vizslafan

I live here in Dallas and have observed Jerry since he owned the team starting in 1989. He is a brilliant marketing person but a numbskull in the personnel/gm area. Just about everybody else here thinks so as well - possibly including his son. There are other folks involved with the Dallas Cowboys that are either influencing Jerry or calling the shots at this point. Whaley is not perfect but way better than Jerry. Look at the FA pickups, Jerry could never do that. In his day his signings were dreadful.

You are correct - mostly. Air does cool when it expands. If you have a high pressure line and a gas is released it will cool, in some cases drastically. This type of system is used in many applications from swamp coolers in desert homes to cooling of IR systems in Military applications. The total pressure drop is what is important and how rapidly the pressure is released. When you are inflating the ball it is not expanding into the ball, it is being compressed. If you are inflating the ball to 13.5 PSI you only need a little more than this to move the air into the ball - not enough pressure drop to cause a temperature change in my opinion. You could design a simple machine to heat the air and manually pump it into the ball. Who knows what happened.. probably the Pats ball boy just let a little air out of the ball and got mixed up and forgot about ball #12. Fun to talk about tho.. I can't get enough of it

Here's an idea... The Patriots could have inflated the balls with heated air. Let's say it was at 120 Deg F air and the balls were inflated to 12.5 PSI with it shortly before they were inspected. The balls are insulators so you probably would not feel the heat trough the bladder and synthetic leather. In 2 hours the temp cools by 70 degrees F (Colts game temp was about 50 degrees F) and the pressure drops to 10.5PSI. I have not run the numbers but maybe not that far off - I have a mech engr degree but not as famous as Bill Nye! Belicheck could use the above procedure, never deflate the balls and probably follow the rules to the letter as he says. They could even have a chart that provides the starting air temp to get 10.5 PSI based on outdoor temperature. If they have some type of machine that inflates them could be realistic. If it is just a hand pump then not going to work. Yea I know crazy idea, but the Patriots are kinda crazy also..

I live in Dallas. The Dallas Morning News performed a financial analysis shortly after the new stadium opened in 2009. In summary, Jerry's PSL's + the tickets for the first year just about paid for his $650M share of the stadium. Some of the PSL's down low are $150k per seat with ~$400 tickets. I sat in one of those seats for a preseason game and they were nice, with a decked out food/bar area behind the seats. If you are in the upper deck it is not even worth going to the game - saw the Bills from up there. I also have read that after Arlington makes their loan payments on the stadium they are $1-2M ahead each month based on tax revenue from the stadium. It can be done, just takes vision and business leadership.

Here is a link to the SMU Mustangs field, also installed by A-TURF. http://smumustangs.cstv.com/facilities/ford-stadium.html (Just click on the photo gallery link a little way down on the left) http://smumustangs.cstv.com/view.gal?id=5796 (this should be the photo gallery). Probably look very close to our new field once it is installed. Back in the 80's the Mustang unis (Eric Dickerson era) had a strong resemblance to the Bills as well. I live near SMU, they always go with the best.

I live in Dallas and was listening to the Ticket/1310 today when Searcy was picked. The host, Norm Hitzges, was bummed. Said the Cowboys had their eyes on him and thought he would be their pick in round 4. Norm has had an annual draft show for at least the last 25 years and knows his stuff. Thought Searcy had a chance to start for Dallas. A little while later Norm said Buffalo was a candidate for best draft. In years past he has been very critical of Buffalo. This is the best I have felt about the draft and Bills direction in years.

Total of 12 rookies on the team - including 2 on IR

Dear Chan - thanks for putting these punks in their place. It is sickening to go to sporting events - kids thru pros - and to see this behaviour. Glad to see somebody did something about it.

I live about 10-12 miles away and could hear the rumbling this morning. Amazing. This stadium has fallen into disrepair and was probably the worst in the league. The only thing Jerry took care of is what showed on TV. The city even forced him to repaint the roof a few years back. Rich Stdium was a nicer place to watch a game.

Take this for what it is worth - a coworker of mine played on the Eastern Illinois national champ (div II) team, 1979 or so. Shanahan was head coach along with several current NFL assistants such as John Teerlink and Mike Heimerdinger. Said the year before those guys got there the team was not very good. Shanahan and crew won the championship with pretty much the same players from the year before. My friend, who experienced that first hand, said as far as he is concerned it is "all about coaching". Need a good manager and good players.

Well Billswatch then go and get your Millionaire buddy and have him buy the Bills and run them.. also you forgot the "is" when asking me to check my mental competence.

It is sad to say but Ralph appears to not be mentally competent. I saw the Hall of Fame Speech and was taken back during the "oxygen bottle" commentary. I kind of was in denial. Who knows what is really going on behind the scenes. But if Ralph is pulling strings on a day-day basis it is a bad deal all the way around. I can't think of anybody his age that can run a football team or any other business that is this competitive. I have been following this team since 1965 or so. I will always love them, but this is probably as good as it is going to get until the team is sold. I hope not, but have lost any confidence in Ralph making a sound decision on a consistent basis. Sure is tough to keep the faith.

The Chargers did the smart move and took him. They ended up with Rivers and other picks that led to this: "Eli Manning was traded for the rights to sign Philip Rivers (who the Giants had just drafted) and 3 draft picks that the Chargers used on Shawne Merriman, Nate Kaeding, and Roman Oben. Rivers, Merriman, and Kaeding all reached the Pro Bowl." What is wrong with that? Looks like our new Country boy pulled one over on the city boys..

Hello Mr Wawrow. What impact did Linda Bogdan's passing have on Ralph's decision making? It seems as though over the past couple years the decisions at One Bills Drive have gotten wackier. Possibly she was a "football voice" that could overturn Littman/Overdorf if all they care about are numbers. Clearly she was a member of the inner circle. Linda may have been able to provide some balance and Ralph most likely would listen to her. Do you have any insight into this? Thanks.. VizslaFan Dallas, TX

I don't blame him. As hard as it is for us to watch this team these players have to live in this. It must be very tough mentally to get up and go through this year after year physically. Schoebel has pride, slow or not. We can talk about New Coach, GM, Scouts, Draft..but until Ralph and Littman are no longer controlling things it really will never change. It is sad and a waste of a lot of people's time.