Hplarrm

Thanks for the compliments (the 3am send is less impressive than it seems though as much of the thinking was done in the daylight time, but only a little finalizing and pushing the send button comes on the way back to bed on a trip back from the water closet).

The simple facts were that the Bills choices were not between a Mercedes or a Cordoba but actually between EJ or Geno Smith. The Bills were going to take a QB in the first last draft few if ands or buts about it. The Bills have a clear history if making poor football judgments and bad decisions based on a psychotically poor fan over adoration of the QB position going back to the days when we were spoiled by amazing play of Jim Kelly. Ralph got the bad football decisions off to a roaring start with a handshake deal with Jimbo to violate the salary cap rules (I think this may be part of the explanation of Ralph seeing his HoF entrance stalled unreasonably long) by promising to pay him off for play in his last contracted year with a payoff in his next contract. It was a bad football judgment because it was obvious even to us outsiders that Jimbo (though the best) in his day was done. There was no next contract as he was forced out of the game by injury and even worse the Bills delayed at least a year too long in getting a replacement for Jimbo. The team rushed TC along to start when he clearly needed to be trained to get rid of his happy feet (if that could have been trained out of him is a question). Even worse, Ralph doubled down by making a football stupid contractual decision to guarantee RJs salary (and thus a job as starting QB). When Flutie managed to hit every incentive in his contract and thus they were rolled over into his base salary, the Bills were then forced to extend DFs contract to avoid the double QB cap hit of the money they had promised RJ. Thus was only the beginning of stretch picks in the draft, poor QB training, extraordinary QB pressure and overpaying of the next great QB hope which ended in the Fitzy debacle. The Bills had neither the attractiveness to a good FA QB or the resources to trade for one so like it or not the Bills were gonna draft the best QB they could in the first round last year. The problem was that it was a weak class at QB for the Bills draft position. It became clear that the Bills would have to draft EJ or Geno Smith. Geno struck me as probably a more likely candidate to be a fulltime QB starter quicker, EJ despite his clear faults had a lot more upside and potential than Smith. EJ is incredibly inconsistent and benefitted from having a great FSU team around him. He struck me as a PROJECT needing to have a bunch of snaps before he would become the QB we want and deserve. However, he clearly is a quality guy and a leader of his teammates. However, it seemed clear to me that if Whaley picked him he also needed to build a real team around him of we wanted t compete for the playoffs. Whaley/Merrone made the right move as best as I can tell. EJ has been inconsistent as the professional scouts had assessed. He is a winner and competitor as advertised, but is used to having an FSU team around him that severely outclassed most oppoents. He is a very good athlete with great escapability, but as a pro a QB must use his legs from time to time no matter how talented a runner he is and when defenders tackle you it is serious. He got hurt last year trying admirably to pick up a yard or two but the pro QB learns to pick his spots because the pro LBs are too fast and big. EJ has yet to take 16 games of starting snaps yet and though he is still a PROJECT he has developed well for a QB who ain't there yet. He put up 2 very nice wins this year and then followed it up with a bad performance at home on Sunday. I know fans are disappointed but this actually says more about how stupidly fans had him leading this team to victor out of the box.. EJ in his second year just ain't no Rivers in his 5th year. Maybe one day but it seems clear that Whaley/Merrone had no expectation of him neing Eli Manning Ben RoboQB. Sorry fellow fans but this year and certainly last year's Bills ain't RoboQBs Pitts team or even Manning's NYG teams. The good news about Whaley/Merrone is that they appear to understand EJs limitations (unlike many fans.. but hey we're fans) and they have done a good job buttressing our great RBs, built an OL around getting 1st round physically talented players who fell in the draft for other reasons and also getting a solid WR crew by trading up for Watkins (who showed us why last week) and Willams who is physically talented but on his last chance due to character. EJ is a PROJECT and getting two good games out of him and one clinker has he has shown this season is pretty reasonable. Geno Smith has already failed twice in his three games so far this season.

