ntjacks79

Absolutely. I almost puked when I saw the "price" this proposal put on McNab. Do Bills fans realize the VALUE of the # 9 overall pick in the whole draft?

And it worked so great that they're still doing it, right? It's a bonehead move.

I hear you - but I completely cannot understand how Bills fans keep ignoring the obvious... the Bills are GIVING AWAY home field advantage for 1/8 of their season via the Toronto fiasco!! If this was such a great idea, why don't other teams do it? I'll tell you why... because they actually care about winning. While language in this article is harsh toward Ralph, and the WNY storm in comparison to Katrina is a joke, his points about the Toronto situation are extremely accurate and I think, not worded strongly enough.

12th in Operation Income and yet we're giving away one home game per year to Toronto, and allowing the Bills to in essence play 9 road games, because Buffalo is supposedly too small a market to generate any revenue. Brilliant, as usual, Mr. Brandon.

Thank you. For some reason that absolutely escapes me, Bills fans seem to think that the Bills playing in Toronto is a "good thing". As much as I despise Brandon, I must give him credit for pulling this brain-washing off. To the rest of the league, this "Toronto Series" (known to me as the Toronto Fiasco) makes the Bills look like a laughing-stock. "How Bad Are They?" jokes abound. The Bills are SOOOO bad, that they would give up their premium home field advantage to play a game in a city that doesn't like the team and doesn't understand the NFL. If Buffalo can't keep a team on it's own merits, than we lose the team. But I would rather lose the Bills with dignity than continue to be the laughing stock of the NFL thanks to this Toronto idea.

As someone who lived in California for 8 years, I really don't know what you guys are talking about. It's true that LA fans attention "wanders" when a team is not winning, much more so than Buffalo fans, but you can't even think about getting a ticket (at a normal price) to any team in LA that is performing well. The Rams lack of support was much more due to on-field performance than lack of strong interest in the NFL. And as far as San Diego and the Bay Area, LA could not be more different than those two regions. LA folk would NEVER claim a team from either of those areas as their own. Proximity-wise, LA is as close to San Diego as Boston to New York and to the Bay Area as Boston to Washington. So that means the Patriots are too close to the Jets and Redskins to have a team?

I'm still having a hard time with the way the Bills arrived at hiring these two, and was extremely unimpressed with the way Nix handled himself at the Gailey press conference, but am willing to give them a chance. What choice do we really have I guess? I hope you're right on this, but must admit after the past 10 years, everything they do will seem like "what were they thinking" until we see results on the field.

If the Bills hired Leach in some capacity, I'm quite sure they could lure Craig James from ESPN as well.

Fair enough. I do agree that he may have been "the best of what was available to them for their needs". The sad thing is that image has had a lot to do with limiting those options in the first place, and I don't think Nix is going to help in that regard.

Good point. But I ask you... why in the HECK would Buffalo want such a man? The Bills have the worst image in the NFL already, making it almost impossible to get good players (that have a choice) to come here. So we are going to ADD to that and hope he can "learn to change"?

I think his point was that by the time someone is 70 you "know who they are and what they can do". And if this 70 year-old was so great, how come no one else sees that but RW? When Polian was 45 no one yet knew what he would be or could do. For me, all you need to know about Nix was on display at the Gailey press conference. He actually made Smithers (Brandon) look good that day... very hard to do.

Respect your opinion but I despise current home unis... and I think I am not alone. What you call blue I call blue-black. That's not blue. And virtually "all black" looks absolutely ridiculous (my opinion). The Bills had one of the most classic-looking uniforms in the 60's. Why they did these changes over the years to end up with the hideous current ones is beyond me. The Jets realized their lunacy long ago and went back to the classic 60's jerseys. As with everything else, it seems to take the Bills a while to catch on.

+1. I despise current uniforms. Farce is a good description. No doubt the brain-child of the guy who gave us the Toronto-Farce... Russ Brandon - marketing boy.

DEFINITELY NOT! He's not a pro QB.

+1. I like this post. At least SOMEONE sees the insanity.

