GrudginglyPessimistic

IMHO, the TD reign or error was defined by him being a football guy of a lot of skills (he showed a lot of football knowledge gained as GM in Pitts who made a great move for that football team in terms of hiring Cowher though it proved to be a disaster for him personally as Cowher ran TD out of town and added to that by taking his year after getting fired to work for a network and travel around and talk to lots of folks to bring updated intelligence to his next job) Add to that he demonstrated great production here in Buffalo as a business guy where he led the Bills belatedly into the 20th century (I know it was the 21st century but the Bills only recently before TD's hire had been handling will call tickets at the stadium using a shoebox rather than a computer to sort and hold tickets so TDs job was to move a primitive corporation forward). He did this as seen in the new deal with St. John's Fisher, new partnerships with other corporations and generally improving the business side of the operation. However, all this was more than balanced off and eventually sunk by my sense that TD had decided he was never going to get run over by a guy he hired as HC. He was blown away in his interview with GW because at the base of it he knew he could beat Greggo in a fight if it came down to it and GW with his lists and contacts was actually well suited to be a great Administrative Asst. to TD rather than be the HC we fans wanted. He chose GW who had the clear weakness of being a great DC but really having no offensive credentials. He allowed GW to pick an offensive braintrust which had the same inexperience he had. He gained further power over GW by his first OC, Kragthorpe being so bad he got canned with a year left on his contract. The relationship proved to be so toxic that when GW told the press that Larry Centers would be a Bill as long as he chose, within a week TD had cut Centers (much to Larry's surprise) and signed Sam Gash. TD always struck me as having an agenda of saying never again to getting fired like he did in the fight with Cowher. Bills fans paid the price for this.

Since it is fairly impossible to get reporting from third parties that something did not occur, my sense is that only folks who can credibly deny this are: The Bills who seem to be pretty reluctant to say much at all about the search Harbaugh who (or his friends) seem likely to have made up this story if it is a fiction. My guess absent third party confirmation is that this is a fantasy which serve to get Harbaugh's name in conversation.

It seems pretty clear that no one ever went broke underestimating the competence of Mr. Ralph and the FO as far as HC hiring. However, on the face of it, it seems quite unlikely that the Bills would even interview Harbaugh given the marketplace for HCs and his less than mid-flight resume (not only is he not at the level of folks like Shanahan and even Cowher the Bills reportedly either talked to or flirted with, but he does not even have the resume of the DCs the Bills have interviewed (Frazier interview is publicly acknowledged) or flirted with (Grimm and Schottenheimer have publicly refused). It seems pretty far out simply that the Bills somehow interviewed Harbaugh and it remained below the radar and simply flat out ridiculous that they made him an HC offer (either with this surprising interview or even more oddly without an interview) which he then turned down. Has anyone remotely confirmed this notiopn.

I'm afraid you assume a few too many wink wink nudges here to make this a viable option and more than the usual convoluted conspiracy theory. In order for your conspiracy to work there would seem to have to be winks and nudges by folks down from Ralph, through Brandon and with the active participation of Fewell. Then Nix would have be brought into this conspiracy (unless this man on the grassy noll knew about it all along) and various folks who operate pretty high up in the food chain like Overdorf (and perhaps guys high up who seemed to have survived the initial sweep like Modrak) and also guys with a job at stake and other interests like supporting the Rooney Rule (like Guy) all would need to operate somewhat in concert or at least not talk to their over friends in the league in some out of school manner to make this conspiracy work and word not leak out like a sieve with press folks lurking around and theoretically pawing through the trash looking for thrown out faxes. The simpler alternative is that this team is marginally under control, Ralph tends to drift in and out with his orders and thinking and quite frankly they are not competent enough to pull off much in terms of ornate conspiracies. It would seem to me to much simpler to simply roll April if Mr. Ralph did not like him because he thought he heard him say something Bill Polian like about one of his kids. I do not think it makes sense to try to explain this as some convoluted plot motivated by or using the Rooney Rule.