In two words no and no

I think it was easy to see the number (the semantic difference I am saying is that yes there were a noticeable number of plays where I felt better throws by EJ would have led to a completed pass, but these events were not numerous to me in that it was not the case from what I observed that these misses were the exception rather than the norm). The thing which I find most amusing about the hand-wringing of some is that I do not think that EJ's misfires are a big surprise to anyone that understands football. When EJ was selected last year in the first round, it was clear to anyone that understands the NFL that he was a PROJECT. If one looks at the players selected in the 1st round and then looks at the depth chart at the end of the season, most folks seem to say that almost all these 1st round choices are starters. In reality this is simply not the case. I have not compiled the actual numbers for a few years, but was amazed to find when I took th time to do this for what was considered a pretty strong draft class that only a little over 50% of the first round choices were even starters at the end of their first year. The fact that so many folks seem to be disappointed in EJs performance actually says a lot more about how far from realty the expectations of many fans are than it says about whether EJ is developing well. My personal sense is that the realistic assessment of EJ when he was chosen by the Bills was that he was incredibly talented but was also inconsistent. Like all other NFL rookies it takes 3 years before one can make a reasonable assessment of the quality of a player as a pro. There simply too many cases of young players being total stumblebums early in their careers, but learn to get it after a year or two of taking reps and then they become stars. Due to his injury as a rookie, EJ has yet to even put 16 starts as a pro under his belt. Its simply to early to give up on him and would simply be stupid given the 1st round investment. It seems clear to me that when Whaley picked him, the braintrust knew there was virtually no way that he was gonna be a good enough player to lead this team to the levels we want for 3 or 3 years. However, they made the bet that though he was not good enough to deliver a playoff berth, that he reasonably could participate in reaching the playoffs with great play and team leadership coming from others. A realistic view of EJ is one that recognizes the reality that he is and will be for a year or two more (if we are lucky and he does eventually develop)inconsistent. He is the same superlative athlete who for two weeks in a row produced QB ratings above 90 but yesterday sucked and was inadequate as a QB.

As best as I can tell the NFLPA has simply continued to operate on what the players through the ExComm and player leadership judge to be in the best interest of players. Back in the day when the players were clearly and merely employees (A time period from the founding of the modern NFL til the players got their butts kicked by the owners in the lockout f the mid 80s) the NFLPA followed the traditional AFL-CIO union role and made various attempts to raise wages, improve work conditions around the edges and reflexively oppose all NFL sanctions of individual player behavior. However this changed when the traditional union types were beaten so badly in the mid-80s lockout. This gave a talented tenth of players who in addition to being super athletes had good brains and they sold a plan to their fellow athletes to threaten to decertify the NFLPA. This would have forced the owners to operate in a free market system and rather than do this the team owners aggreed to the CBA which essentially made the players partners in the social compact. The NFLPA has changed in details but the goal has been the same represent the playera interests as expressed by the ExComm of the NFLPA. That ExCom has changed and matured over the years (as seen in the surge of Upshaw) and the players needs and goals have changed as they progressed from mere employees to partners to arguably the majority partners in the NFL.

My GUESS would be that consistent with the NFL strategy to work to get more customers by increasing their outreach t0 women that a new cheerleading squad is developed by the Bills which first gets rid of the 97 Rock idiots or whoever Ralph contracted his name and reputation out to (a dumb move by the Bills because in potential customers eyes even if the Bills are legally insulated from this lawsuit, they have to spend team resources separating them from it and in the end its not 97 Rock whose rep takes any hit it is the Buffalo Bills) they: 1. Reconstitute the cheerleading corps with a mixed group of the usual scantily clad women but also some buff guys, some cheerleaders who are actually athletic and a mixed crew . 2. These people are actually paid (but not overpaid) like real professionals. They have a job to lead cheers and be eyecandy on game days, but their primary jobs are to be ambassadors for the Bills in the community and in whatever financial markets the Bills see it as cost effective to have them work. 3. The new Bill/Jills or whatever name the consultants choose all adopt a charitable area where they work and make a steady # of public appearances. 4. They develop a junior groups which reaches out to educational institutions and weekly selects some number of kids to be Bill/Jills for the week and utilizes this approach to reach out to kids (future customers) fast and hard. If they want the Bills can do a far better and fiscally more strategic approach to utilizing this asset than the economic butchery the folks they have farmed their name out to have done so far.