We understand, or at least I do. People are reacting to your title "Tired of all the Negativity" because it sounds like you just want everyone to be happy with what's been going on. Personally, I would fire Russ Brandon in two seconds if I ever was in control of the Bills and would have lost money to overpay for a GM and Coach before I would've hired Nix and Gailey after the disasters of the last 10 years. I am VERY angry and so I guess that qualifies as negative. But I was born in 1961 and remember living and dying with every Bills game since about 1970... as I still do. Am I mad? You bet I am. Am I negative? I guess so, since I'm so mad. But am I a "bad Bills fan"? I don't think so. I believe your post gave the impression to some that you were "calling them out" for feeling as I do.

+1. I'm a Buffalo native and had Chargers season tix a few years while leaving in SD. Orange County has it's Charger fans. But LA is "Raider Nation". You ought to go to a Charger-Raider game in San Diego. 25% of the Stadium roots for the Raiders... and they ALL come from LA County. The Chargers are way bigger than I realized in San Diego County.

And no one sees anything wrong with this? 6 games in Toronto and 4 in Buffalo is STUPID. The team won't have home field advantage in ANY of it's home games and neither city will feel passionate towards the team. If this is such a great idea why don't we disband the Sabres and have the Leafs play 25 home games at ACC and 15 at HSBC? If that sounds crazy to you, that's the same that 6-4 for the Bills sounds to me.

Wouldn't that be "just lovely"? Now we can have the privilege of giving away home-field advantage for 2-3 games per year rather than 1. Doesn't anyone see what this does to the team? Coaches and GM's are using it as one of the reasons not to come here and it's obvious it hurts the team on the field. If this team truly can't survive in Buffalo (I don't believe it) than it should leave. But destroying the team and doing something SO stupid as this Toronto-Fiasco is absolutely moronic.

Even though I am furious right now with the Bills (mostly Brandon and Ralph somewhat), this is very well said.

I'm with you. Unless maybe I get a Maple Leafs jersey with the name (Russ) Brandon on it. My way of honoring his destruction of the Bills franchise, culminating in the Toronto-Fiasco, until he got promoted for his trouble.

I hope you're joking about calling Russ Brandon a mastermind. He is a total moron. But other than that, I actually agree with your premise. It would be a good move, football-wise. Brandon WOULD be happy (he can tell Ralph he's selling tickets). But the problem is that, just like coaches and GM's who have options, Vick may not want Buffalo. Brandon (and Wilson) have destroyed the Bills league-wide credibility. NO "good" player who has options to go elsewhere is currently considering Buffalo, I can promise you that. The time to get Vick was LAST year, when he really had limited options.

Personally, I don't "hate" Chan Gailey at all. But what Buffalo Bills management doesn't understand is that they have "lost the benefit of the doubt" with most observers (fans and across the NFL). Virtually everything Bills management has done for the past 10 years looks like short-sighted, "let's make money, we don't care about winning, and if we do we're too stupid to know any better" type decisions. Let's look at the last 10 years. Buffalo's drafts? Disastrous. GM's? Disastrous. Head Coaches? Disastrous. Toronto-Fiasco? Unbelievably Disastrous. Free Agent Record? Disastrous. You add that to the league-wide perception that Buffalo is a "small market" and it's "damn cold up there" and you have a major image problem. With a major image problem you can't get good people to come turn it around (players AND coaches). You have to "settle" for people that won't be considered for "more attractive options". Bottom line. Ralph Wilson has meant a lot to the NFL and the city of Buffalo. But he is currently "part of the problem" for allowing the above to happen on his watch. Russ Brandon is an absolute disaster. Promoting him during all this is laughable. Maybe Chan Gailey can get it together and deliver. If so, fans will come back. But for now, the Bills have forfeited their right to the benefit of the doubt.

Absolutely. He came right out and said it on ESPN... how good the Buffalo fans are and how they deserved better than this. His point was primarily that "something is really wrong" if all these NFL folks don't even want to interview with the Bills... and that they ended up with someone that will not scare anyone, as you said.

Many of us will do both (Hate the Bills but give him a chance). There is clearly a problem when the top 8 GM and coaching candidates turn the Bills down. The Bills have done a lot of things the past 10 years to give the whole league, AND it's fan base, the perception they don't have a clue. Nix and Gailey will do NOTHING to dispel those notions... unless results are seen on the field. I predict ticket-holders are about to abandon the Bills in droves... but I also think that many Bills fans will remain loyal and will be begging for some... ANY... sign of life from this team... and then return to the Stadium.