DazedandConfused
-
Posts
389 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Gallery
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by DazedandConfused
-
-
I have yet to see these guys wrong on contracts, although it probably has happened. Gholston got 32 mil. The incentives in these deals are all over the place and they are usually not the likely to be earned kind like making the pro bowl and winning the super bowl. Especially with the start he got.
Longs was 48 mil, with incentives.
Also, IMO it's just plain dumb for anyone to say the "guaranteed money" is the important part. It's a LOT more accurate and highly likely that "the guaranteed money plus the first three years of salary is the important part" because virtually everyone of these guys plays 2-3-4 years of those deals with that team before they are cut if they don't live up to the contract.
The irony in all this arguing over the Peters contract amount is that either way it goes it cuts against how the Bills FO handled this. Either folks believe Peters contract is in fact at the $60 million dollar level in which case if the FO had extended and raised his salary when he jumped from RT to LT and made the Pro Bowl they still could have gotten an even happier Pro Bowl worthy LT for a song compared to what he got from the market.
Alternately folks could argue that the $60 million is not real, but inherent in this argument is that the Bills still could have gotten a Pro Bowl worthy LT for even less than the huge contract reported if they had simply given him an extension and raise when he made the jump for RT to LT and made the Pro Bowl.
Folks seem to try to avoid the fact that either way you argue interpreting the contract the Bills could have gotten him for less or much less if they had built and maintained their OL more intelligently by simply ignoring the hard work an achievement by Peters in moving from being a UDFA at TE to earning a roster spot to earning an RT slot to earning an LT spot to earning a Pro Bowl nod the first time he got it.
Instead some folks seem to want to conclude that you can achieve these things by being a stupidlardass.
It is certainly the case for almost any objective observer that there is no way Peters played at a Pro Bowl worthy level last year. However, to acknowledge this fact (IMHO) but somehow to totally discount the other part of reality when the Bills were overpaying Dockery a huge amount and likely overpaying Walker a huge amount just comes off as silly.
-
Actually, I think it's because the rest of the NFL coaches, GMs, and scouts are not privy to the knowledge that FatStupidLazyLardAss is the bestest, greatest LT alive - that fact is only known by a select few posters here on TSW who, quite selfishly, have chosen not to share it with every other front office in the league.
It probably is wishful thinking by Jason Peters Mom and a few others that he is clearly the best LT in football. However, this flight of fancy seems to be easily exceeded by those who simply classify Peters as a FatStupidblahblahblah.
The fact of the matter is that the Bills did a tremendous job convincing this UDFA to come to lil ol Buffalo when he had offers from several other teams. They deserve credit for being led by the Mouse to recognize that this player firmly committed to being a TE actually had the right stuff to play tackle.
On top of this great recognition, an excellent job of coaching and some incredibly successful (and likely hard) work by Peters not only proved him worthy of an RT starting slot (already an amazing achievement in the just started career of a youngster) but he in fact proved talented and productive enough to take the LT starting slot.
The fact he made the Pro Bowl as a starter so quickly and by a pretty broad consensus deserved the nod the first time her got it was simply a virtually unbelievable achievement.
Did he deserve his second Pro Bowl nod? Almost certainly not from those who watched him play.
However, this opinion which I accept as fact in no way simply nullify the FACTs laid out describing his early achievements.
The sad fact IMHO is that the FO blew it big time by not locking up Peters for even longer after his first Pro Bowl nod. The price of another contract would have been small compared to what the market in fact delivered to him when he jumped ship on the BIlls (again say what you want about Philly's judgment but the market is the market and the simple fact is that the market gave Peters the 6/60 deal he signed. Other theoriwa about other team's lack of interest may be true but simply do not compare at all to the fact the market did determine Peters' value at 6/60 and the Bills could almost certainly have gotten him for much less than that last year.
The FO simply flat out mishandled the OL situation as they delivered a truckload of cash to Dockery which was simply a failed decision. Add to that the actual fact that they lost their 2x Pro Bowl LT for a small compensation in most folks view and now our team is simply rebuilding the OL with a bunch of youngsters led by overpaid or highly paid journeymen like Walker and Hamgartner.
