hondo in seattle

wow!

Easley.. 4 catches, 42 yards so far... he looked good that drive

1st Quarter Bills... 90 yards... 5 first downs... 3 pts Jags... 23 yards... 1 first down... 0 pts So far, so good.

Thanks! This one is working for me

Here's a couple links... not sure yet if either works... http://www.preseason-online.com/jacksonville-vs-buffalo/ http://www.justin.tv/uefastoke4#/w/1681942736

Good point. Compassion is perhaps the greatest of human virtues. Disease, taxes, politics, injustice, bad luck, accidents, romantic failures, economic downturns, old age, football disappointments... We each get more bad sh*t in our lives than we really want. We ought not to add to someone else's already full load. We Bills fans (including players, coaches, etc) especially suffer enough as it is.

This makes complete sense. Kyle ought to be very happy with this deal.

I really would love to know the Peter Pan back story but I stare at that link with trepidation. My better instincts are telling me to resist the temptation.

And Darryl Lamonica

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor! FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Cardboard box? THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Aye. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

It's difficult to project the Bills 2011 season because the defense is such a mystery. The offense isn't too hard to predict. The offensive line will struggle, Fitz will be Fitz and Freddie will be Freddie. But the defensive front 7 looks to have 4 guys run onto the field in Bills uniforms this year who didn't last year. 2 of those guys are injury prone. It's hard to guess beforehand how it will all come together but there are reasons for hope.

I think you need to lower your expectations. Nobody can live up to that high standard!

I agree the line sucks. But we were 4-4 in the second half of last season with this same line. Why would we go 0-16 this year?

Merriman, Barnett, Morrison... The Bills LB corps will look very different this year. And that's a good thing. We need to give Merriman a recruiting bonus.

From Chris Brown... With versatile veteran linebacker Reggie Torbor again lost for the season with a shoulder injury, Buffalo made a heck of an acquisition to fill the void signing six-year linebacker Kirk Morrison Friday. A full-time starter for almost his entire career, Morrison has been extremely productive and durable having never missed a game in his six NFL seasons. Morrison (6’2” 240) thrived in Oakland’s defense the first five years of his career leading the Raiders in tackles four times in five seasons. He’s also proven himself capable in pass coverage with seven career interceptions including a career-high four in 2007. The 29-year old spent the 2010 season with Jacksonville after they acquired him from Oakland along with a fifth-round pick in exchange for a fourth-round pick. Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman had been in touch with Morrison for the past week and a half knowing he was a free agent, as he put his recruiting skills to work. “The bottom line is I want to win and we all want to win, and we have guys here who can play,” said Merriman. “But it’s always good to get a guy like Nick (Barnett) and get a guy like Kirk to help us get where we want to go.” Being able to land a proven linebacker like Morrison this close to the regular season is considered a quality addition for the Bills. From Wikipedia... Morrison played in all 16 games as a rookie, ending the season with 116 tackles and two pass deflections. He finished the 2006 season with a team leading 128 tackles, a sack, a defensive touchdown, and two interceptions. Morrison started the 2007 season with an interception in each of his first three games, joining Thomas Howard who had an interception through each of his first 4 games. He led the Oakland Raiders with 120 tackles, and tacked on 10 passes defended and a quarterback sack to his totals. In 2008, Morrison ranked fifth in the NFL with 135 tackles. He also forced two fumbles and had one sack. He finished the 2009 season tied 6th in the NFL with 133 tackles. He forced three fumbles, recovering one, and had two sacks while playing most of the season with a dislocated elbow.

PTR, thanks for the history review. Good stuff. And I share your appreciations for Ralph. There's no doubt that he was making prudent business decisions when he started the Bills and then helped fold the AFL into the NFL. Regardless of the purity of his motivations, the net result was that he brought a NFL team to Buffalo. There's a good chance it wouldn't have happened without him. For that, I am grateful. I really don't understand the efforts to vilify the man. He's not evil incarnate. He gives millions to charitable causes. He's kept the Bills in Buffalo when it might have been more profitable to relocate the team. Sure, he's made some bad decisions which have resulted in the Bills winning only something like 46% of their games since their inception. But we did have a couple AFL Championships and the Kelly/Thomas/Reed/Smith/et al years were a lot of fun despite the SB losses. In sum, he might be less competent than other owners but he's also more loyal. Would we be happier with the opposite - say someone like Art Modell?

Only 16 games? I say 19!

