He cannot become a cancer until he builds up enough good will that he splits his teammates and fans. If he is gonna implode I hope it is in training camp, it will cost Ralph dollars but we still will have tons of cap room, but it will not poison the team unless he produces enough this coming season that we want to resign him next year. If that is the problem i will welcome it.

The good news is that even after starting 16, 15, and 16 the last three years for the Boys, and going over 1,000 yards and 10 TDs or better each season, TO still got cut and quite frankly had got to be desperate to make it work with the Bills or if he has yet another miscreant season this will certainly be his last stop getting paid more than the vet minimum if not his last stop as an NFL player if he melts down in Buffalo. TO has shown an ability to capture the love and respect of some teammates and fans with a year of so of great play and being a team guy before he melts down. I suspect he will have an outstanding year for the Bills in 09 and the critical FO decision will come next year as to whether the Bills look to resign him or not. If TO implodes at all this year or even whines about not getting the ball enough, the Bills can simply walk away and TO loses big in terms of his next FA contract or any welcome mat from any fans after leaving on bad terms with his fourth team in a row. The Bills were in bad shape before the TO signing having missed the playoffs for roughly a decade. Today they are not guaranteed anything (who is in this life) but they have some powerful cards to play in this relationship. If TO melts down the Bills are in the same bad position they were before they signed him, but if TO meltsdown his career will be just about if not totally done.

I think the answer for the Bills is embodied in TO's 1 year contract. This is the key question for the Bills but the length of the contract means the answer is really who cares from a Bills perspective. Will TO pop a gasket and eventually go to war with the Bills FO? Yep, almost certainly. However, the real danger when a player does this is actually not in his first year. After a player has been a success for a team and earned lots of allies and rooters in the locker room and among the fan base with a year or more of great play, only then can he become a true cancer who infects all who love him with his bad attitude. Terrell was a cancer in SF and Philly and Big D not simply because he had a bad attitude (he was a jerk) buy because this jerk had built up friendships and good feelings among some with his outstanding play that he made players choose sides between TO and Garcia, TO and McNabb and TO and Romo. If he implodes next year with the Bills, then we spent $6 million in cap room (which we have tons of this year) and we do not resign him or even cut him during 09 if he is a jerk. We are in the same position which we actually had some chance that we would go into this season with that would be looking for Hardy to develop like a #2 choice should or we would be hoping Johnson develops like he showed hints of at the end of last season. The only tough decision with TO would come next off-season if he proved to be such a stud on the field in 09 that we had trouble signing him as an FA after an outstanding year. This is a problem this Bills fan would not mind having at all. If TO throws a hissy fit at all this season, then cut his butt or simply ask him not to let the door hit him on the way out.

The typical practice seems to be in the NFL that the level of accomplishment of the players involved heavily influences where the # ends up. How it gets to its eventual resting place usually ends up being a behind the scenes conversation where in this case, though it is Hardy's #, as his achievements with the Bills and thus in the NFL are so minuscule he likely gives it up amid saying he is doing this as a good teammate, but Terrell gives him some reasonable cash for the # and the courtesy. I do not see Hardy being a brat an refusing to give up the # (unless there is some personal historic reason he had for keeping it like "81 was the # my grandma wore on her corporate team's baseball league during WWII and I have always worn it), nor do I see TO kicking his Bills career off with a hissy-fit if Hardy will not sacrifice the #. My bet Terrell gets it with Hardy making a gracious statement about being a good teammate welcoming in a proven difference maker and quietly Hardy gets a boatload of cash.

While I certainly have the sense that the psyche of the fan base is fairly fragile (what fan isn't smarting after going for a decade without the playoffs) I have seen no tangible evidence that the locker room is fragile at all. In fact, on the contrary, while many of us fans are mewling and puking over Lynch pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and some fans declaring him a cancer, his fellow teammates seem to value his never say die attitude toward playing which is reflected in many fans screaming for BEASTMODE. Likewise many of the fans are calling for Jauron's head while the players virtually unanimously seem to say he is a good guy to play for and Ralph who is know to run off tilting at unwinnable windmills (see his attempt to get the last year of contract money out of the fired Wado and his apparent willingness to pay MM millions to not really run the team). I have few doubts that if Ralph viewed the lockerroom as melting down he would have either reneged on his handshake deal with Jauron or tried to squirm out of it legally. I think think are correctly fragile in the fanbase given the years of losing and the media like WGR and Sully fanning the flames as best they can to try to make an extra nickel. However, I see little tangible evidence of fragility in the locker room which we have seen in other teams where media reports of disputes among the players, players calling each other out publicly or recurrent FA departures (the exodus of Crowell and the Dockery situation are some indication but in each of these cases, Crowell seems to be the one expressing regret and their was even some talk of reapproachment and the Dockery situation seemed to pivot on a lack of good communication as the deadline approached for a bonus payment rather than a situation like the one where BB messed up the negotiations with Milloy and his players berated him publicly. Even in this bad situation, the players (who are simply given millions to put up with the typical corporate crap from the team so they suck it up) were not so fragile that even in the face of a true dispute they proved SB worthy. Fragile lockeroom? I do not think so. What tangible indication do you see or is just simply a fear only bred in the logic of your mind?

