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Especially if they also administered a sobriety test.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've tried a number of non-surgical modalities over the years including chiropractic, massage, cortisone injections, PT, yoga, meditation, electric stimulation and various programs from books similar to Sarno's (though never Sarno's spefically). For me, nothing worked. The disc between my L4 and L5 vertebrae was basically gone and my L5 was way out of alignment so I finally went with the surgical option: Transformal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (I think Troup had the same). Now I'm running 12 miles per week with no back pain and will push that up to 50 as I get in back in shape. So I'm happy with the operation and hope Troup is too.

It's a stupid message for the GM to send to the team, "The Head Coach is not in charge."

I only learned of it recently and was surprised he went from a national media gig (NFL.com) to a local job that is more PR than true journalism.

I had the same surgery as Troup - or a very similar one. My surgeon didn't let me run (or do much of anything) for 7 months. So I turned to my next favorite hobby - eating - and become a fat couch potato. Disc fusion surgery usually entails a pretty lengthy recovery. With better coaching and a healthy back - we'll finally see what Troup can do this year.

From the Sports Xchange… Tight end Mickey Shuler and offensive lineman Chris Scott were cut by the Buffalo Bills Saturday, even before they had a chance to take part in the team's first full squad workout at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, N.Y. http://www.sportsxchange.com/tsxfiles/?page_id=211&max_colums=20&story_id=56950 Chris Brown posted this about Scott: “We just completed our conditioning test, which is part of our physical about where the players are,” said Marrone. ”They’ve shown that they’ve done a lot of work in the offseason. We did wind up releasing a player, Chris Scott. It’s just unfortunate in this profession. We have expectations as coaches coming in and we didn’t feel that Chris fulfilled his expectations to us, his teammates or the coaches so we let him go.” http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/OL-Chris-Scott-released/fdec7c79-242d-47e7-8571-b4b3ea5ddccb I’m guessing Shuler was cut for the same reason as Scott. It seems like Marrone isn’t going to fool around with players who show up out-of-shape.

I remember when Vic Carucci was writing good articles about the Bills during the Levy-Smith-Kelly-Thomas-Reed-Tasker Golden Age. Then he graduated to the national media, writing for NFL.com and coauthoring books with a number of retired NFL stars, including Jim Kelly. He also published a book about the Bills' first Super Bowl season. For a while he was the President of the Pro Football Writers of America But now he's working for clevelandbrowns.com? What happened? http://blogs.clevelandbrowns.com/category/caruccis-call/

Jerry Jones says not one, but two, current NFL teams could be moving to LA in the near future. "The owners don't mess much up ... but we haven't gotten this one right. There's people, there's locations, there are people that are interested, a lot of people that can help us put this thing together. And as it turns out that we have at least two teams ... that could move to this area... There won't be any expansion,so it will be teams that move." http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000220639/article/jerry-jones-two-nfl-teams-could-move-to-los-angeles Any guesses which two he's talking about?

I always envisioned college as a place of education, and football (or any sport) as a diversion students pursued in their free time from studies. I know reality has already tarnished that image. Nonetheless, count me amongst those disturbed by these proposed changes.

The clip is from Football Game Plan: "Where football makes sense." True to their tagline, here's the write up on the Bills who are power-ranked #3: #3 Ranked Wednesday Mar, 2012 11:46 PM | by admin | NO COMMENTS Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorperLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper http://footballgameplan.com/3-ranked/ Translating Cicero from Latin into English (and completing the passage): But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.

You seem to have both the qualifications and the passion. So if I were you, I'd write Russ Brandon an email much like your post here. And then I'd write Doug Whaley. I'd even write Chris Brown and ask for his help & suggestions. If you look hard enough, you'll figure out how to contact all these guys. And, btw, even though the Bills are not actively hiring statisticians for their supposed analytics department right now, I think you should write the emails anyway to start a dialogue that could lead somewhere. You'll never catch any fish if you don't throw your line into the water. Good luck!!!

Yeah, I like Marrone. I like his resume. I like the messages he's been sending. But the Crossman hire stinks of cronyism. Here's an excerpt from a recent BN article about Marrone and his coaching history: That led to a job as offensive line aide at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, coached by Bill Schmitz, who had coached with the Monarchs. “He offered me the job, and it might have been $7,000 a year,” Marrone said. “I took it. He was shocked. He made me sign a napkin. That was my first coaching contract, on a napkin at some restaurant in New London, Conn.” Marrone immediately cut his salary in half, giving $3,500 to good friend and former Monarchs teammate Danny Crossman to join the Coast Guard staff. Crossman is now the Bills’ special teams coach. http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130713/SPORTS/130719545/two-bills-drive-1004 Crossman and Marrone go way back and maybe Marrone feels he owes Crossman a chance. But as the old saying goes, the best predictor of future success is past success. Crossman doesn't have a lot of past success and it won't excite me to see him on the Bills sideline.