The answer to your question comes in two parts. The first part is pretty much a certainty. You might do well to teach your son that though past actions and motivations are often quite INDICATIVE of what future actions or motivations MAY be, they are not DETERMANATIVE of what future actions or motivations Will be. Yes Goodell does have a rich and virtually unparalleled record of being Commish while billions of $ in profits were cagily negotiated. He has had a lot of success for his employers! However it would simply be a mistake to assume just because he has done well in the past this somehow guarantees success in the future. Its mot a bad bet to simply conclude his next moves are good. They well may be on paper but it is always said the game is not played on paper. The second part is simply speculative in that if this does happen to be an episode where he screwed up despite his past documented success. My guess is that this gives an answer to your question of why: 1. The guy simply make so much money he got full of himself and made the bad moves trying to softpedal punishment of Rice that he did not exert the discipline he would have in the past. His livelihood used to be at risk in his decisions but now f he screwed up and had to go he has probably banked a quarter mill from his work with the NFL. 2. He got full of himself and took foolish risks on the Rice situation assuming he would ultimately win or get away with this easily because he always had before. 3. Dumb luck that who would have imagined that the Rice problem would blow open in such close proximity to the unrelated Peterson thang and also that a series of crises on the related problem of wife beating would happen. 4. Who knows a lot happens even those of us who pay too much attention to the NFL can never know. The most valuable lesson you can teach your son on this is that logic is great but t really ultimately is an illogical world.

The Ravens had a detailed report about the film from the elevator about Rice slapping, knocking out and then dragging his wife out of the elevator. They also said that when Harbaugh heard he wanted to cut Rice but the Ravens FO said no. They then sent GM Newsome out knowing about the videotape to urge folks not to draw conclusions about Rice until they had the full story. The Ravens also set up the presser where Janay Rice apologized (fir hitting her hubby's hand with her face no doubt. If the Ravens knew, then they either were incredibly dishonest with Goodell or Goodell also knew and was incredibly dishonest with the world. Some heads need to roll.

Does his two hour suspension without pay occur between 9am and 11am or 3pm and 5pm when enforced?

The other big advantage an Empire would have is that the competition is mostly folks like WGR and the Buffalo News which provide such a lame product there is lots of room to present something better. I think a key point will be for the sports product, the Bills and the Sabers to become competitive teams. The Bills appear to be getting there(with luck the 2-0 start will be maintained to keep the product competitive) the Sabres are probably a year and more likely two away. However, if lightening strikes and both teams are playing exiting sports, the weakness of the current WGR blathering provides and opening.

