ThurmasThoman

Bro, I respect that opinion because I held it for 20 years. In fact, when the replay started last night, I thought to myself "IDK why I'm doing this, when the announcers tomorrow will bring up this game 20 times." All I can really say is, the part I bolded in your response matters a little bit more to me now. The Titans were simply a better football team, and it became obvious as I rewatched it. I don't feel as if Buffalo was robbed of a Super Bowl that year. I'll concede that maybe (maybe) they were robbed of that game. But if the Titans could dominate them in all three phases of football like that, all day, from start to finish.. I can no longer take it as a given that the Colts wouldn't have been able to do the same. Or the Jaguars. Or the Rams. The Bills just weren't the elite defensive juggernaut that year that I've built them up to be in my mind over the past 2 decades. And considering the Rams, Colts and Titans all went on to have great success over the coming seasons, and the Bills went into the toilet bowl, lends credence to the fact that the Bills weren't in that elite echelon of teams that could have won the Super Bowl that year. They were good, yes, but not historically great.

I think the biggest change in the game has been the advent of specialized coaching from a young age. Want to be a kicker? There's a camp for that, for toddlers no doubt. Want to be a QB? There's a camp for that, and you better be willing to move around the country to find the right middle school. The game 20 years ago just had such a "team" feel to it--like the players knew where each other would be on the field at all times, because they practiced together so much more, rotated through positions as a kid, and had a better feel for the game playing out on the field. Your LB may have been a DE and a TE at one point. Now, LBs are LBs from age 6 on. On one Eddie George fumble, Kurt Schulz puts his helmet on the ball and a LB scooped it up seemlessly. On a McNair pick, Schulz batted it and a CB picked it so fluidly it looked like a basketball move. Another element (as a fan) is the lack of HD replays--if a ref made a call, it couldn't be analyzed for 20 minutes from 10 different angles, it just stood. Some calls were bad, some were good. But it seems like the refs were, for lack of a better word, more confident. They just make the call and the game moves on. I hate... hate hate hate... how in today's NFL everything is scrutinized until it's perfect. That "perfect" feel is at odds with such a brutal sport. We'd be better off letting it be rough around the edges and accepting some bad calls from time to time if it brings back that wild west feel, in my opinion.

You should watch it again if you get the chance. I had raw emotions about it too, like you, until last night. The Bills played absolutely terrible. Their D kept them in it, but they lost to a better team that day. I have no hot take on Flutie vs Johnson. I have no new opinion on that from watching the game last night. I think Flutie could have played better than Johnson, because it's hard to imagine anyone playing worse, but he also might have thrown a pick 6 that put the game out of reach early. Either way, Flutie couldn't QB the team to a higher seed, a division title, or a playoff win the season before, so it's hard to imagine he would have beaten the Titans that afternoon. TBH Joe, the entire point of that wall of text was to say that I am over it now.