Assessments of the OL situation which simply ignore the actual facts and seem to let the Bills FO management off the hook for this debacle simply come across as hollow sour grapes. Peters is not the greatest LT ever in my book, but as misguided as these assessments are they look like a great thing compared to the selective ignorance shown by many of the Peters trashers,
-
A worthless analysis as a rule, and totally worthless without the salaries of the coaches, scouts, facilities, etc, included.
There is one HUGE difference between winning teams and the Bills and it isn't the FO's player evaluation. It's the HC, stupid.
Very good teams have won despite their HC having limitations (the great Cowboys team winning with that college HC level pro HC whose name I forget at this late hour is the Cadillac example, but several other cases of at least questionable HCs who win exist. Add into this that Jauron has already put up a record once which won him the Coach pf the Year popularity contest and while the evidence does point to the quality of the HC making some difference, the evidence points away from the word HUGE since HC ability is important though not essential.
My sense is that the totality of the NFL experience is one which shows a man can be a bad HC one place (Marv in KC) and be an HOF level HC in another circumstance.
I think the posts which point to one thing the HC choice and the FO choices have in common being RALPH is the key.
Deserved kudos to him for keeping the Bills in Buffalo, but one is ignoring reality if you heap so much blame on Jauron that one forgets that fish rot first from the head then down.
-
Yes, but the PR commentary on which draft choices are 'looking good' is not. More like blubs from the marketing department than anything else...
Agreed. Particularly as the roster is set for most positions, the player assessment part of the OTAs is pretty meaningless. However, if one follows the team and not the personalities, the OTAs are simply an essential part of TEAM building.
-
Not exactly.
On one hand, it doesn't mean that someone who looks impressive in shorts will look that way once they have to do contract drills, but, on the other hand, to actually be there and to begin to grasp your team's concepts is never a bad thing (see Russell, Jamarcus).
Add me the list of folks who disagree generally with the flat-out declaration made by C. Biscuit and a few others that minicamp is simply worthless.
To those fans who overfocus on simple assessment of an individual players skill I can see why they come to this false conclusion. Yet, as the Dean flatly states that building a TEAM is a lot more than simple player assessment, voluntary OTAs, and mandatory camp serves other purposes than simple player assessment which anyone who really understands what it takes to build a winning TEAM, the minicamps are not only useful but actually play a necessary role which are essential to the process.
Examples of a few of these benefits are:
1. Team building- perhaps one thing which is a huge benefit of the off-season camps is to get the players together as teamates so they can begin the process of getting to know each other and rely upon each other. The non-contact drills allows players to build something real which is often referred to as chemistry. Even without the hitting of real games the repetitive practices of drills makes for better play by the players.
2. Team building is not only just performed at the OTAs, but the practice of getting together in the cafeteria for players (particularly the rookies for the players to get to know each other.
3. Getting together (particularly by the rookies) without the immediate pressure of having to compete for jobs inherent in game performance makes these OTAs a better place to build team feeling and camaraderie without the heavy hand of competition on the field. It likely is in OTAs where the vets can build a relationship with the rookies where they help them out rather than simply compete with them for immediate job decisions,
4. It also is in OTAs where the vets introduce the rookies to doing things in a Bills methodolgy of being part of the TEAM.
5. There is a lot more that the coaches need to assess than simply how well a player plays. The also is the attitude displayed by the player in the weight room, the whirlpool, or just kidding around in the locker room are there to be assessed by the coaches.
6. Time and repetitions are essential to the rookies and FAs learning the plays and new terminology. The OTAs provide an opportunity for new players to become Bills and newly signed FAs to learn who is a true team leader and who is a jerk/
OTAs are essential.
-
Yep this is insane.
-
Isn't it easy just to hit the mute button?
Agree
I agree that many folks simply go through life recognizing that it is usually easier to hit the mute button. That's a fine choice for those who choose to take it!