While anything is possible (so perhaps the Rooney Rule was the major motivation and perhaps space aliens will land tomorrow- its all possible) I do not think we have seen any tangible evidence that this team (or any other for that matter) is making its final hiring decisions in some attempt to game the Rooney Rule. If you want to do that why bother to go through some convoluted strategy involving actually hiring a person of color coach when the Rooney Rule in no way requires you to hire a particular coach . You can meet the Rule (and then ignore it if you choose to) merely by holding one serious interview with a minority assistant coach for the permanent HC job. Why hatch some convoluted conspiracy theory about meeting the rule when Seattle showed that in real life a team can simply flat out ignore complying with it under certain circumstances. The team that got fined heavily for ignoring was DET who got nailed early in the process of the rule being set up and did so hamhandly (the good ol boy network clearly had the fix in at the start of the allegedly open process). The good ol boy approach also then proved to be stupid as Mooch did not last long either. Is there any tangible evidence that this is a "logical" theory mostly in your head or is there anything to support this theory?

Thanks for the link (and real information and perspective on this issue rather than the usual bloviating that populates fan boards). This article does a lot to answer the fears expressed by some that the Vike D production is more of a feature of player talent rather than any work done by Frazier. This piece if accurate instead gives Frazier credit for putting in a scheme which made better use of Winfield's very good talent. It also point to young players (which the Bills have a hunk of blossoming under Frazier's guidance. The article also specifically sites Frazier showing productivity is switching his team away from a Cover 2. I do not know the details of the Vikes personalities, but the take featured here does scan with my general knowledge of the turnaround of the Vikes into a real world contender. Favre clearly did a lot but no one player does it all by themselves and this cut seems to indicate Frazier is a high quality guy who deserves a share of the credit for their work. The main thing I like about this article is that it sets a standard of folks who are complaining about Frazier to really provide some specifics if they want their complaints to be taken more as random whining by folks with their panties all in a wad because they want answer right now.

Actually the real facts are that Buffalo is the sunniest city in the NE generally for a good 4+ months each year. Disbelieve this if you want but the facts are: 1. Just as Alaska is called the land of the midnight sun as we move toward and then away from the longest day of the year up north June 21st, Buffalo is actually further north than most American cities. It simply gets more sunlight as late June approaches and goes away. 2. Add to this the climatological situation which causes lake effect snow (the land and the water can reach different maximum high or low temps. In the winter this causes the moisture laden air from the Great Lakes to dump out snow, but in later spring, summer and early fall the effect reverses and breaks up low to moderate cloud cover off the lake, Not only does Buffalo get more sun but more of it gets to the ground. If you do not believe me simply call the National Weather Service which measures sunlight amounts. Again if you are looking for unbiased validation consider an event called SolarSplash which is a competition among colleges of roughly canoe size solar power boats, In the early 2000s they held SolarSplash here in Buffalo and unprecedented 4 times in a row. Part of the argument which brought these scientists here was the sharing of facts with them that on June 21st when the event is held Buffalo gets far more sunlight that other cities in the SunBelt like New Orleans or in FL where they had held the event before. The stats show that no matter what you feel like Buffalo is a lot sunnier than 2 weeks a year.