Like most Bills fans my age, I've spent the last 2 decades convinced that Buffalo had a Lombardi trophy ripped from their hands that day, with a terrible call on what was clearly a forward lateral. I vividly remember watching that game and being absolutely devastated when they lost--I was 15 at the time, and it was right up there with Jim Kelly's retirement following the Jacksonville loss as my most disappointing sports moment. Re-watching the game in it's entirety last night didn't necessarily change my view on the throwback, but it put the entire contest in a better context. Here are my thoughts from it (in no particular order ) 1) The Tennessee Titans were a VERY GOOD football team. Somehow, 15 year old me didn't understand this at the time. (In fact, it makes me wonder how many posters on here may be 15 years old and also missing this point about last week's Patriots game, but I digress) The Titans went into that game 13-3, which as they stated during the broadcast was the best record for a wildcard team in history. This was also a point in NFL history when the conferences only had 3 divisions, so the division winner ahead of the Titans, the Jaguars, were even better at 14-2. Buffalo has had only two 13 win seasons in their history, and both times made the Super Bowl--the Titans obviously made the Super Bowl that season. The Titans had young talent all over the field: Air McNair at QB, Eddie George at RB, "the Freak" Jeavon Kearse on D. They had stars, they had a great regular season, and they were a yard away from winning the Super Bowl. What's more, this season marked their arrival as a franchise, and they entered a period of dominance for the next 5 years where they would have campaigns of 11, 12, and 13 wins again, making it as far as the conference championship game. Buffalo, on the other hand, went from this loss to one of the longest runs of futility in NFL history, missing the playoffs for 18 straight seasons. 2) The Buffalo Bills were a team in complete disarray. This was the death of their "dynasty", or at least their years of being a contender, and the self destruction was on complete display. Maybe because those guys were my heroes I was oblivious to it at the time. Maybe the lack of social media/24 hour news cycles didn't catastrophize their collapse as it surely would today. Whatever the case, that Bills team had issues, from top to bottom. As we learned years later, it was Ralph who insisted Johnson get the start over Flutie. Knowing that, it was interesting to hear the response of Wade Phillips when asked by Solomon Wilcox at halftime if he would bench Johnson for Flutie: quote "he said something to me that I can't repeat on TV, but it wasn't very nice." That's not a response you hear from McDermott very often, right? Then there was Andre Reed, who had apparently posted on his website a few days earlier that he felt disrespected and wanted to go to a team that appreciated him. Playing with that hanging over his head would be one thing, but he also wasn't on speaking terms with Flutie, who he said had changed as a man over the course of the previous year. Hmmm... I had never heard that--but it puts the benching into a new context. 3) Bruce Smith was the best player on the field, he's the all time sack leader, and the best Bill of all time I wish I was old enough to appreciate that man's career. Seeing highlights of the greats doesn't do them justice, you need to see them on every play dominate a game. And boy, that's what Bruce did. A pure physical freak. At one point spun around the O lineman and got pressure on McNair with a move that would be replayed 10 times today, but was just a typical play for him in that game. Maybe younger me took it for granted that he was a Bill, or didn't realize how good he was compared to the rest of the league, or hadn't watched enough football yet to appreciate it, or all of the above, but wow. If the rest of his career looked like that (and I'd be willing to bet it was better), you could make a case that he's one of the 10 best players to ever play professional football. Am I crazy for saying that? 4) The Buffalo Bills were sloppy that day, the Titans were disciplined. The Titans didn't commit their first penalty until well into the second half, the Bills were jumping off sides with reckless abandon from the opening gun. This isn't a conspiracy theory either, in that the refs weren't calling it both ways. No, the Bills had 2, 3, maybe 4 defensive linemen literally jumping off sides anticipating snap counts. At one point Bruce ran across the LOS, made no attempt to get back and negated an Eddie George fumble. There was an egregious holding call ON THE DEFENSE of a field goal attempt that the Titans missed going into the half--they then made the retry. Obviously, every defender was out of position on the Homerun Throwback. Hey, I can say with confidence from posting here: If a McDermott team showed up to a playoff game like this---it would be a long offseason on here. 5) The Titans were a better team, and played a much (much) better game. First: Rob Johnson was terrible. Absolutely, unequivocally awful. I don't know what his final stats were and it doesn't matter. He didn't throw a single pass with zip, with touch, or with accuracy. He didn't move the ball all day. Both touchdowns were the results of the ground game and field position. Were people open? I have no idea. But it was, maybe, the worst performance from a Bills QB that I have ever seen. Second: McNair didn't do much better, but their ground game was significantly better than ours. They were picking up big chunks with ease. Yes, their drives stalled (often), but they had bursts and "the momentum" for almost the entire game. They didn't protect the football well, and turned it over a bunch (some negated by Bills penalties), but they moved the chains and scored the ball all day. Many here hang on to the notion that that Bills defense was elite--Super Bowl worthy, even, but the Titans D outclassed us that day. 6) The Universe righted itself with that Homerun Throwback--it was almost cosmically right. Not a pox on our house, but fair just dues for the Titans. There's no other way to put it. I don't mean to sound like I believe in Atlantis, but that Homerun Throwback almost had to happen. When the greatest comeback ever took place, Buffalo was the better team than the Oilers, and how would we have felt if they nailed a field goal in overtime to beat us? Terrible right? The same could be said if Christies "game winner" bounced the Titans from the playoffs that year. They were the better team. They played better all day. They dominated us. They deserved to win for all of the above reasons, and that was their season to make the Super Bowl. We can dissect the rest of the conference for the rest of our lives: would the Bills have beaten the Colts the next weekend? The Jaguars? Even the Rams in the Super Bowl? What I finally came to the realization of last night is: it doesn't matter, because they DIDN'T beat the Titans, and didn't deserve to! The Titans were the better team, and beat the Bills all day long up and down the field. Somehow, someway, the Bills took the lead, for about 6 seconds of game time, and then lost it in historic fashion again--but they never should have had the lead to begin with, really. So there it is. Sorry if I need to hand in my fan card after this, but I have to admit, it's nice to make peace with that loss. Watching it again, after 20 years of accumulated football knowledge, makes me see it the way the rest of the NFL has seen it. A great play for the Titans in the context of their Super Bowl run. As a Bills fan, I've always viewed it as emblematic of the curse on our franchise, and a day when we were robbed of what may have been a championship season. But it's not that. We were simply a dysfunctional wild card team that got outcoached and outplayed on the road, and lost to a better team in heartbreaking fashion. Oh well. Life goes on.

