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The Jim Carrey movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109040/involves a kicker who missed the big kick in a Super Bowl. It's the Dolphins not the Bills but I always thought the kicker was inspired by some weird version of Scott Norwood. Buffalo 66, to me, is the prime example in this genre with Bruce Almighty leading in the Sabres reference category. More to the point, OJ Simpson was a co-star in the first Naked Gun movie, in addition to his otherwise not so illustrious pre-White Bronco chase career.

So one starting tackle just had a kidney removed the other has Crohn's disease. Wow. I can't recall any similar situations off the top of my head in terms of two teammates playing the same or similar positions both having those types of non-football illnesses. I certainly wish Cordy the best and really hope that by continuing to play football he is not putting himself at risk for grave complications down the road. Can only assume he has good medical advice I guess...pragmatically speaking this has to affect his price in Free Agency. He's higher risk no different than someone who has had knee or concussion issues, for example.

I didn't like the Ryan hire at the time and now we are stuck with him for at least another year. Bad decision by the Pegula's. I do agree that the path the Sabres are on gives hope that the Bills can get going in the right direction, eventually, under Pegula management. Just pointing to the Sabres record is missing the point. That franchise now has a PLAN with a competant architect who is executing the plan. It may or may not lead to a championship as there is a lot of luck involved to get that far. But losing was the plan the last two years and now building it back up is the plan this year. Moving from dead last in 30th to 20-25th (where I think they'll end up this year) is a big step in the right direction given that they are doing it with key contributors all under 25 years old and generally locked up to longer term deals, and with a very good salary cap situation to retain and add talent later. Whereas the Bills have a relatively older roster and no salary cap flexibility, which is due to Whaley's incompetence as a GM in that area. The team is a tire fire and I don't see much hope for a turnaround for at least two more years, assuming a new competent GM comes in this off-season and then Rex is replaced following next year's likely follow-up debacle to this year.

This. There are two constraints in terms of building a roster in the NFL. Money under the salary cap (for free agents and retaining your own players) and number of draft picks to add young (and at least initially, cheap) talent. Both of these are scare resources. Whaley has demonstrated his lack of understanding of these constraints in both the McCoy extension (tying up that much salary cap in a non-franchise QB) and the Watkins trade (Excess number/quality of picks for one player who isn't a franchise QB). Look, Shady and Watkins are great players, I am not questioning that. And Kiko for Shady was a fairly good deal. The extension is the problem.

Wait you are forgetting about Todd Collins in the 2nd round in 1995

Agree with this, although I think Lee Evans is a bit of an undersell and if we want to stick with former Bills as benchmarks I'd say Sammy is somewhere between Lee Evans and Eric Moulds. A very good to great receiver for sure but not OBD, Megatron, J. Jones type. The trade to move up to get him was silly but that's what you get with fantasy football GM Whaley.

EJ's first (and second) season vs. Tyrod's first season as a Bill are completely different circumstances. EJ is playing out a rookie contract and there was no pressure to decide whether to try to extend him based on what can charitably be described as 'uneven' play. Tyrod on the other hand is a free agent at the end of next season and by any number of objective or subjective measures is on a trajectory to establish himself as an above average starting quarterback. It's only 10 game sample in regular season but he's 6-4 on a team with an average defense, a QBR rating in the top 5 in the NFL, and impressive running statistics and capabilities. Each game we get more data by which to update our estimates of his longer term value. Here's the conundrum however: the more quality starts Tyrod produces over time, the more he's valued as the uncertainty about his capability level goes down, the more the Bills want to keep him long term, the more they have to pay as they wait longer to sign him to an extension. However if Tyrod starts to put together poor games, the lower his perceived value goes, and the less the Bills are even interested in resigning him anyway. Of course we could end up somewhere in-between with mixed results. Where I end up on this is if the next four games go about as well for Tyrod as the prior ten, it behooves the Bills to sign him to an extension in the off-season. Training camp, pre-season, and fourteen regular season games played for a guy who got to be an understudy in Baltimore for 4 years should be enough to know that at worst they'd be getting an average QB who gives them a chance to win if the defense is solid at all. They could get him at reasonable market rates this off-season. I question whether the incremental data gained by another full regular season of games is worth it in terms of understanding his downside risk compared with the possibility that his price tag goes up much higher and they possibly lose him to another team with more cap space. Again, not saying to extend him right now, or even in the off-season if he seriously falters in the next four weeks, but if he continues playing like he is I say lock him up for another 3-4 years at least this upcoming off-season.

High end MRI equipment and facility would be a few million dollars and high annual maintenance costs associated with staffing it. However the information gathered say 18 hours earlier would be of little practical value. Whereas the team obviously does throw it's money at the problem by ensuring they have access to an MRI on Monday after a game - something you or I could not do for anything short of a potentially life threatening injury.

I've been very impressed with Dunne. The quality of actual journalistic reporting as well as the writing, without the bitterness or snarkiness that Sullivan has some of the time and Bucky has most of the time, is noticeably better than we've seen in the News since the days of Felser and Kelley. I hope he stays around for a while but do expect him to find greener pastures at some point.

"Oh stewardess, I speak jive" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0j2dVuhr6s

Buffalo area factoid on Housler: His father was a three sport star at Starpoint HS in Niagara County. Got a D-1 scholarship at UTEP, played football there, and that's where Rob Jr. is from.

Bob Kraft has nothing to do with Kraft foods.

Having it played at your funeral is the only way to one up this statement of fan-hood. Very nice!