-
You're completely right Dazed. In the other thread which mentioned pet peeves of NFL broadcasts this came up as you know. The one thing I didn't mention over there is that in the days before the NFL Sunday Ticket/DirecTV, a few bars and (well-to-do) families had those huge satellite dishes which would enable you to watch your team's home games even when they were blacked out locally.
The fun thing about those broadcasts is that during commercial breaks, there were no commercials and the microphones were rarely killed. So during what would have been commercial breaks, you could hear the announcers speaking to each other and their responses to the director, etc. While listening to this you'd also see the video of the director changing the camera shots and generally pre-planning the broadcast.
As I recall, at least one announcer got into trouble for making comments about the cheerleaders, assuming that no one would hear his comments.
A neat Buffalo connection to the use of satellite feeds was done by a fellow who used to work at the Polish Community Center serving the Seneca Babcock are in the late 80s or early 90s. He put together a feature length piece called Spin (which I have somewhere in the stygian depths of my old tape collection (I hope its not on Betamax if I ever look for it.
The fellow (I think his name was Brian) had an early satellite dish and hooked into the feeds of various news events covering politicos. The technical habit (probably still the case) is that they activate these feeds and send them over the satellite early and then simply connect this feed into the broadcast signal when they are ready to broadcast. The feed is available thru the satellite well before it is broadcast so that they can be sure the source feed works without keeping it all dead until broadcast time and relying on every piece to work from a synchronized cold start.
At any rate, SPIN has footage of such ditties as Larry King and George Bush 41 discussing which drugs work best to take long plane trips, Al Gore getting made up before a speech, Pat Robertson ragging on gays when he thinks the camera is dead and other stupidities which happened because the "star" thought the camera was dead.
Even though Directors did not succeed in killing these off camera feeds to satellites they have taken action to get TV talking heads to hold their tongues generally during this pretend down time.
-
Isn't it easy just to hit the mute button?
Yeah it is, but with mute alone one loses the ambient crowd noise which helps one feel the game and also interpret the impact of what you see on the screen.
Also, as the TV show producer is relying on the blathering to tell a big part of the story, they do not make fuller use of visual graphics that would enhance understanding the game situation if they went beyond simply relying on the announcers to tell the story/
I think that viewing would be enhanced if they did not rely so much on the fill the sir cliches of many announcers but instead spent more effort to tell the story with good use of stats and better use of replays.
This is the difference between what I would love to see and simply muting the blather.
-
Yet another recent TSW thread ranting about the ongoing NFL TV coverage travesty as Dan Dierdorf like announcers screw up the game coverage as they try to imitate John Madden got me thinking.
The screeds reminded me again of a late 70s game which the networks ran without announcers. The game coverage consisted of ambient sound and the infrequent showing of the game clock which was the practice back in the day. My recollection was that it was a somewhat frustrating experience as things occurred in the game which were simply opaque to the viewer who only had the crowd reaction and primitive replay (if any as I do not remember), visual signals by the ref, and little else to rely upon to try to understand what was happening.
The game was routinely panned by newspaper coverage from writers who like deep down aspired to be the next John Madden or Bob Costas before such a personality even existed.
However, modern techniques such as constant display of the game clock and a summary of the down and distance of each play strike me as offering a completely different experience today if it were used.
In fact, if a game producer were employed to present the game with an eye toward presenting split screens. uncommented upon replays of bang bang close plays I think that a game broadcast which consisted mostly if not entirely of ambient sound would be a great option.
Option is also the key word as with the emergence of HDTV which allows multiple feeds of an event, being able to select a channel without the verbal blather but even using existing technology which would allow a viewer to choose and select augmented computer based game stats would make for far better coverage to me than listening to some announcer try to avoid dead air or worship the sound of their own voice.
My proposal is that TSW make it self the home for a movement to call for for the networks to deliver to its customers alternative game feeds which take advantage of the modern information technologies available and simply dispense with the annoying blather which actually has gotten many TV viewers to simply turn down the sound on their TVs but instead watch the visuals on TV with John Murphy or Van Miller from the radio providing the sound feed they listen to.