I think folks seem to have a little bit too much faith in things being like they always were and also have a bit too much faith in something being maintained because it is demonstrably good, but not recognizing that though it may really be good for lots of people that just cannot stop individuals from trying to change things to make it ridiculously better for just themselves. Actually, the along with death and taxes, the one thing which is certain in life is change. Even in my short 55 years I have enjoyed too many eight track tapes/ stewed over whether to buy Beta or VHS, have a bunch of prized vinyl discs in my closet, seen baseball be the national pastime when I grew up, am as addicted to football as most folks on TSW, but really had my most fun personal experience be a dual between co-ed field hockey in college (a great team one intramural season as the team members were all young, the women had far more skills and experience but the boys had brawn and natural competitiveness which gave the mix gender team unique equality) and the semi-formal softball league on the mall in the summer in DC. The one thing I can pretty much guarantee is that things will be quite different and surprising in 5-10 years for just about anything important. In a world which is getting increasingly smaller due to computer connectivity and travel, the most popular sport in the world by far is football (though here in America we call it soccer). Folks have been threatening for decades that this is the year for soccer in the US only to find themselves disappointed when the smoke clears and seasons change. Yet, even though I find it to be one of the most boring things in the world to watch (Smith kicks to Jones, Jones kicks to Smith, Smith kicks to Jones, embellished injury, bad ref call, Smith kicks to Jones, Jones kicks to Smith and then twice to three times in several hours GGGOOOOAAAALLL) this summer saw entire month plus which made March Madness look like a brief eruption. If the US team does well one year who knows. I doubt it will be soccer (but then I like baseball which my wife says is like watching paint dry so who am I to say. At any rate, if one simply looks at the NFL, there is a ton of money sloshing around out there and some incredible weakness and distraction plaguing the boys in charge. There is also a pretty rich history of guys with a lot of bucks trying to get in the door like Trump being seriously considered by some while roundly rejected by others (I still find it hard to believe that some Buffaloanians took his bid seriously). My probably wrong GUESS is that one of the things which might come out of this current mess is the NFLPA finally seeing an opportunity to cut out the middleman who transfers money from the fans to the players and somehow scrapes 39.5% of the gross receipts off the top for themselves. I watch football to see Peyton Manning, Mario Williams and once every three years to see Tony Romo get sacked as many times as possible. I really have no interest in seeing Ralph or Terry Pegula in shoulder pads or uniform. I have no interest in seeing Jerry Jones at all, I only want to see John Elway in old tapes from the 80s. Those of you so confident in the NFL always being around, just wait. The history has been in the last 20 years that the team owners pretty much ruled the roost, but actually they overplayed their hand in the mid-80s and so weakened the AFL-CIO types liked Garvey who ran the NFLPA that an opportunity was created fir a talented tenth of athletes like Gene Upshaw who got the players to threaten to decertify the NFLPA as a bargaining agent. This threat would have forced the team owners into a true free market where they competed with money to attract skilled players. The NFL had up until that point had operated based on a social compact between team owners where American government allowed them a partial exemption from antitrust rules and to work with the NFLPA to not only broadly restrict American adults from playing in the NFL until they were 21, but even mandated where an individual was going to live with the NFL draft. These un-American anti free market constraints were allowed by our government because the gladiatorial battles each Sunday (+) were so entertaining. The CBA really changed the way money is distributed from the NFL with the players in fact becoming partners with the team owners in the social compact which divided up the gross receipts raked in by the NFL. The CBA was an incredibly complex instrument which installed a salary cap which actually guaranteed the workers a % of the "designated gross" receipts which could range as high as the low 70%s of designated receipts. Other receipts (items such as luxury box and things) were reserved for the owners (which led to actions like the Bills getting rid of almost a 10,000 seats which though filled when the team was winning could be replaced with a smaller # of premium seats where by agreement Ralph need not split the take with the players. The NFLPA was quite willing to be taken advantage of by some aspects of the deal because the labor peace which ensued allowed the TV nets to invest unseen amounts of providing even more $ than ever to both the owners and the players. The players accepted this because they knew when the deal came up for a soon scheduled renegotiation, Gene Upshaw announced before even negotiating that the final deal was going to eliminate the designated gross to have the salary cap be set from all NFL receipts. Further Upshaw declared that the final deal MUST award the players with a % which started with a 6. The final deal ended up giving the players the worker mandated 60.5% and the workers became not just partners in the social compact but arguably the majority partners At any rate, my GUESS is that the players may see the weakness of the NFL team owners embodied in Dead Man Waking Roger Goodell as a chance to cut the middleman out of the deal. The players are really what folks want and will pay to see. The team owners were essential back in the day when there was less capital available and a need to developed centralized rules and presentation of the game. The team owners have now been reduced to minority partnership, but the take is now so much higher the owners agreed (with the prodding of Paul Tagliabue to vote down the old hands like Ralph Wilson and take the deal. There us now a potential next step with the team owners embodied in Goodell are in such disarray if a clever way can be found to cut the team owners out of the deal then the players would have an extra 39.5% of the NFL billions to play with. I do not know enough of the details nor am I smart enough to say what the new pro football enterprise would look like, but I can see that tis is not you grandmother's NFL anymore and the current events make some things possible to consider that have never been possible before. Just wait. This will be interesting.

T was amused by John Stewart pointing out re: Anheser-Busch expressing concern that when the seller of a product which leads to drunkenness which often accompanies spouse or child abuse questions whether you meet their moral standards then you got real problems. As I said in my original post the Radisson move is merely a beginning which while it has not prompted NFL sponsors to abandon the NFL, this first shot has been followed by sine major leaguers like Nike ending the relationship with Peterson while the big boys are expressing concern. The NFL seems to be answering with individual teams also benching individuals like Hardy and the embarrassing about face by MH who tried to reinstate Peterson after the drubbing by the Pats. The NFL has added lip service and also named 4 woman to be politically correctness police (ironically this group of 4 well qualified white women is being questioned by some for having no A/As among their ranks in a league where roughly 70% of the athletes are A/A. The process has begun but appears to be moving slowly. As such the process continues and my GUESS is will not stop until the team owners are forced to throw Goodell under the bus (which will only happen quickly if more bad things happen- the RB from AZ having to be benched today is a minor thing but not good- it also appears that a back-up for him is on the PS but that player also has some history with the law and spouse abuse. My GUESS is that the press blatberings of Anheuser- and others are signs that the true powers (advertising money) are not yet satisfied. I doubt Goodell get thrown under the bus immediately but to me he is simply a Dead Man Walking who will resign to spend more tine wit his family in the offseason. Thee peeling moves slowly but it not only has begun with this local peep but continues on with individual players as the victims of choice for now. Does anyone want to predict this is all over?