The term "must-win"is a completely subjective term, invented by fans to make themselves feel as if their rooting interest controls the action on the field. Must win for what? They must win it to clinch the division? Make the playoffs? Secure home field advantage? None of that is true. Josh Allen has not even quarterbacked a full seasons worth of games yet. He is going to lay eggs at some point in time. Possibly this weekend, as the team historically struggles with Cincinnati, for whatever reason. The only "must" I'd associate with this game is that it's a "must approach with perspective" game for fans, as if they win, they beat what will be a banged up 0-3 team, and all of Bufs wins thus far could potentially be against teams with a combined 0-9 record. And if they lose, they're losing to a veteran quarterback who has had success playing in Orchard Park and it doesn't mean Josh Allen's career is over, or it's time to start Barkley. Yes, even if he throws 5 picks in a blowout loss. It happens. The AFC looks pretty gosh darn weak this season. Pats and Chiefs look like division winners, and potential first round byes. The other divisions are up for grabs, and the teams that come in second in those divisions likely won't be very good. Any of Buffalo, Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Oakland, San Diego, and even Pittsburgh could be in the mix for those 4 spots, and so far Buffalo has looked as good or better than all of them. If you can just come to terms with the fact that Buffalo has a good (maybe great) young team with a good (maybe great) young quarterback led by a good (maybe great) head coach, built by a good (maybe great) GM, then you can maybe stop stressing about week 3 games. Pats fans go to bed at halftime of prime time games. They're jaded to winning. Not saying Buffalo is at that point, but I am saying that I believe they are past the era of worrying about the wheels coming off every week of the season. They'll win some, they'll lose some, but I think when it's all said and done, for the next decade they're going to win more than they lose every year, and it's time as fans to maybe start enjoying this hobby, instead of fretting about it. There will be plenty of playoff games to stress about in the years to come. Save what's left of your hair for those. Enjoy these early season games for what they are--they're not the end of the world, I promise.

I'd rather see some of those girls take a shower than the Bills win a Super Bowl, my god. I'll be reading someone post about, ya know, "boo hoo, trade zay" and then on the right side of the screen there's that blonde in the black evening dress just staring at me. You know what? I've clicked. I wanted to see where it goes. And it's magical. There's fewer bras on that site than there are Buffalo playoff appearances this millennium. And they take, maybe, 6 pictures per dress? It's incredible. Absolutely incredible. I doubt it's a targeted ad, because I get it on both my lap top and phone, which are signed on to different google accounts. I'll update this thread the next time the ad (and me, by extension) pops up.

