Sisyphean Bills
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Posts posted by Sisyphean Bills
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In case the old fashioned things don't apply (phone, fax, mail, email), then here is an idea...
Ralph is apparently chauffering candidates to and from the Buffalo airport in his Taurus personally. Your friend could hang out at the airport and flag down the random Taurus cars that show up. He might get lucky.
And, I mean that both ways!
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yes and no... Coach Levy made sure the buses ran on time and was generally pleasant to be around.
Parcells, Gibbs, Belichek... those guys provide more detailed direction on how to defeat the next opponent. They keep their coordinators in check, incase they come up with things that won't work in their estimation. As HC's they display week in and week out why they know more than their underlings (and their counterparts across the field).
Personally, I would rather have a guy who is smart enough and knows the game/opponent well enough to provide key input every Sunday than someone who just walks the sidelines yelling for the punt team every now and then.
You want a head coach and not a head cheerleader?
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Where does crap like this come from? Psycho friends?
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I'm not exactly sure how you equate being the only team in the AFC to not make the playoffs (not counting the most recent expansion team) in the 5 years TD has been here to "winning team". Sure that’s a catchy little fact that people like throwing around to discredit TD…but it’s still true.
Another flaw in your argument is the way the Bills lost this year. Had the team taken a step back because of our young QB I don't think many people would have complained. Had the D looked good but the O struggled I think TD's job would have been safe. The problem here is that after 5 years both the O and the D are in shambles. This is not "steadily improving", it's falling off a cliff and smashing to pieces at the bottom.
All that being said (as I’ve said before) I wasn’t in favor of firing TD just to fire the guy. I was in favor of getting rid of him only if we could bring in somebody who was competent. IMO, Levy doesn’t fit the bill and I would have rather have TD. However, favoring TD over Marv doesn’t mean that TD did a bang up job while he was here.
Quite. I don't see how the phrases "steady progress" or "winning team" apply to the situation either. It sounds good, it casts a nice glow over the mess, but it's not supported by the evidence.
I don't think getting rid of Pat Williams and not signing better free agents is really part of a winning formula either. "Steady progress" would mean that the front office takes every possible avenue to improve the team as they become available. (Pinching pennies under the cap is not the same thing.) What good is it to "bank cap chits" in the long run? When do you decide to flip the switch and go from being a laughingstock to a champion? Nevermind the unreality of it all; assuming the decision is finally made to spend these "chits," it's unlikely that all the right parts to the puzzle will be readily available anyway and even if they are available and signed, who says all those parts will just click together and form a cohesive team instantly? It's simply too far out and fantastic.
TD did some good things, no doubt. But, TD made a lot of mistakes here too. He's said as much himself. I don't really have that sense of certainty that TD was going to get it done in Buffalo. If the Bills had to part company with TD then now probably wasn't a bad time to do so. Still, I am not overly impressed with the way this house cleaning has gone down either.
It has seemed like a sequence of knee jerk reactions by everyone involved. It's not over yet and maybe it will get better, who knows? We'll just have to wait and see. -
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That Sam Adams is one fine foie gras.
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a. That Lofa Tatupu's a little pepperpot.
This guy is considered a professional sports journalist?!? WTF is he talking about?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ...mqb.real/3.html
Hmm, pepperport is some South American dish...
I guess in King's world being compared to food (for example "Tom Brady is a real casserole!" or "Steve Smith is one great burrito!") is high praise?!?
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Exactly. So the guy calls on the phone?
Many owners are right there on site and could camp out in your f---ing office day and night!
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The one that kills me is Alex Brown. Teflon Tom threw away 2 picks on Ryan Denney that year and if he had been less "tricky" and done nothing, he could've nabbed Brown with the 4th round pick.
But lord knows we don't need a pass rush in these parts! Can never have enough short-armed, high-motor, undersized, unathletic white boys on your defensive line.
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The Bears built this line (other than Olin Kreutz -- an All Pro) during the Donahoe era in Buffalo. Tait, Brown, and Miller were all free agent pickups. Metcalf was a draft pick.
The defensive line was built within the last 5 years as well. Ogunleye was a free agent. The rest were drafted. The Bills had chances to take Alex Brown and Ian Scott...
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Your basing your statements on something ice said?!
No, not at all. You accused my of engaging in baseless hyperbole when I talked about some posters claiming Donahoe was an infallible god-like GM. But, the truth is that some posters did make crazy, outlandish claims of that magnitude. And, they got their balls busted for it, unsurprisingly.
The Ketchup guy didn't like Donahoe ... but you claimed that most posters on this forum bashed TD. That Heinz guy was one of just a few that I recall.
Donahoe and Co. were gradually building something solid then intentionally took a step backwards in hopes of taking two steps forward. Ralph and a weakened fanbase then panicked at the first sign of adversity and tore it all up without a viable alternative in place.Does this mean you are blaming the ownership and fans? That sounds rather Donahoesque!
First off, it wasn't Ralph or the fans that promised a competitive, nay, even playoff capable team early this season. I don't know about Ralph, but the fans didn't make the decision to go with Losman. (Indeed, I thought it was foolish and to a degree smacked of sheer arrogance.) On the other hand, the yoyoing on the QB decision was ridiculous -- leave Losman in there to learn under fire (that was the plan, no?) so at least we have some idea going into 2006. If he wasn't ready, make it Holcomb's team for a year or two.