In the past 10 years: 1. Mr. Ralph had an incredibly toxic relationship with Wade Phillips such that not only did RW fire him but then foolishly tried to dodge paying him the contract they agreed to. 2. Mr. Ralph had such a toxic relationship with his GM Butler that Butler much to Mr. Ralph's surprise simply ran off to SD which provided context for the stupid Wad situation. The whole thing happened with a bizarre situation where Mr. Ralph seemed to exercising his capitalist right to determine who started at QB and like it or not the result was not good, 3. Mr. Ralph actually probably lucked out that a football TD was able to step in and actually did a good job with the business side (building profitable partnerships with St. John's Fisher and a host of commercial deals). However, Mr. Ralph really provided no check and balance on TD after his likely meddling and lo an behold the HC GW ended up clashing with (as seen publicly when GW announced Larry Centers would be a Bill as long as he wanted to be and then within a week Centers got cut and Gash signed. GW delivered an incredibly mediocre record here so this was another problematic relationship between the HC and the boss. 4. Mularkey was hired actually led the team to some Ws his rookie year but this was followed by another meltdown as the TD/RW relationship turned toxic and amidst this drama MM saw fit to walk away not only from his dream job but a boatload of $ left in his contract. 5. This was followed by Mr. Ralph getting his old bud Marv out of retirement, the team essentially working without a GM for a year and Jauron being given an extension and fired within the same 12 month period. Upon thinking it through its no wonder that some of these potential HC candidates may in fact just be saying no to a job nobody says no to.

My vague recollection of Morningweg at DET was that it was am insane situation with Millen in charge but that Marty M had his hands all over doing some insane stuff himself. In particular my recollection was of him doing some weird legend in his own mind stuff driving in on a Harley and that he also did something where he essentially walked out on one practice rather than blow his cool. It was Detroit so I must admit I did not pay a ton of attention, but are any of these recollections correct and if they are what has he done to show that he learned not only to hand the ball off for yardage as much as possible but it sounded like he really needed a personality transplant. Is any of this accurate?

I think the Rooney Rule when considered by any sane person is all about race and racist practices. It was designed to try to reverse the effects of past racist practices by the NFL which had led to numerous qualified individuals not even getting interviews simply due to their race which does not determine whether they would be a good coach or not. Race was and is now clearly a factor, but now it is used as a factor to assure that qualified applicants of color will at least get interviewed for HC and front office jobs. The implementation of the Rooney Rule has coincided with the hiring of a larger number of applicants of color as HCs (the general guess is that some of this might have happened without RR but also that some of this may well have happened due to RR and a more serious focus by the NFL on this issues as reflected in efforts like their minority coaching intern program). Yes, Virginia, race was an issue then and race remains an issue now (duh)! The neat thing is that the uptick in the # of HCs of color has coincided with an outstanding level of achievement by coaches of color and this has happened without the stupid use of hiring quotas. Most folks of import here seem to be quite happy with the outcome of real world events. I see few reasons in the real world to complain about the Rooney Rule. Hiring of HCs in the NFL seems fairer in conjunction with it being implemented.

Simon I agree with you that the Rooney Rule still has some good it can do and I am quite impressed with it as an approach which avoids the utter stupidity of quota but actually shows that making an affirmative action is a completely different thing than a stupid hiring quota. The keys to me to the Rooney Rule are that it: 1. Is a self-mandate by the NFL of equal opportunity rather than mechanistic quota hiring. By mandating that teams make a credible attempt at interviewing candidates from races previously discriminated against it has done an elegant job of not trying to destroy the good ol boy network (which created stupidities like Rich Kotite getting two chances to HC teams to disaster while an HC capable of winning the SB under the right circumstances like Tony Dungy was passed over for years) but forcing diversification of the good old boy network. Under the Rooney Rule a candidate not viewed as a serious HC prospect like Tomlin got an HC job and his team won the SB (whether one gives the Rooney Rule credit for this it did happen under the Rooney Ruke structure and that is just a fact). 2. The Rooney Rule is not the only part of what is a comprehensive commitment by the NFL to reverse decades of obvious discrimination against people of color. It really is the minority coaching intern program which has given dozens of men jobs at the lower rungs of coaching which has made many minority candidates members of the good ol boy network which has been the tool of discrimination for years. Its hard to beat back human inconsistencies in behavior but the Rooney Rule and minority internship program have harnessed the good ol boy network into doing positive work rather than simply negative work. 3. The heavy fining of DET when they flaunted the Rooney Rule was important to making it work. As numerous minority coaches are now proving what an idiot Jimmy the Greek was when he flat out claimed human beings of minority descent did not have some of the necessary skills to be an HC or baseball manager was a key to getting folks to operate in their own self-interest and hire men like Dungy and Tomlin. It remains to be seen whether the NFL is making a mistake in letting Sea hire Carroll while from my view flaunting the rule (though to me the person really treated badly here is Jim Mora who got only 1 season to right the stupid Seahawk ship and then got tossed overboard for this weeks flavor). Still it is some of the comments seen in this thread that lead me most to question whether the NFL is making a mistake by not fining Sea the way they fined DET. It amazes me to see posts in this thread where people actually site Tony Dungy being a successful HC as evidence the Rooney Rule is unecessary. It was actually specifically Tony Dungy who should have been an HC as much as 3-5 yers sooner than he got the TB job based on the ability he had shown since he retired as an athlete. Particularly in a league where somewhere around 2/3 of the athletes are people of color the fact that pre=Rooney Rule there were only a couple of minority HCs among 30+ positions was a stupidity that simply could not stand in a society which stood for fairness and in a business where so many of the workers are people of color. The Rooney Rule and the whole approach taken by the NFL (in part because after the last CBA guaranteed 60.5% if the total gross receipts to the players argubly making them the majority partner in this endeavor is actually quite cool IMHO. I doubt its utility has passed until we see the racial make-up of the players and the racial make-up of the HCs and GMs to be more similar, Not the same at all but certainly more similar and I do not think that is the case yet.