I worry that the question will prevent fans of other teams from visiting our site. A general question about the NFL would still prevent spambots but allow in real fans. What does "NFL" stand for? What team won the first Super Bowl? How many teams in the NFL? Maybe something like that.

Thanks for the scouting report. For a cheesehead, you're okay!!!

That might well be true. When I was an army officer serving in Iraq, a NYT journalist (who had been granted uninhibited access) asked my soldiers very leading, provocative questions. Not satisfied with the responses, he then read an incendiary statement and asked if any of the soldiers would mind being quoted as saying it. One of my young, naive soldiers - who hadn't spoken until this point - volunteered to have the quote attributed to him. The NYT writer then had his story - which I later paid for. I've been very suspect of journalists ever since.

As someone who's never set foot in a Bills locker room, my guess is that you might be right. And I have related worry. Today's players probably need more coddling than players a while ago. I noticed that Modkins was the coach to talk with Freddie when Freddie was unhappy, not Gailey. There are times to use the chain of command, but I think in this case the situation would have been best served by Gailey's personal involvement. I think if a similar situation had occurred in New York, Rex would have personally communicated to the player - make the player feel loved, wanted, respected. I wonder if Gailey is too much the CEO type who delegates things instead of getting hands-on?

I understand both sides of this argument. On the one hand, Freddie needs to be a mature professional. Most teams use a platoon system and he can't expect to be on the field all the time. On the other hand, Freddie suffered in Lynch's shadow for a while and was now hearing rumors he was going to be benched in favor of Spiller who has done nothing to earn the starting role. The rumors seemed to be validated when Spiller started last week. After what he's been through, Freddie became concerned. Personally, I think Freddie was wrong for going public with this stuff before talking to the coaching staff and resolving his worries and doubts privately. But Freddie has been an outstanding competitor and teammate since joining the Bills. IMHO, we all make mistakes and he's allowed this one. And even though he's 30 and perhaps beginning his decline, I would love to see him rewarded with a better contract. His pay has been less than his level of contribution. And it's not like we're in dire need of cap space at the moment. Ralph and Buddy ought to demonstrate to the players that they take care of people - like Freddie - who take care of the team.

Accents don't help? There are a lot of NFL coaches and GMs that don't have accents and still don't want Brad Smith as their starting QB. Let's remember that Smith chose to come to Buffalo because, everything considered, he liked what we offered. As far as we know, no one offered him a chance to compete for a starting QB position. Apparently, none of the NFL's experienced/professional talent evaluators see his QB skills at that level. That said, he is a tremendous athlete, a class act, and apparently quite bright. Amazing that a post that begins with a false premise (People act like Br. Smith is some kind of dummy) would generate 3 pages (and going) of responses. It's good though someone is championing Smith because he seems like a guy who deserves fans.

C'mon guys, this article means nothing. The idea that a losing club can make a profit has been around for 50 years or more. There is no news here. There is no inside information on the Bills. Only foolish speculation, like: "For Buffalo, this is a recent pattern. Just before the 2009 season began, the Bills waived their starting left tackle, Langston Walker, and the team's highest-paid offensive player. Two games into the 2010 season, the Bills waived their starting quarterback, Trent Edwards, their second-highest-paid offensive player. Both actions increased profits while setting up an excuse for a losing season." Doesn't anybody actually buy this rubbish? The Bills cut Walker to save money? As I recall, we cut him because he sucked. And the Bills used Walker's departure as an excuse for losing? I don't recall that ever happening. Same with TE. Edwards was failing as a QB and everybody could see that. And I never once heard Nix or Gailey use Edwards departure as an excuse for losing. Likewise, Easerbrook's observations about Gailey ruining Maybin's trade value are just plain stupid. Maybin (a wannabe DE) weighs 228 lbs, produced zero sacks in his career thus far, and was a healthy scratch 5 times last year. Maybin's own performance made Maybin worthless as trade bait, not anyone's comments. Easterbrook's math, btw, is flawed too. You can't simply calculate revenues by home seat sales. It will vary greatly from one club to another. Even Easterbrook says, "The $30 estimate is a simplified number, but suppose it's roughly accurate." Huh? Let's suppose it's roughly accurate? Suppose? Roughly? It's really a terrible premise from which to make an argument. Easterbrook uses a lot of quotes, imagining he can read minds. No one actually made those comments and I doubt if they would. His article is really poor journalism.

Nice article, JW. I think it fairly sums up the current state of the franchise. The hint of puzzled, frustrated gloom in the piece mirrors the emotional state of many fans.