The problem seemingly was that the brain trust decided to take 2 steps backwards to go forwards but then worked hard to mystify themselves and everyone else of that knowledge.
Yeah, that was going to happen. GM's are widely renowned for their honesty and willingness to predict future struggles.I don't know, it's not like people couldn't see what was happening on the field. Being (or seeming to be) a straight-shooter comes across as sincerity. No one expects the GM to go "Mora" and start screaming "WE SUCK!" at the top of his lungs, but a GM that reveals a bit of humility, humbleness, and who seems to have a good grasp of the issues can help himself in rough times. Going all adversarial with the local media and fans is, well to call a spade a spade, a very stupid plan.
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outlandish hyperbole
Apparently, you have forgotten about a certain "very cold poster" then.
How's that stress level, bud? Is the needle pegged or what?
OK, fine. In fact, you have been very careful to not make your position known (at least in this thread). So what is your position? Your signature suggests that you don't like the owner of the Buffalo Bills. You're calling "most posters" out as imbeciles -- not really sure why. (I don't think Ralph bases any decisions he makes on posts in this or any other internet forum.)
Did you seriously expect the President of the Bills to run around predicting our own struggles?Of course not.
What I would expect is for TD to be honest about it and realistic. There is nothing wrong with saying that the team needed to step back and take a new direction and that there will be growing pains. What the hell, he might even have a long list of damn good reasons why it was necessary. The fans might get ansey with the losing, but the leadership should stick to their convictions and plans. "We have to get through the growing pains. We don't have all the pieces in place quite yet. etc."
But that is not what happened. The early spin was that the defense was so great it would carry the team, and then when Losman did not work out the plans for the future were seemingly thrown right out the window.
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Nonsense. The majority of Bills fans (atr least on this board) had no idea who he was and were screaming and crying about the stupidity of hiring "some reporter from ESPN".
Nonsense indeed. I don't recall a lot of the professional pundits questioning the hiring of Donahoe. I also do not recall a majority of fans crying about the hire.
I do recall a few posters being the Donahoe standard bearers and trying to make the case that the guy,literally, never made a single error in judgement, not one. As that is an easily assailed position, I think taking some shots on that stance was not only expected but warranted.
1 year? Make that 5 for 5.
Predictably bad? I guess Teflon Tom should have surrounded himself with better predictors because he was selling his team as a playoff caliber team at the start of the season. Now that it is over, "everyone" knew it would be a bad year?
By the way, the way you state that, it seems like TD had nothing at all to do with the "1 bad year" which is of course rather ridiculous. This entire organization had his fingerprints all over everything. TD was enough of a man to not try and duck and cover on that. He admitted he should have been held accountable for the train wreck of the 2005 season. I heard it from his own lips several times.
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How much money did the Bills really save though? They had some dead cap space on Bledsoe last year, right? The QB position has become a revolving door position. Some people are clamouring for new WRs, TEs, and RBs and others want a whole new line...
Penny wise and pound stupid.
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I was just thinking how, at the time, we thought we had made a great hire in TD. Detriot had hired Matt Millen out of the press box and a lot of people were scratching their heads and/or laughing outright at that move.
5 years later, both the Lions and Bills are organizations left in a shambles. Neither made any improvement. Both have become fixtures on the coaching carousel, a very bad place to be.
The big difference is that the Lions are being patient and sticking with their guy Millen. Ralph decided enough was enough and jettisoned Teflon.
Oddly enough, the national media is in attack dog mode in both cases. The Lions have idiot ownership because they won't get rid of the worst GM in the NFL. The Bills are the worst organization ever because they are impatient and want to win now and replaced a "good football man" with an old geezer who doesn't know squat (but happens to be in the football Hall of Fame?).
Why the double standard?
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Don't forget Washington. One of their biggest plays was a TE running wide open down the middle of the field.
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Ruben Brown was let go because of two reasons.
1) He got into a nasty disagreement with the coaching staff and it turned extremely ugly. He basically got suspended unofficially and the Bills brass labeled him a quitter and team cancer.
2) He was making a large amount of jack. If anything is clear at this point, it is that Tom Donahoe does not value lineman. Clearing millions off the payroll, millions wasted by John Butler on a useless lineman, probably help TD stroke his ego for months.
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Sorry can't link, but Peter King notes in Monday Morning QB that Ralph made a lot of calls (daily) to Donahoe and the coaches. He suggests that it took time away from more important activities.
This should make the HC position for the Bills that much more attractive to potential candidates.
What a bunch of meaningless tripe.
What does "calls a lot" really mean? Does he really call every single day? How long are the conversations? And, most importantly, what is the content of those conversations? What are these "more important activities"? Can Mr. King name even one such more important activity than keeping his boss informed of what is going on in the shop?
Maybe the "bunker mentality" was not just against the fans and the city but included the ownership as well.
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Actually, the fact that most everyone will be "working remote" sounds like a nearly ideal situation for a strong head coach that wants to run his own program. The cats are all on the other end of a phone line!
"Jauron is close to Levy"
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
How close is close? Is this measured in miles, feet, angstroms???