I did not know that the schedule calls for Ralph to die by 2010 so the Bills can be sold and moved. Do you have some connection to the front office upstairs which we do not know about?

Why should we trust you regarding your assessment of Lynch? It seems to not be supported by anything I have heard from his teammates who give no indication he is a cancer as a teammate. In fact, on the field he clearly displays a never go down on the first hit and get at least positive yardage on most plays which would seem to be the opposite of being a cancer to his teammates. He seems to eat at you as a fan, but he certainly seems to have caught the fancy of many fans who revel in the Beastmode reputation. By logging over 1,000 yards each of his first two years and even slipping into the Pro Bowl as an alternate this also seems to run counter to a need to get rid of him. I think he is good but not great if he is replaced by a proven commodity but you make no case to trust you.

The other hypothermia and dehydration thing that should be factored in here is that not only may have the lost boaters done something deranged that led to their death, but the survivor's account of what happened post accident is unreliable at best. He had almost two days of being alone, cold, scared, falling asleep, being without food, water, and drinking sea water inadvertently to fantasize all sorts of images about what happened. The survivors accounts are useful information for the immediate search and to be correlated with physical evidence, but any testimony he gives upon being plucked from the waters should simply not be accepted as reality without other pieces of evidence.

I agree that character does matter. However, I think you also are making a range of assumptions which may or may not be true, For example: A. A 4 game suspension likely reduced to 2 games seems reasonable but is still way far away from likely. A lot depends upon judgments that Goodell, the Bills and even the NFLPA make about this particular case and its precedential impact on other cases that their can quite easily be no suspension in this case at all. B. Losing Lynch for a couple of games is a pain, but not so surprising or unlikely due to injury that the mere fact of him being suspended for a couple of games is no reason to move mountains to prepare for this. The fact that this is a "second" offense which occurred while Lynch was hanging with friends indicates a "POSSIBILITY" of some bigger character issue which might make a team choose to move him. However, to conclude this is definitely the case based only upon these two misdemeanor events is a big huge assumption. C. Also a real possibility is that the Bills are doing things to cause fools to make a false assumption that they view RB as a real need for this team when actually, you always want to have a Plan B and a Plan C for every position, Plan B already looks very good with Jackson and really all they need at RB is a plan C which they may already have on the roster and who can be acquired late in the draft or a low-level FA.

The main thing Ralph is preparing for is preparing to die. No matter how powerful he is unless he plans to kill himself (no signs of that) he has no idea when that will be and thus as he is committed as much as he can be not having the team sold until after he is dead, the intensely time sensitive issue of getting and accepting a real dollar offer is not happening. All the things you mentioned are true, do not add up to selling the team unless one is certain one is going to die in the immediate future when these things would impact pricing. Unless you know something that only Ralph and his docs have a vague idea of and only the supreme being of your choice knows for sure it is a virtual certainty that Ralph is taking steps with his will to meet his fiscal goals (depending upon what those goals are the team can be set-up to move or set-up to stay) but it is also virtually certain that he is not dickering with the relatively short term value items you list as some sort of prelude to selling the team (or having it move which are two different things).