The most anticipated opening day for me in the last 20 years was 2012. Against the Jets in the Meadowlands, after signing Mario and hiring Wanstedt as D coordinator. That was the year after Buf started 5-3 and finished 6-10. Seemed like everything was in place for a solid playoff run, but got blown out by the Jets week 1. I think Fitzy even threw a pick 6 on the opening drive. What a total disaster.

Agreed. We were getting the same press when Rex came to town. "Is this thing on? Cause it's gonna be." Destroyed the Colts in the opener--it felt like the hype was justified. It obviously came crashing down shortly thereafter. I expect similar results in Cleveland. I would be very surprised if they finished above .500. My gut feeling on that is a lesson I have learned (well, I have to relearn it every year) with the Patriots, as I am in the New England area myself: just because I know the name of a football player, it does not mean that they are good. And conversely, just because a unit can be made up of guys who look like they have been working at Target for the past year (and they very well may have been), does not mean that with good coaching and a good system, they can't be stars. It is not just New England that operates this way--Pit does as well, they just happen to be little brothers to the juggernaut that is New England. But just look at James Conner: last season the talk was all about LeVeon Bell, no one was paying Conner any mind, he was an afterthought, someone who could never replace Bell's production. Now, he's one of the studs of the league at RB, and the media talks about him like it's a given that he's a star. I'm obviously not making any earth shattering points here, and like my father, I'm taking 1000 words to say what could be said in 100, but my only belabored point is this: I wouldn't be surprised if Miami finishes with more wins than Cleveland this year. But the addendum to that is, my surprise and 5 nickels will get you a quarter, so I also wouldn't be surprised if Cleveland won the Super Bowl this year. Happy Labor Day all.

The entire sporting world thinks Miami is tanking because they're running out a first year NFL coach and giving him a team led by Ryan Fitzpatrick and very limited talent at the skill positions. In Buffalo, that was our situation for 3 straight seasons, in which we finished 4-12, 6-10, and 6-10. Then, we splurged on a .500 college coach from Syracuse, and drafted EJ Manuel as the savior. Oh, and this was all taking place after a decade+ of failing to qualify for the playoffs. And the best part is, fans had the nerve to get mad at people like Jerry Sullivan for not writing positive articles about the team, and being optimistic. I'm thankful for the situation we have now, but you're going to have to excuse the national media if they're slow to warm to Buffalo. We have a very proven track record of being a joke of an organization.

I see your thread got shut down, which is unfortunate, because although I think they'll win more than 9 games it is troubling that no one seems to be considering the alternative. This is the year we find out if Buffalo is 2014 Seattle, with a monster defense and a young QB who can scramble with an arm that can do just enough to win, with a solid running game and a great coach... or is Buffalo the 2016 Bills, with a defense that can't carry the offense, a young QB who can scramble with an an arm that can't quite do just enough to win, with a solid running game and a coach that we want to be great... And if it's the latter, does it get all the way blown up? Or do we end up in the worst situation a fanbase can be in, where we convince ourselves that the rest of the roster is set, and all we need is: Drew Bledsoe, or Kirk Cousins, or Derek Carr? When the range of possibilities is 4-12, to year one of a championship dynasty... this will be interesting...

