Utah John

I wonder why Fox is broadcasting the Bills game. Generally the visiting team determines which network broadcasts a game, with CBS "owning" the AFC and Fox the NFC. It will be interesting to hear the comments about the Bills from a crew that doesn't know much about them.

I've moved around a lot. Generally I don't care one way or the other about the local team, but when I lived in the Bay Area I came to loath both the Raiders and 49ers, largely because of the fans. When I lived near DC I hated the Redskins. In other areas where I lived, I wasn't quite so close to NFL cities and maybe the fact that I wasn't drowning in minutiae about teams I don't care about helped me just ignore them. I can easily imagine someone from another NFL city moving to Buffalo, and hating the Bills, just out of oversaturation. But who cares. Buffalo is Bills territory.

Incognito used to be on the Bills. Not sure why he wasn't retained.

All these posts assume the value of NFL franchises will continue to go up, indefinitely and rapidly, forever. Nothing does that. Sooner or later something will change. Perhaps concussions at HS, college, and pro levels will drive rule changes that ruin the sport. Perhaps some other sport becomes more popular -- if you asked people in the 40s and 50s if any other sport would supplant baseball, they'd have laughed. Who knows what will happen. So a billion dollar investment might only return a billion dollars 20 years from now. Or perhaps even less, at least factoring inflation into account. The point I'm making is not something prospective owners wouldn't have considered. They will have thought through all this and still decided to go ahead. Got to be based on emotion, not hard cold business sense.

I think there are a lot of ways to determine whether a player is a #1 receiver. What matters most I think is whether the opponents feel it's necessary to game plan to try to stop him. If the opponents watch the tape and figure their typical defensive package is enough to contain a guy, he's not a #1. If they scheme to take him away and he still dominates, he's a #1 and would be on any team. I see the point that there are by definition 32 #1s in the league. I just don't think that's a useful definition. I don't think we've had anyone since Moulds (not even the aged Terrell Owens) who was a legitimate #1. Watkins should become a #1. Williams and Woods are really good but will not dominate games. Goodwin is like CJ, great when his wheels are on, average otherwise. TJ, sorry, it hasn't worked yet and it isn't going to. I think both Hogan and Easley stay, in part for ST capabilities.

The Bears rotten O-line vs the Bills superb D-line. Cutler might want to get the flu on gameday morning. The Bills starting defense has looked great in both games. Losing Byrd and Alonso reduces the Bill's D "offensive" potential -- probably won't get as many turnovers -- but the schemes Schwartz has put in place seem to have increased their true-defense capability. Neither the Giant nor the Panthers had any success running against the Bills' starting defense. How long has it been since the run defense looked like a strength.

I think the joint practice is a great idea. The Bills defensive line is giving the O-line all sorts of trouble, and EJ has had trouble getting his confidence. Playing against a less-superb D-line in practices will give EJ more opportunity to practice with less potential for disaster on every play.

Maybe it would help if EJ got to practice against the 3rd team defense for a while, to get his confidence up. As it is he's going against possibly the best D line in the NFL, behind a patched up O line with two rookie tackles. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady would get the willies too. Let EJ work against the scrubs for a week and see if he doesn't settle down then.

Woods appears to be a very good WR and a very good slot receiver. It could be he's not one of the two best WRs and isn't the best slot receiver either. He is still a very good player and even if he doesn't start will have a lot of game time ahead.

I would have like to have seen the first unit D for one more series. They totally dominated the Giants, with a three and out and then the Kyle Williams sack fumble. I don't think any of the Giants runners got back to the line of scrimmage against our first unit D. And that was without Gilmore and McKelvin, not that the Giants have a serious passing attack. Eli got pretty good stats against backups, but not against our first unit.

Bills vs Raiders in the first years of Rich Stadium being open. Joe Ferguson hit Ahmad Rashad for the game winner in the left side of the west end zone. Most exciting game I was ever at.

Harbaugh said Rice made a mistake. No, a mistake is when you buy Cheerios and your wife wanted corn flakes. Rice committed a felony.

It was Modell's bad business decisions that led to the Browns moving to Baltimore. He got into a cash flow squeeze and the only way he could fine to fix it was to move. That took some doing, too, since the Browns fan base was as active and loyal as the Bills fan base is. But Modell screwed up, and the Cleveland fans got screwed. We can criticize Ralph Wilson for having non-football people (Littman) making football decisions based on being cheap, but Wilson's friend Modell showed what a really bad owner was like.

It was clear Mack was going to go before we drafted at #9. There had even been talk he'd be #1. Since he went #5 (and the Raiders clearly had a need for LBs), it was going to be necessary to move from #9 to #4, and the price to do that was the same whether we planned to draft Watkins or Mack. In my view they're both going to be great players and we would have been winners by picking either one. That said, I would have preferred Mack.

The Kremer story had this quote: "Mateczun maintains that “these girls were never made to do anything they never have wanted to do. We were creating a team of just well-rounded young ladies and they could have resigned at any time.” Just wondering if I'm the only one who noticed the missing word: women. They aren't girls and whether they're ladies or not is their own business. They are women, and when people refer to women as anything else, it degrades them and diminishes them. When Mateczun refers to these employees as girls it indicates he doesn't respect them as equals.

Fitz and Gailey had a better concept for the offense (disregard the errand runner who was designated the O Coordinator) than EJ and whoever the current O Coordinator is. I think Gailey made Fitz as good as Fitz could ever be. And obviously it wasn't enough. Carrying this further, maybe EJ's problems last year were due as much to the O Coordinator than his own limitations and inexperience.

The most important lesson Pegula can take from owning the Sabres to owning to Bills is: Don't put Darcy Regier in charge.

Just want to point out there was a Playboy playmate named Kelly Tough. Really.

Williams might be able to help Watkins develop as a player. Watkins could help Williams develop as a man.

I recall an article about Ryan Fitzpatrick when he was with the Bills. Apparently lived in a normal house on a normal street in Hamburg. Had cookouts with the neighbors. I guess he did learn a thing or two at Harvard.

He played great for a year or two, then lost sight of where he fits in the football world. These are the years when he should be coming into his prime, but he can't fit anywhere. He still has the arm strength and physical ability but his ego swamped it.

I was on our It's Academic team when I was in high school, and I think the best part was meeting Mr Miller, who was the person who read the questions.

You could just as well ask what would have happened to Brady if Bledsoe hadn't gotten hurt.

Ticket revenues are shared between home and visiting teams. Is there any rational reason why revenues from luxury boxes aren't shared as well? The ratio of the split might be different for luxury boxes, but 100%/0% isn't the only reasonable figure.

Trump is a low-class spectacle but he's also a good businessman who hires good people to achieve success. Ralph Wilson in contrast was a gentleman who FIRED good people who crossed swords with his daughter, and who tolerated useless bean counters like Littman in key positions in his organization. Thanks Ralph, I hope you're enjoying heaven, now let's see someone who wants to win regardless of loyalty to family and friends.