Even the Miller inaccuracies were annoying but gave many a better visual product as they watched the TV feed and relied on the radio announcer trying to draw a visual picture for the listener with their words.
I would love to see TSW become a voice calling for the TV networks to offer alternative verballu minimalist but ENHANCED GRAPHICS (EGTV) presentations of NFL games.
The TV networks likely would not publicize well the existence of an alternative presentation which gave viewers the option to do without their overly pad mouthpieces. However, if internet outlets like TSW were to publicly and consistently advocate the availability of such a resource I would not be surprised to see this begin to happen.
Folks could get their chance to rant against the stupid Dierdoresque announcers but actually advocate doing something real about it.
-
I simply would love to see them allow folks to avoid a lot of stuff that I dislike (its just entertainment so hate is too strong a word for my reactions to any NFL coverage lunacy) by seeing them adopt a technology upated version of the game broadcast in the 70s which they ran without announcers.
It was a primitive attempt but pretty far from unwatchable IMHO, With the use of modern graphic techniques and particularly some on demand statistical information, a broadcast of a game with use of ambient sound and a constant clock and a simple summary of down and distance on each play would be near perfect to me.
If one must, then simply have a football analyst insert themselves one a quarter to summarize hard to understand ref calls and other game situations would be fine. I would think with HDTV and the ability of a viewer to choose the feed with a Madden blather or instead choose a statistics enhanced graphics version of the game would be a wonderful option.
-
If he sells the team before his death, then he gets taxed on the sale of the team...and then his inheritors also pay taxes on the estate...double taxation
If the team is sold by his estate after his death, the sale is taxed once
What kind of fool would actually pay taxes twice on the same money when there's a way not to?
One would actually have to be some kind of fool (or like Joe Robbie be foolish enough to think you will live forever when the truth is that nobody gets out of here alive) to actually undergo single taxation, much less double taxation when you die.
Witness our good friends Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who are rich enough to hire smart lawyers to help them play our tax laws like a song and simply use billions of dollars in their wealth in a tax free manner which allows them to do what they want to do and get worshipped by folks near and far.
Ralph seems to be in particularly good shape fiscally since even though he too will not get out of here alive his major direct heir conveniently died before he did.
It would actually be a relatively straight-forward matter for him to set up an irrevocable trust for a non-profit of his own making and totally escape any estate taxes on the Bills, This not for profit can easily be made to be legally "independent" but actually give a job for life at some extraordinary level of pay to whomever he wants his lawyers to designate as executors of his estate, trustees for life on the not-for-profit board or some other legal mechanism the smart lawyers figure out.
Sure the NFL if it chose could try to assert that it has rules now against a Green Bay Packer type ownership situation, but just as the NFL was rolled by the relative idiots of the Cleveland municipality so too would they almost certainly get rolled if they tried to take on Ralph's legal strategy if he decided to avoid estate taxes with this or some even more arcane tax dodge.
It is amusing that some folks seem to put so much stock in both government being incompetent but also government being all powerful.
My sense is that as always its the golden rule. He who has the gold rules and like other rich folk I have few doubts that the Ralph legal team can avoid estate taxes if they have half a brain.
-
You have to be the prime mover--esp at 8 mil/yr..You cant depend on people around you. He was slightly above average with tons of help in his early yrs. He was very very average when he had to carry the weight.
I think this is a fair assessment (but a different one than the one which led off this thread). However, it strikes me as more of an indictment of the FO than of Schobel.
Its hard to realistically fault a guy for taking what the FO is willing to pay him.
-
I think the theory offered in the lead post on this thread is probably misguided at worst and is just simplistic at its best. It offers the theory that it is playing at a relatively low weight which is the cause of Schobel's downturn, but then offers a simplistic read on his overall sack numbers as showing the correctness of this theory.
This reading and potential explanation strike me as wrong for a number of reasons:
1. You indict Schobel for having a bad 2007 followed by an injury disaster 2008. True on a simple reading of sack totals as though it is a full measure of DE performance (a misreading often founded in us Bills fans having enjoyed the phenomenal performance of Bruce Smith who did routinely amass amazing sack numbers though ironically this was far from the only measure of his great play).