Definitely not a ringing endorsement of the Bills play which simply sucked this year. However, what yesterday's game showed as the Jets won in a foreign stadium (and which was underscored today by the blowout of the Pats who apparently at best were one injury away from mediocrity) is that even a Bills team which sucks is really not that faraway from teams which beat them in the regular season and/or qualify for the playoffs. Perhaps in the end the NFL is like watching a bunch of one legged guys in a butt kicking contest, but the truth is that for the most part the teams we are competing against are better than us for sure (but not very much as shown by a Jets team we were competitive with and actually beat the snot our of once this season, We suck but there is hope when your opponents suck also.

With the Jets win, its hard to believe as bad as the Bills were that they actually played a team which won a playoff game, the Jets, in two games decided by less than a TD. Not only were the final scores competitive but we even beat the Jets on the road in the first game with the avoid the jugular but gnaw on the ankles coaching of Dick Jauron. Are the Bills over a year away from being good? This fan says yes we are IMHO. However, this year's playoff line-up clearly demonstrates to me your team actually does not need to be good consistently to not only make the playoffs but to even win one on the road. NYJ certainly deserves to be in the playoffs, but this is because 2/3 of the NFL really are inconsistent and downright pretty pathetic as far as my judgments of quality teams. The Bills were in 2009 pretty clearly pathetic, but then so were the Fish who were in the playoff hunt til the last weekend but we dusted them late in the season. NYJ made the playoffs but even this team was beaten soundly by us early in the season but turned around and beat us clearly when Mr. Ralph was more than willing to give up one of our home games for money from Rogers Comm. The Bills have a lot of work to do, but judging from the quality in the NFL ironically we are not that far away from making the playoffs even if in my judgment we are a couple of years away from being able to win consistently. NYJ demonstrates that being up and down is not a bar to even winning in the playoffs in the NFL.