Any predictions or worries based on the track record of the "past 13 years" are spurious. We have a new GM, HC, OC, and DC. And as San Jose points out, there's been huge changes to the roster. I'm not sure yet what this is, but it isn't the Bills of old. And I don't get how on paper the Bills look like a "disfunctional [sic] mess." Other than the big question mark at QB, they look a lot like most other NFL teams: some good players, some not-so-good.

+1 Well said.

If he's good, he gets his first HC interview 2 years from now and departs within 4 or 5 years. If he's bad, he gets fired within 2 years. If he's merely mediocre, he lasts 3 or 4 years. Some of this depends on Marrone's tenure. If we get a new HC, Pettine probably gets replaced at the same time. Too many variables.

I guess your point is that even if Kolb excels in preseason, we should still start EJ. If we don't, it proves our coaches don't have balls. I disagree. Never forget - JaMarcus Russell was a first round draft pick. I don't think we should hand the job to EJ just because he played well in college and got picked in the 1st round. Just like preseason, that proves nothing. Lots of collegiate stars crash and burn in the NFL. When Marrone said it was an open competition, I think he was honest and I think he was right. I don't want us to pull an Al Davis and start EJ for 3 years just because we used a high pick on the guy. I want EJ to earn the job by beating out Kolb. If he can't beat out Kolb in a fair competition it probably means EJ just isn't NFL material. On top of that, EJ won't earn the respect of his teammates if he's just handed the starting job. They'll rally around him, though, if he earns his starts.

Kevin Kolb has only 21 NFL starts and has been injured much of his career.. Effectively, he's a NFL sophomore. I don't think, given his paucity of playing time, we can yet assess his ceiling with absolute certainty. I think he's done enough good things in his limited experience as a starter to at least suggest the possibility that he's capable of more. EJ is a rookie. Like any rookie QB, even 1st round rookies, his chances of NFL stardom aren't great. But there is a chance. Kolb and EJ - combined - give me something I haven't felt in a while: HOPE. We knew what we had in Fitz. We knew his strengths and we knew his weaknesses. Unfortunately, so did our opponents. We really don't know what we have in Kolb and EJ. Maybe both end up failing, who knows? But I'm beginning this season more hopeful in our QB play than I began last season. And for that I'm grateful.

I know lots of people are expecting CJ to have a great year this because Chan won't be under-utilizing him anymore. But I'm not convinced CJ was significantly underutilized by Chan. CJ had 1244 yards rushing last year and 459 receiving. With 1700 yards from the LOS, Spiller was highly productive in Chan's offense. And the Bills finished 6th in the league in rushing. None of these stats scream COACHING FAILURE. And it's not like Freddy is chopped liver. Obviously, Freddy was hurt last year and there were times when Tashard Choice was in for CJ and those moments were hard to understand. But if Marrone or Hackett pulls CJ out for a breather to let Freddy play, I won't cry. Freddy is a great back, too.

Good questions, one and all. Given the available options, signing Kolb and drafting EJ was about the best course I could imagine. Not to say it will work out, but I'm ever hopeful.

I know it's not popular to defend Kraft but I think he's being genuine here. From the article... "No one in our organization was aware of any of these kind of connections. If it's true, I'm just shocked. Our whole organization was duped." Calling Hernandez a "most likeable young man," Kraft painted the picture of a player who often said the right things but had trouble following through in the end. Hernandez impressed the Patriots after the 2010 NFL Draft by sending a letter asking for trust and agreeing to bi-weekly drug tests throughout his rookie season. Hernandez went on to convince Kraft that his goal was to be a role model in the Hispanic community. "I believed him," Kraft said. "... He knew how to push my buttons."

Really? How? I've watched many on the internet (primarily on JustinTV) but some Sundays I couldn't find a rebroadcast of the game.

Interesting chart showing both projected most common line up and quality of players. Based on this, our glaring weaknesses are WR, LG and CB. Anyone disagree?

#23 Buffalo Bills: (C.J. Spiller, Stevie Johnson, Fred Jackson, Robert Woods, Scott Chandler) Not to be a homer but I would rate us better than #23. The only weak link here is Robert Woods who is 'weak' only by virtue of being unproven at the NFL level. Chandler is an okay TE, CJ and Freddy are a great RB duo and Stevie is an elusive WR who finds ways to get open. If a 2nd WR proves himself (Woods, TJ or whoever), the Bills will be in good shape at non-QB offensive skill positions. The weaknesses in the roster are elsewhere.

A national sportswriter is a jack-of-all-clubs, master of none. But Kirwan is better than most.

Sorry, Doc, somehow I missed that. Pat fans are mesmerized by the AH case like we Bills fans were transfixed by OJ's fall from grace.