If it was up to me, I'd lock the board an hour ahead of the game and then reopen it an hour or 2 after the game. Set up a discord for people who want to talk in real time--but the board should be for discussions, not reactions. It's a message board, not a comment board. Big difference. I don't mind hot takes in paragraph form on a Tuesday evening--they're what makes the internet worth browsing--but I hate play by play reactions calling for sweeping organizational changes--that's a symptom of everyone thinking their opinion matters in an instant gratification society. And shutting it down would lead to better threads, because an opinion is like a (wait for it, not what you're expecting) seed--it starts, it grows, it flowers into something different than it originally starts as. Last game I thought Josh Allen was playing poorly in the first quarter. Then I realized the gameplan was run heavy. Then I realized the game plan was to see how Gore and Shady ran out of similiar sets and formations, and grade them against each other. So my personal hot take thread would have gone from "why is josh allen so terrible" to "are we trying to trade shady or gore?" And that would have happened over the course of 3-4 hours. If I made my original thread idea, I'd be just like every other poster in internet history: forced to defend a hot take against all comers with ad hominem attacks until mods rush in to shut it down.

Is there a player in the history of sports who wouldn't be traded, if the price is right? Michael Jordan, maybe?

what if the defense goes 5 straight days without intercepting josh allen? is that equally troublesome for the other side of the ball??

I used to love getting the football preview magazines, like street and smith, and papers, like USA today--and the reason why is because it was the most successful part of the Bills season! LOL! Those publications used to fawn over Buffalo, partly because the AFC was relatively weak, and partly because it was always "this is the year they'll do it." Believe it or not, there isn't a concerted effort by the media to disparage the Bills... they've just been really bad for a really long time. That's why I never got the intense hatred for Sullivan. People would be up in arms because he would dare to suggest that he didn't think, say, Dick Jauron was the answer. Or that Rex's teams wouldnt win 12 games. Or whatever. His predictions were always right, lol, because the Bills always sucked. I think the Bills this year have the potential to be good, but that's because I'm a Bills fan. If you're a journalist covering the league, and not just Buf, then you have to consider the entire AFC. Off the top of my head--teams that are likely to make the tournament ahead of Buf, from a journalists perspective: New England: this ones obvious, no ones going to pick them to not make it Pittsburgh: they're in every year, and look like even more of a lock now that AB is going off the deep end--they look shrewd as opposed to cheap now. Cleveland: I think they'll finish 6-10, personally, but if you want the Bills to get credit for having a rookie trending in the right direction and adding some flashy wideouts, it's pretty disingenuous to not tip your hat to CLE for doing the exact same thing, right? Kansas City: They should be a lock, although I think Mahomes regresses San Diego: They should be a lock, although they're a team that seems to vascilate between 12-4 and 7-9, please don't look that up, I'm just trying to convince myself they regress back to the mean this year. Jacksonville: great run 2 years ago and added a super bowl winning quarterback So that's 6 teams that you could make the argument deserve more respect and a better "predicted record" than Buffalo, then you got the next tier with: Houston, Tennessee, Baltimore Teams that have made the playoffs lately, have entrenched QBs and quite frankly deserve more hype than Buf. So that's NINE teams now that should finish better than Buffalo, from a level headed national perspective. When you think the 7th place team in the conference is usually 9-7, and the 9th place team is usually 7-9. and Buffalo finishes outside of that, or right on that cusp, well, that's how they got the 6.5 win projection. For them to exceed that, they have to leap frog some of those teams. It's not just about what we did, it's about what those other teams already ARE. How does Buf climb past them? Well, it's unknown at this point, but it involves Allen being the answer, and some of those other teams not being what they're cracked up to be. I could see all of the Hou, Ten, Bal tier being worse than Buf, and any of Cle, SD, Jax falling out of the top tier, but that's counting on SIX teams to do poorly and Buf to do great. Not saying its not going to happen, but easy to see why the line is what is, and the predictions are what they are. With that being said, I see an 11-5 season and AFC east championship, because I think you can't beat preparedness and coaching, and eventually the worm turns for these guys, so if not now with Allen, I can't stomach the thought of waiting for the next QB to save us.