Perhaps I was re-acting (or maybe over-reacting to a few superlatives heeped on Sully about being a great or even very good writer. I like the caveat that you put into your assessment of him that he is the "best sporters writer in this town". I think the unabridged praise some gave him in earlier threads in this post do not make this simple distinction and that was actually what launches Sully into comparison with the greats. Melville was arguably great (though I personally found even the unabridged Moby a bit turgid). However, even limiting things to the modern writer or the modern sports writer, Sully is not even in the minor leagues compared to those I consider truly great sports writers like DeFord, Feinstein, or even George Will on baseball. I think even working in a small market, comparisons to these writers is legit as a person can write well whether they are in a big town or Thoreau sitting next to Walden Pond. Particularly in the internet age where one's prose is virtually accessible all over the world, the small town to whereever comparison is an illusion. Passion for a sport makes a difference (see George Will regarding baseball). However, the best writers are among the best because their command of the craft is so good they transcend one sport. I think Sully's work almost demonstrably falls apart for one making a judgment (which actually Sully deserves credit for because he like other professional writers are willing to subject their craft for review to the general world- this is bravery) when one looks at his series on him taking up golf. Here the Melville comparisons are probably most legit because Sully comes off as a Capt. Ahab dealing with his own demons in the course of his search to slay the white whale of aging. The great writers though take the voice of Ishmael and lovingly describe the struggle of tortured soul Ahab. Sully instead presents a smarmy self-psychoanlysis of the difficulties of aging which if we are lucky we all face. Perhaps it was my failing that I could not stick with the series over time or until it was done and Sully's writing turns out to be truly great as his columns reveal greater truths. However, for this reader who was actually quite prone to interest in this unusual topic from this columnist, I found his use of the craft so self-referential that I felt it was simply bad work, In many ways I feel Sully is actually the perfect writer for a depressed Buffalo. He is a small writer in a small limited town. Yet, the better writers (Esmonde for the news, Mark Goldman who wrote City on a Lake about Buffalo, and thousands of great writers and reporters who live in economically depressed areas some how find a way to do great expression from horrible conditions. This fans judgment is simply that Sully is an adequate writer. He does show flashes of literacy and talent which indicate he could be more than adequate. The fact that he rarely seems to elevate his writing beyond simple flashes of adequate work is what makes him a hack to this reader.

Naw as the way too lengthy piece (but fun for me to do to pull together esoterica from long ago enjoyed but basically unused day to day in this life I have stumbled upon) says Sully is an adequate writer IMHO compared with greats like McPhee and DeFord (both fellow victims of my alma mater by the way). He is a hack because he wastes his considerable talents by simply settling for being adequate.

I agree there is a difference in the jobs. My main problem with Sully is that he is not a very good writer. He is adequate in that he has definite opinions like any columnist or commentator should. Even better, his opinions are often based in demonstrable facts (though like most opinioneers he picks and chooses which facts he wants to try to "prove" a pre-ordained point which seems to have been made mostly to stir folks up. He gets a leg up in my book as many of the other commentators like a Mike Schoop talk a good game but in their quest to fill air time without the ability to edit which comes with being a writer, Schoop often seems submerge into what I call fact-free opinions. At least Sully's views are both closer to the truth whether they are correct or lame as they are more based on true facts. However. am observer can see the difference between if ones forum is filling several hours of air time each day or writing and edited column and then basically sticking to that script for your short radio stints. My problem though with Sully is that he is little more than an adequate writer because his views are based on facts but carefully chosen partial facts. The best writers are those who are give the facts but actually write well enough to do even more. The best writers are those who can take the basic facts and find in them the basic truths about broader humanity. I think this is why John Feinstein is a great writer. This why I think Frank Deford is a great writer. Heck, this why I think George Will is a great writer when he writes about baseball (though he goes off the deep-end IMHO opinion when he wrotes about politics- in sports he is usually writing about someone else like a Tony LaRussa and why they are great but in politics he seems to get all caught up in trying to demonstrate how smart and literate he is and he gets lost in my view- George should stick to pontificating about the designated hitter rule where his writing and opinions are very cool). Sully though, also loses it when he writes as too much of his writing is about him (as in when he did his golf series and tries to show how smart he is regarding the Bills) and not enough about the sport itself (which actually is great even though he is just another guy). The great writers can tell a sports story with great accuracy and detail, it is because they are great writers that when they are done telling the story you come to realize that they use their detailed understanding of the sport and their great skill as a story teller to reveal a greater truth most of us can relate to. One of the best sports books ever in my view is one called the Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe by John McPhee. McPhee s a great writer/ Whether the story he is telling with exacting detail is one like The Curve of Binding Energy which he wrote about the Manhattan Project or the Canoe book about the recreational (this is sports in my mind) activity of canoeing. Birch Bark tells the story of a canoe trip in the outback with one of the last surviving builders of canoes from the bark of the birch tree. McPhee goes into almost loving details about the craft which is simply dying. He tells this story in the context of a canoe trip with this craftsman (who quite frankly a jerk) and with Warren a buddy of his with great outdoor and canoeing skill. By the end of the book one begins to realize that though this tale gives often excruciating details about canoecraft (its like reading Herman Melville provide a primer on whaling in Moby Dick) it actually is a description of how though the craft of canoemaking is dying off with one of its last practioners, the basic love of the out of doors and reverence for nature lives on embodied in his buddy Warren. McPhee is a great writer about sports recreation (and tons of other stuff). Melville is a great writer as he uses the arcane details of whaling to tell a greater universal and human truth about being so addicted to a task (killing the great white whale) that one loses site of the objective (being a good human). Feinstein with a Good Walk Spoiled (his treatise on humanity using golf or even his exploration of Bobby Knight in his biography of of this force of nature is great sports writing. Sully is a hack.