Again whether and how they take your guidance to "nut up" makes a football difference for us Bills fans. It simply is not unreasonable for the Vikes to have benched Peterson on Sunday in the wake of child abuse allegations and the obvious media interest and distraction from the game his presence would have provided. Ultimately the NFL is about providing entertainment to us fans of the game and the uncertainty surrounding an even more serious charge of child abuse rather than the spousal abuse of the Ray Rice situation made it more than reasonable for the vikes to sit him. Imagine the firestorm based on simply mere uncertainty which would have come along with him actually playing and the Vikes profiting from his play. However, now hat the judicial process is clearer, the initial decision was for the Vikes to "nut up" as you say and to play Peterson until the courts adjudicated his crime charge. This decision was actually the worse one for the Bills as NE won this weekend against a non-Peterson Vike team. If in fact the Vikes had nutted up and played Peterson until the court found him guilty the Bolls will not get the same advantage the Pats got5 on Sunday.

Its a false dichotomy to present this as being the only two NFL goes out of business or all things remain the same. Are you saying that the NFL which existed in 1973 is exactly the same as the NFL of 2014? Yeah right. One can easily argue that Holms' potshots had little or in fact nothing to do with today's NFL. I agree. However, its a different thing to theorize that the possible or even probable impact of the coincidental occurrence of the Ray Rice, other domestic violence cases and the Adrian Peterson case all publicly breaking within a week of each other will not have a serious effect. My GUESS when we look back we will see these events as continuation points in a saga of the players being recognized as the majority partners in the NFL. Ihe players were mere employees until the team owners virtually destroyed the NFLPA in the mid-80s. Gene Upshaw and a talented tenth of players took the advice of a bunch of smart lawyers and convinced their fellow athletes to threaten to decertify the union. Without the union the NFL owners would have been forced into a true free market where they bid against each other for individual player services. The NFL team owners recognized that not only was a free market too brutal to live within, but actually there was more money for an individual team owner to make in a system based on an expanding social compact than in a competitive market. Did the NFL collapse? No! However its not your grandma's NFL anymore. I (and others I judge from the TSW chatter) find these FO issues interesting on their own. Even beyond this inside baseball, issues such as the salary cap and discipline of players such as Peterson have a significant impact in the game. O think NE got a freebie win on Sunday because Peterson did not play. As a person, I feel bad for Peterson's family that he will not have a hearing on his case until mid Oct. but the real issue which I am worried about as a Bills fan is whether he will play or not in the 10/19 game against the Bills. Will we get the same freebie the Pats got when they played MN. The NFL still exists but it is simply foolish as a fan not to realize the significant changes which occur made a difference and that the current controversies make a real difference in whether the Bills or our division opponents get Ws or Ls this year.

Tasker also has the extra benefit of being an active and prominent game analyst for one of the networks. It is the hall of FAME and not merely Hall of play and Tasker in essence gets a commercial for voters every week and gets a chance to be a good guy and glad hander across the country. The hoF is in the end a popularity contest between many guys who deserve to be in and little things of little consequence to those who focus on stats play a role. The Bills are rolling sevens with the sale to Pegula, Jimbo's recovery, a nice induction of Reed catching a pass from Kelly, the inducdtion of an ST guy in Ray Guy and actually with a likely need for a feel good episode after the Rice/Peterson/et al. story. I will not be shocked to see Tasker go in next year.

If readers are so confused by his words it does not sound like he writes so good If sully needs to feature a relatively minor point about the mid 200s team to make a point about today's Bills he really should take another look at how he does his job.

The NFL could care less about fairness and process (that is why they set up a process which allows Goodell to whatever he wants). Its simply a matter of time til Dead Man Walking Goodell gets thrown under the bus. Basically what the team owners care about is making the biggest buck possible. The other frontline stakeholder in this is the NFLPA which has now placed itself in the anti-Roger zone by appealing the Rice decision not in defense of Rice but opposing the non-process which allows Roger to punsish him multiple times for the same crime. Roger got the big buck because when the house falls apart he takes the hit. He is a goner.