Not as much as if you wait for a better offer more than likely (this is with the big proviso that Lynch is mot suffering from psychotic disease which is causing him to self-immolate by committing petty crimes when he is in essence on probation after his suspension). TD actually showed Bills fans a lot when lots of folks on TSW had their panties all in a wad that we should trade Travis Henry immediately or even cut him with no compensation for us. TD deserved to get fired for a lot of the stupid things he did, but he deal show some great cajones in sim0ply sticking to his guns and not panicking and trading Henry for a mere 7th as some demanded or just cutting this boy-idiot as some ascreamed. By standing firm, TD got a first day choice in exchange for Henry who put up some very good numbers for a season or so but then went completely off the tracks and last I heard was sitting in prison for multiple years. Unless it seems likely to those on the inside that he is gonna be found guilty and suspended again, I think you hold onto Lynch who at the least needs a change in scenery. In exchange the Bills should get at least a high pick (first day of draft would be nice but no one would likely be that foolish despite his Pro Bowl accomplishments but a second day pick with conditinsl based on number of starts for his new team to allow us even more if he turns his career around might work, If all we get for him is draft choices (which many folks give too much value to IMHO) then we MUST have a clear option for a #2 RB as Jackson is great but a bit older and you need two RBs capable of being your #1 in today's NFL.

I disagree with that and the recent history says otherwise. I have given up the argument I had been making ad nauseam pointing out that no first round choice had delivered the team that picked him an SB win since Dallas picked Aikman way back win as the last four SBs were won by teams by QBs they picked in the 1st (though this is only 3 picks since RoboQB led Pitts to wins twice). However, one need simply expand this to the last 10 SBs to find this includes guys available as FAs like not only Warner, Trent Dilfer and even two time loser FA Brad Johnson who was cut by the team that picked him and was snatched to lead a team to the SB at QB. There is heavy representation of 1st round picks that makes the statement in the article quite reasonable that IF there is a QB you think can be a franchise guy available at your pick (#9) then maybe take him. However, looking at the last 10 SBs an equal number of players (3) were on the market as FAs so your claim that this happens once in a lifetime is simply incorrect. In fact, through Tom Brady getting 3 SB wins drafting the right player in the sixth round is a fine way to get your franchise QB. Yes Virginia, the Bills must acquire franchise talent at QB. The problem is that there only appear to be two players many judge as first round talents (Clausen and Tebow) and that the Bills would in fact need to trade up to get them. Doing this would be quite problematic for the Bills who rather than being able to follow the RoboQB model employed by Pitts where their 1st round drafted QB proved to be a final piece that put a strong team over the top, the Bills are likely three or more stars short of having a good team. If they spent their first rounder on a QB and likely needed to give up another early pick to step up from #9 to the top 5 picks or so to get him they would not build a winning team for quite a while. The more prudent choice to try to find a QB capable of leading them to an SB win is to try to find the 3 times every 10 years (rather than once in a lifetime as you falsely claim) opportunity to get this QB in FA or by trade, or late in the draft, or any method which is easily just as viable as the first round pick.

The problem here though was TD and that is important. From what I saw, TD seemed to have an overwhelming drive that what happened to him in Pitts that an HC he hired would never succeed in driving him out of town again. TD was blown away by a flawed choice for HC (one who had no offensive chops) who he then allowed to hire offensive assistants who also were flawed. A good GM would have gotten his offensively unskilled HC to hire some experience as assistants. Instead he allowed GW to hire Kragthorpe who was so bad he got canned with a year left on his contract (and we know how Mr. Ralph hates that). TD them seemed to revel in his undercutting of the guy who blew him away in the interview with GWs contacts and lists and it became clear to this outsider that what blew TD away was that GW was a perfect administrative asst. for TD and could not beat TD if it came down to a battle. This view was confirmed by GW publicly declaring that Larry Centers would be a Bill as long as Centers wanted to be and within a week, the real GM cut Centers and signed Sam Gash. If GW strayed into TD land and authority he would publicly get slapped back. Ultimately the blame falls on TD for being so small and on Mr. Ralph for not being an adult and at least providing a check and balance to TDs human failings, Mr. Ralph actually deserves a ton of blame for meddling in football matters which he has a right to do in our capitalist economy. However, football assessments which only he had the power to make such as his handshake deal to flaunt the salary cap and reward Kelly in his next contract (uh what contract as Mr. Ralph erred in hi judgment of how much career Jimbo had left) and also made bad judgments in cases where the owner should have been involved even if it was Butler's idea (actually Butler clearly had a toxic relationship with Mr. Ralph as shown by how he left and I would not be shocked if welching on the agreement with Flutie that he would at least have an on field fair chance at winning the starting QB job when the Bills guaranteed RJ big money by extending his contract when they arguably could have waited until he at least proved he was not injury prone are examples of Mr. Ralph badly needing football smarts). Lets hope Nix represents Mr. Ralph finally getting smarter.

