BADOLBILZ

Tasker has kicked around the idea of starting the season in mid-August and then giving everyone a bye on Labor Day weekend. Problem is people don't want to sit inside and watch football on a summer weekend afternoon so ratings-wise it will be something of a depressed start unless they played all the games in the evening. And the having a bye two weeks into the season doesn't really provide much relief to players. Both byes need to be between weeks 6-14, IMO.

It's not really to do with college football. They don't want to start the season on Labor Day weekend. We have 3 big "outdoor" holidays here in the US that people plan family trips around and that's the last one of the calendar year. The NFL has had the opener on Labor Day weekend but the ratings are way below expectation and they don't want to kickoff their season that way. For TV purposes having the season end the last week of February is ideal. February is a programming deadzone for sports here. So expect the season to continue to be pushed back.

When it comes to a new stadium.........you are only worrying about addressing a 2021 problem........wind. The stadium needs to serve the community of Bills fans and the organization until 2060-2070. There are many future issues that putting a roof on can help prevent. The cost issue will seem to have been a minor expense a decade after it's built when the cost to add a dome will have been the same as a 3 year contract for a top QB.

Well sure.........the weather has always been poor late in the season.......but when they built "Rich Stadium" the season always ended the second week of December and the AFC playoffs ended in late December. When they go to 18 games(with 2 bye weeks) the AFC playoffs will end around Valentine's Day.........6-7 weeks deeper into winter.

Can't justify that money for a high mileage RB...........but if he can be pieced back together he could be a great "slot" type receiver(I'd actually still align him in the backfield mostly for the clean releases). Then that money........and the idea of a 2023 conditional second round pick.......... becomes more palatable.

Well Flutie was also horrific in 1999........with an otherwise SB quality team that season...........and Johnson had put up monster numbers in 10 games over 1998-1999.......crazy numbers like 8.6 yards per pass attempt. The reality is that BOTH of them were very defensible when the opponent was prepared for them. If ever there were two QB's who needed to be substituted for the hot hand........it was those two. It was a defense first team..........but like I said, that would have required a much stronger HC........a pre-Marino Don Shula or an 80's Joe Gibbs.

Probably not........but turning around the Giants would be a great way to add to his legacy.

This is probably Belichick's last chance at his dream job.

The horrendous Ronnie Jones special teams really killed them all season. It's hard to understate that.......it was a nightmare. But they should have been a playoff team just because of their defensive identity alone...........they were a violent, intimidating bunch on that side of the ball and that should have been good for 10 wins in the league that season. They were again undermined by their QB situation that year though because the gifted and "explosive when motivated" Rob Johnson was too inconsistent and lacking the natural internal drive to be excellent to be just "handed" a full time starting role and Flutie was a nightmare change-of-pace QB for defenses but a truly horrendous pure pocket passing QB, the original "make him be a quarterback" QB, so any sh*t team could beat him by just containing him in the pocket. At this point their shortcoming were set in stone after two full years of proof........the Bills basically had both halves of a stud QB but their wishy-washy, zero-attention-to-detail head coach was too weak to alternate them the way a strong HC like Bill Parcells or Don Shula would have in the same unusual situation.

Right now it's a "who cares?" because they are still alive. If they fail to at least reach the Super Bowl after such a feeble schedule of opponents and in a year when KC struggled early and the Bills beat them in KC..........the autopsy of the season will be unkind.

I would venture that Bills fans are top 5 in overall attendance around the league...........and that's probably conservative. That's home games plus attending road games(the Bills get a 40% cut of road attendance $ so the road aspect is not insignificant). Only teams with mountains of bandwagon fans like Dallas and Pittsburgh show up at opposing venues like Bills fans. I was watching Forbes Sports Money a while back and they had a graphic that illustrated how much the average NFL fan spends on their team annually and Bills fans ranked 3rd in the NFL behind only Green Bay and New Orleans(who has a very regional fan base). That's why we have a team.........in general Bills fans spend big time on the product..........if they were playing somewhere warm this week and there were 20K tickets left they'd probably travel there short notice to sell it out.

Right........but as @PromoTheRobot pointed out you could buy those tickets right from the ticket office. That would be a much more complicated "late decision" option in September/Ocotober......they can sell out just with local fans at that time of year they don't need people driving up from Virginia to fill the seats....so it would be more expensive and have to get thru a secondary market etc.. Once the calendar turns to November fans simply don't want to go sit out in that kind of weather. It's not anymore complicated than that.