Not what I would call a good writer because as you can tell in how the biased set of readers pm TSW depict him he too often comes off a legend in his own mind. Sullivan has the ability to take any given subject and to write in a manner that it comes off as being all about him. An example was a few years back he did a series of columns around him taking up golf in his 50s. A good writer would have certainly used this as a opportunity to explore the life lessons of getting older (the bottomline is simply one of humility that if one is lucky you get older). Instead, from the initial columns in the series before I stopped reading as it simply became a boring repition of complaints about not feeling like he did when he was younger. The good writers take any story and through describing the details actually touches upon something quite subtly (if one is a very good writer) that most readers share in common even if the story (golfing for crying out loud) is something that most readers could care less about. Sully seems to find a way to make any story all about him and for the most part if you have read one of his columns you have read them all.

I flat out disagree with those who call Edwards a noodle arm or use some other lame name-calling that has little basis in reality or demonstrable facts. I have been very impressed with what this 3rd round pick has shown in accuracy, quick release and more mobility than he was given credit for. Unfortunately, along with all these positives comes what I see as a demonstrable case that Edwards is injury prone. I define this as a player who loses playing time to three different injuries in the space of 2 seasons (others can offer up a tighter standard or a looser one if they want if they do then please state clearly what your standard is). Edwards clearly has a record of losing PT in college while playing behind a turnstile OL, but even this fact is something I am willing to overlook when one looks at a players record in the pros behind a more professional OL and after they put on some muscle and weight. Most important though as a pro he lost a game+ (its hard to say how much PT he lost to the injury as he was sat because the coaching staff simply judged even JP a better bet) to a wrist injury. This year he went out in pre-season after a tough hit hurt him. The regular season saw him go out with a concussion. Edwards then went down with a groin injury against Miami and missed some more PT. I think that anyone who simply dismisses Edwards as not a good player is simply showing a lack of football knowledge. However, anyone who is sure we are gonna be great because Edwards plays well generally when he is in or who is resting their hopes on this young man making an unprecedented showing of 16 starts simply is doing wishful thinking. Edwards is a developing QB which should be expected, Edward is also injury prone thus far in his brief career and anyone who pins their hopes for the Bills in 09 on his play needs to acknowledge this and talk about why they believe Fitzpatrick is at the very least the new Frank Reich.

My sense is that an FA starting at MLB makes a ton more sense than Malauga or any other rookie. Players have said fairly widely that even a vet needs to play the Cover 2 for a year if they have not done it before and often a little more before they become adequate at making the proper reads needed to play Cover 2. A rookie may be talented enough to be a first year starter after being drafted in the 1st round (unfortunately though the conventional wisdom in these parts is that a rookie drafted in the 1st is expected to be a 1st year starter, my survey of reality is that actually only about 50% of 1st round drafter rookies are 1st on the depth chart at their position at the beginning of their 2nd season) but not only will this rookie LB we pick be expected to better than average real world results for a 1st round drafted rookie, but also if we start him he will need to produce better results than most NFL vets. Sure it can happen, it is just pretty doubtful that we will have more than a lost year if a rookie starts at MLB in our Tampa 2 type D. If Malauga or some by consensus less talented rookie is thrown into the starting MLB role by us then then while the hope would be that this player is the next Lawrence Taylor (even though this player by definition drops to the non-elite level where we have an outside the top 10 pick) the best we likely could expect would be that this talented player simply learns a lot as a rookie by getting fooled into dropping back on running plays and attacking the LOS while some RB or even a WR runs into the vacant spot in the mid-deep zone left open by our rookie MLB. I think the Bills braintrust will feel a ton of pressure to make the playoffs this year and its hard for me to see them giving up a W or 2 while this rookie MLB learns to become a vet.