His 2007 did show a huge drop off in sacks registered, but he was also awarded once again with a Pro Bowl nod which to some degree was a tribute to the popularity contest which is a central element to many Pro Bowl nods, but the statistical facts are that the lackluster overall Bills D is shown in that the paltrey 6.5 sacks he registered did still lead the team. He also tied for the team lead in tackles for a loss. His definite drop off in sack numbers in 07 seems to me to coincide with overall D performance downturn which Schobel obviously was a part of but it goes a bit far to attribute this primarily to him by linking it to the lack of production in his injury marred 07.
2. His weight has actually gone down since his rookie year, but actually one of the impressive things about his play is that it appears this weight loss was accompanied by an impressive increase in production. This is shown by a significant increase in the sack #s you seem to parade as the full measure of DE performance, but also by upticks in other stats like tackles to his credit, forced fumbles, etc. Subjectively this improvement seemed to come with his use in the zone blitz D which became our base D under Gray/LeBeay. Schibel dropped weight which seem to increase his athleticism as in the zone blitz our DE has pass pro duties. Schobel showed an ability most observers saw as not only credible in the short zone but even seemed to become force to be reckoned with in mid zone pass coverage. With the measure of his tackle numbers going up he seemed to pull off the neat trick of being more utilized in the run D because he seemed to show more strength even though he lost bulk.
Maybe the increased weight loss and the team going even more away from the zone did have the impact offered in the theory which led off this thread, but the author does not make a fact-based case at all for this theory but instead buts out a few stats which do not actually support the explanation offered.
Like eveybody, Schoebel is lucky enough to be getting older (I mean would you prefer the only realistic alternative) and every body loses a step due to age, but if this reality is the case playing at a lower weight is probably a good thing to do. I'm as much as a stathound as the next game but if you are going to use them then please team up with some analysis which makes sense.
-
"The Molson family has agreed in principle to purchase the Montreal Canadiens and Bell Centre from George Gillett.French sports network RDS reported Saturday that the sale was worth $550 million, but a source told ESPN.com that the price was in excess of that." If i remember correctly, if someone could help me out please. But wasent George Gillett the rumored money man in Jim Kellys bid to purchase the Bills?....any substance to this "rumor"? Or maybe we have to grasp at anything to keep our beloved football team in WNY where it belongs?
"Rumoured" Kelly bid is the right phrase to use because since Ralph has said the team will not be sold until he is dead and unless someone has our maker's private phone line or unless they have a contract out on Ralph's life, no one really knows with any certainty whatsoever whether even a bid could be a serious thing as the team is not even for sale yet.
It is simply the wrong idea to be looking for some "individual" to be the savior who is going to come in and rescue the Bills (or take them away) as we are talking about the need to lay out so much.
The buyer is going to have to manufacture almost a billion $ to purchase the team at today's market value (the Bills current value is estimated to be less than a billion but when one factors in the additional costs likely through the passage of time, paying for a new stadium if that is part of the deal, transfer costs to pay the league for buying the team have not been set yet0, etc. we are likely talking about have a sold bid to buy the team.
Few beyond huge corporations will have the scratch needed to buy a team and without a deal being a reality no one offering up any significant $ to be part of a deal cannot be taken very seriously. As the sole owner of the team, Ralph's will would have such an impact on the nature of the team and its profitability that no one can even say what the collected resource will be when the team goes up for sale any rumors are not even worth the paper they are not printed on.
-
Dude, totally agree. The Atlanta summer heat is just miserable. The air is stagnant, absolutely no breeze and mid 90's by noontime. And NOONE is outside in this mess. And by midsummer, the pools are TOO HOT to swim in from the neverending heat. I love the cold winters, and there is almost no COLD days in Atl.