If they put an exception for QBs in, i think they could reframe the proposal and move the debate into the space where they want to have it. As it is now, it seems ridiculous and unnecessary. I don't want to tune in and see Buffalo lose a game and get eliminated from the playoffs because they were forced to sit a healthy Josh Allen. The counter argument can't be "well, it's the same rule for every team", because perception is 9/10ths of idiocy--it's why you still will see fans on this board calling the Bills playoff season in 17 a "fluke" because of 1 play in a Cin/Bal game. It's going to be that phenomenon times a million--"Jets miss the playoffs because healthy Darnold forced to SIT--by ROGER!" will be the front page of the Post. Not a good look for the league. Bad idea.

Every word of this mirrors my life experience. The 1997 Knicks team would have beaten Jordan's Bulls in the ECF, and Stern knew it. Those suspensions were bogus. I hated Jordan for years. I'm not making that mistake with Tiger, and I'm not making that mistake with Brady.

There might be some cities in America where the Bills could make more money than they do in Buffalo, but there are probably 10 owners in the league who know they could make more money in Buffalo than they do in their current city. Theyre never going anywhere.

I just watched that entire 17 minute video of Josh Allen. The Buffalo Bills have a franchise quarterback--there's no way this guy won't be successful.

Lol. Yeah? Give me one example from the last 20 years of Buffalo THRIVING when expectations were low. Just one. 20 years of football. Literally: one.

Read "Take Your Eye Off the Ball": https://www.amazon.com/Take-Your-Eye-Off-Ball/dp/1629371696/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XREZ8Z5LXMQZ&keywords=take+your+eye+off+the+ball&qid=1556333569&s=books&sprefix=take+your+eye+off%2Caps%2C165&sr=1-1 5 bucks used on amazon. It's a well written, easy to understand explanation of football from someone with an eye (and a knowledge) for the game. It will help you understand the way the game is played, and the way teams are constructed to play. There's nothing you could learn about the player in particular that would change your opinion about it in a meaningful way. But there are things you could learn about why he was drafted, and how he compares in style and skillset to his peers and the running backs on Buffalo's roster that might make you appreciate the pick. Also, any pick viewed in isolation can be dissected and critiqued to the point of it seeming like a "bad" pick, but the reality is--each pick is made in the context of an offensive system or a playbook, a salary cap, new positional coaches, the health of other players, the strength of other positional groups, the long term viability of other positional groups against the cap, etc. Long story short: what the Bills are looking for in an elusive back is a more dire need than what theyre looking for from the tight end position next fall. That may be because Shady's health is worse than we know, or because they plan on using an offense that relies on the tight ends as pass catchers less than we assume (or want). So when people say "trust the process", although it seems like its a meme about clapping and beane and whatever else, really it means trust that the coach, qb and gm are on the same page in building the 2019 buffalo bills--and if you want to know the part the qb plays in the process of building a team--read that book.

Ill go out and get some wings and drinks with some friends of mine that I havent seen in awhile. The TV will be muted, because people don't care about the draft outside of message boards like this, and so we will all say "this might have been better at home". Bufs selection will come up and it will be a positional player I'm not really familiar with. I'll compare 30 seconds of video highlights to what I remember from that positional group the year before, and be genuinely happy because it will seem like an improvement. I'll pull out my phone, open reddit because it's easier to read comments grouped by upvotes when you want reactions, as opposed to grouped chronologically on here, and ill see hundreds of bills fans trashing the pick and saying we should have done something else, which will lead to me not liking the pick. I'll order another batch of wings, but probably go tenders with the really spicy one, because i can get more blue cheese with the dip of a tender to equal out the heat, and at that point of the night ill have had a few drinks and be wondering how much longer Im gonna stay. Ill watch the entire first round, and by the end of the night me and my friends will be hyped for the coming season but have moved on to talking politics and our wives and real estate prices and the like. Ill wake up and go to work, and while im having my coffee ill read the articles by journalists about the pick, and get excited about it once again because they write better than message board posters, regardless of their knowledge. Ill remember that there are still 2 more nights of the draft, including that friday night, and ill look forward to coming home, putting on sweat pants, and relaxing in front of the tv to watch who else buf picks, and ill make myself content knowing that with all of the free agent signings, the bills are adding camp competition at this point, instead of looking for day one starters, and ill start to get excited about football only being 3 months away!