I think a key to this will be how the daughters of team owners react aroind the dinner table and what the wives of team owners say at bedtime. If after expressing great sympathy to the owner because a stupid player best his kid and put the nice owner in a tough spot and then they whine about how Goodell dropped the ball on Rice, the other wife beating players and then Peterson, when the arguments are made by someone at the MFL Board table its time to throw Roger under the bus. He is gone.

As someone pointed out, the suspension of partnership was actually advertising by Raddison of their progressive views. If the 15 you site do exist the also are advertising by stepping into Raddison's place that beating your child til he has bruises, welts or is bleeding is OK. Overtime, Radisson can be replaced but the bottomline will be looked at tomorrow or in the long term at the quarter. The Radisson move is important because once the wave begins it is hard to stop.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/radisson-suspends-its-sponsorship-from-vikings-due-to-adrian-peterson-015111110.html is a link to an article about the Radison Hotel chain MN suspending it sponsorship deal over the child abuse charges against Adrian Peterson. It was a week of various morality charges and incidents. NFL owners such as Bib Kraft came quickly and strongly to Goodell's defense. Nice, but we all know it ain't the owners who really call the shots its the ultimate cash source. sponsors and the TV nets who are important here. Interesting to me also I think there is a lag which will see men like Kraft circle the wagons around Goodell, but ultimately its going to be discussions that these MEN who run the NFL have with their wives over the breakfast table and pillows will ultimately determine what happens. He probably will surive in the short term but I suspect we will see Goodell walk away from 44 mill annually to spend mire time with his family.

Certainly the O performance could be better (one need only focus on the difficulty this team had converting red zone chances into 7s rather than 3s to see this. However the complaints about the playcalling when the TEAM won Sunday's game in a laugher and managed to pull off a tough OT win on the road simply comes off as lacking any understanding of context about playcalling for the season and even simply comes of as whining when the team is a surprising 2-0. Limitations and even problems with the playcalling can easily be attributed to Hackett's weaknesses if you want, but recognizing the context demands that a true assessment also take into account: 1. It is clear this team limits its playcalling in a specific game due to a desire to set up future playcalling and tendencies for future games. One can certainly argue against this approach and feel the team should for the most part just try to win this week and not save any plays because they think it might work well against future opponents. However, this pre-season showed that even though the O was virtually completely unproductive, the O braintrust put a higher priority on not showing any scoutable material than on trying to build a habit of success. Preseason is different than regular season but in terms of how Merrone/Hackett talk about the O it seems to me part of the explanation for missing potential playcalls is that this team is saving some stuff for division opponents rather than produce any film about how they are gonna run plays they think might work well against NE or even the Jets. Do those who simply indict Hackett for missing calls he could have made think that part of the explanation is he is saving the full playbook for other opponents. 2. EJ has impressed with his performance so far, but from watching the Bills O as they develop this extremely talented young QB is that they are not using parts of the playbook that this PROJECT QB has not mastered yet (his progressions and options seem a bit limited to me so far as EJ develops his skills for multi-tasking and choosing between multiple reads. Folks seem to complain a lot last year about EJ locking on a single receiver and I felt part of this reflected the learning most young QBs need to do in looking off pro defenders and sorting through multiple options. I think EJ is a more accomplished QB this year as he gets more reps, but the play calling simply feels a bit dumbed down to me as our young QB learns to be a vet. An observer who ignores this context and reality might instead jump to the foolish conclusion that our professional playcallers who have forgotten more about working a pro offense than most of us observers can ever remember. 3. Player performance limits the playcalling- I do not think that Hackett has full confidence in his OL yet, as these players are so big and strong one should expect them to be performing a lot better in short yardage situations. I think the playbook shies away from using straight ahead power blocking in short yardage situations and instead relies a bot too much on misdirections and counters in situations it should simply bulldoze opponents if Hackett had more confidence in the OL. This may explain some of the missing playcalls. 4. The D has been pretty dominant- One of the big factors it strikes me in terms if playcalling in both games is that the D has really shown up pretty well amd Merrone/Hackett have been pretty reluctant to ask the O to carry the team to victory or take many risks. Even though the Chicago game was no laugher and the O was needed to step up, we still had amassed a 17-7 lead at halftime against one of the most productive Os in the league last year. Very early the Bills went into hang on mode and the playcalling took no chances of making it easy for the Bears O to get a short field because of risktaking by the Bills O. You could see this even more clearly against the fish where even with a lackluster red zone performance by the O we still had turned this into a two score deficit for the fish merely by kicking field goals. A better assessment of the playcalling and diversity of the Bills O will be seen when we get into a real shootout or EJ has to look at more progressions because Sammy Watkins is not showing collegiate separation on simple slant plays. The Miami D never successfully adjusted so the Bills playcallling stuck with the primitive and uninventive because the Fish never successfully adjusted.