The best thing the South has to offer over Buffalo is the WOMEN. Nothing against anyone who has a Buffalo woman in their life. (I am sure there are SOME attractive ones) But on the whole in my opinion Buffalo has some of the ugliest women collectively that I have ever seen. The gene pool for beauty is just not there. Anyone want to flame away they can. But I have to go jump in my pool because I am too hot.
I would guess no flaming of your views as being untrue is warranted. My experience has been from traveling a few places is that as far as beauty and personal attractiveness goes that like people tend to accumulate like people around them.
Thus there is some convenience as ugly folks tend to see a lot of ugly folks around them and attractive folks tend to find a lot of attractive folks around them. This strikes me as a pretty reasonable outcome.
-
Sorry D&C, but this is just silly and adds to the percieved fobias of WNYer's 'us against the world' menatlity. Virtually all of us here are from the area and we all know sunglasses are a rarely used accessory to our wardrobe. When Spring finally arrives, we all walk around like moles rubbing and sheilding our eyes from that rare, terrible floodlight disturbance in the sky. I'm in daily contact with family & friends there and a quick check of the area's current weather shows it's in the freakin' 40's there every morning! 40's!! In late June! Back in '95, there were 11 straight weekends of rain from late June into August, effectively wiping out the entire year! We moved to Fla the next Spring. We're all from there. We love it there. But the weather SUCKS!
No problem from me about your objections to my post as behind my post is not simply my own fact-free opinions but there is objective evidence based on science and third party testimony and actions.
The link below is to a promo article about the 2009 conference of the American Solar Energy Society which held its annual meeting this year here in Buffalo. The promo article which I have handy says they expected between 3500 and 5000 attendees and the word I heard was that well over 5000 folks showed up buttressed by a free-day that Buffalo organizers insisted upon. In addition to the folks who laid out about $1000 bucks for almost a week of conferencing and interacting the event drew wide participation from the local community which sees solar as a quite viable way to get power without paying a check out everyday to the power company.
http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/editori...ory/641312.html
The next link is to the website of a collegiate competition called Solar Splash which brings together 40-50 colleges from around the world to compete using canoe sized boats with engines powered by solar voltaic collectors. Historically, the Solar Splash event had been traded between different host colleges and cities in Sunbelt cities such as New Orleans, Atlanta, and in Florida. However in the early part of this decade they were attracted to Buffalo because amongst other validations the US Weather Service showed them the numbers that Buffalo actually had more sunlight on the summer solstice that most of the places where historically they had held the event.
They came to Buffalo for the sunshine but then stayed for the people as they held the Solar Splash event in Buffalo a then unprecedented 4 times in a row as the site not only offered sunshine, but great hospitality from the good folks here in Buffalo.
I understand that you reacted poorly to the weather here, but how one reacts to it is dictated by and says more about an individual. The actual facts are that for 4-5 months out of the year more sunlight simply gets down to ground where we human beings are warmed by it.
Again, my experience having grown up in the Windy City is simply that the weather here in Buffalo is more pleasant and enjoyable overall than the weather I grew up with.
-
I just want to say that last night I had a dream I went to a massive movie theater inside RWS to watch the Chiefs beat the Dolphins 96-64.
My question is whether the key to this win was whether the Dolphins lost because either they could make the three point shot or because they kept missing free throws.
-
The market is fairly full right now in that there are in fact multiple name players available at many positions. These name players are not panicking for the most part right now as teams appear to be waiting until just before pre-season starts before they part with big bucks.
Things will begin to get interesting as a few of these FAs sign and leave only a few opportunities out there to sign folks. Spinkle in a few season ending or delaying injuries which will begin to occur when pre-season starts and an interesting game of negotiating chicken begins.
Most teams have loaded up with potential players in the draft and from UDFAs and as coaches begin to assess the reality of seeing these players play (if they show like a number of Bills UDFAs have in the past few years these teams will not go the FA route but if they show up out of shape or surprisingly bad then a big contract offer becomes more likely,
We will see.
-
If the families are RICH. Its all about the money.-And don't tell me that the $$ had nothing to do with the fact that he only got a month in jail.
Its the good ol American way called the Golden Rule. He who has the gold rules.