Except that it seems to be working. I hate those pesky details.

If we are gonna look to the draft for a QB both the Ben RoboQB in Pitts or the Tpm Brady route have worked once in a blue moon in the past. However, given the blue moon nature of finding a franchise QB, I think it makes more sense to go for the later pick whom you might develop than to exert a 1st rounder in the expectation of getting Manning instead of Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith, Andre Ware, or even JP Losman in the chain of 1st round QB expenditures who just do not produce.

From my perspective the main reason you hire a particular HC is because the decision-maker (Mr. Ralph in this case) and the lead implementer (Buddy Nix in this case) decide that is HC is a key part of the TEAM that can deliver and SB win. The key here is the recognition that it is a TEAM thing and not even a team thing that gets one to the promised land (an SB win). I think one of the major mistakes the Bills have made is the continuing operation of looking for yet another savior who is going to virtually single-handedly going to get us there. That simply is not how it happens or is going to happen in the real world. I have a lot of respect for Bill Polian not because he was some kind of savior to do things on his own, but he has operated in a manner that realizes how tough it is to build a winning TEAM and has consistently collected a bunch of seemingly disparate pieces (the bickering Bills for example, Marv/Marchibroda disputes) and somehow brought them together to create a winner. Even in Indy with the best QB ever, a great kicker, a super WR, a pretty good D led by Freeney and Saunders, and the depth he always used to get good ST guys, Polian realized this was not enough and got Dungy with his defensive chops and leadership ability to finally bring an ST win to Indy. The key here is for Nix to prove to be enough of a football guy to be able to hold Mr. Ralph at bay when the owner exercises his right to meddle (which I think led directly to many of the debacles since the good old days in the mid 90s and a good enough football guy to assemble a team. Maybe Cowher is a part of that. Maybe Frazier is a part of that. We will see.

Really doubtful to win the SB, but a much better chance of making the playoffs. The main argument that folks seem to make about why you would go hard for Cowher (or a second choice to many Cowher fans go for Billick) is that real world experience has clearly shown these men are capable of leading a team to the SB. Granted and lets take that as a given. However, if one is going to devote so much faith and belief to past reality, then also please take into account that NO (zero, nada, zippo, none) HC has won the SB with two different teams. Getting Cowher (if he wants to come here) or Billick pretty much guarantees for those who put a lot of stock in past performance ) that the outcome of getting Cowher is probably not a winning strategy if your goal is to win the SB. This being said, you gotta walk before you run (or in our case under Mr. Ralph's ownership you gotta crawl before you walk) so getting an HC with a better chance of getting your team to the playoffs is a necessary step. I only say that for those who are big believers in following past successful methods it really comes down to Nix making a good choice of a new HC who can lead this team to glory. The odds simply are that if he gets Cowher (who until a KOK post in another thread I was not reminded how much of a failure Cowher had been in winning the AFC championship game until he finally won one after a whole bunch of tries) we are not likely at all to win the SB. Still, I guess I have been beaten down by a decade of Mr. Ralph led failure that I would be overjoyed to get a mere playoff appearance rather than shoot for the ultimate, so I am quite happy to settle for Cowher or even Billick raher than take the higher risk (though better chance if Nix makes a good choice) prospect of getting an up and coming co-ordinator.