My only disagreement with your post is that I doubt many current players are going to think that this a great piece that Dunne wrote, and they might end up just as pissed. He named names and directly quoted guys talking crazy about their teammates. It doesn't matter if he said "this is on record"--some (most? all?) of these guys have never been the subject of an expose before. These aren't career politicians. The fact that guys are already coming out and refuting their own stories isn't a good look--sure, we all know they said it, but now they regret saying it. I'm not saying "gotcha" journalism isn't satisfying to get the full story, like this piece, or especially in politics--but when the source of your quotes are guys who might not understand the full impact of their words... and you're just exposing the ineptitude of a pro team (as opposed to a major company dumping pollution in a river and causing cancer)...

With the rumors that have persisted about Rodgers throughout his career, this could mean a number of things. I'm only asking for clarification because it concerns AVP, a former Bill. But those two??

I agree with this whole heartedly. Culture is something that you can't begin to appreciate until you work in a company that has a bad culture. It permeates every decision-it drains people. It leaves everyone questioning everything, but most importantly, they question their own self worth. Because NO ONE likes to think that they, themselves, are the problem, people try to work harder to overcome it, which eventually leads to burnout and resentment--then finger pointing and backstabbing. This can happen at ANY company, from a 7-11 to the Buffalo Bills. If you are or have been a middle manager, and you have worked for a place with a bad culture, you understand why sports teams fail on a level that entry level employees will simply never grasp. I'm not going to sit here and say it's Rogers or McCarthy's fault, because I don't follow the Packers. But I will say that fixing something like this can take years, and often times requires a full house cleaning. As hard as it might be to conceptualize, the Pack might be better off trading Rogers and starting from scratch. Maybe they go 11-5 next year and lose in the divisional round with him, and 4-12 without him, but longterm it might be their best bet. But again--I don't know, because I'm not there. And I quoted you because YES, full stop YES, the Patriots have, bar none, the best culture in professional sports, not just the NFL. I know someone below you quoted their morality guru leaving as a sign of their demise, but no--culture is not tied to any one individual, or the morality of any particular person. That is what makes culture so magical--it transcends personality. People subjugate their own desires and benefits for the betterment of the whole, which in turn provides better opportunities for each individual, giving them a greater chance to be successful, which in turn creates a fertile ground for individual growth and sacrifice, which in turn leads to greater success. I mean--this isn't some wishy washy, new age foo foo talk--companies pay millions and millions of dollars to try to create it. All I can say is that in my limited time on this planet--it seems more like lightening in a bottle than specific, formulaic work. Some people just ***** "click" together and end up becoming the Beatles, or the Patriots, and it's magical--and some people have all the talent in the world, like Guns N Roses, or the Packers, and youre left asking "what could have been", because egos get in the way, or leadership is lacking, or Culture just isn't there to make it work. This is just awesome, awesome stuff! Love the article, love the opinions!

This is a really, really, really good article and I encourage everyone to read it. It's so good, in fact, that it has me curious as to how the Packers will do this coming season, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they fare in week 1. Which THEN got me thinking: a "fun" offseason activity for us NFL junkies--collecting the best story from every team that highlights the adversity the team is facing, and what's on the line for the coming season. What is the best article that you can find for, like, the Baltimore Ravens that (as a Buffalo Bills fan) would have you on the edge of your seat to see how their season goes? It would take some serious dedication--basically scanning their boards for the pieces like this Packers one, but every team has a story, and every team is has consequences for their performance. I would love to read an article like this about the Rams, or the Saints, or the Colts--something that gives a sense of urgency to clubs I normally don't care about! And this article would DEFINITELY be numero uno for the Packers--I challenege ANY football fan to read this and then not be curious to see how the Pack do next year! I want to feel this way about the other 30 (not Buffalo!) teams in the league next year.