You are correct that it was highly unlikely the Bills would ever leave Buffalo: 1. The NFL does not throw money away and if it left, it would be simply throwing away the cash of 45,000+ season ticket holders, 25.000+ folks who routinely bought individual game tickets even with a bad product, and the 100s of millions for local advertisers and the 100s of millions in corporate welfare which NYS governments have or are likely willing to pay. Even though this same level of largesse would likely (though not guaranteed) come from another municipality and likely even be larger in a larger market like Toronto, there is still no need for the NFL to simply walk away from a $1.4 billion asset when the league can simply expand into Toronto and get BOTH the old and new money. 2. The market drives the process and the real market is NOT stadium revenue (a nice coin) but actually TV revenue (an even nicer coin). It is simply not a decider the size of th individual marketplace. The quality if the team is also important but NOT a decider (Look the Bills play has sucked for 15 years and it still brought $1.4 billion. From the standpoint of the true marketplace the NFL had a .500 record last year and always will. 3. We soldout virtually every game several years running so though record is important it ain't the decider. There was always goona be a franchise in Buffalo once the NFL profot making and distribution were established by the CBA.

Why are you surprised about EJ. he was a PROJECT when we drafted him, but really this is not a problem because it was generally agreed that it was not a very good class at all for instant QB talent. The Bills had to draft a QB in the first as we simply badly needed one after a decade and a half of bad QB decisions going back to win Ralph made a hand shake deal with Jimbo to pay him off when he signed his next new deal. The deal never happened because he was done as a player but Ralph made a bad deal which simply began our QB miscues. EJ was a great college player but any one with even a modicum of football intellect knew he was a PROJECT who would not be the QB we wanted and deserved without a lot of reps. The good news is that Whaley and Merrone obviously made the same assessment and intelligently focused on building a team which MIGHT be able to compete for the playoffs with a young might be adequate one day QB (EJ). IMHO Whaley/Merrone deserve a ton of credit for: 1. Recognizing that our run game was actually a league leader in production but also had several risks. The acquisition of Brown abd and it now is clear Dixon reinforced this big league run production with talent which should allow dealing with injury and FA and even allows us to risk Spiller in the dangerous return game where his talents were obvious today. The next step is get the ball in his hands even more as regularly using his receiving skills 2. They invested in and seem to be pulling off a high risk strategy of getting a bunch of talented tackle worthy OL players and putting the 5 best on the field. Henderson with 1st round talent and an 8th round character seems to be working out greatly (he schooled Wake today who apparently read Brady's tendencies like a book last week but could not handle EJ/Henderson. Further, Glenn and Wood look like solid players whoever they are with. Williams still needs to improve, but the demos are good. Pears strikes me as not as talented as we want. but O am impressed that he refuses to lose his spot to the more highly touted OL players like Cujo, Cyril, or the othrs hanging around like Urbik and Hairston. The unit is being productive but a lot is EJ being mobil and our RBs being good. The unit still dos not show successful push in short yardage you think their size would produce, but competition is good an under an OL ciach at HC like Merrone there is potential here. 3. Likewise they have assembled a talented corps of receivers Watkins justified the thinking o trading up for him today. Fuller seasin if execution is needed before a declaration of mission accomplished is mire than silly Bush like braggadocio but the braintrust thinking was sound. The bottomline is that despite the 90+ QB ranking EJ has and deserves, he is still a PROJECT. He has had less than a full season (16 games of starter reps, so anyone who expects him to perform like a vet is just silly. The good news about the Bills is that with dynamic and productive players they are building a team capable of winning with mere PROJECT play from the QB. The three great stats today were no sacks, no INTs and the ONLY important stat 1 W!!!!!! if ej THREW 1 TD pass a game (giving him a paltry 16 for the season), but also had no sacks and no INTs I would be overjoyed with his play