-
I have not lived in Buffalo for 37 years, and always wonder about moving back.
I lived in the Lakeview area, and I have such fond memories growing up there,
and most of the better ones involve snow. But just like everyone else, my tolerance
level for the Cold isn't what it used to be. That being said, I think that the weather thing
is very negatively overrated. It is cold and snowy in just about every other Notheastern city
in the US through the Winter months, maybe not quite as cold and snowy as Bfllo, but really
not much different.
The economic thing is the killer one for the city, that is the one that needs addressed more than anything else.
The weather reverses to become a big plus in the late spring, the summer, and the early fall. This is not merely subjective opinion but meterological fact.
Just as Alaska is called the land of the midnight sun simply because it is further north and gets more sunlight around June 21, So to with Buffalo as there is more raw sunlight here than in many Sunbelt cities approaching, during and after the Summer Solstice (for about 4-5 months of the year Buffalo is the sunniest city in the NE,
The real kicker though is that the huge Lake effect snows that come in the early winter (until the lake freezes over) is caused by the land and the water being able to evaporate as much. In the summer this temperature differential breaks up lighter cloud cover and not only do we get more sun but more of it gets through.
While Sunbelt climes like Fla, DC, NO and ATL are sweltering with the humidity and the temperature both striving for triple digits, it is a very rare day it hits 90 here, and often there ie air conditioning from the lake.
Having grown up in Chicago, the complaints about Buffalo weather mostly amuse me. The wind comes sweeping in off the planes to Chicago and in November the high temperature dropped below freesing and one would not see a temp above 32 for months. In January, here usually was a streak of a bout a week or so where the high temperature was zero (note this is the high for the day) and temperature was always in negative numbers for almost a week,
Buffalo gets dumped on by snow, but the added moisture also warms the temperature and single digits in Buffalo are rare.
The winter here is not pleasant. It generally seems to start early and crawls along to go late. However, I would trade the harsh weather of the Windy City (though actually it got that name from a Carl Sandburg poem about the local politicians) for Buffalo weather almost any day (accept 2 or 3 Lake Effect snow days.
-
well, if TO has a good year here then i fully expect the Jets to make a move for him next year, hopefully giving him a multi-year contract where at age 37 onwards he can suck in peace, basking in the Meadowlands limelight, giving Dirty Sanchez & Coach Ryan nightmares
Again, if TO has a great year (and I pretty much expect him to have a year in decline from his previous HOF worthy production- this will both not merit anyone wanting to give him a huge long-term deal but ironically be far better than any Bill WR has produced as our #2 WR in years) then the Bills will still have the ability to tag him and stop him from going to NYJ or anywhere else.
If this were to happen and play out TO would likely throw a hissy fit and not be worth the Bills effort to tag him and keep this malcontent around.
However, them is the rules and how the game is played and the Bills being overly good businessmen (which is different from being an overly good sportsman and the focus on winning the business rather than a single-minded commitment to winning the sport is part of why we have such a continuing record of failing to make the playoffs). If TO had a great year the Bills would almost certainly use the tag to create leverage on TO and a team interested in him.
-
If we have any level of success at all this year on offense, I think it will directly be because of Owens. I would plan on him costing us $9 M plus and us actually keeping him on a 3 year deal. When the popcorn flies, it will need big butter.
Get your butter ready for that popcorn.
What's the franchise tag (or transition if one is available under the complex CBA rules. One assumes that it will be difficult to sign TO with a tag as he almost certainly will throw a toxic hissy fit. However, IF (and its a huge IF at his age) he proves good enough to be worth resigning, this is the negotiating level which any deal must work from, Not $9 mill I would guess even if TO has a Pro Bowl year.
-
Welcome to the board Big Curt
The problem is not so much if Vick has been punished properly, its all the families with kids and pets who as a parent you have to explain to your kids why someone who killed dogs like your pet Peppy is still allowed to be a Superstar in the NFL. Don't you think somethings wrong with this picture?