Another big difference is that there is little Fewell can do to be an HC move which essentially cuts ties with the failed Jauron reign of error and sets the Bills off on a new Buddy Nix era. I like Fewell as a person from what we outsiders can see, but the simple fact is a lot of his work in the interim role was changing the context and mindset of the team and the fans from the Jauron failure. Fewell may be a good HC but unfortunately the 3-4 results were just not a significant enough result change from the 3-6 Jauron start. Doing better with the same players plus all the injuries may in the end have been impossible, but getting blown out by AT despite winning the gimme against Indy big was not enough of an improvement to make this fan comfortable without completely cutting ties with the past. This cut can be made real with us abandoning the failed Tampa 2 scheme we used (though even this may be tough because the team was built around picking players who were athletic enough (read small enough also) to play the Tampa 2 style rather than smashmouth. The change of the D scheme may end up being slower than I like, but this merely raises the utility in us going in a totally different direction in terms of leadership.

I do not see any conflict between the two views as a Name for HC and an up and comer are two different things. Up and Comer- A co-ordinator who has produced a good record in his area of responsibility (thus gaining the respect of those who follow the sport), but most important when you as a GM talk to him, look him in the eye, and shake his hand you make the judgment that this co-ordinator has the right stuff to lead the team to an SB victory. An up and comer by definition has not done it yet. For the Bills it all comes down to whether Nix can make a correct judgment or not and if we take him and Nix is right whether the dumb luck of what happens allows the team led by the Up and Comer to win it all. A Name- An HC who has won the SB before and earned a name for himself by leading a team to the ultimate win. I don't think it make sense to get too caught up here in concluding that PTR or anyone is arguing that the choice is between an HC candidate who has no respect and an HC candidate who does. Both the up and comer and the Name have the respect of this knowlegable about the NFL for their differing accomplishments. The irony here though is that though the Name has proven he knows how to win the SB, there is actually no HC who has won the SB with different teams, The choice of an HC like a Cowher or a Billick is likely a choice that will gain us a playoff spot, but there is no case in NFL history where this has been a strategy which won it all. Its a difficult thing to figure out whether a Leslie Frazier will turn out to be an HC like a hot co-ordinator who wins the SB (or even like a Marv Levy or a Belicheat who flat out sucked in his previous job as an HC but went on to glory) or will be a dud. For me Frazier having stud talent is not a disqualifier at all for judging him to be the man for us. It really comes down to whether he is a true leader of a team or not and that judgment can not be made by simply looking at stats (I am a big stat hound) but really by assessing the quality of the man as a leader of men.

A so what is that Schumer sees enough of a % in currying good favor with WNYers (and actually NYS taxpayers as a whole as the Bills are the only NFL team which plays games and collects sales tax on tickets in NYS since both the Gints and the Jests play in NJ). Schumer's expressed interest in keeping the team here really opens the door to the same card politicians in Cleveland played to avoid the initial fate of Colts fans of seeing their team move out of town by threatening the NFLs limited antitrust exemption if they leave Buffalo (and NYS) twisting in the wind by moving the team. Though some refuse to acknowledge it, threats to this exemption is a real tool to get the NFL not to simply screw the Bills. Will it be a tough fight when Mr. Ralph dies and there may be a high bidder with big bucks from LA or Qatsr? You bet it will ne. However, the idiot politicians in Cleveland (ranked as the third poorest city in America beating out even Buffalo for poverty) gave showed the idiot WNY politicos a card to play which gives them some power in this tough battle. Add to this tool, that though Mr. Ralph says this property will go to the highest bidder, while his will and wishes are powerful tools he will be inconveniently dead and other voices will have a say in this outcome. For example, while the team may in fact go to the highest bidder as Mr. Ralph tries to direct, the reality is the team will only be sold to the highest APPROVED bidder, Thus even if some swami from Qatar will offer the largest did for the team which he as owner plans to now call them the Dubai Bin Ladens, if he is unable to get the approval of 75% of the owners the high bidder is not gonna get the team. Eveyone knows that NFL owners generally vote to go where the money is. This is the reason why Mr. Ralph got outvoted so badly in accepting the current CBA. Yes, principle dictated that the CBA be voted down by the owners as Gene Upshaw and the NFLPA set the terms (as negotiations began Upshaw said the deal needed to include the entire gross receipts and no designated gross was acceptabel, Further he declared the new CBA needed to guarantee the players % cut of the total receipts needed to start with a 6. The NFL met this dictate by accepting a salary cap which dedicated 60.5% of the gross to the players. What folks need to realize is that the NFL owners realized 40% of a ton of money better than even 1000% of nothing unless they made a deal. They caved. Likewise the individual owner cut of a transfer fee if the Bills are sold and move is likely 1/31st of a the tramsfer cost. This amount of money though huge to us normal folk is really chump change compared to $ bought in by the antitrust exemption, by there being a lot more # with the league focusing on stability with existing markets while it expands overseas. I am virtually certain the Bills will not move while Mr. Ralph lives and even after he dies the betting should be on stability rather than change. It will be a tough fight but Buffalo can win it.