In addition to the other reasons mentioned below (Trump has a past history of suing his own partners when he does not get his way and simply Trump is a self-promoting a-hole which is not against the law but makes for a lousy partner( but also has in the past been a close associate with gamblers and though his interest in the casinos was long ago sold by him when he went bankrupt (another good calling card for a partner) these soon to be closed entities still bear his name. Gambling is far too important to the BFL's popularity (fantasy leagues and Super Bowl pools) that like other major sports leagues, the NFL does not tolerate even a remote connection to the gambling industry. The NFL has enough problems dealing with the fiction that gambling has nothing to do with the game. Trump was a useful tool to the NFL in the Bills bidding process as his bid helped push up the price but it is hard to imagine the owners not exercising the virtual veto that Ralph contractually gave the NFL when he agreed any new owner MUST be approved by 75% pf the current owners voting support.

I don't think a ;ot of your assumptions are supported by the facts. 1. Raw #s- GTA (as the Greater Toronto Area us called up there) has a population of just over 6 million people. I doubt the NFL will ever be as popular a sport in CA as in the US. However, when one compares a fan base of 6 million to the under 300,000 Buffaloanisams amd evem a million in GBA, it shows why the Toronto market had ut all over the Buffalo market IF the two had to compete (which in the NFL mind they do not. A Toronto team would clearly profit from a number of cash streams which one would have to make a compelling case that there is not money to be raked in from all the HQs of Canadian companies who would buy skyboxes for a Toronto team, all the commercial entities who would be pleased as anything to buy commercials to sell their products to Canadian eyeballs and even whatever corporate welfare they could pry out of Canadian govts_ I do not think they would be as venal as Erie County. the City of Buffalo, and apparently NYS are or would be but who knows they elected Rob Ford to be Mayor. 2. Other major sports- Tes hockey and football are two very different things and are mot the same, but ut would be silly to claim that there are no lessons to be learned whatsoever and the NHL lesson is that major sports franchises can exist simultaneously in these two cities. In fact, if anything one can see that this league has not taken advantage of the nearness of these two markets and tried to profit from increased emphasis on competeition between the Maple Leafs and Sabres. In fact the default thinking is that these two markets are too far away from each other rather than them being in the same territory. Ralph cut a deal to try to assert and enhance Buffalo calling Toronto their market (and thus building a case for a new Toronto team to have to ship several million bucks to Buffalo for nothing. The fact is that Toronto is a different market than Buffalo (as proven by the failure in overpriced tickets you mention) and in fact some argue that Toronto is more like NYC and can support 2 franchises. I don't think so as actually the southern part of GTA (down to about Hamilton) is actually Bills country. You can drive to the Raloh in half an hour from Hamilton and south but in CA and would need an hour to get to downtown Toronto from there. The GTA market is in fart big enough it can support a new NFL team and still leave the current southern Ontario fans to the Bills. 3. Many folks seem caught up in the past where men like George Halas, Wellington Mara and the boys ran the NFL like the robber barons they were. However, wit these captains of industry destroying the AFL-CIO types who ran it in the mid-80s so badly it opened the door for Gene Upshaw and a talented tenth of athletes to instead sell their fellow players on adopting a threat to decertify the NFLPA as a bargaining agent. This resulted in the owners rejecting adoption of a free market model if the NFLPA ceased to exist as a bargaining agent. The owners instead agreed to the CBA which essentially made the players not mere employees of the owners but actually partners. Arguably when the CBA was renegotiated by agreement in a few years and NFLPA head Gene Upshaw dictated before negotiations that the result must not only be based on total gross receipts but that the player share must start with a 6, the players are arguably the majority partners. The real deal here is that a primary focus on the wealth of the team owner is outmoded thinking. The real thinking now looks at the fact that the TV nets which contractually pay billions to the NFL is the true dominant economic driver. There always was and always will be a Buffalo franchise and Teey Pegula just gave us $1.4 billion reasons why. If was mot him it would have been Golisano, Jacobs, an outsider like a Trimp or JBJ who the NFL would have forced to show them the money by staying here. If not them then Jimbo might have organized something with the deep pocket financier he was talking to and several millions he could have leverage from former players to get a loan of the billions needed to buy the team. I have little doubt the economics kept the Bills here.