I have done a reversal on this after hearing all the fans here on TSW post how much they are against Michael Vicks return to the NFL and I for one have no desire to sour a game that so many folks know and love, its not fair and its just not worth it.
The problem is that in the end, the NFL has grown to the place it resides in our society because it is a desired form of entertainment. Should our society take Michael Vick's personal freedom away and make him sit in a jail cell? No. Some may think he deserves a harsher punishment than he got, but under the rules we operate under he has substantially served his punishment and the system will process him through the rest.
However, this is a different question than should he be paid a lot or anything to entertain us?
Michael Vick's crimes are being paid for in the form society dictates so his freedom should not be denied.
The problem is that what he has done has made him not a good entertainer and no team should be expected to pay him much of anything because he is simply not entertaining given his history. His history is simply a distraction that spoils the entertainment value of his considerable athletic talents.
UPI story on the Rooney rule
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
I just got an e-mail from a family member about an effort which is apparently going on on Capitol Hill to get elected officials to employ something like the Rooney Rule and require members of Congress to at least interview one person of color for chief of staff or high level committee jobs in Congress.
The thought behind this that like the NFL the racial breakdown of office chiefs of staff and Congressional committee directors does not correspond at all to the statiscal make-up of the society from which candidates for these jobs come from.
I think this statistical analysis is true (though there is a difference between the statistical breakdown and whether discrimination based on race occurred in a particular case).
The e-mail stated that prior to the Rooney rule 6% of NFL HCs were of African-American descent. The Rooney rule only required an affirmative action for increased people of color hiring and specifically did not require meeting a specific quota or force anyone to hire any specific candidates. It mandated an affirmative action of team owners that they give at least one serious interview to an A-A for any HC job.
The results have cioincided with some statistical change. The e-mail said 22% of NFL HCs today are of A-A descent. While these results do easily exceed the % of A-As in society they also fall well short of the % of NFL players who are of A-A descent (former NFL players are far from the only source of HCs nor does being a former NFL player guarantee an SB win or even an appearance (see Dick Jauron if you want evidence of this fact) however, clearly former players are a significant contributor to the pool of HC candidates and clearly given the large proporton of A-A players not having many or any HCs be of A-A descent is simply going to be an issue in real life.
Quite logically I would say that the significant increase in HCs of A-A descent has actually improved the quality of the candidate pool for HCs. For the first time we saw both SB teams coached by people of A-A descent and the even better thing was that while this was noted it was not a huge thing.
It seems pretty clear to me that in this case without mandating a draconian rule which mandated an arbitrary dictate of minority hiring, the NFL has been forth right in addressing this issue (the fine against that idiot Matt Millen because he did not even pretend to follow the Rooney Rule struck me as a nice job of requiring its own membership to follow its own agreement. My sense is that Matt Millen is a failure not because of racism, but he engaged in racist practices because he is an idiot. The NFL took a stance for the rule of order over the rule of personality and that helped.
It will be interesting to see if Congress can use a Rooney rule esque application of affirmative action to its own hiring and produce a similar quantitative change and at least have a reasonable argument as to whether they got the same qualitative result.
The numbers were interesting as apparently despite there being over 20 members of the House A-A caucus only 5 or so members of the House have Chief of staffs of A-a descent. There are a couple of A-As chief of staffs in the Senate though as far as I know the almost universally agreed to be a idiot Rolland Burris is the only A-A senator (I may be wrong about this so please correct me if have the numbers messed up).
IMHO while I think it would be stupid and anti-merit to have a quota of minority hires, I am very impressed with how the Rooney rule has worked in the NFL. It has resulted in greater achievement of a meritocracy as under the old systen NFL owners simply seem motivated by some weird Jimmy the Greek style views of their own prejudices about who had what it takes to be a leading light in some NFL job.
The utter mandate to do some more fair interviewing was teamed with a policy that filled the pipeline with future candidates by funding and promoting minority internships for very junior coaches and using that idiot Millen who was not even smart enough to pretend to give interviews resulted in a stupid attitude being brushed aside by reality.
Kudos to the NFL IMHO.