I think the Stromboli is all you can eat for $8.99 in the red tent

Shula tried to put together a "super team" of free agents and it blew up in his face and they were a huge underachieving team. That made beating them all the more enjoyable. One of those free agents was TE Eric Green, who catches a pass on that first series. He was maybe the most gifted TE in football in the early 90's........a beast. His son is also a freak of nature like that but he chose baseball and will likely be the second or third overall pick in the MLB draft this June.

Rex scheme was predicated on the extra violence they were able to scheme up. Goodell basically had Rex and Dick LeBeau in his scope when he made it practically illegal to hit QB's and WR's. Without all the late hits and cheap shots Rex lost a few mph off his fastball. The league had to do it..........there were very few even "good" QB's then.......and guys like Rodgers and Big Ben were supposed to be the new faces of the league and they were getting concussed on a regular basis.

Yeah if these kids are playing on TV for what amounts to huge money for "their universities"...........they should be getting paid like professionals. The football factories don't love the NIL stuff because they've had virtual slave labor forever..........but it actually allows them to keep stealing for the time being. How people get their education will change drastically over the next few decades...........college sports will have to admit they are a pro sport and share the wealth eventually.

Obada is a terrible run defender no matter where he plays.........we've found out exactly why he was available so cheap despite some decent pass rush numbers in Carolina. But he can rush the passer some. Ankou has been turrible.

After they won a Super Bowl with Favre things changed greatly in Green Bay. They were regularly 10K below capacity on average during the 80's when they were in the equivalent of the Bills 2000's "drought era"...........and that was when their capacity was just 60K. If the Bills win a SB that will help make them an iconic franchise and greatly help regionalize them............people love to associate themselves with winners.

What are you talking about? The stadium wasn't even full this past Sunday against the Falcons.

Yeah.......this was a big problem the week before........as I said then, when Butler and Ankou were on the field the pocket was a "passer's paradise". Was hoping Lotulelei would return and provide some of that early season pass rush but oh-hell-no. They really can't afford to have Oliver and Phillips off the field for 35% of the snaps or more unless Lotulelei returns to his briefly impactful early season form and then maybe they can afford to put Obada in for some snaps next to him.

One of the first rules of the lot 1 days was to make sure you didn't have to drop a deuce at the tailgate...........you p!ssed in the 5 gallon bucket alongside the assigned vehicle..........so, unless you were a female, if you were seen entering the potty it was clear why you were doing it and you were then subject to being zip-tied inside. Very simple but effective procedure. You can blow thru the zip tie but the force usually lead to an embarrassing cartwheel on the pavement. Or occasionally the potty might get rocked from side to side with you in it. (It took a the local providers quite a few years to catch on that they need to cluster the potties in tight formation to prevent tip overs) Basically the 3 days prior to the game was a cleanse period to avoid such indignities. Also, occasionally the potties would get used to block certain vehicles in. Like say if you were a deserving party who locked their keys into their luxury sedan and left it and called a tow truck company to come collect it........the tow operator might find it encircled with potties.

We will keep most of the tickets we actually use every week. So about half of them. Very similar situation in all the highest demand season ticket areas. Tons of people with extra tickets who could still afford the new ones but will have a hard time justifying carrying extra seats when that total starts looking like the cost of their annual dues/food minimum for the golf course they live on seasonally in Florida etc..

Is it really a threat when they just DON'T attend? Never have and never will. Get out of your shell and open your eyes. And each generation is less likely to pay to sit out in that weather than the one prior. As far as the "$500K" to enclose the stadium..........it's more like $250M-$300M there Mr. "economicAL sense". Which will be the cost of a 3 year contract for a good QB in 2030.

The extra tickets aren't an investment.........getting season tickets next to each other in the middle of the field is difficult so we buy them in the event we EVER need to add full time ST holders to our groups. In September and October the demand for those tickets at face value is several times over what we have available.....regardless of the quality of the team. In November, December and January regular season we can only give them away.........and that's only if they are winning. The reality is very clear..........season ticket sales are inflated by the tickets being the cheapest or nearly-so in the league(due mainly to paid-off facilities).........and ACTUAL attendance is VERY climate driven.