Tim, many thanks for the time and effort you put into communicating with fans on TSW. Its a great service in terms of providing information and perspective. These two-ways also strike me of an example of how modern technology can allow for creation of a new media which provides an improved product through back and forth but controlled conversation. My question is about the Rooney Rule which is a relevant topic for those interested in the Bills since we are looking for an HC. Is there a general opinion of folks in the NFL whether it has been a success? It certainly seems to have been successful to this fan for the most part because it is an approach which deal with the sticky issue of race by requiring opportunity rather than by requiring a hiring quota. On the face of it I think in an incredibly short time as racial politics tend to go we have seen an increase in the hiring of HCs of minority heritage and through both dumb luck and diligent efforts we have seen HCs who happen to be of A-A descent lead teams to SB wins. My sense is that a big part of this success has been that: a. Its more than just an HC focus but the pipeline is being filled with the minority intern coach program b. The NFL sent a message early and hard to DET when Millen used the good ol boy network to hire Mariucci without even the pretense of open interviews that they fined him and DET significantly. c. There is a recognition by all the professional involved that the only way possible to see a minority candidate hired by his second interview is to have him get a first interview. Thus, while I do not think that any serious Bills watcher thinks they are gonna hire Fewell as HC (at least I hope they do not as he is a good guy but we gotta go in a different direction if we want to be different) I think it is great that they have given him a serious interview with 4 hours of talk and the preparation he had to do to present himself will help him a lot the next interview. By even giving him a serious interview the Bills have placed his losing record as an HC in as good a light as possible. I found it quite interesting that Nix talked on one hand about how an HC candidate with past HC experience is preferred but yet they made the effort to travel to MN to talk with Leslie Frazier. What is your sense of the Bills perspective on the Rooney Rule and any general NFL school of thought about it. Is ESPN planning a general look at this program or collected info about efforts to increase coaching by men of minority background? Thanks

The bottom line on a basically false coaches vs. players debate is that tons of things are necessary but nothing is sufficient in and of itself all the time (or even most of the time) in the NFL. If you are looking to win the SB (or even just simply make the playoffs consistently) you need both good players and good coaches. The key is not which is more important as both things must be in place in order for this team to win. In the specific case of the Bills it seems to me that we do have a solid core of players to build around for the most part, but this team is comes up badly short at a few key skill positions. However, a quality HC with a proven track record of winning may well make a big difference for this team if he is able to squeeze better performance out of a few players AND is able to attract a couple of top quality FAs to come here to be a part of a winner. There are actually a number of things which I think point one toward emphasizing getting great players (Dallas with a proven plethora of star players won not because of but regardless of Barry Switzer coaching- but this is such a rarity that the case has no relevance to the Bills. On the other hand Indy had Peyton Manning and a bunch of stars but it really seems to me Tony Dungy was the essential element in putting them over the top (but again in this case we do not have enough star players to allow the HC to be the key to getting us there. Where do the Bills start? The draft is in April and FA does not begin for a while. We must start with getting a notable HC who can build a TEAM and attract players here.